THE CULTIVATOR. 
49 
1851. 
CENTER DRAFT PLOW, NO. 40. 
We lived as it were, inmates of the cloud and the 
storm, but we stood in relationship to Him who di¬ 
rected and governed them.” 
-- 
Center-Draft Plow, No. 40. 
This is a new pattern, brought out by Messrs. 
Prouty and Mears, Boston. It is constructed 
with special reference to deep and narrow furrows, 
and may be called a stiff-soil plow. We had the 
opportunity of seeing it tried, in November last, 
on the farm of E. P. Prentice, Esq., near this city, 
where its operation was in the highest degree satis¬ 
factory. It was gauged to work ten inches wide and 
seven inches deep, and cut the furrows according 
to these dimensions, with remarkable exactness, 
running at the same time with great steadiness, and 
requiring comparatively little aid from the plowman. 
It leaves the soil in an open and friable condition, 
and effectually buries the vegetation. 
First Wheat raised in Western New-York. 
Eds. Cultivator —In the commencement of the 
summer of the year 1788, about twenty men, some 
of whom were accompanied by their families, met at 
Schenectady, in New-York, and embarked on bat- 
teaux for the western part of the State. They were 
followers of Jemima Wilkinson, who styled herself 
the ‘‘Universal Friend,” and were going to the 
“promised land” which three of their agents had 
discovered the preceding year on the banks of a 
beautiful lake, now called the Seneca. They had 
horses and wagons to use when water carriage fail¬ 
ed. They found but two log houses at Utica, one at 
Whitestown or Fort Stanwix. A pioneer by the 
name of Jennings had just moved into a log house, 
which the Indians had assisted in raising, near where 
the Franklin house now stands, in Geneva. This 
was the only house in Geneva, the only one they 
had found since leaving Fort Stanwix. With their 
batteaux, they proceeded up the lake to where the 
Ovid Landing now is. Here they staid about a week, 
searching after a stream on which to erect a mill. 
Not being able to find one, they crossed to the west 
shore of the lake, about a mile south of West Dres¬ 
den—Were pleased with the mill seats on the outlet 
of Crooked Lake, and with the country. It was 
now the month of August, and they began the 
“Settlement” with vigor, agreeing to sow the first 
wheat in common. They cleared about 40 or 50 
acres, judging that there would be two acres for each 
man. It was about the first of November before 
the wheat was sown—the quantity being at the rate 
of about one bushel per acre. No plow was used in 
preparing the ground—harrows, with wooden teeth, 
mellowed the newly-cleared soil, and covered the 
seed. It was harvested the succeeding July, and 
yielded about fifteen bushels per acre. 
It may be interesting to add, that the first and 
second season, some of the settlers cut wild grass 
on the alluvial deposit at the head of the lake, 
where Jefferson now is, and conveyed it down the 
lake on batteaux, 25 miles, to the “ Settlement.” 
This, with what the cattle obtained from shrubs and 
trees, enabled them to live through the winter. I 
should have stated that the ground first sown, is 
now under cultivation, and often produces 30 to 40 
bushels of wheat per acre. It belongs to Joseph 
Ketchum and Robert Norman. S. B. Buckley. 
West Dresden , Yates Co., N. Y., Nov. 11, 1850. 
66 Small Potatoes” for Planting. 
Messrs. Editors —In the November number of the 
Cultivator, is an article on this subject, stating that 
superior crops have been raised from the use of small 
potatoes for seed, and asking further information. 
Formerly, I believed in the common opinion, that 
large potatoes must be used for seed, to insure a 
good crop; but in 1845, owing to the failure of the 
previous crop, I was obliged to use small ones, none 
larger than a hen’s egg, and the result was truly 
surprising. The yield was about 100 bushels from 
half an acre of unmanured ground, and they were 
almost uniformly of fine size. Many hills had none 
that were so small as the largest I planted. 
But old opinions require a long time to root them 
out; and ever since, my potato field has been an ex¬ 
perimental one, to determine this point. In no case 
have I been able to decide that large potatoes were 
