1851 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
73 
1. It saves seed; 2. It distributes the seeds with 
greater regularity than it can be done by hand; 3. 
It deposits the seed at any desired depth, and insures 
speedy germination; 4. It affords an opportunity to 
destroy weeds which infest the crop; 5. The crop 
receives the undivided benefit of the soil; 6, By the 
the admission of air between the rows, a stronger 
plant is produced and a heavier crop is obtained; 
7. In reference to wheat and other grain, the crop 
is less liable to blight or mildew; 8. Fertilizing sub¬ 
stances may be deposited with the seed, by which 
the crop is more largely benefitted than it can be 
by any other mode of using manures; 9. It protects 
grain against winter-killing. 
The drill has been greatly simplified in its con¬ 
struction, and cheapened in price, by our mechanics. 
With a good machine, a man and a horse will sow 
eight to ten acres of wheat in a day. 
The Reaping-Machine. —This machine is be¬ 
coming of immense importance, especially in securing 
the grain crops of the west, where from the great 
extent of cultivation, and the comparative scarcity 
of labor, it would be impossible, without it, to 
gather the harvest. The particular advantages of 
the different kinds of reapers, were so well set forth 
in the last number of our journal, that any further 
observations on the subject, are unnecessary here. 
The Horse-Rake .—This is comparatively a new 
implement, it having been invented but about forty 
years ago. It has, however, been greatly improved 
from its first form, and is now much more perfect in 
its operation, and is worked with much more con¬ 
venience and less labor than formerly. It saves 
nearly one half the expense of gathering hay. The 
implement is made in various ways, though the 
principal difference is in the material used—the teeth 
of some being of wood and others of iron or steel 
wire. The latter kind, if wire of sufficient size and 
strength is used, answer an admirable purpose in 
cleaning fallows—-drawing out and gathering the 
roots of couch grass (“ quack”) and other per¬ 
nicious plants. 
The Straw-Cutter, though not a new implement, 
has not been brought into general use till within the 
last twenty-five years. It makes in many cases a 
very important saving in the expense of feeding 
horses and cattle. The construction of the article 
has been greatly improved in respect to its simplici¬ 
ty, and the efficiency of its operation, and the 
amount of work that can be done in proportion to 
the power required. 
These are some of the improvements which have 
been made in agricultural implements—to specify 
all, would require more space than is consistent with 
our present object. It is evident to those who have 
had the opportunity of only thirty years’ observa¬ 
tion, that the scythe, the grain-cradle, the hand- 
hoe, the vehicles used by the farmer, and nearly all 
articles, in fact, which he has occasion to use either 
in the field or the garden, have undergone changes 
by which they are much better adapted to their re¬ 
spective purposes. 
Animal Heat. 
The necessity of a certain degree of heat in animals, 
in order that life may be supported, is well known; but 
the process by which this heat is produced, and the im¬ 
portance of supplying the materials for its production, 
is not sufficiently known and regarded. The cause of 
animal heat may be said to be the same as that which is 
called into play in ordinary combustion—that is a union 
of carbon and oxygen. All animal food must contain 
carbon, and after the food has undergone a proper change 
by the action of the digestive organs, the carbon is car¬ 
ried by the blood to the lungs, where, by the process of 
respiration, it is united with oxygen, and produces heat. 
We give herewith some remarks from a correspondent 
of the English Ag, Gazette , which illustrate this subject 
in a very interesting manner. It will be seen that he 
notices the fact that animals in which respiration is rapid, 
require food more frequently than those in which respi¬ 
ration is slow; and in this connexion it is mentioned that 
serpents, whose breathing is very sluggish, will live three 
months or more without food. In proof of the correct¬ 
ness of this remark, we may state, that in the month of 
August last, five large rattle snakes were placed in the 
charge of Mr. Gebhard, the curator of the New-York 
Geological and Zoological collections in this city. Ex¬ 
cepting one, which died in December, they have been con¬ 
fined in a box from that time to the present, and have 
eaten no food whatever during this period. Two of them 
have brought fourth young, since they have been in the 
box; one producing fifteen and the other five. The lat¬ 
ter were either dead at birth, or died soon afterwards— 
as they were all dead when discovered; but of the for¬ 
mer, twelve are still living, and like the old ones, have 
been kept entirely without food. It was one of those 
which produced young, that died. It is, however, in 
reference to the higher orders of animals that the follow¬ 
ing observations are chiefly valuable- 
All kinds of food consumed by animals must contain 
carbon in proportion to the temperature of the climate 
in which they live, and their appetites will direct them 
to select the food necessary for their sustenance. At 
each inspiration, an animal imbibes a certain quantity of 
oxygen from the atmosphere, (which is composed of 79 
parts of nitrogen, and 21 of oxygen,) and it must meet 
with a proportionate quantity of carbon to sustain life. 
Animal and vegetable food contain carbon in different 
proportions; that of fat, bacon or pork, as much as 80 
per cent; this maybe easily imagined, when we consider 
that candles are made from fat. After lighting the wick, 
the atmosphere supplies it with oxygen, and in uniting 
with each other, they produce light and heat. If the 
extinguisher be placed over it the light goes out, for 
nothing can burn without oxygenand most animals 
kept ten minutes without air, will die. 
The quantity of oxygen that is breathed, regulates the 
appetites which are brought to supply the system with 
carbon, sufficient to keep the blood always at the same 
temperature; for from the authority of the best authors, 
and the practice of many scientific men, the heat of the 
blood of a man in Lapland is 98°, the same as at Calcut¬ 
ta, or any other place on the globe. In England, the 
appetite is greater in winter than in summer, for one- 
eighth more oxygen is imbibed in the former than in the 
