1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
83 
up well, will cut it better and cleaner than it can be done 
with a cradle j if the grain is lodged or crinkled down, 
it does not do so good a business. It cuts by means of 
two knives or sickles, one of which is fast, and the other 
moves backwards and forwards over it. The grain is 
brought on the knives by means of revolving arms. You 
can hire the grain put into shocks in this neighborhood, 
with one of these machines, for $1,25 cts an acre, which 
is what it costs with a cradle; so that if a person has to 
hire it done with a machine, it is no cheaper than to do 
it with the cradle. These machines cost, I believe, $125. 
If a person has one of them himself, he can do it cheap¬ 
er per acre than the price given here, while he is ena¬ 
bled to get his harvest done in a much shorter time, than 
if he depended on the cradle. Esterly’s Harvesters cost 
$300. They require four horses on the machine, and two 
teams and wagons besides, to get the heads out of the 
way and stack them. They cut only the heads and six 
inches of straw, and the machine carries these into a 
wagon that drives along side of it. One wagon is tilled 
while another is unloading. It requires six men to work 
them to advantage, and this force will cut and stack 
from 15 to 20 acres in a day , if the grain stands up well, 
and the machine is a good one. It is a valuable labor 
saving machine, where it is no object to save the straw. 
The charge for this machine is $1,25 an acre for 
cutting and stacking. It is not worth as much to thrash 
the grain cut with these machines, as that which is cut 
with the others, or with the cradle. There being nothing 
but the heads to thrash, they run through the machine 
much faster than when there is a quantity of straw at¬ 
tached to them. 
These machines are well adapted to our smooth, level 
prairies, and by means of them a farmer is enabled to get 
through a large harvest in a much quicker time than he 
could without them - and where he owns the machine, at 
a less expense. Here, labor in the harvest season, is 
scarce and high, and consequently these machines, which 
substitute the labor of horses for that of men, are in de¬ 
mand. Townsend Green. Waupun, Fond Du La 
County , Wisconsin. 
Intense Freezing. 
At 32° of Fahrenheit, water freezes; but the ice which 
forms even when the temperature is 20° lower, is unfit 
to be sent to a warm climate. A gentleman who had 
much experience with ice, said: “ I want mine to be 
sawed out, taken up, and exposed for a night or two when 
the mercury is at zero, before it is packed away.” Why ? 
Because by this exposure, it becomes many degrees 
colder and will bear many degress more of heat before 
it melts. 
Housewives after dressing their poultry, freeze them, 
and pack them in snow, but too often without consider¬ 
ing whether the meat is all frozen hard as a brick, or 
only hardened a little on the outside. Neither do they 
always consider whether the snow is as cold as it can be - 
for though snow is snow, and nothing else, yet it may be 
intensely cold, or only cold enough to keep from melt¬ 
ing—a difference in temperature of 30° or 40°. The 
first condition may be . found of a keen, cold morning, 
and the latter condition of a pleasant winter’s afternoon. 
The old saying, to make hay while the sun shines, is ‘ 
not more appropriate than to pack poultry when it is 
intensely cold, so that it may bear a January, or even a 
February thaw. X. 
Preparation of Bones for Manure. 
A great obstacle to the use of bones as manure, in 
this country, has heretofore been the expense of pre¬ 
paring them. The modes usually adopted, have been 
to crush them in mills designed for the purpose, or to 
mix them with sulphuric acid. Latterly the process of 
pulverizing by steam has been resorted to in Britain, 
and where large quantities are to be prepared, this plan 
may be more economical than either of the others 
named. But we cannot see why bones may not be more 
cheaply pulverized by fermentation. In a fresh state, 
they contain a large per centage of nitrogen, which un¬ 
der favorable circumstances, causes them to undergo a 
strong fermentation. We have known a few instances 
of their being mixed with unleached wood-ashes, in a 
heap, with a covering of muck to absorb the gases which 
might be evolved: the mass soon began to heat, and by 
being turned over a feW times, the bones became suffi¬ 
ciently reduced for use as manure. A writer in the 
North British Agriculturist gives an account of a mode 
adopted by him for reducing bones which is worthy of 
of notice. He says:—* 
“ A quantity of bones, in a crushed state, was mixed 
with an equal bulk o f common sand, and well watered ; 
the whole was then Covered over with a coating of coal 
ashes, about 6 inches thick ,• this was done to prevent as 
much as possible the escape of ammonia. In a few days 
after I found, however, that the moistened bones began 
to generate intense heat, which soon brought on putre¬ 
faction. The size of the heap next showed to have 
lessened considerably, and on being examined into the 
bones were found to have disappeared, save a small por¬ 
tion of the outside; even these were corroded from the 
effects produced by internal decomposition. In fine, the 
appearance of the heap was changed to a blue mouldy, 
gelatinous substance, which, if touched with the back 
of a spade, or even rubbed between the hands, could be 
reduced to a fine powdery texture.” 
-- : — 
Agricultural Papers. 
Eds. Cultivator —It is a fact that cannot be disputed 
and that no person of ordinary observation will attempt 
to dispute, that in districts where agricultural papers 
have the widest circulation, the inhabitants, as a general 
thing, are the most intelligent, and their farms give un¬ 
mistakable evidence of the greatest productiveness. 
The above sentiment has received a full confirmation 
in our minds by a late visit to a respectable farmer who 
“ began the world” in the capacity of a hired man to 
l{ a very good farmer of those days.” His history from 
that time would, if permitted to be fairly written, read 
thus: From the day that he entered into the service of 
his employer, until his contract was ended, he was de¬ 
voted to his interests from whom he expected the re¬ 
ward of labor. Of course, he was none of those laborers 
who, like too many of the present clay, work well while 
their employer does, and who, if he is called away, con¬ 
clude they “ won’t fret,”—night and their wages will 
come just as well if they take it easy. Business was safe 
and progressive with him at all times, and under all 
circumstances; of course, he always would command a 
good place and goods wages. If the times were hard, 
