108 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
indicate a disposition to fatten, and are tolerably certain pledges that 
the carcass will not be entirely sacrificed to the fleece. (See page 30.) 
PROPAGATION BY LAYERING. 
(a) Shows a stool with two branches laid, ( b ) an entire branch or 
vine laid, (c) the stick to hold them in their place. When sufficiently 
rooted, the layer is separated from the parent ttock, and planted out, 
(d d) two branches. (See page 21.) 
CORKESPONDENC E. 
IPMROVED HARRROW. 
Geddes, February 10. 
Sir—I n obedience to your request, I send 
a drawing cf my harrow. 
Description.:—a and b hinges, which allow, 
it to fit into unevennesses of the surface pass¬ 
ed over. The hinges being inserted from cor¬ 
ner to corner of the timber’the harrow will be 
more portable, as one half can be laid over on 
the other, while moving it from field to field. 
The hook by which it is drawn, is a con¬ 
tinuation of the pivot on which the hinge 
turns, as shown on a larger scale, fig. 2. 
The teeth, c c, are curved, otherwise the 
tracks made by them will be too far apart. 
d d, two Swedes’ bars, bolted on the top of the 
wood and fastened by screws above. 
The side pieces have tenons, passing 
through the middle pieces, the 
Fig. 2. joints being secured by iron plates 
above and below, riveted together. 
The size of the timber, three by 
& SB threeanda halfinches. The iron 
Mr used for teeth, is seven-eighths 
||1 of an inch square, and running 
within two inches of each other, 
the thirty teeth make a breadth 
1 of four feet ten inches, every part 
of which is harrowed alike fine. 
Teeth passing so nigh each other as within two inches from centre 
to centre, is perhaps more than would be necessary for common use. 
Twenty-two teeth, so set as to run within three inches of each other, 
making a breadth of five feet three inches, would make a lighter har¬ 
row, and the work as well as a square harrow with thirty teeth. 
Your humble servant, GEO. GEDDES. 
Jesse Buel, Esq. 
CHEAP STRUCTURE FOR GRAIN AND HAY. 
Huntington, August 15, 1836. 
Jesse Buel, Esq.—Sir—The remarks upon “ stacking grain,” con¬ 
tained in your August number of the Cultivator, induce me to recom¬ 
mend a kind of barrack, which I have used for several years, and 
which I think pays for itself in a shoit time. We will suppose that 
you wish to erect one which shall contain one hundred loads of grain 
or hay. Take twenty posts of twenty feet in length, and about eight 
inches in diameter, and set them in two rows ; let the rows be sixteen 
feet apart, and the distance between the posts the other way, twelve 
feet; the posts must be put four feet in the ground; frame plates on 
these posts from end to end of the rows, and bind them together cross¬ 
wise by girts, let in about two feet from the top; strengthen this cross¬ 
work by braces eight feet long; you will understan 1, of course, that 
the braces go from the girt to the posts. Set on the plates, rafters of 
such length as will allow an Albany board, (when laid on for covering,) 
to project one an! a half feet below the plate; make use of one and a 
quarter inch stuff for lath, laying one row at the ridge, another about 
midway of the rafter, and a third just clear of the plate. In putting 
on the roof boards, every other one rides, and ought to lap upon the 
edges of its supporters one and a half inches. The ends of the build¬ 
ing are to be boarded from the peak till within six or eight feet of the 
ground, (this makes a 6tring piece or two necessary, which may be of 
[ plank,) and accommodated with a large window, having a sliding shut¬ 
ter. On the sides of the building, you board down from the plate with 
j three Albany boards, remembering to have a strip of plank about six 
[inches wide to tie them together in the middle. It will be well also, to 
iCut pieces of board along the ridge under the board that rides,—this 
to prevent rain or snow from driving in. Your barrack is now com- 
jpleted. 
[ In mowing away, you drive under, and fill one joint, or the compart- 
j menl included by four posts, at once ; when you get to the last end, that 
must be filled from the outside, through the window. 
] These buildings are cheap; they preserve grain and hay in a perfect 
state ; they obviate the necessity (often a very galling one) of employ¬ 
ing an artist to stack; grain never grows in them; this may appear 
[ like repetition; but I must be excused for contrasting them with stacks; 
| in this important particular, they will shelter several loads at a time, 
[when you are threatened with showers; or, you drive under several 
ioads at night, and let your hands store them away before breakfast; 
! being a part of the day often wasted, even in the busiest season of the 
[year. In winter, when the exterior sheaves of stacks are penetrated 
i to the bands with snow and sleet, so as to prevent thrashing for days, 
the grain in these buildings may always be got in, in order, excepting 
[perhaps a very little on the windward side, which should be kept by 
| itself till dry; poultry make no impression on grain in these buildings, 
j The last one which I built, (being No. 3,) was calculated for forty 
loads, and this cost me (exclusive of timber which was cut on the farm) 
| $65.20. Persons who have not locust for posts would do well to char 
! the surface which is to go under ground. 
Permit me now to ask a question. Are you familiar with the use of 
the horse-rake, the revolving rake; and did you intend to apply your 
remarks about curing hay in cock, to a country where this rake can be 
used ?* With high respect, your obed’t serv’t, 
A SUBSCRIBER. 
P. S. In mowing grain under these barracks, it is best to keep the 
middle of the mow highest, and to give the outer course of sheaves a 
good pitch. Moreover, a floor of poles, or rails laid upon stones so 
that cats can go und er, answers a good purpose. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH PLASTER OF PARIS. 
Jesse Buel, Esq. —Dear Sir—I now, in conformity with my pro¬ 
mise, send you the result of the various experiments which I have made 
with Plaster of Paris. Early in the spring I ordered 50 barrels from 
Oswego, but owing to some unknown cause, they did not reach me till 
the middle of May. I immediately had six barrels sciwn on 22 acres 
| of clover and timothy, in a field which had not been half seeded by my 
predecessor; the seed was sown in the preceding spring on winter 
j wheat—in less than a fortnight the effect was evident, and I cut over 
two tons an acre where I am certain I should not, without the plaster, 
have cut 15 cwt. The field being large and rather undulating, the sow¬ 
er missed his line in several spots, and on these there was scarcely 
jgrass enough to stand the scythe. The field had been cleared more 
j than 20 years, and hardly cropped without ever having been manured 
I—previous wheat crop not over 18 bushels per acre after summer fal- 
ilow—soil a deep loam, rather light than heavy. Having a field of fif¬ 
teen acres of peas sown after a poor crop of wheat, which had been 
much -winter killed, on the 20th May when then plants were just ap¬ 
pearing, I ordered one barrel of plaster to be sown on about four acres 
thereof, merely to try the effect, which w T as so great that in less than 
a month it appeared to have increased the crop at least three-fold.— 
Vexed at having plastered so small a part, when I beheld the result, 
without expecting to remedy my error in any considerable degree, as 
the peas were all now more than a foot high, and those which had 
been plastered much higher, I ordered my head man, an excellent 
seedsman, to sow another barrel at the rate of half a bushel per acre ; 
in less than three weeks these last manured were fully equal to the 
others, while the five acres unplastercd were so inferior that they 
might be distinguished two miles off, though these were more than an 
average crop. The plastered peas were so luxuriant that I feared 
they would neither ripen nor pod well, but they are now nearly all cut, 
and I find my fears were groundless. An experienced farmer, who for 
more than 30 years successfully tilled a very extensive farm in the East 
Lothians of Scotland, walked over the field with me the day before 
yesterday, and he declared that he never had seen a finer or more pro¬ 
ductive crop in any country ; indeed the ground could scarcely contain 
more plants, or the plants more pods ; the tops, however, of the plas¬ 
tered peas continued to grow and blossom till they were cut, and will 
make excellent fodder, but the peas were quite ripe nearer the bottom. 
In a field which had been slightly seeded with timothy in 1834, and which 
last year was scarcely worth mowing, I sowed on three acres of the 
shallowest and worst part, a barrel of plaster; these produced twice 
* We are familiar with the revolving horse-rake, and commend it greatly on 
old or thin meadows. Clover belongs to alternate husbandry, where thegrnss 
ought to be too heavy for its use ; and it is not used in our mode of making 
clover hay, till after the crop has been carted from the field.—Cond. 
