AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1863.] 
365 
and applied to a hornless cow of the writer’s, 
the device which we figure. It is easy and not 
in the way if the cow does not pull, if she does 
it causes pain by drawing the two check sticks to¬ 
gether, causing them to press on the cheek bones. 
The tie line is placed in the long check piece 
Left-hand Plows and Three Horses Abreast. 
luline, a 
\ riKA 
In the June number for last year we had an 
article on using three horses abreast, claiming 
for the practice a notable increase of power— 
that is, a more economical application of the 
power; and following it was a discussion of the 
merits of left-hand plows. “ II.,” of Hamp¬ 
shire Co., 'West Virginia, sends us a brief de¬ 
scription of how they use 
three horses before left-hand 
plows in his neighborhood. 
It will be understood with 
the accompanying diagram, 
which supposes the observer 
looking directly down upon 
the plow and team. Our 
correspondent says: “ With 
a left-hand plow the near 
horse walks in the furrow, 
and is called the ‘leader.’ 
He is driven with a single 
steady pull upon 
which means Haw ! and two 
or three successive jerks, 
Gee! The other horses are 
managed by ‘coupling 
straps’ and‘jockey sticks.’ 
Many do not know how to 
hitch up such a team, and I 
will describe our way. The 
outfit required besides the 
common plow-gear, is two 
jockey sticks, two coupling 
or hold back straps, three 
whiffletrees, a double-tree 
and tripple-tree. These be¬ 
ing at hand, first lay the tripple-tree on the 
ground with the long part to the right; put 
the double-tree on the left, aud a whiffletree on 
the right, and two whiffletrees on the double- 
tree. Then put the leader in place; next hitch 
up the middle horse, fastening the jockey stick 
to his nigh bit-ring, and to the liames-ring of the 
leader. Connect the bit-rings of the middle 
horse by a chin strap and carry the coupling 
strap or rein back, attaching it to the leader’s 
trace-chain, well back, so that he cannot get 
ahead ot the leader. Hitch up the outside horse 
in the same way; then all will work in line, 
and, as the leader walks in the furrow, little or 
no driving is required. Two men with three 
horses each can plow in this way as much in a 
day, and do it as well, as three men with two 
horses each, saving the labor of one man.” 
Mr. Harris, in his “Walks and Talks” in July 
last, discusses briefly “ three-horse eveners ” and 
how to make them, to which we refer the reader. 
THREE HORSES 
ABREAST. 
Thorough Draining and Deep Tillage. 
We had a wet spring, at least in some parts 
of the country, though it was dry enough in 
others. It is strange that wet seasons set people 
both thinking and working at underdraining— 
while dry ones do not. Yet this very year 
wherever drought has parched the soil and 
hurt the crops, well drained land has come out 
comparatively well. Thorough draining means 
deep tillage, for no wise man puts from $50 to 
$80 expense upon an acre—unless it be on a 
graded lawn—and then leaves it with only sur¬ 
face culture. The plow is followed by the sub- 
soiler, and the yellow dirt sees the light little 
by little, year by year, until a rich crumbly soil 
afoot deep rolls up in mellow waves, behind 
the great plows,—never wet, never dry, always 
moist, never cold, early in spring, late in autumn, 
inviting culture and well rewarding it. We are 
too apt to look upon droughts as dispensations 
of Providence which we must take without re¬ 
pining, and cannot ward off. A few years ago 
the old fogies held that the reclaiming of 
swamps and bogs was flying in the face of 
Providence, as if they had not been created for 
some wise purpose. So indeed they were—on 
purpose to be drained, and so if you please 
droughts are sent on purpose to test our good 
husbandry in avoiding the harm they might do 
us, and profiting by the good. The flow of 
water during droughts being upward by absorb- 
tion and evaporation, fertilizing matters are 
brought up to the surface which in ordinary 
seasons are washed down; hence the years 
succeeding dry ones are often years of plenty. 
Drainage is usually best done in Autumn; its 
principles are simple and when well understqpd 
success is certain. We have often discussed the 
subject, and there are excellent treatises upon 
it, of which none is better than Col. Waring’s 
Draining for Profit, (see our book list on another 
page) which gives the best ways for doing every 
thing, under the supposition that, if it is either 
necessary or desirable to slight the work or only 
half do it, methods enough will suggest them¬ 
selves to almost any body. Drains should take 
the most direct course down hill. The tiles 
should be too small rather than too large. For 
if small the swifter current will keep deposits 
from forming which would fill up large tiles. 
Wherever the line of descent is changed to a 
less fall per foot a silt-basin should be placed. 
A very gradual fall is all that is needed if it be 
regular. The bottom of the drain is the most 
important part to have exactly right; hence too 
much pains can hardly be taken to have the 
final grading perfect, and the tiles well laid. 
Collars for the tiles are of great advantage. 
The value of the drain is determined by the 
excellence of the poorest tile and the worst 
laid one in its entire length; as the strength of 
a chain is measured by that of its weakest link. 
Drains must receive their water from the bot¬ 
tom, not from the top, hence, pack clay or stiff 
soil upon the tile and make this layer 1G inches 
above the tile impervious to water. Deep 
drains farther apart are more economical in 
the long run than shallow ones near together— 
four feet being the depth usually advised and 
seldom reached. Tiles are often cheaper than 
stones, even if the latter encumber the land. 
Implements for Cutting up Corn. 
In cutting up corn we believe in either leav¬ 
ing fully eight inches of the huts, or in cutting 
as close as possible. It is a little easier to cut, 
leaving long stalks, but this involves in neat 
farming the labor of dragging the field with a 
pole, when the ground is frozen, in order to 
break the stubs off from the roots. When corn 
is to be followed by spring'grain of any kind, it 
is very desirable to plow deeply enough to cover 
stubs and roots together, so that they will not 
be harrowed out, and lie on the surface, where 
they will be useless as manure, and in the way of 
the following grass crops. If the roots only be 
left in the ground, or if the stubs and roots are 
broken apart, there is little difficulty, and few 
of either roots or stubs interfere with the even¬ 
ness of the meadow when laid down to grass. 
Were a dozen jnen to go to a field to cut up 
corn, scarcely two would have supplied them¬ 
selves with exactly the same instrument. 
We describe and illustrate several of the com¬ 
mon corn cutters. The most common is doubt¬ 
less the broken scythe blade —variously handled. 
Tin's simple blade, 18 to 20 inches long, may 
have a handle made, as in figure 1, by riveting 
a piece of wood upon 
each side at one end, or 
the edge may be battered 
down at that end for a 
few inches, and wound 
with leather or coarse 
cloth. This forms a heavy 
knife which will cut off 
three or four stalks at one 
blow, and has its represen¬ 
tative in the stores in one 
of the many forms of the 
cane knife which is shown 
in fig. 3. These knives 
( Machettes ) are made for 
the Southern trade, but 
some forms are very useful on the farm, and 
they may be bought for 62 cents or more a piece. 
Another home-made corn knife is part of a 
blade of a scythe, sickle, or any large knife, set 
diagonally to the handle in which it is riveted. 
Figure 2 represents still another kind of com 
cutter, kept for sale in all the implement stores 
(costing about fifty cents), which is 
made in a similar manner to the one 
just described. We have repeatedly 
received sketches or descriptions from 
correspondents of a very simple and 
expeditiously made knife which is il¬ 
lustrated by fig. 4. It is a blade of any 
kind thrust through a piece of corn 
stalk near one of the lower joints. 
We have represented it as the point of 
a scythe passed through the corn stalk 
and bound in with wire. The wiring 
may not be necessary where they grow 
very stiff cornstalks. Implements in 
which the blade is at a considerable angle 
fig- 3. to the handle may be used with a draw¬ 
ing stroke, as well as for cutting with a blow. 
Tools made for other purposes are in some 
hands very advantageously applied to cutting 
up corn. One of these is the sickle, or rather 
the grass hook, for the genuine sickle is a rare 
implement in modern farming. A large and 
rather heavy one should be selected, and it will 
be found one of the handiest corn cutters. The 
sickle form makes it useful in 
expeditiously gathering stalks 
that fall. The common bush 
scythe is less frequently used, 
but wielded by a strong man in 
heavy corn, three men will have 
about all they want to do to pick 
up and stack the corn as fast as 
it is cut. Finally we come .to 
the common field hoe. The imple¬ 
ment which has contributed so 
essentially to the growth of the 
plant, is one of the handiest to 
cut it down. Furnish a good steel hoe with a 
handle 16 to 18 inches long,and bring it to a sharp 
edge on the grindstone, and you have an efficient 
corn cutter. A single blow will cut up a hill of 
ordinary eastern corn, unless the stalks are a 
good deal scattered. It has the advantage in com¬ 
mon with the bush scythes that the stalks may 
be conveniently cut very close to the ground. 
