THE CULTIVATOR. 
bor, not so well experienced in hogology as I was, have to 
“fat at the halves.” By strong exertions, he succeeded in 
making a pen stout enough to keep them upon a continual 
trot around it, without finding an outlet. Here, after eat¬ 
ing and wasting in the mud more than fifty bushels of corn 
npiece, he brought me my half of “hog meat.” Another 
neighbor being destitute, and this looking to him “as though 
it might be eatable,” I told him to take it, and we would ne¬ 
ver quarrel about the price or mode of payment; and I 
bought my “ pork” for my own use. 
But this is not the end of my hog speculation. I still had 
five shoats, and upon them I determined to try what good 
keeping would do. Accordingly, I “caught them,” and put 
them in a good warm pen, composed of an eating room, a 
sleeping room, and a retiring room. Nearly every day have 
I furnished these (permit me to say, devils) with good dry 
straw, and nearly every night have they slept in a wet, fil¬ 
thy bed. The straw they have eat and scattered through 
the pen, and all the filth that they should have left in the 
outside room, they have deposited in their beds. Whoever 
know r s me, knows that no domestic animal of mine, ever 
lacks food ; and it has not been spared upon these in the 
pen. Forgive me, but I can’t call them hogs. Ruta bagas, 
beets, potatoes, bran, and house slops, including the milk of 
two cows, all winter, have not been spared. 
Reader, is the feed and care thus bestowed, worth one 
cent a head each day '! Then from the first of October to 
this time is 166 days. I offer you a speculation. Give me 
one dollar each, and the animals now ten months old, are 
yours ; and I will give you my bond with good security, 
that, so far as I am concerned, you shall have a perfect mo¬ 
nopoly of all the breed, from this time, henceforth and for¬ 
ever. 
I have writen to Mr. Allen, at Buffalo, for a pair of hogs, 
and I shall send to Mr. Bement, at Albany, for another pair, 
by the first opportunity. 
Will either of these gentlemen, or some other, publish a 
reverse to my picture ? 
I am a most sincere hater of alligators and landpikes. 
Your friend, SOLON ROBINSON. 
Lake Court-House, la. March 15, 1840. 
“Salt Petre in Meat.” 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —In the twelfth number of 
the last volume of the Cultivator, there appeared a commu¬ 
nication on the use of saltpetre in curing meat: and the fol¬ 
lowing reason was assigned for abandoning its use. viz:— 
“ It ought to be known, that saltpetre absorbed by the meat, 
is nitric acid, or aqua forth—a deadly poison, whereby our 
salt meat becomes unpalatable and pernicious.” A sufficient 
answer to which is found in the fact—that one of the consti¬ 
tuents of common salt, is muriatic acid, as deadly a poison as 
the nitric acid of the saltpetre. And we might, with as much 
propriety say, that the salt absorbed by the meat is muriatic 
acid, as to say that the saltpetre is nitric acid or aqua fortis. 
Therefore, the objection applies with as much force and 
truth to the use of the one as the other. 
Saltpetre is the product of a chemical union between ni¬ 
tric acid and potassa, (potash,) and salt, of a like union be¬ 
tween muriatic acid and soda—and in these, as in all other- 
cases of chemical combination, the substances combining, 
not only lose their properties, but the substances produced 
generally possess properties entirely different—frequently the 
very opposite, of those of either of their constituents. From 
which it follows, that a perfectly innocent compound may be 
produced by the combination of two noxious substances—or 
a noxious compound, by the combination of two innocent 
substances: and it is very improper, and well calculated to 
mislead, to designate a compound substance by the name of 
either of its constituents, as in the communication referred 
to, in which nitric acid and saltpetre are severai’times used 
as if they were but different names for the same thing. 
Some persons think a small quantity of saltpetre very be¬ 
neficial to their meat—others think it useless—the former 
need not be frightened from its use by the fear of being poi-' 
soiled with aqua fortis—nor the latter deterred from trying 
it. J- 
Lexington, Va. March lDth, 1840. 
New-York State Agricultural Society. 
Report of the Committee on Agricultural Implements. 
The committee appointed at the last annual meeting of 
the Society to examine any agricultural implements that 
might be submitted to their inspection, beg leave to report, 
that they have examined the horse power, the thrashing 
machine, the separator, and the winnowing machine made 
by Mr. Pitts of this city. The horse pow'er is of the re¬ 
volving floor kind, and is wide enough to admit of two hor¬ 
ses abreast, which the committee think is a decided im¬ 
provement, inasmuch as horses work more quietly and steadi¬ 
ly in company than when alone. Besides, most farmers can 
as conveniently employ two horses in thrashing, as one ; 
and when this'is the case, a larger power is employed at 
almost the same expense, as a smaller one, beside securing 
greater steadiness and uniformity in its application. The 
horse power may, however, be used with one horse when it 
is inconvenient to employ two. 
The thrashing machine is a spiked machine, and this pos¬ 
sesses the advantages and defects appertaining to machines 
of this kind. Mr. Pitts’ modifications, however, have, in the 
opinion of the committee, great value ; especially the at¬ 
tachment of a ratchet wheel to the driving wheel, by means 
of which the power, of whatever kind, may be suddenly 
and immediately stopped without being retarded by the mo¬ 
mentum of the thrashing machine. It can easily be con¬ 
ceived that cases may occur where the safety of the horses 
employed would require the horse power to be instantly 
stopped, which could not be the case unless the contrivance 
described, or something similar, be adopted. In one in¬ 
stance, at least, the life of a valuable horse has been saved 
by means of this simple and ingenious contrivance. 
The separator is attached to the thrashing machine. Its 
object is to dispense with the rake in separating the grain 
and chaff from the straw. 
It consists of a revolving apron, across which are placed 
vertical wooden slats about two inches in height, at inter¬ 
vals of about two inches. The ends of the slats are fasten¬ 
ed in tw r o opposite endless wooden chains attached to each 
selvage of the apron. Thus are formed numerous pockets 
into which the grain falls while the straw rests upon 
the upper edges of the slats forming the pockets. A com¬ 
plete and perfect separation is thus effected, by means as 
simple as ingenious. By the revolution of the apron, the 
straw and the grain in the chaff, are carried forward. A 
spiked roller throws the straw forward beyond the machine, 
while the grain and chaff' are deposited upon the winnow¬ 
ing machine. 
The winnowing machine is substantially the common fan¬ 
ning mill. It has, however, one very judicious appendage, 
viz: elevators similar to those employed in grist mills ; by 
means of which every thing that passes through the screen, 
is again returned to the action of the fanners. The grain is 
deposited in boxes placed to receive it, and is found to be 
perfectly free from dust and chaff The committee are of 
opinion that it would be necessary to pass the grain repeat¬ 
edly through the common fanning mill, to render it as clean 
as the grain which is passed but once through this machine 
of Mr. Pitts. 
The committee are well aware that it is imperative 
upon them not to speak in too strong terms of any machine 
submitted to their examination, but they can not forbear 
saying that in their opinion the separator of Mr. Pitts is 
worthy of all praise. 
The celebrated Professor Low declares that to Andrew 
Mickle belongs the honor of having perfected the thrashing 
machine. But if any one will compare the cumbersome, 
intricate, and expensive machine of Mickle, with the com¬ 
pact, simple and cheap machine just described, he will be sa¬ 
tisfied that this mead of praise is justly due to Mr. Pitts. 
JOEL B. NGTT, ) 
C. N. BEMENT, } Committee. 
V. V. BULLOCK. ) 
Chinese Tree Corn. 
Messrs. Editors —I take your excellent paper the Culti¬ 
vator, from which I received the information of Mr. Thor- 
burn having the Chinese tree corn. I wrote to Mr. C. N. 
Bement, and he applied to Mr. Thorburn, who sent me four¬ 
teen ears, and six Rohan potatoes. I also received two other 
ears from New-York. I planted them on the 10th of May. I 
put but two grains in a hill. The very points I put three 
grains, being so very small. I attended it with my other 
corn, and I think it to be a very great acquisition. It is so 
very early and very productive. In three months after I 
planted it, it was hard enough to have turned my hogs into, 
thus being in advance of the other corn about four weeks. 
I always hog down one field of corn, then sow it in wheat; 
it is a good fallow crop, if it can be eat down soon enough. 
The Chinese corn will have the advantage of all other corn, 
it coming ripe so soon that you can get your corn eat down 
by the middle of September, and your wheat sowed in good 
season. My sixteen ears planted one acre and twenty rods. 
I gathered seventy bushels of corn, very sound and good. 1 
think I can raisesone hundred bushels from one acre by plant¬ 
ing it three feet apart and three stalks in a hill. It does not grow 
as high as our corn, and will bear closer planting. I took 
four stalks to the agricultural fair at Cincinnati. They bore 
twenty ears, and the committee awarded me a premium of 
one pair of sugar tongs, worth $3.25. I see in some 
of the papers some fault is found with Mr. Thorburn. I think 
it is w ithout any good reason, for 1 think it to be a very pro¬ 
ductive and early corn. 
The Mad Itch. 
I see in a late number of the Cultivator, Mr. Demy asks 
for a cure for the mad itch. From my experience about it, I 
think it to be a very hard complaint to cure, I think the 
cause of the mad itch is the cattle running where corn stalks 
are cut up and thrown to hogs. The hogs chew the stalk 
and spit it out, and the cows eat it; and the substance being 
all extracted, it lies in the stomach and becomes dry and hard, 
and it will not digest at all. In the fall of 1828, I had my 
hogs running in the pasture with my cows; I cut up corn 
and threw to the hogs; the cows came occasionally at first; 
but after some weeks, they were always there at feeding 
time. In three days I had five milch cows die. The second 
and third I cut open; they all looked inwardly very well, 
but the stomach was hard. I cut it open, and the particles of 
the chewed stalks were hard and dry; it w-as the first of the 
mad itch I ever saw r . When they were first taken they 
would walk around the pasture fence, hold up.their heads and 
look wild; they would occasionally run to the fence or trees 
or stumps, and rub the under jaw, or between the horns, 
and one of mine rubbed one of her eyes entirely out, and 
one of them went into the great Miami River and waded and 
swam in the river for five hours; she then swam to some drift¬ 
wood and put her head on it and died in the water. I think 
the best cure for it is to keep your cattle away from your hogs 
in the fall of the year, when you feed com on the stalk. 
JOHN REED. 
Cherry Ridge Farm, O., Jan. 28 th, 1840. 
Spring Wheat after Potatoes. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— I send you some experi¬ 
ments on sowing spring wheat after potatoes, without plow¬ 
ing. I think in 1836 I made the first trial. I had a rich piece 
of ground of one and three-fourths of an acre, descending to 
the north. The year previous to my coming into posses¬ 
sion, it had been sowed with turneps, but there was an en¬ 
tire failure of the crop. I spread another coat of manure in 
the spring, which was hauled out the fall previous by the 
former occupant, plowed the ground the last of May, fine 
and deep, once only ; harrowed well, planted with the com¬ 
mon yellow potato in my usual way, which I have practic¬ 
ed for twenty years. It was the last year of our agricultu¬ 
ral society’s existence. My potatoes looked so fine, I mea¬ 
sured off one acre according to the rules of the society, 
which then was that the ground should be measured, the 
potatoes dug, and measured by men under oath. The acre 
yielded 553^ bushels. We found one potato that weighed 
3 lbs. 5 oz. and there were many that weighed from 2 to 2| 
lbs. I got the premium by more than 200 bushels. So 
much for the potato crop. 
The next spring I purchased four bushels spring wheat. 
I cleaned out of it, by fanning and washing in strong brine, 
about twenty quarts, leaving three bushels and twelve 
quarts. About the 1st of April, we bad a warm, dry spell, 
I went and took a look at the ground, and it looked so clean 
and mellow, I determined to try an experiment. I ac¬ 
cordingly went on with my team and harrow, at the same 
time set another team to plowing two lands, fourteen paces 
wide, making about one-third of an acre. The second or 
third day, sowed the whole bioad cast, after being well roll¬ 
ed in lime. That which I sowed without plowing, I har¬ 
vested six days previous to the other, it being ripe, and the 
quantity and quality of the former was far superior to the 
latter. Now for the product, which was 1353 sheaves, 
yielding a little over six bushels the hundred, making over 
eighty-one bushels at six bushels the hundred ; every bush¬ 
el of which weighed 62^ lbs. 
The next year I plowed the ground once, harrowed and 
planted with corn, three feet one way, and from one and a 
half to two the other. I harvested from one acre by actual 
measurement, one hundred and four bushels of good corn. 
The next year plowed once, sowed with barley, had a 
fine crop, but do not recollect the quantity, as I did not take 
an account at the time, and seeded with clover and timothy. 
The reader will see that these four successive crops, were 
raised with but very little labor and expense, and that these 
four crops yielded as much or more clear profit than some 
five or ten acres equally as good by nature. \- 
My object in writing this communication is, first, to call 
the attention of the farmer to the importance of tilling no 
more land than he can well do, and make profitable ; 2d. that 
he would make the experiment of sowing spring wheat on 
potato ground without plowing. 
In 1837, I had two pieces of potato ground of one acre 
each, which were manured and treated in every respect 
alike. One piece I plowed, and the other I did not; sowed 
both the same day. The field that I plowed I thought was 
of the two most promising, but when harvested the other 
had the preference. I think I have tried this, every year 
but one since 1826, and that was three or four years ago, 
when the snow came on early before the ground was frozen, 
nnd lay very late in the spring, which made the ground very 
hard and heavy. — 
Rotation of Crops. 
As I have a little more leisure, I will trouble you with a 
few more remarks on cropping. My method is, in the first 
place to make all the manure I possibly can through the sea¬ 
son, haul it on my potato and corn ground, at the rate of 
from thirty to thirty-five loads, such as we carry, to the acre; 
till well; get a good crop, cold or hot; follow with two 
white crops, generally with wheat and barley or barley and 
oats, mixt half and half, for grinding for hogs, horses, cattle 
and sheep. I had a very fine crop the season past; and I 
can recommend this crop to those who can not conscien¬ 
tiously grow barley for whiskey or beer. After taking off 
these two crops, seed with clover and timothy, at the rate 
of one peck the acre. E. W. F. 
Warren, Herkimer Co. N. Y. March 21, 1840. 
“Mineral Rods.” 
Messrs. Editors — “The place to dig a well,” most con¬ 
venient to our habitations, attended with the least expense, 
and which, when completed, will afford the greatest supply 
of water, is certainly a subject of no trivial importance ; and 
it is one of anxious inquiry in most sections of the Union. 
That person who shall discover, and communicate to the 
public a sure method of finding the subterranean currents 
or reservoirs of waters, most convenient to our dwellings, 
will richly deserve to be honored as a most distinguished be¬ 
nefactor of our race. Your readers are indebted to your 
Ontario correspondent, Mr. Adams, for bringing the subject 
before them in the February number of your invaluable 
Cultivator ; and they would owe no measured amount 
of gratitude to him who shall supply them with the requisite 
information upon this subject, through the columns of your 
most acceptable monthly visitor. 
If the forked branch of the peach, or other tree in the 
hands of certain favored individuals, will unerringly direct 
them to the concealed fopntain, and indicate its subterrane¬ 
an course and depth—as most professors of this art believe 
and affirm—we entreat those who are in possession of the 
facts, to lay the evidence before ths public, that all scepti¬ 
cism upon this subject may be eradicated from the minds of 
the candid, reflecting portion of community. Others will 
continue, as a matter of course, to receive as truth the most 
absurd propositions, or reject with contempt the most lucid 
demonstrations, as their prejudices or whim-whams may 
chance to incline. 
I was, some years since, for several hours, a firm believer 
in the truth of this subject ; and, during this time, I had, 
what I verily supposed, the best possible evidence in its fa¬ 
vor—my own individual experience : and I have been inti¬ 
mately acquainted with several highly respectable individu¬ 
als, in different sections of the Union, from New-England to 
Louisiana, who as firmly believed in its truth, as in any mat¬ 
ter of fact that occurred under their immediate observation. 
These individuals not only believed in the truth of this art, 
but they frequently practiced it, as they supposed, greatly 
to their own benefit, and for the good of their neighbors. I 
have witnessed experiments made by these individuals, and 
carefully noticed the mysterious working of the rod in their 
hands, but I have utterly failed to discover any convincing 
proof, that a subterranean current or resorvoir of water, 
over which they were passing, had caused the motion of the 
rod. If sufficient evidence of this is known to any of your 
readers, let this evidence appear in the Cultivator for the 
benefit of the public ; and none will receive it with more 
profound gratitude than the subscriber. The cautious, dis¬ 
criminating portion of community are much averse to being 
volunteers in faith. They readily admit the truth of facts, 
when sustained by appropriate evidence ; and they firmly 
believe that truth needs not the aid of suppositious Tacts to 
render it useful to mankind; but is “when unadorned, 
adorned the most.” 
1 am not aware that the mineral rod. used in searching for 
water, has ever been described in books : and as it may in¬ 
terest your readers to know' how this art is practiced by its 
professors, I will here explain the method of selecting and 
using the rod, as practiced by the adepts whose experiments 
I have been permitetd to witness. For the rods used in this 
art, select a forked shoot of the hazel, peach, or other stone 
