Part 3

Of the Greek plough, we know nothing; and the general disuse of that described by Virgil and Pliny, furnishes a degree of evidence, that experience has found it incompetent to its objects.--With even the boasted lights of modern knowledge, scientific men are not agreed upon the form and proportion, most proper for this instrument. As in other cases, so in this, there may be no _abstract perfection_; what is best in one description of soil, may not be so in another; yet, as in all soils, the office of the plough is the same, viz. to _cleave_ and _turn over the earth_, there cannot but be some definite shape and proportions, better fitted for these purposes, and at the same time less susceptible of resistance, than any other.

This beau ideal, this suppositious excellence, in the mechanism of a plough, has been the object of great national, as well as individual research. In Great Britain, high prizes have been established for its attainment; and in France, under the ministry of Chaptal, 10,000 francs, or $2000, were offered for this object, by the agricultural society of the Seine. In both countries, the subject has employed many able pens; those of Lord Kaimes, of Mr. Young, of Mr. Arbuthnot, of Lord Somerville, and of Messieurs Duhamel, Chateauvieux, Bosc, Guillaume, &c. It is not for us, therefore, to do more than assemble and present such rules for the construction of this instrument, as have most attained the authority of maxims.

1st. The beam, or that part of the plough which carries the coulter, and furnishes the point of draft, should be as near that of resistance as possible; because the more these are approached, the less is the moving power required. Even the shape of the beam is not a matter of indifference. In the old ploughs, it was generally straight, but a small curve is now preferred; because it has the effect of strengthening the coulter, by shortening it.

2d. The _head_ of the plough, is the plain on which it moves. This should be concave, because that form offers fewer points of friction, and, of course, less resistance. Between the beam and the head, is an angle, on which depends the principal office of the plough; the making, at will, a deep or a shallow furrow. If you wish a deep furrow, diminish the angle, and vice versa: but this angle should, in no case, exceed from 18 to 24 degrees.

The resistance made to the plough being produced less by the weight of the earth, than by the cohesion of its parts, it is evident, that the head should be shod with iron, and rendered as smooth as possible. This remark applies equally to the soc and to the mould board.

3d. The soc, in its widest part, should be larger than the head. It has different shapes in different countries. In some is given to it that of an isosceles triangle; in others, that of the head of a lance; in Biscay, that of a crescent; and in Poland, of a two pronged fork. But, whatever be its shape, it should be well pointed and polished--enter the earth with facility, and cut it easily.

4th. To the _mould board_, some workmen give the shape of a prismatic wedge; others make the upper part convex, and the lower concave; while many make it entirely flat. In stiff soils, the _semi cycloid_ is the form to be preferred, and in loose friable soils the _semi-ellipsis_.[7] The iron mould boards have great advantages over the wooden, particularly when they, the shear and the soc, form one piece, as in the plough of Mr. Cook.

[7] See Arbuthnot on Ploughs.

It is a general opinion, that a heavy plough is more disadvantageous than a light one; because the draft of the former, being greater, will be more fatiguing to the cattle: but the experiments of the agricultural society in London, establish a contrary doctrine, and show, that in light grounds, the labour is more easily and better performed, with a heavy, than with a light plough.

5th. The _coulter_ is a species of knife inserted in the beam, and so placed before the soc, as to cut the sod. It is susceptible of being raised or depressed at will.

6th. The handles of the plough ought to be made of some kind of heavy wood, that they may operate as a counter-weight to the head, the soc and the mould-board.

To these remarks we subjoin two sets of experiments made with the most approved French and English ploughs; that of Guillaume, and Small's _Rotheram plough improved_, which furnish a means of comparison between the best ploughs of Europe and those of this country.

The resistance (stated in these tables) was measured and ascertained by a _dynonometer_, a machine, indispensable to those who would make correct observations on the relative advantages of different ploughs.

_The French Plough._ _The English Plough._ Resistance in pounds. Resistance in pounds.

1st experiment 200 1st experiment 360 2d do. 240 2d do. 380 3d do. 200 3d do. 480 4th do. 220 4th do. 460 5th do. 220 5th do. 400 ---- 6th do. 400 Divided by 5)1080 7th do. 420 ---- 8th do. 386 Average, 216 9th do. 440 ---- Divided by 9)3720 ---- Average, 413

II. _The Harrow._ This is of different kinds--the triangular and the square, the single and the double. But of whatever form, its uses are the same; to smooth the field after ploughing, to break and pulverize the clods, and to cover the seed.--These uses sufficiently indicate the propriety of employing two in succession; one of heavy frame, with few and long teeth, like the Scotch brake; the other, of lighter constitution, with more and shorter teeth. Our own experience leads us to believe, that the common harrow covers the seed too much, because small seeds will not vegetate at a depth greater than three inches.

III. _The Roller_ is a cylinder of heavy wood, turning on gudgeons, or on an axle, and placed in a frame, to which is attached a shaft; it is of different dimensions, but need not exceed that which may be drawn by one, or at most by two horses or oxen. This instrument is indispensable in good husbandry, yet is rarely used in ours. Its offices are three-fold--to render loose soils more compact; to break the clod on stiff ones, and on both, to compress the earth, (after seeding) so that it be every where brought in contact with the grain. It is also usefully employed in reinstating the roots of meadow grasses, loosened and raised by the alternate freezing and thawing of the ground, and, with similar view, may be passed over winter crops early in the spring.

Its clod-breaking and pulverizing property is much increased, by surrounding the roller with narrow bands of iron, two inches broad, three inches thick, and six inches asunder; or by studding it with iron points, resembling harrow teeth, and projecting three or four inches.

IV. _The Threshing Machine_ is of English invention, and may be well enough adapted to the taste and circumstances of rich amateurs, but not at all to those of farmers in general. Our objections to it are three--the first cost, which is great; the quantum of moving power employed, which is equal to that of six horses, and the number of hands required to attend it, which is not less than four. We have seen, in France, a machine for the same purpose, but of much simpler structure--called the "_Rouleau de depiquer_" which is only a _fluted cylinder_; yet simple and cheap as this was, it could not maintain itself against the more ancient instruments--the flail and the horse. Still it is to be hoped, that new experiments may succeed better and abridge the manual labour usually given to this branch of husbandry, and, that the mechanical genius of our own country (which is not inferior to that of any other) may be the first to combine _power_ and _cheapness_ in this machine.

This hope is probably suggested, by the description of a new invented threshing machine, now before me, and which I may be permitted to transcribe from the letter of the inventor. "The machine I have built, is three feet wide. One horse will thresh with much ease, as much wheat as can be laid on it, by one man, (the straw to be taken away by another,) say, from _fifty_ to _one hundred bushels in a day_, and the saving of grain will pay for the labour; for, I think, that with good attendance, not a particle of grain can escape with the straw.--The expense of the machine will be from _fifty_ to _seventy dollars_, exclusive of the moving power, which is a wheel, about ten feet diameter, on an upright shaft, to which a lever is fixed to hitch the horse. Into this main wheel, a small one should be made to work, about two feet diameter, on a shaft carrying a drum, four feet wide. With this simple gearing, and drawn by a horse that walks well, the machine will give about eighteen hundred strokes in a minute, and if fully attended, will, without hard labour for the horse, thresh a _bushel every three_ or _four minutes_. It stands in my barn, and may be seen and examined by any one."[8]

[8] Mr. Levi M'Keen, of Poughkeepsie.

V. _The Fanning Mill_. Other things being equal, the cleanest wheat is most easily preserved, and, on manufacture, gives the best flour, and in the largest quantity. These considerations offer inducement enough for the employment of this machine, which, however, besides doing its business well, saves a great deal of time. It is too well known to require description.

ON BONES, &c. AS MANURE.

The carbon and hydrogen abounding in oily substances fully account for their effects; and their durability is explained from the gradual manner in which they change by the action of air and water.

_Bones_ are much used as a manure in the neighbourhood of London.--After being broken and boiled for grease, they are sold to the farmer. The more divided they are, the more powerful are their effects. The expense of grinding them in a mill would probably be repaid by the increase of their fertilizing powers; and in the state of powder they might be used in the drill husbandry, and delivered with the seed in the same manner as rape cake.

Bone dust, and bone shavings, the refuse of the turning manufacture, may be advantageously employed in the same way.

The basis of bone is constituted by earthy salts, principally phosphate of lime, with some carbonate of lime and phosphate of magnesia; the easily decomposed substances in bone are fat, gelatine and cartilage, which seems of the same nature as coagulated albumen.

According to the analysis of Fourcroy and Vauquelin ox bones are composed

Of decomposable animal matter, 51 phosphate of lime, 37.7 carbonate of lime, 10 phosphate of magnesia, 1.3 ----- 100. -----

M. Merat Guillot has given the following estimate of the composition of the bones of different animals.

Phosphate of lime. Carbonate of lime.

Bone of Calf, 54 Horse, 67.5 1.25 Sheep, 70 5 Elk, 90 1 Hog, 52 1 Hare, 85 1 Pullet, 72 1.5 Pike, 64 1 Carp, 45 5 Horses' Teeth, 85.5 25 Ivory, 64 1 Hartshorn, 27 1 ---- ----

The remaining parts of the 100 must be considered as decomposable animal matter.

_Horn_ is a still more powerful manure than bone, as it contains a larger quantity of decomposable animal matter. From 500 grains of ox-horn, Mr. Hatchett obtained only 1-5 grains of earthy residuum, and not quite half of this was phosphate of lime. The shaving or turnings of horn form an excellent manure, though they are not sufficiently abundant to be in common use. The animal matter in them seems to be of the nature of coagulated albumen, and it is slowly rendered soluble by the action of water. The earthy matter in horn and still more that in bones, prevents the too rapid decomposition of the animal matter, and renders it very durable in its effects.

--[_Davy's Ag. Chem._

FRENCH AGRICULTURE.

The Moniteur contains a very long report by Decaze, which is published, as having been approved of by the king on the state of agriculture in France. It appears from this document that the fostering care of the government is steadily, and in most instances, successfully, exercised in promoting every branch of cultivation adapted to the French soil and climate. One branch, that of the culture of the beet root, which it was supposed would have languished on the restoration of the sugar colonies, is stated to be gradually but firmly extending itself, and its encouragement is recommended to the government, among other considerations, on the special ground on which it was originally introduced, that of rendering France independent of foreign supplies of sugar in a period of war. It has been affirmed, that those who manufacture into sugar beet root, raised on their own farms, realized a profit of 25 per cent.; and on the supposition that a quantity were raised adequate to supply the total consumption of sugar in France, it is said that the refuse of the beet root would of itself suffice to fatten for the market annually 120,000 head of cattle.--There are now about twenty beet root sugar refineries in full activity.

GEORGETOWN, (S.C.) April 20.

_An Agricultural Prize worth winning._--We are informed by a gentleman from Stateburg, that fourteen or more members of the Claremont Agricultural Society, of that neighbourhood, have agreed to plant, each an acre of ground in corn, to be manured and cultivated at pleasure.--The planter producing the most neat corn to the acre, (as a reward for his superiour farming) is to receive the produce of every other acre. The land to be planted must be high land, and have been cleared at least five years. A committee of five members were appointed to approve of the land, to superintend the gathering and measuring the corn, and to report to the Society at its meeting in the fall, when we will be able to inform our readers of the successful planter, and the neat product of each acre.

ON THE CULTURE OF THE SUGAR MAPLE.

This valuable tree seems to be equally well adapted for ornament and for profit. No tree, of the deciduous class, is more elegant in appearance, and but few grow more rapidly, or live to a greater length of years. Its shade is but little injurious to the growths of grain, and still less to those of grass. For fuel it is inferiour to no wood whatever. It may be cultivated in mowing and pasture lands, probably as closely as at the rate of 20 trees on an acre, without any essential injury to the pasture, or growth of the meadow. The quantity of sugar to be made yearly from the sap of the tree must, however, depend on its size, and on the rapidity of its growth. The quicker its growth, the more sap may be extracted from it, because the alburnum (sap wood) is always in the greatest proportion where the tree is most flourishing.

The rapidity of the growth of young trees, when transplanted, depends very essentially on the manner of performing that operation. The greater the depth and superficial extent, to which the ground is loosened, round where a young tree is to be set, the more rapid will be its growth when placed in this bed of loosened earth. Let one young tree, for instance, be set in a hole dug only 18 inches in diameter, and a foot in depth, and let another be set in a hole dug 6 feet wide, and 2 feet deep, and the latter will, for a number of succeeding years, grow with more than double the rapidity of the former. In order, then, to give the young maples a rapid start, so as to have them soon fitted for affording considerable supplies of sap, let due attention be paid to this particular. Let the holes for the trees be dug, say, a foot in depth, and five in diameter, and then spade or loosen the ground at the bottoms to the depth of 8 or 10 inches more before the young trees are to be set in.

In addition to planting maples in grounds intended as permanent pastures, and mowing grounds, each side of the highway, leading through any farm, might be profitably occupied and adorned with these trees, set at the distance of about every two rods. Suppose also that the farm house were placed in a spacious court yard, say of an acre in extent, and this planted with a suitable number of maples, could any thing confer more of an air of pleasantness and elegance to the mansion?

I shall not attempt any computation of the probable profits to be derived from this proposed improvement in rural affairs, but doubtless the gain would be very considerable. Every farmer might, in this way, stock his lands with a permanent growth that would afford him a plentiful supply of sugar, that would at times afford him additions of fuel, and that would eminently serve as an embellishment of his domain, and all these essential advantages would be derived without any essential diminution of the usual products of his lands.

It is probable that if the young trees be planted in the manner just mentioned, they would attain a size fit for tapping in about 15 years, after which they would probably afford yearly supplies of sap for more than a century, if tapped in the manner least calculated to injure them. This is to be performed, not by cutting large gashes in them with an axe, but by boring one or more holes in them, with a small auger, to the depth of about 3 inches, or at all events not beyond the extent of the sap wood. The holes should be made every year in different parts of the trees, sometimes higher and sometimes lower, and after the sap has ceased running for the season, they should be filled with pieces of durable wood, drove in, in order that the wounds may be soon healed over by the subsequent growth of the trees.

J. N. [_Plough Boy_.

FLEMISH HUSBANDRY.

From the Plough Boy.

Sir--Much has been said in praise of English husbandry, though it is a well known fact, that this vaunted system is surpassed in many countries which do not possess equal natural advantages. In Scotland, agriculture has progressed at least half a century beyond that of England, where the soil and climate is far more congenial to the productions of the earth than the "bleak mountains of Caledonia." But no where in the world is the contrast so marked as that between the Flemish and English mode of cultivation.

The average produce of a crop of wheat, in England, is 24 bushels per acre. In Flanders, it is 32 bushels. In England, the system of _fallows_ almost universally prevails. In Flanders, it has been unknown from time immemorial; two crops, in many cases three, being uniformly raised annually upon the same field. The following comparative tables, as exhibited in "Vanderstracten's sketch of the Flemish system," shew clearly and correctly its superior advantages over that of England.

_Produce of the Flemish farmer | _Produce of the English farmer, from one acre, for 12 | according to the Norfolk years._ | course, for the same period._ | Wheat, 32 bush. per | Wheat, 24 bush. per acre 4 crops | acre, 3 crops Barley, do. do. 4 do. | Barley, 32 do. do. 3 do. Flax, hemp, coleseed | Turnips, 3 do. & potatoes, 4 do. | Clover, 3 do. Roots and vegetables | for the food | of cattle, 10 do. | -------- | -------- | In 12 years, 24 crops | In 12 years, 12 crops

This immense difference in favour of the produce of Flanders, does not arise, as might be supposed, from its possessing a better natural soil, or a milder climate, than England; but entirely from the different mode of cultivation pursued in these two countries. At no very distant period, the fields of Flanders, now so productive, were little else but loose sand and gravel, whereas the soil of England, was always naturally fertile, and in part, lies under a more southerly parallel than Flanders.

The rich, abundant, and healthy crops obtained by the Flemish farmers, may be traced to the following causes:

I. The abundance and judicious application of manure. II. Digging all the lands on their farms with the spade, every six or every three years. III. The complete extirpation of weeds and noxious roots. IV. Regular and repeated hoeing. V. A careful choice, and alternation, of grain and seeds for sowing. VI. An improved rotation of crops.

"The whole secret (observes Vanderstracten) respecting the superiority of Flemish agriculture, consists in this; the farmers procure plenty of food for their cattle--food which, excepting clover, is raised from the same lands which have already yielded their crops of grain, &c. They keep the greatest possible number of cattle, feed them in the stables plentifully, and render their food palatable. They collect the greatest possible quantity of manure, of which they preserve the fertilizing salts by a suitable process of fermentation.--They weed their grounds thoroughly and repeatedly. They totally extirpate noxious plants and roots, every six or every three years, by digging all the lands on their respective farms--an operation by which they revert to the surface a stratum of fresh soil, that for three or for six years has been absorbing the salts of manure as they filtrated to the bottom of the roots: a stratum of soil which has produced no crop during the same period. They, moreover, dress their grounds to the precise point of perfect pulverization. These are inestimable advantages, which cannot be obtained by any plough whatever; hence the drift of the Flemish adage--"Never to let the naked ground lie open to the sun in summer for more than three days."

"In truth, to say that there exists a vast province, in which the price of lands has been quadrupled within fifty years, and which is neither placed under a more favourable climate, nor enjoys a greater fertility of soil, than England; from which fallows in general have been banished from time immemorial; in which the greater part of the lands produce in 9 years at least 15 harvests, of which those of grain yield, one year with another, as high as 32 bushels of wheat per acre; those of barley, 60 bushels; and those of oats, 90 bushels; and where the borders of the fields are planted with trees, in such numbers, that by their sale the proprietors acquire, every 40 years, a sum of money equal to the soil; to say this, appears, to other than English readers, to repeat a tissue of fables.[9] The less informed attribute this uninterrupted succession of harvests to the inexhaustible fertility of the soil; but intelligent and well-informed travellers attribute it, on the contrary, and with the best reason, to the indefatigable industry of the inhabitants, and to a highly improved mode of culture, of the details of which they themselves are ignorant, and which beside, from their complication, and the great variety of the productions of the soil, require a profound study, of many years duration, to which few of them have either the inclination or the leisure to apply."