Southern planter : devoted to agriculture, horticulture, and the ...

keep company with as many long- handled,
long-nosed, long-beamed })lows.
A steam-engine is puffing away, quietly
and busily, with a thrashing machine.
Two or three men are passing up the
sheaves from the rick, and two women on
the top of the thrasher receive it and
unite the bands, while two or more men
are pitching the straw on to a new stack
about as large and high up as a forty-foot
barn ; while on the top of the same stack
a boy is mounted on a horse of near a
ton's weight, riding constantly about to
tread down the straw. The horse and
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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 439
land, I am satisfied, would double in value,
at small expense, by draining with tiles,
when we have them at a fair price, and
know how to use them.
1 nave not space now to speak particularly
of the crops of wheat and other
grain, nor of the culture of the root crops,
nor of the magnificent stock of cattle,
swine, and sheep, nor of the plowing with
those queer, old plows, straight furrows for
half a mile, such as I never saw in America.
We have had many talks about plows,
but they have one argument in favor of
their ungainly implement. Their work is
rider remind you of an equestrian statue far better than ours, and it is either be-
on a very large pedestal ; and as the horse cause they have better plows or hold
is gradually rising higher and higher, you them better, and our farmers and plow-
wonder how he is ever to get down again, makers may settle that question as they
seeing that the stack is perpendicular on can. 1 have seen a man in England, with
every side, and fifteen
Everywhere is straw a
feet
foot
high already;
thick—about
a yoke of oxen fastened in
horses, with blinders on, and
collars, like
bits in their
the yards, in the stables, in the cow
stalls—the greater object seeming to be to
mouths,
holding
guiding them with reins,
the plow himself, striking
and
out
tread it down for manure.
We went down to the tide-water which
lands eight rods long, with no stakes except
at the ends, absolutely straight, so
bounds one side of the farm, and examined that I could not see an inch variation in
the embankment against the sea. The the distance. It is a common operation
embankment extends about twenty-two here to plow land into ridges for mangolds,
miles, and the "marshes" (as the drained drill four rows at a time with a horse-drill,
lands are called) are some of the most; and when the crop is up, to horse-horse
valuable wheat fields T have ever seen. 'I
have since examined the "Lincolnshire
fens," and the mode of drainage by immense
steam-engines, as well as large
tracts t-eclaimed from the sea elsewhere,
and I feel safe in saying that the heaviest
crops of wheat I have seen in England
are upon these fens and mashes. They
require a peculiar treatment, and ii different
rotation from the uplands ; but the
whole subject is well understood, and may
be studied with advantage by all of us
who live on the banks of rivers, or on the
coast of the Atlantic.
Upon one part of the estate we found
brick and tile w'orks, where all the operations
of making, setting, and burning drain
tiles were
which has
gomg on. This is a subject
especially occupied my atten-
tion, and I have seen various machines in
operation in several places, and have narri)wly
watched the methods of laying out
the drains and laying the tiles. I am
more impressed with the importance of
the subject to us at home. Much perhaps
of our New England soil requires no
draining, but much of our most valuable
—
four rows at once. I think bad plowing is
one of
Farmer.
our national sins. JYew England
Order and Economy on the Farm.
—
Without order on the farm, peace of
mind, success and profit are impossible.
Watchfulness and care are implied in this
forcible word, order. Who is the farmer
that does not know of serious accidents
happening to animals and crops for want
of proper care ? Some farmers are negligent
of their animals when at grass', as if
no accident could happen. We once knew
a most excellent horse to get on his back
in the furrow of a pasture field that was
"seeded down" with a grain crop grown
on "lands" or ridges. Sheep of good
quality (and what farmer should grow any
other) are liable to meet with similar acci-
dents—so, too, to be injured by dogs, etc.,
and for which care seems, after all the experiments
have been madc^, to be the best
remedy.
The farmer should not allow his cattle
that are used in his farm work, to be scat-