THE two great requisites for successful cultivation are a fertile soil, and the means for its working and pulverization. The first is attained by natural excellence combined with manuring, rotation, and ploughing in green crops. The second is accomplished by farm implements and machinery.  Without the latter, no soil, however excellent, can be cultivated. They are as indispensable as the breathing apparatus to the life of an animal, or as vessels to the navigation of the seas. In nothing is the advancement of modern agriculture more conspicuous than in the rapid improvement of the tools and machinery of the farm.

Compare, for example, the old wooden mould-board plough, extensively used not fifty years ago, with the best modern centre-draught, or steel mouldboard, easy running, smooth cutting, and inverting the sod almost with mathematical precision; or the old-fashioned mode of pounding out grain with the flail, with the best improved threshers and separators. Observe the difference in expense between laboriously collecting the hay of a ten-acre meadow by means of hand-rakes and sweeping it up with horse-power, with revolving or steel tooth-rakes, or the slow and fatiguing labor of dropping the minute seeds of root crops, when compared with the rapid and accurate distribution by the best seed drills. No laborer who has gone through the slow toil of swinging the hand-scythe and cradle day after day will need any argument to prove to him the value of horse labor as applied to the best mowing and reaping machines, which shear off ten or twenty acre crops in a day. And during the present scarcity of labor, occasioned by the war, extensive farmers must have utterly failed to go through with their many operations but for the assistance rendered by modern implements for cultivating, drill-planting, harvesting, and threshing.

The amount of capital at present invested in farm implements throughout the United States is probably not less than five hundred million dollars!  How important that this money be well invested! The best implements will execute work not only better and more perfectly, but at a vast saving in expense, over those of bad construction. Take one of the simplest tools as an example: the common hand-hoe, one made of best steel, and of light, neat construction, will enable a laborer to do one-fourth more work than a heavy, clumsy one, or will save, one day in four, twenty-five days in every hundred of work—an amount, in a single season, more than fifty times as great as the difference in cost. The best steel plough may cost five dollars more than a poor cast-iron one; but the force required to draw it, if one-fourth less, would save the labor in a span of horses, of one day in every four, and perhaps fifty or a hundred dollars yearly. What would be thought of the man who, to avoid the expense of buying a good plough, preferred to spade up his fields by hand, or to carry his grain to market on his back, to obviate the cost of a farm wagon? He would commit the same kind of error, although perhaps more glaringly, as the farmer who neglects to avail himself of the best information on the machinery of the farm and the principles of its construction and use. Much loss has been occasioned by a want of knowledge of the principles which govern the working of all implements and machines, and many suffer themselves to be imposed on and deceived, when a simple and ready application of such principles would at once detect errors without resorting to expensive trial. The day is past for the commission of such blunders as the man who thought he was favoring the weaker horse in his team by giving it the small or short end of the whiffletree, or of the other man who balanced the bushel of grain, when carried to the mill on his horse’s back, by placing the grain in one end of the bag and a large stone in the other. But still no one can visit any large agricultural fair without witnessing, among the large collection of farm implements, instances of glaring departure from fundamental mechanical principles. There are two great laws that should be thoroughly mastered by every farmer as well as every manufacturer—by the former, that he may the better select and make his purchases; and by the latter, that all his work may be as perfect in construction as possible. These are the law of virtual velocities and the law of momentum.  1st.  The former, familiar to many readers of this article, may be briefly explained to others before citing cases of its application. This law—simply expressed by “whatever is gained in power is lost in time,” (or distance,) or by the formula that forces are always equal when the products of the power, multiplied by the distance, are equal—renders easily understood the principle of the working of every mechanical power or machine, from the simplest lever to the most complex combination of cranks and wheels. It explains equally well the capacity and power of the crowbar or of the steam-engine. In the use of the crowbar, or any other lever, it explains how the strength of a hundred pounds applied by the hand to one part will raise a thousand pounds weight resting on another part—the hand or power being required in such o case to move ten times the distance of the weight. To lift the weight one inch the hand moves ten inches. The two forces, multiplied by their respective moving distances, namely, 100 by 16 inches and 1,000 by 1 inch, give equal products. This principle at once renders plain and intelligible the amount of efficiency in ail the mechanical powers, as the lever, wheel, inclined plane, wedge, or screw. Throwing friction aside, it gives the exact relative force of the moving power and of the operative power with mathematical precision. Explained by this law the famous "hydrostatic paradox” ceases to be paradoxical, but the inevitable result of unchangeable laws. The application of this law to machinery, for example, to a threshing machine, gives the force with which the teeth of the cylinder strike the straw, and consequently the amount of resistance which will stop it. If four horses drive such a machine, walking at the rate of three feet in a second, the cylinder, revolving at a velocity of ninety feet in a second, has a force thirty times less, or seven and a half times less than the force exerted by a single horse. This calculation shows the facility with which small obstructions, as, for example, an over feeding, will stop such machines. On the other hand, horses applied to slow working parts, as in a stump-puller, where the stump is moved, perhaps, one hundred times slower than the working force, possess immense power. If, for instance, the horses travel thirty times faster than the movement by which the stump is raised, the force, instead of being diminished, as in the last example, is increased thirty fold, or equal to the power of 120 horses, friction deducted. If each horse draws with a force of 300 pounds, the power would be equal to raising a weight of thirty-six thousand pounds. In the same way the wonderful force of the hydrostatic press—which is such that a man might, with one not larger than a water pail standing on a table before him, cut through a thick bar of solid iren with as much ease as he would chip pasteboard with a }lnair of shears—may be determined with equal accuracy.  The operation of all mechanical contrivances may be explaiue& and rendered sim;;le by the application of the law of virtual velocities. It explains the steelyard, the platform balance, the toggle-joint, the rolling-mill, the cylindrical straw-cutter, the wedge power of the plough, the construction of the compound whiffletree, the power of the cider-press, the force of pulleys, the required strength of the mole-plough, &c. In all these machines, the application of this law to every part is of the utmost importance in construction, that every part may be of just the required proportionate strength. Where great pressure occurs, these slow-moving parts must be correspondingly strong.  Where there is less pressure, and greater velocity exists, lightness and less strength is essential. "Thus a scientific mechanic may be able to manufacture machines equally strong with those made by his ignorant competitor, with less waste of material and less probability of breaking in weak places, and to become beaten to pieces by the momentum of its needlessly heavy parts.

Even in the construction of so simple a thing as a farm-gate, a great deal of skill may be shown by making the slow-moving parts, which are near the hinges, strong and comparatively massive, while the latch end should be rendered as light as practicable. We sometimes see gates made needlessly heavy at the latch end, drawing the hinges, and settling or becoming beaten to pieces against the post; while others, better made, equally strong, and half the weight, keep their position, move easily, work satisfactorily, and remain strong and uninjured. A farm-wagon, which has to be drawn thousands of miles yearly, should, in order to be as light as possible, have the strength of each part accurately adjusted to its intended use; and, although no one expects to see so perfect a vehicle as Dr. Holmes’s famous “one-horse shay,” it is well to endeavor to carry out the leading principle as nearly as may be practicable.  2d. The powerful effects of momentum deserve a few passing remarks, as affecting the operation of implements and machines. Its great effective force is exhibited by such simple operations as driving nails with a hammer, or wedges with a maul or beetle. The mere weight of the hammer, with the strength of the arm added, would produce no effect; the momentum does the work in a moment. The momentum of a rifle-ball in motion, small as it is, carries it through solid plank. On a large scale the power of the pile-engine depends on this principle. The water-ram owes its acting to the momentum of the water in the driving-pipe. The fly-wheel in the same way equalizes the irregular or interrupted resistance, or jerking of various machines, such as straw-cutters, horse-pumps, and churns. These are the beneficial results of momentum. Sometimes it produces disaster, as when a heavy-loaded wagon strikes a stone, the sudden effect of which is lessened on wagon, harness, and horses by the use of springs under the load. It was ascertained, by experiments made many years ago, that the machinery of a railway locomotive, when supported by springs, would endure the wear and tear of use four times as long as without them.

Inventors of machinery are sometimes much puzzled at the failure of a full- sized machine, when the small model had previously worked without any fault. The enormous increase of momentum, caused by enlarging every part, they did not take into the account. If, for example, a model, six inches long, be increased to a machine five feet long, every part must be increased ten times in length and diameter, a hundred times in square or cross section, and a thousand times in weight or cubic measure, the momentum of every moving part would, consequently, be increased ten thousand times; that is, the increased weight, one thousand, multiplied by the increased moving distance, or ten times. While, therefore, its strength or cross section is augmented a hundred times, the tendency to become broken, or battered to pieces by its own working, would be a hundred times greater. For this reason a model should be used only to show its construction, and never to test the performance. Every farmer would be much benefited by a knowledge of all the lead- ing principles of mechanics, and a practical readiness in applying them in the innumerable occasions that are constantly occurring. This study has a great advantage over that of chemistry, as applied to agriculture, in that it is precise, certain, and reliable; while the principles of chemistry must be applied with constant variation and allowance for the numberless controlling causes of drought, moisture, change of season, imperfections of analysis, &c., which frequently render it of little use, and sometimes an indirect source of serious error.

These are chiefly the plough, harrow, cultivator, roller, and seed-drill, in their various modifications. It is mot intended to give here a description of the different kinds, but to point out some of the advantages which they respectively possess, the defects to which they are liable, and the application of mechanical principles in their construction and use.

This implement, which may be regarded as the chief means for successful tillage, is of such importance that it has from time immemorial become the symbol of the agricultural profession. Notwithstanding the many recent contrivances of rotary diggers, grubbers, terracultors, &c., it is not probable that the plough will be very soon superseded. Its great leading feature is simplicity; it consists substantially of a gingle part, or is one solid moving whole, although in its manufacture several parts are united together. This simplicity or oneness is of,the utmost importance in an implement doing such work, subjected as it is to heavy force, and especially to irregular resistance and frequent heavy blows from stones and other obstructions. No complex implement can endure a constant repetition of such blows. Even the railway locomotive, with its great strength, would be soon beaten to pieces if removed from its rails of glassy smoothness, and subjected to repeated blows by obstructions in its way.  This is one reason why Pratt’s Ditcher, weighing nearly half a ton, and consisting of many parts, resulted in failure, although promising well when new, and with none of its parts distorted and bent. All the complex substitutes for the plough, invented of late years, will doubtless result in failure for the same reason, however ingenious and perfect in other respects.

Since the wooden ploughs were used in the early part of the present century, down to the present time, this implement has become wonderfully improved.  For perfect, smooth, even inversion of sod, and for deep, thorough, and complete pulverization, combined with ease of draught, it would seem that the best ploughs have very nearly attained perfection, so far as they can with the present form. Different modifications are provided for different purposes and soils. For sod ploughing, and in light or sandy soils, a long mould-board for smoothly turning the sward is found best. Where the soil is more tenacious, and the friction or adhesion to the mould-board greater, a shorter one is more advantageous both for easy draught and for pulverizing the newly-turned earth. For stony ground a short mould-board is absolutely necessary. For deep tillage the form should be such as to lift the earth upward to a greater height than for more shallow work. A variation is made in the cutting part, for lapping the furrows in heavy land for exposure to frost, and effecting drainage on the one hand, and for laying the furrows flat on light soils on the other. For turning in the top soil or sod deeply, and covering it well with the mellowed earth from the bottom of the furrow, nothing has proved equal to the double Michigan plough; and this, no doubt, would be the best implement for turning under such spreading and perennial-rooted weeds as the Canada thistle, which, if repeatedly and well done, will totally destroy any patch in a single season, if the soil have some tenacity. The Universal Plough, invented by Gov. Holbrook, of Vermont, and manufactured by Nourse, Mason & Co., of Boston, is a valuable invention. It admits of a ready replacing of one mould-board by any other, according to the intended purpose or variation of soil, several mould-boards belonging to each plough.  Many theories have been advanced as to the best form of the mould-board, and a volume might be occupied with the consideration of the subject. It may be sufficient here to remark, that no mould-board should be accepted by a farmer which does not wear nearly equally in every part, both on account of its durability and of the ease with which the moving earth may slide over its surface.  One is also objectionable which becomes clogged in some particular part, while other parts are scoured by the sod. The ease of draught may be estimated with some accuracy by a close-observing farmer who watches the exertions of his teams; but a good dynamometer (one form of which is a stiff spring-balance strong enough for measuring six or eight hundred pounds) is the only reliable and satisfactory measure of the ease of draught.

SUBSOIL PLOUGHS.

A considerable diversity of opinion prevails as to the value of these ploughs.  As it usually happens in such cases of diversity, all are more or less in the right. Farming, as much as any occupation, requires a constant exercise of the judgment, or a combination of sound reasoning powers with experience and observation. The farmer must vary his practice with circumstances.  1st. A soil already deep and loose does not need subsoiling. A gravelly bottom to the furrows would be little better after the passage of this implement.  2d.  A sterile subsoil supporting a rich top soil would only serve, when loosened, as a regulator of moisture, receiving water like a sponge during the time of heavy rains, and retaining it for periods of drought. It would not, of course, add to the fertility of the bed in which the roots of the crop extend themselves.  3d. A heavy and undrained soil would be benefited only temporarily. The first heavy soaking it received would settle the whole mass back again nearly to its original degree of compactness. 4th. But for any hard subsoil, whether sterile or not, if naturally or artificially underdrained, subsoiling can scarcely ever fail to be substantially useful, and its benefits last some years without a repetition of the process. If the subsoil is sterile, as already mentioned, it becomes a reservoir or sponge, and tends to prevent both drowning out and drought; and the gradual deepening process, which the best farmers desire, may be effected through its assistance by permitting the common or trench plough to run a little deeper into the mellowed bed each successive year. There is nothing which will enable that form of the trench plough, known as the Double Michigan, to do its work in the most satisfactory manner better than a previous loosening by the subsoiler, whether it be done one, two, or three years previously. Where both surface and under soil are naturally fertile, its advantages are rendered eminently conspicuous, and in such a case the trench plough may be used to its full depth without fear, the mixing of the two portions proving usually of great advantage. Soils so treated have frequently contributed to a greatly increased growth of wheat, and invariably to larger crops of carrots and beets. The observing farmer will readily determine which of these different circumstances are his own, and act accordingly.

The object being merely to loosen up the under soil, a slight elevation of its substance by means of the passage of a horizontal acute wedge a few inches below the bottom of a common ploughed furrow is all that is necessary. The shank connecting this horizontal wedge with the plough-beam should be thin, that it may pass easily forward through the subsoil. A form similar to that represented in the annexed cut has been extensively used. The shank is reversed when the forward point be comes worn, and the rear one brought forward in its place, thus giving it double durability. This form of the plough answers well when the subsoil is quite dry, free from stones, or moderately light in texture, or free from much clay. But the shoe is too long to run well among stones; and if the soil is tenacious and rather wet, it presses against the flat faces of the shank, and produces an enormous amount of friction, almost incredible to one who has not tried the experiment. A narrow shank, properly braced to give it strength, and a short shoe, are therefore best for either stony or clayey soils. The ditching plough, mentioned on a subsequent page, very nearly meets both these requirements, and may be made to answer a good purpose for subsoiling such land.

The difficulties in the way of the introduction of these are formidable, and, for the circumstances of the farmers of this country, it is feared they will not be soon overcome, unless on level land free from stone.   1. If the engine is used as a locomotive for drawing the plough or the gang, its weight is necessarily such as to sink it into any good soft soil, unless the wheels are made very broad and of great diameter, which adds to the already formidable weight.  The engine and its gang become quite a complex machine, and the uneven surface and occasional obstructions tend to injure and derange the parts. The friction caused by the soft and yielding surface of the ground is another formidable difficulty. Careful experiments, made with the dynamometer, have established the fact that it requires eleven times the force to draw a heavy load over a common hard road as on a smooth railroad; and on a new unpacked gravel road the disparity is as thirty-five to one. Taking the new gravel road as a standard representing the soil of a field, (although the latter is often much the softer,) the loss occasioned by this resistance to the engine would be thirty-five times as great as the same loss on iron rails.

   2. The only practical success which has attended steam ploughing has been by the use of fixed engines, working the plough by means of wire cables. In England, where iron machinery, coal, and labor are cheap, it has been performed at an actual expense of two dollars per acre. In this country it would, probably, cost at least three dollars, and require a heavy expenditure of capital in machinery and engineer’s wages. Ploughing by horse labor, as now performed in this country, is much cheaper.  In addition to these difficulties, as it involves the constant use of a great deal of machinery consisting of many parts, unless all these parts are perfect, some will be strained at obstructions, and, perhaps, become deranged or broken. Where there are so many parts there are frequent chances for one or more to get out of order, and when this is the case, the whole must come to a stand still, including engineer, superintendent, and all hands, until a repair is effected. While every effort should be encouraged to attain so desirable an end as a good steam plough, it only serves ultimately to repress enterprise, to hold out false hopes that may lead to loss and disappointment. All difficulties may be most easily overcome by fully understanding at the outset their whole character and strength.

Since tile-draining has become so essential and advantageous to good farming,many attempts have been made to dig ditches by a more easy and rapid mode than by the laborious operation of the hands. The various ditching machines have proved of little or no value, after a full trial, however flattering their operations may have appeared at first.  Complexity in nearly every instance has been the great leading difficulty. The ditching plough, an implement merely for loosening the subsoil and obviating the use of the pick, has proved successful; but still the loosened earth must be shovelled out by hand. Where the subsoil is hard, the amount of time required to loosen it with the pick is often two-thirds or three-fourths of the entire labor. When this is done by horse-power, a great saving is consequently effected. Tts essential characteristic consists in admitting so great a change in the height of the beam and handles, that it may be run down in the bottom of the ditch to a depth of four feet.  The movable portion of the beam is attached to a fixed beam by a stout loop and staple, and rises on the cast-iron arc which passes through it.  The handles rise on a stiff wooden arc, a piece of thick plank being placed between the handles and fastened to them to render them more firm and steady. The iron-work, although light, is braced so as to impart great strength and security. The point is screwed on separately, and is the only part that wears much by use. This implement is drawn by two horses, attached to the opposite ends of a long main whiffletree, about eight feet long, so that each animal may walk firmly and securely on each side of the ditch. If the point is sharp, (made of the best chilled cast-iron or steel,) two or three times passing along the bottom of the ditch will loosen a compact hardpan, to a depth of five or six inches. This loosened earth is then easily thrown out by hand. The best tools for this purpose are the common long-handled, round-pointed shovels, bent up at the sides at the blacksmith’s shop.  One span of horses will loosen subsoil fast enough to keep eight or ten men constantly shovelling out, and they will cut about one hundred rods of three-feet ditch in a day; or an hour or two of ploughing each morning in a sufficient length of ditch will keep two men occupied in shovelling the rest of the day.  The writer of these remarks hag thus cut many miles of tile-drain, usually at a cost of about one-half the sum charged by ditchers by hand. In several instances where the usual price for hand-ditching was thirty cents per rod, the whole expense, with the assistance of the plough, has not been over twelve cents per rod. On a tenant-farm some miles distant, where the work could not be personally superintended, the saving was much less. In soil where the pick is not needed, this plough would, evidently, be of no value.

The principles of draught clearly point out that which farmers have long since observed in practice, that a horse will exert much more force when placed near the plough, sled, or vehicle to be drawn, than can be used when a long draught-chain places the team more remote. An experienced stage proprietor has given it as his opinion that three horses placed abreast will draw his vehicle as well as four with two leaders in advance in the usual way. My own experiments in ploughing have led me nearly to the same conclusion.  The mode of constructing the whiffletrees for this purpose is familiar to most farmers; but as the right-hand horse walking in the furrow necessarily places the other two so far to the left as to create a new centre of draught, a special contrivance is necessary to enable a common plough to run as with two horses.  A good way, adopted by some plough manufacturers, is to place an iron arc between the handles, to which the rear end of the beam is screwed, and along which arc it is capable of being moved, until the right centre of draught is attained. Another way is to construct a clevis bent several inches to the left side of the beam.

Three horses are driven by the ploughman with the same facility as a two-horse team, and do not require an additional driver, as becomes necessary with four. As a deeper cultivation would improve the character of farming, in all places where the character of the soil properly admits it, there is no doubt that the general adoption of the three-horse system would become a considerable agent in improved agriculture.

The importance of fine pulverization of soil is not sufficiently appreciated.  Where the fine, delicate, threadlike fibres of the roots of any crop have to make their way through a hard and dry mass of baked earth, or at best among coarse broken clods, they must grow and receive nourishment at an immense disadvantage when compared with the extension of the same roots through a finely pulverized, soft, and moist bed of earth, permitting and favoring their free ramification in all directions. Every good implement, therefore, for effecting such pulverization becomes a most important assistant to the successful agriculturist. The fine and thorough intermixture of manure with soils, at the time of their application, especially if in the spring, contributes almost incredibly to their efficiency; and in accomplishing this desirable end a free use of the harrow in breaking it fine and working it by repeated passings into the mellow soil, should never be omitted before the plough turns it under. Harrows should be modified in their construction according to the nature of the soil. Where it is free from stones and other obstructions the teeth should be small and numerous—say about fifty teeth, three-fourths of an inch square, to each harrow. These will pulverize the soil more perfectly than a few coarse teeth, and leave a fine level surface. Where there are roots, stones, and other obstructions, the teeth are to be fewer and larger, thirty being a common number. The teeth will pass through the earth more freely and be more efficient if the corner or angles, and not the flat sides, are placed foremost.  For very hard soils efficient harrows are made by using flat, sharp-edged steel teeth.

Where obstructions of any kind exist at the surface, the double triangular harrow is easiest for the team.  It is like two V’s placed with their points forward, one within the other. They press obstructions aside like the sharp prow of a vessel. This harrow is hinged at the middle, to fit uneven ground. There are two modes of placing the hinges. In one, termed the Geddes harrow, the joint on which the hinges are placed is in the same direction as the line of draught, and the two sides fold like the leaves of a book. In this case the team must not be attached to the forward point, or the centre will be lifted from the ground in use. But a chain is fastened a short distance backward on each side for this purpose. The Hanford harrow differs from this in having the two V’s made each in a solid piece, and placing a single hinge between them, which thus operates crosswise, instead of lengthwise, with the draught. In crossing a ridge or depression this harrow adapts itself readily to the surface; or if an obstruction should raise the forward frame, the rear one is not raised with it, as in the Geddes harrow. A common clevis, placed on this harrow, will lift the forward end. It should have one especially for this purpose, bent up two or three inches.

For pulverizing the upper surface of inverted green sward nothing is equal to Shear’s harrow, or others constructed on a similar principle. The teeth being sharp, flat blades, cut with great efficiency, and as they slope backward like a sled-runner, they pass over and press down the sod at the same time that they slice off its upper face and reduce it to fine powder. A single passing will give a mellow surface more than twice as deep as the common harrow, operating at the same time as a roller to keep the grassy part down in its place. As usually constructed the teeth have been made of cast-iron, which causes them to be heavy, easily broken, and soon worn dull. If made of steel, they would be incomparably better, and the harrow would prove invaluable to every farmer who plants a crop on inverted sod.

The rapidity and precision with which small seeds are distributed and covered by the use of seed-drills renders them absolutely necessary to the successful raising of such crops as carrots, turnips, beets, &c., in fields. The prescribed limits of this short article preclude even a notice of the different good machines now in market and use. The general principles on which they operate, the regular and measured distribution of the seeds, by means of revolving cylinders furnished with small cavities, or by the vibratory motion of perforated plates and the passage of the seed down into the mellow earth through a hollow coulter, where it is immediately buried by the earth falling back upon it as soon as the coulter has passed—these principles of construction are adopted in all, and are familiar to all who use them. But there is one requisite for success that has been too much overlooked—the proper adjustment of depth for the seed.  If too shallow, the seeds will not vegetate; if too deep, they will be smothered.  Except, however, in times of considerable drought, the depth is usually too great. I have known beet seeds to fail entirely when planted three inches deep, and the seedsman denounced for selling bad seeds; but afterwards, when planted from the same package only an inch in depth, they grew profusely.  The failure from drought rarely occurs to such seeds if planted early enough in the season. Some variation must be made with the nature of the soil.  Seeds may be placed deeper in a light gravelly soil than in a strong, heavy one. No better investment of a few days’ time and labor could be made by any farmer than in a few experiments under varying circumstances to determine the best depth for setting his seed-drills. There is no question that much of the objection that has been made to the use of the wheat-drill has arisen from too deep planting. The writer of these remarks made a few experiments the present year on a light loam to determine this question, the planting being done in the spring of the year, when the soil was more moist than it frequently is at the time of sowing winter wheat.

Wheat planted half an inch deep came up in five days, and an inch deep in six days. Six weeks afterwards there was no perceptible difference in the appearance of the plants. That planted two inches deep came up in seven days, and at six weeks did not appear quite so good. The time for coming continued to lengthen, and the quality of the crop to decrease, until, at a depth of six inches, very few slender stalks appeared. It is easy to understand from this experiment that a farmer may fail in his drilled crop with the seeds buried too deep, when more shallow but imperfect covering of the harrow would result in success. It is obvious, however, that a drilling-machine properly set would be the best, as all would be buried at a certain depth, and not in the irregular manner performed by the harrow. Hence it has been found that a difference of five bushels per acre in the crop in favor of drilled fields, when the work was properly done, has not been unusual. It should not be overlooked that a dry, coarsely pulverized soil may afford air to the buried seeds at a depth twice as great as a fine, compact soil, and the farmer must, therefore, exercise some discretion and judgment, in which the occasional performance of experiments would greatly assist him.

Experiments performed at the same time with corn, oats, and beans, gave similar results. Nearly all the grains of corn grew, to a depth of six inches, and those varying from half an inch to two inches in depth presented no material difference five weeks afterwards; but the others were feebler as the depth increased. The results with oats were about the same as with corn, all beyond two inches in depth being of feebler growth. In beans, the effect of deep burying was more fatal. Those plants one-half, three-fourths, and one inch deep did not materially vary. At two inches depth there was a marked difference; few came up at three inches; very few at four; and none at all at greater depths.

The importance of a constant use of cultivators during the growth of drilled crops is not sufficiently appreciated. The remark has been made, and no doubt justly, that one day’s work with a horse and cultivator in a corn-field is worth ten with a common hand-hoe. One of the finest corn crops I ever saw was grown on land of moderate fertility, dressed once a week with the horse cultivator from the time it made its first appearance above ground till the projecting ears from the rows obstructed its further passage. In an experiment on heavy or clayey coil, one portion of the field was cultivated in the usual way; that is, the surface was but imperfectly broken aud much of it left hard and cloddy; the other portion was made as mellow as an ash-heap, and the result was, it produced just double the crop obtained from the other part.

In order that the cultivator may pass as near to the rows as possible, it is important that the rows be both even and straight. Hence one great advantage of the accuracy and precision of seed-drills in planting. An implement recently invented by S. W. Hall, of Elmira, New York, although not yet sufficiently perfected for general introduction, forms straight, even, and perfectly parallel rows, on a principle similar to that of the carpenter’s gauge; the horses being kept in their places accurately by one of them walking in a furrow previously made by the machine; and is thus used, both in planting and in cultivating the crops. The little hand-hoeing thus needed is rendered still less by two guards in the form of vertical knives, which at the same moment cut close to the rows and protect the plants when small from being covered by the freshly thrown up earth from the cultivator-teeth. A present defect in nearly all American "cultivators" is the want of rapid execution. The valuable time of a man is required to manage a one-horse implement, taking a single row at a time, and often being required to pass two or three times before each row is finished.  Two horses should be used, and two or more rows cultivated at each passing, which could only be effected by straight and even rows, planted by machinery.  Garretts’ horse-hoe, an English invention for dressing carrots and other drilled root crops, is a fine exemplification of this object. It is furnished with sharp, horizontal blades, which run beneath the surface and shave off and destroy all the weeds within an inch of the rows of young plants. These rows, having been accurately drilled, are straight and perfectly parallel, and the operator has only to watch a single row and guide his blades to that row by means of a lever which operates altogether. Aldens’s thill cultivator may perhaps be modified in future so as to accomplish this object, at least in part. The thills, under its motion, are more steady than that of the common cultivator, and the handles enable the operator to press it to the right or left, so that he may cut as closely to the rows as he desires. Formerly the teeth of cultivators were mostly made of cast-iron; now all the best ones are of steel plate. The steel are lighter, keep clean better, keep sharp, and last longer.

Clod-crushers, whether made in the cheap form known as the “drag-log,” or drag-roller, or in the more perfect mode of revolving cast-iron toothed discs, like cross-hills, are occasionally of much benefit in reducing the hard clods of clay soils. Where the carly part of the season has been unusually wet, followed by drought, such clods will he abundant. After they have been ground down and pulverized by this implement, the earth which has been thus compactly pressed together must be loosened up again by means of a two-horse cultivator or a scarifier. Failure in the use of clod-crushers has generally resulted in using them when the soil is too moist, and by neglecting to loosen the soil as just described. The introduction of the regular system of tile-draining, which tends to prevent soils from becoming cloddy, will greatly lessen the necessity for the use of this implement.

No improvement in modern husbandry has been more marked and rapid than that effected by the invention and introduction of mowers and reapers. They have placed the farmer above the contingency of finding many extra hands for securing his crops at a critical juncture, and on this account can extend his breadth of sowing with the confidence of being able to secure what he raises. To be thrown back on the sickle and hand-cradle would as much derange the business of farming, as that of the travelling public to be deprived of railways, and to be driven back to stage-coaches, The past ten years have witnessed great improvements in these machines themselves, They are made stronger, lighter, more durable, more efficient, and of easier draught; and what is not least in importance, the best ones cut as perfectly when moving at the rate of one mile per hour as three or four miles, which was formerly necessary. Teams had then to be driven with severity, and soon became exhausted; now even the slow pace of oxen does good work. There is now a large number of patents, and many good machines are made of different forms, It is as important that the machines be well manufactured as well invented.  To be both light and effective, the very best materials must be used and every part made in the best working order, and it is safest for farmers to purchase of those whose machines have become: established in character by two or three seasons’ use. The amount of work which a good machine will perform is easily and accurately estimated.  If the strip of grass or grain cut at each passing is four feet and two inches, (or one-fourth of a rod,) a pace of two miles an hour as an average, including stoppings, would accomplish an acre per hour, or eight acres in a working day of eight hours. This has frequently been greatly exceeded by the use of an efficient team. At this time in the season farm horses usually have but little to do, and in making a fair estimate of their labor it may be, therefore, placed rather low. In estimating a mowing-machine, which needs only a driver, it would be sufficiently liberal to call the work of a man and team two dollars a day. Estimating the average day’s work at eight acres a day, and the product of the meadow at two tons, the cost of cutting would be twelve and a half cents per ton, besides the use of the machine.

It has been found that the best mowers, as made some years ago, would cut about one thousand acres before wearing out, and need but little repairs during that time, or at a rate of about twelve cents per acre, all things estimated.  The better machines now manufactured would probably do much more, on account of their easier and smoother running, occasioning less rattle and wear.  It would, perhaps, be safe to say ten cents per acre or five cents per ton, under good management, as the cost of the machines in actual use. This added to the preceding estimate on the man and team, would make seventeen and a half cents per ton, as cost of cutting. Since writing this estimate, I have examined the figures of a neighbor who is an extensive farmer, cutting some two hundred acres annually. His results are very near my figures, or sixteen cents a ton, where the grass yields two tons per acre. Asno spreading is needed, the next operation is the raking. With the best revolver or spring-tooth rake, a width of ten feet may e taken at a time, say eight and a fourth to be within bounds, or one-half a rod. A horse travelling two miles an hour, including all stoppages, (all good horses would much exceed this,) would rake two acres an hour, and sixteen in a day of eight hours, at a cost of a dollar and a half, or at less than nine and a half cents an acre, or about four cents a ton. This added to the seventeen and a half cents for cutting, would give the hay in the winrow at less than twenty-two cents per ton. The figures here given may be altered to suit the different circumstances of various localities, difference in wages, &c. There are also several drawbacks which farmers who are not energetic and efficient managers may materially experience. A poor machine may be procured or a good one allowed to get out of order. A poor team or a bad driver may be employed. The meadows may be rougher than the best farmers would ever tolerate, or covered with stones, or not rolled each spring, as every meadow should be, until its smoothness is unquestioned. The grass may be light or only one ton per acre, thus doubling '%l the estimates by this deficiency alone  With those who cut but few acres per year, the interest on the idle machine would still further reduce the profits.

With all these adverse circumstances, it is not unusual to find an actual cost three or four times as great as the standard here given; and for this reason some intelligent men have been led to pronounce as gross exaggeration all statements not within their own experience or observation. The accidents and disasters of weather scarcely affect the preceding result as applied to the hay in the winrow, although heavy rains before raking might injure the quality.

But there is one prominent item of disparity not yet attended to. The rapidity with which the grass may be cut and secured enables the farmer to select good weather for the work, and to wait till a lowering sky disappears.  He rarely, therefore, meets with those adverse occurrences, rain-showers, that so much increase the labor and diminish the value of the crops. But when hand labor was exclusively employed, it was often necessary to keep moving on without delay for several weeks, or the large meadows could not be cleared, and there were, consequently, all the chances for meeting with showers. On some large farms, a mowing-machine has paid for itself in a single year, by avoiding such disasters.

Reaping-machines, requiring usually an additional hand for raking and several men to bind, are not as great savers of labor; but they become indirectly the means of preventing much loss, whenever there is danger of such loss by a delay in harvesting beyond the best time, or by continued storms. Many efforts have been made to contrive a successful binding-machine.  When this is accomplished, their efficiency will be much increased. The limits of this article prevent a further extension of these remarks on mowers and reapers, or on the last and important farm process with grain crops, namely, threshing and winnowing. The great perfection of threshing and winnowing, and the improvement effected in the smaller threshers, as driven by the endless-chain power, can hardly be too highly appreciated by intelligent farmers of moderate business.  Before closing it may be well to give a list of the principal implements and machines needed to furnish a hundred and fifty acre farm devoted to mixed husbandry, and their approximate cost:

As the farm wagons have to be drawn many thousand miles each year in the aggregate, they should be muade light and strong, for a needless pound drawn ten thousand miles is one pound too much.  The improved iron axles are best. The horse-power may be used for threshing, cutting straw and stalks, sawing wood and slitting pickets, turning grindstone, driving churn, and other operations, if properly placed, with a supply of rods and bands. The platform scales will soon reimburse the cost, in the information it will give the proprietor on the best mode of feeding and fattening animals, in connexion with experiments for this purpose, independent of' its utility in weighing cattle and hay when sold from the farm. No careful farmer will forget the importance of keeping all his wooden implements that are liable to exposure to the weather well covered with paint; and those which may receive much of the sun’s rays should be painted a light color, as white, yellow, or light brown. Dark colors absorb the heat of the sun, become much hotter than light colors, and cause twisting, warping, and cracking by exposure. And lastly, every provident husbandman who desires to have his tools always in good order and always at hand, where he can lay his hand on any one in a moment, without the annoyance and loss of long searches when work is pressing and men waiting, will have a neat tool-house, arranged on a plan similar to that described in the Patent Office Report a few years since by Townsend Sharpless, of Philadelphia, only altering the arrangement of the tools on the walls by simply suspending them vertically. The painted outline of each tool at its place of hanging instantly admonishes any careless hand that he has left his tool out of place, and it has been found a most efficient means of keeping everything where it belongs.