Essay on agriculture. By F.C.H.B. Poellnitz.

Essay on agriculture. By F.C.H.B. Poellnitz.

Table of contents

Title page

ESSAY ON AGRICULTURE,

CHAP. I. THE SOWING PLOUGH.

CHAP. II. THE HORSE HOE,

CHAP. III. THE THRESHING MILL.

CHAP. IV. THE RIPPLING CART.

CHAP. V. THE SPECIAL USE OF THE BEFORE DESCRIBED IMPLEMENTS.

CHAP. VI. THE EFFECT OF THOSE FOUR IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY.

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ESSAY ON AGRICULTURE.

BY F. C. H. B. POELLNITZ.

NEW-YORK, PRINTED BY FRANCIS CHILDS AND JOHN SWAINE. M DCC XC.

ESSAY ON AGRICULTURE,

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I HAVE investigated, for several years past, various systems of Husbandry, with a view to collect what may have a tendency to improve Agriculture.

From a careful perusal of these works, I flatter my self I have been enabled to improve upon, and render more simple, many of those machines and instruments of Agriculture, which, in their formation require most labour, time and expence; and in such a manner as to make them casy, cheap and prompt in their operations.

However all this may be, and how far I have succeeded in such an undertaking, I chearfully submit in this essay, to the judgment of the impartial public of America.

In the mean time I beg leave to apologise, that I lay before them, and perhaps under the eye of gentlemen of the learned and distinguished societies of arts and sciences in the Commonwealth, thoughts not expressed with that energy that the subject requires: Considering, moreover, that I write in a language foreign to me, I hope from their known liberality, that allowance will be made for deficiency in general, and that they will judge facts, independent of expressions.

[Page] Therefore, sensible as I am of my inadequate abilities, I have comprised in as few words as I am able, the description, the special use, and the effect, of four instruments of Husbandry; from the use of which it appears to me will arise an improvement in Agriculture.

I. A SOWING PLOUGH,

II. A HORSE HOE,

III. A THRESHING MILL,

IV. A RIPPLING CART.

For a particular description of those four implements, a geometrical one would be the best, but as it requires expensive plates I have therefore limitted myself to four imperfect sketches, and added to it what words can convey, to give an idea of the whole.

CHAP. I.
THE SOWING PLOUGH.

THIS machine has occupied the attention of mathematicians, farmers and mechanics, above a century; it has undergone many shapes, simple and complicated, but not altogether answering their proposed end: It is needless however to recite the several unsuccessful attempts, be they what they may, the one in my possession, I conceive answers all the necessary purposes.

[Page] The Sowing Plough, plate I. is the lately improved one by the Rev. James Cook, in London. The whole is a kind of a cart with two shafts, in which a horse or ox is put; behind these shafts is a box, A. containing the sowing grains, at the end of which is a cylinder, B. connected by a cog-wheel C. with the wheels of the cart, D. it moves nearly as swift as the horse: This cylinder has spoons fastened to it, which dip constantly into the seed box, and drop what they catch into five funnels E.; five coulters F. cut the furrows; behind each coulter and the pipe of the funnels, stands a small harrow, G.* so that when the coulters open the earth, the seed drops out of the spoons into the funnels, which convey them into the furrows, and the harrows fill the furrows up with ground.

When at the end of the field the horse is to be turned, by lifting the lever H. up, the connection of the cog-wheel with the cylinder is interrupted, and there is no distribution of the seed until the lover is again lowered.

On this machine is another lever I. which compels the coulters to cut the furrows at any required depth; it is charged with a weight, K. as it stands in this plate, it presses the coulters in the ground to cut deep furrows, and when the lever is moved forward towards the shafts, and the weight placed there, then it lists the coulters out of the ground, and they cut shallow furrows.

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CHAP. II.
THE HORSE HOE,

IS like the former, not a new invention. Various shapes have been given to this machinery; the last improvement it received, was in London, by William Winlaw, guardian to the machines of the society of arts; from him I procured one, and since I have seen an opportunity to change its construction, so as to make it stronger, and more simple, in the form as represented in plate II, fig. I, 2, and 3.

In this, A. is the iron hoop on which the horse draws. B. are two bars of iron in which the axis of the wheel C. and the hoop A. are fastened. The regulator is D. by which the plough is set shallow or deep. E. is the beam. F. a single handle. G. a cross bar of iron, in which the two back coulters H. are fastened, each by a finger nut I. The foremost coulter K. is fastened in the beam, and in a triangular iron plate L. N. M. fig. 2, Two long shaped iron mould boards are O. and P. those and the foremost triangular one also marked L. N. M. in fig. 1, can either partially or all of them be taken off; and when all the mould boards are taken away, then the hoe becomes a skimmer, see fig. 2. In this Q. and R. are two branches movable like scissors, fitted to be set close or wide apart; and a small triangular rectangular mould board S. fig. 3, closes the description of the machine.

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CHAP. III.
THE THRESHING MILL.

THIS Instrument was invented in 1786, by Wm. Winlaw. I then bought one. Since my return to America I have noticed its defects; and they were so great, that the use of this capital instrument is also now in England laid aside, on account of its being soon out of order, and incapable of repair.

However, with the help of the ingenious hands who work in the casting-furnace of Messrs. P. Curtenius and Co. this instrument is now brought to answer its design perfectly well, and will be found durable.

The improved construction is the following, (see Plate III.) Two hollow and truncated pyramidical Cones are of cast iron, one of a large, and the other of a small diameter; the largest, A. stands fastened in a wooden frame, and is cut inside in grinders like a female screw; the smaller Cone, B. goes easily into the large one, and has its outside cut in grinders—it operates as a male screw; this small inner Cone is fastened on an iron axis, C. which passes through his centre, terminating in a pin, on which it rests and moves, besides the circular motion of the smaller Cone, by a screw, D. which catches the pin of his axis, C. it is also moveable up and downwards—this movement sets the intervals between it, and the larger Cone apart, in a proportional diameter to the kernels of the grain.

Above the small Cone the axis C. is connected with an iron cog-wheel E. and with a pinion F. [Page] fastened to a separate small axis, at the end of which stands a large iron fly H. which sets all in action; a wooden hopper I. is shaken by the fly, and by three springs, which accelerate or lessen the motion of the hopper at pleasure.

To prevent the fly from turning the wrong side, a stopper, K. has been applied to the pinion.

Finally, the machine may with some propriety be compared to an improved coffee-mill; and it is probable that such an engine has furnished the idea to the artist.

CHAP. IV.
THE RIPPLING CART.

THE origin of this implement dates from the remotest antiquity: Pliny, hist. nat. chap. 30, edit. Basil, 1535; and Palladius, lib. 7, tit. 2, edit. Commelin, 1595, record that the ancient Gauls reaped their harvest with an ox put to a cart; but so imperfect is their account, that very little information is got by it: However it was taken into consideration by the society of arts, manufactures and commerce in London, and gentlemen of a mechanical turn were desired to digest the matter, and to send their plans. The one made in 1785, by William Pitt, Esq. of Pendeford, was approved, and I believe that the gold medal, or 301. sterling, as a premium offered for that purpose by the society, was given to that gentleman; This plan I procured, and have simplified as it stands in plate IV,

[Page] The horse or ox pushes the cart forward, as if it was a wheelbarrow; it rests on an iron axletree: To both wheels A. a wooden shive B. of a large diameter is fastened, and between the shive on the knobs of the wheels a wooden lever C. is moveable; by means of two gages D. provided with bolts and finger nuts, those levers can be set high or low. E. is a cylinder of wood, of four feet in length, through the center of which passes an iron axis, which connects it on both sides with the end of the levers in which it moves: This cylinder is armed with steel combs, F. terminating in sharp edges, which run in length parallel over its circumference, on both sides is fastened to it a wooden shive, G. of a small diameter, connected by a rope with the large shive on the wheels; a small pully, H. stiffens the rope, to set the cylinder in a steady motion.

A separate piece of the cart I. is connected with the back part by hinges, and a bar, K. which will give to it more or less declivity, in proportion to the central height of the cylinder.

CHAP. V.
THE SPECIAL USE OF THE BEFORE DESCRIBED IMPLEMENTS.

IN this explanation I shall avoid as before, all prolixity, as I take it for granted that the majority of my readers are better acquainted with agricultural operations than myself.

1st. The Sowing-Plough makes the furrows for the reception of the seed at any proper depth, conveys it into the ground, and harrows under, all [Page] in one operation, it will sow broad cast, single, double and triple rows at any intervals; it sows from the bean to the clover, and all the intermediate sizes of grain inclusive, and garden seeds also, with great regularity; some of the most difficult ones, as carrots, and the prickly spinnage, mixed with sawdust slightly moistened, are sowed thick or thin, easily and with precision; thus one diffuses a small parcel of seed over a great extent of ground, nay, even by the weight one acre will receive no more of the same kind of seed than the other. By taking a cylinder with smaller or larger spoons, the proportioning the quantity to the nature of the seed or soil is also obtained, and likewise by stopping part of the spoons up with bees-wax.

One man and one horse performs the business, and the machine will of course sow more than the best sower can do with the hand.

2d. The Horse Hoe either cuts drains, when all the mould boards are adapted to it, or hills up the ground towards the stem of the plants, when one of the long mould boards, and the small triangular one is left on; or cuts part of their side roots perpendicularly off, when one of the moveable scissors is set inwards, parallel with the foremost coulter, and in the place of the triangular mould board, the triangular rectangular one; or it will skim the earth horizontally, when all the mould boards are taken away.

In light ground one horse will do all this; but in clay for draining or hilling up, two will be necessary, the one before the other.

[Page] 3d. The Mill requires, preparatory to threshing, that the ears of wheat, barley or rye, be cut off from the straw; the Rippling Cart is constructed for that purpose, of which hereafter a proper account will be given.

Two men would be required to perform this kind of threshing; however, the work is so trifling that two lads or two women will do it; one turns the fly, which moves easily, the other feeds the hopper with ears, and sweeps the grain, together with its husks, from under the mill, so that the quantity of produce may not obstruct the motion of the smaller cone.

4th. The use of the Rippling Cart demands very little explanation: A boy only will be required to gather the ears; he stands inside the back part of the cart, with a rake in his hand, commands the horse or oxen to go forward, and rakes the ears which the cylinder throws in the forepart of the cart, backwards.

CHAP. VI.
THE EFFECT OF THOSE FOUR IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY.

AS I shall often cast a retrospective view to what has been said, I beg to be indulged in repetitions.

The usefulness of the Sowing Plough would alone be admitted, when the regularity with which it sows is considered: But other considerations speak still more forcibly in its favor. By giving reasonable [Page] intervals between the rows of plants of any kind, the horse hoe can come between to destroy weeds; and as also the hoe cuts the side roots perpendicularly off, this amputation is beneficial to the plants, as there is pretty generally a provision in nature, that for one root cut, several new ones spring out of the stump, extend themselves into the loosened ground, and carry more nourishment to the mother trunk; which by this operation will increase, and give abundant, but above all, better fruits than in the common way.

From those intervals thus cultivated, arises this benefit, that the ground is in order for the next year; then you shift your rows, and sow in the places which were intervals the year before. The utility of this cultivation is very extensive; to me it appears unobjectionable, * yet as it seems to overthrow the old practice, which has its peculiar advantages, I am diffident to enlarge upon the subject of sowing wheat, rye, barley or oats, in rows, as this admits of exceptions, and to make these distinctions would lead me beyond my plan, without removing the fear that I had expressed left I should not be sufficiently understood; and the more so as the sowing plough has also great merit in broad cast sowing.

In future I will make mention but of wheat alone, as being one of the richest produces of the farmer, and beyond doubt the most precious to society. It has been proved that half the quantity [Page] ordinarily used by broad cast hand sowing, is not only sufficient for this machine, but, that it will even yield a better crop; as sowing regularly, at equal depths under furrow, where the wheat is secured, and out of the reach of birds in its first stage of vegetation.

The following experiments done in England in 1785, and in 1786, will be specially acceptable. H. Cecil,Esq. (Hanbury-Hall, near Droitwich, Worcestershire) reapt wheat by the machine, five bushels per statue acre more than by hand sowing; the calculation is made from two year's experiment. Colonel Wilson Didlington, near Stoke, Norfolk, reapt wheat sown by the machine, exactly half as much more as by broad cast hand sowing.

I will not swell this essay by a catalogue of experiments, though ascertained by respectable gentlemen, but close the information by this—That the machine cost me in England fifteen pounds sterling; however, this is a patent price and I am of opinion that for fifteen pounds, New-York currency, it can be made here, with a good profit to the manufacturers; as the chief part is cast iron, it will be done as well in Messrs. P. Curtenius, and Co's. furnace, and the wooden part in no less perfection, by Mr. H. Brevoort in the Bowery. On any tolerable farm, the costs at this rate will be saved in one year on the savings alone, without reckoning the better crop.

Tho' I have already spoken at large of the horse hoe, I must still add, that where intervals are kept, the effect of this machine is great; the plants are cultivated from the moment they spring out of the ground, until they are gathered; it perfectly reduces [Page] the field and the garden culture under one head, (plants with running vines only excepted.) One man with change of horses, cleans the weeds from the intervals between the plants in one day, on six acres of ground and more, as nicely as a gardener would do with hoe or spade; how many gardeners might be required, to perform this work, I cannot tell; yet by the horse hoe much work will be done in a short time, with small cost and trouble, and not the weeds alone, but likewise many of the insects and their breed, will be destroyed.

The horse-hoe has already been made here; the iron work at Mr. John Youle's, Water-street, and the wooden part at Mr. Brevoort's, on reason able terms.

From this subject I step over to consider the effects of the Threshing Mill and Rippling Cart; but as the rippling the ears from the straw is a preparatory operation for the threshing mill, I will in this place speak first of the [...] obtained by this implement.

It is no small consideration of [...] farmer, to know where he will find hand [...] wheat, and when it is cut it must lay to [...] arises then, where he shall find for [...] those hands to take it in, and often [...] weather intervenes and spoils his harvest.—The costs are no less than in the former article, the chief objects of his care.

Those difficulties are removed by the rippling cart, because oxen or horses only an required to gather the ears; the waste, it there is any, can be but trifling; the costs are inconsiderable in [Page] comparison with those of the old method; the straw is either moved or burned on the field, where it will equally benefit the ground as manure, and by its fire destroy insects: whilst by providing the boy who manages the whole, with bags, he can fill and drop them at the end of the field, and thus alone perform the work of many hands, in a short space of time.

I am sorry I cannot speak with sufficient ground of the quantity this machine will reap; the next harvest will be required to ascertain this with precision. If I have been premature in the communication of this useful implement, it is out of zeal for the service of the public: I hope that the motive will plead for my hurry; in general I have not the smallest doubt of its answering the proposed end. But supposing the worst, should this my present plan be defective, I pledge myself to bring the machine to the nicest perfection, and to give immediate notice of it in the newspapers or monthly reviews.

However, to give for the present the probable quantity of its reaping by guess, I say an ox in the long harvest days will go 20 miles, or thereabouts; this, by changing others in his place, may be the distance the cart can be pushed by that animal: the rippling cylinder cuts from the field a slice of ears of four feet wide, with the same swiftness of the step of the animal; this establishes, that four feet broad of ears, and 20 miles in length, is the possible quantity that the cart can cut in one day.

But as defalcation must be made, for turning about, filling the bags, and sharpening the knives of the combs, less than the said proportion will be the case; but upon the whole, there will remain [Page] an expeditious reaping, without example in our times.

The price of such a machine will not be an exorbitant one; it is in hands to be made by Mr. Youle and Mr. Brevoort, and notice will be given of its amount.

The ears are reaped in manner as before mentioned, and threshed as explained in Chap. V. yet one might expose them under a shed, or in the granary to the draught of air, well stirred about; and this I suppose will be no detriment; tho' I have threshed barley with the old machine, only cut 24 hours from the ground, still soft and milky, yet it came well out, not any of the kernels being crushed: At this experiment Mr. Brevoort was present.

To ascertain the powers of the new improved mill, the following experiment was made with ears of bearded wheat. On the 22d of January 1790, two boys, the one of thirteen, the other of twelve years of age, performed the threshing; the time was exactly minuted, and they threshed at the rate of two bushels clean wheat per hour; the wheat was full dry, but much damaged by mice.

The first experiment did not answer my expectation, however, as by chance I observed the cause, I was enabled to correct the fault. On Feb. the 9th, his Excellency Governor Clinton, the Honorable Mr. Burke, one of the members from South-Carolina, in the House of Representatives of the United States, and several members of the Legislature of this State, desirous to see [Page] the Threshing machine at work, honored me with their presence; the result was, that it threshed then, at the rate of three bushels good measure, in one hour. The wheat was of the same kind, and a remnant of that made use of in the first experiment; it was also thresh'd by the same hands.

I would in this place observe, that it is unnecessary to keep the wheat till perfectly dry; on the contrary, it may be threshed with this machine as it comes from the field; and as the work is not fatiguing, it follows, that in the long harvest days, twelve hours may be allowed for it; there will then be, according to the last improvement made in the construction of the mill, ascertained the 9th of February, thirty-six bushels of wheat clean threshed by two lads in one day.

When it is considered that wheat is never more liable to damage from mice, than when laying in the field or barn—that none is left in the straw—that none flies off as when threshed out with flails, and that very few kernels are crushed by the mill, it will be but a moderate computation, to say, that compared to the old method, there is by this way of threshing ten per cent. savings, independent of the other advantages arising from it.

The original mill I bought in the first stage of its invention, for twenty pounds sterling, afterwards Mr. Winlaw sold them for fifteen, and now he sells no more.

The new improved mill costs, the iron work in the furnace, £. 12 7 10; the wooden frame, the axletree of the cone, some small articles of forged iron, and the setting up the whole will be done by Mr. Brevoort, for £. 7; thus the improved [Page] mill will cost but £. 19 7 10, New-York currency.

The original mill I have chiefly cut up to make a model out of it, after which the new one is made of cast iron; and notwithstanding the high price of the old mill, and the great expence it occasioned to make it into a model, I have left this model for the service of the public in the casting furnace of Messrs. P. Curtenius, and Co.

Considering what has been said, I proceed to sum up and make appear, that even the threshing mill and rippling cart may equally operate as an improvement in agriculture.

Both operations, reaping and threshing, have been among the most laborious talks the farmer had to perform, and now from men's work, it is lowered to the capacity of a few women or boys; from considerable expences this business occasioned, it is reduced to small costs. Time, which is so precious to the husbandman, of which so much is spent, is by these machines greatly abridged, and in lieu of a tedious work, an encouraging one arises from their use.—Leisure takes the place of hurry, and profit that of loss;—the consequence must be, PLENTY.

Hitherto the farmer was rather averse to sowing a large quantity of wheat; the time to gather it, the hands, the expences, large barns, all this he had anxiously to calculate. Having gained so much time on his harvest, and on his threshing, he may apply it with success to plough up his estate: in lieu of barns, he wants but sheds and granaries; at most a month after harvest he will bring his wheat to the market—his trouble and [Page] expences being lessened, he will sell cheaper; and the merchant has a sure market for it in all countries where either despotic or mismanaged governments prevent the increase of agriculture.

The effect of those machines upon the price of bread, is to society of the highest moment. Excuse me then, reader, should I give way even to enthusiasm, and deviate from the conduct I had prescribed to myself. And I will on this subject detect erroneous arguments in all their shelters.

In the year 1788, I paid for a barrel of rye flour 14 shillings this currency, and in 1789, even four months after harvest, I paid for the same quantity £. 1: 8; the cause of those prices may be various, but commonly for about three months after harvest we pay at rates not adequate to the produce of the year.—The chief reason seems to be that the farmer cannot lower the price of bread, by bringing his grain earlier to market; tho' the market prices are established by quantity, demand and competition; yet the real value of things is previous to the market price, established by agriculture.

Consequently those machines will annihilate the enormous fluctuation of cent. per cent. and ensure shortly after harvest the price of the bread in proportion to the quantity which has been raised; in proportion to the greater quantity they collect, in proportion to the smaller expences they occasion, and in proportion to the greater extent of ground they have enabled the farmer to sow.

In favourable years, the quantity of grain will make men of property store up wheat, and in lieu [Page] of a hurtful monopoly, this will be a propitious one, it will nearly establish an equal price of bread in less favorable years.

It will be said, to stony, boggy and mountainous land, those implements before mentioned are useless, to this objection I answer, before we can expect great benefits from agriculture, the coarser implements ought to do their business: It is proper that stones should be removed, bogs drained and converted into meadows, uneven ground levelled, and mountains left to their natural destination for wood and pasture; the benefits arising from the use of those machines, will hereafter pay abundantly for the work.

It may also be said, how can farmer of a small tract, and little property, find the ready money to buy a rippling cart, and a threshing mill; and will those inventions not occasion his ruin, by producing a disproportion in the prices of his grain, to those of the wealthy farmer, who can purchase all the machines.

Was the remedy not easy, the evil would be important: Though various are the means of redress, I shall mention but two:—

Five, six or more neighbours, may join in the purchase the rippling cart is known to be moveable; the threshing mill is 680 weight only; it can be constructed on a cart, which one horse can draw from one farm to another; the business of all will then stand nearly on an equal scale. Or can there not be husbandry implements to hire as well as hack coaches, or hack sleds? I think there might with great propriety.

[Page] I will not admit the objection made in general to machines calculated to abridge manual labor—"That they take the bread out of the mouth of the journeyman." Though this argument is a wrong one, and easily refuted in any country, yet it would be twice as erroneous were it admitted in this western world, where hands are wanting in all quarters: Besides, when machines increase the quantity, and lower the price of bread, I think it would be doing an injury to the understanding of my readers, were I to dwell any longer upon the subject.

Here I beg leave to mention, that in the year 1784, the Bath Society of Agriculture voted a silver cup of five guinea's worth to Mr. Thomas Robins, for ploughing four hundred and fortytwo acres of land in one year, with a pair of horses only, without a special driver, in Arthur Young, Esquire's most valuable works, (see Annals of Agriculture, vol. 3, p. 50.) This instance shews what the hands of Freemen can do.

And again, the four implements will enable to pay (with an encreased patriotic pleasure for the protection of liberty and property, fairly ensured by our excellent laws and constitution) the land tax, which will no doubt appear to the freemen of enlightened America, to be of all the taxes the most rational one; as it will also by such exertions become the burthen least felt.

I come now to a period which I rather wished to leave untouched; but, as to what is slated, an important objection is to be made: It may be asked, where shall we get dung to sow a larger quantity of wheat? This subdues my reluctancy, and enforces the display of a theory.

[Page] In the dark, as we are in general, about the means of nature, there is now and then a glimpse of light which shines in our eyes, and will guide us to some discovery! One great man, by seeing a pear drop from a tree, discovered the laws of gravitation; another no less renowned, by seeing a kite, the plaything of children, fly, conceived from it, and executed to command the thunder of heaven: So will often a trifle be seized by men of superior genius, and they will make it the basis for instruction to mankind.

But the enquiry is to be, how Nature has produced wheat? Was there a previous dunghill, or is it by means of dung the produce of man's industry? A smile will be the answer; NO will be the result of the question.

What are then the laws, whereby to all appearance nature fructifies the earth, and produces plants of every kind? 'Till convinced of error, by arguments grounded on physical and chymical experiments, I will be bold to say, that though there may be various concurrent ones, nevertheless, as simple laws are commonly the promoters, those which I will mention stand probably foremost in rank.

I say, the [...]rence of air, with all its different character and vicissitudes, the sun or light, the mixture of earths carried on by strong rains and overflow of waters, are the laws and vehicles of vegetation.

How far it is in man's power to apply these principles to agriculture, I shall cursorily consider; and in this, as well as in what I have said in the former paragraph, I am warranted, by what the learned have proved by experimental philosophy, [Page] and by what I have been taught by my own small experience.

John Tull was the first who went off from the beaten tract, and put new rules of agriculture in practice; his system was in part erroneous, thought part of it entitles him to our grateful remembrance. John Tull was laughed at, so was Christopher Columbus, till facts gave credit to his discovery, and proclaimed his merit. But, without going into discussions of old systems, or in all the quotations of new ones, I will come to the point.

By deep and frequent plowing, we expose the surface of the earth to more light, and to all the influences of air; hereby we help the operation of nature in that case. By mixing our soil with soils of different qualities, we obtain what nature does by rains, and overflow of waters: By those manuductions, art improves, facilitates, and amplifies the means of nature to procure vegetation, and thus wheat may be raised in any quantity.

I mean not to detract from the use of dung; patrified animal and vegetable bodies, accumulated in our dung-hills, are [...]ul accessories to vegetation: but is the surface of [...] [...]th not also a composition of those ingredients, though therein contained, no doubt for the best, with other mixtures. Dung gives a strong additional heat, and some plants will not thrive without; but wheat can be raised independent of a dunghill.

I go farther and say, that sowing wheat upon fresh dunged land is prejudicial.—Commonly I use no dung to my wheat, but only on a previous summer fallow; and I call a summer fallow land [Page] well dunged early in the spring, and sown in with turnips, cabbages, carrots, beans, peas, lentils, parsnips, potatoes, flax, hemp or early corn, on this I sow wheat in the fall with success, and so avoid smut, numbers of weeds and insects promoted and fostered by fresh dung.

Finally, I beg leave to mention an axiom easily acknowledged, that when we lessen our expences, we increase our riches.—But in what has been shewn, the consequence is more extensive; because, when we are enabled to raise a greater quantity of bread, the benefits of society at large become by it as important as our own.

Resuming the whole, I conceive that I have shewn that any quantity of wheat may be raised without dung, without distress for reaping, threshing, barns, or want of hands, and that great costs for laborers may be no longer the object of concern.

To consider the influence a thus improved agriculture is to have on commerce, population, arts, manufactures, and on the general wealth and happiness of society, are speculations not of my province.

[...], though what I have investigated is I believe of a much ampler nature, nevertheless, here I shall drop the pen, as both the scope of this essay, and inability, will not permit me to extend the matter. Happy shall I think myself, if any thing contained in the foregoing lines is thought useful to the public; and may it receive improvement by abler hands than mine.

THE END.

Notes

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The imperfection of the drawing is the cause that the plate shows but one coulter, one funnel, and one harrow.

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*

In corroboration of this, I have ground cultivated in this manner; this, and the described machines, and others not mentioned, can be seen at my little farm. Should any gentleman think it worth his while to honor me with his call, every information in my power will be at his command.

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Title statement

Essay on agriculture. By F.C.H.B. Poellnitz.

Poellnitz, Frederick Carl Hans Bruno, Baron von, 1734-1801.

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Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 22805.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N17603)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 22805)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 22805)

Source

— Essay on agriculture. By F.C.H.B. Poellnitz., Poellnitz, Frederick Carl Hans Bruno, Baron von, 1734-1801., Carloss, Charlotte Julie Wilhelmine Amalie, b. 1772, ill., Maverick, Peter, 1780-1831, engraver..

Extent

24 p., 4 folded leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm. (8vo)

Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine.,. New-York: :: MDCCXC. [1790]. (Illustrations by Wilhelmine Poellnitz; engraved by Peter Maverick.)

Creation

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