form of the mold-board, insisting that it should be constructed on scientific principles. These principles were probably first applied by Robert Smith, of Buckingham, Pa., about 1804-6, as he obtained a patent for a cast-iron mold-board, and wrote upon the subject about that time. In 1814, years after cast-iron plows had been in successful use in England, and partially so in this country, Jethro Wood obtained a patent for a cast-iron plow, in three parts, similar to one said to have been in use previous to that time in Virginia. In 1817, Edwin A. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., took up Newbold's plow, with a view to improve its form, so as to make the draft easier. He took his patent in 1821, included in which was the process of cold-chilling the cutting edges and parts of the share most likely to wear out. His plan was so perfect that it was highly approved of, but other engagements prevented him from extending what he had so successfully begun.

In 1810, Josiah Dutcher, of New York, commenced a series of improvements which are to be found upon nearly all the cast-iron plows now in use, and which have been of immense benefit to the farmers of this country.

Finally, we would not omit to mention the name of Joel Nourse, of Massachusetts, as one who, in connection with his partners, has probably done more toward making the cast-iron plow a perfect implement than any other individual, though many others are entitled to high praise for doing, to the extent of their ability, so much to lessen the labour of tilling land.

Among the plows on exhibition at the Crystal Palace, the following presented peculiarities worthy of notice.

One of an awkward, unique appearance, was constructed as follows: Two common cast-iron shares, with small mold-boards, are attached by two rods, about two feet long, to each share, to the side pieces of a wooden frame, made to expand so as to increase the width of the furrows apart, and upon the cross pieces of the frame, are placed the handles, and a short neap, to which the horses are attached, both made to raise or lower to suit the hand of the holder or the height of the team. These shares can be readily shifted so as to turn furrows out or in, and by straddling a row of corn, both sides can be plowed, and dirt turned from or to it, at once going through.

One of the most beautiful of the agricultural implements exhibited, was a new "horse hoe," by Ruggles, Nourse, & Mason. This neat little tool weighs only 63 pounds, and will cut a furrow 20 inches wide. It is made of 24 inch square timber, the beam or center-piece 3 feet 9 inches long, with a slightly crooked wing-piece on each side. On the forward end of the beam, a regulating draught circle is placed, and a depth-guage wheel underneath. A little further back is a cutting tooth, and at the hind end a double-sided share or hoe, running flat, making a cut thirteen inches wide. On each end of the wingpieces a hoe of smaller dimensions and different shape is placed, which is easily shifted so as to turn little furrows in or out, as may be desired. It is a very effective tool, and in some respects preferable to the ordinary triangular wooden-framed five-toothed cultivator, being so light

and yet so strong that it can be easily operated by one small mule or horse, and guided by any boy big enough to reach the handles.

Another implement which promises to be very useful, is called the double plow, or sod and sub-soil combined: known in some parts of the country as the Michigan Plow. Its peculiarity consists in this: upon the beam about where the cutter, or coulter is usually fixed, there is a common cast-iron plow-share, which cuts and turns the sod any required depth, while the main share takes up the earth from the bottom of the furrow, four or five inches deeper, and lays it in a completely pulverized state on top of the inverted sod.

Among other improved plows exhibited at the New York Exhibition were two patterns "side-hill plows." The first is so contrived that by unhooking a stout hook and a little exertion of the plowman, while the team is coming about, the whole share, mold-board and all together is rolled over, and again fastened with the hook, so that the furrow is turned the other way. These are made of different sizes, turning a sod from 5 to 7 inches deep and 10 or 12 inches wide, and notwithstanding their awkward appearance, work equally well on level or hill side land. The same scale of proportions and carefully laid down principles, in regard to curved lines, is preserved in all the plows coming from this manufactory; so that all work alike as to tractile force, whether great or small, according to the work required of each kind. With a side-hill plow the plowman may commence on the lower edge of a hill-side, turning all the furrows down the slope, going back and forth, changing his plow to the right and left at the end of each furrow, or in the same way he may plow a level field.

The other side-hill plow is made of iron, and has this striking peculiarity, that the beam and handles together turn round upon a pivot formed of the top of the standard. The share has a straight land side, 2 feet 10 inches long, with a point at each end exactly alike. Suppose you are turning a right hand furrow, and wish to change to the left, you give a rod under the right handle a little jog, which unlooses a catch, and you walk round with the handle in your hand till the beam points directly the other way; now pull the rod and close the catch, stoop over and give the mold-board a flap and it turns back bottom up, disclosing another under it exactly like the other, also bottom up and pointing forward; turn this also, and you have before you as neat a looking plow as you will find in the Exhibition, the reversed mold-board lying under the other, quite out of the way, and the reverse point forming the heel of the land-side. The length of the beam is 4 feet; handles, 4 feet 6 inches; width of share, 9 inches; length from point to upper angle of wing, 2 feet 9 inches; length of wing from the joint to upper end, 1 foot 7 inches; height of standard, 1 foot 2 inches; height of fin-cutter, 9 inches. This plow has been recently invented by L. Hall, of Pittsburg, Pa. His construction completely obviates the objection to the other side-hill plow, that is, that it requires a very strong man to hold it, or rather to shift the share which rolls under, in changing from side to side.

The sub-soil plow is so little known, to a majority of those whe

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American soil, that a more particular description and slight history its introduction will be found interesting. In the year 1840, Mess Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co. imported from Scotland, the first su soil plow ever seen in the United States. It was a complicate expensive, cumbersome affair, as most of the Scotch plows are, a could not be patterned after with any hope of successful introducti among farmers. Feeling satisfied of the benefits that would result them from the use of a good sub-soil plow, that good genius of t American farmer, Joel Nourse, set his mind to work and produced on more simple, lighter and cheaper than the imported article. It w tried, proved satisfactory, and the manufactory of various sizes, suite to a team of one to six horses, soon introduced this new farm impl ment to the notice of many farmers who never had seen or heard the thing before, but soon learned how to profit by its use. This plo has no mold-board; the use of it is to enter the bottom of the ordin ary furrow, and stir up and pulverize the hard sub-soil from 4 to 2 inches deep. Upon this the next round of the turning plow lays it usual thickness of furrow slice, thus doubling the depth of tilth. It i especially valuable in land which has a natural hard pan, or in whic one has been formed by the tramping of the plow team, or the sliding of that instrument for a hundred years, on the bottom of furrow always plowed just the same depth. Some idea can be formed of the shape of this plow, by supposing the land-side of the common cast-iron one continued in a smooth plate up to the beam, the handles being riveted upon that, like those of a common shovel plow. On the moldboard side of this plate, there is a shelf projecting a couple of inches, running in a gently inclined plane from the lance head like point to the heel, producing exactly the effect that a wedge would do if drawn through the earth, lifting it up and dropping it over the butt, which is 2 to 4 inches high. Such is the sub-soil plow, in use in most of the Northern States, and from its efficiency, strength, ease of draft, and cheapness, from $5 to $15, it was thought that perfection had been obtained in that farm implement. Not so. For this very season these great plow-makers have brought out a new sub-soil plow, as much more simple than their first one, as that is more simple than its Scotch prototype, and yet more effective, and not requiring more than one half the force to propel it; besides which, it is a self-sharpener.

A perfect idea of the shape of this plow can be got in the way it was first obtained by Professor Mapes, to whom the manufacturers are indebted for the original, by taking a piece of paper twice as long as wide, and folding it first end to end, then side to side, then cut off the corners from side to end fold, now make a slight lap at the side folds and lay it down upon the table, the edges will touch all round, while the middle is slightly elevated. Now fancy a smooth piece of hardened cast iron of this shape, 20 inches long and 74 wide, with an upright part, 18 inches high, made broad and thin, with edges alike so that it makes no difference which goes forward, screwed to a beam 5 feet long, with handles 4 feet long, bolted upon the sides of the beam, held in place by an iron supporter, with a center draft rod and dial

clevis, movable 4 or 5 inches up or down, or upon either side, and the whole only weighing 84 pounds, and yet strong enough for two yoke of oxen, but not of too heavy a draft for one yoke, when run up to the beam in the ground, producing such an effect as to shake the plants several feet upon each side, and you will have some idea of a new sub-soil plow, now publicly exhibited for the first time.

The great desideratum of the day is to contrive a machine that shall have the efficiency of the spade and the capability of the plow. Many attempts have been made, but, until recently, without anything like successful results. The Marquis of Tweeddale, Scotland, recently adapted a plough, or rather frame of ploughs, for carrying out a system of deep ploughing. In this case two engines are employed, one at either end of the field, the plough-frame travelling by means of traction-chains between them, and doing the work some twelve to fifteen inches deep, in a most efficient manner. There appears to be a question as to whether, all things considered, there is much gained by the application of steam thus limited to the traction merely of the implement. In most cases where steam has successfully supplanted labor, it has demanded that the old processes be laid aside, and new ones, suited to the advanced requirements, be adopted. The plough, itself universally acknowledged to be a defective implement, has no claims to exception to this rule, and certainly the small amount of success attending the steam traction plows would be evidence in favor of it. An attempt has been made by Usher, of Edinburgh, to construct a machine that shall, by one operation, satisfy all the requirements of cultivation. This has been tried in the field with favorable results, and it certainly possesses more of the elements of success than any other that has hitherto been brought out. The old plow is thrown aside, and only the share and mold-board been made use of; some three to six rows of them are arranged round a large cylinder which is attached to a locomotive engine. When at work in the field the power is applied to this cylinder, which, by its revolution, drives the plows (or other instruments, as the case may be) into the soil, and thus acts as the propelling agent to the whole machine. The soil is left in a broken condition, as by the fork or spade, and arrangements exist by which the three operations of moving the soil, sowing, and covering in, the seed are done at the same time. It travels at the rate of three miles an hour, equal to nine acres a day, or, allowing for turning, stoppages, &c., say seven acres, which it has done in its various trials, for an expenditure of seventeen and sixpence, or two and sixpence per acre. It travels well on common roads, ascending acclivities of one in ten, and turning round in a circle of sixteen feet diameter, and is adapted for any other purpose to which steam power is applied. Let us see what would be the result of the substitution of the steam plough for our present systems of ploughing. In England, taking Caird's estimate, there are 14,000,000 acres in tillage; these are ploughed certainly once every year. The cost of the operation averages at least ten shillings per acre- thus giving a total of 7,000,000l. per annum. This first machine of Usher does the work better than by the plow for two and sixpence

an acre, or at seventy-five per cent. less cost. The saving would consequently be about 5,250,000l. per annum. The labor of 50,000 men and 100,000 horses required for this one operation would be replaced, and a saving in the consumption of corn effected to at least 1,500,000 quarters, which would be thus rendered available for the more direct wants of the community.

Barker's Hinge Fastener. This invention consists simply in casting a solid square on the top of the round nipple of the hinge, and having a square cap to fit over the same; its object is to hold open window shutters, and thereby dispense with the use of fastenings. The cap can be put on and taken off from the inside, which is an important thing in stormy weather, as it removes the necessity of thrusting the head and arms out of the window.

Dickson's Sled-lock. The object of this invention is to prevent the sled or sleigh from crowding against the horses in descending a hill. It is formed by attaching a couple of bars turned downward at the end, firmly to the roller, and connecting the tongue to them at their front ends by a hinge joint, so that when the sled crowds forward, the back end of the tongue will fly up, throwing the dogs downward into the ground.

Clark's Static Regulator for Steam Boiler Fires is intended to equalize the heat of the fire and thus produce a steady pressure of steam. This is accomplished by causing an undue pressure of steam to operate a damper and thus lessen the draft, and consequently the amount of combustion.

Eastman's Stone Dressing Machine.- -The cutters of this machine are a series of chisels arranged on a shaft, each one on a small eccentric or crank placed a little out of line with its fellow, so that by revolving the shaft, the chisels act upon the stone placed beneath and fed forward to them, with a reciprocating motion identical with the hand method of hewing stone. The whole arrangement of the machine is very simple, and the chisels endure as long as those used by hand, are as easily made, and require no more sharpening. The chisels can be set to dress stone facing, reeding, fluting, and moulding.

Canvass House. - Another curiosity-something entirely new, and which has been brought into existence in verification of the adage that necessity is the mother of invention — is a canvass house. It is twelve feet square, six feet high at the eaves, and seven and a half feet in the center; has four windows and a door, all upon hinges, and so consstructed that it can be folded together upon hinges into a flat bundle, six feet across, carried by two men a mile and set up again in one hour. It also has four frames, canvassed for berths, which also fold up quite out of the way. The canvass is painted waterproof, and the whole appears substantial.

A fine display of Cotton Cordage, an article of recent manufacture in this country, was made at the Crystal Palace, by the American Cordage Company, of New York. The method of rope-making adopted, is as new as the use of cotton for this purpose. A machine is made to answer all the purposes of a long rope-walk. The advantage