The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-07-28
IMPROVEMENT IN FARM TOOLS.


known and eccentric editor Of the
New York Tribune, once wrote a
book or an essay entitled Nv hat
/ known about Farming" in
which he honestly told the cost of
the turnips, onions and potatoes,
raised on his amateur model farm,
as having been ten cents each,
while he could buy as good ones in
Fulton market, New York, for
fifty cents a bushel. The trouble
with him was that his farming was
on toosmall scale, with Anticipated
tools and methods. Sugar planters
have to adopt the latest improve
ments, not only for breaking up
the soil, but for cultivating cane,
extracting the juice, and making
sugar. 1t is only by adopting the
most recent and best improve
ments, that they can keep abreast
of rivals in other lands. Compe
tition in every branch of industry
calls for better and labor-saving
implements.
y new pillow has lately been in
troduced by Mr.. W. G. Peacock,
somewhat similar to the Deere Sec
rotary pillow, which runs on wheels
set at an angle, and uses steel discs
for cutting and pulverizing the
soil. Still these are entirely differ
ent implements, though the prin-
ciple on which they work is the
same. Paul Isenberg has lately
received one of these new plows,
which for the present we shall call
the Peacock plow," and on Mon
day morning last, Mr.. Isenberg
commenced work with it on his
farm at Waialae, intending to pillow
up a ten-acre field as its first work.
To witness the operation of this
new implement, Mr.. Peacock in
vited several gentlemen, including
the writer, to accompany him
thither The day was pleasant, and
the drive over the new macadam
coral road to Waialae- which
is really an extension of Beretania
street, through Moiliili, now being
put in frst-class order by the Gov
ernment-a affords a refreshing out
ing that will soon be more patron
lied by the public than it now IS.
An hours ride brought the party
to Mr.. Isenberg's farm, where that
gentleman was experimenting the
first operations of his recent pur-
chase. The soil of this field was
composed of the very hardest to be
found on Oahu, into which pick
could be forced not more than
three or four inches. This 'hard
PAM was selected for the first trial
of the pillow, and it was sure to
prove a fair test. The burrows
already made by the pillow before
the arrival of the visitors, showed
that it would work, even in the
hands of strangers, not accustomed
to its use. But on the arrival of
those who knew how it should be
adjusted for the kind of work it
had to perform, the discs were
shifted and readiusted, when it
worked very much better and more
evenly, being easily drawn by four
mules. For the same heavy work,
with an old-fashioned breaker
pillow, Mr.. Isenberg said that four
yoke of oxen were required, and |
the area plowed in one day by the
oxen would be only one-fourth |
what can be done by the four mules
with this new disc pillow. This is
certainly a decided gain for the
new implement, if it continues to
do its work as well as at the start.
1t should be stated, however, that
it does not pillow so deeply as the
old pillow known as che "breaker."
The disc cuts from six to nine
inches depth, or perhaps an aver
age of seven inches, while for cane
planting, twelve or fourteen inches