260 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



C A L E N 1) A R OF A G R I C U L T U R E. 



In late climates the harvest is prolonged into 

 this month, and must he managed as heforc di- 

 rected. Cut heans with the hand-sickle; tie the 

 crop into sheaves with straw ropes or tarred twine, 

 and carry when dry ; and build the crop into ricks, 

 or lodge it in barns. Thatch all ricks quickly ; 

 rake the rick-yard clean, and carry the rubbish to 

 the dung-yards. Employ plenty of hands in har- 

 vest, and reward them liberally. 



Gather fruits, as pears and apples. 



Pick hops : use the haulm for litter, and place 

 the poles under cover for another year. Dry with 

 coke in the kiln. Some use suljihur to give the 

 hops a yellow tinge. 



Plough the wheat fallows, and towards the end 

 of the month begin to sow. Finish the laying on 

 land of dung and composts. Plough leys for 

 wheat, and scuffle bean and pea grattans as a pre- 

 paration to be sown with wheat. Prepare by fal- 

 lowing the lands intended to be planted with early 

 spring crops, as potatoes, Swedish turnips, pars- 

 nips, and carrots. Lay on and plough in the dung 

 in drills, or in broadcast ; and if in drills, earth 

 them afresh in the spring, and plant the crop ; if 

 in broadcast, the land must be ploughed before 



being drilled. Tliis autumnal preparation both 

 facilitates and expedites the spring operations ; but 

 only early climates admit of the application of it. 



Scarify the surface of lucerne before laying upon 

 it the well-pulverized composts; spread the dung 

 over the surface very carefully and evenly ; bush- 

 harrow it, and then roll it heavily in dry weather. 

 Such treatment will secure an early spring vegeta- 

 tion. 



Collect manures by every means to the liquid 

 pit and the compost heap. Burn for ashes, and 

 keep them under cover. 



Towards the end of the month sow rye for a seed 

 cro]), and also for being eaten on the ground by 

 sheep in the spring. Sow winter tares mixed with 

 rye, or winter beans, or winter barley, on lands 

 that are clean and in good heart, or on a partial 

 fallowing with dung. 



Scour road-sides, clean out open ditches to be 

 ready for the winter floods, enlarge the courses of 

 brooks : use the excavated materials for composts ; 

 the very earthy parts to be mixed with lime, and 

 the vegetal)le for being burned into ashes. Omit 

 no opportunity of collecting manures in any form. 



LONG ISLAND, NORTH AMERICA, A HOME FOR EMIGRANTS. 



Dear Sir, — About this time last year I gave jou some ilc- 

 fcription of ti.e rich aoil iu tlie ucighbourhood of Lexicj^ton, 

 Kentucky : a mere btautiful grazini; coiiiitiy I suppose caii- 

 i.ot be lomid in Great liritaiii. The groiind bciii^ co\ercd 

 »viLli rich blue grnjs, protects the surface soil froju tlic scorc'i;- 

 inc; 81111, and it is siirprisinj; to sec the abutiHant feed it pro- 

 duce?. Land is held very liij;b there, am! there arc but few 

 of the htldera of it ;\ ho wish to stll. 



The western pr<iiric^ of Illinois, Michls;.in, Indiana, and 

 (,lt:cr western sl'ites, arc full (>f vef;etable matter, and very at- 

 tractive to the eye of an En;;iisliraaii. Land is chesp, and in 

 many iiistaucea t:rows abundant crops, suitable to such soils : 

 t!ie face of the cnuntry is beautiful ; and «i',li lli's characlcr 

 f.red to |7, Eii:;li3hii;in imkc Iheir wiy there before examining 

 other parts of thii co:iiiliy, which, wlien takin;; all things into 

 cr.miderstion, wonH be much more to their iiitcrcst to tarry 

 »nd expb.re before pernianenlly setthnij themselves. If land 

 )« cheap at the west, e\ery kind of produce is cheap in propor- 

 lion ; rnd the uiihpallhy state of the climate is a strong bar- 

 li'T against this part cf the United Sla'en. 



I have lately taken an rxploriiip trip Ihrongli I.on;; Island, 

 on which ?.xc very large tracti of land uncultivated, covered 

 with bushes and the remains of the old forest. Tliia land has 

 Irng had the reputation of being the bsrren plains of fiong 

 Island: the inhnbitauts themselves seem deterniircd it shall 

 never he anything else ; and, U'ith this cJinrtictcr fixed tj it. it 

 ii overlooked. E\ery oi.e who gf,e3 to examine it meets with 

 t^at long established slroxj i rejndice from the islanders, (hat 

 it hen been almc st impossible to convince any of ihera of its 

 Inie fertiUlii. It sccmi to me almost impossible to per^uiade 

 any of these persona that they possesa on the whole of that 



island (for it is all of the same character) one of the best toils 

 ever seen — one that will afford more pleasure and profit for a 

 proper atate of cultivation than I have before met with iu any 

 country. How it is possible for such a tract o; land as this, 

 almost in sight of Nc«^ York city, where t^.e hii;beat price for 

 every description of produce is paid, to have laid in a state of 

 nature, uuiler the c\e of an iutelliient^and enlightened com- 

 munity until the niuettenth century, is to mo one of the 

 greatest luystcrics of the iifjc. From eighteen iiiclics to three 

 feet of the surface soil is as be.uitifnl a sandy loam as I ever saw 

 cultivated — not a stone to be seen cu the surface, and just a 

 right proportion of s."ind, as to make the soil work easily : a 

 pair of small horses will go through the hardest ploughing 

 with ease, after the brush and rco's are eradicated, and this is 

 a mere trifle: any iuduttrious labouier can cut an acre and 

 half per day of the former, while the latter can b9 torn up, 

 root and branch, with two yoke of oxen and a strong plougli, 

 with a wide shear, at the rate of one and a hiilf to two acres per 

 day. The Long Islanders who own cleared and highly cultivated 

 farms, and viho are asking from one hundred to four hundred 

 dollars per acre, for precisely the 5au)c kind of land as is now 

 offered near to the North Itlip station, 43 miles from New 

 York (much of it at twenty dollars per acre) deem this " bar- 

 ren"; still we may take a spade and dig to a deeper length of 

 good soil on the North Islip l.\iid called " barren" precisely of 

 the same dcicription as that of the highly cultivated four miles 

 il;stant,son'.e of which has been lately sold for foiT hundred 

 dollars ptr acre; still these neighbour?, from ihcT long- 

 establi.ihed prejudice against this land, are <hlen»incd it shall 

 be " barren." It seems to me impossible to make them be- 

 lieve otherwise, '"even if one lose from the dead." This 



