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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



is a great check to sobriety in some districts of England. 

 Education does not seem to make so much advance as could be 

 ■wished, and on this point there are mauy who enter- 

 tain doubts whether our present schools are quite satisfactory. 

 There is so much of practical education in the field, that one 

 may sometimes question whether the children are not there 

 learning the best lessons of their daily life. Besides, the 

 children's wage is so important a portion of the weekly earn- 

 ings, that parents are naturally tempted to grasp the present 

 good, rather than the future benefit of education. Ij there 

 not also much in what Mr. Norris (one of Her Majesty's in- 

 spectors of schools) bays as to school-teachers : "The ignoraoce 

 of agriculture, and indeed of nearly all the subjects connected 

 with country life, betrayed by the young teachers that now 

 come from our training-schools, is deeply to be regretted. No 

 book-knowledge of chemistry, or of the theory of agriculture, 

 compensates for the want of familiarity with the actual routine 

 of farm and garden work." After expressing his regret that 

 we were still disgraced by the hiring of farm-servants at 

 statutes, and denouncing the hideous sin and dissipation by 

 which they are characterised, Mr. Dent thus concluded his 

 lecture : I speak warmlj^ of these statutes, and I have been 

 told that I aiB one of these who would deprive the poor farm- 

 servants, who never sees any change, and leads a life of 

 monotonous labour all the year, of his only holiday, where he 

 may meet his friends. Not I, indeed ! There are plenty of 



opportunities, and we might easily make more for rural m erry- 

 making and social gatherings. Every village in the north, 

 that I know, has its old annual feast, too often, formerly I 

 own, a scene of drunken jollity, but which might be made a 

 time of pleasant family gatherings and happy meetings, if we 

 had fewer ale-houses, and if those in a higher rank would not 

 stand aloof, but join in the amusements of their poorer neigh- 

 bours. And both this year and last, successful efforts have been 

 made to have harvest-homes on a large scale, when a day, com- 

 menced by thanksgiving to God for his bounty, has been closed 

 by a happy afternoon, with plenty of good cheer and merriment 

 for all. I was much pleased to see it stated that at several of 

 these meetings, where the men had as much ale as they liked, 

 there were few, if auy, intoxicated ; they were too well amused 

 to wish to drink, and this is what we should aim at in our 

 village-feasts and harvest-homes, by giving men plenty to do 

 to occupy their bodies and their minds so well that they need 

 not drown their senses in liquor. Far better this, than meet- 

 ings to give premiums for long services ; and if the farmer will 

 but try to make his farm more comfortable for his servants, 

 and, witl out lowering his own position, take a more active 

 and kindly interest in their welfare, we shall hear less of these 

 annual partings, and there will be more care and interest 

 taken in the master's work — more happiness and virtue in the 

 servant's life. 



THOROUGH-BRED DEVONS.— VISIT TO THE WAINWRIGHT HERD. 



" The Meadows" is the name appropriately bestowed 

 Upon his stock-farm, near Rhioebeck, N. Y., by Mr. 

 Charles S. Wainwright, one of our most prominent 

 Devon breeders. Beautifully situated upon the ^eastern 

 bank of the Hudson River, in a healthy region well 

 wooded and watered, with the soil naturally fertile, the 

 farm is both especially adapted to the purposes of the 

 stock grower, and attractive to the country gentleman. 



It comprises 340 acres of land, the greater part of 

 which is a heavy clay, resting upon a yellow clay sub- 

 soil, that is, perhaps, 20 feet deep, and which so tena- 

 ciously holds water that a thorough system of under- 

 draining is needed to elevate its temperature, and make 

 it permanently productive. These heavy clays, when 

 drained, are generally found to be the most valuable 

 lands, not only for grain crops, but for meadows and pastures 

 as well ; but if the excess water be not removed, evaporation 

 from the surface in spring reduces the temperature so as to 

 check the early growth of the crop , organic acids are formed, 

 which promote the growth of sorrel and other weeds, and act 

 unfavourably upon grain ; while in summer, the excessive eva- 

 poration of water causes the ground to open in a multitude of 

 cracks ; and in winter, the water in the tenacious soil being 

 rapidly frozen, and as rapidly thawed, the crop is thrown out, 

 and often seriously damaged. 



Of the 310 acres in the farm, at least 200 lie in one body, 

 as smooth as a western prairie, and all laid down to meadow 

 — from which circumstance the name of the place is derived. 

 No piece of laud could be more suited to the mowing-machine; 

 for the surface is free from stones, not cut up by ditches, and 

 the grass throughout the whole tract is generally even and 

 luxuriant. On the occasion of our visit a portion of this 

 meadow was being ditched for tile drains, of which Mr. Wain- 

 wright has already laid five miles, in addition to the same 

 length of stone drains ; and he is now about putting down 

 10,000 tiles as a first instalment on the westerly portion of 

 the meadow. It if, we believe, his intention to extend the 

 system of thorough drainage over the whole place, doing a 

 certain portion each eeasou as his force of men may be at 

 leisure. The stone drains were laid some ten years ago, when 

 tile could not not be obtained nearer than at Waterloo, a dis- 

 tance ot 300 miles from the farm. The opening of the ditches 

 is greatly expedited by the use of a surface plough, and 

 Thomas's draining plough — a simple but effective Eiibsoiler 

 that disturbs the soil at a depth of twenty inches or so beneath 

 the surface. In half-a-day, with two mea and two pair of 



horses, Mr. Wainwright started drains for 9,000 tiles, one 

 spit deep, leaving the remainder to be dug with the draiuing- 

 spade. 



Two acres of land are devoted to the production of roots, 

 for the winter feed of the stock. The produce of the two 

 acres had been as high as 1,200 bushels, and might be made 

 still more. The manure used is common barn-yard ; but for 

 seeding oats and wheat, and top-dressing grass, guano ia 

 applied, to give a good start to grain in autumn and grass in 

 spring, because of the cold, wet nature of the laud, which has 

 a tendency to retard their growth. 



In England, the farmers on heavy clays have of late years 

 universally adopted a '•clod-crusher" for pulverizing the lumpy 

 surface of their fields, and making it into a good seed bed. 

 Received, ac first, with the characteristic prejudice of English- 

 men against any innovations, the cumbrous machine has 

 crushed opposition, and rolled its way into general favour. 

 This has not been accomplished in a abort time; it has been 

 the work of years : and yet, while we have millions ol acres 

 of heavy clay lands that are excessively hard to plough, harrow, 

 cultivate, and hoe, there are scarcely two-score of clod-crushers 

 lu use among us. One was sent out here to the New York 

 World's Fair by Ctosskill, but returned unappreciated, although 

 it doubtless was seen by hundreds of farmers to whom it 

 would have proved a treasure. Well, the moral of all this ia 

 that Mr. Wainwright was not insensible to the virtues of this 

 clod-crusher; for when, in 1851, he heard that Mr. Thomas 

 Burrall, of Geneva, had determined to get up a set of patterns, 

 he straightway ordered the first crusher, and thus had, we 

 think, the honour of being the first to use the implement in 

 this country. He now says he has received so much profit 

 from its use, that if uusupplied, and one could not be procured 

 here, he would send out to England and buy one, even at the 

 English price of 200 d. The American price of the machine 

 is only 50 to 60 dollars, and on a clay farm it will crush the 

 clods so as to leave no lump as large as a hen's egg. On a 

 piece of winter wheat at " The Meadows, " strips of land were 

 " rolled" and "crushed" in alternate pieces, to test the merits 

 of the clod-crusher. The result was that, until the ground 

 was covered V ith snow, a person could readily distinguish 

 from a distance even the lands that had been " crushed," from 

 the much greater luxuriance of the crop. The crusher weighs 

 about l,0001bs,, and consists of twelve coarse- toothed rollers 

 about 3 feet in diameter, revolving with a shaft that turns in 

 the frame to which the horses are attached. The rollers are a 

 few inches wide on their rim, and cast heavy enough to bj 

 durable. The whole machine ia about 8 feet in width. 



