32 



Raisins; Wheal on Mountain Ground, 8,'C. 



Vol. IV. 



Kaising WUeat witli Profit ork Mountain 

 Ground* 



%. few years ng'o Col. Moses Learned pur- 

 chased a considerable tract of land on Black 

 Mountain in Piermont, attlie distance of about 

 five miles from Connecticut river : for this 

 land he paid one dollar the acre. In the year 

 183.5, on twenty acres newly cleared by chop- 

 ping and burning, he raised .500 bushels of 

 wheat, averaging twenty-five bushels to the 

 acre. In 18.37, on thirty- seven acres of the 

 same kind of clearing, and about five acres 

 of old cultivated ground, he raised 10S4 bush- 

 els of wheat, averaging more than twenty-five 

 bushels to the acre. In 1838, his crop of 

 wheat was upwards of 700 bushels, of which 

 was twenty-nine acres of the new ground, 

 which averaged nineteen bushels to iheacre. 

 The present year (1839) he has growing 

 twenty-three acres of wheat on the new 

 groimd, and five acres upon the tilled ground ; 

 and he has the trees chopped of twenty-five 

 acres of heavy wooded land for a crop the 

 next season. 



We have ascertained, that of the golden 

 fields which we saw in New Hampshire, from 

 the mountains of Vermont, the most promi- 

 nent, because the largest, was the clearing 

 of Col. Learned upon the Black Monntnin. — 

 The experiment and the enterprise of this 

 gentleman are worthy of extensive notice. — 

 His crop of wheat in 1837 was 1084 bushels. 

 This wheat, taking into consideration the en- 

 tiro expense of clearing the land, fencing the 

 ground, furnishing the seed, reaping and con- 

 veying to the barn, the straw paying for 

 threshing, cost precisely and no more than 

 eighty-three cents the bushel. On this crop 

 that year the Messrs. Learned (the father and 

 son arc joint owners of the farm) made a 

 clear gain of eight hundred dollars. To this 

 profit may be added the improvement of the 

 land. Tlie cost in its wild state was one 

 dollar the acre. Cleared and laid down to 

 pasture, the land is worth at least ten dollars 

 the acre. No part of the growth on this new 

 land was saved either for timber of fuel — the 

 whole wood was consumed. Col. Learned 

 paid for the clearing ten dollars the acre. — 

 The increasf^d value of the land, without the 

 crop, it will bo no extravairancc to say, will 

 pay for both the original cost and clearing; 

 and this too upon mountain ground where the 

 forest irrowthis of more value for the manure 

 of its ashes on the spot than for any other use. 

 Add the increased value of the ground, ready 

 for further profitable use, and the gain of this 

 operation in a single year, was nearly twelve 

 hundred dollar a ! 



Spring wheat was the kind exclusively 

 sowed by the Messrs. Learned : no crop can 

 be more certain tiian this kind of wheat on 

 newly burnt ground. Col. L. prefers, in- 



stead of the common method of chopping in 

 the month of June when the leaves are in 

 full growth, that the trees should be felled in 

 the preceding fall, winter or early spring 

 while the snow is not deep: from the lonn-er 

 drying he obtains a more perfect burn. The 

 kinds of wheat he has hitherto used are the 

 common bearded wheat and the bald or tea 

 wheat. The present season he has growing 

 a portion of the Black Sea wheat. 



REMEDY FOR THE SMUT. 



He mentions a safe, an easy, and perfect 

 remedy for smut, which he has successively 

 tried. For each bushel of seed wheat, he 

 takes two ounces of blue vitriol dissolved in 

 two quarts of water. This generally will dry 

 of itself when applied to the bushel of wheat, 

 which may be .sowed either the same day it 

 is applied, or at any time within a week. — 

 Seed wheat already smutty should be washed 

 clean before the preparation is applied; and 

 the quantity of two ounces of vitriol to each 

 bushel, should be dissolved in as small a quan- 

 tity of water as possible. Smutty seed thus 

 prepared will propagate but the merest trifle 

 of smut in the subsequent crop. 



THRESHING BY HORSE f'OWER. 



Col. Learned, as do most of the extensive far- 

 mers on Connecticut river their small grains, 

 threshes his wheat with horse power, generally 

 after the fall work is completed. Jt will be 

 seen from the quantity of wheat he has raised, 

 in the course of four years he has cleared on 

 that crop the price of a valuable farm. His ex- 

 perience has demonstrated that wheat may 

 be raised in the mountain region of New 

 Hampshire with quite as large remuneration 

 for the labor, as can be obtained in the famed 

 wheat regions of the west. — Farmers' M. 

 Visitor. 



Causes of Seeds txot Germinating. 



Witliout a certain degree of moisture seeds 

 will not germinate. On dry sandy soils, and 

 in a dry season, it seems highly probable, then, 

 that seeds may be deprived of the requisite 

 degree of moisture. But the seeds may have 

 jrerininated, and commenced to send out their 

 roots and stem stalks, and yet be destroyed. 

 ff the soil is not pressed closely to the seeds, 

 and vrry dry weather occurs just at this pe- 

 riod of tlie process of germination, the root 

 being too distinct from the soil, and too feeble 

 to draw any supply of moisture, the liquid 

 food of the plant contained in the fermented 

 seed may be dried up, and the life thus de- 

 stroyed. 



If you would avoid disappointment and loss 

 from seeds failinir to grow, the preventive 

 process is indicated by a knowledge of the 

 causes most freciuently productive of this re- 

 I suit, which we think are those stated above. 



