Conducted by ISAAC HILL. 



Published by WM. 



FOSTER. 



" Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, whose breasts he has made his peculiar dcposite fnr substarUial and genuine rir^wc. "-Jefferson. 



VOLUME 1. 



CONCORD, N. H., FEBRUARY 15, 1839. 



NUMBER 2. 



THE VISITOR, 



In no enterprise of life, in no employment, has 

 the editor of the Visitor had so much cause of self 

 satisfaction as in the experiment thus far of pub- 

 lishing this little montlily journal. From the ex- 

 perienced practical agriculturist not less than from 

 the inexperienced, from men in high statioiis as 

 well as from those in the private wnlks orfj'rfe., from 

 the rich man as from the day laborer wiio loves to 

 spend iiis evenings in reading and instruction, the 

 Visitor iias elicited praise. Our subscriptions and 

 advance payments, as well from afar as at home, 

 come in upon us almost as fast as our publislier can 

 dispose of them. Our only fear is, that our lium- 

 ble pretensions may disappoint our readers in lu- 

 ture numbers. To supply our deficiencies, our best 

 readers must become our bist writers and contribu- 

 tors. So far as selections are concerned, we pledge 

 ourselves to give the best matter according to our 

 better judgment. 



Amoncr Uic many testimonials we have received 

 from abroad, without asking it of the writer, 

 we take the liberty of publisliingtlie following com- 

 pliment, as beautiful as it is just, to the New Hamp- 

 seire Yeomanry from a son of the Granite State, 

 more eminent, and who has occupied a station in 

 the government next to the highest in the gift of 

 the people longer, than any other native citizen in 

 this State : 



" Washington, 25th January, '39. 



"Dear Sir: — I have received the first number 

 of your Monthly Visitor and beg to he considered 

 a subscriber. 



I find many matters of great interest in its pages. 

 The early pursuits of my busy life are recalled 

 to memory and numerous gratifying associations 

 have crowded upon me while perusing several of 

 tJie articles. 



I really envy your occupation. The Farmer's 

 independent employment is the true otiiim cum dis;- 

 nitate. How many of those, whom Jefferson re- 

 garded OS God's chosen race, have we both known 

 for many years in the Granite State, who are mod- 

 els of industry, honesty and sterling patriotism .' 



Lonn- may the race be preserved, and long may 

 you be enabled, by your "Visitor" as well as your 

 e.\ample, to encourage tlieir virtuous efforts and to 

 throw new light in tlic paths of them and tlieir fam- 

 ilies while seeking an houorable and useful inde- 

 pendence. Respectfully yours, 



LEVI WOODBURY. 



His Excellency Isaac Hill, Concord, N. H." 



reporting bills daily which when passed 

 come fundamental laws of the territory, 

 of the numbers we perceive that although another 

 place is fi.xed on for tlie future seat of government, 

 the new town of Burlington is expected to double 

 its dwelling houses and buildings the next year. 

 ."Vt tiie land office in Burlington, in one week of the 

 month of December last, $280,000 were received 

 for the entry of the public lands. 



fffira borders on the Upper Mississippi south- 

 westerly from ll'iscoiiidn, whose eastern line is 

 along the west slmre of Lake Michigan. Both ter- 

 ritories are stated to be exceedingly fertile and fea- 

 sible land, and much more healthy than Illinois 

 and the new country farther south. 



will be- I ed that what sliould bo given 

 By one spread over several acres 



to a single acre is 



Patrons from the CTtreme West. The growth and 

 increase of the Great West outstrips all knowl- 

 edge to be obtained from books, and seems to us 

 like a dream. A judicious emigration of young 

 men from this section to that would benefit the 

 one without injuring the otlier. The sons of our 

 contemporaries in this State are already in the new 

 States among the most distinguished men. A 

 young man from the town of Hill, self-made and 

 self-supported, who left this State only three or 

 four years since, liolds already, we believe, the of- 

 fice of Attorney General in Illinois. 



It is about three years since Wisconsin was 

 known as a place for settlement ; that territory is 

 already divided, and witiiin two years from this 

 time each division will begin as a new State with a 

 population of one hundred thousand. A promising 

 young man,a native of Deering,wholeft alawotKce 

 in thi's State about two years since, happens to re- 

 side in Burlington, the first seat of the Legislature 

 and Government of that portion of Wisconsm 

 known as the territory of Iowa. As Burlington 

 had acquired in two years a population of about 

 two thousand inhabitants, it occurred to us tiiat we 

 would send our young friend Grisies a subscrip- 

 tion paper for the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. That 

 paper has been returned witli fifteen names as sub- 

 scribers, comprising about half the members of tlie 

 two branches of the Legislature of Iowa, and witli 

 it two numbers of a newspaper containing pro- 

 cee lings of the Len-islature, by which we perceive 

 that Mr. Grimes is not only a member from his 

 County, but Chairman of the Judiciary Committee 



" M'oru-out lauds." 



The tracts of land in this country tliat may be 

 called worn out lands are becoming more and more 

 extensive. There are thousands and tliousands of 

 acres in tiie United States, and much of it in parts 

 of the country which were originally most fertile, 

 that are now considered as not worth cultivating. 

 The very best soil, that shall not he renovated by 

 natural means, as periodical overflowing and receiv- 

 ing the wash of other grounds, is most apt to run out, 

 because when such soil is first cleared its occu- 

 pants contemn the use of manures as useless. Tlie 

 inevitable effect of cultivation, without renovation, 

 is to render the best alike with the most indifferent 

 soil useless. 



Generally in most parts of New England the 

 lands have not been considered too good for the use 

 of manure ; but even among us much land is suf- 

 fered by the owners to become "worn out." Such 

 land is skinned by exliausting crops till it becomes 

 too sterile to pay for cultivation. There is no ue- 

 cessitij that any land icliieh has a hard pan for its 

 fovndation should sii§'r.r deterioration. Tlie man who 

 tnkes from the ground more of the fructifying prin- 

 ciple than he carries back, is preparing the way for 

 that kind of poverty as a farmer which will drive 

 him to obtain a liv(?lihood either to the forests of 

 the west or into some other calling. 



The farmers of New England ought to be con- 

 vinced that it is far more feasible to obtain inde- 

 pendence and an easy living from a farm that is 

 continually improving, than from one that is con- 

 tinually deteriorating. In every neighborhood may 

 ho found those who constantly improve, as there 

 arc those wlio continually impoverish their lands. 

 And it may be laid down as a general rule, that the 

 improving farm, independent of the additional val- 

 ue whicli such improvement yields, furnishes the 

 iireater immediate profit. 



The smallest farmer has it in his power equally 

 witli the largest to make continued improvement. 

 Let him begin with a single acre, if he have an 

 acre capable of retaining the strength of what he 

 applies to it. If he can obtain the means of keep- 

 ing at first two hogs, tliese two animals, with tlie 

 aid of one or more cows, may be made to furnish 

 manure that will answer very well for this acre. 

 The application for one year will prepare the ground 

 in the first instance for a crop for three years, until 

 two other acres shall hf prepared nud treated in a 

 like manner. If the soil of this land be dry and 

 .^aiidv, let clay bo applied wliere it can he procured 

 liandily : if it be wet and heavy, let sand be cart- 

 ed to it, and let it be thoroughly drained. 



The means for making manure may be found in 

 almost any direction : tufts of grass and the ujiper 

 soil from the road-side, deposites in brooks and 

 wnshings into mud holes, leaves from the forest, 

 straw, weeds, decaying vegetables, chips and scrap- 

 ings from door yards, cinders, and many other kinds 

 of'rubbish, may be thrown into the liog yard. In 

 the manufacture of manure these animals may be 

 made almost to earn their living. 



Tliere is much land in New Hampshire nomin- 

 ally valued at from ten to twenty dollars the acre, 

 but which would hardly at any time sell for so 

 much as that, which yields annually not over half 

 a ton of hay to the acre. This land, if it ever has 

 been ploughed, is suffered to run fifteen and twen- 

 ty years "without the plough until it becomes 

 I'.und down : when it is broken, tlie surface is 

 merely skimmed over, and the manure \Ti so divid- 



The same land that yields half a ton may be plac- 

 ed in such a state of cultivation as at least to pro- 

 duce two tons of good hay to the acre, and a suc- 

 cession of crops in nearly the same ratio. 



For example, apply at one time forty loads of ma- 

 nure to the single acre, and ten loads each to four 

 acres. The first year, with, nearly four timfs thft 

 work, you will have about double the quantity of 

 corn or potatoes on the larger that you have on the 

 smaller field. Say the one shall yield twenty- 

 five, and the other fifty busluls to the acre. The 

 addition of stalks and huts will pay for the addi- 

 tional labor; and with corn at one dollar a bushel 

 you will get tlie value of the highest price for the 

 additional manure for the year. The second year 

 will give you a crop of oats, or bailey, equal 

 to that of the first compared with that of the last. 

 Take the three succeeding years in tlie product of 

 hay, and the one acre will probably yield an equal 

 amount each year with tlie whole four acres ; and 

 at tlie end of that time the land receiving the great- 

 est quantity of manure will be ilia condition, with 

 ten loads of manure to each, to produce double the 

 amount per acre of the land which had the smaller 

 quantity in tlie first instance. 



With manure applied in this ratio of four to one, 

 it will be seen that the profits where the larger 

 amount of manure is applied will be far greater 

 than on the smaller application. But compare the 

 larger amount with that where there is no applica- 

 tion of manure, or where with a small amount the 

 land shall be ploughed not oftener than once in 

 twenty years ; and it will be seen that ten acres of 

 land will ill a few years become of more value than 

 a hundred ; and that while the farmer will grow 

 rich on the one, the man who can hardly deserve 

 to be called a farmer will starve on the other. 



It is hardly possible to run out land that is well 

 manured and well cultivated ; and it is possible 

 and even easy to renovate land that is considered 

 to be worn out. This may be done without manure 

 by summer tilling : even liglit worn out soils may 

 be made highly productive by ploughing in green 

 clover or buck wheat. There is land about seven 

 miles out of Boston that wo can remember as hav- 

 ing produced the largest crops more than forty years 

 ago : that land still produces the largest crops, and 

 would now sell for cultivation at the rate of three 

 to four hundred dollars the acre. Forty years ago 

 there was land along side of it that produced only 

 half a ton of hay to the acre, and other lands that 

 were considered worn out. Since that time, the 

 worn out land has been renovated ; and low mead- 

 ow lands in the vicinity have been ditched and 

 drained, so that almost the entire neighborhood ap- 

 pears as a garden. Handsome estates have been 

 made on that same land. Situated so near a vege- 

 table market, this land has an advantage over lands 

 further in the country. But far in the country, at 

 a time when almost every kind of produce sells for 

 cash and a high price, there is every encourage- 

 ment to the farmer to spur him on to the attempt 

 to increase his products by increasing the fertility 

 of his soil. 



Let every farmer keep in mind that for all land 

 that he brings into the highest state of cultivation 

 he is doubly paid : in the first instance, he obtains 

 a greater quantity of produce for the same labor 

 and expense : and in tlie second place, he doubles 

 and often trebles his capital by adding tlic full val- 

 ue to his farm. 



Reaving and Keeping Sheep. 



The late Counsellor Miller of Hanover for sev- 

 eral years before his decease on a farm of medium 

 size made his principal business the raising and 

 keeping of sheep. To this business through the 

 year and especially hi the winter season and in the 

 time of yeaning he gave his close personal atten- 

 tion. At the time we had conversation with him 

 on this subject, three years ago, he informed us 

 that of between one and two hundred lambs, he lost 

 only two that season. Without close attention and 

 system in feeding and keepin;;, the rearing of fine 

 wooled sheep will probably be a poor business ; and 

 even now the reverse in the sale and price of wool 

 has induced many farmers to sell their flocks, and 



