36 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Ftir Itie Farmer's Monthly ViBitnr. 



Csncord, March 5, 1S39. 

 To the EfUior of the Visitor : 



We have had the pleasure of reading the Visitor. 

 We think it would be welcome to the fire-side of 

 every firmer in New Hampshire. You have es- 

 poused the higiiest interest of the Granite State. 

 Vonr walks among- lier mountains, hills and rivers 

 will he interesting- and instructive. There is a rich 

 variety in her native scenery, which will not es- 

 cape your notice. Your great object is to bear the 

 means ofstill greater improvements among the cul- 

 tivated fields and meadows, orchards and wood 

 lands, and to every household ; and while you come 

 home to the interests of all in regard to agriculture, 

 you will speak of those customs and prejudices that 

 come in the way of improvements. Ycu may stand 

 at the head of a successful revolution in society. 

 Change must coine. It will raise up thi? heads of 

 many, and lower the heads of a few. Time was, 

 when the lines seemed broad and deep. But you 

 have measured the distance between the difierent 

 occupations ; and they are placed on a level. In 

 every department, you find industry and persever- 

 ance of more importance than affected dignity and 

 the trappings of wealth: And what have been cal- 

 led the higher walks of life, will 3'et be found a- 

 mong well cultivated farms. Here will be the seat 

 of the true philosopher. His summer walks will 

 be among trees that give iruit as well as shade. His 

 theories vv-ill rest on experience and will be suited 

 to the practical operations of life. Go on with the 

 means of light and reform, and nullify the power of 

 college faculties to confer deeds uf privilege. At 

 leasts we whould sf e A. for Agjiculturist, and M. 

 for Mechanick in the spelling books for our chil- 

 dren, as well as A. M. t"or Master of Arts. Thcv 

 must know the diifercnce between Doctor of divin- 

 ity and Bible divinity — betv.-een Doctor of laws and 

 equal laws or customs. We wish to see the rough 

 places made smooth — the vali;es raised up, and the 

 mountains brought low. We ask what is right, 

 and we will submit tonotlnng wrong. 



You may hear again from 



Hic Yovng Farmer of the Mountains. 



For the P;irr-:ei's Monthly Visitor. 



Korlhavipton^ Mass. March 4, 1S39. 



Hon. Isaac Hill — Dear Sir.—l have received 

 the first two numbers of the Monthly Visitor this 

 day, and given them a h;isty perusal, and am satis- 

 fied that 1 shall be able to give them a thorough re- 

 perusal with both pleasure and profit. I am pleased 

 that you have commenced in earnest to call tlie at- 

 tention of the farmers of the Granite State to the 

 subject o? Root Crops. I have fed them all winter, 

 and have an abundant supply to carry me tlirough, 

 and could not think nf keeping stock witliont them. 

 Although for the last two years I have raised both 

 sugar beet and ruta bagas, 1 am not decided whicii 

 to give the preference. I am inclined, however, 

 to give it to the bagas. I consider them equal to 

 the beets, and they are raised with about half the 

 labor. 



As to the inquiry in your last, which is best for 

 the sugar beet, a northern or a southern climate, I 

 have conversed with several scientific gentlemen 

 who are acquainted with the business, and who agree 

 that the hccts arc found to cuntahi mure saccharine 

 matter in the north than in the south of France. We 

 have a factory in operation in this town on a limit- 

 ed scale. As the gentlemon concerned have been 

 at the expense of a tour to Europe for information, 

 &c. they i)old " secret sessions," in hopes, if they 

 succeed, that the public will remunerate them, as 

 they ought, for the expense they have incurred. 

 They have from fifty to one hundred tons of beets 

 on the works, nnd I am in iiopes to see some of 

 their sugarin market soon. 



On the subject of sheep, I see no notice of anv 

 in the Visitor but the fine wool. When meats were 

 low and wool high, these were undoubtedly best, 

 for those who raise wool to sell. But at the price 

 of meats for the last three or four years, I think the 

 Bakewells decidedly the most profitable for the far- 

 mer who keeps only a small flock. They shear 

 from five to ten lbs — the wool sells for thirty-seven 

 and a Iialf cents at the carpet factories, but I con- 

 sider it worth more than fifty cents to work into 

 eatinelts or other goods. I have a full blood buck. 

 His weight is 230 lbs ; also fifty half blood ewes. 

 They are very hearty sheep. I have never lost one 

 by disease. I wear the cloth from this flock both 

 in the barn-yard and at cliurch, and should continue 

 to do Ro if the "protective .system" was abandoned. 

 Vnurs respectfully, 



H. FERRY. 



Improved Cultivation of Farms, 



[From a Report made by the Kditorof the Monthly 

 Visitor, on Farms, to tlie Merrimack County 

 Agricultural Society, Oct. 18, 1838.] 

 In the rapid march of improvement exhibited by 

 the United States of North America the cultivation 

 of the ground is the first great moving cause. Com- 

 pared with this, every other occupation sinks into 

 insignificance, because without this all others would 

 wither, droop and die. Disasters and failures liave 

 recently been round about and among us : but in 

 all the mutations and changes, in all the blastirrgs 

 of disappointed hopes, few who have relied on real 

 production, en procuring wealth from the soil, can 

 be said to have participated. 



Our agriculture is yet in its infancy; it is but as 

 the bud which is to grow into a tree of many 

 branches. Our purpose should be to cherish and 

 nurture the tree, wliich in our day may bear much 

 useful fruit, and in the days of our children will 

 undoubtedly yield in all desirable abundance. 



Wo need not go beyond the limits of our own 

 Granite State — so named for Its soil of rough unc- 

 venness — to find all those desirable elements which 

 cause the earth to "produce in abundance, susten- 

 ance for man and beast. No ether country of the* 

 world — not even the fertile tracts of the recently 

 settled and fast settling West — furnishes greater 

 inducements for the former than does this State. 

 Shrewd and calculating men who have pursued 

 other professions than that of the farmer — the wis- 

 est of our learned men, our merchants, mechanics 

 and sermcn, purchase land and lay hold of its cul- 

 tivation v/ith a zeal which shows that interest as 

 well as the gratification of a laudable desire of im- 

 provement prompts to the undertaking. 



In this most desirable of employments, let the 

 motto and the march of the County of Merrimack 

 be "onward." We can scarcely realize in imag- 

 inary anticipation the means of wealth that lie be- 

 neath and upon our surface : Not a foot of our 

 ground but may be adapted to some useful and 

 profitable purpose — not an effort of our hands but 

 may be applied to some laudable use. 



The farmer will best consult his own present good, 

 not by wearing out his land by an exhausting crop, 

 but by raising the best present crop having in viev.- 

 the preparation of his land for an improved future 

 crop. 



A few simple principles will be found to have 

 led our best farmers onto victory in the occupation 

 which has distinguished them. When I speak of 

 a good farmer I mean a man, whellier he be a large 

 or a small faringr, who procures a livelihood from 

 the ground wliich he cultivates, and who shows 

 that ground each succeeding 3'ear to be improving 

 m its condition. In regard to cultivation the sim- 

 ple principles to which I have alluded may be laid 

 down under three heads; and the suggestion will 

 i:ot be esteenii'd more ligiitly for liavlng come from 

 other and wiser heads than mine : Tht^e tln-ee 

 heads are, 



1. Keep the soil wkll fed. 2. Keei' it 

 CLEAN. 3. Keep it dry. 



1. Keep the soil iccll fed. It is perhaps a mis- 

 taken notion that just so much aliment must be put 

 upon the soil from year to year as shall be taken 

 otf ; that if a bushul of wheat, or Indian corn, or 

 ton of ii;iy be abstracted, the same or an equal a- 

 mount of nutritive matter shall be returned. If 

 th's were the fact, tlie expense of increased pro- 

 duction might amount to the full value of the in- 

 crease. On the contrary we find the most steril 

 worn out soils capable almost of self renovation. 

 The principle of self rennvation is seen in most 

 newly cleared lands, for tliese ncwlv cleared lands 

 from the decay of their own vegetation become e- 

 q'.ially fertile with the most hlglily manured soils. 

 We see the same lU'incijjlcbpcrating from summer 

 tilling land which is comparatively light and barren 

 by ploughing in STiccessively a crop of clover or 

 other growth. 



Renovation of the soil kept up will not require 

 the application in kind of an amount of richness e- 

 quul to the substance taken away. Many of the 

 excellent pastures upon our hills to the tops of our 

 mountains are none the poorer for turning off fat 

 cattle year after year where even- the plough can- 

 not be npplied for the purpose of improvement. 



That soil may be said to be well fed whose latent 

 powers are brought into action by the application 

 of such substance, whether it be manure from the 

 yard or stable, or of animal, mineral or vegetable 

 matter, as shall be best adapted to it. It is well 

 known that some kinds of soil are much stronger 

 than other kinds. A sandy soil will not as long re- 

 tain the use of manure from the barn yard asastiffer 

 cla}- soil, or soil of deep vegetable mould ; but it is 

 very likely that by adding clay or some other sub- 

 stance to the soil which is so deficient in that pe- 



culiar quality, the sandy soil may be made to pro. 

 duce and retain the value of the manure equal to 

 the stifter soil. There is scarcely a doubt in my 

 mind that there are beds of soil beneath the sur- 

 face bearing a resemblanre to clay, by some de- 

 nominated marl, that may be applied to much of our 

 sandy, light soil, and alter exposure to the air of 

 one or more seasons will make that among our 

 most productive, as it generally is our easiest soil 

 for cultivation. On the other hand, it has been 

 demonstrated by gentlemen in my own neighbor- 

 hood, that the application of simple sand witli a 

 coat of straw or hard wood chips has turned a bar- 

 ren morass into a fine mowing field producing 

 from two to three tons of the best English hay to 

 the acre. 



It is thus evident that feeding of the soil is not 

 simply tlie application of ailment in kind of the a- 

 niouut taken away ; non'^ of our soil requires this, 

 although it is evident enough that most kinds of 

 animal and vegetable matters in volume arc greatly 

 beneficial to all lands. 



Plaster^ pulverized honc^ lime^ marl and ash- 

 es, are great feeders of the soil. Plaster acts with 

 more potency alone on a light, than on a heavy 

 soil: it is believed that it will act with no less pow- 

 er on a heavy soil when that shall receive the ad- 

 ditional stimulant of stable and other v/aruiing veg- 

 etable manures. Lime and perhaps pulverized 

 bone best acts on tJiat soil most infused with vege- 

 table and other matters, which without a caustic ap- 

 plication will not easily undergo fermentation. 

 The same principle in marl operating on the soil 

 produces fertility ; and ashes probably cause the 

 earth to which it is applied to become light and 

 permeable so as to throw off a greater quantity of 

 vegetation. 



Deep pl'jughing., which in my opinion may be re- 

 commended in all soils, ma}' be even treated as a 

 feeding of the soil ; for however this deep plough- 

 ing may turn up an npparently more barren sub- 

 soil, as gravel where the sub-soil is pan, and a more 

 yellow mould where there is no pan, it is evident 

 that much of what is cnlled worn out land may be 

 renovated and renewed by deep ploughing alone. 

 The new soil may not, and probably does not dis- 

 cover much good effect the first year ;, but if the 

 operation be closely marked, it will, I think, be 

 found in the second and subsequentyears, thatnew 

 life and vigor will be imparted to vegetation on the 

 worn out soil. I have seen in a late agricultural 

 publication tlie pictorial representation of a plough, 

 calculated without turning it over to act on the sub- 

 soil below the mould or upper soil ; and I have 

 somewhere seen it mentioned that the stirring up 

 this sub-soil Is found to liave a most salutary effect 

 on cultivation. 



Thus it will be seen thn.t feeding of the sail me^ns 

 not simply the applicatlcn of the common forcing 

 manures, but any and every application which 

 shall be calculated to bring into action the powers 

 of mother earth, to the depth of twelve or even 

 twenty inches. It may be, and I think will be 

 hereafter demonstrated, that worn out lands as 

 they are called, which have never been ploughed 

 deeper than four, six or eight inches, have all the 

 elements of their original fertility in the next four, 

 six and eight Inches beneath. 



2. The soil should be Kept dean. Tender this head 

 I am sorry that my own premises presented to the 

 gentlemen associated with me on the viewingcom- 

 mittee no very commendable example ; and it pains 

 me, gentlemen, to inform you that at the time of 

 harvesting, my corn and potatoe fields exhibited 

 some hog-weeds and Roman wormwood whinli if 

 they had been cultivated for that purpose, might 

 have been entitled to a premium. The fault in my 

 case was that of four fifths of our farmers — the- hoe- 

 ins icas ''^ot thorough — the infant weeds were not 

 hoed up, pulled up, or covered over, so that some 

 escaped each and every time tlie ground was gone 

 over. I would gladly set the example myself, and 

 infuse into my workmen the spirit lo eradicate in 

 my cultivated fields the enemy which without do- 

 ing other benefit than propagate its kind takes an 

 almost equal amount of aliment from the ground 

 as the crop which is of value. If I could be present all 

 the time, I would make it a point to "reprove, re- 

 buke and exhort" on this subject till the weeds 

 were extirpated. In so doing, I should not only do 

 my own premises the most essential service, but I 

 should consider the example worthy of an exhibi- 

 tion to tlie farmers of my neighborhood. I may 

 be indulged to say, that my own kitchen garden, 

 nearly if not quite exclusively under the cultiva- 

 tion of my own hands, while engaged daily in the 

 duties of the public office I now hold and In the 

 sitting of the legislature, consisting of nearly half 

 an acre, was during the summer of 1837, kept quite 

 clean of weeds, so tliat none went to eetid ; and 



