THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



41 



THE CUIiTIVATOK. 



[Fig. 12.] 



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The Cultivator is an implement tliat is coming into very general use, and]beets, &c. and is very valuable for the cultivation of hops 

 serves in many cases in lieu of hoeing. The teeth are so constructed as to saving machine 

 lighten the ground and effectually root up and destroy the weeds. This in- 

 strument runs beautifully between rows of corn, potatoes, ruta baga, carrots, 



We obtained one of the above Cultivators of Stephen 

 Greenland, N. H. They may be had of Ellis & Bosson, B 

 Hutchins, Concord, N. H. 



It is a great labor- 

 Pickering, Ksq. of 

 oston, and of Levi 



Experiments. 



All the practical and useful arts are founded up- 

 on facts. Agriculture is pre-eminently so. All 

 true science in agriculture in the process of induc- 

 tion consists in inferences drawn from well ascer- 

 tained and established facts. Theories in this case, 

 however elaborate and fine-spun, are of little or no 

 value, excepting as the application or proof of them 

 may lead to the eliciting and multiplying facts, 

 which tljemsclvcs will lead to important practical 

 rules. As the great orator of antiquity said, in regard 

 to the importance of action to the public speaker, so 

 we say of the importance of facts to tlie farmer. If 

 he would excel in his art," if he would extend the 

 knowledge of his art, if he would advance its pow- 

 er and productions, let him remember that facts, 

 facts, facts, must be the great object of his inquiry. 



Now experiments are so valuable in agriculture 

 that we do not fear to be thought by the intelligent 

 too iianort"j;riate in continually urging tliem upon 

 liie farmers. It does not require a large farm or a 

 great capital to make experiments which might 

 prove highly instructive and useful. The smallest 

 farmer may make on his premises experiments from 

 which the greatest benefits may flow to the whole 

 community ; and in respect to some of the most 

 important experiments yet to be made in agricul- 

 ture,on which the solution of great questions in re- 

 lation to crops, seeds, manures, modes of planting 

 and cultivation, modes of harvesting, saving and 

 use ; a farm often acres or even less, may be as 

 sufficient as a hundred or a thousand acres. In 

 deed, any intelligent farmer upon reflection will 

 perceive at once that every agricultural operation 

 whicli he performs, is in itself an experiment. In 

 preparing, manuring, and sowing his fields with 

 any crop in any season, he is making an agricul- 

 tural experiment ; and if he will carefully observe 

 and note every step in the process of cultivation, 

 and the progress of vegetable growth, the facts 

 which he observes may prove highly useful, and 

 may elicit some valuable truths. 



Much discredit has been brought upon what is 

 called experimental agriculture from circumstan- 

 ces which ought to be avoided, or should be more 

 considered. In making an experiment, the first 

 point of importance is to attend to all the circum- 

 stances in the case, by whicli the result can possi- 

 bly be aftected. In the application of plaster, for 

 example, we want to know the quantity, the con- 

 dition of the plaster, the mode of its application ; 

 for example, whether it is to be applied on the sur- 

 face, under the surface ; on the top of the plant ; 

 at the roots of tiie plant alone, or mixed with ash- 

 es ; if so, cruJe or spent ashes, or with manure, if 

 so, v.-hat kind of manure ; what kind of soil, wet or 

 dry ; what the season of the year ; what the state 

 of the weather; what the condition of the plant to 

 which applied ; what kind of plant ; what the ef- 

 fects observed ; much or little ; immediate or late, 

 what the character or effect ; increasing the growth 



or stalk ; increasing the amount of rain ; forward- 

 ing or delaying the ripening ; cost of plaster ; q\ian- 

 tity used; expense of its application, and other in- 

 quiries which will at once suggest themselves. 

 Then again, we wish to know whether the i-xperi- 

 ment has or has not been repeated ; and if so, 

 whether the same or different efllects have result- 

 ed; and we wish to know whether the effects rep- 

 resented to have resulted from its application have 

 been tested by leaving a part of the field and crop 

 in the same circumstances, to which plaster was 

 not applied, and with which the plastered part 

 might directly and fairly be compared. 



An enterprising farmer took us into his wheat 

 field this season to show the powerful and benefi- 

 cial effects of lime, which he had spread upon it, 

 and wished us to compare his wheat with a neigh- 

 bor's field near at hand. But now what were the 

 c-.rcumstsnces of the experiment, and how far were 

 they conclusive ? Here was a growth of Italian 

 wheat ; this could not be denied ; and the field of 

 his neighbor was clearly much inferior to it ; but 

 this did not decide the efficacy of the lime. Was 

 this field manured the previous year.' yes, abun- 

 dantly with barn manure ; was the lime applied a- 

 lone ■" no, mixed with wood ashes ; was there any 

 part of the field which was not so dressed.' no, it 

 was all served alike ; was his neighbor's field ma- 

 nured for I the present or preceding crop .' not 

 known ; was the same quantity and the same kind 

 of wheat sowed by his neighbor as himself.' the 

 same kind, but judged only half tlie quantity to the 

 acre. We pursued the inquiry no farther. The 

 experiment, though deemed so decisive, in fact 

 proved nothing ; and the important questions 

 whether the superiority of the product to that of 

 his neighbor was owing to the previous crop, or to 

 the lime, or to the ashes with which thalime was 

 mixed, or "to the greater quantity of seed, were en- 

 tirely unsettled. We give this example by way of 

 illustrating the subject. 



For tlie K.iniier's Monthly Visilor. 

 Df,,ir SiK ; — I have seen the first number of the 

 Farmer's Monthly Visitor, and hail it as a work 

 well calculated to exert an influence favorable to 

 our agricultural interests. While farming has been 

 universally acknowledged to be a business of para- 

 mount importance, there has hitherto existed a ve- 

 ry strong prejudice against bouk farming, and this 

 prejudice has prevented our periodicals, which have 

 been devoted to the interests of agriculture, from 

 receiving that attention and patronage which many 

 of thcin°have justly deserved. But I believe this 

 prejudice is becoming somewhat weakened, and 

 that many of our farmers are becoming convinced 

 that complete perfection in every part of their art 

 has not yet 'ueen attained. Several have ventured 

 to acknowledge tliat the art of liusbandry may hare 

 been improved.'withiu the last fifty years, and that 

 it is possibly suscf j>Uble of etiU further improve- 



ment. I have known some few, who have even 

 dared to deviate from the steps of their fathers and 

 grandfatliers, and who have been rewarded for 

 their temerity. I have known one man in my 

 neighborhood venture to plant corn upon a piece 

 of pine-plain land, whose father had interdicted 

 every other crop but rye, and had reaped that grain 

 from it for nearly forty years in succession. And 

 what was the result .' Many truly had prophesied 

 that he could not get his seed. But the harvest- 

 ing of seventy-five bushels of corn from the acre, 

 in the end, proved them to be false prophets. True, 

 some manure was carried upon the land. But this 

 was as much an innovation as the planting it with 

 corn, for it had never before received any, and it 

 had been supposed that all manure carried upon 

 such land might as well be thrown into the lake. 



But I did not take my pen to descant upon the 

 comparative advantages of different methods of 

 husbandry, nor upon the importance of periodicals 

 devoted to agriculture. Mine at the present time 

 is a much more humble office. It is to offer a few 

 remarks upon the 

 Manageineut of Poultry, particularly Hens. 



Tlie convenience of having fresh-laid eggs in 

 winter may be estimated, by most families, by con- 

 trast — that is, by the want, and by the difficulty of 

 obtaining them. While most families are in the 

 habit of keeping hens, very few are so fortunate 

 as to get any fresh-laid eggs from them after about 

 the first of October till Marcli, and sometimes not 

 until April. Now there are two causes which ope- 

 rate to prevent hens from laying during this peri- 

 od. 



First, the early part of autumn fowls moult, or 

 cast their feathers, and till they are reproduced, n» 

 feeding or attention will cause them to lay. But 

 the interruption from this cause is of short dura- 

 tion. Their feathers will be reproduced in a few 

 weeks, and, with proper attention, they may bi*cx- 

 pected to commence laying some time in Decem- 

 ber, or, at latest, by tlie" first of January. In 

 some cases they will commence laying in Novem- 

 ber. The second cause, or that which operates to 

 prevent their laying after their feathers are regrown, 

 is of a different nature, and relates wholly to their 

 keeping. In the first place, the ground is usually 

 covered with snow during this period, and fowls 

 are, consequently, prevented from gathering 

 pebblos,bones, and other calcareous matters, to fur- 

 nish materials for shells, without which they will 

 not lay. To remove this obstacle, gravel, bones 

 burnt and broken into small pieces, old lime mor- 

 tar or plastering beaten up, should be placed where 

 the fowls may have easy access to it. Besides this 

 the shells of all the eggs used during the summer, 

 should be saved to be fed to the hens during the 

 winter. They prefer them to lime in any other 

 state, and will eat tlu m to a certain extent in pref- 

 erence to corn, or any other food. Without access 

 to lim6 in some shape in greater quantities than it 



