42 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



exists in the grains usuaHy feci to hens, they will 

 not lay. Another cause, which prevents hens lay- 

 ing in the winter, is their short keeping. The 

 scanty pittance of a handful of corn or oats, once 

 or twice a day, altiiough it may keep them alive, 

 will not answer tlie purpose. Hens will not lay 

 when very ])Oor, and to keep tiiein in order they 

 should have food constantly before them ; and they 

 should not only have food, but ilrink too. If they 

 have not constant access to water, viarin water 

 .should be set liofore tliem at least twice, ortlirice a 

 day. Hens sliould, also, be kept durinfr tlie win- 

 ter under a warm shelter. As good e^gs would 

 freeze and bijr.sl open, nest-eg^s should be provided 

 for the winter, by blowing out the contents of sev- 

 eral eggs and replacing them by sand, or ashes, and 

 then paste white paper upon the ends. During 

 very cold weather, the nests should be visited sev- 

 eral times in llie course of the day, that the eggs 

 may be taken away befere they are frozen. Hens 

 will never eat their eggs if they are properly fed 

 and watered. 



If you wisli to hive fresh eggs during the fall 

 while your hens are re-producing their feathers, 

 yoa iiave only to save some of your chickens whicli 

 come out in March or April, and keep them well, 

 Ml J as they do not moult the first year, they will 

 !i ive sufficient age to begin to lay as early as your 

 (dd liens cease laying. In this way you may se- 

 cure for your family fresh-laid eggs during the 

 whole year. 



Besides the convenience of having, fresh-laid 

 eggs at all seasons, more attention to our fowls 

 generally, would be a matter of economy. If trea- 

 ted as I have recommended, I venture to say, (for 

 I speak from experience,) that twice as many eggs 

 would be had from the same number of liens in the 

 course of the year, as are obtained witli the ordi- 

 nary attention, while the expense of keeping would 

 be but very little enhanced. 



That the theme of this communication is a hum- 

 hie one, I am well aware, and yet I flatter myself 

 that it is one which is not eutirely destitute of in- 

 terest to the lovers of good pies^ cakes, and pud- 

 dino-s. T. 



Burlington, Vt. Jan. 24, 1S3[). 



P. S. Since the above was written, I have 

 again had an opportunity of seeing the first num- 

 ber of the Farmer's Visitor, and have read an arti- 

 cle wliicli 1 did not before see, on the subject of 

 eggs and poultry, and I am happy to find tiie views 

 of the writer so fully in accordance with my own. 



Farming in Ulerrimack County. 



[From fluv. Hill's Report on Farms.] 

 A history of the rise and progress of each and 

 every enltivated plat of ground in the country, 

 with the time of its commencement, the various 

 crops it lias produced, and the profit that has been 

 derived, would lie interesting to tiie present gener- 

 ation and to posterity. Such a recital would teach 

 us what our country has been, what it is, and what 

 it may become. I should myself be pleased to read 

 in a printed book, a minute account of every culti- 

 vated farm in this goodly county of Merrimack ; 

 for hard, and rocky, and uneven, as is the face 'of 

 our soil, tliere is not a town in the county that can- 

 not present farms whose owners have become inde- 

 pendent purely .from the cultivation of these lands. 

 To many gentlemen farmers of Uie cou,nty it is no 

 unpleasant consideration to be able to say, that not 

 their least profitable lands have been those which 

 have been cleared and improved upon and amidst 

 our IfiL'hcst -lulls, and where even rocks seem to 

 have usurped tlie greater portion of the surface. 



Tlie committee on Farms the present year were 

 caWed to no more than twenty-three farms, gardens 

 and particular fields, cultivated by as many indi- 

 viduals ; and the towns from which the applications 

 came embj-aced but a small portion of the county. 

 To some of the committee it would have been a 

 pleasure to travel in the delightful occupation of 

 viewing crops and improvements within tlie limits 

 of the county for a month. The spirit of generous 

 hospitality with which such committees have al- 

 ways been greeted, the information in tlie business 

 of cultivation, and tlie gratification derived from 

 viewing the prosfresa of improvement, afli.ird a 

 three fold remuneration for the labor and fatigue of 

 travelling the county. 



The committee devoted three days early in tlie 

 month of August, (1838) to the task assigned tliem. 

 Tlie time happened to be at that period when the 

 State, especially the southern part of it, was sulTer- 

 ino- under the severe drouglit of the last s.ummer. 

 On some of the very best cultivated grounds shown 

 them, the ultimate crop was materially lessened 

 by tliis drought; and this consideration should 

 cone into view in estimating the comparative mer- 

 it of the improvement. 



A Concord Farmer! I 



Tlie first ground viewed was land owned by 

 Jf.remhii Pecker, Esq. near Federal Bridge in 

 Concord. Mr. Pecker has a pretty large farm con- 

 sisting of intervale and upland, on whicli he cuts 

 much hay and pastures many cattle. The land he 

 more especially shewed to the committee was a 

 square plat of eighteen acres of intervale. Of this 

 land 4 ]-:i acres was planted in Indian corn, 2 acres 

 was potatoes, 4 acres oats, little more than one acre 

 of wheat, and over throe fourths of an acre of bar- 

 ley, with about six acres producing English hay. 

 Tlie corn ground, ploughed up last fall from the 

 sward, was considerably Injured by the cut worm ; 

 but four hundred bushels of ears were produced 

 making at least two hundred bushels of shelled 

 corn, principally of the early small kind ; and the 

 same ground produced in the hills divested of corn 

 bv the worm, ten bushels white beans; and four- 

 teen stout ox loads of pumpkins were taken from 

 it. Had the worms been avoided as they undoubt- 

 edly v;ould have been by taking ground which had 

 been ploughed for the second season, and had the 

 smaii corn been planted three hills to two on this 

 very ground, we do not doubt at least seventy-five 

 bushels of corn to the acre with less "labor would j 

 have been the yield. The potatoes were very fair 

 in their appearance. Mr. Peck-er deserves much 

 praise for tilfing his ground well, which he does 

 with his own hands ; he also wonld deserve a pre- 

 mium for practically teaching his workmen how to 

 extirpate weeds. ' His tilled field was more free of 

 the nauseous enemy tlian almost any field of equal 

 extent ever entered by the chairman of the com- 

 mittee. His oats were stout, but somewhat lodged 

 —his barley was good. The acre of wheat sowed 

 on the first" day of April was of the kind recently 

 introduced called the Blacksea wheat : it sutt"ered 

 from mildews, as did most of the wheat the present 

 year on low grounds and on the margins of streams 

 of water : two bushels of seed was sow?, and the 

 product was twenty-two busliols of wheat. The 

 hay, which was cut and housed previous to the 

 day of viewing, averaged about two tons to the 

 acre. 



In preparing his ground, like most of the owners 

 of land on Merrimack river, Mr. Pecker plants and 

 cultivates the ground for corn and potatoes but a 

 single year. He applies to his ground about twen- 

 ty-five stout ox loads of stable or barn yard manure 

 to the acre — then stocks down to grass with a crop 

 of oats or other grain sown broad cast, and contin- 

 ues the grass crop from four to sixyears. 



Mr. Pecker likewise exhibited his kitchen and 

 ornamental garden abounding in shrubbery, roots, 

 and fruits, and no less neat and free from .ViCeds 

 than the field which we have been describing. For 

 tlie management of this garden he claimed credit 

 as belonging to tliat " better half," who, within 

 doors, evinced to the committee that " she looked 

 well to the ways of her household." 

 A new beginner. 

 On a subsequent day of the same week the 

 Committee again met on the premises of tlie Chair- 

 man of the Committee, (Mr. Hill.) Thereis noth- 

 ing extraordinary in any improvement on the 

 ground wliich he cultivates. His crop of corn and 

 potatoes the present season is mainly pr'oduced on 

 land which has been reclaimed from ground either 

 covered with water, with bushes, or other entirely 

 useless growth. A considerable portion of his hay 

 is cut on ground similarly reclaimed. On thirty 

 acres of grass land, lie thinlis he has obtained 

 nearer sixty than fifty tons of good hay : he plant- 

 ed aboutjiine acres of corn all of the small and 

 early kinds^-one acre was drowned ouf by tlie wa- 

 ter, and either planted .with beans or sowed late 

 with Indian wheat: the crop he tliinks, will be a- 

 bout three hundred bushels of sound yellow corn. 

 Three acres of oats will yield about one hundred 

 bushels ; and one acre of mixed, oats and peas, thir- 

 ty bushels. On one acre of barley, there will he 

 thirty to f"orty bushels. Four acres of potatoes 

 planted in drills have yielded six hundred bushels. 

 These were early planted on ground well prepared, 

 and were snfficienfin number to have made with a 

 full growth double the quantity in measihre. A 

 portion of the Indian wheat was blasted or injured 

 by drought : the small quantity sowed in July pro- 

 duced four times the amount and of a better quali- 

 ty than that sowed a month previous. Four acres 

 of winter rye on well cultivated intervale app.:'ared 

 remarkably well till the time of the growth of the 

 kernel in the head ; the amount of straw was great, 

 but instead of seventy-five or eighty bushels the 

 crop will not exceed fifty bushels. Two acres of 

 spring rye sowed early on the same kind of ground 

 will yield at least thirty l)ushels. One acre and 

 one fourth of ruta baga, looking well with the ex- 

 ception of two small spots the one too wet and the 



other too dry and sandy, may produce from three to 

 five hundred bushels of that esculent. One fourth 

 of an acre planted <3n a light sand without other 

 manure than the application of plaster, produced 

 five bushefj of beautiful p-a beans; and about the 

 some quantity planted with a larger early bean tur- 

 ned out five and a half bushels. Three bushels of 

 onions, ten of parsnips, twenty of carrots, twenty 

 each of the blood and sugar beat, with the forego- 

 ing detail, constitute the main articles of the pres- 

 ent year's product. There must be an annual im- 

 provement, since three barns averaging aliont forty 

 feet square each are this year tolerably well filled, 

 where last year two barns only sufficed. Eleven 

 acres, manured at the rate of twenty-five good 

 loads to the acre, are stocked down the present 

 year; these the next year, if the season be good, 

 will add nearly two tons to the acre of good En- 

 o-lisli hay to the present product. Nine acres of re- 

 claimed land, where the corn was raised, are in the 

 cjurse of preparation to be laid down to that most 

 profitable crop, Englisli hny. From ten to twenty 

 acres of swamp and plain land where the wood and 

 timber have been principally taken away, is in 

 preparation for future cultivation, and a portion of 

 this land is equally good with the most fertile bot- 

 tom lands. These are the first results of an at- 

 1 tempt to make something useful grow where noth- 

 intr useful grew belore by one who can claim as a 

 farmer but little of that valuable knowledge which 

 results only from e"xperience. 



Three Farms in Canterbury. 

 About half a mile westerly from the premises of 

 Mr. Trueworthy Hill in Canterbury, on more ele- 

 vated ground, is the farm of TnoM.vs Ames, Esq. 

 to view which the committee were called They 

 found neither Mr. Ames nor any other person at 

 home ; but there was no difliculty in identifying 

 his cultivated grounds, from a former description 

 we had of them. A vast labor had been perform- 

 in clearing the arable and grass land of stones, and 

 neat stone walls parted the ground into convenient 

 lots. Two or more acres of the Black sea wOieat of 

 great evenness, beautifully waved in the Ineeze ; 

 a piece of oats and Indian wheat appeared also 

 promising. One field of corn and another of po- 

 tatoes were also vigorous. All was remarkably 

 clean and neat, scarcely less so than the farm in 

 Concord which was first visited. The garden also, 

 surrounded b}' current bushes yielding bushels of 

 that useful berry, was In the true taste of a farm- 

 er's garden, containing an abundance of whatever 

 Was useful for t'amilv consumption. Just as we 

 were about leaving, Mrs. Ames returned from at- 

 tending a sick family and invited our further tarry 

 to tea and the return of her husband, who perhaps 

 with the assistance of .02£...pr more sons has- per- 



formed and continues to perform the principal la- 

 bor upon his farm. We were regaled with a glass 

 of beautiful currant wine before leaving, the man- 

 ufacture of the faniily ; and met Mr. .Ames, of 

 whom we requested an account of his wheat crop to 

 exhibit with this report. 



The farm of Mr. L.'B.in MonniLi. is situated two 

 or three miles northwest of that of Mr. Ames. 

 Here it may be proper to remarlt, that if we* had 

 found on most of the places we had visited some- 

 thing to commend, Mr. M-orrill's premises exhibit- 

 ed every thing worthy of praise. We went out of 

 the way and up a steep hill to arrive at the place, 

 but we were riclily paid for all the trouble. The 

 farm of Mr. Morrill is that which was occupied by 

 his father, Mr. Samuid A. Morrill, who h.as been 

 long known as "No. 1," in Canterbury from the 

 better manner in wh'-cli he managed Iiis farm and 

 his business. The elder gentleman still lives, bow- 

 ed down not simply by the infirmities of labor and 

 age, but from the misfortune of being maimed by a 

 tree- falling upon him a few years since. The old 

 gentleman would be ou!, of his element if he l"ailed 

 to cultivate the ground ; and accordingly a great 

 portion of the labor upon the farm has been and 

 continues to be done by the father and the son, 

 who is truly a "chip of the old block." 



Mr. Morrill's farm consists of two liundred acres 

 of land situated on the southern aspect of the high 

 grounds which border on Northiield, eleven miles 

 from Concord, and some portion of it in full view 

 of the steeple and buildings about the capitol. 

 There is one field of forty acres whose smoothness 

 and freeness from stone would indicate any thing 

 biit its former roughness. This and two or three 

 adjacent fields present the most admirable arrange- 

 ment for convenience of communication to and 

 from the house and barn. The several pieces are 

 ncaily enclosed with durable stone wall, and the 

 redundant small stone are carefully laid in cause- 

 ways, or used in under-drains to carry off the stand- 

 ing water. There are six hundred rods of stone 

 fence enclosing the premises, and not a solitary 



