96 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Ihatiioni' of our crops suffered by Jroujlif, und iho 

 crop of crrass in particular was more abundant llian 

 lias been known for many years. Z. T. 



Burlington, Vt. June (), 183'.). 



Fi>r llie F.innpl'.-f Monlllly Vi-itor. 



Preparation of Sward Lands. 



Hon. l<.iAC Hill : — Sir,— I have tried some 

 experiments in preparing sward lands for tillage. 

 My land is generally a stiff clay loam. When it 

 has become exhausted so as to bear a grass crop 

 but little more than wnrtli cutting, and I have no 

 manure to put on it, I plough it the last of June or 

 the first of July, and am particular to plough deep 

 and turn it over entirely. 



I then .sow it with oats, clover, &c. and harrow 

 it lightly lengthwise the furrow, tliat the sod may 

 be disturbed as little a.s possible. 



In September, I plough it lightly and turn in the 

 oats, Ac. The iie.xt spring the land is almost as 

 pliable and easy to cultivate as an old field, and it 

 is suitable for almost any crop. It should be ma- 

 nured highly this season ; and the next it may be 

 seeded down to grass, if ilesired. 



If one has manure sufficient, it may be ploughed 

 about the tenth of June, and sown with ruta baga, 

 which will richly repay the expense of cultivation. 



Grass lands should be ploughed early in the fall 

 or late in the spring, in order that the vegetable 

 matter turned in, may be in as great perfection as 

 possible, and also that there maybe sutncient heal 

 in the soil to produce fermentation. 



This of course is not intended as a substitute fir 

 rotation of crops ; but most farmers, 1 presume, 

 have lands in the same situation, and before they 

 can commence with a regular rotation, something 

 like the above plan may be advantaseous. 



June, 1839. " J'K. SMITH. 



grain. Trucks and dung cart in praportion, and 

 the load proportioned to the sleepness ofthe ground. 

 The road scraper should be smn.ller than the oxen 

 scraper. The horse will go twice to the oxen go- 

 ing once. He will carry twenty bushels of pota- 

 toes when the oxen carry but thirty bushels, and 

 so in proportion with other things. In doing my 

 work with the horse I save purchasing and keeping 

 in repair one set of horse harness and a set of oxen 

 iinpleinents, which may be fourteen dollars annu- 

 ally. By not keeping the extra horse and extra 

 oxen (I will allow their occasional work through 

 the year to pay for keeping them in summer.) I 

 save their winter keeping — say seven tons of hay 

 valued at $8 a ton— $.56. It would cost to keep 

 the extra team and equipments, seventy dollars. I 



think seventy dollars a year worth saving 



penny saved is as good as a penny earnedl'' 



In haste, your humble servant, 



BARTH. SUMiMER 

 Ho!L Ii.\.\c Hill. 



'A 



For the F.rniei's Montlily Visitor. 



Earnet, Vt. Mmj 8, 1830. 



Remarks on saving Money. 



Besides the saving of manure and improvements 

 in all kinds of seeds, live stock and farming ■mple- 

 mcntB, Ac. there is one important branch not much 

 adverted to, that is, keeping horses and cattle to 

 do farm work. Some farmers will keep a yoke of 

 oxen and a span of horses on a small farm, when 

 one trood horse would do most all the work. They 

 think two horses necessary to carry the family to 

 meeting on Sundays, and to make a trip or two to 

 market in winter, and also to do most of the 

 oloughimr and harrowing. They use the oxen Willi 

 the horses occasionally, for heavy ploughing and 

 drawing stones for walls. They use the oxen alone 

 n-enerally for getting in hav, gram, and potatoes, 

 ?nd takinn- out manure. Now all these works can 

 be done vTith one horse alone, and with more expe- 

 dition, except ploughing and going to market m 

 winter When such business is necessary, a horse 

 or a yoke of oxen can be hired, or work may be 

 chano-ed with some ofthe neighbors for a few days. 

 Twolet of implements, one for horses and anotlicr 

 for oxen, must be made and kept in repair, accord- 

 ino- to the o-eneral custom. This alone is a consid- 

 erable item of needless annual expense to a small 

 farmer In the place of the oxen and one horse, 

 he mi<rlitkeep five or six good cows or other young 

 cattle^ which would add a quarter or more to their 

 value everv year. Whereas horses and grown cat- 

 tle lose in "vilue, and cannot be kept to advantage 

 but by beini.- constantly at work. Large farmers 

 can raise colts (and so can a small farmer w'.th one 

 mare and do the work) and keep a span of horses 

 and oxen to advantage. They can let part of heir 

 teams to small farmers, and thus a benent will bo 

 .rained to both parties. 



" It is more than forty-six years since I left Soot- 

 land There the work was all done with horses. 

 Here 1 have chieily followed the s.une practice. 

 H.avin<r a sm.all farm of about oO lucres eleu-ed land, 

 •>■-> aercs meadow on Passumpsic river, and the rest 

 on the bills, I keep but one horse, six or seven 

 cows and the young cattle until they arc two or 

 three years old, and from fifteen to twenty sheep 

 I hire "a hand six monlhg, and an additional hand 

 by the day when wauled in haying andharvestuig. 

 My horse does the h;.rrowing, taking out manure, 

 and taking in grain, hay, potatoes and firewood, 

 also he drags stones for wall, and trucks dirt on 

 the farm or on the highways at road work. 1 he 

 horse will do more at all these works than ■iny or- 

 dinary yoke of oxen. This is allowed by all ,he 

 hands that have done my work. The whole de- 

 pends on having proper horses, carls, trucks and 

 scrapers suited to the horse and the sort ot work to 

 be done The hay cart must be long and light, cal- 

 culated to bear two or three hundred pounus on 

 the horse's back when loaded with a ton ol h»y or 



Decomposition or Putrefaction of Veg- 

 etables. 



All vegetables, when the principle of life has de- 

 parted from them, begin spontaneously to be de- 

 composed (to putref,'.) The elements which enter 

 into the composition of plants, %vhen left entirely 

 to the disposal of their chemical attinities, have a 

 tendency to sejiarate from each other, and form 

 new compounds very different from those which 

 compose the living plant. This is termed the "spon- 

 taneous decomposition" of vegetables. The sub- 

 stances formed by the new arrangement of the el- 

 nients of the vegetable .are aerial and colorless; 

 hence the entire disappearance ofthe vegetable, as 

 if it had been totally annihilated when lite ceased 

 to preserve its particles together in the vegetable 

 form. 



The compounds formed, when the vegetable dies 

 and putrefaction goes on, are, carbonic acid, water, 

 carbonic oxide, and curburetted hydrogen. The two 

 former are the chief results of the decomposition ; 

 the two latter formed more sparingly, and princi- 

 pally when there is not a free supply of oxygen to 

 the substance undergoing decomposition. The 

 carbon and hydrogen of the plant have a constant 

 tendency to unite with oxygen, and form carbonic 

 acid and water. Now there is never present in the 

 vegetable a sufficient supply of oxygen to convert 

 allthe carbon into carbonic acid, and all the hy- 

 drogen into water ; hence, if there be not a sulfi- 

 cient supply of oxygen to produce these cpmpounds 

 presented from external sources, as from the air, 

 the two other matters are formed, one of which 

 (carbonic oxide) requires a less quantity of carbon 

 and hydrogen. 



In vegetables which decay under water, carbu- 

 retted hydrogen is abundantly formed ; hence ari- 

 ses the gas which is found so plentiful in summer 

 in stagnant waters containing quantities of putre- 

 fying vegetables. 



The spontaneous decomposition of vegetables 

 (roes on most rapidly when they are exposed to the 

 air, kept moist, and preserved at a degree of warmth 

 hio-her than the usual temperature of the atmos- 

 pliere. Putrefaction in retarded or almost prevent- 

 ed if the vegetable be dried, so that its own moist- 

 ure is expelled, carefully excluded from air and 

 moisture, and kept cold. The influence of heat in 

 promoting the decay of vegetables depends upon 

 the repulsive power it possesses, by which it dis- 

 poses the various elements to assume the gaseous 

 form. Animals and vegetables are frequently found 

 in snow or ice, in a high state of preservation. 



Such are tlie changes which go on in tlie dead 

 plant. That mysterious agent, J^ife, is able by Us 

 peculiar power," to control and overcome the cheiii- 

 cal attractions which tend to produce these chan- 

 ges, and retains these elements in that state of 

 combination best adapted for the performance of 

 their proper functions: attlie moment however, in 

 which life ceases to superintend the exercise of 

 these functions, they cease and the chemical at- 

 tractions, no longer restrained by the vital princi- 

 ple, obtain full sway. The c:-.rl.on, oxygen, and 

 hydroTcn, formerly existing in the state of wood, 

 bark,reaves, fruit, or seeds, obey the laws of chem- 

 istry return to the state of carbonic acid, w ater or 

 inflammable gas, mix with the earth and atmos- 

 phere afford nutriment to the new plants, again 

 form leaves, flowers, and all the beautiful and di- 

 versified orirans of the vegetable creation— again 

 wither and decay, and return to the soil to supply 

 new generations, and continue the same aeries of 

 unceasing revolutione 



Ch.e:n:stry of Aature. 



ACKKOWLF.DOMENTS. To McssrS. Ellis &■ Bo3- 



soM of Boston, abeautifiilly improved scythe snath, 

 adopting itself to a larger or smaller sized mower, 

 or to rough or smooth ground by means of mova- 

 ble handles. To the same gentlemen, a Rohan 

 potato, raised in France, of eighteen eyes, prov- 

 ing the identity of the eight pounds of Rohans 

 raised 111 Franklin and presented by Mr. Searle. — 

 To Messrs. Weeks, Jordan, & Co. of Boston, the 

 American Flower Garden Companion, adapted to 

 the Northern States — The American Fruit Gar- 

 den Companion, a practical treatise on the culture 

 of Fruit — and a Treatise on the Culture of the 

 Dahlia or Cactus ; three valuable books by Ed- 

 ward Sawyer, Landscape and Ornamental Gard- 

 ner. To Doet. C. T. Jackson, the First and Sec- 

 ond Repirts on the Geology of the State of Maine. 

 To Rev. Henry Colman, his Reports on the Agri- 

 culture of Massachusetts. To Samuel Whitmarsh, 

 Esq, his book called Eight Years Observation in the 

 Culture of the Mulberry Tree, and in the care of 

 the Silk Worm. To Messrs. Ives & Jewett, Salem, 

 Ms. Book of Fruits, by Robert Manning, and three 

 copies of Essex Agricultural Society's Transac- 

 tions. To John Brown, Esq. of Ne\y London, and 

 S. Marshall, Esq. of Ilanipstead, two kinds of ex- 

 cellent seed potatoes. To Solon Stark, Esq. of 

 Illinois, an ear of the Rocky Mountain Corn, and 

 also an car ofthe Baden Corn. To MiiU. Frank- 

 lin Pierce, a variety of seed corn, seed wheat, &.c. 

 furnished him by the Commissioner of Patents at 

 Washington. To Mr. David Tenney, for an im- 

 proved seed corn called the Page Corn. 



MARKETS. 



NEW 'VOUK, JUNE 6. 

 Pales ol Cnttnii are if any lliinsnl «radiiaMy tower pricep. 

 .All sons of Flour, rxccpt Kuhmoiid Oily, iiicliulcd wilhlii 

 fiSOsS?. Corn 92 a 91c. TlierB was a Rreal aiicllon sale 

 of Solb Loithnr this nioniinc i alioiit Ili,n00 sirlea .'olil, with 

 an advaiici- of J 11. Jc— light weights 2»i a 23<, niiddllns do 

 9Ii a 2-^.1, heavy PJ^ a Sij.t, good damaged 17 a IB, poor do 11 

 a fa c.-^Ji.ur. Com. 



BALTiMor.E, Jiine4— Flour— Sochanjie.'i in piiceorilow- 

 aid St i lilile doing. We tfiiole BH? a 51), r.asli IM mo, Siis- 

 qiiehannali U .•>(). Sales while Com 85 a b7c, yellow 91 a 93. 



VVequole Rye 1 05a 1 10 American. 



BosTo.v. June 10— Fealhers— Russia are dull, s;ilea triiliug: 

 70 Hales Western I.ive lieiFe sold at .S:ic, A nis. 



Grain— l-i.Tlesor.\orth River Corn gl 04 ; yell.iw flat 95 a 

 97, and while 00 a 91, and New Oi leans 87 ic, winch is a lit- 

 tle decline on last week. (lal> continue very scarce, andarc 

 wanted at adyanced price--. Sales of Easlern 57 a COc, and 

 sni.ill parcels as hish C9c. No northern or southern in market 

 Flour— Ihis article still continiie.'i very dull, and decllnins; 

 prices of all kinds stand full 9fi a 37c lower lloio last week, 

 and niniKii closes williout alilnntioii at this rednclion— 3001) 

 hills Ricliinond City .Mill litive .<old for e\pc>rlation, taken lor 

 Rio, mo'.lly Galleito brand, nt a price not piililic. Sales of 

 Howard street II 75 a 6 87 ; Ricl-iniond Canal 6 7.i ; Genesee, 

 . oinniou brand fi 75, aird Ohio, good, 75, all ca.^li. The mar- 

 ket closes inactive. 



Hides anil Skins— The snles of Buffnlo Hides nre large, eni- 

 hracinsiill In market in tir.'l li.inds— and some panels have 

 been resild from 10 a lie. Fuillier sales of (.a'.cnlta Cow at 

 quotatinns. Sales of l.'.OO Cilifoinia and i:i 10 .Montevideo, 

 price and lerni.s not public. Goatskins are in good demand: 

 further enlea .Madias 95 a m'ccacli, li ms. 



Lumliei'— Considerable sales, both for liinne use and e.xpor- 

 tation— tl.e best boards coininand $13, I'J and JSi) per 1000— 

 other devcripiinns are sellinp la quolalir ns. 



rrovisroiis— Tlie sales of lleef and Pork ao small ; Iho 

 latter has sold at a rednefon. l.ard and llniiis leinain about 

 the same, but sales are light; 250 U'cstphalia Dams, sold at 

 auction, at IG a 20 per In, cash. 



liice— Sales are moderate at former prices- 30 tierces and 

 halves sold at auction, at 4 95 a §5 per 100 lb. 



Salt- .\ cant, of 500 hlids Liverpool sold .it about 2 87 per 

 hlid ; 17011 bass fine, have sold at auction .at 1 CO a 1 C5 per 

 ltag,cash, Wastiinjiton's brand. 



Saltpetre- Dull, and nothing of iniportance doing- 2a300 

 bags ai'Id Ibis week, at a price secret. 



Sugars— Holders are mure fuiii in their prices, and most of 

 the iiiip'irlets are asking an advance of .tc per lb on tiro re- 

 cent current rates. Sales are not large eiidnacinc :t a 400 

 lioxe.i llavanna brown at SJ a 9c, and while 11 a ll^ci2a 

 300bbls rernanibnco while ll'c ; 400 bag.- Cuba Muscnmdo 

 ord. f.5cper Ih, I', uis. Sale bv auction 85 boxes Havanna 

 brown mil. to r.Tlr 777 a837. and 15 hhds Cuba Muscovado 

 ord. G 70 [ler 100 lb, 4 ms. 



THE F.\RMEU'S MONTHI.Y VISITOR, 



A MONTHLY NrWSrAPER, IS PUKLISIIEU BY 



WILLIAM p. FOSTER, Hill's Brick Block, 



Cuncofd, .Y. H. 



J.\MES BURNS, 104, U'a!.hin.gton st., Boston, M.''. 



The Visitor is issued the fifteenth to twentieth day 



of each month. 



Each hiiMilier will contain si.steen piges oi quarto .si/e 



on paper calculated for presi-rvnlion and cm a fair arid lieiiu- 



Tbe subjects will be illustrated with engrnvings. 



nO^^Cotimiunications bv nisil, w 

 I.,!.4M r. FOSTER.Concord, .N. H 



