THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



105 



arate stalks in near contact. The Brown corn was dropped tlirpe and four 

 corns to tlie hill: it was planted acncrally three feet distant one way by two 

 feet the other: the number of hills in the five acres, excluEive of beans at 

 the outside, is rising twenty thousand, by computation. The complexion ol 

 the soil Keems to be changed from a liijht yellow sand to a black mould, cither 

 by the application of the manure or by the continued wet ; perhaps both 

 At the planting- of this corn and at eacii successive hoeing, we have crossed 

 the river in the morning with our workmen, and instead of returning where 

 oilier cmployinents called, have kept up our row with very little help during- 

 the forenoon at least of each day. There is an attraction for work in a grow- 

 ing field tliat ample compensates for all inconvenient 'sweat of the face' and 

 even for tired limbs. 



So we have a field of nearly two acres of potatoes on low intervale, a part 

 of which has actually been like ditches of water half of the time for a mouth 

 past. This ground was prepared as follows :— Last tall it was ploughed from 

 the sward with the strength" of five yoke of oxen, ten and twelve inches deep, 

 and completely turned over. Twenty-five o.\ loads of stable manure to tlie 

 acre were drop'ped this spring in heaps, and spread evenly over the ground — 

 this was afterwards ploughed in shallow without disturbing the sod at tlie 

 bottom, and the ground "subseciuently harrowed. Then a ridge three and a 

 half fet t over was formed first by turning a furrow each way and afterwards 

 made highest in the centre like at.urnpike, by scraping with the li-md hoe all 

 on each side to the centre of the ridge. It w.is afterwards planted on the out- 

 er edge of the ridge, with half a common sized potatoe at each point, say 

 eighteen to twenty inches apart. The whole operation was without moving 

 the sod : the ridge and planting was in this shape : — 



Before the middle of June (he potatoes, where the water had not stood, com- 

 pletely covered the /round lookingfroni a distance: where the water killed(a3 

 it will kill if it stands on seed potatoes before they vegetate, twenty-four 

 hours,} we planted beans at the time of first lioeing. The second lioeing h:Is 

 not yet taken place from tile prevalence of rain and water. The fii;ld is now 

 (July 8) in full l)lossoin : and with the remaining jjart of the year favorable, 

 we think there will be as large a crop as will be produced in the county on an 

 equal quantity of ground. 



Of the llohan Potatoes, Mr. Searle of Franklin, presented us wliat weigh- 

 ed precisely eighl. pounds. These were cut into three hundred and eighty 

 pieces, having each an eye, as we supposed : about forty ol' these pieces, mis- 

 taking the stem fertile eye, did not vegetate. They were planted on old 

 ground well manured: on beds formed in tlur manner described of the other 

 potatoe field. For the last fortnight, they Iiave been sjjreading so that a sin- 

 gle eye with a body not larger than the thumb nail, has already extended to 

 the ample, dimensions of a common full pot:itoe Iiill. From present appear- 

 ances tlie diminutive quantity of eight pounds of seed potatoes puton ground 

 where sometimes two bushels have been [danted, will produce all that could 

 be e.vpented of the larger quantity of seed : the Rohan tops will, we believe, 

 cover the ground. 



Of our onion bed of three fourths of an acre, (in partnership \vith Mr. 

 Whitney,) our half acre of broom corn, our two acres of rata baga, carrots 

 and French sugar beets, onr barley and oafs in the Frog p'lnds, (some of them 

 nov/ under w;'.ter in what we never before saw, a July freshet) and other crops 

 which it will tire the patience to secrepeate>i, we hope to have occasion here- 

 after to give some account. The reader will excuse ns, if, as young farmers, 

 v/e feel, in a season of vicissitude and peril, hardly less solicitude and pride for 

 our fields than the natural parent for its oft'spring. 



Improved Short horned Dnihain Bull. 



(Fig. 2G.) 



For the above pbito we are indebted to brother Cooke of the Cheshire Farmer : it is copied fnm the 

 Genesee Farmer, and is a portrait of the Improved Short Horn Bull Sin Waltcu, owned by VV'iUiam 

 M Knights Esq! of Rochester, N. Y. He was imported from England in 1836, and was from the herd 

 of Mr. Chri'sh, a celebrated brcaderof Short Horns in that county. He is five years old, and weighed 

 the present spring 2300 pounds. 



The fine points of this beautiful animal will be seen at once : from the nape of the neck to the point 

 of the bri"ket he much resembles the Hubbard ox, which is said to be a mixture of the Durham and De- 

 von breed- cattle of this peculiar shape furnish space for a great additional weight of beef After leaving 

 the beautiful protuberance of the neck, the line of the back presents a construction of the utmost ele- 

 gance. The body is extended in length, while the heavy haunches coming down low upon the hinder 

 le'n-s present a rear of the animal well corresponding to the front. 



Of the (Treat excellence of the short-horned Durham cattle there can be no doubt : m:x-d with our 

 common breeds, they present a race generally improved. 



In a late number of the Farmer's Visitor we noticed a short horned Durban cow recently imported 

 ^ i\^„^ Fi-,rrlnnd. The United States Gazette ffives a further account of Uie milk of 



of as 



into Philadelphia from England. The United States Gazette gives a further account of Uie milk of 



that cow for one week commencing the 27th of Mav : it was.aj-! quarts, being within a frac.ion 

 Ciuirts per dav, and from whicli were made 14 3-4 lbs. of butter of the finest quality. At tlie lowest 

 at which mii+cis ever sold in the cities, tiiis cow yielded mose than the worth of a dollar each 

 I the weather was cold, chilly and wet, and it was supposed that the 



price 

 day 



uav. The account states that ..._ . ^ ,,- . -i 



quantity was less than usual from the same animal under more favorable circumstances. 



It will cost no more to keep a good milker than a bad one : generally the latter running more to meat 

 eats more than the former.- There cannot be a doubt that the Philadelphi 

 wiio cannot afford to keep well the animal that will yield such a noli return 

 pasture, with some mown grass morning 



"we'are by no means friendly to the extravagant prices paid for cattle in some parts of the country ; 

 burve think there is too much indifference by the farmers of New Engla.nd gener.ally, and especially 



cow was well kept ; and 

 Tiie feed was said to be 

 and evening, and a part of the lime chopped oats and corn 



coinmon. c u »• - i 



The value of a cow that from the same keeping will increase her quantity ol mdk one t'lu-d must 

 be at leas' double that which gives the smaller quantity ; and one which will_ give double is ::.creased in 

 value in a compound ratio. How great, then, is the inducement for every larmer to replace eac j cow 

 which he nov/ possesses with one of the improved kind ' 



Too much Legislatioi!. 



Not many months ago we were listeners to an 

 interesting and somewhat ardent discussion be- 

 tween two Doctors of Divinity connected with a 

 college not a thousand miles distant, on the question 

 of the right and policy of the Government to leg- 

 islate on morals. The one contended tint the law 

 should be made to reach all cases of misconduct, 

 or what is generally considered misconduct; that 

 if a man drank or ate too much, or even if he fail- 

 ed to confo:-in to n-ligious observances such as the 

 public sentiment sanctioned, that he should by law 

 lie restrained in the one case, and compelled to do 

 in the other. The other took the ground that mor- 

 al restraint, to an extent bevond the ]>oint where an 

 overt act inflicts direct and general injury, ought 

 not to be exercised by any government; that men 

 and women with rational faculties, in relation to 

 moat of the questions affecting the public morals, 

 should generally be left to the exercise of their own ' 

 sound sense and discretion ; that example and mor- 

 al suasion had a much more potent effect in re- 

 straining those evil propensities wliich sometimes 

 have lecl whole communities to the extremity of 

 crime than restraining penalties. We scarcely 

 ne(^d inform our readers, that we united in senti- 

 ment with the litter gentleman. 



Governments of all countries and in all times 

 have attempted to do too much. In the early set- 

 tlement of this country wc had not only the secu- 

 lar civil governments, but self constituted ecclesias- 

 tical authority, exercised a power of direction and 

 restraint beyond moral suasion. This could not 

 be objected to when right in itself and when sanc- 

 tioned by the general sentiment. But a single a- 

 buse of self-assumed' authority at once disgusted 

 the people with all assumed authority ; and as in , 

 the instance of laws made by a monarch not ame- 

 nable to the people, so were those of the ecclesiasti- 

 cal authority impcsed where the people had no voice 

 in them. 



But we did not intend to write a dissertation on - 

 law makers or law breakers. Our position is, that 

 in all enlightened communities where the laws or . 

 rules of society are few and plain, the public mor- 

 als are best preserved and individual rights are best 

 protected; and that in proportion as the public mor- 

 als are attempted to be restrained by legislative 

 enactments, so are the facilities increased for vitia- 

 tino-and corrupting the body politic. 



The contrast betvieen the public morals in a. State 

 where the severest enactments have been forced on 

 the people in relation to temperance, and in those 

 States where little or no restraint has beenattehip- 

 ted, would at this early period of that qnestion, 

 prove our position : further experience will only 

 go to make this proof more striking. .'V correct 

 public sentiment, the fashion of the times, hasjpne 

 and is doing every thing for the cause of .temper- 

 ance : the single personal example of one man of 

 high standing will accomplish more for morals than 

 all the penal enactments passed l)y the affirmative 

 voice of all the public men of the country. 



We had chosen the caption of "Too much legis- 

 lation" tVom a concern which had revolved in our 

 minds ever since the opening of vegetilion of the 

 present season. Why are worms and bugs so much 

 more prevalent in cornfields and gardens, than they 

 were in old times ? In some kinds of ground 

 there is a moral certainty that the worms will work, 



