172 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



stratcd by the advances made at each succeeding 

 agricultural exhibition, at the "Heart of the Com- 

 monwealth." 



The State ofMAiNE, theyounifeat of the six New 

 England States, and more c.vtensive than all others 

 in territory, is taking the stand which becomes the 

 largest farming State of tlie North. Thus far the 

 forests of valuable pine timber to her population 

 have been a curse rather than a blessing ; with lit- 

 tle profit to any body, the "lumbering business" has 

 been extensively pursued much to the neglect of 

 improvements in agriculture. But the day has ar- 

 rived when timber lands will be dulyjjrized by the 

 owners of the "oil — the forests remaining will be 

 spared, and the excellent lands where timber has 

 been wasted will be brought into cultivation. That 

 new part of Maine now in dispute with Great Brit- 

 ain is eminently well calculated for the production 

 of wheat; and "she can, if she will," supply all 

 the cities and large towns of New England with 

 flour. 



No State has advanced more rapidly in agricul- 

 tural improvements than Maine. The farms in 

 the valley of the Kennebeek, particularly in the 

 county of that name, are said to be scarcely inferior 

 to the best farms in the old counties of Massachu- 

 setts. That county, in addition to two able agri- 

 cultural newspapers, the Farmer at Winthrop and 

 the Cultivator at Hallowell, has a spirited County 

 Agricultural Society, the good effects of which are 

 felt in each annual exhibition. Somerset, further 

 up the valley, has also its county Society — so has 

 Cumberland, near the sea-board — so has Penobscot, 

 in a more easterly and newer region. Perhaps some 

 other counties have similar associations. 



Vermont, which is truly the Green and the 

 Mountain State, with her many sinuous rivers and 

 beautiful level roads in the midst of the mountains, 

 and magnificent hills and swells and travelled 

 roads also surmounting them ; Vermont has a much 

 easier, more friable and pliant soil than any of her 

 other New England sisters. For rearing splendid 

 cattle, for the abundant production of butter and 

 cheese, she has, in her exuberant meadow lands 

 and pastures, vastly the advantage of any otiier 

 State. She used to export breadstuff's for her eld- 

 er sisters near the sea-board ; but of late she has 

 paid millions of dollars for western flour ! This 

 ought not so to be. The characteristic enterprise 

 and industry of her farmers need only to be put in 

 full requisition to enable her to raise more of every 

 production common to her soil than she shall con- 

 sume. 



Vermont has one or more Agricultural Societies, 

 Caledonia county, whose products generally pass 

 through this place to market, has an association 

 which has done something towards inspiriting her 

 citizens to put forth their best efforts. There are 

 many farmers in Caledonia who are not behind the 

 farmers of older regions of New England in the 

 valuje aijd amount of their productions. The Scotch 

 Bettlers of Barnet and Ryegate have been famed ev- 

 er since the settlement of those towns. Il'asliington 

 county, we believe, has her Agricultural Society. 

 There are farmers in that county who keep dairies 

 of from fifty to a hundred cows, and who raise for 

 the market from ton to twenty tons of pork. The 

 soil of Vermont in its natural State is not less fertile 

 than the best soil of the Western States ; it is far 

 more healthy. Industry and enterprise, with a 

 steady hand, wlien applied to the tilling of the soil, 

 are sure to be successful. 



Connecticut. This State has agricultural as- 

 sociations in several of her counties. The late 

 Jud<'e Bucl was on his way to deliver addresses at 

 two of them, viz: at New Haven, and Norwich in 

 New London, when he was seized at Uanbury with 

 the disease which terminated his useful life. We 

 are not sure thai there is not an agricultural society 

 in each county of the State. The agricultural shows 

 at Hartford weie formerly splendid. The fertility 

 of the Connecticut river valley is equally great in 

 that State as in Massachusetts and Vermont above. 

 There are no Letter farmers in the world than 

 the Corjnecticul farmers. The townsliipa in New 

 Hampsliire settbd principally by emigrants from 

 Connecticut are among the best farming townships 

 of the State; witaess Walpolc, Claremont, Cornish, 

 Plainfield, Lebacon, Hanover, Lyme, Orford, &c. 

 A greater quantity of produce in pro])ortion to its 

 area of acres is perhaps given by Connecticut than 

 any other State in the Union. In comfort, conven- 

 iences and neataess of farm 'houses, barns and yards, 

 the Connecticut farmers go before all others ; and 

 the same character has been carriad to \yh.itever 

 new section of the country that has been settled by 

 emigration from Connecticut. 



Weeds cannot grow near our conijnon cultivat- 

 ed plauU without materially injuring lk*B». This 



is doubtless in part owing to their consuming the 

 nutritive matter containeil by the soil, and in part, 

 also to their over shadowing the cultivated plant, 

 and thu.f depriving it of the direct action of the 

 sun ; but it is also in ])art owing to the nature of 

 matter which they deposite in the soil. The com- 

 mon opinion that weeds poison the plants near 

 which they grow, is not mere imagination — it is 

 founded on fact. — Farmer' s Register . 



where they first grew as possible. It will be an ob- 

 ject for many of our farmers to plant nurseries. The 

 budding with the best fruits and the rearing of trees 

 is said to be an extremely simple process to those 

 acquainted with the business. 



Further of Apple Orchards. 



There is not perhaps a fourth part of the cider 

 U8«d in New Hampshire that was used twenty years 

 ago. Scarce a family then could make a dinner 

 without cider upon the table. Now it is more com- 

 mon every where to find it dispensed with. The 

 disu.se of cider has run into the destruction of the 

 common orchards. This will be found to be a grand 

 mistake; for if not used for cider, apples will be 

 found even more valuable for other purposes. Or- 

 dinary sweet apples, fed to cows or hogs, will make, 

 bushel for bushel, more milk rnd pork than pota- 

 toes. Sour apples fed out in the same way, if boil- 

 ed, are also good 



But the best use to which we may put apple or- 

 chards, the use which sliould induce every farmer 

 to keep thrifty apple trees growing in each vacant 

 spot, is to raise the best kind of fruit for eating. 

 Grafted winter apples now sell quick in the interior 

 at the price of a dollar a bushel. A single acre of 

 ground may be made to produce five hundred bush- 

 els of apples in a season : the same acre planted at 

 the same time with potatoes may produce one bun- 

 dred and fifty bushels, or it may turn out thirty 

 bushels of corn or oats, or a ton and a half of good 

 English hay. Good apples are the best kind of 

 fruit for many purposes that can be found ; and 

 they may always be profitably used if they are too 

 plenty to bear the highest price. 



Mr. Joseph Pi.neo, jun. of Hanover, N. H. lives 

 on a farm with his father who emigrated several 

 years since from Lebanon, Ct. He has paid great 

 attention to the procuring of tlie best kinds of ap- 

 ples, and has selected within a few years about 

 three hundred different kinds of choice apples, ma- 

 ny of which are in bearing. A few days ago he 

 called on the editor of the Monthly Visitor, and 

 presented him with one of each of the following va- 

 rieties of magnificent apples : 



The Bell Sweet, a native of Enfield in this State ; 

 the apple measuring fourteen inches in circumfer- 

 ence and weighing one pound. 



The Russet Sweet, very large, a native of Weath- 

 ersfield, Vt. 



The Sweet Pearmain, an admirable apple, native 

 of Hanover, N. H. 



The Siceet Gilliflower, elegant and rich in the col- 

 or of its skin, also a native of Hanover. 



The Wcatkersfield Sweet, a native of that town. 

 Dcweifs Pumpkin Sweet — a beautiful apple for 

 preserves, and native of Royalton, Vt. 

 Tracy's Sweet, native of Hartford, Vt. 

 The Sugar Street, being sweetest of sweet apples, 

 a native of Hartford, Vt. 



The Aodlicad, an apple of excellent flavor, which 

 originated at Newburyport, Ms, 



The li'ine Apple, so named for its tartness and 

 flavor, brought from New Jersey hy Mrs. Brewster 

 of Hanover. 



The Latham .'ippic, of the finest taste and flavor, 

 being first produced on the farm of Arthur Latham, 

 Esq. of Lyme, N. H. 



Tracy's Greening, first produced on the farm of 

 a gentleman of that name in Hartford, Vt. 



The Wilder G>fCH/;/ir, common to many orchards, 

 brought from Massachusetts. 



The Shop Apple, found in Norwich, Vt. 

 The Monstrous Pippin, a very large apple, bro't 

 from Long island, N Y. 



The Golden Pippin,, an old and well approved 

 fruit, brought from England. 



The .\ew York Russet, a fine winter apple. 

 The Blue Peanftain, an excellent although a com- 

 mon apple, brougjjt from Massachusetts. 

 The Pound Royal, a frequent but good fruit. 

 The Red Seclinofurlhcr, a beautiful and uncom- 

 monly well flavored winter apple, native of Nor- 

 wich, Vt. 



The Bell Flower, a pative of England. 

 The Black Gilliflower, a long apd well known 

 good apple. 



The Orange Pearmain, from Massachusetts. 

 Mr. Pineo suggusts as his opinion that the rea- 

 son of the failure of apple trees brought from the 

 rich mirseries of Massiiehusctts and New York is, 

 that they are taken from a warmer to a colder 

 climate, from ground that had been highly stimu- 

 lated with manure, and transplanted in acolderand 

 perhaps poorer soij. Apple trees from the nursery 

 •hould be taken to- ground as nearly similar to tl)*t 



Mw [pswick, Oct. 26(A, 1339. 

 Hon. Is*Ac Hii.L,^S(>; — Having been a reader 

 of the Farmer's Monthly Visitor since its com- 

 mencement, I think it the duty of every individu- 

 al engaged in agricultural pursuits to contribute all 

 in their power to its usefulness, even if they can (as 

 is mostly my case) do little more than give a histo- 

 ry of their embarrassments and failures. 



Five years ago a farm adjoining some land I then 

 and still own was otFered me at a low price, and I 

 purchased it. It had been for more than thirty years 

 in the hands of one of the "shiftless ones of the 

 earth" and was called a worn-out farm. Such por- 

 tions of it as had been ploughed at all had been 

 kept under the " skinning process" until nothing 

 more could be got from them. A large proportion 

 of the mowing land had not been fallowed for many 

 years, and this had saved it from being filled with 

 that Hydra headed monster, witch-grass. At the 

 time of my purchase I had no expectation of living 

 on the farm : but circumstances made it necessary 

 for me so to do. In April 1835, I commenced by 

 moving the barn to a more convenient place, and 

 soon after removed my family. When I got well 

 settled, and had time to look about me, I found my sit- 

 uation nearly as discouraging as Mrs. Rowlandson's 

 after her nineteenth remove : 1 however was oblig- 

 ed to make the most I could of it. 



Being an invalid pensioner of the United States, 

 I am not able to labor much, and have annually 

 paid much more for help than my pension amount- 

 ed to, whii^h any able bodied man could have done 

 himself. My first year's farming about half filled 

 the barn, and I had plenty of room the second year. 

 Last vear 1 built another, principally for a grain 

 barn ; and at this present time i have them both 

 well filled, and was obliged to carry my wheat to a 

 barn at a distance for the purpose of storing and 

 thrashing it. 



When I commenced farming I enquired of a 

 neighbor who had lived near the farm for sixty 

 years if I could raise wheat : his answer was he 

 did not think it possible. He did not raise it him- 

 selt, or believe I could. He advised me to sow an 

 old field which had been planted time out of mind, 

 with spring rye, as I could procure no manure for 

 it. 1 sowed, however, one half acre of it with wlieat 

 and one and a half acre with spring rye. From the 

 wheat I had ten bushels : from the rye nine and a 

 half bushels; being more than three to one in fa- 

 vor of the wheat, and the land was of equal good- 

 ness. The whole piece was sowed down to grass, 

 and the next season yielded a tolerable crop of clo- 

 ver and witch-grass, which was mowed one year. 

 The spring following the sod was turned over care- 

 fully with the plough and rolled down hard; about 

 ten loads of old manure were then spread to the a- 

 cre, and harrowed in, and wheat was again sowed. 

 The crop was as good as any 1 have had on planted 

 o-round. The present year it was sowed with wheat 

 for the third time and yielded l^andsomely, and the 

 grass appears much more promising than it usually 

 looks in the fall after wheat. 



A year last spring I sent to Boston for a half 

 bushel of Black sea wheat, and the same of Italian 

 spring wheat, but on account of the high price of 

 the latter I did not receive but two quarts. I sow- 

 ed them, and from the half bushel of Black sea 

 I had four and a half bushels ; from the two quarts 

 of Italian, one bushel — both yielded better than our 

 common wheat last year. 



In 18;!H, 1 let one and a half acre of land to the 

 halves, to be broke up and planted. The sod was 

 turned over smooth and rolled down : it was ma- 

 nured with noi more than twelve loads to the acre, 

 and planted with corn and potatoes I received 70 

 bushels of potatoes and 15 bushels of ears of corn 

 ^a small crop. The present season I split the corn 

 hills and harrowed all down smooth. I then run a 

 horse plough through it lightlv,so as not to disturb 

 the eod turned under last year, and without putting 

 on any manure whatever, (as I had none for it) 1 

 sowed three bushels of Black sea wheat. It was a 

 thrifty and beautiful piece : it stood one tljird tal 

 ler than our best bearded wheat, and as firm as a 

 rock against the storiiis that entangled and nearly 

 prostrated our bearded wlieat ; but not so against 

 dogs and woodchucks, which on one third of it in- 

 jured it much. Good judges said the one and a half 

 acre would yield forty bushels ; but as I intended 

 it all for seed I let it stand until it was thoroughly 

 ripe, and no doubt it shrunk some and wasted more. 

 It yielded thirty-five bushels, and is all engaged for 

 seed at two dollars per pusliel, it being the only 

 wheat of tjie kind raised hereabout*. 



