THE FARMERS^ MONTHLY VISITOR. 



173 



The crop on this acre and a half last year paid 

 me all expense, and the wheat from the same land 

 the present year gave rne a net profit of over $50, 

 after deducting all expense. My bearded wheat 

 with a much better chance has yielded the present 

 year but seventeen and a half bushels to the acre : 

 the Italian the same ; and I can see but little dif- 

 ference between these last. My future crop will be 

 from tlie Black sea wheat. I believe it will yield 

 more, thrash clearer and much easier than the 

 bearded wheat, and stand firmer against wind and 

 rain. 



Preparation of thr. seed : — The first wheat I sow- 

 ed in 1835 was prepared after the manner of those 

 days, viz : washed well in water and lime mixed in, 

 and immediately sowed. The consequence was 

 that when the heads came out of the sheath or stalk 

 nearly one fourth of them appeared to be covered 

 with black powder, which is one kind of smut I 

 suppose. My present rule is to soak in a strong 

 brine at least twenty-four hours, and then while it 

 is wet stir in as much lime as I can get in, and let it 

 stand in the lime as long as I can spare it : a week 

 is better than a shorter time. I sow as early as I 

 can prepare my ground, and have never been troub- 

 led with the fly, weavil, rust or blight, or had any 

 failure from other cause than the grounds proving 

 too wet. 



Wheat should he cut early. Nearly all our farm- 

 ers let their wheat stand too long. When I had the 

 rye cradled I have mentioned in a former part of 

 this communication, some wheat was accidentally 

 cut on the borders of the adjoining wheat field, two 

 or three weeks before the usual time of cutting. 

 These I noticed and carefully gathered and when 

 dry, shelled. On comparison I found the first cut 

 was much the plumpest grain. Since that experi- 

 ment I have cut my grain early, and it has gener- 

 ally made from forty to forty-three lbs. of good flour 

 to the bushel of sixty lbs. Last year I let two a- 

 crcs of ground at the halves, to be sowed with 

 wheat. It had been well manured and planted with 

 potatoes the year before. Four bushels were sow- 

 ed upon it, and it was a pretty good piece. When 

 I thougiit it time to be cut, I called upon the tenant 

 who was sick, and offered to get itfor him, or to get 

 my half, and let him pay me in labor. He thought 

 he should be able to cut it soon, and as he showed 

 some reluctance to have me meddle with it, and ap- 

 peared to think it of no consequence to liave it har- 

 vested, I said no more about it. He had it in the 

 barn in about two weeks after, and it was soon af- 

 ter thrashed. I received twelve bushels for my half 

 of the two acres, which was a smaller crop than I 

 overbad from good land. I carried two bushels to 

 mill and received twenty-seven pounds of flour to 

 the bushel — a poor powdery stuff. I then carefully 

 measured one and one fourth busliel of my own ear- 

 ly cut wheat (many of the heads of which were 

 green when reaped) and carried to tiie same mill. 

 No toll was taken : the bushel and peck made fifty- 

 four pounds of good flour, being equal in quantity 

 and superior in quality to the two busliels of late 

 cut wheat. 



Potii.tocs. I have planted the past season the fol- 

 lowing varieties of potatoes, viz : early kidney, 

 Chenangofor early use, Rohan forcuriosity, white. 

 La Plata reds, and Orono black potatoes. My white 

 potatoes were struck with the blight, and did not 

 yield more than one hundred bushels to the acre. 

 Rohan yielded thirty-five and a half pounds from 

 thirteen eylets — nine of which weighed eleven lbs. 

 Tlie Orono potatoe, which is the very best for the 

 table with which 1 am acquainted, produced one 

 hundred and sixty bushels on little more than five- 

 eighths of an acre, with about six loads of manure 

 and nine bushels of seed. These were planted from 

 the 4th to the 5th of May, and the tops were per- 

 fectly green until the fore part of October. They 

 arc considered the very best by those who have 

 purchased them of me, and are a new article in this 

 place. 



In your address before the Cheshire County Ag- 

 ricultural Association you ask, "May not the almost 

 universal prevalence of weeds in the potatoe fields 

 this season have caused the blight of that crop?" I 

 answer, it was not the case with mine. 1 planted 

 white potatoes on ground that had not been under 

 tillage for more than forty years ; aside hiil, facing 

 the south, in part shaded by apple trees — that part 

 of the field exposed ta the sun was early touched 

 with the blight, while those shaded by apple trees 

 remained perfectly green and yielded double the 

 quantity of the others. Our white potatoes appear 

 to be nearly run out : no other potatoes of mine 

 were injured by the blight. My opinion is, that 

 the blight was caused by the hot weather, and that 

 what injured our potatoes saved many fields of corn. 

 Mine at the fore part of August promised nothing, 

 but proved a pretty fair crop. 



Should you think proper to publish this " long 



yarn" of mine, I may hereafter give the results of 

 my five years' farming as regards profit for the en- 

 couragement of some of our able bodied young 

 farmers, who have put their hand to the plough, 

 but are still turning a wishful eye towards the 

 fertile prairies of the west. As I have kept a daily 

 journal for five years, it will show that notwith- 

 standing ill health, bad seasons, &c. 1 have found 

 farming profitable. 



Yours respectfully, 



JAMES SPAULDING. 



The Farmer's Glory. 



[Written for the late Agricultural Exhibition at 



Boscawen, N. H.] 



BY GEORGE KENT, ESQ. 



"I am a true laborer ; I earn that I eat, get that I 

 wear ; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness ; 

 glad of other men's good, content with my harm ; 

 and the greatestof my pride is to see my ewes graze 

 and my lamba 3Uc\i.."-Shakspcure^s*^Jis yoiilikeit.'' 



Time rolls his course along— 



And every Fair occasion 

 With us turns out a song. 



Or sure a good oration ; 

 When both are well combin'd, 



To help along the story. 

 The Day, with hearts in union join'd. 



Becomes the Farmer's glory. 



For here, in rich display. 



Is found each sort of notion — 

 Out-doors are herds in full array, 



And in are flocks in motion. 

 While stocks are down fn other lands, 



And post-notes go a begging, 

 Our stock is money in our hands, 



Without the risk of i^g^^'»g- 



True farmers all — we earn our bread — 



No Priceing nor Sworticoutiiiff — 

 Save pricing beeves so much ahead, 



Days drovers come about in. 

 For others' good wc have a smile — 



For others' woe a sorrow — 

 To-day we joyous are the while, 



And hope to be to-morrow — 



For farms our HilU- are fine, 



Our fields yet boast their Green o' 

 Our CoflrAfr-hills by far outshine 



Lands where the flocks go lean o'. 

 Nature and art have here essay'd 



Their wonders to exhibit ; 

 Mechanics, Farmers, every trade, 



Receive a well-earned tribute. 



Kind Heaven its smiles has lent, 



To cheer our happy nieeling — 

 Wisely we've learn'd to be content 



Without the sheriff's greeting. 

 The salutations that we prize, 



Are found in smiling faces. 

 That beam on us with woman's eyes, 



And speak her thousand graces. 



While round the festive board. 



We meet our joys to heighten. 

 Those treasures only will we hoard, 



Tliat every year nia}^ brighten. 

 With thankful hearts and tongues, 



Our ^'Harvest-Home" well cherisli. 

 Yet look aloft to Nature's God 



From autumn fruits that perish. 



EngHsh Ai^riculturc. 



The good land of England is much more pro- 

 ductive than that of America — and this superiority 

 is probubly derived, not so much from greater orig- 

 inal strength of soil, as from more skillful agricul- 

 ture — depending mainly on two great facts, faithful 

 tillage and faithful manuring. 



The English farmer does not believe that there is 

 any thing necessarily inherent in the nature of good 

 soil, w'.jch makes it productive, independently of 

 nutricious matter and foreign aliment returned to 

 it by the cultivator, as a compensation for the crops 

 it has yielded. Hence his first, his principal care, 

 IS to collect and form manure from every possible 

 source. 



Nothing is more common when one is travelling 

 in England, than to see in the roads adjacent to the 

 fields, heaps of compost, consisting of turf, tops of 

 vegetables, as turnips and carrots, the stubble from 

 the wheat fields, which is cut by a second reaping 

 afler the crops have been removed ; dead animals, 

 the oft'als of barn yards and staWes, and in short, 

 every thing which is capable of being converted by 

 putrefaction into vegetable mould. 



It is therefore because this business of manuring 

 is so perfectly understood, and so diligently prac- 

 tised in England, more than from any other cause, 

 that their lands are so much richer than ours. In- 

 deed, is it any thing more than an imitation of the 

 economy of nature ? 



Professor Sillimans Travels. 



DinsmoorS Patent Corn SheUer. 



Mr. Olonzo R DiNSMooR of West Chester, N. 

 H. has invented and obtained letters patent for a 

 Corn-sheller more simple in its construction and 

 more readily put in operation, than any corn shcller 

 within our knowledge. It is operated by hand ; 

 and a single person will shell clean from the cob 

 three ears where a person could shell no more than 

 one in the usual way. Fifty bushels of corn ma^' 

 with ease be shelled in a day on it by one man. It 

 is cheaper than any other machine, the riglU and 

 the operating part being furnished by the pa- 

 tentee at the price of one dollar and fifty cents. 

 David Currier, Jr. Esq. of Chester, and several 

 other farmers of that and other towns testify of this 

 Corn-sheller in a written statement now before us, 

 that *'its cheapness, durability, and the ease with 

 which it is operated, exceed any thing we have ev- 

 er met with." From seeing it operate a short time 

 the editir of the Visitor is inclined to unite with 

 those gentlemen in recommending it to the farmers 

 *'a8 a highly useful labor-saving machine." 



J^^One of the machines, left at the granary of 

 the editor of the Visitor, may be seen by any per- 

 son who has the curiosity to witness its operation. 



British Agriculture. 



The New York ''Spirit of the Times," referring 

 to the intelligence from England received to the 

 month of October, says — "The Agricultural Soci- 

 eties in England are mustering in great force to 

 celebrate their anniversaries. The most distin- 

 guished noblemen in the realm take part in tliem, 

 as well as the wealthy farmers ; the result is un- 

 questionably most propitious to the formation of ag- 

 ricultural knowledge, and the profession is elevat- 

 ed in public estimation. The papers are filled with 

 reports of the dinners by which they uniformly 

 commemorate their meetings, and the eloquent 

 speeches are given at length. To this good feeling, 

 to the intelligence thus circulated, and the emula- 

 tion excited by the prizes offered, are we in a con- 

 siderable degree to attribute the palmy state of 

 English agriculture, and the constant improvement 

 of English stock. May we soon rival the "old 

 country" in these appliances for improvement and 

 their wholesome fruits I" 



Broiras Improved .■ilviunuch, i*ochrt. Memoran- 

 duviiind .Icrount Booh for the year 1840. — We are 

 again presented with this convenient.little annual, 

 which is in a suitable form tihvays to be carried a- 

 bout the person, and in which with its appendant 

 pencil it is almost impossible any one should fail to 

 make a memorandum of every important event 

 which has occurred, is occurring, or will occur in 

 the course of the year, as the blank space for es.ch 

 day is at hand. The lawyer, the doctor, the min- 

 ister, the merchant, the farmer, the laborer by the 

 day, week or month, the matron at Iiome, the young 

 lady in the kitchen or parlor or away from home, 

 the young woman in the family, or at the factory, 

 the hoy and girl in their teens; in short, persons en- 

 gaged in almost any imaginable employmenteither 

 public or private, will find tliis little publication of 

 much more use than its cost. A proper use of this 

 book will change the spendthrift into an economist 

 — it will induce the heedless to become watchful 

 and vigilant — it will enable the forgetful to remem- 

 ber what should not be forgotten. The farmer or 

 workingman will find such a memorandum, ke])ta- 

 bout his person, in which he habitually enters any 

 thing of moment as it occurs on the spot, to be a 

 most usefel aid in explaining every transaction of 

 importance in life. The pocket memorandum, kept 

 by each individual after the transactions of the year 

 have been minuted against the day in which they 

 occurred, would present reminiscences that might 

 be of great interest in years of after life. The child 

 of future years might be instructed by an example 

 of diligence and fidelity, which a diary of this kind 

 should unfold when its keeper should sleep in the 

 dust. 



Hogs that are shut up to fatten should be kept 

 warm and dry, and they should be kept clean in- 

 stead of being confined to dirt and mud, 6 or 8 inch- 

 es deep, as is the case with many. It is not possi- 

 ble for hogs to fatten fast unless they are comforta- 

 ble, and they cannot be comfortable while covered 

 with filth and exposed to cold and wet, instead of 

 having a good warm nest. Hogs should have .pure 

 oarth occasionally, and a little charcoal. — Jinoii 



