TF1E FARMERS' MON I'HLY VISITOR. 



classes, could be in some mensure transferred oi 

 infused into our farmers.— JV'. E. Farmer. 



Remarks of the Hon. « m. A. Hares, 



of South Benrick, Mc, at the Third .Igrirultur- 

 luarl Meeting at the State House in Boston. 



(Reported for tlie N. E. Farmer.) 

 Judge Haj-es began his remarks by e.xprcssinc 

 the pleasure he felt in meeting the farmers of Mas" 

 sachusetts; and though he did not anticipate on 

 his coming to town, being called upon in this way, 

 he was liappy to encourage an object so valuable 

 as that contemplated by these meetings, aoricultu- 

 ral improvement, by giving an account of'liis own 

 operations and the success which had attended 

 them. Farmers constituted a common fraternity, 

 • and as their sole ebject was the improvemunt of 

 tins important art, whose interests involve the in- 

 terests and comforts of every class in society, he 

 should make no apology for speaking of plain mat- 

 ters in a plain way. This was the fiTst time he had 

 been called upon to address a meeting of farmers 

 upon the subject of agriculture, and he must there- 

 fore claim their indulgence. He had derived so 

 much pleasure from reading heretofore the reports 

 of these agricultural meetings, made by the Com- 

 missioner, that he felt it to be his duty when call- 

 ed upon, to contribute his part. 



He should first relate his experience in the rais- 

 ing of wheat. He had attempted the cultivation 

 for many years and with very imperfect success. 

 It had been generally destroyed; but whenever he 

 had succeeded, it was always upon high land. In 

 I8;38 he purchased of the Shakers, in°Canterbury, 

 N. H., one bushel of Black Sea wheat. He sowed' 

 it upon an half acre of loamy land, upon which the 

 previous year he had raised a crop of mangel wurt- 

 zel ; some ti.-ne previous the land had been ma- 

 nured with muscle bed. The crop appeared very 

 promising, but was destroyed by the grain insect 



and he obtained a return of only eiu-ht bushels. 



His belief was that the crop was sowed too early. 

 The last year he sowed his wheat much later in the 

 season, and from two bushels sowing on an acre of 

 land, he gathered 41 bushels. His success in this 

 case he considered attributable to his late sowino- 

 owing to which circumstance the wheat did not 

 come into flower until the season for the depreda- 

 tions of the insect had passed. He applied to his 

 Wheatland si.tty bushels of leached ashes, a matter 

 which experience has satisfied him is of very great 

 advantage. Like success has attended a similar 

 management in the culture of wheat in other pla- 

 ces. He thinks much of the particular kind of 

 wheal sown by him, as he has never known it to be 

 injured by rust or mildew. The kind here spoken 

 of is a red wheat. In the town of Shapleigh, on 

 good ground, the crop on a part of a field sown with 

 common wheat was worthless ; while the Black 

 Sea wheat in the same field, gave 02 bushels from 

 one bushel of seed. 



On the subject of the evening's discussion, Soils 

 and Manures, he should give his views, founded 

 upon long practice, as he had cultivated a farm un- 

 der his own personal superintendence, for twenty- 

 four years last past. Lands in good condition can 

 easily be made better; while lands which are poor 

 and exhausted are with much difficulty raised up. 

 Various substances may be applied, but the main de- 

 pendence must be placed upon vegetable matter in 

 and upon the soil. His first object, with a view to 

 enrich his farm, is to collect vegetable matter for 

 litter; leaves and straw and waste substances of 

 every description. He collects leaves even late in 

 the spring, as litter for his styes. These seem to 

 be small gatherings, but in the course of the sea- 

 son, where this habit of saving exists, the accu- 

 mulations becoms very considerable. He is accus- 

 tomed yearly to mow his pastures and gather all 

 the braltes and ferns and coarse grasses on which 

 cattle will not feed. In this way his pastures are 

 greatly improved. There is a "better quality of 

 gra*s comes in, and the quantity is much increased. 

 He is accustomed, likewise, to mow his stubble 

 grounds. He cuts the weeds and the old stubble 

 close for litter for his stock, and he does not find 

 that his grass is injured by this mowing. He thus 

 collects a large quantity of vegetable waste, and 

 uses in his barn a large basket, vvhicli will hold sev- 

 en or eight bushels, to distribute it as litter to his 

 stock. Th? o-reat advantages of this management 

 appear in the increase of his manure and the com- 

 fort and consequent thrift of his cattle. 



He is in the habit of collecting large quantities 

 of swamp mud, which he deposits is his barnyard, 

 to be trodden upon by his cattle, and he places 

 large quantities in his hog pens. He suffers this 

 to remain through the sumnier, deeming it not ad- 

 visable to turn it over. After keeping this through 

 a winter and summer, ho carries it out upon his 



I lar.d. He likewise casts soil into his yard ; carries 

 [in a large amount of bog mud ; the wash of the 

 house, likewise, is conveyed to the same place; and 

 he has always swamp mud on hand to place in the 



yard that the offensive liquids may be absorbed 



He uses lime, likewise, in his compost heap. For 

 many years he hae practised using from ten to thir- 

 ty casks per year. He deems it most favorable to 

 health, and as far as the uninterrupted health of a 

 I very numerous family may be considered a test in 

 the case, the prudence and benefits of the practice 

 are perfectly established. 



A great object with him, and upon which he lays 

 most emphatic stress, is the nsingof all the vegeta- 

 ble matter which he can collect°or apply, for" en- 

 ticliing his farm. He never carries his manurcout 

 in the fall ; and he regrets his want of a manure 

 cellar, as he thinks much would be gained by keep- 

 ing the manure under cover. He does not deem it 

 necessary that it should undergo a fermentation or 

 decomposition before it is carried into the field. He 

 applies twenty loads to the acre. He begins at 

 one side of his field, and, laying eight successive ' 

 heaps in a rew, at the distance °of one rod apart, 

 and the rows likewise one rod apart, it will require' 

 just twenty times eight heaps to dress an acre. The 

 distance at which the heaps should be placed apart, 

 is ascertained with sufficient accuracy by taking 

 the distance from the hind-end of the cart to the 

 forward feet of the cattle upon the tongue as the 

 measurement of a rod in length. He ploughs his 

 ground about six inches deep, carefully and com- 

 pletely inverting the sod. He seldom ploughs his 

 manure under, excepting where he would ratse tap- 

 rooted vegetables ; but having laid his land flat, he 

 spreads his manure and then harrows it and cross 

 harrows it until a fine tilth is produced. His corn 

 is planted three and a half feet apart, and is care- 

 fully hoed three times without making any hill 

 whatever ; and he is careful to suffer no weeds to 

 remain among it. It is suffered to stand in the 

 field until perfectly ripe; and the stalks are not 

 cut until the corn is so far advanced that there can 

 be no adyant:ige from them to the ripening of the 

 ear. His butt stalks also are saved with o-reat 

 care ; and when stowed away, his corn fodder be- 

 ing intermixed in alternate layers v/ith wheatstraw, 

 the straw itself is rendered more nutritious and sa- 

 vory for his cattle. If he plants potatoes, he is 

 careful to plant whole potatoes and of a good size. 

 The sprouts from such are stronger, and the crop is 

 a fortnight earlier. The potatoes are hoed twice 

 and the ground kept clear from weeds. 



The second year the ground which has been in 

 corn is not ploughed nor the sod disturbed or re- 

 verted ; but it is harrowed in both directions by 

 the cultivator managed by one man with a horse. 

 The wheat is then sowed at the rate of two bush- 

 els to an acre, or barley or oats as he may choose, 

 with grass seeds. 



He has been in the habitof raising esculent roots 

 for his stock, of the value of which as feed, hs has 

 a high estimation ; mangel wurtzel, carrots, turnips 

 and ruta baga. He likes the ruta baga very much 

 as feed for his horses. He planted "last year two 

 acres of carrots and rutabaga upon green sward, 

 managed as he has said, and obtained one thousand' 

 bushels. Potatoes are sometimes made the second 

 crop in the course. In that case his land has two ma- 

 nurings; and so with other esculent vegetable crops. 

 After haying, and even late in the autumn, he 

 devotes much time and labor to the improvement 

 of his lands. He carries sand on to clay lands, and 

 clay OH sand lands, and finds much benefit from 

 this intermixture of soil. He deems the principal 

 advantage resulting from this process, to be upon 

 land which he cannot plant, the covering up of all 

 the vegetable matter on the soil, by which means 

 It becomes rotted and improves the staple of the 

 soil. This he deems a matter deserving particular 

 attention ; this covering up of veo-ctable matter 

 and converting it into manure. He pursues this 

 work even until late in the autumn, when the 

 ground is frozen. 



He obtains much swamp mud. He has exten- 

 sive meadows, which have two and a half feet 

 depth of mud resting upon blue clay. He has at- 

 tempted the redemption of this land by digcrino- a 

 centre ditch three feet in width and twofcet^in 

 depth, and cross ditches at right angles %vith the 

 main ditch, and emptying into it. ° These cross 

 ditches are two and a half feet wide at top, la 

 inches at the bottom and one foot in depth. They 

 occur as often as once in two rods. After the 

 ditching is completed, gravel or sand is carried on 

 to the meadow at the rate of one liundred loads to 

 the acre and manured. It is then sowed liberally 

 with herds grass and clover. The ditches require 

 to be cleared out once in three years, and the mat- , 

 tcr collected in them spread upon the land. In this 



21 



way they may be kept in good condition for an in- 

 definite period of time. His own improvements in 

 this way are of twelve years' duration and withoul 

 deterioration. ^ 



In 1833, he undertook the redemption of four 

 acres of this kind of laud. He covered it with 

 gravel, which was spread immediately. The next 

 spring when the ground was thawed to the depth 

 of two or three inches, Iw harrowed it most thor- 

 oughly ; he then sowed herds grass and followed 

 it with a bush harrow. Tlie crop of grass which 

 he has since obtained from this land was at least 

 two tons to the acre ; and the moss in the land 

 was completely decomposed. 



He is accustomed to use alternately his p»lure» 

 as mowing fields and his mowing fields as pastures. 

 He finds a very great advantage from this course 

 ol management. He ploughs his pastures, even 

 though he has no manure to apply to them ; ■ and 

 though he cannot fence them against his cattle. 

 He inverts the sod, laying- it completely over ; and 

 then sows his grass seed. In this way the feed of 

 his pastures is greatly improved both in quality and 

 guantity. He ploughs his pastures, getting a crop 

 of Indian corn and then laying down his la'nd with 

 Indian wheat and grass seeds. The Indian wheat, 

 1. e. the Tartarian buck wheat, is deemed by him a 

 good crop, and the flour much esteemed. Whea 

 he has no manure to apply to the land, he ploughs 

 It in a shallow manner, but, at any rate, it should 

 be occasionally ploughed and sowed with grass 

 seed. 



Judge Hayes has done much in the improve- 

 ment of his live stock, having obtained an improv- 

 ed Short-Horn bull from Greenland, N. H., where 

 this valuable stock has been some time reared, and 

 from which the beautiful ox Columbus was descen- 

 ded, an ox whose superior is seldom seen. 



He closed his remarks much too soon ; but ho 

 has kindly promised that we shall soon hear from 

 him on these subjects— an engagement which he 

 cannot too soon fulfil. We shall hold him strictly 

 to his word in this case ; and being a lawyer, and 

 knowing the consequences of neglecting " to take 

 up one 3 paper," we mean to sue him if he does not 

 pay the note at maturity. 



The account he has given of his farming opera- 

 tions so far, will be read with much interest and 

 instruction. His improvement of his pasture lands 

 deserves particular attention. We have oft^m urg- 

 ed It upon farmers ; but he is the only man we have 

 yet known to practice it. H. C. 



Froin tlie .M:i:,;i f*e:iner. 

 Mr. Holmes : — I have noticed with much inter- 

 est some remarks in your late paper on the evils 

 of using tobacco, but the writer dwelt more on the 

 uso of It in the shape of snuff than in any other 

 way. I have for a long time considered the use of 

 this narcotic poison, as doing immense evil in our 

 land, particularly among the young. How fre- 

 quently we see them with the quid in"' their cheeks 

 or a long nine, or a pipe in their mouths, strutting 

 Ihfough the street corrupting the atinos])here a- 

 round them : this is not all, they are destroying 

 their own energies of body and nimd, .for it is the 

 testimony of the most respectable Physicians in tlie 

 land that tobacco taken in any form weakens ths 

 body, enervates the mind; the use of it is a practice 

 dirty, filthy and ungentlemanly, and ought to bo 

 immediately abandoned by every one, who has any 

 regard for f,:s own respectability and happiness, or 

 the comforts of others.- 



I have written the above for the purpose of in- 

 troducing the followii g cxtractfrom'a Poem deliv- 

 ered by Rev. Charles S. Adams before the Anti-To- 

 bacco Society, at Harwich, Mass. which 1 find in 

 my Sailor's Magazine for Jan. 1840; and if you can 

 find room for it in your valuable paper it would 

 gratify me much, and save some one from the hor- 

 ror of n^jrvous maladies. g. g. 



Il'inthrop, Jan'y 17, 1S40. 



"And then, my friends, just think there's naught 



exceeds , * 



The filth that from the chewer's mouth proceeds 

 Two ounces chewed a day, 'tis said, produce 

 A half a pint of vile tobacco juice. 

 Which if continued five and twenty years 

 (As from calculation it appears,) ' 



With this foul stuff would near five hogsheads fill 

 Besides old quids a larger parcel still. ' 



Nor am I with this calcul.ition done :— 

 He in that time has chewed half a ton— 

 A wagon load— of that whi.ch would of course 

 hicken a dog, or even kill a horse. 

 Could he foresee, but at a single vie*-. 

 What he was destined in his life to chew, 

 -And then the product of his work survey, 

 He would grow sick and throw bis quid away. 

 Or could the laas, ere she had pledged to be 



