50 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



m(»re abundant crops, wc can g-o into no region 

 where there is abetter demand and higher prices 

 for every thing that the land will produce. Here 

 we have that lienllh whicli is denied in more fertile 

 flat countries; we have pure water, wliich is as 

 muclia"stalf of life" as bread itself: we have all 

 the comforts of schools for onr children and asso- 

 ciations tiic best we could choose. We may have 

 an equal abundance of all the good things thnt mo- 

 ther earth affords, with those who lire where less 

 labor may produce more in quantity. 



But there is a point in thn encouraginfr succes- 

 sive crops of the Bethlehem farmar, to which we 

 will call the particular attention of the reader: in 

 th.it point lies the great error which, if pursued, 

 will carry New England headlong in a downward 

 course. That point is tills — that, in tlie course 

 of taking three successive valuable crops from the 

 ground — taking from it each year a greater value 

 than its whole estimated value, nothins as yet has 

 been returned to it as a compensation. Tlie land has 

 done all and more than its owner could ask; but 

 every one must see that if the same system shall 

 be pursued, the land in time must become " worn 

 out." If after one or two years it shall he laid 

 down to pasture, and be annually fed with cattle 

 for seven years more ; when it comes to be plough- 

 ed again for potatoes, the crop will be much less 

 than the last crop — tlie succeeding crop of wheat 

 will be much diminished ; and instead of 1400 lbs. 

 of clover seed for the third year, the proprietor 

 mav consider himself fortunate if he shall-liarvest 

 BOO lbs. Aslnuch labor will be required to raise 

 and gather the crops of the three last years as of 

 the three first years. 



Now let us suppose the condition of our Bethle- 

 hem friend had been such that lie might, as well 

 ns not, have put on ten loads oi' manure fo the a- 

 cre, wortli in tin* country, with all the labor about 

 it, ten dollars: his crop ot potat^t's would not have 

 been less — his crop of wheat would have been 

 more — his clover seed would have been much in- 

 creased ; and his pasture land for the succeeding 

 eight years in all probability would have been 

 worth double: leaving a second rotation of pota- 

 toes, wheat and clover, as valuable as the first. 



We may be a little too fast. It-Js not too late to 

 make of the seven acres whicli have done so well 

 all that we would have tliem to be. Let a second 

 rotation be commenced the next season with twen- 

 ty stout ox-cart loads of manure to the acre : the 

 clover roots ploutihed under, :iud the ground plant- 

 ed with Indian rurn. This corn erop might be from 

 fifty to an hundred bushels to the acre : the suc- 

 ceeding crop of wheat would, in an equally favora- 

 ble season, much exceed the tirst crop; and after- 

 wards for clover, mowing or pasture, the land would 

 be more valuable than ever. 



There Is much valuable n"w land in the county 

 of Grafton and in Coos, the next county above. 

 This land produces in the first instance grand crops 

 and great profits. Some of the beautiful pine tim- 

 ber land is worth a hundred dollars an acre ; and 

 after this is cut down the same land is generally 

 good. The higher rock-maple, birch and beacli 

 lands, and even the lands with tlie "black growth" 

 of hemlock and larch, are valuable for the produc- 

 tion of rye, oats, ])cas, grass, potatoes, and some- 

 times Indian corn. The firstcrop will always more 

 than pay for the clearing. The after treatment of 

 this land is all important : the most of it in its nat- 

 ural state will pro<luce rank clover and berdsgrass. 

 The first care sliould be, with the rye or wlieat on 

 the burnt ground, to sow a plenty of gras.s seed — 

 clover, berdsgrass, or red top. If this be not done, 

 fire wee<ls will spring up, sviereeded by a rank 

 frrowth of raspberry, blackberry, or other bushes, 

 sluitting out the better growth for cattii and sheep. 

 Ground well cleared may remain in profitable grass 

 or pasture laud for several ye;us. But every inch 

 of a new upland faruithat can he ploughed should 

 be turned up soon after the slumps have rotted; 

 and such land, instead of being soon worn out, may 

 with much less expense than lands that have- been 

 Btill furtliHi- exhausted, be kt^'pt in a state at least e- 

 qual to tlieir fertility when tir.sl. cleared. 



If a young man has a hundred acres fiir clearing, 

 rather than go over the wlioK- or nearly thr whole 

 in the course of the few first years, he had better 

 preserve half of his land, the most valuable for 

 wood and timber, in its original state. He will be 

 tite gainer in the end to cultivate his first fifty a- 

 cres well, rather than go over the whole. The 

 temptation to cut down is strouirsolong as tlie for- 

 est remains. The virgin soil yields in such abund- 

 ance, that going back to the ground partially ex- 

 hausted is discouraging so lung as new land is left 

 But how much more valuabK- twenty years hence 

 will be a farm with fifty acres cleared, and the same 

 labor bi'stowed in its iniproveuumt, in carefully 



fencing with walls, in clearing the arable, in keep- 

 ing up the fertility to its highest point, than in run- 

 ning over the whole, obtaininir perhaps in the first 

 instance a few large crops, and leaving the wearing 

 out land overrun with thistles, thorns, briars and 

 bushes, and the wooden log fences rotted down to 

 the ground .■' 



An optical phenomenon. 



A very singular appearance to the naked eye oc- 

 curred on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 14th of 

 the present year, which we do not know any 

 other person than the editor of the Visitor noticed. 

 The main street running through this village, for- 

 merly the only street, but now having in its rear 

 nearly the whole distance anotlier parallel street 

 called State street, with others further west at con- 

 venient distances running parts of the same direc- 

 tion — is nearly two miles in length, with the State 

 Capitol near the eentre. From the centre south 

 about one hundred rods in the most elevated point 

 of the street looking north east over the Merrimack 

 river we sec Oak Mill, one of those prominences 

 which lie on the river at convenient distances be- 

 low the higher mountains wiiich break upon and 

 cover the larger portion of Grafton and Coos coun- 

 ties. Oak Hill siiuts from the view the hills of Lou- 

 don, Canterbury, and Giluianton, and the Gun- 

 stock mountains which divide the town of Gil- 

 manton from Gilford and Alton, extending on the 

 south side of Winnipisseogee lake some fifteen 

 njiles. These Guiistock mountains may be plainly 

 seen on the high grounds in Hopkinton six or 

 seven miles west and In that part of Concord 

 known by the name of West Parish. On the mor- 

 ning we liave noticed between eight and nine o'- 

 clock, the two higher prominences at the west and 

 easterly end of the Gunstock mountains vvere dis- 

 tinctly to be seen from that part of the main street 

 in Concord we have named. They stood at a point 

 of elevation seeniln!^ lo measure the conjectural 

 distance between the nearer Oak Hill and their 

 own location by the known distance from the street 

 to the latter hill, and they looked as natural as any 

 mountain in plain sight would appear to the naked 

 eye from the same distance. 



This is certainly the first time the tops of those 

 mountains were ever seen by us from the same po- 

 sition : that they were so seen was no delusion ex- 

 cept the views of the same prominences from liigh- 

 er positions at other times was also a delusion. We 

 are somewhat curious to know whether the same 

 view of these mountain tops either on the 14th 

 January or at any other time has been had by any 

 other person. Has any attentive observer ever had 

 a similar vision of land or other objects ordinarily 

 shut out by other hills or forests placed at a point 

 between ? Ships have sometimes been descried 

 at a long distance at sea in a peculiar state of the 

 atmosjihere looking over the higher points of the 

 waters formed by the oval shape of the globe. 

 May not this appearance of the mountains to the 

 eye from a point in which they are not ordinarily 

 seen have resulted from a similar state of the at- 

 mosphere at this time ? It was one of those still 

 cold mornings when tlic smoke in volume like a 

 snow bank descends toAvards the ground from the 

 tops of the chimneys — when the frost was upon the 

 nostrils and neck.s of ttie travelling horses, and 

 the stinir of the air touciied the human clieek. 

 W^ill any philosopiier, hotii a student and observer 

 — cannot our old friend Dudley LEAvrrT,lhc great 

 self-taught and the teacher of half a century — ex- 

 plain this phenomenon to the readers of the r'arm- 

 er's Montlily Visitor? 



Calcareous 3Ianures. Renovation of 

 worn out tnnds. 



"The F-AUMEiv*" Ri:r,isTKR, a monthly publica- 

 tion devoted to the iini»rovement of the practice 

 and sujiport of the interests of agriculture," i:' pub- 

 lished at Petersburg, Virginia, by Kuiii'Ni) Rui - 

 Fi.M, Esq. Each number contains sixty-four kirge 

 octavo pages of clost' )>rint — say double tlie quan- 

 tity of matter to a number of the V^isitor ; the price 

 of subscription has been five dollars a year ; but 

 the editor has reducfd it to half that sum to every 

 t'uture subscriber whotiiall send two names. 



This publication is now seven years old; its ed- 

 itor is one of those practical men who has benefit- 

 ed himself and the public by unwearied per.sever- 

 ance and effort. He has done much to rescue Vir- 

 ginia below the Blue Ridge from tliat sud condition 

 in the production of her soil in whicli her position 

 had placed her. Mr. Ruthn has personally carried 

 out a series of trials of the nature and value of cal- 

 careous manures applied to worn out soils, and em- 

 bodied his experiments in an essay upon that sub- 

 ject, embracing a volume. This essay has been 

 well received ; and other Virginia farmers and 



planters are treading in his steps in the use of the 

 same aijplication to their worn out lands. The 

 kind of calcare'ius substance made use of by Mr. 

 Ruffin is shell marl, which abounds under ground 

 in many extensive tracts of old Virginia. This 

 material is found to operate with greatest effect on 

 soil of "good apparent texture," producing sorrel 

 and pine, but whose acidity prevents a fertility and 

 growth of the more useful vegetrble productions. 

 Mr. Rutfin, in the course of practice, has discover- 

 ed the fact that some kinds of soil will bear the 

 application of a greater quantity of marl than other 

 kinds — thata light soil may be injured with six or 

 eight hundred bushelstoihe acre, while the crop.s 

 upon th*^ same ground may be doubled for a series 

 of years with only three hundred bushels. The 

 nature of this shell marl, like that of ordinary lime, 

 is to operate most usefully where there i.s most 

 crude vegetable substance in the ground to be ope- 

 rated upon. 



Mr. Ruffin's improvements upon his farms an I 

 his efforts through his monthly journal are c;ilcula- 

 ted to have a very extensive effect on the Agricul- 

 ture of his State and of the whole southern coun- 

 try. The use of calcareous manures in this coun- 

 try is new ; we cannot doubt that much remains to 

 be developed concerning them in the geological 

 researches that have been csmmenced in varlou^i 

 parts of the country, under the patronage of tlie 

 States, and by the experiments of scientific men 

 who may volunteer in their examination. Mr. 

 Ruffin has carried his practice farther than any 

 other man at the south in the use of shell marl. 

 His experiments will adapt themselves to that 

 whole region of country upon the Atlantic, little 

 more elevated than the sea itself, which abounds 

 in the material he has used. 



Further in the miei;^.: Z':A amons the moun- 

 tains we are of opinion that there are mafenatslor 

 cnricJilng the ground, the value of which has hard- 

 ly been dreamed of by ninety-nine in a hundred. 

 Much of that under-soil which appears to be im- 

 perfect clay may be rich in nutriment to the earth. 

 WTiat enriches the alluvion upon our rivers but 

 those finer calcareous particles, that are left by 

 the subsidence of every rise of water .^ The min- 

 eral substances are scarcely less valuable than the 

 vegetable matters brought down by the overflow 

 of waters. That there are millions of loads of cal- 

 careous manures under ground in the interior be- 

 yond the regions of the shell marl, can hardly ad- 

 mit of doubt. Mucliof this matter, when first ap- 

 plied to the soil, may Iiave little or no eflect, or it 

 may seem to be injurious in its operation : ihe se- 

 cond year its value will begin to be felt — the third 

 and fourth years it may change the face of the 

 ground entirely. In various positions we believe 

 we have discovered a value in the under soil much 

 greater than the loam or vegetable mould lying 

 over it. On ground but a short distance (rom the 

 main street in Concord, overlaid with a mould of 

 only a few inches in thickness, a hard clay sand 

 raised and mixed with the mould upon the surface 

 becomes in the space of two or three years a rich 

 soil, increat^wng in depth as the subsoil is stirred 

 up and turning out successive vegetable crops with- 

 out the application of any other manure. 



The practical chemist has yet much to do in de- 

 veloping the nature and value of our soils. We 

 are of opinion that a most valuable and lasting soil 

 will be that which has been considered cold and 

 forbidding — a thin heavy mould resting upon a re- 

 tentive subsoil of apparent clay. We likewise be- 

 lieve that much of the pine plains will before many 

 years become our most profitable arable lands ; 

 that the art and mystery of converting this into 

 land adhesive of moisture and retentive of the 

 strength bestowed upon it, will be discovered. 



The proper use and application of manures arc 

 vet but imperfectly uuder.'«;t'^od in many jiarts of 

 this country. How sliould they l)c, wliere the soil 

 at the first clearing was so fertile as to seem to 

 need no manure ^ and where the necessity of ma- 

 nure has not been felt even when the land was 

 worn out, because other vlrfjin soil lay along side 

 to supply its place .•' Tho first cultivation of a fer- 

 tile country, from the condition of its posses- 

 sors, leads to inevitable exhaustion; nor will reno- 

 vation fillow until the greater ))f>rtion of the whole 

 ground ii\\7i\\ be taken up in cultivation. 



Happy is it for New England that we have arri- 

 ved at that point where renovation has not only 

 commenced, but Is progressing, in some parts, with 

 all desirable rapidity, and in others which, slow 

 and sluggish at first, must be accelerated so that tiie 

 present generation shall live to witness a great and 

 general improvement. Enterprising men near the 

 seashore, who have converted ground literally 

 worth nothing into fruitful fields 3'ielding the an- 

 nual income of a value of thicc to five huudicd dol- 



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