38 



THE PARMER'S MONTH LY VISIT OR. 



sue the business in wl.ieh they are cngtiged w.tl 

 the interest they would feel ,f the work was tl e,r 

 own The c;is.- mentioned in the parable of the 

 Saviour of "well done good and faithful servant, 

 inasmuch as thou hast been faithtnl ni a few things, 

 I will make thee ruler over many things, enter in- 

 to the joy of thy lord"— will most strikingly apply 

 to every young man employed in the s.rvice oi a 

 roaster. There never was a case ot entire hdelity, 

 where a youth n.ade his employer's interest his 

 own best interest, where lie was as iaithtul and 

 persevering in his master's absence as in his pres- 

 ence—that fidelity and honesty did not meet its re- 

 ward in after life. Educated in such a school, self- 

 educated in the discipline of agood conscience and 

 a fear to do wrong— the young man without a cent 

 has a better capital to begin the world with than lie 

 who, careless of industry and application either 

 for others or himself, inherits a fortune oi many 

 thousands. 



The relative duties between employers and em- 

 ployed are not always sufficiently regarded. The 

 master owes it to his hired man and his apprentice 

 —the mistress owes it to the maid servant in her 

 employ— to treat them in a spirit that shall neither 

 wound their feelings nor force from them a service 

 beyond their ability to perform: they should be 

 treated as equals wherever the assumption shall not 

 merge all distinction between the person who is 

 served and the person who owes the service : nev- 

 er should there be a wanton exercise of authority 

 merely for the sake of showing authority. The ser- 

 vant owes it to his employer to meet merited rebuke 

 with a patient temper— to see no injustice done the 

 employer absent that the employer would not toler- 

 ate if present- to so conduct when alone engaged 

 in the master's or mistress' service as if all the time 

 under immediate inspection ; and they owe like- 

 wise all tliat devoted affection which can rnake 

 them feel their employers' interests to be their own 

 best interest. Mutual confidence begetting mulu- 

 inor and obtaining the high' 



ter once or twice in the summer. 3. Spring sown 

 Black Sea wheat with clover and one bushel of 

 slacked lime twice applied. 4. Clover. 5. Pasture. 

 6. Oats,orpcrli-.ips Riita Baga. After which com- 

 mence again with the manure and Indian corn as 

 before. After the first ploughing no condition of 

 this land would reiiuire more than a two-horse 

 plough; the cultivation would be so easy, the land 

 woulll be so free from weeds, that two acres might 

 be gone over with equal ease as half the quantity 

 of hard rocky land. It will at once strike the ob- 

 server that the value of this rotation would be that 

 each succeeding crop will be the better for the crop 

 which precedes it. The consequence will be that 

 the lands gradually attain to the highest degree of 

 improvement without a possibility of deterioration; 

 and there is hardly a eliance of failure of any crop. 

 If stable manure cannot be had in quantities, com- 

 post of almost any kind will have all ils.effects up- 

 on this land ; and in all that has fallen within my 

 observation in the interior, plaster of Pans with 

 clover has a grand effect. Ashes and slaked lime 

 will answer well, especially when such ground is 

 new, before the rooty fibres shall have been decom- 

 posed. 



I But it is not on light sandy pine plain land alone 

 that a rotation of crops should be followed. There 

 is some land natural only to grass where grass 

 I should be exclusively raised— land that is overflow- 

 ed and is wet and heavy. The best way to treat 

 this land, if it cannot be effectually warmed by 

 draining, is to attempt no other crop than grass af- 

 ter it has been once subdued. Such land, when 

 the wild grasses have usurped the place of a better, 

 may be broken up in September, soon after the 

 grass is taken off— apply from ten to twenty loads 

 of manure to the aere, plough it in at half depth 

 so as not to disturb the sward at the bottom— sow 

 herd.-igrass and red tup, and roll down. The de- 

 caying sward of itself will he equal to a dozeri loads 

 of maliure to the acre ; and the land will be in the 

 best condition from three to five years for a crop of 



al resnect. fidelity deserviu" aiiu uuiiLiiiiiig i"^ ..•£;" i -. — - ,^ , , , , " , ■ i 



est VeCd ; the burdens and labors of life will be the first rate hay. If the land be very heavy sand 

 lightened-the best dispositions will be cherished | in almost any quantity may be spread and plough 



the affections between those who were at first 



estranged will grow into those which obedience and 

 love create between parent and child 

 The case of t 



d in with the manure. 

 To wet land that can be drained and to upland 

 with a clay loam or with a lighter and thinner loam 



he illustrious farmer of Holkham J upon a hard gravelly subsoil, rotation may he e- 



— the affection on Ins part and the respect on their 

 part of the numerous peasantry, the old and the 

 joung, that live on bis extensive estates- where 

 fidelity has been purchased with repeated kindness- 

 es, and where the reproach of bad and sinful hab- 

 its' has been shut out by inducements to do well ra- 

 ther than by severe punishments for actual trans- 

 gressions— will serve as an example wherever his 

 history and theirs shall be written and made 

 known. 



Rotation of Crops. 

 I leave these moral reflections, and would call 

 the marked attention of New England fiiriners to 

 that point in the improved husbandry deemed more 

 important in England than all others ; I mean rota- 

 tion in crops. For many years rotation has been 

 practically adopted to some extent liy the farmers 

 of New England ; there are few good farmers who 

 continue to raise the same crop on the same ground 

 &r a succession of years. Some let their arable 

 grounds, after raising first a crop of Indian corn 

 or potatoes, for one or more } cars succeeded by 

 what is called a corn crop in England— that is, a 

 crop of wheat, barley, rye, or oats— lay down in 

 grass five years', some ten and some fifteen years. 

 On the harder lands this course is pursued in a 

 manner that much of the land of a natural good 

 quality yields the smallest crops. Now the rotation 

 in British husbandrv is a more frequent cliange. 

 So well do the rich owners of land understand the 

 value of rotation, that they would turn away the 

 tenant who should raise what is there called two 

 corn or white crops in succession upon the same 

 land. On the heavier lands grass is soir.etiiaes ad- 

 mitted to be taken off- two years in succession; but 

 on all the light sandy soils oal'y a single year does 

 the same land lie to the same use. The course on_ 

 such lands there would be:-^l. Turnips eaten oft" 

 in winter with sheep. 2. Spring wheat or barley. 

 3. Clover. 4. Pasture. 5. Oats. 'With (his an- 

 nual change of crops no land is found more profit- 

 able than the light soils. It is believed a similar 

 course pursued in this country with similar soils 

 would mike much of what is treated as little better 

 than waste the most profitable land for cultivation. 

 Begin upon the pine plains where the soil is not 

 more than three-fourths sand witli a rotation after 

 this fashion ; — 1. Summer breaking up of the 

 ground, and rye sown in September with clover. 2. 

 Clover turned in soon after the rye is taken off, 

 stable manure spread the following spring, plough- 

 ed in and rolled, and Indian corn planted with plas- 



qually beneficial as upon the lightersoil. This land 

 " of course be divested of rocks as much as con- 



venient, that disturb the free access of the plough. 

 As many acres cannot be carried on with the same 

 labor, as upon the lighte, soil. The course of ro- 

 tation, if the great bulk of pasture on the fi^rm is 

 near enough and easyenougli to be converted into 

 arable, would be, aftef>tlie stones that interrupt the 

 plough sliall be cleared out— 1. To break up and 

 plant with potatoes with perhaps ten loads unfer- 

 mented straw manure to the acre. 2. Indian corn 

 with manure spread equal to fifteen loads to tlie a- 

 cre, and all the better if ten loads of rich compost 

 or other fermented manure can be added in the 

 hill ; the corn hoed at least three .times, and not a 

 weed suffered to ssed on the ground. 3. Spring 

 sowed wheat with clover and herds grass seed. 4. 

 Grasi. 5. Grass. 0. Pasture. 7. Pasture. 8. 

 Oats. 9.. Rutabaga or other root crop. Returning 

 afterwards to the Indian corn crop with the effect- 

 ual manuring. If the pasture be excluded, per- 

 haps it will be advisable to hold the ground to mown 

 (Trass for the third season. In farms which are 

 found feasible there will be no less benefit from 

 ploughing, manuring and cultivating pasture 

 grounds than the fields generally appropriated to 

 hay and grain. 



Deficiency of manure — how supplied. 

 I may be met with the objection that the system 

 of rotation cannot be pursued while there is the 

 present deficiency of manure. I answer this ob- 

 jection by saying" that the difficulty will only exist 

 at the beginning. The first acre made rich will 

 furnish the means not only of its own renovation 

 but to enrich the second acre. The new husband- 

 ry is predicated on the principle tliat the ground 

 possesses the inherent means of greatly increasing 

 its own production. Besides there are external 

 aids that may be commanded on the premises of al- 

 most every farmer. His swine and his cattle, his 

 horses and sheep, will convert almost every veget- 

 able substance mto means of fertilizing the ground; 

 the mud of sunken holes, the leaves that fall from 

 the trees, the peat of tlie swamp, the turf by the 

 sides of the highways, the chips of his door yard, 

 the ashes from his fire place, the briars from the 

 sides of his fields, the rotten wood in his forests — 

 in fine, every thing partaking of animal or vegeta- 

 ble matter that is subject to decoii:position — may, 

 Vv'ith the aid of useful domestic animals treading 

 upon and working them over, double and treble bis 

 ordinary quantity of manure, so that the more the 



farmer applies in the first instance the greater will 

 be his means of increasing Ihe application. 



The methud of rotation like the first will be found 

 in the course of one routine, separating the arable 

 of any farm into as many lots as there are years in 

 the rotation, to make even those farms which are 

 now esteemed to be good farms of double and tre- 

 ble the value of their present estimation. Lands 

 that are now worth twenty and thirty dollars the 

 acre would be worth a hundred ; and mucli land 

 that is not valued so high as the interest of a hun- 

 dred dollars to the acre might be made to yield a 

 nett annual profit of twice that amount. 

 Leasehold Estates. 

 Another point in British husbandry is v,-orthy the 

 attention of American agriculturists; and that is 

 the tenure of their leaseholds, requiring specific 

 treatment of lands by which tiieir improvement is 

 constantly progressing. There it is made for the' 

 mutual benefit of landlord and tenant that land 

 should be placed and kept in its highest state of 

 production. It is truly wonderful that the tenant 

 in that country should see his ivay clear at the very 

 outset, before he raises a crop, to make an expendi- 

 ture of fifty or sixty dollars to the acre : he holds 

 hii land upon a long lease— he takes the lease for 

 its worth without the improvement; and it is ob- 

 viously more for his advantage than for that of the 

 owner, that he should raise the product of the land 

 as high as possible. He is not the owner of land, 

 but ife possesses capital ; bis business is cultivaiion 

 of the land, and this business he pursues with no 

 less prospect of gain than the merchant who com- 

 mences with a capital. Both occupations are car- 

 ried on for ijain ; and if the farmer possesses abun- 

 dant capital, his profits will increase with the grea- 

 ter outlay judiciously applied to the smaller quan- 

 tity of land. 



In this country, particularly in the interior 

 towns, the situation of landlord and tenant is in . 

 the majority of cases reversed, so that there is com- 

 monly an expectation that alarm will be the worse 

 to be rented even to the most judicious tenant. 

 The rent is from year to year, or hardly ever so 

 long as a term of five years. Each successive ten- 

 ant'and each sucressive year presents dilapidation 

 and destruction of buildings and fences— the win- 

 dows broken, the boards torn off, the roofs more 

 and more leaky— the gates and bars broken down 



the posts rotted— increasing gaps in stone walls : 



the crops are taken from the most productive fields 

 without a return of their fertility; the hard grounds 

 are made harder, and tlie easy cultivation made 

 more rough ; briars and weeds and bushes are suf- 

 fered to usurp the best part of the soil ; in short, 

 the farm is scourged, and if its former treatment 

 had been tolerable, its new occupants will be very_ 

 likely to take from it a greater annual amount of 

 depreciation in value than they can actually afford 

 to pay for its use. 



Now in all parts of this country, abounding in 

 numerous blessings and in every inducement for 

 improvement, a speedy stop should be put to the 

 treatment of farms such as I have been describing. 

 If administrators on estates or guardians of niiuors 

 who frequently have the charge of rented farms 

 have not the capacity to make ;eontracts with ten- 

 ants that shall assure them to be kept in at least as 

 good state as that in which they are found, such 

 managers for the orphan and widow should be 

 taught by statute and held accountable for a better 

 management. 

 A long leased farm in Massachusetts. 



hands of tenants 



Farms may be placed in the 

 with equal safety and equal security as in the island 

 of Great Britain. I have in my mind a farm in 

 Medlbrd, Massachusetts, about four miles out of 

 Boston, which has been carried on by tenants ever 

 since the close of the revolutionary war. This 

 farm embraces perhaps two hundred acres, and is a 

 part of the estate which was formerly called the 

 " Fiyal farm," owned by a family which left the 

 country at the commencement of the revolution. 

 With my father who purchased the crop of grass 

 on a small portion of tliac farm, more than fbrty 

 years ago I raked hay upon the marsh near Mystic 

 river . since that time I have frequently passed it; 

 and on the invitation|of its present tenant 1 intend, if 

 Providence shall will it,in the course of tlie next sea- 

 son, to visit it for the purpoic of amore minute in- 

 spection and description. What was properly the Ry- 

 al farm has been tenanted by two geijllemcn farmers 

 who learned to work with their own hands when 

 young, and both of whom from the ground have 

 made money enough each to pay for the farm itself 

 It was an excellent hay farm ; and tlio main object 

 has been to furnish milk for the market. I met the 

 present occupant of the farm a few weeks since at 

 the house of an old acquinlance in Boston, who 



