THE FARMERS' MONTHLY VISITOR. 



39 



had from this farm by him been furnished with milk 

 without a week's intermission for thirty-seven 

 years. The veteran farmer, seventy-eight years 

 old, called to settle his quarterly milk score, which 

 was always marked down at the house when de- 

 livered. He had so increased the product of tliis 

 hired farm as to be able to keep sixty cows where 

 his predecessor kept about twenty, until in advan- 

 ced age he had divided off a portion to his son ; 

 and nliw keeps only forty. On this hired farm lie 

 had planted an orchard, which, under vigorous 

 growth, is yielding him a great annual profit. 

 Much of the ground on tliis farm has been made to 

 produce at least four fn one. Both of the tenants, 

 the first of whom has deceased, were men of intel- 

 ligence and character ; both had l)een representa- 

 tives in the legislature and magistrates; and if 

 they were unable to purchase tlie extensive premi- 

 ses which they have so long tenanted, both of them 

 by industry and application become possessed of 

 abundant means to be purchasers and owners 

 of other farms. The price of annual rent paid for 

 that part in the possession of the present occupant 

 is twelve hundred dollars, what would purchase a 

 good beginning for almost any young man in the 

 interior of the country ; this sum is probably three 

 or four times as much as all the premises paid v-ihen 

 he took the land at first. The improvements which 

 have been made at the sole expense of the tenant 

 have thus raised the rent to the owners; and his 

 eminent success shows that the improvements have 

 been no less to his advantage than to theirs. He 

 has even found it for his advantage to go to the ex- 

 pense of improvements which may be considered 

 permanent. The beautiful apple orchard which he 

 has planted and grafted, yielding him several hun- 

 dred dollcrs annually, may be considered of this 

 cliaractor ; and he mentioned another improvement, 

 undertaken at the expense of several hundred dol- 

 lars, which other farmers on their own premises 

 will do well to undertake, as many may do in the 

 interior towns without so great an outlay. He con- 

 structed a cellar under the extensive barn upon 

 his hired premises, in which he preserves, and from 

 which he feeds turnip and other root crops in the 

 winter; and he informed me that he was amply paid 

 for the excavation in the excellent manure he found 

 under that barn. The ground where the barn 

 stood was naturally a light porous sandy loam, ly- 

 ing four or five feet deep u])on a hard pan or siib- 

 sofl : he found the drippings from the cattle pens 

 had drained through the upper loam and the sand, 

 so that tke bottom next to the pan had been chan- 

 ged into the richest jiart of the manure. This he 

 mentioned as conclusive evidence that the rich ma- 

 terial placed on the ground sinks deep in the earth 

 where there is no pan or clayey substance to arrest 

 it, and dees not, as some suppose, lly ofi" from the 

 6urlace into the air. 



How farms should be teased. 

 The present condition of the Medford Ryal farm 

 will furnish proof tliat land, when it is rented, un- 

 der a course of constant improvement, will be no 

 less beneficial to llie tenant than to the owner ; 

 and that, where the lease shall extend from five to 

 ten years, if either party bears the exclusive ex- 

 pense of the improvement, the party making the 

 improvement will be a gainer, although not in 

 the proportion of the party which lias the advan- 

 tage of gain without the expenditure. To remedy 

 the evils wich are so common in rented farms — to 

 avoid the ruinous etfects resulting from a posses- 

 sion which is understood to mean that the occupier 

 shall carry oft" whatever he can force out of the 

 soil witliout any return, and that the owner is to 

 be compensated for the depreciated value of his 

 farm in a higher rent— I would recommend that 

 leases should be specific, requiring a given amount 

 of manure for every acre cultivated— that for eve- 

 ry useful tree cut down or suft'ered to decay, at 

 least two young trees should be planted to supply 

 its place— tliat the roofs of all buildings should be 

 newly shin<rled and their bodies re-painted at every 

 given period— that every board torn oft', every 

 square of glass broken, the hinge or latch or other 

 fastening of every door broken, sliould be replaced 

 —that all wells, watering troughs, gates and fences 

 should he kept m thorough repair, or renewed 

 when worn out— that fields and pastures tree from 

 bushes and briars, sliould be kept clean. It would 

 be easy to specify m every lease, so that a penalty 

 might'be enforced for neglect: and it would be for 

 thiT mutual benefit of ov/ncr and occupier, if in ev- 

 ery long lease, particular improvements should be 

 specified ; as the terms on which one lot of land 

 should be cleared of rocks, enclosed, ploughed and 

 cultivated —how much per acre should be allowed 

 for ditching a swamp, filling the ditches with 

 stones, trenching the surface to Uie depth of twelve 

 er eighteen inches, carrying off and burning the 



stumps and roots, and converting the whole into a 

 fruitful meadow of herdsgrass or other hay— how 

 much should be p^id for digging water courses and 

 covering drains under the surface of a lot now pro- 

 ducing only sour grasses and hard hack— how much 

 and what allowance should be made for every ad- 

 ditional cart load or other given quantity of com- 

 post to be applied to newly cultivated ground.— 

 Such specifications as these might easily be made ; 

 and there is not one of these improvements— and it 

 would be easy to imagine many more — that would 

 not be of equal and eminent advantage to the inter- 

 est of both landlord and tenant. And if for their 

 interest— if it can be shown that the tenant who 

 only occupies for a given time has a deep interest 

 in improving and renovating the soil, in converting 

 the barren into a fruitful field— how can the man 

 who both occupies and owns excuse himself for 

 suffering his farm to go into a state of dilapidation; 

 how can his vision bear the spectacle of fields pro- 

 ducing annually less and less — of grass lands which 

 had yielded annually two and three tons of valua- 

 ble hay to the acre degenerating down to one tenth 

 of the quantity, and that of an inferior quality— 

 of pasture lands once covered with honey-suckle 

 and the finest feed for cattle, now grown up to 

 bushes or covered with moss ; of arable lands that 

 once gave thirty bushels of wheat, fifty and seven- 

 ty-five of Indian corn and oais, now jiroducing 

 scarcely ten bushels of either, and even that some- 

 times a failure 1 How can he bear to see his house 

 and his barn going to decay — th? water leaking 

 through his roof at the return of every shower of 

 rain — the snow whistling through his broken win- 

 dows, and his half clad children shivering around 

 the hearth supplied with a miserable fire made from 

 green wood '•! 



The labor of the farmer his great blessing. 

 If I had not already too much extended this ad- 

 dress, I might call the attention of those who hear 

 me to other subjects worthy the attention of intel- 

 ligent men in this age of innovation and improve- 

 ment. The history of the |)ast will teach us what 

 we may safely adopt and what we ought to avoid. 

 Good sense will at leajt convince us that man can- 

 not live and grow rich without labor; that the ne- 

 cessity for labor is his greatest blessing ; and that 

 those who efiectually labor in the earth, of all oth- 

 ers, are most blessed. For looking around us, where 

 will we find the occupation more truly fitted to 

 man's enjoyment than that of the farmer ? If to 

 supply tlie wants of his family— if to pay the debts 

 which his outlay liad contracted— he be obliged to 

 work constantly with his own hands, in that labor 

 he finds the means of refreshing sleep, of health 

 and strength from exercise, and of contentment 

 and satisfaction in performing somihing tor the 

 general good ; the bread and n.eat is more grateful 

 to Ins palate for being grown and raised under his 

 own care— the garments which cover himself and 

 his family look better and wear better, as they are 

 really more valuable,for having been spun and wove 

 under his own roof, from wool or flax raised upon 

 his own premises. If the farmer be blessed with 

 a competency such as shall not oblige him to labor 

 constantly— if he have the means %t hand to 

 hire and the means to buy and pay for whatev- 

 er he wants— instructed how to manage, how to 

 overlook and superintend— the situation of no gen- 

 tleman inlKisinesscanbe so good as his. Success 

 and exemption from disaster and distress to no other 

 occupation are perhaps so certain as to him. If 

 the mercliant has made great gains and can count 

 his millions obtained in the city by traffic; the 

 thousands of the farmer earned in the country are 

 better, because with an expenditure ten times less 

 he can enjoy ten times more comfort. The man of 

 o-rcat wealth who lives in a palace has more cause 

 for vexation and trouble, if his condition require 

 him to make any calculation at all, than the man 

 of moderate means who can live by duly husband- 

 in.r those means. Fashion is a tyrant which, if his 

 ruTe docs not mar the enjoyment of the man of uver- 

 o-rown wealth, lays his grasping arms around the 

 rich man's family and often converts them into a 

 race of most impracticable beings : be the v/ealth 

 ever so great, it seldom lasts to a second genera- 

 tion ; and what man so miserable as he who has be- 

 come poor after having been brought up in afflu- 

 ence, who has wasted a great estate because wealth 

 had given his parents too much pride to teach him 

 howlo save it, and who is neither worth a dollar 

 or knows how to earn one ? Such impracticables 

 as these are generally found in families of ovcr- 

 o-rown weslth brought up in the cities. 

 ° More blessed than those of great estate or those 

 on whom have been conferred the uneasy, unsatis- 

 fying honors of high public life, is the condition of 

 the farmer who enjovs neither poverty nor riches. 

 Not more to be dread'ed is the poverty that creates 



covetousness and tempts to unlawful desires for 

 tliat which does not belong to us, than the riches 

 which would induce us to relax all labor and exer- 

 tion, and which, having no limit, lead to expendi- 

 ture without bounds, to riotous living and uncon- 

 cern. The happy medium of property is precisely 

 that which the yeomanry in this country enjoy, or 

 have the means of enjoying. There is no farmer 

 so rich that exertion and care are not requsite to 

 preserve his property in a healthful condition: 

 there is no one so poor, that while he remains in 

 health and strungth,is incompetent to obtain a live- 

 lihood. The wealthy farmer is blessed that he is 

 not too rich to teach his cliildreii how to earn a live- 

 lihood and take care of themselves : the industrious 

 farmer with diminished means is doubly blessed, 

 that his children have been taught not only to earn 

 for themselves a living, but to afford the means of 

 comfort in old age to those who virtuously educated 

 and sustained them when young. 



I close by invoking the continued favor and bles- 

 sing of that Almighty Being who has placed us in 

 the possession of this " goodly heritage," who has 

 promised us the sure return of seed time and har- 

 vest, and who, althougl) he scattereth his hoar frost 

 like ashes, gives us the warming influences of His 

 sun and rain in due season. "Let the People praise 

 Him, yea, let all the People piaise Him. Then 

 shall the earth bring forth her increase ; and God, 

 even our own God, shall give us his blessing." 



report 



Among the most successful agriculturists in the 

 Connectfcut river valley is the gentleman whose 

 remarks are given below. It is not the man who 

 raises the largest crop upon a given quantity of 

 o-round that may always be considered the most 

 successful farmer; but he who best improves his 

 land and obtains the greatest product with the least 

 expense may justly claim the title of the good farm- 

 er. Mr. Clark has succeeded beyond any other 

 man within our knowledge in reclaiming long worn 

 light lands. A notion prevails extensively that the 

 liSht pine plains will answer for no other cultiva- 

 tion but the raising of a crop of rye now and then. 

 Hundreds of acres, exhausted by successive crops 

 of rye, have been thrown into open commons, and 

 produce little or nothing. We are of opinion that 

 much, if not all of this dry plain land may be 

 brought into cultivation, and perhaps pay as well 

 for the labor bestowed upon it as the most fertile 

 land A most valuable instrument to be used on 

 the lin-hter lands is the roller: Mr. Clark thinks that 

 he can better dispense with manure than wnth the 

 roller. 'When he once brings the light plains land 

 into cultivation, he fears no deterioration or loss of 

 manure after sward is produced and turned over. 

 Growing C'oru. 

 Extracts from the remarks of Mr. 'Wm. Clark, 

 Jr of Northampton, at the 5th Agricultural Meet- 

 in<r, held in the Representatives' Hall, Boston, as 

 "' ited by the N. \'.. Farmer. He said — 

 His object was not by extraordinary cultivation 

 to obtain the largest crop which could be grown ; 

 but to obtain the best return for the time, for the 

 labor, and capital empbiyed. 



His experiments in the cultivation of corn had 

 been made upon light and worn out soils, pine 

 plains; and his great object was to bring these 

 1-nds into grass. His own experience had taught 

 him that Indian corn was the best crop for this pur- 

 pose. The ploughing and preparation ot the laiid 

 were matters of great importance. 



In proportion to their estimated value and the 

 cost of cultivation, more may be obtained from 

 liffbt lands than any others.. Corn, as he had stat- 

 ed was the best crop for bringing thein into grass. 

 Oats are an exhausting crop. Oats and rye and the 

 small grains, are of the same character as g:rasse3. 

 Tliev exhaust the land of that principle which is 

 conwnial or necessary to grass. On tins doctrine 

 is folmded the necessity of a rotation of crops. 



He has obtained corn from these light lands with- 

 out any manure at all, by taking advantage of the 

 vo^etable matter contained in them. Cold heavy 

 lauds require much manure. Light lands are cul- 

 tivated with much less labor. They are, m his 

 opinion, favorable to grass. These notions are op- 

 posed to prevailing opinions. He will not assert 

 positively that moist and heavy lands are not, strict- 

 ly speaking, more favorable to grass ; but light 

 lands o-ive a sweeter kind of grass, and the amount 

 is crreater or the return better than upon heavy 

 lands, when the expense of manure and labor in 

 the two cases is compared. 



Plou.rhino- is a most important operation m rcter- 

 ercn-elo the productiveness of the land. Uifter- 

 ences of opinion in this matter prevail among farm- 

 ers. Some prefer laying the furrow slices upon 

 each other, or as it is termed lappu.g "»«■'"; JJe 

 prefers to lay the furrow slice as flat as ,t cai? be 



