THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



41 



to the grrowinnr crops, which imbibe some portion 

 nf their food from the ntmosphere through their 

 leaves. The sails aio dissolved by the de^ws and 

 rain; they are taken up by the soil, as a sponge 

 takes up and retains water ; this water impregnat- 

 ed by the salts is sucked up by the rootk-ts of tlie 

 plants, and is their food. From these facts it would 

 seem to he the best way, in all cases, to plough in 

 green manure, if it must he used greeny and most ad- 

 visable that old or well rotted manure should be liar- 

 rowed or ploughed in very shallow. It having un- 

 dergone fermentation, its tendoncy to heat is lost 

 — its £fases have lakmi to themselves wings and 

 flov^m away, and left only the salts and vegetable 

 matter. The chief good to be derived from decom- 

 posed manure is from its remaining soluble salts, 

 and consequently the le.ss depth it is turned in the 

 better. 



But a system of farming pursued by some of the 

 most intelligent awd successful farmers in Massa- 

 cliusetts is very ditierent from any of tlie methods 

 described above. Their long manure of the previ- 

 ous winter is mixed in their yards, barn cellars, or 

 fields, near where it is wanted to be used the next 

 season, in the spring or early part of the summer, 

 with twice the number of loads of swamp muck, 

 peat or good loam, where it undergoes a moderate 

 fermentation. The following spring — early in May 

 — their green sward is ploughed over as smooth and 

 ilat as possible, then pressed down with a heavy 

 roller, and from ^0 to l>0 loads of this compost to 

 the acre, then thoroughly mixed by the harrow, 

 and then planted witli corn or potatoes. These 

 who pursue this metliodare satisfied that this com- 

 post, for the corn croj), and for the permanent im- 

 provement of the land, is equal, load for load, to 

 green stable manure. By this course Ip&y double 

 or treble the value of their manure. 



While upon this subject, I will furnish you with 

 the opinions of some scientific and practical men 

 whose knowledge in these matters may be of some 

 use to farmers ;- — Dr. C. T. Jackson of Boston, 

 says in a communication to the Editor uf the N. 

 E. Farmer, ^*The loss of the saline matters of ma- 

 nures by solution and tiijiltratioii is vastly greater 

 than is commonly supposed by farmers. The evap- 

 oration to which so much loss is attributed, is but 

 ft drop in the bucket, in comparison with that of so- 

 lution. Some maintain that manures never pene- 

 trate beyond the depths of a few inches ; but this is 

 a great error. The important ingredients, viz : the 

 Boluble salts penetrate the earth to enormous 

 depths, and we find animal matters in the well wa- 

 ter of Boston 150 feet below the surface. 1 know 

 also instances where deep well water, formerly free 

 from saline and animal matters, become charged 

 with them two years after the top soil had been cul- 

 tivated and dressed with animal manures." 



Mr. Colman, editor of the N. E. Farmer of May 

 — 163S), says — "Another point whicli seems settled 

 is, that the activity and usefulness of manures are 

 increased in proportion as they are kept near tlie 

 surface, and as they with the earths with which 

 they are combined are brought in contact with so- 

 lar and atmosplieric iiiflueiiCLS. Placed directly 

 upon the surface, much of their usefulness is lost 

 by evaporation. We cannot do this exactly as we 

 would; some of the manures will be u^cessarily 

 exposed-; some will be of necessity placed too deep: 

 but though the expression may not be grammati- 

 cal, we think, we shall be best understood, when 

 we say that manures should be cocered, but notiit- 



Mr. Buckminster, a good practical farmer and 

 now editor of the Boston Cultivator, says on the 

 subject of planting corn: — "A number of our sub- 

 scribers have informed us witiiin a week past, that 

 they have abandoned the practice of putting ma- 

 nure in the hill, and prefer s])reading their fine ma- 

 nure evenly over the ground, and mixing it even- 

 ly with the harrow liefore planting. They say the 

 labor is less — the crop better, and the land is belter 

 prepared for future cultivation." 



"Green sward should not be*ploughed early in 

 the spring. The sod rots much faster after the 

 orass has grown a few inches. We have sometimes 

 ploughed in green vianiire^ and buried it under tiie 

 sod, on llie supposition that we must eventually 

 have the benefit of it, if not immediately. Good 

 crops may thus be obtained in high loams, but we 

 have some doubts about the utility of the practice. 

 Manures of all kinds, want lo be mixed and incor- 

 porated thoroughly with the soil ; and we doubt the 

 propriety of placing them where they gannot be 

 stirred during the summer." 



Dr. N. C. Keep of Boston, a gentleman of mvich 

 chemical and scientific knowledge, in a communi- 

 cation to the N. E. Farmer last May on the subject 

 of manures, says : — "All salts that dissolve readily 

 in water will soon escape from the soils. A few 



of them are volatile, and may rise in vapour, but 



the major part of them, more parlicul;ir]y in com- 

 post manures, are most volatile, but more nr less 

 soluble in water. Jusl so far as they are dissolved 

 in water, they are capable of being carried down 

 by rains, until they get beyond the reach of the 

 rootlets of plants. The loss of manure by evapor- 

 ation, I apprehend, is occasioned by manure being 

 exposed while fermentation is going on ; then the 

 gases are let loose and readily ^y off, but by having 

 present, four or five times its quantity of the de- 

 cayed vegetable matter so abundant in our peat 

 bogs, we have an absorbent, which most etTectual- 

 ly prevents the escape of ammonia. Tliis is t!ie 

 volatile salt, and if we cannot get vegetable mat- 

 ter, we should take the soil for an absorbent." 



The right application, and tiie most economical 

 method of using manure, is a matter of great im- 

 portance to the farmer : it is a subject that should 

 be thoroughly investigated : and as there are so 

 many different ways of applying it to the land, 

 (and all for the same object, viz: increasing the 

 crops and the improvement of the soil) ii seems 

 that some of the methods must be wrong. But that 

 farmers may be stimulated to ascertain the right 

 way, is the object of this comnmnication. L. B. 



Warner, March 1840. 



Thrift of New Hampshire Farmers. 



As the Summer approaches, we are reminded of 

 the beautiful view from an outside balcony on the 

 upper story of uur domicil fronting the Frog ponds. 

 The intervale up and down the river for full five 

 miles, in width from one to two miles, through 

 which the fair Merrimack meanders, shews with 

 tolerable distinctness the partition fences and the 

 varied crops ; the village on the main street is^ 

 overlooked to the distance of half a mile south, 

 and a mile north, and the village on tlie east side 

 two miles and a half north-east is prominent to the 

 view, as are the three bridges connecting the two 

 extremes and the centie of the village with the east 

 side. 



The position being low in the village, we have 

 not an unobstructed view ofthc mountains. Excep- 

 ting when a reflected atmosphere shall enable us to 

 have a fair view of Gunstock, we can see few dis- 

 tant mountains. We cannot mistake Old Cardi- 

 gan at the distance of forty miles which strikes the 

 eye in the space opening between tiie South Church 

 and tiie State House; and looking up the valley 

 by the ridges siiutting down to the river in Canter- 

 bury and Northfield, we perceive two other high 

 prominences. The most distant of these (forty-five 

 miles) is Red Hill, and the nearest (twenty-two 

 miles) is the mountain between Sandboruton and 

 New Hampton, v.'hich has an abrupt termination on 

 the east shore of the Merrimack ojqjosite the vil- 

 lage of Mill iu the county of Grafton. 



We had been in the habit of looking upon this 

 last mountain as we passe<J by on the west side or 

 through its notch on the Sandbornton turnpike as 

 we did upon th? other ragged mounrains which 

 cover no inconsiderable portion of the land of New 

 Hampshire ; we had supposfd it a place fit only for 

 the resort of vv'ild cats and owls. 



The other day, by invitation, we visited our 

 friends in the town of Hill, said to be named not 

 so much for a jiersonal compliment to us as for an 

 annoyance to those who dislike the opinions and 

 the course of the i'ormer editor of the New Hamp- 

 shire Patriot. Once landed at the public inn of the 

 village, our enquiries were first directed towards 

 the properties and productions of the soil. We 

 were highly gratified to find tlie higher intervale — 

 the first and second elevations from the river — to 

 be much better in this town than we had supposed 

 them to be when passing it. Messrs. Phelps, Gates 

 and Fowler, and some others, were improving their 

 lands so as to make them produce double and three 

 fold tlieir former crops. 



The tavern had changed owners witliin the last 

 few days : wiLh thirty or forty acres of land on the 

 river it sold for «^3300. lis purchaser was Mr. 

 P , who lived upon the mountain on tlie oth- 

 er side of the river less than a mile distant; and 

 the reader will judge our surprise to have pointed 

 out to us ii)T the first time — (we had always before 

 passed this plr.ce in the stage coach without stop- 

 ping) — a neat white two story house with appen- 

 dant l)n:ldings perched several hundred feet above 

 the village directly upon tlie side of the mountain. 

 This man had paid cash down for tiie premises; and 

 our inlormant who wrote the deed, said the son of 

 the purchaser stated at the time the cash gains 

 fiom their mountain farm were quite sufficient to 

 enable them as often as once in two years to invest 

 an equal amount! How agreeable was our sur- 

 prise at the sudden chinge in the character of 



this apparently rough and sterile mountain ! Here 

 is a farmer occupying a small portion of it with a 

 net annual income really worth more to him than 

 the whole amount of salary of the highest oflicer 

 in the State government. The great gain of this 

 farmer is from his cattle and his dairy : three or 

 four hundred acres of the excellent mountain pas- 

 ture with suitable land for tillage and mowing prop- 

 erly cultivated — and tiiat commendable industry 

 which is alike coRducive to healtli and content- 

 ment — turn out an annual cash profit of from 

 $1500 to $2000. 



This independent farmer of Sandbornton is not 

 an isolated case; there arc other men in Hill on the 

 west side of the river whose farms are upon the 

 north side and reacii to the top of the Ragged 

 mountain, who lay up their $300 to ^600 a year, 

 besides supporting and educating numerous sons 

 and daughters. We were pointed about two years 

 since to a neighborhood of some thirty flirmers on 

 the high grounds near the lino of Meredith and 

 New Hampton ; and of this neighborhood it 

 was remarked that there could not probably be 

 found against the whole of them debts amounting 

 to a single hundred dollars : they have recently 

 united to build a meeting house, which was open 

 to all of the religious denominations to which they 

 belonged. 



It is pleasant to reflect that the elements of inde- 

 pendence are in our soil, and that the spirit of lib- 

 erty dwells upon our mountains and among our 

 hills. There can be no mistake about tliis matter : 

 pecuniary independence is more sure to the indus- 

 trious tiller of the soil in New England than to the 

 man of any other occupation. Let all who doubt 

 this fact read the following statement respecting a 

 New Hampshire farm coming fron/its proprietor, 

 wim is a Boston lawyer. What other investment 

 of money in these hard times will yield so great an 

 annual profit as fifteen per cent.' We are glad that 

 such profit can be gained in any business; and 

 doubly do we rejoice that the brighter prospect o- 

 pens to him who best of all deserves it, the man 

 who is the most efficient and best applies his hands 

 and his faculties to the productions of mother 

 earth. 



The statement given below was made at one of 

 the agricultural meetings held weekly during the 

 present winter at the State House in Boston for the 

 purpose of discussion and imparting the results of 

 the knowledge and experience of members of the 

 Legislature and otliers. These meetings have been 

 unusually interesting during the present winter ; 

 and to the efforts of Mr. Colman, the Agricultural 

 Commissioner for the State of Massachusetts, will 

 the community he much indebted for awakening 

 tlie spirit of improvement which is now so appa- 

 rent. 



The farm described below is believed to be the 

 same formerly owned by the late John Prince, Esq. 

 of Roxbury, Mass. Its present successful occu- 

 pant, to whom the proprietor owes his good fortune 

 in a most profitable cultivation, is Mr. Paul P. Pills- 

 bury, who was brought up among the farmers of 

 "Bashan" in the adjoining town of Boscawen. — 

 The Prince farm upon the lake is within the limits 

 of the town of Tuftonborough ; 



[Reported by Mr. Colman for the New England 

 Farmer.] 



E. Hasket Derby, Esq., of Boston, at the in- 

 stance of the Commissioner, addressed the meet- 

 ing. 



Mr. Derby was ii\Q owner of a farm in New 

 Hampshire, situated on an island in Winnipisseo- 

 gce lake ; and if it would interest and gratify the 

 meeting, he would give an account of its manage- 

 ment. He made no pretensions to agricultural 

 knowledge or skill. Farming was not his business. 

 His profession was the law : — but this property com- 

 ing into his possession, he had done what he could 

 to manage it to advantage. 



It was situated in a cold climate : the soil was 

 strong. He owed his success partly to the soil, but 

 in his opinion more to the cultivation. His farm 

 included 500 acres : 170 acres were in wood ; 280 

 acres in pasturage ; 50 acres were in mowing and 

 tillage. He had usually eight or ten acres under 

 the plough. 



He deemed it best to simplify as much as practi- 

 cable, the objects of his farming, and therefore the 

 great purpose on the farm was the dairy ; and, ex- 

 cepting the necessary supplies of the familj', other 

 things were made subsidiary to this primary object. 

 He had now 37 cows, and sometimes had kept 44. 

 His forming, in a pecuniary point of view, had been 

 productive, and fully met his expectations. The 

 original cost of the farm and .slock was ^4200. — 

 The sales in 1838 had amounted to $1068. Tliis 

 year they had reached $1500. The falling off was 



