44 



THE PARMER'S MONTHLY YISITOR. 



ftfterwardri *i oocoanut shell full of castor oil. This 

 mode of treatment is for the most part attended 

 with success, and it is nut iniprobahle but that the 

 Bame efficacious remedy would follow a similar 

 course of treatment, if exercised towards the cat- 

 tle laboring under tlie like malady in this country. 



Profit from TiiuRounct Draining. — A farmer 

 in Lanarkshire, whose name we are not at liberty 

 to use, tried the effects oi thorough draining on a 

 small field of four acres. Two acres of this field 

 were drained in every furrow, the subsoil being re- 

 tentive, but the upper soil was favorable to the 

 growth of green crops. The other half was allow- 

 ed to remain undrained, as the whole had been un- 

 til the winter of 1837. In spring, 1838, the whole 

 field was worked for, and planted to potatoes. The 

 potatoes were sold, and the result was, that the 

 thorouirh drained half yielded £45 an acre, whilst 

 the undrained only realized £13 an acre The 

 drained land thus yielded about three and one half 

 times the undrained ; and supposing that the drain- 

 ing cost, at the utmost stretch, £10 an acre, the 

 first crop, notwitiistanding, not only repaid that 

 cost, but left £^2 an acre more than tJie whole crop, 

 per acre of the undrained land. "What an encour- 

 agement docs this simple fact and single instance 

 of profit hold out to farmers to spare no expense 

 and indulge in no hesitation in thoroagh draining 

 retentive bottomed land 1 — Quar. Jovrnal of JJgri- 

 cultiire. 



Slaugiiam. — Copy or a Hand-Bill. — '* Farm- 

 ers of England ! be up and stirring. Owners and 

 occupiers of land ! your cause and interests are 

 onG and the same. Will you put no hand to tlie 

 plougli when the season for action has arrived, 

 while the manufacturers and mill-owners, who 

 boast Hhat they owe no allegiance to the soil of 

 England,' are incessantly agitating for the repeal 



- of the corn laws, and crying for cheap bread, which 

 only meaas half wages. \Vill you stand all the day 

 idle, careless or ignorantthat your safety is at stake 

 — your ruin at hand. Hear what the American 

 President most truly observes, in his opening 

 speech to Congress. Speaking of agriculture, — 

 *No means of individual comfort is more certain, 

 and no source of national prosperity so sure. Noth- 

 ing can compensate a people for a dependence up- 

 on others for the bread they eat; and that cheerful 

 abundance on which the happiness of every one 



. depends, is to be looked for nowhere with such re- 

 liance as in the industry of the agriculturist and 

 tne bounties of the earth.' Shall your farms be 

 thrown out of cultivation, and England brougiitto 

 depend on foreigners for food ? If so, then you 

 must drink the dregs of the cup whicli political 

 quacks are mixing for you ; — if ye would not, be 

 xip and stirring !" — Sussex Express. 



Farming in Northfield, N. H* 



The following statistics of a single school dis- 

 trict, wiiich have been furnished by a reader of the 

 Visitor, may be taken as a fair specimen of the in- 

 terior farms in New Hampshire : 



School district No. 2 in Northfield, Merrimack 

 county (commonly called liyhill district) contains 

 1600 acres of land and 16 farms, varying in size 

 from 50 to 175 acres. The population of this dis- 

 trict is 105, and the legal voters are 33. The en- 

 tire male population of sulUcient age are laborers. 

 Two are unable from age, and four others from tlic 

 same cause do only light work. Three hands were 

 hired into the district during the last summer; and 

 there are eleven working boys over ten years of 

 age. The labor of these men and boys is the fair 

 amount to carry on the sixteen farms during the 

 year 1839. 



On these farms was raised last summer 857 busli- 

 els of wheat, besides the usual quantity of Indian 

 rorn and other grains and vegetables, together with 

 hay sufficient to winter from 150 to 175 head of 

 taxable cattle, 25 taxable horses, 300 slieep, and tlic 

 due proportion of untaxed stook. 



The correspondent who furnishes the foregoing 

 facts describrs one of the above enumerated farms 

 as containing 150 acres, of which 30 only are suit- 

 able for mowing and tillage, the remaining 120 a- 

 cres being so rocky and rough as to be fit only 

 for pasture and woodland. The father of the pres- 

 ent owner ofthis farm (Mr. J. K.) commenced op- 

 erations upon it between forty and fifty years ago. 

 His m^^ans were very limited at the commence- 

 ni,ent ; but he was, what nine out of ten of tlie 

 pioneers who settled down upon and cleared the 

 forests of the interior hills ®f New Hampshire af- 

 ter fighting for liberty in the revolutionary war 

 proved to be, a hard working man who looked well 

 to his ways ; and he soon gained the means for en- 

 tertaining strangers with that old fashioned hospi- 

 tality which gratuitously furnished them with good 



living while they remained under his roof. His 

 house was the place of resort for may years for the 

 Quarterly Meetings of the Methodist Society. 



In the course of a few years he was able to erect 

 a large and commodious dwelling house, barns and 

 other buildings, which were annually filled with 

 the products of his labors. In the year 1814, con- 

 sidering how hard and rough were his premises, 

 and hearmg of tlie high fertility of the soil *'on the 

 banks of the pleasant Ohio," he became somewhat 

 affected with what was then called the Ohic* (now 

 the Western) fever, and without disposing of his 

 property at home, travelled in that country in 

 search of a better place of residence from March 

 to Jul}. Returning to his family and friends, he 

 lived '.mly a few months ; and at his decease the 

 rough farm became the property of his son the pres- 

 ent occupant, who in all the commendable moral 

 qualities and industrious habits well fills the place 

 of his immediate ancestor. 



The farm continues to be one of the most pro- 

 ductive and profitable of its size in the town. For 

 the last ten years the average annual crop has been 

 from 150 to 200 bushels of Indian corn, 100 bush- 

 els of wheat, with the other usual proportions of 

 small grains and vegetables— hay sufficient to win- 

 ter from twelve to fifteen head of taxable cattle, 

 two and three horses, with other young cattle and 

 colts, and from twenty to thirty sheep, with a few 

 tons to spare. The entire gathered produce is rais- 

 ed from the thirty acres which is alone capable of 

 improvement: the rough pasture sustains most of 

 the live stock for six months in the year. 



This is a sjiecimen of the first settlers and pres- 

 ent population of the roiogh State of New Hamp- 

 shire. It is that portion of our community part of 

 which at present enjoys the greatest happiness — 

 the only portion which can be said to enjoy ster- 

 ling independence ; for how could the lawyer, the 

 doctor, the trader, the mechanic, or the manufac- 

 turer subsist himself and his family without the 

 founchition aid of the industrious farmer, who dives 

 into the soil and causes it to yield food for. man and 

 beast .-" 



"The Brown Corn." 



From the crop of Brown Corn raised last season 

 on the premises of the editor of the Farmer's 

 Monthly Visitor was selected from forty to fifty 

 busliels of seed corn, all of which might have been 

 disposed of months ago, and only sufficient of which 

 remains to furnish our friends with a small quan- 

 tity now and then and for our own use. If woiiad 

 five iiundred bushels of that corn, we verily believe 

 we could at this late point of time dispose of the 

 whole at the rate of three dollars the bushel ! 



Several farmers who have called on us for this 

 seed corn have expressed the determination to use 

 it somewhat in the manner it has been cultivated by 

 Mr. Brown on his Winnipisseogee farm — to put 

 more manure and more labor on the ground, and 

 thus to obtain the greater crop from the smaller 

 quantity of land. Mr. Brown has given his land 

 that attention which will warrant a great croji on 

 almost an_v ground in almost every season. He takes 

 land which hasbeen broken up from the sward one 

 year previous and with the aid of a comnmn quan- 

 tity of unfermented barn yard manure has produc- 

 ed one crop of potatoes. After the crop of pota- 

 toes has been taken off in the fall he spreads twelve 

 to fifteen loads of manure to the acre and plnuglis 

 that in. The next spring, he spreads another sim- 

 ilar quantity of manure over tiie same ground, and 

 ploughs th:it in also. The two operation'^ make 

 the whole ground as light as a well prepared gar- 

 den, and the mixed manure furnishes the fuod for 

 the corn which aids in its constant growth when 

 cold weather might arrest it in ground that h;td not 

 this preparation. As a third atid last operation be- 

 fore planting the ground is furrowed at tlie distance 

 ofabou* two feet nine inches to three feetone wav, 

 and finely pulverized barnyard or compost manure 

 is placed at the rate of a common shovel full to a 

 iiill-at the distance of about eighteen inciiestotwo 

 feet apart in each row. Seed is planted sufficient 

 to sustain three stalks, and this number only is suf- 

 fered to grow in tho hill. 



The common grub or wire worm will be found 

 seldom to work in land prepared in this manner ; 

 and if there be any stragglers of tiie vermin which 

 usually destroys corn hills, the stimulants in the 

 ground will very soon throw the growing corn be- 

 yond their read). The corn may be cultivated to 

 Kuit the taste of th;>se who would either make up 

 a hill around the stalks, or leave them to take root 

 witiiout a hill ; and either the plough or the culti- 

 vator may be used to work among it. It should i>e 

 carefully hoed at least three times ; and the fourth 

 time, rather than sutTtfr weeds to obtain a head a- 

 mong it. 



When we were first informed of Mr. Brown's 

 method, we thought too much expense and labor 

 were laid out upon the ground. On further reflec- 

 tion, we think his plan to be better than would be 

 the application of the same quantity of manure and 

 one third less labor in proportion, to double tiie 

 quantity of land. The two acres would produce 

 about the same quantity of corn. If no more, there 

 would be a loss of the use of land and the addi- 

 tional labor. The subsequent capacity of the land 

 to yield a crop will likewise be taken into consid- 

 eration. The one acre for the next year will be in 

 a condition to produce a greater and more sure cor- 

 responding crop of wheat, or oats, or barley ; and 

 stocked down to clover and herdsgrass, would for 

 two or more years yield a greatly increased crop of 

 at least one third. One acre of land treated in the 

 manner Mr. Brown treats his corn crop, in our o- 

 pinion, taking a series of five or six years with a 

 rotation of crops, would yield nearly as great a 

 quantity of produce with one third less labor than 

 two acres of land with the best of common cultiva- 

 tion, and half the quantity of manure applied to the 

 acre. 



The value of the Brown corn is, that it producc-a 

 a compact ear with the smallest cob covered with 

 the corn from bntt end to tip, and the kernels larg- 

 er and heavier than any other kind of corn we have 

 seen ; that it grows on a stout, but not a high stalk 

 whicli lets in the sun to the ground although the 

 hills stand near each other ; and that it matures and 

 ripens in the field almost as soon as the smaller 

 Canada corn, which has both a diminutive stalk 

 and ear. Our crop of last year was out of the way 

 of frost the first week of September; 



For the I'^atmeiV .Month ly V'iaimr. 



Roots as food for animals* 



Hon. I. Hill, — Dear Sir : — One would think 

 enough had been written in your useful Visitor and 

 elsewhere, on the use of roots-as food for animals, 

 to induce every farmer to make a trial of them ; but 

 farmers must have "line upon line" and tlie certain 

 experience of many, or they will not be prevailed 

 »upon to leave the beaten paths of their fatliers. 



For more than twenty years I have raised more 

 or less of roots, as food for my stock, and I find 

 them to be cheap, good and profitable food ; they 

 supply the deficiency in hay, and especially of poor 

 meadow hay, of saccharine and succulent matter. 

 I believe with plenty of roots, cattle and horses will 

 thrive as well in winter as summer, and tJiink if we 

 fed more liberally with them, we should receive 

 more profit and more satisfaction in the tending of 

 them. All will allow that potatoes are good food 

 for cattle ; but few will give them a fair trial, be- 

 cause they can sell them for twenty, thirty or forty 

 cents per bushel; carrots, beets, (the sugar, mangel 

 wurtzel and red) ruta bagas and English turnip are 

 all easily raised and valuable. 



The last y?ar I raised 380 bushels potatoes, 98 

 bushels carrots, 6G bushels ruta baga, 20 bushels 

 sugar and red beets. 1 have fattened one cow, 

 that suckled two calves till September, two heifers 

 and" four hogs, with the help of twenty-four bush- 

 els meal made of corn and oats. If I had sold the 

 whole of the meat at the rate 1 did sell more than 

 three fourths of it, it would have amount'^'d to S;180. 

 I have now left a good supply for milch cows, in 

 winter and spring, and five calves. If 1 had rais- 

 ed enough to give one peck per day to each of mv 

 oxen and cows, and fi»r tlie young cattle in propor- 

 tion, 1 think 1 should have found it profitable in tha 

 saying of hay and in tiie improved condition of the 

 stock. The exact value of roots as food for ani- 

 mals, I am not able to state ; perhaps the article 

 iieaded "Roots compared with hay," Vol. 1. p. 103 

 of the Monthly Visitor, is nearly correct; and if the 

 reader has not the hist volume, I should advise him 

 to send immediately and get it, for it is worth more 

 than tlie publisher's price. 



The above potatoes were a light crop, stricken 

 with rust, raised on two acres; old field broke up 

 in the fall previous to planting, manured with six- 

 teen loads to the acre of strawy dung. From an 

 experiment made on a few rows, I think if I had 

 spread about tlio same quantity, i)eside3 that put 

 into tiie hills, my crop would have been nearly 

 double. 



Eiglity-one bushels of carrots I raised on nine 

 square rods of ground not highly manured, which 

 is equal to 144U busliels to the acre : the other 17 

 bushels were raised in the garden — ground not 

 measured. 



Tije ruta bagas were raised in one corner of a 

 cornfield, of a clayey soil, too wet and wormy for 

 corn. We did not rneasure the ground, but judged 

 that if it had been planted with potatoes, we should 

 not have had more than twenty-five or thirty bush 

 eU. N. \V. 



Temple, Feb. 12, 1S40. 



