TME FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



59 



esteemed a useful invention, and tlie mole plouy;li, 

 which he had seen in operation, and the use of 

 which was to make an under-ground drain, wiUi'iut 

 disturbing the surface, was an ingenious contriv- 

 ance, likely to be useful in clay soils, free from 

 Btone and gravel, but which could be little used in 

 Massachusetts. In general, he thought the Eng- 

 lish utensUs of husbandry were unnecessarily cum- 

 brous and heavy. Tin ploughs, especially, requi- 

 red a sreat strength of draught. But as drill hus- 

 bandry was extensively practised in England, and 

 very little with us, the various impleiiients or ma- 

 chines, for drill sowing, in that country, quite sur- 

 pass all we have. He did not renieniber to have 

 seen the horse-rake used in England, although he 

 had seen in operation implements for spreading hay, 

 from the swarth, to dry, or rather, perhaps, lor 

 turning it, drawn by horses. 



There were other matters connected with Eng- 

 lish agriculture, upon which he might say a word 

 or two. Crops are cultivated in England, of whicli 

 we knew little. The coTUinon English field bean, 

 a small brown bean, growing not on a clinging 

 vine, like some varieties of the taller bean, ran in 

 what is called with us the bush form, like our com- 

 mon white bean, upon a slight, upright stalk, two 

 or two and a half feet high, and producing from 

 twenty to forty bushels to the acre. It is valuable 

 as food for animals, especially tor horses. This 

 bean does not grow well, in thin soils, or what is 

 called a hot bottom. A strong, stiff, clayey Irvnd, 

 well manured, suits it best. Vetches, or tares, a 

 sort of pea, was very much cultivated in England, 

 although almost unknown here, and is there either 

 eaten green, by sheep, on the land, or cut and car- 

 ried for green food. 



The raising of sheep, in England, is an immense 

 interest. Eudand probalily clips fifty millions of 

 fleeces this year, lambs under a year old not being 

 shorn. The average yield may be six or seven 

 pounds to a fleece. There^are two principal classes 

 of sheep in England, the long wooled, and the 

 short wooled. Among these are many varieties, 

 but this is the general division, or classification. 

 The Leicester, and the South Dov.-n, belong re- 

 spectively, to these several families. The common 

 clip of the former may be estimated from seven to 

 eight pounds ; and of the last from three to three 

 and a half or four. Mr. Webster mentioned these 

 particulars only as estimates ; and much more ac- 

 curate information might doubtless be obtained from 

 many writers. In New England, we were just be- 

 ginning to estimate rightly the importance of rais 

 ini- sheep. England had seen it much earlier, and 

 was pursuing it with fiir more zeal and persever- 

 ance. Our climate, as already observed, differs 

 from that of England; but the great inquiry ap- 

 plicable in equal force to both countries i--, how can 

 we manage our land in order to produce the larg- 

 est crops, while at, the same time we keep up the 

 condition of the land and place it if possible in a 

 course of gradual improvement .' The success of 

 farming must depend in a considerable degree up- 

 on the" animals produced and supported on the 

 farm. The iarmer may calculate in respect to ani- 

 mals upon two grounds of profit; the natural 

 growth of the animal, and the weight obtained by 

 fattening. The skilful farmer, therefore, expecis 

 where he gains one pound in the fattening ol his 

 animal, to' gain an equal amcuiit in tlie growth. 

 The early maturity of stock ir eonsequently a point 

 of much importance. 



Oxen are rarely reared in England for the yoke. 

 In Devonshire and Cornwall, ox teams are em- 

 ployed ; but in traveling one thousand miles in 

 England, Mr. Webster saw only one ox team, and 

 here they were driven one before the other, and in 

 harnesses similar to the harnesses of horses. Bul- 

 locks are raised for the market. I'- is highly desi- 

 rable, therefore, both in respect to neat cattle and 

 sheep) that their growth should be rapid and their 

 fattening properties favorable, that they may be 

 early disposed of, and consequently the expense of 

 production lessened. 



Is it practicable on the soil and in the climate of 

 Massachusetts to pursue a succession.of crops r 

 He could not question it; and he had entire confi- 

 dence in the improvements to our husbandry and 

 the great advantages which would accrue from ju- 

 dicious rotation of products. The capacities of 

 the soil of Massachusetts were undoubted. One 

 hundrc-d bushels of corn toan acre had been repea- 

 tedly produced, and other crops in like ainindance. 

 But this would n.ot etl'eet the proper ends of a ju- 

 dicious and profitable agricelture, unless we could 

 so manage our husbandry that by a judicious and 

 proper suceesslcn of crops, the land would not on- 

 ly be restored after an exhausting crop, but gradu- 

 ally enriched by cultivation. It is of the highest 

 importance that our liirmers should increase th 



power of sustaining live stock, that they may 

 therefrom obtain the means of Improving their 

 larms. 



The breed of cattle in England was greatly im- 

 proved, and still improving. He had seen some of 

 the best stocks, and many individual animals from 

 others, and thought them admirable. The short 

 horned cattle, brought to this country, were otten 

 very good specimens. He said he had seen the 

 flocks from which some of them had been selected, 

 and they were certainly among the best in Eng- 

 land. But in every selection of stock, we are to 

 regard our own eliriiate, and our own circumstan- 

 ces. We raise oxen for work, as well as for beef; 

 and he was ol opinion that the Devonshire stock 

 furnished excellent animals lor our use. We had 

 sufiered that old slock, brought hither by our an- 

 cestors, to run down, and be deteriorated. It had 

 been kept up, and greatly improved, in England, 

 and we might now usefully import from it. The 

 Devonshire ox is a hardy animal, of size and make 

 suited to the plough, and though certainly not the 

 largest for beef, yet generally very well fattened. 

 He thought quite well, also, of the Ayrshire cows. 

 They were good milkers, and being a hardy race, 

 were, on that account, well suited to the cold cli- 

 mate, and to the coarse and sometimes scanty pas- 

 turage of New England. After all, he thought, 

 there could be no doubt, that the improved breed 

 of short horns were the finest cattle in the world, 

 and should be preferred, wherever plenty of good 

 feed, and some mildness of climate invited them. 

 'I hey were well fitted to the Western States, where 

 there is an overflowing abundance, both of winter 

 and summer feed, and where, as in England, bul- 

 locks are raised for beef only. He had no doubt, 

 also, that they might be usefully raised in the rich 

 valleys of the Connecticut, and perhaps in some 

 other favored parts of the State. But, for himself, 

 as a farmer on the thin lands of Plymouth county, 

 and on the bleak shores of the sea, he did not feel 

 that he could give, to animals of this breed, that 

 entertainment, which their merit deserved. 



As to sheep, the Leicester were like the short 

 horned cattle. They must be kept well ; they 

 should always be fat; and, pressed by good keep- 

 ing, to early maturity, they arc f jund very profita- 

 ble. "Feed well," was the maxim of the great 

 Roman farmer, Cato ; and that short sentence coin- 

 prises much of all that belongs to the profitable 

 economy of lii-e stock. The South Downs are a 

 good breed, both for wool and mutton. They crop 

 the grass that grows on the thin s;ils, over bods of 

 chalk, in Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Dorsetshire. 

 They ought not to scorn the pastures of New Eng- 

 land. 



When one looks, said Mr. Webster, to the corw- 

 dition of England, he must see of what immense 

 importance is every, even the smallest degree of 

 improvement in its agricultural productions. ^ Sup- 

 pose that by some new discovery, or some impro- 

 ved mode of culture, only one per cent, could be 

 added to the annual results of English cultivatiim; 

 this, of itself, would materially affect the comfor- 

 table subsistence of millions ..f human beings. It 

 was often said that England was a garden. This 

 was a strong metaphor. There was poor land and 

 some poor cultivation in England. All people arc 

 not equally industrious, careful, and skilful. But 

 on the whole, England was a prodigy of agricultu- 

 ral wealth. Flanders might possibly surpass it. 

 He had not seen Flanders ; but Engl.md quite sur- 

 passed, in this respect, whatever he had seen. In 

 associations for tlie improvement of agriculture, 

 we had been earlier than England. But such asso- 

 ciations now exist. He had the pleasure o*' atten- 

 ding the first meeting of the National Agricultural 

 Society, and he had found it a very pleasant and 

 interesting occasion. Persons of the highest dis- 

 tinction for rank, talents and wealth, were preaent, 

 all zealously engaged in efl'orts for the promoti m 

 of the agricultural interests. No man in England 

 \.asso high, as to be independent of the success of 

 this great interest ; no man so low, as not to be af-' 

 fected by its prosperity, or its decline. The same 

 is true, eminently and" emplntically true, with us. 

 Agriculture feeds us ; to a great degree it clothes 

 us^; without it, we eould not have manufactures, 

 and wo should not have commerce. These all 

 stand together, but they stand together, like pil- 

 lars in a cluster, the largest in the centre, and that 

 largest is agriculture. Let us lemember, too, that 

 we live ill a country of small farms, and free-hold 

 tenements; a country, in which men cultivate 

 with their own hands, their own fee-simple acres ; 

 drawing net only their subs'stence, but also their 

 qiirit of independence and manly freedom from 

 the ground they plough. They are at once its 

 owners, its cultivators, and its defenders. And 

 whatever else may be undervalued, or overlooked, 



let us never forget, that the cultivation of the earrh 

 is the most important labor of man. Man may be 

 civilized, in some degree, witlioui great progress 

 in manufactures, and with little coinnieroe with his 

 distant neighbors. But witiiout the cultivation of 

 the earth, he is, in all countries, a savage. Until 

 he steps from the chase, and fixes himself in some 

 place, and seeks a living from the earth, he is a 

 roaming barbarian. When tillage begins, other 

 arts fidlow. The farmers, therefore, are the found- 

 ers of human civilization. 



Agriculture in England. 



At the date of this writing (April IG) we have, 

 by the late arrivals from Europe the Marklane Ag- 

 ricultural Express of March 1(3. Speaking of the 

 weather and the prospects of Agriculture, that pa- 

 per says — 



'* We still continue to have very favorable wea- 

 ther fi'ir the prosecution of out door work, and some 

 quantity of spring corn (wheat) has been sown 

 during the week: since Tuesday the wind has got 

 round to the westward, the temperature has been 

 higher, and the frost (which bad previously been 

 very siiarp during the nights) has quite left us. 

 This change will be highly beneficial to vegetation, 

 and prove particularly favorable to the young 

 wheat plant, which was beginning to suffer from 

 the effect of alternate sunshine days and sharp 

 night frosts. 



" By advices from Scotland we learn than the 

 weather had continued favorable in that country 

 for field operations, but it was stated that the au- 

 tumn sown wheat had, in many situations, sustain- 

 ed injury from the great changes in temperature, 

 to which it had for some weeks been exposed, the 

 sun having during the day time been very power- / 

 ful, whilst the nights had been cold and frosty; we 

 trust however that the change of weather experi- 

 enced by us this week may have extended over the 

 whole of the kingdom. 



" Owing to the iiirmers being still very busy in 

 the fields, most of the markets had been sparingly 

 supplied with grain, and wheat h-id further advan- 

 ced in price, both at Edinburgh and Glasgow. 



*' Our letters from the north of Ireland inform ua 

 th-.t considerable progress had already been made 

 there with oat sowing, and a correspondent from 

 Belfast states that if the weather remained fine for 

 another fortnight all the oats would be gnt into the 

 ground in that neighborhood, and the potatoe plan- 

 ting might also be expected to be in a state of for- 

 wardness by that time. Both in the north and 

 south of the Island the deliveries from the grow- 

 ers had been very small, and prices of all species 

 of corn had been fully supported. A fair quanti- 

 ty of oats continued to be shipped to this country 

 and the west coast of Scotland." 



By the foregoing extracts it will be seen that the 

 spring opens in England and Scotland for agricul- 

 tural operations full six weeks earlier than in a 

 great part of New England; and that country ii 

 from ten to fifteen degrees of latitude fiirther north 

 than we are. Wheat and other small grains there 

 spoken (•{ under the general denomination of corn 

 floiirish better in that island than in this country, 

 bee uise the summer season is cooler (not colder) 

 and because the direct rays of the sun are not there 

 felt as tliey are here. In England, and we believe 

 in Scolhuid although in a less degree, the absence 

 of the sun prevents the successful growth of our 

 Indian corn. In this particular our country has a 

 decided advantage ; but theirs has a more sure 

 prospect of large returns of wheat, barley and oats. 

 We have seen peas and beans imported from Eng- 

 land of the last year's growth, at the seed stores m 

 Boston: these are more plump and of a much 

 fairer aspectthaii any we find which are the growth 

 of this country. 



Something is due to climate and to natural soil 

 of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that 

 their agricultural productions are better than ours; 

 but more is due to the better preparation, the higher 

 manuring, the more perfect ]iIoughJng, and the 

 irenerally greater pains taken there in the cultiva- 

 tion of the earth. It is remarkable that every kind 

 and species of the production of the earth in the 

 British and Irish market towns are as much a mat- 

 ter of intelligence as the markets for manufactures 

 and imported merchandize. 



Remedy for Bills. — Half pint vinegar, half pint 

 sof' soap, half ]iint gin, and h:ilf pint molasses, well 

 shaken together, mid poured down the throat of the 

 horse while foaming. Mr. la.aac Lovejoy in the 

 Albany Cultivator says of a horse severely attack- 

 ed while on a journey, to which a dose wnsadii.n- 

 istered, that ill a few minutes he was entirely re- 

 lieved of pain, and was soon able to pursue his 

 journey. 



