THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



67 



being one fifth of what a similar depth with the 

 spade would cost, and upon the whole, as cfll'ctu- 

 ally done. When land wliich has been opened up 

 by the subsoil plougli shall have undergone the 

 first Trotat ion of croping, several inches of subsoil 

 may be taken up by the plougli to mix witli the 

 active soil, and in proportion as tlie sBbsoil is ame- 

 liorated, so may the greater depth be taken up with 

 advantage. In tiie riclier subsoils it is sometimes 

 e.'spedient to plough to tlie whole depth of the mo- 

 ved subsoil on the first application of the trench 

 plough. The trench plough recommended for this 

 process, should be mnde in the form of Wilkie's 

 plough, having all its dimensions made of double 

 size, or what is found to answer fully as well, by 

 a plough in the fashion of the old Scotch plough, 

 but also of double the dimensions. Such ploughs 

 require six horses, yoked three and three abreast, 

 with one man to hold the plough and another to 

 manage the hoi-st s, to do the work efi'ectually. 

 This operation should be performed in turning over 

 the winter furrow preparatory to green crop, and 

 the sooner the work is performed after harvest the 

 better. In estimating tlie expense of tliis opera- 

 tion, the horses may be charged at 4s. each, to cov- 

 er all expenses, tear ami wear, &c. which will a- 

 mount to 2 Is.; two men Is. — 4 5.; and an attendant 

 lad to pick out stones. Is.; in all 2.9s. As the work 

 is heavy, the motion of tlie horses is necessarily 

 slow, and it will in general take eight hours wor- 

 king to accomplish one statute acre. The expense 

 of this operation may appear alarming, but when 

 it is considered that one such ploughing will be 

 more effectual in killing weeds, and in exposing 

 the soil to the air, than two ordinary ploughings, 

 we may deduct the cost of two such, 21) s. 

 leaving 9s. to be charged against the deep 

 working. All who have ever studied or experi- 

 enced the most common gardening, must be aware 

 of the important advantages of deep working, and 

 when it can be attained in the broad field of farm- 

 ing at so small a cost as 9s. per acre, they may ei- 

 sily believe that the whole will be more than dou- 

 bly repaid in every succeeding grain croji, and a- 

 bundantly even in pasture. When land has been 

 thoroughly drained, deeply wrougiit, and well ma- 

 nured, the most unpromising sterile soil becomes a 

 deep rich loam ; rivalling in fertility, the best nat- 

 ural land of the country, and from being fitted for 

 raising only scanty crops of common oats, will bear 

 good crops of from 32 to 43 bushels of wheat, 30 

 to 40 bushels of beans, 40 to (jl) bushels of barley, 

 and from 48 to 70 bushels of early oats, per statute 

 acre, besides potatoes, turnips, mangel wurtzel, 

 and carrot, as green crops, and vifhich all good ag- 

 riculturists know are the abundant producers of 

 the best manure. It is hardly possible to estimate 

 all the advantages of dry and deep land. Every 

 operation in husbandry is thereby facilitated and 

 cheapened — less seed and less manure produce a 

 full effect, the chances of a good and early tid [a 

 Scotch term, for that state of the ploughed soil, 

 which is most suitable for receiving the seed — nei- 

 ther too moist nor too dry] for sowing are greatly 

 increased — a matter of great importance in our 

 precarious climate — and there can be no doubt that 

 even the climate itself will be much improved by 

 the general prevalence of dry land. When this 

 subject was treated of in the Second Report of 

 Drummond's Agricultural Museum, published in 

 March, 1833, the system was beginning to be adop- 

 ted in a few places in a very tt'W districts of Scot- 

 land, England, and Ireland, and in most instances 

 on a very limited scale. Since then the intrinsic 

 merits and evident results of the system have rai- 

 sed its character, even with many of its forme;- 

 opponents ; and one cannot now travel almost any 

 where in the country without seeing, either on a 

 large or email scale, the operation of thorough 

 draining going on. The deep ploughing is not yet 

 so general, but it will undoubtedly follow; and it is 

 to be regretted that, in the meantime, some zealous 

 and good farmers, not aware of its advantages, are 

 filling their drains so near the surface as to mar the 

 future thorough application of the system of deep 

 working.* 



Thorough draining is the foundation of all good 

 husbandry, and, when combined with deep plough- 

 ing, issues a general and uniform fertility, assisted 

 no doubt by essentials, thorough working anil 

 cleaning, ample manuring, and a 

 of cropping. 



In making a survey of the agricultural aspect 

 of Scotland, and great partof England, it must be 

 evident to every one skilled in agriculture, that by 

 ranch the greatest proportion of the arable land, 

 indeed we may assume three fourths of the whole, 

 is under very indiiVerent culture, arising mainly 

 from the wantof complete draining and deep work- 

 ing; and looking even to the best farmed districts 



with the eye of an experienced farmer in the thor 

 ough sj'stem, much of the land will be seen suffer 

 ing under wet or damp. All the heavy land of 

 the Lolhians, Berwickshire, Fife, Strathmore, 

 Clydesdale, &c. would be greatly benefitted by 

 the introduction of the system; and if generally a- 

 doptcd we would hear no more of " stiff' clays," 

 "cold retentive soils" and the like, in the Agri- 

 cultural Reports. 



There is no want of employment for all spare 

 labor and spare capital of the country, in the gen- 

 eral thorough euKivation of the soil, and if prop- 

 erly gone about, it will afford ample remuneration 

 to the individual jiossessors -and farmersof the land 

 while the wealth of the country will be greatly in- 

 creased. 



The cultivation of the inferior soils will lend to 

 lower the value of the high rented lands, but the 

 general rental in the country will be much increa- 

 sed, whilst the prices of all agricultural produce 

 will be lowered, thereby affording- cheaper susten- 

 ance to the manufacturers, which will enable them 

 to meet more effectually the cheap labor of other 

 countries ; and it is not at all improbable that Brit- 

 ain may become an exporting country in grain in 

 the course of the next twenty years, thereby over- 

 throwing the bugbear corn laws without a political 

 struggle. 'J his may appear a very bold anticipa- 

 tion, but to those who know intimately the history 

 of the wonderful improvements which have taken 

 place in the various leading manufactures of the 

 country, in the course of the last twenty years, 

 (and who can appreciate the vast improvement of 

 which agriculture is yet susceptible,) it will seem 

 as no very hopeless prospect. Often has it been 

 thought during the progress of the manufactures 

 that the perfection of these arts had been attained, 

 when, by the application of science, capital, divi- 

 sion of labor, or industry, or all these together, 

 some new and extensive step was gained, whereby 

 the cost of production was cheapened; then follow- 

 ed a lowerselling price to the consnmer, and im- 

 mediately the field of consumption was extended. 

 In most cases these steps of improvement were 

 urged more bij the nccessiiij arising from low ]/roftts 

 niul extensive riralnj, than from the encouragement 

 of high profits and extensive demand. So it is 

 now operating with the agriculturist. During the 

 reign of high prices any sort of farming was sure 

 to pay ; but now, when prices are low, nothing but 

 skill and capital, and well regulated industry will 

 do ; and since higher prices are scarcely to be look- 

 ed for, the only hope of the land owner and the 

 farmer is to use every means to produce their arti- 

 cles cheaper and in greater quantity from the same 

 extent of land. From the progress which the sys- 

 tem of thorough drainage has made, the lists 

 are fairly entered by the hitherto considered poorer 

 soils against the rich; the rivalry cannot be stop- 

 ped, and the result will shortly be, a greater agri- 

 cultural advancement in Great Britain than has 

 ever before taken place. The grand natural promp- 

 ter, self interest, will in due time work out the re- 

 sult. Yet much may be done in assistance by the 

 exertions of proprietors and agricultural associa- 

 tions, and by the national legislature, in the case 

 of entailed lands." 



* I have been often asked if I would recommend 

 subsoil ]ilougliing of land which had not been 

 drained. To this, I answer, certainly not ; for, un- 

 til there is an escape for water through the subsoil, 

 any opening of it but provides a greater space for 

 holding water, and will rather tend to injure than 

 improve the soil. Where the subsoil consists of 

 gravel, or sand, or moor &ra«rZ, forming a crust over 

 a lower stratum. of open subsoil, then the subsoil 

 plough being applied, will at once provide a pas- 

 sage for the water, and leave the incumbent sub- 

 soil open for amelioration. It has been remarked 

 by an intelligent forester that in planting in wet 

 bottomed land, pitting to receive the plants is most 

 objectionable, because in wet weather the loose 

 earth of the pits gets filled with water, which is ei-' 

 ther acted upon by frost to the injury of the plants, 

 or the conslant immersion of the roots in water, 

 causes their decay ; on the contrary, s/i^ieHr gives 

 the plant a hold of the ground, the roots are pnsh- 



_ ed into the solid in search of nourishment, whilst 



proper rotation the vacuities capable of receiving water are very 

 small. In like manner the opening of tiie subsoil 

 in a tenaceous bottom forms one great pit over the 

 whole field, holding water most destructive to the 

 growth of cultivated plants. On this principle the 

 experience of ages has taught the English agricul- 

 turist on tenacious clays to follow a system of shal- 

 low ploughing. So soon as wet lands are thor- 

 oughly drained ; deep ploughing may follow with 

 the greatest advantage, but not sooner. 



Use of Oil as a 3Ianure. 



A i'cw days ago we met Friend Sanborn of the 

 Canterbury Shakers in the ctreet with a load of 

 goods from the Merrimack river lioats ; and always 

 anticipating new information in relation to im- 

 provements in Agriculture when we meet any of ■ 

 the United Brethren, we stopped him with the in- 

 quiry, how they had succeeded in theirexperiments 

 of lime used as an ingredient in making compost 

 manure. lie answered that they had not been dis- 

 ap|iointed as to the value of lime upon their 

 grounds ; but that they had made a discovery wliich, 

 he thought more important than any they had yet 

 made, in the use of Oil as a manure. His team 

 was loaded, he said, with O;, number of barrels of 

 common blubber oil, which they had purchased in 

 Boston at two dollars the barrel, and which they 

 were about to use upon their ground the present 

 year. He did not wish to talk loud about this mat- 

 ter until its value had received full demonstration. 

 The day after, we saw another of the Brethren, 

 who at our particular request has procured the fol- 

 lowing statement of an experiment made with oil 

 the last year, by the experienced Botanist of that 

 Society, who for the last twenty years has success- 

 fully cultivated and brought into use many new 

 medicinal and savory herbs, and introduced the art 

 of making them portable, so they are readily kept 

 for sale at the shops in a compact form ; — 



[To the editor of the Montlihj Visitor. 1 



Having seen some remarks in an ano-ient agri- 

 cultural journal, respecting tlie use of oil as a ma- 

 nure, I was induced to make some trifling exper- 

 iments, to prove the correctness of the writer's the- 

 ories ; and from the facts adduced, am inclined to 

 believe it is not only one of the best but one of 

 the cheapest manures, preferable even to the fanj- 

 ed bone manure, which has of late received sucii 

 high encomiums; and indeed were it deairable to 

 apply the bone manure, a composition of lime, oil, 

 and salt, would be similar and by far cheaper than 

 pulverized bones. But as bones are eomj)osed of 

 35 per cent, of animal substance, and about 6.5 of 

 lime and magnesia, it is evident the animal portion 

 exerts a greater influence on the growth of veget- 

 ables than the lime and magnesia, for four bushels 

 of lime (and that is the quantity of bone recom- 

 mended) to an acre would effect but very little of 

 itself; and furthermore the experiments I have 

 made confirm this theory, that the strength of the 

 bone manure is principally owing to the animal 

 silbstance contained in the bones. 



With these impressions, in the spring of 1839 I 

 divided a plat of ground which was ten feet hv 

 twenty, into two beds of ten feet square each ; to 

 one bed, good stable manure was applied in propor- 

 ti-on of about forty loads to the acre; to the otht;r, 

 common lamp oil was applied in proportion of one 

 pint to the square rod: the oil was thoroughly mix- 

 ed with dry sand in sufficient quantity to absorb it, 

 and the sand was then sown on the square. In all 

 other respects the two beds were treated exactly a- 

 like, and were sown at the same time with sweet 

 marjoram, which came well, and both appeared 

 very much alike for the first three weeks ; when 

 that to which the oil was applied gradually gained 

 the ascendancy and showed so visible a difference 

 in favor of the oil that it was often noticed by vis- 

 itors. 



In the fall the products of the two beds were 

 correctly weighed with the following results ; that 

 to which the manure was applied produced 37 1-2 

 lbs, while that which received the oil produced full 

 6S3-4 lbs, making a difl^erence of 31 l-41bs. in favor 

 of the oil. But whether the; oil will be equally be- 

 nificial for all kinds of crops, or not, wa are not 

 prepared to say, or whether this is the best mode of 

 application, or not, we cannot say ; but we have 

 undertaken a series of experiments on a somewhat 

 larger scale and by various applications, with the 

 common blubber, the result of which we shall be 

 happy to communicate as soon as practicable. 



May 18, 1840. 



For the Farmer's Monthly ViLitur. 



Substance of a Lcfture delivered before the Lyceum 



of liath, a: H. March 16, 1840, on the 



Mountain Scenery of New England. 



Br Dr. Moses F. Morriso.v. 



The tuv! observations I shall make this evening 

 will be upon the relative advantages of our own 

 native hills — the moral, political, and physical in- 

 fluence they exercise upon the inhabitants, and the 

 sublimity, grandeur, and beauty of the scenery that 

 surrounds us. 



I am well aware the remark is frequently made 

 and repeated, that we live in a cold and barren 

 clime ; that unremitted labor and strict economy 



