THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



123 



has less affected this land than almost any other 

 oil oiir premises. The whole surface of the 

 ground, where the frequent pitch pine stumps, in- 

 termixed with now and then an oak stump, would 

 permit tlie plough to fiuii up the sod, was cover- 

 ed with rooty fibres, of brakes, blueberry and ivo- 

 lyplum roots, &c. We were at a stand, on the 

 advice of others, whether to plant or sow any 

 thing on this gi'ound — all that it would produce 

 we expected woidd be very little. Two bushels 

 of Black sea wheat were first sowed on an acre 

 and a half: this partially failed solely because 

 there was no rain to bring the seed up. A small 

 part of the seed did vegetate ; and at this time 

 the wheat looks better on this groimd than it does 

 on the highly nianiu-ed lot of last year, where we 

 raised our best corn. Two acres of white beans 

 from seed procured of Mr. Fowler of Hill, with 

 one lioeing, and with no other application than a 

 spoonful of plaster, look as flourishing as almost 

 any other field we have noticed in our travels. 

 But the eiglit acres of buckwheat have greatly 

 and happily disappointed us. It was sowed late 

 in the month of Jime in the midst of the severe 

 drought. Some of the seeds sprung at once from 

 the ground — others came up sparingly after- 

 wards, so that Ibm- weeks had elapsed be- 

 fore a sufficient quantity had risen from the 

 gromid to give any encouragement for a crop. 

 That portion of it which first came up grew vig- 

 orously in spite of dry weather, and all of it con- 

 tinued to go ahead. The rains of the last week 

 have brought it forward so that it i!ow nearly 

 covers tlie surface of the groiuid — it has grown 

 above the brakes and otlier green weeds which 

 started ahead at first: a portion of the whe;,t in 

 spreading branches blooms in beautitiil white- 

 ness, distinctly seen from our own donjicil at the 

 distaiice of a mile. If nothing befals it — if the 

 the wandering sheep kept upon the highways by 

 some of our friends on the east side, to s;.ve tlie 

 expense of pasturing, do not again bretik throu;; h 

 the fence stronger and better than " stone walls," 

 ;uid annihilate our hopes, we will have on the ten 

 acres of this ])ine plain lalid a crop that will 

 more than pay for all tlie labor we have laid out 

 in subduing tke land and ti-ncing it. 



"bettkk latk than never." 



Jf'ednesday, ^lug. 5. Our hands taken fi om the 

 hajiield this and the two previous day.sof doubt- 

 liil weather to clear the weeds from a 'field of ru- 

 ta baga and French sugar beets of about two a- 

 cres. The same diffioiilty existed in relation to 

 this crop as to that of the Black sea wheat: in 

 the dryest part of the ground the seeds did not 

 veget;tte at all ; and much of it that did spring 

 was full six weeks hi coming up. The drills 

 were not disturbptl, so that tlie weeds had ample 

 time to grow, and we did not attempt their entire 

 extirpation until this time. An attemjit to tians- 

 ])lant had failed in part, the parcliing sun having 

 dried up and killed the plant. Now the slow pro- 

 cess was gone through of clearing out the weeds, 

 and to do it effectually, after they were cut down 

 or pidled up, they ^^■ere gathered in baskets, and 

 five waggon loads, weighing as many tons, were 

 taken to the hog ])en where they will make ex- 

 cellent manure — the belter for being taken away 

 before the new seeds upon them, had been matur- 

 ed. 



Thursday and Friday, Aug. C, 7. For the foun- 

 dation of our work on these days see another 

 part of this luunber of the Visitor. We have at 

 home three hands doing up the last of our hay- 

 ing and getting in of oats which had stood stook- 

 cti in the field, and three hands going through 

 with hoes our corn and jiotatoe fields the last 

 time for the season. Although the corn is in 

 the milk, we think it better to cxtirjiate the weeds 

 that grow in highly manured ground i|uite as lux- 

 uriantly as the corn itself, than to suffer them to 

 remain and go to seed. A copious rain fell on 

 the afternoon of Thm-sday, which was the first 

 wetting any of our hay had this year received. 



Saturday, Au^, 8. Haying and hoeing contin- 

 ued. Through the whole season of haying, our 

 hands, without asking for a drop of ardent siiirit, 

 have taken to the barn each day a full average of 

 four loads of fifteen hundred pounds each for ev- 

 ery five persons engaged. 



Monday and Tuesda^u Aug. 10, 11. Hayiiig arid 

 hoeing are kept up. The process of hoeing in 

 the corn and potatoe fields is necessarily slow, in 

 consequence of llie crop completely covering tlje 



groimd. The rank weeds ought at all hazards to 

 be torn up — otherwise they must go into the crop 

 of the next year on the same ground. 



Wednesday, Aug. 12. On leaving home at ten 

 o'clock we perceive the men have mown down two 

 full acres of the heaviest late grown grass upon 

 the intei-vale this morning : over a portion of this 

 the water flowed several times in May — and over 

 some of it the river had backed in when raised by 

 rams, none of which fell here, far up country. 



IMPROVEMENTS ON MERRIMACK RIVER. 



On the river road to Nashua, we marked as the 

 peculiarity of a majority of the cultivated fields the 

 prevalence of weeds in the growing corn and po- 

 tatoes. Some of the gardens betrayed their in- 

 difterent cultivation by the tall weeds and grasses 

 peering above the ruta baga, beets, carrots, Cab- 

 bages, and beans. 



As a general remark, up and down the Merri- 

 mack river, the cultivation has been much impro- 

 ved for the last ten years : the improved acres and 

 products of the lighter lands have been at least 

 doubled. A great deal of land has been worn out 

 in raising rye. The method has been to plough 

 in the summer and sow the pine plain lands with 

 rye so long as they would bear any thing : some 

 of these lands have been so strained and exliaus- 

 ted that they will hardly bear common sorrel. 

 They wouUl be the very best lands for cultivation 

 if they «ere as highly manured as that land on 

 the Winnipisseogee island where Mr. Brown rais- 

 es his hundred bushels of corn to the acre. Ma- 

 nured well and ploughed deep with clean culti- 

 vation and a rotation of crops coming round once 

 in five or six years, the farmer's never need fear 

 the eflect ol drought on these lands: excepting 

 the gromid shall be pure Siiiid or small Liavel, 

 the manure placrd upon the surface neve) can 

 filter itseh ij.\\:); under ground — the iieat object 

 of fear would he that its strength should fi_\ away 

 into the air, if exposed upon or too neiir liie t,\ir- 

 liice. 



The improvements most worthy of atteniion 

 bi^tween (-^oncoid and Nashua of late j.re in the 

 Noyes Farm two miles above Hooksett falls, and 

 on Col. Daniel Farmer's farm one mile above 

 Amoskeag falls. To the.se we mijihtadd the M'- 

 Grcgore tiirm belonging to the Amoskeag compa- 

 ny, Mr. Walker's adjoining farm near Piscataquog 

 village, and some other farms below in Bedford 

 and Merrimack. 



Tlie Noyes fiuin in Bow, always a very good 

 hay farm, has nearly doubled its productions with- 

 in the last f(!W years by the application of stable 

 manure fiom Hooksett. The hay has been taken 

 oft' and sold, and the manure returned. So much 

 has this tiirm been inqjioved by that jirocess that 

 one half of it without the buildings sold the last 

 year lor $4000. Sixty acres were sold : the whole 

 of the original farm, comprising more than dou- 

 ble that (luantity of land with the house and 

 barns in good repair, sold a few years since for 

 .S4.'500 or $4800. 



We ought not to pass by Rlr. Mitchell's garden 

 on the road about half way between Hooksett 

 and Amoskeag falls. This gentleman is a minis- 

 ter of the gospel of the Methodist denomination : 

 his friends say of him that he always jireaches 

 well when his garden flourishes ; lint that he 

 never preaches when his crops are likely to 

 fiiil. He has the finest onion bed, saving that of 

 our Mr. Whitney at home, that Ave have seen on 

 the Boston road. The other garden vegetables 

 on his premises arc almndant: squashes, melons, 

 cabbages, all prove him to be a good cultivator. 

 It was mentioned that he last year took about a 

 hundred dollars for melons, at Amoskeag. On a 

 plat of between one and two acres he iirobably 

 obtains a greater net profit than some farmers get 

 from a farm of fifty acres. 



There is a field of some forty or fif^y acres on 

 Col. Farmer's farm about a mile from Amoskeag 

 that deserves the attention of the passer-by who 

 participates in any of our enthusiasm at the 

 thought of great production where nothing has 

 been produced. The largest portion of this field 

 was not many years ago an almost impenetra- 

 ble swamp of black hemlock, spruce, water ma' 

 pie and birch growth, on which the water stood 

 the year round. Col. Farmer, who certainly dis- 

 covers taste and skill as a farmer, commenced op- 

 erations after a new direction on the edge of this 

 swamp had been given to the river road, carrying 

 it fiirther from the river, by cutting down the 



trees and afterwards digging a deep ditch thi'ough 

 the swamp, and from that through the rise of 

 land between it and the river, draining off the 

 redundant water. That part nearest the river 

 has been in cultivation several years, and produ- 

 ced an abundant crop of grass. Gradually has 

 the ground been treuchedand the roots which 

 pei-vaded the rich swamp mud have been tlirown 

 into piles and burned. The black mud full of fi- 

 bres is rich to appearance as a manure bed, and 

 is several feet deep. This year the work has 

 been carried on in earnest, and several acres have 

 been dug over, leaving huge piles of logs 

 and roots taken from beneath the surface to be 

 burned when they shall become dry. On that 

 part first taken up, have been planted potatoes, 

 which were green and flourishing ui the time of 

 drought beyond any potatoes on the river. It 

 will cost much money or labor to subdue each 

 acre of this gi-ound. When it is subdued there 

 can be no danger the succeeding crops wUl not 

 pay :i5 or perhaps 50 jier cent, annually upon the 

 cost. 



The farm of the Amoskeag Company, under 

 the management of Col. Reed, is a most mag- 

 nificent fiirm tor the State of New Hamiishire : 

 on it sometimes are kept twenty yoke of oxen — 

 with the addition recently made on the east side, 

 it yields about three hundred tons of hay in a 

 year. This crop has been greatly increased by 

 highly manuring land broken up to be laid down 

 to grass. We observed this year on this farm 

 what we had not ot late years seen there before 

 — the weeds making a considerable head way a- 

 niong the rank growuii mangel w intzel and corn- 

 fields lyin^ in sight ol the road. 



Not so tlie corn-fields and garden of the ad- 

 joining farm, south, the proprietor and occupant 

 Ol wliich (Mr. James Walker) has presented the 

 readei« ol the Visitor \vith an interesting account 

 ol some portions of the process by which he 

 makes a small farm i most profitable one. 



Opposite the town of Merrimack and in sight 

 of the travelled road is the rich little town of 

 Litchfield, whose entire population does not con- 

 tain a single pauper. The farms lie along the 

 bank of the river for several miles, the township 

 being narrow and long. The occupants of these 

 farms have always been wealthy and indepen- 

 dent. Farms of much the same description con- 

 tinue down on that side of the river in the town 

 of Hudson nearly all the way to Nashua. 



At no very great distance before arriving at 

 Nashua within the limits of that town on the low- 

 er road we pass Col. Greeley's farm which hag 

 been made highly valuable fiom superior niau- 

 agement and cultivation. This farm (at least that 

 part of it which appears from the road) is made 

 from that light gravelly or sandy soil which has 

 heretofore been denominated jioor land. The 

 renovation and fertility of this land is standing 

 proof that perseverance in the new husbandi-y is 

 alone wanted to enable New Hampshire to sup- 

 port five or ten times its present population. 



Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Mon- 

 day, Aug. l.'i to 17 : busied in preparation at Bos- 

 ton for a new business — attending the usual wor- 

 ship and devotions of the Sabbath— and writing 

 out at leisure hours the history of our two days' 

 agricultural experience with the Shakers — the 

 best matter falling within our obsei-vation to keep 

 alive our attachments lor the farm was the Amer- 

 ican minister's speech before the gi-eat meeting 

 of the Royal Agricultural Societj', delivered on 

 the Kith .July last, which met us in the Boston 

 Morning Post. Mr. Stevenson advances the 

 true idea when he says that the blessings of Ag- 

 riculture stop not at the supply of our physical 

 wants, but extend to the safety and preservation 

 of morals and the charms of social life. " The 

 support of government, the encouragement of 

 commerce, the basis of manufactures, the sub- 

 sistence of the learned professions, depend upon 

 the interests of agriculture :" an object of uni- 

 versal benefit, it is entitled to universal patronage. 



Tuesday, Aug. 18. On the invitation of our 

 old acquaintance, in company with Judge Cor- 

 ning of the State of New York, visited the beau- 

 titiil seat of Mr. Harrison Gray, on the Leinist 

 estate, being a part of the premises of the late 

 Gov. Sumner in Roxhur)', about three miles fiom 

 the old State House. The house of Mr. Gray 

 stands over a cellar dug from the solid rock, at a 

 few rods distance fiom a neat stone F.piscopal 

 church: Irom an uibour in the rear oi the house 



