THE FAKMER'S MONTHLY ViSl'l'OK. 



156 



is to lessoii'thi' |)!-ii-cs of our liome-rnised wool, 

 it lias opcrutect, iis it was iindoiibtpdlj' intended 

 to tlie encourafjiii": ot" certain kinds of nianulae- 

 tures. The editor was surprised the other day 

 to be told by u nierchant-nianulaeturer of oar- 

 pets, who resides in Boston, and is concerned in 

 two maiuifiicturing establishments in Massachu- 

 setls, that the manufacture of ingrani, correspond- 

 ing with the IJritish Kiddei'minster carpeting, has 

 entirely superseded the imi)ortatioii of that arti- 

 cle. The ((uantity of carpeting used iias been 

 constantly hicreasing for the hist two or three 

 ysars since the reduction of price, which is more 

 ■ than twenty per cent, below the Ibrmer prices. 

 The duty on Kidderminster carpeting is thirty- 

 two cents the square yard: the compromise act 

 will reduce it in 1842 to twenty per cent. This 

 will probably be a sufficient protection to enable 

 the American manufiicturer successfully to com- 

 pete with the foreign establishments of any cotni- 

 try. 



A single carpet loom will produce as an ave- 

 rage, two thousand yards of Ingram carpeting 

 per annum. Of the looms now in operation, om- 

 informant recollects the following: 24 at Canton, 

 2.5 at Danvei's, GO at Lowell, 7 at Dracut, 10 at 

 Chelmstbrd, SOat Framingham, 1.5 at Wrentham, 

 in Massachusetts ; about J20 at Thompson, 40 at 

 New Haven, Ct., and 10 at Gorhani, Maine — in 

 the whole, 341 looms, producing 682,000 yards 

 of carpeting per annum. There are also 105 

 carpet looms at TariftVille, Ct., which have been 

 sometime standing still. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 

 Belgian Husbandry. 



In no part of the A\'orld has the art of culti^a- 

 ting tlie soil attained greater perfection than in 

 Belgium, and the muiibers devoted to a descrip- 

 tion of the husbandry of that coimlry, and the 

 manner in vihich, by persevering industry, its 

 barren sands have been converted into the most 

 fertile of soils, are not the least valualile of the 

 series pulilished by the London Society. 



Farmers in this country frequently speak of 

 the impolicy of extensive outlays i]i inqiroving 

 their farms ; it will not pay the exjiense, is the 

 objection nio.st frequently made, and one which 

 is the most forcible, in reply to those who urge 

 upon them systems for tlic permanent ameliora- 

 tion of their soils. We have sometimes been 

 disposed to consider this feeling of regard to im- 

 mediate expense or profit, more as the natural 

 resolt of that restlessness of character which is 

 said to belong to us jis a j'eoiile, and whiirli leads 

 us to sup|iose, with reason, ri^at wliat will not 

 ])ay now may be lost to us, (as from our known 

 migratory jtropensities, it is scarcely probable 

 our lauds \\>l\ remain in our hands or those of 

 our children, f )r any considerable time,) rather 

 than of any disinelitiation to encounter the labor 

 which au inqjroverl husbandry requires. 



The benetits of a good system of farming, or 

 the evils of adeU'ctive one, can only be fully seen 

 and appreciated in a considerable term of years. 

 On such lands as the greater part of those in this 

 country are, when brought imder cultivation, 

 what may be called the skinning or scourging 

 system, in which rejieated erojjs, with little labor 

 and no mynnring, are taken oftj may be the most 

 profitable iiir the time, though fatal to the soil, 

 and till! prosperity of the farmer in the long run. 

 But when the permanent value and productive- 

 ness of lauds are taken into consideration : when 

 it is remembered that it is much easier to keep 

 lauds in heart, than to restore them when re- 

 duced to sterility: and that the eventual agricul- 

 tural prosperity of a country is depending on a 

 correct system of management, the import.''nc,e 

 of selecting the best models, and conducting our 

 farming o|ierations with relei'etice to future re- 

 sults, as ^veli as present prolits, perfeclly e\'i- 

 dent. " I 



To ilhistrate (he eflects of the two systems of 

 farming, or rather to show the results of the im- 

 proved one, as compared with the one generally 

 practiced with us, wc give a few extracts from 

 the papers on Belgian farming, and the first is a 

 description of a liirm of 140 acres on the river 

 Lys, near Courtnay, 



" Of this farm about 20 acres arc in fine mea- 

 dows, along the river, occa.sionally flootled in win- 

 ter, but not irrig.ated ; about 10 acres are rich, 

 heav'y land, adjoining the mcado\vs, in which 

 beans a'ld ivlieat thrive well ; a'l the remainder. 



about 10(3 acres, lie in on oblong form, boimded 

 by a hedge row, at one corner of whicli, nearest 

 the river, stand the farm buildings. A road or 

 path, six fee! wide, rims through the middle of 

 the field, and the road or path that leads to the 

 farm yard skirts one end of it. The soil of this 

 large field is a rich, light loatn, whicli lies over a 

 substratiun of clay, but at such a depth as to be 

 jierfi^ctly sound and dry. It is not very fertile in 

 its o\vu nature, but has licen rendered so by 

 many years of an improving husbandry. E\ery 

 part of the land has been repeatedly trenched 

 and stirred two or three feet deep; and the im- 

 mense quantity of manuie, chiefly liquid, juit on 

 year after year, has converted the whole into a 

 rich mould. The strength and vigor of the crops 

 bear witness to the goodness of the luisbandry. 

 As we walked along the middle path, which is 

 just wide enough to admii the wheels of a cart, 

 the whole produce might be seen at once. The 

 flax had been pulled, and remained stacked on 

 the ground. Tlie colza [cole or rape seed,] had 

 been Ijeat out, but tlie stems remamed where 

 they had been cut. There were fifteen acre.s of 

 most beautillil fla.x, of a bright straw color, and 

 the stems a yard long. This, besides the seed, 

 was -worth in the stack from 25 lo £30 per acre ; 

 12 acres of colza had produced aboiU 50 quar- 

 ters of seed ; eighteen acres of oats looked so 

 promising that they cotild not be set at lers than 

 nine quarters per acre ; eighteen acres of wheat, 

 whi(di stood well, with short, plump ears, are va- 

 lued at live ipiarters per acre ; eighteen acres of 

 rye, parlly cut, with the sti-aw above six feet high, 

 would ])robably protluce rather more than the 

 wheal. There were six acres of white poppy, of 

 which every plant was strong and ujiright, and 

 the produce of which was estimated at from 

 twenty to twenty-three bushels per acre; six 

 acres were in jiotatoes, expected to produce at 

 least twenty-two hundred bushels. About an 

 acre was in carrots, which looked fine and large, 

 twelve acres vvere in clover, nearly the ^^■hole of 

 which was cut green to give the horses and cows ; 

 it produces three good cuts in a year, when it is 

 not allowed to go to seed. The 10 acres of hea- 

 vy land were partly in beans and partly in wheat. 

 The stock kept on this farm consists of twenty- 

 seven cows in nulk, five or six hehers. nine hor- 

 ses, and three colts." 



It cannot fail to strike the most inattentive 

 reader, that the crop of Ihis 120' acres greatly 

 exceeds, perhaps doubles, that of our ordinary 

 farms of the same size, while on many of what 

 are called our dairy fa.nns of about the same 

 size, not more stock is kept than on this grain 

 liu-m. Manuring and dee)) tillage has done this 

 for the Brabant farm, and it will do the same for 

 any, or almost any ftuni on which it is adopted. 

 We are convinced that money exjiended in con- 

 verting land into rich old garden ground, is well 

 applied, although for the moment it may seem to 

 be Ihrowii avvay, particularly on lands, the own- 

 ers of which are expecting to get to the fiir west 

 by " vear after next at farthest." We add a de- 

 scription of the tillage cultiu-e of another farm 

 of son)e 400 acres, ot'naturally first rate land, but 

 which, by being treated as deseribed, is so iiiuch^ 

 deteriorated, that the crops rarely more than half 

 e(pial those on the same number of acres on the 

 one just noticed. 



" The rotations on this crop are as follows : — 

 I, fallow ; 2, winter barley; 3, "tieaus ; 4, barley 

 or wheat : 5, lieans, clover, potatoes ; 6, wheat ; 

 7, oats. Thirty cart loads of long maunre, the 

 straw not much decomposed, are put on the fal- 

 lows before the last jiloughing, and the winter 

 barley is sown in October: the produce is eight 

 quartei-s per acre. Wheat on the same prejiara- 

 tion produces from f()ur to five quarters, so that 

 the barley givef: the best crop, and with tlie least 

 exhaustion to the soil ; every year a small |)or- 

 tion of the pastui-e is proken up .and sown with 

 colza. The natm-al fertility of the soil is shown 

 bv the succession of crojis" produced on the new- 

 ly broken up land, widiout manure, viz: colza, 

 Vvheat, beans, barley, beans, wheat, clover, wheat, 

 b<!aiis, oats. After" tliis scourging it is no « on- 

 der that the land wants rest ; and this is given 

 without much care, l<y merely allowing the natu-_ 

 ral grasses to spring" up without the trouble of 

 sowing the seeds. It takes three years before 

 there is any tolerable pasture ; but as it remains 

 nearly twenty years before it is broken \\y ag.-fui, 

 the (icti-rinralion is not so apparent, liuler a 



regular and judicious course of convertible hus- 

 bandry, this land might be kept up to the highest 

 state of fertility, .-md the ultimate profit would be 

 much greater." 



This is a piruire of farming so prevalent in 

 this countiT, ;ai(l wliich is fast lessening our pro- 

 ducts, and ri Tiling our lands. It may fairly be 

 called the exhausting process, as the whole ob- 

 ject seems lo be to get as much from the eartli, 

 and return to it as little as possible. By the first 

 mode of fiuniing, the land improves constantly, 

 growing more pioductive, and of course more 

 valuable. A farm cultivated in this way, by deep 

 (illnge, thorough manuring, and a well conduct- 

 ed rotation, becomes in time, a rich mould to the 

 depth to which the soil is stirred, and the roots 

 of plants having thus ample room for range and 

 pastm-age, tlie crops are invariably good. " Thus 

 the e.xtra labor and expense is soon rejiaid, and a 

 soil is formed far superior to the richest native 

 earths, and which can easily be kept in condition 

 to give the most ample crojis. 



Iinpiovement should not stop. 



Ur. Perrine, who was murdered lately by tlie 

 Seminoles at Indian Key, was a native of Coniiec- 

 ticul, and for some time United States Con.sul at 

 (.^■mqx^achy, wlieie he studied the botfuiy of the 

 district, and finding in C^ampeachy, Yucatan, and 

 Sisal, many valuable plants, conceived the plan 

 of introducing them into the southern pait of the 

 United States. Some of these jilauts are such as 

 fiuiiish food, others supply the r.aw material for 

 useful manufactures. To carry these objects into 

 efliict he formed the iiltui of an agricultural es- 

 tablishment in Florida. Some account of this 

 plan and its objects was given in Hovey's Maga- 

 zine of Horticulture, published at Boston. The 

 Newark Daily Advertiser says :— 



" During the session of Congress of 1837 and 

 '38, Dr. Beri-ine was in Washington. He ob- 

 tained the use of the room assigned in the capi- 

 tol to the Committee on Agriculture, where he 

 arrayed some specimens of fibrous plants and 

 their fibres, for the examination of members of 

 Congress. 



"He had laid before both branches a vast 

 amount of information, describing the habits of 

 ditl'erciit varieties of useful plants, and demon- 

 strating that the sand liarrens of the South, and 

 their imjiraeticable morasses, for all other pur- 

 jioses ntit merely useless, but deleterious, might 

 lie made to jiroduce, by self-propogation, and al- 

 most without labor, the various fibrous plants 

 which yield the fibres from which Manilla and 

 Sisal rope, and all the great and beautiful variety 

 of grass clofhs are manufactured. 



" The marshes bear one class of plants and the 

 most arid sands another clasS, and the climate is 

 sufficiently v\'arm through Florida, Alabama, 

 Georgia, and South Carolina, while some kinds 

 will thrive as fiir north as Virginia. It was Dr. 

 P.'s strong desire to sec those productions intro- 

 duced into all that sectionof country, that the de- 

 cline of cotton, rice, and tobacco crops, from ex- 

 haustion of the soil, might be made up by this 

 spontaneous and prolific cultivation of those im- 

 mense tracts now esteemed valuless, giving a new 

 and jiermauent source of wealth and prosperity. 

 It was for aid iu this great project that he asked 

 of the Government a grant of those same barren 

 lands v.ihich some of the officers of our army 

 have jironoimced \\ orthless and uninhabitable. 



" W ith all these memorials of his labor, Doc- 

 tor I'errine remained nearly unnoticed fbr two 

 or three months. In this neglected condition we 

 first knew of him, his laboi-s, and his prospects ; 

 and among the most pleasant recollections of our 

 acquaintance is that which we look upon with 

 I he greatest satisfaction, that it was in our power, 

 ill consequence of a favorable position, to call the 

 attention of a great many members of Congress 

 to the valuable specimens and interesting illus- 

 trations of Dr. Perrine. The north and the south 

 at last became acquainted with the subject he 

 had so deeply at heart. They saw, ashe did, a 

 splendid scheme f<:ir the increase of national 

 wealth, by the imiirovement of otherwise barren 

 soils, fbr the produclion of new materials for use- 

 tid mamdiictures ; and his simple request that he 

 might locate a settlement fbr the propagation of 

 tropical' plants in Florida upon Government lands 

 was granted, with tlie privilege of purchasing 

 anv surronndinir lands heitafler wlien the Indians 



