i6G 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR- 



could be Well imagined. A part of it was mossy 

 side hill filled with rocks, descending into cold 

 swampy land that was botli miry and rocky. The 

 lower part of the lot \vas tenred off, many of the 

 stones taken out, and plonglied into a field. The 

 wettest part Mas dna; up into drains, at siiitahle 

 distances, tor carrying offthe water near the sm- 

 facc, and into the drains the small stones gather- 

 ed on the field were carted. With a sinitle at- 

 tendant and u team of one yoke of oxen, five of 

 the disordered inmates of the asylinii were at 

 work as so many steady men, in digging, laying, 

 and covering the rocks for a new drain. By this 

 improvement of draining the low land of this lot 

 is made to produce hay to the amount of between 

 Sand 3 tons to the acre. The field from which 

 the stones were originally taken is also becoming 

 beautiful mowing groimd, as it has become sub- 

 dued and stocked down to grass. The pasture 

 above is also improved by digging out the rocks 

 and cutting off and levelling the hassocks. This 

 lot cost at the lime of purchase eighty dollars per 

 acre ; the income of much of it is now three or 

 four times the annual interest on the cost. 



Another lot below the preceding and adjacent 

 to it, consisting of an unsightly njorass or low 

 meadow producing little or nothing, consisting of 

 a few acres only, h;is been purchased in behalf of 

 the Asylum at one hundred dollars per acre. 

 This land is preparing for grass by digging and 

 turning over the surface, and by carting upon it a 

 poi'tion of sand or gravel mixed with compost 

 manure. 



Nearer to the buildings and upon the same emi- 

 nence as the land described in the first piu'chase, 

 another considerable lot of ground has been pur- 

 chased for the Asylum. A portion of this land 

 has been much im]>roved, simply, by plashing 

 water over it in the spring, being the surplus of 

 water from an aqueduct that leads fi'om a higher 

 hill to that on which the Asylum buildings stand. 

 Irrigation from simple spring water has a great 

 influence in producing an increased crop of hay. 



In the latest improvements of the Asylum 

 grounds we noticed a beamiful grove of young 

 oaks on a lot fronting the road upon a side hill. 

 One of the inmates of the hospital had planned 

 the improvement of this grove, and performed the 

 work with his own hands in the eomse of the 

 present season. The quantity of labor he liad 

 nere voluntarily performed would have seemed to 

 be great if it had been done by a conujion labor- 

 ing man. He had torn away the old wall running 

 by the side of the road which had become useless 

 from age, and erected iji its place a wall facing 

 the street. On the inside of this wall, the small 

 stones taken from the grove were collected to a 

 depth varying from one to two or more feet. Be- 

 low the wall on the lOad side the groimd had been 

 ploughed and its upper siuface thrown upon the 

 rocks in the inside of the wall, bringing the lower 

 side of the field or grove equal in height and upon 

 a level with the top of the wall. Dr. Woodward 

 showed us how land had been prepared in this 

 way in another place, leading a soil of one or 

 more feet upon the top of the small rocks. The 

 drain which it might be supposed the imder rocks 

 woidd afford to this groimd is not such as to dry 

 rp the surface above ; on the contruiy, the rocks 

 create a moisture which imparts vigor to the 

 grass or other crop upon the groimd, proving ihnt 

 land with such a substratuiu will stand the 

 drought bolter than where there is no such rocky 

 bottom. The laboring patient of the Asylum was 

 preparing and beautifying the grove by digging 

 over the entire surface, taking away the stones 

 and depositing them in drains, causeways or walls, 

 where they would be most useful : no matter how 

 rocky or rough the ground — every thing was 

 made plain and smooth under his hand. This 

 grove was especially intended for a place of cool 

 resort in the season of extreme iieat, where the in- 

 mates of the Asylum, or such of them as could 

 safely go abroad, might amuse themselves and 

 enjoy the swing and other athletic exercises and 

 pastimes. 



GRAND MODE OF MAKI.NG MANURE. 



From two to three hundred loads of the very 

 best compost manure are made annually near the 

 Asylum by means which are hardly thought of by 

 common farmers. Pans or hollows in the earth 

 are made which will hold tec or more loads each 

 upon the descent u few rods below all the build- 

 ings Into these [kids drnifls arc conducted 



through which flow every species of ofSil and 

 every liquid material gathered about the house 

 and other buildings. The pans are first filled 

 with loam or soil (Voni the road side or other 

 places : this soil becomes so strongly impregna- 

 ted with the matter and liquid fidling into it, that 

 in the course of a few weeks it is better and 

 stronger than the best stable manure. When the 

 material is sufficiently jirepari'd in one i)an, the 

 drain is turned to another, and the first is carted 

 off. So strong is the liquid flowing from the top 

 of the pan, that during the last season three large 

 crops of hay were taken otf of the ground 

 over which this surface water was conducted. 

 When a pan is cleared it at once is prepared tor 

 a repetition of the same process. In this way by 

 an easy method manure is made which would cost 

 by purchase each year ])robably three hundred 

 dollars, and which undoubtedly adds to the crops 

 upon the land where it is placed at least five hun- 

 dred dollars annually. The water used in the 

 Asylum which is brought in abundance to the 

 upper story of the main buildings, and is freely 

 communicated to every part of the establishment, 

 after it has been applied to its appropriate use, all 

 passes ofl" through various avenues, carrying with 

 it every thing that can be converted into matter 

 that is offensive into the manure pans ; and thus 

 what is commonly treated as a great inconve- 

 nience or nuisance is converted into a most bene- 

 ficial fructification of the earth. 



SWINE AT THE ASYLUM. 



Another item in the economy of this establish- 

 ment is the beautiful herd of swine there annually 

 produced. These swine t; ke every thing left in 

 the consumjition of the lamily, gathering up all 

 the fragments so tiiat nothing shall be lost. A 

 part of the swine, at the hour of our visit, and 

 what might be considered the most choice part if 

 all were not of the best kind, had been driven to 

 the pens of the Worcester County Agricultural 

 Society some half a mile distant. The kind of 

 hogs which have been kept at the Asylum is pe 

 culiar, being probably an improvement of the 

 Byfield breed, which has been known in New 

 England for the Inst thirty years. As they are 

 here kept they can hardly be considered a work- 

 ing breed : for they lay fiom morning till night as 

 lazy as the\ are fat, the flesh growing over the 

 head FO aslilmost to conceal the eyes. To give 

 them the faculty of locomotion it is necessary to 

 do more than invite or drive them with the voice 

 — they must be moved v\ ith blows. The practice 

 at the Asylum is to keep two breeding sows which 

 produce two litters in a year: these sows are kept 

 until they are two and three years old for the pur- 

 pose of breeding, so long as they continue to be 

 good natured and not too unwieldy. The second 

 and subsequent litters of pigs from these sows are 

 always better than the first litter. In proper time 

 the sows are easily liittened at the age of' two or 

 three years, and make the thickest and fiiirest 

 middlings ; but the pork is coarser and not as pa- 

 lafeable as the younger hogs. The two litters of 

 fall and s|>ring are usually kept until they are 

 twelve months old. We saw ten of these eleven 

 months old, which would have weighed on 

 an average three hundred pounds each when 

 dressed. The common growth ot' the swine at 

 the Asylum is an average probably of one |)oimd 



n tiny cacb. In tlie keeping of ewine much is llue 



to the regularity of feeding at the return of precise 

 intervals of time : it is easy to conceive that one 

 omission in the twenty-four hours feediug might 

 lose the entire fattening and growth of the day. 

 There were t«o litters of' pigs, we belie\e, one 

 twelve and the other fourteen in number, fiom 

 sows two years old, at the Asyliun ; these wei'c 

 half blood Berkshires and were about one week 

 old. 



HORSE AND OXEN. 



A i)air of steady fat horses are kept at the Wor- 

 cestef Asylum ; with these in an easy carriage, 

 such of the patients as are of feeble health and 

 depressed spirits, in fair weather and at the suit- 

 able seasons, are driven around the surrounding 

 country, that they may breathe a .=erene atmos- 

 phere and enjoy the view of nature in her rich 

 attire. 



A single yoke of oxen is kept to do the farm 

 work at the Asylum ; and these, being the same 

 that we had seen the year before, did credit to 

 their keepers. They do their work and draw in 

 the team directed only by the motion of a whip in I 



the hands of the driver without either words or 

 blows. 



A NOBLE FLOCK OF COWS. 



The other stock kept on these premises are ten 

 beautiliil cows, the best we have any where seen. 

 They are generally of native breeds, and are 

 mostly made what they are fiom the feed and 

 keeping at the institution. We would say, that 

 each and all of these cows will give in the season, 

 fiom one third to one half more than the best 

 cows usually to be found on common farms. 

 They furnish abundance of milk for the daily use 

 of the Asylum. They must be better fed than 

 common cows. They were uniformly in fine 

 flesh ; and their capacious bags proved that their 

 feeding produced both milk and flesh at the same 

 time. We believe it is the practice at the Asy- 

 lum to feed the cows, morning and evening, in 

 the yard before they are sent and after they return 

 lioin the pasture, generally with green clover or 

 other herbage. 



CROPS INCREASED. 



By means of improved cultivation and manur- 

 ing the hay cut on the premises of the Asylum 

 has been increased in the space of three or four 

 years from twenty to about forty ton.s ; and we do 

 not doubt that the same system pursued four 

 years more may, on the .same ground, again dou- 

 ble the quantity of hay. 



EXPENSE AT THE STATE ASYLU.M. 



The Insane Hospital at ^V'orcester is an institu- 

 tion managed by the direction of the government 

 and at the expense of the State. Individuals there 

 supported by their own or the funds of their 

 friends, generally pay for board and medical at- 

 tendance at the rate of two dollars and a half a 

 week : those supjiorted by towns ])ay no more 

 than one dollar and a half a week : the higher 

 price is from fifty to one bundled per cent, less 

 than the common price has been at other institu- 

 tions of New England conducted on private ac- 

 count. What the institution fails in obtaining at 

 these prices for its support is made up by grants 

 dollars a week who aro not more difficult to ma- 

 nage than many of those kept at the State Asylum 

 of the State Legislature. In some cases patients 

 are charged at other places as high as five and six 

 for one and a half and two and half dollars a week. 

 .\11 are treated alike at this Asylum : the insane 

 pauper receives the same attention as the insane 

 person worth thousands and even millions. Happy 

 must be the people where the poor are on a level 

 with the rich, and where this condition is one of 

 elevation of all without the depression of any. 



The admirable farming arrangements of the 

 Worcester .\s\lum are made and carried on with 

 no very great additional expense. Ninety per cent, 

 of the labor is performed voluntarily by the in- 

 mates of the institution. Such of them as choose 

 to work do it freely and cheerfully ; and of those 

 who are most efficient laboi-ers upon the farm are 

 sometimes found those whose insanity is most 

 dangerous. Those monomaniacs who have the 

 strongest propensity to homicide or suicide are 

 probably more safe while associated and at work 

 together than they would be in solitary confine- 

 ment, for it is found to be the nature of each to 

 " do the deed" either in the gloom of solitude or 

 when the intended victims have none present or 

 within the call of alarm. 



f^alt for Animals. 



The importance of furnishing salt to domestic 

 animals does not appear to be sufficiently under- 

 stood. Though all are are aivare of the avidity 

 with which animals eat it when given them, there 

 are many who scarcely salt their'animals through 

 the season. Now it is evident that animals should 

 have ii at all times at their command. They will 

 never eat more than is good for them, and it is 

 essential to their health and comfort. The quan- 

 tity allowed in Spain tor l.'JOO sheep, is 25 quin- 

 tals — probably twice the amount the same num- 

 ber usually get in this country; and this quantity 

 is consumed by them in aboiit five month.s, they 

 getting little in the winter or while journeying to 

 and fiom their mountain pastures. Lord Somer- 

 villc allowed a ton of salt to a thousand sheep, 

 and found they consumed the most in the spring 

 and fall, and at these seasons it was probably most 

 useful to them as security against disease. Of its 

 Millie for animals in a medicinal point of view, the 

 following fact, stated by the celebrated Curwen, 

 must be deemed decisive ; 



