174 



THE FARMER'S MOiX THLY VISITOR. 



Root Crops. 



The cropof Riita Baga in tliotfe parts of New 

 Euelaiid where the dry weallier was felt in all 

 its Ibrcc (luring the suiiinier have been almost a 

 failiue. On one acre and a half of ground vvell 

 prepared, where we expected a thousand husliels, 

 we did not get tliree hundred ; and until after 

 the (irst frost we Ijad not the expectation of gath- 

 ering one hundred. The growth of the root was 

 retarded hv llie prevalence of niiinerous vegeta- 

 ble lice until these were killed hy the severity of 

 the weather. Our Sugar Beets in the tield "did 

 little better than the riua Imga, although thev 

 grew luxuriantly in the garden. Mr. Whitney 

 raised on our pren)ises on the same ground where 

 he produced nearly an hundred pounds of onion 

 seed, one hundred and eighty bushels of carrots: 

 these grew luxuriantly, notwithstanding the 

 drought permitted not half the eomi>etent seeds 

 to vegetate. The carrots were jfrown in double 

 rows about twelve inches asunder between each 

 row of trans|)lanted onions without at alt injuring 

 the latter crop. 



In a late conversation with Mr. Christopher 

 Howe, ofMetliuen,Ms. one of the first rate tarui- 

 ers of old Essex, we were informed that his Ruta 

 Baga crop failed the present year, though not to 

 the extent we have just mentioned. 



In the year 1(^30 Mr. H. raised 725 bushels of 

 ruta baga on three fourths of an acre. TIjp land 

 was ploughed from the sv/ard in September pre- 

 vious and cross ploughed in the spring before 

 j)lanting: about twenty five loads of' manure 

 were spread lo the acre, and about thirty busli- 

 els of ashes were added. The ground was partly 

 moist and heavy anfl partly of dry light soil. 



lu 1810 he prepared two acre's for ruta baea. 

 The land was manured as highly with the excep- 

 tion of the ashes,and e(|ually well prepared. Only 

 eight himdred bushels were raiseil where two 

 thousand bushels had been expected. 



Ill the year 180!> Mi-. Howe raised Mangel 

 Wurtzel at the rate of 600 bushels to the acre on 

 land which had the previous year produced ruta 

 baga. His land, which was manured for the 

 previous crop, received at the rate of twenty loads 

 of barn manure to the acre : also a few liushels 

 of ashes were applied. The present year he sow- 

 ed Mangel Wurtzel on ground siiiiiiarly prepar- 

 ed with the exception that the ashes were omit- 

 ted. The crop was much better than the ruta 

 baga, not so good as the sugar beet — say at the 

 rate of six hundred In shels to the acre. 



In the year 1840, Mr. H. raised 100 bushels of 

 the sugar beet on alioiit one fourth of an acre 

 of land planted the previous year with ruta ba^a 

 and manured : this year manure was applied at 

 about the rate of twenty loads to the acre. The 

 land was part gravelly, i,nd on the driest gravelly 

 part the crop was the greatest. 



Mr. Howe sowed one and a half acre of oats 

 in tlie year 18>;> on land, the one half of which 

 had been the previous year sowed with ruta baga 

 and the other half planted with potatoes. All 

 the first part of the season the oats were one third 

 less on the rula baga ground than ujiun ;hat 

 where the potatoes were raised : and at the close, 

 although the former gained Uj)Oii tiie latter, the 

 '■"•■"*■"• of grown oats was less and the straw 



the upper vegetable mould has been removed. 

 He had a spot of a few rods of gravelly knoll off 

 from which two or three feet of the soil had been 

 carried away. The first year, manured like the 

 ground which had not been thus treated, he plan- 

 ted with beans and had a tolerable crop. The 

 year afterwards with the same preparation he 

 raised as large a crop of ruta baga on the gravel- 

 knoll as upon the surrounding land. 



Mr. Howe makes it his practice when striking 

 out a field with the plough from sward land to 

 take the two furrows which make the ridge of 

 each and which are turned up either on the cen 

 tie or at the sides, consisting of sods and tufts of 

 grass, into carts or other vehicles, and transfers 

 them to the barn yard or hog pen, where they 

 contribute to make at least an equal quantity of 

 manure. He also turns the first two furrows on 

 the side of walls enclosing the fields, and con- 

 verts the siibsiance to thesame object. 



He had been in the practice of keeping his ma- 

 nure tbrnierly clear fiom litter. Latterly he has 

 made much use of litter, and in additionbroiight 

 soil into his yards. He finds that not only is the 

 (juantity of manure greatly increased by the pro- 

 cess, but that the quality is equally good of the 

 large as of the smaller amount. 



Mr. Howe has used and recommends the use 

 of the Cultivator instead of the plough in pre- 

 paring ground for sowing in the spring. For 

 this purpose he has a Cultivator made as wide as 

 a common harrow, with teeth cast so as to run 

 deeper through the wood than in the eomnion 

 Cultivator used with one horse. This iniple- 

 iiient he finds all that is necessary to prepai-e for 

 sowing the small grains in the spring. His Cul- 

 tivator is made with nine teeth, and as stout and 

 as heavy as a common harrow used for oxen : it 

 is made like the liariow without handles, and is 

 much heavier than the common Cultivator. 



We have put to paper these facts gathered in a 

 conversation with a practical man whose knowl- 

 edge and observation will be valuable to many of 

 our readers. 



quantity 



considerably iniierior upon the latter. 



Mr. Howe has a piece of land containing about 

 three acres. One half of it having been previously 

 cultivated, was laid down lu clovoi-, <,iiil producod 

 in 1837 two and a hall' tons of hay to the acre : in 

 the fall following the grass roots were killed out 

 by drought. The other half was planted with 

 com in the year 1837 ivuh manure, and sowed 

 with oats in 1838 with grass seed. No grass ap- 

 pearing in the spring lS;iy, the whole of both 

 sections was ploughed u|) and manured with 

 about twenty-seven ox cart loads of manure to 

 the acre, the stubble ground being considered in 

 the best plight, and there being no sward upon 

 the land where the clover was killed out. All 

 was sowed with oats and ^rassseeri in 1840 ; and 

 tiiere was little or no dift'erence in the quantity 

 of oats produced. Put there was a dif-tinct and 

 in;irkcd difference r.s to the c: tolling of the grass 

 this fill : there was very liule or no grass caught 

 on the part where tl,e clover had two years be- 

 fore been killed out, and the grass seed was well 

 caught on that portion wlieie the oats hud grown 

 two sia'uns belbre. 



'fhe saiu" gci;i:eii!;.n iiKntions a fi;cl which 

 no<'D to prove tJiat land is not ruined even when 



Condition of Society in En-jland and the Uni- 

 ted States. 



.At the meeting of the Royal Bucks yVgrioullii- 

 ral Society at Aylesbury, England, on the lOtli 

 .Septemlier, the (act may strike some of our sim- 

 ple repiibl'cans with a degree of surprise, that 

 when it came to the distribuiion of prizes, which 

 were given in cash and in articles of clothing, 

 "the several recipienis were then called in, and 

 his grace the Duke of Buckingham having ad- 

 dressed them upon their past good conduct, the 

 prizes were handed them witira printed testimo- 

 ny of their success, and a glass of wine each, to 

 drink the health of tlie farmers present." How 

 iiinch happier is the condition of society among 

 us, how iiiiich more favorable to the proper ele- 

 vation of the laboring idatses, and how much 

 more beneficial in its intlueiice upon the charac- 

 ter of the ri<'h and distinguished, where men are 

 not " called in and furnished standing with a glass 

 of wine," but eoiiK' of their own accord and of 

 their own right, and with a self-respect arisius 

 from the concioiisiiess of their own personal in- 

 dependence, sit down at the same table willi the 

 most distinguished men in the community upon 

 terms of jierfect equality ; and buy their own 

 clothing, anfl nil their own glasses IbViheinselves. 

 The industrious, honest and virtuous yeoiiianrv 

 are the true nobility of our land. They can show 

 themselves worthy of this rank only liy cultiva- 

 ting their minds as well as the soil ; and deter- 

 luiiiing to extirjjate every weed in their moral 

 habits and charactijis, with even liir more reso- 

 lution and tlioroughness than the weeds among 

 their growing crop.s.— A". E. Fanner. H. C. ' 



" Our life is ever on the wing, 

 And death is ever nigh." 



THOiMAs Ames, Esq, of Canterbury, suddenly 

 fell dead in liitt yard oh Tuesday, Nov. aSth at 

 the age of about tj2 years. Mr. Ames' constitu- 

 tion was ol the kind that indicated sudden apo- 

 plexy, being so corpulent as to weigh probably 

 over three hundred pounds. He was not only an 

 excellent citizen, a kind and indulgent husband, 

 father and friend, but he was one of tlie very best 

 practical liirmers in the county of Merrimack, 

 whose example has done much in his town and 

 111 those ol the vicinity to promote agricultural 

 improvement. He was among the first to intro- 

 duce the successful cultivation of the Black sea 

 wheat in his town and county. Many times has 

 he obtained the premiums of the Merrimack 

 County Agricultural Society, of which he was the 

 constant i)alron. We once visited the farm, a 

 great portion of the labor on which he performed 

 with his own hands, notwithstanding his "reat 

 weight must have rendered severe labor extreme- 

 ly inconvenient : it was a fine example for the ag- 

 riculturist who studies neatness, convenience of 

 arrangement, and the application of labor and 

 expense intended as well for temporary as for 

 permanent benefit. The death of such a man as 

 Mr. Ames is a public loss. 



JosiAH Rogers, Esq. formerly of this town, a 

 man of much the same size and constitution as 

 Mr. Ames, died in much the same sudden man- 

 ner a few days previous. Mr. Rogers was a man 

 of great enterprise and indeliitigable labor, who, 

 after great discouragement, had been eminently 

 successlul as a lumberer upon the river and gain- 

 ed a handsome estate. This he lived to see dissi- 

 pated in that mania for speculation which seized 

 on hundreds of the shrewdest men in the coun- 

 The latter years, of his life, Mr. Rogers ex- 



O.v A large scale. — At (he show of cattle and 

 iiiiplenients at Cambridge, in England, in Sep- 

 teuiher last, the money receivcd'for admission 

 into the yards to see the cattle and iin])lemeins, 

 was frnni 1600 to 1G50 jioiinds steriiuf, or uji- 

 wards of 8000 dollars. The nuiubcr of' persons 

 at the dinner, including ladies, was 3000. Ten 

 dollars, and in some ca.^es even fifteen dollars 

 each, were offered Hir tickets. A particular ob- 

 ject of altiaclioii wilhoiu doubt Was to hear the 

 agricultural spfcchc-i of distinguished individ- 

 uals. — .\; E. IWnier. 



H- C. 



pended in constructing one of the best grist mills 

 erected in this part of the State, in the town of 

 Bow, on the south line of Concord, about two 

 miles from this village. He has also made great 

 improvements on the fine farm where he resides, 

 showing to his neighbors that there is little bet- 

 ter soil than the light jilain lands which abound 

 in the vicinity of the Merrimack river. Mr. Rog- 

 ers liad a few neighbors on the Concord side of 

 the line as good (ijrmers as himself: the example 

 of all these we trust will go far to arouse the too 

 dormant ambition of many others who have not 

 thought enough of the importance of imjiroving 

 the cultivation of the earth. 



" The good that men do shall lire ajler them." - 

 Our old acquaintance, one after another, are drop- 

 ping into the tomb, reiniuding lis of the necessity 

 of doing with our might whatever our hands Jind to 

 do, if we expect either to amend our lives or to 

 inake our remaining days u.seful in this genera- 

 tion. The death of our old acquaintance and 

 friend, Hon. Daniel French, of Chester, at the 

 age of about seventy years, brings to remeni- 

 br.ince u single disinterested act of friendship of 

 his, before we had a personal acquaintance, that 

 preserved us from incarceration under a project- 

 ed inosecution which was entered upon by com- 

 bination and intended utterly to prostrate "all our 

 hopes of business, at a time of pecuniary help- 

 lessness, more than thirty years ago. Mr. Freiie-h 

 then occujiied, as he did" for several years alter- 

 waids, the post of .Attorney (General of this Slate. 

 He pursued successlully the business of attorney 

 and counsellor of law nearlv to the close of life ; 

 and brought u|) a large faiiii"ly of children late in' 

 life, some ol whom are already doing credit to the 

 name which they hear. 



Hut our object in iiilroducing the subject of this 

 nonce is to say that Mr. French had for several 

 years connected with his professional business 

 that of iiiqiroved farming. The two late Govern- 

 ors Bell ami the lute Chief Justice Richardson 

 resided in his immediate neiyhborhood: thev 

 were together all and each of them more or Ics's 

 amateur furniers. But there was another profes- 

 sional man living there who died before these, 

 (the Hon. Samuel Bell, of the four mentioned, 

 only remains) wliose efforts did much for the 

 cause of Agriculture in that neiffhborhood : this 

 gentleman was the late Hon. Amos Kent, also a 

 lawyer, a man of good talents, and who had been 

 both a judge and a member of the Senate of this 

 I State. Mr. Kent for several years entered with 

 j gre;;t zeal on the hu.-iiiess of i"iijpi-oving the huid, 

 I |ier)iaps lo the neiilect, if iiotalatidoijiiieiu of his 

 I profeesional business. He carried on his opcrn- 



