650 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 9 



eame that are realized in our prain districts. But 

 when we consider that tlieir lands are Jour or five 

 times as productive as ours, the tjreat advantage 

 that is thus enjoyed in the saving of labor and ex- 

 pense, with the increased amount of products, is 

 at once obvious ; and conclusively shows how 

 their farmers become independent and even rich, 

 by the cultivation of one hundred or one hundred 

 and fifty acres. A firm of (his size, by the above 

 -estimate, may be regarded as equal in vahae and 

 profits to one of six or eio'ht hundred acres, of the 

 medium lands of Maryland and Virginia, under 

 good manatrement. These remarks, also, may 

 show the ai)surdity of recommending small farms 

 as the most profitable to our agriculturists, in imi- 

 tation of those at the north. Small farms can 

 only answer where the materials for enriching the 

 soil are at hand, both mineral and vegetable. 

 When one acre can be made permanently as 

 productive as three or four were belbre, our exten- 

 sive farms may be divided to more advantage. 

 But under present circumstances, and with our 

 species of labor, we shall be obliged to makeup 

 in quantity what we lack in quality, satisfied with 

 gradually improving the soil, or, at least, keeping 

 it up to its original fi^rtility. Lime is unfortunately 

 beyond the reach of a considerable portion of the 

 farmers of eastern Virginia, however desirous they 

 might he to use it. In one district, however, it is 

 accessible in the form of marl, to a large extent of 

 country, where it seems to have been deposited 

 for the purpose of rescuing that beautiful region 

 fi-om the curse of sterility, and of adding incalcu- 

 lably to the many natural advantages it already 

 (•enjoys. If it should be duly appreciated, a cen- 

 tury hence may see a wonderflil change wrought 

 upon its surface, and hail it as the garden spot of 

 the Atlantic states. 



From the denseness of the forests of New 

 York, the clearing of land is a business of great 

 labor, which is often materially increased by the 

 -quantity of rock to be removed. The preparation 

 of the soil is also rendered more difficult by the 

 irregularity of the surface, caused by the blowing 

 down of trees by the roots, and thus forming what 

 are termed " cradles." These cradles have to be 

 filled up, and the corresponding mounds reduced, 

 before the land is ready f^^r the reception of a 

 icrop. In many places it is now the work of years 

 to prepare a piece of new irroimd Ihr cultiva;ion. 

 Afi.er the wood is taken ofi', the stumps, too thick 

 to admit the passage of the plough, are left to de- 

 cay ; but, in the mean time, excellent pasturage 

 is afforded by the natural grasses. In two or 

 three years the roots are sufficiently weakened to 

 admit of the easy extraction of the stumps. 

 During the early settlement of the country, how- 

 ever, the wants of the inhabitants compelled them 

 to adopt a more speedy process, and to encounter 

 difficulties in the preparation of the land, which 

 must have been extremely discouraging to any 

 but the most industrious and enterprisintj race. 

 Girdlmg, the usual practice of early settlers, was 

 necessarily resorted to, and other parts of the ope- 

 ration were probably performed in a hasty manner. 

 A field in Cayuga county, of four hundred and 

 eighty acres, was thus opened in one year for the 

 cultivation of wheat, which produced the enor- 

 mous crop of forty bushels to the acre. The me- 

 mory of an achievement that bespoke so nmch 

 energy of character, is perpetuated in the name of 



the place, which is called " Great-field," to the 

 present day. It was a far greater triumph over 

 nature than that which has been recently extolled 

 in the public papers, as having been made in Mi- 

 chigan, where a thousand acres of prairie land had 

 been broken up and laid down in wheat, by the ef- 

 forts of one company. 



The champaign appearance of the country, 

 would lead a traveller to suppose that there might 

 be a deficiency of timber ; and the temptation to 

 bring the greatest quantity of land into cultivation 

 that can be spared, must be very great. The 

 roads scarcely ever pass through the woods in the 

 older settled parts, so that the reservations of tim- 

 ber lands are always in the rear of the farms. 

 This dis[)osition shows the various improvements 

 of the country to infinite advantage. From the 

 amount of timber in the forests, and the rapidity 

 of its growth, it is only necessary to reserve a 

 small proportion for the uses of the farm. The 

 greatest economy is practised in the consumption 

 of fuel. The winter's supply is cut during the 

 summer in time fir it to partially season, and af- 

 terwards deposited in wood-houses, to be used as 

 wanted. The construction of the houses is also 

 adapted to the practice of economy in the use of 

 fuel. The rooms are small and very close, and 

 fire places have been superseded in a great mea- 

 sure by stoves. Where the winters are so long, 

 and the summers consequently short, and where 

 land is so extremely valuable, it becomes doubly 

 important that every operation should be managed 

 with the strictest regard to a saving of labor, and 

 that the products of the forest should be carefully 

 preserved fi'om waste. Notwithstanding the pro- 

 tracted winters, the quantity of fuel consumed in 

 New York by a given number of families, is pro- 

 bably not half so much as is used by the same 

 number in the southern states, where the crackling 

 fire, the capacious fire place, and wide stretched 

 door, are so ol'ten seen in the same apartment. 

 Trere is also less timber used in the construction 

 of fences, than in those places where the worm- 

 fence is in use. If there was no other objection to 

 the worm-fence, the space it occupies would con- 

 stitute a sufficient motive lor disusing it in a coun- 

 try where every foot of land is an object of re- 

 gard, and where the divisions between the fields 

 are so numerous. But to establish it, and keep it 

 in repair, requires an amount of timber much 

 greater than a direct line of board fence, or post 

 and rail — four or five rails serving instead of 

 twelve or thirteen in a worm-ftjnce. An ordinary 

 post and rail enclosure, however, might not be a 

 sufficient sale-guard asainst the depredations of 

 swine, if these mischievous animals were suffer- 

 ed to roam at large; but fortunately they are 

 mostly confined in orchards, or in styes. For 

 other kinds of stock, it will amply suffice. 



In connection with the agriculture of New York, 

 some notice of the mills at Rochester, for the 

 manufacture of flour, may not be out of place. 

 Rochester is situated at the falls of the Genesee 

 river, and commands an extent of water power 

 almost unrivalled. The falls are ninety-six feet per- 

 pendicular, and a long line of mills is erected im- 

 mediately below, rising from the bed of the river, 

 to above the summit of the bank, against the 

 walls of which they rest. The buildings are 

 therefore considerably more than a hundred feet 

 high, which allows fall enough for the water ta 



