3SG 



FARMERS^ REGISTER, 



[No. 7 



mer they keep a sufficient supply at hand under 

 cover; and using this without, covering, or cover- 

 ing it with litter, great amount of the most valua- 

 ble manure is saved. 



We have thrown out these hints, not thinking 

 to treat the subject fully, or philosophically; but 

 rather with a view to put other minds to consider- 

 ing what can and what ought to be done. In new 

 countries, where the accumulations of vegetable 

 matter have been gathering for centuries, and 

 have remained on the surface untouched, there is 

 no occasion at present for the use of any manures. 

 The soil is already fiill and needs rather to be ex- 

 hausted than replenished. But it is not so with 

 our old f=oils. We cannot get along without ma- 

 nure. The geine, the vegetable pabulum, must 

 be supplied. We have, as Dr. Dana says, the 

 plates, but they require to be filled. We might 

 sit down to a table covered with the richest por- 

 celain or burnished and embossed gold; but if the 

 dishes are empty, we should starve a? certainly at 

 such a table as at a naked board. Dr. Dana is 

 hkewise of an opinion, in which Professor Hitch- 

 cock concurs, that the earthy constituents of the 

 soil are matters of comparatively little moment, 

 provided always of course that they exist in com- 

 mixture, and are sufficiently retentive of moisture. 

 That is, to recur to the former illustration, it is of 

 little or no comparative importance what the plates 

 are made of, or whether the table at which we sit 

 dovyn be plain deal, oaken, or mahogany; the 

 main point is the food, which is placed upon il. 

 This appears constantly. In our disdained and 

 hard soil, crops are occasionally produced, which 

 vie with anything which even the fertile alluvions 

 of the west display. One hundred and thirty 

 bushels of corn were raised upon an acre in Ply- 

 mouth county. Forty bushels of rye, ninety-six 

 bushels of oats, fifty-five bushels of wheat, one 

 thousand bushels of carrots, more than nine hun- 

 dred bushels of ruta baga, seven hundred bushels 

 of potatoes, and more than four tons of hay have 

 been raised upon an acre even in our own granite 

 soil. The incredulous may sneer at this; that 

 does not at all affect the facts. It neither makes, 

 nor unmakes, nor alters them. They are estab- 

 lished by full and incontrovertible evidence. This 

 however has been done by liberal cultivation, libe- 

 ral manuring, applied w'ith sound judgment; at 

 proper times and in a proper form. 



The collection of this manure and its applica- 

 tion to the soil and crop is, we admit, laborious, and 

 requires incessant care and diligence. In this re- 

 spect the new countries have immense advantages 

 overue; and when we compare our severe and 

 expensive cultivation, with their little expense and 

 abundant returns, we are olien half disposed to 

 pull up our boots and put on our hat and gloves. 

 But then we come back to the great established 

 position, that agriculture in almost any part of 

 New England having ordinary advantages, where 

 conducted wilhckill, judgment, and frugality, af- 

 fords an ample remunerafion for all the toil and all 

 the expense incurred ; and when we recollect the 

 multiplied social advantages which our community 

 presents over every new country, and take ano- 

 ther deep draft of its invigorating mountain 

 breezes, we throw aside our gloves and put on 

 our frock again, and whistle to our team to go 

 ahead. 



From the Maine Fanner. 



Mr, Holmes: — In no part of the United States 

 can the raising of pork he made a more profitable 

 business than in the state of JVlaine. In making 

 calculations of the profits of swine husbandry, we 

 should take many subjects into consideration. — 

 First of all, let us notice manure — always acknow- 

 ledged to be the basis of all good husbandry. I 

 have heard it asserted that many of the farmers of 

 Massachusetts say that the manure a hog will 

 make, when well supplied with materials, will pay 

 all the expense of his keeping. If this supposition 

 is correct, then we can raise pork as cheap as our 

 southern or western brethren, whose swine sub- 

 sist and fatten or what grows spontaneously. 



Every farmer should have his hog pens and his 

 hog yards so modeled that no manure be lost. If 

 the hog yard is upon descending ground, it should 

 be so contrived by digiring, that none of its virtues 

 may escape in a liquid state ; and if the liquid part 

 of the manure in the hog pen escapes through the 

 floor, it is an unpardonable waste, unless the farm- 

 er should cart an abundance of loam and put it be- 

 neath the floor of his hog sty, to absorb those rich 

 juices, which are annually lost, if he cannot devise 

 a better method. 



Every farmer in the state should be ambitious 

 to obtain the very best breed of swine that can be 

 procured. A poor breed of swine, or in fact any 

 kind of animals, is a dead loss upon the communi- 

 ty. Nothing is wanting but a little energy, and a 

 union of efforts, to get rid of all unprofitable stock 

 and substitute in its stead that which will be high- 

 ly profitable. 



It has been said, that in order to raise swine, it 

 is necessary that the farmer should have a large 

 dairy ; but I do not think this absolutely necessary. 

 A farmer who has not large quantities of milk to 

 spare for his pigs, may give them other kinds of 

 nutritious food ; and probably they may be made 

 to thrive well in a clover pasture, without much 

 other food. 



Now let us notice the method of management 

 practised by Arthur Young, esq., of Great Britain, 

 in the management of swine. It is said that in the 

 summer of the year 1766, he pastured 64 sivineon 

 only two acres of clover ground. He assures the 

 public that all these swine grew very fast; and also 

 gives it as his opinion, thfit this use of clover is 

 much more profitable than when converted into 

 hay. Now why cannot a New England Yankee, 

 by practising the same method, realize the same 

 results — even in the state of Maine? Dr. Dean 

 says that it is an excellent piece of husbandry to 

 make a hog pasture of an orchard ; and he tells us 

 that an orchard may be prepared with clover as 

 well as any other spot of ground. 



I think it is bad husbandry to put apple trees up- 

 on good tillage lands. If the I'armer has stony 

 ground, that is not easily tilled, there he should 

 plant his orchard. The grass in orchards (espe- 

 cially if the trees be large and stand near each 

 other) is not so evveet and nutritious as that which 

 grows on ground unencumbered with trees; still 

 I think, for many reasons, swine should run in or- 

 chards. If the trees in an orchard be too large 

 or too thick to admit of tillage, the little patches 

 between the trees may be ploughed as often as 

 necessary, and sowed with fresh clover seed : to 



