Sl)e iTarmcr'g jHontliis faieitor. 



76 



ovaiing llieae worn-out lands, the modnt eptran- 



diA-c- . , • 



Now my liii-iiuiig operations benif! cpiite a se- 

 con<lary coiisidcraiioii in my gciitMal hiisiness, 1 

 cannot spare the time from my otlicr o(:cii|iation.s 

 to answer in ilelail iliese various comninnicutions, 

 ami lln'rilivre have concluded lo reply to lljem 

 generally tl.roii^lJ yoor very valuable paper, and 

 hope it may reacli ilnou^li lliiscliaiiuel every one 

 of my '•'>rresp(pndents. For lo this pa]ier, and 

 other a<:rieultural publications, to^-elher wHIi a 

 iiaiural tondness lor the pursuit, I am indebted 

 for whatever sncce.-s 1 have met with. 



You know my whereabouts in Ibis desert o( 

 ohl tields, fiulleysand povcrly yrass, and are well 

 m-nuainleil (as who is nut, who has ever travelled 

 from ibe riiv of Hallimore lo the seat ul Govern- 

 nienl) with llie toial barrenness of ihe hmd, gener- 

 allv. 1, Iherefore, need say but liltle on the gen- 

 eral citaracier of the land lo siart witb ; and will 

 be-in by giving the reasons for my lir.-,t atlempl- 

 iii,7,whal appeared at that tiuje, a Herculean task, 

 theVeiiovation of these barren old Melds. 



Having been real ed amidst the green ftelds and 

 lowing berds in one of llie most lertile regions 

 in tlie'"Stale of New York, 1 conid not look upon 

 the barren face of this country, wilbout its pro- 

 ducing a leeling of melancholy. 1 came to Ihe 

 conclusion it wouhl never do for me, to plant my- 

 self down liere with the expeclation of iiKiking 

 it a permanent residence, with such a prospect 

 always belore me; 1 therefore resolved either to 

 clian"'e the general aspect of tlio connlry, In ibis 

 respe^ct, or leave it. Tiie former appearing the 

 most feasilile, 1 made the efl»rl, and I have the 

 satisfaction lo .say, that as far as the v(<ioii ex- 

 lends iVom my residem-e, I have succeeded. 



This country with all its I'aults, has redeeming 

 qualities. Favored with Heaven's greatest bless- 

 in.'S. universal heallli and a never-failiug supply 

 of^tbe purest spring water— with a soil possess- 

 ing naturally the elenteuts of fertility, a heautilul 

 rolling surface covered with clumps ot trees, 

 vVhich fur richne.'^.s and variety of foliage, and 

 bcaiily of proportions,— for landscape or lawn 

 purposes, cannot be surpassed in the world,— it 

 is not inibbled lo heaven for its forbidileu ap- 

 pearance, but 10 that reckless system of culliva- 

 lion loo generally to be found in most of ihe 

 Sonthern States. 



There are two ways, Mr. Ldnor, ol reiio- 

 •vatiug tliese old lields, one 1 see recommended 

 freqiienlly in your very v.ihialile ^vork— that is, 

 to sow broad-Vast over Ihe land some five bush- 

 els of ashes wilb a bushel of plaster per acre, to 

 be followed by ploughing in of green crops, &c. 

 Wow this may suit wiih some hililndes, but it vvon I 

 •do here, where a good north-west wind afier a 

 frosl ill November will sweep into the lenre cor- 

 ners every panicle of vegflalron troiii the face 

 .oftiie.se olil rtehls. The labor alone, w hicli would 

 be required in the ploughing and le-ploiigbiug, 

 &,c., on Ibis melhod, would, if hired oni by the 

 <lay to work upon some public work, purchase 

 ashes enough to do in one year what would re- 

 oiiire five years to accomplisli in ibis slow iiietli- 



Anotlier plan is to go at it Tni/Iur fiisbiun, and 

 <lo the thills' riglil up ! As an e.\am|)le of this 

 latter plan, I will give you the resiill of all exper- 

 iment made last yrar'upon one of these "old 

 fields," and 1 lake this merely because il is now 

 fresh belore me, having just finished threshing 

 out the crop grown upon ibis field, and not be- 

 cause it tihows any more favorable resiills tlinu 

 twenly other experiments of which 1 have inein- 

 orand.i. 



I purchased last year, an addiiiou to my farm, 

 of 3(i.'> acres of laud ; <ui ihi- iract tli'-n- was one 

 lot which lay in upon the lauds 1 had alreaily iiii- 

 proveil, ill sicch manner as lo injure the appear- 

 ance of the whole. In the spiiiig of 181li 1 re- 

 solved to make an all.iik upon this old lield, and 

 to satisfy iiiy.s'df slid further of the cost of siudi 

 improvenieut, I had it surveyed and plaited by a 

 rei'iilar siirvtryor, and fouiid ihe couleuls<o be 37 



ncVcs out of which ihere was i.ikiui for a house, 



lot and road, one acre, leaving •■H> acres lo be ciil- 

 tivaleil. This lield was tenanted out in the year 

 1845 to a viMV wiMlhy man, who cultivated it ill 

 corn, and 1 hiive his wm-d for the proilnct, (nud I 

 n-n sure no person who saw ihe i-rop growing 

 will ever ihinli of (pieslioiiing the iimonnl) was 

 15 hubbels of nubbins, or less than 5 bushels of 

 com per ucie. This, by the way, is about the 



character of many crops grown in this neighbor- 

 hood. 



Ill March, 1645, as soon as the grounds would 

 do lo haul over, 1 brought out the right arm of 

 my resources, my flying artillery, in the way of 

 mule teams, loaded to the muzzle from my ma- 

 nure heap, and made a regular discharge upon my 

 greatest enemy, the washed and gullied side hills 

 TiMse 1 peppered thick and strong. I then put 

 in the ploughs, and flushed the whole field up 

 deeply, following in the stiff clay parls with the 

 subsoil plough. I then brought out my other 

 forces, in llie shape of leached ashes, (which cost 

 delivered on the ground $'10 [ler hundred bush- 

 els) and spread over ihe whole, manured parts and 

 all, at the rale of 100 bushels per acre, pulverising 

 the ground and mixing well with the harrow. 

 Sowed 2i bushels oats per acre, harrowed again 

 — sowed one peck of clean fresh clover seed per 

 acre and followeil with the roller. This was all 

 done in the right way, and jusl at the rijfht time. 

 After the oats were well up, I put the finishing 

 stroke to Ihe whole batile, by bringing up my 

 corps de reserve, in ihe shape of g-uo/io. The first 

 moist day, all spots that appeared to have been 

 missed in the spreading of ashes, or appeared 

 weak, 1 dressed over with about 200 pounds gua- 

 no mixed with one bushel plaster per acre, to Ihe 

 amounl of about two acres in spots, and spread 

 over the whole field plaster at the rate of one 

 bushel per acre. You will say, perhaps, this is 

 going il rather strong, and recpiires more capital 

 than can be commanded by ihe most of our fann- 

 ers. There are very few, however, who have not 

 some half dozen or more vvorlldess colts, eating 

 their heads off every year, to say nothing about 

 the hogs and horned cattle, which might be dis- 

 posed of in some way lo raise §100, which would 

 improve permanently lOacresof laml with leach- 

 ed ashes— or they might borrow §100 for 12 

 months, with almost a certainty of relnrning it 

 from the increased product oii the first crop, as 

 you shall see by the Ibllowiug result of the above 

 experiment. 



1 have jusl finished threshing out and cleaning 

 up 1217 bushels of first rate oats, grown upon 

 this field of 20i acres — an average of 45.i bush- 

 els per aero, and no Chester county land ever 

 presented a finer coat of grass. This year it will 

 be cut for hay, and 1 would not ihaiik any man 

 to insure 'Me two ton.s per acre. Now for the fig- 

 ures : 



Debit. 

 2600 bushels ashes, 



59 wagon loads manure on gullied 



places, 

 4C0 pounds guano, 

 58.i bushels seed oats— 49, 

 Gi bushels clover seed, 

 I'loughiug, seeding, harvesting, &c., 



$2(30.00 



50.00 



8.00 



23.40 



32.50 



100.00 



• S473.90 

 Credit. 

 1217 bushels oats— 40 cts., vvorlh now 



in market 48, $486.80 



Pasture last fall for my milch cow.s, 00.00 



Straw ill abundance— an ofl^set for ihreshing, &c. 



Mr. Ivlitor, what is this land worlh now (ihe 

 improveuienis of which cost nothing,) more than 

 il was when it would produce but 5 bushels poor 

 corn per acre? Why, if there was nolhiug lo go 

 to the credit side of the account but the improve- 

 ment alone, it woiild in my estimation be cheap 

 —dirt cheap. This field, with jnilicions cultiva- 

 tion, is now permaiienlly improved, as 1 can show 

 by many years' experience in ihe same kind of 

 trealmeul. 



1 am livquenlly asked, " how do you bring up 

 those cild worn out lands so quickly ?" The an- 

 swer ij found in the above example. 



I have tried gnaiio, and almost every kind of 

 manure, in almost every way, and have always 

 found ihetii to pay well, u'hrn 1 put enough on— 

 Hiahle maiime, leached ashes and guano— pretty 

 much in value as I have named iheiii. 



Will ihe impiovementof these worn-out lands 

 pay ? is a (picslion 1 am fVeqiieiitly asked. I have 

 every reason to believe lliey will. 1 commenced 

 Ihe improveinent of the place I now live on in 

 ihe year lt'3',>. At that lime I bail not pasture 

 sufiicient I'm- one poor cow, and have followed it 

 up ever since, giving il just as much of my indi- 

 vidual all'-mioii as could be spared wilboul inju- 

 ry to my other more Icgiiimaie business, and in 

 fact jusl as much as was iiccessury lo relieve the 



mind from the harrassmenis of a more perplex- 

 ing occupation. The result is, that instead of noJ 

 having one spear of green grass to refresh the 

 eye, or tickle the palate of the poor old cow, or 

 one single oasis in ibis desert of old fields, lo re- 

 sort lo in ihe hot summer months, I have now 

 hundreds of acres of the improved grasses, and 

 have cut during the past year hay enough to keep, 

 and keep well, 70 head of horned callle, 35 head 

 of mules and horses, besides sundry sheep, hogs, 

 &i,c. &c., the Millies and horses being stabled dur- 

 ing the year. Night before the last, when my 

 house was shook lo the very foundalion by the 

 raging elements vviihoul, I sat by a cheerful fire 

 and listened to the pellings of the pitik'ss storm 

 of snow and rain against the windows — il was a 

 cheerful reflection, that out of all my stock there 

 was not one, even lo the suckling calf and pet 

 lainh, but was sheltered from its fury, in warm 

 and comfortable stables, and were rnininalin^ 

 upon beds of clean straw. 



1 sat down upon the spur of the moment to 

 write you a sliorl letter, partly lo answer sundry 

 communicalinns on the subject of fanning, w liicli 

 1 rea|ly could not devote llie time lo reply to in 

 delail, and partly from a sense of duly, that eve- 

 ry man owes to the community in which be lives, 

 to give the result of Ins experience, and let the 

 community separate ihe wheat from the chafl'by 

 their own good judgmenl. 



I am fearful the perusal of this will be found 

 tedious. Should ii be otherwise, having cleared 

 away the brush, and started the plough, 1 may, 

 at some leisure moment, give you some further 

 pickings from my memoranda of experiments, 

 and perhaps a description of some of my slock 

 of Devons and Durhams, of which 1 have a fair 

 specimen of the purest blood in this country. 



Let all new lieginners keep in view the follow- 

 ing arioms in farming : Drain your lands well; 

 plough deep and at the proper time ; pulverize the 

 soil well by repeated ploughing, harrowing and 

 rolling ; put on plenty of iiiauure, no mailer what 

 it be, — every thing in that shape you can scrape 

 up, buy, borrow or beg ; don't spare the seed, and 

 be prodigal in grass seeds; be careful and ascer- 

 tain, by observation, the proper time and proper 

 manner of pulling them on the ground, (lor one 

 is as important as the other,) and old Zack him- 

 self is not more sure of success. 



The question may be asked, what I do with so 

 many mules, horses and horned callle ? They 

 all produce .something. The mules are employed 

 in hauling wood, »tc., to a population of about 

 2000 souls here and hereabout.<!, and in hauling 

 for the factories and shops, and work on the farm. 

 The horse.s, with the exception of a few fiir pri- 

 vate use, belong lo persons connected with the 

 works, and supplied from' my loli. The horned 

 callle supply, in part, llie cities of Hallimore and 

 Washington wilh pure fresh milk, sent both ways 

 from my dairv, daily, via Railroad. 



IIOUACE CAPKON. 



0^ To Mr. Asa Clement, Jun., three and a 

 half miles out of Lowell in Dracult, near the 

 New Hampshire line on the Miimnioih road, we 

 acknowledge our indebtedness for the present 

 sent by railroad of five peach trees anil ihreo 

 grape settings, all of rare kinds and received at 

 the proper lime. 'I'hey are well set out, ond like- 

 ly to live. Persons desirous of procuring fruit 

 Olid oriiamenlal trees in this vicinity will do well 

 lo apply lo Mr. Clemenl : it is believed his Irees 

 are beilcr adapted lo our climate than trees 

 brought a distance from farther south. 



Cattle. — Il is slated that one qunrler of all the 

 cattle reporled al lh<! Brighton market for the 

 last two months, have come from llie valley of 

 the ("oniieclicut, anil been carried over the Con- 

 necticut Kivcr Railroad. — I'crmont Patriot. 



Heller callle than are raised and driven or taken 

 to the market from the Conncdiciit river valley 

 are no where in the world lo be fiuiud. The na- 

 tive breed of callle, iiiq roved by the excellent 

 feeding both winter and summer, and made bel- 

 ter by mixing wilh several imported breeds, are 

 becuining all they should be. 



