®I)C jTavmcv'ri iHonti)li) lUdtor. 



169 



ground well and looked well, last November 

 when tlie editor loft lor llie soiitli : it was how- 

 ever most cruelly {jiiaued upon by some one's 

 old cows, horses and sheep during three months 

 M inter absence, being a little better feed than 

 the abnndaiice of pine plain field acres sin-ronnd- 

 iiig it. Coming home, we watched its progress 

 after the snow left the ground. Tlie freezing 

 and thawing broke in upon the jools and killed 

 ultimately as many as three in every four of the 

 ryo plants: those which survived struggled long 

 to obtain an inferior growth. Where the rye 

 was so fortunate as to obtain a deep cover, it 

 lived through the severe exposure and freezing — 

 a circumstance which well convinced us that 

 deep plowing, ilcep covering and early sowing 

 will go lar in protecting the rye crops from the 

 winter or ice killing. It might be worth a while 

 to try In New England the same experiment on 

 winter wheat, very little of which is here 

 raised. 



The best of our rye crop was on five acres of 

 waste, hollow land in the pine plain, this year 

 for the first titne brought into cultivation. The 

 |)loughing with a heavy team cost us at least five 

 dollars the acre: but this process laid over to 

 our face five of as valuable acres as any five up- 

 on otn- whole [iremises which have been re- 

 claimed. Although gnawed down to the ground 

 from om- inability to fence it until after son)e 

 other fields of rye hail headed out in the mouth 

 of June, we obtained after impounding some of 

 our neighbors' cattle, and giving them such high 

 oflence as to [irotect the field through the season 

 thus far, tnore rye from this one five than we did 

 from the other ten acres. The five acres requir- 

 ing repeated plowing to break the turf, has a 

 second growth of rye under way : the ten acres 

 winter-killed, by the aid of half a bushel of 

 plaster to the acre and clover seed strewed ujion 

 the snow last spring, now presents that as a siib- 

 siitule for sorrel, and the next season will give 

 pastiu'e sufficient for three cows — with the in- 

 tention to make it n snhsoiled field for potatoes 

 in the year 1849. 



Our Indian corn crop, (about forty hiisliels to 

 the acre) grew in an old a"nd accunjidating sand 

 bed on the ferry plain lot fronting the beautiful 

 residence of oiu' friend the Countess Kuniford. 

 This lady, in the most easy ciri'umslances as to 

 property, has shamed us by doing with her own 

 hands in the improvement of her grounds, much 

 more labor than we could do with ours, to save 

 any part of the high wages we liavS to pay for 

 all oin- farming. Our piemises both in the siile 

 and front coirie down to those of the Countess; 

 and gallantly at least, if not respei^t to the 

 daughter and sole representative of the philoso- 

 pher and perhaps statesman native of this coun- 

 try second oiily to Franklin, would forlid any 

 personal diiBcully even ehonld she in erueling 

 her new fence come over upon lis to the full 

 extent of two feet. A [ilan of the gioiind, 

 drawn we believe in 1772 before the "school- 

 master went abroad" exhibited by the Countess, 

 satisfies us that the neighbor through whim 

 came our liile might have tres|)assed upon lliu 

 ancient estate coming in the right of her mother 

 in another place more than the two feet which 

 we have mentioned. Possession of some hun- 

 dred ye;us has however foreclosed all dis|iute 

 about that. 



Our Indian corn crop — we will begin again — 

 was good, considering when it was planted and 

 where it griMv: counting the pig corn, we might 

 call it in round numhers two hundred LusheU 



upon four acres. Nothing but compost manure 

 and a spoonful of guatio in a hill (the latter 

 binning up the life of every kernel of seed 

 where it came in contact) saved us any crop of; 

 corn. Planted near the first of June in land 

 which was sometime flowing sand, it was late 

 into July before tir; corn had a start. It grew 

 straight Ibrward after that, and the crop, although 

 uneipial, was tolerable. Better than the corn 

 was the crop of marrow squashes raised on the 

 sand tlirovv'n up near the water's edge by suc- 

 cessive freshets. A hole in the ground with a 

 generous shovel full of mixed night mamire 

 covered over with soil, was the method of plant- 

 ing for a cro|, more unexpected and more |)rofit- 

 able than any other crop of the season. 



In gathering our crop of corn we have ascer- 

 tained to our satisfaction, that the Connecticut 

 river method is far preferable, to the Merrimack 

 river method ami that of the country below. — 

 Fearing that the late planting and growth of our 

 corn might leave it a prey to early frost, when 

 we went away early in Septendier to the Sara- 

 toga and Worcester agricultural exhibitions, we 

 left directions to have the corn (tlien just glazed) 

 cut up without topping and stocked in bundles 

 like grain in the field. Some twenty rows hap- 

 pening to be wanting for feed of the team en- 

 gaged in plowing, the tops were taken off of 

 the standing corn. The whole stood in the field 

 as the latest harvest nearly till Novend)er. As- 

 sisting in the husking we had opportunity to re- 

 mark that the corn first cut up was the best 

 filled and ripest and best cured of the two — fidl 

 twenty per cent., as we thought, heavier and 

 better. The season for ripening in the field 

 either way was highly favorable. The difference, 

 we think, results from the action of frost, which 

 is always highly injurious to exposed corn, at 

 any time before it is fully dry ripe. Cut up in 

 the whole stalk standing upon the ground, there 

 is none or very little exposure of the ear and 

 its covering to the frost. The drying to the ear 

 thus prepared is the better of the two ; liu- if it 

 ha raijiy and wet, the water is shed ofl from the 

 ear running down the outside, 'i'he air has al- 

 ways access to the ear through the corn stack, 

 from the outside in every direction. The result 

 is, whether tlic season be wet or dry, iluit not 

 only the corn itself, hut the eiiiire blade of it as 

 feed for cattle, is much better in the more ready 

 and h'ss exjienslve method of gathering corn 

 without topping. 



In estimating the i)roducls and the profits of 

 fiirming foi- any current year, the editor does nol 

 bring into the calculation how much ho pays for 

 his help, lie satisfies liimself generally as he 

 goes along by counting the work and expense up- 

 on any particular field :ind comjiaringit with ihe 

 probable results as the whole effect. The prin- 

 ci|ile has become more anil more rooted in his 

 mind, never to go to work to obtain a crop 

 where the spot of land on which it grows shall 

 not be improved for the crop which is to suc- 

 ceed. Even in taking a crop of hay from light 

 laud, we woidd not have a second lessened 

 criiji iiiti'i vene between the future plowing for a 

 bi'tter ciop. In the swift rotation, after laml 

 shall have its first ample feeding of manure, the 

 lirst year corn or potatoes — second year rye, 

 wheat or oats with clover seeded— third year 

 hay in clover — lourth return again to com in 

 the same rotation — a most profitable cultivation 

 may be piusued. The clover acts upon the 

 ground as at least worth half the usual coating 

 of manure : ten good loads of compost of which 



spetit ashes shall be one ingredient, three fourths 

 of the body muck and one fourth, the common 

 barn manure with mixtin-e of ashes and the 

 savings from the door yards, the back yards and 

 the hog-sty, — will bo quite sufficient on such 

 lands to raise the crop of corn to sixty bushels 

 to the acre, succeeded by sixty of oats the sec- 

 ond, and two tons of hay the third year. What 

 farming can be more easy and profitable than 

 this .' 



Looking about our fields and our fences, we 

 know that it is our desert to be called a sloven- 

 ly fiirmer. Paying so high u price for all our 

 labor, we cannot atlbrd to spend any thing for 

 ornament, and we n^ally grudge tlie inoney laid 

 out in costly fences. Stone wall is good and 

 cheap — many years ago we made several hundred 

 rods around a stony pasture ; and this has not 

 been quite sufiicient to keep out the street cattle 

 where everybody claims the right of (he road 

 for pastine. Wo are of those who go in for the 

 execution of the statute in relation to protection 

 against the universal road intruders. We travel 

 in other States, where fine crops are growing 

 with no fencing against the road. We have no 

 very great objection to the keeping of cows to 

 the gnawing down of the very turf upon the 

 road-side ; but we [)rotcst that the persons for 

 whose gnawing this is a benefit, should be bound 

 to watch the cattle made niiridy by temptation, 

 against inroads upon corn, grain and grass fields, 

 where the creature may injure in a single day to 

 the value of its whole body. 



In anothei! matter, if we might live ten years 

 longer, we would pray to have the violated law 

 of the Slate to come to our protection. The 

 robbing of fruit yards and orchards has become 

 so common as not even to deserve reprehension 

 from those who love to be seen praying in syn- 

 agogues and pulpits against the besetting sins 

 of the age, slavery, intemperance, and in favor of 

 all great distant charities. No man here can 

 plant melons or set out peach and plum trees 

 with any expectation to have them ripen for his 

 benefit: a fair sweet a|)|)le tree standing twenty 

 years within five rods fi-om the chamber of oiu- 

 sleeping, was never known lo grow its fruit to 

 maturity in all that time down to ihe present. — 

 No nuin here has the courage to plant a garden 

 or to rear fruits. So confirmed in this moral and 

 religious coumiuuiiy has become the liabit, that 

 it has really become a prevailing sentiment that 

 the soil near our village is not adapted to the 

 raising of friiiis. • 



Now that the altentiou of many of our w^ell- 

 brcd |)eople has been turned to the raising ol 

 fi-i,its of the varioirs kinds, as has been evinced 

 in the two very handsome displays of the Natu- 

 ral History Society the two last years, we (eel a 

 hope that a fiilse public sentiment may he hen 

 corrected. The heautilid town of Worcestci-, ii 

 IMassachusells, soon to become an imerior city 

 of llie Bay State, had its first Horticultinal ex- 

 hihilion some eight or ten years ago. Since that 

 time gardens with fiiiit trees have extended to 

 almost every dwelling vThere there is room. — 

 These gardens iiverhaiiging wiih fiuit, as an ov- 

 nament arc a luxury lo the view, if not to the 

 taste, even of those who arc not occupants. — 

 Passing with one of its m.ost lespeeted citizens 

 in the streets of W'orccster, in' si-ht of the full 



hanging peach and pear trees, 1 the arhored 



grape viiTes, it was natural to enquire how these 

 had been protected ag.iinst the motley popidatiou, 

 of whicli in every village the idle boys of re- 

 spectable parents are geiu-ral'y iuost mischievous. 



