18 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 1. 



and therefore not with that minute accuracy which 

 I should desire in all such casea to observe. I had 

 a cow, which I put in the barn in October; fed her 

 abundantly with hay, and gave her four quarts of 

 meal per day of the yellow flint corn; saved all the 

 milk, and weighed her produce in butter, which 

 during the week was nine pounds. The second 

 week her feed was the same as before, excepting 

 that the meal given her was the meal of the white 

 gourd seed, or what goes among us by the name 

 of Virginia, or southern flat corn. Her produce 

 this week in butter fell short of eight pounds. The 

 third week I fed her as before in quantity, and re- 

 turned again to the meal of the yellow flint corn; 

 and her produce in butter was as the first week, 

 nine pounds. I took the exclusive care of her 

 myself during the time, and can assign no cause 

 for the difference in the product but the difference 

 in the quality of the meal. There may have been 

 other causes, however, and I by no means regard 

 a single experiment as decisive on this or any sim- 

 ilar subject. The meal in the several cases was 

 measured, but not weighed; the actual quantity 

 given, therefore, though it appeared the same, 

 might not have been the same; arid I record the 

 experiment because I deem all such trials, where 

 all the circumstances connected with them are de- 

 tailed, of some value; and in the hope that it may 

 induce others to make similar experiments in other 

 matters as humble; for which experiments, if they 

 6peak of them, they may get nothing from their 

 overwise neighbors but the sneers of real igno- 

 rance, indolence, and self-conceit, the usual at- 

 tendant of ignorance and indolence, but from 

 which they will derive themselves much pleasure 

 and satisfaction. They are attended with little 

 trouble or expense, and from them, in some cases, 

 the most important results may be obtained. 



* # # # # 



The land, as I approached the Hudson, became 

 thin, and strongly predominating with sand, 

 though favorable to Indian corn, and well suited 

 to the renovating influence of clover and gypsum; 

 that beneficent operation by which much of the 

 land in Columbia county, in the neighborhood of 

 Kinderhook, has been converted from pine barrens 

 into highly productive fields; and according to the 

 interesting and gratifying account of Mr. Teunis 

 Harder, given in the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 

 culture, vol. I., No. 1, p. 32, has actually raised 

 the value of these lands from three to sixty dollars 

 per acre.* Nearer the river the character of the 

 soil became much better, and within a mile of the 

 ferry I found a superior farm, in high cultivation, 

 belonging, I have since been informed, to a Mr. 

 Knickerbocker. The corn crops here were very 

 promising. I have since passed this farm, and its 

 condition is highly creditable to its owner. I have 

 seen, too, in this neighborhood, a herd of uncom- 

 monly fine swine; indeed, for store hogs, as many 

 together, I have seen none superior in appear- 

 ance. 



* # # # # 



I crossed the Hudson at this place in a ferry 



* This account was first published in the Farmers' 

 Register, (p. 544 Vol. I,) and we presume was copied 

 into the work to which it is credited above — which 

 however we have not seen. — Ed. Fab. Reg. 



boat impelled by a horizontal wheel, moved by 

 two horses. The horses had been several years 

 attached to the boat, and though unable to see the 

 shore, they measured the distance with great ac- 

 curacy, stopping of their own accord at such a dis- 

 tance before they reached the shore, that the im- 

 petus which the boat had already received was 

 nearly sufficient to cany it to the land, and when 

 ordered to start again, turning it only one revolu- 

 tion and stopping again without direction. I could 

 not help wishing that men were half as tracta- 

 ble. 



# # # # # 



Earl Stimsoii's Farm. 



A principal object of my journey soon presented 

 itself at a distance of two miles, which was the 

 farming establishment and residence of Earl Stim- 

 son, Esq., whose dwelling house and numerous 

 out-buildings, placed on a commanding eminence, 

 had more the appearance of a village than the do- 

 main of a private individual. His buildings con- 

 sist of a spacious dwelling house, with extensive 

 piazzas in front, several barns and stables, very 

 extensive sheds, a large store, a three story build- 

 ing for agranar}--, cider house, &c: a large slaugh- 

 ter house, cooper's shop, potash establishment, 

 blacksmith's shop, and smaller dwelling houses, 

 which, with the fame [farm?] connected with 

 them, had come into his possession, and might now 

 be said to form a part of his domicil. 



The situation, being at the rectangular junction 

 of two large roads, was favorable to the prosecu- 

 tion of his business as an extensive trader, and 

 the keeper of a large hotel. The homestead in- 

 cludes about seven hundred acres, two hundred of 

 which are in wood; and the rest in meadow, pas- 

 ture, or under the plough. He has himself favored 

 the public with an account of his management 

 and cultivation, in his address to the Saratoga Ag- 

 ricultural Society; and an exact and detailed state- 

 ment of the produce and course of crops of a certain 

 portion of his land is given by Dr. Steele, in his 

 survey of the agriculture of Saratoga County, in 

 New- York Memoirs of Board of Agriculture, 

 Vol. II., p. 69. I shall, however, detail from re- 

 collection the accounts which I received from him- 

 self; and record such remarks as suggested them- 

 selves on the premises. 



The soil is generally of a dark loam, resting 

 upon sandstone and carbonate of lime. The an- 

 alysis of this soil, as given by Dr. Steele, is sub- 

 joined: 



100. 



The great roads passing through the farm, and 

 crossing at its centre at right angles, give a 

 straight line to all the outside fences; and the fields 

 every where divided into rectangular lots of eight 



