NEW ENGLAiSI) FARMER. 



5(10 



productions. Different crops in kind, draw differently 

 upon the fertility of the soil for their support, draw 

 contributions differently from the atmosphere, and 

 of course, the portions of fertility, which they leave 

 unrobbedin the soil, and those which they return in 

 their roots, and in their steins left after harvest, are 

 nil ire > >v less different in amount and kind. Generally 

 speaking, therefore, a given amount of manure 

 and labor, bestowed upon land under a rotation of 

 crops, will produce greater and more profitable re- 

 sults than upon the same land, bearing one kind 

 of crop in succession. 



"Lands at a distance from your manure heaps," 

 may lie kept productive, with but little manure, 

 by turning over the sod in the month of August, 

 every fifth or sixth year, seven to nine inches deep, 

 manuring the inverted furrows with 15 to 20 loads 

 of compost per acre, harrowing it in, seeding im- 

 mediately to grass, without grain, the next two 

 years mowing them, and the remainder of the 

 time pasturing them. Or by putting on more ma- 

 nure, they may be mowed every year. Perhaps 

 you can contrive to haul the manure necessai-y for 

 such lands, in the winter, by sledding, piling it in 

 large heaps on the field where it will be wanted 

 the following August. Lands managed in these 

 ways will continue fertile longer with the same 

 manure than by almost any other management, 

 because the sward formed on them.returns a great 

 amount of vegetable matter to the soil when turned 

 under to decay, because the annual product of 

 grass being removed before the seed is matured, 

 but moderately exhausts fertility, and because, 

 further, if pastured a part of the time, a good share 

 of the manure-droppings are left on the ground. 



5. 1 am pleased to learn that my recent com- 

 munication in the Farmer, upon Deep Plowing, 

 interested you. I have derived great advantge 

 from a gradual deepening of my soil, and am en- 

 tirely certain that others may reap a similar re- 

 ward, notwithstanding the fear you express that 

 many farmers would only meet with disappoint- 

 ment, should they attempt a like process. Nine- 

 teen farmers in twenty, at least, seem to be fright- 

 ened almost out of their senses at the sight of a 

 little yellow dirt on top of their inverted furrows ; 

 and oue of the last things you can persuade them 

 to do, in the way of change or improvement, is to 

 put their plow an inch or two deeper in the ground 

 than they have before plowed. But, however 

 singular it may seem, I fearlessly advance the pro- 

 position, to you and to every body else, that near- 

 ly any and all lands that have heretofore been 

 plowed shallow, may be improved every way by a 

 gradual deepening of the plowing, accompanied 

 by liberal manuring. The soils or lands that fur- 

 nish exceptions to this statement are of extraordi- 

 nary, and not of ordinary occurrence. It is true, as 

 you surmise, that a part of the land I cultivate is 

 Connecticut river intervale ; but a greater part is 

 sandy and gravelly upland loam; and on the latter 

 the deep plowing gives a greater improvement than 

 on the former, because the surface soil is natural- 

 ly much thinner and more susceptible to the in- 

 fluence of drought, the subsoil is a cold, sour, 

 compact and inactive mass, with which the roots 

 of the crop will have nothing to do, until it has 

 been thrown up to the warmth of the day, and 

 improved by tb? atmosphere, by manure and fine 

 cultivation. I have been a pretty extensive and close 

 observer of other men's farming, arm L&.13 never 



yet met the man who, having once commenced i 

 judicious deepening of the soil, accompanying it 

 with a generous application of manure, would be 

 willing to go back to shallow plowing. I ad- 

 vise you to procure a plow at once that will turn 

 sod-furrows ten or twelve inches deep. Such a 

 plow will of course work well in furrows eight to 

 nine inches deep, and will be better to those depths 

 than your little light bobbing things that can hard- 

 ly stand up straight in furrows six inches deep, 

 and are knocked out of their work by every little 

 obstacle they meet. Hitch four cattle to your new 

 plow, and turn furrows eight inches deep where 

 you have heretofore plowed but six or seven 

 inches; manure well; and the succeeding croj s 

 will probably convince you that they have an ad- 

 vantage over former crops, raised on shallow plow- 

 ing. Continue steadily in the process of deepen- 

 ing your plowing, until your tillage lands will bear 

 a furrow nine or ten inches deep, and quite likely 

 your barn will then need to be a pretty large one. 

 G. You cannot appreciate more highly than I 

 do the value of precise specific statements in arti- 

 cles upon agricultural topics. Sitting down to 

 read an article upon some subject that interests 

 me deeply, and upon which I am seeking light, I 

 am sorely disappointed, when some fundamental 

 points, upon which my doubts hinged, are either 

 entirely untouched by the writer, or but superfi- 

 cially glanced at, and I rise from the perusal no 

 wiser than before, saying to myself — this is trash. 

 But when I take up an article where the writer 

 trims and modifies his theories by practical consid- 

 erations ; patiently writes out all necessary de- 

 tails ; by careful reflection anticipates the doubts 

 and wants of the reader, stating precisely all the 

 fundamental points bearing upon his subject ; I 

 read it two or three times over, ponder it, and am 

 instructed and influenced by it. We ought all to 

 remember that the public has a right to demand 

 of us, that we exercise that patience, reflection 

 and care, when writing for the press, which will 

 give our articles authority and usefulness. 



F. HOLBROOK. 



Brattleboro\ Sept. 28, 1852. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE ENDIOOTT PEAR. 



Messrs. Editors : — I send you to-day, some 

 fruit from the old Endicott pear tree, which I re- 

 ceived from C. M. Endicott, Esquire, of Salem, 

 one of the descendants of Gov. Endicott, and the 

 author of a very interesting memoir of his worthy 

 ancestor. In regard to the origin of this ancient 

 tree, he informed me that a tradition exists in the 

 family, "that the trees which composed his first 

 orchard, of which this venerable patriarch is the 

 only survivor, were imported, and not raised from 

 the seed, as I had supposed, but that they were 

 packed in boxes, containing earth, and that this 

 was a common way of importing fruit trees, at 

 that period." Yours, S. P. Fowler. 



Dancers, Sept. 18, 1852. 



Remarks. — Y\ T e are obliged to friend Fowler, 

 for a look and taste of the fruit from this time- 

 honored old tree. It was brought from England 

 and set out in 1028, and has become an object 

 much interest. 



