tm^rg Jll0iitl)lg l^isitxrr. 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILI., 



* Those who labor is the e\rth are the cHosKrr fe.ifi.e of Gud, whose hheasts he Mas made his peculiar deposite for suhsTanti.vl and oenui:i 



B vrRTUK." — Jefferson. 



VOLUME V. 



CONCORD, N. H. APRIL 29, 1843. 



NUMBER 4. 



THE FARMER'S MOMTHLiY VISITOR, 



PlIIil.ISIIKM BV 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



ISSUED OX THE LAST DAY OF EVERY MOSTH, 



At No. 3, Hill's Brick Block. 



55-GENKnAt. AnENTs B. Cook, Koi-ne, N II.; Thomas 



R. HiMrio?), Wasliington City, D. C. ; John JIarsh, VVaali- 

 iiistnn t^t. Host ni, W1U5S. ; Chaeies Wabres, Brinlcy Row, 

 Worcester, .Aiass. 



TERMS — To single subscribers, fifty Cents. Ten per 

 cent, will be allowed to the person who shall send more than 

 one subscriber. Twelve copies will be sent for the ailvance 

 payment of Fife Didlnrs : twenty-five copies for Ten DMaru 

 sixty copies for Tioentij Dollars. The payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



^Cr.'^I^'tf'J and subscriptions^ bit a revulalion of the Post Master 

 General, maij in all cases be remitted by the Post Master, free of 

 postage. 



93-AII gentlemen who have heretofore acted as Agents aie 

 requested to continue their Agency. Old'snbscrihers who 

 come under the new terms, will please notify us of the names 

 already on our books. 



Qll)t iUontl)lL) btsttDi-. 



For the Fanner's Monthlj" Visitor. 

 Oats. 

 The OAT—Avtna saliva. 

 Of this grain, as well as of wheat, there are u 

 Sl-eal iniiiiy varieties. There are tlie ivhilc, the 

 black, the red, llie Poland, the Tarlarian, the polaio, 

 and the Hupcloivn o:\l. This last variety, ten years 

 since, hail been then l.itely intrcnliiced into Eiij;- 

 laml, hy a ;Mr. Sheriff. Ii U said to grow toa 

 greater lii>io|it ihan any oilier i-iiltivated variety, 

 and yet, from the natnre of tin; straw, to he not 

 pniiie to "loilite." It has moreover, according lo 

 En.ylish aceijiints, the qitali!y of ri|)eiiin<r, and of 

 yieliling a finer grain, which i.s not so liahle to 

 shatter as other kintN. Then there is the '' skin- 

 kss out," iniiiortetl into England in 1830, and 

 sn|)|iosed to have come from some remote dis- 

 trict in China, and to have heen qnite unknown 

 in Europe nnlil a few ye.irs prior to the dale 

 iihove nieiitinned. Great advantages are claimed 

 fi)i it in the Kiiglish hooks over all other kinds. 

 Thoiioh I know it has heen l()r a fewyears in the 

 seed stores in this coimti-y, I do not "recollect to 

 have seen any favorahle or particniar notice taken 

 of it, as founded on experiment hy American 

 agriciiltmisls; hut if half he tnie that is said of 

 it, it deserves early and fair trial and full report, 

 he the result what it may, and especially if it 

 prove a fiiilnre. It is said for instance that " w hen 

 thrashed from the sheaf, it is exactly like oat- 

 meal, and is fit for iiinnediate use for cnlinnry 

 purposes, aiuPtxcry other which oat-meal is coii- 

 snmed for, the grain lieing cpiite free from every 

 particle of riml or hnsk. The flavor is delicious, 

 and it contains nuicli more larinaceons matter. 

 Then; i.s, of course, considerahle saving of oats 

 and e,\pense of kiln-drying, sifting, &c. One 

 peck of skinless oats, says the English accomit, 

 contains more nutritious foorl for a horse, than three 

 pecks of common oats ! The produce is most as- 

 tonishing, the average being twenty-six hariels, 

 of litmli^en sloiie, lo the Irish acre.* It was not 

 sown till the 4tli of May, !830, and was retiped 

 early in August the same year. It is remarkably 

 harily, and well adapted "lor this (the English) 

 climate." 



On the above we have only to say, that it car- 



* By an act of parlinment of 182-t, for the equalization 

 of weights and measures throuirhout the United Kingdom, 

 " the i-ood of land shill contain lilO square yards, and 

 the acre ol' land doJ-O square yards, being IfiO square 

 perches, pides, or rods." Previous to that, the tScotcli 

 acre was eqiml to one acre, one rood and two perches 

 (nearly) of English measure; and the Irish aero contained 

 7810 square yards, and WIS equil to one acre, two roods 

 .and nineteen perches (nearly) of English measure. The 

 above account of the yield of skinless oats was published 

 ten years since only, and of course since the act if uni- 

 formity, and wlieii the Irish acre was the same a": ours 

 containing I&IO square yards. 



rii!s with it, in onr jiidgitieiit, u strong odor of 

 exaggeration, (^specially as to the comparative 

 amomit of nutritive (|ualilies. It would have 

 heen much more satisliictory if the writer had 

 given the weight per bushel — and that, by the bye, 

 is a me.-isure of value so iniiith more unerring 

 than that of capacity, that itdjserves to be much 

 more imiversally ado|)ted in all onr common 

 dealings and commercial operations. 



The quantity here given, supposing the stone, 

 as doubtless is meant, to be 14 pounds to the 

 stone, gives JODt! (loiinds of grain to the acre and 

 of a quality asserted to he more unlritions than 

 the couunon oat, as three is lo one .' or e((ual in 

 its nutritive qualities lo more than three hundred 

 bushels to the acre of ordinary oats. Now this 

 may he true, but I confess it is rather hard to 

 swallow ; but as to the number of hushr-.ls, there 

 is nothing incredible in that, if we may believe 

 the iiccnunt in the American Fanner of the 15th 

 iMarch, as to a crop pioduced by Col. Atlee of 

 Marylaiu], who is re|>resented, truly no donbt, by 

 a (iienil, (liiinself among the most particni.ir and 

 observing of all men,) as being "a gentleman 

 whose lepreseutations may, I believe, be relied 

 on." 



The standard weight for oats, established hy 

 law, in New York, is believed to he forty pounds ; 

 and my impression is, that the "eastern shore" 

 oat, of iMai-yland, would not average more than 

 thirty pounds. Now granting Col. Alice's crop 

 of C8 bushels to the acre to weiiih 4"2 pounds to 

 the bushel, and we have 285(3 pounds to the 

 acre. But this, it is presumed, means heaping; 

 not slrick metisure. There are probably few, 

 perhaps there is no crop, either of grain or cul- 

 inary vegetables, more iiiflueuced in weight and 

 quality by soil and climate, within the sphere of 

 its common cultivation, than oa/s ; and, in gen- 

 ei-al, (i-om my observalion, I should say that laud 

 best ada|)ted to the growth of oats, will be found 

 in like manner suited to the liish potatoc. 



It may be tissnmed that there are fi:w errors in 

 w liich firmers incorrigibly persist, few delusions 

 which it is so difficult to dissipate, as tlitit under 

 which they are seen every year to be hninhugged 

 by some jieio sort of grain or vegetable! The 

 vulgar iinpressioii is, that tininers of all people, 

 are most governed hy a stolid prejudice in favor 

 of old practices and old thing.s. Nothing can be 

 farther liom the truth. Like all other men and 

 classes, since the days of Horace, they are never 

 content with their ovvn lot or with what they 

 have, and are ever re.tily to try some new fatigled 

 im|ilement or process, and to believe that some 

 new object of culture will prove a Gotl-seud, 

 yielding a profit beyond all ordinary results. 

 Hence the exclamation ol the Mantnan hard — 

 ■■Oforlunatos nimium sua si bona norint A;jricolas.'' 

 Hence, too, we see, every season, some new 

 and wonderful kind of wheat, or o.-it, or corn, or 

 |)olatoe. Who does not remember the famous 

 rolian potatoe that sold for a dollar a piece, and 

 the morus mullicaidisi and now we Inive an 

 '•im|)orted" bhndv oat, on sale hy R. Sinclair, Jr. 

 & Co., in Baltimore, at about seven fold the price 

 of common oats, or $2 a bushel. Without mean- 

 ing to discourage experiment, ora rational change 

 of seed, lint quite the contrary, I would yet 

 have every liniiier lay it down as a rule, to plant 

 and to sow and rear liom the best to be harl with- 

 in the same range of soil and eliniate as his own 

 — for he may rely upon it, that wlialever kind he 

 may intiodnce, these two agents will have their 

 resistless iuHuence, jiiid will aller the nature of 

 whatever is subjected to it, and make it accom- 

 modate itself to their imnintabli; power. Thus 

 it is and ever will be with corn, whe.it, oats and 

 tobacco. It was never intended by I'rovideiice, 

 that the wants of the faimer should be snp|ilied, 

 anil his granaries tilled, by the mere importation 

 of olher seed or grains, in lien of those he ha.--. 

 It wonhl he incomiiaiible with the decree "thoii 



.shall live by the sweat of thy brow." Let him, 

 us a general principle of action, he aalistied to 

 preserve for himself, from his own fields and 

 flocks, by careful selection, or to procure from 

 cliinale tuiil soil similar to his own, the very best 

 of every thing to be reiu-ed or cultivated; and 

 still ihei'e will be ample room for improvement 

 while full scope is left fiir the exercise of his 

 sagacity and industry. There are two reasons 

 why the Iri.-h, or pointo oat, imported, shotdil be 

 cleanei', |ilinnper, heavier, and more beautiful 

 than the proilnce of the s,-ime oats in this coun- 

 try, and more especially in the Soiitln rn States. 

 Ireland possesses a climate and soil remarkably 

 ailajHed to the nature of that grain, as it is to the 

 jiotato; but let these oats be sowed, some on the 

 eastern shore of the Chesapeake, in Maryland 

 and Virginia, and some in the moister climate 

 and shorter summer of the Alleghaliies, and the 

 diflerence of weight will tit once proclaim how 

 idle it is to rely in any great ineasnro liir profit- 

 able results on mere change of seed. The Alle- 

 ghany oat, on land equally fertile for other crops, 

 and husbanded with equal cure, would approach 

 twenty percent, nearer to the perfection of the 

 imported grain, than would oats produced in a 

 more arid region. 



These observations are not made without re- 

 flection and are prompted by the desire to per- 

 suade liu'iners to rely more on what has been 

 proved to be adapted to their locality and on 

 their own personal care, in pulling atid keeping 

 their own land in the best heart ;ind the bi^st tilth. 

 In a letter of recent date fiom the gentleman of 

 Baltimore before refi;rreil to, he says: — "I had 

 an order fiom my friend, a few days since, for 

 twenty bushels of seed oats, and after taking 

 pains to examine those of Sinclair &. Co., for 

 which tliey asked 50 cents per bushel, (say po- 

 tato oaLs,) ami .$2 (iir imported black oats, and 

 e.vamiuing also other lots of seed oats at Orn- 

 dofis and other places, at 3li cents; finally I 

 pnrchaseil a lot out of a waggon in market at 27 

 cents, which my man thought better than any of 

 the other samples we had examined." So much 

 to show bow little we should be governed and 

 every year led to give extravaiiaut jirices for veg- 

 etables and giains, under high-sounding names 

 or other extraneous recommendations. 



As it is now (St. Patrick's day) lime that those 

 who intend to sow should put their oats in the 

 ground, I would recommend lliem to put that in 

 the best order as to tilth, and to sow at least 

 double the xtsual quanlity — which wt; stipi)ose to 

 he two bushels to the acre in the Aliddle States, 

 unless it be poor land, sowimI without any ex- 

 [lectation of reaping a crr)p with the trouble, and 

 only for the sake of bringing poor land into clo- 

 ver, in which case they may be sowe<l thinner. 

 Tliere tire few things in which we ililler more, 

 and we believe more unprofitably for onrselve.", 

 fiom the agricultiiriil ijractice in England, than 

 in the much less quanlilij of seed which we put to 

 the acre. Nothing can be more obvious than the 

 economy of heavy seeding, to the maximum that 

 the land will bear, bectiuse, although we may 

 not reap more lo Ihe bushel .totfijig", we get more 

 to the acre, with much less in pro|M>nion of l.ihor 

 in sowing and harvesting, besides getting txfrrcal- 

 er return of interest from the capital invested in the 

 space or area of land thai is sotced. One thing is 

 to be |);nlii-u|arly observed with this crop — that 

 )'( leill not Ileal- amj redundant moisture in lite land 

 — that it should" be in itself " laid" as dry as 

 practicable, and then it does not ii-quire indis- 

 pensably the fineness of tilth which is demanded 

 for some other ciops, Ihougli probably the nearer 

 to g.'irden cnllnri5, the better, liir nil cro|.s. Uf)- 

 on I'old or stiff soils, says tm English writer 

 of anlhority, from //'ue to six bushels will be re- 

 ipiired, ami on chalk lands etg;/i/ bushels will not 

 be too much, if k<iwu broadcast 



"f)n all light, dry and sandy soils, oats should 



