168 



<JI)c Maimer's iUontl)li) Visitor. 



Where the drains are sufficiently numerous, 

 the plough, year after yeur, should be struck deep- 

 dr and deeper — an inch or two — into tlie hard 

 pan, if there be a rocky hard pan, as is commonly 

 tlie case. FiVery turning up an inch of the pan 

 will be equal in its eftijct of several years to the 

 value of a coat of nianiue. Jf too much be 

 brought upon the surface at once, until it has had 

 an exposure to ihe atmosphere, it will rather in- 

 jure than benefit the first year's crop ; and from 

 this circumstance arises the dread felt by most 

 farmers at ploughing up gravel from below the 

 surface mould. It is our sincere belief that on 

 any cultivated ground a cpiantity of this lower 

 sand or gravel brought up and raised with the 

 surface mould will always be beneficial ; there is 

 no hard pan stirred by deeper ploughing that vtill 

 not ultimately be of great benefit in any cultivat- 

 ed field. 



There are many hill touns in New Hampshire, 

 and some in Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts 

 whose agriculture and productions are not equal 

 to what they were filty years since, near the time 

 of their first settlement. The rocky uplands of 

 these towns was originally rich ; but they have 

 been cropped for a succession of years without 

 any improvement of good cultivation. These 

 lands at first were rich in grass and pasture ; but 

 they were mowed year after year ui}lil liay not 

 enough to pay for the labor of getting it was pro- 

 cured—then pastured until cattle and sheep woidd 

 not thrive upon them. Growing poorer every year 

 the occupants annually become less able to live 

 u|)Oii such lands. They jilant and sow under 

 greater and greater discouragements, finding it 

 more and more difficult, even with hard labor, to 

 make the two ends of the year meet. Their large 

 houses and barns, erected while the land was in 

 its virgin fertility, are perhaps too e.Mensive for 

 present use — too large and exposing too great a 

 surface to be kept in re|)air without much expense. 

 The owners are generally embarassed with debt; 

 and frequently are willing to sell for enough to 

 square them off, seeking relief by removing to 

 the far West or into some mamifacturing village 

 — discouraged at all events in pursuing labor on 

 ihoir own land for a living. 



Son)e good larms — excellent farms when they 

 were first cleared — have gradually depreciated in 

 manner above described. They have been aban- 

 doned for cultivation, and turned iiUo pastures 

 in some instances ; in others we have seen con- 

 siderable tracts with the fences rotted down 

 thrown into the highway, and growitig up again 

 to forest. 



One hundred acres, with twenty or thirty of it 

 lel't for the supply of wood is sufficient for a com- 

 mon New England liiriiier. We will suppose a 

 farjn of one hundred acres, worn out by the con- 

 tinued cropping of fifty years — a rocky hard pan 

 Uu'U), whose original hill growth was rock maple, 

 led oak, beech and birch, and the colder wet parts 

 hendock. The mowing lielcis svhere there was 

 no swail or wash have become almost utterly bar- 

 ren — the pastures have grown into hard hack or 

 moss. To continue cultivation in the old way of 

 such a farm will sicken and disgust every man 

 who undertakes it. 



But a young man, who has a little spare money 

 to begin with, m;iy do well to own or purchase 

 and cultivate such a farm by a different process. 

 He may, we think, do as well upon it as to go in- 

 to the new country at the west and ]uircliase. 

 Say there is not an acre of this ground in arable 

 or mowing, as it has been cultivated, that will pay 

 in the crop for the labor. I^et hitn take ten acres 

 of his hard hack |]asture too roi'ky for the plough 

 which now produces only a modicinn of sour feed. 

 The larger rocks in these ten acres will nearly all 

 be wanted to make a permanent good stone wall 

 around it. If this land is so situate<l a trench tor 

 this wall may be dug all Ihe way and a drain made 

 in which many ot the smaller rocks may be dis- 

 (losed of: if the wall may be constructed without 

 a I'oimdation uiion the surface at the price of a 

 dollar the rod, the cost of Hvo dollars a rod will 

 add toil the advantage of the drain. Once fenc- 

 ed ill this way this lot of ten acres woidd cost in 

 its exterior wall three hundred and twenty dollars: 

 it must be a very rocky piece of land that would 

 not be effectually cleared by this length of drain 

 and exterior wall. If the land was not bounded 

 on soine highway, one half of the expense would 

 he for the benefit of fencing and draining some 

 other lot ; and of course one half of the rockv 



material should come from that source; this would 

 bring down the expense of draining and lencing 

 10 sixteen dollars the acre. 



Thus far the draining of the lot, if made the 

 whole distance, is one hundred and sixty rods on 

 its exterior. To begin with after this, a main ditch 

 or drain at the lowest point, as near the middle 

 of the lot as practicable will be sufficient, clear- 

 ing off the small stones brought up at Ihe first 

 ploughing. This main drain may be dug, the 

 stones drawn, laid and covered, at the expense of 

 one dollar a rod — ftrly dollars — making the ex- 

 pense thus fiir two hundred dollars, and the extra 

 expense of draining one half that sum. What 

 practical man will deny that in the very first year's 

 crop he may not gain at least fifty dollars laid out 

 in draining r 



Here we have the land just in the jiosiure to 

 produce the greatest gain that can he had from 

 any cultivated soil. After the crops ot the first 

 two years, we want to strike the plough deeper. 

 Thus far the ground is divided into two parts by 

 a main drain in the middle with drainage under 

 the wall around it. After the sod.^ have become 

 rotted the rocks apiiearing upon the surface will 

 be sufficient to niako three additional lateral 

 drains; these should run in the best direction to 

 carry off the water, beginning to construct them 

 in all cases at the lowest jioint so as to leave the 

 ground dry at the place of present work. These 

 lateral drains, one hundred and twenty rods in all, 

 may be made at an expense of half a dollar a rod, 

 sixty dollars. This would make the whole ex- 

 pense of draiidng, and clearing the ground of 

 rocks independent of the wall itself, ."SSGO, or .*180 

 if one half of the exterior drainage be taken for 

 the benefit of the adjacent land. 



The stone fence constructed over the drain, 

 never to be hoven by frost, if it shall be well 

 made, will stand the life of the longest man : it 

 will be the cheajiest fence at one dollar a rod 

 that could be supported on this land. Its supe- 

 riority over common stone wall where the tbun- 

 datioii i.^ exposed to the sinface frost will pay 

 nearly the extra expense of constructing the un- 

 der drain. Besides, in a greater part of this 

 calculation of expens'! for drainage we are all 

 the time making the most convenient disposition 

 of the surplus rocks, and carrying them out of 

 the way at the least possible dititaiu'e. 



At this lime we have a lot of ground well pre- 

 pared for a crop — a lot which m.'iy be binter 

 prepared at each successive crop. Say it is 

 ploughed first at the depth of eight inches; let 

 the next ploughing take it two inches deeper into 

 the hard pan ; ."•iid this exposed one or two sea- 

 sons, li;t anotlier plough take it two inches still 

 deeper. By this lime, if it shall be tbuud the 

 drains are too distant and inefficient to give as 

 light a soil as the best growth shall require, let 

 the new rocks exposed by the deeper ploughing 

 1)8 disposed of in new additional drains. 



In all this procesH for the fir.st five or six years 

 the maimre placed on such ground, if there be 

 no more than the common quantity, will yield 

 twice the crop, and probably more than the same 

 would on the best of similar ground that was 

 simply ploughed without drainage. By that 

 time payment would be made in fidl lor all the 

 additiniial labor and expense laid out ; and for 

 future cultivation and profit these ten acres would 

 be really worth mure than the whole of the 

 ninety remaining acres of the tarm. 



Say the drainage and clearing .shall all cost 

 three hundred dollars or thirty dollars the acre ; 

 and suppose in consequence the produce of the 

 land should be increased one third in a state of 

 improving cultivation in Indian corn or [lotatoes, 

 in oats, or barley or hay. Suppose that the drains 

 should be a permanent impioveinent growing in 

 v.ilue in proportion as the soil was slirrcil deep- 

 er, and maturing a greater amount of vegetation 

 in proportion to the stimulaliii:; mamn-esaliplied. 

 With increasing animal crops from this land we 

 find increasing value to the soil: we find the 

 products of this soil not alone maintaining itself: 

 cutting two and three tons of the hay to the acre, 

 the material lor manure will keep up its own 

 fertility to the highest point and leave a large 

 surplus for other grounds— for the same stimulant 

 on a deep, rich, permeable soil will throw out a 

 much greater (juantity of vegetation. A laboring 

 man had better hire such land at an annual rent 

 of fifteen or twenty dollars an acre, working at 

 seventy-five cents a day to pay for the rent, than 



to own poor land and work it himself. He will 

 get more produce tor the same labor rent and all 

 at the year's end, and leave his own premises to 

 be improved for some other purpose. It is by 

 improving land in this way that a tenantry in 

 England supports itself while the original owners 

 of the land are increasing their weallli as their / 

 lands are made better. 



Jenny and the Watchi 



In some of the country parts of Scotland, a 

 custom prevails of yoimg men giving their 

 watches in trust to young women for whom they 

 have declared their attachment. The watch is 

 kept and carried in the bosom of the fair one un- 

 til the anxious couple are united in the bonds of 

 wedlock, when, as a matter of course, the pledge 

 of sincerity is given up to the original owner. 

 This is imagined by the country lasses to be an 

 infinitely better plan for securing the fidelity of 

 sweethearts than that of breaking a sixpence. A 

 watch is a valuable and highly-prized article. It 

 is worth, at leasl, a couple of pounds, and the lo.9S 

 of that sum by an individual in an Inmdde condi- 

 tion of life is a very serious matter. Still, we be- 

 lieve there are cases in which the pro|)oscd 

 match is broken off, and the watch abandoned 

 linever ;— though, doubtless, this is only in cases 

 of great fickleness, or when weighty reasons for 

 desertion inlervene. 



The following laughable incident regarding a 

 watch so intrusted, occurred a tew years ago : 



Jenny Symington, a well-favored, sprightly 

 girl, in a certain farm-house in #alloway, had 

 been intrusted with the watch of her sweetheart, 

 Tam Halliday, (a neighboring shepherd,) which 

 she carried with the most scrupulous care, in her 

 bosom ; but even the most carefully kept articles, 

 will sometimes disappear in spite of all the ])re- 

 cautions considered necessary to preserve them 

 Jenny, be it known, was esteemed a first rale 

 hand at preparing potatoes lor the family sup- 

 per; none could excel her at serving them up, 

 beaten and mashed in the most templing style. 

 On one occasion, in harvest, when ihe kitchen 

 was crowded with a nuudier of shearers waiting 

 for their evening mail, and while Jenny was beat- 

 ing a mess of potatoes, what did the unlucky 

 watch do but drop from her bosom — chain, seals 

 and all — into the pot among the potatoes! Jen- 

 ny's head being turned away at the niument, she 

 knew nothing of the disaster, and therefore con- 

 tinued to beat on at her task. She certainly 

 felt a little surprised when she felt there was si ill 

 a hard potato to beat, notwithstanding her previ- 

 ous diligence ; but thinking nothing of it, she 

 continued to beat, occasionally giving the liariJ 

 potato (alias the watch) a hard tluiinp v. ilh the 

 end of the beetle, .^t length, she tlioughl she 

 had fiiirly completed the business: and so, infiis- 

 ing a large jar of sweet milk into the mess, she 

 stirred il all up together, and ihen placed the 

 vessel ready for the attack of hungry lookers-on. 



Behold, then, the pot— a round gawso tripod, 

 planted in the middle of the floor. A circle was 

 formed round it in a trice, and horn for horn Ihe 

 shearers began to stretch and strive. Many 

 mouthlids had not been taken before ccrlaii) 

 queer looks were manifested. 



"Diel's in the tatties, says one, " J think they've 

 got banes in them." 



"Banes!" says another, "they're the funniest 

 banes ever 1 saw ; they're made o' broken gla.s.s 

 and pieces o' brass; I'll sup nae mair o' them." 



With that, another produced a silver watch- 

 case, all battered and useless, from his capacious^ 

 horn spoon : and a universal strike among the 

 suppers immediately ensued. It was clear that a 

 watch had been beaten up with the potatoes; so 

 the good wife had nothing fVir it but to order the 

 ilisgraced pot out of Ihe way, and to place a bas- 

 ket of oatmeal cakes and nulk in its place. 



What were poor Jenny's feelings during the 

 strange denouement ) On the first ajqiearance of 

 the fragments of the walcli, she slipped her hand 

 to her bosom, and soon fbtmil how mailers stood. 

 She bad the fortitude, however, to show no symp- 

 toms of surprise ; and, although every one was 

 wondering where the broken watch had come 

 from, she did not disclose her knowledge of how 

 it found its way in the pot. As it had belonged 

 to no one in the house, the materials were not 

 identified ; and as Jenny was a young woman of 

 great prudence and modesty, and had never 

 shown any one that she bad a watch in her po9- 



