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CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILL. 



' ThO«E who LABOi: IX THE EARTH ABE THE CHOSEN TEOPLE OF GOD, WHOSE BREASTS HE H\9 MADE HIS PECULI A R DKrOSITE FilU SlinST,\NTI AL AND Of, N CINE *IRIl'K' Ji'J/CrsOn. 



VOLUME V. 



CONCORD, N. H. DECEMBER i30i 1843. 



NUMBER 12. 



THE FAUMEK'S MOI^TTHLV VISITOR, 



Pl'RMSllED IIY 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



P1S3UED ON THC LA^T DAY OF EVERY MONTH, 



^^t No. 3, HilPs Britk Block. 



QCpGv.^iEnw. Af.ENTs.— H, Coi;.k, Kecnt', N H. ; Thumas 

 j^, Hampton, Wiishinglon City, D. C, ; John Mabsh, Wash- 

 inijton ?U IJiisron, Jlasy, j Chapi.i;3 Wafpes, Drinley Row, 

 Worcester, Ma.sy, 



TESVMS.— To single subscribei-:^, Fi/tu Cnils. Ten per 

 cent, will he allnwcd to the psrson who sliiiU send more thiin 

 one subsrhlier. Twelve copies willbe sent for the atWance 

 payment of Ficc Dollars ; twenty-five copies for Ten Dollars; 

 aixly copitis for 'l\onitij Dollar?. The payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



^;^Mone)j and .■mbscriptionsy by a regulation of the Post Jifaster 

 General ^Tiiaij ill all cases be remitted by the Fust Master, free of 

 ^ostaifc. 



(j:^.\i\ gentlemen who bavt- hr-retufore acted as Agents aie 

 requested to continue their Agency. Old subscribers who 

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

 already on our books. 



^i) c i!lontl)ij btgitgr. 



The New System of Husbandry. 



It is not a little leuiarkablu that those princi- 

 l>lcs, o[>poiiito to tliu practice of most of the 

 (iiniiers in the United States, which are now oi)- 

 elating the most surpiisiiif; changes in various 

 parts (if tlie country from constantly improvetl 

 luisl)andry on lands long cultivated, should have 

 been well understood in Europe seventy-live and 

 a hundied years ago. The discouraging, dis- 

 paiiigiiig system of cultivation so prevalent in 

 Anjerii'M, has resulted in the great ci'ops produc- 

 ed from the virgin fertility of our soil at first 

 requiring no artificial aid oi- stimulant, becoming 

 gradually ami insensibly exhausted, when it was 

 more 'convenient or more easy than to renovate 

 them to move into a new position, lilie the shep- 

 herd popidation of the patriarch Abraham's time, 

 after the lan<is bad become exhausted. Our 

 farmers have taken up new lands — cut down, 

 burnt up or Imiiled off the large trees of the 

 forest — at first obtained a large return in the 

 crops (ifir the labor, and those cinps lessening 

 from year to year so gradually :md insensibly that 

 there is no teirj[itation lor commencing the pro- 

 cess of reformation. Indeed, such has been the 

 npparent discouragement in the bad prospect of 

 n cash price for a snr[ilus ciop that most liuiners 

 have not deemed it sale to lay out any extra ex- 

 pense for the renovation of lands beyond their 

 own labor. Even at this lime iiiu men have the 

 surplus funds, and those who have them suppose 

 tliey can fad a mncb more profitable investment 

 in placing their n.oney in some other position 

 than in sulistantial imfirovement to llieir fiu'ins, 

 looking IQ remuneration in future years. 



As the country, and especially that part com- 

 posing the six Now England States, is now silu- 

 «ted, we do not believe that surplus monev can 

 be belter vested by most of ouj- farmers than in 

 increasing the capacity of their land lo produce : 

 even the faru.er who is discouraged to labor 

 beyond the raising of just so much produce as 

 lie can consume, cannot do better than .-ipply 

 that tinie which is expended in indolence anil 

 inaclivily to the application of those means 

 within his reach which shall make a single acre 

 produce double what it already yields him. 



We have said that the improved and improving 

 hnshandry was well nndeislood in Europe sev- 

 enty-five and a hmubed years ago. In conse- 

 rpience of the a|iplicatioii of that knowledge, 

 whole distri(!ls of Croat Uritain and Ireland have 

 hec.omc like a well cultivated garden, paying an 

 iinnna! rent to the owners of the soil e pial to the 

 whole value of the iirodiicc of the best cultivat- 

 ed lands in the interior towns of \ew England. 



Some two years ago, James Claik. Esip, of 

 Franklin, loaned us a work in nvo volumes en- 

 titled "A Ne\v SysTK.M or ITusbanduy," pub- 

 lished iu Phii.l'telpliia in the year J78.5. This 



work was purchased by Mr. (?lark's (iither, the 

 late Joseph Clark, in iT'JU, and seems to have 

 been the properly of John Wentworrh, who was 

 a subscriber for the work. Its author was C. 

 J'rtrlo, Es(|. who, from his own account of him- 

 selfj had written and published a previous work 

 on Agriculture in England. The New System 

 was published in this coiiiilry by subscription ; 

 and the names of more than oue thousand sub- 

 scribers, embracing most of the distinguished 

 public men of (he country at that lime, are given 

 in the book. Ainong its patron.s wc obseive the 

 names of George Wusliington, Gouverncur iVlor- 

 ris, David Rittenliouse, Thomas M'Keaii, John 

 Hancock 3 setts, James Uowdoin, Thomas Gush- 

 ing, Benjamin Austin, Gen. Kikix, Esij., A. Ilol- 

 yoke, M. D., Gov. Clinton, John Armstrong, 

 George Clymer, Richard Stockton, lion. Gov. 

 Livingstone ofN. J.; and among the New Hamp- 

 shire names, John Langdon, John Sullivan, Na- 

 thaniel Eolsom, William Whipple, Jonathan C. 

 Chadhourne, Paine Wingate, John Pierce, mer- 

 chant, C. March, RI. I)., Jacob Sheaft'e, Jonathan 

 Warner, A. R. Cutter, M. !>., Jaines Sheafle, 

 George Atkinson, Joshua Brackett, Josiah Bart- 

 left, Elienezer Smith, John Wentworth, Maj. 

 Amos Cogurll, (meaning Cogswell,) Ebenezer 

 Thompson, jun., Josiah Adams, &c. &c. 



A few evenings since we took up the volume 

 for move attentive perusal : the first part of its 

 title page is as follows ; — 



ANEW SYSTEM 



OF 



HUSBANDRY. 



Erom many Years E.xperience, 



WITH TABLF.S SIIOWIKG THE 



Expense and Profit of each Crop. 



That a Farm of 150 Acres will clear 4021. 4s. sterl. a "^""ear. 

 How to stock Farms lo the best advantage. How tlie 



Crops are to rolIo»v eacli other by W.ny of Rotation. 



Of Trench-Ploughing, slu.wing luiw to raise good Crops 



HITHOUT MANURE. 



&C. &C. &.C. 



By C. VARLO, Esq. 

 As we progressed in the perusal of ibis book 

 we at once observed that the Author was less 

 polished as a writer than \vM pi-.icticed as a 

 Farmer of " many years experience.'' .\nd we 

 were very agreeaiily struck with the opinions of 

 sixty years ago. so correspondent and so coinci- 

 dent with those which are now fo well succeed- 

 ing in opening a new era to Agricnllili'e iiTall 

 the elder settlements ol the United Slates. Ac- 

 cuslomcd in all our early e.\peiience lo consider 

 (hat the elements of the earth's fertility were to 

 be found only upon or near the surface, it has 

 seemed to us bolh wonderful and pleasing to tind 

 luxuriant vegetation gron- out of the materi.ds 

 that, after resting myriads of ages in earth's bo- 

 som, have been exposed to almos]dieric action. 

 Deep ploughing for the last ten or fifteen years, 

 and tlic burying of manure deep for the last four 

 or five years, have from questions of donbt grad- 

 ually established themselves in our mind as mat- 

 ters of fact. The idea of vegelable manures 

 leaching down in n light silicions soil and losing 

 their benefit, is extensively believed: wc at first 

 thought it must be so, then doubted, but at length 

 have come to the opinion that no p.irl of the 

 strength of niamire below ihe action of the roots 

 of vegetation is lost by leaching. In this opinion 

 Mr. Varlo's w ork, wrilten sixty years ago, is co- 

 incident with our own view of lliis matter. And 

 we were highly gratified to find his ex|)ericnce 

 anil that of the eminent Sir Arthur Voiing go 

 into the ground deeper than wi; had ever dared 

 to enter — so deep as to admit the i.ciion of voge- 

 lation covered twelve and fifteen inches below 

 the surface has n salutary effect upon the new 

 crop plante<l upon the JMirface. 



We would copy much iiilo the Visitor from 

 tjiis valuable work of Mr. Varlo's coiriprising our 

 tlieory; but we only have room in this number 

 itir the following: — 



From V;irlo'9 New System ol" Huibandry. .\nno 17S.*>, 

 A Dialogue betweeu a Farmer and the Authoi'/' 



Farmer. — What is the first principle of ngri- 

 cnllnre ? 



.Author. — The first principle in agriculture, is 

 to make heavy laud light, and light land heavy. 



F. — How may this be effi-cted ? 



.'I. — It may iie done two ways ; neither of 

 which can fail of success. First, by laying sand 

 upon heavy clay land, and clay upon light sandy 

 ground; which tempers the two extremes, and 

 brings them to a friendly loam. Secondly, by 

 trench-plonghing as directed in this work.* 



* Trench ploughing is an operation as described 

 by Mr. Varlo by which the sod is first turned 

 over say at the depth of six or eight inches, and 

 before the trench is covered another plough fol- 

 lows, bringing up the subsoil as n complete sub- 

 stitute for the upper soil including nil the sod 

 and vegetable fibres. The effect of this woulil 

 be to tluovv the whole of ihe upper surface mould 

 deep in the ground. From an example of this 

 trench ploughing so early as the year 17G5 in 

 Yorkshire, England, mentioned by that distin- 

 guished patron of agriculturp, Mr. Arthur Y'^onng, 

 where the depth of ten inches was gained by one 

 plough following the oilier, very bad, land was 

 turned inio good, and large crops of barley, ;?Ci3 

 and potatoes procured. It seems to us tliat trench 

 ploughing must be somewhat inconvenient, and 

 that in the first ciiltivalion the ijisadvantage will 

 be encountered of using the Uirned up soil before 

 it shall have the due melioration. A better sub- 

 stitute may be found m the more recent method 

 oi' Suhsoil ploughing — an operation which on most 

 soils would liirn over ihe sward and have it from 

 five lo eight or ten inches tleep — stirring with 

 the second or subsoil |)lough the ground to tho 

 deplli of from three to eight or ten inches below 

 — giving a scope in ihe w hole of from twelve to 

 sixteen- inclie.~. As deep us ihe ground is moved, 

 so deep w ill there be a fieM for the roots of veg- 

 elalion ; and the growing crops will find at once 

 the necessary slimnlanl of manure early in the 

 season. Afier ihe first jenr, where the land has 

 been sulisoiled, a single plough may be made to 

 strike deep and bring iifi llic subsoil in a state 

 greatly meliorated from ihe first action of the 

 plough in such quantities as will promote the 

 most heiillhy growth of vegelalion. — Ed. F. M. 

 Flsitor. 



F.—\\\i\ trcnch-plougbing ; will not our com- 

 mon method ilo betler; paniciilarly on our thin 

 down-hiiids, where, if we plough above two or 

 three inches deep, we spoil the ground ? 



.i. — This is a bugbear that many larmcrs are 

 frightened at without any real cause, as any land 

 will bear trench-ploughing. For, tho'.tgli the un- 

 der stratum of some land, at first •turning {\p, 

 iTiay be stubborn and unkind, yet, bel:;g exposed 

 lo the ntmospbere, together with a top-dressing 

 of a compost, or .some other fine, rotten manure, 

 will bring it to a mellow temporate corn mold. 



ir'._.l|," what sort of soil will trench-iiloughing 

 answer liest ■' 



.i. — In all sorts without excepiioii. 



/'._!„ vvl-.at sort will thin ploiighlug answer 

 best r 



,'l, — In none, lor ijie opposite rca.son. 



ir'._Pi-,,y favor me with your reasons, upon 

 which youground this bold assertion ? And take 

 care ih'cy be substantial, or I shijll bring a jui^ 

 of farmers upon you. 



.7._It Is not the first lime I huye been criticised 

 upon by them ; and yet 1 Imvo convinced a great 

 many of ihein, either by ocular d(,'moii>irnlion, or 



j^ .-. ^SiasP" 



