52 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



AUG. 19 l<* 1 



NOTICES OF FARMS, &c. 



Gov. Ilill, editor of tlio Fanner's Monthly Visi- 

 tor, gives an interesting and instructive account ol 

 the farms he visited during a recent journey made 

 by him in Maine, Now Humpsliirc 

 setts, from which we make the 



and Massaclm- 

 followino- extracts. 



Judge Haj/es's FaDii, South Berwick, Me.. 

 Passing the boundary of New Hainpjliire and 

 coming to the State of Maine, we could not decline 

 the invitation of that Cininent lawyer-farmer, Judge 

 Hayes, of South Berwick, to ramble again in fair 

 weather over his extensive premises, a view of 

 which in a foul rainy day had given us so much 

 pleasure a little later in the summer of last season. 

 The Judge informed us that his crop of Black 

 Sea wheat the last year measured fortyone bushels 

 to the acre, and that his spring rye, the seed of 

 which he obtained about ten years ago from the 

 Rev. Jeremiah Barnard, of Amherst, being a kind 

 of rye better than he had ever seen elsewhere, pro- 

 duced full thirty bushels to the acre. His wheat 

 and rye of the present year were sown on ground 

 which produced corn and potatoes last year: if 

 they shall escape blight, rust, and the grain worm 

 or weevil, we cannot doubt the present crop will 

 be at least equal to the last. The rye was already 

 in the head and in full bloom : it stood thicker and 

 heavier on the ground than any field of spring 

 grain ve had yet seen. The wheat, which was 

 sown about the '20th of May, had not come to the 

 head on the .3d July ; but it covered the jrround in 

 rich evenness at the height of about twelve inches, 

 and left no room for the appearance of weeds or 

 Rny other growth. 



The situation of Judge Hayes's house is one of 

 the most delightful that could be imagined. The 

 yards about his mansion and the farm buildings are 

 nil ample to their intended purposes : every thing 

 is clean and neat, and there is room to give every ' 

 article its proper place. The ascent to the house 

 from the road is by .'successive flights nf steps, leav- 

 ing room for the disposition and display of elegant 

 flowers and shrubbery. Fronting the house on the 

 opposite side of the way is a hay field of twenty- 

 Iwo acres. This ground is naturally of the light- 

 est soil — the knolls upon it have suffered much 

 from the drought of the present summer; but much 

 of the land will this season produce two a^d some 

 of it three tons of hay to the acre. The road front- 

 ing the buildings and leading in the direction of 

 York, pursues its course on the side hill in a circu- 

 lar or half moon shape. At suitable intervals the 

 gutters of the street are turned upon the mowing 

 ground below^ by means of bridges and ditches ; 

 the value of the irrigation from this source is-secn 

 in the addition of at least half a ton of hay grow, 

 ing upon the ground of each overflow. 



Directly in the rear of the dwelling house, is a 

 clean and neat kitchen garden, lurnishing all the 

 esculent varieties usual in the most extended gar- 

 dens, with the due portion of currants, gooseber- 

 ries, etc. In the rear of the garden is an elegant 

 little orchard of gralted apples, from which were 

 sold one hundred dollars worth the last season, af- 

 ter laying in an ample family supply. This orch- 

 ard is cultivated and was this yenr growing a crop 

 of oats, which were even and of vigorous growth. 



Two acres of ruta baga on Judge Hayes's farm 

 looked far better than any crop of the kmd we had 

 seen during the present year. 'J'hey were put in- 

 to the ground with Willis's new seed sower, and 



fail not to show the advantage to be derived from 

 that valuable agricultural implement over hand 

 sowing, or any other machine within our knowledge. 

 The advantaoe of this sower is that itoperat.es well 

 on uneven ground and among grass tufts and even 

 rocks, and that it puts seed into the ground in just 

 such quantity as may be desired. The distance of 

 rows may be regulated at pleasure. Judge Hayes, 

 in strong, well manured ground, has placed his rows 

 of ruta baga twenty inches apart. 



Judge Hayes has a corn and potatoe field of 

 some twelve acres- which had been laid down sev- 

 eral vears to grass and pasture. His method is to 

 alternate from Indian corn and potatoes to grain 

 and grass and aferwards to pasture. On this 

 ground of the abundance of manure which ho makes 

 he spreads at the rate of thirty to forty loads to the 

 acre. The potatoes look remarkably well ; but 

 some of the Indian corn failed to come up ; some 

 of it was eaten down by the grub after it had come 

 up; and as a whole it looks inferior to many other 

 fields we had seen. 



Reclaimed Meadows. 

 We had a more e.Ntensive ramble over and view 

 of Judge Hayes's reclaimed meadow than we took 

 at our former visit. This meadow lot consists of 

 about fifty acres, leaving t'l'o clumps of eight or 

 ten acres of the higher part grown into wood. The 

 ground was sour meadow, a portion of which had 

 been mowed for a succession of nearly two hundred 

 years : his farm is one of the oldest settlements of 

 the State of Maine. His method of reclaiming 

 this meadow has been the digging one or more 

 main ditches in the mist convenient part which 

 should receive and conduct off the water. VVIiere 

 the work of reclamation has been completed, trans- 

 verse ditches about two feet in depth are placed at 

 the distance of two rods from each other ; the mud 

 or earth thrown from the ditches is scattered over 

 the surface between. Before the frost heaves the 

 ground in the spring, sand or gravel is carted on 

 to the amount of a hundred loads to the acre. The 

 effect of this sand is to drive away the sour propen- 

 sity existing in the surface soil, which is black mud 

 from eighteen inches to three and four feet deep. 

 To this sand is added eight or ten loads to the 

 acre of warming compost or barn yard manure. 

 The whole is harrowed down and clover and herds 

 grass sown upon the surface. For the first three 

 or four years the deepest of this muck soil produ- 

 ces constantly two and three tons of hay to the 

 acre; and with cleaning out and digging down the 

 ditches and spreading the manure once in every 

 five years, Judge II. docs not doubt the crop of hay 

 may be kept np on this ground as long as " wood 

 grows or water runs." 



The Manure M/ikers. 

 The ingenuity and industry of Judge Haye? in 

 increasing his quantity of manure, is not less wor- 

 thy of our notice than it is to be imitated by all 

 good farmers. He keeps up constantly a large 

 family of swine, who as constantly do their day's 

 work in the manure bed, as they eat their portion of 

 daily food. There is an ample bed of black mud 

 or muck in a field upon the hill not far in the rear 

 of the barn or other buildings. From this bed at 

 every convenient opportunity the mud is taken and 

 laid about the yards of the barn, where it is trod- 

 den upon by the sheep and cattle ; afterwards, 

 with other quantities of mud in its crude state, this 

 is deposited in the hog yards where great and little 

 pigs are kept constantly at work. In this way the 



quantity of good manure is annually increased sev- / 

 eral hundred loads; and Judge H. is able to sell . 

 several hundred dollars worth of hay without im- 

 poverishing his lands. In summer and early fall i 

 he partially sustains his hogs by means of boiled ' 

 ruta baga thinned out of the growing field when of 

 suitable size. 



T'alue of the Roller. 

 lie makes an extensive use of tlie roller upon 

 ploughed grounds. He stated as a fact which we 

 think to be important to every farmer, that his grass 

 seed had never failed where the ground was laid 

 down with the roller. This instrument, but little 

 used, we consider to be of great value either to 

 wet and heavy or to light and sandy ploughed 

 grounds. — 



The Ryal Farm, Midford, Mass. 

 This farm has been so long tenanted by its pre- 

 sent occupant, that he cannot help treating the 

 premises as his own. The milk of forty to sixty 

 excellent cows has for thirtyseven years poured in 

 a stream of wealth to the occupant of these premi- 

 ses, after furnishing the means for the payment of 

 rent and generous wages to the hired help. Na- 

 than Adams, Esq., the tenant of this farm, seventy- 

 six or seventyseven years of age, superintends it 

 w ith only the aid of a grandson, who daily drives 

 into the city and deals out the principal article of 

 milk to the customers, some of whom liave contin- 

 ued thirty to forty years to receive their supply 

 from the same place. The fine land compo.=iing the 

 pastures and mowing grounds of this farm, is situa- 

 ted upon the north side of Winter Hill, known as 

 the encamping ground of Burgoyne's army after it 

 capitulated at Saratoga. Mr Adams was absent 

 in Boston when we called. His lady, 70 years of 

 age .but as active as some girls of sixteenin house, 

 hold affairs, informed us that she had under charge, 

 with two female assistants, ten hired men engaged 

 in haying. These men used and were furnished 

 with no ardent spirits. Six pounds of meat were 

 daily measured to be used for the family ; to this 

 was added all the lighter food that the appetites of 

 the laborers required. The hired men wore fur- 

 nished at this season with their meals five times a 

 day, of which was a lunch in the field forenoon 

 and afternoon. Five men in winter and ten men 

 in summer were employed on the farm. Tlie forty 

 cows were milked by the men morning and even- 

 ing within the space of half an hour. Excepting 

 where there was more milk than would supply cus- 

 tomers, no butter and cheese were made. 



The Ryal farm, which consisted originally of 

 three hundred acres, has been subdivided into two 

 farms; a son of Mr Adanis occupies that part near- 

 est the top of Winter Hill ; he nowkeeps his twen- 

 ty to thirty cows, and employs seven hands in hay- 

 ing time. Under the improving system wliich has 

 for so many years been practised by the tenants of 

 this magnificent farm, division and subdivision have 

 the grand effect of giving a greater profit to the 

 lesser amount of land cultivated by the individual — 

 a principle that, we trust, is hereafter to bo exten- 

 sively realized in the farming of New England 



What more could an ordinary farmer desire than 

 has been realized by the tenants of the Ryal farm 

 during the last fifty years ? If they had been the 

 exclusive owners, they could not have done better; 

 they might not hnve done as well. Their kind 

 treatment of the land which they did not own, has 

 been returned to them in that abundance which 

 has made them happy and independent. 



