100 



NEW 



ENGL 



AND FARMER 



SEPT. 30, ISIO. 



From ihe Albany Cuilivator. 



NOTES OF A TOUR. 

 Gentlemen — In a recent tour of riinsiderable ox. 

 tent and variety, in tlie eastern sectiim of our conn- 

 try, I have met witli many tilings to [jrality the 

 friends of agricultural improvement. Throuifji tiie 

 whole length and breadth of this favored land, the 

 constant operations of industry, nndfrthe guidance 

 of intelligence and taste, are clearly discernible. 

 The rugged forests are evc'ry where disappearing, 

 and their places supplied with green pastures, lux- 

 uriant meadows, or abundant crops ; or if wood- 

 lands are still retained, the now growth of seU'Cttd 

 trees shoot up with a grace and beauty seldom 

 found in the dense and matted masses of our na- 

 tive wilds. The log cabin gives place to the 

 handsome cottage, and the slight, frail tenement ot 

 the pioneer, to the substantial farm-house or more 

 elegant mansion of the wealthy husbandman. Nor 

 does the career of improvement stop with the more 

 convenient and accessible portions of the soil ; ev- 

 ery where nature is pursued in her remotest haunts, 

 and every where subdued ; and from the self-sus- 

 tained lu.vuriant bottoms to the verdure-clad sum- 

 mits of the loftiest hills, the untiring energy of our 

 Anglo-Sa.\on race is throughout conspicuous. The 

 highways are made better and more direct, and the 

 lifi'hlninc; potlit, with their (ierce engines glaring 

 like meteors through the sky, convey the traveller 

 from point to point with such rapi-dity, as to leave 

 him all his time for his favorite pursuits or obser- 

 vations, requiring scarcely an appreciable portion 

 of it fur locomotion. 



DRAINING. 



One feature of recent improvement was peculiar- 

 ly gratifying, and in it I thought J perceived the 

 influence of what is too often sneeringly called 

 book far mine; — a term, 1 venture to say, that was 

 never sincerely used, but where stupidity or stub- 

 bornness reigned supreme. To a considerable ex- 



to $000 per acre for cultivation, the price of good 

 farming lands in Europe. The system may be ap- 

 plicable and advantageous to this country, and it is 

 much to be wished that some wealthy and patriotic 

 individual would institute a series of scientific and 

 practical experiments on this subject, and commu- 

 nicate the result, and it is possible it might be 

 found, after all the expense, the capital would be 

 more judiciously invested than if expended in addi- 

 tional land, to be cultivated in our hurried and im- 

 perfect manner. Iftmce, however, but generally 

 adopted, our whole career of border extension and 

 colonizaticm must be abandoned, and the constant- 

 ly expanding wave of emigration must contract and 

 speed its refluent force centreward again, for we 

 have run around land enough on this continent al- 

 ready, to sustain, with proper cultivation, a nation 

 of untold millions. Can our national taste for ad- 

 venture and western emigration bo checked and 

 turned into the more sober and perhaps rational 

 pursuits of a highly cultivated husbandry ? We 

 think not : a truce then to underdraining with us, 

 for without the countless hordes that are yearly mi- 

 I grating westward, like the locusts of Egypt, we 

 cannot pursue it to any extent. 



There is much, however, we can do in this mat- 

 ter, and at a trifling expenditure of manual labor. 

 And here I will mention one mode of underdrain- 

 ing, probably of Yankee invention, as I have never 

 seen a description of it. It is performed in heavy 

 clay lands, where ditches are most required, by ex- 

 cavating a trench, say of 12 inches wide, with per- 

 pendicular and parallel sides, to the depth of 12 

 inches ; or if it is contemplating using a subsoil 

 plough, to the depth of JO incJies, then from the 

 centre of the bottom a sub-ditch is excavated, of 5 

 to 6 inches square. The sod taken otf the entire 

 width from the top is then inverted and placed at 

 the bottom of the upper ditch, and becomes a dura- 

 ble cover when tilled to the top, thus doing away 

 with the large expense of tiles or stones. 



Our system must essentially combine economy 

 tent, ditching and draining low lands has been I with utility, and this can be effected to a very 

 practiced, and in every case with entire success. I L'reat extent in surface drains. These should ex- 

 Land that before yielded scarcely a handful of ist wherever water remains on the ground after 

 coarse herbage during the season, by the expendi- I rains, or when it is too much saturated with springs 

 ture of a few dollars in ditching and putting it into I in the vicinity. No stagnant water should over he 

 a state of cultivation, has been made worth 50 to I allowed in a civilized country, for besides its eflx'c- 

 $150 per acre; for almost invariably the low swamp j tual hostility to all useful vegetation, it poisons the 



lands, when freed from water, are vastly the most 

 productive. Much controversy exists as to the 

 morfe of draining best suited to our country, and 

 the question yet remains unsettled. It is undoubt- 

 edly proper that the plan should vary with the sit- 

 uation of the land. 



It would seem, on a hasty view of the subject. 



atmosphere and becomes the prolific source of half 

 our diseases and deaths. If a systematic course be 

 pursued in all the operations of the farm, nuich 

 draining may be efiected with scarcely any addi- 

 tional trouble and expense. For instance, all clay 

 and flat lands should he ploughed into narrow rid- 

 ges, and every successive ploughing should be di 



that the labored eftbrts of some well disposed per- i rected to make the more elevated portions higher, 

 sons to introduce th'' expensive modes adopted in and the depressed ones still lower, always preserv- 

 Europe into our own country, are as inappropriate iug an outlet, that the water accumulated in the 

 as if the attempt were made to introduce the para- last shall be carried off" freely, and by this means 

 phernalia of royalty or a cliurch establishment into the whole surface becomes a succession of surface 

 our republican institiition.s. Their system is thor- drains without the expenditure of a day's labor to 



ough underdraminfc, principally with tiles or loose 

 stones, placed at a suflJicient depth to allow a coat- 

 ing of soil deep enough for all the operations of 

 husbandry to he carried on as if no drains existed ; 

 and this is undoubtedly the ptrfeclion of draining; 

 but the expense of this in our country would be 

 from 50 to .'iil.")0 per acre; an outlay so excessive 

 that we apprehenil for half a century to come, it 

 cannot be practiiied here npless in the neighbor- 

 hood of large cities, where land is worth from 300 



an acre. In many instances, however, main ditch 

 es will require to be cut for a considerable dis- 

 tance, to get sufficient depth and slope to carry off 

 the water rapidly, and when the principal drain is 

 made, the tributaries can be completed at a trifling 

 expense, either with the plough and hoe or the 

 spade. To illustrate my meaning, I will describe 

 the manner of draining a piece of land I recently 

 adopted. The lot consists of a stiff clay, running 

 back from the Niagara river, with a gradual ascent 



of not more than five or six feet for a mile. It is 

 traversed through the whole distance with irregular ' 

 undulations, but the ridges almost universally run- I 

 ning parallel with the river. At right angles with 

 the river and across these, I run a ditch four feet 

 wide at the top, two feet at the bottom, and from 

 on« to three and a half feet deep, so as to preserve 

 a uniform descent on the bottom, thus cutting trans- 

 versely all these longitudinal ponds, for they were 

 nothing else in ordinary wet seasons, and a little 

 additional work with the spade or plough, effectu- 

 ally carries off all the surface water. The whole 

 expense of this does not exceed one dollar per acre. 

 Now let us see the profits of this operation. If 

 this land be worth $00 per ac;e, to cultivate in its 

 original condition, and much of it has been sold at 

 higher prices, and one fourth of it was covered 

 with water, which was generally the case to a suf- 

 ficient extent to prevent the growth of nutritious 

 vegetation — by expending one dollar I increase the 

 productive land by the addition of another third to 

 the original amount, which is equivalent to increas- 

 ing the value of the investment one third of $60, 

 which gives me $'20 gain for one expended. 



I have seen an acre of marsh grown up with 

 rushes and cat tails, that could be drained by one 

 man's labor in two hours, and when done, it would 

 be worth any two acres (Ui the farm, and yet to this 

 moment it has not got into the brain of the owner 

 or a dozen of his intellectual predecessors, that this 

 could or ought to be done ; and it may have been 

 the cause of half the diseases in the neighborliood 

 for two centuries ! These men have never been 

 troubled v/ith book farming — nor did thry ever take 

 the Cultivator: from snc'i noddles, and such only, 

 are we ever to look for hostility to either. 



CATTLE, SHEEP AND SWINE. 

 In stock, I was glad to notice considerable im- 

 provement. Through New England there seems 

 to be little difl^orence in their herds for the last 20 

 vears, except in the gradual improvement of their 

 native cattle. And it is possible, after all, that our 

 Yankee kindred may be mainly right as lo breed. 

 The accidental circumstance of the port for the 

 embarkation of our pilgrim forefathers to their fu- 

 ture varied and picturesque abode, happily afforded 

 them a convenient source of supply from the lierda 

 of fine Devons that abound in the neighborhood of 

 Plymouth, (England) and from them, with more or 

 less admixture, have descended the present exten- 

 sive herds of the eastern States. '1 hese animals, 

 though habituated to a warm climate, which was 

 but a temporary inconvenience, are entirely suited 

 to the character of the country they were destined 

 to inhabit : their smaller body, longer and sinewy 

 legs, and especially their great susceptibility of 

 taking on flesh, rendered them easy and profitable 

 feeders, and their exireiue richness of milk, superi- 

 or working and excellence of beef, has justly made 

 them a favorite breed to the present day. They 

 do not give the extent of product on the same num- 

 ber of legs as the Short Horn, the Herefords, and 

 some others ; but if they yield as much or more 

 for the quantity of attention and feed consumed, 

 they answer all the ends required by the intelli- 

 gent herdsman. I he native cattle have, to a slight 

 extent, been crossed with new importation of De- 

 qons, improved Short Horns and Ayrshires, but this 

 has only been done to a limited degree, and with 

 great carelessness ; for on personal inquiry I have 

 found that some of the most intelligent and liberal 



