268 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



FEB. 34, 1841. 



sheep cnmmenced lambing the early part of March 

 last spring; lost about one in ten in consequence 

 of getting chilled. Have last IMarch lambs which 

 weigh over 100 lbs. each. I must speak highly in 

 favor of the Siiuthdowns for mutton. 



24. How many swine did you keep ; what quan- 

 tity of pork did you make, and of what breed were 

 your Bwine ? 



Five old and five young ones. Have not killed 

 my hogs: shall make the average weight near 400 

 lbs. They are full blood Berkshires. 



25. What do yoii feed them upon tlirough the 

 summer months, and on what do you fatten them ? 



After potatoes are gone in the spring, I give 

 corn and bran, with the slops of the house, skinnnod 

 milk, &c. When apples begin to fall, I make 

 them take the place of the corn. I fatten them on 

 boiled apples, potatoes, pumpkins, corn and corn 

 meal. 



26. How many cartloads of manure do you take 

 from your hog styes in a year, and of what mate- 

 rials is it made ? 



From .30 to 40 : made of meadow mud, sods, 

 stubble, weeds, &c. 



27. What number of hands do you employ on 

 your farm, and what do you pay for labor ? 



I employ one man eight months at $14 per mo. ; 

 one seven months at $13 5(1, and one boy at $8 

 per month for seven months ; one man through the 

 winter at $12 per month. Paid $52 for extra la- 

 bor during haying and harvesting. 



28. What is the number of your apple trees ? 

 Are they of natural or grafted fruit? What use 

 do you make of the fruit.' 



Have about one hundred. All the young trees 

 are engrafted. Sell all ot the choice fruit that I 

 do not want for my family use ; feed to my swine 

 and make from 20 to 30 barrels of cider. 



29. What number of fruit trees have you e.xclu- 

 sive of apple trees ? 



Have about 30 peach trees, 6 pear trees which 

 boar, and several younger ones, and a few plums 

 and cherries. 



30. Have your trees been attacked by canker 

 worms or borers .' 



They have not. 



31. In the cultivation of your farm do you allow 

 the use of ardent spirits ? 



I do not. 



This farm I purchased seven years ago last 

 spring. The hay on the farm was all put in the 

 64 feet barn the first summer, and did not fill it. 

 The barns described in answer 19th, are all now 

 well filled, and a bay in a barn which 1 have of my 

 neighbor, which is 50 feet long, 18 feet deep, is 

 nearly filled. The man of whom I purchased, said, 

 in recommendation of the farm, that it would keep 

 twentyfour head, average stock ot cattle the year 

 round. I now find it will summer forty and wm- 

 ter fifty, besides one liorse and thirty sheep. 



PAOLI LA IHROP. 



S. Hadky Canal, VJth Oct., 1840. 



MR Winchester's statement. 



1. Farm consists of 124 acres ; Gfi acres of pas- 

 turing, 47 ploughing and mowing, and 11 acres of 

 swail or meadow mowing. 



2. Soil consists of clay, loam, peat or meadow 

 mud and gravel. 



3. Method of improving has been for thirty years 

 past, to plough up sward land, plant it with corn 

 and potatoes for two years, manure it so as to pro- 

 duce in a favorable season 100 bushels of corn, 



(which I have in several instnnces obtained, and 

 produced in one instance to the Society the certifi- 

 cate of the Selectmen of this town, that they per- 

 sonally harvested, weighed and measured over that 

 quantity from one acre,) after which sow in the 

 spring of the third year, some kind of spring grain 

 with herds grass and southern clover seed, and 

 have as yet failed in no instance of obtaining a 

 succession of good crops of from two to four tons 

 of hay from seven to ten years afterwards, before 

 it would become exhausted. Lot No. 1, upon 

 which my buildings are standing, contains about 

 two acres — is principally occupied for mowing, 

 and being so situated as to receive the wash from 

 the cow yard and road, is never otherwise manured 

 to produce two good crops of hay. Lot No. 2 con- 

 tains three acres, has been broken up three times 

 in 30 years, manured and planted six years, and pro. 

 duced three crops of grain and twentyone of field 

 hay grass, before which it had been used for pas- 

 turing only. Lot No. 3 contains three acres; has 

 been broken up three times in the last thirty years, 

 manured and planted six years, three years grain 

 and twentyone years hay — previously used for pas- 

 tuiing only. Lot No. 4 contains eight acres ; has 

 been subject to the same rotation of crops as before 

 mentioned, except in the year 181(i, it being then 

 sward land, planted with corn, and losing the crop 

 that year by frost, I planted but one year before 

 sowing with grain and grass seed, and the sod or 

 turf not being perfectly rotted, it became necessa- 

 ry to plough and plant again after having taken off 

 only two crops of hay. This lot had been, a small 

 part of it, used for the raising of rye only occasion- 

 ally, previous to my occupying, thirty years since. 

 Lots Nos. 5, C and 7 contain four and a half acres ; 

 purchased in 1813; it was then ploughed for the 

 first time, and being new land it produced, after 

 having been planted and manured for two years, 

 and thoroughly rotted, more than four tons to the 

 acre ; lots Nos. 5 and 6 hnve produced one crop of 

 wheat and six crops of hay, without any further 

 manure from 181C to 1823, then planted and nja- 

 nured again as above for two years, and in 1825 

 sown again with wheat, producing about 25 bush- 

 els to the acre, and prass seed producing hay, not 

 equal in quantity to the first time sowing, but rath- 

 er more than two tons to the acre : in 1833 again 

 ploughed, planted and manured two years, sown 

 with wheat in 1836, which up to near the time of 

 ripening promised to be the best I have ever seen, 

 when it suddenly blasted or mildewed, and produc- 

 ed almost a worthless crop, while lot No. 6 adjoin- 

 ing, sown with barley at the same time, produced 

 over 50 bushels to the acre ; both lots were then 

 likewise sown with herds grass ind clover, and pro- 

 ducing ever since two tons per acre. 



Lot No. 7 (about one acre) was sown with grain 

 and grass seed in 1816, after having been planted 

 and manured two years, and mowed every year 'for 

 twenty years, till 1836, without any manure, at 

 which time it had become so exhausted as to pro- 

 duce not exceeding half a ton to the acre, yet by 

 two years plantirg and manuring, it has this present 

 year produced two good crops of southern clover 

 of more than three tons per acre. 



Lot No. 8, containing throe acres, (purchased in 

 1816, being then pasturing,) was planted and ma- 

 nured two years, and in 1819 sown with grain and 

 grass seed, and continued in mowing till 1825, pro- 

 du' ing one crop of grain and five crops of hay ; in 

 18i5 ploughed, planted and manured two years, 

 and in 1828 sowed with grain and grass seed, and 



had one crop of grain and six of hay; in 1834 

 ploughed, planted and manured for two years; in 

 1837 sowed with grain and grass seed, and that 

 year one crop of grain and three crops of hay 

 since. 



Lot No. 9 I obtained in 1824: it contains six 

 acres ; was ploughed and planted two years, sown 

 with grain and grass seed in 1826, and produced 

 one crop of grain and five crops of hay ; in 1831 

 ploughed, planted and manured for two years, and 

 in 1834 sowed with grain and grass seed, and pro- 

 duced one crop of grain and five crops of hay, ex- 

 cejit about two acres, which is planted this year, 

 and the residue will soon need it, being land very 

 much reduced before I had it, by sowing with rye 

 and planting with corn alternately, without manure 

 and yielding but little. 



Lot No. 10 came into my possession in 1831, and 

 contains 18 acres, all of which has since been plant- 

 ed and manured two years, at different times ; three 

 acres first ploughed produced two crops of corn, 

 one crop of spring grain and six crops of hay ; ten 

 more acres produced two crops of corn, one of grain 

 and four crops of hay ; the remaining five acres 

 two crops of corn, one crop of oats, and three crops 

 of hay. 



To recapitulate: from 1810 to the present time, 

 1840, I have ploughed, planted and manured, with 

 corn and potatoes, 203 acres ; 101 1-2 acres sowed 

 with grain, and mowed and made into hay the grass 

 of 594 1 -2 acres. From the 47 acres of the 66 

 acres of pasturage named above, in 1817 fourteen 

 acres was woodland newly cleared, burnt, harrow- 

 ed and sown with rye and grass seed, and with one 

 application of plaster of Pari;! has produced an 

 abundance of feed ever since, but I have fed it clo- 

 ser than I would desire ; for pasture land if de- 

 signed to be kept exclusively for pasturing, ought 

 never to have consumed more than half of what it 

 produces in one year ; but should be suffered to 

 remain and grow up in bunches, which bunches 

 will be the first grass to grow in the next ensuing 

 season, which causes the cattle to commence feed- 

 ing upon them, and they will continue alternately 

 to feed one half the land in each year, if not driven 

 to consume the whole by over stocking. The ob- 

 jection to consuming the whole in one year is, that 

 where the whole is consumed annually, the deteri- 

 oration is so great, that in a very few years less 

 than one half the stock which the whole feed did 

 keep, would be more than could be kept, apd the 

 fertility will be constantly diminishing, until the 

 land becomes unproductive and worthless, if it is 

 such land that it cannot be restored by the plough. 

 Twenty other acres of land purchased in 181t), be- 

 ing hilly land, and two thirds of it covered with 

 white birch, by clearing and burning and then sow- 

 ing plaster upon it, the white honey suckle in ev- 

 ery part of it exceeded n)y greatest anticipation 

 and enabled me at once to increase my stock of 

 cows from one to eight. It will be inquired, that 

 if I kept but one cow from 1810 to 1817, from 

 whence did I get manure ? It was from the con- 

 sumption of the hay and grain by travellers' horses, 

 I keeping a public house ; but as I believe I never 

 bought a ton of hay in my life and seldom ever 

 any grain, and having a better taste and faculty for 

 farmmg than tavern keeping, I was not desirous of 

 notoriety for the latter, any further than it assisted 

 me in the former. The residue of the pasture land 

 which I have possessed since 1831, has been plas- 

 tered, but not with the great effect before described. 

 4, 5 and 6. I have tilled from 4 to 10 acres in a 



