16 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



If we had as many good varieties of late pears as 

 we have of winter apples, and if they were as easy 

 to raise and send to market in bulk or barrels, no 

 reasonable farmer would hesitate. But we have 

 not, and circumstances alter cases. If good winter 

 pears is not an anomaly — or something akin to the 

 unnatural — why have we not more of them ? The 

 Lawrence, the Beurre de Aremberg, the Glout 

 Morceau, Easter Beurre, and some few others, are 

 said to keep well, but we find them ripe in the 

 middle of November, and I am inclined to thhik 

 only a very few of them could he kept in flavor till 

 mid-winter. However, if the regular farmer were 

 obliged to send his fall pears to market as they ri- 

 pened, with present prices, he would probably find 

 it more profitable than ajiple culture. As it is 

 now, the nurser}men and amateurs supply the 

 market, with but few exceptions. 



West Medford, JVov. 16, 1855. D. w. l. 



Fvr the Neto England Farmer. 



ON DRAINING. 



Mr. Editor : — A word on the subject of drain 

 ing. It is my opinion that formers have not yet 

 given this important subject sufficient conssidera- 

 tion. My neighbor Jones had several acres of low 

 wet land that produced only wild grass, which was 

 used for bedding or litter ; he was fearful if he 

 should cultivate it, the soil would all wash away in 

 freshets. Well, I bought a j)art of it, and dug or 

 trenched it from two to three feet deep, (as deep as 

 the muck was,) then dug a wide ditch, 5 feet wide, 

 on one side, for the brook to carry off the usual wa- 

 ter, and deep enough to drain the land below the 

 mud. On the other side, where there were power- 

 ful springs, I excavated a fish-pond about 50 feet 

 long and 40 feet wide, and about two feet below 

 the bottom of the muck, and a channel or drain 

 from that to the larger brook, of sufficient depth to 

 keep tlie pond dry if I chose, and made a flume at 

 the outlet of the pond so as to retain the water if I 

 chose, or drain it in wet weather. My pond was 

 soon filled with pure spring water, in which I put 

 gold-fish, perch, trout and brims about one hundred 

 and fifty, .all of which are doing well. 



My land was as dry as any land in the place, and 

 produced more than three times as much corn, po- 

 tatoes, squashes, tomatoes, and melons than my old 

 land : it is perfectly mellow, and free from baking, 

 and dry enough to raise any kind of early vegeta- 

 bles. And this where cattle could not go without 

 getting mired before the meadow was drained. I 

 get two crops a year from this renovated land with- 

 out trouble, as it is so much more pliable to cul- 

 tivate than old land, and free from weeds. I would 

 not give an acre of it for four acres of old high 

 land to raise vegetables or grass. 



Farmer Jones retained about three-quarters of 

 an acre above mine which he drained into my pond, 

 and into our deep brook, and filled his drain with 

 small stones and covered them over deep enough 

 to cultivate over, and his worthless bog at once be- 

 come good land to cultivate, and after ploAving it 

 several times, he raised in 1853 a good crop of cel- 

 ery, and in 1854 he raised potatoes enough to bring 

 him $200, and after digging his potatoes in August, 

 he sowed turnips which brought him at least one 

 hundred dollars, and all of this Avhere the hay crop 

 was not worth two dollars a year before draining. 



Now if draining will produce such crop?, we are well 

 paid for our labor. Farmer Jones has tried other 

 bogs with equal success ; he is now draining his up- 

 land with blind drains to prevent it from drying up 

 and cracking, which he finds is of great use, espe- 

 cially in places where water stood late in the spring 

 — in fact most of our land would be better if 

 drained. Yours, S. A. Shurtleff. 



Sprijig Grove, 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GREEN CORN FODDER, 



Mr. Editor : — Sir, — I have read the article of 

 your correspondent on green corn fodder in your 

 paper of this date (Vol. X, No. 46) with much satis- 

 foction ; — because it carries upon the foee of it the 

 evidence of an inquiring mind. Whether the 

 writer was prompted to write, by any thing 1 have 

 said on the same subject, in two former communi- 

 cations, about the time green corn was in condition 

 to be cut, I am not advised ; — but this is certain, he 

 has hit upon the right plan of determining, whether 

 or not it is worth cultivating for this jiurpose. It 

 is undoubtedly true, as he says, that "the rest of 

 mankind" generally considered it of great value, 

 and that some good farmers go so far as to say, 

 that they should not know how to get along with- 

 out it. This I have heard distinctly said this present 

 season, by the man who brings tlie butter weekly 

 used upon my table — and by his Mifc also, who un- 

 derstands dairy management better than any man 

 among us, and has earned more jjremiums for first- 

 rate butter than any lady within my knowledge. 

 But still, I agree with your correspondent, that the 

 question of the intrinsic value of green corn fodder 

 is not yet settled, and that it is a fair subject for 

 continued experiments ; — and as I have before sug- 

 gested, of specific premiums to be awarded by our 

 Agricultural Societies. Agricola. 



Abv. 17, 1855. 



To Measure an Acre of Ground. — In measur- 

 ing land, 30:^ square yards make one square rod, 

 and 40 square rods make one square rood, f >ur of 

 whioh, or 160 rods, make one acre. It is evident, 

 therefore, that 40 rods long by 4 rods wide will 

 make an acre. The same result may be arrived at 

 by measuring 229 feet in length and 198 feet in 

 width, or by measuring 734 yards in length, by 66 

 yards in breadth. To lay out an acre square, 209 

 feet on each side is the nearest foot that will make 

 an acre, being less than an inch each way over the 

 exact distance. 43,560 superficial feet, or 208 

 95-100 feet on each side, constitutes an acre of 

 ground. 



0^1=* The annual meeting of the Hillsborough 

 County Agricultural and Mechanical Society was 

 held at Nashua on the evening of Oct. 2d, and con- 

 tinued by adjournment to the next evening. 



The following named gentlemen were chosen 

 officers of the Society for the year ensuing : 



President — John M. Tyi.kr, Pelham. 



Vice Presidents^ Hiram Munroe, Hillsborough ; 

 Isaac Kimball, Temple ; Samuel Little, Hollis ; P. 

 M. Rossiter, Milford. 



Rec. Secretary — Moody Hobbs, Pelham. 



Cor. Secretary — H. A. Daniels, MiUbrd. 



Treasurer — David Stewart. Amherst. 



