350 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



administration of law, in liberality towards the 'few seasons. The older land is now much worn, 

 poor, the blind, the deaf, and the unfortunate of'^^d when too poor to grow corn and rye profita- 



every class, or in general prosperity in every i^^^' ^\d^^°*^'^ to buckwheat. We see no rea- 

 , •' , „ , . -TP-i'- ■'son why, eventually, the whole of these plains, 



branch of business. In fostering the interests j,,.;!! ^^^^ be reduced to near barrenness, if this 

 of agriculture, she stands at the head of the j system of improving them (rather misimproving) 

 States of our Union, doing for the rest what less; is continued; namely carrying away the crop, 

 ability or enterprise prevents their doing for ^"d returning nothing to the land, which well 



deserves the epithet of the "skinning system." 

 The grain is sold, and generally but little more 

 stock is kept than is necessary for convenience, 

 so that manuring extensively is out of the ques- 

 tion. These plains are happily interspersed, how- 

 ever, with brooks, runs, and low plats, besides 

 now and then a hill, with the hard-pan subsoil 

 before mentioned, which '"urnishes all the mow- 

 ing-land, and accordingly receives the manure. 



There are generally taken from the p]ain-field$ 

 two crops in every five or six years, which, of 

 course, draws severely upon the natural resources 

 of the soil, originally scantily supplied with veg- 



themselves. 



Long may the old Massachusetts Society con- 

 tinue to prosper, diffusing, through the press and 

 the quiet example of its members, the light of 

 science by which alone all progress is securely 

 made. 



For the Hew England Farmer. 



SANDY LANDS—MUCK— THE "SKIM- 

 NINQ" METHOD OF FAKMIWG. 



In what is called the Connecticut valley, be- 



tween the Connecticut and the gneitic hills some gtable matter, and nothing is done to restore 'it 

 ten miles to the east, is a large tract of light, Lgajn. This land, on account of dryness of the 

 plain land, about which, and its management, I surface, is hard to stock with clover, or the grass- 

 propose to say a few words, especially that injes, and unless the season is unusually wet, the 

 this btate, south of the green-stone range of Leed sown is generally wasted. Hundreds of 

 Holyoke and its sister mountains. Geologically, j acres I have in mind, which, when not in crops, 

 it IS drift, overlying new red sandstone, which j are covered with weeds, wild, useless herbs, and 

 sometimes crop out, or is within a few feet of the low briars, (nchus canadensis;) these, de- 

 the surface. _ The soil is naturally thm, and the Laying on the ground, are all the nourishment 

 timber principally pine, except along streams and' received by the land. 



occasional hills, where the ground is more moist,! That this system of farming "pays," as a pres- 

 and the subsoil a red, hard-pan. Dryness at all gnt investment, is not doubted by those engaged 

 seasons of the year is a characteristic of this soil;;in it; but that they do not sometimes think of 

 and in summer, after a ram or a heavy shower,! ^hat it must lead to is quite improbable; still, 

 the farmers can resume their hoes within a few | guano is often applied, and though it generally 

 hours, with C.ut_ slight inconvenience from mois-, produces larger crops, undoubtedly draws the 

 ture ; but notwithstanding this, no land is found: harder upon the land. 



that suffers less during a drought. It seems to be a settled fact in people's mind, 



Ihese plains are generally divided into farms! at least hereabouts, that manuring on dry, sandy 



of seventy-five to one hundred acres, and devoted hand hardly pays, and though it works quick, and 



largely to the raising of grain, rye and corn ;j produces satisfactory crops, immediately after its 



thirty acres in each crop being not unusual, with 

 the larger farmers. The yield is not large ; from 

 five to twelve bushels of rye per acre and fif- 



application, it does not seem to last in the land. 

 And again, such a large surface of land is im- 

 proved each season, that it is next to an impossi- 



teen to twenty of corn ; but the land tills easy ; - bility to manure it all ; but doubtless it would 

 so that a man can easily hoe from one to two | be better, taking into account the continued crop- 

 or three acres a day; at least it is passed over, | ping to which the land must be subjected, to corn- 

 but, perhaps, sometimes "hoed at" rather thanjmence the business of permanently improving 

 ^^~' ,. . these soils, and raise more grain on half the 



Ihe present condition of these light plains, | around, 

 under their present management, does not pre- j" :\'ature has supplied the necessary means, in 

 sent a very flattering prospect for the "rising, large reservoirs of muck, in pond-holes, conve- 

 generation." "Money" not only "makes the mare Liently interspersed, and accessible, either by 

 go," but with the New England Yankee, is, to a drainage, or in dry weather, and large beds of 

 far too great extent, the great incentive of life, pgat, in many of the swamps. Some farmers 

 Under this spur, the high price of wood in this here, we are happy to say, are beginning to ap- 

 vicinity for the la^t five or six years, has induced predate these mines of wealth, and have com- 

 the cutting off of hundreds of acres of wood menced the application of muck to their sand- 

 every winter, until the market became clogged - -- - 



with the article ; but not, we are sorry to say, till 

 the greater part of the Avoodland has been cut 

 over ; nearly all the old growth ; and now the 

 effects of the north-west wind, as it sweeps across 

 the knolls, is seen in bare sand-blows, which -ev- 

 ery fall and spring are increased in size. The 



knolls, but generally, merely as experiments. 

 One hundred and fifty loads to the acre, on the 

 poorest of these sandy fields, would produce a 

 good soil, that would produce double, and even 

 treble the crops it now does, and last, probably, 

 with judicious management, ten or a dozen years, 

 without further outlay, or good crops of grain, 



land where the wood was cut, not being allowed I every season, for five 'years.' The muck can be 

 to grow wood again, because it requires time, is drawn at any season of the year, when there is 

 broken up, and two, three or more crops of rye, leisure, by a little calculation before hand. Ac- 

 and one or more of corn or millet, are succes- Lording to the old saying, "Where there is a will 

 3ively taken off, when it is permitted to rest a | there is a way;" but if where there was a way 



