1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



505 



For Vie New England Farmer. 

 A HARVEST HYMN. 



[I asked an excellent young man, who sometimes writes vers- 

 es, if he could find a hymn for our approacing Agricultural 

 Festival. The next day he handed the following. I submit it 

 for your columns, if thought worthy. It certainly contains good 

 sentiments.] 



Our voices with our hearts we lift 



To thee, God, in grattful praise ; 

 For every good and perfect gift, 

 A song of gratitude we raise. 



Thine is the seed in spring we sow. 

 And Thine the harvest that we see ; 



Sunshine and rain Thou dost bestow. 

 And strength to labor comes from Thee. 



Thine is the fragrance of the flowers. 



And beauty that delights the eye ; 

 And Thine the lines of autumn's bowers, 



Which in transfigured glory die 1 



The blessings of our homes so dear. 

 Oar schools and churches. Lord, are Thine ; 



Thou watchest o'er them, year by year. 

 And purgest still Thy fruitful vine. 



God, with all Thy gifts, still give 

 The grateful and the trusting heart ; 



So shall our souls have Itarned to live. 

 When called from earthly scenes to parL 



For the New England Farmer. 



A VISIT TO THE HOMESTEAD OF FAB- 

 MER AL-LEIf . 



After doing justice to a well prepared dinner, 

 Farmer Allen and myself started from the home- 

 stead for the purpose of paying a visit to a jjitce 

 of land that had been drained and reclaimed from 

 the "wilds of nature" into as good a field for 

 producing grass, corn and potatoes as one would 

 •wish to see, and in going we passed through 



THE GARDEN. 



I paused a moment after entering the well 

 cultivated enclosure, where hardly a weed dared 

 to grow, for the purpose of examining a fine 

 Concord grape vine that was climbing over and 

 around a tastily built summer-house. In this, my 

 friend assured me, he had spent many happy 

 hours after the labors of the day were over. The 

 vine was purchased of Mr. Bull, ofC)oncord, 

 Mass. Mr. A. prizes the Concord as highly as 

 the Isabella or Catawba ; it is a good bearer, and 

 seems better suited to stand the storms and 

 cold of our northern States than any other vari- 

 ety. Continuing on our way we passed near a 

 few hills of the Chinese sugar cane, about which 

 so much has been said and written, both for and 

 against its introduction, a few years since. Mr. 

 A. plants a few hills yearly — his cattle are very 

 fond of it. Leaving the garden, I heard the hum 

 of the "busy bee," and going nearer, discovei-ed 

 several hives facing the south. Two years ago 

 Mr. A. purchased three swarms of bees, and the 

 first year he sold nearly enough honey to pay for 

 the first cost, reserving enough for their winter 

 subsistence. 



We now passed over several 

 MOWING LOTS, 

 and I looked in vain for the bushes and pile* of 

 stones with which so many of our farmers em- 

 bellish the surroundings of some of their best 



fields. Every year after haying, Mr. A. spends a 

 day or two with a good bush scythe, in mowing 

 all the bushes on his farm. Many of our farmers 

 only do this once in five years, and then the la- 

 bor is treble ; by mowing them every year their 

 growth is soon checked. In a few minutes Mr. 

 A. announced that we were in the 



RECLAIMED LAND. 

 I should not have known it, for the soil was as 

 firm as the highlands. The piece comprises about 

 three acres, and from the time of the "oldest in- 

 habitant" down to within three years, it has been 

 cold and wet lowland, covered with water until 

 late in the spring. It produced about two small 

 loads of poor, coarse hay, fit only for bedding, 

 and the labor of obtaining this was more than it 

 was worth. Mr. Allen had, during the winter 

 of 1855, read an article in the xV. E. Farmer 

 (for which he is a regular subscriber) on the 

 many advantages of underdraining, and giving 

 some directions how to proceed in this all-im- 

 portant work. He then gave the subject a care- 

 ful consideration, and came to the wise determi- 

 nation to make an experiment on the land now 

 before us. After making the necessary prepara- 

 tions, he commenced the work of digging the 

 trenches for the tile, amid the sneers, not only of 

 the anti-book, but anti-progressive farmers in the 

 neighborhood. He laid the tile four feet deep, 

 the tile in the main drain being three inches in 

 diameter, and those in the lateral drains being 

 two inches in diameter, and when he had com- 

 pleted the work in the hest manner, he sat down 

 to ascertain its cost, and the result, he said, some- 

 what surprised him. I know it did me, for he 

 Slid, that including everything, work, tile, &c., 

 it only came to forty-five cents a rod. The sea- 

 son is about three weeks longer on that piece of 

 land than it was before. Quite an item in our 

 never too long summers. It is now cultivated 

 with less labor and cost, while the profits are 

 doubled. Mr. A. recommends good tile in pref- 

 erence to stone. The tile once properly laid, is 

 laid for years, and the cost is about double that of 

 comm.on bricks. Farmer A. looked anxiously at 

 an impending cloud, for one of Manny's mowing 

 machines had been doing its efi'ective work in a 

 five acre lot of heavy herds grass, so we hurried 

 to the 



HAY FIELD, 



which presented a scene of active interest. One 

 of Carpenter's Patent Horse Rakes was busily at 

 work in raking the hay into winrows, and several 

 of the men were putting it into well shaped 

 cocks as fast as raked up. Scenes from my boy- 

 hood's days came floating back, and acting under 

 their impulses, I seized a rake, and was soon as 

 busy as any one in raking up the scatterings and 

 trimmings of the cocks of hay. Caps were soon 

 placed upon them. I watched the movements 

 of the man, with a good deal of attention, and am 

 confident that he put on three hay-caps to a min- 

 ute. One cock was left uncovered, so as to af- 

 jford me an opportunity in the morning of seeing 

 the difference in the covered and uncovered hay. 

 We had barely time to reach a place of shelter 

 when the rain came down in torrents, but the 

 ! hay was safe. I listened in vain for the usual 

 I impatient exclamations about the hay spoiling 

 . out in a heavv rain, and for the remarks. "Just 



