548 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



Dec. 



and smiling field, whereon corn and cabbages, 

 beets, bagas, and potatoes and pumpkins, do most 

 exceedingly abound. Three tons per acre of the 

 best hay has been cut upon it, and the finest gar- 

 den vegetables grow equally well. And yet, this 

 land has lain there in gloomy repulsiveness for 

 more than two hundred years, an eye-sore and 

 nuisance, for the want of some one possessing 

 faith and energy to take it in hand. When the 

 present proprietor commenced upon it, he was 

 told that "others had attempted to subdue it, but 

 failed ; that he might, possibly, make maples 

 grow there, but nothing else would — they knew 

 it." They ridiculed the effort, and sagely re- 

 minded him that "a fool and his money were 

 usually soon parted." But, there stands the re- 

 sult, gentlemen ; send all your doubters to see 

 it. Each acre of it wiil yield more profit than 

 two or three of the uplands which surround it, 

 and it is well worth, to-day, $200,00 per acre for 

 agricultural purposes. Being near the village, 

 the land cost about $40 per acre, and it cost as 

 much more to reclaim it. Now let us see how 

 the account stands with it ? It now yields, and 

 with the aid of a little top-dressing will continue 

 to yield for many years. 



Three tons of hay per acre, at $18,00 $54,00 



Fall feed, per acre 3,00 



$57.00 



Interest on $80,00 $4,80 



Fencing and taxing 5,00 



Cost of malilng the hay 9,00— $18,80 



Profit $38,20 



I only give the figures as an approximation of 

 the true result, being aware that the land must 

 be manured annually to keep up this degree of 

 fertility. But thirty-eight dollars, or even twen- 

 ty-five of it, is a pretty good income from an in- 

 vestment on $80,00, and would be thought so 

 by most nersons engaged in mercantile business. 



SHEEP ON OLD PASTURES. 



Some of the finest examples are afforded here, 

 of the effects of feeding sheep upon pastures 

 that have become exhausted of nutritious grass- 

 es, and grown up to bushes, briers, brakes and 

 moss. I have seen pastures to-day that had be- 

 come almost worthless, but now green and smil- 

 ing as a lawn, with every inch among the rocks 

 covered with the richest pasture grasses, and not 

 a blackberry vine, wild rose bush, mullein, or 

 other worthless plant in sight. The sward does 

 not seem compact and bound, but loose and po- 

 rous, and filled with the most healthy and vigor- 

 ous roots. The sheep grazing upon these pas- 

 tures, afford ample evidence of the richness and 

 luxuriance of the grasses upon which they feed. 

 These examples, with similar ones that I have 

 observed in other places widely remote, would 

 seem to shed light upon the perplexing question 



so often asked — "How shall I reclaim my old 

 pasture ?" All over New England there are 

 thousands of acres producing little or nothing 

 that might be renovated by the introduction of 

 sheep upon them, while the profits from the 

 sheep themselves, I believe, would be larger than 

 from the same amount of money invested in 

 cows. I have been told of an instance where a 

 hundred acre pasture fed scantily only twelve 

 sheep and six cows the first year, but on the sec- 

 ond summer fed well twenty sheep and twelve 

 cows, and continued to increase in fertility until 

 more than double this number was well fed up- 

 on it ! 



Men of means, and full of love for agricultural 

 improvement, have erected pleasant country 

 seats in the neighborhood of the bay, or a little 

 back among the hills, as fancy or convenience 

 has suggested, giving striking examples of 

 what an acre of land may be made to produce 

 These examples are of much value to the com 

 mon farmer, if he is but an observing one, ait 

 they suggest to him what he can himself accom- 

 plish on his own premises, if he will but contract 

 his operations, cultivate less, and cultivate bet- 

 ter, and by a moi'e thorough preparation of the 

 land by draining, subsoiling, manuring, and care- 

 ful tending. In this good work I found valua- 

 ble examples on the farms of the Hon. Albert 

 Fearixg, Alfred Hersey, Esq., John R. 

 Brewer, Esq., and that of Thomas S. Bouve, 

 Esq. These gentlemen are all leading members 

 of the town agricultural society, and mingle the 

 influence of their personal example with that of 

 well cultivated fields and abundant harvests. 

 Some of them you know not only as merchants 

 of unbending integrity and honor, but as men 

 whose philanthropy is as universal as the want 

 which calls it into being. They are public ben- 

 efactors. Fine dwellings crown the hills that 

 overlook the harbor, as well as the wide expanse 

 of sea, strongly contrasting with the huge moss- 

 covered rocks that everyv/here line the coast, 

 and lovingly look out from the dark cedars that 

 are indigenous to the soil. The grounds around 

 these dwellings are usually under a high state 

 of cultivation, and many of the elegancies of ru- 

 ral life are introduced, such as flower-gardens, 

 walks, avenues of trees, choice shrubbery and 

 green-houses ; and these form examples of taste 

 which most common farmers may pi-operly and 

 profitably imitate in some degree. The whole 

 country — naturally, rough and uninviting — is 

 greatly improved by the introduction of these 

 dwellings, and the true taste exercised in the 

 laying out and managing their grounds. I 

 can scarcely recall to mind any portion of our 

 coast offering so many romantic and beautiful 

 spots for summer residences, as on the graceful 



