16 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



SEPT. 1 !, 1-37. 



(FcirtheNew England Farmer.) 

 DISCOVERY' OP M\RL. 



Mr. Kessenden — Dear Sir : I liave often tliniiglit 

 wlip.ii ri^iidiiig lUti description of .Marl, ami it.s val- 

 ue as a tnaniire, that if ue could fiml it in this 

 I)art of tne country, it would lie an inoxhanstihle 

 sonrce of wealth to the farmer. I little thoi;j,'ht 

 that we had it at our doors. 



Four years ago tlii.s tall, I hired an old Irish- 

 man to ditch for me, and in clearinj; out an old 

 ditch — a spit down lower than it had heen dug 

 b 'forp, — as I str 0(i looking at him one day, he 

 cried out, " Oh, mas>a ! here is as tine marl as 

 was ever seen at home ; if you let this lay in a 

 heap until next spritig, and spread it on youi; grass 

 land, you will have such grass as you never see 

 in all your life." 



lie then went on to relate to me how he first 

 dis<'ovcred it, when he was a hoy on his mother's 

 larin in Ireland. He said he went and told his 

 mother, and asked her if they should go and dig 

 soni!', and she said, "no Ijilly, say nothing ah jut 

 it until I see my landlord." .\way she went and 

 told him that her farm was so poor that she must 

 leave it, that she could not pay the rent. But he 

 wished her to remain on it, and would give it to 

 her at a less rent, anrl she gave up her old lease, 

 and took a new one for 21 years. She came home, 

 and says, " now, Billy you may go and dig marl," 

 which I did, and made all the upland very rich. 



The marl in the hottoin of my peat meadow, is 

 from two to three feet deep. I have tried it with 

 acid, and find it ferments like putting salteratus 

 to cider. I dug out a quantity of this four years 

 since, and tried it on my corn lands, and I thought 

 it had a great efl^ect ; and on a gravelly knoll, 

 which was perfectly sterile hefore ; since which, 

 it has home grain, and produced considerable 

 grass. 



Lahor here has heen so high and scarce, that 1 

 have not dug any until this fall. I am now get- 

 ting out a large quantity of it. Whether this can 

 be found in all our peat meadows, i am not ahle 

 to say ; hut one tiling I am certain cf, that it is 

 an object for all our farmers that have tlic-e lands 

 that are now lying useless, a dead weight upon 

 the owner, a receptacle for snakes, frogs, and oth- 

 er useless reptiles, to try the ex|)eriiiient. If they 

 fail of finding marl, they will find a plenty of peat 

 mud, and if it remains in heaps until next spring, 

 for the frosts to operate upon, they wdl find it in 

 an excellent condition for their corn lands next 

 summer. Where I had heaps of it lay la.st winter, 

 the corn has grown this summer as luxuriantly as 

 under a dung heap. 



The season is now right to go to work on this 

 land, and the meadows are dry. Irishmen are 

 very plenty, and may he hired at alimost any price 

 you will offer them. Now, Sir, if our farmers 

 will go to work and drain these extensive bogs, 

 which are every where interspersed in this part 

 of the country, and set those poor, half-starved 

 Irishmen to work and get out this inexhaustible 

 source of manure for their light, sandy and 'jrav- 

 elly soils, and reclaim their hog meadows, our 

 happy New England will no longer he branded 

 with the stigma ot' the sterile soil of N. Engl.inil,hiit 

 may immediately be made to appear (as Morse's 

 Geography said of the State of Conii(!cticiit,) 

 like a well cultivated garden. They will soon find 

 if they will he kind to these foreigners, and set 

 them to work, instead of their becominga curse 

 10 our country, and filling our poor establishments 



with iiiiiiates, they will become a blessing, and 

 we shall no longer be obliged to send our sons 

 to the far west, to drag out a miserable existence 

 among the half savage, dissipated itdiabitants of the 

 western wilds, in search of good land ; for I am 

 hilly of an opi.iion that onr bog meadows which 

 are now worth nothing, are equally as good as the 

 prairies of the west. Travellers tell that the soil 

 is four feet deep ; why. Sir, 1 have some land that 

 the soil is twenty feet deep, and till the way down, 

 heaps of decayed vegetation, all o( it fit fl)od for 

 planting. 



Yours with respect, 



BENJ. WHEELER. 



POTATOES AND CORN. 



[Extract of a Letter to Mr Jos. Rreck, one of the 

 Projirittors of the JV. E. Farmer.'] 



"While in Georgia, I found that they were 

 I)laiiting potatoes and corn in aliernate rows by 

 which means, in this hot country, the potatoes'are 

 shaded by the corn, and preserved from the heat 

 of the sun. The potatoes are far better than when 

 planted in the usual way. Gov. Gilmer is entitled 

 to the credit of the im(u-oveinent. 



" Mr Camack of .Athens, (Ga.) has recommen- 

 ded a mode of planting corn, by which all the la- 

 bor of the plough and hoe are saved. He covers 

 the grain completely with leaves from the forest, 

 or with straw, which effectually keeps down weeds 

 and grass, and by decay, forms a fine manure for 



the next year. But it has this effect further it 



prevents the action of the snn on the earth, and 

 saves from the injurious efl^ects of long droughts. 

 We have had a severe drought, so that a general 

 nlarm prevailed, lest the corn crop should fail. I 

 saw in Lexington a field treated in this way, and 

 it was fresh and vigorous, while the adjoining 

 fields of the same quality, were suflering extreme- 



'y- Q.. 



<Fioin the American Silk Grower.) 

 MAJVURES 



Are the Philosopher's Stone to the farmer, and 

 to make, preserve and judiciously apply them, is 

 an important branch to which the attention of 

 every agriculturist ought to hi; constantly direc- 

 ted. It should be his first care to procure as iriuch 

 as he possibly can, and his second care to jire- 

 serve from what he accumulates. To these two 

 points, farmers cannot bestow too much attention 

 — every acquisition of the one improvement in 

 the other, adds so much to his capital, and gives 



him more than one hundred [ler cent, interest. 



The price jset upon manure in this country, is yet 

 far from being adequate to its real value. Those 

 who live in situations where it can he |)urchase<l 

 cannot apply their money to better advantage. 



The amount collected by the majority of our 

 farmers, is small to wliat it might be, by suitable 

 exertions. It is frequently suffered to remain in 

 situations where it is washed ofl^ into brooks and 

 ponds, or uncultivated lands, where it is entirely 

 lost. It is more frequently permitted to remain 

 in other more secure sitiialioiis as is thought, and 

 pois(m the atmosphere with its fra/rrance, to the 

 no small annoyance of society, and to the starva- 

 tion of the plants in the vicinity to wliich its pro- 

 per application would be grateful. 



The best method of preserving this real article 

 is worthy of attentive inquiry. 



1st. The barn-yard should be dishing, so as to 



retain all the liquid manure, and unless already 

 on an im[)ernieahle soil, should he paved with 

 clay — and should be so located as to be secure 

 from wash, more than the quantity of water which 

 must necessarily fall to the ground. 



2d. A supply of litter, such as worthless vege- 

 tables, straw, brakes, turf, mud and rich earth from 

 the way-side, should be provided to absorb all 

 juices of the yard, and the gases evolved by fer- 

 mentation. 



3d. Window heaps should be (hjfended from 

 the rain and sun by a roof, and in general, should 

 he spread upon the ground in the sjiring, and 

 ploughed in. 



4th. Cattle should be kept in the yard in the 

 winter season, and as many yarded during the 

 summer as can he convenient. 



5th. What manure necessarily accumulates up- 

 on the fields, should be gathered u|i or knocked 

 ill pieces, according to the old custom, in the 

 spring, with a siiitalile mallet, by a lazy boy. 



6. The hog-yard should be tightly enclosed, 

 and furnished with an afuindant supply of mate- 

 rial, which the occupants will convert into the 

 best of manure, and ask you nothing for it. Lazy 

 as they are, they may be made to work out at 

 least half their living, without ever mistrusting it. 

 It has been thought by some that they might he 

 so managed as to pay the whole expense of their 

 keeping. 



Thus much for the preservation of manures. — 

 Next let every fanner examine his farm to see if 

 there be not some mine of wealth in the shape of 

 a marl bed, or at least if there be not an accumu- 

 lation somevyhere, of decayed vegetables, or some 

 ingredients of soil in which his cultivated fields 

 are deficient. It is liclieved there are few farms 

 that have not some advantages of this kind — some 

 quagmire, perhaps, which may prove the making 

 of the farm. Vegetation draws her stores from 

 the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms, and 

 there are no definable limits to her improvement. 

 Our soil, instead of becoming less and less fruit- 

 ful, as is the mistaken notion of some, may, by a 

 proper cultivation, be made more and more pro- 

 lific. Our earth contains the materials necessary 

 to make her surface a garden. ' All that is want- 

 ing is the dilirenl hand and the intelligent head 

 to make her plains and valleys, her hills and dales, 

 thie^k with herbage, and wave with the golden 

 grain. Cincinnatcs. 



Keene, August, 1837. 





Preserving Pompkins. — A correspondent at 

 Union Bridge, Maryland, under date of May 9th, 

 says : " In looking (jver the Farmer's Cabinet to- 

 day, I find a request from one of your subscribers, 

 (or information as to the best i.iiethod of preserv-, 

 ing pumpkins through the winter. I answer that 

 the way to preserve them one or more year.s, is to 

 pull them before the frost comes on, and keep 

 them in a warm dry room. This is my method, 

 iind 1 have now several large ones in my house 

 in a fine state of preservation ; and my neighbor, 

 Mr Davis Lightner, one of your subscribers has 

 the II two years old at this time, weighing forty- 

 three pounds each. They are very fine." — JFar- < 

 mer's Cabinet. 



■The disease which has done so much damage 

 for some years past, to the pear trees, lia.s, says 

 ih ; Cleaveland (Ohio) Gazette, now attacked tlie • 

 apple trees. 



