258 



NEW ENGLAND FA R M E R, 



FEB. S1, 18 18. 



to a condition of extreme poverty. H« feels no 

 sniliition to make improvements. Being too poor 

 to iiire lahorers, tlie cnllivation of the soil is not 

 uondiicteil with tluit neatnesf and efficiency es- 

 sential to tlie best ros.llt^<. Indeed, so brolien are 

 liis spirits l.y liis coiulitioii, that we are tohl, on 

 good authority, that the laborer, who is hired by 

 the day, will accomplish three times as much as 

 the peasant, who works for himself. The cjassi- 

 cal A.ldi^on thus describes the condition of the 

 Italian hushandmai) : 



" But what avail her unexhausted stores ; 



Her blooming m( untains and her sunny shores . 



The poor inhabitant beholds in vain, 



The reddening orange and the swelling grain; 



Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curstj; 



And, in the loaded vineyard, dies for tliirsi. 



If we have not a soli of equal fertility, we should 

 thank Heaven for a still richer blessing' ;— that we 

 can enjoy, without fear, the fruits of our industry. 

 In this interest in the soil, in its proiluctio"s, in 

 the results of your intelligence and zeal as applied 

 to its cultivation, you possess a far greater good 

 than you would in the fertile land of E<;ypt, if, at 

 the same time, you lived under laws which broke 

 the manliness of your spirit ; which tore from 

 your possession productions reared by your toil, 

 moistened " by the sweat of your brows." Take 

 froB) man the stimulus, which this personal inter- 

 est afforils, and lie sinks into imbecility and hope- 

 les.sness. Give full play lo such incentive, and 

 man's nature is elastic ; he is prompt to see and 

 to improve advantajres. And never had such in- 

 centive fuller play than amongst ns ; and not only 

 should it mak.; ns proud of nj^riculture, as an hon- 

 orable pursuit; but make us piize at its just value 

 the fan- inheritance of freedom we enjoy, that that 

 inheritance waf, in no small degree, purchased, 

 secured, and given into our hands, by the hardy 

 and spirited generation, who had been reared up 

 to mental independence and bodily vigor, amidst 

 the pursuits of agriculture. 



Much as the institutions and condition of nii- 

 cieiit Greece have iieen praised, we have reason 

 to believe that, in portions of her territory, the 

 cultivators of the earth feared to inhabit the open 

 country and detached dwellir)i;s, at certain sea- 

 sons. They were exposed to the lawless depre- 

 dations of marauders. Wb are informed from 

 eource.s» entitled to high credit, t.hat after the toils 

 of the ilay, 1.1 tlie open country, t<ve husbandmen 

 sought safety and shelter, by nigl^, witftm sotiie 

 .walled city. Tliey carried their arms into the 

 fields, and, like our fathers in NeW England, took 

 up the weapons of defence or the implement.- ol 

 husbandry, as circumstances required. 



There is no man more fully independent, both 

 i„ spirit and condition, than the farmer. Re- 

 ceiving the means of subsistence .lirectly from the 

 bounties of Providence, he relies less than other* 

 uoon the aid of those around him. If. diligent, 

 be may, ordinarily, count upon a competency in 

 the return of his labors, and his mind is free 

 froni those perplexing cares cennected with pur- 

 suits liable to great and sudden fluctuations. 

 " Sure peace is his ; a solid life, 

 Rich in content ; in nature's bounty rich." 

 (Toba coiiiinued.) 



KARM REPORTS. 



To the Gentlemen Trustees of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Society. 

 Gentlemen :—Uy farm consists of one hundred 

 and lifty acres of land, lying near the centre of 

 Frxuiingliam. Twenty acrei are meadow over- 

 flowed in spring and! "e^'e"" ploughed — thirty 



J 



We tie the tops with a single band and let the 

 whole stand three or four weeks. These piktt 

 are ;hen taken to the barn whole, corn and stalk, 

 when the corn is plucked off and husked and ihe 

 pike laid straight ready lo be cut tip fine for cowi 

 and oxen. They will eat the whole when well 

 cured and will perform more labor or give mucli 



• never """f ' ^ '-".jy ,,,,,, „,i,U than when fed with English hay. 

 acres woodland-thirty acres pastme land no ,t- ^^^^ ^^_^ ^^^ ^^ ,,,^^^^,^_ ^^, 



able for ploughing-fil.y acres >"»f '"":''•" L,,e ..f Spring Wheat, 22 bushels, one acre of 

 twenty acres ot interval and '"'^l'^"'- .^"l H,K-kwheat, 30 bushels,- ten acres of new, burnt 

 of the tillage land is a sandy loam , »'. ^'V^'M .round is sown with winter rye, commenced sow. 

 rotation mowing land. Gram is an article 1 can- ^f"" , ; 



As soon as the spring opens and the frost is out 

 of the ground, put your fences in order. 



~ •Milf»"l'i Greece, Xenophon's Anabasii. 



not afTord to raise for sale— I therefore plant no 

 more than two acres with corn and one with po- 

 tatoes, this year a little less. The Phinney, or 

 twelve rowed corn is my crop this year. 1 can 

 raise more of that than any other— I shall have 

 45 bushels to the acre without manuring in the 

 hill. We estimate it thus— 4000 hills will give us 

 more than two ears each— nine inches in length, 

 6 such ears will fill a quart measure— 6 on each 

 hill give 125 bushels— 2 give above 40 bushels.— 

 The corn is not so well filled this year as usual. 

 Three years ago I raised 56 bushels to the acre 

 with only 5 cords of manure spread evenly over 

 the ground on each acre, by actual admeasure- 

 meiit. My tr,ethod is to spread the manure on 

 the grass land, then plough it in and cover it com- 

 pletely— then roll with a heavy roller, for green 

 sward usually lies too light so that it becomes too 

 dry for lack of capillary attraction from the sub- 

 soil. I next harrow well lengthwise of the fur- 

 row, then dia!,'onally, making the surface fine as a 

 carrot bed. The loose sods are placed in the dead 

 furrow. The lines are marked out 3 feet and 4 

 inches apart by a horse dragging a small stick of 

 timber by means of shafts inserted which timber 

 has three woollen pins, 3 feet 4 inches apart of 

 the size of a nitiepin, a little sharpened— a boy 

 rides the horse, a man manages this strike-out by 

 means of inserted handles, and thus, instead ot 

 striking one row he strikes three at once, and 

 makes a much straighter and better bed for the 

 corn than a plough makes— the chip of a plough 

 leaving the bed hard, this strike-out leaves it mel- 

 low. Wo cover the corn with one half inch of 

 dirt, beat it down with the hoe and put a handful 

 of ashes on each hill before the corn comes up— 

 the ashes operating on greensward as a decompo- 

 ser of its vegetable matter. The sooner they are 

 applied the better. 



To keep eft' the crows a pair of trow.scrs and a 

 jacket are stuffed with hay— a hat is place.! on 

 top to complete the image, which instead of being 

 made so as to frighten horses should resemble a 

 man as nearly as possible, he beijig the animal of 

 all others most dreaded by this corn-iobber. The 

 image must lean over a fence or be squatting un- 

 der it and should be partially concealed under 

 brush' or a bough-house that the bird may not 

 possibly detect the deception. This is effectual 

 and I have never found any othar worth a farth- 

 ing. ,. 



As to soaking or steeping the seed-corn we dis- 

 approve of it. I have gaihere.l my seed-corn al- 

 ready, taking the most ripe ears with two on a stalk. 

 We use a cultivator to till between the rows, 

 and the manure being wholly buried, weeds are 

 not troublesome. We can hoe two acres of this 

 to one acre on which the manure is laid on the 

 surface. We have alreaily cut up our corn at the 



iiig Sept. 1, it has now come up and promisffl 

 well. Rye is much surer on burnt than on old 

 fields. We have one acre of English turnips sown 

 among the corn. We often obtain 100 bushels in 

 this way with no expense but sowing and gather- 

 ing. Labor with us is too high to admit of culti. 

 valing any kind of turnips in drills. We alffl 

 raise pumpkins among our corn and find then 

 very valuable for stock. 



I keep on the average 30 head of cattle and tw( 

 horses. The horses and one yoke of oxen perfonr 

 the labor. Five cows only are kept. Thest 

 wake the butter for family use besides furnishiD) 

 60 dollars worth of milk for our neighbors.- 

 Those people who have cheaper lands and ft 

 from our market make our cheese for us and brin,' 

 it down at small exjiense. 



I cut 60 tons of hay— 20 from my 20 acres o 



meadow or lowland, and 40 from land occasioiialt 



tilled and from the interval, too low to he tilloi 



and I have sold 500 dollars worth of hay \bv. tw 



past years, and have $500 worth more this yeai 



Uy not raising much corn or grain, 1 am enable 



to spare this quantity of hay and still increase th 



fertility of my lands rapidly. I do it thus— wlie 



a grass field has been so long n;owcd that it wi 



not produce one ton to the acre, I take a cast iro 



plough made one third longer than those in gel 



eral use, and with one yoke of oxen or with tlire 



cattle in the last part of August, I turn over tli 



said acre fiat as possible, roll it hard, harrow 



with the furrow, then diagonally, putting on fin 



after ploughing and rolling, ten t. twenty car 



loads, (24 to 5 cords)— of compost manure, 80' 



one peck herds-grass, half a bushel red top seedl 



the acre, sowed sooner than this it is in d:.iigt 



from drought, sowed later it is liable to be wiuti 



killed. In March or April after, 1 sow 8 lbs. cit 



ver to grow for fall feed or lo be ploughed in ag«l 



in turn. My compost manure is made ol H 



winter manure and of peat mud ; the best inc^ 



of using the mud ; is first, to put it where the catU 



may tread on it and drop their excrements duru 



winter r therefore cover my cow-ynrd withi 



and the sheds under which my cattle lie in winU 



loose Next summer it is overhauled and heapf 



up and by the last of August, it is in aprimostn 



to be applied on lands thus seeded, or on )m 



recently seeded or on wet interval lands. 1 1 



„p none of my horned cattle ; they lie much in» 



comfortably under warm sheds; they draw cto 



togeth.T in cold nights ; they choose di v pIM 



to lie in and they get up with ease ; they eattli« 



fodder with a better appetite and we ""ve ev 



,1,-opof their urine which is at least hall « 



ma-uire The cows udders are clean in wiD' 



as in summer, giving the milk no bad taste. 



requires more room it is true, but if barns «< 



built rightthe cattle have a shed under the WW 



already cut up our corn at the ^ -'» " ^ ;\,„,, „„, evaporate and k 

 root excepting one hill in twenty, about which wc , "'^--^ '"before we use it. 

 have set the others ao sloping as to stand firm.— I half 'ts powti 



