VOL. XVI. NO. 33. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL . 



259 



By raising but little grain I am enabled to ren- time. Tt took well and I had a good crop oriiay 

 ite 10 or 15 acres of my mowing lands yearly fr.m it this year ; the corn was not lulled up ami 



VVhile(loing the I the ground was rolled the spring after sowing to 

 beat down ihe old stocks of corn. 



i ut the most leisure season, 

 ik the expense of feeding the team is not half 

 tliat of May feeding. The ox and the hor.se 

 y he unyoked at noon and at night and take a 

 re of what we are turning in as manure for 

 ir supper and dinner, and we can mow from a 

 d thus .lown not less than a ton to the acre the 

 t summer, of the most valuable hay. A green 

 p i.s turned in and no crop is lost. 12 tons at 

 !t of green vegetable matter on one acre are 

 s secured to re-appear in grass instead of nour- 

 ng a crop of grain which pays us i;ot for our 

 M-. Under such a system there is not the least 

 iculty in giving every part of the mowing and 

 ge a good dressing as often as it may require, 

 if no hay should be sold, but beeves should be 

 3ned on the produce, any farm will become 

 ler and richer at every ploughing. The great 

 h is, grain takes the sugar and the spirit out of 

 soil. Grass does not exhaust it in Me least. 

 en its roots fill the soil they choke it ami must 

 lecomposed, but whether the land has been 

 ved eight years or four, when ploughed again 

 ill bear efjually well, either corn or grass, 

 "iiis is my apology for raising n > more grain, 

 e to sell. New England farmers have enough 



to supply our markets with hay, with beef, 



1 other fresh meats, with vegetables for the 

 3 and other articles that cannot be brought a 

 t distance. I^et our cities be supplied with 

 n and salt meat by districts more fertile and 

 e distant. 



laving 20 acres of meadow or low land bear- 

 hay, not very saleable or suitable for milch 

 s in spring, I raise young stock ; purchasing 



a year and a half old, from the country. A 

 7 or 8 weeks old and well fatted will usually 

 in our market for a sum that will buy one of 

 3 yearlings, say $7. These wilt do well on 

 poor li.iy and without roots. They will turn 



common cheap hay to $10 the ton and we 



I the manure. After a year or two, or three, 

 urn them for beef or for cows or for working 

 1. They usually become fat the first fall after 

 jurchase, and will often at 2^ years bring $20. 

 s paying us $13 for keeping them one year, 

 have no sheep ; 1 cannot with land at $40 

 acre compete, in this line, with those who 

 it at $10 per acre when the r^st of transport 

 lovf as that of wool, or of live stock so easily 

 !n. 



f .Swine I keep two or three, just enough to 

 ume the wash of the daily, giving them for 

 nothing very saleable until a few weeks be- 

 butchering. They are great devoureis and 

 1 kept on grain seldom, very seldom, pay the 



tie grass seeds I use are herds-grass, I'ed top, 

 flover ; sometimes the tall oat grass. About 

 irst of September is my time for seeding ; — 

 when I sow spring grain, I prefer turning in 

 tubble and seeding in August. Clover gives 

 lOil fall feed and is valuable as a green crop 

 irn in ; and a pound of it has probably as 

 li nutriment as any hay ; hut it is injured bv 

 pval and is not so easily mowed and gathered 

 her hay. This seed should not be sown in 

 nm, Tt may be sown on the snow or iu 

 I or May without coveiing. Last year I seed- 

 own two acres with clover, herdsgrass and 

 op in July, among my Indian Corn at hilling 



This mode of seeding down is good when we 

 wish to raise grass instead of grain, but thn land 

 should be rich or manure should bo spread on the 

 surface at |ilanting time or the seed will not take 

 well ; spring see<ling with grass is going out of 

 fashion in our vicinity. 



A part of my compost manure is applied to low 

 lands in grass in the month of November when 

 the top dressing looses but little by evaporation. 

 A man takes a cart with felloes four inches wide, 

 or a wagon, and drives on to lliegras.s lot, spread- 

 ing directly out of tlis carriage, in this way he 

 lays it on more even than by laying it first in 

 heaps, and he saves all the labor of unlading, for 

 he can spread faster frou) a wagon than from a 

 heaj) on the ground. 



Last year I laid to grass twelve acres, two in 

 July, and ten in September; that sown after Sept. 

 20th, did not get ahead so as to give a large crop 

 this season, it will give more next year. When a 

 good coaling of grass is ploughed in on the first of 

 September, and the ground properly seeded, an 

 acre will produce one ton and a half the first year 

 and the cro|) will be greater the second and third 

 years — the green sward below becoming graduallv 

 food for the living crop. Lands thus laid down 

 will continue good in grass five or six years. Low 

 land, quite too wet for grain, may be i)loughed in 

 September and laid perfectly smooth. Such lands 

 cannot be smoothed at any other season, it is 

 quite an ofgect with me to keep my grass lands 

 smooth. I can cut closer and faster, and my horse 

 rake, made under my direction by a wheelwright, 

 and costing only one dollar and a half, will collect 

 as much hay as five men. With a boy to fide I 

 have often raked an acre with a ton's burthen in 

 thirty minutes. This rake makes cleaner work 

 than the hand rake, and a boy or a feeble man 

 can manage it with ease, [t is miido of a joist 

 nine feet long; handles like those of a plough are 

 inserted ; teeth one foot in length are placed four 

 inches apart. Staples are driven into the joist 

 near the ends to hitch on the horse traces; the 

 holder goes behind giving the rake the true pitch, 

 and when the same is full, he suflers his handles 

 to cant over towards the horse, |ie advances ihrue 

 feet so as to clear the machine ; it is then canted 

 back again by a small rope attached to the extrem- 

 ity of one of the handles, and held all the time in 

 the hand of the raker. The horse stops but a 

 moment. I should liave said a thin board 10 or 

 12 inches wide, forms the backboard of tlii' rake, 

 which is thus made to carry a larger burthen than 

 the mere teeth can hold. 



As to laborers 1 am giving fifteen dollars per 

 month and board, for six months; I hire one man 

 that term, another half his time six menths; have 

 a l)oy sixteen years old and do some labor myself. 

 I hired ten day extra labor in hay time. My 

 lands are now so smooth 1 can have my mowing 

 done for 60 cents the acre and find no board. A 

 good man will mow (by the job) 4 acres in a day 

 bearing 4 tons. With a boy I can rake this lot in 

 two hours, and can spread it in the like time and 

 it will take nearly as long time to put it nicely in 

 cocks. This last we avoid when the weather is 

 promising. It requires then about two days more 

 labor to spread out, dry and put into the barn. — 

 Thus in good weather we can harvest four tons of 



with molasses lose* 

 )ower, and with three 



hay near the barn, for less than two dollars per 

 ton. 



My laborers drink no anient spirit. We furnish 

 cider with thiir meals, and cider and water mixed 

 with molasses for fialtl service. When any laborer 

 becomes tired of this beverage he goes to the 

 brook or well. Cider mixed with inoia: 

 much of its intoxicating 



limes its quaniity of water, affords a most whole, 

 some sustaining drink. 



Besides my usual farming operations, I have 

 this season built ninety rods of stone wall, have 

 widencil the County road for forty rods, one half 

 roil ; making it two rods and a half wide. I have 

 also widened a by-road for 50 rods, and laid It 

 open for public use three rods wide, without aid 

 and without asking fiir compensation for the land. 

 I have this month made one acre of interval 

 land out of a meadow that bore nothing better than 

 hassock grass, by carting on 200 ox-loads of loam, 

 and completely covering the coarse grass ; ] sow 

 it with herds gra.ss and red top. I have three 

 quarters of an acre of peat meadow ready pared 

 and burnt ; the sod contained moss and cra.iberry 

 vines. We ate now spreading the ashes, (made 

 from tlie burnt sod) which make a sufficient man- 

 ure for grass, for years after. The cost of paring 

 and burning one acre of peat meadow, varies from 

 30 to 50 dollars. When well seeded after a good 

 burning such lands have been sold in this town at 

 200 dollars per acre. I have brought too many 

 acres in this way. I sold four to one man for 

 SOOdollAis; he has since told me this was the 

 cheape.st of all the lands lie had bought in town. 



We cart alioiit 200 ox-loads of |)eat-mud yearly, 

 into the cow-yard, or into heaps to be mixed 

 with line, after laying one year, for top dressing. 

 Our cattle are usually purclused in Autumn, 

 from Vermont and New Hampshire ; where hay 

 and pasturing are cheaper than with us, and where 

 there is no good market for veal or new butter. 

 This breed was imported from England, before 

 Bakewell and others made their selections. We 

 prefer the middle size to the large horn cattle • 

 we look more to shape than size ; short horns and 

 slender necks, small and short legs for cows, short 



legs and broad shoulders and rumps for oxen. 



We have no name for our breed of catile unless 

 we give it "The common N. E. Breed." 



Last year I -sold 500 dollars worth of hay and 

 between 400 and 500 dollars worth of beef, fatted 

 chiefly by grass. Five steers 2 yrs. old and 2 do. 

 3 yrs. old, were sent to New Hampshire to pasture. 

 The rest were kept on my own land in this town. 

 I have 25 acresof high Iniid in pasture, three miles 

 from me onwhicli I have spread four tons of pla»- 

 ter within two years. The plaster on this land 

 which is high and dry, rocky and mossy, a loam 

 rather gravelly, has a wonderful effect, two bush- 

 els to the acre fieing of equal value with 20 loads 

 of manure. It brings up clover and honey suckle 

 through the thick moss and induces the young 

 cattle to search for it, and in searching to tra- ,,,1' 

 down bushes ; moss, lambs-kill, bral;-^g g,jj ■. 

 other unprofitable crops, I ;;-,urchc;sed this 'lot 

 three years ago at $15 per acre ; the seller tohi 

 me it would pasture 5 cows, it will now pasture 

 15 much belteiyand i am spared entirely the labor 

 of mowing bushes; they will not grow where 

 grass is thick and luxuriant, This land is now 

 worth $40 per acre, I am offered $60 for the 

 use of it next season. 'Jhis is about 17 per cent, 

 on the cost. In this pasture my cattle beco-v 



