182 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEMBER IS, 1833. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 

 BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DEC. 18, 1033. 



TO SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE NEW ENG- 

 LAND PARMER. 



We must rely on the candor of our esteemed friends 

 and patrons to excuse our decision as regards the sub- 

 scriptions due to us. We have sometimes been censur- 

 ed for not forwarding out bills yearly, and thus suffering 

 considerable sums to accumulate imperceptibly. We 

 have also been blamed for urging our demands with too 

 much pertinacity. 



Therefore, we this week, send our bills, with their 

 dates and amounts, and very respectfully request those 

 to whom they are directed to assist us as much as possi- 

 ble. Those who live at a distance are particularly re- 

 quested to remit our dues by mail, or pay them to our 

 agents, of whom a list is given in our last page. Those 

 who wish to consider the twelfth volume as paid for in 

 advance will please to remit a three dollar bill, and the 

 50 cents shall go towards pay for the next volume. 



There are some, who may perhaps receive their bills, 

 who have recently paid our agents. If so, they will 

 please to make allowance for out not being apprised of 

 such payments. 



We would merely add that we send bills to some who 

 have been punctual in their payments. We do this 

 that they may know the date of their bills ; and shall 

 hereafter forward to every individual his accounts once 

 a year. Those who have been indebted more than two 

 years, and do not now remit the sums due will have 

 their bills sent again. That's all, at present. Those 

 who owe for five years or more, must now make it con- 

 venient to assist in settling their accounts. 



If every one of our subscribers would be so obliging 

 as to procure one in addition to our list, (which he is 

 hereby authorised and requested to do), our establish- 

 ment, and we trust the Public, would thereby receive 

 benefit more than equivalent to compensate his exer- 

 tions. 



gent farmers, who doubt the practicability of rais- 

 ing 100 bushels of good merchantable corn on an 

 acre of ground in one season. 



Frequent descriptions of successful culture in 

 important and necessary crops are among the most 

 useful communications to the public. And if it 

 should be said that an account of the maimer of 

 raising some of the crops above mentioned lias 

 been given, which I do not recollect, yet we can- 

 not be too well acquainted with a course of fann- 

 ing which shall produce such important results. 

 Respectfully yours, 



J. S. 



By the Editor. We should be very grateful 

 to Mr. Coleman for any attention In; may he good 

 enough to give to the above request. The very 

 great difference between the crops above referred 

 to, and the largest which farmers in general are 

 able to obtain has often been considered a mystery, 

 the solution of which is very desirable. Probably 

 much depends on the kind of seed corn. Other 

 things being equal, that seed corn would prove 

 most productive which had been selected in the 

 field from stocks producing two or more ears. 

 Corn planted in drills will also produce more on 

 an acre than that which is planted in bills. Many 

 other requisites to obtain a pre-eminent crop must 

 also not be omitted, if we intend to enter the lists, 

 as competitors with the wonder-working cultiva- 

 tors above mentioned. We premise this by way 

 of stating the case, and hope Mr. Coleman will 

 give the cause to the country. 



GREAT CROPS OP INDIAN CORN. 



Piermord, JV. H. jYov. 28, 1833. 



Mn. Fessenden — Sir, I have read with much 

 interest the letter of Mr. Coleman of Deerfield, 

 Mass. republished in your paper of Nov. 20, from 

 the New York Farmer, on the quantity of Indian 

 corn to the acre. And in looking over the list of 

 large crops here presented, I inquire, how is it 

 that an hundred and seventy busliels of corn can be 

 produced on an acre of ground, as given in the 

 case of Messrs. Pratt of Fasten, Bartlett and oth- 

 ers ; or even the smaller crops of 150, 142, 120, 

 or 100 bushels an acre ? Now, sir, the intervale 

 lands on the Connecticut river, in this vicinity, 

 are fertile, and produce corn abundantly, but we 

 see no crops so large as those above recited. Is 

 this difference wholly for want of cultivation ? 



I shall feel greatly obliged to Mr. Coleman, or 

 to any one acquainted with the facts, to point out 

 particularly the mode of culture in raising these 

 large crops, that we may more readily imitate 

 them, should the practice be consistent with safe 

 and prudent husbandry. I think it would be very 

 useful to the community, and certainly interesting 

 to many individuals, to see a description of the 

 mode of fanning practised by Mr. Stimson, on bis 

 farm at Galway for a few years past, especially in 

 relation to the culture of corn. This crop is be- 

 coming more important in proportion as the crops 

 of wheat deerease. Aud we have many intelli- 



For the New England Fanner. 

 NEW PLANTATIONS ON THE SEA SHORE. 



Mr. Fessenden — The following, from De Can- 

 dole's J'egetable Physiology, points out a method 

 of arresting the progress of desolation occasioned 

 by the motion of shifting sands in an open and 

 sandy region. There are districts of country in 

 New England on the sea shore, where this method 

 of improvement may be of essential use. 



And it may also be worth while for proprietors 

 of naked fields near the shore to consider whether 

 by adopting Bremontier's plan of planting new 

 forests, or at least broad belts of trees as a defence 

 against the tempestuous, inclement sea winds, a 

 considerable melioration of climate and a more 

 certain production of fruit and vegetable crops, 

 may not be had ; and at the same time an income 

 obtained from the pines and other trees more than 

 the cost of rearing the wood ? 



The eastern shore, and indeed the greater part 

 of Cape Ann, has a desolate appearance for want 

 of trees. It would be an error to suppose that, by 

 its abounding in great masses of naked rock it is 

 condemned to hopeless sterility. Some of the 

 st fertile and picturesque country in the vicini- 

 ty of Boston would exhibit an aspect as unpromis- 

 ing as Cape Ann, if denuded of shrubs and trees, 

 and shown in the deformity of its rough and brist- 

 led surface of native ledges. The inland shore of 

 Cape Ann pres"nts to the eye of the traveller, in 

 passing from Sandy Bay to Gloucester, a succession 

 of neat and highly cultivated little farms, whose 

 luxuriant grass fields and thriving trees, show 

 plainly that the rich manures yielded by marine 

 substances, have been bountifully used. 



Cape Aim, with a broad belt of forest on the 

 outer sides toward the sea, would acquire a new 

 climate and a new agricultural character. Divided 



into moderate farms, with neat while cottages, the 

 human habitations of that most industrious thriv- 

 ing anil intelligent people, the citizens of Glouces- 

 ter, who drive with untiring assiduity a good 

 trade with the most remote regions of the earth, 

 Cape Ann would become one of the most produc- 

 tive and tastelul regions of the United States. 



To the advantages of a strong soil and an in- 

 exhaustible treasury of manures, there is enterprise 

 and money enough to spare in Gloucester to set on 

 foot plantations for shelter, for fruit and for limber 

 on an extensive scale. One is delighted in visiting 

 the island of Nantucket, to see bow much has been 

 done by the hardy and respectable inhabitants to 

 put the best face upon this dreary sand island. — 

 They are the very people to turn to account Bre- 

 montier's successful experiments. 



" Bremontier's plan is wonderful for its great 

 simplicity. He sows in the dryest and most shift- 

 ing sand, the seeds of the broom [Genista scopuria), 

 mixed with those of the sea pine (pinus maritima), 

 anil then covers over the spaces that are sown 

 with branches from the nearest pine forests, by 

 which means the sand is to a great extent pre- 

 vented from shifting. The broom springs up first, 

 and thus serves the double purpose of further re- 

 straining the sand, and nursing the young pines. 

 The latter grow for seven or eight years under the 

 shelter of the broom, whose foliage becomes 

 mingled annually with the sand, which it thus 

 partially fertilizes. After this period the pine 

 overtops the broom, and frequently entirely kills it 

 with its shade. In ten or twelve years the rising 

 forest is thinned for the manufacture of tar, and 

 for procuring branches to cover the newly sown 

 districts. These forests placed on the drifting 

 sand-hills along the sea side, shelter the whole 

 country behind them from the continuous action 

 of the sea winds ; and thus, while themselves 

 yield a supply "of an important article of commerce, 

 they protect the produce of the rest of the country. 

 It is highly desirable that this prodigious under- 

 taking, the most splendid agricultural enterprise of 

 our age, should gradually be completed, and thus 

 provide a shelter for the whole district between the 

 mouths of the Mow and Garonne. 



"/ have herborized during a whole day in these 

 forests soivn by Bremontier on perfectly dry sand, 

 on which before his time there could scarcely be seen 

 a trace of vegetation ."' 



SMOKING CHIMNIES ALTERED. 



Mr. Israel Keyes, has discovered a method of 

 making chimnies carry smoke, which have hither- 

 to been defective in that important requisite. We 

 have given some attention to his mode of effecting 

 this desirable object, and believe it to be caused by 

 a scientific application of the principles of pneu- 

 matics to its attainment. We have also seen a 

 certificate, signed by a number of very respectable 

 gentlemen of ibis city, stating that Mr. Keyes has 

 been perfectly successful in altering their chim- 

 nies, which had been accustomed to smoke, in 

 such a manner as to give them a perfect draught. 

 Mr. Keyes is entitled to much credit for bis dis- 

 covery, which many philosophers have sought for 

 and attempted with but partial and uncertain re- 

 sults. 



(£jr=/)i a part of this impression, the Engraving 

 on the first page was reversed by mistake. 



