1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Prof. Nash, in the address from which I have 

 ah'eady quoted, says : "Soils there, from the 

 most chiyey, up through the various loams, to 

 the most sandy, are more compact than those 

 ■which bear the same name among us." There 

 vegetation flourishes best on raised beds, huge 

 hills, or sharp ridges, and the farmer is compelled 

 to guard at every point against the effects of a 

 superabundance of water, as he is taught by ex- 

 perience that moisture is his great enemy. 



In this country, as a general rule, it is drought, 

 not moisture, that injures our crops. We know 

 more of the evils of digging from fifty to one 

 hundred feet to find water enough to fill our tea- 

 kettles, than we do of those which attend a 'sub- 

 soil of clay, or hard gravel, saturated with water,' 

 but a few inches from the suiface. England, 

 the'-efore, may have too much moisture ; we of- 

 ten have tJO little. The roots of her vegetables 

 may die of dropsy ; ours perish by drought. In 

 her heavy soils, manures may waterlog and sink 

 beyond the reach of plants ; on our sandy plains 

 and under our tropical sun, they probably "van- 

 ish into air." English farms may perhaps need 

 draining ; American farms need irrigation. 



Our climate and our soil are so materially dif- 

 ferent from those of England, that we must re- 

 gard it as a misfortune that our theoretical agri- 

 culture comes to us directly from that country. 

 This fact goes far to account for the often la- 

 mented unpopularity of book-farming, among 

 us. A large proportion of the volumes in our 

 rapidly increasing agricultural libraries, though 

 published in America, are "founded on" English 

 "facts," if not mere re-piints of books written 

 for the fast-anchored and fog-steeped Isle, where 

 turnips grow, and corn does not. 



Whether we read the history, or study the 

 monuments of agricultural industry, of those 

 European countries whose soil and climate is 

 most like our own, we learn that turning water 

 upon the soil, instead of drawing it out, has ever 

 been regarded as the proper way to increase the 

 fertility of the land. 



In another article I propose to give some rea- 

 sons for my opinion that, in the United States, 

 there are twenty acres that would be benefited 

 by irrigation, where there is one that needs 

 draining. s. F. 



Winchester, Jan., 1858. 



BAKLEY. 



It is stated that the first barley sown in this 

 country, M'as upon the island of Martha's Vine- 

 yard, in 1602, by a man named Gosnold, who in- 

 troduced this and other varieties of grain from 

 England into Massachusetts. In 1811, barley 

 was sown as a crop in Virginia, and continued to 

 be cultivated there until the settlers found tobac- 

 co more remunerative. In 162G, barley was one 

 of the crops groM'n upon the farms of Manhattan 

 Island— proljably where Trinity Church now 

 Btands. In 1849, the barley crop of the United 

 States was 5,167,000 bushels ; and according to 

 the increase of the preceding decade, the crop of 

 1856 would be over seven millions of bushels. 

 It probably even exceeded this. The grain is 

 nearly all consumed in the States whfre it is 

 grown, principally, we presume, for malting, as 

 the price is too high for feeding to stock. 



TREES AND THEIR USES. 



The value of the forest tree is beginning to be 

 appreciated not only in a physical but economical 

 point of view, and each new treatise serving to 

 show the necessity which exists for preserving 

 and cultivating trees, is to be welcomed as a con- 

 tribution to the public weal. An article on this 

 subject in the July number of the North Ameri- 

 can lieview, is calculated to disseminate much 

 M'holesome truth bearing on the subject. Already 

 the rapid destruction of the forest has been in a 

 measure arrested, partly in consideration of the 

 prospective wants of the railroad and shipbuild- 

 er, and the process of restoration has been com- 

 menced by re-planting many acres with young 

 trees. After speaking of trees as an ornament, 

 and the many classic memories which they serve 

 to perpetuate, as the "rugged yew-trees" where 

 Gray lies buried, to "Milton's mulberry," and the 

 "Avon willows," the reviewer speaks of trees as 

 productive property, as follows : 



"It can be demonstrated that the best use for 

 the larger part of the cleared land of New Eng- 

 land would be to plant forests upon it. There is, 

 except in the rich gardens close around the cities, 

 no land so profitable, no land Avhich pays so good 

 an interest on its cost, as wood land. In some 

 parts of Massachusetts a man who owns a hun- 

 dred acres of pasture is little better than a bank- 

 rupt, while he who owns a hundred acres of for- 

 est is independently rich. The first must pay 

 taxes on what does not pay for its culture, while 

 the second can cut off enough to meet the annual 

 interest, yet have more at the end than at the 

 beginning. AVe once heard an eccentric genius 

 maintain that his woodland, about fifty acres in 

 all, though he had bought it and paid for it a 

 good round sum, some thirty years before, had in 

 reality never cost him a cent ; 'for,' said he, "I have 

 cut off wood enough to pay not only the original 

 outlay, but to meet all the worth of the money 

 at compound interest, and to cover all charges, 

 and now I have more wood than I fountl there 

 at the beginning.' It was rational logic enough. 



We are confident that, at the present prices of 

 timber and fuel, the profits of wood-land to our 

 New England farmers are at least three times as 

 great as the profits of the land which they culti- 

 vate with so much lal)or. The experiment of 

 planting locusts on Long Island has proved that 

 lands before considered valueless, may become 

 the most precious possession of their owners. 

 Thousands of acres now lying waste might, with 

 a very small outlay, be made to yield very great 

 returns. The length of time that must pass be- 

 fore the profit of these artificial forests can be 

 tested, undoubtedly deters many from planting 

 them. Very few men like to make an investment 

 of which the returns begin to ccmie only after 

 twenty or thirty years. But every man knoAvs 

 that whatever raises the value of his land is as 

 sure profit as that which actually puts cash into 

 his pocket. There seems to be less promise in 

 an acre of young locusts than in an acre of thriv- 

 ing turnips ; but in twenty years the value of all 

 the annual turnips will not begin to reach the 

 value of the trees. The longer the planter is 

 willing to M'ait, the greater will be his ratio of 

 gain." 



It is recommended that on every farm of respect- 

 able size there should be a season for the annual 



