1858. 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



185 



to cows to increase their milk ; it is s"Weet, and 

 consequently must be nutritious. The seed is 

 about the size of clover-seed, and from one root 

 I have counted 24 stalks as large as a man's fin- 

 ger, and will grow, if not cut at all, from 8 to 9 

 feet high. I furnished seed to farmers in small 

 quantities last season in different parts of the 

 country, and as far as heard from, it is pronounced 

 the best crop for soiling purposes. Where pas- 

 turing is short, many are obliged to keep their 

 cows up all summer, and many who have pastures 

 would find it greatly to their advantage to feed 

 some green crop to their cows once a day, dur- 

 ing the dry season, which most always occurs in 

 August, i first saw the seed in South Carolina, 

 and have some on hand, which I will send to 

 those who wish to try it at a reasonable price. 

 One pound of the seed is sufficient for thirty rods. 

 Franklin H. AVilllIms. 

 Sunderland, Mass., 1858. 



Remarks. — The article accompanying this, on 

 the culture of the Chinese Sugar Cane, we omit 

 because ■we have already given that subject so 

 much room and prominence, that other matters 

 demand our space, for the present, at least. 



For the New England farmer. 



^ SALT MAHSHES. 



Improved by Drainage — Cost of Drainage — Value of the Mud — 

 How to Compost it — Where to use it, and a promise of more light. 



Mr. Editor :— Farmers who live near the sea- 

 coast, seem to me, never realize all the advanta- 

 ges within their reach; vegetable matter from the 

 ocean, mud from rivers and creeks, and sods from 

 the marshes are all valuable fertilizers ; a few fads 

 in relation to my own practice the present sea- 

 son may be of some value to my brother farmers. 



In November I employed a man to cut ditches 

 on my salt marsh, thirty inches deep, eight Avide 

 and two hundred and twenty rods in length, I 

 paid the usual price in this vicinity, ten cents a 

 rod for digging and piling the sods so as the tide 

 could not fUiat them away. This winter one of 

 my neighbors wlio had but little to do, agreed to 

 cart the whole, two miles, to my barn cellar, for 

 twenty-five dollars, which he has performed to 

 my satisfaction. Thus you perceive I have more 

 than forty cords of a valuable absorbent, in the 

 right place, and my marsh ditched for the sum of 

 forty-seven dollars. I consider this material from 

 the salt marsh preferable to that from the fresh 

 meadow, as it is a finer and more thoroughly de- 

 cayed vegetable matter, and the salt it contains 

 renders it more valuable. The manure of twenty 

 cows is dropped into the barn cellar, the urine 

 saturates the sods, the hogs root over the mixture 

 and eat the roots of the grass contained in the 

 sods with great apparent relish, and the whole 

 becomes quite equal to fine cow manure, particu- 

 larly when applied to gravelly or sandy soils. 

 The salt marsh is greatly improved, and accord- 

 ing to my former experience, will increase the 

 value of the crop of hay in quality and quantity. 



I may at a future time give my views in relation 

 to mud as a fertilizer, to be obtained from creeks 

 and rivers. N. 



Dorchester, Jan. 8, 1858. 



FIFTH LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL 

 MEETING. 



[REPORTED FOR THE FARMER BY ZBNAS T. HAINES.] 



At the fifth regular weekly Legislative Agricul- 

 tural Meeting, last Tuesday evening, the topic of 

 discussion was, '^The renovation of worn-out 

 soils." 



The meeting was called to order by Senator 

 Felton, of Worcester. 



Senator Metcalf, of Worcester, presided. On 

 assuming the chair he remarked that it had been 

 said that he who made two spears of grass grow 

 where one grew before was a public benefactor. 

 He presumed there were gentlemen here capable 

 of telling how that thing could be doge. 



Senator Feltox thought the pastures of Mas- 

 sachusetts needed renovation. About forty years 

 ago, they would carry about double the stock 

 they do now. He knew farms in his own vicin- 

 ity where this was the case. How should they 

 renovate these lands ? Some had used leached 

 ashes and guano, but he believed to little pur- 

 pose. Some recommended compost and barn 

 manure, and plowing and seeding ; but our rocky 

 pastures could not easily be plowed. He believed 

 that they could be renovated to a great extent 

 by keeping sheep upon them. They destroyed 

 briers, bushes and the troublesome indigo weed 

 so prevalent in our pastures. He had no doubt 

 that plowing and manuring, where it was possi- 

 ble, would produce fresher and richer feed.. He 

 had known this tried with very excellent effect. 



Mr. Richardson, of Franklin, said a great 

 proportion of the lands in his vicinity, particu- 

 larly the pastures, had greatly deteriorated. He 

 had a comfortable share of such lands on his own 

 hands. He had a pasture which had commenced 

 growing to bushes. Pie decided to let one-half 

 of it grow to woodland, and eradicate the bushes 

 from the other ; this he plowed and cultivated 

 with profit. He subdued the bushes by summer 

 tilling, and avoided turning in his cattle till the 

 grass was well set. He generally sowed some 

 kind of grain with the grass seed. 



Deacon Allen, of Oakham, thought farmers 

 went over too much land. He liked the idea of 

 letting worn-out thin land grow to pines. He had 

 noticed that plowing thin land in the vicinity of 

 pine trees operates to catch the pine seeds, which 

 germinated and grew with great rapidity. When 

 a boy, he saw in Braintree thirteen cows and a 

 bull more than amply provided with feed from 

 ten acres of land, which to his mind, M'as strong 

 proof that a little land well cultivated was the 

 true system. 



j\Ir. Felton inquired if this was worn-out or 

 well-cultivated land at the time it was first used 

 as a pasture. Deacon Allen had understood that 

 it was always well cultivated, and deeply plowed. 



