386 



Nl^W ENGLAND FARMER, 



June 20, 1832. 



I have anotlioi- orcliai-il that was sot out two 

 years aso last spring, of one hundred trees, all se- 

 lected and of the best kinds of fruit. There are 

 twentyeight kinds. This orchard I have nursed 

 and manured highly, and it looks thrifty. I wash 

 the trees with soap and ley, mixed in equal quan- 

 tities, in the spring, which I think is far superior 

 to anything else I have ever used or heard of. 



As to my house, it is twentyeight by thirtythree 

 feet, two stories high ; with a kitchen, sixteen by 

 sixteen ; a cheese-room, milk-room and buttery, 

 running out back ; with a well-room, wood-house, 

 wagon-house ; farmer's work-shop, thirtythree by 

 sixteen ; a tool-house, a corn-barn, chaise-house 

 and a cider-mill, adjoining the kitchen and nearly 

 reaching the barn, which is thirty by seventy, with 

 two barn-floors. I can tie up twenty head of liorn 

 cattle, and i)ut up four horses. There is a shed 

 at one end, twelve by sixty ; and a barn-yard ad- 

 joining, about five rods square (with a well in it,) 

 where I keep my oxen, cows and sheep, not let- 

 ting them get loose through the winter. 



I have another barn, already mentioned, where 

 1 keep my hay for market, which is thirty by for- 

 ty ; another barn, twenty by thirty, which I fill 



calculated to fat and sell one hundred dollar 

 worth of beef, yearly. I keep one horse, and 

 about fifty slieeji about one half blooded merinos. 

 The quantity of butter and cheese I can tell noth- 

 ing A)Out, we make little excepting what we use 

 in the family. 



My stock is the native breed, exoept seven years 

 since I purchased a very fine bidl, that came from 

 New Hampshire, said to be of the Beckworth 

 breed. I have ever since kept a bull descended 

 from him, and have taken a premium on some of 

 tliem at the Bristol County Society, also on some 

 cows of the same breed. 



As to my hogs, (I calculate to raise my own 

 pigs,) they generally weigh about three hundred 

 pounds apiece, and are usually six in number. 



As to labor on the faim, I have a son about 

 nineteen years old, and I have usually one hand 

 seven months in the year, at twelve or thirteen dol- 

 lars per month ; also a boy, and a number of hands 

 in hay time. This year I hired about thirty days' 

 work, at thirty dollars. I collected all our hay 

 into barns and stacks before August. AV'e work 

 out our teain nearly or (juitc enough to pay our 

 barn floor and all, with my poorest hay ; a shed | help. We have not used any ardent sjiirits for 3 



keep them till they are three years old. I have the show in Bristol County, a number of times, on 



adjoining, sixty by twelve, with a warm yard ad 

 joining, where I keep my young cattle, and let 

 them go to a spring in the lot near sai<l barn, to 

 drink. This yard I clean out in the spring, heap- 

 ing up the old hay and manure as soon as the frost 

 is out, and at planting time draw it out and ma- 

 nure my potatoes with it, there being about twen- 

 ty loads. My other yanl, where I keep my other 



years, and get along much better thhn formerly 

 when we did use it, for there is now no grumbling, 

 as there was then, for want of more. We use ci- 

 der, hop beer, sweetened water, and milk and wa- 

 ter. I generally hire such help as have families, 

 and want all their pay from the farm. 



•As to rotation of crops, I like to ])lant potatoes 

 the first year, corn the second, and sow down the 



stock, I clean out in the fall ; then fodder my cat- 'third year with spring rye, as early as the ground 

 tie in it all winter, then cart my green manure that! will permit. I sow nearly a bushel to the acre, 

 was thrown out of the barns, and spread it all over i then liaiTow, and roll it in with a good heavy roller, 

 the yard, and then cart in as many loads of loam i I feed my stock in the fall with corn fodder and 

 and spread it over the manure, to keep it from good hay till cold weather comes, iliin with my 

 drying up ; then yard my cattle u[ion it all sum- poorest hay till spring, then with better. I give 

 mer, ploughing and mixing it occasionally, out of milch cows some roots in winter, such as turnips 

 this yard. I carted one hundred and nineteen and potatoes, beginning in the fall and continuing 

 half-cord loads of excellent compost last fall, forty them through the winter, lightly, as they will hold 

 loadsof which I put on my corn ground for spring ; out. I never have any roots to sell, except to 

 the other seventynine loads I put on my English hired help, although we have i)robably some years 



mowing, and spread it. This has been my meth- 

 od for a number of years, as to manure. 



I have a hog-pen, also, walled in with a thick 

 tight wall, about three rods square, the north cor- 



raiscd nearly a thousand bushels 



To my oxen I give five or six ears of corn 

 daily ; and when I work them hard, a little meal. 



My calves that I intend to raisi-, (which must be 



some of them. I let them run with the cattle in 

 winter ; they will pick out a good deal that the 

 cattle will not eat. I give them a yard that they 

 can run into, away from the cattle, where they 

 usually lie. I also have a rack in that yard, made 

 on purpose for them, set perpendicularly, that the 

 seed may not get into their wool. I feed them 

 with English hay. I have for some years, but not 

 always, given them corn and turnips through the 

 winter. I think they never did better than they 

 did last winter. I kept them as usual, but without 

 provender, till about the middle of February ; then 

 I fed them in these racks with fine clover hay ; 

 and after they begin to lamb, give them some corn 

 and turnips, as long as they would eat hay. I let 

 them out of the yard as soon as the grass starts up 

 a little in the spring. I think they do best. I gen- 

 erally have them lamb the first of April, when I 

 can keep my neighbors' rams away from them. I 

 wish to mention one thing, which I fear you will 

 think a pretty large sto^y. ' I have a four -years' 

 old ewe sheep (a cade,) that never had a lamb ; 

 she is always fat, and never would eat any proven- 

 der of any kind, and always goes with the young 

 catile and lives on the poorest hay I cut. Last 

 spring I sheared 1 1^ pounds of fine wool from her. 

 An agent of a large woollen establishment saw 

 her, and said he never saw anything like her be- 

 fore ; but this wool was two years old, not being 

 sheared in 1830. 



This rough draught was drawn in haste, and is 

 quite imperfect. It is much longer than I expect- 

 ed when I began. 



I am, dear Sir, very respectfully, your obedient 

 humble servant, PETER TIIACIIER. 



P. S. — If I have anything to boast in farming, 

 I must acknowledge that I received it from the 

 Now EnglancJ Farmer. 1 began with the second 

 volume, and have since read it very attentively. 



Atlkhorough, East, September 28, 1831. 



Bristol, ss. Septeviber 28, 1831. — Then person- 

 ally appeared Peter Thatcher, subscriber to the 

 foregoing statement of facts and description of his 

 farm, and the management of the same, and made 

 oath that the same is true. 



Noah Claflin, Justice of Peace. 



ner of which is dug into a side hill, at which there entirely red,) I have sometimes suflfered to suck 

 is a nest covered with flat stones ; at the south and sometimes I have fed them with new milk, 

 corner of which there is a pair of bars and a till they were weaned. But the better way, on , 

 house to feed them. The northeast aiul northwest the whole, in my opinion, is to take them from the 

 sides we can back a load up, and ti|) it over the cow at about five or six days old, and give (hem 

 wall into the pen. This I clean out in the spring, new milk a few limes and (hen milk porridge 

 Last spring I carted out sixty half-cord loads, once a day, and they will do very well without new 

 which I spread on my planting land. My method milk ; in a few weeks, a little dry meal is very ex- 

 liere is, as soon as I clean it, to cart in old hay and collent. I wean them usually at three months old. 

 straw, then loam and green manure, and add to it I usually keep six hogs, and fat them principally 

 in the summer anything that will rot, such a-; on pumpkins and potatoes, boiling them together ; 

 bulrushes, brakes, and small whortleberry brush, 1 1 have a kettle that will hold about three bushels ; 

 which grow in our rocky pastures, and are regn- tnixing them up with a little meal, adding more 

 larly cut every other year, half yearly, and with ' meal from time to time, till they are fat. I fre- 

 weeds which we throw in when at leisure. I also ' quently give them a little green corn on the cob, 

 go to the sea-shore, which is fourteen miles, and .for a change. 



get a few loads of sea-weed, which I think very As to fatting cattle, I have no certain rule as to 

 excellent to mix with other materials, and cart the age, but usually fat them young. I seldom 

 some mud out of a pond-hole in the woods, which keep cattle till they get on the decline. Some oat- 

 is a mile off. I keep four oxen constantly and tie will do very well till they are twelve years old, 

 generally a pair of steers to work, five cows con- others fail younger; I usually fat them with grass 

 stantly, and about thirtyfive head of young stock, and green stalks, and when they are done I turn 

 I have always calculated to raise my own stock, them off as quick as possible, 

 and raise about eight or ten calves yearly, and As to sheep, 1 have taken the first premium at 



From the Genesee Farmer. 



LEACHED ASHES FOR MANURE. 



Mr Goodsell — A very general prejudice ex- 

 ists among farmers, against leached ashes for ma- 

 nure. Vast bodies of them are suffered to go to 

 waste or lie idle, in every direction about the coun- 

 try. I know by experience that they are an excel- 

 lent manure. 1 have tried them on my garden 

 and in field culture, and aJways with satisfactory 

 results. They are brought in vessels from Albany, 

 Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and New York, 

 and deposited at the landings on Long Island, sold at 

 from twelve to twentyfive cents ])er bushel, carted 

 from six to ten miles, and used as manure by the 

 farmers of Long Island. 



About twentyfive years ago I was on a visit to 

 an uncle of mine, and saw him receive four dol- 

 lars for fourteen bushels of leached ashes. I re- 

 marked, that the man could never hope to see his 

 money again by spreading them on his land. He 

 replied, / knoiv nut hoiv it is, hut wt groiv rich by it, 

 I know many thousand acres of land on the Island, 

 which are now producing fine crops of grasB and 

 grain, which formerly were too poor to produce 



