1B25.] 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



269 



fession:\l pjentlfimer. is mnking many experi- 

 ments in farming. 



Our laws for the promotion of agriculture 

 have by dint of patronage carried tlio art mucii 

 beyond tlie point which natural and unassisted 

 progress would have reached, so that national 

 comfort and national wealth have been pi'Stive- 

 Jy increased by the establishment of agricultu- 

 ral societies. In this counly it has already pro- 

 duced admirable results in the arrangement of 

 farms, &.C. &c. Valuable animals have been 

 spread through the neighbourhood. The pat- 

 ronage of the State has given respectability to 

 Agriculture as a vocation. 



[To be concluded next week. 



From Deane''s Jfetc England Farmer. 



IMPROVEMENT. 



This is not the mere use, and occupying of 

 lands as the word is very improperly used, but 

 implies siic^i an employment of them as shall] 

 constantly render them profitable to the occu- 1 

 pant. If lands are so inferiour in their natural 

 qualities and productiveness, as not to return 

 to the cultivator a reasonable protit for his la- 

 bour, rent, and interest, it would be better to 

 abandon them either altogether, or to bestow 

 more labour and manure on a part of them, 

 leaving the residue for a scanty pasture for their 

 cattle and sheep. Perhaps the greatest errour 

 into which nur farmers too often fall is the at- 

 tempt to cullivate too much land even when it 

 is good — but the errour is still greater when 

 the lanils are of inferiour quality. The prac- 

 tice of cropping their lands, till they will no 

 longer yield sufficient to pay the expense of 

 culture, is perhaps the source of the poverty 

 of many farmers. Nothing can be more per- 

 nicious than the custom of exhausting lands, and 

 then leaving them to recruit by neglect, and per- 

 "mitting them to bear such weeds, and exhaust- 

 ing' plants, as any soil, however impoverished, 

 will furnish. The European mode of- fallow- 

 ing, which consists of repeated turnings of the 

 soil, enriched by the weeds, which spring up 

 spontaneously upon the ground so abandoned is 

 perhaps the most judicious course ; but it is 

 doubted, whether in a country like our own, in 

 which the lands of the first quality, are not yet 

 exhausted, and are more than competent to sup- 

 ply all the wants of our own population, and all 

 that other nations will take at a price, which 

 will return the expense of labour and capital 

 can be advantageous. It would seem, therefore, 

 to be the evident policy of our farmers to cul- 

 tivate no more land than what they can attend 

 to thoroughly, and instead of spreading their 

 labours over large tracts, no one acre of which 

 on computation yields a fair remuneration for 

 their toil and capital, that they should confine 

 themselves to smaller portions, and cultivate 

 these with spirit and intelligence. 



To apply these general remarks, suppose a 

 farmer, possessed of one hundred acres of sandy 

 or gravelly land, and to own 10 or 20 head of 

 cattle. It is scarcely to be believed that on a 

 farm of such a size, there should not be ten or 

 fifteen acres of meadow ground, or of richer 

 •Koil. If he would devote all his manure from 

 his cattle to his best lands — if instead of reap- 

 ing \Q or fifteen bushels of rye, or 25 or 30 

 feushek of Indian corn to the acre, he would ap- 



ply all his manure carefully preserved, and in-! 

 telligenlly increased by all Ihc subslanccs, calr.u- ! 

 lated to make a compost heap, to 10 acres of the : 

 best part of his land, he would be ab|i> to gath-l 

 er 1000 bushels of potatoes, 1000 bushels of, 

 carrots, as many of Swedish turnips, and 150 

 bushels of Indian corn on his ten acres of 

 cultivated land. Can it be doubted that his 

 stock would be better fed, his family hotter 

 supplied, his net income from articles sold from 

 his farm much more increased, than if he 

 should persevere in the old system ef rais- 

 ing rye at the rate of 15 or 20, or corn at 

 the rale of 35 bushels to the acre? We only 

 ask that the expcrinient should be tried — but 

 above all that the culture of roots, and the in- 

 crease of manure should be attempted for only 

 a few successive years. We have no fear that 

 this system would be ever afterwanis abandoned. 



In ascertaining the composition of sterile 

 soils with a view to their improvement, any 

 particular ingredient which is the cause of their 

 unproductiveness, should be particularly attend- 

 ed to ; if possible they should be compared with 

 lerlile soils in the same neighbourhood, and in 

 similar situations. If a barren soil contains 

 salts of iron, or any acid matter it may be im- 

 proved by quick lime. If there be any excess 

 of lime or chalky matter, sand or clay should 

 be applied. Where there is too much sand — clay, 

 marie, or vegetable matter is required. Peat 

 makes a good manure for a sandy soil. The 

 improvement of peats, bogs, or marsh lands 

 must be commenced by draining. 



The materials necessary for the purpose of 

 improving soils are seldom far distant: sand is 

 generally found beneath clay, and clay often be- 

 neath sand. Peat and bog earth are commonly 

 to be obtained in the neighbourhood of gravel 

 and sand. 



Swamp land, alter being drained, may often 

 be improved by qiiick lime, which is sometimes 

 better than paring and burning, as by the latter 

 process much vegetable matter, capable of be- 

 ing converted into manure is dissipated and lost. 



I would entreat farmers to consider that the 

 cost of raising a poor crop, one time with an- 

 other, is nearly as much as that of raising a 

 large one. There is the same expended in 

 fencing — the same lax paid — the same quantity 

 of seed sown — the same almost expended in 

 ploughing, as rich land ploughs so much more 

 easily than poor, as to make up for the extra 

 number of ploughings in a course of tillage. I 

 may add, there is the same or more labour in 

 thrashing. An attention to these things is 

 enough to convince any one of the great im- 

 portance of endeavouring to improve crops by 

 a more spirited and rational husbandry. 



If a farmer think he cannot afford to lay out 

 a farthing^ more on the tillage of an acre, than 

 he has been accustomed to do, let him be in- 

 treated to save a little in fencing, and so enable 

 himself to do it, leaving out some of his lands 

 that bring little or no profit, and pay taxes for a 

 less quantity of land in tillage; or let him turn 

 some of his tillage land to grass; and lay out 

 the same quantities of labour and manure on a 

 third less land in tillage. Lands in tillage 

 might thus be made profitable; and more so 

 than many are ready to imagine. 



It has often been observed, that those farmers 

 in this country who have the fewest acres, com- 

 monly get the best living from their farms. It is 



doubtless, because their lands are under better 

 cultivation. And some have taken occasion l<i 

 remark, that our farmers are ruined by the 

 great plenty of land in their possession. Thou"h 

 this remark is just, I can see no reason why it 

 should continue to be so, any more than that 

 being rich should necessarily make a man poor. 

 What need has that man who possesses 300 a- 

 cres, to destroy the w«od, or clear the land, a« 

 they call it, any faster than he can make use of 

 the soil to the best advantage ? What need has 

 he to be at the expcn.^e of enclosing more than 

 his neighbour does, who has only one hundred 

 acres, while he has no more ability or occasion 

 for doing it 1 Or to pay taxes for more acres 

 in grass or tillage ? It is a foolish and ruinating 

 ambition in any one, to desire to have a wide 

 tarm, that he may appear to be rich, when he 

 is able to give it only a partial and slovenly 

 culture. 



If such improvements as are possible, and 

 even easy were made in the husbandry of this 

 country, many and great advantages would be 

 found to arise. As twice the number of peo- 

 ple might be supported on the same quantity of 

 land, all our farming towns would become 

 twice as populous as they are likely to be in the 

 present state of husbandry. There would be, 

 in general, but half the distance to travel t« 

 visit our friends and acquaintance. Friends 

 might .oftener see, and converse with each oth- 

 er. Half the labour would be saved in carry- 

 ing corn to mill, and produce to market ; half 

 the joarneying saved in attending courts; and 

 half the expense in supporting government, and 

 in making and repairing roads ; half the distance 

 saved, in going to the smith, the weaver, 

 clothier, SiC. ; half the distance saved in going 

 to public worship, and most other meetings ; 

 for where steeples are four miles apart, they 

 would be only two or three. Much time, ex- 

 pense, and labour, would on these accounts be 

 saved; and civilization, with all the social vir- 

 tues, ivould, pethaps, be proportionably pro- 

 moted and increased. 



Nothing is wanting to produce these, and 

 other agreeable eflecls, but a better knowledge 

 of, and closer attention to, matters of husband- 

 ry, with their necessary consequences, which 

 would be a more perlect culture, a judicious 

 choice of crops, and change of seeds, and mak- 

 ing every advantage of manures. 



The culture of Cotton is fast extending ia 

 Virginia ; and not far from Richmond some plan- 

 ters are turning their attention to it, and culti- 

 vate from twenty to one hundred acres per year. 



The whole number of passengers, including 

 Americans, that have arrived in the United 

 States, during the year ending on the 30th of 

 September last, amounted to 9560. 



A letter from Sweden says, that during the 

 hurricane storms of November, no fewer thau 

 40,000 trees were deracinated in the great For- 

 est of Ocrebro. 



It has been resolved that the next exhibition of Do- 

 mestick Manufactures at Washington shall take place 

 on the last Tuesday ia November next, and that simi- 

 lar exhibitions shall be made at the first session of each 

 succeeding Congress. 



