NEW ENGLAND FARME: 



PUBLISHED r;V JOHN B. RUSSELL, ROGERS' buildings, congress street, BOSTON THOMAS G. KLSSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. III. 



FRIDAY, APRIL L 182.0. 



No. .'i6. 



<©ri5tiial Communications. 



T. G. Fesspnden, Esq. 



Editor of the ■N'ew England Farmtr, 



l.MPROVEMENT OF FArxMS. 



Essex County, March 20. 



Dear .'^ir — Such are (he conslnnt variations 

 in the n.iliire of IliR soil Ihrouirlioiit iilinost all 

 K^Hvv Eiiglanit, thiit .T common farm of 60 or 

 100 acres can hardly' be taken up,wliere places 

 c:innot be foimtl in some <lcgTee suitable for tbe 

 ^loivlli ofmostoftbc things raiseil in this part 

 ol'the connlry, so lliat what is said of the whole 

 territory of the United State'^, that its varion= 

 latitudes mal<e it independent of oilier parts "f 

 the world, may be s.iid with some variation, '^f 

 every N. England Yeoman, — he is independent 

 of all his neigiibours around him. But when U 

 may be said, that almost every farmer can 

 raise most or all the things, commonly cultivat- 

 ed in this part of the connlrv, it does not folloiv 

 that his farm is equally calculated for all. In- 

 deed it IS very obvious there is a great difi'er- 

 ence in the adaptation ofdilTerent larms to dif- 

 ferent kinds of produce, not only in different 

 towns but in those in the same neighborhood. 

 One is best for grass, another for grain, a liiird 

 for roots, and so on; and though a man may 

 grow them all, yet there will he a vast dilTer- 

 ence in the labour and expense, as also in the 

 comparative produce of the ditVereDl article^.. 

 So that though it may be often conveiient to 

 raise all our things, and also possible, yet :'. 

 may by no means, be advisable. 



The proper course to be pursued is, I'jf » 

 man to look at his farm to ascertain its prevail- 

 ing qualities, and for wliat it is best qualilied, 

 •ds a prevailing crop. In doing this he must 

 consider not simply the soil, which he is to cul- 

 tivate, but also what is its condition in respect 

 to means of improvement, the manure (I use 

 the word now in its extensive sense, to include 

 every thing there is calculated to aid the earth 

 in yielding a rich and encouraging produce) 

 which may be obtained, and the expense of pro- 

 curing it. And when this is ascertained, to di- 

 rect iiis principal attention to this object, tho' 

 it may subject him to the necessity of purchas- 

 ing many of the necessaries of life, which would 

 be possible for him to raise — for he would have 

 the means of purchase and could procure them 

 at less expense than he could raise them — and 

 this upon the same principle that a merchant 

 or mechanic purchases any part of the prod- 

 uce of the field called for by his necessities. 



Another thing is also important, and that is 

 that the first efforts for improvement should 

 be made upon the best pieces of land. This 

 may be the manner of some — I think it is not of 

 the many. Pieces may already yield a pleasant 

 and prolitable crop, yet it is true, that in most 

 instances, all labour and expense upon them 

 turns to the best advantage. Often the labour 

 and expense put upon a poor lot, which only 

 makes it passable, and hardly worth possessing, 

 would make a good lot remarkable — I know 

 and feel the temptations, uhich urge to a cliffer- 

 ent course ; but I am persuaded they ought Dot 



to be yielded to. There is a sturdy unyielding 

 principle among New England peojile, whicli 

 prompts them to undertake almost any thing, 

 where their strength of body or mind may have 

 room for exercise. And this, among other 

 things, has perhaps induced some to undertake 

 to conquer (such is the word.) some of the 

 most forbidding pieces of land, and urges them 

 on, till they have succeeded. And nothing, in 

 one sense, can be more pleasing than to see 

 what has been etTected. But, on the other 

 hand, it is unpleasant to see so much labour 

 wasted to little profit, while another part of the 

 faim would have returned to the cultivator an 

 hundred fold reward. The time may come, 

 but it has not yet come, when these rough plac- 

 es must be made smooth, and when the lime 

 comes there will he profit as well as pleasure 

 in doing it. The course which wisdom points 

 nut is to advance, towards this Herculean la- 

 bour, as there is interest in the way to it, and 

 as the richer and better fields alTord the means 

 of accomplishing it. And perhaps. I ought to 

 add .T< the vegetables are discovered to which 

 these barren and hard places are adapted. 



What a field of a [)articular soil will produce 

 the best, is a matter of experience, drawn from 

 our own practice, or that of others who have 

 lived before us, and it is happy that experience 

 has now been so great that there is not much dif- 

 ficulty in knowing what the soil of any f.irm in 



its ur.cultivated state is the most natural for 



But it is no easy matter to determine in ivbal 

 way these alterations may bo produced, which 

 will give these the greatest fri]:tfulne«s. A 

 man maj' indeed have every thino- -.vithin his 

 reach necessary to iii.iive iiis tield li'>e the g;'r- 

 den of God, and yet not knowing hnw to use 

 them may suflier his field to be like the valley 

 of salt. This arises from ignorance of the con- 

 stituent parts of earth. In what ingredient one 

 soil abounds, in what it is deficient, from what 

 part of his premises he can take what will add 

 richness to another part, from what two fields 

 there shall be an exchange, which like the com- 

 merce of nations, shall give riches to both. 



All, it is true, have some knowledge on this 

 subject, but the knowledge of most is small. — 

 And what is worse, there is, Mr. Editor, no way 

 within the power of farmers immediately to 

 remedy this. They are ignorant of those chem- 

 icnl principles by which this can be determined, 

 and it is not easy, 1 may say possible, under 

 present circumstances, to possess themselves 

 of them. It is true that direclions have been 

 given in your paper and in other papers to an- 

 alyze soils ; and these may be intelligible to 

 those who are learned, or have seen them per- 

 formed, but not so to farmers, with the advan- 

 tages they commonly possess. And till there is 

 some other means of information, progress in 

 this part of agricultural science must be slow. 

 Farmers cannot go abroad to get it ; their busi- 

 ness confines them at home ; the rising genera- 

 tion will enjoy better opportunities in the places 

 of learning than the present generation, but far- 

 mers want the advantage, which science already 

 possessed, would give them. And among the 

 means of sending these abroad among the farmers 



[of these states, it has occurred to my mind, and 

 you will permit me to express the sentiment to 

 you, that there should be employed by the Agri- 

 cultural Societies, separately or in concert, some 

 experienced and scienlilick men, to visit the sev- 



, oral towns in these states, and the farms of the 

 members of such sor.ietics for the purpo=e of ac- 



I tually making experiments upon the soils, and as 

 (ar as possible lUtermine their leading proper- 



itics. And further to give instruction in regard 

 to the soils, which should be mixed, or what 



[manure is most promising on any particular 



j fields. You may be sure that it is a subject 



! of vast impoi tanre to farmers, that additional 

 information, on this subject, lie possessed, and 

 information which scienlilick men have in 

 their power to convey. By books they can do 

 something — by papers they can do more, but 

 in neither way can they do enough. 1 do not 

 know hovv the method proposed may strike 

 \ourmin<!, or Ihat of others ; but it does ap- 

 pear to me that such a plan carried once into 

 operation, would lie of almost unspeakable ad- 

 vantage. And that many farms would be en- 

 hanced in value almost beyond calculation, by 

 it. I might refer you to instances which would 

 go to justify this idea ; but the thing appears 

 too obvious to need, with such a mind as yours, 

 any thing more than a b.iie statement to acquire 

 your assent to the measure, as to what would 

 be good ; y<iu or others may think of a better; 

 if so, as one interested in the advancement of 

 the agriciiiiiiril interest of this country ! shall 

 rejoice, i'or my object is not the honour of 

 originating a plan but the advantages to which 

 the plan Will lead. But I do s,iy that knowledge 

 is wanfTj, nud that men of science have it in 

 the'.! [iO-.Tcr to g^ve, if not all that is required, 

 yet to give much ; ■on'\ tiiat in I'otching their 

 knowledge to the undersiB..»i...a .„,.^ door ot 

 the farmer, is the best way in which the ru^.^.^ 

 of agricultural societies can be employed. The 

 grand question is, how can this most economi- 

 cally and effectually be done ? 1 have showed 

 you my opinion — will you give the public yours? 



REMARKS. 



It appears to as that very beneficial resnlts might be 

 the consequence of pursuing the foregoing suggestions. 

 It is certainly expedient to ascertain the ingredients of 

 a b.^iren soil before any attempt can be made to im- 

 prove it with a certainty of success. No farmer is ig- 

 norant of the facts that a «andy soil may be improved 

 by clay, marl, sea ooze, vegetable earth, pond or river 

 mud ; that a gravelly soil requires similar applications; 

 that clay requires sand, or gravel to amend its texture, 

 &c. -And it is often the case that unless the texture of 

 a soil is amended, the application of common barn-yard 

 manure is comparatively of very little value. But it 

 not unfrequently happens that a soil may appear t» 

 have a proper mixture of those kinds of earth vrhich 

 usually constitute fertile fields and yet be unusually 

 barren. Sir Humphry Davy says (Agricultural Chem- 

 istry, page 181) " A soil of good apparent texture froia 

 Fyincolnshire, was put into my hands by Sir Joseph 

 Banks as remarkable for sterility : on examiniDg it i 

 found it contained sulphate of iron ; (copperas) and I 

 offered the obvious remedy of a top dressing of lime. 



