1855. 



NEW ENGL.\ND FARMER. 



463 



the pasture where there was room enough for a 

 cow to get her foot between the stones ! Perhaps, 

 however, such accidents are of too rare occurrence, 

 to form a serious objection to rocky pastures. 



Stones are a great nuisance in plowing, in hoe- 

 ing, in momng, and indeed all other operations on 

 the land. On my Exeter place, we grind our shov- 

 els and hoes, and they hold their edges for weeks. 

 We set the plow at one end of the field, and it runs 

 without stopping or breakmg the furrow to the 

 other. We giind our scythes, and they are only 

 dulled by cutting the grass itself. Here, although 

 our fields are cleared, and the boys have picked 

 stones for a hundred years, every stroke with the 

 hoe or shovel gives back the sound of a pebble on 

 the steel, and the implements are soon blunted. 



We use nearly double the team in plowing, and 

 the plow groans and labors constantly, as if passing 

 through a stofte heap, and every new breaking up 

 of the sward brings to light a few loads more of the 

 hidden rocks. Clear youi" field as you will in a 

 stony region, some round pebble wU rake your 

 scythe from point to heel, every swath, and occa- 

 sionally the point of a fast rock will brealc such a 

 gap in the edge, as vdll send you groaning to the 

 grindstone. And as to mowing machines, the ef 

 feet of contact ■with stones with one of them is too 

 painful to be more than alluded to. 



In this %-iew, decidedly, I don't like many stones 

 on a form. I never felt the want of them in Exe- 

 ter, except for drains. Our friend French, of Brain- 

 tree, I understand, purchases tiles as being cheaper 

 than the use of stones, though stones are abundant 

 on his farm. If I could find good land free of 

 stones, I should vastly prefer it to what is called 

 stony land. For my drains in Exeter, I have 

 made use of bushes, filling the drains, say a foot or 

 tAVo deep with bushes, and poles of an inch or two 

 in diameter, covered with turf or old boards, and 

 filled up with earth. They carry water well, and 

 have answered a good purpose thus far, six or eight 

 years. Still they are not suflSciently permanent ; 

 and they furnish quite too good accommodations 

 for moles and mice, "and such small deer." Stones 

 of almost any description are much better. 



After all, there is much to be said in favor of the 

 hard hill farms of this part of New Hampshire. 

 The world does not produce finer apples than old 

 Chester. They constitute the leading selling crop 

 of the to\vn, as indeed of the county generally. 

 On these hills, where we find a ])an so hard that we 

 use a crowbar in digging a i)ost-hole, and often find 

 stones enough to nearly fill it when dug, an apple 

 tree is almost sure to live and thrive. Trees are 

 rarely winter-killed on high and hard land. The frost 

 strikes neither so late in spring, nor so early in fall, 

 as on the plains, so that we often see dahlias and 

 tomatoes and such tender plants in full freshness 

 two weeks later here, than in the vallevs around., 



Less rain probably falls on the high ridges of this 

 coimty, than in the river valleys, yet there is no 

 land that endures a severe drought such as that of 

 last year, like the high rocky farms. These are 

 some of the considerations to be weighed in de- 

 ciding how to choose a form, when about purchas- 

 ing, and some of the sources of consolation, or rea- 

 sons for being discontented, which a man who lives 

 on a hard farm may always find, accorchng to his 

 disposition. A morose, "sour-complexioned" man 

 would be miseral^le in Paradise with Eve by his 

 side, while he of cheerful heart will bear his portion 

 of the burden laid upon father Adam, and earn his 

 bread by the sweat of his brow, and find content, 

 and create a happy home, even in a wilderness. 

 Truly yours, II. F. F. 



Chester, .Y. H.t Aug., 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



DEEP AND SHOAL PLOWING. 



Messrs. Editors : — There is nothing which will 

 make such a lasting impression on the mind as what 

 we experience. Theory, like the ignis fa tuns, often 

 bewilders and leads to error in practice. Relating our 

 expeiiences, whether successful or otherwise, may 

 prove useful by conveying instruction to the minds of 

 those of less experience. Lining in different States 

 and working on land of various soils in different 

 locations, I have become so liberal-minded, that, 

 like the anxious politician, I can join both parties, 

 the one in favor of deep plowing as well as the one 

 in fovor of shoal plowing. The success of the far- 

 mer in plowing his fields depends much on his 

 know ledge of the soil he is working on ; if the sub- 

 soil is clay and retentive of water, it looks reasonable 

 that he might plow deep. If it is a hard iron pan 

 land, which may be known by its iron-rusty color, 

 under-draining is better than disturbing a poisonous 

 subsoil. If the sulisoil is of a loose, sandy or grav- 

 elly texture, shoal plowing would be preferable, un- 

 less large quantities of manure can be a])])lied. 



In the memorable year of 18 IG, in what is 

 now the city of Lawrence, I engaged a neighbor to 

 unite his team with mine to ])lo\v a barren elevated 

 piece of land, the subsoil a fine clay loam compound- 

 ed with coarse gravel. I put the plow in up to the 

 beam ; my neighbor exclaimed, you will ruin your 

 land ; I said, Captain, I am in no apprehension of 

 making my land any worse, for it has borne nothing 

 but " pussy grass" since it came into my possession. 

 The result was that Mr. J. How and myself had the 

 only eatable corn raised in the town tliat year. The 

 next year I had 20 bushels of sjjring wheat at the 

 acre, and the succeeding year nearly three tons of 

 hay on the same acre ; all these crops from one 

 ordinary dressing of barn manure j)lowed in, and a 

 little gypsum. 1 speak not of these crops being ex- 

 traordinary, but merely to show what an eilect deep 

 ])lowing will have on some kinds of worn-out land 

 that had pre\iously l)een superficially i)lowed. 



On my jjresent form I have ]}lowcil deep on ele- 

 vated red gravelly soil, but witli a dillercnt result, 

 and have come to the conclusion that converting 

 such land to a forest is best for the credit of the 

 soil as well as for the interest of the proj)rietor. I 

 have a field of 10 acres, low and level, which bears 



