54 



Scie7}tific Farming. 



Vol. VI. 



To the Eilitor of tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 



Scientific Farming. 



Sir, — 1 wish I could convey to your read- 

 ers one hair the pleasure in description which 

 I experienced in reality on a visit wliich I 

 paid the last week to Morris Longstreth, 

 Esq,, Valley Green, Whitemarsh. The farm 

 — for it is a farm, and not a garden — consists 

 of 150 acres of just the best part of a valley 

 renowned for its fertility, with the VVissa- 

 hicon flowing within a few yards of the house, 

 over which the owner has thrown a substan- 

 tial bridge leading to the larger portion of the 

 property which rises gradually from the banks 

 of the creek until it terminates in a lovely 

 wood half a mile distant; — indeed the estate 

 might very appropriately be named "The 

 cream of the Valley." In the midst of a 

 lawn and orchard of considerable extent and 

 unequalled fertility, stands the house and 

 magnificent farm-buildings — an establish- 

 ment which requires to be seen before one 

 half the luxurious comfort devised for its oc- 

 cupants, both within and without the house, 

 can be properly appreciated ; the preparations 

 for the cattle and stock of all kinds during 

 the winter campaign, however, forming with 

 me the greater charm : even the piggery is 

 so large and commodious, that it might be- 

 come a source of envy to many a decent 

 working-man's family. But tlie most striking 

 feature is, the large space which has been 

 allotted to the cattle in their stalls, with am- 

 ple room for feeding at their heads, and a 

 space behind sufficient for the passage of a 

 horse and truck, by which the stalls are 

 cleared and the dung conveyed to the outer 

 yard with a tenth of the labour incurred by 

 the use of tlie wheel-barrow; — indeed the 

 whole establishment as a farm, exceeds all 

 that I have elsewhere seen. There is, too, a 

 garden of sweets, properly situated at the 

 back of the house, leading to a peach orchard, 

 the soil of which is devoted to the culture of 

 the sugar beet ; the present crop cannot be 

 less than 30 tons an acre, the same land hav- 

 ing carried such a crop the last year, and 

 being destined for the same tlie next: but the 

 owner has hit a happy thought, for, upon the 

 last cleaning of the beets, he sowed the land 

 with turnips — a mixture of the white and the 

 ruta baga: the plants are now making fine 

 progress, and will form a second crop of great 

 luxuriance and much value, on the removal 

 of the beets a month henco ; and for this hint, 

 the agricultural community will be highly 

 inde!)ted to him. The crop of grass around 

 the house was such tiiat the yield of hay is 

 estimated at four tons per acre; this lias been 

 augmented to that point by tlio judicious sys- 

 tem of top-dressing with compost, liino, &c., 

 a business which is destined henceforth to 



demand very largely the farmers' attention; 

 and its effects might here be witnessed to 

 perfection. The crops of every kind are 

 abundant; the wheat — the red chaff bearded 

 — but which I should not hesitate to denomi- 

 nate a fine sample of Mediterranean — having 

 proved, like that, fly and rust proof — shows 

 the best sample that I have seen, this year 

 of very general failure of that crop; the oats 

 also are superior. But the corn is riolouSf 

 throwing out, in some cases, four full-sized 

 ears from a joint ; and even from the tassel 

 itself, an apology: I send one stalk with six 

 ears to the office for exhibition. The pota- 

 toes promise a very large crop, owing to the 

 judicious selection by the owner, of the lale 

 Mercer — a plan worthy of adoption, in a cli- 

 mate oftentimes so quick as to prevent the 

 crop from coming to perfection, especially if 

 it be of an early variety. 



I found them busily engaged ploughing for 

 wheat, the land having been prepared and 

 manured by this early season ; but the ploughs 

 were unfit for this all-important purpose, being 

 too small and light; a well-cultivated, pulver- 

 ized and heavily-dunged surface, requiring a 

 long and heavy plough, so as to take up and 

 turn over a thin furrow, and completely to 

 bury the dung — and this deficiency will, I 

 fear, be perceptible the next harvest, these 

 light ploughs slipping out of their work, and 

 leaving it half-performed. 



The lower meadows are grazed by a herd 

 of Devon cattle, the tnaster-spirit being the 

 bull Porter, which took the first premium 

 at the last Exhibition of the Philadelphia Ag- 

 ricultural Society ; one of his calves, out of a 

 large Herefordshire cow, drawing the aston- 

 ishing weight of 135 lbs. on the hay-scales on 

 the day of his birth ! There is a most re- 

 markable bull-calf by Porter, from a very neat 

 Devon heifer, which it is the intention of the 

 owner to exhibit at the approaching meeting 

 at the Rising Sun ; it appears like one bundle 

 of muacle, very neat, however, in the head 

 and neck. I should name hirn Young Sliak- 

 speare, from the similarity which he bears to 

 the wonderful animal of that name — the fa- 

 ther of the Long-horns, as Hubback was of 

 the Short-horns — as described in Youatt's 

 work on British Cuttle, whore it is said, "at 

 first sight it appears as if the tail, which 

 stands forward, had been severed from the 

 vertebra) by the chop of a cleaver, one of the 

 vertebrifi extracted, and the tail forced up, to 

 make good tiie joint" — ^just so appears young 

 Shakspeare. Tiiose who were present at the 

 West-Chester and Delaware Co.'s exhibition 

 of last year, might have .seen a calf from a 

 half-bred short-horn cow, of the same singular 

 formation. 



Tiiere is a lime-stone quarry in the centre 

 of the estate, with two kilns in operation, from 



