1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



443 



mediately repairing the mischief. Every man who 

 cuts down a tree should plant one at the same 

 time ; and whenever a tract of forest is removed, 

 except where there is already a superfluity of tim- 

 ber, he who caused it to be removed should cause 

 a plantation to be made that will restore the bal- 

 ance he has disturbed. Then shall we be surround- 

 ed with ever pleasing landscapes, our country will 

 be more wealthy in timber, and the atmosphere will 

 be preserved in a state of wholsomeness and purity. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GOOD FOR NOTHING SOILS. 



We are sometimes told that the soil of New 

 England is too worthless to be cultivated much ; 

 and that we must look to the great West for the 

 products of the soil, and content ourselves with be- 

 mg, for the most part, a manufacturing people. 



Now I grant that much of the West has a better 

 soil than the most of Massachusetts — far better. I 

 grant, also, that as a whole, Massachusetts has 

 more and better facilities than the West for manu- 

 facturing. Yet the West has her coal, as well as 

 the East her water privileges. I grant, too, that 

 the manufacturing power of Massachusetts and of 

 New England in general, will be less likely to fail 

 than that of the Western States. 



From one part, however, of the usual confession 

 about the inferiority of Massachuselts and the rest 

 of the East, I am obliged to dissent. Our soil, 

 though not the best, is far from being worthless. It 

 is, indeed, thin, and in some places is made much 

 thinner by bad cultivation ; but then it might be 

 raised, and in my opinion, toiU be. I believe it may 

 be rendered so productive that sn average acre will 

 support an average individual. Let it be made thus 

 productive, and it would sustain a population of 

 about forty millions. Would not this entitle New 

 England to the name of a productive country ? 



If any one thinks this an exaggerated statement, 

 let him examine the matter for himself. Let him 

 look at certain acres among us, though as yet but 

 imperfectly cultivated. The products of some few 

 f these acres would be twice as great as the aver- 

 age implied above. Only half of New England, if 

 I were to select the best part? of it, might be made 

 to support the whole forty millions. Some of the 

 remaining half, I grant, as part of Cape Cod and a 

 few other towns, would produce very Httle though 

 of absolutely useless or waste lands, in these States, 

 there are very few. Most of our country, at the 

 East — probably nine-tenths — might be made like a 

 fertile garden. 



Much might be done for the poorer, if not for 

 the better parts of New England by what is called 

 subsoiling. Some of our farmers, I know, turn up 

 their noses at this suggestion ; but they need not. 

 Too many experiments have been made during the 

 last thirty years to leave us in doubt on the subject. 

 I have made a few — some of them highly satisfac- 

 tory. Others, however, have done more. I wish 

 I had room for a list of these experiments in de- 

 tail. One, that is recent, and very instructive, I 

 will not withhold. 



My neighbor, Mr. Johnson, a mechanic, early 

 last spring, took it into his his head to subsoil a 

 small piece of land, which though it had a tol- 



erable natural basis, had been long neglected and 

 would hardly produce anything. He spaded to the 

 (lej)th of twenty inche-^, wholl)- inverting the whole 

 of it; in this subsoil, well pulverized — and tolera- 

 bly — hut only tohraMj — manured, he planted 

 corn, potatoes, and the usual garden vegetables. — 

 He expected rather light crops the first year. Some 

 of his neighbors, supposing he had not counted 

 well the cost, reckoned on an absolute failure. 



The results, however, have disappointed every- 

 body, and even Mr. J. himself. His corn, potatoes, 

 beans and peas, are about equal to those of his 

 neighbors ; the peas more than equal. His cab- 

 bages, tomatoes, beets, turnips, rhubarb and vines 

 exceed, as a whole, anything I have seen. One of 

 his neighbors says he has raised on a quarter of an 

 acre or so, vegetables enough for his large family 

 a whole year. 



Now three-fourths of New England are capable 

 of being rendered, by careful subsoiling, as produc- 

 tive as this little spot of Mr. Johnson's. It is, in- 

 deed, a somewhat expensive job, but it pays quite 

 as well, even the first year, as the old method of 

 skinning the soil ; and it will, no doubt, pay far 

 better, in the end. I repeat, 1 am fully persuaded 

 that by this process alone. New England might be 

 redeemed in the end ; and then when we add to 

 this, our other contemporaneous improvements, 

 what is to hinder it from becoming what, in its best 

 days, Palestine was — a garden — and almost an 

 Eden. W. A. Alcott. 



Auhurndale, Jiug. 12, 1857. 



DRAIN TILE. 



To answer the numerous inquiries as to where 

 drain tile can be purchased, and at what prices, we 

 copy into our editorial columns the following ad- 

 vertisement. Mr. Crafts is entitled to this place, 

 having long been advertising his tile. We improve 

 the opportunity to ask our iViends to look careful- 

 ly at the advertising columns of the Farmer; by 

 so doing they may find some advantages to them- 

 selves and save us some labor. 



Drain Tile, manufactured by James M. Crafts, 

 and for sale at the follcwing prices : 



Sole Tile 14 Inches Lono. 



4 irch calilire at $40,CO per 1000. 



3 inch cat. bre at 18,00 per lOOO. 



2 inch calibre at 12,f0 per 1000. 



5 inch calibre Octagon Pipe Tile 75,00 per ICOO. 



Agents in Boston, NouRsE, Mason & Co., and 

 D. 1). Wells, 21 Charlestown Street. 

 Whately, Mass., August 8, 1857. 



How TO Examine Wells. — The following sim- 

 ple mode of examining a well to ascertain whether 

 it contains any offensive substances, has been rec- 

 ommended as efficient : "Place a common mirror 

 over the well in such a position as to catch and 

 throw the rays of the sun to the bottom of the well, 

 which will be immediately illuminated in such a 

 manner that the smallest pebbles, &c,, at the bot- 

 tom, can be distinctly discerned as if in the hand. 

 The sun is in the best situation to be reflected 

 in the morning or afternoon of the day." 



