No. 11. 



The Farm of Clark Rice, Esq. 



343 



seed, and becomes like all other worked 

 trees. The stock exercises some, as yet, 

 unexplained power, in dissolving the strong 

 natural habit of the variety, and it becomes 

 like its fellows, subject to the laws of its ar- 

 tificial life. 



When we desire to raise new varieties of 

 fruit, the common practice is to collect the 

 seeds of the finest table fruits — those sorts 

 whose merits are everywhere acknowledged 

 to be the highest. In proceeding thus we 

 are all pretty well aware, that the chances 

 are generally a hundred to one, against our 

 obtaining any new variety of great excel- 

 lence. — Downing^s Fruit Trees. 



From the Cultivator. 

 The Farm of Clark Rice, Esq. 



Messrs. Editors, — I was much gratified, 

 in a recent visit to the farm of Clark Rice, 

 Esq., in Dummerston, Vt., to find so trium- 

 phant an illustration of the profitable results 

 of enterprise and good judgment, in seizing 

 hold of the natural advantages of the farm, 

 and appropriating them to use. These ad- 

 vantages consist in an abundant supply of 

 swamp muck of fine quality, and the power 

 to obtain and hold a large quantity of sur- 

 face water for the purpose of irrigation. Mr. 

 Rice's farm is mainly a grass farm, hay being 

 the most profitable crop for his location and 

 soil, and his operations are therefore con- 

 ducted with a view to the raising of a large 

 burden of grass, of good quality. 



He has recently erected new barns which 

 are remarkably convenient and well ar- 

 ranged; the main barn is 160 feet in length, 

 east and west, by 30 feet in width, with am- 

 ple shed lofts, and a horse barn and carriage 

 house annexed. The ground upon which 

 the barn is built is descending to the east, 

 and under a portion of it is spacious barn 

 cellar for the manufacture of compost, 100 

 feet long by 30 wide, open 24 feet on the 

 southeast end ; the lower side, or east end of 

 the barn-yard, being on a level with the cel- 

 lar bottom, affords a convenient passage into 

 and out of it from the yard. 



The liberal use of muck enables Mr. Rice 

 to sell off large quantities of hay without 

 detriment to the farm. He usually winters 

 from 30 to 40 head of cattle, however, about 

 half of which are stall fed, and the manure 

 from these, composted with muck, together 

 with other means of making compost here- 

 after described, affords him all the manure 

 necessary for the improvement of his land, 

 making and applying about 500 loads annu- 

 ally. 



Management of muck. — His bed of muck 



covers a number of acres from six to eight 

 feet in depth, and is a vegetable deposit of 

 the finest quality. The original growth of 

 timber on the adjoining land, was hard wood 

 mainly, and whatever wash there may ever 

 have been of an extensive area of higher 

 land around the swamp, would naturally 

 flow into it. Excellent arrangements have 

 been made for the thorough drainage of the 

 swamp, which will be more particularly de- 

 scribed in speaking of his system of irriga- 

 tion. The main body of the muck, except 

 from March to the middle of June, when the 

 gates are shut and the swamp filled with 

 water for irrigation, lies high and dry from 

 moisture to the depth of five or six feet, and 

 can be got out at any time of the year, when 

 most convenient to do the work. Two or 

 three times in the course of the winter, a 

 quantity sufficient for a layer of a foot in 

 depth over the whole cellar, is taken direct- 

 ly from the swamp on sleds, and thrown in, 

 it being but a short distance from the barn, 

 and the ground a little descending. 



In the fall, a coat of muck a foot in depth, 

 is deposited over the cellar bottom, and when 

 a sufficient quantity of manure has accumu- 

 lated under the scuttles in the stable floors 

 to cover the muck eight or ten inches thick, 

 the same is spread, and another coat of muck 

 put over the manure; repeating these ope- 

 rations from time to time, through the win- 

 ter and spring, until the cattle are turned to 

 grass. An immense quantity of compost is 

 thus formed, and, judging from the smell 

 and appearance, of the finest quality. A 

 part of the muck is dumped through a scut- 

 tle in the barn floor into the cellar, and a 

 part is thrown in through windows in the 

 underpinning, and what cannot be conveni- 

 ently spread from these heaps with the sho- 

 vel, is taken up on wheel-barrows, running 

 on a plank, and distributed in due propor- 

 tion ; the design being to incorporate two 

 parts of muck to one of manure. A larger 

 proportion of muck is kept under the stable 

 floors, where the urine flows, than elsewhere, 

 and this saturated muck is spread into the 

 middle of the cellar froin time to time, in 

 order to equalize the whole mass. 



The compost lays in this state until after 

 the spring work is done, when at odd jobs, 

 such as rainy days and other days of leisure, 

 it is forked over from end to end. After 

 haying, it is carted out on to the land where 

 wanted for the next spring's use. None of 

 it is applied to the soil until a year old — Mr. 

 Rice being of opinion that composts, where 

 large proportions of muck are used, require 

 to be fully ripened by age and fermentation, 

 in order to derive the greatest benefit from 

 their application to the soil. 



