NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



11 



mlU potatoes, which had brcome so barren ns 

 o be consiilereJ almost worthless. I put a spoon- 

 'ul of plaster in each hill, hoed them once, and 

 lad an excellent crop of potatoes. 

 1 have now an acre of potatoes growing which 

 plastered, whicli look remarkably well and 

 •^ A FAUMEK. 



jroniisnig'. 



iVorctstcr. 



August 1, 1823. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mr. Epitor — The following is founded on 

 act, and with a little variation, is literally true. 

 .Mr. A. and Mr. 13. are two farmers livinp; on- 

 eighty rods distant from each other. Thvir 

 rm« each contain about one hundred and twen- 

 acres of land, being of about equal value. 

 Mr. A manages his larm so as to summer and 

 nter twenty head of cattle and keep them well, 

 d always has a ton or two of good hay lefl in 

 he spring. He raises two hundred bushels of 



to work without rum. lie is some in debt, audi The planting of chcsnuts, nud mo3t other 

 says he cannot brmg both ends of the year to- tree seeds, was as familiar to many, as the 



gethcr, yet ho will not deprive himself or his 

 family ol'tho conveniences ol'life on ihat account. 

 If himself or his family want any thing which 

 they have not he will buy it and pay for it when 

 he can ; so that instead of lessening his debts he 

 is continually adding therelo, and accorduig to 

 the course of things ho will sooner or later be 

 oldiged to sell a part of his farm to satisfy the 

 demands of his creditors. W. 



From the Massacliusctts .igiicuUural Repository. 



James Ombrosi, Esq. consul of the Uniteil 

 States at Florence, has sent to the Massachusetts 

 .Agricultural Society, through William Little, 

 Esq. of Boston, a tew pounds of a grass seed, 

 which he calls Erba Medica, and which he says 

 is cut in Tuscany live or six times a year, and 

 is there considered particularly nutritious food 

 for cows or horses. It is chopped up, or in 



orn in a year and about the same quantity of i some other way, mixed with hay for cattle. Mr. 



nglish gram. He and his two aons, the one 

 wenty and the other fourteen years of age, per- 

 arm all the work on the farm, as they hold it 

 fundamental puinciple not to hire any labor, 

 niess something special and unforeseen should 

 ender it absolutely necessary. This work is 

 Iways done in season, and much time is gained, 

 hich is spent in building stone wall and mak- 

 )g oiher valuable improvements on the farm. 

 le never makes any bluster about his business, 

 ways keeps a steady course, begiiiniug 

 arly in the morning and finishing his work in 

 ;ason at night. He says that he chooses te do 

 is own work rather than to hire it done, lor il 

 e does it himself it will be done as he wishes 

 ) have it, but if he hires it done he will have 



to pay for ; and there is the expense of board- 

 ig, which is something. 



He says he is obliged to study economy that 

 « may keep along and gain a little. He wili 

 ot run into debt, unless necessity compels him 

 ) to do, as he thinks it is better for him to d(, 



ithout things that would be convenient, but can 



2 dispensed with, than to buy them on trust, and 

 y and by be under the necessity of selling a 

 oke of oxen, or a piece of land, to pay bis debts. 

 e and his sons drink no ardent spirit on any 

 :casion whatever, for they have learned liy ex- 

 srience that they can perform more work and 



3 more robust and hearty without spirit than 

 ith it, and by abstaining from the use of it they 

 ve enough at least to pay all their taxes, beside 

 le hazard of consequences arising from the dan- 

 3r and force of habit. Thus by prudence and 

 ;onomy he is able to meet all his demands, con- 

 ibute liberally to the various benevolent ob- 



Ombrosi and Mr. Little will be pleased to ac 

 cept the thanks of the society for their attention. 

 T.he seed appears to us to be that of some spe- 

 cies of Trifolium, evidently not the bread leav- 

 ed clover of Flanders, which is on the whole 

 considered the best by European cultivators. 



The Flanders clover, however, in our seed 

 stores, is sadly mixed with other -varieties^ and 

 sometimes other species of clover. The seeds 

 vi the Trifolium ollicinale, melilot, or yellow 

 i'rGl'oil, are intermixed to so great an extent, 

 that some fields which we have sown with red 

 clover seed, boiiglU ax such in the shops, arc now 

 of a yellow color from the prevalence of the 

 melilot. The worst of it is, that it is an increas- 

 ing evil. Ten years since the melilot, or yel- 

 low clover, was so uncommon, that we examin- 

 ed it as a botanical novelty. 



From tile American Farmer, 

 PLANT.iTION OF TIMBER. 

 Mr. Skinner — Having lost my mother at an 

 early age, I was sent to feer parents, to receive 

 that care which a widowed father could not be- 

 stow on my infancy ; and being in the vicinity 

 of the Valley Forge, in Chester county, 1 wit- 

 nessed the destruction of the timber of that es- 

 late, and of several adjoining ones, by the con- 

 tinental army hutted there in the winter of 

 1777. Every tree was cut down, and all the 

 fence rails taken, to shelter and warm those he- 

 roes, who, though unable to prevent Sir Wil- 

 liam Howe from entering Philadelphia, were 

 willing to brave the inclemency of a winter sea- 

 son, badly clad and badly fed, to keep him pri- 

 soner there ; so that the proprietors, unable to 



cts of the day, and add something to his perma- 1 enclose their grounds immediately afterwards. 



nt fund besides 



Mr. 13. conducts business in a very dilTerent 

 anner. He has as much help of his own as 

 r. A., yet his work is always driving him so 

 lat he IS Compelled to hire much extra kibor, 

 I order to keep business along. He raises no 

 lore grain nor cuts so much hay, nor gets done 

 ayiug so soon as Mr. A. He makes no essen- 

 Lil .inprovemenls on his farm, for he says that 

 e can make more by working out with his team 

 lan ha can to build stone wall and subdue his 

 )ugh bind. He is considered a temperate man, 

 2t it costs him more lor ardent spirits than it 

 ies to pay his taxes. He says that he cannot 



ork m hot weather, nor does he want his mea 



;\nd scarcely able to purchase fuel, considered 

 ihemselves utterly ruined. The elTect of their 

 comj)laints remained impressed on my mind, un- 

 til 1 went to Europe in 1791, and induced me, 

 while there, to make particular enquiries how 

 those old countries obtained continual supplies 

 of an article so indespensable for domestic and 

 manufacturing purposes. 



I learned with astonishment, that there was 

 not probably one single tree in England oi 

 France, but had grown from the stump of an 

 other tree, which had been planted by tlu 

 hand of man ; or was itself one of those identi 

 cal monuments of human industry, patience and 

 foresight in plantin 



planting of corn with us; and except the aquat- 

 ics, which are grown from cuttings mostly, and 

 the evergreens, whose little seed are put into 

 beds and transplanted, is preserved very much 

 in the same way, both objects requiring n pre- 

 paration and protection well known to farmers. 

 Of these, however, 1 have given some details 

 to the Agricultural Society of this State, from 

 a Iraiislation of a French treatise, and which 

 they may one day give to the public. The 

 want of timber will not be so much felt in the 

 United States, wliilst the increased populatioa 

 is spreading over the immense forests of the 

 west, as to require a knowledge of the science, 

 except as concerns those who are proprietors 

 of grounds on the borders of fresh water streams 

 which render the clearing unhealthy ; or oth- 

 ers, who have cleared, hilly, broken or stony 

 o-rounds, lit for timber, and tit for nothing else, 

 liut the science of cutting to grow again, if it 

 may be called a science, should be known to 

 every farmer, planter or proprietor, because 

 the weight and value of the article will not al- 

 low of much transportation ; and the advantage 

 of a second growth on the spot is superior to 

 trees already grown at a distance, if all had 

 means to spare to procure them. There is no- 

 thing mysterious, or difficult, or costly, in pro- 

 curing the second growiii of trees of the com- 

 mon kind, and in greater quantities than the 

 first growth, hs the experience of every iron 

 master in the country has shown ; and indeed, 

 those very farmers about the Valley Forge, who 

 had witnessed the cutting of the timber by the 

 owners of that estate for years, and who were 

 so much alarmed at their situation and prospects 

 in 1778, were, on my return in 1799, abundant- 

 ly supplied by wood of second growth, and as 

 rich and contented as ever. Patience they found 

 of necessity ; observation of what bad passed so 

 completely under their eyes, was all that was 

 wanted. 



What is most essential here now, perhaps, is 

 a disposition to look to futurity — to frovide ik 

 TIME ; but, I will add, from what 1 learned and 

 saw abroad, 



1. That the felling of trees is confined to the 

 winter season ; or rather, to that time in which 

 the sap is under ground. 



2. That every tree, young and old, on a cer- 

 tain space, is cut in the same season, for old 

 dead stumps do not re-produce. 



3. That they are cut as smooth and level 

 with the ground as possible ; and 



4. .That, while young, they are kept from 

 the browsing of cattle. 



Your very obedient servant, 



THOMAS W. GRIFFITH. 

 Baltimore, July, 1823. 



Superficial Observers. — There are some per- 

 sons that never arrive at any deep, solid, or val- 

 uable knowledge, in any science, or business 

 of life, because they arc perpetually fluttering 

 over the surface ol things, in a curious or wan- 

 dering search of infinite variety; ever hearing, 

 reading, or asking after something new, but 

 impatient of any labor to lay up and preserve 

 the ideas they have gained; their souls may 

 |je compared to a looking-glass, that whereso- 

 ever you turn it, it receives tlie images of all 

 objects, but retains none. 



