NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



2:{7 



^loyers, and poverty, nnd disgrace are the final. I 

 md inevitable result. But in no one, are (ho 

 inliappy eifects which result from the want ofj 

 hese, raore apparent than in the cultivator of' 

 he soil. The indolent farmer exhibits liisowni 

 isijrace to every passing traveller; and brings 

 brcibly to the mind even of the stranger, the 

 vorils of the wise man — " I went by the field of 

 he slothful, and by the vineyard of the man 

 toi'i of understanding, and lo it was all grown 

 )ver with thorns, and nettles had covered the 

 ace thereof", and the stone wall thereof was 

 roken down." Hnw true is the picture which 

 iolomon here gives of what daily falls under our 

 wn observation. How often do we see a farm 

 usceptible of a high state of cultivation, and 

 vhich might with any thing of industry and e- 

 onom}' be a source of wealth to its possessor 

 —how often do we sec it grown over with bush- 

 , briars, thistles, and every hurtful weed — 

 he fields badly arranged, the fences out of re- 

 air, the land half tilled, the barn doors broken 

 rora their hinges, and the windows of the 

 ouse filled with hats, presenting any idea but 

 lat ot comfort. 



" On a nearer examination, the picture is 

 ill darkened. — Look at his stock, his out-hous- 

 ■s, his implements of husbandry ; every thing 

 poor and out of its place. Enter his dwelling 

 his home, that sacred place in which are to be 

 )and the only fruits of Eden which have sur- 

 ived the fall — is domestic peace and happiness 

 iver found within, where neglect and ruin are 

 ithout ? Does not every thing wear the same 

 jpect — and is there not inscribed on every 

 ■ung on which the eye can rest, indolence and 

 aste? 



"Reverse the picture ; and what can be pre- 

 loted more agreeable, what can be accompa- 

 <ed with more pleasing ideas. Look at the 

 rm of the man who is diligent in his basiness, 

 id prudent in his concerns — his own spirit is 

 fused intoevery thing around him — every thing 

 in repair, every thing is in its place, every 

 ning is in its season ; — every thing evinces that 

 e master's eye has seen and directed all his 

 incerns — and that he hath remembered and 

 actised the adage — 



" He that by the plough would thrive, 

 Himself must either hold or drive." 

 —On a nearer examination we find his fields 

 ell arranged and productive, his crops clean, 

 ad of the best quality, and secured in season 

 nder cover, instead of being exposed to weath- 

 in stacks as is too frequently the case, to the 

 reat loss of the farmer, both in the crop itself, 

 ad in the manure of which it might be pro- 

 uctive — we find his caMle well fed — in good 

 ondition — and often better sheltered than the 

 mily of the slothful. Enter his dwelling, it is 

 le habitation of plenty — the store house of the 

 liry and the loom — and his fire side, that calm 

 id domestic one, where the farmer, in the bo- 

 ■)m of his family, finds not only rest from his 

 ill, but the richest reward of his labor. 

 " Since we are assembled for the purpose of 

 lUtually receiving and communicating instruc- 

 on, and stimulatmg each other in that pursuit, 

 hich was the first, and is still the most honor- 

 die employment of man — i'. will be expected 

 lat something will be said more particularly 

 a the cultivation of the soil. Agriculture em- 

 races in its widest sense too many subjects to 

 ^it of a description in detail, within the lim- 



its of a single discourse. Division and Fencing 

 of a Farm, the proper mode of tillage — drain- 

 ing and watering of land — the rotation of crops 

 — kitching gardening, that important, though 

 much neglected subject- — Ihc planting and cul- 

 tivating of fruit trees — diflfcrcnt kinds of ma- 

 nures and their application — the raising and 

 fatting cattle — the form and construction of 

 farming utensils, the most proper mode of build- 

 ing, both as it respects the form and materials — 

 and the different kinds of domestic manufactures 

 would furnish matter for an useful discourse — 

 but without descending to any particular discus- 

 sion on any one of these subjects, sufnce it to 

 say that a knowledge ofthem all will be sought 

 by the practical farmer. But permit me in 

 compliance with the request of several gentle- 

 men, briefly to subjoin a statement of what 1 

 have found to be the most successful and profit- 

 able mode of cultivating the farm which 1 have 

 taken under my immediate care and upon 

 which I have tried a number of experiments. 



" The soil of this land is a brown loam, lying 

 on a stratum of lime and sand stone, at the depth 

 of from three to six feet, projecting out of the 

 ground occasionally on the brink of ridges. — 

 The surface was covered with round hard stone 

 sufficient when put into half wall with posts and 

 rails to enclose it in lots from five to ten acres. 

 The original timber was principally beech and 

 maple, mixed with bass wood, elm, and hem- 

 lock. The whole farm was interspersed with 

 spots low and springy. — When first cleared the 

 dry land was productive both in grain and grass. 



" It was occupied as four small farms previous 

 to its coming into my possession, and has been 

 so often cropped without seeding down to grass 

 or being supplied with manure as to become in 

 a great measure unproductive not yielding the 

 occupants on an average more than twenty 

 bushels of grain to one ton of hay per acre. 



" Little or no attention had been paid to the 

 arrangement of the lots — the fences were in a 

 decayed state and the buildings much out of re- 

 pair, and the whole was much covered with old 

 logs, stumps, stones, hedges of briars, unprofita- 

 ble bushes and weeds. For the first four or 

 five years after part of this land came into my 

 possession, 1 pursued the common way of farm- 

 ing, and half ploughed and harrowed my land 

 over the stones and around the logs and bushes 

 — summer fallowed at the loss of one crop, and 

 ploughed in what little manure I saved five or 

 six inches deep. I laid out much labor and got 

 small crops. 



" Tilling my land with hired hands, I found 

 on posting my account it was running me in 

 debt instead of being a source of profit. This 

 induced me to try some other method, and after 

 several experiments having for their object 

 the economy of labor, the procuring and appli- 

 cation of manure and the rotation of crops — 

 the following has proved the most successful. 



" In the first place I drew a plan on paper 

 arranging the land into spuare and convenient 

 lots containing from five to ten acres having an 

 eye to the convenience of water for each field 

 and to the transportation of its produce to the 

 barn where it was to be housed but with no re- 

 gard to the onevenness of the surface or the 

 swales of springy land. This land cost about 

 twenty-eight dollars per acre. I commenced 

 fitting the lots and continued year after year in 



succession. The management of one may be 

 taken as a specimen of the whole. 

 " I removed the rubish at an expense of about '^2 

 per acre. — The loose stories were then removed 

 and with posts and rails placed into permanent 

 i'ence, at an average expense of ^G per acre. — 

 This expense added to the first cost of the land, 

 makes an average of g3G per acre, excepting 

 repairs of buildings, when the hind was fit for 

 tillage. I then arranged my barn yards a little 

 dishing, where it was convenient, for makin* 

 and preserving manure. 1 drew into them in 

 the fall a quantity of turf and dirt from the 

 knolls around my buildings and the adjacent 

 roads and yarded my stock upon it during the 

 winter. This course I pursued for a lew years 

 until my crops so increased as to furnish me 

 with manure in a sullicient quantity to give each 

 of my lots a slight coat once in five or six years. 

 In the spring it was thrown into small piles in the 

 yard. In the fall commenced |)loughing with a 

 good and faithful ploughman who turned over 

 the sod about three inches in depth and from 

 eight lo ten inches in width. The dry part was 

 back furrowed into lands of twelve paces and 

 the wet into lands from five to six paces wide, 

 leaving a deep dead furrow to answer the pur- 

 pose of a drain. I spread over it from six to 

 eight three horse loads of manure per acre and 

 on the driest and moi!t barren I have adderf 

 three or four loads of old leached ashes — rol- 

 led it down with a roller five feet long and twen- 

 ty inches in diameter. This was done to pulve- 

 rise the lumps and settle the manure and land 

 together. 



" This 1 have done both in the spring and 

 fall — the spring I have found the best time but 

 not so convenient for carting manure. About 

 the tenth of May it was well dragged, or plough- 

 ed with a one horse plough ; if ploughed it was 

 harrowed down and if it was wet and springy it 

 was cast into small ridges by throwing two fur- 

 rows together at a distance of two and a half 

 feet from the centre of the ridges, but without 

 disturbing the sod; then cross-marked at the 

 same distance. About the fifteenth or twenti- 

 eth of May it was planted with eight rowed 

 yellow corn, twelve quarts to the acre, wet in 

 a pickle made of six ounces of saltpetre, two 

 quarts of boiling water, one gill of tar. This 

 pickle was applied to the seed boiling hot, 

 which immediately was rolled in plaster and 

 planted. The head lands were planted with 

 four rows of potatoes for the convenience of 

 turning the horse so as not to break down the 

 corn. 



" After the corn was out of the ground six or 

 eight inches, it was lightly ploughed both ways 

 — one furrow in a row, dressed out with a hoe 

 and plastered on the hill five pecks to the acre. 

 After two or three weeks it was ploughed and 

 hoed as before without disturbing the sod, and 

 suckered before hoeing, leaving three or four 

 stalks in a hill. The potatoes were hoed at the 

 same time with the corn — the first time, the 

 tops were covered about an inch and the hill left 

 flat — the second time, the tops were spread a- 

 part with the hoe and about the same quantity of 

 dirt applied on the hills as before. The whole 

 of this expense including the manure and inte- 

 rest of the 36 dollars did not exceed nineteen 

 dollars and a half per acre. 



" In the fall, I gathered on an average from 

 sixty to seventy bushels of corn per acre fit for 



