78 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



I8i5. 



184fi. 



1847. 



18«. 



1S49. 

 1850. 

 1851. 

 1852. 

 1853. 



By 7 tons of hay standing, 

 25 bushels of oats, 

 3 bushels of barley, 

 SO bushels j>oUitoeB, 

 wood, 



By 10 tons of hay standing, 



40 bushels potatoes, (on eharcs,) 



By 121 tons hay standing, 

 8 loads mud hauled. 



By 15 tons of hay standing, 

 5 bushels of rye, 



By 15 tons of hay standing, 



By 15 tons of hay stand iiig, 



By 12 tons, (one acre sokl off,) 



By 9 tons hay standing. 



By 9i tons hay standing, 



Balance, being the present cost of the lot 

 paying all expenses, and 6 per cf nt. 

 est to November, 1853, 



£6,00 



10,00 



2,50 



15,00 



1,00 



90,00 

 20,00 



95,00 

 4,00 



100,00 

 6,000 



, after 

 inter- 



84,50 



110,00 



99,00 



105,00 

 105,00 

 90,00 

 75,00 

 100,00 

 133,00 



504,54 



$1460,24 



The result of the operation, agrkidturaUy speak- 

 ing, 18, that the lot has paid all expenses of labor, 

 fencing and manure, six per cent, interest annual- 

 ly, and $134,46 more. But this is not all. More 

 than half the lot was, when purchased, a worth- 

 less swamp, part filled with hassocks so that six 

 yoke of oxen were required to plow it, and part 

 covered with stumps, from which the wood had 

 been recently cut. Now, the whole is a clean lev- 

 el mowing field, free from all obstructions ex- 

 cejjt a few open ditches. 



I think the fair value of such land is alwut 

 $200 an acre, near any good market, and to show 

 that my ojiinion is not singular, it may be stated, 

 that I hare sold enough of the lot, since last hay- 

 ing time, at $16C,75 per acre, to bring mo $505. 

 It adjoins no street, and was purchased merely for 

 agricultural purposes, and was subject to an in- 

 cumbrance for which I had received $100. I also, 

 in 1851, sold a little more than one acre, for $340, 

 a part of which perhaps was for fancy, though it 

 is occupied only for farming. 



Farmers can make money by reclaiming wet 

 meadows, and the foregoing statement shows it. 

 This land was no better than thousands of acres, 

 which may be bought, in New England, at ten 

 dollars an acre, yet I paid for it nearly a hun- 

 drajl, because it joined my garden where I then 

 lived, and like all land owners, 1 like to buy all 

 that joins my own. Farmers can attend to sucli 

 work at times of leisure, for themselves and their 

 cattle. I 23aid one dollar a day, for every day's 

 work of a man or yoke of oxen. The account will 

 show that the hay, wliich was of the first quality, 

 of herds grass, was estimated at only from six to 

 eight dollars per ton, until 1852,when it is set down 

 at about nine. This is a lower price by far, than 

 the average, in our region, in past years, prior to 

 1844. "This year, I sold it from the field at sixteen 

 dollars. Again, every cord of manure is charged 

 at four dollars, whether purcliascd or hauled from 

 my own barn, and this is twice the cost of mak- 

 ing it in most lucalities. Then, as usual, I fol- 

 lowed no beaten path, but tried all sorts of scien- 



tific oxporimonts in a small way, \^-ith limo and 

 guano, and with l)arluy and rye and Oiits, on pla- 

 Q2S where it was said they would not grow. Ev- 

 erybody knows that these experiments are expen- 

 sive to him who tries them, however tliey may 

 help the cause. Indeed, I flatter myself, that with 

 the added experience of ten years, I can manage 

 wild lands to much ]x;tter advantage than this 

 lot was managed. I sold a part because my home 

 is now on a new fiirm, where I am indulging my 

 propensity to make rough places smooth, on land 

 which cost me but twenty-five dollars an acre, eo 

 that my interest account will not consume the 

 profits. 



The three acres which I still hold of the "Court 

 House Meadow," are worth more per acre than 

 what I have sold. 



Now, whether we regard the annual product of 

 the land, or its selling value, it must appear that 

 reclaiming swamps, is sometimes at least a profit- 

 able business, and that is the proposition which my 

 statement and remarks are designed to illustrate. 



n. F. F. 



Exeter, N. H., Dec. 29, 1853. 



FARM FENCES. 



This subject is an exceedingly important one, 

 more so, we are confident, than many persons sup- 

 pose it to be. Those who have been in the habit 

 year after year, of mending up two or three miles 

 of brush fence, about their pastures in the spring, 

 and occasionally called away during haying and 

 harvesting to "stop the gaps" made by hungry 

 cattle, will be able to tell the cost and vexation 

 of such insecure, perishable and expensive modo 

 of fencing the farm. 



"We find in one of our exchanges some remarks 

 on the subject which we copy freely, and for which 

 we should be glad to give the proper credit if we 

 knew from whence they came. The wi'iter says — 



"The best fence is a good stone wall ; but if 

 wood is used, skill and judgment are necessary in 

 the selection of material and the mode of prepar- 

 ing it. 



"The first item for consideration, in this mat- 

 ter, is j?/-s^ cost, and the second is durability. — 

 Sometimes a third item may be important, to wit, 

 the land used vip by the fence. The second is the 

 oidy one of these that can be estimated with any 

 degree of accuracy by any general furmula, and 

 even this one is far from being uniform. But let 

 us say a word of each. 



"1. The stone wall. If material is at hand, or 

 in the soil, and no especial obstacle or objection 

 comes in to vary the result, our own opinion is de- 

 fcidedly in favor of stone fences. When propjrly 

 laid, they outlast the builders. We know ol' fen- 

 C(!S of this kindi^ apparently as good as new, that 

 have stood at least fifty years. These sampL^s are 

 chiefly of faced walls, with deep foundations, cost- 

 ing originally two or three tunes as much as aii or- 

 dinary fence. But if they last as they now jn'om- 

 ise, the amount expended in their construction wa 

 a capital investment. 



