162 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



NOV.23, I845S 



The cnmmittee award to Mark Fay, of Marlbo- 

 ro', th Isl premium of S'l"^. 

 Farms. 



Sylvester Jacobs, of Groton, applied for a pre- 

 mium on his farm. Thi; committee regret that 

 Mr Jacobs was not at liorno when thoy called, as 

 liis written staleiiiPTit is not so full as tlicy cnulil 

 have wished. This farm is silnnted one mile from 

 the village in Gmton, and contains about sixty 

 acres, mostly upland, and smnewliat hilly. It is a 

 very pretty farm, and probably has been for thirty 

 years past ; but it would be dangerous to say that 

 any very great improvements had been made upon 

 it within the last ten years. It has a very good 

 barn, about eighty feet long, but though favorably 

 situated for that purpose, there is no cellar under it. 



The Committee would here observe that, other 

 things being equal, they would certainly award the 

 premium to the man who has a good cellar under 

 iiis barn, in preference to one who has not. With 

 a good cellar the farmer can save all the manure 

 made from the urine of his slock, most of which, 

 without a cellar, would be lost. It has been as- 

 certained by experiment, that the urine of a cow 

 will make more manure than the other droppings. 

 The difference is as 17 to 20— that is, the urine of 

 seventeen oows will make as much manure as the 

 other droppings of twenty cows. The urine of one 

 cow, properly saved in gravel or loam, will well 

 manure one acre and a quarter of land. This 

 forms an item too valuable to be lost by any good 

 farmer. Add to this, that the manure made in the 

 open air loses much by evaporation, and it may be 

 safely asserted thfit a farmer can, with the same 

 amount of labor, make tivice as much manure in a 

 good cellar as ho can in the open air, without a 

 cellar. 



[For further information on this subject, see Dr. 

 Dana's Muck Manual, a book which ought to be in 

 the hands of every good fanner.] 



The committee examined the farm of Jonas 

 Viles, of VValtLam. This farm is situated about 

 two miles from Wallham plain, and eleven miles 

 from Boston. It contains !.)0 acres of land, part 

 hilly and very rocky, and part swamp and bog 

 meadows, four acres of which have been reclaimed. 

 Fifteen years ago, Mr Viles began to make im- 

 provements on this farm. At that lime much of it 

 was entirely unproductive, and covered with rocks 

 that would discourage most men, but with a perse- 

 vering, well directed industry, Mr Viles went to 

 work, and no doubt he has dug up and removed 

 Btone enough to build four momiiiients as large as 

 that on Bunker Hill ; and these stones have been 

 buried up in his meadows and disposed of in his 

 double walls, where they will long remain, a mon- 

 ument of his industry, at least. After removing 

 the Btone, he planted the land, and on much of it 

 set out apple trees. His young urchaids have al- 

 ready been noticed in the former part of this re- 

 port. He has in addition to the.<e-, more than 150 

 older trees, now loaded with choice apples. His 

 barn is 100 leet long and 3.5 feet wide, with a back 

 linter built on, and a cellar under about two thirds 

 of the whole. He makes the miiniire mostly under 

 cover, part in the cellar and part in the shed, and 

 brings about ten cords of horse manure annually. 



This is a milk farm now, and has l)een for seve- 

 ral years, and much attention is given to tiie grow- 

 ing of roots for the cows, such as rula b.iga, sugar 

 beet, mangel wurtzel and English turnips. He 

 keeps 12 cows in the summer and 20 in the winter, 



besides one, and sometimes two yoke of oxen, 

 three horses, six young cattle, and a good number 

 of hogs. He carries his own milk to market every 

 day, and buys some from his neighbors. He proba- 

 bly makes enough by carrying milk lor his neigh- 

 bors, to pay for marketing his own, and in that 

 ca.=e his own milk would yield him at hame the 

 market price ia Cambridije or Boston. 



The produce of the farm the present year, is, by 

 estimation — 



32,.580 qts. of milk, 5 1 -2 cts. .'i!l,806 7"! 



.500 bushels potatoes, 40 cts. 200 00 



350 bbls. picked apples, $1 50, .525 00 



Peaches, pears anri windfall aiiplcs, 130 00 

 Vegetables not enumerated, 75 00 



$2,730 75 

 It should be understood that this is the amount 

 iidually sold, and does not include the produce con- 

 sumed on the place, either by the family or stock. 

 The expenditures are as follows: 

 3 men 8 months at $15, $360 00 



1 man 4 n)onlhs at $12, 48 00. 



Board of men. 234 00 



Salt hay, grain and manure bought, 400 00 

 Blacksmith's bill, 50 00 



Wear and tear of wagons, tool.*, &c., 100 00 

 3.50 flour barrels, at 20 cts., 70 00 



Taxes on the farm, 30 00 



!? 1,292 00 

 Balance of net profit, ,$1,444 75 



In tlieir examination of this farm the comnr.ittee 

 saw many things to admire. The crops all pxe- 

 sentcd a fine iippearance, tho cornfields particular- 

 ly. Mr Viles ra.ses the same kind of corn that lie 

 has had for fifteen years. Every year before it is 

 gathered, ho goes through the field and selects the 

 earliest and best filled ears for seed. By long 

 practicing this course, he has much improved his 

 corn. No doubt any kind of a crop may be im- 

 proved by taking a similar course with the seed. 

 The committee were much gratified with the neat 

 and tidy appearance of things about this farm, and 

 particularly about the buildings, which are well 

 constructed and convenient. Indeed, at every turn 

 there is something to suggest the idea of conveni- 

 ence. The notion of uii'/ii^/ seems to prevail over 

 all others. 



The committee award to Jonas Viles, of VVal- 

 tham, the Isl premium of $25. 



All of which is respectfully submitted, 

 NAHUM HARDY, \ 

 ABEL MOORE, \ Commillee. 



NATHAN SMITH, Jk.) 

 Concord, Oct. 5, 1842. 



To Cure a Burn. — A (iuukeress preacher in 

 New Yolk, was 80 successful in curing burns, that 

 many of the lower chias supposed her possessed of 

 tho power v( working miracles. The following is 

 Ihe recipe for the mediciin!: Take one ounce of 

 beeswax with four ounces of Burgundy pitch, sim- 

 mered together in an earthen vessel, in as much 

 sweet oil ns will soften them into the consistency 

 of salve when cool. Stir Iho liquid when taken 

 from the fire till quite cool. Keep it from tho air 

 in a tiglil box or jar. When used, spread it thin- 

 ly on a cloth and apply it to the part injured. Open 

 the burn with a needle to let out tho water till it 

 heals. — Amer. Fur. 



Tliere are over 800 deaths in London weekly. 



TO CURE HAMS, &c. 



A writer in the Philadelphia Ledger gives the 

 following directions fiir curing hams, shoulders, 

 rounds of beef, tongues, &e., lor dryini.', which he 

 says he has followed successfully for twenty years, 

 and that hams thus cured, weresuld this last spring 

 for 11 cts. per pound, to sell again, wlmn thousands 

 of the common quality were bought of the grocers 

 for fi 1-4 cts. — Far. Cah. 



" To one gallon of water add eight pounds coarse 

 rock salt, one pint of molassp.s, and two ounces 

 saltpetre ; mix the ingredients, i» these proportions, 

 well together, and let them remain until dissolved, 

 say twelve hours, and then assort your hams so as 

 to have them of the same or similar sizes in the 

 same tubs, packing them either end dowmvards, but 

 not flat or horizontally, until the cask is full — then 

 pour tho brine, as above prepared, over them, and 

 your work is about done. Hams of about ten lbs. 

 weight should remain in this pickle about four 

 weeks, and larger ones in proportion, and no longer 

 — (six weeks in common being quite too long for 

 pretty large hams) — or they will become too salt, a 

 great fault indeed for this article. All the various 

 laborious and tedious methods wo hear of, such as 

 dry rubbing with saltpetre, sugar, &c., may be very 

 good indeed, but quite unnecessary, inasmuch as 

 precisely the same end is attained by the above 

 process, with comparatively little trouble. After 

 the hams have lain a sufficient time in pickle, take 

 them out and let them drain for a day or two, be- 

 fiire hanging them up to smoke — for which purpose 

 hickory wood is much the best; and when brought 

 to a proper color, they may bo packed in casks of 

 any size, in 'dry saw-dust, in medium coarse salt, 

 (as they will take no more salt,) or any compact 

 article, or they may be packed without any thing, 

 if not intended for export ; in which case it is bet- 

 ter to interlay them with something to keep out 

 niea. 



"The above recipe is unsurpassed for curing 

 rounds of beef, tongues, &c. for drying ; but they 

 must not remain in the pickle more than ten days, 

 then to be taken out, washed, and hung up to dry. 

 I do not profess to bo acquainted with the best 

 mode of putting up beef for shipping. But pork 

 seems simple enough; — -cleanliness, despatch and 

 plenty of salt, are the principal requisites. By de- 

 spatch I mean, that the meat should not be suffered 

 to remain unpacked so long as to become partially 

 tainted betore being salted. It is thought by some, 

 that it is sometimes left to lay too long in bulk be- 

 fore salting, which accounts for so much unsalea. 

 ble meat received from the interior. To obviate 

 all this, let the pork remain ns short a time as coa- 

 venient after becoming perfectly cool, before it ia 

 cat up into proper sizes, and begin to pack in sweet 

 casks, by first putting in the bottom salt to the 

 depth of two inches ; then begin to put down «• 

 layer of pork, in a circular form, round next the" 

 staves, with the skin next the wood, and so on fill- 

 ing up the middle last, tjirowing in between each 

 layer a sufficient quantity of salt to fill all the in- 

 terstices, and to. cover them partially ; after whici 

 take a wooden rammer and ram the meat down foi 

 sometime. Let 2 1-2 or 3 inches of salt remair 

 on the top — (in no case using any other than thei 

 best rock salt) — then let the meat stand thus for a 

 week or ten days, alter which pour in as mud: 

 pure clean water as will nearly fill the cask ; am 

 if well hooped and headed, it may be sent to Cal 

 cutta and back again, and be as good on its returi 

 as it ever was." 



