322 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



APRIL la, 184a. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MR. RICHARD SANDRRS' FARM— WEST 

 ANDOVER. 

 Sir — When I took possession of my farm ten 

 years ago, k was in a rougli and uncultivated stale, 



For tlic N. E. Farmer. 



NOTES ON THE N. E. FARMER, APRIL .5. 

 Tlio remarks of W. on Lucerne, are correct: I 

 j have known four and five heavy cuttings in a year, 

 commencing with a jrood cut when clover and 



having been carried on by one man 30 years to the herds-grass had but jiist began to show green from 

 halves. I under the stubble : this was from a rich, warm and 



My house is 40 feet by 2(), two stories high : a I free soil, where the roots would penetrate to four 

 part of the lower story only finished when I took i or five feet in depth with ease ; and it continued to 

 possession, with a large stack of chi'nncys stand- I yield well for about 10 years, decreasing some, 

 ing in the centre, with a very shallow cellar under [however. On a .stiff' soil it has not succeeded with 

 one end. I have dug a cellar under the whole I me, nor am I disappointed. The nature of the tap 



building, 8 feet from floor to floor. 1 have pulled 

 down the old chimney and built up two stacks, and 

 plastered the whole house, I have built a wood- 

 hoiiFC, 1'2 ft. by 26, and a grain house 11 ft. by 16, 

 resting on stone posts 3 ft. high. 



My compost heap is composed of the old earth 

 from under my new walls, bug and pond-hole mud, ! ^|i|.g; ', Lad'a piece o7grouiid~'wl,icl7l laid'dow'n 



root, which I know to grow more than 30 inches in 

 one year, unfits it for such soils. 



"C," of Pembroke, is a good farmer, no doubt, 

 as are all who hold sweet communion with that pa- 

 triarchal farmer, Rev. Morril Allen, and follow liis 

 example. My experience and C.'s are somewhat 



ith the ashes of about 1.5 cords of wood and turf, 

 vault manure, cleanings out of hen-house once a 

 year, and generally all the summer dung, which 

 amounts to 100 loads. 



I plant my early peas, ruta baga, beets, carrots, 

 and all my white beans with this compost : the re- 

 mainder I put on my grass lands in the fall. 



Making Drains. — As soon as I have got the 

 ground dry enough for the cattle to walk on, I take 

 my plow and plow as deep generally as 2 ft.; I 

 have but little to do with the shovel before reach- 

 ing that depth. 'J'ho remaining depth is done with 

 the pick and shovel; then I lay my drain and fill 

 up with small rocks to within about one foot of the 

 surface ; then I cover the whole with brush or rye 

 straw, then take my plow and back furrow. 



I generally raise from 1000 to 1500 heads of 

 cabbage. My method is to set them horizontally 

 into my early potato hills. They undergo the 

 same process as the potatoes, until the digging of 

 the latter, when I give them a good hilling. In 

 the fall, I generally have as good a field of cabba- 

 ges as my neighbors. 



My place for raising English turnips is general- 

 ly my early pea ground. I take my plow and back- 

 furrow vines and all that is on the ground ; then I 

 sow my seed end give it a slight raking. I scarce- 

 ly ever fall of having a good crop. 



I dare not say much about my crops, as I see 

 such large statements by others, of 4 tons of hay 

 to the acre, &c. It is enough for me to say that 

 I am well paid for all my improvements and hard 

 labor ; now I am looking for profit. 



The soil of my farm is a dark mould, resting on 

 a yellow loam full of rocks. 



RICHARD SANDERS. 



^nJover, West Parish, April 7. 



Mr Sanders seems to have written more for an 

 agricultural committee than for our paper. The 

 article narrates the doings of an industrious, hard- 

 working man, who seems to bo contented, and 

 therefore is an example that many would be the 

 better and happier for copying. His modes of 

 growing cabbages and turnips, are probably eco- 

 nomical and good. — Ed. N. E. F. 



words, tlian any other work I ever read on agricul- 

 ture. * 



Yours, with respect, F. 



{JJ^We have been looking up old copies of Eli- 

 ott's Essays on Husbandry, and the kindness of 

 a zealous and valued agricultural and personal 

 friend, has put us in possession of a good copy of 

 the whole, printed in 1760. This we think of re- 

 publishing in tlie form of a book, should we find 

 sufficient encouragement to do so Ed. N. E. F. 



JVew Horse Shoe. — A simple, but most ingenious 

 invention has been laid before us in the shape of 

 an improvement in the horse-shoe. It is that of 

 making that part of the shoe now solid, concave ; 

 by which the foot is enabled to take a grip, which, 

 with the ordinary shoe, is impossible. The princi- 

 ple is, in fact, that of the fluted skate; and whilst 

 the shoo is, of course, lighter than when manufac- 

 tured on the usual principle, it is equivalent in 

 slippery weather, or on wood pavement, to one 

 that is roughed. The concavity runs entirely 

 round the shoe, having a strong rim in front equal 

 in thickness to the hoof of the horse's foot, and 

 another at the back, of half that thickness. This 

 mode of formation, whilst it involves less expense, 

 gives a far greater purchase, and is much more in 

 accordance with the nature, form and texture of 

 Ihejiorse's foot. By preventing the necessity of 

 turning up the shoe behind, it places the foot in a 

 more natural position, and thus assists in bringing 

 into operation the frog, (an elastic substance, de- 

 signed to relieve the stroke of the horny part of 

 the hoof,) instead of placing it out of action, and 

 straining all the other parts of the foot. — United 

 Service Gazette, England. 



to grass, (herds-grass and redtop,) in the spring of 

 1838, with oats : it was highly manured, and the 

 crop promised most abundantly, by show of straw, 

 but it was all slraiv ; not a peck of grain could be 

 got from an acre : :his I did not much regret, as I 

 wauled straw for bedding, and as the land was not 

 to be exhausted by grain, I expected a great yield 

 of grass the coming season. But alas ! alas ! I 

 had a luxuriant crop of sorrel, which is not com- 

 mon on my land — and little or no herds-grass or 

 redtop. The sorrel continued in the land through 

 1839 and '40. In 1841, to my surprise, the sorrel 

 disappeared, and the herds-grass and redtop came 

 forward in all the luxuriance that is common for 

 the first year's cutting, and remained so last year, 

 the sorrel having almost entirely disappeared. I 

 mentioned this to Dr. Jackson, and he immediately 

 stated that I had put unfermented muck on the 

 land, which I denied ; but afterwards this was ex- ^'o'"' "' ^"ssachusetts — The Rochester Demo- 

 plained ; for I found that I had put some 20 cart- crat says that the manufacturers of New England 

 loads of muck iu the bottom of my cow-yard, which last year, used over 200,000 barrels of flour, in 

 had been taken up befor^ it had fermented, with ! f"'^'""^ ^''^''^'^ ^nd sizing for their goods— being a 

 my cow manure, and put on the land : this account- i '"S'^'' quantity of flour than was exported to Eng- 

 ed for the sorrel. This, I presume, remained in ' ''^"'' '" ""^ ^^me time. The single State of Mas- 

 the land till the acid of the muck had become neu- ! sachusetts, during the same time, consumed more 



tralized, and then the food for sorrel was gone; 

 but how the herds-grass and redtop should find this 

 out, or see fit to be tranquil till the sorrel had had 

 its perfect work, is more than I can account for. 

 You will perceive that we begin to got a little light 

 on this subject. Horse manure should be used to 

 ferment the muck : cow manure is not warm enough. 

 This is a great subject: the acquisition and judi- 

 cious application of manure to our soils and crops. 



Western flour than 

 countries ! 



vas exported to all foreign 



Anger. — To be angry about trifles is mean and 

 childish ; to rage and be furious, is brutish ; and 

 to maintain perpetual wrath is akin to the practice 

 and tempter of devils; but to prevent or suppress 

 rising resentment, is wise and glorious, manly and 

 divine Waits. 



We are indebted for the following account of 

 March weather to a friend, who has prepared it 

 with great care, and whose name is a sufficient 

 voucher for its truth and accuracy. — Salem Gaz. 



Cold March. — The past month having been 

 frequently mentioned as remarkably cold, it may 

 is but poorly understood, and is of vastly more im- j be some gratification to the curious to see the fol- 

 portance to the community than any other subject 1 lowing table, exhibiting the aggregate, and ave- 

 that could now be started. But let us persevere. | rage of heat or cold, shown by the same thermo- 



I trust the time is not far distant when we sha 

 have experimental farms, with some one or more 

 of the able agricultural chemists which Providence 

 has placed among us, at the head. 



Your correspondent, Ely A. Elliott, of Clinton, 

 Conn., has a commendable pride in inquiring for 

 the rich farming notes of his ancestor. Sir, I have 

 made many inquiries for a copy for my own use. 

 Having noticed the work in a London catalogue of 

 books, I even wrote there, and was answered that 

 it was out of print. Now, sir, you and I know, as 

 well as some others, that a copy can be procured 

 on loan, and it should no longer, for the credit of 

 the country, be said to be out of print, containing, 

 as it does, more solid information in the same 



meter, kept in tiie same place, for several years 

 past, confined to the morning observations only, 

 made at sunrise, or as near that time as might be, 

 each day. 



[We omit the table. The writer continues :] 

 "Hence it will be seen, that 1843 gives the 

 coldest March for 24 years, that is, since 1819. 

 Further back, the writer has not the means of as- 

 certaining. It %vill also be seen, that the warmest 

 morning in March for the same time, was in 1842, 

 and the coldest, in 1833." L. 



" Man sleeps in the earth, the sun in the sea." 

 This is false: instead of sleeping, both do but 

 shine upon another world. — Ritchtr. 



