NEW ENOIiAND FARMJQR. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, AT NO. 5S NOKTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warkhouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEiN, EDITOR. 



VOL. IX. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 18 3 1. 



NO. 29. 



iica:a3>jS^i£.^^L^: 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORK THE MIDDLESEX SOCIETY OF 



USB \ NO MEN AND MANUFACTURERS, 



AT THt.R iNNl.AL FEST, VAL, OCT. 7,1830. 



BY E L I .-i S r II I X N E Y. 

 Concluded from page 218. 



IMajor Wliocler of Framingliam, a good practi- 

 il fsii-mer, has been more successful in his at- 

 impts at paring and burning-. He has for thrfee 

 ears obtained great crops of hay from peat mead- 

 tvs, managed in this way, with no other manure 

 lan the ashes produced by the burning ; the crop 

 r the third ycarbcing fully equal to that of either 

 ' the former years. The different results of 

 lese two experiments may have been occasioned 

 ^ a deeper paring in the latter than in the former 

 ise. Jly neighbor pared with a hand machine, 

 id was probably not so deep as that done by Mr 

 Hieeier, who u.?ed an instrument drawn by oxen, 

 'he deeper the paring, the greater, of course, will 

 5 tlie quantity of ashes from the burning, and the 

 ore durable the effect. 



The objections to this practice, however, are, I 

 )prehend, well founded. That there must be a 

 •ry considerable loss of enriching animal and ve- 

 table substances by the fire, cannot be doubted, 

 hile the stimulating power of the salts contain- 

 , in the ashes continues to operate, the produce 

 ly give an abundant reward for the labor bestow- 

 but when tliis has subsided, it will be found 

 It the soil has been robbed of some of its es- 

 atial ingredients, having nothing left but a life- 

 ;s crust, covering a dead mass of inert matter 

 acath ; and that fertility cannot be kept up, with- 

 frequent and expensive applications of ma- 



The effect of covering meadows with sand or 

 vel,.as;better known, and its merits more gene- 

 y tested. As this is not attended by a destruc- 

 1 of any of the valuable animal or vegetable 

 ttcr, it may, for this reason alone, be preferable 

 laring and burning. But there are two very 

 stantial objections to this practice. In the first 

 e, it is very expensive, and in the second place, 

 oes not entirely exterminate tiie wild grasses, 

 ch will be continually springing up, and root- 

 out the cultivated grasses, unless there be fre- 

 nt and expensive top dressings, and as frequent 

 ing of grass seed. Besides, I have always 

 id the produce of these gravelled meadows to 

 if a coarse, ordinary quality, mixed with much 



Ihe rank herbage peculiar to wet grounds, far 

 nutritious than upland hay, and unsaleable in 

 ket, except at a reduced price, 

 he late venerable and intelligent Col. Picker- 

 in an address to the Essex Agricultural Soci- 

 of which he was President from its first es- 

 shment, to near the close of his long and use- 

 ife, remarked, ' If meadows admit of being 

 Dughly drained, I would never carry on gravel 

 nd, absolutely barren substances.' Thousands 

 ollars have been expended in this neighbor- 

 in burying the rich soils of our low meadows, 

 these ' absolutely barren substances.' The 

 t expense, together with tlie ordinary quality 

 le produce from meadows covered with gravel, 



and the necessity of frequent and expensive top 

 dressings, are too well known and too generally ac- 

 knowledged, to require a statement of any farther 

 objections to this practice. 



The third method, and now tlie most common, 

 is ploughing and cultivating with fallow crops, for 

 one or more years, after draining, according to the 

 nature of the soil. This is decidedly preferable 

 to either of the two last mentioned methods of 

 Tiianaging wet meadow grounds. 



The Rev. Mr Colman, of Salem and Lynn, a 

 gentleman distinguished for his literary attainments, 

 as well as for his agricultural skill, has given some 

 very useful, practical hints, upon this subject. 



' My meadow,' he says, ' consisting of one acre 

 and a quarter, is completely drained. It was 

 ploughed in the spring and planted, and promises 

 to yield a good crop of potatoes. , I design to plant 

 it one year more, when 1 think all the sods and 

 hillocks will be completely broken, and then lay it 

 down to grass, confident of success, from the re- 

 sult of a similar experiment, made upon a piece, of 

 about one fourth of an acre, wliicli from being im- 

 passable and worthless, and filled witli skunk cab- 

 bage and other noxious weeds, is now tlie best 

 piece of grass land on the place, and though drain- 

 ed and laid down after one summer's fallow, with 

 manure, and sowing only a few turnips, with hoe- 

 ings sufficient to break the sods to pieces, and af- 

 terwards sowing with grass seed, and carefully 

 rolled, has this year produced two abundant crops 

 of Iiay !' 



'':- this experiment, ,Mr Colman has omitted to 

 state the* quantity of manure that was used, and 

 we are therefore unable to say how far his plan 

 may with safety be adopted as an example by other 

 farmers. My own experiments, in this way, have 

 not been so successful. It may have been owing 

 to a deficiency of manure, but I have attributed it 

 rather to the loose and puffy condition in which the 

 soil was left after fallowing and laying down to 

 grass. My crop of hay was very small, and I be- 

 lieve the same cause, which had operated to pre- 

 vent tlie growth of my corn, had also prevented 

 the growtli of the grasses, the texture of the soil 

 being too loose, and the cavities consequently too 

 large to be filled by their small roots. The sward 

 or turf of peat meadows and swamps, is much more 

 compact, and the parts much more finely divided, 

 than the peaty and loose substance wliicli lies un- 

 der the sward, and the more it is ploughed the 

 more it is likely to become mixed with the coarse 

 and spongy subsoil. Any more ploughing or stir- 

 ring, therefore, than is necessary to destroy the 

 natural herbage, is, in my opinion, not only unne- 

 cessary, but highly injurious. Such a course, then, 

 as would be most likely to effect these two objects, 

 viz. to exterminate the wild grasses and noxious 

 weeds, and, at the same time, to preserve the na- 

 tural compactness of the sward, I apprehend, will 

 be found to to be the most advantageous method of 

 reclaiming these kinds of soil. 



These objects, I am confident, are more sure of 

 being attained by what is called hogging, which 

 consists in turning over the sward, or turf, witli a 

 hoe or instrument made for tlie purpose, than by 

 any other process. In the fall of 1826, I had the 

 sward of about one acre of peat meadow, (the peat 



being from throe to five feet deep,) turned over 

 with a bog hoe ; having first been completely 

 drained. It was then rolled as liard as it could 

 be, with a heavily loaded roller. A top dressing of 

 six loads of loam and an equal quantity of com- 

 post, was then spread over the whole, the grass 

 seed then sowed, then bushed and rolled a second 

 time. I have, for the three years past, taken from 

 this ground, two large crops of excellent hay, each 

 year, the present year's crop being larger than 

 that of any former year. All the natural grass 

 and coarse herbage, -eem thoroughly exterminated, 

 and a firm and comp'act surface formed, which will 

 admit of cattle and wheels to pass over it, without 

 apparent injury. No looseness of surface, no such 

 barren spots, nor st'nted grass, as were frequently 

 to be met with in poat grounds which had been 

 ploughed and planted. By this method the soil is 

 not robbed of any of its nourishing properties ; — 

 all its valuable qualities are retained, and the loam 

 spread upon the surface, filling the pores that might 

 remain open, the fine roots of the cultivated grasses 

 find means of penetrating the compact sod, and 

 derive abundant food from the decomposing vege- 

 table matter that was turned under. I liave set 

 tliis acre over with apple trees, placing the roots 

 upon the surface and covering them with loam, and 

 they are quite as thrifty, and promise as well aa 

 my best treep, planted in upland. Upon the whole, 

 I am fully satisfied, that this is the best mode of 

 reclaiming our wet meadow grounds, and with the 

 instrument invented and used by Major Wheeler 

 for paring, I belie-? it will be found to be the most 

 economical. 



The soil with which we have most to do, and to 

 which I shall next invite your attention, is a thin, 

 gravelly loam. The severe cropping, to which this 

 has been subjected, for a long series of years, and 

 the neglect of means to enrich it, either by sup- 

 plying manure, or preserving those nutritive pro- 

 perties which it may have occasionally acquired 

 by a temporary rest from its labors, have so far di- 

 vested it of the essential qualities of a good soil, 

 as to render, in many places, a total abandonment 

 or a new mode of culture absolutely necessary. 



I am aware of your surprise, when I caution 

 farmers against too great a use of the Plough. 

 That ploughuig excites to the immediate fertility 

 of the soil, will not be questioned ; but this excite- 

 ment, like stimulating substances, tends to eventual 

 exhaustion, unless adequate supplies of enriching 

 matter be made. On duly considering the expo- 

 sure to waste of the animal and vegetable substan- 

 ces, contained in the soil, by frequently stirring 

 and turning it up, you will readily perceive that 

 the plough, in the hands of an unskilful farmer, 

 may become an ' instrument of certain and speedy 

 destruction.' Our hills and our plains were, at no 

 distant period, covered with a deep, rich, vegetable 

 mould, capable of producing abundant crops, with- 

 out the aid of manure. What, but the incautious 

 use of the plough, has reduced one to a hungry, 

 gravelly knoll, and the other to nearly a barren 

 waste, approaching fast to absolute sterility. Will 

 not the same causes, which have changed the 

 fruitful fields of some parts of Northern Africa 

 and Asia Minor into barren, uninhabitable sands, 

 produce the same effects in our own country ? Let 



