•252 



NEW ENGl.AND FARMER, 



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To Uie Editor of tlie New E.igland Farmer— 



Mr Fessenden — I observe your request in your 

 last paper, that I should make some answer to an 

 inquiry concerning a swelling originating in the 

 neck of a horse of a gentleman in Maine. I do 

 not recognise any disease with which I am ac- 

 quainted ; it may be a form, possibly, of tlie farcy ; 

 but I profess to know nothing of that disorder ; 

 neither do I believe it to be common among us. 

 I wish, however, to make a few observations con- 

 cerning other communications in your paper. 



As to an important point in agricultural publica- 

 tions, I have before given my opinion. I have of- 

 ten myself regretted my ignorance of botany, with- 

 out a knowledge of which science, it is, of course, 

 impossible to identify or describe plants with com- 

 plete correctness. I could wish, for the benefit of 

 your readers out of the old commonwealth of 

 Massachusetts, that your correspondents would 

 sometimes recollect that the language of Massa- 

 1 chusetts is not spoken all the world over. It 

 must excite some surprise, however, that the univer- 

 sal term in New England for grass sowed to be mow- 

 ed, is not understood in Philadelphia ; it is howev- 

 er, an indefinite and unmeaning e.xpression, none 

 of the grasses, I believe, commonly sowed in New 

 England, being natives of England. The term is 

 here applied to the grasses we sow to be mowed, 

 and to natural upland grass suffered to grow for 

 that purpose, to distinguish them from ' meadow' 

 or ' fresh grass,' and ' salt grass' and what grows 

 where the vicinity of salt water is felt. ' Meadow' 

 hay and ' fresh' hay are both corrupt and indefinite 

 terms. What is meant by 'blue joint' and 'flat 

 grass,' I do not know. ' Blue grnss^ here is also 

 called ' wild rye ;' and grows sometimes in moist- 

 er land, but is a common accompaniment of dry 

 soils ; and is called a certain sign of a soil suita- 

 ble for growing Indian corn. Whether it is native 

 or not, I do not know ; but it is said to be of Eng- 

 lish origin. It is very general indeed. The 'herds 

 grass' of the Southern States / have always under- 

 stood to be what we call ' fowl meadow :' and 

 that this last is not the same grass with ' red top' 

 (though it resembles it ; but is a grass which grows 

 in very moist land : 'red top' being clearly an up- 

 land grass, and making the only superior hay wo 

 have, though it is never sowed for that purpose ; 

 and the superstition has been that it would kill 

 horses, which is very far from being received as 

 orthodox doctrine by me.) Whether they are 

 the same grass, however, and wliether they are 

 native or not, I know not. The ' timothy' of the 

 middle States, here called ' herds grass,' I believe 

 is said to be native. The terms of ' English grass, 

 English hay, &c,' sound unpleasantly to my ears. 

 (N. B. Everything in this state better than com- 

 mon, except politics, is called English. In Virgin- 

 ia, their celebrated mocking-bird I have heard call- 

 ed the English mocking-bird, to distinguish it from 

 an inferior bird, called the French mocking-bird : 

 neither bird being known in Trance or Great Brit- 

 ain.) All kinds of cattle, horses, oxen and sheep 

 will live on salt hay ; but it must be said in jest, 

 that is worth as much as this English hay ; stage- 

 coach-horses, whose chief dependence is on their 

 com, the object of giving them long food being 

 chiefly to keep their food from being too concen- 

 trated, will Uve on it very well, no doubt ; and on 

 barley straw, a good deal better. It seems tliere is 

 a difference between the 'red clover' of the South- 

 ern and the Eastern States. In what do they dif- 



fer? are they the same grass, altered by climate 

 and soil, or distinct grasses ? I last year saw (I 

 state it, as doubts are entertained of its success,) 

 a quarter of an acre of wet, cold land (where it 

 does not belong,) covered with a good crop of' lu- 

 cerne,' belonging to a respectable mechanic of 

 tliis town. He told me that he had sowed five 

 pounds of it, with his barley, the year before (it is 

 stated that ' lucerne' takes some time to get its full 

 strength,) in the ordinary way ; that his cattle 

 showed an extreme relish for it, in preference to 

 the 'timothy' and 'red clover' in the same field. 

 ' Lucerne' is, I believe, tlie oldest grass in history, 

 and was grown by the Romans, Carthagenians, 

 Egyptians, &c. If it will succeed in New England, 

 it will certainly be an era in our agriculture, bar- 

 ring one objection. A grass that will not care for 

 our drought, tliat will require less labor in succes- 

 sive renewings, and will unite the advantages of 

 a full crop to the nutritiousness of an upland grass, 

 is to be desired ; but I am told that lucerne does 

 not grow to advantage except on rich land. Now, 

 upland in the Eastern parts of New England, is 

 apt to he barren : as to which point, I do not 

 agree with the opinion expressed in the able address 

 of Mr Phinney, that all of our upland was once 

 covered with a rich soil ; or something to that ef- 

 fect. Tliere is great foundation, no doubt, for say- 

 ing so. I think it exceedingly probable that much 

 of such soils, probably the first tilled, was worked 

 till it was exhausted ; and from our process of 

 growing Indian corn, and desert it without cov- 

 ering it with anything but weeds, much of its ori- 

 ginal goodness has been lost ; and that what was 

 once an effect, is now a cause. I have also no 

 doubt that by his method of treating it, it could be 

 rendered productive, with the addition of one op- 

 eration : that is, planting bolts of firs ; spruces are 

 the handsomest, if they will grow on such land ; 

 larches appear to grow here, in poor cold ground, 

 very naturally, (but would be of no use a great 

 part of the year,) of considerable depth of column, 

 on the Northwestern and Northern sides. I have 

 known the white pine to make an almost impene- 

 trable wood, of considerable height in twentyfive 

 years, ou land originally covered with while oak. 

 From what I see immediately before me, it does 

 not want to come in on maple and beech land : the 

 yellow pine grows unmixed with the white pine ; 

 but the pitch pine, the larch and white pine will 

 grow up together : where it is wet, the hemlock : 

 and all this on tolerably good land, if it be pas- 

 tured. 



It is impossible (in allusion to the quotation con- 

 cerning top dressing,) yet awhile, to persuade the la- 

 borers of this district, that dung cannot be ploughed 

 in too soon : it is consequently intentionally left to 

 be thoroughly dried by the sun, and the Scythian 

 devastations of our northwesterly winds, as it is 

 made, as much as possible ; with the additional ad- 

 vantage of the process being insured by the assist- 

 ance of the poultry of the farm. It is also a prac- 

 tice with some to break up their land in the autumn, 

 and reserve their dung for top dressing in the 

 spring, for fear the juices should run through the 

 soil. In my immediate vicinity, however, that is, 

 in the town of Rye, a most productive and well-farm- 

 ed town, the soil is almost wholly manured with 

 kelp and rock weed ; and the dung is taken al- 

 ways from the barn yard in the autumn and used 

 as top dressing on their grass land ; not on the 

 whole a bad method, as their land is wet and rocky, 

 and they must top dress it all they can, from the 



Feb. 23, 1831. 



labor of working it. They have also abundanc 

 of sea weed ; it being frequently strewed at th 

 rate of twenty tons to the acre, when it is first hau 

 ed. Sea weed is a most exciting and penetratic 

 manure, injures the flavor of vegetables, and give 

 a bright green burnish to grass. It is of no pe: 

 manent benefit to the soil. 



As to grain's going through animals unbroke 

 and uninjured ; it has been recommended, time 

 and again, not to give horses grain unbroken o 

 this account. 



Qucere. — which is most in fault, tlie Iiorse's jaw 

 or his stomach ? This does not apply to old liorsef 

 who cannot masticate comfortably from a cause pe 

 culiar to the horse. 



Now as to a communication I did myself thi 

 honor to address you, in which I alluded to th 

 Durham cattle. The want of a correct agricultui 

 al vocabulary I take to be agreed to upon all handi 

 The printer amongst other typographical errors 

 attributable to my bad handwriting, has convert 

 ed the term ' blood horses' into 'long horned' oxen 

 I intended to say that the term ' blood stock, 

 could not be applied to the Durham cattle: in tii 

 first place, because they do not deserve it ; thej 

 not being decidedly the best breed, for which 

 will refer you to the accounts of English cattle 

 shows for the last ten years ; in which it will bi 

 seen, that the Herefords have equalled or excelle( 

 them. In the second place, because their attri 

 butes are the exact opposite of those of ' bloot 

 horses.' The thorough-bred horse has been bre( 

 for his muscular strength and his speed ; he comei 

 to his growth late ; is originally of small size 

 possesses extreme delicacy and concentratednea 

 of organization ; and all the other peculiarities o! 

 an animal indigenous to a burning climate and ai 

 arid soil : and is supposed, with some degree o 

 reason, to be wliolly unmixed and original. Thi 

 Durliam ox (though traceable to Holland, a wet 

 cold climate, with a rank vegetation,) is chiefly at 

 artificial animal. The English shorthorn of 1831 

 is not that of 1821 ; he has been bred chiefly t 

 be eaten ; to come to his growth quick ;* fatten ex 

 uherantly ; to dislike motion ; and to be the larg 

 est ox in the world. While on this subject, 1 

 will mention that there is a Durham steer in thi; 

 vicinity, originally bred by the breeder of the 

 great ox Columbus, who is considered to bid fail 

 to reach the same size. Columbus is not a short- 

 horn ; but- chiefly of our English imported breed; 

 not known what, in particular. I observe in the 

 late tour of an English agriculturist in the North 

 of Germany, that he states that he had .'u'cn no 

 such specimens of the Durham cattle in his own 

 country, as he was shown there ; the bulls ofvast 

 size ; being six feet high and ten feet lony. 



J. L. ELWYN. 

 Portsmouth, Feb. Uth, 1831. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



IMPORTANCE OF BOTANICAL KNOW- 

 LEDGE. 



Mb Fessenden — Struck with the remarks OB 

 the ' Importance of Correct JVames,' in regard to 

 plants mentioned in the Niiw England Farmer, (and 

 these remarks hold good in respect to many of oar 

 liooks and (leriodicals on agriculture and the like,)I 

 would through your paper rei-ninmend a general at- 

 tention to natural history. It would neither be tiffl* 

 lost, nor uselessly employed. The objections to it 

 are of little weight or real value. The industrioUJ 

 and enterprising farmer has often to bear seven 



