308 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



April 13, 1831. 



II E P O R T S 



MASSi AG R r CULTUR A L SOCIETY IN 1830. 



Continued from page 301. 

 To Be-,ijamin Guild, Esq. 



iJEAR Sir — On Saturday the 16th inst. was the 

 first time tliat 1 saw or knew of the |>reniiiiins 

 offered by the Massachusetts Agricultural Society 

 for tlie best improved farm. I therefore shall be 

 unable to make all the statements I wish to make, 

 with that accuracy that is desirable and which 

 may be required, but I shall make an attempt. I 

 therefore otl'er my farm which lies in the east part 

 of the town of Pittsfield, upon the Boston and Al- 

 bany stage road, containing two hundred and fifty 

 acres or thereabout. Tlie soil alluvial and loam ; 

 which farm I purchased ten years since and for 

 which I paid nearly 14,000 dollars. I have for- 

 ty acres of good wood land, principally covered 

 with the sugar maple. I have also in one square 

 lot forty acres of meadow, almost perfectly level, 

 and irrigated or overflow£d by the waters of the 

 Uousatonic river, (by which it is bounded on the 

 east,) in the spring of the year when the snow melts 

 away, generally, and sometimes twice or thrice 

 in a year, so that it never requires any manure, 

 and I have nothing to do but to keep up my fen- 

 ces and cut the grass, which is all of an excellent, 

 quality, consisting of herds or timothy, clover and 

 fine English, and produces annually liom eighty 

 to ninety tons. This lot lies upon the east side of 

 the roail, ojiposite te my house and the residue of 

 my farm upon the west side of the road, pretty 

 nearly in a square form, a little elevated above the 

 meadow, say 8 or 10 feet, and rises but little to the 

 western extreme of the farm. I have an orchard 

 lot cons'sting of about eighteen acres, which 1 

 mow, and obtain between twenty and thirty loads 

 of excellent hay. 1 have also mowed five acres 

 in another lot, which was seeded two years 

 since, which produced five or six load.i, making in 

 all between 120 and 130 loads of first quality of 

 herdsgrass and clover hay, which we have estima- 

 ted at one ton to the load as we get in, well made. 

 The residue of my farm consists of pasturage and 

 tillage, say 147 acres, all good, which 1 have im- 

 proved alternately for pasture and tillage by a ro- 

 tation of crops, first for wheat and rye, then corn, 

 then oats or other spring grain with clover and 

 grass. 



I have improved it tiie present season as fol- 

 lows ; of winter crops 12 acres of rye which was 

 an excellent crop, but not measured, and two acres 

 of winter wheat which was sowed upon corn 

 ground after the corn was taken off", and produc- 

 ed, as it was sowed rather too late, but 32 hush- 

 els. I have also raised this year 5 acres of oats, 

 which jjroduced 122 shocks, some of which we 

 have threshed, which have yielded two bushels 

 per shock ; if the whole should yield in like man- 

 ner, the five acres will give 244 bushels, or nearly 

 50 bushel per acre, upon which land I had beans 

 and oats last year. With a little manure I 

 also sowed one bushel of marrowfat peas, 

 which supplied my family and several of my neigh- 

 bors with green peas. I harvested eight bushels 

 well dried and fine for seed. I have also on my 

 farm two acres of potatoes. I have dug and got 

 inoneacre oidy, which produced 296 bushels, 

 besides what were dug for use for several weeks, — 

 so that I can safely say that this acre yielded 

 something more than 300 bushels of the flesh 

 color, and worth double the common potatoes. 



1 have raised this season about 11 acres of corn 

 of the small early eight rowed ears which is a 

 very good crop, and will produce as determined 

 by a committee of an Agricultural Society, 90 

 bushels to the acre, that is, for three or four of the 

 best acres; for which.they gave me the Society's 

 third premium. The laud on which it was raised 

 has been mowed for three or four years, and last 

 year broken up and hog-dmig put into every hill, 

 — hills at three feet apart. My farm is divided by 

 a lane through the whole and fenced on either 

 side, and then divnied into 10 and 20 acre lots 

 opening to the centre lane, so that I have more 

 than 6 miles of fence, a part of which is half wall. 



I have also raised this year two acres of spring 

 rye, which 1 have not threshed, which I think will 

 give me 20 bushels per acre. — I have also raised 

 twenty acres of small white beans which I have 

 not yet gathered, and which I estimate to yield 

 fifteen bushels to the acre, or about 300 bushels in 

 all. This field was planted two years since to 

 corn and then to rye and oats. — I have ploughed 

 and sununer-fallowed twenty acres of old pasture 

 where my sheep have run, and sowed it to rye and 

 three acres more to winter wheat; all sowed 

 about the last of August now looks finely, and if 

 nothing befalls it, I think I may safely calculate 

 upon thirty bushels to the acre. — The number of 

 apple trees in my orchard is 149. Six years since 

 I put in 1000 grafts by contract, principally of win- 

 ter fruit, such as Greenings, Spitzenbergs, Gilli- 

 flowers, Russets, Golden Sweetings and Seekno- 

 furtliers, &c, &c, from which I last year made 36 

 barrels of cider and put up about 100 bushels o 

 fine winter appljs. To my trees I have done 

 nothing but trim and scrape. This year, owing 

 to a late frost I shall not have five bushels in all. My 

 manner of makingcider is the common way. As to 

 saving grass seed, I usually seed down about 10 

 acres annually with 4 quarts of clover and 4 quarts 

 herdsgrass to the acre. I have made several ex- 

 periments. .'Vfter taking off a corn crop, I have 

 ploughed and sowed nothing but grass seed; this 

 was done in the month of October, and it look 

 well, but did not get to maturity fully the next 

 season. 1 have also sowed wiih rye, in the fall and 

 also upon snow covering wheat and rye, and also 

 in the spring with spring wheat, rye and oats, and 

 I am satisfied that to sow clover and herdsgrass in 

 the next spring wilh oats is the best time and »vay. 

 Another experiment may possibly be useful. Eight 

 years since I ploughed and fenced about two rcres 

 of good land upon which I planted one bushel of 

 butternuts, one ditto of walnuts, and one bushel of 

 chesuuts, and smaller quantities of apples, peaches, 

 pears, quinces, bazlenuts and filberts, most of 

 which failed, save only a few peaches, several clies- 

 nuls and filberts. The filberts I have transplanted 

 near to my house, and have now jyroljably 100 

 bushels which have borne considerably the two 

 last years, as large as any of the imported. The 

 late frost prevented their bearing tiiis year, but I 

 have no donlit that they can be grown here plenti- 

 fiilly with little trouble. My barn is 100 feet long 

 and 40 feet wide, standing east and west, with a 

 floor through it lengthwise, over which is another 

 floor, eacli twelve feet wide. Upon the south side 

 of my barn I have a tier of stables extending tlie 

 whole length, 12 feet wide, which is sufficientto 

 put up 2-5 head of cattle. I have one shod ex- 

 tending from the west end of my barn south 120 

 feet, half of it 20 feet in width and the other hiilf 

 14 feet, capable of holding 30 or 40 loads of hay 



over bead. I have three or four other shec 

 temporary or of less value. . My barnyard is li 

 feet square divided by a line' of fence through tl 

 centre each way, making four yards of about* 

 feet square, with a shed for each and a well 

 water in the centre, from which I water each yat 

 in each of which I have wintered about 100 shee 

 and make my manure principally by bedding the 

 with straw. I have kept the last year two yol 

 of oxen and one yoke of steers, five cows ai 

 nine head of young cattle, three horses and 

 colt and 425 first quality Merino and Saxoi 

 sheep We have made butter and cheese on 

 enough for family use. Although my stock 

 cows are of the first quality, yet my lamily is lar 

 and consume all they produce ; for one of n 

 cows, which is only 3 years old, I last week i 

 ceived this Society's first premium as tlie be 

 among 37 cows offered for premium ; her calf no 

 is only four weeks old, and she is a descendant 

 the stock of cattle lalled the Gore breed, I t 

 lieve from a bull imported by the late Govern 

 Gore ; at any rate, from my connexion with tl ; 

 Berkshire Agricultural Society, I was induced 1 

 purchase some of the finest cattle of our part 

 the country, and for the ancestor of this cow 

 paid .$100. My other cows and stock are of t 

 Holderness stork. Of swiiie, 1 only keep audi 

 enough for family use and some little surplus 

 ])ay laborers. I am now feeding 8 of the Bj 

 field breed, a part of which I think will weij 

 about 300 lbs. each. As to the amount of labi 

 for the last year' I have hired only one man, at 

 have two hoys almost men; and in linyiiig i 

 threshing, day laborers, which in all probalily CO 

 me .§;140 or $150 inclusive of board. I woi 

 also add that in consequence of tilling so mu 

 land, I have hired 100 of my sheep pastured 1 



fh 



20 acres sowed to winter rye 

 3 do. do. to do. wheat 



140 

 40 wood . 

 70 pasture 



250 

 It will be seen that I have mowed and till 

 this year 140 acres, 17 of which has been seed' 

 down to grass. 



My stock is as follows, viz. 425 sheep 20 he: 

 of cattle, 4 horses, 10 wild geese, and a few " 

 geese, presented to me by Gorham Parsons, 

 a few years since. Poultry in abundance, of 

 sorts. 



This rough draft was drawn up list evening 



this morning in much haste, and is imperfect f 



want of more time. Yet it is as I believe true. 



I am, dear Sir, very respectfidly. 



Your obedient humble servant, 

 Pilhfidd, 0:1. 18, ISSO Jonathan Ai.i«lt.|| 

 To be continued. 



