A N D H O U T I C U L T URAL REGISTER. 



PUllHSHKD BY JOSKPH BRECK St CO., NO 52 NOUTH MARKKT STllKKT, ( AonicuLTuiiAL Wabi:mou.e.)-ALLKN PUTNAM, KDITOR. 



DU XX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 22, 1841. 



[■O. 19. 



N. E. FARMER. 



ARED ELIOT ON FIELD IirSBANDRY. 



Ill the 2il vol. of llio Massachusetts Agriciilturnl 

 ?p>>silory, is a ropublicatioti of "Essays on Field 

 Lisbaiidry, wrote from a Journal of thirty years' 

 pcricnco" — by Rev. Dr. Jared Eliot, of Killinjr- 

 rtii, Cl. : published in 1747. — \Vc .-ieldoni meet 

 ih any lhin;j on agriculture more full of useful 

 Its than these essays; and, trusting that our 

 iders would be pleased with that which has high- 

 intcrpsted us, we extract very freely this week 

 m Mr Eliot's writings. 



MEAPOW LA.NDS. 



yhere are three kinds of meadow lands, viz : 

 ck Bwamp, boggy meadow, and smooth, even, 

 king meadow : this last sort is called cranberry 

 rsh. He that would do any thinfr to effect witli 

 her of these sorts, must in the first place see 

 ether there be deep mire ; if it be shallow, and 

 in come to hard sand, clay or gravel, it will not 

 worth while to e.xpend cost upon iL 

 Again, you must examine what fall there is. If 

 ! fall be apparent to the eye, and this for ton or 

 een rods, you may be satisfied ; if you arc un- 

 "tain, try it with a water level or spirit level. If 

 jr marsh be small, the drain long, rocky, and 

 ely to I'c chvgoable, it may he best to let i' 

 ne ; but if it be a large swamp or meadow, al- 

 lugh the main drain should be a considerable 

 irge, that should be no discouragement. 

 That low ground which is thick with wood and 

 ish, will be the most chargeable; the hog mea- 

 «r the next in charge, because the bogs must be 

 , up with a bog plow or with a hoe — either way 

 ;hargeable. The shaking meadow has the best 

 face and is easiest to bring to mowing. 

 Last August was twelvemonth, I began to drain 

 ond that lies but a mile from my house ; it was 

 a natural pond, but made so upon design. Our 

 ord informs tjiat it was granted to a man to pre- 

 it tlie ininng of cattle ; the owner of it laid it 

 Jer water about eighty years ago. It was over 

 iwn with pond lilies: it was thought by most 

 I to drain it was impracticable. Some said that 

 vas as unlikely as to drain the ocean. At the 

 let there seemed to be little or no fall ; but 

 ing it with a level, my son and I found that in 

 ty rods there was fall sufficient. We tlierc- 

 e sot about draining it, and have succeeded so 

 that it bids fair to make a good piece of land, 

 ad been under water so long, and was so full 

 pond lilly roots, that when the water was drawn 

 and the lilly roots dried and shrunk up, it grew 

 JO puffy, and did not for this reason do so well 

 we expected. The grass seed did not come up 

 11, nor stand so well as in land that has lain 

 ;n to the heat of the sun. The whole pond was 

 )ut twenty acres, and the soil is eight or ten feet 

 ;p ; there are in it many large springs, which 

 fifteen feet deep. 

 = I began last March to drain another meadow of 

 ty acres, up in Guilford woods ; this was a 

 king meadow; a man standing upon it might 



shako the ground scvcrai rods round liini. It seem- 

 ed to bo only a strong sward of grass roots laid 

 over a soft mud of the consistence of pancake-bat- 

 ter ; there was not abundance of bushes in it, but 

 abundance of cranberry vines, and a great burthen 

 of poor wild grass. The mcailow was deemed so 

 poor that none would take it up. I was pitied as 

 being about to waste a great deal of money , but 

 they comforted themselves that if 1 spent it unpro- 

 fitably, others that stood in need of it would get 

 it. Thoy are now of iinnthcr opinion. 



At the only outlot of this meadow, there was 

 fall sufficient, but very rocky; we must dig four 

 or live deep to get the advantage of it. 



In March, when I wont up to m:ike the outlet 

 driiin. there was such a torrent of water that we 

 could do nothing. I ordered, thcrefbro, a tree to 

 be cut down across the brook, and prepared flitches 

 instead of plank, which we set aslant, the upper 

 enil resting upon the staddle thai was fallen across 

 the brook, laid them as close as we could, and 

 stopped the chinks and large chasms with top tow, 

 by which means we shut the water into the mead- 

 ow, then wrought at the trench or main drain in 

 the day, and let it out at night, till it was in a good 

 measure accomplished. When I ordered the top 

 tow to be carried, the men wondered what it was 

 designed for, but when they saw how useful it was 

 in making a cheap dam, they were pleased with it. 

 I put them in mind of the Dutch proverb, which 

 says of tilings that are very mean, that something 

 is always ^ood for something. 



When the weather grew sufficiently warm and 

 the meadow a little settled, wo began to ditch. I 

 cut a ditch on each side and one in the middle. 

 ,\s far as we went it soon rendered the meadow 

 firm and dry. I then proceeded to sow grass seed, 

 such as red clover, foul meadow grass, English 

 spear grass, and herd grass. Of all the sorts of 

 grass seed I sowed, none seemed to lake hold and 

 come up so well as red clover; this 1 found to be 

 the boldest and most hardy grass. 



Where the sward was strong, although the clo- 

 ver came up well, yet what with the toughness of 

 the ground and the overtopping growth of the wild 

 natural grass, the clover made but slow progress 

 till the fall of the year, and then it mcnilcd con- 

 siderably. But whore there happened to be no 

 sward to hinder it, the clovor grew up to the height 

 of mid thigh, went to seed, and ripened. 



Of the other sorts of grass came up but poorly ; 

 the land, I suppose was too new and too tough for it. 



Some time in September, 1 plowed up a piece of 

 it where I had not sowed any grass seed ; it plow- 

 ed very tough, and the cattle inired some, but we 

 kept them upon the grass as well as we could ; af- 

 ter all we loft many baulks. About a month after 

 I set some men to hoe up the baulks, and was 

 agreeably surprised to find how easy it hoed up. 

 I find the meadow rotted and mellowed more in 

 one month in the fall than it had done in the whole 

 summer. The same I found by the ditch banks. 

 If i had omitted my plowing till a month later, it 

 had been done with much more ease to man and 

 beast 



111 July I sowed a little piece of turnips: thoy 

 came up but never grew till the ground began to 

 rot in the fall of the year, then grew well in the 

 short time they had left. I expected they would 

 have been rank, but they were good and sweet. 



Some are deterred from such nn undertaking as 

 that of draining their land, by reason of the great 

 charge. They terrify thoiiisclves without reason. 

 When I was about to cut my main drain, some 

 thought it impossible, but at best it would cost an 

 hundred pounds. It was a had place of rocks ; 

 some I dug up, some wo broke up w,th steel wa. 

 ges, and some we blew up with powder; but after 

 all it did not cost more than twenty pounds. As 

 to the great charge of ditching, they do not con- 

 sider that the outside ditches serve for fence, as 

 well as to cut off the springs and drain the mead- 

 ow, and it is as cheap fence as any we can make ; 

 so that there is none but the middle or intermcdi- 

 ate ditches, that are properly to be considered as a 

 charge in draining. 



Some may think this long history of two pieces 

 of meadow, this tedious detail of so many minute 

 particulars to be needless, trifling and impertinent. 

 I have been ptirticular in describing the main or 

 outlet drain of each meadow, that it may be seen 

 that the difficult,; of rocks is not insuperable, nor 

 the charge of a long drain intolerable. 



I mention the cheap moveable dam which may 

 be made in a few hours, that if they should be in- 

 ciiuibered with water to hinder their work, there is 

 a remedy at hand. 



I informed you of the growth of one of the 

 meadows that it was moss and pond lillies, which 

 will soon die when the water is gone; the moss 

 creates the most trouble, but will burn when it is 

 a dry season. 



I gave an account of the depth of the soil, be- 

 cause I was, when I began, uncertain whether by 

 ditches three feet wide and two and a half deep, 

 (such as mine are) would be sufficient to fix the 

 shaking meadow, and render the deep mire firm 

 anil dry enough for grass and tillage. I think 

 there is reason to believe that the shaking mead- 

 ows have been formerly beaver ponds. 



I described the extoiit and bigness of each mead- 

 ow, because I wa-i uncertain whether the ditches 

 would drain well when they were very long. 



Some of mine are an hundred and fifty rods long, 

 and must be yet much longer ; yet as fur as we 

 have gone, they draw well. In order to have 

 them draw well and run free, it is absolutely need- 

 ful, and a main point, to have your outlet drain 

 deep, so that the water run briskly. 



If the ditches draw well, there is another advan- 

 tage ; in the spring, when there is much water, by 

 stopping one ditch, you may shift the water into 

 another, to cleanse it, and so to a third. Hereby 

 you will save the charge of the yearly scouring of 

 them with the shovel, which is a good saving. I 

 find by experience I have that advantage. 



1 have insisted the longer upon this article, it 

 being an aSair of importance. If it should answer 

 our expectation, it will put us into the improvement 

 ' of land of which as yet we have had no benefit ; 



