NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



6: 



thanks to those gentlemen from abroad, who had 

 given us the modes practised in other countiies. 

 He thought great improvements were making in 

 agriculture; and as to the expense of draining, he 

 had a piece of land, at the foot of a hill, which 

 yielded nothing valuable. He made a marginal 

 drain, then lateral drains. Stones were filled in at 

 the bottom, then potato vines, then filled up with 

 soil. This was done last season, and the soil be- 

 came firm, so that it would bear a team, which it 

 would not before. It promises well, and was not 

 expensive. When land is well drained, the crops 

 may be started a fortnight earlier, and tliis is fre- 

 quently of great importance, as the crops will come 

 to maturity before frost. He considered thorough 

 draining of great importance to the farmers of Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



Rev. Mr. Sanger, of Dover, said in regard to 

 raising wheat in Norfolk County, that he was on 

 the committee on small grains, in the agricultural 

 society of that county, and three applicants for pre- 

 mium raised twenty-nine bushels to the acre, and 

 one raised thirty bushels. In Ohio, the average 

 yield of wheat is only fifteen bushels to the acre. 



Mr. Lewis Kinney, of Wareham, said that he 

 attended the agricultural meetings in 1838, and 

 caught the fever for farming; and he went on to 

 the Cape, and bought land at $3 per acre, which 

 produced nothing of any value. He ditched it, 

 spread on gravel, manured it, and sowed to grass. 

 The whole cost of improvement was^$150 per acre. 

 He first improved 3 1-2 acres, and took a premium 

 of $25 for three tons and sixteen-hundreds of hay 

 to an acre. Again he reclaimed 3 1-2 acres, and 

 took another premium of $25. This land had paid 

 him eight per cent, on the investment. 



Hon. Mr. Calhoun, late Secretary of State, 

 thought with Dr. Gardner, that thorough draining 

 is too expensive for farmers. There is a vast amount 

 of land in our State now useless, that might be 

 made valuable by draining and subsoiling. Sub- 

 soiling is not attended to in the western part of the 

 State. He agreed with Col. Newell, that we suf- 

 fer in this country from drought; but not so much 

 from wet as in the old country. We ought to stir 

 up the subsoil, and have a resource of moisture to 

 support crops in a dry time. If farmers can be as- 

 sured that thorough draining can pay well, they 

 will attend to it. Those fariers who go out into 

 the country to farm for pleasure, and have a plenty 

 of money to spend, should be careful how they give 

 examples which others cannot fi)llow without ruin, 

 as they have no money to waste. Such in- 

 stances are a great injury to the cause of agricul- 

 ture. Those who make experiments should give 

 a particular account of all the expense attending 

 them, that others may judge of their value. Far- 

 mers are afraid to make expensive improvements, 

 lest they fall into the ditches they make, and drain 

 themselves instead of theii lands. 



Mr. William Parker, of Sudbury, said that he 

 drained a meadow, and in some cases, cut a ditch 

 twelve feet deep, and he conducted the water to his 

 barn, also to the road side, for the public accommo- 

 dation; then he conducted it on forty or fifty rods 

 to a reservoir; he then conducted it in iron pipes to 

 a place where it was used as a water-power. The 

 iron pipes cost him $300, yet the whole paid him, 

 well though an expensive operation, and his meadow 

 was well drained. 



Dr. Loring, of Chelsea, said that this question 

 was intimately connected with political economy; 

 and though he was not practically acquainted with 

 farming, he could perceive that drainage and sub- 

 soiling were very important to the community pro- 

 ducing an increase of crops, and produce of a supe- 

 rior quality, as Dr. Hogan had stated. As plants 

 are nourished by salts in the earth, it is of the high- 

 est importance that the soil should be in a suitable 

 condition to afford this nutriment, for the free passage 

 of the roots where there is no excess of moisture, 

 which tends to the injury of plants, and to render 

 the crops less nutricious and wholesome as food, 

 both for men and animals. Dr. L. then read some 

 remarks of the late INIr. Phinney, of Lexington, on 

 the subject under discussion; also from the late Mr. 

 Coleman, on the great profit that had been made by 

 draining. 



Mr. Cunningham, of Lunenburg, said that he 

 owned a farm on which there v as a piece of 

 land, twenty acres, that was useless. He made 

 ditches three feet wide; filled up two feet with small 

 stones, then filled up the ditches with soil. It cost 

 him for the improvement $70 per acre. The land 

 now yields two tons of hay per acre. 



The president then gave a history of draining and 

 subsoiling, and assigned reasons for their slow pro- 

 gress. He also made general remarks on the sub- 

 ject of agriculture, showing the great improvements 

 that had been made, and were making among us; 

 the vast amount of our agricultural productions as 

 appeared by the late census, and the capability of 

 our soil, if well managed, of yielding a still far 

 greater amount. 



For the New Engiand Farincr. 



A CHINA HEN. 



Mr. Cole: — I have a Shanghae pullet, hatched 

 last April, from an egg purchased of Mr. Hyde, of 

 Newton Corner. She began to lay the 20th of 

 Nov., and in forty-four days, gflve me forty eggs. 

 She then, (the 3d of Jan.) began to sit. I removed 

 her nest, and on the 11th, she bejjan her second 

 litter, and has laid a dozen of eggs to this day. She 

 is a beautifully formed bird, and now weighs 

 seven pounds. Her mate got lamed, and she was 

 put with a fine Cochin China protector of about 

 her age and weight. On the 22d of Dec, I hatched 

 eight chickens, a cross from this Cochin China 

 and Shanghae pair, and on the 2d of January eight 

 more. These 16 chickens, which are in a light 

 cellar, near my furnace, are all doing well. 



