Vol 1— No. 21. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



165 



I will say a few words upon a topic which 

 has heretofore been mentioned in this place, 

 and those only because my particular busi- 

 ness makes the remark more than disinter- 

 ested on my part. The best of our farmers 

 are united in saying, that we cultivate, or 

 rather attempt to cultivate, too much land. 

 I believe the principle will not be contested 

 by any who would be likely to be affected by 

 it, and I insert it here only with a wish to im- 

 press it again upon your mind. 



Travelling a few years ago in Pennsylva- 

 nia, I saw in a grist mill a machine to break 

 corn before shelling ; in that state it was 

 ground coarse, and fed to hogs and other 

 animals. I heard much of the advantage 

 of this plan, but being unfortunately preven 

 ted from devoting as much of my time and 

 of my thoughts to the subject of farming as 

 I wish, I might never have endeavored to 

 introduce this mode in our county, if the too 

 great partiality of my associates had not 

 chosen me for the honor of addressing you 

 on this occasion. In the limited opportuni- 

 ty I have had of enquiring about it since, I 

 find that the same process is followed in 

 several parts, at least, of the country, and 

 very well spoken of. It is thought by some 

 that it saves a quarter of the corn in fatten- 

 ing swine. A paper of a recent date from 

 Columbia, (Pennsylvania) says, that it has 

 been pretty accurately ascertained, that thir- 

 teen bushels of Indian corn ground up, corn 

 and cobs together, afford, at least, as much 

 nutriment in feeding cattle, as nine bushels 

 of corn without the cobs. Here is a saving 

 of nearly one third. This food is used by 

 the carters in New-York for their horses. — 

 A machine to break the corn costs about fifty 

 dollars. I have no doubt if some of our en- 

 terprising millers should establish such a 

 machine, he would have the double reward 

 of bringing grist to his mill, and doing good 

 to his country. 



The introduction of lucerne into this coun- 

 try has heretofore been recommended to you, 

 but the difficulty of procuring the seed, and 

 the want of a sample, have probably been 

 impediments to its extension. I am going 

 to procure some seed for my use, and will 

 cheerfully get some for those who will leave 

 their names to-day with Mr. Ilnngerford. — 

 This grass is strongly recommended by some 

 of our most able agriculturists, as Mr. Low- 

 ell, President of the Essex Agricultural So- 

 ciety in Massachusetts, and Mr. Buel of Al- 

 bany. I have the more confidence in the 

 opinion of its advocates, as I find that many 

 of them, and the latter in particular, failed 

 in the beginning of its cultivation. Its great 

 advantages are : its durability ; it will last 

 ten years or more in good ground ; it is ear- 

 lier than clover; is mowed three or four times 

 in the season ; stands droughts and hard win- 

 ters better; and its root going six feet and 

 more into the ground, draws sustenance from 

 a part of your land which otherwise is be- 

 yond your reach. Mr. Buel, and others, say, 

 that being cut and fed green, it will keep 

 five or six cows per acre during the season. 

 Less oats is necessary with it than with clo- 

 ver. In short, it is so highly spoken of both 

 in Europe and in this country, that no good 

 farmer who has soil adapted to it, which is 

 a deep sandy loam, should be without a field 

 of it, even if it is but one acre. You will 

 perceive, that once well put in, it will cost 

 nothing more for several years, and produce 

 yearly a greater profit than any other grass.' 

 Those who wish to keep their lands in grass 



us long as possible, can have nothing to com- 

 pare with it. I have good authority for say- 

 ing so, and only wish that the limits of this 

 address would admit of my quoting some of 

 them. 



The inhabitants of this county have had 

 lately an occasion of displaying their taste 

 for scientific and useful pursuits. Mr. Finch, 

 a distinguished mineralogist, was attracted 

 by a subsciiption to deliver a course of lec- 

 tures at Watertown, in the intervals between 

 which he visited several parts of this county, 

 and on his last evening gave a summary ac- 

 count of what he had seen, the substance of 

 which will be published. Besides the objects 

 of curiosity for the intelligent and inquiring 

 traveller which he mentioned, and which are 

 not immediately connected with our present 

 purpose, it was gratifying to hear this gen- 

 tleman who has travelled over a great part 

 of the United States, and whose business 

 makes him a close observer of the soils of 

 a country, express himself in so favorable 

 terms upon our part of the state. A very 

 important conclusion may be drawn from 

 his observations upon the part of our coun- 

 try which rests upon limestone. It is object- 

 ed by some of the people residing in that 

 part, when they are advised to burn some 

 of the stones which they find upon their 

 farms, and spread the dust upon their land, 

 that as the country lies upon a lime rock, 

 the soil must contain lime. Mr. Finch has 

 said to you, that the conclusion is by no 

 means certain upon general principles. It 

 is undoubtedly false as it regards a pretty 

 large tract of land ; viz. the far greater pro- 

 portion of the pine forest. As to the rest, 

 Mr. Finch had not the means of making the 

 nice experiments which are necessary to de- 

 termine the exact quantity of lime contain- 

 ed in a soil ; but he tried some earth picked 

 up on the side of the street leading to the 

 arsenal, and found it to contain very little 

 lime. Some clay taken near the Universal- 

 is! Church, and chosen as one of the grounds 

 most likely to contain a great deal of lime, 

 showed the indication of very little ; in the 

 opinion of Mr. Finch, not over five per cent. 

 The quantity which our soils contain is pro- 

 bably so small, that there can be no doubt of 

 its being greatly improved by the introduc- 

 tion of lime. I find in Chaptal's Chemistry 

 applied to Agriculture, that Mr. Tillet made 

 at Paris a great number of experiments up- 

 on the best proportions in which sand, clay, 

 and lime could be mixed to produce the 

 most fertile soil,these three ingredients form- 

 ing generally the best soils, with the addi- 

 tion sometimes of vegetable matter, which is 

 very desirable, and also of other substan- 

 ces, which are not generally in such propor- 

 tions as to affect sensibly its bearing qual- 

 ities. He found that the best mixture was 

 twenty-five per cent, of sand, thirty-seven 

 and a half of clay, and thirty-seven and a 

 half of lime. This agrees in a striking man- 

 ner with the analysis as made by Bergmann 

 of one of the best soils of Sweden, contain- 

 ing thirty sand, forty clay, and thirty lime, 

 and with that of an excellent alluvial soil on 

 the borders of the Loire, made by Chaptal, 

 but which he gives in a way which cannot be 

 exactly compared with the foregoing with- 

 out entering into too much detail. A piece 

 of land in Touraine, which had just produ- 

 ced a fine crop of hemp, gave half sand and 

 one quarter of each of the other ingredients. 

 It may therefore be concluded that the 

 most advantageous proportions in which 



sand, clay, and lime may enter into the com- 

 position of earths, are from one quarter to 

 one half, although an excellent wheat land 

 in Middlesex, England, was found by Davy 

 to contain only one tenth of lime. Any far- 

 mer may find pretty nearly what proportion 

 of lime his land contains by mixing lime- 

 stone, finely powdered, in different propor- 

 tions with dry sand and clay, (weighing each 

 material) — by pouring a few drops of muri- 

 atic acid, which may be had at the drug- 

 gists, on this mixture diluted in water, an 

 effervescence will take place more or less 

 strong in proportion to the quantity of lime ; 

 and by comparing it with that which takes 

 place in pouring the same acid upon his soil, 

 he will have a tolerable idea of the quantity 

 jof lime which it contains, bearing in mind 

 I that our limestone has about four tenths 

 jlime. But where a very great deficiency 

 'exists, if it could be corrected only by mix- 

 ing a due proportion of lime, the evil would 

 I be practically irremediable. To make a 

 jsoil containing thirty per cent, lime to the 

 | depth of six inches, five thousand bushels 

 per acre would be required. But it has been 

 found, that lime obtained by burning lime- 

 stone, operates upon soils in the double ca- 

 pacity of a stimulant and of a component 

 part of the soil. On this account forty or 

 fifty bushels per acre are sufficient to pro- 

 duce a good effect, although several hund- 

 red bushels, and in one instance one thous- 

 and, have been used to advantage in Great 

 Britain. Mr. Finch recommends, with rea- 

 tson, its use in this county, and quotes as 

 jexamples the great benefits derived from it 

 I in Pennsylvania and in Jersey, and in one 

 instance at Brownville. There is no doubt 



that in some soils the effect is astonishing 



Lime may also be added to land by usin" 

 plaster. This is much cheaper, but will not 

 have so lasting an effect. Which of the two 

 will be preferable here will be determined 

 by experience, and trials should be made on 

 both, so as to enable us to choose between 

 them. 



And here I would beg leave to suggest a 

 plan which I think would do more good than 

 can be done in any other way with any thing 

 like the same trouble. Pattern farms have 

 been established in other places, but they 

 are extremely difficult to be well managed 

 any where, and would be almost impracti- 

 cable here at present. I would therefore 

 spread the pattern farm all over the coun- 

 ty. Let every man who tries an improve- 

 ment on his farm, when it shall be on the 

 road, (which he should try to do) put up a 

 notice written with chalk on a piece of board, 

 stating in a few words the nature of the ex- 

 periment. In the case before us, for in- 

 stance, let a few narrow strips running back 

 from the road be left without liming, on av- 

 erage quality and situation. Write on a 

 piece of board or shingle posted up, "thirty 

 bushels stone lime per acre;" the strips left 

 without liming will speak for themselves, 

 and you will persuade more to follow your 

 example than the recommendation of the 

 greatest orators could do. 



The roller, which is considered in France 

 and in England, as one of the most import- 

 ant implements of modern husbandry, is not 

 yet adopted in this county ; but ought cer- 

 tainly to be, after the high encomiums which 

 are bestowed upon it by some of the best 

 farmers in the eastern states, who have ex- 

 perienced the greatest benefits from its us#. 

 Repeated experiments made on the farm at 



