Vol. 1.— No. 37. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



ad* 



••lorn ii No* Yorn 1 armer. 



PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



Do you suppose, Mr. Fleet, that a plain, 

 homespun man, like me, a Country Farmer, 

 whom you and some others have called a 

 full bred and successful cultivator of the soil, 

 could so speak on paper, as to make what he 

 has to say acceptable to the readers of the 

 New-York Farmer ! Practice, it is said, is 

 the road to perfection : and yet practice is 

 often compelled to slop far short of the de- 

 gree of perfection prescribed in the theory. 

 Never, in all my life, did 1 see the theory of 

 family-government so beautifully perfect, as 

 in ray own family, Mr. Editor I But this, 

 alas! was while I was a bachelor, and the 

 family, and family-government, only the ideal 

 of a theory. So it has fared, also, with my 

 Agriculture. It has never yet come up to 

 the perfection proposed, and perhaps never 

 will. One reason of which, probably, is, that 

 theory assumes too much. This brings me 

 to the starting-poim of my purpose, in propo- 

 sing to write a few numbers on the actual bu- 

 siness of Agriculture, addressed directly to 

 the understanding of practical men, my broth- 

 ther Fanlieis. It appears to me, Mr. Edit- 

 or, that men of this description do not lurnish 

 a due proportion of the matter for our Agricul- 

 tural Journals. The writers seem not yet to 

 have learned the distinction between theory 

 and practice, Farming on paper, and on the 

 soil. I fear they have not learned by experi- 

 ence. 



The citizen, charmed with the ideal of ru- 

 ral life, about to retire to a Farm in the 

 country, maps his Farm, draws lines for fen- 

 ces, here a meadow, there fields of grain or 

 fruits, and crops always line, of course. Here 

 his pig yard, poultry yard, and goose-pasture. 

 Wherever written, there they stay, as orderly 

 as names can well be. Well, by-and-by, he 

 is a Farmer. The crops are uncertain, in- 

 sects destroy his fruit the fences are blown 

 down by storms,or even the pretty little brook, 

 swollen to a torrent, sweeps them away, and 

 spreads desolation where it was to produce 

 fertility ! The pigs go wherever they can, 

 often trespassing upon other inclosures, even 

 in despite of boys, dogs, negroes, and ' "lose- 

 fences,' and the 'gobblers' are 'tree com- 

 moners,' while the horses and the cattle sick 

 en or die, and Farming in short is found to be 

 quite another sort of business, in fact, with 

 animals, on the soil, oi with their names on 

 ly, on paper! So it fares with the theory of 

 a thing, or business, and so with the practice. 

 If Farmers would write more for Agricultu- 

 ral Journals, and write from experience 

 these papers would be much more useful, and 

 I should hope, not less generally acceptable 

 to their patrons. As guides, they would lead 

 men securely, no small evidence of merit. 



Without promising much, I mean to de- 

 Tote a few hours to subjects of general inter- 

 est to Farmers, in a perfectly straight-for- 

 ward way, in which I shall speak plainly of 

 many things, and as a man of years and ex- 

 perience. If my example shall induce oth- 

 er Farmers to adopt the same course, it will 

 Jiave been productive of some good. You 

 need not fear much display of learning, too 

 much of which i ■ often even more detrimen- 

 tal and disgusting, than too little, though this 

 is bad enough. Think of it as we may. Far- 

 ming is very much of a common-sense kind 

 of business; and is, as I hope to show, pret- 

 ty apt to be the occupation of common-sense 

 men- They are, universally if not haters of 

 pedantry, certainly not among its admirers, 



facts not generally known, perhaps, as ex- 

 tensively as they should be. In no one oc- 

 cupation, is great conceit of learning, and 

 little sense, so altogether pernicious, as in 

 ours. A Country Farmer. 



THE COUNTRY FARMER.— No. I. 



Mr. Fleet — The Fly-wheel of an En- 

 gine, they say, adds nothing to its power, but 

 that it is useful, in regulating the movements 

 of the several parts. So, Mr. New-York 

 Farmer, do my Sons, and Grandsons, call 

 me ' the fly-wheel c>< the Farm!' Our crops 

 uf Corn and Potatoes, planted after the mid- 

 dle of May, this year, are now perfectly har- 

 vestable, 90 days from the planting ; that is, 

 they are now exactly in such a state of ripe- 

 ness, as to call for immediate ingathering, or 

 suffer by even a very few days delay. — 

 Some little greenness remains in a few leaves 

 of the potatoe tops, but ihe roots have entire- 

 ly done growing. The corn is all a little 

 more than out of the milk, some few of the 

 leaves are yet green, and the stalks are full 

 of rich and well ripened juices. For ma- 

 nure, and fodder, these tops are now worth 

 more than the expense of harvesting. We 

 cut up the corn bv the ground, shock it, and 

 save even the husks, for fodder, as every good 

 Farmer should do. 



From the 25th of August, there is time for 

 great crops of weeds. We let none of our 

 fields lie so long, without being crupped with 

 something. It is therefore a busy time with 

 us, as you may well soppose; Winter grain is 

 to be sown ; we have some patches of low- 

 land glass yet to cut, for hay; and besides 

 the crops above mentioned, the orchards re- 

 quire attention, as well to their fruit, as to 

 nests of worms, that are destroying the leaves, 

 and perhaps threatening the life of the trees. 

 As we rely much on green dressings of the 

 soil, several of our fields are sown to winter 

 rye, after taking off the corn and potatoes ; 

 or to buckwheat, after wheat and rye. The 

 buckwheat, we plough in, say when in bios 

 som, or in all September, and harrow in win- 

 ter rye upon it; or let it lie, for oats, corn, 

 barley, or other spring grain. The winter 

 rye, or rye and oats, still better for fall feed, 

 makes rich pasturage, late in autumn, and 

 early in spring, which is then ploughed in, for 

 a spring green dressing, say by the middle of 

 May, followed by crops of spring grain, corn, 

 oats, or potatoes. The time for doing all 

 this, you will observe, must be ascertained 

 by observation, not by books. The ground, 

 also should never be worked only when in a 

 suitable state, as to dryness, warmth, and 

 moisture. The soil of our Farm, is either a 

 light sandy loam, or a gravel of slate stone, 

 the argillite of the geologists. In order to 

 decompose the slaty gravel, we whiten the 

 surface of the ground with quicklime sown 

 boad-cast, at every working of it by the 

 plough, which changes the slate gradually 

 into clay, and makes the soil a brown choco- 

 late mold, warm, tenacious of moisture, and 

 exceedingly productive. To supply a due 

 proportion of vegetable matter, we rely on 

 green-dressings, aided by lime. 



The nourishment of plants is produced by 

 changes, going on in the soil, such as by fer- 

 mentation, and, generally, decomposition — 

 To increase this action, and sometimes to 

 hasten it, so as to save time, we plough in our 

 green dressings, well whitened with quick- 

 lime and gypsum, sown on the morning dew. 

 Turnips and Carrots come into our course of 

 cropping on a small scale, but we rely more 



on clover and green-dressings, with the pas- 

 ture they afford, than on turnips, a crop 

 rather over estimated, we think, for our hard 

 winter climate, though well adapted lor mil- 

 der winters as in Great Britain. With an- 

 other week, of favorable weather, we shall 

 have sown all our fields of potatoes, and sown 

 rye, or rye and oats, for late and early feed, 

 and for green-dressings in the spring. Not 

 a weed, bearing seed, will be seen in those 

 fields which by and by will be clothed with 

 a matting of rich, sweet, and delicious food 

 for our stock, instead of lying waste for weeds 

 and barrenness, an eye sore to the practiced 

 husbandman. 



With what delight, Mr. Editor, I have just 

 now seen three fields of our little Farm, the 

 corn cut and shocked, the potatoes all hous- 

 ed, and a very fine crop of the black rusty 

 coat, their tops piled on the heaps of com- 

 post, and the soil neatly worked, sown to rye 

 and oats, the surface whitened with quick 

 lime, like a March shower of Snow ! The 

 • Fly-Wheel,' my dear Sir, besides enjoying 

 all this in the fields, where as hearty and fine 

 a set of grandsons are at work as ever made 

 the heart of a patriarch glad, hears the hum 

 of the Spinning-Wheel, on coming to the 

 house. Days of my childhood ! Move you; 

 and O my good sainted Mother, never can I 

 think that Farm-House my home, where 

 there is none of this music of the Spinning- 

 Wheel ! It was thy music, the Harp-of-the 

 Farm, and its fruits the Jewels of the Far- 

 mer's daughters. When I was a little Boy, a 

 Farmer's Boy, the morning slumbers of 

 spring were almost always broken by the 

 notes of the wild birds, and by this Harp of 

 the Farm-House, and the Spinner's song.— 

 Charmed alike with the beauties of out door, 

 and in door nature, rural life and simplicity 

 of character, this Harp of my ancestors has 

 never been banished from my home. Asso- 

 ciated with such recollections, the notes of 

 the blue bird, phcebe bird, wren, and ' half 

 reasoning,' half domesticated robin, are often 

 heard from around their nests at my door, 

 now in my old age, as if to keep alive the af- 

 fections of youth, and lead them gently from 

 earth to heaven ! 



In my next number, having here indica- 

 ted some of the details of the business of the 

 actual Farmer, I shall attempt to exhibit, 

 faithfully, a characteristic delineation of the 

 Farmer's vocation. I know not how it has 

 happended, but, almost universally, the peo- 

 ple seem to underrate the intelligence, and 

 knowledge, and mind, employed in all other 

 pursuits than their own. Every body, who 

 can wield a goose-quill, put words in- 

 to sentences, — and especially if he can talk 

 learned nonsense in an unknown tongue, un- 

 der the name of science, — assumes to teach 

 us Farmers ! In my Introductory number, 

 these paper-Farmers were characteristically 

 defined, and I trust no one will misunderstand 

 my meaning. In an ardent attachment to all 

 that is useful in science, the writer of these 

 numbers yields in zeal to no one, whatever may 

 be the nature o( his avocations or pursuits. 



Sept. 1, 1831. 



Jjf" The late terrible Hurricane in the West 

 Indies was felt awfully at Aux Cayes. The town 

 was completely inundated ; water 3 feet deep in 

 the streets ; town totally destroyed ; 160 lives lost ; 

 famine threatened the remainder after the storn: 

 subsided, until succor was received at Port an 

 Prince. Two American vessels in tile harbor e' 

 Aux Cayes had not been heard of. 



