106 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



December 24, Iffli- 



rican, innocent and useful, than horse races, bull 

 rights, festivals and shows, &c.. that are substitu- 

 ted in monarchies as recreations from the labor of 

 their masters. .No, the intelligent American mi- 

 litiaman despises the proffered aid of those who 

 have done little or no duty, and who are so ready 

 with their help to rid him of it. He knows that 

 if he parts with the organization and physical a 

 bility to assert his rights, they would like many 

 other nations, soon vanish as a shadow. He has 

 seen his brethren in arms at Platsburg, at Erie, 

 at Baltimore, New Orleans, and other places, 

 Save our regular armies, and preserve the charac- 

 ter of our country, in repelling a foreign foe He 

 has read of the spirit displayed by our militia in 

 the Revolutionary war, at Bunker hill, at Ben- 

 nington, at Saratoga, and throughout that momen- 

 tous struggle. He has lately witnessed the deso- 

 lating effects of a few regulars led by unprinci- 

 pled officers among the South American Repub- 

 lics, when they had no organized militia to check 

 their career, or preserve the liberties of the people. 

 He lias admired the wisdom of the French Liber- 

 als, who by an organization of the militia or Na- 

 tional Guard, have saved tiiat fine country from 

 the horrors which the enemies of all order as 

 heretofore, would have involved it. And he 

 would advise all those who think our militia sys- 

 tem too burthensome, instead of endeavoring to 

 Undermine this pillar which our ancestors have 

 placed for the support of our Liberties, to quit this 

 for some other country where they have no such 

 burthens to bear. A MILITIAMAN. 



SELfcK TIOMS. 



From the New Yorrk Farmer. 



THE COUNTRY FARMER— NO. XII. 



On the choice of suitable Land for Farming 

 Mb. Fleet — The lemark will, at first 

 view, strike most pei sons as a kind of con- 

 tradiction in terms, that the very richest 

 land, is not that on which Fai hums have the 

 best success, and vet nothing is more cer- 

 tain- The first quality of land, is generally 

 considered to be river alluvion; next to this, 

 the richest upland, such as a fat and tena- 

 cious loam ; then a sandy loam, or saird and 

 clay; and finally a dry gravel. Of all 

 these descriptions of soil, 1st, 2d, iid, and 

 1th, the last is that on which we generally 

 find the best Farmers, not onlv but the most 

 succeisful Farming I have traversed most 

 parts of the United States, from Maine to 

 North Carolina, and between the great west- 

 ern Lakes and the Atlantic, and have ef v 

 where seen prool of the correctness of thesi 

 remarks. The first choice of land in the 

 settlement of every new country, taking the 

 qualities as designated above, is always in 

 the numerical order, as they stand ; and the 

 4th, after some "20 to 50 years, always be- 

 comes, except in some very rare cases of 

 river alluvion, the first, and the whole order 

 is reversed ! There may be particular ex- 

 ceptions, but as a general remark, the above 

 observations will be found, on the strictest 

 examination, to be sanctioned by general 

 facts. Such was the case, in the early his- 

 tory of the settlement of this continent, such 

 it lias bi-cn, ineyery part of the country, and 

 such it still is, as settlements advance, every 

 where. One generation succeeds another, 

 he second invariably adopting different 

 views from the first, ii' continuing to reside 

 on the same land; and yet all others, all 



of those who are uninstructed by personal 

 experience and observation, or very nearly 

 11, advance to the wilds wilh the old fash- 

 ioned errors of opinion ! Were we to omit 

 taking into consideration the grounds of 

 this mistake, the general perseverance in it. 

 would seem to imply a strange want of pru- 

 dent foresight, or even a want of common 

 understanding. Let us examine this matter 

 a little, for it is one of very general import- 

 ance. 



Lands in a state of nature, wild lands, to 

 which so large a proportion of the young 

 men resort, for future Farms, if clothed with 

 timber, forest trees, present very delusive 

 appearances, such, xactlv.as would be like- 

 ly to mislead the judgment. Excepting only 

 the river alluvion, universally sought as of 

 the first quality, almost without looking at 

 the soil, the three other qualities are found, 

 the second and thiid. covered with a thick 

 deposite of vegetable matter, leaves, partly 

 decayed. ' soft as an under bed,' ' black as my 

 shoe.'' Such is the surface. On tearing up 

 some handfuls of the ground, this is well 

 blaekened of course, and little is thought of 

 looking for the sub-soil, as those invariably 

 do, who have once been deceived by black 

 muck, and these soft beds of leaves. Brooks 

 are plenty, in such woods though they will 

 be scarce, on the same land, when opened 

 to the sun, and the blankets and bed of 

 leaves are removed, so as to dry the surface 

 of the ground. 



On the 4th quality of land, the dry and 

 warm gravel, there is none of this great 

 store of slowly rotting leaves, because they 

 rot rapidly, and fires often burn them up, 

 the land being dry ; and brooks, and springs, 

 are even more scarce than they will be 

 when the woods are destroyed. The ground. 

 having its surface uncovered, and the woods 

 generally more open, presents an appear- 

 ance of nakedness, especially after having 

 passed over black muck lands, shrouded in 

 leaves. With on allowance for the far 

 greater frequency of fires, to burn oil" the 

 leaves, and to destroy much of the growth 

 of wood, keeping the woods more open, this 

 land is condemned for barrenness, and the 

 lancl of muck is chosen, all blanketed and 

 carpeted wth leaves. We may, on reading 

 this, admitting it to be a true and faithful 

 outline or delineation, all aiiee that we 

 would act more wisely, and yet 99 rn a hun- 

 dred of us, uninstructed by experience, 

 would probably choose the carpeted land, as 

 99 in a hundred have done before, in all 

 parts of the United States. I would not. 

 and did not, but my Either did, much to 

 lis regret, and I had the benefit of his ex- 

 perience, as well as my own, having been 

 born and bred on one of" those carpeted 

 Farms. 



Land, that is cold and wet, may bear im- 

 mense growths of trees, as of the elm, ash, 

 basswood, birch, beach, maple and hemlock ; 

 and having a very thick shade, the ground 

 will be cold, and wet, and the leaves must, 

 of course, decay very slowly. Hence the 

 carpeting, which is invariably, a sure inai- 

 cation of either cold, or wet land) or of both. 

 If of both, it never will make alarm lor 

 grain; and grass, for pasture, and for hay, 

 which grows on such land, is always very 

 inferior in richness, to that grown on land 

 that is warm and dry. The difference is ve- 

 ry grear. The most nutritious grass, grows 

 only where the land is so dry, and warm, 

 that it must be sown frequently with seed, in 



order to keep up the sward. This is what I 

 call a medium soil, good, alike for grass and 

 grain, on which I should no more expect 

 crops of grass, except from seed, than of 

 grain. One acre of such ground, in pasture, 

 or meadow, will keep as much stock as one 

 "and a half, or even two, or three, of your 

 black muck cold and wet grass land. The 

 appearance, to be sure, in pasture, will be 

 very different. The grass may be very long. 

 in your wet, cold land pasture, but very poor 

 feed ; in the other, it will be far more nu- 

 tritious, short and sweet, like a well told sto- 

 ry. 



With land that is dry and warm, the good' 

 Husbandman, may always succeed ingetiin" 

 good crops. He may even make the soil as 

 fertile as that of the very richest of land, 

 and far more sure in its crops. Good litis 

 bandry, constantly enriches the soil. But it 

 is almost impossible to do this, with land 

 naturally cold, and wet. It has not warmth 

 enough, of temperament, to be sensitive to 

 kind treatment, but is like some men, so 

 phlegmatic, as to offer no principle of life 

 to act upon. Heat, and cold, are always 

 antipodes. You cair never, by the utmost 

 kindness, overcome natural antipathies. — 

 The very cause of the muck, which misleads 

 so many in the choice of lands, is a natural 

 coldness in the soil, where leaves are yrestrX 

 ved from decay, by cold, and by wet, not 

 moisture, but an excess of wetness. Such 

 lands, when cleared, will produce grain 

 crops, while the muck lasts, and is rotting 

 by the power of the sun, but is sterile, ever 

 afterwards, unless covered with a new soil, 

 made artificiallv and at more expense than 

 the cost of warm and good land. This can 

 be effected by trench-ploughing, under- 

 draining, quick lime as ;r manure, bringing 

 up the haid-pan, almost always the only sub- 

 soil of mucky lands, but the cost is too 

 great for any thing but t xperiinent. and on a 

 small scale. It will he done, when lands, 

 from being scarce, shall be worth 50 dollars 

 an acre, but that time is far distant. 



This is a long story, Mr. Editor, as it will 

 seem to those of your readers, if any such 

 there be, who take no interest in knowing 

 how to appreciate the different quaities of 

 land, for Farming. I venture to say, how- 

 ever, that no topic yet embraced in these pa- 

 pers, is of more general interest, to your Ag- 

 ricultural and Horticultural readers, and 

 that none of the Nos. will be more exten- 

 sively and attentively read by them, particu- 

 larly the Fanners, than this and the three 

 next, which 1 mean to devote to the same 

 subject. 



1 shall not attempt to speak of soils of all 

 descriptions, land of every quality, but dwell 

 principally on the two leading characteris- 

 tics, of cold and wet lana, underlaid by hard- 

 pan; and warm and dry land, properly the 

 medium soils, however constituted, closing 

 with some observations on good grazing and 

 meadow land, for dairy and stock Farms. 



Sept. 16, 1831. 



From the NeW»fcnfcl»nd Farmer. 



MR. COBB'S MANUAL. 



We have been favored with a small trea- 

 tise entitled ' A Manual containing informa- 

 tion respecting '■'" j row h of the Mulberry 

 Tree, with suitublt uirtctiojis for the culture 

 of silk, in three parts. Jiy J. H. Cobb, A. 

 Si. Published by direction of his excellency 

 Gov. Lincoln, agretably to a resolve of the 

 Commonwealth. Osttndcns hujua munem 



