36 



£l)c jfhrnur'g jltonil)lij Visitor. 



prize in class 7i!i ; the second in class 2d. The 

 Devons took the first prize in classes 4th and 

 5th ; the second prize in classes 3d and 4th. The 

 first prize in class 3d was a cross of the Short 

 Horn and Devon. The first prize in class 6th 

 was a Highland ox. The first prize in class 7th 

 was a cross of a Long Horn and Hereford. The 

 first prize of class 9th was a Long Horn. The 

 Short Horn prize steer which took the gold medal 

 us the best of their show, it is said, " possessed 

 a greater number of good points than perhaps any 

 other beasl that ever appeared in Smithfield." 

 Among the most distinguished exhibitors, we 

 notice Prince Albert; the Dukes of Rutland and 

 Richmond ; Earls Radnor and Leicester— the 

 latter quite a young man, and son of the cele- 

 brated Earl Leicester (Mr. Coke of Norfolk); 

 Lord Portman, &e. &c. We only mention these 

 titled personages to show such of our readers as 

 were not define aware of the fact, that the most 

 distinguished men in England take great pride 

 and pleasure in obtaining prizes by a show of fat 

 animals reared and fed on their own farms. 



&I)c bisitov. 



CONCOUD, N. H., MARCH 31, 1848. 



Farming upon Long Island. 



The" Agriculturist" presents, as the result of 

 personal examination of the editor, the spirited 

 improvements of the farmers upon Long Island. 

 The soil of that island, extending one hundred 

 miles along eastward from the city and harbor of 

 New York, nearly level with the sea, is light and 

 porous, alternating with swamps, the former pro- 

 ducts of which were nothing better than frogs 

 and alder bushes. Under the former system the 

 light lands were ploughed, and produced without 

 manure, from twelve to fifteen bushels of corn to 

 the acre, followed by a crop of nine or ten bush- 

 els of winter rye: this was pastured afterwards 

 five or six years, again to be followed by plough- 

 ing and a diminished crop of corn. The drained 

 swamps latterly have turned out rich black muck 

 to be used as manure; fish have been caught in 

 great numbers and applied to the land ; sea-weed 

 has been gathered for a like purpose; thousands 

 of bushels of ashes and ship-loads of manure 

 have been brought from the city of New York, 

 and recently guano to some extent. And what is 

 the result? Why, the same land that formerly 

 averaged only half a ton of hay to the acre, now 

 cuts two or three tons ; corn which produced not 

 over ten to fifteen bushels per acre, now yields 

 from thirty-five to sixty— and*the smaller grains 

 and roots have increased in like proportion. But 

 much larger isolated crops have been raised than 

 these. For example, Mr. Daniel K. Youngs has 

 raised 80 bushels of oais and 100 bushels of corn 

 per acre, and 550 bushels of carrots on half an 

 acre. Mr. Thomas F. Youngs raised on one 

 ante of drained swamp, 123£ bushels of corn. 

 Mr. Jacob Smith, of Centre Island, raised 400 

 bush-tit of wheat un ten acres, and a single acre 

 produced him 50 bushels. 



Of a family by the name of Youngs, residing 

 at Oyster Bay, L. I., (he editor of the Agricultur- 

 ist speaks in one account of his visit last sum- 

 mer. The father of the family, Mr. Daniel 

 Votings, has a farm of 300 acres, "generally of 

 a light, loamy, or gravelly soil, though some fields 

 are of heavy loam, abounding with stones." His 

 son, Mr. Thomas F. Youngs, has another farm 

 near by, comprising about 400 acres. Mr. Y. has 

 been uncommonly spirited in his improvements, 

 lie has drained a large swamp, which previous 

 u, his possession of the farm, had never produced 

 . iiylhing of value. It was here where he grew 

 I ii second year after draining it, I23J bushels ot 



corn per acre. It is now one of the richest and 

 most productive fields on the island. 



The editor of the Agriculturist says— " We 

 have known instances of locust groves on Long 

 Island growing up to the worth of $300 per acre 

 within forty years." These groves, on poor soil, 

 may there be made to grow in value from four to 

 seven dollars worth of timber per annum, and at 

 the same time yield considerable grass for sheep 

 pasturage. On light sandy soil, the trees keep 

 the ground cool and moist, and the grass contin- 

 ues growing all summer. 



The Ice Trade forty-two years since. 



The Windsor, Vt. Post Boy, of June 24, 1806, 

 contains the following; 



" The brig Favorite, of Boston, loaded with a 

 cargo of Ice, went to Martinique, where the car- 

 go was sold for 5 cents per lb., which amounted 

 to 4000 dollars." 



So little progress was made in the ice trade, 

 that it was not until more than twenty years 

 after this, that Mr. Tudor of Boston, applied for 

 and obtained the exclusive right of supplying 

 with ice for a term of years, of one or more of 

 the West India islands. The first ice sent to 

 New Orleans from Boston, perhaps fifteen years 

 ago, retailed in that city from four to six cents a 

 pound: but little profit to the shipper was made 

 at that high price. 



The ice trade of New England, not only to the 

 warm climates of the southern States and the 

 West Indies, but also to the East Indies and the 

 colder European climates, to the islands of Britain 

 herself, has become already a business of magni- 

 tude, constantly increasing. With the ice car- 

 goes, are sent abroad, in a state of freshness and 

 preservation, perishable meats, fish and vegeta- 

 bles, with the prospect of inexhaustible demand. 



The ice is now furnished at distant parts of 

 the Union, and in foreign ports, thousands of 

 miles distant, at as little expense as the cost for- 

 merly of delivering it on board the ship: for two 

 dollars a ton, or one mill a pound, it is delivered 

 on board the ship at the wharves in Boston and 

 Charlestown : at half a cent a pound, retailed in 

 New Orleans, it would give a clear profit of more 

 than half the price. The reduction of price re- 

 sults mainly from the inventions of the process 

 of cutting and taking the ice from the ponds — 

 the surer and simpler methods of housing and 

 keeping over the season, and the lessened ex- 

 pense of entire railway transport from the inte- 

 rior lakes or ponds to the hold of the ships re- 

 ceiving it. The latest suggestion is, that steam- 

 power will be exclusively used, as well in cut- 

 ting and drawing the jce from its bed as it) its 

 subsequent land transport. As cold weather al 

 ways gives ice in abundance upon the New Eng- 

 land lakes and streams — better ice than can lie 

 found in the Middle States, or upon the British 

 islands — so we may suppose that there will be 

 for years no diminution of our ice trade. 



It has been found that saw-dust is the best ar- 

 ticle for the preservation of ice: in the extensive 

 saw-mills in the timber regions of Maine, the 

 saw-dust had been a matter of annoyance about 

 the mills. Latterly, cargoes of saw-dust are 

 shipped to .Massachusetts bay, to be used in the 

 great ice-house preservers at Fresh pond, and 

 other ponds furnishing ice in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton. Besides this, it has been found in steam 

 engine saw -mills, many of which are e'ri cud and 

 erecting near the railways, where timber forests 

 abound all over New England, that the saw-dust 

 furnishes no inconsiderable portion of fuel ne- 

 cessary for the steam-power. 



The "Brown Corn." 



From the N. Y. Agriculturist for January. 



IMPROVED VARIETIES OF INDIAN CORN. 



Having noticed in the November (1847) num- 

 ber of the Agriculturist an account of the suc- 

 cessful cultivation of Brown corn by Dr. Field, I 

 have been led to forward you a statement of my 

 own crop of the past season, which was raised 

 from the same kind of seed. 



The ground was prepared in my usual way 

 and planted on the 29th of May, three feet be- 

 tween the rows and about two feet in the other 

 direction. The growth of the corn was very 

 luxuriant, the height of the stalks being, upon an 

 average, about seven feet, and the ears from two 

 to three feet above the ground, generally of uni- 

 form size and well filled. By the 1st of October, 

 the crop was in a fit condition to be harvested, 

 and was accordingly cut up in fine weather, 

 husked and properly stored away in the corn 

 loft, from which is selected a fine parcel for seed. 

 Previous to harvesting, 1 measured off an acre of 

 the field, the product of which, on being weighed, 

 after the husks were removed, was 7,104 pounds. 

 This, according to previous estimates, would 



ve upwards of one hundred bushels of shelled 

 corn to the acre. 



I will also give you an account of another va- 

 riety of corn, which I have experimented upon, 

 by my peculiar method, although at a somewhat 

 limited event. About five years ago, I obtained 

 a small ear of rice corn, with tiny grains and a 

 cob "almost nothing," which 1 planted in my 

 garden, where it had no chance to mix with the 

 pollen of any oth=.r kind. For three or four 

 years in succession, I planted a small patch, dur- 

 ing which time, 1 found that the ear and kernel 

 both increased in size, while the cob continued 

 to be quite small. About the end of May last, in 

 order to know what it would yield, I planted ten 

 square rods of ground. The stalks grew stout 

 and contained from two to four ears each ; and, 

 according to a fair estimate, the yield was at the 

 rate of one hundred and twelve bushels of shelled 

 corn per acre. Thus, in five years, from the most 

 diminutive sort in the world, I have obtained it 

 variety which, in time, bids fair to give as abun- 

 dant yield as my other corn. 



JOHN BROWN, 2d. 



Long Island, I 



Lake Winnipisiogee. $ 



85 s7 We are glad to learn from the foregoing 

 article, copied from Mr. Allen's excellent paper, 

 the Agriculturist, published in the city of New 

 York, that our old friend, "John Brown, 2d," 

 keeps up his taste and spirit for improving the 

 cultivation of Indian corn, for which the fine 

 islands upon our largest interior lake of New 

 Hampshire and the shores about it are so well 

 adapted. 



The editor had been written to on the subject 

 of the Brown corn, by the Commissioner of Pa- 

 tents at Washington city, and had engaged to 

 procure some seed to be distributed in various 

 parts of the United States: carrying out the de- 

 sign, we have requested Mr. Brown to forward to 

 the Commissioner by express from Concord, one 

 bushel of this corn, with the intent that it may 

 be used in different parts of the country. 



It should be understood beforehand, that the 

 corn growing at any given point is not at once 

 adapted to the climate north or south, say to the 

 distance of a hundred miles, or a single degree 

 of latitude. Further north in the more frosty 

 regions, the more diminutive corn is raised. The 

 small Canada corn brought down to the distance 

 of two hundred miles south, will mature and ri- 

 pen full four weeks sooner than the Duttou ten 

 and twelve rowed corn that is common on the 

 lower intervals and highlands upon the Merri- 

 mack river, a degree of latitude north of Boston 

 The large eight-rowed corn raised in the towns 

 of Massachusetts near the sea will not find time 

 to grow and ripen upon the elevated range of 

 hills forty and fifty miles westerly towards Con- 

 necticut river: an elevation of three hundred 



