&i)c .farmer's itlcmtljlu ilioitor. 



109 



almost any man or woman may have all the ad- 

 vantage, Letter than a physician's emetic, which 

 sea-sickness will give them; and then again 

 when the dense fog upon the coast will not per- 

 mit the deserving of objects at five rods dis- 

 tance, there is something romantic in the idea 

 of being dashed while under way against the 

 rocks. Save the pieces! 



The Agriculturist and Manufacturer combined. 



Allusion has been made in the columns of the 

 Visitor to the great improvement midway he- 

 tween Washington and Baltimore made hy Col. 

 Horace Oapron. Invited to his [dare by the 

 generous proprietor of the factory and farm 

 at Laurel, we had intended to make a per- 

 sonal reconaoisance before we left the seat of 

 government dining our late sojourn there: the 

 day appointed to go with some New England 

 friends was unpropitious, and the visit was de- 

 ferred, perhaps to he made at some future oppor- 

 tunity. As resulting from the enterprise of one 

 man who has scarcely yet attained the age of 

 forty years, the example of Col. Capron is 

 worthy of all praise: carrying out at the same 

 time successful farming and successful manufac- 

 turing, we pray that no revulsion, such as some- 

 times is forced into existence every where, may 

 at present teach the proprietor of Laurel to his 

 material injury. We want to see manufactures 

 succeed anil flourish in the southern States, es- 

 pecially in the old Atlantic States where slavery 

 is gradually moving away, as well as in the States 

 of the North : we want to see Maryland and old 

 Virginia resuscitate their worn-out lands, with a 

 more condensed white population supporting 

 and supported by a busy manufacturing village 

 at every waterfall— improved, after the manner 

 of New England, in roads and all the best facili- 

 ties of transport to and from market. The 

 whole Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Georgia 

 invites the most profitable investment of capital 

 for the support of ten times its present popula- 

 tion. The difference in expense of transport 

 between this region and the far West epiite coun- 

 terbalances all the advantages of superior soil 

 there: the better climate and health of the older 

 country should induce the generation of new 

 men of business to remain where we are, while 

 the foreign emigration and the natural rapid in- 

 crease are sufficient to people all the West. 

 Col. Capron's example of renovating worn-out 

 lands shows a good method for men of enterprise 

 to invest their capital : the man of small capital, 

 with a better aid of the labor of his own 

 hands, cannot (ail to he successful under con- 

 slant and unwearied industry, if he shall not un- 

 dertake to go beyond his means. 



The editor of that excellent paper, the Balti- 

 more American Farmer, has well supplied the 

 description we might have undertaken in the 

 following article : 



From the American Farmer for July. 



A VISIT TO COL. CAPRON'S. 



The name of Col. Horace Capron, of Laurel, 

 Prince George's county, is as familiar to agricul- 

 tural readers throughout the country as the names 

 of their immediate neighbors — because his laurels- 

 were gained iii meritorious and successful efforts 

 to improve lauds which had been deprived of 

 every vestige of fertility, and which had long 

 been consigned to that cheerless line — old fields 

 — the lot of thousands and tens of thousands of 

 acres of the once fruitful soils of Maryland, as 

 well as those of the other old .States of our 

 Union. We have thus alluded lo Col. C. with 

 the view of introducing to our patrons, the re- 

 sult of the observations which we made of his 

 farm and farming, during a visit which we paid 



him on the 12th ultimo. Some two years since 

 we were called to the Laurel Factory, on busi- 

 ness, and then hoped to have had an Opportunity 

 of examining the improvements which he had 

 made on his farm, hut, as he was absent, our ob- 

 servations were confined to the very superficial 

 view which we could obtain from the road on 

 our way homeward. We then, however, had 

 the pleasure to realize the gratifying fact, that 

 Col. C. had carried on his improvements with a 

 vigorous hand — with a judicious and enlightened 

 head — for we saw luxuriant crops growing, where 

 only a few years before, barren clays and those 

 emblems of poor soils — the sedge ami poverty 

 grasses — ruled the ascendent. These evidences 

 of improvement, together with the admirable 

 and able papers published in our journal, during 

 last year, by Col. C. " on the renovation of worn- 

 out lands," warmed in us the desire to go and 

 see forourself what he had done, and glad are 

 we that we obeyed the yearnings of our heart, 

 for the eight hours which we spent in the exam- 

 ination of the Colonel's firm, we shall ever rank 

 as amongst the must happy ones of our life ; for 

 independent of the kind and hospital reception 

 which we met with, all that we saw around us, 

 gave the pleasing assurance that there were no 

 lands in our native State, that could not be re- 

 stored to fertility by a proper course of improve- 

 ment — and hence, the necessily had ceased to 

 exist, for its people to leave their native hills and 

 dales to go in search of distant and more lertile 

 lauds, as those at home were susceptible of being 

 renovated at a cost less in amount than would be 

 required to establish them with new homes in 

 the land of strangers. The firm of Col. Capron 

 consists of some fifteen hundred acres— seven hun- 

 dred are arable lands, nearly six hundred of 

 which, when he came into possession a few 

 years since, were exhausted old fields, which, by a 

 course of improvident culture, had been deprived 

 of their every element of fertility, as thousands 

 who have travelled between Baltimore and 

 Washington will bear us witness. When he 

 took the melioration of those tieids in hand, they 

 presented so hopeless a prospect that no one less 

 enterprising than he — less imbued with the feel- 

 ing of passionate devotion to the pursuits of ag- 

 riculture — would have undertaken a task at once 

 so unpromising and so herculean. But taking, 

 as he did, a comprehensive view of the difficul- 

 ties which surrounded him, feeling an abiding 

 confidence in the truth of tlie theory which he 

 had formed, and animated by the same indomi- 

 table energy — the same unflinching courage, 

 which, had he been at Cerro Gordo, would have 

 enabled him to have been in the van of those 

 who curried those heights, he proceeded in the 

 execution of the glorious undertaking, and suc- 

 cess — triumphant success — has crowned his ef- 

 forts — his fields stand forth, in bold relief, to at- 

 test the skilf'ulness of the hand by which they 

 have been rescued from poverty, abject poverty, 

 and brought lo a condition of more than virgin 

 fruitfulness. in fields, where seven years ago 

 live bushels of wheat lo the acre could not have 

 been grown, we beheld 1-10 acres of wheal, 

 whose heads were over-lopping the altitude of 

 the fence, and standing erect, and so thickly set 

 on the ground, that every square inch could 

 claim its stalk as its own occupant — and if our 

 judgment is not at fault, the average yield irmsl 

 reach 35 or 40 bushels in the acre, unless some 

 disaster may have intervened calculated to lessen 

 its product before it shall have been harvested. 

 In one of the fields, we are very certain that 

 there are portions that will yield 50 bushels to 

 i lie acre. We arrive at these conclusions not in 

 an over sanguine spirit, but as the result of so- 

 ber and chastened judgment. 



Two days before our visit, the Colonel had cut 

 his most forward field of grass, consisting of 

 clover and orchard grass, which it was estimated 

 would yield two tons to the acre, and we doubt 

 it not, lor the stubbles shewed that they had 

 borne burthens of no ordinary volume and 

 weight. We examined Ihe hay as it was being 

 hauled into the barn, and are free to say, thai we 

 have never seen any which had been better 

 cured — it was perfectly green in color, and fra- 

 grant as Ihe rose, with ihe leaves all adhering to 

 the stalks of ihe clover— in ihe curing, the (*o|m- 

 uel pursues the plan which we have so often re- 

 commended, of cocking the grass as soon as wilt- 

 ed,— in stowing it away, he sails it at the rate ol 



a peck of salt to ihe ton, and is thus enable I to 

 house it much earlier than he could otherwise 

 do. and lo secure to bis stock a most grateful and 

 nutritious provender. 



It being the object of Col. C. to devote his 

 farm to dairy purposes, all save the part in 

 wheat, is in grass, e\o< pi a field of 100 acres, 

 now in fallow. 



The yrass uncut at the time of our visit, con- 

 sisted chiefly of timothy and clover — and which 

 promised to yield from li to 2 tons to the 

 acre. 



Among the fields improved by Col. C. is one 

 of sixty acres, Which he has reclaimed fro hi a 

 Swamp, and now bears on its bosom a heavy crop 

 of timothy. This wonderful improvement has 

 been effected h\ draining; the drainage being 

 conducted under his own direction. The main 

 drains are open, the lateral ones covered, and all 

 made so as to effectually draw off the water and 

 leave the soil of the whole (10 acres compara- 

 tively dry. As to the depth and direction of the 

 drains, these are graduated so as to meet Ihe ne- 

 cessities of each particular locality. The lateral 

 drains are numerous, all leading to ihe main out- 

 let, which, by its dimensions, and the quantity of 

 water it contains, is large enough to be called a 

 creek. The lateral drains are formed of bricks 

 placed on either side of the ditch so as to form 

 a drain of about 4 inches by 4i in volume, cover- 

 ed by bricks. The mouths of these lateral drains 

 are part faced with bricks and part with stone, 

 the hitler material the Colonel thinks best. The 

 bricks are made on the Colonel's (arm, and he 

 thinks a drain can be made with them as cheaply 

 as with any other material, and that it will be as 

 lasting. We walked over the meadow with the 

 Colonel and made a minute examination of all 

 the drains, and it is but justice to say, that, in 

 our opinion, no field of erpial extent has ever 

 been more effectually made dry. Science, in his 

 hands, has enabled him to com] lately triumph 

 over physical obstructions, and to convert a nox- 

 ious, unwholesome morass, into a beautiful, pro 

 duclive meadow. 



Colonel Capron has made a Mac-adamized 

 road through the centre of hi- estate, so that 

 every field is approachable at all seasons of Ihe 

 year without difficulty, thus assuring a degree of 

 comfort and convenience to be found on but 

 very few farms in our country. 



The Colonel's stock of cattle consists of about 

 100 head, young and old— of these 35 are. full 

 bred Darhams, 2 Holsteins, 12 Devons — of Ihe 

 latter there are 6 cows, 1 hull, and 5 yearlings 

 and calves. His Durham and Devon hulls are 

 models of their respective breeds — ihe latter im- 

 ported — among his Durham cons are lo be found 

 the noblest specimens of that generous race, 

 combining every quality which could be desired 

 in a cow, — anil the same may be said of the 

 Devons and Holsteins. There are (>0 cons in 

 milk, about 20 of which an- native cows, selected 

 with cue for their deep milking faculties, which 

 quality is alike peculiar In ihe full-breds of each 

 kind we have enumerated. 



From 1130 to 150 gallons of milk are sold daily, 

 in Baltimore, Washington, and ai the Laurel vil- 

 lage — the receipts lasl year were' rising $4,000, 

 and it is presume,! they will reach $6,000 the 

 present year. 



The pastures in which the cattle feed are of 

 the richest and most luxuriant character, and do 

 ample credit to their enterprising proprietor, ns 

 well for the humanity thereby evinced for his 

 lerds. as for the skill be has displayed in cover- 

 ing hitherto barren fields with ihe richest ver- 

 dure. 



His barn is a noble structure of wood, in the 

 form of a T,— its front is Hi,) feet by 45: from 

 its centre there is another structure 120 feet in 

 depth. On the ground floor of the front build- 

 ing ihere are apartments for his wagons and 

 carts, a cow stable with three rows of stalls for 

 the milch COWS, besides others of more spacious 

 dimensions for the in-calf cows to bring forth 

 their young in. Oil the same floor is the milk 

 room or dairy, which, we need not say, is kept as 

 (dean as a new eagle fresh from the mint; for 

 order, system, and cleanliness, must prevail 

 wherever Ihe eye of Col. (.'. can reach — and it 

 reaches everywhi re, for like a paternal general 

 he superintends every operation, every move- 

 ment, himself. The barn has ever} appliance — 

 every convenience — calculated to save labor, en- 



