120 



®l)c .farmer's flXcmti)h) faisitor. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visisor. 

 Too much Land. 

 Why do so many of our farmers complain thai 

 they find farming poor, and unprofitable busi- 

 ness? Because they try to cultivate too much 

 land. Farming when lightly managed is as pro- 

 fitable business as a person can pursue; but 

 while our chief aim is to be constantly adding 

 acre to acre of our already uncultivated fields, 

 we shall find the business poor enough. 



As you pass through many of our New Eng- 

 land counties observe how some of the farmers 

 conduct their affairs. They seem to think their 

 farms are hardly large enough to turn upon, un- 

 less they contain from one hundred to five hun- 

 dred acres, and this they usually have scattered 

 around in various places, so that they actually 

 lose as much time in going from field to field, 

 and from lot to lot, as would be required to keep 

 ten acres under good cultivation. 



However, let us watch them for a few months 

 and see how things go on. 



In the spring they plough up so much land 

 that they cannot prepare it for planting till 

 their neighbors are nearly ready to commence 

 hoeing. 



They have manure enough for but little of 

 their land ; and therefore their crops are small 

 and late. 



Their fences are not repaired in season, and 

 consequently their fields are covered with the 

 flocks and herds of their neighbors. The edges 

 of their mowing fields are clothed with black- 

 berry bushes and briers. 



Their orchards are neglected till they are com- 

 pletely buried with dead wood, and suckers, or 

 robbed of their foliage by the caterpillars. 



Now is any one at a loss to discover why such 

 farming as this is unprofitable? Not in the 

 least. 



And, yet this is precisely the way in which 

 many farms are conducted. But perhaps you 

 may enquire how the evil is to be remedied? I 

 will tell you how. Sell your land ; and if you 

 cannot sell it I had almost said give it away till 

 you have reduced your farm to such a size that 

 you can cultivate it properly. Plough up no 

 more land than you have sufficient manure for, 

 and can prepare for planting in season. Repair 

 your fences in season to prevent your neighbors' 

 cattle from encroaching upon jour fields anil 

 pastures. Remove all unnecessary trees and 

 bushes from your fields. Set out young fruit 

 trees, and keep them free from insects and use- 

 less rubbish; and you will find that farming is 

 far from being an unprofitable business. 



AGRICOLA. 



New Gloucester, Maine. 



Chemistry and Agriculture. 



Within the last year or two, we have seen fre- 

 quent notices of ihe investigations of Kuhlman, 

 of Paris, in relation to ihe connection of chemis- 

 try with agriculture. A volume has lately been 

 published embracing the results of his research- 

 es on this subject. This we have not seen, but 

 from o review of the work which we find in the 

 Scottish Quarterly Join mil of Agriculture, we 

 learn that the lending object of the author was 

 to ascertain liu-ls in regard to the operation of 

 substances used as manures. For this purpose 

 he instituted a series of experiments with mail) 

 different articles. The trials appear to have 

 linen fairly conducted, and with a sole view to 

 the eliciiation of truth. Some of the conclu- 

 sions to which his results have tended are as 

 follows : 



That ihe value of manures may be ascertained 

 by t lie quantity of azote or uiniDOiiia they con- 

 tain; that the phosphates did not produce the 

 same invigorating or stimulating effect as the 



azotised manures, though their action was more 

 lasting than the latter: that there seems to be a 

 limit to the beneficial action of ammonia, as a 

 superabundant application actually decreases the 

 produce. 



The reviewer observes :— " Unlike many agri- 

 cultural writers of the day, Kuhlman has drawn 

 all his conclusions from experiment; he has not, 

 like them, commenced with his theory, and twisted 

 all his results to make them agree with the pre- 

 conceived opinion. On the contrary the experi- 

 ments are fairly tried; and the deductions so 

 modestly drawn, that every reader must feel him- 

 self compelled to agree with them, notwithstand- 

 ing they differ from the expressed opinion, that 

 plants derive all their azote from the air. 

 Against this opinion we may place the conclusion 

 at which Kuhlman has arrived, from careful and 

 laborious experiments, namely — 'That if the ail- 

 can supply sufficient azote for vegetation, ice can 

 double that vegetation by Hie addition of azote to the 

 soil.' " 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 



As fondly 1 gazed on the clear azure sky, 



My thoughts seemed to wander to friends who had gone 

 To the yet undiscover'd tho' dear to the eye, 



That country, alas! from whence none return. 



To that blissful abode, where the friends of my youth, 

 I trust are enjoying the smiles of their God, 



Oh. thought I, can you look on corrupt sinful earth 1 

 Is thy happiness marred by the thorns which we tread ? 



Surely not — for no sorrow can enter that rest — 

 The mansions prepared by the Saviour himself; 



We have his own words, they oft come to my breast, 

 Like a star 'midst the rude tempests of life. 



" Father 1 will, that those thou hast given me 

 Be with me, my glory to see " — then what — 



Tho' the phantom of happiness leaves roe — 

 'Twill all be restor'd to the virtuous yet : — 



In a world where all sighing and sorrow shall cease, 

 Where the turmoils of life forever will close, 



And the pure streams of virtue united shall rise, 

 Triumphantly carrying the good to the skies. 



PORTIA. 



A profitable speech. — A correspondent of 

 the Farmer's Cabinet, says that after hearing an 

 excellent speech from Dr. Darlington, before the 

 Philadelphia Agricultural Society, on the proper 

 use and care of implements, he was induced to 

 make such useful repairs, provide tool-house, 

 and keep his implements in so much better or- 

 der than before, that " he calculates his savings 

 in wear and tear of tools, since the delivery of 

 that speech, has not been less than $50 per an- 

 num; while the time gained by having every 

 thing in iis place, was worth as much more" — 

 adding $100 a year to his income. 



The Wheat Crop at the West. 



The Prairie Fanner of July, says — "The pre- 

 sent prospect for the wheat crop, and indeed for 

 all other crops, has not been better since the set- 

 tlement of the northwestern country. Notwith- 

 standing the ravages of the Hessian fly in the 

 fall, and the. damage done by the winter, there 

 bills fair to be a tolerable crop of winter wheat, 

 even in the most unfortunate districts; while in 

 those not affected by these visitations, the pre- 

 sent promise was never better. The proportion 

 of good weather has been so large that fields 

 which seemed past hope in the early spring, now 

 promise a fair yield. Contrary to our expecta- 

 tions, the Hessian fly has hardly been heard of 

 this spring. We looked for his disappearance 

 alter the present season, but did not anticipate 

 exemption quile so soon. The prospects of the 

 wheat crop, in the southern belt of the north- 

 west, including a strip say three hundred miles 

 wide, lying north of the south end of this State, 

 has not been otherwise than good. Its present 

 keeps pace with its past promise. The northern 

 belt, extending from the southern extremity of 

 lake Michigan lo the northern limit of Wiscon- 

 sin, suffered more or less in the fall and winter, 

 from the causes alluded to. Within this lull, 

 spring wheat nut only makes up for whatever de- 

 ficiency there might be in the winter crop ; hill 

 from pasl failures, has become a vast crop of it- 

 self. Perhaps so much of this was never before 



put in as the present season. Takingaltogether, 

 the dark shades are few and unimportant. Still 

 there are many risks yet to be run. Through . 

 the State of Ohio, also, the crops never gave 

 better promise. The corn crop is, if possible, 

 fairer than the wheat, with us ; and according to 

 present indications, will be much larger than . 

 ever before. May there be no disappointment." 



How it can be done. 



To the Editors of the Mbany Cultivator : — In 

 the May number of the Cultivator, I noticed this 

 remarks of Mr. Allen, with his very sensible re- 

 quest that the "Legislature of Connecticut, fit- 

 their next session, would pass a law similar to 

 the one in Massachusetts," for preventing ani- i 

 mals from running at large in the highway. For 

 Mr. Allen's sake, and for the comfort and con- ' 

 venience of all the good people of "the land or" 

 steady habits," we wish so too ; and when we 

 look at the fitness of the law, and its general in- 

 fluence on the' well being of the fanner, we 

 wish that it might be adoptetl by every State in 

 the Union. Nor do we consider this wish vain, 

 or one unlikely at some time to be realized. 



The utility of such a law is unquestionable. 

 It is the pledge of the public to guarantee ind< 

 vidual rights in pioperty, a portion of which is 

 taken for public benefit. When a "highway is 

 laid out," the only claim which the public make 

 upon the premises, is the right of travel and re- 

 pair. The right of soil with the grass and trees 

 growing upon it, remain vested in the owner of 

 the premises from whom the land is taken. This 

 point is settled by common law of ancient date. 

 Thus it is said: "Though every highway is said 

 to be the King's, yet this must he understood so 

 as that in every highway the King and his sub 

 jects may pass and re-pass at their pleasure." 



"But the freehold, and all the profit of Ihe. 

 trees, fee, belong to the lord of ihe soil, or the 

 owner of the land on each side of the way." , 

 Also, "the lord of the soil shall have an action 

 of trespass for digging the ground." See abridg- 

 ment of common law. vol. 3, page 694. " Land 

 covered by a highway may be recovered by a y 

 writ of ejectment," where the public abuse their 

 right. Lord Mansfield, in delivering the opinion 

 of the court in a case of ejectment, says—" the 

 King has nothing in an highway, but a passage 

 lor himself and his people, but the freehold and 

 all the profits belong to the owner of the soil ; so 

 do all the trees upon it and mines under it, which 

 may be extremely valuable." Mr. Justice Fuster 

 says — " the owner of ihe soil has all above and 

 under the ground, except only a passage for the 

 King and his people." Thus far we quote the 

 common law of England, ami the opinions of 

 her courts. 



Judge Putnam, in giving the opinion of the 

 court in ihe case of Stackpole and al vs. Healy, 

 (vide Mass. Reports, vol. 16, pages 34, 35,) says — 

 " I hoi I it lo be clear that the public have no 

 oilier right hut that of passing and re-passing; 

 and that the liile to the land, and all the profits 

 to be derived from it, consistently with, and sub- 

 ject to ihe tight of way, remain in the owner of 

 the soil. The owner may maintain trespass for. 

 any injury lo the soil, which is not incidental 

 lo the right of passage acquired by the people." 

 It is then given as the opinion of the court 

 that " it is not lawful, therefore, for the public to 

 pot the cattle in the highway tu graze. For 

 whenever one would justify taking the properly 

 of another, in virtue of a license or any way, he 

 must plead and prove that he used the way as a 

 way, and no! for any other purpose." Judge P. 

 then quotes the opinion of Ihe English court as 

 fallows: " If one drive a herd of cattle along the 

 highway, where trees or wheat or any other kind 

 ol corn is growing, if one of the beasts take a 

 parcel of the corn, if it he against the will of tie. 

 driver he may well justify, for the law will iu- 

 lend that a man cannot govern them at all 'imes 

 as he would ; but if he permitted them %'C. then it 

 is otlurwise.'" 



Such then is the English common law in the 

 mailers of highways, and such are the opinions 

 of her justices. Our statutes. are i.i many instan- 

 ces very wisely based on those laws, and in ac- 

 cordance our learned chief justice Parker has 

 given ihe opinion above oiled. Thai such laws 

 and such statutes are based on principles of strict 

 justice io the public, who cla'ni the right of way, 

 and the individual through .vhose premises the 



