l-'rom the New England Farmer. 



Cultivation of Ilye. 



Mr.Colf: It has beet, a .natter of surprise, 



.'■•'t so hue attention has been given by our 



fi>imer S l0 the raisi f |hia ■ ooy „r 



cons,, ered that a fair crop can be grovTon land 

 of ordmary quality, and that the%rop can I, 

 wised and gathered with less labor than ,,„ 

 oher gra.n,, no good reason nan be given why 



During the past season, there were raised on 



od ;;;:", , 1 rr j " D -ver S ,^^ iMAt/ , „;,. 



on one ami a quarter acres; or at the rate of 

 forty-four bushels to the acre: Tins Is the be « 



f^ ^farmer's iHontl)!n llisttorT 



181 



^^sar^sSi^^^^^ 



» h«ch now appeal , „„ lhe 8u , face : bmL |)Io 7 teen lh ousand seven' hundred an^seTemwseTen 

 "no" teams hove stirred the ground to the depth ^'h" A , ,,d I" i848, 1 !? is e8,ima,eu they will 

 Of s.xteen inches. We are quite sure that .hi. T LL^I *» U ~» d <»?»*«■ 



of sixteen inches. We are quite sure .hat this 

 MdUiuon of ploughing to whoever shall cultivate 

 'his land the next 6ve years will give an increas- 

 ed income from it of at least ten for one 

 -five hundred dollars for the fifty dollars- 



ii- I . , , i I . . . . . . i i i > ... J 



whether -he ,and shall he cu.tivated by Z^ -SK ZX^SS&ft W 

 hy sowing rye or oats, or l„i,. ,...„,. 1' _ " . imi.rovid,,,., ., Li J -r .... ."" ! a rou .me and 



by sowing rye or oats, or laid down into g 

 "•■ a rotation of not more than two years in the 



It would really seen, that some mane 

 ence had been exercised over this e^ufnsive do 



of P &wfe^' ,r iet ° r h8d borroweu >«°™ 

 of «? velocity oi .he steam locomotive to ena- 

 bl ! him | to effect such a sudden transmutation? 

 Results so extraordinary furnish the strongest 



SWi-Sg fi'intucTion 6 r,hos°e U wtlr e -7* .""■"*"" "" * * F ™ 



may w.sh to repeat the experiment, I will s Ta,e " " f, '° ,n U,lder ,,,e ha " d °»' °»e of the 



ie nriiniinent f:.i<.io ..»....:... ... .. . " ,e 



tbepiomment facts relating to the culture. 



the land is a gravelly loam, soil rather lurhl 

 and shallow. In 1845, the entire field yielded 

 less than one ton of hay. In 1846, it wa/p ant 



me acre. A full .shovel full of manure from the 



oer, when the land was ploughed will, four ox 



•J he distinguishing characteristics of this cul- 



Aars past J ' ,,0,, S , "''g» °<" the land for three 

 J„" ' ,'• l '""S ,eam was "sed, and the fur 



d.y. T be same farmer has succeeded for seve 

 eep plough,,,,. than , , b -,; e ° ^j, , > 



Very respectfully, 

 Danvers. Dec , 18J 8. J ' Wl P «OCTOR. 



best practical farmers of Massachusetts in 

 of our doctrine of deep ploughing. « Deep 

 Ploughing" with "full manuring "will on any 

 well-drained land produce a great crop : and we 

 are almost ready to declare our conviction, that 

 the same amount of labor will bring , he greater 

 profit from the lighter soil with the least quanti- 



Great Farming i„ Maryland. 



Frequently called as we have been during the 

 Inst two years to the city of Washington we 



Lave as frequently looked u'pon and admted'tll ~LP^J™£ rZ^"£ T^ 

 great improvement of the Laurel Farm of Col. !» ■■ "-best VoZTJTond^'X^Te 



t-apron, situated nearlv m \A » .. improvement All,,!.,. 1 • V ^' e -sHe 



improvident mode of culture of the soil 



y^-y fact of seeing an estate so highly improved 

 exc.es an investigating spirit-an mq" y° ow 

 such achievements have been accomplished It 

 w the experience of such men which forms .be 

 very crucible of agricultural knowledge? I ! 

 deed, such a change in so short a period seems 

 o be marvellous. But we assure'you it is o 

 chimera. There is nothing hypothetical in ,1° 

 v o e operanon. All y„„ see are the resuTts of 



fin ,1 r,l CUl, ' Vat,0n uf ,,,e soil - You will here 

 hnd that the great arcana employed to produce 

 ns sudden regeneration of the "soil, consis s in 

 nmei aZ "^ ^'T^ W^tion of ma- 

 heen c,n ' amJ ve ^' : ' hk * manures have 



been called into extensive requisition, and, su- 

 peradded to .hem, be has used .he more con- 

 centrated fertilizers, such as bone-dust and gua- 

 no .Lime is not only deemed essential in fur- 



nut i imruii-ffi emicf t... :..^ .„ -i _ -, . . r°i 



■ »-* » up 111 U| ^ 



•-apron, moated nearly midway between Balti 

 more and the Federal City. " The Baltimore 

 tanner presents the following summary report 

 ol the operations upon this farm. The whole of 

 Jt, -is we can verify of our own knowledge, has 

 been recovered fiom a comparative state of ster 



nnprovemen, All who are skeptical upon Z 

 ex, edieney of expending money in .be purchase 

 of manures, we would recommend for their ZZ 

 eial benefit a visit , ,|,e Laurel Farm.. And f 

 bey do not become proselytes to the Colonel's 



P'opheey. Should you be residents of this 

 ZT!'T?^ l l \* el ««'ified with admiration to 



'I'M- Col. C. has been the exemplar among findsuchTfarm 



hose who are conspicuous in the work of renof .ablishmen. in old'tince George' """it"^; 

 Wtion of the soil in .he State of Maryland : this """" ""' 



In passing by the many fields, naked, icorn-out 

 **i precsel, or nearly the character of soil „f 

 jatdejHinbed by Mr. Proctor on which the great 



'•"i- "f rye was raised, we have almost doubted 

 '"' own senses while we have witnessed bow 

 ■w farmers seemed to understand what was 

 -M wanted to give the life and action necessa- 

 , to produce crops. Well may men consider 

 WWiew.ttobeof]i„lon»io,,ui manures 

 "- such a soil, since in the shallow ploughing 

 I fro,,, ,fo„ r to six inches deep, the sun upon 



F.'»"'ght soil is sur e ,o draw away in the firsi 



■I of summer the greater portion of all that is 

 "Me in manures. Mr. Proctor says the farmer 

 o raised this rye « has created a soil of u .„ or 

 ** inches in depth, where there were no, 



■e more than five or six." Ves, „e will war- 



t that just so deep as the soil was stirred with 



-'lough and exposed to atmospheric action 



so much will the mould or bearing soil be 



Mi and one load of good manure mixed 



^dsurrcd twelve inches deep will be worth 

 p land more than four times the same 



>"v of manure laid over any fi e | d ,,i 

 ,'r IO! ," n S0|I > ™ber light and shallow 



fed only four inches deep." [n a fiel, 



,l,teen aPre , of „„,, game ^ ^ ^ 



iicn tt,e jjanvers rye grew, the editor of the \""° "■'" ca J'P e ten over 



r laid out last October in the breaking ..,, oroduc/'^!" Wi% *« rec « i Pt" «om the sale "of 



>»g t"p,|p.ouucc, &c, amounted to the meagre sum of 



renovation has become emineutlyconspicuous in 

 the most barren, worn-out tobacco lands of 

 Prmce George's and Montgomery counties, as 

 well as w.t.hm the District of Columbia on the 

 Maryland side, a„d jn the county of Fairfax on 

 the Virginia side of the Potomac. Col. Capron 

 has made in the first instance a great and gener- 

 ous outlay of the usual manures : we will mod- 

 estly suggest to bin, whether his expenditure 

 would have no. been much mure effective and 

 more durable, if the stirring of the ground with 

 the plough had been twelve, instead of perhaps 

 eight inches? 



EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT ON FiRMS 



enSS- nwT C "'" »-r rUc ^urel Farm 

 ""'■ cs I ' 093 acres, and was purchased hy its 



-rese n t proprietor in 1841, at 'ten dollars "pe 

 ac e. . M that , lme „ Wai notorious for its steril- 



0, and no man who was not endowed with 

 g eat prospecnye sagacity W0U Id have ever 

 ^' ea "edol mak.ng such an investment. The 

 *«>' « naturally adhesive and obdurate, but, uh* 



e he ■ admmiMrn.ion of i, s present incmhent, 



; .een more than restored to iis primitive 



leililiu. lhe progress of improvement has 



•eon so, ,,, „ .,,„, iaomiis| , ,,, s ,„,„ (( .j;-' 



,h c '| y , "'",' '" seveQ l """ 1 "" 1 ^.4s of 

 iral le land has heen rendered productive. In 

 mi, scarcely one pound of good hay could 



''.-dan. I fifty lons of ,|„, ,„„,, MI| ,e r i„ r ' , im . 



olhy, orchard grass and clover hay have been rut 



d secured , on, , he same. In 1841, such wasus 



• uNon of vegetation, (except poverty grass 



"generally pervaded this land) that, with 



?.eat difficulty, a partridge could have found 



-eeabnem. In I8 48 your eye is every uh"e 

 ""with the r.chest and most exuberant grasses 

 ft i? now the middle of October, and thes^e fields 

 .Inch have,, elded „„•,, .-normnus crops of,', 



nd b, ye also been grazed or. successively bi 



.rsH I '"'', ''^""J fifty he, ,t, 



II carpeted over with the most verdant 



....... vjcui^c f, II will 



cause your very heart and soul to swell within 



The mansion upon this estate does not present 

 .'he ambition, a.r of some villa residences yet 



a^;,be:,r:' ,, ' enofsui,s,a, ' ti '' ,a » ,ia ''p- ; r--o 



The grounds around .he bouse are artistically 

 a.d on, and are beautifully picturesque They 



tha the ornamental department is presided ovef 



by one who is proficient in refined taste 

 . the farm-house is a stately structure, of suffi- 

 ce.,, capacty to receive a great portion of the 

 hay and the wheat in the s.raw raised upon I e 



"""■ Jt contains, also, ample accommodations 

 for upwards of one hundred cows, and some 



W «n,y mules and horses. I, is per ^ ct ,y ° "„! 

 ted by windows, and every plan is adopted to 

 secure health and minister comfort to its nmne- 

 roue tenants. The tool rooms, and apartmemsX 



nerfe^i"''" ' °' '"i'"^"" "'M-'en.enls seemed to be 

 pe.fectly arranged. Hymmetry.nea.uess and order 

 seemed to reign supremely thro'ou. this extensive 

 eM.hhsunent. The dairy appear, lo he a most 

 a bnnable arrangement. The milk is conduced 

 bom the cow apartment, hy means of tubes, ,„ 

 the dairy m the basement, and is .here deposited 

 in cans. 1 hese cans are immediately immersed 

 in eohwa.er, which deprives the toilk of anin 

 lieat and prepares it for transportation. This 

 operation ol milking some seventy cowi is pi"! 

 formed by men, and .he milk is soon on its way 

 to nlumore and Washington. About one h , * 

 d.ed and fifty gallons of .nilk per day are sold 

 in Baltimore, Washington, and in the village. ' 



A Great Nursery— Perhaps the largest nur- 

 sery m the world, is Booth's in Holsteif, one of 

 Danish prov.nces. It consists of one hundred 

 and e gh.y acres and requires on an average, 

 one hundred and thirty men and twenty women' 

 to cultivate tt Eighty packers are employed 

 dtrmg the packing season. The average prom, 

 for 'he last thirty years, has been $15,000 annu- 

 a y, hough at one time for twelve years, the 

 salt of dahhas alone nc.ted $50,000 per annum, 

 and lo which eleven acres are still devoted! 

 Some rare Orch.deous plants sell for S300 each. 

 ut this family of plants, they have two lhousand 

 varieties, and two thousand of .he dahlia. The 



Coll. .•t>O| i ,of_ 0£i MJ^-,,...l- - 



