&l)c jTarmcv's iHcmtljln Visitor. 



23 



But I believe the former the most expeditious, 

 nnil cheapest method, where the soil is suitable 

 for its performance. When the ground to he 

 reclaimed is covered with hushes and briars, not 

 worn saving for fuel, the ground should he 

 burnt over and all humps and hassocks smoothed 

 off', and when the meadow is drained, and in dry 

 weather, piled and burnt to ashes, ami the ashes 

 spread on the ground, which is one of the best 

 of top-dressings. 



To perform the work of draining, dig a large 

 ditch in the centre or lowest part of the mea- 

 dow, beginning at the lower end, where there 

 must he an outlet for the water. This ditch 

 should he about four feet wide, at the lop, and 

 about two feet at the bottom, dug down to the 

 hard pan, which in such land is generally from 

 two to lour or five feet deep, and composed of 

 hard sand, often inclining to clay, which is im- 

 pervious to water. This is the great conductor 

 of all water from the laud, or is a reservoir to 

 bold it, where the descent is so small as not to 

 carry it all immediately off. Then cross ditches 

 made shoal and narrow, tapering to the bottom, 

 about four rods, and sometimes only two rods 

 apart, where the springs are abundant, running 

 cross-way to the main ditch. In most instances, 

 anil where the cold springs flow in from the up- 

 land, marginal ditches between the meadow and 

 upland are required, and absolutely necessary to 

 take off* this water, and of more importance 

 than any of the ditches. But where the water 

 from the hillsides comes only on the surface of 

 the ground, it runs over the meadow, and makes 

 an irrigation that enriches it, greatly promoting 

 the growth of the glass. It will often be seen, 

 that in the shallow cross ditches, where water 

 runs in them from the upland, forming an irriga- 

 tion, a thick set grass called blue grass, grows in 

 abundance, and is an excellent kind. In some 

 instances, deep ditches should he interspersed 

 among the cross ditches to take off the occasion- 

 al springs; these ditches, if convenient, should 

 be stoned up and covered. These cross ditches 

 form beds, which should he raised in the centre 

 between them, by throwing the mud from the 

 ditches and sides into the middle, or if ploughed, 

 commence in the centre and back-furrow to the 

 sides, which will raise it sufficiently. 



If such a meadow as 1 have described could 

 be ploughed, it would he best so to manage, and 

 to plant it with potatoes or corn, or sow it with 

 rye, ami grass seed at the same time, or lay it 

 down, sowing glass seed alone, in dry weather 

 in August or September, which I think better 

 than to sow later, as the crop of grass will be 

 far more abundant the following season; or, it 

 may be sowed late in the fall, and even the next 

 spring very early, but 1 think the chance by the 

 last methods is by no means so favorable. But 

 before any thing of this is done, a top-dressing 

 of coarse gravel of the depth of two inches will 

 be necessary, and will have an astonishing effect. 

 Sand will answer the purpose, and loam is bet- 

 ter than mere sand, but gravel better than either. 

 A top-dressing of lime or ashes on the gravel or 

 sand, 1 think may well pay the expense, or a 

 compost with lime still better. Yet the effects 

 of mere gravel or sand, I think would astonish 

 anyone who has not before experienced the trial 

 of it, producing an abundant crop of grass. The 

 sand or gravel seems to correct some acidity in- 

 cident to such soils, or they supply some princi- 

 ple wanting to iliern. The precise manner in 

 which thesi' substances act upon the peat soils, 

 and the exact principles each contain, we will 

 not stop now to enquire ; let chemists determine 

 these points, hut suffice it to say, experience has 

 shown these important results. 



It will be perceived that I rely more on the 

 tests of experience than on theory, but in many 

 instances the one will corroborate the other. 

 Experience has shown that sand, gravel, lime, 

 ashes, &,c, are absolutely necessary to produce 

 fertility on peat lauds; it is shown as well in 

 hoed crops as in those lands laid down to grass. 

 These peat lands, well drained, and made 

 smooth by cutting off the protuberances, or 

 bumps, and covered with gravel, say one bun- 

 drep and fifty loads to the acre, will produce, il 

 sowed, more grass and hold out longer, than that 

 laid down after a hoed crop, and being also well 

 ploughed, with the sward well rotted, where no 

 gravel has been spread. It seems by these re- 



sults, that the theory proves true, that the alkalies 

 supplied by the substances I have mentioned, 

 render the peat soil almost a bed of manure. 



I wish to call the attention of our practical 

 fanners particularly to this subject. I should 

 wish them to ascertain, by actual experiment, the 

 true value of those peat lands, now almost whol- 

 ly unproductive ; I mean not those peat lauds 

 suitable for the digging of peat for fuel, such as 

 is firmly bound together by fibres, and make 

 good fuel, for such land, in most localities in our 

 county, will readily sell at two dollars per square 

 rod ; and the top being thrown in where the 

 peat is taken out, will produce in a short time 

 more than double its former value in coarse fod- 

 der. I w ish them to convince themselves, that 

 they have no lands of comparative value with 

 these, which are olien the rich depository of the 

 wash of other lands. Experiments may first be 

 tried on a very small scale. Many farmers now 

 yearly haul a few cart loads of soil or loam on to 

 some bog near the house, for a garden, and I 

 have never seen any garden spots more produc- 

 tive, bearing the drought better than upland, and 

 good, even in wet seasons for vines or roots, for 

 culinary purposes. 



I have spoken of the various ingredients for 

 spreading on wet lands or peat meadows, such 

 as sand, loam, gravel, &c, as possessing fertiliz- 

 ing qualities, but perhaps they do not, properly 

 speaking, enrich, for these depositories are rich- 

 es of themselves, and the applications mention- 

 ed may only correct some acidity, or render the 

 land more retentive of moisture ; however this 

 may be, they give powers of production. And it 

 is well known, from various experiments, that 

 such lands do, in some instances, continue to 

 produce from two to three tons of good hay to 

 the acre, without additional lop dressing, for six 

 years; there are few instances, I think, of up- 

 lands doing this. It is also an encouraging cir- 

 cumstance to any who fear, on the score of ex- 

 pense, to experiment on the improvement of 

 these meadows and swamp lands, that we have 

 within our knowledge several instances where 

 the first crop has amply paid the whole expense 

 of the operation of reclaiming. 



Sulphur and Charcoal for Swine. — Let your 

 hogs, at this season, have a plentiful supply of 

 these articles. The former may be administered 

 to them at proper intervals, in their food ; the 

 latter, for convenience sake, may be deposited 

 weekly in their sties. Boxes of the proper size, 

 permanently secured, should he provided for its 

 reception, and kept well replenished with the ar- 

 ticle, at all times. Salt, also, should be kept by 

 them, or it may be administered as a seasoning 

 to their food. The withholding of this article 

 is, in many cases, attended with fatal results, es- 

 pecially when the animals are kept principally 

 on green and fermentable food. Turn a ball 

 pint of salt into a bog's trough, and if his diet 

 has been fresh and unseasoned for some lime 

 previous, be will devour it ravenously, and at 

 once. — Maine Cultivator. 



Prepare Implements. 



Before spring's work commences, farmers 

 should have all their implements in readiness, 

 whether they purchase or make them. Wheels, 

 carts, ploughs, barrows, drags, rollers, and vari- 

 ous other implements and machines should all 

 be in good order in due time, that there may be 

 no delay in the busy season for want of these 

 useful things. 



A farmer, who has timber, and is ingenious, 

 or can get a neighbor who is skilled in the. use 

 of tools to assist him, can often construct coarse, 

 rude implements cheaper than be can buy them. 

 But small tools, and all machines and imple- 

 ments that require nice work, may be purchased 

 at a much cheaper rate than the farmer can 

 make them. 



It will cost a firmer three times as much to 



construct a plough in the old-fashioned mode of 

 employing the carpenter and blacksmith, as it 

 will to buy ploughs of the best construction. 

 And the improved ploughs now sold at the agri- 

 cultural stores require so much less draught than 

 the old, rude implements, that they are cheaper 

 at the usual prices than (be home-made ploughs 

 are at nothing. These remarks are unnecessary, 

 at the present day, in most parts of the country. 



Some tools have been so much improved, that 

 they bid defiance to all competition, excepting 

 that which has been the result of long experi- 

 ence, great ingenuity, and expensive implements 

 and machinery in their construction ; and it is 

 far better for the farmer to buy such superior 

 tools at a moderate price, than to use heavy, 

 bungling implements, if he could have them as 

 a present. 



Let a farmer procure his implements as he 

 may, be should now commence bis preparations, 

 if he is not already about it ; for spring, with its 

 long, busy train of operations, will soon be upon 

 us, and we must be careful, lest, in the sudden 

 change from the rigid cold of winter to the 

 genial warmth of spring, old Time shall gain an 

 ndviiiitage, and find us unprepared. A good 

 preparation for spring and summer's work, by 

 having all implements prepared and of the 

 best construction, is a great deal towards the ac- 

 complishment of the labor. — New Eng. Farmer. 



Forest Trees. 



In the perusal of the interesting pamphlet of 

 Transactions of the Essex County Agricultural 

 Society in Massachusetts for the year 1848, our 

 attention has been especially called to the Re- 

 port of the committee on Forest Trees: the 

 chairman of that committee, R. S. Fay, Esq., 

 with a commendable zeal to restore the denuded 

 hills of old Essex, many of which, from neglect 

 of exertion to keep up their fertility, have be- 

 come as barren of profitable cultivation as they 

 are naked of wood, has presented the Society 

 with one hundred dollars as a portion of the 

 foundation of premiums to be offered annually 

 fiir the encouragement of forest planting. At 

 the outset of his report be laments that, as yet, 

 the efforts made by himself and others have pro- 

 duced no " newly awakened action to the sub- 

 ject." He says of his own ancient county, " the 

 acorns still fall unheeded from the few oaks 

 which remain ; the pine cones still open them- 

 selves upon their boughs, the wind blowing 

 where it listetb ; the cattle are still allowed to 

 gain a scanty and hard subsistence by grazing 

 over lands that nature plants, but plants in vain." 

 As an inducement to the farmers of Essex to 

 disregard the objection that no immediate profit 

 may be expected from the planting of forest 

 trees, Mr. Fay presents the following cogent 

 reasons : — 



" We have not the spaoe allowed us to enable 

 us to descant upon the pleasurable satisfaction 

 to be taken in seeing one's trees growing from 

 year to year, adding new beauty to our estate, 

 nor to enlarge upon the inward content that fills 

 the breast, as we behold woods of our own 

 planting springing up around us, for which those 

 who succeed us will bless our memories, and 

 which may afford the most pure and unalloyed 

 enjoyment to generations yet unborn. We shall 

 confine ourselves to the subject as a mere matter 

 of thrift, and wo shall speak of a tree only in 

 the light which the Laird of Dumbiedikes view- 

 ed it: 'Jock, when ye hae naetbing else to do, 

 ye maybe aye sticking in n tree ; it will be grow. 



