Qll)c Javmcr'0 iHontt)hj fogitor. 



149 



and other labor, in the economy which best 

 serves and applies all the means of sustenance 

 and comfort, whether food or clothing, or what- 

 ever contributes to health and life — do these peo- 

 ple excel. We are pleased to be marked for so 

 great a length of time as somewhat a favorite of 

 the founders (now nearly all gone) of the Shaker 

 association, and of the two generations which 

 are succeeding them in a uniform train of pros- 

 perity which may be said to have made wealthy 

 in a happy state of equality every man and wo- 

 man among them. We have had great personal 

 gratification in the notice of the veteran oc- 

 togenarian in his Almanack for 1850, who has 

 compiled and mathematically calculated an an- 

 nual Almanack for more than half a century; 

 and we are the better pleased with Dudley Leav- 

 itt's compliment because we believe him, an old 

 acquaintance of forty years, all the time in this 

 State to belong to a different political party from 

 ourselves ; but the more delicate, if not more 

 acceptable compliment selected from the many 

 for publication is that which we received in the 

 month of September from the Sisters of the 

 Third Canterbury family accompanied by a nice 

 melon and three kinds of very sweet and lus- 

 cious native grapes brought home by them to 

 garden cultivation. Jn their usual neat, correct 

 and perspicuous chirography it is copied as fol- 

 lows: 



Kind fbiend Isaac : — The nice present of 

 potatoes and squashes from your hand was re- 

 ceived in due time, for which we would tender 

 our sincere thanks, not so much for the prosent 

 itself as for the good friendly spirit which 

 prompted the donor to send it. This palatable 

 token of friendship will be treasured in our 

 memories many days, and may the giver thereof 

 be blessed in basket and in store while the brit- 

 tle thread of life shall run. Perhaps you may 

 be ready to ask by this time, " Where is my bas- 

 ket ?" We will tell you: we have been waiting 

 and praying for some " wherewithal " to fill it, 

 but it seems this article is very scarce in these 

 parts, so you must excuse this poor return and 

 forgive us for keeping your basket, so long. 

 Office Sisters, North family, > 

 Sept. 19, 1849. J 



For Ihe Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 Improvement of gravel and hill lands.. 



Mr. Eoitor— The subject of improving waste 

 gravel and hill lands to Ihe best advantage ought 

 to occupy the attention of farmers living in the 

 several States of New England. There is hard- 

 ly a farm lying in the above different Stales un- 

 less it be some farms lying W the vicinity of our 

 rivers, Of on intervales, that has not more or less 

 of these waste lands lying upon them. Now 

 how to improve these lands to the best advan- 

 tage, and in the shortest lime, is the question. 

 Where there is much of these lauds on a farts, 

 it would be slow business to renovate theru by 

 the common method of ploughing and manuring. 

 In fact, manures could not be spared from 

 other crops to i m prove these lands to any great 

 extent. Great benefit would be derived by mix- 

 ing these soils with clay, or loam, to some ex- 

 tent, aud then manures, would act more readily 

 in course of renovation. Where clay or loam 

 lies near or on a farm, lands of the above de- 

 scription mi ght be improved to a considerable 

 extent, in course of time. So far as our know- 

 ledge goes on this subject, the ploughing of 

 these side hills and gravelly lands for a crop of 

 rye or other grains,, once in three or four years, 

 only tends to impoverish the soil, instead of 

 ■ever enriching it.. On these gravels there will 

 of course be buf yery little vegetable matter 

 grow to tur n under by the plough. And the 

 coBctant ex posure of t'asse soils to the scorching 

 sua end drenching rains will cause them to give 

 off acd waste a lar ge portion of their organic or 

 vegetable part, and have nothing but their inor- 

 ganic, ar mineral part in 'he- soil. Now if this 

 teeoryie true, then the (rei % '"'* B 6 o( " soi ' s °^ tm8 



kind in this manner will conduce only to impov- 

 erish instead of enriching the soil. What these 

 kind of soils want, to our mind is, protection 

 from the sun, heavy rains and dryiug winds of 

 our climate. And even can this be done ? 

 Well, we know of no other way of doing it than 

 by planting out shade and forest trees at distan- 

 ces on these soils. All men who have given any 

 attention to this subject must have noticed how 

 a single tree, standing on one of these gravels 

 has altered the character of tlie soil uuder and 

 near the tree, so that in course of a few years a 

 good sward would be formed on the soil. This 

 may be owing in part to the droppings of cattle, 

 which lodge under the tree for shade, &c. But 

 the principal reason, we think, is in the tree giv- 

 ing protection to the soil and the roots and leaves 

 of the tree helping to form, make and save a 

 large portion of organic or earthy matter to the 

 soil. On many soils of this character, if the 

 plough is kept out of the way for a few years, 

 trees will spring up naturally ; and, if protected 

 and encouraged to grow, will in a few years 

 make a fine grove. Where such is not the case, 

 it will be well to set out forest trees : such as the 

 white oak and many of the other oaks will grow 

 well on these soils with a little care and atten- 

 tion in setting theru out, and protecting them for 

 a few years afterwards. Near and in the lines 

 of old fences, where the soil is a little richer, the 

 hickory or walnut tree will often spring up spon- 

 taneously and grow well, making a fine shade. 

 This tree we think is one of the best forest shade 

 trees that, grows in our country. As the leaves 

 of this tree grow very large, it makes a very 

 thick, cool shade, and the leaves from their na- 

 ture, impart a very rich flavor to the atmosphere 

 around. Of course improvements of this char- 

 acter will take time to bring them about. But 

 when the trees are once set out, they are con- 

 stantly growing, and as they extend their branch- 

 es over the soil it will become renovated, and 

 in a few years it will afford fine' pasture for cat- 

 tle and animals. The timber itself, in a series of 

 years, will be valuable and worth more than the 

 land itself when there were no trees upon it. 

 Add to this, the improvement of the soil in grass 

 for the pasture of animals, and who will not say 

 that it is a profitable investment in capital and 

 labor laid out ? Apart from other considerations, 

 the beauty to whiah a fine belt of timber grow- 

 ing upon these high waste lands will add to a 

 (arm, is of no mean consequence. Besides giv- 

 ing protection to animals and the soil, they add 

 beauty to the farm and country around. And 

 whatever hard-fisted, money-catching farmers 

 may say to the contrary, though they are a class 

 of men for whom we have bat little sympathy, 

 yet we are satisfied that these improvements are 

 worm striving for, and laboring after, for what- 

 ever will add to the beauty of his farm and his 

 land will add to the pleasure and happiness of 

 the farmer's life. 



Yours, &c, 



L, DURAND. 



Derby, Ct., Oct IS, 1849. 



As n,o correspondent for the Visitor has been 

 as constant and persevering in writing (with aa 

 increased legible hand) for our successive num- 

 bers, so we think of few writers who bring forth 

 so much practical sound sense on agricultural 

 topics as our Derby friend. 



As we travel over New England we have been 

 painfully struck with the appearance of hundreds 

 of acres of what may be called waste lands of 

 the kind described by our Connecticut friend: 

 we sec many fields or apologies for pastures in 

 the very vicinage of well cultivated fields, lots of 

 land that have generally taken the whole manure 

 of the barn and barn yard and been petted as 

 the sole favorite fields of the farm. The light, 

 beautiful lands nearest allied to sand and; gravel 

 have more easily and sooner from their nature 

 become waBte lands ; and when once worn, out, 

 the idea generally is, that the.y, are forever irre- 

 claimable, and they are abandoned tobe roamed 

 over by half starv 1 cattle or sheep as. forever 

 without value. Some of these lands — as the 

 hundred' and thousands of acrea lying along the 



rivers and their sources soon after leaving their 

 springs in the higher hills from whence they is- 

 sue as rivulets — have been neglected all along, 

 because if any thing valuable could come from 

 them at first, the fact that they will soon be worn 

 ont forbids even their clearing for- any permanent 

 agricultural purpose. 



In view of all these lighter lands — the lands 

 underlaid as well with coarse gravel as with 

 lighter sand — we look upon them some of the 

 very best as the foundation for a profitable in- 

 vestment of the farmer. The fact that the com- 

 mon yard manures cannot be had for application 

 to these lands makes not at all against them : we 

 are fully satisfied that they are lands which least 

 want the common barn and stable manures of 

 the farm. Friend Dtirand hits the nail on the 

 head when he shows how the growing trees 

 bring these waste fields into reaction. The ren- 

 ovation of the surface comes- from the subsoil. A 

 hand and a judgment greater than the hand and 

 the judgment of man is operating to renovate 

 these lands through the forest trees that come 

 up and grow without the pJantiug of man. How 

 beautifully has the God of nature provided for 

 this renovation by supplying the seeds of a new 

 kind of tree aa the germ of future fertility ? 

 Thus we see upon these plains in many instan- 

 ces the oak, the maple, the poplar and cherry 

 tree succeeding the pine when cut down and 

 wasted or otherwise applied to some more use- 

 ful purpose, and this where no seed of the sub- 

 sequent growth was known to exist in the 

 ground. 



We say the renovation of lands comes ftom 

 the subsoil:, all lands must wear out in time 

 without the aid of the under soil. The rich 

 prairie lands and alluvial bottoms of the West, 

 the lands underlaid with limestone that may he- 

 come disintegrated by the roots of the grasses 

 and inferior plants, will produce great crops and 

 last long. We here see corn and grass grow 

 year after year without manure : in these lands 

 the nutriment, after the surface becomes stale 

 from repeated crops, is found in the underlaying 

 limerock or subsoil that is sought for and brought 

 up by the roots. The larger roots of trees make 

 the same beneficent use of the subsoil destined 

 to urge the gravelly knolls and sandy plains to 

 higher fertility. It is impossible to deny the 

 credit of stamina to these plains lands on which 

 we see the stumps of trees five and six feet 

 through whose wood above is charged with tur- 

 pentine and other fat materials. Whence did 

 this sterile soil derive that fat— the beautiful ma- 

 terial that by the hand of ujan is shaped into 

 houses and buildings ornamental and convenient 

 for the covering and comfort of man and wo- 



Before we had completed even this hasty note, 

 passing the street where abundance of leaves, 

 tbe beauteous golden leaves changing from green 

 lay ripening and frost-falling to the earth cover- 

 ing its surface around them, the man along side 

 of us says—" I could raise no melons here until 

 1 made my manure from the rotten leaves of 

 trees fallen as we see before us." This practical 

 fact in relation to the value of leaves was con- 

 firmatory of the opinion which we had seen sci- 

 entifically advanced by professor Mopes that 

 among other ingredients essential to the growth 

 of plants leaves contained (we think) four for 

 one to other articles of vegetable growth potash 

 and other ingredients most stimulating Ho the 

 soil. Now is it not plain to all of us, who are 

 just entering on the a b c of seientiifi;© agricul- 



