72 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Letter from E. Phinney, Esq. the great farmer and 

 experimentalist of Lexington, Mass. to Jisahd Hunt 

 ington, Esq. 



[From the Essex C'ounij' Agricultural Transactions] 

 Lexington, December 1. 1840. 

 Dear sib — '-rh" quesiion is often asked, How- 

 can farming be made profitable ? I answer, b>' 

 liberal inaniuing, deep and thorough ploughing, 

 and clean culture. I will venture to affirm, with- 

 out fear of contradiction, that no instance can 

 be cited, where a farmer who has mainued his 

 grounds highly, made a judicious use of the plough, 

 and cultivated with care, has failed to receive an 

 ample remuneration for the amount invested, 

 nay more, that has not received a greater ad- 

 vance upon his outlay than the average profit de- 

 rived from any other business. One great diffi- 

 culty is, that most farmers seem not to be aware 

 of the fact, that the greater the outlay, to a reason- 

 able extent, when skilfully applied, the greater 

 will be the profit ; they therefore mantn-e spar- 

 ingly, . plough shallow, and the consequence is, 

 get poorly paid for their labor. This has raised 

 a prejudice and given a disrelish to the business 

 of farming, especially among those who are in 

 the habit and are desirous of realizing something 

 more from their occupation than a naked return 

 of the amount expended. 



The farmer wlio is so sparing of his manure 

 that he can get but thirty bushels of corn from an 

 acre, gets barely enough to pay him for the ex- 

 pense of cultivation, and in addition to this, by 

 the ordinary method of ploughing, his field, at 

 each successive rotation, is deteriorating, his crops 

 becoming less, and in a few years he finds he 

 must abandon liis exhausted and worn out 

 fields to seek a subsistence for himself and fam- 

 ily in some other business, or in some other re- 

 gion, where the hand of man has been less waste- 

 ful of the bounties of nature. 



Instead then of his scanty manuring often 

 cartloads to the acre, which will give hitn but 

 thirty bushels of corn, let him apply thirty loads. 

 This additional twenty loads, at the usual price 

 of manure in this jiart of the country, will cost 

 him thirty dollars. But ho now, instead of thirty 

 bushels Of corn, gets sixty bushels, and the in- 

 creased quantity of stover will more than pay for 

 the excess of labor required in cultivating and 

 harvesting the large crop over that of tlie small 

 one. He has then added thirty bushels of corn 

 to his crop by means of the twenty loads of ma- 

 nure, which at the usual price of one dollar per 

 bushel, pays him in the first crop for his extra 

 outlay. His acre of land is laid to grass after 

 taking of the corn, and the effect of his twenty 

 loads of additional manuring, will be to give 

 him, at the lowest estimate, three additional tons 

 of hay in the first three years of mowing it, worth 

 fifteen dollars a ton standing in the field. Now 

 look at the result. His thirty dollars expended 

 for extra manuring was paid for in the first year': 

 crop, and at the end of three years more, he will 

 have received forty five dollars profit on his out 

 lay of thirty dollars: and in addition to this, his 

 land is improved, and in much better condition 

 tor a second rotation. There is no delusion in 

 this. It is a practical result, of the reality of 

 which any farmer may satisfy himself; who 

 will take the trouble to make the experiment. 



From no item of outlay scan the farmer derive 

 so ample, or so certain a profit, as from his ex- 

 penditures for manure to a certain extent. This 

 has been most strikingly verified by some of our 

 West Cambridge farmers. It is not uncommon 

 among some of the farmers in that town to put 

 on their grounds one hundred dollars' worth of 

 manure to the acre, and in more instances tiiau 

 one, the gross sales of produce from ten acres 

 under the plough have amounted to five thous- 

 and dollars in one season. This is the result of 

 high manuring and judicious cultivation of a soil 

 too, which is exceedingly poor and sandy. 



The subject of subsoil ploughing is one upon 

 which there has been little said, and less done 

 in this pai-t of the country. In all our gTounds 

 except those which are very loose and sandy, 

 there is no doubt that great benefit would be 

 derived from the use of the subsoil plough. In 

 England the effect of subsoil ploughing in increas- 

 ing their crops, as stated by some agricidtural 

 writers, would seem almost incredible. By this 

 means, the crops in that country liaTe been doub- 

 led, and in many instances trebled. The expense, 



however, is stated to be very great, so gieat, as 

 to be beyond themeansof mostof our iarmera. — 

 In one case the expense of subsoil ploughing on 

 a farm of over five hundred acres, was estimated 

 by the owuer, to cost the enormous sum of thir- 

 teen huudred jmunds sterling. This calculation 

 took into consideration the use of the heavy 

 Deanston plough which always required four, 

 and, in some stiff clays, six horses to work it. I 

 am aware that an implement might be construct- 

 ed, which though it might not do the business 

 quite so well, could, nevertheless, be made l]i};h- 

 ly beneficial in the hands of our farmers, and oh 

 tained at a larless cost. I am iufbrnied that iMr. 

 of the Yankee Fanner, has with a liit;h- 

 ly praise-worthy zeal in the interest of agricul- 

 ture, imiiorted from England, a subsoil plough, 

 which may be worked with a less powerful 

 team than the one commonly in use in that coun- 

 trv. 



In a climate like our own, which at that season 

 of the year when our crops, particularly oin- root 

 crops, most need the benefit of moisture that may 

 derived from deep ploughing, and are most 

 likely to suffer from drought, the use of the sub- 

 soil plough would be attended with unquestion- 

 able benefit. On a field of my own, which liiid 

 been set to an orchard, and therefore kept under 

 the plough for some years, in attempting to under 

 drain a part of it, that was usually flooded by wa- 

 ter in the spring of the year, I noticed what the 

 English call the '^vpper crust." This lay some 

 inches below the surface, at the depth to which 

 the land bad been usually ploughed, formed by 

 the treading of the oxen and the movement of the 

 plough over it This I foinid to be so hard as to 

 be apparently as impenetrable by the roots of 

 plants as a piece of marble, and discovered to me 

 at once the cause of the failure, in a great meas- 

 lu-e, of my crop of potatoes the year before. Hav- 

 ing discovered what 1 supposed to be the cause 

 of the failure, I set about devising measures to 

 remedy it. 



I hall never seen a subsoil plough; tliere never 

 having been one seen or made in this part ofthe 

 country. I consulted my ingenious fiiends, 

 Messrs. Prouty and Mears, and, at my request, 

 they made an instrument of very cheap and sim- 

 ple construction, consisting of a wooden beam, 

 about three inches uqinire, and three feet long, 

 with three tines or teethof the coiiunon cultiva- 

 tor, placed in a direct line in the beam, extend- 

 ing about eight inches below the beam ; to this 

 handles were attached similar to the handles of 

 a plough. On trying this by running after the 

 the drill plough, I found, in my hard, "stony sid)- 

 soil, it was quite inadequate to the business, be- 

 ing too light and of insufficient strength. I then 

 had one constructed of similar plan, but much 

 heavier and stronger. The beam five feet long, 

 six inches square, of white oak, well ironed, wiih 

 three tines in nearly a right line, made of the 

 best Swedes iron, one and a half inches sqiiaie, 

 extending twelve inches below the beam, with a 

 spur at the foot, some less than that of the tine 

 ofthe cultivator, with strong handles and an iron 

 beam extending from each handle to the centre of 

 the beam, by which the balance is easily preserv- 

 ed. This implement, drawn by two yoke of oxen, 

 followed the drill plough in getting in carrots, 

 and performed the work belter than I had antici- 

 pated. 'The "upper crust" gave way, the resis- 

 tance made by the hard gravelly bottom and 

 smaller stones was readily overcome. The earth 

 was loosened in most places twelve or fourteen 

 inches from the smface, and though not so thor- 

 oughly pulverized as it probably would have been 

 by a perfect subsoil [dough, yet, in my very hard 

 stony subsoil, lam inchned to believe, that for 

 simple drill husbandry, this will be found to be i 

 valuable substitute for the English subsoil plough 

 And considering the small price ofthe imple 

 inent, and the greater ease with which it is w ork 

 ed, the friction being much lessened by dispeus 

 ing with the sole, I shall continue to use this 

 until I can' find a better. A part of my crop of 

 carrots was sowed upon the same land, appro- 

 priated to that crop last year ; nomore manure 

 was applie<l than in tlie previous year, and not 

 withstanding the very severe drought whicl 

 greatly iiijiu-ed most of our root crops, my crop 

 on this piece of land was ncariy double to that 

 of last year. There is no known cause to which 

 I can attribute this great increase ofthe produce, 

 but the use of mv new constructed substitute for 



a subsoil plough. The soil was stirred to the 

 depth of Iburteen inches, by this means the roots 

 of the carrots were enabled to strike deep and 

 thereby not only to find more nourishment, but 

 to overcome, in a great measure, the effect of a 

 very pinching drought With gri^at respect, your 

 ob't. servant, E. PHINNEY. 



From the Southern Planter. 

 Gardens. 

 From Cobbett, whose excellent little work on 

 the subject ought to he in the hands of every 

 gardener, we condense the Ibllowing directions 

 lor locating and preparing a garden. The im- 

 portance of the subject, and the excellence of the 

 matter must form our apology for the length of 

 the article. We have been at some pains to col- 

 lect and condense his views upon the subject. 

 The ground shoidd be as nearly on a level as 

 possible ; because, ^.f the slope be considerable, 

 the heavy rains do great injury, by washing away 

 the soil. " However^it is not always in our power 

 to choose a level spot; but, if there be a slope in 

 the ground, it ought, if possible, to be towards the 

 south. For, though such a direction adds to the 

 heat in suituner, this is more than counterbalan- 

 ced by the earliness which it causes in the spring. 

 By all means avoid an inclination towards the 

 north, or west, and towards any of the points be- 

 tween north and west. 



The garden shoidd be an oblong square with 

 the length from east to west twice as great as the 

 breadth from north to south. By this foi-m three 

 mportant advantages are gainetl. First, we get 

 u long and warm border under the north fence for 

 the rearing of things eariy in the spring. Second, 

 we get a long and cool border under the sotUh 

 fence foi shading, during the great heats, things 

 to which a bnrinng sun is injurious. Third, by 

 this shape of the area of the garden a larger por- 

 tion of the whole is sheltered, during winter and 

 spring, from the bleak winds. 



From a kitchen-garden all terg-e free* ought to 

 be kept at a distance of thirty or forty yards ; for 

 the shade of them is injurious, and their roots a 

 great deal more injurious, to every plant growing 

 within the influence of those roots. 



Grass, which matts the grotmd all over with its 

 roots, and does not demand much food from any 

 depth, does not suffer mucli from the roots of 

 trees; but every other plant does. A kitchen 

 garden should, therefore, have no large trees near 

 it. In the spring and fall tall trees do great harm 

 even by their shade, which robs the garden of the 

 early and the parting rays of the sun. It is there- 

 fore, on all accounts, "desirable to keep all such 

 trees al a distance. 



If it be practicable,without sacrificing too much 

 in otlier respects, to make a garden ivcar to run- 

 ning water, and especially to water that may be 

 turned into the garden, the advantage ought to be 

 profited of; but as to watering with a ^valering pot, 

 it is seldom of much use, and it cannot be practi- 

 sed upon a large scale. It is better to trust to ju- 

 dicious tillage and to the dews and rains. The 

 moisture which these do not supply cannot be 

 furnished, to any extent, by the watering pot. A 

 man will raise more moisture, with a hoe or a 

 spade, in a day, than he can |K)ur on the earth out 

 of a watering pot in a nionth. 



The plants, which grow in a garden, prefer, 

 like most other plants, the best soil that is to be 

 found. The best is loam of several feet deep 

 with a bed of lime-stone, sat»d-stone, or sand, be- 

 low. 



We ought to reject clay iind gravel, not only as 

 a top soil, but as a bottom soil, however great 

 their distance from the surface. 



Oak trees love clay, and the finest and heaviest 

 wheat grows in land with a Imttoni of clay ; hut 

 if there he clay within even six feet of the sur- 

 fiice, there will be a coldness in the land, which 

 will, in spite of all you can do, keep your spring 

 crops a week or ten days behind those upon land 

 which has not a bottom of clay. Gravel is warm, 

 and, it would be veiy desirable, if you could ex- 

 change it for some other eariy in .June ; but since 

 you cannot do this, you must submit to be burnt 

 "up in summer, if yoii have the benefit of a gravelly 

 bottom in the spring. 



Having fixed upon the spot for the garden, the 

 next thing is to prepare the ground. This may be 

 done by ploughing and harrowing until tlie 

 ground at the top be perfectly clean ; and then ay 

 double ploughing: that is to .say, by going with 8 



