104 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



was paid. Tlie improvenieiits ii|ion this hired 

 land went for its permaiieiit lieiietit — tlie value of 

 the land itself was increased iliree-fold by these 

 improvements ; and this will generally he found 

 to be the case where land is valued the highest, 

 in the midst ol" tlio greatest population, near ci- 

 ties and villages in which a dense population is 

 at all times ready for the consumption of any 

 surplus produce. The Hospital was so sitiuiied 

 that land near suitable for ciihivutioii u^s nut to 

 be had: at the distance of iiuuc- ihuii hall" a iiiilr 

 a lot was bought upon iho hard-f.it'd ^idu uf a 

 rough hill, sterile from rocks and want ol' loam 

 in its liijihcr pans, and barren ol useful vegeta- 

 tion where cold s|inii;:b ouzed over tlje ground at 

 the foot of the hill. A poitioii of this land, pur- 

 chased at the high ])rice of eighty dollars the 

 acre, has already been made worth from two to 

 three hundred dollars the acre tiom the improve- 

 ments made U]iou it. The stones are gathered 

 as they are Inuken from the harder ground and 

 disposed of in drains at suitable distances under 

 ground beyond the reach of the plough : these 

 drains are multiplied and brought nearer to each 

 other as they are /bund to be the means of pro- 

 moting an increased fertility by bringing into ac- 

 tion deeper from the surface a soil which has all 

 the eletrients of stability and strength, and only 

 requires that the superabundance of wet which 

 lies naturally near the top should find a lower ave- 

 nue for passage and take itself out of the way of 

 the iiealthy action of the combined materials for 

 vegetation. 



It is by a judicious application of labor and ex- 

 pense that the Worcester Hospital has been and 

 is able to carry on farming to great advantage. 

 Doct. Woodward calculates that about ninety per 

 cent, of all the out-door labor at the Hospital is 

 done by the hands of the male inmates, who vol- 

 unteer for this purpose. It is a iiict worthy to be 

 mentioned that the most of the unfortimate de- 

 ranged jjersonswho have been brought up to the 

 work of fiirmers and who have muscular strength 

 are fond of the occupation, and choose rather to 

 work than to remain idle. There is a deranged 

 person in this town who for years was kept con- 

 • fined to a room rendered uncomfortable from the 

 violence he had done to the wainscotting and 

 ■windows, who, the mere maniac, was induced at 

 first to go to the field only under watching and 

 restraint, but who for nearly two years, has con- 

 stantly done the work of the best sane hired man, 

 and who. although evidently improved in the ex- 

 ercise of his rational faculties, still talks incohe- 

 rently and seems not to comprehend any com- 

 plex subject. At the Worcester Hospital a"ll such, 

 and oidy such as voluittarily choose it, go to the 

 field to labor. When we visited the field of 

 which we have given some account, there were 

 six men at work digging the ditches and drawing 

 the rocks to fill the drains ; there were five he- 

 sides the overseer who had the management of 

 the ox-team ; and of these five Dr. Woodward 

 mentioned that four of ihem were either homi- 

 cides or men who had attempted to take the lives 

 of others. If these persons are dangerous while 

 in some positions, association, it is Jjelieved, will 

 counteract the danger : where more than two are 

 together of persons of equal strength, and one 

 or more set as a guard against any irregularity, the 

 propensity of the monomaniac to kill or injure 

 will seldom show itself in any overt act ; and 

 from this do we account tor the fact that in all 

 the labor done by the inmates of insane hospi- 

 tals in the field, we have never heard of violence 

 or injiu'y done by deranged persons who were per- 

 forming the labor. 



The great success which has attended the ag- 

 ricultural operations at Worcester, induced the 

 Trustees of the New Hampshire Hospital for the 

 insane to look out an eligible position for a farm. 

 The spot selected is a tract of land in one body, 

 all of It within a mile fi-om the State House, of 

 •nore than one hundred acres. The hospital 

 ngs will stand scarcely half a mile from 



the time 

 land, consistin 



bu 



Capitol. The tract embraces a large portion of 

 the Benjamin Abbot farm: it was objected to at 

 the^ ground was too sterile ; and 

 1 .• , P, °'" ^"'^'^ fi% 8cres of intervale 

 north of the old meeting-house and of the horse- 

 .shoe pond and Waternummons brook, was of- 

 fered to the Trustees. They selected what was 

 then considered the poorer land, t!ie cost of 

 which to the fund, besides the amount made ui) 



by subscription for that particular object; was 

 about lour thousand dullurs. 



The land deserves the name of sterility wiiich 

 was given it ; lor tiiieen acres of the "mowing 

 ground sold at auction for >lie hay of ilie present 

 year at one dollar and a half the acre The pur- 

 chaser thought he might obtain five tons of ordi- 

 nary bay on those fifteen acres; but on mowing 

 it, he will hardly obtain three tons. Now if tlie 

 aiiciiiit owner of this farm, whose living fiice we 

 |iiillctl, remember seeing since we came to 

 f Ciiruid in 1809, was living at this time, he would 

 nut heav the reproach uncontradicted that his 

 farm was poor land. He would tell you that in 

 the first clearing of the town there was no better 

 and more productive land than this farm. Al- 

 though since his decease and especially since tlie 

 farm passed out of the hands of the iiimily and 

 name, it has become unproductive, we are f iee to 

 give the opinion tiiat no better tract of land could 

 have been selected for the Hospital. The rich 

 intervale laud which had been selected by a jior- 

 tion of the citizens of Concord, we nnderstaiid, 

 has since that fime been almost entirely covered 

 and rendered fruitless for the time being by the 

 sand from the last winter's freshet washed down 

 by the aterrimack river. The Hospital farm pur- 

 chased is not as good land at present as might be 

 purchased in some parts of the State ; but with 

 management similar to that of the Worccstei- 

 Hospital lands, it may be made within ten years 

 to be worth at least two hundred dollars the 

 acre. 



There is no land in the country t!iat will not 

 sooner or later wear out. The boiioin lands up- 

 on our rivers that are annually uv( rtluwed by set- 

 ting back of the current, w ill cuniiiiin' tu produce 

 large crops of hay without additional iiiamire or 

 cultivation; and thjie are on many farms swails 

 of land which have the advantage of irrigation 

 and the wash of fertile particles from lands above, 

 that will continue to inoduce large crops of hay 

 year after year ; but the very best of land must 

 liave manure, and most of it must have repealed 

 cultivation and turning up with the plough or the 

 hoe or spade, to continue its fertility. 



All our worn-out lands possess within them- 

 selves the elements of fertility — all of them may 

 be made as good as they were when they were 

 originally cleared. Much of our river alluvion 

 becomes" comparatively sterile if neglected— that 

 which has not the benefit of an annual overflow 

 will as soon run down without manure and culti- 

 vation as much of the upland. 



If every farmer would cultivate no more land 

 with an exhausting crop than he could well ma- 

 nure — if he would never plant upon ploughed 

 ground with the view of taking more of the ori- 

 ginal stamina fi-om the land in the present cru|) 

 than he communicates to it — we should see much 

 less of v/hat is called " poor land." From what 

 we daily see in travelling the country, we are in- 

 clined to the belief that there is much less difTer- 

 ence in the quality of land than there is in the 

 treatment of it. Strong land with a hard pau 

 yields more when it is first cleared and will last 

 longer than lighter lands ; but when both shall be 

 reduced by several exhausting crop.s, it begins to 

 be generally conceded that the lighter land for 

 many purposes is more valuable than the stron- 

 ger, heavier lands. Pursuing a regular rotation of 

 crops with effectual manuring, it is even thought 

 the lighter land will give most profit, and that the 

 crop through the extremes of drought and wet 

 will be most sure. 



The Trustees of the Insane Hospital have pur- 

 chased just such a tract of land as in its present 

 condition may show to the best advantage the 

 sure gains that will result fi-om a sufficient in- 

 vestment of labor and expense in the cultivation 

 of the earth. The means of im;)ioving this land 

 exist in the near nei.;liborliood : after one or two 

 years the flieans of making upon the premises 

 sufficient dressing to turn a patch of greater or 

 less extent every yeai into the fertility of an im- 

 proved garden, will be found abuntlant. If he 

 can be prevailed njion to pccept of the place, we 

 know of no man in the State better qualified to 

 superintend this farm and the economy of the 

 institution generally, than Mr. Conaut. Consult- 

 ing his good taste, he would soon make this a 

 pattern farm for the State in which persons be- 

 reft of their reason should not only be restored, 

 but taught on their return to their homes what 

 course of management of land shall be a certain 



road to the greatect comfort and most sure suc- 

 cess of the fiirmers of the Granite State. We 

 liope in any event that the example of farm cul- 

 livalioii at the Worcester Hospital will be imita- 

 ted and carried out at our new institution in Con- 

 cord. 



Paragraphs from the Albany Cultivator. 

 Sales of Hogs. — In a letter of Juno ItJ, 

 Messrs. A. & G. Brentnall, of Canterbuiy, Or- 

 ange CO., N. Y., inform us that they have lately 

 sold to Richard Allen, Esq., of Lexington, Ky., u 

 Berkshire sow, 20 months old, for SI50— also a 

 hoar and sow to T. B. Howard, Esq., of Colum- 

 bus, Geo., for $lii0, and have now an offer of $7.5 

 eacli fiir two so«s and a lioar, besides §200 for 

 their boar OiUario— all Bcrkshires. Dr. S. D. 

 Martin, of 1\\., has iccciitlv suld " his Woburii 

 sowMairnoli-,,^' to Mr. Johnsion, of Missouri, for 

 $150. She is estimated to weigh 1200 lbs. 



New Jersey I\I.\ri.. — New Jersey was former- 

 ly fiuiions lor its barren sands, but it is now, ow- 

 ing to the liberal use of marl, fast becoming one 

 of the most productive Statesof the Union. "The 

 Cabinet says: — "My friend K. S. whose fiirm, a 

 few years since,yielded nothing but blackberries, 

 and was one uncultivated waste, produces the 

 finest crops of wheat, and other grains and corn, 

 and yielded more than J 00 loads of hay the last 

 year, at a cut of two and a half tons per acre; 

 liud a'l thi- i,< uuii,^ to the marl." The value of 

 these nini I li.^i- ni :; I:, inferred from the fact, that 

 Mr.A.C'i ' I- the marl by the square 



rod, " is ic . li. iii_ 1 1 ■ per acre for the marl, 

 the land alicruards lieiiig more valuable than be- 

 fore." 



Great Ox. — The celebrated ox Pennsylvania, 

 was slaughtered in Philadelphia on the 2d of Feb. 

 1841. This o.\ was of a cross between the De- 

 von and Durham; was eight years old ; had been 

 fed five years ; and his live weight was 3350 lbs., 

 dead weight of the 4 quarters 23S8; loose liit 

 3:34 lbs. On cutting up, the flesh was found " el- 

 egantly mottled," the flesh laid on the best parts, 

 and the five years find not gone to " make soap 

 and candles," as Bakewell used to remark of 

 such very fat animals. 



Oi.D Lime Plaster on Wheat. — A writer in 

 the Farmer's Gazette -says, he sowed two pieces 

 of spring wheat afier briniiigaiid rolling the seed 

 in slaked lime. On one of these fields he sowed 

 or spread a number of loads of old plaster from 

 the walls of old houses, and harrowed it in with 

 the seed. Both fields were entirely free from 

 smut, which that year was generally ruinous to 

 wheat ; but that the wheat of the field where no 

 lime was used (except for rolling the seed) was 

 badly shrunk, while that which grew on the field 

 well .piiiikleil with old [ilastcr, was good, sound, 

 plump uhfut. 



"Great Calf." — An animal of the Bos genus, 

 some five years old, has been lately exhibited at 

 Fulton St.", New York. He is ol^ the ordinary 

 breed of cattle, has never eat a bushel of corn or ■ 

 meal in hi^ life, .<urks the same cow now that ho 

 did when Ihne days ..Id, and weiglis.3240 pounds. 

 This "call "' fruiii the hanks of the Connecticut, 

 attracted mnrli notice in " Gotham." 



Swedish Stables. — Jn Sweden the horse sta- 

 bles are never littereil at all. The floors of the 

 stable are planked; tlie planks iierfbraled with 

 holes, so that no wet can remain on them ; and 

 these planks kept clean are the only bedding al- 

 lowed. To this method of trejitiug their horses, 

 (strange as it appears to Englishmen, or those 

 who litter their stables carefully,) the Swedes at- 

 tribute the soundness of their horses' feet, as it is 

 quite uncommon to meet with a lame. or foun- 

 dered horse in Sweden, that has been so sta- 

 bled. 



A Goon Crop. — Mr. Samuel Palmer of Go- 

 shen, Ct., iiives the following as the crop taken 

 in 1840, fVoni fiveacres of land : 600 -bushels of 

 corn in the car, 118 cart loads of iiumpkiiis, 300 

 bushels of turnips, and 240 bushels of i.otaLje.s. 

 It was uiiiicccssarv fur Mr. P. tu .stale th:it the 



I, aiH 



ulli 



cro|) can he prudiiccd muk'r no other course ol 

 treatment, and the sooner liuiiiers are convinced 

 of this fact, the better it will be for them. 



roo Mi'CH Truth. — 'Jhe New Farmer's Jour- 

 nal, London, says : — " The monetary' affairs of 

 he States appear to be in a most desperate con- 

 dition. The U. S. Bank is scarcely capable of 



