138 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY TISITOR. 



the exception of an oiitsidc row of a kind of ap- 

 ple sent liini a few years since from tlie nursery 

 of JudgeUuel, in Albany, pleasant as fruit for 

 >vinter use, entirely witli engrafted or inoculated 

 sweet apples. Tlie progress of this last oruliard 

 lias been surprising in the last two yeai's. The 

 trees are of ditFerent ages, some of them having 

 been tiansplunted the two last seasons. This 

 orchard is upon a rocky, but somewhat moist 

 side hill, where tlie original growth is poplar and 

 white birch. A cold spring at the lower part 

 crossed the lot, and prevented the equal growth 

 of the trees and the vegetation. Mr. P. has 

 treated this spot as he has done and is doing 

 every part of Jiis lands — carried a drain under 

 ground with a space left at the bottom for col- 

 lecting the running waters, all of which, calcu- 

 lated to injure the cultivation either above or he- 

 low the surface, is taken oft". About two acres 

 of this orchard was cultivated with carrots and 

 sugar beets, of which Mr. P. has been in the 

 habit of producing from seven hundred to a thou- 

 sand bushels to the acre, to be fed in winter to 

 his sheep and cattle : on these two acres, and 

 indeed over about two thirds of this orchard, 

 corn, of the kind called Phinney corn, was grow- 

 ing two years ago at the rate of sixty bushels to 

 the acre. The remaining four acres this year 

 had a polatoe crop, we think a little better than 

 we have seen any where else, even the good crop 

 now (Sept. 15) growing green and large upon 

 our own premises. Mr. Phinney is of opinion 

 that the use of a sub-soil plough, not the Dean- 

 ston plough imported from England, but one 

 invented himself, will increase the crop of car- 

 rots, beets and jiotatoes nearly one half. His 

 sub-soil plough is a large and heavy wooden 

 instrument, in the shape of the Cultivator : it has 

 three large iron bolls at the centre, running all 

 the distance, say of eighteen inches, one behind 

 the other : tliese bolts, an inch and a half or more 

 ill diameter, and eight or ten inches clear below 

 the wood, are sfiimp footed at the bottom, pointed 

 so as to perforate the ground. This stump-foot- 

 ed half harrow, half cultivator, drawn by a team 

 of three heavy yokes of o.xen, follows the plough 

 in the same furrow, and roots into the sub-soil, 

 some two, three, or more inches, according to 

 the hardness or sottiiess of the ground upon 

 which the prongs operate. 



The Deanston subsoil plough is entirely unlike 

 the plough of Mr. Phinney: from the description 

 had of if we are inclined to think it not adapted 

 to our hard, rocky niuler soil — it is intended 

 rather for the chalky or clayin' soil, of the island 

 of Great Britain, which has by no means the hard- 

 ness of the New England hills under the outside 

 iiinald. The Deanston subsoil plough, we under- 

 stand, requires a heavy team, and will bring up 

 very large rocks whenever it encounters them 

 under ground. We saw last October, but had 

 no opportunity to see it operate, a subsoil plough 

 manufactured by Messrs Ruggles and Noiirse 

 of Worcester, Mass. This plough, it is said, 

 carried much too wide n share in the ground, 

 and viithout amendment will be impracticable, 

 t\ en with a heavy team, in locky, hard ground. 

 The simple instrument of Mr. Phinnej-, the 

 plough with three teeth following directly after 

 r.r'.oh other, it does seem to us, may be made a 

 most effective instrument, jiassing along in an 

 o|ien furrow, turned out by a preceding team 

 with the common plough, in moving the hard 

 pan, and thus laying the foundatiou for a deeper, 

 richer soil when the stirred subsoil shall become 

 meliorated by due exposure to the atmosphere. 



Subsoil iiloughing is liut of recent practice, 

 even ill England, whence it was introduced into 

 this country. Connected with under-draining 

 where the wet which resting long near the sur- 

 face producing heaviness, and rrtardinii and ju-e- 

 vcmingthc progress of veg(l;itiiiii. is i:in'h'(l off 

 luisoen, and the upper soil is 1. ii .li\ -.nn] ll^lit, 

 subsoil ploughing adds woiidei I'lijly to llie ca- 

 pacity of i lie land for production. This matter 

 is well uiul'vstodd and practised in Great Kiit- 

 ;tiu — it is iidiling hundreds of thousands to the 

 proflls of lUnniiig in that cotmtry. Mr. Phini.cy, 

 vith the i)hilnsophy wliicli he" has applied to 

 (ither things, seems at once to have stepped into 

 the true process of subsoil ploughing, of which 

 we had the evidence before us in the case of 

 his carrot, beet, and potatoe cultivation. 



SUCCKSS or CNDER-nRAINING. 



A couaiderable portion of Mr. Phinney's mead- 



ow, or hay laud, is of that heavy kind which in 

 a rough country is to be found at the foot of hills, 

 where the cold springs either overflow or come 

 near the surface — in the hollows which are over- 

 flowed by continued rains, and upon which the 

 Water sometimes long rests, or on the verge of 

 small brooks in which waters flow a part of the 

 year. Mr. P. attempted to remedy the evil of too 

 much water upon the surface by ridging the 

 ground at intervals so the water might soak or 

 run off in the hollow s : this had a good effect 

 for a time — still it did not prevent the whole sur- 

 face of the land from contracting a closeness 

 and hardness which required much new labor 

 for its restoration. Mr. P. has introduced in the 

 place of this process under-draining, as the more 

 effectual method of giving fertility to the soil, 

 and at the same time forever disposing of the 

 large amount of surplus stones that abound upon 

 his farm. An instance of the injury of surface 

 WKter occurred on his premises this year : he 

 had ploughed from the sward a lot to be planted 

 witli our JJrown corn ; and on about three and a 

 half of the four acres to which he applied about 

 forty loads of his hog-prepared manure he really 

 had the finest crop of corn we have yet seen the 

 present year ; but a stri)) of the land ploughed 

 on the lower side of this field was made alto- 

 gether barren from the water which could not 

 soak away, and the ploughed ground lay all the 

 present season without producing any thing. 

 The men were at work upon a drain through 

 this ground, which was extending some fifty 

 rods, the length of the field. The construction 

 of the main drain was commenced at the lower 

 end of the field by digging about two and a half 

 feet wide and nearly to the same depth. Stones 

 were laid on each side and covered over, leaving 

 an open space of some six or eight inches: upon 

 the top and sides more stones were filled in. 

 These were covered over with meadow has- 

 socks, the sod side turned over, and over the 

 top of this, loam was thrown to a depth sufficient 

 to briug it even with the surfiice. Lateral drains 

 were cut as often as seemed necessary to bring 

 in not only the surface water but the springs 

 that came near the surface, leading the supera- 

 bundant water off of the ground in the proper 

 direction. The effect of this underdraining will 

 undoubtedly be to make the black, heavy soil 

 fertile, so that it wifl produce the largest crop 

 of hay or grain, wlieat, or corn, and potatoes, or 

 herds-grass, where these crops were drowned 

 out, and where only a stinted crop of coarse 

 meiidovv grass had before grown. 



ADVA.NTAOES OF IRRIGATION. 



By continued improvements of this kind Mr. 

 Phinney has been able to increase his crop of hay 

 I'our-fold : he gets a great quantity on a small 

 space of ground. On the kind of laud natural 

 to the production of hay, his ))ractice has been 

 for several years to invert the sward to the depth 

 of six or eight inches, with the Prouty and Mears 

 plough adjusting the edges so as to leave no crev- 

 ice — pass over the ground in the first instance 

 with a heavy roller — spread on ten or a dozen 

 loads of compost manure — harrow the ground 

 lengthwise of the furrows — sow with herds-grass 

 and clover — harrow or brush it in, and roll down 

 close a second time. In this way the field is left 

 in the smoothest condition : the unmoved sward 

 at the bottom has a fine effect upon the subse- 

 quent annual crops, making the grass liojd on 

 much longer than if it had been stocked down 

 in the usual way. Sir. P. had one field put down 

 ill this way which without other preparation had 

 continued to iiroduce tor five years in succession 

 full two tons of hay to tlie acre. 



The method of stocking down to grass first 

 after a crop of corn and potatoes is found to be 

 the best in the drained grounds. Mr. Phinney 

 sowed herds-grass in April upon about two acres, 

 and instead of the long process when the seed is 

 sown with grain of obtaining a crop of herds- 

 grass in two .years, he was able to cut a large 

 crop of hay in less than three months from the 

 time of sowing. 



The unevenncss of Mr. Phinney's farm enables 

 him much to increase his crop' of hay by irriga- 

 tion. The effect of pure water on grass ground 

 aiiplied at the proper time and in the [iroper 

 manner, is surprising to those who would sup- 

 pose that the pure element intrinsically has no 

 fertilizing quality. Mr. P. has ascertained that 

 Imid will produce large crops of hay year after 



year, with no other application than flowage in 

 the spring, wheu fresli water makes brooks that 

 become dry a greater part of the summer. He 

 has contrived to turn a stream ol' water issuing 

 from a pond that is never dry, which soured or 

 killed the grass when all flowing in its natural 

 confined channel, over an extent of several acres 

 by running channels on the brow of the hill so 

 as to overflow or leak out on the lower side : 

 wherever this water touches and flows off, the 

 crop of hay is much increased. 



Irrigation in the couiiliy seems to be but little 

 understood and practised. Tliere' are many 

 places where the water can be plashed over 

 fields where the proprietors have never thought 

 of the great advaniagcs resulting, but where a 

 very trifling expense judiciously applied would 

 much increase the crops of hay and grass. 



INCREASE OF MANURE. 



Jlr. Phinney has for }ears had an eye espe- 

 cially to the "main chance" of the farmer, the 

 manure heap. Without the aid of large quanti- 

 ties of manure, he could never have brought the 

 splendid farm which he owns and occupies to 

 its present production. Although he may be 

 styled a fancy farmer, in all cases he seems to 

 have consulted rather utility than the mere grati- 

 fication of the eye. If we look at his trees for 

 ornament, they are such as are profitable for their 

 fruits: if we turn to his sjilendid garden crops, 

 they are all intended for the food of man antl 

 beast, or for the market. He is not the florist, 

 with beds and walks adorned with pinks and 

 peonies, with hyacinths and dahlias — but he will 

 show you mangel wurtzel, or ruta bagu, or car- 

 rots of giant size. He sowed only one simple 

 row of flowers of seeds presented by the over- 

 seer from the splendid flower and truit garden 

 of Mr. J. P. Gushing, of Wntertown, as the ex- 

 tent of his floriruliiue. He pursues the labori- 

 ous business of liirniing, as well to grality the 

 pride of the eye as to be able to realize that there 

 is profit in the occupation ; and we cannot doubt 

 that he does rcili/c; a living profit in the occupa- 

 tion, notwithstaiicliii',' he does every thing with 

 hiri;d lii'lji at tlj< lust |)riccs, and depends on 

 the faithfiihicss ol his workmen when much of 

 the time he is ab^uut from necessity. 



As the only pracliiahle mode of bringing uj) 

 the production of his liuin — it being too" distant 

 and too expensive to purchase and bring mannro 

 from the stables of the city — he commenced 

 rearing and keeping swine. For several years 

 his common average number was one hundred 

 aud fifty. Every one who keeps swine will rea- 

 lize how great is the ipiantity of food consumed 

 by a score or two of this voracious animal ; that 

 few of the largest vegetable and grain farms will 

 produce enough to keep in growth so great a 

 number. To keep up the uuuiber, Mr. P. re- 

 sorted to the Boston market, and freqiienlly ]nn'- 

 lin and rice, the refuse ship 

 I n s, and other material 



chased damaged ','i;i 

 bread from n in- ; ^ I 

 to be found in ; 

 sins, with oilr 

 sometimes ci)ii\ ! 

 the grunters. All iL 



1 s of damaged rai- 

 : ii|)orled fruits, were 

 iliauksgiving food for 

 the brutes were made 



workers for the benefit of the farm. When we 

 contrast the indolence of our own half a dozen 

 swine, which if hungry would much rather re- 

 sort to some iiiiscliief, .^s the devouring of young 

 chickens, or lie stupidly down when led with a 

 full belly, than |)oi Ibrm any useful labor — with 

 the industry of I\ir. Phinney's seventy-five or 

 hundred swine ; we must admit that his hogs 

 have much the lK't;er bringing up. His swamps 

 and low grounds have furnished abundant mate- 

 rial for the hogjicn : loads of black mud or muck 

 are constantly lying on the outside to be thrown 

 in and worked over by the nose of the hog as 

 fast as it may bo profitably added to the work 

 already done. After it is thus worked, it is gen- 

 erally carried to the barnyard to he trodden upon 

 and mixed with ihe droppings of the cuttle, or 

 the daily colltrndus in the waiter of the stables, 

 where the whole i.-- accimiulatcd in a mass fit to 

 be applied in lln- .sj>riii,ir of the year to every 

 growing crop. The well arranged barns on 

 these premises are so constructed that the urinn 

 of the cattle passes underneath into cellars where 

 every thing is saved. The hogs are generally 

 kept in small pens, with two apartments, one for 

 the mud and the other as a place to rest upon a 

 dry floor — they work, for the most part, either 

 singly or in pairs ; and it seems to bie a part of 



