142 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



The Experience of a Vermont Parmer. 



Putney, Ft. Sept. 13th, 1841. 

 To the Editor of the Monthly VisUor. 



Sir— I feel it to be a duty for every successful 

 cultivator oftliPt=oil to sendia to the public store- 

 house his cxpeiience that nil may have it in our 

 agricullural publications; and for this reason 1 

 shall attempt this communication. 



Tlie amount of my land under the plough is 

 75 acres, and is situated on the extreme eastern 

 part of a bow of 500 acres which the Connecticut 

 river leaves in one of those graceful turns whicli 

 it olten makes in its course to the Sound. My 

 principal crops are corn, oats and hay, and these 

 crops 1 have generally changed every year. I 

 have had all the manure returned every spring 

 and ploughed under for the corn crop ; and I 

 always plant where I mowed last year. 1 plough 

 not until just before planting; and roll and har- 

 row. Ihave used the last spring, a corn planter 

 made by Calvin Olds of Mail borough, Vt. and to 

 me it is a great labor-saving machine, it is double 

 in its operation, is attached to a horse by fills : it 

 did its work well. I can plant with a horse only 

 an acre an hour without any extVa help all day ; 

 but I do not say that I can on any laud. The 

 land must be made smooth. I have no trouble in 

 preparing my land, for, as I said before, I plough 

 my manure all under, I then roll the same way I 

 plough which jirevents sods and manure from 

 harrowing up ;I also harrow crossways if needed 

 I use plaster and ashes as top dressing, either be- 

 fore or soon after the first hoeing in proportion 

 of one bushel of the former to eight of the latter 

 per acre applied to the hill. I cut niy corn up by 

 the roots and stook it as fast as cut. 1 am highly 

 in favor of this mode and would recommend it to 

 every oue in preference to the old mode of 

 topping stalks, as saving in corn, labor and fod- 

 der. Last year I raised fifteen hundred bushels, 

 all good. I never have had any mouldy corn 

 since I have harvested in this way. My jjresent 

 crop is now all in the stook, and will be soon 

 dry and fijt to husk ; this we do in the field when 

 the weather will permit. Care should be taken 

 that the stooks all stand up, as the leaning ones 

 will not dry after a storm, if they are not kept 

 erect. When ripe enough for harvesting we go 

 with a cart and take all the leaning ones to the 

 barn for evening husking or Ibid weathei-. I 

 stack my corn fodder around my yard, as it is ea- 

 sily done and will not mould, when they would 

 spoil in the barn. I was compelled to adopt 

 this mode for the want of room in barns, and 

 have never suffered any loss. The bundles are 

 all husked without unbinding, and if any are un- 

 bound they are re-liound with rye straw ; and 

 these will be easily stacked around a pole or pbst, 

 as one can pitch them to another. My present 

 crop is injured by the drought some, although it is 

 a good crop. It is whiit I should have called 

 two years ago an extra crop. 



My oats are a good ciop, and were raised on 

 the ground where my i-nrn grew last year. They 

 were sown in good seiison, and this I [irefer. To 

 prepare the ground I plough across the even rows 

 and harrow the same way lightly ; then sowed 

 three bushels per acre ; then harrowed well the 

 other way. I then sow ten pounds of clover seed 

 and six quarts of herds-grass i^eed per acre, and 

 roll smooth. I lia\c adopted the plan of sowing 

 three pecks of plasti ;• p;r acre on this new seed- 

 ing, soon after it h:.fi cuine u]i, and never had it 

 fail by the droui;ht in the summer following, while 

 I have lost my grass seeding where I had nut 

 sown plaster. It is so this year — for the want of 

 a few bushels of plaster I shall lose the seeding 

 often acres, while the fifteen where I sowed 

 plaster is first rate seeding. The cause is the 

 drought: the preventative is the pinriter of Paris. 

 The plaster does no good to the oats that I can 

 see. My mowing this year is where I had my 



gromid I intend to have 

 t full bushel of plaster 

 'if 'ilnv. I commence 

 .'in:- my crop is uni- 

 I; (1. M\ second 



it r,-cll seeded: 



oats last year, and on iiu 



corn next year. lajiply 



per Bcre, say on tli ■ iws 



haying about the v. 



form and is gemr 



crop is cut for !<c i : 



it is then cut f.r : u! : ; ;i, ](• t .; 



sheep; occasion: ; ' . ii . ;i ; 



season,, and hn\ , ,!, ■ 



saving it for seed \ . .i i ;; 1 \ i;i i,, 



swath a lew days to v.eiitiirr 1., at until it will 



shell the hull from the head. It is tlien carried 



to a hei'l ^vhich i.s [.repared by taking the tiuf i 



from the surfiice aiid made smooth by u inil, and 

 trodden out will) horses by the load, vihich is 

 done very soon. The chaff is taken to a mill 

 which we have near, resembling a bark mill. 

 The commission is two cents per lb. for cleaning 

 tit for the market. 1 grow the southern seed ex- 

 clusively, as 1 could obtain no seed from the 

 northern either from the first or second crop ; 

 and the hay would not be so good as my hay. 

 My cattle never find fault. Our land will pro- 

 duce clover with the aid of plaster, and we have 

 no excuse if our lands are not rich. Some say 

 plaster will not work on their land, and I have 

 excused them when I would see them mowing 

 year after year where they would not get seven 

 liundred to the acre, because they could not get 

 manure ; and of course the seed would not g 

 in stocking down. Now, sir, I dtwibt very ni 

 if we have nuich land that ever ought or could 

 be ploughed where plaster or aslies will not 

 make clover grow. 



Two years ago I purcliased a grass farm some 

 twenty miles tiom me, whose altitude is as high 

 as the base of Monadnock at Dublin meeting- 

 house. In the cultivation of it I did not cause 

 any plaster to be used except half a bushel which 

 was put on potatoes ; and the effect could be 

 seen half a mile; it was greater than I ever saw 

 in the meadow at home. This year I have used 

 it freely on the potatoes and spring seeding, and 

 when it was not scattered on the this spring sown 

 clover, it is not seeded aiul will be a Ihiline, whih 

 where it was, it is ankle high. This laud is a mel- 

 low soil producing maple, beech and birch — it is 

 what I shall call a sandy loam. Now as 1 have 

 hold of two extremes, in my belief plaster must 

 work well on siniili^r soils in the middle altitude. 

 This farm has its usual quantity of old worn out 

 mowing which did not cut from five to s( 

 hundred of hay per acre ; and there is much of 

 this kind of land in our country. Now, sir, I 

 have faith that I .shall make those poor acres pro 

 (luce their thirty hundred of h.iy, and be able to 

 maintain that state so long as I pursue the rota 

 tion system. If I am not deceived by a differen 

 soil, my success will be certain. I have one oth 

 er difficulty to encounter in the distance, and the 

 farm is occupied by a tenant : these are draw 

 backs; but diligence and perseverance will over 

 come all things. 



We read in the good Book, " the Lord CJoi 

 took the man and'put him into the garden to 

 dress it and to keep it." The command was no 

 to keep it without dressine. Now a husband- 

 man who will not dress his farm is not fit to keep 

 It. And behold the reward is with him. "His 

 inheritance shall be taken from him and given 

 unto others." Now this is as true as any other 

 preaching, for \\e see it verified every year. 

 Thus Miti uill ]i,-i-.-,.ive, I believe, that every man 

 ciiiliii\i-.| w liii i-niiiMH.ii understanding has the 

 [;;-i\ ii ':;r of >!i.i|.iiii; his own tbrtune under our 

 blessrd instituiiiiiis, and that his cast in society is 

 fixed according to his industry and moral econo- 

 my. You will also observe 1 do not believe there 

 is iiny need of mowing so much of our lands that 

 produce so little. I think ii is the most exhaust- 

 ing system that wo can take to mow a piece of 

 ground six or seven years without returning an; 

 thing back in the shape of manure. Some wii 

 say that lauds do not deteriorate by manuring 

 constantly; but plough up a piece the second 

 yearof mowing and one the sixth year, and see 

 what the difference will be m crop without any 

 manuring or with equal manuring ; the difjerence 

 will be altogether in favor of the former. I 

 slionlil say luilfof the mowing would produce an 

 I',',!::,! riPii. ' i!i- ij>i rov of the system of manur- 

 in:; ' , ;; ; l-.'tting it lay slx years, 



' I i- the common practice; 



i; 1 '■• . :lii v.L.u that eats a week's al= 



lov.anii; :it a iiaie. My course would be to make 

 an outlay in all the manure in shape of swamp 

 iiinck, road soil, ashes, lime, weeds, brake leaves, 

 &c., that 1 could obtain. I would commence on 

 my second or at most my tliii'd year's mowing 

 unless plaster would work on clover ; in that 

 cn?e I should begin on my poorest land cither by 

 1 iailow or planting, make a clean tilth, for 

 I ' ill depend upon this. Then on my fallow 



loads of riji 



nipost as i 



I . i >siiig |)eracre, and more if for planting, 

 and seed lodover; then ap])ly a bushel of plaster 

 per acre ; and use a roller on all lands that are 

 not too wet, as there are few that arc, I should 



Iniiig my lands all under new seedintr, and then 

 mow them only two years at most. There is 

 land on every farm more or less in this mountain- 

 ous country that cannot be well ploughed ; let 

 such land be applied to gratify your appetite, for 

 mowing old fields to get fine hay if you will, or 

 let them go for pasture. I do not believe in 

 ploughing pasture vjnless you adopt the same 

 system yin do in tillage, and as our counti-y is 

 not din il\ I niMilated at present, I do not recom- 

 mend 111 piiMi; !i lands on which the crops cannot 

 be easily eli iiiged. We have enough good plough 

 lands to piocure double the amount we now ob- 

 tain. Worms have destroyed the hopes of the 

 farmer who has planted his old mowing field, 

 while he who has adopted the one year system 

 has been enUrely exempt from their ravages. If 

 it was not for the cut worm I should recommend 

 to mow two years; but I have sufl'ered so much 

 by them I prefer to keep this advantage. 



I have spun out this communication to the end 

 of my paper; and have tio excuse to make except 

 my inability to say what I have in less words; 

 but I give you the privilege of contracting or 

 throwipg the whole under the table as you please. 

 I thmik you for your first volume of the Visitor, 

 and feel proud of your request, and shall meet it 

 more fully in my experience on mv highland 

 farm. " THOIMAS WHITE. 



PuTNEV Meadows. 



Smucgling in France. — Every day, dui-ing a 

 period of nearly three months, says the Messa- 

 ger, a young female, bearing on her back a bas- 

 ket of flowers, has entered Paris by the Barriere 

 de Fontainbleau. At first, the employees of the 

 octroi carefully examined the basket, but finding 

 nothing liublc to duty in it, they ceased to enter- 

 tain any suspicion, and allowed the flower-woman 

 to pass without examination, until it was noticed, 

 a few days ago, that she walked with difficulty, 

 as If carrying a heavy load. This led to a close 

 inspection, and it was found that the basket had 

 a false bottom made of zinc, and containing near- 

 ly twelve litres of sjiirils of wine! A female 

 being ordered to examine the person of the fair 

 smuggler, discovered that she had under her 

 clothes two large bladders filled with the same 

 liquid ! She was immediately arrested, and sent 

 to the prefecture of police. 



DUOUGIIT IN MAINE. 



Kcnndiunk, Maine, Sept. 2, 1841. 



Gov. Hill : — The unparalleled drought at this 

 place is broken. On the 30th and 3l'st days of 

 August and the first day of September instant, 

 we had copious rains — 5 inches and 17 hun- 

 dredths in all, bill not enough to saturate the high 

 grounds sufficiently. Scarce a green thing was 

 lo be seen in any of our pastures or fields. The 

 corn crops will he almost entirelyjjcut ott^ — worth 

 nothing except for fodiler, and that stinted as lo 

 quantity, except here and there a patch on low or 

 moist land. II" these should be followed by sue 

 ceeding rains and warm weather, we may get 

 some fall feed where the grass roots are not en- 

 tirely killed. Whatever was left green from the 

 drought, the grasshoppers almost universally 

 stripped of its foliage. I found it necessary to 

 water my Buckthorne hedge, now in the third 

 year of its growth from setting, and three-fburths 

 of a mile in length, in order to preserve it. The 

 growth of this hedge has hitherto been rapid, hut 

 its sufferings from the drought and fiom grass- 

 hoppers this year have been a very severe check 

 upon it. Many of the ornamental and other 

 trees set in the vicinity within a few years and 

 doing well liave this year been lost for want of 

 rains. Whole fields of potatoes, in fact the lar- 

 gest part of all that has been planted in this vi- 

 cinity, are entirely destroyed— not worth half the 

 expense of digging. Up lo the S9lh of August 

 inclusive, we had only" one inch and forty-two 

 hundredths of rain for" the month; and in" July 

 only one inch and fifty-three hundredths— less 

 than three in^^-li-s t.ir tlie two motiths- without 

 includinii T : ■ ,' :, i: !l on the 30th and 31st of 

 August!::;' I ,.;si:veiity-five hundredths) 



which e::n i< n lit- tn iistoro or benefit the lost 

 crops; and in the month of ,hine we had only 

 two inches and sixty-three hundredths — five 

 inches and fifty-eight hundredths for the three 

 months. 



Last year the drought was considered very se- 

 cre ; but in the month of June there were three 

 inches and eight hundredths of rain— in Julyone 



