THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



163 



iiiipioveiiifijt and iucii-'ase in towns not ytt so 

 innclj ailviinctd. 



How tilitill production be doubled in five years? 

 It' every larnier wiio ploughs and plants an acre 

 expends twenty dollars in niainne and labor to 

 produce a crop worth thirty dollars, wilh double 

 that expense in njanure and exira labor, he may 

 calculate the first year to obtain a crop that will 

 be worth at least sixty dollars: this extra expense 

 will on an average double his crop on the same 

 ground lor three successive years. Continuing 

 the process until he shall have gone in a series 

 of years over the ground he usually cultivates, 

 ami so far at least 1 hesitate not to say his pro- 

 duction will be doubled, his invested capital will 

 be doubled, and his prufils will he doubled. 



I have a field of ibur measured acres on w liicii 

 I raised hardly two tons of hay in the year I8;jy. 

 In the spring of 1640, as the first trial of one ot 

 the beautiful sward ploughs of Prouty anil Mears, 

 with a team of two yokes of oxen and two hor- 

 ses, this land, being a portion of the Concord 

 intervale, was turned over to the depth of full 

 twelve inches, being at least four inches below 

 where the plough had ever before reached : this 

 field was the handsomest ploughing I had ever 

 seen ; forty loads of manure, worth one dollar 

 the load, were spread to the acre — upon one acre 

 the maniu-e was spread over the grass ground 

 and turned out of sight — upon the three other 

 acres, alter ploughing, it was laid on in piles and 

 spread : a part was then ploughed without dis- 

 tuihing the sward, to the depth of about six 

 inches, and a part was harrowed down only, be- 

 iiLg more exposed to the surfiice. Last year was 

 a dry year — two acres of corn, planted late in 

 the month of May, sufjered much from drought, 

 but yielded all of fifty bushels to the acre — the 

 corn was poorest and suffered most where the 

 manure lay triost upon and nearest the siirliice — 

 two acres were of potatoes including the entire 

 acre where the maimre was ploughed under 

 deepest: the potatoes suffered both from the 

 drought and mildew; hut they turned out full 

 one hundred and fifty bushels to the acre. So 

 here were one hundred bushels of corn worth 

 $100, aird three hundred of potatoes woith .?I00, 

 beiug an advance in value of the first crop of 

 forty dollars over the cost of the manure. The 

 drought lessened the crop at least one third ; so 

 that if I could have added another hundred dol- 

 lars in tlie value of that to the | loduct I would 

 have paid all the expense of manure and labor, 

 and gained as net profit for the year at least fifty 

 dollars. 



This year the same field was ploughed lightly 

 upon the top without disturbing the sods at the 

 bottom : it was put down to herdsgrass and clo- 

 ver with a sowing of oats, being harrowed both 

 before and after sowing. No manure was ap- 

 plied ; six bushels of oats only were sowed upon 

 the four acres. It having rained inrniediately 

 after harrowing, I was obliged to omit passing 

 over the ground with a heavy roller until after 

 the seed had sprimg out of the ground. The 

 oats at first looked very thin upon the ground, 

 but they continued to spread and branch, and 

 their growth was not checked by the abeence of 

 all rain from the lime tliey sprung out of the 

 ground to the evening of the 5th of July, when 

 a copious rain fell. From that time till the 3Ulh 

 August following, very near two months, was 

 a contiimed drought ; but excepting on a small 

 ridge of the intervale, where a yellow soil, in- 

 stead of a black moid<l in the lower part, was 

 turned up at the first ploughing, the growth of 

 no part of the oats seemed to be anested by the 

 drought: there, the straw turned yellow, and did 

 not attain to the due height. 'J'he oats stood up- 

 on a level nearly five feet from the ground — they 

 stood for the most part perfectly erect, although 

 assailed once by a very severe storm of wind. 

 Reaping them before all were fully turned yel- 

 low, they were dried, bound and stooked in the 

 fiehi. Standing more than a week they were 

 brought into the barn, makmg twelve full two 

 horse loads of a Ion weight each. The dry 

 weather was .so excessive that not a few shelled 

 out and w we scattered in the field, as is proved 

 by the thick coming uj) of the new oats. Four 

 of the twelve loads have been thrashed by hand, 

 being, as was judged, hardly one third of the 

 whole ; and from these were taken one hundred 

 and sixty piled half bushels of oats, as they run 

 from the winnowing mill. Measured out in the 



coiiinion way, it was thought that the first thrash- 

 ing would equal ninety bushels, making very 

 near seventy bushels to the acre. The value of 

 the straw, six dollars per ton, is thirty-six dol- 

 lars. There can be little doubt that the crop Was 

 les.sened by the drought. Which was as severe at 

 Concord as it was in the county of York in 

 Maine; and I believe I am indebted to the ex- 

 tended field for the roots passing into the de- 

 cayed sward twelve inches below the surface for 

 at least one half of my crop. 



I was alone in opinion as to the quantity of 

 seed sowed : I had once before raised a very 

 large crop by sowing half the usual seed on laud 

 very deeply ploughed in intervale upon the op- 

 posite side of the river. The man who sowed 

 my field this year, said the highly manured 

 ground would spring up in weeds," and keep 

 them in the advance, so that no oats would ever 

 appear above them. My neighbor, whose farm 

 is along-side of this field, laughed at me outright 

 for putting on the ground less than half his quan- 

 tity of seed. He sowed forty-one bushels where 

 he planted his corn last year, and his then prin- 

 cijial hired man, (now my hired man) tells me 

 my four acres and six bushels will give me more 

 oats than his twelve acres and forty-one bush- 

 els. 



The alluvion upon the Merrimack, and the 

 lands upon the valley of that river generally, are 

 not natmally as fertile as those upon the Kenne- 

 beck, as far as I have seen. The principle of 

 high manining and of deep ploughing, to which 

 should be added ditching and underdraining 

 where the water stands near the surface upon 

 a too adhesive soil, and we may superadd subsoil 

 ploughing in all heavy soils, may be taken as 

 among the methods of sure improvement to be 

 every where resorted to. 



From year to year the particular seasons, and 

 the methods of cidtivation which best and worst 

 succeed, should be noted. From a table of the 

 depth of rain falling in the three last years, kept 

 by Daniel Sewall, Esq. of Kennebnnk, furnished 

 me by a friend, we learn that in the three months 

 ot June, July and August, 1839, fifty-six inches 

 and Sti-lOOths of rain fell ; while in the same 

 three n.oiiilis of 1840, eight inches 33-lOOths, 

 and in 1841, only five inches 58-lOOths fell in 

 the corresponding months. 



The two last seasons have been very dry — es- 

 pecially the season just passed has been one of 

 the most trying ever witnessed in New England. 

 In some fields I have seen the crops entirely cut 

 off, while from a different management in other 

 places, on precisely similar ground, decent crops 

 liave been obtained. Dry land, highly .stimulated 

 with manure either spread or in the hill, has of- 

 ten yielded no increase ; hnl other dry land, well 

 manured and [doughed deep, has given good 

 crops. An amateur farmer, a neighbor of mine, 

 whose land is a dry pine plain, this year manured 

 his ground at the rate of forty loads to the acre 

 — spread and ploughed deep : he planted his In- 

 dian corn deep, and left the surface of the ground 

 entirely flat, making no hill. On some half a 

 dozen rows of this pretty long field, after jjlant- 

 iiig, he passed over a heavy roller. The corn 

 grew up nearly a third larger in bidk of stalk in 

 the rows that were rolled. But the whole crop 

 was a very good one for this year in laiul of that 

 kind : he has husked eighty bushels of ears fi-orn 

 an acre of this corn : tliis he thinks to be only 

 half the crop that would have come in the ab- 

 sence of all drought. 



I have myself this yenr turned imder an inter- 

 vale field of three acres, manured quite as high 

 as that where last year my oat crop was i-aised. 

 The manure was spread upon the green swaid 

 as late as the 27th of May, after the planting of 

 my corn upon lighter land. It was all turned 

 under by the same plough as the last year, and 

 not a particle of the manure was left in sight: 

 the sward was tm-ned over not so deep as the 

 last year by about three inches: the sod of the 

 ground was thicker and heavier. The field is 

 about sixty rods long, and the furrows turned by 

 the Prouty plough were straight as an arrow the 

 whole distance. Nothing was done to it after it 

 was ploughed, save the drawing of chains cross- 

 wise to mark the place of the hills at about three 

 feet distance. The omission to roll down with a 

 heavy roller I consider to be a great mistake: I 

 was in a hurry to plant near the first of June, 

 and did not take time for any preparation either 



of the harrow or roller. I have observed every 

 where a great difference this year in the growth 

 of corn planted previous to the 20lh of Mav, and 

 that planted a week and ten days afterwards. 

 Two acres of this ground wefe planted with po- 

 tatoes, and the other acre with corn. The hills 

 were dropped into the crevice of every fourth 

 furrow, inakuig that the row the whole length. 

 The corn, I supposed, like nuich other corn, 

 would not start at all in consequence of the en 

 tire absence of rain after the time of planting. 

 The most of it did start at length— but it looked 

 diminutive and yellow ; and before the time of 

 first hoeing the cut worms and the drought took 

 full one half, the place of which was then sup- 

 plied with white beans, a part of which oidy 

 came up. By the time of the second hoeing half 

 of the otlier half was cut off", and I continued to 

 plant beans. At the third hoeing of the corn, it 

 being too late for beans, Englisirturnip seed was 

 sowed ; but the continued dry weather killed the 

 greater part of that seed in the ground, the tur- 

 nips in some parts coming up in rows on the 

 lowest crevice of the furrows between the plant- 

 ed rows. The tew stalks of corn left with the 

 roots injured by the worms struggled until almost 

 the last of Jidy as between life and death. 

 Thence it grew up green, and wherever a ]ierfect 

 stalk was left, there was grown the most perfect 

 corn. What with the corn, the beans, the pump- 

 kins, and the turnips, left upon the ground, will 

 give me a better crop than I have seen in many 

 other places. But the two acres of potatoes, 

 being four several kinds, the Kohans, the long 

 reds, the piidi eyes, and a fair round potatoe sent 

 nie by Gen. Mattocks, from Vermont, are the 

 finest crop from exterior appearance, and fiom 

 the examination of a few hills, that I hav; ever 

 seen. Like the oat crop, which v\'a8 upon the 

 same kind of land, the potatoes, after they were 

 fiiirly started, have continued to grow without 

 interruption. When other fields, at no great dis- 

 tance, seemed to be drying up, these kept their 

 color of the deepest green. Up to Satinday 

 morning, Oct. 2d, they have not failed to keen 

 their standing and their color : a neigld)or's field, 

 hardly a hundred yards distant, was struck with 

 rust nearly four weeks previous. In the dryest 

 time of the lattir part of August, digging down 

 to the bottom of tlie hill, I found the decomposi- 

 tion of the manure underneath and the sod above 

 all going on in a moisture which I do not doubt 

 continued the growth of the vine and set the 

 roots for a large crop, while if the sward had 

 been torn up and the manure strewed over the 

 surface, the potatoes would have been poor in- 

 deed. 



My experiments of deep ploughing and turn- 

 ing the manure to the bottom have succeeded 

 equal to my most sanguine expectations. What 

 thej would have done in a very wet season you 

 can judge as well as I can. 



Gentlemen : This I am told is the first annual 

 exhibition of your Society. Particularly was I 

 gratified at the fine appearance of your cattle 

 and swine on yesterday. The County and the 

 Slate will be deeply indebted to those public 

 spirited gentlemen who have introduced the im- 

 proved breeds. Mixing with the good native 

 breeds, the Durham, the Herefordshire, and the 

 Bakewell breeds, will add much to the value of 

 your flocks. The price of fifty dollars for an 

 improved hidl or heili^r calf may be money 

 gained to the farmer when he shall by their 

 means in the course of five or six years double 

 the value of his stock. So when introducing 

 new breeds of swine that v\ill grow as many 

 pounds of pork on two-thirds the feeding, the 

 farmer who midies the change can well :.fford to 

 j)ay an aildilional outlay. Men who have tried 

 the experiment inform me that they would rather 

 pay five dollars for a [lig four weeks old of the 

 improved breed than take one at a gift of some 

 of the native kinds. There may be an immense 

 gain from improving the breed of animals ; and 

 I am glad to see your county of Kennelieck al- 

 ready farther advanced in this improvement limn 

 many of the older comities of Massachusetts. 

 The few towns on the Kennebeck have already 

 more of the improved breeds than all the Stnte 

 of New Hampshire, and perhaps Vermont. Yet 

 our thousand hills annually send many fine na- 

 tive cattle to market ; and the superior f=oil of 

 Vermont enables her to turn out very large flocks 

 of giant cattle. It remains for them to ft)llow in 



