170 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



ill. The same paper says there are large quanti- 

 ties of wheat and corn, and an immense number 

 of hogs yet to be slaughtered and brought 

 market; "our only cry (continues the Gazette) 

 is, give us a' harbor, and we will astonish 

 East with thi& immense amount of produce ship- 

 ped from Michigan city." 



So great are the facilities of communication 

 that the whole price of transporting a barrel of 

 flour from Chicago or Michigan city to Boston 

 will not much exceed, in the time of open lake 

 navigation, a dollar and a half— a price less than 

 the expense of the same bulk and weight twenty- 

 five years ago from any part of Vermont to 

 Boston. 



Cutting Fodder. 

 Fodder is scarce and high in many part 

 the country. This should lead to every 

 means of saving it. One great means of econo- 

 my is the cutting of fodder. By cutting straw, 

 butt stalks, and other kinds of coarse fodder, 

 which is frequently v/asted, and mixing them 

 with good hay, or roots, or with small quantitys 

 of meal, bran, or oats, these coarse articles will 

 be eaten up clean, and they contain a good shaa-i 

 of nurrinient, irnil make a great saving of fodder 



Nutricious fodder is often rejected by animala 

 an account of its harilness or coarseness, when 

 with little time in the preparation, it might be 

 made acceptable, and prove a valuable food : many 

 kinds of coarse fodder woidd be readily eaten by 

 stock, if it was merely cut fine and sprinkled 

 with salt water. 



We have seen accounts of cattle being kept in 

 fine condition on coarse cheap fodder, cut and 

 mixed with bran, shorts, meal or roots, and the 

 expense of keeping has been but little more than 

 half as much as keeping on fine hay, while the 

 condition of the animals was equally as good. 

 We have had statements of this kind from re- 

 spectable men, who have made the experiments. 



So important are the advantages of cutting 

 fodder that every person who keeps animals 

 should have a machine for this purpose. They 

 may be had at various prices— from five or six 

 poliars to twenty or thirty, according to the 

 Bmount of fodder to be cut, and a person's ability 

 to pay. Machines may be had for eight or ten 

 dollars that will answer a good purpose for cut- 

 tin" fodder for ai large stock. — Cole's Farmers 

 Journal. 



Joseph Robinson, Esq. of Concord kept a pair 

 of horses, working them nearly every day, in 

 better condition through the last winter th^ii 

 many horses that did much less work which 

 were fed -with hay and grain, by feeding them 

 entirely on oat straw, giving both horses a peck 

 of meal ground from the uushelled ears of corn, 

 embracing both kernel and cob. The amount of 

 corn equalled little more than two quarts a day 

 each. If the value of the straw had been equal 

 to half the same weight of hay, the keeping of 

 these horses must have cost much less than if 

 kept in the common way. 



Much depends, in the successful keeping of 

 cattle, horses, sheep and swine, on the manner 

 of feeding. Regularity of feeding— at precise 

 hours of the day and the same number of times 

 regularity of water, salting, tying up and let- 

 ting out, will contribute essentially to the health 

 anil growth of all domestic animals, as well 

 beasts as fowls. 



Cultivation of Forest Lands. 



East Hartfoud, Oct. 8th, 18-11. 

 Mr. Charles ./J. Goodrich, President of the Hartford 

 County Agricultural Society. 



Dear Sir— Agi-eeable to your request, I now 

 give a statement of my experiment in planting 

 Walnuts or Hickory Nuts and Chesnuts. 



About the middle of April 1839, my brother sent 

 me a half a peck of Chesnuts which had been 

 kept through the winter by being placed in a 

 sand bill, when in a green state mixed up with 

 sand. The nuts had begun to sprout when they 

 were sent to ine. 1 planted them in a row in my 

 field, near the fence, in the same manner I would 

 a row of peas, about the same depth, placing a 

 little mellow manure in the bottom of the drills 

 which was covered with earth before the nuts 

 were sown. In a few weeks they came up well, 

 as well as 



and to appearance every nut came , ,^ . . ^ , . . , , 



so many kernels of good seed corn. I harrowed ' veyed to Quincy by one ol his nwghhors, who 



the row with a lioise liarrow, and hoed them as I 

 would a row of peas, two or three times. Their 

 cultivation since the first year, has been neglected. 

 The young trees have grown well notwithstand- 

 ing the neglect in their cultivation. I think, how- 

 ever, that they should have been ploughed with 

 a horse plough or cultivator, and they would have 

 grown enough faster to have paid for the labor. 

 I think the ground should be ploughed about the 

 middle of April, oral the season for sowing oats 

 and peas, and if tlie land is poor, I would place 

 mellow iriaiiure, swamp muck, or pond mud, in 

 the bottom of the row. 



The rows for planting the nuts should be placed 

 about 6 feet apart, which would admit a row of 

 beans or potatoes between them, and the distance 

 in the rows I would have from 'i to 3 feet. The 

 nuts or acorns should be placed in earth in the 

 tall of the year, when in a green state, as drying 

 kills their vitality, as it does the seed of the stone 

 fruit such as peaches, plums, &c. 



When the ground is prepared for the young 

 forest, the nuts or acorns should he taken from 

 their place of deposit, and sown immediately, 

 when the young trees are up 2 or 3 inches they 

 should be harrowed and hoed, and then harrow- 

 ed and hoed 2 or 3 times in the course of the 

 first season ; in subsequent years the horse plough 

 or cultivator should be used between the rows. 

 I think they should be cultivated 4 or 5 years, and* 

 then cut down, which would cause tlie young 

 roots, to throw up an additional number of 

 sprouts which would grow straight, as chesnuts 

 trees grow crooked when they first come from 

 the seed. 1 do not know at what time the balls 

 from pine trees should be gsilhered for planting, 

 but presume the fiill is the riglit time ; a few ex- 

 periments will tell. The seeds of white ash, ma-' 

 pie, elm, &c. should be gathered and sown at the 

 time when they fall from the trees in the summer 

 season. Nuts or acorns may be sown in the fall, 

 but a large part of them will be destroyed by 

 squirrels and other vermin before they come up. 

 The ground also becomes hard and full of weeds, 

 which is a serious objection to planting in the 

 fall, 



The seeds of forest trees may be sown broad 

 cast, but the young forest would be much retard 

 ed in its growtli for want of cultivation. 



After being cultivated 4 or 5 years, it would 

 require no other care except excluding cattle for 

 a tow of the first years after the chesnut trees are 

 cut down. The want of wood and timber, espc 

 ciallv chesnut timber, is seriously felt in many of 

 oiN- tciwiis. How 'many who have more Ian" 

 tliaii they can cultivate well, woidd do well to put 

 |)art of their farms into young forests. One y 

 ago, I gave my little boy (i years old, 10 green 

 siiag-bark walnuts, directing hiin to plant them 

 in a corner of the garden, and for safety against 

 accidents, to place a flat stone over them during 

 the winter and remove it in the spring. The ten 

 nuts all came up well, and are now growing on a 

 spot of ground the size of a man's hand. 



I would ask if one has friends, or owns land in 

 one of the Western States, where timber is 

 scarce, would he not do well to forward a barrel 

 or box of walnuts, chesnuts, butternuts, beach- 

 nuts, pine balls and acorns, together with the 

 best peach, pluin, and apricot stones, packed in 

 dirt, before the close of inland navigation this fall, 

 that not only the seeds of our best forest and 

 garden trees, but even the soil of New England 

 may be mingled with the extensive Prairies of 

 the West. 



Had American's noble adopted son, the immor- 

 tal Lafayette, been aware of these facts, would he 

 not have caused the seeds of our forests to have 

 mingled with the hogshead of earth he carried 

 borne from America, to form a bed for his last 

 resiing place, that while his bones were reposing 

 in the soil of his adopted country, they might 

 have been shaded by the trees of her stately 

 fbi-ests, emblematical of the greenness of grati- 

 tude which the American people will ever cher- 

 ish towards the memory of their illustrious friend 

 and eminent benefactor? 



I am informed that a gentleman residing in 

 Quincy, Illinois, has been at great expense to in- 

 troduce the most valuable kinds of fruit and for- 

 est trees into that section of country with good 

 success, and in doing so, had ordered a box of 

 , in the fall of the year, from a neigh- 

 boring State, packed in sand. The hox was con- 



was very negligent of his charge, and placed the 

 box in his cellar, which remained there all win- 

 ter, and the first incident that reminded him of 

 his neglect was, that he noticed the box had burst 

 open by the sprouting of the nuts within, which 

 were more vigilant than their conductor. He 

 went immediately to the gentleman lor whom he 

 had brought them, and acquainted him with the 

 fact. The gentleman was pleased to learn that 

 his chesnuts had come, and were then in a fair 

 way to thrive. He then planted them without 

 delay in the margin of his garden, where my in- 

 formant saw them growing luxuriantly. If we 

 will follow the example of the gentleman of Illi- 

 nois, I have no doubt but that many valuable new 

 kinds of fruit and forest trees may be introduced 

 and thrive in our soil and climate. I would pro- 

 pose, sir, that liberal premiums be now offered 

 for the best acre, or fraction of an acre, of forest 

 trees of not one year's growth, raised from the 

 seed. I offer it now, sir, that the competitors 

 may provide themselves with seeds in season for 

 the next year's planting, and possibly our e.xam- 

 ple may be followed by other agricultural socie- 

 ties, which may be thepreliminary steps towards 

 furnishing our road sides with pleasant shades, 

 and clothing our barren hills and sand plaia.s 

 with young vigorous forests, which will banish all 

 apprehensions of a future want of wood and tim- 

 ber in many of our towns. In Prussia it is said 

 that the laws compel men to set out shade trees 

 by the road side. Can we not by offering premi- 

 ums, effect the same object in a less objectioim- 

 able way than asking for a law upon the subject. 



I am told, that a Mr. Zephaniah Allen of East 

 Windsor, in this county, planted an acre of ches- 

 nuts, after he was forty years old, and that he cut 

 two good crops of wooii and timber from the 

 land during his life time. I am assured by a 

 neighbor of Mr. Allen, ((an old gentleman) that 

 Mr. A. cut forty two sticks of timber from the 

 land wJiich he "planted, of which he made shing- 

 les. It must be remarked, however, that the life 

 of Mr. A. was unusually protracted, as he lived 

 to be 85 years old. If we begin forests now, if 

 •we do not live to reap the harvest, the crop may 

 prove a rich inheritance to our posterity. 

 Respectfully yours, 

 George Olmstead. 



Since the above was written. Col. E. W. Bull, 

 of Hartford, presented to the Hartford County Ag- 

 ricultural Society, chesnuts which he gathered 

 from a tree he raised from seed, planted by him- 

 self only nine years ago. — Courant. 



Proposition for a National Board of Agricul- 



^'est Tisbury, Ms., Oct. 31, 1841. 



Governor Hill — Dear Sir: — I have long 

 thought, and many times have so expressed my- 

 self, that we shall never place our Agriculture in 

 the enviable position it occupies as a pursuit in 

 other countries, till we shall have established a 

 National Society, which, free to gather and dis- 

 pense eleemosynary endowments, shall form the 

 nucleus of such an institution as exists in most of 

 the European nations to aid and advance the 

 great primeval employment of man. Opposed 

 to profuse expenditure, whether in private life or 

 in public economy, I would nevertheless become 

 a second Peter le Hermit with scrip and sandal to 

 procure a grant from the National Treasm-y of 

 half a million for this purpose. 



I would establish in the city of Washington a 

 National Board of Agriculture whereof the Pres- 

 ident of the United States, for the time being, 

 should be President. The Heads of Department, 

 Vice President of the United States, Speaker of 

 the House, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 

 and Governors of Slates, should be official mem- 

 bers. There should be presiding officers pro 

 tern, appointed, as it might be inconvenient for 

 the President to attend every meeting. The 

 British Board, and most of the continental bodies 

 answering thereto, meet every week : this is the 

 general meeting when members are balloted for: 

 the Committees also meet every week, but not 



the same evening. My object in naming offi- 



I members, is to procure, us it were, a stamp 

 of fashion on the institution — to break up that 

 most miserable, that most contemptible prejudice 

 which assigns priority of rank to trade, and con- 

 fers a patent of precedence upon the " liberal 

 professions" — to the white hand over the " huge 

 paw." I wish to see agriculture elevated — not in 



