THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



187 



niouiitaiii, for which he gave four anil a half dol- 

 lars ])er acre. In the suiiiiner of 1840 lie cut 

 down and burned the forest upon about sixteen 

 acres of this land, upon twelve acres of which he 

 sowed r^-e in the fall. From these twelve acres he 

 obtained as his first crop 210 bushels, the larger 

 portion of which he sold upon the spot for a dol- 

 lar a bushel cash, equal to the specie — much bet- 

 ter than the paper currency of the suspended 

 banks of Tennessee. He took an accoinit of the 

 whole labor of clearing, fencing, sowing and 

 planting the sixteen acres, about four acres of 

 wliich were put into pasture without a crop of 

 grain; and after paying every expense and the orig- 

 inal price of the land, he obtained for every day's 

 work a bushel of rye, equal to the value of one 

 dollar. Here is the land paid for in the first year's 

 crop fi-orn the forest in this " most barren and 

 sterile piece of earth" upon the most mountain- 

 ous and wildest part. If it be asked what is the 

 value of this mountain land after the first crop is 

 taken off? we answer that it makes the most val- 

 uable pasture ground 'n the country. Upon it 

 are reared some of the fattest beeves that are 

 found in any market. Stephen Sibley, Esq., of 

 Hopkinton, whose fine wooled Saxony and Meri- 

 no sheep have been noticed in former volumes of 

 the Visitor, has for several years kei)t his valua- 

 ble animals upon his excellent pasture upon 

 Keai-sarge at no very great distance from that of 

 Mr. Blake. These mountain pastures are deci- 

 dedly the best for sheep ; and we remember three 

 or four years ago that Mr. Sibley informed us of 

 the great yield of rye he raised on that ground, 

 where he found it a profitable business even 

 where he cleared the land and transported the 

 crop in the straw about filteen miles to his own 

 home. 



"Black chilly rocks — the screeching owl and 

 howling wolf" truly ! New Hampshire, they say, 

 is an excellent state to emig-rate from ! But 

 where do the settlers of any new coimtry do bet- 

 ter than have done the settlers of New Hamp- 

 shire .' On what part of the United States have 

 generations grown up and passed off that have 

 done better than the generations produced upon 

 this "most barren and sterile piece of earth ?" — 

 What son of the Granite State going abroad that 

 does not greet home on his retin-n with pleasure? 

 What territory of equal dimensions in any State 

 can boast that it has produced more means of 

 living from the soil, more talent, more noble spir- 

 its ihan some of the mountain towns of New- 

 Hampshire ? What acres of free and easy soil 

 in Tennessee or any other western State that has 

 yielded more profit from the first year's cultiva- 

 tion than the crop of rye raised this year upon 

 the Kearsarge ? 



To the Editor of the F. M. Visitor, 

 Sir : — Since your visit last year, the fiuniers 

 of this vicinity, at a meeting for ploughing and 

 weighing the draft of ploughs, had the following 

 Essay prepared for the occasion by Mr. Somers. 

 The ideas it contains are generally approved of 

 in this section. If you think it expedient to pub- 

 fish the Essay in the Visitor, which is diffusing 

 much useful information, it is at your service. 

 Respectfully, 



WILLIAM STUART. 

 Barnet, Dec. 1841. 



Essay on Northern Agriculture, 

 Read before the Farmers' Society of Barnet, Ft., 

 Sept. 30, 1841, by Robert Somers. 

 Public exhibitions have a tendency to excite 

 attention, investigation and enterprise. Much has 

 been done in Europe towards the cause of Agri- 

 culture in this way. In Africa, and a large part 

 of Asia, where superstitious ignorance and cruel 

 barbarism prevails, husbandry is perhaps but little 

 thought of But in ancient times, when the Ro- 

 man Empire in all her glory ruled the world, the 

 cultivation of the soil was considered one of the 

 most useful and honorable occupations. Enter- 

 |>rising America is beginning to think the busi- 

 ness useful and honorable as well as the Romans. 

 Our brave and hardy forefiithers, the first .settlers 

 of the land, had sujficient employment to clear 

 off the timber, wild beasts, Indians and foreign 

 foes ; the next generation to clear off the stones, 

 build them into fences, and erect comfortable 

 dwellings. And it now remains tor ns to smooth 

 the surface and renovate the exhausted soil. Ob- 

 servation and ex[ierience, enlightened by science, 

 may be taken lijr a guide. 



Our worthy ladies, the descendants of ox 

 plary grandmothers, can best explain the arts of 

 making fine butter, good cheese, strong cloth, 

 substantial dress, warm bed spreads, and many 

 other useful and ornamental articles. 



To make our farms productive and profitable 

 at a reasonable expense, is the main point in 

 farming. To do this, several things should be 

 known and attended to. In the first |)lace, a se- 

 lection of laad most suitable for the produce in- 

 tended to bo raised, deserves some attention ; and 

 as we are often under the necessity of working 

 such as we can get, although far tioni being best, 

 it becomes necessary to remedy defticts. In the 

 second place, it is expedient to have good tools 

 and team, and take all reasonable measures to 

 have and to use « sufficiency of manure, for it is 

 the main thing to make profitable fiirms. In the 

 third place, we should have good seed, good 

 breeds of stock, and rotation of crops. 



Cool airy situations, liish up on the hills, do 

 best for wheat, warm land for corn, and peaty soil 

 inclining to be damp, for potatoes and the "finer 

 kinds of hay. 



Elements or fundamental principles, and practical 

 inferences. 

 After studying some of the writings of Profes- 

 sors Jackson, Davy, Turner, Liebigaud Comstock, 

 and the publications of Fessenden, Buel, Hill, 

 British Husbandry, &c., the following conclu- 

 sions have been arrived at: 



Plants derive their nourishment from the earth, 

 in the form of liquids by means of lljcir roots, 

 and from the air, in the form of gas by means of 

 ibeir leaves. A considerable proportion of what 

 is derived from the earth or manures, has to be 

 converted into gas before it is available to crops. 

 Carbon, silex, alumina, potash and lime, are 

 found to conqxise the basis, skeleton or frame 

 work of plants, in variable pioportions. In other 

 words, common coal, containing a little sand or 

 flint, clay, lime, and potash, constitute the solid 

 frame-work of vegetables. A certain degree o( 

 heat, air and moisture is essential to vegetation. 

 Carbon forms much the largest share of the solid 

 materials in vegetable and animal substances. 

 Hence its importance. Good fertile loamy soil is 

 composed nearly as follows : 

 For one hundred parts. 



Water, ."5 per cent. 



Vegetable matter containing car- 

 bon in abundance, &c. 10 " 

 Sand or silex, (iS " 

 Clay or alumina, 15 « 

 Carbonate of lime, 2 " 

 Sulphate of lime or gypsum, ] " 

 Phosphate of lime, " ] " 

 Oxide of iron, 1 " 



100 

 It is supposed that tlie soil and air must con- 

 tain all the substances that naturally constitute a 

 part of the plants intended to be raised, or they 

 will be defective. For example; flint or sand in 

 combination with potash gives hardness to the 

 stalks of grass or grain, and lime forms a neres- 

 sary part of good wheat, and plaster is an essen- 



■ 1 ingredient of clover. 



A good wall cannot be made without suitable 

 materials, used in right proporlions. If some of 

 the necessary constituents are lacking, the fab- 



ick will be defective. Crops cannot he made to 



row without carbon more than a wall can be 

 erected without solid substances, such as bricks 

 or stones. And flint, potash and lime, are as es- 

 sential to certain croj)s, ns mortar for the wall of 



stone house. 



To have the materials in right proportions, 

 gives a chance to raise a larger and belter crop 

 without wasting manure or other applications. 

 Suppose an agent for some company furnishes an 

 architect wiili materials to build a village. It will 

 be much the best economy to fiirnish things in 

 right proportions. Hence the necessity for a far- 

 mer to supply his crops with manure, lime, ash- 



I, plaster, or any thing else that appears to be 

 deficient. Good manure contains much carbon, 

 and some share of gypsum, animoula, potash, 

 acids, &c. Hence its' efficacy. 



s different kinds of crops require very differ- 

 ent proportions of the same materials, and the 



lanure and the soil if eood containing nearly a 



ght proportion for airthe different kinds in a 

 body : it follows as a consequence, that in order 

 to prevent great waste of fertilizing mutters, ro- 



tation of crops is indispensably necessary. The 

 surplus and refuse that one crop leaves, another 

 makes use of. - s : ,.,_^ 



Plaster, in other words termed sulphate of lime 

 or gypsum, is composed of lime and sulphuric 

 acid. From the prevalence of limestone and 

 sulphurous rocks and stones, and hard water in a 

 considerable share of Caledonia County, it is to 

 be inferred, that in such parts our soil naturally 

 contains nearly a sufficiency of lime and plaster. 

 This applies particularly to the upland originally 

 covered with hard-wood timber or a mixture of 

 hemlock and hard-wood. But the river plains 

 are probably deficient in both ; that is the high 

 flats. The same remark will apply to any other 

 dry land on which hard-wood timber never 

 thrives. Hence the reason why lime and plaster 

 applied to our hard-wood hills, "is seldom of much 

 use, while on the clay land near Connecticut river 

 it hag a great effect. 



Many fields that have become exhausted by 

 much cropping and little manure, are probably 

 becoming very deficient in potash and carbon. 

 The remedy is to apply common manure, swamp 

 muck and ashes to the dry land ; and after thor- 

 ough draining wet land, to apply lime, ashes, and 

 chip manure, and a year afterwards to apply a 

 heavy coat of stable manure, or else turn the land 

 into pasture. 



Pine, hemlock and spruce land is apt to be de- 

 ficient in free potash. Wet land, although con- 

 taining considerable potash, is also said to con- 

 tain acidity, so that the potash is thereby render- 

 ed useless until freed from acids, either by drain- 

 ing, burning, applications of lime, or good chip 

 manure, which last substance generally contains 

 considerable alkali, and by Its open texture ad- 

 mits the air, which also contains an alkali (am- 

 monia.) Admitting the air to the soil by means 

 of the chips, also promotes decomposition. The 

 prevalence of acidity in wet land, accounts for 

 the growth of hemlock or other timber which 

 affords veiy little potash when reduced to ashes. 



Burning dissipates carbonic acid, and leaves 

 the potash ; hence it slioiiJd be used as a remedy 

 only in cases where there is much vegetable mat- 

 ter present, so as to leave carbon enoiish for the 

 benefit of crops after reducing the acids so that 

 they will not prevent the potash from combining 

 with earth. On a thin .soil, however, burning 

 would do permanent injury after the first crops 

 by exhausting too much carbon. 



Plants cannot derive benefit from manure fas- 

 ter than it is decomposed, because they cannot 

 .select such parts as they need until the food is 

 free or uncomliined with things not wanted ; and 

 further, new combinations cannot be formed un- 

 til old ones are broken np on account of an al- 

 teration in the proportion of things in most 

 cases. 



The nutriment has to he completely dissolved 

 by water or converted into gas, and a considera- 

 ble part has to be converted into gas whether it 

 is dissolved or not, before it can he of any ser- 

 vice to the crops. As the leaves of plants seem 

 to be the appropriate organs for collecting one or 

 more of the most important materials, (carbon,) it 

 must, ill order to come within their reach, he con- 

 verted to the serial form. To convert manure 

 into gas, that is to decompose it, requires the pre- 

 sence of heat, air and moisture. Hence the pro- 

 priety of loosening hard compact soil, to let the 

 air as well as the roots [lenetrate into it, and per- 

 mit the carbon gas as it is loinnil, to rise, so that 

 the growing crop can obtain a .supply. But very 

 porous soil permits the gas to form and rise fas- 

 ter than the leaves cm catch it, if manured high- 

 ly, and also permits the escape of liquids down- 

 wards below the reach of the roots. Hence the 

 necessity for making open porous soil closer by 

 applying clay or using a heavy roller. 



From the fact that yoil should be in a medium 

 state, neither too close nor loo open, it follows 

 that much of our mouin;: huul \\ ill be injured by 

 letting cattle on to it in the sprinir. If the soil i"s 

 natmally soli.l, the treading of ca'ttle will make it 

 too much .so. But on sonio very light soils it 

 might be an advantage. It is also inferred that 

 heavy compact land should be ploughed when 

 dry, just before putting the seed into the ground, 

 and light mellow dry soil would do best to be 

 ploughed in the fiill. 



The compact earth requires to be often stirred 

 to keep it sufficiently porous. Much of this 

 county is of that desciiptioii. Top dreseiiigs of 



