January, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR, 



ami much protluce in proportion to the size of 

 the tann. 



For very poor land, plough only one year, ex- 

 cepting where planted, mow two years, and pas- 

 tm-e three or four. This is to improve the soil 

 and keep it free from weeds. 



Rocky land, want of fences, and other causes, 

 often prevent perfection in any system. 



The decoini'iosing sward when turned down 

 has a tendency to increase feniliiy, by tlie vigor 

 it imparts to succeeding crops, enahiing them to 

 extend roots and branches and collect additional 

 matter from earth and air. When the land is 

 " bound out," as farmers call it, that is, when the 

 turf is almost exclusively filled with the roots 

 of inferior kinds of grass and other diminutive 

 herbage, it is r|nitc an advantage to destroy them 

 by ploughing down, and let the superior sorts of 

 produce occupy their place. Some good farmers 

 improve rough rocky pasture land by ploughing 

 and harrowing in the most thorough manner 

 practicable ; then sowing oats or rye and grass 

 seed on the inverted turtj and turn the same into 

 jjasture as soon as the grain is large enough to 

 make good feed. 



Rotations sliould be conducted in such a man- 

 ner as to have the sward turned over as soon as 

 the grass begins to fail, either in mowing or pas- 

 ture, as the case may 'be, and if the laud is too 

 poor to admit of taking off a crop as often as it 

 is necessary to turn over the sward, then it is 

 advisable either to plough down a green crop, 

 or let cattle and sheep eat it down, as before 

 mentioned, in the case of rocky pasture. Sy 

 such means, profitable fertility is increased. 



For the Monthly Visitor. 



All Earthly things are poor, Avlthout a hope 



ill Heaven. 



We strive for honor — how we rise ? 

 We almost seem to tread the skies 



Above the storm ! 

 We turn, and hcark'ning only hoar 



Wealth only gives us this to know. 

 That gain is grief, and wealth is woe — 



We hurry ou, 

 Like shadows' se^-n by meteor's light, 

 That trembling rush beyond the sight 



And all is lone ! 



The rosy cheek — the rolling ej'e — 



" And the blithe step that roUeth by"— 



Must fade — must stay ! 

 Features and form? however fair ; 

 How beauteous, or however rare, 



Soon must decay ! 



'Tis so with all that liveth here ; 

 .\mbition is a life of fear, 



And wealth the same ; 

 All lustful pleasure is a snare, 

 How pleasant, or however rare, 



And ends in E.hame ! 

 " Oh then how poor, and little worth," 

 Are all the pleasures of the earth ? 



How soon they lie ! 

 Tliey bloom— they fade— they rise— they fall- 

 And " only," whother great or small, 



The 



i fron 



• slumbers break ! 

 " Arouse our senses, and awake," 



And look to Heaven! 

 Rise from the dark, dark clouds iif earth, 

 And claim our own celestial birth 



That God iias given ! 



H. F. 



From the American Farmer. 

 ,Comp.ost Manures. 

 In Europe t'he attention of intelligent agriciil- 

 tuiists for centuries has been directed to the 

 increase of manures by the formation of com- 

 posts. Without this attention, it is evident that 



the soil would have become so much deteriora- 

 ted as to have lost tlie power of profitable pro- 

 duction, and presented long ero tliis such specta- 

 cles of desolation as are to be found in too many 

 of the old states of this Union, at the present 

 day, where those who were born on spots ren- 

 dered holy by every recollection dear to man, 

 have been compelled to break up the associations 

 of their infancy, and tear themselves from the 

 friends of their manhood, to seek new homes in 

 the far west. And why ? Because, by being 

 inattentive to their duties, and neglecting to im- 

 prove their estates by an enlightened system of 

 culture ; by turning a deaf ear to the teachings 

 of nature, and omitting to return to the earth an 

 equivalent for the nutriment it had given out, in 

 the maturing of its crops, they had quietly stood 

 by and seen the soil so exhausted that it would 

 no longer yield a suijport. In Emope, and par- 

 ticularly England and Belgium, matters have 

 been managed far differently. There the increase 

 of manures by all possible methods, forms an 

 essential branch of every farmer's business. It 

 is a part of his duty to devise such a system — 

 and when devised to carry it out— as will insure 

 to him the greatest quantity of manure. Nor 

 does he stop there ; when accumulated, he pro- 

 tects it from injury and waste. The European 

 farmer reasons with himself thus — he knows 

 that no farm can support a suflScient number of 

 cattle to furnish a complete supply of manure 

 for the ground subjected annually to the plough, 

 and therefore that it is necessary for him to make 

 up the deficiency from other sources, and these 

 he finds in various materials but little appreciated 

 or used with us. His compost heap is a little of 

 every thing on his farm, or within the power of 

 his procurement, that can be converted into the 

 food of plants. By this careful husbanding of 

 means — this watchful and unceasing attention to 

 the wants of his soil, and by pursuing a judi- 

 cious rotation of crops, he is not only able to 

 prevent his land from retrograding, but actually 

 advances its fertility. 



We have thus briefly sketched what has been 

 done in Europe, and it shall be our task now to 

 say what may be done here. Let no American 

 fartner, who has woodland, say he is not able to 

 manure his land — that he cannot make enough 

 on his farm to manure his corn crop, potatoes, 

 tm-nips, &c. for the will is all that is wanting to 

 render the thing not only practicable but easy of 

 attainment. If we are asked how this is to be 

 accomplished, we answer, by the formation of 

 compost heaps. But then we are met with the 

 declaration by some one who is unwilling to de- 

 part from the good old usages of his grandsire, 

 that he cannot spare the hand ; time is too pre- 

 cious : to such we would say, that this objection 

 is not fotnided in reason, as more profit would 

 arise from the employment of a man, a cart, and 

 a span of horses, or yoke of oxen, in the collec- 

 tion of materials for composts, than from that of 

 any six otherwise occupied on the farm. But 

 then this would be time lost, he rejoins. What ! 

 how can that time be said to be lost, which is 

 devoted one year to the accumulation of manures, 

 which will enable you to double your crops with 

 the same force the next one ? So far from its 

 being time wasted, it is time employed above all 

 others in the way most lucrative. A faithful 

 hand with a team, unless the woodlands were 

 very far indeed from the cultivated portioti of 

 the farm, could collect and haul from five to ten 

 loads of mould, leaves and earth a day, which, 

 by being properly composted with the stable'and 

 barn manures, and the soap-suds and slops of 

 the house, would accumulate, in the course of 

 the year, to such extent as to enable all the 

 ploughed land requiring it to be manured annu- 

 ally. To these resources, which are to be found 

 on every farm, the judicious farmer will add ei- 

 ther lime or ashes, or both, if he has the pecun- 

 iary ability. At all events, one of the ingredients 

 of his compost heaps should be lime, in some of 

 its forms. If unslaclsed lime, one bushel to twenty 

 of the other materials would be enough, if prop- 

 erly distributed in the heap, to promote that 

 action deemed essential to success in the forma- 

 tion of composts. 



Figures, we are told, will not lie, and that facts 

 are stubborn things ; now let us see how they 

 will tell in this business of manure making. 

 Suppose a man and an ox-cart should be em- 

 ployed 250 days in the year, aud allowing 50 



cents per day for the man, and as much for oxen, 

 it would be in that time $350 ; at 5 loads a day, 

 in the jieriod named, 1250 loads could be accu- 

 mulated, each of which would cost at the rate of 

 20 cents. Surely no farmer will say that this 

 would be getting manure too high, or paying for 

 the whistle too dearly ; for with this number of 

 loads, and a little extra expense for lirae, or other 

 calcareous materials, he would be able to give to 

 each of ()2i acres of land, 20 double horse-cart 

 loads of manure more than he could otherwise 

 have done ; or, if he chose to try the experiment, 

 of making one acre produce as much us two, he 

 may give 40 loads to each to 31i acres, and thus 

 save himself the difference in the price of labor 

 the ensuing year. It must be obvious we think 

 to all calculating minds that money expended in 

 the accumulation of manures, is so much money 

 put out at cotnpound interest, and we will here 

 hazard an opinion that no gentleman who may 

 make the experiment onfe year, if he give it a 

 fair and unbiassed trial, will ever omit to do so 

 thereafter, and being impressed with this belief, 

 we most earnestly call upon one and all to make 

 the necessary arrangements at once, to avail 

 themselves of its benefits^ 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 Cut Feed. 



Mr. Editor: — The scarcity and consequent 

 high price of good hay render it an object of im- 

 portance with tlie farmer to make the best jiossi- 

 ble disposition of his inferior kinds of fodder ; 

 in this endeavor he will find material assistance 

 in the use of cut feed. Although this kind of 

 feed has been in use some time, there are few 

 that fully appreciate its value. 



Some, having commenced its nse with an in- 

 complete apparatus for its preparation, having 

 fed it out irregularly and in too large quantities, 

 after a few trials have laid it aside as unprofitaiile 

 if not impracticable ; others, having a knowledge 

 of the result of these ill-conducted experiments, 

 have come to like conclusions. 



The main design of this article is to point out 

 those causes on which success in the use of this 

 kind of food depends. 



Three things are essential to success in the 

 use of cut feed ; complete apparatus, good prep- 

 aration and regularity in the time of giving, and 

 in the quantity given. 



For a {evf animals, to have a complete appara- 

 tus, it is not necessary to have an expensive one : 

 — a common knife straw cutter, a tub, a watering 

 pot, a light manure fork and a box to receive the 

 food out of which the animal is to eat, are all the 

 iirticles requisite to constitute this apparatus. 

 Such has been the simple one I have used the 

 last seven years hi feeding one, and sometimes 

 two horses, — the aggregate cost of which did not 

 exceed six dollars. 



For a large number of animals a more expen- 

 sive cutter and a larger receiver become neces- 

 sary. Tubs may be obtained from the common 

 molasses hogshead by sawing the same in two 

 at the bunghole. The apparatus in readiness, 

 the straw is to be finely cut and evenly placed in 

 the tub : it is then to be slightly wet in order to 

 cause an adhesion of the meal to the straw, so as 

 to prevent the former from settling to- the bottom 

 of the tub.^ The meal is next to be equally scat- 

 tered over the surface ; and the process cotnplet- 

 ed by mixfng the ingredients with the fork, add- 

 ing at different times as much water as is neces- 

 sary to render the mixture complete. In cold 

 weather hot water should be used. A box three 

 feet in length, two in breadth, nine or ten inches 

 in height and firmly held together by straps of 

 hoop iron fastened around the corners and across 

 the bottom, should be placed before and slightly 

 inclining towards each animal ; into this the pre- 

 pared food is turned. The inclination of the bo.^c 

 towards the animal is to enable him the more 

 easily to secure the liquid portion of the prepa- 

 ration. 



Animals should bn fed regularly : attention to 

 this rule is essential to their health and thrift. 

 Horses require feeding but three times each day 

 on short feed with an additional foddering of 

 good hay at night three times during each week. 

 Neat stock require in addition long feed twice 

 each day, once in the morning and once at night. 



The precise quantity necessary for each animal 

 can be ascertained only by feeding ; it is better 

 to err in not giving enough than in giving too 



