THE FARMER'S MONTLY VISITOR. 



January, 1842. 



much. If ail animal is overfed lio becomes dain- 

 ty, eats lazily and renders liis mess foul by long 

 breathing over it ; one so kept will certainly be- 

 come unhealthy and grow poor. 



Few animals at first will eat cut feed with rel- 

 ish. An animal unaccustomed to. its use should 

 be fed with n small quantity ; this should consist 

 of good hny finely cut, and having a large pro- 

 portion of"meal. He should not be again fed 

 until he has eaten up cleanly his first allowance. 



The experimentalist must not feel discouraged 

 if the animal, notwithstanding the particular pains 

 he has taken to render his food palatable, should 

 allow it to remain twenty-four or thirty-six hours 

 before him untasted ; hunger at last will compel 

 him to eat 



When he gets so as to eat his mess readily, 

 straw may be mixed with the hay and its propor- 

 tion gradually increased. 



Salt should be added to one of the messes as 

 often as every other day. A few years smce I 

 kept one horse on long feed exclusively duriu] 

 the whole year: and also an account of the hay 

 and grain consumed and the bedding used by 

 him during this period. The expenses of his 

 keeping amounted to one hundred and fifteen 

 dollars. The average price of hay during that 

 year wa.s thirteen dollars.; of corn oire dollar, 

 and of oats fifty cents. The horse worked every 

 day. 



Since then I kept un account for six months of 

 the expenses of a horse kept on cut feeil, and 

 working every day as the former ; the cost o 

 thus keeping a horse one year, according to the 

 eslimat'? made from my account, woidd be sc 

 ty-five dollars. Hay, when this experiment wag 

 made, was one dollar less in the ton ; the prices 

 of corn and oats were the same. 



Horses kept in this way and used but little 

 he kept for a much less sum ; — suy from §45 to 

 $f)0 per annum. 



It may be of some interest to your readers to 

 Jinow the relative proportion of articles requisite 

 to keep a horse on cut feed one year; the follow- 

 ing is my estimate : 



1 ton English, a $12, §12 



24 tons Oat, Wheat, or Rye 



straw, a §4, 10 



53 bushels corn, a $1,00, or 



106 bushels oats, a 50, 53 



I think horses thrive better on meal made from 

 corn and oats in the proportion of three parts by 

 measure of the corn to two parts of oats, than 

 on meal made from either grain singly. 



Before closing this article I would just say to 

 those who object to this kind of feed on account 

 of the extra labor required, that they expend 

 double the amount of labor in preparing food for 

 their swine that is requisite to prepare cut feed 

 for the same number of horses or neat cattle. 

 CHARLES A. SAVORY. 



Contoocookvillc, January 10, 1841. 



Farming iu Massachusetts. 



From Mr. Caiman's Fourth Report on (he .Igricul- 



ture of Massachusetts. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



Though ill a great degree in its general aspect 

 unpromising, yet no county in the State is more 

 distinguished for its agricultural improvements 

 than Middlesex. It exhibits many beautiful ex- 

 amples of the triumph of labor and art over na- 

 ture ; iu which valleys have been filled, rough 

 places smoothed, and the desert made to bloom. 

 All these arc the achievements of an improved 

 husbandry, and exhibit the most ample compen- 

 satory returns of labor directed by skill and cap- 

 ital expended with sound discretion. I do not 

 know where i should in preference take a farmer, 

 to show him what may be done under discourag- 

 ing circumstances, and therefore what he may 

 accomplish in improving his own husbandry. 



1. In the district of VVest Cambridge, and to 

 the west of several ponds which adorn this beau- 

 tiful region, there is a tract of country exhibiting 

 B8 much labor, skill and success in "the cultiva- 

 tion, and as much improvement, as are to be 

 found in New England. It is principally llie 

 residence of many market-gardeners, who sup|>ly 

 the city with fruit and early vegetables. In these 

 sheltered situations, they are successful almost 

 Weyond competition in bringing forward their 

 >t!getubl<?3 i.TjrIy in tiro sffftSoii. and i-eap a rich ' 



harvest from their ei.terprise. Much ot th 

 country had at one time little to recouunfend i 

 being regarded as a thin and sterile soil ; but tl 

 estimation in which it is now held — land which 

 ten years since was i>urcliased for 37 dollars j 

 acre being now worth 300 dollars — is proof ol 

 the improvement which it has undergone. The 

 extensive hog-establishment of Mr. Pierce, by its 

 abimdant supply of manure, has materially as 

 sisted its improvement. But very great ijuprove 

 ments have been made here in ditching and 

 draining wet meadows, by which, within a c 

 paralively sliQrt time, lands which scarcely pro- 

 duced any thing, or else an aquatic herbage wliici 

 was worth little but as litter, now bear as tin- 

 crops of the best of hay as the rake ever gather 

 ed. These meadows are lut peat meadows, but 

 rather a rich deposit of mud. The lands I 

 been thoroughly drained by ditches and st 

 times laid into beds; a crop of potatoes well 

 manured taken from them, and then laid di 

 to grass. After this process they soon become 

 capable of j)roducing almost any crop. 



2. A very extensive improvement is now in 

 progress in the eastern part of this district, 

 what is called the Fresh Pond meadows, wh 

 promises great results. An extensive tract ol 

 land lying to the northward and eastward iit 

 Fresh Pond, partly iu Cambridge and partly i 

 West Cambridge, embracing, as one of the con 

 missioners informed me, not less than five hui 

 dred acres, formerly so saturated and flooded 

 with water as to be in many places scarce! 

 passable, is now likely to be brought into a state 

 of productive cultivation ; and when once 

 claimed and reduced, cannot be estimated at I 

 than two hundred dollars per acre. If well cul- 

 tivated it will pay the interest of four huiu' 

 The outlet is at the North into Medford river, 

 where the influx of the tide forces back the wa 

 tcr upon these meadows. The first object was 

 to exclude the tide, and then cut ditches into 

 which the surfiice water might be led, and cut 

 off the springs on the margin of the meadow at 

 the foot of the hills and turn the water from 

 ihcin into the ditches. 



The petition to iho courts by who:?3 authority 

 this improvement has been carried on, desired 

 " that the tides from the meadows during a cer- 

 tain portion of the season, should be sliut out ; 

 and that there should be constructed at the joint 

 expense of the proprieloi-s such principal ditchc 

 through the meadows as would enable the indi- 

 vidual owners to drain their meadows so as 

 be able to introduce the cultivated grasses in all, 

 and perhaps plough a large jiart of it." Tl 

 commissioners having examined the meadows, 

 decided under commission to put in a self-acting 

 gate, which would allow the water accumulating 

 in these meadows to run off during the recession 

 of Ihc tide, and which would prevent the reflux 

 at the approach of high water. They also de- 

 cided to straighten, widen and deepen the outlets 

 of Fresh Pond and Spy Pond, and to open ditch- 

 es into those parts of the meadows remote from 

 these outlets, so that each proprietor would have 

 the means of draining his own land without tres- 

 passing upon his neighbor. These principal 

 water-courses were made under the immediate 

 superintendence of one of the commissioners, 

 who is a, farmer and lives near the meadows. 

 Some of ijie principal proprietors followed out 

 the srihject pretty thoroughly, by culling oft' the 

 springs upon the margin, and opening such cross 

 ditches as were necessary to produce the desired 

 result. This was done the same season that the 

 principal ditches were excavated under the com- 

 missioners. Should this experiment succeed ac- 

 cording to its early promise, it will be one of the 

 finest improvements ever attempted in this part 

 of the country; and convert, under the skilfid 

 cultivators who reside near it, the whole of this 

 hitherto unsightly region into productive gardens 

 and verdant and waving meadows. 



3, The most remarkable improvements in the 

 county have consisted in the redemption of peat 

 hogs and their conversion from sunken quag- 

 mires into most productive arable and grass lands. 

 Such improvements are to be found all over the 

 county, and are to be seen to great advantage in 

 Leximston, Groton, Framingham, Concord, and 

 many other towns. Large tracts of peat bog yet 

 remain in the county to be redeemed. The gen- 

 eral method has been to open sufficient drains 

 for the removal of tlie water er.tirely. or else to 



reduce it so' that it may not at anytime stand 

 higher in the ditches than within eighteen inches 

 of the surface. It is indispensable that the water 

 should be removed, and if entirely, undoubtedly 

 the better. The next step has generally been to 

 pare the surface and burn the sward and hassocks 

 in small heaps, and spread the ashes over the 

 ground. Some persons then have immediately 

 sowntheh- grass seed in abundance and have 

 gathered good croii?. Others, as soon as it has 

 been thus prepared, have manured it pleiitifiilly 

 with a compost manure mixed wiih a large pro- 

 portion of loam ; and others have given it a good 

 dressing of mould or of sand. Others, after 

 draining the meadows, have applied a to))-dress- 

 ing of three or five inches of coarse gravel di- 

 rectly upon the sward; and then have sowed 

 theii' grass seed with a good coating of maiuire. 

 Sometimes, as in Groton, the land after being 

 pared and burnt has been broken up by a plough, 

 and after being exposed in this state to a winter's 

 frost has been planted with potatoes manured in 

 the hill, and then laid down to grass. It is not 

 easy, without a personal knowledge of the pre- 

 mises, to point out the best mode to be always 

 adopted. The covering of the meadow with a 

 thick coating of gravel without removing the 

 sward is pretty generally condemned, as in a 

 short time the coarse grasses make their appear- 

 ance again. The a|>plication of coarse sand to a 

 certain extent is a[>proved, as it serves to divide 

 the vegetable matter and to consolidate the mead- 

 ow so as to make it passable with teams. The 

 paring and burning of the turf is always an ai 

 visable process unless i', be in a season of droiigl 

 when the great body of peat might take fire and 

 burn large and deep holes in various parts. The 

 application of mould and compost manure to 

 almost any extent is always beneficiid, and grass 

 seed shoidd be sowed very abundantly in order 

 that the hay may not be too coarse, and that a 

 thick and strong sward may be fornuid. The 

 taking of a cultivated crop at first is not so de- 

 sirable as to get the meadow as soon as possible 

 into English hay, and after two or three crops it 

 will become consoldated, and may then be plough- 

 ed and cultivated to advantage. In redeeming 

 meadow land of this description, I have myselt 

 found an advantage in making a large open ditch 

 through the centre of the meadow, and then cut- 

 ting side ditches at right angles with it to empty 

 into it, and sometiiiios cutting off the springs by 

 covered drains round the margin of the meadow'. 

 The centre ditch maybe four or five feet wide at 

 top, and two or three at bottom, or six feet at the 

 surface and two at the bottom, according to tlm 

 quantity of water to flow in it, and of a suitable 

 depth to take off all the water ; and the .side 

 drains may be two feet at top and one at bottom, 

 with six inches of rough stones thrown in at the 

 bottom and these covered with straw or brush so 

 as to prevent the dirt sifting through, and these 

 [■gain covered in with the material which was at 

 first thrown out. It is necessary that the top of 

 the stones with which the drain is filled should 

 be below the ordinary depth of ploughing so as 

 not to be disturbed when the land is cultivated. 

 1 do not know how I can belter serve the objects 

 of my Report than by allowing several of the 

 farmers, who have most distinguished themselves 

 for these improvements, to give their own account 

 of the methods adopted. I may hero add that 

 among other applications the application to a 

 peat meadow after it has been pared and burnt, 

 of a good dres.sing of clay, has been signally 

 beneficial. Herdsgrass, to the growth of which 

 these reclaimed bogsseein particularly congeiual, 

 peculiarly delights in a soil strongly clayey or 

 aluminous. Three tons of hay to the acre from 

 these lands is not uncommon, and their produc- 

 tiveness may be long kept up by good manage- 

 ment. Four and five tons are sometimes pro- 

 duced. 



4. I begin with an account of his mode of 

 eclaiming peat meadow, with which my re- 

 spected friend, Mr. Phinney, to whose high repu- 

 tation as a farmer my praise would add nothing, 

 has favored me. His meadow's present exanipli-s 

 of some of the most judicious and productive 

 improvements to be found in the State. 



"I consider my peat grounds by far the most 

 valuable part of my fariti. They are more vain- 

 able than my wood lots for fuel, more than dou- 

 ble the value of an equal number of acres of 

 iijiland for the purposes of cultivation, and in 



le 



