THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



THE FARJIER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



A MONTHLY NEWSPAPEK, IS PUBLISHED BY 



JOHN M. HILL. 



HiWs Brick Blocks Concord, A". H. 



GENERATAGEJiTS, 



B. COOKE. Kcenc. .V. //. 



TH. K. HA.MPTO.V. IVashinqtonCity, U. C. 



JOHN MARSH. IVashin^ton St. Boston. 



CH AKLKS WARRE.N, BrinUy Row, Worcester, Mass. 



A. H. STILLWELL, No. 1, Market Square, Prov. R.I. 



L, W. H,\LL & Co. Springfield, Mass. 



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THE VISITOR. 



Worcester County, Massachusetts. 



From iMi-. Colman's Agricultural survey we 

 liave presented in this and several foriner num- 

 Iiers oF the Visitor articles lelative to the tann- 

 ing in Middlesex county, Massachusetts. That 

 county,lying close around Boston,the great mart of 

 business, and containing within its limits several 

 large villages that may of themselves be called 

 cities, has great advantages for improving Agri- 

 culture that other counties entirely removed into 

 the interior do not possess. 



As the Agricultural Survey under the patron- 

 age of the State of Massachusetts has been closed, 

 we may expect no more of Mr. Colman's graphic 

 and full descriptions of agricultural improve- 

 ments in that State. The county of Worcester 

 lies westerly of Middlese.x and extends quite 

 across the State of Massachusetts, upon the back- 

 bone ridge dividing the waters which flow east- 

 ward and westward. Nearly central in the coun- 

 ty upon this ridge stands the lofty mountain Wa- 

 chusett, which is seen at the distance of many 

 miles ill almost every dii'ectioii. Much of the 

 land of Worcester county is so rocky and rough, 

 that it strikes a stranger habituated to easy level 

 land with surprise that any body should desire to 

 live upon it. Yet there are few agricultural dis- 

 tricts ill the United States where iariiis bear a 

 higher price per acre or where the whole mass 

 of farmers are more thriving and independent in 

 their pecuniary circumstances than in this coun- 

 ty. A shrewd Boston merchant observed to us 

 that he never met a decently drcieed man who 

 said he came from Worcester county, in the dress 

 of a farmer, whom it was not safe to give credit 

 to any amount of goods he might wish to pur- 

 chase. 



The noble Agricultural Society of Worcester 

 county has had a great effect towards the im- 

 provement of that county, especially in the 

 town of Worcester and in tiie other towns cen- 

 tral in the county. It is now five years since the 

 editor of the Visitor attended one of these exhibi- 

 tions: more recently he has twice. In that time 

 not only lias Agriculture advanced, but Horticul- 

 < rnre in the town of Worcester takes its stand 

 along side with the improvements about the city 

 of Boston. The garden productions, the impro- 

 ved fruits, such as have been too much neglected 

 elsewhere, are here brought forward as a matter 

 of pride. Two Nurseries have been commenced 

 in the town of Worcester, which furnish all the 

 varieties of fwiit trees and fluwcrs. 



I5iit it is in her improved Agriculture, her more 

 fertile fields and their increased production, tliat 

 the county of Worcester is now distinguished. 

 Those who visit any place or country after a lapse 

 of months and years, have a much more sensible 



impression of any change than those who have 

 lived upon or observed the same spot every week 

 or month, 'i'he present month of early April is 

 by no means the most favorable time for observ- 

 ing and realizing what may be the production of 

 the season. But as we jiassed through the whole 

 length of the county of Worcester very lately, 

 we observed the unerring indications of the great 

 iraproveiiients which have gone forward in the 

 last four years. It has become common in that 

 county for the farmers to double and treble their 

 quantity of inaniiies. There were many fields 

 where the manure of the barn yard was laid 

 along side of convenient piles of compost, where 

 the workmen were busily employed in mixing 

 them. It seems to have been practically under- 

 stood by some farmers for many years that the 

 top of the ground gathered on the roadside and 

 the black muck from swamp ditches after it has 

 been exposed to thealinosphere,bave been a val- 

 able auxiliary to the manure of the barn-yard. — 

 Doct. Dana of Lowcll,iu his valuable Muck Man- 

 ual just published, on a chemical analysis, has as- 

 certained that the constiluents of common swamp 

 muck are equally valuable for their fertilizing 

 qualities tis the same volume of barn yard — only 

 the muck is wanting in one quality of which the 

 barn manure has abundance. He considers th 

 barn manure sufficient to saturate twice the a- 

 iiiount of muck ; and consequently that by a ju 

 dicious preparation and admixture the farmer has 

 it in his power to make three times as mtich oi 

 his manure as most farmers have been in the hob- 

 it of doing. Whether this fact bo true or not,the 

 farmers of Worcester county in some whole 

 neigh boihoods, seem to have adopted this mode 

 of treating their manure heaps: in many cases 

 we saw them diligently at work in the field mix- 

 ing the two kinds. 



'Another method of increasing the hay crops in 

 that county has been the ditching and draining 

 of swamp lands and low meadows. There are 

 thousands of acres of these swamp lands — many 

 of which are surrounded with exlremely rocky 

 hard land. Some of the swamps lie upon the 

 sides of ponds and are too low to be drained. 

 Others, by digging at no great distance, may be 

 drawn clear of water. The first method has been 

 nply to ditch and drain, turning over the sods 

 and introducing herd.sgrass and clover instead of 

 swamp grass of little value. The bog surface of 

 the ground is first taken off — sometimes sand 

 or gravel is carted on— manure is sprcad,and the 

 meadow, where there is a tolerable depth of land, 

 produces good crops of hay for several years 

 'tlioiit repeating the iiiaiiure. 

 Hut the more desirable method of treating this 

 land, to those able to encounter the labor, and ex- 

 )ense, is to make aii oiilside drain round the 

 swamp cutting oft' the cold springs, with a chan- 

 nel at the bottom through which the waters may 

 be flowed off. The small stones of the adjacent 

 fields are easily and most conveniently dis|iosed 

 of in these drains and in others which may be 

 added in any part of the meadow. All that need 

 be done is to dig a square ditch and fill in the 

 II rocks to within eight or ten inches of the 

 lu-c, criiimuiriicatiiig with the outside drain. 

 In the.se drains, there need be no channel ofcom- 

 ication, as the water will find free access 

 through the rocks. The swamp muck taken fi-om 

 the ditch whose place is filled by the rocks may 

 be taken to some convenient place for the inanii- 

 facuire of manure, la this way the lowest swamps, 

 y of which have a black soil of great rich- 

 ness, may be made to |iroduce forever the largest 

 crops. We have seen large crops of Indian corn 

 growing upon them ; and the drained swamps, 

 are the best of all to produce potatoes. Three 

 and four hundred bushels to the acre are no un- 

 common crop. 



It does the heart of a friend to New England 

 .\griciiltun; good to travel through the country, 

 nr.d witness the improven-ients going on. The 



raised price of lands thus imi)roved would be a 

 sufficient remuneration for the expense ; but when 

 the farmer obtains ten times as much from the 

 same ground, his gain is not in the raised value 

 of bis land alone. With the same labor he can 

 aUvays secure increased crops ; and there is a 

 certainty of reaping wherever such ground has 

 been sowed more gratifying than the mere gain 

 of dollars and cenls. 



To all industrious men in New Hampshire who 

 desire to make their farms what they should be, 

 we reccommend, whenever they can afford it, 

 a visit to some of those farms in Massachusetts — 

 in the towns about Boston, and extending fif\y 

 miles into the country — where improvements 

 have been made. These improvements have gen- 

 erally been paid for by tbe proceeds taken from 

 the ground on which the improvements have 

 been. It is true we have some cases of similar 

 improvement in New Hampshire ; but the eftect 

 is much more striking where we find a whole 

 neighborhood adopting them, and all participating 

 in the general prosperity flowing from them. 



For the Monthly Visitor. 

 A new Query from an old Friend. 

 I have a large pasture of good soil on the 

 south side of a large swell in a neighboring 

 town. Twenty-five or thirty acres of it being 

 separated from the rest by a division wall, is the 

 part to which I would draw your attention. By 

 long use it has got into that state which is called 

 bound out. The good quality of the soil is in 

 fact much improved by the droppings from the 

 stock, that has annually grazed there. The best 

 remedy is apparent, if it were but practicable. — 

 It needs the plough, and would bear two or three 

 good crojis of rye, and lay down in a better state 

 than its present. But there are strong granitic 

 reasons why it should not be subjected to the dis- 

 cipline of the plough. The rocks are so plenty, 

 as to dampthe courage of one so little used to 

 this kind of warfare. I was reared where wo 

 could turn long straight furrows, that for even- 

 ness might rival the shingles of your new man- 

 sion. WeM, sir, I consider the piece as non- 

 ploughable! This point being settled, pray, sir, 

 what remedy can you or one of your correspon- 

 dents recommend to bring my sickly turf bound 

 pasture into good condition .' I should be pleas- 

 ed to receive a lucid answer by the hand of your 

 April Monthly Visitor. ABATOR. 



If we cannot suggest the belter method of re- 

 claiming pasture land such as described by Ara- 

 tor, we are glad to state a fact lately mentioned 

 by the owner of mountain pasture ; and that is, 

 that the production of mountain pastures, the 

 fresh and beautiful feed which so much contrib- 

 utes to the fatness of the animals kept upon them, 

 is continued by preventing them from being 

 close fed. The reason these pastures soon run 

 out is that the close feeding kills out the valuable 

 grass, and the soil fails to produce the useful 

 grasses, not from want of fertility, hut from the 

 usurpation of moss or other vegetation of little 

 value. 



We can think of no method of renovating a 



bard iron bound surface where the rocks are so 



numerous as to jirevent the use of the plough, 



that is perfectly satisfactory. Where the plough 



annot go, it would be difficult to introduce new 



grass sfcd with the aid of the harrow ; and the 



labor of breaking up the parasitical useless 



growth by handwitii any tool or instrument 



would be too great for the benefit to be derived. 



Some pasture land is much more natural to a 



growth of wood than other land where rocks 



abound. The land of rock majile, beech and 



:d oak growth does not spring up as readily into 



second growth, ns the white birch, poplar, or 



bite oak land. Where the top of the around 



a very rocky pasture has become so bound out 



1 to produce little or no feed, if the growth of 



