June, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



91 



ren informeil us, that their tenms cannot do a 

 lieticr bnsinuss than to cart Thoinaslon lime fit 

 teen miles from the Concord hmding, which 

 ihcy purchase at the price of one dollar and fifty 

 cents to two dollars Ihe cask. This lime they 

 mix with the muck taken from the swamp ditch 

 es, where hoth are kept in a pile from one yeai 

 over to the next : the mixture is at the rate of 

 one cask of lime for every eipht or ten ox-cart 

 loads of muck. As a siiniulant spread u 

 grass groimds this composition works wonders 

 in ])ushin{f to an early yrowlh and in adding to 

 the quantity of hay. The winter season, when 

 snow is on the ground, is found a very conven- 

 ient time for transportinij the muck from the 

 meadow to the yard ; and upon many soft mead- 

 ows, the same season is found the only time in 

 which gravel, suml or compost may be taken up- 

 on the low meadows. 



We wish there could he some ready method 

 of ascertaining how much value of agricultural 

 capital has been added to our Slate in the hist 

 three years from the reclamation and new culti- 

 vation of low ground.s and meadows. The 

 Monthly Visitor must do the gentleman farmer 

 of Jaffrey the justice of saying that he has been 

 a pioneer in this improvetnent in New Hamp- 

 shire ; and we claim no more than the credit of 

 liaving spread a knowledge of his example he 

 fore the people, and in this matter to have ■' doni 

 the State some service." 



But not less important than this first object of 

 improvement has been 



'i. The improvement of old, and the clearing up 

 of new mountain and hitl pastures. The new light 

 which burst upon us more than two years ago 

 as to the value of our high hill and mountain 

 lands has by no means diminished, In that time 

 the attention, not only of those who live near 

 them, but of liirmers at a distance has been 

 tiirne<l to oiu' mountain grounds. There is no 

 more valuable grazing 'and in the world than 

 .some of our rough, rocky mountain grounds. 

 Farmers who cleared these grounds several 

 years ago have made themselves rich by the pro- 

 ducts of these lands. We hear of the farmers 

 at the Hamptons near the sea, goijig back within 

 the last year to purchase the mountain forests 

 for clearing, seventy miles distant. They think 

 it a good bargain to pay the neighboring farmers 

 something (or clearing where all the heavy 

 growth is burned upon the ground, and give 

 them the first great crop of rye, wheat, oats or 

 potatoes taken from it. A friend in this town 

 who has chopped over and cleared in the last 

 two and present summers fifty acres of moun- 

 tain land upon Kearsarge assures us that after 

 paying all expen.ses he has obtained from the 

 profits of the first crop the value of one dollar 

 a day for every day's labor he has done upon his 

 mountain ground. After this ground is cleared 

 and well catched with a sowing of conunon hay- 

 seed, there is no natin-al pasture groimd that 

 gives so much and so nutritious feed as the high 

 mountain grounds. The land in its wild state 

 has sold from fifty cents to three dollars the 

 acre : it is worth, when cleared, at least ten dol- 

 lars. 



We have good reason to believe that the suc- 

 cessive notices of the country in the vicinity of 

 the White Mountains in the Visitor have con- 

 tributed their share towards the growth and im- 

 l)rovement of that fine country. The represen- 

 tatives from the upper coi-nty have assured us 

 that many emigrants have come and are coming 

 in, and many new farms are opening. Some 

 young men in Merrimack county, instead of go- 

 ing a greater distance west, have gone there. 

 Fears were expressed at first that the imtimely 

 frosts of the present June, like those of the om- 

 inous year 181G, would drive back the pbpula- 

 tion of Coos. But from the town of Jackson, 

 (the region of one of the richest iron mines in 

 the United States) lying within fifteen miles of 

 the top of Mount Washington, we were glad to 

 be informed that the frost which cut the corn 

 down upon the plains one hundred miles south, 

 did not there touch a leaf of vegetation upon 

 their hills. The fact is, that when the fine swells 

 of land surrounding the higher mountains in the 

 north of New Hampshire shall come to be clear- 

 ed, the climate there will not vary much from 

 that of the counties of Hillsborough and Che- 

 shire away from and between the two rivers 



which course along their eastern and western 

 homidaries. 



An unusual cold season— a frost in Jime, July 

 or August — in any part of the country is equally 

 injurious. The cotton crops of Carolina, the 

 sugar crops of Louisiana, are as often injured 

 by an untimely cold season and by frost, as are 

 the crops of Indian corn in New Hampshire. If 

 the seasons were uniform in all places, the crops 

 would always be adapted ij each peculiar cli- 

 mate. If the frost cut off the corn every year, 

 no corn would he planted : so of the other crops 

 in every part of the country. Should the season 

 in Coos not be long enough for the growth of 

 corn or potatoes, in more than half the years, 

 rye and wheat, oats and peas might be substitu- 

 ted and answer all the purposes." Should none 

 of the cereal grains be more likely to succeed 

 than fail, still the fertile region might be profita- 

 bly cultivated for hay and grass, for the materi- 

 als solely of growing cattle, horses and sheep, 

 when by the aid of intercourse with no very dis- 

 tant |)arts and by railroad communications which 

 nuist be extended through the whole country in 

 the next fifty years, the fine cattle, sheep and 

 horses tnay be exchauged for every thing neces- 

 sary for the sustenance and comfort of the in- 

 habitants. 



The mountain region of New England, from 

 its extreme points, is destined to be the best and 

 most productive ]n:vt of the United States — sus- 

 taining a race of noble men and women, worthy 

 of all the privileges of the tree, and fit for the 



liighest enjoyments of which the human 

 suscejitible. 



Manure at the Bottom ! 



We are not often able to present from our own 

 experience any new facts in relation to Agricul- 

 ture that may he considered valuable. We ven- 

 ture on no experiments where the chance is that 

 we may encounter loss. — We have however sat- 

 isfied ourselves on one point that we deem con- 

 clusive; and that is, that manure covered deep in 

 the soil where the water does not stand, wilt yield a 

 greatet heneft to the series of crops than where it is 

 laid upon and near the surface. 



There is a piece of oatsnow(Jime .30) growing 

 near the lower bridge on the east side of the 

 Merrimack river better than we have elsewhere 

 seen this season upon the Concord intervale. 

 That j)iece of* land had been laid down to hay 

 some ten years, and produced not much over half 

 a ton of hay to the acre. Manure from the stable 

 which liHd been taken out in the fall of 1840 

 laid in piles near this ground through the winter: 

 tliis manure was spread over llic ground at the 

 rate of about twenty-five loads to the acre. The 

 ground was broken up and turned over with 

 Frouty and Mcars' plough No. 2, carrying a fur- 

 row of about twelve inches in width and full ten 

 inches deep. The sword of the plough cufing 

 <lingonally brought the sward at the bottom far 

 out of the way, aiul the edge of each furrow with 

 such an inclination that no part of the grass ap- 

 peared. The field was left clean for tillage with 

 the under soil turned upas a piece of old |ilough- 

 ed ground free of wpeds. The sod was down at 

 the depth that no conunon ploughing or harrow- 

 'ng could disturb it; and the whole body of ina- 

 nire was still below the sod. The soil was 

 pjincipally a heavy black mould upon the top : 

 the ploughing however was so deep that in .some 

 es it turned to the top a soil of a bluish or 

 clay cast and of a yellowish cast at others, full 

 tour inches deeper than any previous ploughing 

 'lad touched it. 



Without doing any thing beyond the first 

 ploughing— not even passing a harrow or roll 

 • if, this ground was planted, two-thirds with 

 potatoes and one-tliird with corn. Instead of 

 furrowing out, the potatoes were dropped on the 

 ine between every third row, and pressed into 

 the ground with a stick sharpened just enough 

 to make a hole for their reception. The season 

 was without rain from the time of planting, and 

 the corn came uyi and looked sickly at (ir.st, until 

 the grub worms took away nine-tenths of it: 

 beans at the two first hoeings supplied the (ilacc 

 of corn, but the extreme drought suffered only a 

 portion of them to come out of the groiuid, and 

 the worms still preying on some of these. The 

 tinned drought also prevented the conung up 

 of English tm-nip seed, except in small numbers, 

 and the grasshoppers lefl only a few of these. 



What corn, bean.= and turnips were left, grew to 

 a large size, so that we (d)tained a decent crop at 

 the end of the year. The potatoes, after a long 

 time, came out of the ground — they vegetated 

 better than other potatoes on similar ground .en- 

 countering the same drought; but iii the first 

 part of the very dry season their progress was 

 slow. Gradually they came on, and notwith- 

 standing there was no rain until August they as- 

 sumed tr.-ore and more that deep green which 

 indicates a healthy plant. When the first rains 

 came on and other potatoe vines were dead, these 

 potatoes continued to grow, and the green vines 

 were arrested oidy by the first frost. The yield 

 was full two hundred bushels to the acre, where 

 other grounds of the same quality rarely gave 

 one hundred bushels. The potatoes rooted down 

 into the manure through the decaying sod and 

 received continued aliment. They were taken 



from till 



grc 



very handsomely, being in a 



nest entirely above the turned over sward. 



The present spring this same ground was sim- 

 ply ploughed once without disturbing the sod. 

 Not a particle of the manure has yet been moved 

 or made its appearance above. After harrowing, 

 one and a half bushels of oats to the acre have 

 been sowed— harrowed again and rolled; and 

 again rolled after the oats were about two inches 

 high. The oats have as much assistance from 

 the manure, although no plough or other instru- 

 ment has disturbed it, as they require — they are 

 as large and of as deep a color as manure can 

 well make theiu. The woriris so prevalent on 

 this ground have destroyed some ; yet there are 

 oats enough left to make a crop as great at least 

 as was our croj) of last year. 



About half an acre of alluvial land near the 

 railroad, being a portion of a cornfield of last 

 year, and that part because it was a ridge nioie 

 elevated than the rest of the field which failed in 

 the crop of corn has been excavated and remov- 

 ed for the use of the rail road. The excavation 

 will average about the depth of four feet : in that 

 depth are several layers or strata alternately of 

 sand and vegetable soil, showing that the river 

 has formed the ridge sometimes l>y an overflow 

 washing the sand directly over it; and at oth- 

 er periods liy more gently backing in a richer 

 sediment. The roots of vegetables running hor- 

 izontally without any commmiication with the 

 surface and retaining the freshness of life are 

 found at the depth of three feet, showing that 

 mayhap after the lapse of hundreds if not thou- 

 sands of years, these may spring anew into life 

 when exposed to the surliice. 



The digging of this spot was not comidetcd 

 until since the commencement of the month of 

 June. Alter it v\as done a plough was passed 

 through the surface ground at thebollom of the 

 excavation, and without manure or other dress- 

 ing, oats have been sown. In about three weeks 

 time these oats have sprung up so as to cover the 

 ground with green, and tiiey really look better 

 than most crops of oats sowed on land previous- 

 ly well cultivated. This is more than we expec- 

 ted from land where the surliice h;id so lately 

 been exposed to the atmosplieri'. Another |iiec« 

 planted with potatoes where the exc;;vation was 

 only about three feet, also without manure, shows 

 a handsome growth thus far. This experiment 

 demonstrates that the undersoil of our intervales 

 is as valuable as the surface soil— jierhaps much 

 more so than tlie upper soil long ciillivalcd and 

 scantily manured. 



The crop of rye in New Hampshi -e will be 

 very heavy iroin the present prospect: the late 

 wet cool' weatlier has stretched it upwards and 

 multiplied greatly its bearing stalks, lengthening 

 out the heads which are setting to he well filled 

 with grain. The height of some rye is very re- 

 markable, being seven and eight feet. The spread 

 of s[ienrs from a single seed is also remarkable 

 in some cases. We" this day counted fifty-six 

 heads shooting from a single kernel. 



The corn also on wartn ground during the last 

 two weeks of June has grown surprisingly on 

 some kinds of warm land : on cold land, where 

 the worms infest the inaiuire, it turns yellow and 

 seems to grow less. The worms in some jilaces 

 have much injured the corn fields. 



Potatoes have come out of the ground stronff 

 for the first hoeing. 



Beans that have escaped the frost look well. 



