July, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



HI 



velly pan, the moving of the ground is alw.-iys 

 advanta-jeous. It leaves an ample field for the 

 roots of the erops. If the season be very dry,tlie 

 roots seek the inoistnre deep in the stirred ground: 

 if it he very wet, the superabundance of wet set- 

 tles off at once into the deeper stirred ground- 

 so that vegetation in ground thus prepared better 

 stands both drougiit and wet. 



2. Irrigation. Strange as it may seem, that 

 although cold waler kills and destroys the crop if 

 suffered to stand long, so it invigorates and stim- 

 ulates when it passes over or lays for a short 

 time upon the surface. The effect of the wasli of 

 roads and from other sources upon mowing 

 grounds is often seen Tons of hay are produ- 

 ced in a succession of years where little or noth- 

 ing would grow without this wash. Every good 

 farmer willtjike advantage of all these sources of 

 gain. The idea generally is that the increase of 

 production rejulls not so much from the water as 

 from the fructifying materials Itrought along with 

 it — the droppings of cattle, sheep, swine, &c. Hut 

 if we reflect a moment we will perceive that the 

 amount of these droppings. &c. is by no means 

 equal to the effect produced. The simple cold 

 water running from a spring flashed over ground 

 in the spring and fall will have nearly as great 

 effect as water washed from roads. The wash- 

 ings from the melting snow or from the spring 

 or fall rains is as good and as strong a stimulate 

 as the earth will at any tiaie require. 



The hilly groimds of New England, the lands 

 of small rocks and hard pan, as well as the lands 

 of deeper, richer mould, are very favorably situ- 

 ated for irrigation. Every part of a man's farm 

 may bo overflow'ed where there is a higher spring 

 near it, or where water from the melted snow or 

 rain.s may be collected into a stream from above. 

 At little expense the water in the spring may be 

 flashed over an extensive side hill : where this 

 can be done annually there will be little need of 

 frequent ploughing and manuring ; and when- 

 ever either or both are resorted to, the flashed 

 water coming in aid of the other stimulants will 

 have its greater proportionate effect. 



Extensive meadows drained in the manner we 

 have described, by means of a dam, might be 

 submerged for a short season in early spring or 

 after the crops come off in the fall for a few 

 weeks to great advantage; the complete drainage 

 afterwards will leave such ground in the very 

 best condition for the growing of crops. 



In the month of April last, while on a journey 

 through Massachusetts, our attention was attract- 

 ed to a conical field belonging to Doct. Na- 

 THA.viF.L Pierce of Ashbm-nham : the frost had 

 not yet been extracted from the ground ; but 

 this little hill was clothed in living green much 

 in advance of the grounds around it. We went 

 early in the morning to ascertain the cause of 

 the difference. A brook run down a valley at 

 the foot of the hill, where the effect of the su- 

 perabundance of water had been the injury in 

 the lowest ground rather than the benefit of tl 



hay had been doubled. This season the prospect 

 of the crop was as good as it had been in any 

 previous year. 



Doct. Pierce, so well pleased with his first ex- 

 |)eriment, was extending the water spout upon 

 this cone to mowing fields below with great suc- 

 cess. This ])iire cold water process as far as it 

 was carried on made abundance of liny, and in 

 itself created a material for niakiiig manure that 

 would soon bring a farm to its highest point oi 

 cultivation. 



In whole countries in South America the agri- 

 culturist depends entirely upon irrigation, there 

 being no rain through the growing season. Where 

 the waters of the rivers can be taken out and 

 flashed over the ground immense crops of grain, 

 rice, &c., can be procured — where no water can 

 be brought, the grounds are bairen. This, we 

 have been told, is the condition of the countries 

 in Peru and Chill from the feet of the high Andes 

 to the western or Pacific ocean. 



In the United States we are happily not reduc- 

 ed to that position : we have here alternate rains 

 and shines ; but we do not doubt the time ap- 

 proaches when irrigation will be here introduced 

 among those grand agricultural improvements 

 which the spirit of the times will call into ac- 

 tion. 



Acknowledgments of the Editor of the Month- 

 ly Visitor. 



The tallest and the largest stalk of Rye we 

 have ever seen is one sent us by that good far- 

 mer and constant patron of the Merrimack Ag- 

 ricultural Society, Benjamin Whipple, Esq. of 

 Dunhartou : this stalk is somewhat over seven 

 feet full measure, and carries a more beautiful 

 and graceful uniformity in its whole length than 

 any isolated stalk we have y.'t seen. 



Among other samples we should have ac- 

 knowledged that furnished by Blr. William Cil- 

 LEy, from the farm of Col. Daniel Cilley, in 

 a field of second alluvion upon Suncook river 

 in Epsom : there were several stalks in a single 

 cluster each of which was more than six and a 

 half feet high. 



The most acceptable, if not the most valuable 

 of the gratuities which the Visitor has this sum- 

 mer to acknowledge is that .sent with a letter 

 from our friend Deac. Ezra Barrett of War- 

 ner, being a pair of patent Scythe Snaiths of his 

 manufacture, together willi a pair of best patent 

 double set premium Scythes, nianuliictured l)y 

 Messrs. Phillips, Messer and Colby, of New 

 London, N. H. 



It is evident that with a scythe and snaith to 

 which a complete finish like these has been giv- 



as the world have termed it, into the woods 

 The land is his own, and he has every induce-" 

 nient to improve it ; he finds a healthy eiupluy- 

 ment for himself and family, and is never at a 

 loss for materials to occupy his mind. I do not 

 think the physician has more occasion iur re- 

 search than the farmer; the proper food of vege- 

 tables and animals will alone constitute a wide 

 and lasting field of investigation. The daily 

 journal of a farmer is a source of much interest 

 to himself and others. Tlie record of his lal)ors, 

 the expression of his hopes, the nature of his 

 fears, the opinions of his neighbors, the results 

 of his experiments, the entire sum total of his 

 operations, will prove a deep source of pleasure 

 to any thinking man. If the estalilishment of 

 agricultural societies, and the caltle shows of our 

 country should have the effect of stimulating one 

 farmer in every town to manage his land and 

 stock upon the best principles of hn.«bandry, 

 there would be a wonderful and siieedyalterntion 

 in the products of the earth, because comparison 

 would force itself upon his friends and neigh- 

 bors ; and his example would be certainly benefi- 

 cial, for prejudice itself will give way to profit. 

 Chowles' Oration. 



ind 



lich 1 



' a change of hang and position 



of the handles may be made to work in the ea- 

 siest manner, more and better work may he done 

 in the application of the same efliirt. The snaith 

 is so adjusted to receive the scythe as lo be unit- 

 ed with very little trouble and" is fastened with- 

 out wedges and in a mode which precludes the 

 possibility of continually working loose. With 

 crop. Doct. P. with very little labor had gu^h Scythes and Snaiths as those presented us, 

 "' " "■ "" " even the strong lazy man must he tempted to 



the field ; and when once under way that man 

 mi'st liave but a poor ambition who can lay down 

 such an instrument until he has done a fair day's 



turned the course of this stream, which was al 

 ways nearly dry in summer, to a point as high as 

 it could run upon the conical field. In several 

 channels one below the other winding round the 

 hill, the water was carried. The channel was 

 such a one as might be made with a common 

 sward plough with the furrow turned upon the 

 lower side : through the bank at short distances 

 small crevices were made for the leakage of the 

 water. With very little labor these were stopped 

 up and new ones made at pleasure, so that the 

 water by this extra attention was made to do its 

 work over the whole surface. 



The field on which this experiment was in op- 

 eration we were acquainted with from a child — 

 before we knew the State of New Hampshire. 

 In the rough point of that town wliich is very 

 Btoiiy like most ofthe higher ridge towns bet weiiu 

 the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers, it was one 

 of the fertile hills which might be cleared of 

 rocks and ploughed. Fields thus cleared em- 

 bracing only a small portion of the whole hind 

 have generally been kept under the plough 

 for the longer portion of the time. Now and then 

 they are laid down to grass and continued for two 

 or three years. With spare manuring, they can- 

 not long be kept profitably in grass. Doct. P. in- 

 formed us that this field had not been ploughed 

 for about ten years; that he had irrigated it par- 

 tially for the last seven yeais, and that lite crop of 



work. 



Magnify your Calling. 



auhl see in all our farmers a disposi 



I wish I 

 tion to magnify their calling; but I have been 

 grieved in many a farui-house, to listen to lamen- 

 tations over what they term their " hard lot." I 

 have heard the residents upon a noble farm, all 

 paid for, talk about drudgery, and never having 

 their work done, and few or no opportunities for 

 ih(! children ; and 1 have especially been sorry to 

 hear ilie females lament over the hard fate of 

 .=iome promising youth of seventeen or eighteen, 

 who was admirably filling u|) his ihiiies, and 

 training himself for extensive usefidness and in- 

 fluence. They have made comparison between 

 his situation, coarsely clad and working hard, 

 and coming in fatigued, with some cousin at col- 

 lege, or young man who clerhed it in a city store, 

 till at length the boy has become dissatisfied, and 

 begged off from his true interests and happiness. 

 I arn convcrs.int vviih no truer sreur's of enjoy- 

 ment than I have witnessed in American farm- 

 houses, and even log cabins, where the father, 

 imder the influence of enlightened Christiimity 

 anil sound views of life, has gone with his family. 



The Pleasures of a Country I/ife. 



" I have but one word more to add to the ad- 

 vantages of husbandry, which is, that of all pro- 

 fessions, none is more innocent or more pleasant. 

 The business of it goes on in a known and cer- 

 tain cotirse from season to season, from year to 

 year ; the gains from it are most satisfactory to a 

 scrupulous conscience fiecause onr goods are sold 

 in open market; are set up together with those 

 of our neighbors, and of the same kind and spe- 

 cies, whereby ihe ignorant may make the better 

 comparison of their worth. We do not grow 

 rich by jobbing or by buying and selling again, 

 the profit of which too often consists in outwit- 

 ting and preying on one another, but our advan- 

 tages arise from the gifts of onr beneficent mo- 

 ther, the Earth, whose gratitude generally requites 

 the tiller's care, and by whose increase we hiu't 

 no one. Our dependence, next toGoil's blessing, 

 is in our own skill and industry, and though the 

 season disappoints us sometimes, yet that is nei- 

 ther so offjii, so great, or so fatal as the disap- 

 pointments of those in other professions, wtio.se 

 trust and dependence is upon man. What mis- 

 erable calamities fall out from the neces.sary trust 

 in trade which one citizen must give to another 

 and to his customers! whereas, the farmer sells 

 for ready money. He may thrive also, without 

 supplanting his brother, which the courtier or 

 tradesman can rarely do. And certainly, that 

 person must live a pleasant life, whose death 

 every one desires to die — and there are very few 

 of any art or employment but who propose to 

 themselves, if they are able, a country retirement 

 with at least some little of husbandry, in the last 

 stage of their lives: if so, although other occu- 

 [)atlons may be in themselves innocent, yet this 

 almost universal desire in men to quit them be- 

 fore they die, looks as if they found it difficult to 

 discharge their consciences in them. They must 

 be sensible that they can make no great figure as 

 husbandmen — but there is some delight, even in 

 negative virtue, in being awake and doing no ill. 

 And, as I have had some taste and relish of these 

 pleasures, I am desirous to propagate the sense 

 of them as universally as 1 can ; and it would 

 greatly add to my satisfaction to have partakers 

 with me in the enjoyment of it." 



Edward Lisj.e. 



Free accession of air necessary to Decompo- 

 sition. 



The decomposition of the vegetable matter of 

 the soil requires the free access of air to every 

 part of it; for if any substance, however rapid 

 its tendency to decay, lie completely secluded 

 from the atmosjihere, little or no change in it can 

 take placi'! : it is on tlii.-^ principle Ihal various ar- 

 ticles of food are now preserved for subsequent 

 use in tin cases completely closed, and possess 

 their perfect flavour after exposure to every vari- 

 ety of temper.ilure for several years. Every p;ir- 

 ticle of the soil needs to be surrounded with ox- 

 ygen for the production from it of carlionic acid ; 

 and lo prociu'e this condition is one of the chief 

 objects, which is effected by tilling and loosening 

 the soil ; in this respect, therefore, it is manifest 

 that a tenacious clayey soil is infelior to all olh- 



