August, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



125 



tfieir necessary aliment from the flecajiiig tinf 

 nnd manure below, while tlie croi) is laUtii at 

 harvest near the surface niul ahove all. 'j'lie 

 lioeing the first year is entirely clear of weeds 

 and us easy as an old field. The turf and 

 manure below are never necessarily disturbed 

 afterwards. The two first years, planting Ihe 

 first and sowing with oats the second, present 

 as large crops on groimd wliere all Ihe manure 

 lies ten inches under ground as we ever raised ; 

 and from the experience of Col. I'liinney on 

 ground laid down to grjiss with the sward under, 

 we (eel warranted in giving it as our belief that 

 such ground will continue its bearing tuucli lon- 

 ger than ground where the sod is consmned on 

 the siu-tiice. 



We prefer the Pronty «Sc iNIears plongli as well 

 for the reason of its better execution of the work 

 as for its more easy (bauglit: it refjuires not so 

 nnich briUe slren:;tli by iroui one loiulli to one 

 third as those wliicli "were Ibrujeily considerc d 

 our best ploughs. The diiniiiutioii of power 

 results t'roin the invention of the true centre 

 draught. This principle has been carried into 

 the Ruggles & Nourse, perhaps into the Fair- 

 banks Vermont plou<rli, and we presiuue into the 

 Howard, and may be other ploughs. Messrs. 

 Prouty& Mears consider the adoption of that 

 principle an invasion of their rights ; and have 

 appealed from the decision of Mr. Justice fStory, 

 who ruled them out of Court, to the Supreme 

 Court at Washington. 



Oin- experiment of sowing grass seed on new- 

 ly broken up sward land has succeeded beyond 

 om- expectations. The grocmd was broken up 

 deep last fall: the sward was not so perfectly 

 tinned under that the harrow did not distinb it 

 in some places. About fil'teen loads of a mixed 

 compost of .stable manure and black niuck pre- 

 viously tempered with lime, were spread to the 

 acre. This was harrowed, sowed with nearly 

 one bushel berdsgrass to the acre, again harrow- 

 ed and rolleil. The grass seed did not appear 

 until the following spring. In some places it 

 was too thick — in other places the destructive 

 worm which bad belbie desti-oyed the best grass- 

 es upon the same licld, took a portion of ibis: 

 the rust evideu'lly iiijiued the growth where the 

 sowing was too thick. The field of about one 

 and a hall' acre, mowed about the first of August, 

 [iroduced full at the rate of one and a half ton of 

 hay to the acre. The ground was on alluvial 

 clay, too cold and generally too wet for either 

 corn or potatoes, on which hail grown for sever- 

 al years oidy sour wild grasses and sorrel. The 

 ground in one (bitulght from its first mowing 

 looks favorable for a second crop of hay this sea- 

 son. No other cultiv;'.ted crop was taken from 

 this ground since the last ploughing until the 

 L'lass was sowed. 



For the I'armcr's Monthly Visitor. 

 RIr. Editor :— Many have expressed surprise 

 that the price of hay should be greater in the 

 vicinity of Concord, than of Portsmouth and 

 Newbiiryport, When hay was $17 per ton at 

 Concord, Hooksett and ISlanchester, last s|)ring, 

 it could be bought at Portsmouth as low as §14, 

 nnd 1 believe Hu- less. It was about the same at 

 Newburyport. Now the diflerence is to be ac- 

 counted for ill this manner: In Hampton and 

 Hampton Falls, and al.so in North Hampton, Sea- 

 brook, and Salisbury, M.s. (towns adjacent to 

 Portsmouth and Newburyport) there are thou- 

 sands of acres of salt marsh, upon some portions 

 of wliich enormous burthens of salt hay are cut. 

 The liiriners feed this out to their cattle, and 

 carry their English bay to market. They send 

 their young cattle and oxen back into the coun- 

 try to pasture in the summer, but keep large 

 stocks at home dining the winter. This pro- 

 duces abnudauce of dung, which they mix with 

 muscle mud brought up from the river in scows, 

 together with seaweed and kelp, which being 

 put on to the land in good measure, luepares it 

 to bear large burthens of English hay. This, 

 then, is a reason of the comparative cheapness 

 of bay in the lower towns of New Hampshire. 

 JETHKO. 



Chenango Potatoes, 



John Lamprey, Esq., now of North Hampton 

 nnd who several years ago, while he resided witli 

 lis, set the farmers of Concord a good example 

 iulbnna tis that hia crop of Chenango potatocE 



ist year was worth the full value of the land on 



wliicb 



iiey ' 



cultivated — say from 60 to 7.') 



dollars the acre, 



riie Chenango potato, which bears the high- 

 est price in the market, has nut generally grown 

 large or yielded as much in a hill as some 

 other kinds. Mr. Lamprey has greatly improved 

 ■ ese potatoes by a selec-tion of the seed. From 

 e potato weighing 2 lbs. (J oz. he first raised 

 i-ee pecks. Tliis product he planted in several 

 hundred bills, and these tliroii-li the season were 

 distinguished by a more liixiiiiaiit growth and a 

 larger size than other potatoes of the same spe- 

 cies. He finds a clay loam to be the most suita- 

 ble soil for the pr'odiiciiou of these potatoes. 

 They are early and he obtains for them a ready 

 sale at Porlsmonth— that being made an improv- 

 ed market by the rail road which carries the sur- 

 plus at once to other large towns lietween that 

 [own and inclniling Boston. The choice pro- 

 ducts of the neighboring farmers cannot now 

 as formerly be long a drug in the Portsmouth 

 market. 



Mr. Lamiuey has a young orchard of grafted 



apples, the growth of uliicli in lour years he has 



ore than doubled, and increased its product in 



e last three years liom 8 to 105 bushels : this 



g. His crop of potatoes last year on this acre 



The way larujing is dune in the towns about 

 Portsmouth slioidd instruct farmers fiirllier in 

 the interior. The Pierce larm in (Jreenlaiid is 

 lably the best ba) -producing farm in this 

 Slate — it has been long known as such. Two 

 hundred tons of' hay is a common crop for this 

 fiHie farm. Air. Lamprey, who lives in this vicin- 

 ity, informs us that Col. Pierce has recently re- 

 lied .some forty or fifty adilitional acres upon 

 this farm — low pasture ground, in its natural 

 stale too wet and heavy to be productive. The 

 ground has been broken up — large ipiantities of 

 gravel have been drawn upon it. Stimulaled with 

 generous coating of forty and fifty loads of liarn 

 r stable niaiinre, the reclaimed land is made to 

 reduce two and three tons of best hay to the 

 ■re. The highest cullivalion of such laud gives 

 ir the invested capital an annual income probably 

 I twelve to twenty |ier cent. 



A Question. 



Will hoeing corn the third, and potatoes the 

 second lime, generally pay for llie trouble ? 

 Though an answer may be loo late for this sea- 

 son, ujI it will do for aiiotber. Will some ex- 

 perienced tanner answer the iinestiun .' 



DURANT. 



{Jj^ In our late agricultural tour in Merri- 

 mack we found a venerable frieuif, almost an 

 oclogeiiarian, at work in the cornfield, going over 

 it for a third lime willi the hoe after the corn had 

 spindled and ta.sselled in the nioiitb of August. 

 Tliis be bad done in fields where the corn was 

 heavy and thick upon the ground. He is, we 

 think, one of the neatest farmers in our conniy, 

 and has pursued the business on the same farm 

 more than lialf a century. We asked bim if he 

 tliougbt the hoeing of the land at this late period 

 did not cut off and injure the roots of the corn 

 spreading over the surface: be thought not. His 

 principal object was to eradicate all the weeds. 

 If boi'iiig at so late a period had not been bene- 

 ficial, Mr. Morrill's experience would have taught 

 bim so; and this practical operation at once in- 

 diicei' us to go lioiiie and lioe over our cornfield 

 for a third tinie tor the double purpose of killing 

 the tall weeds before they go to seed and sowing 

 in a crop of rye. Our corn has been hoed twice 

 wiihont making a bill— it stands up well. The 

 corn is uiion pine plain land: the few weeds in 

 the field are those which either escaped the for- 

 mer boeings or set themselves out by rains taking 

 place at the time of hoeing. The land is new 

 and full of slumps. Our intention is to lay dow n 

 to i;iMss with the crop of rye for next year. The 

 corn is beavv on the groiin'd for this kind of land, 

 anil ue bilieve will no! be injured by hoeing it 

 after the '20\U of August while the ears are in ibe 



For the I\fniitlilv\"isitor. 

 Muscle Mud for Manure. 



The farmers in Ha.iipt ind H.impton Fall 



N. H. make great account of innscle ' - ' '■ 



they most generally mix in composi 



hie 



iiies use clear, in planting potatoes. There is 

 bed of dead mu.scles not fiir below the coiiflu- 

 ice of Town and Hampton rivers, where thou- 

 sands of scow loads have been shovelled up and 

 rried to the landings, and thence by carts, or 

 by sleds in the winter, to the fields or IJarn-yards. 

 It is sometimes found to the depth of a 'man's 

 aist, and when opened, smells so strong as al- 

 most to snfTocale tliose who dig it. I know not 

 t this kind of maiinre has ever been anaKzed 

 by any chemist. If Dr Dana of Lowell should 

 er go to IJoar's Head beach for health or plea- 

 sure, it would be worth his trouble to procure a 

 specimen for analyzation. 



A Scotchman by the name of Brimmer pur- 

 chased the large "Dow farm" in Hampton Falls 

 last season, and is making it come up from 

 exhausted condition by fallowing, and using 

 large quantities of this muscle mud. If he per- 

 res in his improvements for a kw years 

 longer, his farm will probably be the "pattern 

 fjirm" of New Hamiishire, and if the farmers in 

 Hampton Falls will take a lesson from him he 

 will benefit them as well as himself. 



JETHRO. 



Fur the Visitor. 

 A kind Hint. 

 I love to visit fanners and eat of their whole- 

 nie fare, especially if their wiv«s and daugh- 

 ters are neat. 1 love their good wheat bread and 

 butter, or a dish of bread and milk. I love their 

 pies too; but 1 love to have them liave a sepa- 

 rate knife to use in culling the pie, and in help- 

 ing me to a piece. I do not love to eat a piece 

 of pie cut with a knife from their own plates, 

 and wliich they have been using themselves. 1 

 know that farmer's ladies will take this hint kind- 

 ly. McKAY. 



Five days ramble amonfr the Farmers of Bler- 

 rimack. 



The valley of the Merrimack from the south 

 line of Hooksett to the north lines of Andover 

 and Franklin extends more than thirty miles 

 nearly central in the State of New Hampshire. 

 With the exception of a portion of the town of 

 (Concord and the whole of the present limits of 

 the town of Bow wliich were formerly in Rock- 

 ingham, the portion of Merrimack county west 

 of the river of that name was formerly the north- 

 ern section comprising soiiiething like one third 

 of old Hillsboiougb, and all east constituted 

 probably one foiirlb of old Rockingham county 

 in its north-western limits. A small portion of 

 the new town of Franklin at the point of conflu- 

 ence of the Pemigewassel and Winnepissiogee 

 rivers near the north part of the county was 

 taken from the ancient limits of Strafibrd whiclj 

 more recently has been divided into three new 

 counties: with tliis exception Merrimack county 

 consists entirely of portions of Rockingham and 

 Hillsborough as they existed under the ancient 

 division of the Suile into the five counties of 

 Rockingham, Strafibrd, Hillsborough, Cheshire 

 and Grafton. 



The river and its fertile alluvial grounds first 

 brought settlers into the county something more 

 than a century ago ; but it is remarkable that 

 settlements did not commence at even this short 

 distance in the interior until seventy-five and a 

 hundred years after the settlements of Ports- 

 mouth, Dover, Exeter, nnd Hampton near the 

 sea; and what have since become the most 

 flonrishing and valuable agricultural towns, as 

 Warner, Sutton, Bradford, lleniiiker, Newbury 

 and New London on the west, and Pembroke, 

 Epsom, Chichester, London, Pittslield, Canter- 

 bury and iXortbfield to the cast of the Merriiniick, 

 were almost a wilderness until nearly the cluse 

 of the war of the revolution. 



No part of the United States ever jiresented 

 stronger inducements for settlement than this 

 valley did when it was first approached. As a 

 proof of this proposition, wfi need only revert 

 to the almosi unirorm success and prosperity of 

 the men v^bo first pitched down and settled in 

 these towns. Instead of fiiiliiig in nineteen cases 

 out of twenty as do the race of men of the pre- 

 sent day who enter upon business as tradf-rs or 

 iradesii'ien, there w.as hardly one in twenty wlio 

 did not succeed in snp[iorting himself and a 

 rising family and in increasing |)ro[ierty from 

 nothing or the merest trifle as a beginning to a 

 competency equal to all the wants of the mode- 

 rate desires of tliose times. 



