166 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



November, 1842. 



mother and tliii 



r.,.,.,hn|.. 



It. .Ill 



IS.tlM 



this siiliject now liH. llir Uil 



stitutioii, some ii|)|ii(IiciiiIk 



new refineiiieiit of tasle or ; 



taste, will entirely flis<|tia 



youth, who si^'lis (or the liis 



and the weidlh of the city, lioiii the luilher 



stfit of nn occupation vul<;ar at the hest. 



Alas! how often has the njaii of speciili 

 and trade, and even the well dressed professi 

 njan from the cily, presenti'il the e.vleriiir to the 

 youth of the coniHrv, t 

 into a similar pursuit, w liile care and coucein and 

 intense anxiety corroded the inwmd ricesfcs ot 

 so Itiir an onlside— w hili- the fancied happy man 

 was exertiiiff all his nicDlal rcsotiKcs to devise 

 the ways and niraiis of averting; hankrnplcy for a 



the thoi'isands hewascv.n ni'Mnrut liahleto lose, 

 or upon the prospecr of llii- saci llice at any time, 

 with thousands that he might have inherited or 

 hardly earned, other thonsands that the fashion 

 of doing liusiness on credit ndght have included 

 in the same risque I 



It has heen the misfortune of Agricidtiire that 

 so many superficial hiandishinents have tempted 

 from her the wealth and much of the enterprise 

 of the country, stiipping from the three-fourths 

 of our population the means which might have 

 made their occupation donhly productive; for it 

 is a truth which ought to he impressed upon the 

 whole conununity, that the great catise of the de- 

 pression ol' the agricultmal occupation has been 

 its destilntiou of capital ; nay, it has become the 

 habit of the country to tiun the wealth of that 

 occupation as fast as it is earned into other chan- 

 nels — into trade, where it is by degrees almost 

 always dissipated — into maisuliictures, when; 

 mucii of it has been suidj — into education for the 

 liberal professions, which have become crowded 

 — into the fitting out of sons and daughters for a 

 near or far country where they might enjoy ease 

 and indolence — another name for killing time and 

 worrying out an useless life in a sbortetied ex- 

 istence. 



The young man possessing means sufficient to 

 stand in the place of the proceeds of personal 

 labor can satisfactorily apply those means in the 

 occupation of the farm ; and the management of 

 the tiirm may he made to conduce to a better 

 degree of enjoyment than leisiue or even the 

 best of other employments. That enjoyment of 

 property which is derived from its mere expen- 

 diture is like all the animal enjoyments which 

 leave nothing for the future better than pain and 

 regret. If we have property and can with its 

 use associate the assurance of its accumulation, 

 there is pleasure in its possession — if we can 

 contribute at the same time in the use of pro|>er- 

 ty to the welfare of others as well as ourselves, 

 the pleasure is increased. 



Men of leisure and fortune can take up the 

 occupation of the farmer, and by a systematic 

 course in the cultivation of land in any (lart of 

 New England may not only preserve the capital 

 judiciously invested, liut may increase the means 

 lor liberal personal expenditure and of ultimate 

 accumulated wealth. 



1 will suppose that the experiment shall be 

 tried on any of those tracts of land in New Eng- 

 land, of which there is a much greater amount 

 in the State of Maine than in all others, still cov- 

 ered witli the fJowing forest. As good land as 

 any yet settled yet remains. The quantity may 

 be any amount less than a thousand acres. The 

 wood and tindier upon this land may or may not 

 be valuable. The clearing may commence as 

 can be done to best advantage — in lots of ten, 

 twenty, fifty, or an hundred acres, according to 

 the size of the farm. 1 will suppose my model 

 farm to contain three hundred acres — two hun- 

 dred acres of which to lie for clearing, and one 

 hundred acres for wood. If the two hundred 

 acres be all feasible land, and every )iart can be 

 accessible to water iq)on the surface, I would 

 divide the two hundred acres into five forty acre 

 lota — subdividing as many as may be convenient 

 into twenty acre squares so that two might be 

 thrown into one. 



The first clearing of this land will accord to 

 the convenience of the owner. Good and heavy 

 timbered forest land may cost five dollars the 

 acre. The timber and wood saved uiwn this I 



wiihm li\e ihile 

 Mnrimarkii^er 



ispu>( 





the. 



irtion, as soon 

 On land filled 



all: it .dionid 



a fence ol split rails is made 

 the new fence may last lor 

 True economy sugge^sts 

 as may be, of a permaiie 

 with rocks, this is best ( 

 tion of good and dnralil 

 be l:iid so deep in the gromid as to prcchiile the 

 action of frost, and with so much skill as to pre- 

 vent its falling from the assaults of animals or 

 being siniiiounteil by jumping ovir it. f^m-h 

 permanent stone wail, should it cost twice as 

 much as that which comuKiiily encloses our 

 fields, will be cheapest in the end. Land freu 

 from stones may be enclosed cilliir by a fence 

 of posts well fixed in the ground with laiis— of 

 posts to which lx)ards are liisleued willi spikes — 

 or with s[.'lit stone posts inserted in the gioimd 

 for the sup|)orl of the railing or boiuiliiig fasten- 

 ed to thetn. These fences, the posts of cedar or 

 rhesiuit burned to a coal on each end, the top to 

 be burned, and supply the place of the f>ottom 

 when the latter shall be decayed, will last at 

 small expense for annual repairs for many years 

 when well made. But the experiment on land 

 destitute of the rocks as a material fi:ir fence 

 should be made of coustrtietitig those permanent 

 hedges which will last for ages, and which in 

 the proper place as useful (or fences will be 

 among those sure investments which are as per- 

 manent as the terra firma on which they are 

 planted. The planting of the hedge, witli the 

 kind of tree or bush best adapted to the plains 

 laud of New England, 1 leave for the instruc- 

 tion of those more competent to the task than 

 myself In aid of the hedge, which may be per- 

 fected in the course of a few years inside of tem- 

 porary fence supplying its place while the hedge 

 is growing, ditches may be made to answer u 

 valuable purpose, the hedge being planted in a 

 direct line along the ridge formed from throwing 

 out the ground. 



The safe fence, if permanent, around every 

 field, will always be its sure protection. Access 

 to the fiidd is most convenient through well-con- 

 structed, self-shutting gates; and these gates 

 secured in i)ermanent stone jiosts that can be 

 removed only by human agency. 



The expense of burning and clearing lands 

 will in the first year be repaid by the cro|< of 

 that year: new cleared burnt ground is generally 

 .safer" lor its first cro[) than any other land. Clo- 

 ver and herdsgrass or timothy should be sown 

 with the first crop of gram : if the land be hard- 

 pan and rocky soil, the ground may continue in 

 liay or pasture until the stumps of the fir.^t clear- 

 ing shall become deca)ed fit to he extracted, 

 which in hard wood lainl will be four or five 

 years — in hard pine three years, or magnificent 

 white pines at any time when a sufficient arti- 

 ficial force can be applied. The plough cannot 

 well operate until the slnm|)s are taken away, 

 nor ought it to be frequently used where there 

 is a serious obstruction from rocks. Where both 

 stuin[is and rocks can he extracted, the regular 

 rotation of crops should be commenced before 

 the virgin fertility of new lands shall be taken 

 from them in a series of successive crops. 



A square whether regular or oblong is more 

 pleasant to the eye than a field surrounded by 

 crooked lines in irregular shape ; and direct lines 

 ill making enclosures may be pursued at even 

 less cost than indirect ones. The beauty of a 

 regular square field is increased by the clean cul- 

 tivation' extending to the very outward edge. 



Thus far, in clearing our new farm, we have 

 encountered no expense that is not a [Mofitable 

 investment. At the end of the first step of clear- 

 ing and well enclosing, at the present price of 

 land any where in New England or New York, 

 we will in all cases have obtained the value of 

 the labor bestowed ; and the increased value of 

 the soil will be so much addition to our capital. 



The buildings, if erected solely for the accom- 

 modation of the farm itself, or even for the per- 

 sonal accommodation of the man of wealth who 

 beet consults his ease and his convenience, need 

 not be expensive. A man of fbrlimr w ho does 



Till 



posure of 





I large surface of flattened roofs 

 ems to have little weight with 

 iw iiers of the present age. Per- 

 lo better larmer than that man 

 first ill the hearts (if his coimtiMiieii, George 

 \Vasliiii<;toii : liis lidiise and his" liuildiiigs at 

 .■Mduiit \"i'niiiii, iliiapidati (1 thiiiii;li tlicv now are, 

 not having been Kmclied li>r impnivement lor 

 nearly half a century, still stand as a model lor 

 the gentleman fiirmer who consults economy and 

 ease. The mansion, as it was originally erected 

 probably near a hundred years ago, contained 

 few rooms, and tho.se of just sufficient height to 

 enable the man of six li;et to enter and pass 

 through without stooping. .'Vn addition was 

 made after the General's return from the wars 

 for the accommodation and entertainment of the 

 numerous visitors who flocked to bis retreat; 

 and in this was a drawing room of the whole ex- 

 tent of the addition whose height might embrace 

 the twelve or fourteen feet of the two stories of 

 the first erection. This addition with the piazza 

 on the eastern fi-ont extending the whole length 

 improved rather than injured the mansion in its 

 fill! proportiiins. The household servants and 

 the slaves employed in the large farming opera- 

 lions of Mount Vernon, according to the prac- 

 tice of the southern planters, occupied small 

 buildings at no very great distance: these were 

 surmounted with the sharp roofs and gable ends 

 that distinguish the first erection of the Dutch 

 buildings at Albany and Coeymans in New York, 

 which still stand as if to put to shame the dilap- 

 idated erections of modern date w Inch appear to 

 he older, although built one hnndred years after 

 them. The life of IMoiint Vernon— its former 

 fertile fields wot ii out and abandoned, its tene- 

 ments deserted, its beautiful gardens and walks 

 grown up and shaded with an intermixture of 

 natural and artificial shrubbery and flow cr.s, trees, 

 bushes and briars — seems to have fiided and 

 passed away like the sainted warrior and states- 

 man who cho.sc this for his favorite retreat ; but 

 this consecrated spot continues to speak the wis- 

 dom and the good taste of its former illustrious 

 proprietor. 



VVith the clearing of lands, the consliuction of 

 fences and the erection of buildings, we have 

 but laid the foundation for the management of 

 the fiirm in the hands of the man of means who 

 wishes to make the most of them. Some of the 

 best farmers of New England — (the market farm- 

 ers in the vicinity of Boston I consider to be the 

 best in the country) — say that it matters not so 

 much what the land is, as how it is managed. 

 Their works prove their doctrine; for I have 

 seen upon the premises of some of these farm- 

 ers land divided only by the road which coursed 

 along the foot of a rocky ridge, where the profits 

 were now really as great n|)on the gravelly, 

 rocky knolls on which the soil had been created, 

 irfier successive diggings into the pan almo.st as 

 hard as .solid stone, as upon the free black allu- 

 vion on the other side of the highway which 

 alone at first invited the labor of making the 

 mo.at productive garden. The first rate soil, once 

 snflicient for the scattered population which 

 owned it, was not enough for the employment of 

 the new generations following. The little farms 

 (not then regarded as farms but called "jihices") 

 were subdivided, by parcelling off the lower and 

 richer fields of twenty or thirty acres, into some 

 three or four enclosures for the use of as many 

 sons of one father, and the pasture nphinds ex- 

 tending up the side and over the rocky ridges to 

 a greater extent were made up (or a similar di- 

 vision. Now the best " place" of the extended 



