November, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



167 



nei^;!iboihoo(l is one made entirely frorii the for- 

 mer barren ridge. Over this riil;;e, in qnest of 

 harheri'ies snii|josc(l then to be poisonons to the 

 small ji;rains, or of hickory nnts when the frosts 

 of iuitnmn caused them to fill, I had strayed 

 when in extreme youth nearly fifty years ago: 

 now, after thousands of tons of small and larger 

 stones have lieepi laUeii away, it becomes a gar- 

 den, yielding in rich Inxurijnce vejielation of the 

 largest growlli, anil two, three and loin crops in 

 a season. The annual [danting and cnhivalion, 

 altbongh in itself giving a great prolit for a small 

 amonnt of labor, is not all: the ground performs 

 a donble operation. On less than twenty acres 

 of land thus made by tlie persevering efforts of 

 the culturer, have been produced in a single sea- 

 son one thousand barrels of orchard frnit, which 

 averaged in the market at least two dollars the 

 barrel, and gave a clear profit of more than one 

 thousand dollars. 



In the management of the farm by the man of 

 means, I am bold in asserting thai it is just 

 easy to make profit as loss from the cultivation of 

 the earth. True it is, in the dispensations of 

 Providence, that " man is made to mourn" — that 

 the best calculations are liable to be thwarted — 

 that seasons favorable to the husbandman some- 

 times fail — that beasts and unseen insects and 

 worms may cut off his rising crops — that frost 

 and mildew and blight may destroy bis fairest 

 prospect; yet, as we are promised that "seed 

 time and harvest shall never fail," we may cal- 

 culate that well-directed efforts will, as a general 

 principle, produce the desired result. In the 

 management of the farm, as in all the events of 

 life interesting to our welfare, we slioidd leave 

 nothing to contingency that may be made cer- 

 tain. 



As the man of abundant means finds it to be 

 liis interest to secure his fields with a safe enclo- 

 sure, so lie will make the most of the ground 

 that has received the incipient preparation. To 

 manage the fields by extracting successive ex- 

 hausting crops that shall give to the labor less 

 and less return, will be to render useless those 

 first expenditures which looked to the permanent 

 use of the land. A stone wall or a hedge row 

 that will last for ages can be of no use to grounds 

 that have become barren. 



Need we resort to examples to prove that the 

 land which gives the greatest present profit is 

 the land which is kept in the heart to produce a 

 greater succeeding crop ? Om- very best and 

 richest lands may produce a present profit in an 

 exhausting crop: our rich alluvion may be plough- 

 ed and cultivated in crops of the small grains, as 

 oats and barley, until they become so exhausted 

 that the produce will not pay for the labor; but 

 in this whole process we may not obtain suffi- 

 cient crops to pay for the value extracted from 

 the soil. Pursuing a different course — feeding 

 this land generously with maniu-es at stated pe- 

 riods, we may get back in the added crops tnore 

 than the extra cost and leave the land after oc- 

 cupying it a series of years better than we found 

 it. 



That farmer has good fortune who has a fam- 

 ily of sons and daughters — more fortunate than 

 he who has sons or daughters alone — and both 

 generally more fortunate than him who has nei- 

 ther : greater than all is the destitution of that 

 farmer who has neither wife, or sons and daugh- 

 ters. The child who has been taught the fifth 

 commandment from habit respects both f-ither 

 and mother: the intelligent child is most influ- 

 enced by the example of that parent who dis- 

 covers the greatest good sense and whose exam- 

 ple the sentiment of the circle in which the 

 family moves best approves. To virtuous moth- 

 ers are the present generation more indebted for 

 their better habits and manners and for their 

 higher intelligence than to the instructions or 

 the example of the other sex. How often does 

 the besotted and even the vicious father owe to 

 the wife of his bosom, to the affection which not 

 all his faults can alienate, the means of comfort 

 and the rescue fiom the very pits of infamy ; 

 and to her children, to their industry and perse- 

 verance under the stern necessity which the im- 

 providence of their niont natural (irotector has 

 thrown upon them, how often is he indebteii for 

 an Indian summer in the "sere and yellow leaf" 

 of liis mortal exislence ! I repea'c the proposi- 

 tion that the fanner has goo'J fortune who has a 

 family of sons and daugi^iters. Doul)ly fortunate 



IS he who m a life of industry and carefidness 

 has taught Ids family to be enterprising and dili- 

 gcjit. Such a man has it almost within his own 

 power to command bis own destiny. Such a 

 man, in the management of liis fitrm, has even 

 an advantage over the man of abundant means 

 who depends on hired service to carry it on. 

 The great difficulty encountered in carryhig on 

 a fiirm by laborers who have no especial iuterest 

 in the profiis and the crops where the owner 

 himself cannot be present, is that which deters 

 frorii the investment of cajiilal in this business; 

 and this is a difliciilty not easily to be surmonnt- 

 ed in a country where the nature of the markets 

 is such as not always to assure the agriculturist 

 that his products will return him the price he 

 has expended in producing them. 



In the nianagenient of the fiirm Ihe calculation 

 for the present year should run into the fiilure. 

 A clean field not only benefits the present crop, 

 but saves the lal)or and proinoles the growth of a 

 future crop. A generous outkiy in manure and 

 labor for increasing the growth of this season in- 

 variably extends to the next and succeeding 

 years, and often doubles, trebles and fourfblds 

 the value of the land on which that labor and 

 expense are bestowed. The tact and talent of the 

 good farmer is best displayed in the manner of 

 making labor and expense perform the office of 

 present profit and the assurance of future gain. 



With a commencement of regular fields and 

 buildings adapted to the size and production of 

 his land, the farmer should lay out his system of 

 future operations. These wifl depend "not less 

 upon the kind of soil of which his fiirm is com- 

 posed than upon his position in relation to the 

 market for surplus produce. A long and difficult 

 transport forbids the raising of those articles of 

 produce which are sold near the cities. Great 

 are the advantages to the farmer derived from a 

 near and a certain market — so great are these 

 advantages to the farmer of the North that every 

 man should desire to see mechanics multiplied 

 by the addition of thousands and the different 

 species of profitable manufacture taking up the 

 power of every vvaterfiill. Our means for ex- 

 tending the arts and machinery of many trades 

 and occupations are greater than those of any 

 other people. These means may create for the 

 liirmer as good a market for iiis surplus as can 

 be found in the great marts of commerce. 



The heavy produce of farmers bears a differ- 

 ent price depending upon the position. Hay that 

 sells for twenty dollars a ton in a market town 

 often bears not one fourth the price at a distant 

 point where there is no regular demand; and in 

 the most of our market towns the difference in 

 price is usually the expense of trans|)ort. The 

 distant farmer from necessity is obliged to pur- 

 sue a different course from the fiirmer near to a 

 market. His plan of management must differ 

 from that of the farmer near the market, who has 

 manifestly over him the advantage. 



The mountain region of the north country is 

 best adapted to the raising of cattle, sheep, horses, 

 cows and oxen. The dairy comes in as the nat- 

 ural conseffitence of rearing animals ; and butter, 

 cheese and meat must always be staple articles, 

 whose value cannot be much depreciated by dis- 

 tance from the market. Every improvement 

 which brings the farmer a nearer iiinrket for 

 these raises the value of his farm. There re- 

 mains to be opened in New England and in New 

 York extensive tracts of mountain land as good 

 for grazing as any that have yet been occupied, 

 and as profitable for their produce as the best 

 wheat lands of the western coimtry. The region 

 of New York westerly of Lake Champlain is yet 

 a wilderness, which until the recent geological 

 survey had even shut out the knowledge of her 

 mountain locations. The state of Maine has a 

 large territory of similar soil ; and New Hamp- 

 shire and Vermont, both small in their whole ex- 

 tent, have thousands of acres unimproved that 

 might furnish stronger inducements to our enter- 

 prising young men "than the extended fertile prai- 

 ries and bottrjivis of the West. The manage- 

 ment of these lands to the new settler who has 

 the r.ieans of purchasing and clearing them is 

 simple and easy. Most of our mountain lands 

 are fit only for pasturage : they are sometimes 

 mowed for a few years after the first clearing. 

 Properly treated as pasturage, the rich feed upon 

 ihem will continue to grow without sensible dim- 

 inution many years. I have known and marked 



one of these pastures foi- more than fifty year«, 

 owned and occupied by one fiimily who have an- 

 nually driven their caltle to it thirty miles. It 

 has never, to my knowledge, been overstocked so 

 that the cattle gnawed the ground for sustenance 

 —it has never been ploughed or manured other 

 than with the droppings of the cattle upon it; 

 but it is more productive in ft;ed now than it wa« 

 forty-five years ago, because from its recent 

 clearing brakes and pnllipod covered portions of 

 it which have since been driven away by a little 

 care in ino-wing them down at the proper season. 

 Soon after the dearing of this land took place it 

 was enclosed with a eoronioii stone wall at the 

 cost then of not over sevenly-five cents a rod: 

 that same wall, with the annual mending up of 

 gaps, lias stood the whole of the lime, and an- 

 swers now all the intended original purpose. 



More valual)le to a resident llian to the nonres- 

 ident is the mountain pasture stich as 1 have des- 

 cribed : its continued production may be kept up 

 simply by omitting to over-feed it. Successive 

 seasons of over-feeding will greatly injure, if 

 not destroy it. 



Connetfled with the uneven mountains, lands 

 of more easy cultivation are often found. The 

 vallies between the higher hills frequently pre- 

 sent extended plains and richer alluvion." The 

 plain lands of lighter soil in the interior have 

 commonly been considered of little value for 

 cultivation: a belter actpiaintance with their 

 properties, deeper ploughing and more thorough 

 cultivation, begin to raise them in the estimation 

 of good judges. 1 he alluvion grounds have al- 

 ways been considered of the first value ; and the 

 best farms were for years occupied for the culti- 

 vation of the bottoms or intervales solely, while 

 the higher lands all around were suffered to re- 

 main in forest which on clearing discover strength 

 and ftii-tility at least equal to that which was alone 

 the favorite. 



The mountain farmer realizes his profits from 

 the caltle, sheep, horses and swine — the meat, 

 the butter and cheese, which he annually produ- 

 ces. In the higher prices of latter years this 

 class of farmers have found great gains. Their 

 success has in many instances surprised them- 

 selves — it has enabled them to "fare sumjituous- 

 ly every day," and to furnish their families with 

 all the comlbrts and many of the luxuries of life. 

 A reverse in prices has perhaps been less disas- 

 trous to them than to men of most other occu- 

 pations. It has, however, been a great inconve- 

 nience; but to the careful and provident man the 

 change has seldom been ruinous. 



The grazing farms of the North are composed 

 generally of much land never to be touched by 

 the plough. All that is to be done to this land is 

 to enclose it in permanent fences for which the 

 material is at hand — to omit over-feeding, to 

 eradicate and keep out the brakes and wild grass- 

 es and bushes which naturally spring up. 



Pastures not too rough for the plough inclin- 

 ing to sterility may be renovated without manure 

 other than perhaps the use of a bushel of ground 

 plaster to the acre, ploughing and sowing to rye 

 and clover, and feeding the ground instead of 

 taking away a grain crop. 



Attached to the mountain farms there are some- 

 times bog mearfows which turn out in their nat- 

 ural state, at first large burdens of hay, diminish- 

 ing in quantity and quality in succeeding years. 

 These meadows difier in their depth and quality 

 of vegetable mould: some of them have a sur- 

 face of only a few inches — others have from two 

 to twenty and more feet in depth. Many of these 

 meadows, which seem to be exhausted in their 

 bearing properties, can be easily drained. The 

 drains often furnish a convenient receptacle for 

 the abundance of rocks in the way upon sur- 

 rounding grounds. The vegetable mould dug 

 from the ditches whose place is supplied by 

 nooks through which the waters percolate may 

 be valuable in the making of compost. Sand 

 and gravel and even rocks carried on to supply 

 the place of black soil taken away have on this 

 land quite as ninch efiect as manure. The deep 

 swamps drained and renovated — the upper or 

 bog surface being carried off and converted to a 

 useful purpose, and its place supplied with sand 

 and gravel warmed and stimulated with compost 

 manure — will become a never-fiiiling mine of 

 rich production to the farmer. The cold water 

 springing from the edges, and the standing water 

 upon and near the surface, mutt ho drained oS*. 



