November, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHTLY VISITOR. 



169 



yeiiis ;iiro : he li.-id then made the whole of this 

 land hke a garden. A small |)Oition was appro- 

 priated to pasKn'e : even this was in that high 

 state of cidtivation that made one acre give the 

 feed generally ohtained from fonr acres. Eight 

 or ten cows for the dairy and two yoke of oxeu 

 feere kept through the simimer on mowed green 

 lated of clover and lucerne : a single acre of the 

 ter had been cropped three or fonr times be- 

 fore the first of Septenjber. Afterwards the 

 Judge informed me however that he had aban- 

 doned the lucerne as less practicable than the 

 clover. The produce of the sixty acres in the 

 common crops of the farm, as hay, wheat, oats, 

 Indian corn, potatoes, turnips and other roots, 

 was innnense for the amount of land; lint in aid 

 of the other profits was ra'sed all the varieties of 

 melons and garden i'vuM^, as apples, peaches, 

 pears and plums : and n]i:cli the most profitable 

 part of this farm was a nursery of fruittrees from 

 which were supplied to tlie various parts of the 

 country all the varieties of apples, pears, peach- 

 es, apricots, plum and cherry trees. The grounds 

 about the house, the yards and arbors in no very 

 expensive array, were almost what the fancy 

 might paint as an elysium. The house of the 

 owner was plain and simple ; and the most 

 graceful ornajiients of the parlor and study were 

 the lirowing vegetation, fruits and flowers, lookeil 

 upon through tlie windows from without, and 

 brought either to grace the mantle piece and 

 centre table, or to he tasted within. To the study, 

 stored with the best publications upon literatm-e, 

 science and agriculture, the corpulent man of 

 fifty ye;irs,froni the sweat and fatigues of the field, 

 retired in the heat of mid day to exannne and 

 compare the knowledge gained by practice in the 

 field with that written out by others in more dis- 

 tant lands. 



Tliis eminent practical farmer, the first of his 

 age in this country — educated originally to the 

 mechanical trade of a printer, but always pursu- 

 ing agriculture and horticulture even when not 

 regarded as his main business — as many will 

 recollect died while on a journey into Connecti- 

 cut for the purpose of addressing two agricultural 

 meetings, when on his return three years ago. 

 While the printer of a village newspaper in a 

 river county of New York he was the intimate 

 friend of the late Chancellor Livingston and Gen. 

 Armstrong — two of the strong-talented statesmen 

 of New York. They were both amateur farmers 

 who have done much for the improved agricul- 

 ture of Dutchess, Columbia, Ulster, and the other 

 river counties of the Empire State. Judge Buel 

 was first attracted to the profession which proved 

 to he his " ruling passion strong in death " next 

 to the fealty which he owed to the great Author 

 of the Seasons, by the example and the instruc- 

 tion of a Livingston and an Armstrong: and his 

 first essay was in making a lieautilld garden and 

 parterre "from an acre of the rejected barrens up- 

 on the plains of Kingston in the hours of leisure 

 when the printing house did not require his pres- 

 ence. 



Not very far from the residence of Judge Buel, 

 and upon the same species of soil, is the Shaker 

 settlement of Niscauna. The separate associa- 

 tions of families of these very extraordinary peo- 

 ple are similar throughout the Ujiited Slates. 

 With the same habits and manners and the saujc 

 address, they are every where in jidvance of those 

 around them in all the improvements and the arts 

 of life. Every new invention in mechanics, the 

 best machinery (or manufactures and for saving 

 labor, the most recent and most efl^ective im- 

 provements and discoveries in agiicidture,wi!l be 

 soonest found with the Shakers. While I have 

 been preparing this essay a direction from the 

 Niscauna brotherhood, for using clover for ma- 

 nuring land has been put in my hands by an es 

 teemed United Hrotlier of the Canterbiiry family 

 in my own neighborhood which m.ty be adop'tcd 

 on every worn-out tarm in the country that is 

 capable of receiving the plough. So highly do 

 the Shakers appreciate this use of clover with 

 plaster, that they consider other manure all but 

 useless in the renovating process : so true is it 

 that all land contains the most important ingredi- 

 ents (or advancing its own fertility ; that,like the 

 material lor making bread inert in itself, the land 

 requires but the " little leaven" to work it into 

 useful action, such as shall enable it to multiply 

 the fruits of the earth many fold. 1 present the 

 recipe or invention of the United Brethren for 



the improvement of land written out in their own 

 words as containing a highly interesting princi- 

 ple important to be known by the owner of every 

 poor piece of land. 



DIRECTIONS FOR CSIKG CLOVER FOR MANURING 

 LAND. 



" If your soil is poor and wants enriching for 

 tillage, seed well vvith clover and timothy, when 

 sown with wheat, barley or oats, and give it a 

 good dressing of plaster. After harvest be care- 

 ful not to have it pastured until the following 

 summer. In Jidy turn in any kind of .stock yon 

 please, and pastin-e it the remainder of the season. 

 Thi; next spring plaster it again, and tiu'u in yoiu' 

 cattle as you do in other pastures. In the 'jiill, 

 say Octobei, turn over the land (or another crop. 

 The spring fbllowiug harrow first lengthways the 

 furrow : then sow your wheat, barley or oats, and 

 harrow twice, crossing the finrow. Before the 

 last harrowing sow your grass seed. Then fol- 

 low the same process !;s belijre another two sea- 

 sons ; after which it is presumed your laud will 

 be strong enough to bear taking oti' two or three 

 crops before it is again seeded. And by continu- 

 ing a rotation of crops, say corn, oats, wheat or 

 rye — then clover as before — it will he rather im- 

 proved than otherwise, provided plaster will pro- 

 iluce clover onyom- lanil as it does on some lands 

 in the State of New York. 



From (bur to six quarts of clover seed per acre 

 and lour quarts of timothy do well in this case; 

 but in seeding for mowing we shotdd vary (in- 

 crease ?) the proportion. 



From one and a half to two bushels of plaster 

 is about right for an acre. 



The plaster may be sown when the land is 

 first seeded with clover, or it may be omitted till 

 the (bllowing spring ; but as it is a protection to 

 the young clover against drought, it is geneially 

 sown then and the following spring too. 



Which is preferable to pasture or plough in the 

 clover, our experience does not enable us to de- 

 cide." 



On this last point it must be in(i?rred that the 

 ploughing in will sooner or more e(fectually ef- 

 i'ect the object than pasturing ; but inasnnich as 

 in the process of pasturing there is no loss of 

 crop (bra single seasfju, so if by that process the 

 land can be enriched, it woidd seem to be the 

 better way of accomplishing the object. 



In a desultory manner I have glanced at some 

 ofthose proiuinent points which 1 consider essen- 

 tial to the perfect ntanagcment of the farm. There 

 is hardly a farm in l\\t: country in such a state of 

 cultivation that something more may not always 

 be done to it which will remunerate the labor. 

 Every imiirovement adds to the wealth and the 

 corufort of the owner. 



A farm, with adequate buildings for the secu- 

 rity of animals and crops — 

 — with good and permanent fences that will not 

 rot and decay — 



— with fields underdrained and ploughed to a 

 depth that shall retain all their strength to be 

 thrown into vigorous vegetation: 



A farm in .-i compact body near to the place 

 where its produce is wanted and from whence 

 its maiuuc can he iurnished — 



— that can be thrown conveniently into fields 

 either i'of mowing, pasture or cultivation witl 

 the plough— 



— whose well tilled soil shall increase in fer 

 tility in every course of a judicious rotation o 

 cro|is — ■ 



.'^iicli a D.rni jnust be the most satisfactory 

 propi'ity v.hii'h a man of wealth, or good taste, 

 as a iuvi-r ol' his species or an admirer of the 

 beauties of Nature, can desire. 



MANAGE.MENT OF TtlE FARM BY THE YOUNG MAPi 

 ENTERING UPON ACTIVE LIFE WITH NO OTIIhR 

 PROPERTY THAN HIS HANDS. 



In the .sale of the vast domain, the property of 

 the government, paymetit generally at the rate 

 of one dollar twenty-five cents the acre is requir- 

 ed to be made at the time of purchase, rite 

 present payment has b«en evaded in thousands 

 of cases by the taking up and settlement of lands 

 before they have been surveyed ; and so strong 

 lias become the influence and numbers of this 

 class of settlers, that it has been a popular act of 

 Congress to give pre-emption rights for lands 

 thus taken up. In New England, lands for tl 

 first settlement have always been for sale on 

 credit ; and of the first settlers but a small por- 



tion of the pioneers of the forest paid for theni 

 before they were.occiqiied. 



The want of abundant means has been one of 

 those causes which have led to the exhaustion of 

 many fiirms. The settlers have cropped and 

 taken every thing from them as a matter of ne- 

 cessity—they were obliged to do it to enable 

 them to obtain the means of present support 

 I payment for their lands and other imjirove- 

 nts. It is indeed extraordinary that so many 

 of the first settlers of New England so well suc- 



eded in raising themselves frmii a i-ondition of 

 debt and indigence to coni|)arative independence. 



Discouraging as it may siniu to the man upon 



worn-out (arm « ho is jet in debt, there are 



lys of management by which he may lelieva 

 himself. 



If he pursues a system of exhau.°tion — if he 

 continues to labor year after year on land that 

 every year lessens its production — he can but 

 :ct that poverty which must sooner or later 

 drive him from his farm. But let him commence 

 the work of renovation upon a single acre. If he 



nnot go forward with all the improvements of 

 the man of enterprise who has the aid of wealth, 

 'le can take hold of some one i)oint at a time in 

 which perseverance and industry will seldom 

 fail to ensure success. 



There is often more gained in what is saved 

 than in what is earned. Expenditure naturally 

 keeps pace with income : the ujan of small 

 means sometimes lives better and thrives better 

 than the man of abundance. The farmer of 

 stinted means who feels his way will find liis 

 best advantage in turning his attention to such 

 improvements as may be within his reach. The 

 first acre improved will furnish him the means 

 of extendincr improvement to other acres. Sup- 

 pose by rising early and working late he plants 

 an orchard of a single acre, engrafting it vvith 

 choice fruit. That acre in five to ten years may 

 be to him a source of annual i)rofit much greater 

 than its present value. Suppose by draining 

 some useless swamp he shall find the means of 

 increasing his manures at the same time he con- 

 verts it into a fruitful field. The swamp may in 

 a few years become of more value than was his 

 whole (iirm. Suppose he shall turn some stream 

 of water, (lashing it over his mowing ground 

 that now gives little increase: in this he may 

 add to his hay crop (bur-fold. Suppose he shati 

 gather the rocks from a portion of bis farm that 

 is now drowned out by an excess of water and 

 now burnt out by the drought operaliiig on a soil 

 moved only near its surface, and deepen the up- 

 per vegetable mould by draining and subsoiling: 

 he may by such a process create a value of ten 

 for one. Or suppose he shall, u|)on a thin soil 

 ol sandy plain, by cultivation of clover and plas- 

 ter, make that |)roductive which now gives to 

 labor hut little reward: how soon will he find 

 the hreiid cast upon the waters returning to him 

 in a time when it shall be most acceptable.' 



A fiu-tn of fifty acres — and we know (arms of 

 less dimensions on u Inch rich men have been 

 maile — a farm of fifty ticrcs lu ought into its 

 highest slate of production by the hand v> ho has 

 found the means of improvement as he went 

 along — would entitle its owner to the name of 

 beneliictor of his conntry and friend of his race. 



NOVEMBER. 



Yet one smile more, departing rlistant sun .' 



One mellow .?ni:ie tl:r,,ugli tlie sn(t vapoury air. 

 Ere o'er the frozfn oarih, the loud winds run, 



Or snows nre iiifted o'er the meadows hare. 

 One smile .in the brown hills and nalied trees, 



And the dark rocks "li.se summer wreatlis are east, 

 .\nd the blue (.'■■ntian flov.cr, that, in the breeze, 



.Nods lonely, of her bcautcour rare the last ; 

 Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee 



Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way, 

 The cricket chirp'upon the russet lea, 



And man delight, to linger in the ray. 

 Vet one rich Kinile, and we will try to bear 



The piercing winter frosts, and winds, and darkened 



Sharp Repartee. — A couiitryman sowing his 

 ground, two sni,irt fellows riding that way, one of 

 them called to him with an insolent air, — 



" Well, honest fellow," said he, " 'tis your husi- 

 ness to sow, but we reap the (iiiits of your labor." 



To which the countryman replied," '"Tisvery 

 like yon may, for I am sowing hemp." 



