426 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



of rain, as the wheels pass along. Here is a sav- 

 ing of fertilizing material, not often witnessed. 

 Ten acres or more, were thus enriched on this 

 farm. All the arrangements about the extensive 

 farm of Mr. Rogers, are in the most complete or- 

 der. On the farm of Mr. Waters, I saw a 

 mowing machine, that had been operated a little; 

 laid aside for want of skill in those who worked it. 

 I have good reason to believe, that machines 

 for mowing will ere long be in as common use, as 

 machiues fur raking now are. The corn-fields-, as 

 I passed along, appeared in fine condition. There 

 is no crop, in ray judgment as a whole, superior to 

 Indian corn. The manner in which it leaves the 

 land for other crops, is one of its best features. I 

 felt in duty bound, as I passed, to pay my respects 

 to the venerable pear tree on the Gov. Endicott es- 

 tate, without question more than 200 years old. 

 I found it growing vigorously, some of the 

 branches having extended more than a foot the 

 present season — and all of them being fully laden 

 with fruit; it is indeed a curiosity. I saw also 

 the original stump of the Eppes' sweeting, with a 

 tree growing out of it — but like most other apple 

 trees, it bears no fruit this season. I have rare- 

 ly passed through a section of country, with scen- 

 ery more variegated and beautiful — particularly 

 the views from the summits visited in Danvers 

 and Beverly. 



The beauty of Mr. Water's position is only sur- 

 passed by the gentlemanly hospitality of its pro- 

 prietor, p. 



N. B. Mr. Mason, showed me his onli/ cow, an 

 animal of native breed, now about ten years old, 

 of large size and prime condition — whose calf, 

 killed at the age of 3 weeks and 2 days, weighed 

 168 pounds — from which cow 33 lbs of milk had 

 been taken at a single milking — and 17i lbs of 

 butter made in one week. Such facts need no 

 comment. There may be breeds of cows that do 

 better than this, but I have yet to see them. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SALERATUS. 



Mr. Brown : — I noticed in your August No. of 

 Neio England Farmer, an article on the use of 

 saleratus. I had seen several articles on the same 

 subject elsewhere. They seem to be written by 

 men who are not aware that it is never used by 

 good housekeepers, except in connexion with 

 some acid, which destroys its alkaline properties. 



In the country, sour milk is much used, and 

 Cream of Tartar has of late come into use exten- 

 sively. The evil is in using too much, i. e. more 

 than sufficient to neutralize the acid. When this 

 is the cage, the bread will be discolored, and smell 

 and taste of saleratus. 



Bread raised with yeast is, no doubt, healthiest, 

 best, and most economical for common use. But 

 as this is a process requiring usually four or five 

 hours, how shall we "hurry up those cakes," of 

 which our men folks are so fond, without salera- 

 tus? Milk may be used with it, but can hardly 

 " take its place there," as you suggest. 



Meg. 



Remarks. — Well, Mistress " Meg," we thank 

 you for your pleasant article above, and are confi 

 dent you are one of the wives that the scripture 



speaks of as " rising in the morning and looking 

 to the ways of her household." But we shall be 

 obliged to fiill back on our " reserved rights " in 

 this case, and get our loife, who uses little or no 

 saleratus, to tell us how she manages! We will 

 " stake her bread against the world," and invite 

 you to call at River Cottage and test it yourself. 



For the New England Farrner. 

 OLD FIELDS. 



An unpromising subject, you will say, Mr. Ed- 

 itor. I grant it, but still argue that it should be 

 discussed. Are you aware what an amount of 

 land in Massachusetts comes under this denomi- 

 nation 1 Suffice to say it is very great. In the 

 old county of Hampshire, are tens of thousands of 

 acres of this character. Land originally produc- 

 tive, though light and sandy, which by continual 

 draining, or perhaps more properly, skimming, haa 

 been so far reduced as to be regarded as almost 

 worthless. 



These "old fields" are, for the most part, sup- 

 posed incapable of producing anything but rye, 

 and that in very small quantities. 



The common practice is to sow rye once in three 

 years ; fallow plowing in June, and again plowing 

 and sowing early in September. No grass seed is 

 sown, nor is it expected the ground will produce 

 anything but weeds during the Jtwo intervening 

 years — but seek repose in a short Van Winkle nap. 



The product varies from five to nine bushels. 

 We will allow seven to be the average, which is 

 liberal. The expense of plowing twice, harrowing 

 and sowing, is at least three dollars. Such land 

 is estimated at from ten to twenty-five dollars 

 per acre. Call the interest sixty cents for three 

 years $1,80. Taxes and fencing, say fifty cents 

 per acre, $1,50. Making an aggregate cost of 

 $6,30 for the production of seven bushels of rye. 

 One bushel of which must be deducted for seed, 

 leaving six bushels, worth, on an average, 5s per 

 bushel=$5, as a return for a cash outlay of six 

 dollars and thirty cents. I allow that the straw 

 will pay for harvesting and threshing, still the 

 cultivator does not get pay for his labor, and would 

 be better off without land. 



This I call an impoverishing process. It im- 

 poveri,shes both the soil and the tiller. That the 

 cultivator is made poorer, is shown by figures 

 which can't lie. Experience and common sense 

 prove that land will depreciate and be rendered 

 less productive by this process. Let the farmer 

 skin his horse and turn him out to pasture. He 

 may save the hide, but a long time will elapse be- 

 fore he will obtain another, or any service from 

 his horse. A process somewhat analogous is pur- 

 sued by those who crop old fields with rye and 

 nothing but that. 



Agricultural products have become too valuable 

 in New England to suffer land to remain thus un- 

 productive. The cause of agricultural science de- 

 mands that labor, expended upon the cultivation 

 of the soil, should be remunerative. 



We hear much said of the old fields in the 

 Southern States, — tracts of land, which, by con- 

 tinuous cropping and bad tillage, have been ren- 

 dered worthless, and turned out as part of the 

 public goose-pasture. 



We New Englanders regard this as bad hus- 



