FARMING IN ESSEX COUNTY. 



49 



the rider, and speed for every ordinary purpose. 

 Length of baoli will always be desirali'e when there 

 is more than usual substance, and particularly when 

 the loins are wide, and the muscles of the loins large 

 and swelling. The requisites, strength and speed, 

 would then probably be united. The back should 

 be depressed a little immediately behind the withers; 

 and then continue in an almost straight line to the 

 loins. This is the form most consistent with beauty 

 and strength. Some horses have a considerable 

 hollow behind the withers ; these are called saddle- 

 backed ; a few have the curve outwards, and are 

 called roached-back. This is a very serious defect, 

 a together incompatible with beauty, and materially 

 diminishing the usefulness of the animal. 



27. The loins can scarcely be too broad and mus- 

 cular ; the strength of the back and hinder extremi- 

 ties hinges upon this point. At the union of the 

 back with the loins, a slight depression is sometimes 

 observable ; this must always be regarded as an indi' 

 cation of weakness. 



28. The hind quarter. 



35. The inside of the thigh or stifle. 

 38. The point of the shoulder. 



FAEMIHG IN ESSEX COTJNTY, MASS. 



The following account of a New Hampshire farm 

 and farmer, by the editor of the Connecticut Valley 

 Farmer, can be perused to profit by those who are 

 content to do only as their fathers have done. 



At the close of an enthusiastic two-days' cattle 

 fair, held last month at Kxeter, Rockingham county, 

 N. H., in which nearly a thousand dollars had been 

 exhausted in premiums and necessary e.xpenses, we 

 were introduced by one good farmer to another — by 

 Allen W. Dodge, of Hamilton, Esses county, to 

 Wm. F. Pobtek, of Bradford, in the same county. 

 Our purpose was to have visited John W. Pkoctoe, 

 Esq., of Danvers, with a view of seeing the onions 

 and other root crops in the neighborhood. From 

 this purpose we were turned aside by an assurance 

 on the part of Mr. Pokter, that if we would go 

 home with him, he would make himself at leisure the 

 next day to show us his farming. "We did so; and, 

 after spending a day with Mr. Porter, left a little 

 wiser, we would fain hope, than when we went. The 

 fault must have been our own if we were not It 

 will be recollected by some of our readers, that Mr. 

 Porter drew the Essex Society's premium for the 

 best managed farm, in 1851. His statement on that 

 occasion was the best we have seen. It was full of 

 valuable suggestions, which we doubt not have been 

 ere this the cause of similar improvements on other 

 farms, to those which he describes in his own. In 

 that statement Mr. Porter shows the year's expenses 

 of his farm to have been $1,441 91, the receipts for 

 the year to have been $3,369 70, and the net profits, 

 $1,927 85. He shows also that the farm, stock and 

 tools stood at $17,000, and that the year's profit 

 amounted to about twelve per cent, on that invest- 

 ment. 



An important consideration here presents itself : 

 Mr. Porter has very extensive orchards of apples, 



pears and peaches, most of which are young, only 

 eight or ten years from the seed. These, of course, 

 have been hitherto only a bill of expense; they are 

 now coming into bearing; and they cannot fail to 

 produce more in proportion to the expense attending 

 them hereafter than heretofore. 



If, then, such a farm would pay twelve per cent 

 on $17,000 in 1851, it woidd pay the same per cent 

 on a larger sum in 1854, the year being equally favor- 

 able; and a still larger sum in 1857; that is, the farm 

 that is managed as we see that Mr. Porter's is, must 

 of necessity increase in value. There is, of course, 

 a point beyond which this would not hold true, but 

 we believe this point is much higher up the scale 

 than most farmers think. 



We want to say a few things more about Mr. 

 Porter's farming, even though we should do it at 

 the expense of being thought long-winded, or more 

 enthusiastic than is meet His barn, which is built 

 wholly of new materials, and has taken the place of 

 an old one since he has been on that farm, is 75 feet 

 long. It is 45 feet wide, we believe. Two wings 

 running southward from the south-west and south- 

 east corners, and protecting the yard on the east and 

 west sides, as the barn protects it on the north, are 

 together nearly as large as the barn, the east one 

 being used for a shed below, for a stable in the sec- 

 ond story, and for a hay loft in the third; and that 

 on the west side of the yard being for a shed below, 

 and a granary above. Under the whole of the main 

 building, 75 feet by 45, (if we are right in this last,) 

 is a barn cellar. This is surrounded on the north 

 side and two ends by a very heavy wall laid in mor- 

 tar, and is so warm that it seldom freezes, and then 

 never retains the frost more than a few hours. The 

 business of composting, therefore, can be carried on 

 all winter. Next above this cellar is a barn floor, 

 into which loam, muck, &c., for composting, are drawn 

 to be dropped as wanted through scuttles into the 

 cellar below. Next above this is the regular bam 

 floor, upon which the hay and grain are drawn, and 

 on which the threshing is done. The business of 

 composting the solid and liquid excrements is attend- 

 ed to daily as they are dropped. One consequence 

 of this is, that no unpleasant smell ever infects thig 

 barn. The air in the barn cellar and through the 

 long sheds, both of which are on a level with the 

 yard, is almost as sweet as that over a new plowed 

 field, and for the same reason — the upturned soil in 

 one case, and the loam or muck applied in the other, 

 absorb and lock up in their pores every offensive gas 

 that may be floating above them. Mr. Porter keeps 

 sixty head of cattle, and one hundred and fifty sheep. 

 From these and his horses and pigs he makes 600 

 loads of compost, and he regards every load of it as 

 decidedly better than the excrements of animals 

 thrown out to take the wind and weather. He 

 showed us two and a quarter acres of corn on which 

 he put 12 loads of compost and 300 pounds of gua- 

 no to the acre. This he thinks will give him a hun- 

 dred bushels of shelled corn to the acre. We think 

 he over-estimates — should not dare to expect much 

 above eighty bushels. He showed us aiother field 

 of nine acres, which received 12 or 14 loads of ma- 

 nure, without guano, and which he estimates at from 

 fifty to sixty bushels on an acre. We could not but 



