22 NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE. 



2. The stones should be of sufficient weight to prevent their 

 removal by ice or water. 



3. Round stones had best be employed to make a footing 

 and to cover submerged portions of the bank. Such are easiest 

 got into position. Quarry grout and other angular stones, cut 

 into slabs eight or ten inches thick, lie firmest above the water 

 line and are to be preferred. 



4. If the bank be a high one, the rubble need not be carried 

 to the top of it, nor cover all the surface it occupies. If three 

 quarters of it is covered, erosion will be prevented. 



5. The requisite amount of stone may be often lessened De- 

 constructing the submerged footing of trees, laid parallel with 

 the bank with their tops up stream. These may be kept in 

 place by rocks laid upon them, and, arresting moving sand, 

 will be soon buried beneath it. Kept perpetually wet, they 

 will never decay. 



6. It is well to encourage a speedy growth of bushes and 

 trees along a rubbled bank. They will be sure to spring up 

 sooner or later of their own accord, but their advent and growth 

 may be hastened by plantings. Whenever the river overflows 

 its bank, these will arrest floating debris and cause a precipita- 

 tion of suspended sand near the channel. 



7. I give no estimates of the expense of this kind of work. 

 It will depend largely upon the height of the bank to be pro- 

 tected, the depth of the water and the cost of labor and 

 materials. Hundreds of loads of the stones used upon the bank 

 described were taken from useless stone walls on neighboring 

 upland farms. The cost was one dollar and twenty-seven cents 

 per linear foot. It might now, doubtless, be done for a good 

 deal less. 



PRODUCTION OF HAY. 



A novice in farming is quite sure to make mistakes, more or 

 less costly in proportion to the magnitude of his business. The 

 present proprietor expected no exemption from the action of 

 this rule, and determined at the outset to watch carefully the 

 results of his operations and record them in a cash book. This 

 is to the farmer what his log book is to the seaman. It gives 

 him his financial latitude and longitude and oftentimes saves 



