146 



NEW EiVGLAND PARMER. 



Nov. 23, 163r. 



blown away or changed with every strnng wind 

 like n shifting sandbar at the mouth of a river. 

 The hoit.scs are set c-n piles, that the wind and 

 sand niiiy pass under them, instead of covering I 

 Uiem. The iuliabitants of the place live by taking 

 fish; many boats come in daily, when the weather) 

 permits, and dress their fish on the shore. The ! 

 cows; come, after cropping what little grass th? ; 

 place affords, to finish their dinner on animal food, i 

 They devour the heads, back-bones and olfals of 

 the fish, without leaving a particle behind for the 

 cats or crows. Notwithstanding this convenient 

 diet for their cows, it is said the proprietors of 

 Provincctown must abandon the privilege of keep- 

 ing them, on account of their destroying the grass, 

 which is so useful in giving the bipeds something 

 like a solid surface to live on. — Visit, tnd Tel. i 



mxiracts from "An Mdre^s to the Society of the 

 Counties of Hampshire, Franklin, and Hamp- ! 

 den, for the promotion of JigrieuUure and the , 

 Mechanic Arts. By Hon. Mark D.oolittle." [ 

 Industry is the great source of individual and 

 national prosperity. The best mode of ajiplying ' 

 it to relieve the wants and necessities of society is 

 the grand secret which should engage the atten 

 tion of men in their progress to wealth and dis- ! 

 tinction. It is a trilo remark, that whatever is | 

 worth doing is worth well doing. This is pre- ' 

 t^minontly true in the business of aErricuIture. — 

 The farmer v.Iin grasps at more land for inprove- 

 ment than he can cultivate to advantage, pursues : 

 a niistaken policy ; some portion of it must run to ! 

 waste, (f a debt has accrued in the acquisition i 

 the chance is against him that the avails of his 

 labor will ore long find llieir way into the pocket ; 

 of a morlgngec uaJor a fore-closure. The idle ' 

 and slovenly farmer is' at best bat a co-tenant, in ' 

 his crop?, with the beasts which ,are continually I 

 preying upon them, and with the basest vegela- 1 

 bles in the freehold possession. He wiio contents 

 himself year after year with fifteen or twenty 

 hundred of hay, or twenty bushels of corn upon 

 an acre of Iiis best !a;id, laci:s the skill or industry 

 of the prosperous farmer. There has been great 

 neglect in providing those enriching substances 

 which are peculiarly nutritious to the vegetable 

 kingdom. The labor of a single day in providing 

 compost, under advantageous circumstances, when 

 properly applied, will do more in filling your 

 barns and corn cribs, than four times the labor 

 spent upon a poor r.nd barren soil. The farmer 

 sliould learn the defects in the. suil which he cul- 

 tivates, and what can best be applied to cure Ihoso 

 defects and increase its fertility. If your lands 

 »re too mniGt, add thiit which will render them 

 fess moii^t — for marshy ground it is found that 

 l&nd is the best manure ; if your lands are too 

 dry, of not sufficient capacity to retain moisture, 

 xpply ilio glennings from your ditches and marsh- 

 es ; if your lands are too adhesive, apply tr.!\rl and 

 ashes ; if there is an c;ccess of calcareous" eartli, 

 savs Sir John Sinclair, " apply sand and clay ; to 

 soils v.iih acids or salt of iron, apply calcareous 

 earth." By a combination of these, a manure is 

 formed very advantageous to the t'rowth of vege- 

 tation. Some soils will receive incalculable ad- 

 VHntagfi from an application which would be in- 

 jurious to others. The best method of applying 

 vegetable manure is to turn it under the furrou, 

 .-ind the fossil to remain upon the surface ; the 

 reason for this is tlie opposite effects which the 



oarth and the atmosphere have upon the different 

 substances; the vegetable tending to the surface 

 and to evaporation, and the fossil tending to the 

 earth ; by such an application they act upon each , 

 other in the best possible mode to give life and j 

 entrgy to vegetation. When the manuring is by j 

 turning under a green crop, a slight dressing with ' 

 gypsum or lime is highly beneficial. Upon those 

 lands where you do not use the plough after a j 

 dressing of vegetable manure, to apply immediate- 

 ly a small portion of the fossil, produces a more ■ 

 rapid decomposition of the vegetable and an in- 

 corporation with tlie soil most conducive to the j 

 growth of a healthy vegetation. 



In tillage land it is believed to be a common ' 

 fault that the earth is not turned to a sufficient i 

 depth. I am aware that different opinions prevail j 

 on this subject ; but from well tested experiments : 

 which have been made, it has been satisfactorily 

 proved that shallow ploighing is injurious — the 

 root of the plant cannot r>-ocure the requisite 

 nourishment. To make the r rth produdivo, it is 

 essential that the atmosphere act upon it, and the 

 more earth which comes under the influence of 

 heat and cold and atmospheric moisture, the more 

 invigorating power is given to it to sust >in a lux- 

 uriant growth. Again, by this method of culture, 

 the earth absorbs more v.-ater and retains its mois 

 ture a greater length of time and at the same 

 time is less liable to have v.'aler remain upon the 

 surface. Many useful and well dir<>cled experi- 

 ments have been made both in Europe and this 

 country in this branch of agriculture. In Flan- 

 ders deep ploughing has greatly improved their 

 soil — it has been uniformly adopted there for 

 many years — no part of Europe is more fertile. — 

 The horticulturists near Loudon, plough their 

 lands a foot in depth — no lands are more pro- 

 ductive. 



Good fences are essential to the good manage- 

 ment of a farm; to say nothing of the additional 

 security to crops, or the time saved in being re- 

 lieved from continued calls to remove from mis- 

 chief the trespassing herds, or the expense saved 

 iu lav.'-suits (which are often produced as a con- 

 sequence,) by providing exterior fences — there is 

 great actual gain in partitioning your fields into 

 enclosures of moderate extent. The result of cal- 

 culation on this subject is fliat a given territory 

 of forty or fifty acres, applied to pasturage, will 

 support twenty per cent, more sloc.'v, when ilivid- 

 ed into three or four separate enclosures, than 

 when in one general field. 



j The cultivation of the grasses is an important 

 I branch in the business of a practical farmer. Lin- 

 !: nffius has given us an account of not less than hi'ly 

 j different genera, which are cultivated in England. 

 There may be as many found here; yet there are 

 comparatively but few cultivated as a crop upon 

 the lands of the New England frmer. Moreattm- 

 tion in selecting such seeds as are adapted to tlie 

 difl'cTPut soils and to each other in the period of 

 their becoming mature for the scythe, would find 

 its reward in the results produced. It is no uncom- 

 mon pro-pect whencastinsi tho^ eye upon the mead- 

 ows of even our best farmers, to witness some 

 portions of the crop nearly or quite fit for gather- 

 ing, and another portion just beginninj to come 

 forward. When the latter has become in;ituro the 

 former has become nearly worthless. This may 

 he the case wlicn the grasses are indigenous to 

 the soil ; and it frequently arises from the prac 

 tice of stocking lands from gleanings of the floors 



and mangers of the barn "where every plant, 

 good and noxious, has left its seeds." It has 

 been found by experiment that many, and it is pro- 

 bably the case with most kinds of grass, that they 

 flourish upon soils where thpy are never found 

 till they are sown as a crop. The red clover, al- 

 though an e.xotic plant, has proved to be a most 

 profitable grass here as well as in England, where 

 it was introduced about two hundred and fifty 

 years since from Holland. Such suspicions were 

 entertained of its utility in Englanri, that it did 

 not gain a general use there till within fifty years. 

 It is more beneficial to the soil than any of the 

 grasses. The principal ca se of its fertilizing 

 properties is the broad leaf, which imbibes more 

 nutriment from the atmosphere than any other. — 

 It is, however, not durable; hence other grascs 

 should he cast with it in the seeding. Some of 

 the best farmers in the northern States recom- 

 mend the oat grass and orchard grass as the most 

 suitable. The more usual practice in this vicini- 

 ty, has been, to sow the herds grass with it. The 

 principal objection to this practice is thit the do- * 

 ver is mature for the scythe fifteen days earlier 

 than the other grass, which affords double the 

 nutriment, says Judge Buel, when cut iu the seed, 

 to what it does when cut in the flower. Pprhaps 

 no grass trives a better reward for cultivation 

 than the herds grass ; it is indigenous ; so is the 

 white clover and the red top. which afibrd, by at- 

 tentive cultivation, rich and abundant pastures. 



I am well satisfied that more attention to the 

 cultivation of .Millet would prove profitable to the 

 farmers of old Hampshire. This grain is a native 

 of India ; it has for a long time benn cultivated 

 with great success and profit in the south of Eu- 

 rope, and farther north than our latitude. Its pa 

 trons in the New Enjland and the middle States 

 have fnvind their reward in their attention to it. — 

 To the Pennsylvania Agricultuial Society, Judge 

 Washington says, "I have .'btained this season, 

 (18931 forty tons from sixteen acres, of which only 

 four had been manured ; and my cattle of all sorts 

 prefer it to white or red clover or meadow hay." 

 .^gain, says Mr. Powel, of Philadelphia, "sheep 

 are particularly fond of millet grass, but not more 

 so than horses and other stock." It has been, 

 cultivated to a considerable extent in the eastern 

 counties of this Commonwealth, and has very 

 i generally been approved by the farmers of Essex, 

 j Middlesex and Worcester. It has been less rais- 

 ed within our limits and Berkshire, though some 

 attention has been eiven to it in the western sec- 

 tion of the State. The soil best suited to it is a 

 lisrbt loam possessina- a good degree of strength. 

 Upon such a soil, the seed which you will obtain 

 will usually exceed, in value, a crop of oats upon 

 the same ground, though not over two thirds the 

 quantity ; the greatest profit in the crop will be 

 found, however, in the straw for fodder; and 

 should it never be used for farinaceous purposes 

 it would be found a profitable crop. Its efl'ect in 

 [the destruction of weeds is much the same as that 

 of red clover; if prohably draws more nutriment 

 I from the atmosphere than most other crops — it is 

 less pxhauslintr to the soil than oats — it should 

 iip sown about the tenth of June, and will be fit 

 for harvest the last of August. 



(To be concluded in our next.) 



The tax levied in Philadelphia and liberties, for 

 the support of the poor, the last season wa.<: about 

 90,000 dollars. 



