JU 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



OCTOBEH 17. 1S3 = 



aid of thcrchh^ Tl.e fattcnin'r of beef is usually bresd. Aud thoueh we cannot afford to raise grain We think we have none to spare for those lands, 

 a losinff came as soon as we^be-rin to feed on to be carried to n.arket, neither can we afford to We can do better with it near home. 



^ " resort to our seaports to buy it. It may cost us If we plant any portion of a pasture we musi 



^™"av usu-illv remunerates the producer. It is one eighth of its value to send it to market It fence it from the rest. If we take a crop of grain 

 easily prepared for market, and it does not exhaust has often cost us an eighth to purchase and bring it or potatoes from it we must manure or it is impov- 

 the soil \ fi'^ld that has lain twenty years in home.— By raising our own grain we avoid both ' erished by the operation. 



crra<s is not thereby impoverished. It will produce these charges-these two eighths or one fourth of j Thousands of acres of such lands may be madf 

 as'much on beino- plou-rhed a<ri,in as if it had lain the value. I have known farmers to make still ^ to produce double the feed they now do merely b> 

 .^ = ■"' greater sacrifices. They have sold themselves a proper use of the plough and a little grass seed 



"The' soil has become choked and dried by a short in autumn, when bread was plenty, to pur- | And the plough is quite as good an instrument tc 

 superabundance of root'<^-roots that are stillhalf chase again in spring when it is usually more . kill the bushes with as a bush-scythe. The sill 

 alive and therefore not subject to decomposition. scarce. Hence the maxim that fanners should live growers cut the mulberry bush annually, and thin! 

 •" - - t . . „ ,, . j.._»: — ^ jj crrows the better tor it. We mow our bushes ii 



When soils have b.-come thus choked, or as we ' principally on their own productions , ^ „ , - . _ r- .., 11 



Bay bound out. they must be moved or loosened, Our pasture lands are much neglected. We j pastures from age to age. Can the same kind o 

 aaain In low ffround this is partially effected by [ mow the bushes in thom from age to age, in order trimming make the mulberry thrive, and be destruc 

 a°to,) dre=«in.rliu high grounds the process of, to kill thom. Now although this may be the best tive to the fern and the whortlebeiTy ? 

 plantincr and sowin- is resorted to that an opportu- mode of treating the mulberry bush, to make it If the pasture be quite too rocky for the plougl 



thrive, it cannot be the best mode to destroy the | — if we cannot pull up halt the bushes and bur 

 fern and the whortleberry. .We should not mow 1 the rest with it, let the land return again to its na 

 bush'e.? till they are large enough for fuel. To I tive wildness, whence it should never have bee- 

 kill small bushes take the plough. If the land he | called. 



nity may be had of manuring again. 



Now instead of going through with this tedious 

 process of*planting, and sowing, and ciopping, 

 with grain, till we have reduced the soil lower, in 

 reality, than when we began, we may renovate 

 all OHK mo 



It is not profitable to cut bushes before 



too rouirh for this let the bushes grow, and let it ' they are tall enough for wood. 



wino- lands with much less labor and less j return to its original wildness, from which state it 



should never have been called. Pasture lands that 

 deserve the name may be renovated without divid- 

 ing them —without manuring — without planting. 

 Let them be ploughed, harrowed, and seeded 



manure. 



About the first of September plough in the grass 

 crop that is growing, and cover it up completely. 

 Then roll down the furrows close with a heavy 



roller. Put on a dozen loads of compost manure down anew as in the case recommended for mow 

 to the acre. Harrow thoroughly, lengthwise and ing lands. Pastures are usually the most distant 



diagonally but not crosswise. — Then sow grass 

 seed and cover it with a bush harrow. — The clover 

 seed should not be sown till winter. 



By this process you convert, on one acre, many 

 tons of green grass and roots to manure, putting it 

 into a rapid state of decomposition for your hay 

 crop that is to follow. By repeating this process 



anils. We cannot so easily manure them. . A lit- 

 tle plaster or ashes, sown on seeding down, will 

 give the new crop a start But if nothing is ap- 

 plied as a top dressing the pasture will yield the 

 better for ploughing, and the bushes will die. We 

 are often deterred from meddling with old pastures 

 on account of the trouble and expense of fencing 



once in three or four years we can bring'-cur soils off a portion to keep out the cattle while a hoed 



to any degree of fertility we please, when ■wff shall 

 need no manure ! 



We can then turn to the surface a mas?' of de- 

 composed vegetable matter that needs do' enrich- 

 ing, while we turn down in its place u -new supply, 

 ready again to be turned to the surface when the 

 soil again becomes choked with abundance of roots. 

 This renovating process is attended with but lit-' 

 tie expense. We plough at the most leisure sea- 

 son ; when our teams are strong and cheaply fed. 

 They find their supper in the field they work in, 

 as soon as the yoke is loosed ; and in the morning 

 they are in the field long before their masters and 

 ready to renew the task. 



Low land — wet land that cannot be planted or 



touched in spring, may be thus managed, and its 



sour, coarse grass be put to rotting, and its place be 



supplied by a richer crop. Such land will not oft- 

 en require the plough.— A top dressing will long 



continue its productive powers and keep at bay the 



poorer grasses. 



What valuable interest do we sacrifice by this 



course of tillage? We miss no crop as in case of 



a summer fallow. But we lose a part of the pro 



fits arising from hoed crops and grain crops. We 



forego the advantages of laboring the whole of 



April on spring grain — the whole of May and June 



in planting corn and potatoes and rooting out the 



weeds with handhoes, and at the season when ^ . , ,. , . , n 1 , 1^ 



teams are kept at the greatest expense— and tfie of leached ashes. When the wild grass begins to j in half an hour. \ our hired-man will be half 



crop IS growing By the mode liere recommended 

 we need no fencing off. We can plough and seed 

 n again any portion of a large pasture we may 

 choose. If we manure such land it will not re- 

 quire one fourth so much to the acre as a hoed 

 crop requires. 



Our low lands are much neglected. They are 

 generally our richest lands and want draining and 

 seeding merely to produce good crops of gras.s. I 

 have one acre of such land that has borne me ten 

 successive crops of grass and grain and potatoes, 

 and it has never been manured. It bore two tons 

 of good English hay last summer at the first cut- 

 ting, and the purchaser agi-eed to take it without 

 weighing at within a fraction of two tons. A 

 second crop was cut in August and gave us one 

 good load The cattle are now taking their turn 

 on it and are getting a good share. Twelve years 

 ago this acre produced nothing. It had produced 

 nothing for fifty years. It was too wet. I caused 

 it to be drained, then carted on about twenty loads 

 of loam from the road side, to render the surface 

 more compact that the grass seed might vegetate, 



and I have had two crops of corn and one of pota- I a load of them was passing, last summer, to Bostoi 

 toes from it within the ten years— have fed it eve- many inquired what those sharp wooden -tint 

 ry autumn when in grass, and have often cut two | tilings were made for, and whether they were m 

 crops from it in a year. Nothing in the shape of to dig potatoes with .' 



manure has been put on the main body of this acre I Intolerably smooth ground I have very ofte 

 for these ten years except about half a dozen loads ' seen an acre raked perfectly clean by one of tlies 



Bear with me a little longer while I say- a fe^ 

 words on the subject of farming tools. 



Our ploughs have been much improved withi: 

 thirty years. We now turn our green sward wit 

 half the team we formerly employed. Thirty year 

 ago who attempted to plough green-sward with on 

 yoke of o.xen ? Three yoke were usually employe 

 in this service. 



The moulder now fits close to the share. Th 

 furrow rises without any check from the uneven 

 ness of the inclined plane. The plough cuts as 

 regular, tapering, smooth wedge. But we hav 

 not yet brought it to perfectiom We have muc 

 improved upon the post, with which the north Afr 

 can stirs his soil — holding the top of it in h 

 hands and gauging its point according to tf 

 strength of his team. la some districts in Englan 

 tliey still use something not much superior to th 

 African model. Our grass ploughs are too sho 

 for even or plane ground — the furrow breaks befoi 

 it is put in its place. The advocates for sho 

 ploughs allege that they are attended with le; 

 friction. This is a "mistake. A long taperin 

 wedge raises a weight with less friction than 

 short one. A long plough keeps the furrow sus 

 pended and unbroken, and the falling sod assist 

 to help the rising portion, as the sinking bucket i 

 a well helps to draw up the rising one. 



Our hay forks and our manure forks are no 

 made of better metal than formerly, and if we pe: 

 form no more labor with thom, we do it with moi 

 ease. 



We begin to use the horse-rake in haying; bi 

 we are far behind Pennsylvania and New Jerse; 

 New Hampshire and Rhode Island in the use . 

 them. There are three or four kinds in the Unitf 

 States. Yet not a — farmer (?) shall I say in 

 thousand, in Massachusetts, has ever seen one. A 



show itself we plough it under in September and day, with a hand rake, in performing the same, 

 seed down an-ain. ° I A seed planter, or planting harrow has been ii 



Our high pasture lands may be renovated in this ] vented this season and may be seen at the store < 

 way without planting — without manuring — without 1 D. Prouty & Co., Boston. It will plant an acre ( 



w.ica>.,^v.. ^„... .. o t. .fencing off. They^arc usually the most distant ! corn in an hour, furrowing out, dropping, coverin 



welY'managod, \vi\i usually supply a ftmily^with [ from the barn and do not get a share of the manure. | and rolling down at one operation. Several fielc 



whole of autumn in harvesting a scanty crop on 

 land half manured. 



We may raise grain enough for our own supply at 

 small expense. 



One acre of corn and another of English grain. 



