326 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



APUIL 1, 1840 



gross, crossed with a French breed, and 27 (the 1 barns, carriage house, corn house, and hog-pen, May, upon the green award, and cover it over with 



offspring of the former,) are c/ossed with the Berk- wlucli last contains a collar on a level with and ad- ' "--'•— '-■-- '•-- -— ' •: 



ghire breed. I made over 7 l-S thousand pounds of joining the area, where are the boiler and two vats 



pork last year, and shall make about that quantity 

 this year. 



34. What do you feed them upon through the 

 summer months, and on what do you fatten them ? 



Keep them through the summer months in a clo- 

 ver pasture altogether; and fatten 'tliem on boiled 

 potatoes and ruta baga and Indian meal mi.xed to- 

 gether and fermented — until thte last stage of fat- 

 ting, when give nothing but scalded Indian meal. 



25. How many cart loads of manure do you 

 take from your hog styes in a year, and of what 

 materials is it made ? 



70 cartloads, and is made of straw, soil, &c., ta- 

 ken from the highway. 



20. What number of hands are employed on 

 your farm, and what do you pay for labor ? 



Three hands through the year and one additional 

 hand in haying and harvesting.; and pay $14 per 

 month. 



27. What is the number of your apple trees, 

 and are they of natural or grafted fruits ? 



100 — mostly of natural fruiU 



28. What number of fruit trees haVe you, e.\- 

 elusive of apple trees ? 



About 20. 



29. Have your trees been attacked by canker 

 worms or borers, and what is your method of de- 

 stroying them .■' 



They have not been. 



30. In the cultivation of your farm, do you 

 allow the use of ardent spirit? 



I do not. 



The above answers by me made are true accord- 

 ing to my best knowledge and belief. 



JOSHUA %. LAWTON. 



Stateintnt of Inspection of .Mr Lawton^s Farm, A- 

 mount of Produce, ^-c, ly H. Hubbard. 

 Mr Lawton read to me from his farm book as fol- 

 lows, viz : 



Estimate wheat raised this year, 337 1-3 bush. 

 - Rye, 191 " 



Oats, 3()5 



Ruta Baga, 885 " 



Potatoes, 1200 " 



Hay, 78 tons. 



His farm is all but contiguous : the 12 acres pas- 

 ture purchased this season, is a few rods off on the 

 N. W., and it is divided by the road running across 

 the S. E. corner, where the dwelling house and 

 barns, &c. are, with the meadow, some pasture and 

 wood-land on the E. and S. There is a ridge back 

 (west) of the house, of moderate height and acclivi- 

 ty, where the orchard is, but rising higher and grow- 

 ing steeper as you go north to his northern boun- 

 dary. The main part of the farm lies on the top 

 and west side of this ridge, falling or sloping grad- 

 ually to the west, and rising gradually to the north, 

 to about the middle of the farm, where the highest 

 part of the ridge is depressed or spread out wes- 

 terly into a wide and nearly level plain, dipping a 

 little towards the south ; here the farm too widens 

 or extends ta the west, and has buildings erected 

 for keeping sheep, and hay is stacked in the field-: 

 it is very pleasant, and well cultivated, and the soil 

 is warm and rich to the sunmiit ; not a barren or 

 uutillable spot on the whole. The farm is well 

 fenced and divided into lota of convenient size; the 

 house is in good repair, as are the other buildings, 



either side of it to receive the food, from wliich 

 it is shoveled to the troughs in the pen lining the 

 area. Water is carried from the aqueduct into the 

 boiler by a movable spout. The water for the 

 barns, &c. is taken from a spring in the door-yard. 

 The sheep, swine, &c. looked well. Mr L. has a 

 very commendable zeal and ambition to be a good 

 farmer. Mr Colman, the Agricultural Surveyor, 

 who has viewed this and Mr Colt's farm, may give 

 a clearer description of the premises. 



H. HUBBARD. 



Examination of the Farm of Increase Sumner Jf'heel- 

 er, of Framingham, which received the Society^s 

 third premium. 



The Committee, by their agent, having proceed- 

 ed to examine the farm of Increase Sumner Wheel- 

 er, of Framingham, county of Middlesex, carried on 

 by Persian H. Vose', find as follows: 



That the said farm consists of two hundred and 

 fifteen acres, exclusive of wood-land; there being 

 thirty acres of wood-land on the outskirts of the 

 farm. About seventy acres of mowing and tillage, 

 and five acres of very ordinary meadow land. The 

 land is generally susceptible of good production in 

 grain or grass, but mostly and more particularly of 

 the latter. Fifteen acres of light soil. The soil 

 is deep, and the pan retentive, composed of gravel 

 and clay. 



Our Mode of Improvemeul. 



A liberal supply of manure, as well as rotation 

 in crops, we consider indispensably necessary to- 

 wards the good n)anagement of a farm. It has 

 been our usual practice to keep up the land from 

 three to four years. Much time has been spent 

 and pains taken for several years past in making 

 compost manure, using one load of green manure 

 with one or two of meadow mud or loam. The 

 application of the meadow mud with manure to the 

 ght and high soil ; that of loam to that portion of 

 our soil approaching meadow land. We have pur- 

 chased some bone manure this fall, which has been 

 mixed with meadow-mud, and which we intend in 

 the spring to apply, by harrowing, to the inverted 

 sod of some portion of the fifteen acre lot above 

 mentioned, and plant with corn. Three acres of 

 land at the remote corner of the farm have been en- 

 riched by ploughing in a green crop of rye, and one 

 of buckwheat, which we intend .planting the next 

 spring with potatoes. 



How many acres tilled the present season ? 



Eighteen acres. 



How n.auy cartloads of manure, (meaning by 

 cartloads thirty bushels,) do you generally put on 

 an acre ? 



Of compost manure about forty loads to tlieacre, 

 equal to ten cords. 



Is your manure applied in its long or green state 

 or in compost ? 



Both. Our practice has been to spread the Jong 

 manure, and plough it in with a light furrow. The 

 compost is applied to the surface with the cultivator 

 and by harrowing. 



Do, you spread or plough in? 



Both. We prefer spreading, and then mixing it 

 well with the soil. 



What is your method of ploughing and cultivat- 

 ing green sward? 



We spread our long manure in the early part of 



hallow furrow, taking care the next time we; 

 plough not to dialurb the sod. 

 How many acres do you mow ? 

 Fifty acres of upland. 

 What ie your average production of hay ? 

 One and a half to two tons; on some land, two 

 and a half tons to the acre. 



Do you irrigate or allow water to flow your land ? 

 No. 



IIow many acres of low land unfit for the plough, 

 do you mow ? 



Two or three acres, or next to none. i 



What is the quantity and quality of your hay cut I 



the present season ? j 



Alostly English hay, and about one hundred tons. ) 



Do you reclaim lovv bog and peat lands, and I 



how ? I 



By draining and usiirg the meadow plough, then * 



applying compost manure and seeding down to \ 



grass. The result appears promising, > 



How many acres of corn planted this season ? ; 



Six and a half acres, averaging fifty bushels to 



the acre, which has been wholly planted this sea- ;| 



son by Wm. Buckminster, Esqr.'s Corn Planter — i 



about four or five kernels in the hill ; distance of j 



the rows three and a half feet by two, running east") 



and west. If the land was ploughed in the fall,,! 



we spread on forty loads of compost manure to the '; 



acre; if not, the green manure is spread on the ■; 



green sward, aad ploughed with a shallow furrow, j 



and compost manm-e harrowed in on the surface,^ 



amounting in all to about forty loads to the acre./ 



We planted this season two and a half acres j 



with potatoes, and raised eight hundred bushels. ^ 



Our method of planting potatoes, which we con- i 



aider ceteris paribus by far the cheapest and most^ 



prodnctive, is this. We take a piece of green" 



swaTil, plough it with a side-hill plough, fill the fur- ■ 



row with manure, and then drop the seed and cover'1 



it by another furrow, then plough two more furrowa; 



and plant again in the same manner. We dig the, 



potatoes so planted with the side-hill plough, which," 



combines two adva)!tages — that of cheapness and ^ 



of mixing the manure with the soil.. 'I ho other' 



method is the usual practice, sometimes manuringj 



in the hill, and sometimes spreading, three and a' 



half feet by two. The blue English potato isthej 



kind generally planted. 



We should have ad-d.id under the head of culti-; 

 vating corn, that we make frequent use of the cul-^ 

 tivator, rnuning it through the rows of corn three 

 or four times during the season. 



What other vegetables did you plant, and to I 

 what use shall you apply them ? i 



Ruta Baga. We raised from t«:o acres aowni 

 with Mr Willis' seed-sower, abo«t one thousand-! 

 bushels, which we are now feeding to four cows: 

 and one yoke of oxen that we are fattening, andi 

 five calves which we are raising. We give thein'l 

 in winter to our miloh cows, which we think increa-i 

 ses the quantity and improves the quality of their] 

 milk, as well as betters their condition. i 



Of winter grain we raised none: of spring grain,] 

 sixty bushels of oats; fiftyseven of barley, and| 

 twentytwo of wheat. We made use of the Bed- i 

 ford oats, the Black Sea wheat, and two-rowed bar-; 

 ley. The barley and wheat wwe sowed on land] 

 which was planted with corn last season, and oats 

 on land planted with potatoes — the former seeded' 

 down, the latter to be again manured and planted, 

 this next season with corn. We sow two and ai 



