16 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



sides to every thing. His estimated cost of plow- 

 ing is fair, and sufficient for plowing an acre of 

 old pasture, trodden by the cows for years. If 

 this was the kind of land, I will still add a little 

 more experience to it. At the last hoeing of the 

 corn, charge fifty cents for a half-bushel of rye, 

 seventy-five cents for a bushel of red top seed, and 

 twenty-five cents for sowing it over the ground, 

 thus increasing the loss to $11,50. 



After having been cultivated through the sea- 

 son, according to the writer's account, what farm- 

 er, who has his senses, when the sun shines on this 

 acre of land in 1860, with the grass and rye then 

 growing upon it, will not say that this acre of land 

 is worth double what it was on the morning of the 

 tenth day of May, 18o9, before the plow broke the 

 sod ? I Avill suppose this acre of land to be an 

 acre of hay land, run down so as to need plowing, 

 which we cannot suppose bore more than ten hun- 

 dred to the acre. Is it not reasonable to suppose 

 if this ground is sown down to barley and grass 

 seed, that it will, for years, produce one ton to the 

 acre ? And cannot any man buj'ing standing 

 grass, afford to pay as much for one ton of grass 

 standing on an acre of ground, lately plowed, as 

 he can for a ton and a half, where he has to swing 

 the scythe and the rake over tln-ee acres of ground 

 to collect the hay of a poorer quality ? 



Whether the acre of land the writer speaks of 

 was intended to be improved for pasture or mowing 

 land, it is ])lain to be seen that the cultivation of 

 the ground, while the corn crop was growing, ren- 

 dered it capable of producing double its former 

 value of grass for years to come. And this gives 

 the profits in farming. 



Although lie did not tell us in words, that there 

 was a profit in farming, he came so near it, he un- 

 locked the door, and made it very easy to swing 

 open and let us look in. Go on, friend Pinkham ; 

 give us moi-e statements, remembering that agi-i- 

 culture is so much like ])ure old gold and silver, 

 that it will continue to shine as long as you con- 

 tinue to scour it, and a long time after. But if 

 you shoidd ever be able to convince me that there 

 is no profit in farming, you will give me more 

 anxiety, and cause in me more alarm, fearing that 

 the world will come to an end by starvation, than 

 Miller's preaching, and all his followers, ever did ! 

 Asa G. Sheldon. 



Wilmington, Mass., Nov. 14. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 

 HOW TO MAKE AN OBSTINATE HORSE DRAW. 



In looking over the last number of your paper, 

 (Nov. 12,) my eye fell upon an article taken from 

 the Cofton Planter, entitled "To make an obstinate 

 horse ])ull." In reading it, it brought to my mind 

 an instance of Yankee ingenuity vised for the same 

 purpose, although of a diff"erent kind or contri- 

 vance, and of vvhich a friend of mine Avas an eye- 

 witness, winter before last, in Northern Vei'mont. 

 As it is fully as infallible a method to make such 

 a horse pull, as the other, and as it may be of use 

 to many of your subscribers in a similar case, I 

 give it to you, as follows. 



As my friend was riding along one day on 

 horseback, he saw two men, each with a heavy 

 load of wood upon his sled. One of the horses of 

 the team1)ehind becoming very obstinate, avarie- 

 tv of ways were tried to make him di-aw, but with- 



out avail. He would pull backwards so as to pre- 

 vent the other horse from drawing. After coaxing, 

 whipping, &c., in vain, the following method was 

 very successfully tried. A stout rope was made 

 fast to the obstinate animal's tail, and then passed 

 under his belly in such a way as to jjass between 

 both the hind and the fore legs, and the other end 

 was made fast to the front team. When all was 

 ready,' the horses of the front team were started, 

 and no horse, I will venture to say, ever pulled 

 better. Let others try the same method, and they 

 may be assured, that if it does not work success- 

 fully, it is because the animal does not care enough 

 for his tail, to follow it. A Vermonter. 



Burlington, Vt., 1859. 



FOWE meadow grass. 



Messrs. Editors : — When I was a boy, in my 

 native town, Lancaster, Worcester County, there 

 was a tract of land lying on both sides of the 

 Nashua River, which had never been cleared, of- 

 fered for sale, which my father bought. A large 

 portion of the estate was pine plain. He hired 

 help to cut oif the Imnber, and to clear tlie alders 

 from the interval. There were large pieces of na- 

 tive grass he mowed. He did not know the name. 

 I remember one of his hands said it was the same 

 as a kind he mowed in "Fowl Meadow." They 

 called it Fowl Meadow grass, so named from a 

 very remarkable bird found dead there. None 

 knew its name, or place, or kind. I never knew it 

 cultivated till I reai)ed oft' the heads and sowed some 

 fifty-six years ago, which I have often done since, 

 sometimes quite successfully. I have never had it 

 do well, mixed with other kinds of grass seed, or 

 sown in spring or ujjland. Rut sown on the sur- 

 face of a burnt dam]) soil, it does admirably. It 

 will not run out, if cut late. I will not say that 

 early cutiing kills it, or that it requires the annu- 

 al dropping of ripe seed, but, as requested, give 

 my experience. Benjamin Wielard. 



Ilolijoke, Nov. 14, 1859. 



A CARROT CROP. 



1 have cultivated this year a small piece of land 

 to carrots which has lieen sown to the same crop 

 for the two years previous. It is three rods wide, 

 and seven rods long, making 21 rods of ground. 

 The carrots were sown about the middle of May, 

 and where the carrots missed, I set turnips, thinned 

 and hoed three times, at the cost of about three 

 dollars, and on the 24th and 25th of October, dug 

 and housed 102 bushels of carrots and 20 bushels 

 of turnips. H. H. 



Clarendon, Vt., Nov., 1859. 



must an owner fence his eand ? 



A reader of the Farmer would like to inquire 

 through its columns, if there is any law he can 

 enforce so as to make a neighbor build half of the 

 fence against his woodland ? Inquirer. 



Milford, Mass., 1859. 



Remarks. — An owner must keep up his half of 

 the fence as long as he improves the land. If he 

 desires to let it lie in common, he must give six 

 months notice to all adjoining occupants. See Re- 

 vised Statutes, Chap. 19, Sect. 2, and same chap- 

 ter, latter part of Section 15. 



