474 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



keep it always cropped as short and smooth as a 

 newly-shaven lawn — indeed, any one acre has 

 been more valuable for what it has produced, than 

 have any five acres of the adjoining land not yet 

 in like manner taken in hand for improvement. 

 The contrast betvi-een this piece and another of 

 about equal size lying beside it, but not yet as- 

 sisted by cultivation, is so strikingly favorable to 

 the former, that I wish every reader of these re- 

 marks might have been with me to-day to observe 

 it. It may be remarked in passing, that, while 

 each of the three fertilizers used on this field 

 gave good results, the bone dust appears to be of 

 the most lasting benefit to the land. 



Another field of about ten acres was looked at, 

 which two years ago bore a remarkable crop of 

 potatoes. It was manured in the hills with muck 

 and ashes, and planted and cultivated in a manner 

 similar to the fifteen acres first mentioned in this 

 article. After harvesting the potatoes, the land 

 was plowed again, and smoothly harrowed, and 

 the following spring, or a year ago last April, it 

 was stocked to grass for pasture, no grain being 

 isown. The grass came up well, and the land is 

 now .covered with a very thick sward, composed 

 of herdsgrass, red-top, and red and white clover, 

 yielding the best of pasturage. The color of this 

 field is of so deep a green, as to make it at once 

 distinguishable at as great a distance as the eye 

 can discriminate shades of color at all. 



The next land visited was a field belonging to 

 my friend, Richard Bradley, Esq. It was plowed 

 up a year ago last November, and, in the follow- 

 ing April, planted with potatoes, manuring them 

 ■with a shovelful of compost in each hill. The 

 compost was made of muck and ashes. Last 

 April, the land was jylowed again, 500 pounds of 

 bone dust sown to the acre and harrowed in, then 

 twelve quarts of herdsgrass, one bushel of red- 

 top, twelve pounds of red, and four pounds of 

 ■^vhite clover seeds sown to the acre, and the field 

 rolled. The grass has made a great growth, and 

 a full swath might now be mowed. 



Then came a smaller lot of Mr. Bradley's, com- 

 pletely run down by previous owners, with shal- 

 low plowing, and frequent crops of rye. The 

 course of cropping had been to plow the land four 

 or five inches deep, as often as it would boar five 

 to eight or ten bushels of grain to the acre, sow 

 it with winter rye, but omitting grass seeds, and 

 after harvesting the rye, leaving the land to cover 

 itself with such vegetation as it could, whenever 

 it could. Last year at this time, the land was 

 covered mostly with moss, with here and there a 

 few bushes and feeble grasses. Last November, 

 it was plowed a foot deep with the sod and sub- 

 soil plow, and an entirely new soil brought up to 

 the surface, fine-grained and salvy. In April last, 

 it was dressed with 500 pounds of bone dust per 

 acre, together with 200 pounds of Peruvian guano, 

 to give immediate action to the newly-turned-up 

 soil, then harrowed fine, and sowed with one and a 

 half bushel of orchard grass, a peck of herdsgrass, 

 a half bushel of red-top, eight pounds of red, and 

 four pounds of white clover seeds to the acre, and 

 the surface made smooth with the roller. Here, 

 too, is a superior catch of grass, giving the land a 

 very different appearance from what it had a year 

 ago, and showing that much can at once be done 

 for the improvement of such land. 



The last field examined was a tract of some six 



acres, which Mr. Bradley is now plowing. This 

 land has also been much reduced by shallow plow- 

 ing, and frequent crops of rye. The sod and sub- 

 soil plow, drawn by four oxen, is turning the 

 land ten inches deep, bringing up a diff'erent soil 

 from the old surface one that has never before 

 been exposed to the day. The plowing is done in 

 capital style, no baulks or imperfections of furrow 

 being anywhere allowed. About the first of Sep- 

 tember, a ton of bone dust to each acre is to be 

 sown on the furrows, and also about one and a 

 half bushel of winter wheat per acre, and the two 

 harrowed in together. The sod and subsoil ])low 

 prepares a very level, mellow surface, and so 

 cracked and opened withal, as to make a very su- 

 perior seed-bed, in which the bone dust and seed 

 wheat can be well covered by the harrow. Then 

 one and a half bushel of orchard grass, a peck of 

 herdsgrass and a bushel of red-top seed are to be 

 sown to the acre, and the land rolled. In the 

 spring, the land is also to receive red and white 

 clover seeds — the design being to secure a thick 

 sward of various kinds of grass. The land lying 

 high, with a moderately rolling surface, it is 

 thought that winter wheat may succeed well on 

 it. The other two fields of old pasture, on which 

 Mr. Bradley has applied 500 pounds of bone dust 

 to the acre, have done so well, that he is inclined 

 to try the experiment of a very heavy dressing of 

 bone, and see if the land will return him a good 

 crop of wheat, as well as an increased amount of 

 pasturage over what could be realized from an or- 

 dinary dressing, and lasting for a longer period. 

 The idea prompting to this generous usage is, 

 that land will pay very much in proportion to 

 what you invest in the improvement of its soil, or 

 that where much is given to it in the shape of fer- 

 tilizers and thorough cultivation, much may be 

 expected from it in crops returned. The locality 

 of this lot is Avithal so convenient to the barns, 

 that it is quite desirable, on that account, to make 

 it over into a productive pasture. Application 

 has been made to Mr. John Johnston, of Geneva, 

 New York, for the seed wheat. He is a very suc- 

 cessful wheat-grower, and has several valuable 

 varieties of seed, which he has been at considera- 

 ble pains to procure and perfect. This is to me 

 an interesting experiment, the results of which I 

 expect to have something to say about hereafter 

 in the Farmer. 



It may be observed that the various fields spoken 

 of in this communication, being free from uncom- 

 mon roughness, or steep declivity of surface, are 

 tolerably well situated for plowing, and are in the 

 immediate vicinity of a village, where pasturage 

 commands a high price. Under such circumstan- 

 ces, one can well afford to improve such lands in 

 the ways above mentioned. Other circumstances 

 may, of course, require variations from these 

 modes of improving pasture land, or may, for the 

 present, forbid attempts at improvement. Of that, 

 each one must judge for himself; but as a gener- 

 al proposition, in the older settled districts of 

 New England, investments for forming purposes 

 made directly in the improvement of the soil it- 

 self, pay quite as well as the purchasing of more 

 land, and adding it to the farm. 



Brattkboro', Aug. 25, 1860. F. Holbrook. 



A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. 



