546 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



A PHOI'ITABLE GKASS FARM. 

 A correspondent at Palmer, says an exchange, 

 gives us some interesting facts respecting a cele- 

 brated grass farm in Palmer, Mass., owned by B. 

 Franklin Morgan. The farm comprises 400 acres, 

 and is adapted to both mowing and pasturage. 

 A meadow of fifty-five acres is represented as 

 being unequalled in New England, or the United 

 States. It averages nearly four tons per acre at 

 the first crop, and produces at the second two to 

 three tons per acre. The bep't of the meadow has 

 produced five tons the first crop. The entire crop 

 per annum is over 200 tons. The meadow is top- 

 dressed either every year, or every other year. 

 Our correspondent adds : 



As I rode over it, it was apparent that the crop 

 of grass now standing would yield two tons of 

 rowen per acre, which is not to be cut, neither is 

 it to be fed much by cattle. It is the most pro- 

 ductive piece of land for the labor bestowed upon 

 it, in New England. 



Mr. Morgan keeps 150 head of cattle, fifteen 

 or twenty horses, some sheep, and sells about 100 

 tons of hay per annum. Of his 150 head of cat- 

 tle, loO are cows, 90 of which are in milk now. 

 He supplies the State Alms-house with milk, a 

 very convenient market, as the grounds thereof are 

 contiguous to his farm. His pastures are good, 

 being a deep loam, producing, whan tilled, great 

 crops, and heavy grass when seeded down. Thus 

 have I sketched the best grass farm, considering 

 the area that is mowed, in the United States. 

 Let farmers consider for a moment, that the av- 

 erage crop of hay in Massachusetts is less than a 

 ton per acre, while Mr. Morgan's farm yields more 

 than three tons per acre under its present culti- 

 vation. He occasionally turns this meadow over, 

 manures it and re-seeds it, keeping it in grass all 

 the time, or the principal part of it. Mr. Mor- 

 gan has several farm-houses located over his farm, 

 where his help are accommodated with homes, 

 food and raiment." 



Perversion of Agricultural Fairs. — The 

 editor of the Illinois Prairie Farmer, in giving 

 a description of some four or five country fairs 

 which he had attended, laments that the "sports 

 of the ring," "negro minstrels," "jewelry lotter- 

 ies," "eating and drinlcing booths," are becoming 

 the most attractive features of these agricultural 

 festivals. At one fair he was told that there 

 were twenty of these jewelry gambling establish- 

 ments on and adjacent to the grounds— at least 

 a dozen of them inside — at which the purchaser 

 of some trifling article was entitled to a shake 

 of loaded dice for a pin, a watch, or some other 

 glittering but valueless bauble. These stands 

 were crowded all day, while the various legitimate 

 departments of the exhibition were sadly neglect- 

 ed. About the liquor booths there was a con- 

 stant bedlam, an incessant flow of profane lan- 

 guage, and occasionally fighting and disorder. 

 "One valuable life," says the editor, "was sacrificed 



on the grounds of the Champaign county Society, 

 the day before we were there, by a knife in the 

 hands of an intoxicated man." We are sorry to 

 read such accounts of farmers' exhibitions at the 

 West, and hope that societies, both here and there, 

 will be careful in making arrangements for future 

 fairs to prevent the repetition or occurrence of all 

 such disgraceful scenes. They must be prevented, 

 or they will most assuredly prevent the attendance 

 of farmers and their families. 



ACTIOTi]" OF FSOST UPON SOILS. 



The soluble part of the soil is the inorganic 

 food of the plant. Rain water cannot come in 

 contact with the soil, or even with a gravel heap, 

 without dissolving some of it. Expose almost 

 any stone, or handful of gravel, washed clean, to 

 the action of a quart or so of rain water for sev- 

 eral days, and upon evaporating the water, poured 

 off carefully from the stones, it will be seen from 

 the whitish residue left that a portion had been 

 dissolved. Now let these same stones be ex- 

 posed, covered or partly covered with water, in a 

 saucer, to the action of frost, setting them out of 

 doors for two or three snapping cold nights, tak- 

 ing care that they thaw by day. Pour off the 

 water, rinsing with fresh, and evaporate as above, 

 and it Avill be seen that a very much larger quan- 

 tity has come into solution. The reason is, that 

 all stones, being somewhat porous, by the action 

 of the frost their outer portion is broken up, 

 scaled and fissured, and a vastly greater surface 

 is exposed to the action of the water, even though 

 this Assuring is not visible to the eye. 



Application. — When land is exposed to alter- 

 nate freezing and thawing, the same efiects must 

 take place ; and when it is thrown into ridges in 

 the fall, these effects are produced more conve- 

 niently than in any other way. 



Snow will He unthavi-ed between the ridges, 

 ensuring a co],d temperature, and the tops of the 

 ridges v.'ill, unless the fall cf snow is very heavy, 

 be exposed to the sun, and will thaw by day. 

 Thus a considerable portion of the soil during a 

 great part of the winter, will be alternately frozen 

 and thav.-ed daily. This effect on many soils, es- 

 pecially those of a heavy clayey or gravelly na- 

 ture, will be equal to a dressing of manure. — 

 Ilomeatead. 



Advantages of Draining. — There has been a 

 severe drought in Texas, during the past summer, 

 and the editor of the Working Farmer calls the 

 attention of cultivators to one of the advantages 

 of draining, as follows : 



We hope our Texan friends will observe post 

 holes, and spots where deep tap roots have been 

 taken from the soil, and see whether those spots 

 are not less severely affected by drought than oth- 

 ers. We have seen in a grass field during drought, 

 green tufts existing only where an old fence had 

 been, and the deep post holes had filled up by 

 washings, leaving the loose earth in which the 

 air could enter and deposit moisture ; and this, 

 too, long after the removal of the old fences. 



