1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



293 



LETTER FROM THE FARM. 



Coiicord, August 8, 1863. 

 Bright Sun Again— Haying — Music in the Morning — Flooded 

 Meadows — Loss in Grass and Cranberries — Man's Inhumani- 

 ty — An Old Hassocic Meadow — Result of Drainage — Visitors. 



Farmers are again refreshing in a bright sun 

 and an elastic west wind. The cheerful morning 

 music is that of the mower whetting his scythe, 

 while the evening is made glad with the noisy 

 "clack" of the mowing machine, prostrating the 

 now ripened grass, until the darkness of evening 

 «huts in the scene. All is bustle and activity, 

 fhere are no laggards in the field now. August 

 ' t wearing in u])on us, and the upland hay harvest 

 e not yet secured. 



In this region, thousands of tons of hay will 

 'le ruined by the late rains. Up and down this 

 rich and beautiful valley, for a distance of iwenty- 

 live miles, the river suddenly rose and spread over 

 the broad meadows and immersed the standing 

 grass. After remaining several days in its midst 

 \t is now slowly receding, leaving a blackened 

 mass of decaying vegetable matter, which is send- 

 ing its pestilential odors into every dwelling in 

 the neighborhood. The grass presents a slippery 

 and repulsive appearance, and seems to have lost 

 all its nutritive properties. This destruction is 

 not only on the immediate banks of the river, but 

 the water is backed up every little brook and 

 pushed in upon the land, thus destroying a large 

 amount of crops that are somev, hat remote from 

 the main channel of the river. One farmer, who 

 winters from fifty to seventy-five head of cattle, 

 stated to me, that although in the midst of his 

 haying, nearly all the grass he had then to cut 

 was under water ! Another said he had what 

 ■would have made thbii/ tons of hay, all under tca- 

 icr ! There are hundreds of similar cases, so that 

 the loss occasioned by the water this year, in grass 

 and cranberries, in this valley, will not fall short 

 of $100,000! 



This immense loss to one of the most industri- 

 ous and hard-working classes of our people, does 

 not flow from the operation of the natural laws 

 which govern the elements about us, — but from a 

 sordid spirit of gain, which disregards the riglits 

 and prosperity of others, and wrests from them 

 the possession of the fair lands which a bountiful 

 Creator had furnished them from which to draw 

 their support. 



If the water could flow freely through its Heav- 

 en-apjjointed channels, instead of a curse to the 

 land, as it now is, it would fertilize and make glad 

 its banks, so that a happy and prosperous people 

 would till the land in joy, instead of being drawn 

 from their homes with heavy and sorrowing hearts. 

 But this is not the case. The water is impeded 

 in its course, that a few thousands more may go 

 into the hands of the manufacturer, the lands be- 



come a prey to the floods, and the people to dis- 

 appointment and poverty ! How true it is, that, 



"Man's inhumanity to man, 

 Makes countless tliuusands mourn." 



An Old Hassock Meadow. 



I have been mowing a meadow where a won- 

 derful change has been efl'ected by drainage. As 

 I drove through it, sitting on the machine and 

 cutting my first swath, I observed that herd's grass 

 ffiood nearly to the top of the horses' back'!. I col- 

 lected and measured some of it, and found it /)^!/r 

 fed and nine inches high. This was brought in 

 by drainage alone, not a particle of manure being 

 used, nor a seed sown ! The cold water under- 

 neath was merely led away, and this was the re- 

 sult! 



I cannot certainly decide, but the strong proba- 

 bility is, that this meadow, or "run," had been an- 

 nually mowed for a hundred years, without being 

 ploughed. On reference to my Farm Journal, I 

 find the following record : — "Monday, August 5, 

 1851. Mr. B. came to plough with two pairs of 

 oxen and a horse, which, with my own horse, made 

 a very strong team ; but the roots and hassocks 

 were so tough that we found it impossible to turn 

 the furrows with the plough. I then procured one 

 with a double share which cut entirely under the 

 furrow, but it would not then remain turned over, 

 and we were obliged to stop after ploughing two 

 or three rods and turn it over by hand. Occa- 

 sionally, we were obliged to cut off" the furrow 

 with an ax, and then turn it over ! Ploughed 

 about half an acre to-day." The previous day we 

 ploughed only one quarter of an acre in the entire 

 day, with a team of five cattle. 



This meadow was drained with stone drains, and 

 after being levelled was dressed with a little com- 

 post and seeded. In lSo'2, it yielded about a ton 

 to the acre. In 18i:3, the first crop was estimat- 

 ed by good judges to be three tons per acre. It 

 was cut twice afterwards, and probably produced 

 between four and five tons per acre that year. 

 After .six or seven years the stone drains became 

 obstructed — principally through the working of 

 field mice, and the meadow went gradually back 

 to water plants, — coarse grasses, skunk cabbage, 

 &c., and hassocks formed and annually giiined in 

 height. At the end of elrren years the lurh:ige on 

 it was very much as it was before I ploughed it. 



Last October, 18U2, this meadow was thorough- 

 ly drained with tiles or pipes. Tso ploughing was 

 done, no seeding and no manuring, and the result, 

 in a single season, is as I have stated, — herds- 

 grass four feet nine inches, and standing thick and 

 heavy ! Water grasses disappearing, and the 

 meadow allowing a horse and machine u}x>n it, 

 where both would have floundered in black muck 

 before! This is not an isolated case, but one of 

 a numerous class occurring' all about mc. f have 



