1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



365 



that are usually covered with brakes, bushes 

 and unprofitable water grasses. 



A portion of Mr. B.'s men were preparing 

 the ground for a crop of carrots. It had prob- 

 ably been plowed once or twice before, this 

 spring. The team plowed several furrows, 

 which the men would immediately follow and 

 rake, leaving it in condition for the seed-sower 

 without further labor, — so that when the plot 

 is finished, it is smooth, and not a foot-print 

 upon it. 



The farm is a very stony one, and has prob- 

 ably required more cost to remove them out of 

 the way than it has cost, aside from that, to 

 reclaim all the land now under cultivation. 

 To remove them so effectually as has been 

 done from the broad, clean fields which we 

 saw, must have been a work requiring long 

 and persistent effort, and attended with great 

 cost. 



When the rocky farms of New England 

 were entered upon some generations ago, the 

 question undoubtedly arose every day — "what 

 shall ice do with these stones V and the thou- 

 sands of acres which are now cramped and di- 

 vided by them, show the answer to have been, 

 "TFe IV ill put them ttp into walls.'''' And they 

 did put them into walls, in some instances di- 

 viding the fields into lots of one acre, up to 

 three, four, and rarely more than five. This 

 was an expensive job to begin with, and has 

 made the cultivation of the fields inconvenient 

 and expensive ever since. In some neighbor- 

 hoods, a vigorous reform has been commenced 

 in this respect, and I noticed splendid fields of 

 ten to twenty acres now, which were for- 

 merly encumbered with a labyrinth of cross- 

 walls. 



In the instance before me, as in many others, 

 Mr. Brooks succeeded his honored father, 

 upon an estate where the work of reclamation 

 had been greatly advanced under the old sys- 

 tem, and where it will require half as much 

 labor to remove obstructions to improved 

 modes of husbandry, as it did to erect them. 

 But I think he has commenced that work, as I 

 noticed upon his farm, and upon others near 

 him, large and beautiful fields without any ap- 

 pearances that they were once ancient fortifi- 

 cations. 



It seems to me a waste of human energy 

 and skill, to enter upon the hard and rocky 

 soils of New England, to work them out into 

 profitable farms, and fit them for the homes of 



a people so far advanced in civilization and the 

 refinements of life. Such a course leaves little 

 or no time for the cultivation of the intellect 

 and affections. It becomes a life "under the 

 harrow." It is a stubborn effort to overcome 

 the still more stubborn obstacles of nature. 

 Let such lands be covered with forests, and 

 when they are required, let a portion of the 

 soil which they occupied be burnt over, cropped 

 once with rye, laid to pasture for a series of 

 years, and then return again to forest. 



But if some young men, with unconquera- 

 ble will, and with muscular power which seems 

 to them equal to a forty-horse-power steam 

 engine, will enter upon such lands, I advise 

 them to build no more stone walls than are 

 absolutely necessary to confine their stock 

 within the limits of their pastures ; no others, 

 not even on the road-side. Let the laws pro- 

 tect them there. Let them begin on the land 

 nearest to the buildings, tear up the surface 

 and place a foot below it all the stones that 

 can be crowded together. If there are large 

 ones, too large for the team, split or blast 

 them, and then plunge them into some valley 

 of Hinnom, or cover some bald ledge with 

 them that mars the beauty of the landscape, 

 where they may remain undisturbed through all 

 periods of time. An acre of land treated in 

 this way, will feel the effects of such a trench- 

 ing for half a century, and will probably yield 

 more actual projit to the proprietor, than any 

 other j^ve acres on the farm, treated as rocky 

 land usually is. 



It costs something to travel over and around 

 fifty large rocks ten or a dozen times annually, 

 to say nothing of the tools and machines 

 smashed to pieces against them, and the laming 

 of teams, which not unfrequently takes place. 



Thanks to Mr. Beman, the landlord at 

 Princeton — besides the cash left with him — for 

 making his house a real home to us when he 

 took us in, somcAvhat tired and hungry. 



The early evening ride over the' hills from 

 Princeton to Barre was delicious, and afforded 

 fine opportunities to observe the condition of 

 farming, from the elevated positions which 

 were frequently passed over. The world had 

 on its holiday attire. We were exhilarated by 

 the cool, refreshing breeze, and freedom in the 

 open air. The brooks sang, as well as the 

 birds, as they coursed their way down the 

 hill-sides, or leaped in miniature falls from 



