1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



483 



trap called greenstone, the soil formed from 

 them must be still more favorable to vegetable 

 life. The potash and soda, of which the horn- 

 bk'nde is nearly destitute, is abundantly sup- 

 plied by the felspar ; while the hornblende 

 yields lime and magnesia, which are known to 

 exercise a remarkable influence on the progress 

 of vegetation." 



These references show the importance of 

 stones to the land where they lie, and they also 

 show why the subsoil, taken from a foot or two 

 below the surface, and used as a top-dressing, 

 often answers a better purpose, even, than rich, 

 nitrogenous manures. It is full of mineral 

 matter, that has been exhausted from the sur- 

 face soil by a succession of crops. It fre- 

 quently happens that a top dressing of yellow 

 loam will bring a luxuriant crop, where com- 

 mon manures have failed. We have seen 

 wheat fields, dressed with barn manure, where 

 the growth of stem and leaf was very rank, 

 but produced no seed. Had they been dressed 

 ■with line gravel, sand, or yellow loam, we have 

 no doubt they would have produced twenty to 

 twenty-five bushels of excellent wheat to the 

 aci-e. 



For the reasons given above, it is best to 

 keep most of the stones that are on or near 

 the surface in the soil. If the subsoil is not 

 filled with them digging will be easy, so that 

 they can be placed below as cheaply as they 

 can be carted away. Large ones may be sunk 

 •whole, or split with wedges or blasted and 

 then sunk. 



The article below is to the point, and was 

 published in the Gentleman's Magazine, Eng- 

 land, as long ago as 1773. It is well worth 

 reading and remembering. 



"It has been long known to experienced farmers, 

 that taking away very small stones and flints, is 

 detrimental to plowed lands in general; but 

 more particularly so to thin, light lands, and all 

 lands of a Ijiuding nature. It was, however, never 

 imagined that the damage could be so great, as it 

 is now found to be, since unusual quantities of 

 flints and other stones have been repeatedly gath- 

 ered for the use of turnpike and other roads. 



In the parish of 8tcrenage, in Hertfordshire 

 there is a field known iiy the name of Chalkdell 

 field, containing aliout 200 acres ; the land in this 

 field was Ibrmerly equal, if not superior, to most 

 lands in that county ; but lying convenient for 

 the surveyors of the roads, they have picked it 

 so ofccu, and stripped it of the flint and small 

 stones to such a degree, that it is now inferior to 

 lands that were formerly reckoned not much over 

 half its value, acre for acre. Nor is it Chalkdell 

 field alone that has materially suffered in that 

 county by the above mentioned practice ; several 

 thousand acres bordering on the turnpike roads 

 from Wellwyn to Baldock, have been so much 



impoverished, that the loss to the inheritance for- 

 ever must be computed at a great many thousand 

 pounds. 



What puts it beyond a doubt that the prodigious 

 impoverishment of the land is owing to no other 

 cause but picking and carrying away the stones, 

 is, that those lands have generally Ijeen most im- 

 poverished which have been most often picked; 

 nay, I know a field, part of which Avas picked, and 

 the other part ploughed up before they had time 

 to pick it, where tlie part that was picked lost 

 seven or eight parts in ten, of two succeeding 

 crops; and though the whole field was manured 

 and managed in all respects alike, yet the impov- 

 erishment was visible where the stones had )«eeu 

 picked off, and extended not an inch farther ; an 

 incontestible proof of the benefit of the stones." 



MARKET GARDENING. 



The bright side of this subject has been of- 

 ten presented in city papers, and the envy of 

 country farmers may have been excited some- 

 times by the big figures which have been used 

 in expressing the income from single acres. 

 In a late number of the Boston Cultivator a 

 "Middlesex Farmer" draws a darker picture, 

 by alluding to some of the expenses and un- 

 certainties of the vegetable business. After 

 stating that land which twenty years ago could 

 have been bought for $25 to $100 per acre, 

 now sells for $1000 to $2000, he says, in or- 

 der to carry on this business with any prospect 

 of success, a young man wants a large capital 

 to start with if he intends to compete with old 

 and experienced growers ; some of whom have 

 $50,000 in land, buildings, teams, tools, glass, 

 mats and other coverings for hot-beds, fences, 

 manures, &c. 



To illustrate the uncertainty of the business 



he says : — 



When spring is opening, the most anxious 

 thought of the farmer is, What will be the best 

 paying crop this year? One year potatoes 

 pay best, next year a failure ; one year squashes 

 pay best, the next a failure ; one year cucum- 

 bers pay well, next year nothing; one year 

 onions $6 a barrel, next year $1; one year 

 pickles 12dc per 100, the next they go to a 

 high figure. So the farmer is in a quandary ; 

 he°sees his neighbors selling hay at $10 to $50 

 a ton, and no great trouble or risk to raise it ; 

 so he about makes up his mind he will raise 

 hay ; while talking about it, the pickle dealers 

 come to him and coax him to raise so many 

 acres of pickles, they promising to advance 

 the price to 14c a 100. Many farmers dread 

 a change in crops, system or help ; so they go 

 on in the old track with but little variation. 

 Many of the farmers a few miles farther from 

 Boston contract to raise pickles every year. 

 Last year they, hearing that squash-raisers got 

 $30 to $40 per ton for their squashes the year 

 before, concluded to raise squashes last year; 



