94 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Feb. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 COUNTKY HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE. 



In my last I omitted one consideration that 

 my -wife reminds me should never be over- 

 looked by any city family that contemplates a 

 country home, and that is the preferences of 

 the wife. Indeed, she thinks the question 

 should be decided by the wife rather than by 

 the husband. After being in the stir, excite- 

 ment and perplexity of business all day, the 

 man might find in the quiet of his home an 

 agreeable relief and contrast ; but the woman 

 who has spent the whole day there, and, if in 

 the winter, without scarcely seeing a neighbor, 

 might find the seclusion monotonous and irk- 

 some in the extreme. Such a residence should 

 be attempted by few city ladies, and never 

 without careful consideration. If one is sat- 

 isfied that she can make the sacrifice — and a 

 sacrifice at first it would be to most city la- 

 dies — from her love for her children and for 

 home cares and duties, the trial may be made. 



I found on an examination of the soil of 

 Needham that though somewhat gravelly and 

 sandy, it was not what might be termed poor. 

 It is warm and quick. There is in the town 

 a large amount of peat meadow. These are 

 two desirable combinations of soil. The soil 

 of my first purchase is a combination of clay 

 and sand ; sand enough to make it light and 

 loose, and clay enough to keep it from blow- 

 ing away. The gentleman of whom I pur- 

 chased it had owned it four years. He had ap- 

 plied lime, phosphate of lime, and considerable 

 manure bought in Boston. The old farmers 

 made a good deal of fun of him ; called him 

 the Boston farmer, &c. When he bought the 

 place it sustained a cow and a horse. The 

 first winter I was on it I kept two cows, a 

 two-> ear-old heifer, and one calf. This win- 

 ter I keep three cows, one heifer, and two 

 calves. I entered upon the place the first day 

 of June, — not a good time to make improve- 

 ments. One thing 1 had learned from obser- 

 vation in England — that whenever I found 

 stock well kept, I found land well cultivated, 

 and a wealthy farmer, though he only hired 

 his land ; but where I found poor stock, I 

 found poor land and a poor farmer, though he 

 might own the land. Finding that manure 

 was eleven- dollars a cord, 1 said I cannot 

 alFord to pay that price, nor can I afford to 

 buy special fertilizers, yet I must manure 

 highly. 



Mr. Brown, the editor of the Farmer, 

 paid me a visit in the fall of 1868. He 

 said "you will soon keep five head of full 

 grown cattle on this place." I feel sure I can 

 do more than that, and make the place pay 

 t»m year to year. I have no peat meadow, 

 but i can buy as much meadow muck deliv- 

 ered at the barn as two horses can comforta- 

 bly draw, for a dollar and a half. The first 

 thing I did on commencing operations, was to 

 buy three pigs. The boys picked up the ap- 



ples as they dropped from the trees, which, 

 with the small potatoes were fed to the pigs, 

 which were kept in a part of the cellar under 

 the small barn, which had a cemented floor. 

 Feat muck and sods from the way side, po- 

 tato tops, weeds, and leaves from the woods 

 are thrown into the pig pen, but the cow ma- 

 nure is not. The manure from the pig pen is 

 put where it will receive the urine from the 

 cows. In this manner I manufacture a large 

 amount of first class manure, and being under 

 cover none is lost. Here my pigs have a cool 

 place in the summer and a warm one in the 

 winter. The entrance being on the north side, 

 I can give them plenty of sun, or close the 

 doors on very cold days. In addition to ap- 

 ples and potatoes, I feed skim milk and meal. 

 1 also buy scraps for them. This food makes 

 excellent pork, and rich manure. I make the 

 production of manure as much an object as 

 any other produce of the farm. Manure is 

 the farmer's raw material ; and he has this ad- 

 vantage over other manufacturers, he makes 

 it at his own factory, and the better he makes 

 it the better will be his crops ; and the better 

 his crops the better will be his manure. Beef 

 and pork scraps are sometimes used as ma- 

 nure direct, but I prefer putting them through 

 the machine, because it finely divides the par- 

 ticles, and after appropriating enough for its 

 own repairs gives us an article ready for 

 plant food. A judicious use of meadow muck 

 will prevent all odor not only from the hog 

 pen, but from the privy. Mine is made of 

 brick, cemented. In summer, muck is freely 

 used ; in winter, coal ashes, and all disagree- 

 able smell is entirely prevented. 



My cows are stabled nights during the sum- 

 mer, by which I have in the fall a large amount 

 of manure to haul out on the grass. Last No- 

 vember I drew out twenty-six two-horse loads 

 and spread upon the grass. While doing so, 

 an old farmer came along and said you will 

 lose all the best of your manure ; it will run 

 off into the road. Well, I said, let it run. 

 Now he keeps his cows in his barn yard sum- 

 mer nights, where the manure and urine are 

 nearly all dried up before fall, and he throws 

 his manure under bis barn eaves, where the 

 rains wash through it fall, winter and spring. 

 In all this he could see no loss, but in spread- 

 ing manure upon the grass, he thought he 

 could see great loss. But I anticipate very 

 little. 



As my pasture is not good, I feed my 

 cows more or less both spring and fall. The 

 sudden change from hay to grass is liable to 

 cause the cows to scour badly and to shrink 

 in llesh and milk. I therefore give them in 

 the spring a feed of hay, nights and mornings, 

 which they eat greedily. The consequence 

 is there is scarcely any change in their 

 droppings, while there is a marked increase 

 in the quantity of milk. In the fall I give 

 them corn stalks, with an evident increase of 

 milk. Hence my experience is in direct op- 



