162 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



upon circumstances. In some cases, top-dress- 

 ing, seeding and harrowing will be best. In 

 other cases, ploughing and cultivating hoed 

 crops until a good tilth has been obtained. 

 Where the soil is sufficiently dry and free from 

 stones and stumps to allow of the free use of 

 the plough, this will generally be found the 

 best method, and will most speedily destroy 

 the sour and worthless grasses. The ultimate 

 object of reclaiming such lands is to get them 

 into a condition to yield large crops of good 

 grasses, as this is in general the most profita- 

 ble use to which they can be devoted. 



During the process of reclaiming, potatoes 

 will generally be found the best and most 

 profitable crop for cultivation. Such lands 

 when once brought into good grass will be 

 found the most profitable land on the farm. 



After the water grasses have been effectu- 

 ally rooted out, they will not require frequent 

 ploughing, but should be kept in good condi- 

 tion by top-dressing with stimulating manures 

 as ofcen as may be required. Good loam 

 composted with air slacked lime, or plaster, 

 will be found a good top-dressing once in two 

 or three years. 



The products of such lands will be found 

 the best means of enabling us to keep more 

 stock, and renovating our drier and worn-out 

 lands, and upon them we must depend for ac- 

 complishing this most necessary purpose. In- 

 deed we see no other means by which it can 

 be done permanently. Commercial manures 

 may aid us in the work ; but our old lands 

 are exhausted not only of mineral elements of 

 fertility, but of carbonaceous elements as well, 

 and they need a supply of stable manures and 

 decayed vegetable matter to yield the humus, 

 the staple food of plants. This must be ob- 

 tained by feeding to stock the grasses from 

 our low lands, as the basis of our firm improve- 

 ment. To this we may add superphosphate, 

 bone, lime, plaster and ashes, and by a perse- 

 vering use of them we may again take large 

 crops from lands that now yield but a scanty 

 reward for our Ubor. But we must begin at 

 the bottom and first reclaim our low lands. 



These lands, well reclaimed and enriched, 

 are the very best soil for the cultivation of 

 strawberries, cabbage, celery, and many vege- 

 tables for the market, and the market gardener 

 will find in them a source of profit for which 

 he is looking in vain in dry and exhausted soils. 



Such lands demand immediate, persistent and 

 skilful attention, and it is through them that 

 the labor of the farmer is to secure a satisfac- 

 tory reward. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 A VERMONT FARMER. 



Young people who have been brought up on 

 farms in New England are much in the habit 

 of contrasting unfavorably the profits of the 

 farm with those of the trades and professions ; 

 and many New England farmers contrast as 

 unfavorably their advantages with those of the 

 tillers of the prairies of the West. They dwell 

 on the rough surface and hard soil of their 

 farms, and the meagre returns which some- 

 times so poorly rewards their toil and risks 

 and investments, without duly considering the 

 advantages they enjoy of proximity to mar- 

 ket, variety of products, good society, healthy 

 climate, &c. Though here in Vermont we are 

 more remote from cities and manufacturing 

 towns, than the farmers in some of our sister 

 States, it is believed that the industry and 

 self-denial submitted to by the pioneer settler 

 at the West, would be rewarded as richly here 

 as there. I think there is danger of indulg- 

 ing these discontented feelings till we come to 

 lose faith in the fact that here, as elsewhere, 

 industry, economy and a good name are the 

 best capital, — the surest means of success ; 

 and that labor, when judiciously applied to 

 farming, is sure of an ample reward, — as sure 

 and as ample as when applied to the specula- 

 tive and distributative departments of trade, 

 in which men hope to avoid the edict that ''by 

 the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." 



As an example of the reward which the soil 

 of Vermont offers to the exercise of persistent 

 industry, applied and guided by intelligence 

 and an honest and faithful purpose, I will give 

 J ou a brief history of one of your subscribers, 

 Mr. John Quinlan of this town. 



He was born in Tipperary county, Ireland. 

 Ilis father, several of his uncles and other near 

 relatives were either [stewards or herdsmen for 

 large landed proprietors, and hence he was 

 early in life familiarized with stock breeding 

 and stock dealings while his moral habits were 

 ii fluenced by the teachings of Father Mat- 

 thew, and the direction of his mind by the 

 eloquence of Daniel O'Connell, to whom he 

 often listened. 



Coming to America at the age of twenty, 

 with scarce a shilling in his pocket, his good 

 sense and mother wit soon won for him the 

 confidence of men who were able and willing 

 to give a good word, which is all anybody ever 

 gave him ; though I see I am about to perpe- 

 trate an Irish Bull, since even that was never 

 given, as he most emphatically earned it by 

 his faithfulness and punctuality in all the en- 

 gagements of his early life. 



Among bis first homes about the time of his 



