412 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



A JQNB VISIT TO AN" OLD FARM. 



Beauty of the country — Rural taetes of a friend— Far- 

 mers' Convention in N. H.— Farm of Q, W. Lane in 

 Derry— Old friends in council — Stone ■wails, miles of, 

 and ditches — An orchard waked up — Cabbage, mi.k, 

 &c, — Exhausted sc ils revived— Value of example. 



KiDE across the 

 country in the 

 "leafy month of 

 June" must be 

 a pleasure to 

 any lover of na- 

 ture. But taken 

 in such a June 

 as this, when 

 • heat and mois- 

 ture have given 

 a luxuriance of 

 foliage and flow- 

 ers rarely wit- 

 nessed, the care- 

 ful observer will 

 realize an entertainment and 

 instruction entirely surpassing 

 what is usually found in fashion- 

 able haunts. These outward attractions were 

 greatly heightened by the presence of a neigh- 

 bor and friend, the Hon. John S. Keyes, late 

 U. S. Marshal for the District of Boston, who 

 loves nature and riding as well as old Izaak 

 Walton did "virtue and angling." He finds 

 infinitely more satisfaction in prying into the 

 ways of the wonderful nature about us than 

 into the ways of rogues who operate to deprive 

 the government of its just dues, or who im- 

 peril its safety. So with steeds that seemed 

 to enjoy the travel, as we did the cool air and 

 charming scenery, every mile of the way 

 offered topics which were interesting and in- 

 structive to discuss. 



At the Farmers^ Convention, held at Man- 

 chester, N. H., last winter, Mr. G. W. Lane, 

 of Derry, in that State, took part in the dis- 

 cussions, and attracted attention by referring 

 to the magnitude of his farming operations, as 

 well as by their diversity and their nature. 

 This led me to make many inquiries, and the 

 conversation ended by his extending an invi- 

 tation to myself, to Joseph S. Abbott, Esq., of 

 Concord, whose fame as a coach builder is well 

 known wherever coaches are run, and to the 

 Hon. J. D. Lyman, then Secretary of the 

 State of New Hampshire, and the gentleman 

 who has offered in the New Hampshire State 



Society, and paid the $100 premium on corn, 

 and now offers a like sum for the present year. 

 My friend made up the quarto, all farmers, 

 and working more or less jvith their own hands. 

 Mr. Lane purchased what is well known in 

 all that region of country as the "Old Gen. 

 Derby Place," and which is a very beautiful 

 estate. It stands on an eminence overlooking 

 the country for a circuit of at least fifty miles 

 in every direction, bringing into view the 

 ocean, in clear weather, the Monadnock, 

 Kearsarge, Ragged, Wachuset and Unconoo- 

 nak Mountains, and from the cupola of the 

 house, the spires in about forty different 

 towns. 



The farm consists of some 250 to 300 acres, 

 having a heavy, granite loam soil, full of 

 springs, and originally plenty of stones. The 

 latter have been removed to a considerable 

 extent, and large quantities of them laid up in 

 substantial balance walls, so that now there 

 are between four and five miles of stone walls 

 on the highways. 



There are one and a quarter miles of ditches, 

 which are excavated three and a half feet deep 

 by the same width. In the bottom of the 

 ditch — which is all what is called hardpan — a 

 duct is formed of substantial stones, leaving 

 an aperture about eight inches square ; this is 

 covered with shavings, coarse straw or brush, 

 as compactly as it can be conveniently made, 

 then with small stones for a foot or more, and 

 finished off by returning the earth which had 

 been thrown out, rounding up the surface as 

 much as it is supposed it would settle. 



The effect of this drainage upon the soil he 

 describes not only as clearly perceptible, but 

 quite remarkable. An apple orchard which 

 had borne only the most meagre crop of indif- 

 ferent fruit for many years, brought a bounti- 

 ful crop of fair fruit the year succeeding the 

 draining. Some of this fruit, now on hand, 

 June 30, is sound, crisp and juicy. He im- 

 putes the change to the drainage, as no tilling 

 of the soil had taken place, if we understood 

 him correctly. Quite as beneficial a change 

 was manifest on all the crops, he said, as on 

 the apple crop. 



On the 25th of September last, in passing 

 the farm, I noticed a field of cabbage which 

 seemed from the carriage to be excellent. 

 Mr. Lane informed me that he sold this crop 

 about the middle of April last, after keeping 



