22 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Jan. 



the head wafers of the Platte and Arkansas 

 rivers, I will give a britf account of the work- 

 ings of a colony, which I watched with no lit- 

 tle interest, on Clear Creek, which is quite a 

 large and rapid stream, and a tributary of the 

 Platte. Its northern bank, at the place se- 

 lected by the beavers, was about three feet 

 above the water. Between the bank of the 

 stream and the base of a mountain — some fifty 

 or seventy-five yards distant — was a basin or 

 depression of the ground, two or three acres 

 in area, covered with a growth of what is 

 called there the quaking aspen tree, similar 

 to our New England poplar. This ground 

 was, in the lowest place, perhaps two feet be- 

 low the bank of the stream, and admirably 

 adapted to their wants. 



In filling this basin with water they displayed 

 engineering skill truly surprising. They went 

 up the stream some thirty or forty yards to a 

 point higher than the ground they wished to 

 flow, and dug a ditch to the basin through 

 which the water flowed and formed the pond. 

 All the low places at the lower end of the 

 pond where the water would be likely to es- 

 cape was protected by short dams made of 

 small sticks, mud, leaves, &c. Small ditches 

 were also dug radiating from the basin, among 

 the timber, to facilitate transportation — on 

 the internal improvement plan. 



The engineering being completed, the fall- 

 ing of the timber was rapid and systematic. 

 Trees were levelled of all sizes, from three 

 to fourteen inches in diameter — cut up into 

 blocks or sticks, from twelve to fifteen inches 

 in length, floated through the canals into the 

 pond, sunk and stuck fast to the bottom ; but 

 how stuck, I did not learn. The sticks were 

 all conical in form at the ends, as they gnaw 

 entirely around the wood, coming to a point 

 in the centre, with the accuracy of an experi- 

 enced wood chopper. 



A house is built on the margin of the pond, 

 but above high water, wiih subterranean pas- 

 sages leading into the water, through which 

 they brirg the billets of wood when wanted 

 for food. Afcer hiving eatf-n the bark there- 

 from, the wood is conveyed to the stream, 

 where it floa's away. The water is let into 

 and out of the ponds at their pleasure, but in 

 winter it ficezes over, forming a secure depot 

 for their food. 



Hoping these remarks will be of interest to 

 farmers who are "prospecting their muck 

 mines," I have the honor to remain, yours truly, 

 Pike's Peak, 



Montpdier, Vt., Nov. 1, 1870. 



For the yew England Farmer, 

 PliOUGHIBTQ PASTOKES; 



The crop desired in a pasture is grass, and 

 notwithstanding the great vitality of the many 

 plants called grass, there are causalties that 

 destroy them. Severe freezings, when the 

 ground is bare ; long continued drought ; the 



overflow of water, and the encroachments of 

 other plants, such as moss, brakes, thistles, 

 ox-eye daisy, raspberry bushes, &c., cause a 

 pasture to yield less than it ought. 



Sometimes it is advisable to replenish the 

 stand of plants by sowing seed upon the turf; 

 and with no further care an improvement is 

 often visible. Where the seed is mixed with 

 a good dressing of well rotted manure, and 

 then harrowed in, the result in many cases is 

 'satisfactory ; though the surface of a pasture, 

 packed hard by the tread of cattle, is not the 

 best seed bed. It is therefore frequently ad- 

 visable to plough. 



In ploughing a pasture to improve it, it 

 should be well turned over and ■well worked 

 with the harrow. It should not be cropped 

 several years to exhaust its stores of fertility, 

 but re-seed the first or second year with white 

 clover, June grass and red top. As these 

 grasses spread from their roots and also scat- 

 ter their seed, they will soon make a thick turf, 

 while Timothy is a stationary bulb , and red 

 clover does not multiply itself by its root and 

 is not a permanent plant. 



In case moss, (Bear's wheat or Robin's 

 wheat) and white daisy is crowding out the 

 grass, plough only once, re-seeding the first 

 year upon the inverted sod. Do not let the 

 moss tee day light again ; but upon the in- 

 verted fcod, well pulverized and dressed with 

 fine manure, sow grain and grass seed ; fence 

 it from the gattle and harvest the grain and 

 mow the grass the next year, if the land can 

 be spared from pasture. If the land cannot 

 be spared from pasture, it would perhaps be 

 best to sow winter rye in September, with 

 grass seed, keep the stock off in the fall and 

 eai ly in spring, and then let them graze the 

 rye, that would in a degree protect the young 

 grass and give more feed than was grown the 

 year before. 



If brakes and raspberry bushes or other 

 shrubs are plenty, mow them in August, rake 

 and bur.i them or otherwise dispose of them 

 if they are so plenty as to clog the plough ; 

 then have a plough with all its tront edges as 

 sharp as possible, and plough the ground in 

 the fall ; then barrow it so that many roots 

 will be exposed to the frosts of winter, which 

 will kill many of them. For a smothering 

 crop, buckwheat or India wheat is the best. 

 So win June, after repeated harro wings during 

 the spring, and sow no grass seed. In the fall 

 plough and harrow again, and the following 

 spring sow barley or oats and grass seed (un- 

 less the land needs another year's working to 

 improve it,) but expect a volunteer crop of 

 buckwheat with whatever is sown. As a first 

 crop, a rank growing potato is about equal to 

 India wheat, requiring more work and giving 

 more profit. 



Pasture is often ploughed to reduce or Im- 

 poverish it. Sheep will so enrich a hill top 

 that its rank grass will not be eaten, and a 

 f ivorite resting place of cattle will soon be- 



