128 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



March 



broad walk of flat etoncs, elevated above the surface of ; 

 the yard, on which the barn can be reached drj- i^hod, ! 

 wlion the yard is muddy. There is also access to the j 

 barn, uiuler cover, through carriage-house, horse-sta- 

 ble, sheds and hospital. As there is only a driveway 

 unsheltered between the carriage-house and the wood- 

 shed attached to the dwelling, the walk from the 

 kitchen to the cow stable may be made under cover, 

 with the exception of some twenty ffeet. No. 4 is the 

 hen-house. 



Those buildings were put into their present form 

 some ten j-ears ago ; previous to which the cattle were 

 stabled in the cellar. From his long experience with a 

 basement stable — though his was a very open one — Mr. 

 Pratt is satisfied that stock docs better entirely above 

 ground, and little use is now made^of the cellar except 

 for keeping manure. A part of the western open shed 

 is divided by movable feeding racks into apartments, as 

 desired, for sheep and lambs. 



The next thing that we notice is the neatness of 

 everything abont the premises, — every stick in the 

 wood pile, every hoe in the tool-shed, iieing "ranked 

 and si/.ed" with military precision. This order and 

 system can hardly be ascribed to an ambition on 

 the part of the owner to excite the admiration of 

 the passer-by, for none are expected on this moun- 

 tain shelf; nor to the fact that he runs a small 

 farm, for his fences include over 170 acres, — every 

 corner of which, as well as every pile of stones in 

 his fields, some of which are rods in circumference, 

 manifest the same all-pervading method. Less or- 

 derly farmers sometimes justify the contrast be- 

 tween their o-s^ti and Mr. Pratt's premises, by say- 

 ing they cannot afford to speod time as he does in 

 "fus:-ing." Perhaps not. But as "the proof of the 

 pudding is in eating," let its inquire what has been 

 the result of his system of farming. 



We remember when, at the age of less than 

 eighteen, by the death of his father, a fiimily of 

 five individuals looked to him for care and advice. 

 His mother was in feeble health, and from the long 

 sickness of his father all were in destitute circum- 

 stances. With the assistance of friends, he ob- 

 tained places in other families for all of them, and 

 indentured himseif with a neighboring farmer dur- 

 ing the three years of his minority, for one hun- 

 dred dollars in addition to clothing, &c. 



The family thus provided for, he subseqitently 

 worked by the month or season, for several j'ears, 

 when, having saved a few hundred dollars, he bar- 

 gained for the fitrm which included the buildings 

 he now occupies, and perhaps one-half of the 

 land he now owns. We remember, too, that wheii 

 one of the ncighl)ors heard of the purchase, he ex- 

 claimed, "What, that little Jarvis Pratt bought the 

 Capt. Steams fitrm !" — a remark that we feel' justi- 

 fied in repeating, only as it may afford encourage- 

 ment to other young men who may be regarded by 

 their seniors as too "little" to buy a fiirm, because 

 they may have been known ever since they were 

 t-mall ! 



Having bought his fann he succeeded not only in 

 slicking up his premises but in meeting his pay- 

 ments, and as his three boys and one daughter 



Iieeame able to assist their parents, pennanent im- 

 provements were commenced by which the whole 

 farm is walled, — one hundred rods having been 

 built in a single year ; an orchard of 150 trees of 

 choice fruit has been set out, a statement in rela- 

 tion to which was published in the Farmer 

 (Monthly, 1869, page 229,) by which it appeared 

 that its income for 1868 was ^177 ; and recently 

 something has been done in the line of 



Underdraining. 



Near his buildings there was a piece of land that 

 was very wet and very rough ; an eyesore to the 

 OHmer and a laughing stock, or something worse, 

 to the boys who had to mow it every year. Some 

 hurricane had probably prostrated by the roots a 

 forest of large trees that once grew on this land, 

 for its surface was a succession of cradle-holes and 

 hillocks. It was not exactly a swamp, but was so 

 wet that little could I)e done with it by way of cul- 

 tivation, especially in the spring. Some seventy- 

 five rods of stone drain have let in the plough and 

 harrow and now this is one of the smoothest, most 

 beautiful and most productive fields on the farm. 



He digs his ditches two feet wide and two feet 

 deep and lays the stone so as to form a water 

 course four inches wide by six inches deep, leaving 

 the sides somewhat loose to admit water, and 

 covers with flat stones, and then with soil. He 

 has stone remarkably well adapted to this purpose ; 

 being granite in thin strata, or what we suppose 

 is called gneiss, and is about equal to brick for 

 ditch making. Mr. Pratt is very much pleased 

 with his experiment in underdraining, which has 

 been done mostlj- at odd jobs. He raised this 

 year 30J baskets of corn, of a -variety which he 

 calls the saeep-tooth, a cross, as we understood, of 

 a small ear./ and a larger variety, of which he 

 preserves the do ired size of ears by careful selec- 

 tion. He is very -articular in hisselection of tools, 

 especially of the ploii h, the proper form of which 

 he regards of great importance. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



OIL MEAL rOR HORSES. 



Will you give your opinion about using oil meal 

 for fattening a spirited driving horse, who will not 

 easil}' gain flesh on corn meal ? Will a horse fat- 

 tened with it hold his flesh as well as if fed with 

 corn or corn meal ? Ila^■c heard it remarked that 

 horses would easily gain with this fed to them, but 

 if allowed to shrink could not be easily brought 

 back again. Does it act as an astringent or is it 

 laxative ? SvnscKHiEU. 



Bradford, Mass., Dec, 1870. 



llEMARKs. — We have had no experience in feed- 

 ing oil meal to horses. We find the following in 

 one of our exchanges : — 



Many good horses devour Lirge quantities of 

 grain and hay, and still conlinue thin and poor; 

 the food eaten is not ijroperly assimilated. If the 

 usual feed has been ungrotind gi-ain and hay, noth- 

 ing but a change \\illai!ect any dci^irablc alteration 

 in the appearance of the animal. In case oil meal 



