THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



761 



Premium Farm. 



We have already stated that Mr. Robert 

 J. Swan, of Rose Hill, near Geneva, New 

 York, received the first premium of the 

 New Yoik State Agricultural Society, at 

 its last meeting, for the best cultivated 

 grain farm. When the Report of the Vis- 

 iting Committee appears, we shall proba- 

 bly, for the benefit of our readers, present 

 some of its facts in our columns. We 

 have several times visited this farm, both 

 before and since it came into the posses 

 sion of Mr. Swan. We had the pleasure 

 of going over it last season, while the hay 

 crop was being gathered, and just before 

 the splendid wheat crop was harvested,— 

 some notes of our visit being published in 

 our issue for August 1st, last. But we see 

 by the May No. of the Genesee Farmer, 

 that the editor of that paper had lately 

 visited Mr. Swan's farm, and he gives an 

 interesting account of what he saw there. 

 He mentions a striking fact in regard to 

 Mr. S.'s improvement in wheat-culture, 

 which we do not remember to have noticed 

 ourselves, viz : that the wheat crop the 

 year of his purchase of the farm, 1851, 

 only averaged five bushels to the acre. — 

 Mr. S. underdrained and summer-fallowed 

 six acres that year, which was all that he 

 put to wheat, and it yielded over thirty- 

 three bushels to the acre — more in the ag- 

 gregate than he obtained from forty acres 

 the previous year. 



Mr. Swan saw that drainage was the 

 first requisite — the soil being mostly a 

 pretty compact loam, baking hard under 

 drouth — and he laid, the first year, 16,000 

 tiles, and has gone on till in the language 

 of our contemporary, "there is not a wet 

 spot on the farm," and that there are now 

 over sixty-one miles of underdrains, on the 

 344 acres comprising the estate, or an av- 

 erage of sixty-three rods to the acre. 



We wish to call particular attention to 

 the cost of Mr. Swan's drains, because 

 when the subject of drainage was under 

 discussion at one of the agricultural meet- 

 ings at the State House, last winter, most 

 of the speakers estimated the expense at 

 from fifty to seventy-five cents a rod — the 

 latter being the least cost of some drains 

 of three and a half to four feet deep, some 

 of them having cost considerably more. — 

 We took occasion to state at the same 

 meeting, that, as this heavy expense might 



be considered a great obstacle to drainage, 

 it was proper to mention the fact, that 

 drainage had been done effectually at a 

 much cheaper rate — even in some instan- 

 ces as low as twenty-eight cents a rod. — . 

 We alluded to Mr. Swan's operations, but 

 spoke only from memory. Our cotempo- 

 rary before mentioned states, that the av- 

 erage cost of Mr. Swan's drainage has 

 been twenty-eight and a half cents per 

 rod, and that the cost per acre was about 

 $19; that on the higher and wetter por- 

 tions of the farm the drains are twenty- 

 seven feet apart, and from two and a half 

 to three feet deep ; that they were dug by 

 contract at twelve and a half cents a rod; 

 that the cost of laying the tiles and filling 

 the drains with ploughs was three cents 

 per rod ; the average cost of tiles and car- 

 tage, thirteen cents per rod. 



As before remarked, the nature of the 

 soil of this farm was such that drainage 

 was necessary in the outset, and the re- 

 sult has been entirely satisfactory. But our 

 contemporary well remarks, that " While 

 underdraining has formed the basis of Mr. 

 Swan's improvements, it would be erro- 

 neous to ascribe his splendid crops to un- 

 derdraining alone. The land is thorough- 

 ly cultivated by means of summer-fallows 

 and hoed crops, ft is not over-cropped 

 with cereals ; clover is sown with an un- 

 sparing hand ; about nine tons of plaster 

 are sown each year on the pastures and 

 meadows; nearly everything is consumed 

 on the farm except wheat, and, in addition 

 to this, a considerable quantity of oilcake 

 is fed to cattle and sheep. In this way a 

 great quantity of manure is made — and it 

 is good manure — not rotten straw," 



It is further stated Mr. Swan had in his 

 stables and yards, eighty Leicester sheep, 

 which would average 140 lbs. live weight, 

 or 80 pounds dressed weight. They were 

 fatted on good clover hay and eighteen 

 ounces of oil-cake each per day. There 

 were also ei^ht steers, two years old this 

 spring, whose average live, weight was 

 1,075 pounds each. They had each been 

 fed one quart of ground or crushed oil- 

 cake per day since last fall The cost 

 of the oil -cake was $27 per ton. — Boston 

 Cultivator. 



$3=r* A false friend is like a shadow on a 

 dial; it appears in clear weather, but van- 

 ishes as soon as a cloud appears. 



