254 r 
AMERICAN AG-KICULTURIST. 
[July, 
ing excitement, and indeed the owner of a planta¬ 
tion, in good running order, has something very 
like a bonanza. Under its stimulus, the importa¬ 
tion has probably more than doubled, so that at 
present the amount of the annual subsidy paid by 
the United States government to the Sandwich 
Island sugar business is at least half a million dol¬ 
lars, and will probably reach a million a year in the 
next six years, for the amount of sugar-land under 
cultivation increases yearly by a large ratio. As 
to the planters, it is certain that the Treasury 
could not be bled for the benefit of a more ge¬ 
nial, gentlemanly, and hospitable class of men, but 
perhaps the propriety of singling out any class of 
foreigners, however personally agreeable to be en¬ 
riched out of the American public pocket, may be 
called in question. The advantage is so obviously 
all on the Hawaiian side, that it is certain the trea¬ 
ty never would have been made, but for a vague no¬ 
tion in this country that it was a preliminary step 
to annexation. But it would be cheaper to buy 
the Islands than to renew it for another ten years. 
Should any one be moved by the brilliant returns 
of sugar planting under the treaty, to remove to the 
Islands for the purpose of engaging in it, the con¬ 
sideration should be borne in mind, that it requires 
three years to get a plantation into full paying con¬ 
dition, and that this would probably leave possible 
but three “ treaty crops,” as the planters call them, 
before the end of the six years of plenty, and unless 
these were exceptionally good, they would leave no 
great profit over first cost of land and mills. More¬ 
over,although there are still great tracts of good cane 
lands unoccupied, especially upon the large island 
of Hawaii, the entire lack of roads and fewness of 
convenient shipping points on the coast, limit the 
number of really eligible sites for plantations. All 
transportation must be done by mule-back over 
rocky and break-neck paths; and if any railroads or 
good highways are built, they must be at the ex¬ 
pense of the planters, the government is so poor. 
- .mm .g>. - 
Among the Farmers—Ho. 30. 
BY ONE Or THEM. 
Connecticut River Meadows. 
What is more beautiful than the grass ? Certain 
ly the people along the Connecticut should admire 
it. I thought in this eminently grass season that the 
fields in Bergen County, N. J., looked wouderfully 
well, and rejoiced in it as something to be proud 
of ; but a sight of the luxuriance of the growth of 
June grass and Red-top in the pastures on the south 
meadows at Hartford, subdued any such feeling. I 
refer particularly to the meadows within the dyke 
protecting Colt’s Armory, and that whoie section of 
the town from the rise of the river. This iand, like 
the whole of that interesting formation—the Conn 
River Meadows—was formed by the wash of the 
river, is prevailingly level, and was over-flowed by 
the river once or twice annually. The stream be¬ 
ing at these times exceedingly turbid, carried finely 
comminuted silt over the quiet expanse afforded 
by the meadows, and here it was deposited. This 
silt forms a most excellent soil, which will produce 
fair crops with little or no manure, though con¬ 
tributing regularly to the fertility of the up-land. 
One usually observes, rather painfully, on luxuri¬ 
ant pastures, how that the last year’s droppings 
cause a rank growth not relished by cattle, hence 
conspicuous ; but there was very little of this, and 
certainly as vigorous and uniform a growth of grass 
as I ever saw. The superiority of the grass not 
now fiowecj over annually to that which is outside 
the dyke, indicates that the soil has been improv¬ 
ing all these years, through the action of the air and 
its own gradual decompositions and changes. 
Reclaimed Swamps. 
Some time last year, I told the readers of the 
American Agriculturist something of Mr. Augustus 
Storrs’ reclaimed swamp in North Mansfield. I 
have been there again, and instead of the bogs and 
tussocks, and roots, and heterogeneous tangle which 
the plows had ripped and rumpled, and the har¬ 
rows had twisted and torn, there was a smooth 
beautiful field neatly plowed, harrowed level and 
smooth, part of it seeded down with oats, and the 
part which was worst last year, nearly ready for a 
second corn crop. It seems almost miraculous. 
There were in places last year strips of sod cut by 
the plow, and turned over, which were tenacious 
enough to have held together, if a team'had been 
hitched to one end of 30 or 40 feet, and I presume 
might thus have been hauled off the field. Now, 
that sod is nearly gone ; in most places the ground 
is friable and mellow, a few clods and roots remain, 
and there were a good many sticks and stems of 
long-buried timber which the plows turned up. 
These, with the stones on that part next to the up¬ 
land, were being picked off, and a new drain, to 
cut off the springs gt the foot of a stony slope, had 
been dug, and was being stoned up and partly 
filled with the fine stones off the meadow. A big 
wall has been built along this slope, to get rid of 
the stones ; it is about 5 feet high, and from 6 to 9 
feet wide. A wall-layer employed on the farm, 
builds from 7 to 9 rods of a single wall 34 feet high 
in a day, assisted by one laborer—rapid work that. 
Disk Harrows Again. 
Mr. Storrs was trying the Randal harrow in the 
meadow, and it did capital work, especially upon 
those parts where a tooth harrow would tear up 
the not yet thoroughly disintegrated sods, and roll 
them over the surface. The operation of the 
disks is to hold a 6od down, and at the same time 
to scrape or cut a slice of soil off from it—that is, 
when the sods are very tough. When, however, they 
are tender, the disks cut them up, and so disturb 
them as to prevent growth—either turning the 
pieces over, or scraping up the soil adhering to 
them. Several times harrowing will make mellow 
ground even of a green sward. On the tough spots 
the harrow had to be heavily loaded, so that with the 
driver the whole weight was probably equivalent to 
309 or 350 lbs. This would have put the disks in 
above their axles if it had been in ordinary ground, 
but here they ran just deep enough to work well. 
I have known and approved these harrows ever 
since Mr. Nishwitz put his first disk harrow upon 
the market through the agency of the New York 
Plow Company, though I have never used them 
upon my own farm, until this year, it being stony 
and rough. This year, Messrs. R. H. Allen & Co. 
sent-out some for me to try, and report to them as 
to their comparative merits. We gave the harrows 
a very thorough trial, on all sorts of ground, and 
they have done excee'dingly well. In the matter of 
actual pulverization, they do not work so well as 
the square-toothed harrows ; but they make mel¬ 
low soil, and do not tear up the sods ; they cover 
broadcast grain splendidly, and leave the land 
level, and in good shape, with little sod showing. 
Sliortborn Cattle. 
Every time that I see a good herd of Shorthorns, 
1 am oppressed with feeling that other breeds are 
are not of very much account after all. Not that I 
hold this opinion, nor that anybody does, but the 
contrast between such a herd and the Jersey, and 
Ayrshire, and Devon herds is so great, and the cows 
are so broad, and straight-backed, and deep, square¬ 
bodied, and big-uddered, and soft and mellow- 
hided, and so abundautly clothed with beautiful 
wavy hair, and have such prettily incurved horns, 
and carry their heavy bodies on such proportion¬ 
ately light limbs, and altogether are so high-bred in 
6tyle, and so majestic in presence, both bulls and 
cows, that other breeds suffer in comparison. Mr. 
Storrs’ farmer showed an eight months’ old calf that 
weighed about 700 pounds ; yet had been fed only 
simple food, with a daily ration of skimmed milk. 
Clean Roadsides. 
The roads throughout this country are so wide 
that the broad strips of neglected ground between 
wall and wagon track make the journey along 
many highways seem to be through a wilder¬ 
ness of low trees, bushes and briars, stones and 
rubbish. Now, my friend of North Mansfield is a 
naturally neat and orderly man, and this state of 
things, prevalent as it was in his neighborhood— 
and in whose neighborhood is it not prevalent, un¬ 
less some lover of neatness and thrift has made a 
stir among the rubbish—distressed him not a little, 
so he has kept his men at work along the roadsides* 
whenever they have had spare time, hacking away 
with their bush-scythes, and clearing away what¬ 
ever is unsightly, until one may now recognize 
land which he owns by the clean greensward 
which everywhere extends from the fence to the 
roadway. The small outlay will be more than re¬ 
compensed in most cases by the strip of good grass 
land which is virtually added to the farm. I have 
such a strip—a short one, I regret to say—from 
which I get at least one cutting of good hay every 
year, and every man might do the same where the 
dust and wash of the road keeps the ground in 
good heart. Neglected roadsides and hedge-rows 
are nurseries for all the weeds that can pester a 
farmer ; they are lodging places for mice and rab¬ 
bits, skulking places for foxes and other vermin, 
and no good anyhow 
The ISusli-scytlie in tlie Pastures. 
It is not alone by the roadside that the bush- 
scythe may be swung to advantage. Let the men 
get over the fence; not that most farmers will have 
the roadsides cleaned up first, but whether or no, 
there will unfortunately be a fence to get over. 1 
heartily wish there were no fences, nor any need of 
them. This, though written in May, will be l ead 
in July, and that will be just the time when the 
bush-scythe will do the most telling aud killing ser 
vice. From the 1st, or better, the middle of June, to 
the 1st of August, the bushes may be cut to death 
very easily. Earlier there is so much of the stored 
vitality, which enables plants to push such vigorous 
growths in the spring, still left in the roots and 
stumps, that they grow right on after being cut 
down, with scarcely diminished vigor; and later 
the ripening wood and fresh stores of pabulum 
laid up for the next spring’s needs, will so far have 
increased that the cutting will not be fatal If we 
attack the enemy when his provender is lowest, 
“ between hay and grass,” victory will be pretty 
sure to perch upon our scythes. 
Cutting; Brusli in Winter, 
or early spring, has some advantages, especially 
where sheep, colts, or even calves, are pastured; 
for the succulent stems of briars and rose-bushes, 
white birch, and many other shrubs, are so much 
relished by them that the amount of feed is real¬ 
ly greater; and they keep the growth dowD, 
in the case of sheep, to such a degree that many 
things will be killed in the course of the summer. 
X Farm Lumber-yard. 
One thing more before I leave Mansfield. With 
plenty of space along the road near his house and 
barns, where he could pile saw-logs, fence-rails,, 
and posts, boards, and timber, Mr. Storrs actually 
bought an acre of ground for a lumber-yard. 
Here are the piles of plank for stone-boats and 
such like, for stable flooring, boards for all pur¬ 
poses, posts, rails, and old and new lumber, and 
timber of all sorts. Since seeing this yard, and the 
convenience of it, I have wondered at the rubbish 
which thrifty and good farmers suffer to accumu¬ 
late about their houses and barns, and especially 
along the roadside near their houses. It is so 
easily and conveniently remedied. 
-Feeding Poke. —Pork is now lower than it has 
been for 30 years, and the prospect for those who 
have many hogs is not agreeable. Yet it would not 
be wise to sacrifice good herds on this account. 
Those who have not, will find this a good oppor¬ 
tunity to weed out their stock, and replace it with 
a better quality of animals in preparation for the 
time which is certain to come, when pork shall 
again bear a profitable value. The chief profit from 
pure-bred stock consists in its early maturity ; and 
the fact that a pig of a well selected breed and 
properly fed, can be made fit for the barrel at less 
than a year old, makes it of far greater worth 
than one which requires two years to arrive at a 
salable condition. To keep only the best stockr 
should be the aim of every one who rears animals 
for sale ; and there is no better time to begin to im¬ 
prove one’s stock than when the value is low, and 
it can be done at the least expense. 
