i 4 
EXPERIMENTS ON MR. PERL’s FARM. 
We do not know a more lovely country than the 
valley of the Connecticut. One may travel along its 
borders mile after mile, and scarcely see a fence. 
This looks like the country indeed, and not like a 
series of miserable, ugly fenced cattle yens, and crop- 
ped-prisons. The valley is picturesquely checkered 
with diversified crops of grass and grain, and is own¬ 
ed in' patches from a single acre up to one hundred. 
The division lines are designated by corner-stones at 
each end of the several lots, which terminate on cross¬ 
paths, or roads made permanent rights of way by pre¬ 
scription or immemorial usage. These boundaries are 
respected by all, and such a thing as a lawsuit or 
difficulty of any kind regarding them, has never been 
known in most of the towns, although the country 
has been settled for two centuries. 
Heaven made the prairies of the west an open 
country, and to be cultivated as such; but man has 
come in with his accursed fences, to cut up, mar, and 
despoil it of its highest natural beauty ; and in addi¬ 
tion to all this, subject himself to a never-ending, 
grinding, and totally unnecessary tax, that the first 
settlers, above all, are very unable to bear. How 
much better would it be for them to arrest this tyran¬ 
nical and odious system before it gets so strongly es¬ 
tablished that ages must pass away before it can be 
thrown off ? Our only hope in the country is, for 
every person to commence a reform upon his own 
farm, by adopting the soiling system, and abolishing 
fences wherever practicable. To do this they must 
cultivate the better portions of their lands by a judi¬ 
cious rotation of crops, and in the best possible man¬ 
ner, leaving the poorer parts for stock grazing. 
Wherever we go we see land brought under cultiva¬ 
tion, so rocky, rough, and poor, that the crops will 
not pay the expenses even of plowing and planting. 
Such lands ought not to be broken up till they can be 
done so profitably; till then let them be kept in pas¬ 
ture. It is preposterous to suppose that land which 
only yields 10 bushels of wheat or rye per acre, 15 
of oats, 20 of corn, 100 of potatoes, or one ton of 
hay, will pay the expenses of cultivation. It ought 
to be rich enough naturally, or be made so, to double 
these crops on the average, before it is brought into 
tillage. It is a mistaken idea also to suppose that 
grass will run out in any kind of land. If pastures 
are properly managed, they may be kept in good 
grass as long as the world lasts. 
To PREVENT MOULDING IN BOOKS, INK, PASTE, AND 
Leather.— Collectors of books will not be sorry to 
learn that a few drops of oil of lavender will insure 
their libraries from this pest. A single drop of the 
same will prevent a pint of ink from mouldiness for 
any length of time. Paste may be kept from mould 
entirely by this addition ; and leather is also effectu¬ 
ally secured from injury by the same agency. 
Lime.— One farmer saved his clover from destruc¬ 
tion by the slug or small snail, on land bearing a 
wheat crop, by a slight dressing of powdered lime, 
•scattered through a clover seed machine late in the 
evening, when the insects were busy at work. Lime 
would be frequently useful if applied in this manner. 
Sown in moderate quantity on light land, it will bring 
in white clover; ic is said also that it will destroy the 
fungus which causes the rot in potatoes. 
EXPERIMENTS ON MR. PELL’S FARM. 
In a short and imperfect account which appeared 
in our last volume of the farm of Mr. Pell, in Ulster 
County, our readers will recollect we intimated, that 
wo hoped at a future day to be able to give some of 
his valuable experiments to the public. We now 
commence, and shall continue them from month to 
month, trusting his example may be followed by others 
of our friends, and that from them also we may be 
allowed to record an account of the same in our pages. 
CULTURE OF WHEAT. 
First Experiment. —On the 1st of September, 1842, 
a field containing 20 acres was prepared for wheat. 
The seed used was the white flint, weighing 60 lbs. 
per bushel. It was prepared for sowing by soaking 
it in strong brine four hours, then drained through a 
sieve, and spread upon the barn floor, and a dry com¬ 
position, highly fertilizing, sifted upon it, at the rate 
of one bushel of composition to ten of the seed wheat, 
which adhered to the seed as it dried. It was then 
sown at the rate of three bushels per acre, and 300 
bushels of oyster-shell lime spread over the field, and 
the whole harrowed in together. Two men followed 
the harrow, one sowing clover seed, at the rate of a 
bushel per acre, and the other, on the same land, at 
the rate of half a bushel of timothy seed per acre. 
After that the ground was twice harrowed and rolled 
The wheat and grass grew luxuriantly during the fol¬ 
lowing season, and presented throughout a perfectly 
healthy and deep green appearance. Adjoining this 
another field, containing 10 acres, was sown with the 
same kind of wheat, in a dry state. This land was 
not limed. The wheat grew w'ell the next season 
until it blossomed, after which it appeared sickly. 
About this time the grain w T as formed, insects attacked 
it, and the crop was totally destroyed. The straw 
was covered with rust, and unfit for any purpose except 
manure. The wheat on the 20 acre lot was cut in 
the milk, commencing on Monday morning; on the 
Saturday foliowing it was ground into flour. The 
grain weighed 64| lbs. per bushel, and was awarded 
a premium by the American Institute, as the best of 
forty-three parcels exhibited. 
It was supposed by many farmers, that so large a 
quantity of lime as 300 bushels per acre would have 
injured the land, it being a sandy loam. The grass 
seed grew finely, and has yielded since three tons of 
hay per acre. 
Second Experiment .—hi September, 1843, a field 
of 30 acres was sown with prepared wheat, and top- 
dressed with charcoal dust, at the rate of 52 bushels 
per acre. It grew rapidly, was not attacked by rust, 
mildew or blight, when fields near it were almost de¬ 
stroyed. A small portion of the lot, which had re¬ 
ceived by accident a large supply of charcoal dust, 
produced at the rate of 78f bushels of wheat per 
acre. The grain was cut when the straw presented 
a yellow appearance four inches above the ground. 
At that stage of its growth, a milky substance could 
be expressed readily from the kernels, by gentle pres¬ 
sure of the forefinger and thumb. It was allowed to 
remain three days on the field, when it was carried to 
the barn and threshed out immediately. It weighed 
64 lbs. per bushel, and sold for 12$ cents above the 
market price by weight. A few acres were left stand¬ 
ing, and cut three w r eeks after, when others in the 
neighborhood harvested their wheat. This proved 
