Practical Farming—Wiieat Sheaf Farm« 
affording several natural ponds, which have, 
like similar depressions in much of the land 
at the east, been the depository of peat for 
ages. These ponds have been drained by 
surface and under drains, many of the latter 
requiring to pass 15 feet or more under the 
surrounding knolls, to afford a perfect outlet 
to the whole surface water. A small part of 
the land was under cultivation when Mr. S. 
purchased it a few years since, and even that 
small portion afforded but a scanty subsist- 
ance to its thriftless owner. How many 
such farmers have we in the starving oc¬ 
cupancy of lands that contain hidden mines 
of wealth 1 A large cedar common that had 
never been considered worth enclosing, now 
yields some of the most luxuriant crops, after 
furnishing a large supply of posts and rails 
from the tops, and a stock of fuel from its 
roots. Much additional land has been clear¬ 
ed and brought into profitable cultivation, and 
the portions of it before tilled, have been 
made to quadruple their previous crops. The 
operations of every department are reduced 
to the utmost simplicity, and are everywhere 
conducted with great efficiency, economy, 
and success. The crops are of the ordinary 
kinds raised by our farmers generally, which 
renders the example furnished to some of 
his less skilful neighbors, the more valuable. 
Roots and corn ; rye, barley, or wheat, and 
grass, follow each other in such rotation and 
at such intervals, as the condition of the land 
and the demands of the market require ; but 
as the farm is wrought entirely by laborers 
at wages, it is deemed expedient to keep as 
large a portion in grass as possible, hay usu¬ 
ally being worth in this market, $15 to $20 
per ton, and^the land yielding about two# 
tons per acre, which is secured at a small 
expense, the income, it will be readily seen, 
is very large in proportion to the labor ex¬ 
pended. A large vegetable garden with 
every variety of esculents, cultivated in great 
luxuriance, with a fruitery and orchard, com¬ 
plete the arrangements of the productive 
acres. 
A considerable portion of the farm, how¬ 
ever, is yet in its original forest, and we 
there saw clusters of white-oaks, of a length 
and diameter of stem that would not discredit 
our magnificent, western woods. The build¬ 
ings are in a style of entire plainness and 
simplicity, yet with perfect adaptation to the 
object in view. A large and well construct¬ 
ed windmill, of the most substantial kind, 
occupies one of the group of farm-buildings, 
which is used during a great part of the year 
in grinding for this and the neighboring 
farms. But the peculiar merits of the out- 
buildings consists in the barns. There are 
two of them, of large size, and so construct¬ 
ed, as to afford the greatest quantity of avail¬ 
able room. They are both built upon a side 
hill, thus enabling the loaded hay and grain 
to be drawn in upon a level with the upper 
side, and the entire floor is appropriated to 
their occupancy, while at the same time that 
it affords a great abundance of convenient 
room, saves the trouble of pitching it high, 
and furnishes the fodder just where it is 
wanted to feed into the racks for the stock 
below. The underground room of one is di¬ 
vided into stalls for horses on either side 
through its entire range, 130 feet, and a large 
gangway, accessible by folding doors at each 
end, runs through the centre, affording ample 
room for carts or wagons for the purpose of 
removing the manure. Water is admitted 
at one end through a stop-cock from a pond 
above, forming a reservoir from the drains. 
Commodious yards adjoining, afford space 
for exercising the animals. This barn is ex¬ 
pressly designed for stabling supernumerary 
horses from this city through the winter, yet 
its construction admits of its being used to 
equal advantage for any other stock. The 
other barn being designed for cattle and 
sheep, is open on the south, and the other 
three sides are occupied with racks for the 
stock, which are divided, when necessary, 
by partitions and enclosures. Two other 
barns we have recently seen, possess nearly 
equal advantages; one belonging to Judge 
Huntington, of Hartford, placed on a side 
hill with one range of stalls for feeding on 
the weather side, and a range of cellars on 
the wall side, convenient for the reception 
of roots, which can be emptied from the 
carts above, and are there just where wanted 
for the stock, and are never liable to freez¬ 
ing; the other lately built by Mr. Justice 
Harwood of the Shaker family, at Watervliet, 
furnishing two under stories from the natu¬ 
ral declivity of the ground, and an additional 
one by the winding ascent of a road, and an 
acclivity of a few feet to the centre of the 
building on the floor within the building, 
forming an access for a heavy load, that no¬ 
thing but their powerful and well disciplined 
teams could ever encounter with success. 
But the particular advantage of the first-men¬ 
tioned barns, consists in the admirable contri¬ 
vance afforded for the accumulation and eco¬ 
nomical preservation of the manure. Under 
shelter from the washing rains and exhaust- 
