AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY , THE MOST USEFUL. AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.- Washington. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEN & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
[NEW SERIES.—NO. 43. 
YOL. XII.—NO. 16.] 
FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, fyc., 
SEE LAST PAGE. 
EDITOR’S FARM NOTES; 
OR GLEANINGS AMONG PRACTICAL MEN. 
During our visit to the Horticultural and 
Horse Shows at Providence, R. I., (for account 
of which see other columns,) we spent some 
time with Samuel B. Halliday, who occupies 
a farm of 130 acres just out of the city. Mr. H. 
is chiefly engaged in cultivating a market gar¬ 
den, or what in New-Jersey would be called 
“ truck” for the city market. He has one acre 
of asparagus, 1£ acre of rhubarb, 3 of spinach, 
1£ of tomatoes, 1J of celery, 9 acres of peas, 
sold green, 3-J- of beets, 4 of cabbage, 5 of early 
turnips, 1J of carrots, 1 of parsneps, 1 of string 
beans, devoted to raising seeds for home use, 
10 acres of potatoes, 15 acres of corn, &c. Most 
of these are sown or planted at different seasons, 
and so arranged as to keep the market supplied 
at the right time, to give a succession of work 
to laborers employed, and also to get as many 
crops from the ground as possible. This last 
item is of considerable consequence where land 
is so valuable or high priced as it is on the out¬ 
skirts of our cities. 
As an example of how this may be done, Mr. 
H. first gets an early crop of spinach, and from 
the same ground carrots or beets; early peas 
and potatoes are followed by turnips, or millet 
for soiling; the ground for early beets is next 
occupied with celery; millet and late cabbage 
are put upon the inverted sod after the first cut¬ 
ting of clover. Of course land cultivated in this 
way needs thorough manuring, which it con¬ 
stantly receives on this farm. Mr. Halliday 
has a number of cows constantly manufacturing 
milk for the city and fertilizers for the field. 
They are soiled, that is, kept in the yard or 
stable, and all green food is carried to them. 
They are let out into a yard half of each day 
during summer for water and exercise. We do 
not like this plan, when it can be avoided, though 
it is not so objectionable, where as in this case, 
the stables are kept perfectly clean and sweet 
by a full and often-renewed bedding of peat or 
straw. 
Method of Soiling. —Mr. H. feeds his cows, 
beginning in the spring with green rye till the 
stalks get quite hard, and even after this, if ne¬ 
cessary, by cutting them up short. The rye is 
continued till clover is ready, which forms the 
next food. Clover is followed by green millet, 
which for this purpose, is sown as early as pos¬ 
sible in the spring. Corn—sown in drills at 
intervals of 10 to 12 days—follows millet, and 
continues till frost, when millet or oats is again 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1854. 
resorted to, and used till the ground freezes up. 
The winter food of his cows consists of cut 
corn-stalks, roots, oil meal, and shorts. The 
daily food of each cow is 2 quarts of oil meal, 4 
quarts of shorts, half a bushel of turnips and 
carrots, and as much cut corn-stalks as she will 
eat. He says that from considerable experience 
and observation, he is satisfied that no root 
contributes so much to the quantity of milk as 
turnips, while carrots do not add much to the 
quantity, but greatly enrich the quality. He 
is quite certain that oil-cake is the best milk- 
yielding food. He says that in feeding turnips, 
long-continued practice has proved, beyond a 
doubt, that a little dry hay, or any dry food, 
given to a co w just before milking, will entirely 
prevent any turnip flavor from being communi¬ 
cated to the milk. 
-* • , - 
[editorial correspondence.] 
FARMING ABOUT BURLINGTON, VT. 
This township has Lake Champlain on the 
west, and Winooski River, one of the largest in 
the State, on the north. The greater part of the 
surface is considerably elevated above the lake, 
but the soil, in general, is not of the best qual¬ 
ity. The variety of soil is considerable. Below 
the lower falls of Winooski River, is an exten¬ 
sive tract of intervale, which is not surpassed, 
in beauty and fertility, by any in the country. 
The upland, in the north-eastern part, was ori¬ 
ginally timbered with pine, and the soil is sandy 
and light. In the southern part the timber is 
mostly hard wood, and the soil clay and loam. 
The soil now occupied by the village, is a mix¬ 
ture of clay and sand. In the north part, sand 
predominates, in the south and east part, the 
clay. 
It is not seventy years yet, since the first 
town meeting upon record was held here, and 
one sees, in the old stumps and fresh clearings, 
evidence that this is still a new country. Most 
of the timber in this region, was cut off quite 
early in the settlement, and large quantities of 
lumber went to Canada and so to Liverpool. 
Now, lumber comes down the tributaries of the 
St. Lawrence, and finds a market here. Large 
tracts of virgin soil are still found in the east 
part of the town, where the large stumps of the 
primitive forest are still standing. Here and 
there, you see samples of the pines, with which 
the whole country was covered seventy years 
ago. They are noble trees, and worth a jour¬ 
ney to see. 
The principal products of the farms in this 
region, arc hay, corn, rye, oats, potatoes, stock, 
butter, and cheese. The statistics of the town 
for 1840, were, horses, 351; cattle, 1,455; 
sheep, 6,642; swine, 3,917; wheat, bushels, 
2,462; barley, 28; oats, 10,183; rye, 4,246; 
buckwheat, 1,427; corn, 11,450; potatoes, 45,- 
098 ; hay, tons, 4,241; sugar, lbs., 340 ; wool, 
10,660. About 800,000 pounds of butter are 
made in the county, and twice that amount of 
cheese. We notice in the census returns of 
1850, as an item of considerable importance, 
nearly $11,000, put down as the value of the 
market gardening in this county. Most of this 
business is confined to this town, and the mar¬ 
ket is found in your city. 
We found, away up here in Northern Ver¬ 
mont, one of the feeders of your city hotels. 
A large farm regularly sends its produce to the 
Irving House. We saw the peas, tomatoes, and 
other vegetables, growing on the banks of the 
Winooski, that, a few weeks hence, will be 
served up to the guests of Mr. Bradley. The 
produce of these farms, upon the bottoms, is 
very great. With very little manure, they 
yield enormously. The soil is a mixture of 
sand, clay, and vegetable matter, and is so loose 
and friable, that the roots can push their way 
downward to any desirable depth. They are 
annually overflowed by the river, and as the 
lake is usually full at the period of these over¬ 
flows, the back water extends miles from the 
mouth, and a heavy deposit is made. These 
intervales are easily tilled, and there is scarcely 
a stone to obstruct a plow, to be found. 
In a climate so severe as this, hay is a crop of 
prime importance. On the bottom lands, they 
get two to three tons per acre. On other lands, 
a ton, or a ton and a half, is considered a 
good crop. Both soil and climate are admirably 
adapted to the potato, and this vegetable is still 
found here in its perfection. We have not seen, 
in a long while, such potatoes as are served up 
at the tables here. The fields devoted to this 
crop, are now looking remarkably well, and the 
same may be said of all other crops. The rains 
of the last week, have given vegetation a vigor¬ 
ous start. 
We have not found, upon the whole, so much 
good farming as we anticipated, in this region. 
More reliance seems to be placed upon stock, 
for profit, than upon the vegetable products of 
the earth. This region is deservedly celebrated 
for its fine horses, and one could hardly fail to 
notice the unusual number of fine animals to 
be seen in the streets of the city, as well as the 
host of starved and ancient Canadian ponies, 
grazing in the suburbs, among the French and 
Irish population. 
The farmers have not yet learned the secret 
of investing their capital in manure and labor, 
rather than in land and bank stock. The value 
of high manuring, even with the products of the 
barn-yard, is not fully understood. Peruvian 
guano, and other concentrated manures, have 
