AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE 13 THE MOST HEALTHY , TJTR MOST USEFUL , AM9 TO® JfCOT NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. -Washihgjo!!. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEN & CO,, 189 WATER ST, 
VOL. XII.—NO. 23.] 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1854. 
[NEW SERIES.—NO. 49. 
The fairest flowers Flora bears in her train, all 
m*FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, fyc., 
8EJS LAST PAGE. 
A VISIT TO HOKANUM, 
No. II. 
THE FAKS. 
However a country-seat, devoted entirely to 
purposes of taste, might answer for the banks 
of the Hudson, it would not do at all for Con¬ 
necticut. That motto upon the broad seal of 
the State, with its clustering vines, “ Qui trans- 
tulit sustinet,” has diffused itself through every 
nook and corner of our territory, and penetra¬ 
ted the bones of every son and daughter of the 
“land of steady habits.” A citizen here would 
no more think of appropriating his domain ex¬ 
clusively to pleasure grounds, than he would of 
having his jackknife all ivory handle. There 
must be a blade of utility, sticking out from 
every thing he consents to handle. The knife 
must whittle, or it is so much waste bone and 
iron to him. The streams that thread his farm 
must turn a wheel, if they are large enough, or, 
if this is not practicable, they must at least do 
their owner’s bidding, and irrigate his growing 
crops. To idle along in their natural channels, 
here making love to the flowers, and there wast¬ 
ing their sweetness upon the barren pebbles, 
now frisking in the bubbles and forming a water¬ 
fall, now rippling away in shallows, would be 
desecration in his eyes, and might endanger the 
morals of his children. Never was a people 
more slandered in a proverb, than Connecticut 
in its wooden hams and nutmegs, as if those 
veracious manufactures were indicative of their 
morals, rather than of their industry. The fact 
is, these articles are only samples of the general 
propensity to whittling, and are indulged in, as 
a sort of industrial training for more profitable 
whittling. Shams are no where rarer than here, 
and what little of embellishment and show 
there may be, you will always find them accom¬ 
panied with a counterpart of utility. 
The lord “ to the manor born,” raises corn 
and potatoes, years before he plants a rosebush, 
and it not unfrequently happens, that he is so 
entirely engrossed with his roots and cereals, 
that he leaves bulbs and shade trees, to the care 
of posterity. The stranger who finds his way 
hither, soon yields to the genius of the country, 
and makes utility the corner-stone, in every 
temple of beauty and skill he rears. Whatever 
the schools of taste might say to this sentiment, 
it is not wholly unauthorized in the lessons of 
Nature, and the rural cultivator in the land of 
steady habits, who has an eye to utility in the 
adornment of his home, will bq found about as 
orthodox in his taste, as he is in his religion. 
point us forward to the harvest, and beneath the 
bloom-dust and golden hues with which Pomona 
adorns her fruits, to please the eye, lie melt¬ 
ing juices and substantial nourishment, for the 
body. 
Substantial farming, then, is an appropriate 
back-ground to a perfect picture of country life. 
Nothing less than this does justice to a cultivated 
taste, or to the generosity of our mother earth. 
She is [ever bounteous and prodigal in her re¬ 
ward of confiding toil. There should be broad 
acres, teeming with luxuriant crops, in which a 
rural home, with its lawns and groves of eme¬ 
rald, should set as a jewel, encased in gold. We 
find them here at Hokanum. Out of four hun¬ 
dred acres, all but about thirty, immediately 
about the house, are included in the farm pro¬ 
per, and are made to pay their own way. A 
large sheaf of wheat, magnificently carved and 
gilded, over the gate by the north cottage, is an 
appropriate introduction to 
THE GRAIN FIELDS. 
Here is an extensive field of rye for a New- 
England farm, embracing some twenty acres, and 
close by is a field of wheat, nearly half as large. 
The rye was sown last fall upon green sward, 
turned under with a Michigan plow, and sub¬ 
soiled. It is of large growth, and the heads are 
now drooping with their weight of russet ker¬ 
nels. It will be fit for the reaper this week, 
and will yield at least twenty-five bushels to the 
acre. The wheat is still green, and will not 
reach its maturity until a week or two hence. 
It looks perfectly healthy, and will yield as large¬ 
ly as the rye. Wheat is a common crop upon 
this farm, and is grown with as much success, 
as in the early history of the State. Neither 
rust nor fly makes it more precarious than 
other crops, and the soil of this farm has been 
as much exhausted by long and persevering 
abuse, as any in the State. Before it was tilled 
by the proprietor, it was leased for a long series 
of years, until it was nearly run out. The 
wheat crop is not expected to make itself out 
of nothing, but wheat-forming manures are put 
into the soil, the seed is sown, and wheat comes 
of it in a very rational and legitimate way. 
Wheat may just as well be grown in Connecti¬ 
cut as Indian corn, and that her farmers, as a 
rule should import their flour, is a piece of 
thriftlessness that ought not longer to be toler¬ 
ated. By far the larger part of the farm is de¬ 
voted to 
THE HAY CROP. 
The few years of successful tillage under its 
present management have raised this crop, from 
twenty ton3, to more than two hundred and fifty 
tons. Thin and starveling fields of clover and 
red top, have been succeeded by a vegetation 
rivaling the prairies. This enormous increase 
of hay is not sold, but is all consumed upon the 
soil, every year swelling its riches, and adding 
to its productiveness. Immediately across the 
path, from the grain fields, is 
A RECLAIMED SWAMP, 
which is a happy illustration of the profit of 
well-directed labor. It was once hopelessly 
given over to brush, stagnant water, frogs and 
water-snakes. And strange as it may seem, 
these six acres of waste land were thought to 
be religiously doomed to be the possession of 
reptiles; as much so as Babylon to be a retreat 
for owls and bats. When the book farmer of 
Hokanum proposed to invade their dominion, 
and to let in a little sun-light upon the mud 
that had brooded in darkness since the morn¬ 
ing of creation, he was regarded as little else 
than infidel in his notions. One old gentleman, 
of sound orthodoxy, very significantly told him 
“you can’t make any thing of that Ketchu'm.” 
“ What is the reason I can’t?” 
“ Because the Almighty God made that a 
swamp.” 
“Well, the Almighty made me with brains 
enough to clear it out.” 
Notwithstanding this prophecy, the spade and 
plow-share did their work, the water ran off 
through a ditch, as readily as if it had been a 
natural channel, the reptiles were routed, and 
we, to-day, saw before us, on this same swamp, 
the bright blades of the mowers sweeping down 
grass tod tall and beautiful to be suspected of 
any curse resting upon it. The yield could 
hardly be less than three ton3 to the acre. 
Adjoining this swamp was a successful experi¬ 
ment in 
SUB-SOILING. 
Some fifteen acres of timothy, now in full 
blossom, and of very luxuriant growth, were 
waving in the morning breeze. The whole field 
seemed to be nothing but timothy, and was so 
large as to strike every observer, as an unusual 
growth. The whole field had been sub-soiled, 
and was showing its keeping, in this very lau- 
diblc method. We greatly wanted to see the 
old-style farmers present, and with this field for a 
text, to read them a lecture on the sub-soil plow. 
THE DITCHES 
upon the farm, of which there were many, were 
mostly left open, and stoned at the sides. In 
the bottom of these, in several places, are living 
spring*, which supply them with water at all 
seasons of the year. They drain a large tract 
of land, which is now covered with luxuriant 
grass. Tile draining has not been attempted. 
A marked feature, in the mowing fields was 
small copses, planted with a design to shelter 
the birds, which are very carefully cherished on 
every part of the premises. No one is- suffered 
