130 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
The Highland Society have this year offered prizes 
to the amount of $17,000, under the following classifica¬ 
tion 
Class I.—Agricultural machinery, 500 sovereigns and 
a gold and silver medal. 
Class II.—Essays and reports on various subjects, 
embracing thirty-one subjects of high interest to the 
farmer, viz: 
1. Geological surveys. 
2. Reports on coal districts. 
3. Mines and minerals. 
4. Products of peat moss, &c. 
5. Comparison between different kinds of manure in 
raising potatoes. 
6. Extended application of water and other power to 
farm purposes. 
7. Comparative effieacy of the two modes of thorough- 
draining. 
8. Reports on irrigation. 
9. Forest planting. 
10. Sheep pastures at high elevations. 
11. Improved sheep salve. 
12. On crossing the Cheviot with the New Leicester 
Ram. 
13. Cultivation of the recently introduced cereal and 
other grains. 
14. Feeding farm horses on raw and prepared food. 
15. Early rearing and fattening of lambs. 
16. Insects injurious to agricultural plants. 
17. Insects injurious to forest trees. 
18. Comparative nutritive properties of grasses. 
19. Extirpating ferns from pastures. 
20. Thorough-draining. 
21. Subsoil ploughing of thorough-drained land. 
22. Mole plough. 
23. Experiments with manures. 
24. Analysis of bone or rape dust. 
25. On the effects of altitude on vegetation. 
26. Feeding of cattle. 
27. Forests of larch. 
28. On raising improved varieties of grains. 
29. Reports on improved rural economy abroad. 
30. Honorary premium for reports on certain districts 
in Scotland. 
31. Investigation of certain points connected with the 
science of agriculture, viz: 
An essay or memoir explaining, on scientific prin¬ 
ciples, the mode in which soil operates in produc¬ 
ing or facilitating the germination and growth of 
vegetables. 
An essay or memoir describing and proving, on 
scientific principles, what is the best admixture of 
the ordinary elements of soil, for promoting the ger¬ 
mination and growth of particular vegetables. 
An essay or memoir describing, on scientific prin¬ 
ciples, the mode in which lime operates in render¬ 
ing the soil better adapted for the germination and 
growth of particular vegetables. 
An essay or memoir explaining, on scientific 
principles, the effect of drainage, in altering the 
constitution or qualities of the soil, and increasing 
its fertility. 
An essay or memoir, showing the nature of the 
atmospheric influences on soil, in promoting its fer¬ 
tility, including the modification of these influen¬ 
ces arising from heat and cold, dryness and moist¬ 
ure. 
Class III.—Waste lands—their improvement by til¬ 
lage. 
Class IV.—Crops and culture. 
Class V.—Pastures—their management. 
Class VI.—Live stock—district competitors. 
Class VII.—Products of live stock—butter and cheese. 
Class VIII.—The best kept cottages and cottage gar¬ 
dens. 
Class IX.—Woods and plantations. 
Class X.—General show of live stock and agricultural 
meeting at Inverness. 
Having shown, by our quotations, something of the 
vast extent of the recent improvements in the agricul¬ 
ture of Scotland, and the influence which its agricultu¬ 
ral society has had in promoting these improvements, 
we have given the above sketch of their premiums, as 
indicating the means they have adopted, and are adopting, 
to bring about this great and salutary change—to show 
how vast a field they occupy—and the great bearing 
which science is made to have in the improvement of 
the soil, and in the operations of the farm. 
Transactions of the Essex Agricultural Society. 
Although we consider our practice in reclaiming wet 
grounds, as very defective, and not managed upon sci¬ 
entific principles—neither so economical as to ultimate 
profits, or permanent in improvement as it might be—yet 
the advantages are so palpable, even under our defec¬ 
tive mode of management, as to make it the interest of 
every farmer, who possesses- grounds of this descrip¬ 
tion, immediately to commence this branch of improve¬ 
ment. 
The Essex County Agricultural Society have wisely 
turned their attention to this matter, and made it the 
subject of premiums. In the pamphlet under conside¬ 
ration, we find five claimants for the prize; and we 
propose to give an abstract of two of these communica¬ 
tions, by way of inducing others to commence the like 
improvements, as matter of profit, as well as promotive 
of health, and of the beauty of rural scenery. For there 
are few things more obnoxious to health than stagnant 
waters, and there is nothing more disgusting to the 
eye, in an old settled district, than noisome swamps and 
marshes, 
Timothy H. Brown, attacked a swamp of between 
five or six acres, in Saugus, the mud in which was from 
two to twelve feet deep, and which was so thickly co¬ 
vered with briers and bushes, that a dog would have 
found difficulty in passing through it—and so many 
stumps and logs that the plough could not enter the 
soil, though it had been dry. It was of course worth 
nothing in its then condition. He cut and burnt the 
brush, dug out the stumps and roots, and reversed the 
turf, by hand labor, and dug a drain. In the winter 
following, he drew off the logs and stumps, harrowed 
the ground thoroughly, in the spring, when but a few 
inches of the surface was thawed, and about the first 
of May, planted potatoes. His crop was 927 bushels. 
His logs and stumps were converted into charcoal.— 
The land is now, says Mr. Brown, in a state that I can 
plough it at pleasure. Mr. Brown states the debtor and 
credit account of the improvement as below. 
VALUE OF PRODUCTS. 
Proceeds of coal in 1837,. $166 40 
do do 1S38,. 333 33 
Value of crop of potatoes, at 50c. 463 50 
Value of ashes for manure,. 75 00 
Value of wood sold,... 50 00 
Value of wood used,. 50 00 
Increased value of the land, it being now worth 
$125 an acre, and originally worth only $12 
an acre,.. 565 00 
$1,703 23 
EXPENSE OF IMPROVEMENT. 
Levelling and clearing the land,... $504 00 
Carting the wood and roots,. 35 00 
Harrowing, &c. 12 00 
Planting, hoeing, harvesting, &c... 117 00 
Coaling in 1837,. 40 00 
Coaling in 1838,. 100 00 
- 808 00 
Profit by the improvement,. $895 23 
William Osborn, Jr. made an experiment upon four 
acres of like conditioned swamp, in the same town, 
commencing in the autumn of 1837. He adopted much 
the same course as Mr. Brown in clearing the land, and 
run a ditch around the piece, and four ditches across it, 
three feet deep and four feet wide. He put on different 
crops, as indicated in the following statement of his 
expenses and value of his crops. 
CROPS. 
320 bushels potatoes, at 60c...$196 20 
5£ do rye, at $1.25,. 6 87 
8£ do corn, at $1,. 8 50 
100 do ruta baga, at 30c. 30 00 
20 cwt. hay,..... 12 00 
50 dozen cabbages, at 50c. 25 00 
2,000 lbs. squashes,. 20 00 
Value of fuel,. 25 00 
$323 57 
EXPENSE. 
Cost of land,. $25 00 
Labor, per contract,. 86 50 
94 days by help on farm,. 70 50 
Seed potatoes,. 15 00 
Rye and grass seed,. 1 17 
Six cords manure, at $5,. 30 00 
Two casks lime,. 2 00 
22 days’labor, gathering crops,. 16 50 
- 246 67 
Nett pro fit,. $77 90 
And the land in the bargain, probably worth $400 
more. 
Experiments with manures .—We subjoin the report of 
the committee upon this branch of farm economy. It 
contains suggestions which are of great value; and where 
manure sells for $5 a cord, as it does in Essex, no branch 
of farm economy is entitled to higher consideration. 
“ The Committee report:—That they consider the subject 
of the making and application of manures, one of the great¬ 
est importance to the agricultural interest. Manure and la¬ 
bor are to the farmer, what capital and credit are to the mer¬ 
chant. With them, well applied, the one will add barn to 
barn, the other store house to store house, till there shall be 
no room to contain their several wealth; without them they 
must soon suspend operations, and their farms and their 
ships pass into the hands of more skilful and industrious 
owners. 
“Many farmers think they cannot afford to purchase ma¬ 
nure, and the price does seem disproportioned to the imme¬ 
diate profits; but no farmer will say that he cannot afford to 
make the most of what he has, and to apply it to the best 
advantage. Many take an honest pride in being able to say, 
1 have raised so many hundred bushels of corn, or so many 
tons of hay; now to be able to say I have made five hundred 
loads of manure, is just as much a matter of boasting, for 
manure will make corn, and hay, and other valuable products, 
if it be only judiciously applied. Put in the seed and the 
manure, and the grateful soil will make you a liberal return. 
It is held to be true by experienced farmers, that he who 
doubles the expense of labor and manure, will increase his 
profits and products in nearly a four-fold proportion. In 
other words, the man who spends half his time upon his 
farm, and skims over one hundred acres of land and gleans 
from it fifty bushels of corn and twenty tons of hay, if he 
should devote his whole energies to his farm and improve 
his means of making manure, might raise nearly two hun¬ 
dred bushels of corn and eighty tons of hay. 
“ Some have, in their natural situation and proximity to 
the sea-board, greater facilities for making and obtaining ma¬ 
nure, but every substance of animal and vegetable matter 
can be mixed with the soil in such a manner as to increase 
the fertility of the earth; and even the different soils may be 
mingled so as to produce the same effect. 
“ The quantity of manure a farmer uses, is a pretty fair 
criterion by which to judge his character. In Plymouth co. 
where a premium is awarded to the man who makes the 
greatest number of loads, a most worthy and truly respectable 
farmer, the last year, reached the very enviable eminence of 
798 loads; the lowest competitor claimed for 350 loads, and 
his must be allowed to be an improving character. William 
Clark, Jr. of Northampton, in his statement to the Hampshire, 
Franklin and Hampden Agricultural Society, represents that 
he keeps an average stock of eight swine, three horses, and 
eight oxen and cows; from this stock, with the skilful use of 
all his advantages, which are not superior to those of many 
of our farmers, he made from June, 1837, to June, 1838, 920 
loads, an honorable monument to his intelligence and indus¬ 
try, which compensates in utility and solid value for what it 
may want in taste and splendor. Mr. Clark used for com¬ 
post, 300 loads of sods and soil and 247 loads of swamp muck. 
His yards were supplied with corn stalks and refuse hay du¬ 
ring the winter, and brakes and weeds in the summer, and 
cleared out twice during the year. It might be suppos¬ 
ed that manure so made could possess but little of the quick¬ 
ening and strengthening principles, but those who have vi¬ 
sited his farm and seen his fields burdened with their heavy 
crops, are satisfied that Mr. Clark knows how to make ma¬ 
nure and to apply it, and that his fields acknowledge their 
obligation and pay their due return. Mr. Clark, from such 
manure, has raised more than one thousand bushels of corn 
in a year. 
“ The committee award to Daniel Putnam, of Danvers, for 
the satisfactory experiment and the full and explicit state¬ 
ment made by him, a premium of twenty dollars. 
“ They recommend that Mr. Putnam’s statement and the 
letter addressed by Joseph How, Esq. of Methuen, to the 
committee, be published. For the committee, 
“DANIEL P. KING. 
“ Topsfield, December 25, 1838.” 
[The letters of Messrs. Putnam & How in our next.] 
Notes on New-Jersey Farming. 
A recent visit to New-Jersey, has enabled us to see 
more of its husbandry than we have before witnessed 
in passing across the state by the ordinary routes of 
travel, and to judge better of its capacities for agricultu- 
ral improvement. The few remarks which we have to 
offer, are the result of incidental observations which 
we were enabled to make on our passage from Newark 
to Trenton, and from Burlington, through Bordentown, 
Haightstown, Freehold, Shrewsbury and Middletown to 
Keyport on Amboy Bay. 
New-Jersey is very advantageously situated for mar¬ 
keting the products of her soil. Surrounded, except on 
her northern border, by navigable waters, with several 
boatable streams coming from the interior, and two 
canals and two rail-roads extending from her eastern to 
her western border, the agricultural productions of the 
state, may be sent to either New-York or Philadelphia 
in a few hours, and converted into money; and a great 
many farm productions, which are perishable, or which 
would not bear the expense of ordinary inland trans¬ 
portation, are thus rendered sources of immediate and 
substantial profit. Thus, for instance, the fruits and 
garden productions of the valley of the Delaware, 
where the season is earlier than on the Atlantic border, 
are sent off in the afternoon, by the rail road, and are 
in the New-York market the next morning before sun¬ 
rise, in excellent condition. We returned, a part of 
the route, in what is termed the truck train, which, be¬ 
fore it reached Haightstown, or the half-way station, 
consisted of eighteen cars, filled principally with me¬ 
lons, peaches, and other garden truck. The facilities 
for transporting lime, marl, manure, &c. are equally 
advantageous. 
The soil of those parts of New-Jersey through which 
we passed, is mostly sandy, frequently with a tenacious 
subsoil. The surface in the interior, is gently undulat¬ 
ing, but more so near the eastern and western borders; 
while a ridge, extending from southwest to northeast, 
may in some parts be called hilly. Many of the lands 
are consequently too much saturated with water in the 
spring, and in wet summers, for profitable husbandry. 
When laid dry, these lands are wonderfully improved 
by the application of lime or marl, aided by ordinary 
manures. We were shown a farm of this character, 
which the present owner purchased a few years since 
at seven dollars an acre, and which he had since drain 
ed, marled, &c. and which was now considered worth 
$125 an acre. We examined the crops on another farm, 
and they were fine, which a short time since was pur¬ 
chased for about the same price, and which is now 
estimated to be worth $100 an acre. It may be still 
much improved by underdrains and a further applica¬ 
tion of fertilizing materials. 
The defects in New-Jersey farming seem to have 
been the same as have too generally prevailed in all the 
Atlantic states:—a system of continued cropping, with¬ 
out regard to draining, manuring or alternating crops. 
The fact seems to have been but little known, or little 
regarded in olden time, that plants, like animals, feed 
and fatten—not upon mere earths—but upon the orga¬ 
nic matters in the soil—and that every crop taken from 
a field diminishes its fertility. Another fault in New- 
Jersey, as well as in American farming generally, has 
been spreading the farming capital and farm labor over 
too broad a surface—in cultivating one hundred acres 
poorly, instead of cultivating ten, twenty or thirty acres 
well—the returns and profits of the latter generally ex¬ 
ceeding those of the former, of which New-Jersey her¬ 
self exhibits many notable and highly commendable 
examples. Draining is essential, in many places, to 
