■W 
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VOL. L. NO. 21 4o. NEW YORK, JANUARY 3i, i89i. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 2.00 PERYEAR 
A YANKEE FARM. 
A PROBLEM OF CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURE. 
Soil Dug Out of Stoves Costs Too Much to “ Abandon .” 
Turning Manure to the Most Profitable Use. 
Selecting the Right Money Crop. 
T HE farm of Stephen Hoyt’s Sons at New Canaan, 
Conn., is widely known throughout the New Eng¬ 
land States as a successful farm. People of the 
Middle and Western States know of the place as a nursery 
where small fruits, vines and fruit and forest trees are 
grown. In this article we wish to speak of the place as a 
farm, considering the nursery stock merely as the principal 
crop—as one might speak of potatoes, wheat or hay on an¬ 
other farm. The facts given here were obtained by a repre¬ 
sentative of The R. N.-Y. on a visit to the place. In the 
present discussion of the causes that have led to the de¬ 
cline in New England farming, the history of this farm is 
valuable. The “ big farms” are not all out West. In the 
picture shown at Fig. 37, we see the working force on this 
Connecticut farm drawn up 
ready for the field. At least half- 
a-dozen other men not shown 
here, are employed and, of course, 
other teams and wagons are used. 
It is the concentration of effort 
and the possibility of doing busi¬ 
ness enough to keep a large force 
of men employed during the 
whole year that have made the 
farm profitable. Cut it up into 
10 parts and let each part main¬ 
tain a family, with 10 sets of 
tools, 10 sets of small fields, and 
10 sets of retail prices for sup¬ 
plies, and there would beat least 
eight cases of “ farmin’ don’t 
pay,” instead of one case of or¬ 
ganized success. 
A Bit of Farm History. 
There are now 500 acres in the 
farm. The original purchase was 
163 acres, bought in 1836. The 
land is typical “ New England 
soil ”—steep hill-sides originally 
covered with bowlders and small 
stones. It was about 40 years 
ago that the younger men began 
to go away from New England 
farms to the richer and more 
easily worked Western lands. At 
that early day there was com¬ 
plaint of Western competition 
in the production of meat and 
breadstuff's. The keener New 
England farmers saw then that 
their only hope lay in special farming—in growing only the 
crops that were specially adapted to their soils, labor and 
markets and in which they could induce their sons to take 
a positive pleasure and interest. The elder Mr. Hoyt 
decided to develop a business in nursery stock, and this 
decision was the result of one of those strange happenings 
which sometimes seem almost providential. In one of his 
journeys Mr. Hoyt met a “tree agent,” who had come from 
New York State to see about locating a nursery in Con¬ 
necticut. As the two men rode together, the agent talked 
so earnestly about the possibilities of Connecticut fruit 
culture and the need of a home nursery, that Mr. Hoyt 
was convinced that this was the opening he had been look¬ 
ing for. The result was a partnership between the men, 
which was continued for some years. A number of trees 
were brought from New York State and planted on the 
farm. This was the beginning. Now there are over 350 
acres of nursery stock. Mr. Hoyt’s Sons, Edwin and 
James, the present proprietors, took to the business from 
the first. It suited them, and they saw possibilities that 
made it an object to pick up the stones on the old farm, to 
clean up the fields, and spare no effort to master the science 
of tree growing. They had the whole business to learn. 
Many of their early mistakes were serious. One winter 
thousands of young peach trees, planted on wet and un¬ 
drained land, were thrown out by the frost and ruined, 
yhat taught a lesson in drainage that was never forgotten. 
and other mistakes have been carefully studied and cor¬ 
rected until the business has been mastered. The younger 
generation of Western men have little idea of the work 
required to clear a New England field for the plow. The 
pioneers of 250 years ago cut off the trees, but they left the 
stones, and the frost has been lifting new ones into view 
ever since. Look at the stone wall shown at Fig. 38. 
Every one of those great rocks, and hundreds more like 
them, now in drains or at the bottom of the road, were dug 
by hand out of the inclosed field. Think of an acre repre 
senting all this hard work, trying to grow the same pro¬ 
ducts that are grown on an acre of Western land bought 
for $1.25 ! Is the land worth the labor ? That depends ! 
When cleared, drained and intelligently fertilized, we do 
not believe there is any surer soil in the country than that 
on the New England hill-sides, but it needs the best of care 
and the best of manure. 
The Staple Farm Crops 
are nursery stock and summer boarders. Since the silos 
were built some Timothy hay and straw are sold, and 
surplus pigs and milk are disposed of, but the main object 
in growing crops or keeping stock is to make the two 
great “ staples ” happy'and thrifty. The summer boarder 
business began in 1864. As is usual, this business de¬ 
veloped itself. The first contingent of three ladies were so 
well pleased with their treatment that they enthusiastic¬ 
ally advised their friends to go there. Now the house is 
filled every summer. The boarders stop at Mr. IJdwin 
Hoyt’s home, Fig. 33. In this large and roomy old New 
England house the boarders do “ just as they like.” That 
is the secret of the success with this crop. The place 
seems like home to those who stay there. There are 
plenty of flowers for the boarders to pick, plenty of fruit, 
drives, walks and games. Some of the boarders bring 
their own horses, which are kept on the farm. The don¬ 
key shown in Fig. 36 is an important boarder. The city 
boarder is one of the best crops the Connecticut farmer 
can cultivate. The Hoyts have been very successful with 
this crop simply because they have given it a free chance 
to do as it pleased. 
The Problem Before the Connecticut Farmer 
is to supply large quantities of manure. He must grow 
large crops, and he has a soil which will respond at 
once to manures and fertilizers, but which will starve 
without them. The Hoyts soon found that nursery stock 
demanded more manure than any other crop they could 
grow. Where could they get this manure ? Large quan¬ 
tities of horse manure are hauled from Norwalk, five miles 
distant, but most of the “plant food” must be made at home. 
What stock d) they find most profitable? Dairy cows 
aud pigs. Fifteen horses and six oxen are kept for work. 
Minytons of fertilizers are annually mixed, and green 
manuring with rye, clover and buckwheat is made use of. 
Pigs are kept because they are perfect scavengers, and will 
eat up great quantities of fruits and other products that 
are not salable. About 300 are kept during the year. The 
breeds are Chester White and Cheshire, customers de¬ 
manding white pigs. They are mostly sold to farmers in 
the neighborhood when young, bringing from $3 to $4 
each. No large pigs or pork are ever sold, but enough are 
slaughtered each year to make about four tons of bam and 
pork, which are consumed at home. The horse manure 
hauled from town is thrown into the hog pens with other 
rubbish, waste, sods and muck, where the hogs root it 
over and work it into the best possible form for use. 
This is one great reason jvhy pigs are kept—they are the 
best manure-mixers in the world, and everything that 
goes into the pens is quickly rooted into "plant food.” 
About 30 men are fed on the place, and with the large 
boarding-house there must be large quantities of swill 
which would not be utilized by any other animal than a 
pig. Near the pens is a sweet 
apple orchard which helps to 
feed the pigs. Sweet corn stalks, 
pumpkins, turnips — anything 
that can be eaten—make good 
pork or manure. All the grain 
food, except corn, is bought. 
No Horned Cattle Need 
Apply. 
The Hoyts have never been 
able to see any use for horns on 
dairy cows. Some years ago 
they began to collect a polled 
herd. Here and there, scattered 
about the country, they found 
“ mulley ” cows—no one knows 
how they came to be without 
horns. A fire destroyed all their 
cattle and they then began again 
the slow task of hunting for 
" mulleys.” One of the best cows 
dropped a polled bull calf, and 
with him at the head of the herd 
it was soon easy to produce 
polled calves. The present bull 
looks like an Ayrshire with a 
dash of Jersey blood. Many of 
the cows plainly show the Jersey 
characteristics while the Ayr¬ 
shire color largely predominates. 
They are as gentle as sheep. 
They are above the average as 
milkers and the milk is of excel¬ 
lent quality. A typical picture 
of the head and shoulders of one 
of this “ ifew breed ” is shown at 
Fig. 39. With the home-bred stock it is next to impossible 
to obtain a horned calf. Horned cows are sometimes 
bought, but they are dishorned as soon as possible. At 
least 75 per cent, of the calves from these dishorned cows 
and the polled bull are polled. The cattle are fastened in 
the Parson’s stanchion, aud the polled heads are secure 
there. Horns are not necessary to hold an animal’s head 
in the stanchion ! The oxen used on the place are Devons, 
with fine large horns, but Mr. Hoyt proposes to try polled 
oxen, too. The bull is worked in a tread power. The 
cattle are well fed and cared for. Two large silos are 
filled every year. A good deal of the ensilage corn 
grown close by the barn, on ground where nursery stock 
"heeled in ” until May. Dry stalks from which ear corn is 
husked, are run through the cutter and fed dry or with the 
silage. But little hay is fed—the stalks and silage afford¬ 
ing "roughage” enough. It pays better to sell Timothy 
hay and buy stalks and grain. In former years many tons 
of roots were grown, but the silo has made the root crop a 
“ back number.” Clover was tried in the silo one year, 
but did not prove wholly satisfactory. It turned out 
strong-smelling stuff, unpleasant to handle. The corn is 
ground “coband all,” and large quantities of bran, oats, 
cotton seed meal, middlings, etc., are bought and fed. The 
grain is fed dry or scattered on the ensilage, which is given 
three times a day. The cows are turned out to water 
every day. The water is brought to the barns by means of 
RESIDENCE OF EDWIN HOYT, NEW CANAAN, CONN. Fig. 33. 
