Vol. XXXIX. No. 7, 
Whole No. 1568. 
tCE Five Gents, 
1.00 Peb Yeab. 
[Entered accordinK to Act of Congress, tn the year U 80 , by the Kural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY, 
LEVI STOCKBRIDGE. 
In every calling there are some men the 
simple record of whose lives is at once a lesson 
and encouragement to their co-workers. To 
fanners of the country a man of this sort is 
briefly presented iu the following sketch. 
Levi Stockbridge was born at Hadley, 
Massachusetts, in 1820, and continued to live 
there on the ancestral farm with his father 
until the latter’s death in 1860. His was a 
busy life, however, though a home-staying 
one. When old enough he attended the com¬ 
mon school of the town in winter and worked 
hard on the farm all the summer long. From 
his seventeenth to his twenty-first year his 
summer labors were as unremitting as before, 
but be had outgrown the common school, and 
attended the academy either at Hadley or 
Amherst, in winter. Here among more useful 
studies, he wasted considerable time on Latin 
and Greek. Like hundreds of other bright, 
young men raised on the farm, his ambition 
at this time looked to another career, and 
fired him with the desire to go to college and 
become a lawyer. This project, however, his 
father would not listen to, and the ardent 
youth was told he might have a good educa¬ 
tion, but that he must stay at home, carry on 
the farm, and iu due lime inherit it. Bitterly 
disappointed, he submitted to the paternal 
wishes, but vowed that even if he never en¬ 
tered college walls, he would have a college 
education, and to acquire this, alter toiling iu 
the field all day, he sat up in his room half the 
night foolishly poring over Latin and Greek 
books, but in other ways wisely preparing so 
that if any cliauce turned up, he would be fitted 
to hie away at once to college. 
No chance, however, did turn up, and the 
conviction iu time forced itself upon him that 
such a course of study as that he was then 
engaged in, would be of little advantage in 
the career before him, and that as he must 
stick to the farm, it would be far wiser to 
learn something more about farming than his 
father could teach him. To be convinced of 
the advantage of this, was, in his case, to set 
about doing it with energy and without delay. 
Straightway, therefore, he applied himself 
earnestly to the study of Natural Sciences as 
a private pupil under l)r. Edward Hitchcock, 
Professor of Natural Science at Amherst Col¬ 
lege, which was only' three miles away. Just 
then the Prof, was preparing Ins report on his 
geological survey of Mass., aud out of the full¬ 
ness of the heart his mouth spoke from morn¬ 
ing till night of rocks aud soils and soil anal¬ 
ysis, and little else, so that a much duller 
pupil must have been thoroughly crammed in 
this important branch of agricultural know¬ 
ledge. * 
Already young Stockbridge was thoroughly 
versed in farm practice—could do anything in 
that line from eastrating a pig or lamb to mow¬ 
ing two acres of heavy grass with a scythe by 
moonlight just for the fun of it. With a fair 
share of scientific kuowledge erelong added to 
his practical craft, he soon felt a keener interest 
in his occupation and brighter hopes for the fu¬ 
ture. He could analyze the soil of the farm, tell 
what elements of fertility it was deficient in, aud 
what would supply these, just as well as any 
professional chemist—a knowledge which 
those who are well acquainted with him, know 
he has forgotten nothing of until to-day. 
During the later years of this studious period, 
he taught school la the neighboring district, 
boarding at borne and attending to the barn 
chores as well as to the business of the farm 
generally. 
Gradually, however, as the years went by, 
wife and children, aged parents, the farm and 
its constantly increasing crops and busi¬ 
ness drove him away from his study and 
drew him into the whirl and strain of 
active lile. Little time now for poring over 
abstruse books when 225acres of land had to be 
cared for; hired men to be seen to; and a world 
of outside business demanded attention. The 
years of earnest study aud earnest work, how¬ 
ever, were beariug fruit. The excellent condition 
of the home farm, and the mental and physical 
culture that had produced it, inevitably at¬ 
tracted the attention of neighbors od ail sides. 
The owner was consulted here, there and every¬ 
where. He filled acceptably all the offices of 
his native town ; had charge of the schools ; 
was elected assessor and selectman ; was chosen 
representative to the State Legislature four 
times and to the State Senate twice. Mean¬ 
while, he kept the farm in tip-top condition ; 
had a first-rate farmers’ club in the neighbor¬ 
hood and did all he could for the county Agri¬ 
cultural Society.which sent him as its delegate 
to the Mass. State Board of Agriculture for 12 
consecutive years. 
In 1865, when he was thinking that he had 
lived long enough In public life, aud worked 
hard enough, and that a smaller farm and less 
work would be a paradise, he had au offer for 
the old farm at war prices, sold and left it, 
taking a small place ot four acres umil a more 
suitable oue could bo found. There, though 
fa*- from idle, he hud comparative rest for a 
lime, when a fresh duty once more put him re¬ 
luctantly into haruesB. 
In 185S he had made an attempt in the Board 
of Agriculture to have that body inaugurate a 
movement for the establishment of an agricul¬ 
tural school iu Massachusetts, and urged the 
project until 1860 ; and later on, in 1863, he did 
all he could to iuduce the 8tate to accept the 
Congressional land grant for an agricultural 
college, with all its responsibilities and duties. 
This having been done, he fought valorously 
in the Board of Agriculture aud elsewhere, to 
prevent the existing colleges from stealing 
that fund and devoting it to their own pur¬ 
poses. He insisted that it should be used to 
support an independent agricultural college, 
for the special benefit of the farmers of the 
State. His efforts in this direction having been 
crowned with success, he waited patiently 
as a spectator to see the work begun. For two 
years, however, the undertaking advanced 
only slowly, with many a hitch and jerk, and 
then “ stack ”. In the fall of 1866 a new presi¬ 
dent was chosen, who visited Mr. Stockbridge 
privately, and said that he would accept the 
presidency only on condition that the latter 
would take the position of farm superintend¬ 
ent and business manager. 
Pres. Chadbourne was a good man. and Mr. 
Stockbridge thought he would make the new 
institution a success, and consequently, to 
serve him, agreed to go to Amherst and under¬ 
take the duties of the offered position for two 
years, and no longer. Accordingly he began 
work in April, 1867 Chadbourne did jot come. 
The very week he intended to move he was 
attacked by hemorrhage, and the whole burden 
of the new institution fell upon Mr. Stock- 
bridge’s shoulders. That was a laborious year. 
All the plans had been laid out the previous 
winter, aud the manager exerted himself to the 
utmost to carry them into effect. The college 
and other buildings were erected; the farm, 
fences, old lots and land marks were obliter¬ 
ated. and all laid out anew. A busy year truly 
was it’ '' i l August, when, for the first time, 
the trustees met to see what had been done, 
and to elect Mr. Clark as President. He com 
menced his duties at once, and, as the build¬ 
ings were ready, the school was opened on 
September 1, with 50 pupils. But, although 
the charter said it was an agricultural school, 
no provision had been made for agricultural 
instruction. In this emergency PrcsidentClaik 
appealed to the over-burdened farm manager 
to go into the school about three times a week 
and lecture on agriculture. As that was some¬ 
thing never thought of ou his going there, he 
at first flatly refused ou the ground that he had 
already as much business as he could proper ¬ 
ly attend to. But what will not steady per¬ 
sistence accomplish! Day after day he was 
told that there was nobody else to undertake 
this essential duty, and at length, finding the 
reiterated assertion true, he yielded his own 
wishes and ease to the well-being of the in¬ 
stitution he had done so much to establish, 
and until the close of his two years’ engage¬ 
ment, in 1869, labored with his customary 
earnestness in school and out, to impart sound 
agricultural instruction to all committed to 
hiB charge. 
In the spring of 1879, his two year's engage¬ 
ment haviug come to an end, he bought a farm 
and sent in his resignation. Much discussion 
followed this step, Mr. Stockbridge insisting 
on retiring to the rest he had well deserved 
by a laborious life during the last couple of 
years of which he had been doing the fall work 
of two men. The college was not yet in a 
position, however, to dispense with his ser¬ 
vices, and once more yielding to pressure in 
its behalf he consented to remain but as Pro¬ 
fessor of Agriculture with school duties only. 
From that day to this, pntt’ng bis own 
wishes for a quiet life aside, he has labored 
devotedly through evil and good report of the 
institution whose welfare he has so close at 
heart, to fit young men who have come under 
his care for success in life, and to advance 
the best interests of the farmers of his native 
State iu the first place, and then of agricul¬ 
ture everywhere. Lately he has once more 
sent in bis resignation to take effect next 
spring, but it has not yet been accepted, nor 
is it likely the college will submit to this 
loss of his services if they can still be re¬ 
tained by earnest persuasion. 
From early childhood to the present day, 
bis life has been ass’duously devoted to agri¬ 
culture. and surely this is a man whom the 
farmers not of New England only, but of the 
country at large may justly feel proud of 
having among their number. 
$aara Copies. 
THE RECLAMATION OF BOG-LAND BY 
THE GERMAN METHOD OF BURYING 
WITH GRAVEL. 
PROFESSOR F, H. STOKER. 
For a dozen years or more, a good deal of 
attention has been given in Europe to a pecu¬ 
liar method of cultivating bog-land, which 
seems to have originated upon the great moors 
of North Germany, but which is manifestly 
applicable in many other localities, particu¬ 
larly iu cold or temperate climates. This 
process has been occasionally referred to in 
Amerieau publications, and a brief accouut of 
it suggested by Prof. Playfair of Edinburg, 
was printed iu the report of the U. S. Commis- 
siouer of Agriculture for 1877. In the same 
year some highly interesting chemical exami¬ 
nations of old fields that had been cultivated 
iu the manner now in question were made by 
a chemist named Osswald, whose results de¬ 
serve the careful attention of every intelligent 
farmer. 
The fundamental id*a of the German method 
is to cover the bog-earth with a deep layer of 
gravel—after means have been provided for 
draining the land—and to leave this gravel 
permanently as a suriaoe layer which is never 
to be mixed with the bog-earth which lies be¬ 
neath it. Upou this gravel the crops are 
grown, as will be explained directly. The 
gravel surface shields the youug crops from 
destruction by night frosts iu the spring; it 
lessens the evaporation of water from the soil, 
and the radiation of beat, also, aud 60 keeps 
the land comparatively wurtn. Moreover, as 
practical experience has shown, the buried 
h jrnus can still supply the crops with food. 
The layer of gravel might, of course, be 
LEVI STOCKBRIDGE.—From a late Photograph.—Fig. 44. 
