332 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Noy. 
The grazing of lands with sheep in spring, if not al¬ 
lowed too long, has a tendency to thicken the growth 
of grass. But they cannot be followed by cattle im¬ 
mediately with advantage ; at least three weeks should 
intervene, to allow the smell of their dung to dissipate, 
and the grasses to get a fresh start. 
Very often cattle, horses, and sheep, are allowed at 
the same time in an enclosure. This practice, if the 
animals are properly proportioned, though preferable 
to confining each kind to a single lot through the sea¬ 
son, is still inferior in result to the system of changing 
pastures, above described. It is true that horses eat 
herbage refused by cows, and that sheep can pick up 
grass too short for either, yet if they may follow each 
other with an interval of some days between, that 
fresh , fair bite , so much liked by all kinds of stock, 
will be better attained, and their thrift consequently 
promoted. 
Much greater attention to the condition of pastures 
and the wants of our stock, will be necessary under 
this system, than we have been accustomed to give, 
yet we believe it will prove beneficial and economical 
n result. 
- «— - 
Farming in New-Hampshire. 
We recently made an excursion among a por¬ 
tion of the farming population of Merrimack county, 
N. H., taking notes of some things we saw in course 
of our jaunt relative to farm matters. Trusting that 
some of our “jottings by the way” may interest a por¬ 
tion of the readers of the Co. Gent., we will attempt to 
put them in a tangible shape. 
New-Hampshire is more celebrated for its mountains 
and granitic rocks and soils, its snows and ice, and cold 
winters, than for its agriculture. It has not the broad 
prairies and fertile soils of the western states, nor the 
milder and more equable clime of the sunny south. 
But under these seeming disadvantages, our farmers 
generally manage to raise fair crops, and “ bring the 
year about,” and though they may annually handle a 
less number of bushels of grain, and perhaps a less 
number of dollars, than do the farmers in some other 
sections of the country, we think them, generally, 
quite as independant, happy, and intelligent, as are 
the tillers of the soil in any other of the states—old or 
new. * * * * 
Thus far we have written of New Hampshire farm¬ 
ing in general. We will now say something of indi¬ 
vidual farming among us. In our rambles we saw 
hundreds of farms, and the management thereof, with 
their farm buildings and fixtures, that would be credi¬ 
table to any section of this or any other country. But 
we had time to particularly examine only three of 
them. 
We first visited the place of Mr. Leonard Gerrish, in 
Franklin. He owns about 400 acres of land, 150 of 
which is wood and pasture land, lying back some dis¬ 
tance from his residence. The homestead contains 250 
acres, 75 of which is intervale or alluvial, lying on the 
easterly side of the Merrimack river. About 50 acres 
of which is annually or oftener overflowed ; the water 
“ setting back ” upon it, deposits a sedimentary mat¬ 
ter, that keeps up the fertility of the soil under pretty 
severe cropping. Upon the intervale, he has this sea¬ 
son 30 acres in corn. This field of corn, half a mile in 
length, varies much in quality, owing to difference in 
i soil, whether sandy or loamy, manuring, &c. Most of 
the crop is good. Four acres have now been planted 
in corn for six years in succession without manure, ex¬ 
cept plaster and ashes to the hills, and deeper plowing. 
The crop, he says, is as good this as on any previous 
season—it compares favorably with that which had 
been liberally manured. His object in thus planting 
without manuring, is to see how his alluvial soil will 
compare with the rich lands of the west under continual 
cropping. The poorest portion of his corn was on an 
acre or so, upon which he grew broom corn last year. 
Soon after the “ brush ” was cut, he plowed in the 
green and juicy stalks—a very heavy growth—and 
thinks their decomposition has produced a sourness in 
the soil that has proved injurious to this year’s crop. 
Mr. G. has near his house, some sixty acres of valu¬ 
able wood and timber land; the balance of land on 
the home farm, is a light, sandy and loamy soil, very 
easily cultivated, and in wet seasons like the past, 
under proper culture, yields profitable crops of corn, 
rye, beans, &c. He has 20 acres of corn on this land, 
in quantity and quality, ranging all the way from very 
good to very poor. He estimates the cost of growing 
corn, taking the intervale and upland together, from 
the starting of the plows till the crop is hoed the second 
time, at about five dollars per acre—the manure not 
included. He thinks the fodder pays well for harvest¬ 
ing. 
To some of our farmers, living upon hard, rocky, 
tough-swarded upland, who contend that it costs a dol¬ 
lar a bushel to grow corn, this estimate of Mr. G.’s may 
seem very modest indeed. But he does his farm-work 
with swift travelling horses, his land is free from rocks, 
stumps and other obstructions, and we do not see why 
he may not cultivate his fields as cheaply as do the 
farmers out west, where they boast of “ cribbing their 
corn ” for from five to eight cents a bushel. A man, 
horse and boy, with a corn-planter, can plant ten acres 
per day. The after culture is almost wholly performed 
with the horse-hoe and cultivator. He planted twelve 
and a half bushels of seed corn last spring. Mr. G is 
somewhat largely engaged in the purchase and sale of 
cattle, as also that of hay, which he presses in bales 
and sends off per railroad. The hay cut upon his farm 
is mostly of first quality. He thinks his hay crop and 
corn fodder will be equivalent to 100 tons of hay. 
His farm buildings are nearly all new, thoroughly 
and tastefully built, and well furnished ; the grounds 
about the house well laid out, and ornamented with 
trees, flowers and shrubbery, and a fountain of water, 
&c., &c. 
The next place at which we called was that 
of Mr. Stephen Gerrish, about half a mile from Leon¬ 
ard’s. This is wholly an upland farm, containing 250 
acres upon which there are not five acres of waste or 
unplowable land. His cultivated crops this year, con¬ 
sisted of six acres of well manured, stout corn : 12 
\ 
acres of spring grain and three acres in potatoes, beans, 
&c. He has 200 acres of outland, mostly well wooded. 
Sixty acres of the homestead are in wood and timber. 
He has 75 acres of grassland, all producing good Eng¬ 
lish hay, most of which can be cut with the mower. 
Some portions of his fields that were not sufficiently 
smooth for the machine he is turning over, levelling 
down, manuring and new seeding to grass. His build¬ 
ings are large, conveniently arranged, and finished 
and furnished in a style becoming that of the intelli- 
