1858, 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
333 
gent, and independent farmer of this country. He 
has an abundant supply of pure water, both well and 
aqueduct for the house, the barn, and the road side, 
and also, for a fountain jet, in his door yard, and a 
tastefully located fish pond—the surplus of which is 
used for irrigating a mowing field, that gently slopes 
towards the west, with a descent just sufficient to keep 
the water in motion. By the aid of his mowing ma¬ 
chine, horse-rake, good hands, good living, and cold 
water, his 75 tons of hay is placed in his capacious 
barn without ‘hindrance or let.’ Fruits, flowers, and 
ornamental trees about the house, bespeak the taste 
and liberality of its inmates—while a row of rock ma¬ 
ple trees, each side of the road, the whole length of 
his farm, well proterted from injury by cattle, will, we 
trust, honorably transmit his name down to generations 
yet unborn. 
Our last ‘professional call’ was at the well known 
“ Webster Farm,;'’ in Franklin, about fifteen miles 
north of Concord. The farm is now owned by Mr. 
Fay. The estate consists of about one thousand acres; 
160 of which is intervale, and 49 acres of cultivated 
upland, the balance being in timber, wood, and pas¬ 
ture. This year, there is about 100 acres in tillage, 
30 acres of which is in corn of heavy growth, one field 
of which we passed through will average, we'think, 80 
bushels per acre ; 26 acres in oats, 15 in rye, 5 of po¬ 
tatoes, H in beans; 8 acres ‘ let, on shares,’ and 8 
acres of oats turned under for green manuring. 
The stock now on the farm is 22 of the horse kind ; 
60 head of cattle, mostly Devons, although there are 
a few of the Hungarian, Ayrshire, and Durhams, and 
others of various mixtures and grades. He has a large 
yoke of full blooded Hungarian 4 year old steers ; we 
saw them plowing. Mr. F. appears well satisfied with 
them as working cattle; keeps 160 sheep; 16 swine of 
the Suffolk breed and their grades. 
Last year he had 2i acres in corn, yielding 1,100 
bushels; 700 of whieh he has sold, at an average of 
$1.09 per bushel. Hay crop this year, estimated it 
125 tons; not more than five tons of which is not good 
English hay. Of his 30 acres of corn, this year, 22 
acres were manured at the rate of from 25 to 30 loads 
of farm yard manure, per acre. The land is plowed 
in autumn, about twelve inches deep ; in the spring he 
applies from 25 to 30 large cart loads of manure, which 
is well mixed wilh the soil by the horse-plow, har¬ 
row, &c. 
In ‘ breaking up’ sod land, he uses the double or 
Michigan plow of a large size. It cuts a furrow about 
15 inches wide and 12 deep, and it frequently turns up 
the ‘ yaller dirtbut he does grow capital corn, not¬ 
withstanding this. The day we were there was ex¬ 
ceedingly warm, and his team being otherwise at 
leisure, he put before his big plow six oxen and two 
horses, all of which were driven by an Irish lad, and 
a live Yankee between the plow handles—the whole 
concern went round an eight-acre field like a locomo¬ 
tive, severing the twitch grass roots and reversing the 
soil to an average depth of 12 inches. 
Aside from the manure, he estimates the cost of 
growing an acre of corn, from the starting of the plow 
till the stalks are fit to cut, at eight dollars per acre. 
He gave us some account of his sales of stock, farm 
products, &e., for the past year : Corn sold, $750 ; oats 
800 bushels, potatoes, 200 bushels—-amounting to about 
$500; stock and wool sold, $960 ; 100 cords of wood, 
Va - - - ■ -. mr 
and 15,000 feet of lumber, pork, and many other items, 
in the gross amounting to a handsome sum that we 
cannot here particularise. 
Nearly all his grass is cut with a machine and ga¬ 
thered with horse rakes. Horse hoes and cultivators 
passing each way of his corn-fields, leave but little 
work to be performed by the hand-hoe. In cultivating 
his hoed crops, a boy rode the horse thirteen days in 
succession (Sundays excepted.) 
Mr. Fay has made very great improvements upon 
the farm since it came into his possession, some four 
years ago. He has the enterprize and the means for 
effecting still greater improvements, which we have no 
doubt he will soon accomplish if life and health are 
spared. He is one of those energetic, go-ahead men, 
in the vigor and prime of manhood, who says ‘ come 
boys,’ and when about his farm he neither wears ‘ kid 
gloves nor broad cloth.’ 
He resides in the mansion house, formerly the occa¬ 
sional residence of the late Mr. Webster. The furniture, 
books,maps, &c., &c., were sold with the house, and they 
are now all there. The chair he occupied,the table upon 
which he wrote, the writing materials, to the very pens 
he shaped from the grey goose quill, all remain as 
when the “great expounder of the Constitution” left 
them. The place has become one of great resort for 
strangers and others. A register is kept of visitors, 
whose names fill many pages. We cannot but think 
the quiet and labors of this farmer’s family must at 
times be somewhat disturbed, by the numerous calls 
they receive from strangers and others, curious to look 
upon the many things there, once the property of the 
great American statesman, whose remains are now qui¬ 
etly reposing far from his ancestral home, the home 
of his childhood and youth. Levi Bartlett. War¬ 
ner , N. II. 
-»»«-- 
A Mode of Saving Labor in Shingling. 
I will take this opportunity of sending you for in¬ 
sertion in the Country Gentleman, a description of the 
manner which may be common, but which is new to 
me: 
Take strips of board of any desired length, and six 
inches wide, and straight-edged on both edges; then 
stout wire two and a half feet long, with two to four 
nail holes at one end, and on the other end, a piece of 
band or other thin iron, (say three inches long, set on 
on like a hoe blade. Lay your first course of shingles 
by line, as usual; on your first course of shingles lay 
your strip of board ; then dropping the hoe blade at the 
end of the wire, behind the first end of the board, draw 
that up to the butt of the shingles already laid, and 
nail the wire fast to the roof boards above. At the 
other end of the board fix another wire in like manner, 
which will also support in place the end of the next 
board, which at its other end is to be supported the same, 
and so on as far as you desire to go, to the end of roof if 
you have boards and wires sufficiently prepared. 
Against these boards, (guage boards I will call them,) 
lay the butts of the next course of shingles, shoving 
them close togther, and nail them fast, as commonly 
done. And when that course is laid, pass your boards 
upon it, and secure them even with the butts of this 
second course of shingles, with the wire-hoe as before; 
proceeding thus, course above course, to the ridge of 
the building. When you are near the ridge, there 
