250 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
August, 
SUCCESSFUL FARMING. 
For judicious and economical management, few farms 
that we have ever visited will compare with that of A. 
Van Bergen, Esq., situated about three miles from 
Coxsackie landing. It consists of 700 acres, lying most¬ 
ly in a body, about 500 acres being cleared, and the re¬ 
mainder wood-land. The nett proceeds from sales tor 
the last ten years, have , been from $2000 to $6000 
yearly. 
The staple product is hay. About 300 acres are 
this year in mowing. The average yield is from a ton 
to a ton and a half per acre. The hay is pressed on the 
farm, and shipped to New-York. The price obtained 
per ton in that market, is from $10 to $16. 
The mowing-grounds are laid out in large lots, thus 
obviating the expense and trouble of many inland 
fences. There are 212 acres in one field. One side of 
this field, embracing twenty to thirty acres, having the 
benefit of the wash from the highway, has been in grass 
for forty successive years, and has yielded annually 
from one and a half to two tons per acre. But the 
usual course is to break up the meadows once in four or 
five years, take a crop of corn and a crop of oats, and 
then seed down again with timothy and red-top. Top- 
dressings of manure are sometimes given, in connexion 
with which the sward is scarified, some grass-seed 
sown if required, and the surface made smooth with the 
roller. 
The mode practised by Mr, Y. B. in making hay is 
deserving note. The grass is never cut while wet with 
dew or rain; thus, from its dryness, it does not pack in 
the swath, but is so light that it admits the air, and 
dries rapidly without being spread. From the swath 
the hay is put into small grass-cocks. This is done 
very expeditiously with large wooden forks—one man 
being able to accomplish more in this manner than 
three or four could with rakes. The next day the 
cocks are turned over for the moisture of the bottoms 
to dry off, which in good hay-weather is all that is done 
before taking the hay to the barn. But if there is a 
prospect of rain, the cocks are carefully doubled and 
and trimmed. After the bulk of the hay—that is, what 
was put in cock—has been carried off, the scatterings 
are collected with a spring-tooth horse-rake, an imple¬ 
ment which answers admirably for this purpose, as well 
as for another, of which we shall speak presently. 
This mode of making hay we think a very cheap one, 
and it seems to answer well in this case. It should be 
remarked, however, that as Mr. Van Bergen sells his 
hay, a considerable object is to obtain the greatest 
weight with the least expense; most of the grass, there¬ 
fore, is not cut till it has reached such a state of ripe¬ 
ness that the curing* is effected with much less labor 
than it could be at an earlier stage. 
Land Under Cultivation. —Mr. Van Bergen 
has this year about 100 acres under the plow, viz: 32 
acres in corn and beans, (in alternate rows,) 40 in fal¬ 
low, with beans in rows ten feet apart, 8 in potatoes, 10 
in oats, and the remainder in buckwheat. 
The cultivation is admirably conducted; the work is 
done in the most thorough manner, and with the least 
possible expenditure of cost. The soil, though of a 
character commonly called “ strong,” is not, on the 
whole, of a nature favorable to crops. A great portion 
of it is too flat, and it is mostly of a very tenaceous 
texture, with a cold, compact subsoil, which does not 
admit of the free descent of water. For these reasons 
crops are liable to suffer both from the excess and de¬ 
ficiency of water. If there is much rain, the soil is 
made into mud, and from being thus run together, it 
bakes so hard when dry that the plants cannot extend 
their roots. 
We mention these disadvantageous circumstances, as 
they serve to show in a more striking manner, the su¬ 
perior skill and judgment used in cultivation. Against 
obstacles which really would have induced many far¬ 
mers to relinquish the idea of obtaining profitable crops. 
Mr. Van Bergen has persevered, and has received for 
his well-directed labors an abundant “ recompense of re¬ 
ward.” Sixty bushels of corn per acre, and from forty 
to sixty bushels of oats, have not unfrequently been ta¬ 
ken from such land as we have described. 
That these crops have been obtained at small compa¬ 
rative cost, will be inferred from the fact that three 
men, under the direction of Mr. Van Bergen, have 
done all the hand labor on the farm, from the opening 
of spring to the 1st of June. The secret of accom¬ 
plishing so much with so few hands, lies in the per¬ 
formance of much the greatest portion of the work by 
improved implements drawn by horses. We cannot give 
at this time a particular description of these implements 
and the manner in which they are used, but hope to 
obtain cuts before long, of some which we consider 
particularly valuable. It may be observed, however, 
that in cultivating the crops above-mentioned, Mr. Y. 
B. uses no less than three kinds of plows, three kinds 
of cultivators, and a harrow besides a spring-tooth horse- 
rake, which is made, in some instances, to do the work 
of a harrow in an improved style. 
In plowing, as well as in all the after-culture, parti¬ 
cular regard is paid to adapting the work to the nature 
and tendencies of the soil. The first object is to obvi¬ 
ate the difficulties arising from the water remaining too 
long on, or near the surface. For this purpose the 
land is laid partly in beds with open channels so dis¬ 
posed as to facilitate as much as possible the discharge 
of the water. The land is next thoroughly subsoiled 
to the depth of fifteen to seventeen inches. In the 
course of culture, particular attention is paid to keeping 
the soil open, which is effected by the use of tools 
which penetrate and loosen to a considerable depth. 
The thirty acres of corn and beans which we have men¬ 
tioned, were managed from first to last, entirely with¬ 
out the hand-hoe, and yet we have never seen an exam¬ 
ple of more clean and perfect cultivation than the field 
presents. Mr. Yan Bergen assures us that a man and 
a boy will readily tend forty acres of corn, on his sys¬ 
tem, in a season, and that too in the most thorough 
manner—not run over so as to have the ground full of 
“ unclean things,” as we have too often witnessed on 
the corn-lands of the west. 
The bean crop of which we have spoken, was planted 
with Lewis’ Seed-Planter, an implement with which Mr. 
Yan Bergen is much pleased. It is drawn by a horse, 
and does the work with great precision and dispatch. 
Mr. V. B. intends to use it hereafter for planting corn. 
Mr. Yan Bergen’s fallows are managed on the true 
plan. The object is to clean the land, and this is done 
most completely. The land is alternately worked with 
cultivators, or ‘ c gang-plows,” paring cultivators, and 
the spring-tooth horse-rake. The cultivators or gang- 
plows leave the ground in small ridges, a foot apart; 
the parers, which are narrow plates of steel of lengths 
varying from one foot to three feet, are made to shave 
the surface, which levels the ridges and cuts clean all 
vegetation; the horse-rake, which is made of extra- 
sized wire to fit it for this purpose, follows after, rakes 
the ground smooth, collects weeds or grass where there 
is any, and leaves the ground in the most beautiful con¬ 
dition. These different operations are repeated in the 
course of the season at various intervals, as may be 
necessary to keep the soil clean and light. The last 
operation before sowing winter grain, is to put the land 
in the small ridges, (as described before) by the gang- 
plows; on these ridges the grain is sown, and is then 
harrowed in with the horse-rake, which running length 
wise the ridges, brings the grain in regular rows, a 
foot apart. 
The gang-plows and the largest sized cultivators, are 
drawn by two horses. Some of them work a breadth of 
nine feet at once, and a man and pair of horses will 
work over from fifteen to twenty acres of fallow land 
a day, with one of them. Mr. Y. B. has lately made 
one still larger than those we have mentioned, which 
cuts a space of ten feet in width, and requires three 
horses to draw it. It is designed partly as a sca¬ 
rifier for grass-grounds, and partly to clean the foul 
growth from the fallows; and is at the same time so 
contrived that differently shaped tools may be readily 
fitted to it, so that at option it is metamorphosed from 
