THE CULTIVATOR. 
83 
IMPROVEMENTS ON MR. KETCHUM’S FARM, 
AT WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT. 
Letter to Solon Robinson of Lake C. H., Indiana, from 
his friend Richmond of Staten Island, and State of 
Neiv- York, containing an account of his visit to see the 
Improvements on the farm of Mr. Morris Ketchum, 
at Westport in Connecticut, in the month of September, 
1843. 
Your last letter received through the CultivatQr, (Oc¬ 
tober number, 1843, p. 160,) was read with pleasure and 
regret; with pleasure, that you was alive and well, and 
had made me the medium of communicating further ag¬ 
ricultural information, valuable to the farming interest; 
with regret, that you had been removed as Post Master 
when the situation enabled you to do so much for the 
country, without injury to the government or to indi T 
viduals. Were I a Tyler man, I should remonstrate 
against an act so injurious to agriculture, and petition 
for a restoration. 
In reply to your last, I shall now notice an agricultu¬ 
ral visit recently made to a rocky part of Connecticut. 
It is agreeable for farmers distant from each other, 
occasionally to interchange visits, compare notes, exa¬ 
mine improvements, and observe the difference of cul¬ 
tivation caused by climate, soil and situation. Mr. 
Ketchum’s visit to Oakland farm was reciprocated by 
me in Sept. 1843, when several days were spent very 
agreeably in partaking of the hospitalities of his family 
and leisurely walking over hill and dale, among rocks 
and water courses, along well cultivated fields of inter¬ 
vale, and among other things, admiring his beautiful 
stone walls, reclaimed peat bog, and his excellent stock 
of animals. 
Westport is a large village, situate about 45 miles 
cast of the city of New-York, or 55 north-east of Oak¬ 
land farm on Staten Island, from whence I write. It is 
near the mouth of Saugatuck river, which empties into 
Long Island Sound, and once gave name to the village 
as well as the stream on which the village is situated, 
Dut the inhabitants, not pleased with this euphonious 
Indian name, caused it to be supplanted by Westport. 
About a mile and a half north of Westport, lies the 
excellent farm of Mr. Ketchum, on which, within a 
few years, he has made extensive improvements, which 
struck me very forcibly, having previously been over 
the same ground in 1838. It is situated partly in the 
valley of the Saugatuck, and partly on the hills which 
skirt its eastern side, from which, and his house, is a 
delightful and picturesque view to the west, overlook¬ 
ing his whole farm and extending to the hills far be¬ 
yond the valley. 
The farm contains over two hundred acres, and is 
now productive in grass and grain, although some 
years ago when the owner was younger, he cultivated 
it without success, having at the end of the year, after 
unsparing toil and labor, made about money enough, as 
he used facetiously to say, ee to buy a pair of boots.” 
Then the farm was exhausted by cropping without ma¬ 
nure, under the cultivation of previous occupants, and 
so it remained a number of years. Now, however, it 
is greatly altered, some of it is under high cultivation, 
and all more or less improved. 
Mr. Ketchum’s farm is divided into three parts by 
public roads. 1. That portion lying south of the old 
road leading from Saugatuck through Green’s Farms to 
Greenfield, contains about 75 acres, and is very rocky. 
2. A portion containing 35 acres on the north and west¬ 
erly side is separated from the main body of the farm 
by the turnpike road from Westport to New Fairfield, 
and is part rolling and part level land, but all suscepti¬ 
ble of cultivation. This is the poorest part of the farm, 
being of a stoney and gravelly soil, exhausted and not 
yet taken in hand by the owner, as it is the most re¬ 
mote from his residence and farm buildings. 3. The 
main body of the farm lies between the old road to 
Greenfield on its southerly side and the turnpike on its 
northerly side, while a cross road passes along its en¬ 
tire westerly front, mailing it a compact quadrangular 
body of land, containing more than a hundred acres, ad¬ 
mirably situated for access to all its divisions from, one 
field to the other, or from the three public roads which 
are always in good order. 
This farm is. in a primitive region. The rock of the 
hills is gneiss, but the plain land is a gravelly diluvion, 
as well as the surface of the hills where the base rock 
is covered. There are two small streams which water 
the farm, and are seldom known to be entirely dry. 
One has its origin in a small peat swamp in the second 
or remote section of the farm, and after crossing the 
turnpike, meanders through several acres of similar 
swamp, and waters several fields which are not swampy, 
and after leaving the farm, finds its way into the Sauga¬ 
tuck river. The other stream arises from springs at the 
base of the rock in the first section of the farm near the 
old road, and after running around the house and barn 
in the central part, wanders through the lawn in front 
of the dwelling: thence taking a course for several rods 
by the side of the road, again passes through a field in 
the central part of the farm, and joins the other stream 
a short distance before it leaves the possessions of Mr. 
Ketchum. 
A large farm so situated, and near a large and thriving 
village from whence is a water communication to the 
New-York market, ought to be a highly valuable and 
productive one. But it should also have a wealthy 
owner, whose resources may be liberally applied to 
renovate and improve it. And such is its present pro- 
prietor, who is doing much to put it in a high state of 
cultivation, as well as in beautifying and ornamenting it. 
He commenced his improvements in 1838, and has been 
annually since adding thereto, though he has much yet 
to accomplish in bringing up some of his old fields; 
but this he will soon do, as he has found a mine upon 
his farm, which will enable him to put all his fields into 
good heart, as it has already a part of them. This mine 
is in the peat bogs. 
Most of the improvements are on the central or main, 
and best part of the farm. In 1838, there was a small 
ancient farm-house and two small barns on the premises. 
That year he removed the old house and the barn, which 
stood near it, and erected on the same site a handsome, 
tasty wooden dwelling house, but not an extravagant one. 
At a proper distance was also erected a barn, 60 feet by 
30, and a hay-house, 75 feet by 25, part of which was 
appropriated as a stable, carriage house, and corn-cribs. 
A little to the northward of his barn, was also built that 
year a snug two story frame house for his principal 
farmer and farm laborers. These improvements I saw 
progressing in 1838. 
Since then he has converted a swamp in the rear o£ 
his house into a garden, by ditching, draining, and cov¬ 
ering with soil. In front of the dwelling two fields 
have been thrown into a lawn of about ten acres, orna¬ 
mented with fruit and forest trees of foreign and domes¬ 
tic growth, and with annual and perennial flowers and 
shrubbery. The stream which runs through the lawn is 
now confined by stone embankments, and prevented 
from overflowing as formerly, when a part of the lawn 
was an alder swamp, now converted into dry and arable 
land. A part of the lawn was a stony and gravelly bot¬ 
tom, with several out-croppings of the gneiss rock, around 
which have been planted groups of trees in vigorous 
growth, among which I observed some thrifty young 
yellow locust trees (Robinia pseudo-acacia) raised from 
the seed in 1838. The whole lawn, which at the time of 
my former visit was poor and unproductive, is now in 
good heart, and during the last season (1843) notwith¬ 
standing a severe drouth, produced two crops of grass. 
No expense, however, has been spared to convert a 
rough unsightly piece of ground into a beautiful and 
agreeable promenade, where, at my visit in September, 
it was delightful to see the children amusing themselves 
under the shade of the trees, climbing the rocky knolls, 
or romping and racing along the serpentine carriage road 
which runs through the lawn, and emerges into the pub 
lie road at the farther end. 
But the greatest object of attraction to the farmer in 
viewing this lawn, is the enclosure on three sides of it, 
consisting of huge stone walls. On the northerly side 
is a wall the most beautiful I ever laid my eyes upon, 
put up without mortar. It is as straight as a die, smooth. 
