34 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
fair, and gently battering on both sides, four and a half 
feet at the bottom, six feet above ground, and two and a 
half feet on top. The wall at the westerly end is not so 
high as the other, and is banked up on the lawn side. 
That on the southerly side is a curiosity. It runs along 
the public road some forty rods, and is built with huge 
rocks, and its outer face is straight and battering, though 
not so smooth and fair as the wall on the opposite side 
of the lawn. It has a base of six feet, is of the same 
height, and in addition thereto is capped with large 
rocks, with their rough ends overhanging the wall, like 
a coping, giving it an unique appearance. It is banked 
up on the inside, and you may walk on the rough coping, 
but it is not an agreeable place to promenade. From 
the outside it is impossible for man or beast to climb 
over. 
If you should ask the reason of constructing such 
heavy stone walls, the answer would be, the abundance 
of rocks and stones, and the determination to dispose of 
them to the best advantage. You may easily imagine 
the original roughness of the land, when such walls were 
constructed of materials collected from a few surround¬ 
ing acres. 
But of all structures of the kind, there was one other 
on the first and most rocky section of the farm, that beats 
every thing I ever saw. It was a wall about forty rods 
in length, having a base of six feet, a height of six, and 
was six feet w T ide on the top. Most of the materials 
were huge rocks, and yet both sides of the wall were 
handsomely faced, and well put together, and what is 
remarkable, they were all taken from a portion of about 
three acres of the adjoining lot, now in arable condition, 
which it never was before. 
These stone walls have been costly improvements, and 
it is due to Mr. Ketchum to say that he has done won¬ 
ders. In the accomplishment of these undertakings, he 
employed a Mr. Burr Wood, whose skill and tact in 
handling rocks is superior to any man in the rocky re¬ 
gions of Connecticut. He moves his rocks, and builds 
his walls without a frame or line to work by, trusting 
alone to the accuracy of his eye; and these of which I 
have written, I examined with care, walking by them 
and over them, and they were found as straight and as 
smooth, and to have a batter as regular as if a line and 
bevel had been constantly used in their progress of 
erection. 
Another improvement, however, has been made on 
the farm, of a more productive or profitable character. 
He has reclaimed a quaking peat bog of about six acres, 
and in 1843 cut two crops of grass from it. This bog, 
in 1838, was partially drained, and at that time a pole 
could be pressed down perpendicularly from ten to fif¬ 
teen feet, in some parts of it. That year also, he had 
an ox mired in it, and the animal was so injured in get¬ 
ting him out, that he was ever after disabled from work. 
The bog is now so firm that a loaded team can be driven 
over any part of it. Its surface was formerly covered 
with tussacks of coarse bog grass, and patches of briars 
and wild roses. In August, 1838, its surface was burnt 
over with advantage, and many of the briars afterwards 
pulled up by the roots. But Mr. Ketchum found that it 
required more draining; and taking a hint from an ag¬ 
ricultural speech of the Hon. D. Webster, after return¬ 
ing from Europe, about draining lands there, he made 
the application. Accordingly, he commenced ditching 
on the margin of the bog, and continued it all around, 
arresting the supply of water from the adjacent higher 
ground, and conveying it by the outlet which carried off 
the water of the ditches previously made. A year had 
not passed away before he found the surface dryer and 
firmer, and the old ditches mostly dry. He then pared 
the whole surface, carting away the bogs and roots, and 
piling them on the adjacent upland, where they 'were 
afterwards burnt, producing some two thousand bushels 
of ashes. In making the new ditches, and deeepening 
the old ones, several hundred loads of black peat were 
collected in heaps near the pared bogs. After exposure 
to the winter, the peat crumbled into a fine black mould, 
and it was then incorporated with lime and the ashes of 
the bogs, making a rich and valuable compost, contain¬ 
ing humus made soluble by potash and lime. 
The peat bog so denuded of its surface, nevertheless 
became dry and firm, and was seeded with timothy, 
(Phleum pratense ,) and in September, 1843, I saw men 
cutting the second crop of grass that season. It is now 
a valuable meadow, and will continue so for a long 
time. The compost made with the peat and ashes and 
lime, was given as a top dressing to an adjoining field 
of clover, and it was then also fit to be cut a second 
time. 
The expense of reclaiming this peat bog of a few 
acres, has been considerable; but the outlay has been 
more than repaid by the quantity of rich manure made 
by the operation, without calculating the conversion of a 
bog into arable land. Of this fact the proprietor feels 
perfectly satisfied. He has, this autumn, (1843,) sowed 
a field with wheat, manured with his peat compost, and 
he assures me, since my visit, that it promises well, 
judging from its rapid growth and fine appearance after 
coming up. Here then, we have wheat growing upon 
a soil which for many years past would not produce that 
grain, but would grow poor crops of rye, or oats, or 
buckwheat. The value of this improvement to Mr. 
Ketchum is not limited to the few acres reclaimed, or 
to the manure made. It has taught him how he can re¬ 
claim ten acres more of the same kind of land, which 
he has, and therefrom make an inexhaustible supply of 
manure for future application. This alone, is of the ut¬ 
most importance in a part of the country where little or 
no manure is to be bought, and where scarcely an indi • 
vidual makes enough to feed his crops well. 
Mr. Ketchum has also made improvements on those 
parts of his farm where there are no rocks, by good and 
substantial fences. Woodland in that part of the coun¬ 
try, is scarce, and fencing timber dear. He has a long 
line of fence with red cedar posts, which I sent to him 
from Staten Island; and he showed me a quantity of 
sawed oak posts, imported from Chenango county in 
this state, which he had laid up in cross piles to season, 
and he intended to char the lower ends. 
One of the disadvantages of this farm is the want of 
timber. The proprietor, however, has a tract of wood¬ 
land, six or eight miles distant, in a region called the 
“ Devil's Den,” where even the most industrious Yankee 
cannot glean a living. It accordingly remains in its na¬ 
tural state of forest, which, when levelled by the axe, is 
left to grow again. It is a great curiosity to visit the 
Den,\ where it appears as if his Satanic Majesty had 
amused himself in breaking into fragments the gneiss 
rocks and heaping them in irregular and confused masses. 
Geologists would say that such appearances are caused 
by an upheaval. If upheavals are produced by central 
fires, as they admit, then the people of Connecticut are 
not far out of the way in attributing the reckless breaking, 
scattering, and piling of the fragments of rocks at the 
Devil’s Den, to the agency of the Old Boy. 
Appropos as to land destitute of timber. Would it not 
be advantageous to cultivate the yellow locust on your 
prairies, for shade, for ornament, and ultimately for 
fencing timber ? Locust trees can be raised from the 
seed in a few years, and by soaking the seed in water 
heated to boiling, they will come up almost as soon as 
beans. I have done so both here and in New-York, and 
seen the same method practiced on Long Island. Red 
cedar also, (Cupressus thyoides ,) might be valuable to 
you. If so, I can send you any quantity of the seeds, 
which are small and are here called cedar plums. The 
trees abound in my neighborhood, springing up sponta¬ 
neously from the seeds, which pass through the alimen¬ 
tary canal of birds which feed upon them. 
Mr. Ketchum’s stock of cattle was not as large as his 
farm would warrant; but it was select and excellent, liav- 
some full blooded Durhams, and crosses with the Devons. 
Among them he pointed out a young Durham cow, that 
gave a large pail of milk morning and evening, was a 
precocious animal of large growth, though only sixteen 
months old, and had a calf at fourteen months, having 
contracted too great an intimacy with a yearling bull, 
contrary to the wishes of its owner. In October, 1843, 
some portions of his fine stock were sent from the field, 
without any previous preparation, to the Agricultural 
Fair at Bridgeport, and obtained three several premiums, 
being allowed by good judges to have been among the 
