44 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
FARMING IN THE WEST. 
The farm of Mr. Thomas Noble, near Massillon, 
Stark county, Ohio, furnishes one of the best examples 
of systematic and profitable cultivation, to be met with 
in the country. Mr. Noble is by birth an Englishman, 
and came to this country and settled where he now re¬ 
sides, some eight or ten years since. His staple pro¬ 
ducts are wheat and wool. The soil of the farm is not 
naturally of the richest kind, but is well adapted to the 
course of husbandry pursued by its owner. With the 
exception of the roughest and poorest part, the whole is, 
in its course, alternately pastured with sheep and sown 
to wheat. Sheep admirably prepare the land for wheat, 
and a better course could not perhaps be pursued. He 
keeps fifteen hundred Merinoes, and a small flock of 
Leicesters. The latter were imported a few years since 
by Mr. Henry Pai*sons, late of Massillon, now of Hamil¬ 
ton, Canada. These were a very superior lot of sheep, 
of most beautiful form, and equal to any we have ever 
seen of that noted breed. Mr. Noble says he can “ feed 
and clothe” a given amount of population, from less land 
and with less expense, with this breed of sheep, than 
can be done with any other stock. These sheep, though 
fed no better than the Merinoes, show an astonishing ac¬ 
cumulation of fat. A buck from this flock, which had 
never been fed with any thing but hay and grass, got 
cast on his back last summer, and strangled. His car¬ 
cass was found completely encased with fat, like a fat 
hog's, from one to two inches in thickness. The ave¬ 
rage weight of their fleeces is from six to seven pounds 
of washed wool. 
The Merino flock is a very valuable one, and has ge¬ 
nerally averaged over three pounds of wool per head, 
which for the last eight years has been sold in New- 
York at an average price of fifty cents per pound. Mr. 
N. has lately crossed some of this flock with an excel¬ 
lent buck descended from the Paular sheep imported 
from Spain some years since by William Jarvis, Esq. of 
Weathersfield, Vt. This has proved a very valuable va¬ 
riety for the northern section of the country. They are 
very hardy, are better formed, and produce considerably 
more wool than the Merinoes generally do. 
Mr. Noble feeds his sheep on a very judicious and 
and economical plan. They are all sheltered under his 
barns and in sheds, in winter, and are fed with cut straw: 
a bushel of wheat shorts and a bushel of potatoes or tur- 
neps, being allowed to every hundred sheep daily, in 
addition to what straw they will eat. The ewes, just 
before lambing, have hay instead of straw. The straw 
is cut with one of Eastman's cutters, worked by horse 
power. It performs well, and Mr. N. is sa ' ;ed that 
there is a great advantage in cutting nearly all i e fodder 
which he uses—clover hay and straw particularly. By 
cutting, the stock eat it much more readily, and none is 
wasted. The turneps or potatoes, (Mr. N. prefers the 
latter,) are cut by a machine brought from England, and 
which does the work much better than any other kind 
we have seen. A man can readily cut with it a bushel 
of roots per minute, and it cuts them in the very best 
shape for the sheep to eat: that is, in pieces half an inch 
thick, and three-fourths of an inch wide. It is not likely 
to get out of order, even in cutting frozen roots, and if a 
knife should get broken, it can be replaced by a new one 
in a moment. It is called Gardener s roof cutter, and is, 
we see, highly recommended in the English agricultural 
journals. 
The manner in which Mr. N. raises his potatoes, is 
also worthy of particular notice, as the plan may be pro¬ 
fitably adopted on many other farms. We will, as brief¬ 
ly as possible, describe what we saw anil learned of Mr. 
N.’s process of cultivating twelve acres of potatoes. The 
ground had been in grass for several years before, and 
was pastured with sheep the previous year. The field 
was level, and the soil of middling quality, free from 
stones or other obstructions. On a part of the field, some 
manure was put, and as the ground was plowed, this was 
scattered into every fourth furrow, and the potatoes at 
once dropped on it, at the distance of twelve to fourteen 
inches, taking care to drop them at the edge of the fur¬ 
row, that the sprout might be the less obstructed in com-1 
ing up. The next furrow covered the manure and the 
potatoes. In this way the whole field was planted, ex¬ 
cepting that on the part for which there was no manure, 
the potatoes were planted without it. A roller was then 
drawn over the field lengthwise of the furrows, to even 
down the edges. When the potatoes were coming up, a 
light harrow was passed along the rows, after which a 
double mold board plow, run once between the rows, 
completed the cultivation. The average yield on the 
twelve acres, was 250 bushels per acre. The planting 
was deferred till the season was so far advanced that the 
potatoes vegetated quickly, and the rapid decomposition 
of the sod and manure caused them to grow so vigorous¬ 
ly that they got the start of all weeds, &c. and soon co¬ 
vered the ground with their tops. To adopt this plan 
successfully, it is necessary that the ground should be free 
from stones—at least, such ones as would be any hin 
drance to the passage of the plow,—and it should be 
nicely plowed, with rather a shallow furrow. The plow 
which Mr. Noble used, was the celebrated Ransomc plow, 
which is so highly esteemed in England, and which has 
taken the highest premiums at the most particular trials 
made there. It performed its work in most admirable 
style. The ground on a part of it was rather hard trod¬ 
den, yet the work was all done without the least balk or 
defect, and with great ease, by two horses. It would be 
generally considered rather a ponderous implement, com¬ 
pared with the Eagle plow of Ruggles, Nourse and Ma¬ 
son, or the Center-draft plow of Prouty and Mears, but it 
evidently runs very easy, and will cut the furrow to any 
desired depth with the greatest exactness. It is made 
with two wheels, one larger than the other, to run in the 
furrow, but it may be used with only one. The handles 
are both fastened to the beam, the mold-board being 
movable, and so small that it may be drawn nearer to 
the beam, or thrown out wider from it, according to the 
width of furrow it is desired to turn. Corresponding to 
this contrivance of the mold-board, there are shares of 
different width, to be used as the various kinds of soil 
and the different objects of the farmer may render expe¬ 
dient. Mr. Noble does not object to the weight of this 
plow, and the plowman never attempts to throw it round 
at the ends—the horses, (as all teams should be,) are so 
well broken that they take it just where it is wanted, fiy 
an inch, and the furrows are cut through the field as 
straight as if they were done by a line. The English 
plowman prides himself much on the excellence of his 
work, and bred to it as a profession, he arrives at great 
perfection. 
Mr. Noble has also the celebrated Scotch plow, made 
by Wilkie, wholly of iron. It is quite similar in shape 
to Ransomes, but has shares of wrought iron and steel. 
Several shares, varying considerably in width, are de¬ 
signed for the same plow—some are very narrow, not 
more than four or five inches wide—calculated for hard 
and stony ground. This plow is much used on the hard 
flinty lands of Scotland and Wales, and Mr. Noble states 
that in such situations they will do much better work 
than any other plow he has seen. The narrow and long 
pointed share, together with the great strength of the 
implement, render it particularly well adapted to such 
work. 
Mr. Noble raises about two hundred acres of wheat 
annually. He adopts generally the drill method of cul¬ 
tivation, which he thinks has many advantages over the 
broadcast method—particularly in the security it gives 
the crop from rust and mildew. Mr. N. states that he 
has repeatedly known a drilled crop to mature well, and 
give a good grain, with a bright straw, when that sown 
broadcast, and in the same circumstances in other re¬ 
spects, was spoiled by mildew. The greater chance for 
the circulation of air, which the drilled crop possesses, is 
thought to be the cause of this difference. For sowing 
in rows, Mr. N. practices two modes, viz: sowing with 
a machine, and sowing by hand. The machine is drawn 
by a horse, and sows three rows at once, sixteen inches 
apart—finishing the work in the neatest manner as it goes 
along. In the other method the ground is prepared as 
in the usual manner, and a small plow called a « ribbing- 
plow,” of singular construction, which makes a narrow 
furrow two or three inches deep* is then drawn across th® 
