10 
THE CULTIVATOR. Jan. 
brown and dry knolls have many of them been covered 
with a lively green, by an improved tillage. 
Improvement of Pastures. —It appears to have 
been a favorite object with the proprietor, to improve 
his pasture lands; thereby increasing the amount as 
well as the quality of the feed. Much of this soil is 
naturally very light and thin, and the surface being 
quite broken into knolls, the land, in its unimproved 
state, evidently suffers severely from drouth. He has 
been constantly and steadily progressing in the improve¬ 
ment of the pastures, and now many of them afford fine 
ranges for the stock. These improvements have been 
made in a variety of ways. Buckwheat, and other 
green crops have been somewhat used, with good re¬ 
sults ; but the main dependence has been upon the rich 
fertilizing materials afforded by the sea. The kelp- 
weed, of which I shall presently speak, possesses won¬ 
derfully enriching power on these light soils. The 
fresh appearance of the knolls, which have been cover¬ 
ed with a verdant herbage by the application of kelp, 
in contrast with those which still retain their brown 
and seared surface, is quite pleasing to the eye of the 
observer, as it no doubt is to the taste of the cattle. 
The menhaden fish have also been largely used on these 
lands, and some of them, which were dressed with this 
fish several years ago, still maintain a thick and supe¬ 
rior herbage. 
I noticed a pasture-field of several acres, embracing 
a high and dry knoll, with little or no feed of much 
value upon it, which was under a course of improve¬ 
ment. A very heavy coat of swamp-muck had been 
hauled on to the field, sometime previously, from a 
swamp close by, and heaped out for spreading. It had 
in this state been exposed to the action of the atmos¬ 
phere sufficiently long to become very dry and crumb¬ 
ling. The muck was spread over the surface and plow¬ 
ed in, and the field sown to rye and grass-seeds, the 
rye to be fed off by the stock. I noticed that upon an 
adjoining field, which had been similarly managed, the 
grass was very good. In fact, there was more value 
of forage upon one acre than upon four acres of the 
first mentioned field. In the old and thickly settled 
portions of our country, the pastures have been much 
neglected and worn; the prices they command are com¬ 
paratively high; the price of pasturage is also high; 
and hence improvements in this department of farming 
are as valuable and desirable as in almost any other. 
Cultivation of Forests. —Mr. Webster takes 
much pains in promoting the growth, and increasing 
the number and variety of forest-trees. The forests 
that were growing at the ime of his purchase, have 
been carefully preserved, and a great number and va¬ 
riety of other American forest-trees have been plant¬ 
ed by him, many of which are now quite thrifty and sizea¬ 
ble, affording abundant proof of the utility and eventual 
profit of a careful attention to this branch of good hus¬ 
bandry. The example Mr. Webster has given is 
most commendable, and any intelligent visitor at Marsh¬ 
field, witnessing the thrifty growth of these young trees, 
cannot fail to be impressed with the fact that this mat¬ 
ter has been too long and too generally neglected. 
The Stock. —About thirty swine, of all ages, are 
kept here. They are of the Mackay breed, in all its 
purity ; and are among the best specimens of this 
favorite breed to be found in New-England. Among 
others, I particularly noticed his old boar. lie is 
thirteen years old, a fine stock getter, and has been 
carried into almost every county in the State. An 
old breeding-sow, with 12 snow-white pigs of very 
uniform size, also atttracted my attention. Mr. 
Webster is also raising a pair of Suffolk pigs, in order 
to test the qualities of that breed. 
Mr. Webster has imported some fine cattle of the 
Ayrshire, Devonshire, and Alderney breeds, and is 
observing the comparative merits of each. His stock 
of Ayrshires, of all ages, is quite numerous, and pro¬ 
bably they are not excelled by any equal number in 
the country. He esteems them highly as a dairy-stock 
for the New-England soil and climate, and his cows 
of this breed are excellent milkers. Mrs. Webster in¬ 
formed me, however, that the Alderney cow surpass¬ 
ed all others for the rich quality of her milk; that the 
cream can be churned into butter in a very few min¬ 
utes, and being of too deep an orange color to look 
well on the table, the milk of this cow is usually mix¬ 
ed with that of three or four others, perceptibly color¬ 
ing the whole. She does not give as much milk, 
however, as either of the Ayrshire cows. 
He has a fine young bull of the Alderney breed, and 
has for experiment coupled him with some of the 
Ayrshire cows this year. He has an old Devonshire 
bull and many grade-cattle and steers of his get, 
which are esteemed highly for the yoke. A promis¬ 
ing bull-calf of this breed was also noticed, and a 
Durham cow of remarkable capacity as a deep milker. 
The farmer of Marshfield is not to be beaten by any 
other farmer, in the number and fine majestic appear¬ 
ance of his working oxen, of which he keeps several 
yoke for the business of the farm. Twenty-five 
steers were noticed in one lot, which have recently 
come down from his old farm in New -Hampshire. 
Mr. Webster has any quantity, and a great variety 
of poultry and water fowl, ann ponds of water for 
them. 
He takes great delight among his cattle; and the 
progress of each animal is carefully observed and 
well known by him. Before leaving the farm in the 
autumn to engage in the duties of public life, he usu¬ 
ally has all the cattlS brought up to the barns, and 
each animal put into its stall, which is numbered, and 
of which a memorandum is taken. His head farmer 
keeps him informed, during the winter, of the state 
and progress of the stock and other matters, and if 
any particular animal is mentioned, he knows all about 
him at once. 
Manure. —In addition to the bountiful supply of 
manure made by the numerous stock, the sea also 
affords a large amount of valuable material for the 
improvement of the soil and crops. The sweepings of 
the marsh, so called,—which are composed of a 
variety of vegetation from the marsh and the sea, the 
most valuable of which is the rock-weed,—are brought 
in by the tide-and deposited in winrows on the mar¬ 
gins of the upland. They are gathered up, at dif¬ 
ferent times, and deposited in the barn-yards and 
piggery. Swamp-muck and mud and turf from the 
ditches in the marshes, are also carted into the yards 
during summer, and the whole mixed up with the 
manure-droppings by the treading of the stock. The 
hay cut upon the marshes is profusely used for litter¬ 
ing the yards and sheds during the foddering season. 
The barns are not conveniently located for cellars, and 
the planks of the stable-floors are therefore laid with 
an opening of three-fourths of an inch, and muck 
or loam thrown under the stables in the fall to the 
depth of two or three feet, in order that nothing shall 
be lost. Large quantities of the menhaden fish are 
taken in the seine, and either composted with muck 
and other material, or spread directly upon the land as 
a top-dressing for grass, or plowed in for hoed crops. 
Use of Kelp. —But one of the most interesting mat¬ 
ters pertaining to Mr. Webster’s farming, is the sys¬ 
tematic and extensive business of collecting and using 
kelp. Until he commenced farming, the value of this 
plant, as a fertilizer of the soil, was not at all appre¬ 
ciated in this region, although thousands of tons of it 
were annually thrown upon the shore, to be decompos¬ 
ed and again washed away into the ocean. He esti- 
