22 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
in grass a short term of years. This is best effected by 
plowing the land in such a manner that the feeders may 
be made upon the ridges at the center of each “land,” 
the dead furrows forming the drains for carrying off the 
surplus water. 
vMmmmfr,, 
A section of 
this method is 
shown in fig. 
6, F. F. being 
Fig. 6. 
the feeders, and D. B, the drains. 
Laying out the ground, before striking the furrows, by 
means of a level, will greatly facilitate the work, and 
render it much more accu¬ 
rate and perfect. One of 
the most convenient instru¬ 
ments for this purpose, is 
the triangular level, repre¬ 
sented by fig. 7. It is so 
made that the plumb line 
intersects the middle of the 
cross bar, when the extre¬ 
mities of the legs are pre¬ 
cisely on a level. It is 
used in the following manner:—One foot of the instru¬ 
ment is placed at the level of the water to be drawn off, 
and the other at such a spot that the plumb will hang ex¬ 
actly at the middle of the cross bar; then bring round 
the other leg again to a level point as before, and so pro¬ 
ceed to mark off the direction of the channel across the 
field. But it is necessary that the channel should have 
some descent; this is easily given, by suffering the plum 
to fall a little from the center towards the intended fall. 
If this distance from the center be half an inch, the de¬ 
scent from one leg to the other will be about one inch. 
This level should be made of light but stiff spars, and 
with ten or twelve feet span; and the exact course of the 
intended feeder or drain may be conspicuously indicated 
by a peg driven into the ground at each point marked by 
the foot of the level. The general slope of the land may 
be previously determined by the two sights at the extre- 
meties of the cross bar. 
An objection has been brought to the practice of wa¬ 
tering meadows, that the grass though greatly increased 
in quantity is much inferior in quality. This is indeed 
the case, but not more so’ than results from increased 
growth by the use of stable manure. The slight inferi¬ 
ority in this iespect has been found by careful and accu¬ 
rate experiments to be vastly overbalanced by the in¬ 
crease of bulk. 
Judgment must be exercised in not overdoing the busi¬ 
ness by suffering the water to remain on too long. Two 
or three weeks, with a short intermission, are admissible 
in dry seasons, or in autumn; but in spring, when the 
growth of the grass is rapid, much less time is sufficient. 
The appearance of scum upon the grass is regarded as an 
indication for the immediate withdrawal of the water. 
Autumn floodings are considered as the most permanently 
beneficial, as the waters are then charged with the ani¬ 
mal and vegetable matters which have accumulated du¬ 
ring summer. This season of the year will also be gen¬ 
erally found most convenient for laying out and plowing 
the furrows for the channels. 
When it is remembered that manure is spread in this 
way without the labor of drawing and shoveling—that 
the practice would probably be even more beneficial in 
our hot and dry summers, than in the moist climate of 
England—that it is in fact, not the transferring merely of 
manure from one spot to another, but the actual recovery 
of an immense amount of enriching material now swept 
through rivers to the sea,—the importance of a greater 
attention to the subject must force itself at once upon the 
mind. 
Calculating the velocity of water in channels. 
—It often becomes a matter of some consequence, not on¬ 
ly in cutting channels for irrigation, but for surface drains 
in reclaiming wet lands, to know the exact amount of 
water which may be carried with a given descent in the 
stream. To enable any person to calculate this readily, 
the following rule is given, and may be readily used by 
any boy who understands commton arithmetic. 
To ascertain the mean velocity of water in a canal or river 
flowing through a straight channel of equal size throughout: 
Let/ = the fall in one English mile in inches: 
Let d = the hydraulic mean depth; 
Letv == the velocity in inches per second, then 
r=1.23 Vjf. 
The hydraulic mean depth is a quantity, which when 
multiplied by the perimeter of the channel in contact 
with the water, gives an area equal to the area of the 
section. 
Example: Suppose a furrow is cut 6 inches wide and 
4 inches deep, with perpendicular sides, and that it de¬ 
scends one inch in a rod; to find the quantity of water 
that will flow in it. It will fall 320 inches in a mile; the 
perimeter in contact with the water will be, 6 inches on 
the bottom and four inches at each side = 14 inches; the 
area of the section will be 6 times 4 = 24,—which divi¬ 
ded by 14, the perimeter, gives 1.7 = the hydraulic 
mean depth. Then by applying the above rule, 
v=1.23V / 320 X 1.7=1.23 X 7.4=9.1 inches,the veloci¬ 
ty per second, or about one gall, per second, or one hogs¬ 
head per minute. 
In practice, considerable allowance must be made for 
rough and uneven sides and bottom, which would tend to 
retard the current. In larger channels, the calculation 
would be more accurate. 
FARMING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
The farm of Cheever Newhall, Esq., in Dorchester, 
six miles from Boston, furnishes one of the best exam¬ 
ples of productive husbandry, we have any where met 
with. It consists of sixty acres, a few of which are still 
in wood. Several acres are taken up by the grounds 
about the house, in garden, shrubbery, &c., and there are 
eight or ten acres in orcharding; yet the farm supports 
twenty-five cows, one bull, four oxen, and three horses. 
All this stock is supported entirely from the farm, with 
the exception of a few oats occasionally for the carriage- 
horses, and some wheat bran for the cows. 
The soil was originally very strong and some of it 
wet. 
Soiling. —Mr. Newhall keeps his stock altogether on 
the soiling system. They are fed mostly in the barn, at 
all seasons of the year. The cows are turned out for a 
few hours in each day, when the weather will admit 
of it, and are driven for exercise to a small, shaded en¬ 
closure, about a quarter of a mile from the barn. They 
are perfectly healthy, and Mr. N. thinks give quite 
as much, if not more, milk, in the course of the year, 
as they would do if grazed in summer in the ordinary 
way. The cows average 420 gallons per year, and the 
milk is sold at the farm at an average of about fourteen 
cents per gallon. 
The principal articles for feeding, in the summer sea¬ 
son, are rye and Indian corn, cut green. The former is 
sown in the fall, and is the first thing that is fit to cut in 
the spring. It may be commenced on as soon as it is 
high enough to mow, and will continue to grow till the 
usual time that rye matures, by which time, the corn, 
which is most relied on, is fit to use. Corn is the most 
productive of fodder of any crop which can be grown. 
The past season, Mr, N. kept twenty-three cows for eight 
iceeks, wholly from two acres and a half of corn. He is 
confident that one acre of rich land is more than sufficient 
to keep a cow the year round—that is, it will afford suf¬ 
ficient green food in summer, and leave enough to be 
dried to keep the cow through the winter. In 1843, Mr. 
Newhall measured a square rod, being part of a lot of 
corn sown for fall and winter use, and carefully weighed 
the produce, which he found to be at the rate of more 
than thirty-two tons per acre. It was then carefully dried 
when it weighed 160 lbs. to the rod, or nearly thirteen 
tons to the acre. He prefers planting in the drill mode, 
three feet apart, and uses two to three bushels of seed 
(of the southern corn) per acre. Large quantities of 
carrots, potatoes, and beets are grown for winter feed¬ 
ing. The white carrot is the kind most cultivated—it is 
easier raised than other sorts, and generally yields bet¬ 
ter,_giving' from 800 to 1000 bushels per acre. Each 
cow is fed during winter, with from a peck to a half 
