1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
21 
Helderbergh Farming. 
Rensselaer ville, Dec. 7,1853. 
Editors Country Gentleman —In the June No. 
of the Cultivator, you published some account of my 
method of manufacturing manure from spent tan-bark. 
I believe I promised, when leisure would permit, to 
give you some of the results. The season of the year 
has now arrived when the farmer is afforded some re¬ 
laxation from “ weary toil,” and some of the long even¬ 
ings eannot be better employed, perhaps, than by com¬ 
municating such results, of expense and labor, as shall 
interest and perhaps instruct our fellow farmers in the 
great enterprise in which we are engaged. 
I would not have you think this is book-farming. If 
I communicate facts and results, and others, by read¬ 
ing an account of my experiment in the columns of the 
Cultivator, are thereby induced to adopt some system 
of farming different from the “old routine,” don’t call 
that book-farming. This much I will now say, I have 
learned very much by conversing with my fellow farm¬ 
ers as to their method of management for different 
crops. I became, when I was a boy, not passionately, 
but enthusiastically fond of such pursuits, by reading 
books on English argieulture, especially some articles 
in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. I have never been 
favored with an opportunity of satisfying my longing 
desires in such pursuits in any other district of our 
broad land, save on these Helderbergh hills. As for¬ 
bidding as this region may seem to you and some of 
your readers, I think I shall be able to satisfy you and 
them too, before I get through, that this region is as 
valuable for farming purposes as any other inland dis¬ 
trict in the state, the Genesee valley not excepted. 
I must hasten to give you some account of my system 
of husbandry. I would remark that the eighty acres 
I occupy (forty too much) were, until ten years since, 
one of those half-lots on which, for time out of mind, 
a system of skinning had been practiced, and which is 
still too much practiced, by most of the farmers in this 
vicinity. My object has not been to make money, but 
to put the land in such condition as that money might 
be made from it. The process is slow but cheering, as 
from year to year we witness the tall and taller grass, 
the deep and deeper green of the verdure, the heavy 
and heavier crops, and realize that this process can be 
witnessed ad infinitum by the addition of a sufficient 
quantity of manure. To supply a deficiency in this 
article, led me to adopt the use of spent tan-bark, as 
being the most convenient, after having exhausted the 
road sides for some considerable distance. 
The first thing that struck me as indispensable was, 
to clear the land of stones. This was a huge under¬ 
taking, but large and small, they must be subdued. 
All the little money we could raise from eggs and 
butter and poultry, &c., had to go to buy flour in the 
Albany market. (I should have remarked, that one 
principle I adopted was, the farm should pay its own 
expenses and support the family.) To expend every 
shilling of money to buy bread, was ruinous. I begin 
therefore with wheat. To succeed in this crop, I have 
adopted the following as a general system. First, 
sward land, to be plowed deep in the spring for corn, 
well harrowed with a short tooth drag, so as not to in¬ 
vert the sod—manure in the hill, plaster, ashes; any¬ 
thing that will produce a large growth is applied. A 
large growth is important I conceive in two respects, 
aside from the amount of crops. It fructifies the soil 
and prevents the growth of weeds, and also gives ma¬ 
terial for making manure. It is a given axiom that 
the more we can raise from a given quantity of land, 
the more stock we can keep on the same land, and thus 
increase our quantity of manure, and also increase our 
capacity to make the land produce more the next sea¬ 
son. The corn harvested, the land is now prepared for 
another crop, both of which look towards wheat, as the 
grand point aimed at, in this rotation. The corn comes 
off too late, in these parts, to sow wheat immediately 
after it. I adopt marrowfat peas as the next rotation, 
for several reason 0 First, they come off in August, 
early enough to prepare the ground for the wheat crop. 
Secondly, the land is well prepared for the growth of 
peas. Thirdly, they are ready by the time milk from 
the dairy begins to fail, to supply this deficiency in 
fattening early pigs. The crop of peas secured, the 
next thing is to prepare the ground farther for the 
wheat crop. There is now sufficient time to be thor¬ 
ough, and to make the time hold out, I take but a 
small bit of land, holding the doctrine in practice, that 
everybody preaches, “that two acres well tilled is bet¬ 
ter than four acres run over.” This bit of land is first 
thoroughly cleared of stone, then plowed as deep as 
we can make the plow run, frequently employing a 
hand to stand on the end of the beam to put it down 
to the greatest depth possible. This operation requires 
a very stiff pair of oxen. To make it still more effect¬ 
ual, in the absence of a sub-soil plow, I take a long 
pointed plow with a set clevis and a horse team to 
plow what we call two “furrows in a row.” I keep 
crowbars, shovels, chains and levers convenient, so that 
any stone that may be lurking near the reach of the 
plows, (and there are sometimes many of them,) may 
be hauled out to the top of the ground. Suppose now 
the ground plowed in the manner above described, the 
stone are then removed and the ground smoothed down 
■with a harrow, and is then ready to receive the ma¬ 
nure of a year old. You see that it will be fine and 
well rotted at this age. It is put on in heaps in regu¬ 
lar rows, at the rate of about 25 or 30 loads to the 
acre. When all Carted on in regular rows and even 
sized heaps, I feel a wonderful joy in contemplating 
it. But I must hasten or my letter will be too long, if 
not so already. The next thing in order is the seed, 
and I consider this of the first importance. Out of two 
or three bushels, I sift -with a screen all that can be 
made to go through its meshes—cockle, chess, wild 
peas, sorrel, all the small grains of wheat, so that no¬ 
thing is left but the large and plump berries of the 
wheat. (I have at present the fed bald, but any kind 
does well with this management.) This wheat is then 
washed in a strong brine and rolled in lime in order to 
destroy the smut, if any, or plaster will do, to give it 
