THE CULTIVATOR. 
79 
1854 . 
Plans laid in Winter* 
There are many «f the smaller, but almost indispen¬ 
sable conveniencies of a farm, that are scarcely ever all 
present in one establishment-; many, indeed, being des¬ 
titute of most of them, and the best farms being per¬ 
haps deficient in a few. The farmer has leisure in 
winter to look over these deficiencies, and may often 
either supply them at this season, or make partial 
provision for them, or lay his plans for securing them 
in summer. 
Tor example —Every farm should have gates for 
entering the fields instead of bars. Some farmers are 
sufficiently ingenious to make these with their own 
hands, in winter. 
Every farm should have a good road or lane from 
the barn-yard to every field, so that loads of manure 
or grain may not require drawing across a meadow or 
corn-field, nor cattle need driving to pasture through a 
wheat-field. 
The fences should be so good that cattle may never 
he tempted nor learned to jump ; that crops may not 
be trodden down by intruders, nor valuable animals 
foundered ; and that the urgent time of the farmer in 
harvest may not be consumed in driving out depreda¬ 
tors and in patching up the imperfect boundary. Diffi¬ 
culties between neighbors from intrusive animals will 
perhaps be recollected by some,—where a good fence 
has proved a defence —a bad one an offense. 
A capacious wood-house, for the thorough seasoning 
of at least one year’s fuel, is indispensable. Two, for 
one, year each, are better, one to be filling while the 
other is emptying. Or if only one.is built, a door should 
be placed at each end, so that the dry may be 
t&ken out at one door, while the green is carried in at 
the other. 
Capacious rain-water cisterns should be provided.for 
all the principal buildings, so that there may be room 
for at least five hogsheads of water for every ten feet 
square (100 sq. feet) of roof, in order that no rain-wa¬ 
ter may be lost, and which is at least five times as ca¬ 
pacious as cisterns are commonly made. Such would 
save much trouble in times of severe drouth. 
Every farm, besides a bam and dwelling, should be 
furnished with a tool-house, wagon-house, work-shop, 
com-house, granary, smoke-house, manure shed, cattle 
sheds, poultry house, a good, neatly made and neatly 
kept piggery,' a neat vegetable cellar, a fruit cellar, a 
straw-barn, a business- office, a clothes-drying alley, a 
large root cellar, and lastly, but by no means the least 
in importance, neat, well-painted, (both internally and 
externally.) and nicely kept privies, so arranged as to 
be kept inodorous by frequent applications of ashes, 
lime-dust, dried peat, saw-dust or charcoal, kept in a 
flat, water-tight, gas-tarred box placed on runners, 
so as to be drawn off frequently by a- horse, and emptied. 
Besides the foregoing, the good kitchen-garden must 
not be forgotten, to be well supplied with the smaller 
fruits, currants, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, 
and dwarf pears, as well as with the finest early, me¬ 
dium, late and winter vegetables ; nor the neat door- 
yard lawn, judiciously and tastefully planted with or¬ 
namental trees and shrubs, and occupying not merely 
the front of the dwelling, but extending on each side, 
so that the occupant may not be frightened if the 
casual visitor chances to cast a glance on any other side 
of the house than the front. The well planted and well 
cultivated orchard, for supplying fresh fruit the year 
round to the table and kitchen, as well as for market, 
will suggest itself to every intelligent farmer at the 
present remarkable fruit-planting and fruit-eating 
era-. —— 
Application of Manure. 
Messrs. Editors —It is somewhat remarkable that 
there should exist so great a diversity of opinion among 
farmers upon so important a subject as that of applying 
manure, i. e. whether in a green state or well decom¬ 
posed compost—whether on the top of the ground, or 
buried underneath the surface by the action of the plow. 
Why may not this subject be in some way definitely set- 
tied by the action of some of our numerous agricultural 
societies, so that we may not be left to the Yankee pre¬ 
rogative of guessing , as to the most profitable course. 
My own course has been for years invariably to put my 
fine manure cn er near the surface; and the long en¬ 
tirely out of sight with the plow. 
In regard to the long manure so used, we do not of 
course get very much benefit from it until the second 
season; but its tendency is, I think, to leave the 
ground in a light and friable state, and in good condi¬ 
tion to receive a crop of clover. 
Do, Messrs. Editors, be kind enough to give us your 
opinion on this matter; and I would also be pleased to 
have your readers who have had experience in this 
matter, give us the result. Wm. J. Pettee. Lake¬ 
ville, Conn., Jan. 16, 1854. 
For our views on this subject, see the 51st No. of the 
Country Gentleman, or the Cultivator for January. 
Kentucky Blue Grass 
Mount Ida, Ky., January 10th, 1854. 
Messrs. Editors —In the last number of the Coun¬ 
try Gentleman, I notice that a subscriber wishes to 
know if Kentucky blue grass would do well on lands 
that are permitted to remain five or six years in pas¬ 
ture, and then plowed two years, and then laid down 
again to pasture. I am a Kentucky farmer of but 
very little experience, yet I know this would not an¬ 
swer at all. It takes blue grass three or four years to 
become well set, ancL then it would scarcely do to 
graze it down, especially in wet weather or in loose 
wet soil, as it- is too easily pulled up until' it is well- 
rooted. In six years it would make the best pasture, 
and just then the farmer would wish to cultivate his 
land two years, and would lose his labor and have the 
same to go through in order to reseed his land. Our 
farmers seldom sow blue grass on open land, unless 
they wish their fields to lay in grass ten or twelve years, 
their best blue grass being in woods pasture. We find 
nothing equal to Timothy or Bed Clover, mixt half and 
half; it takes less time to set, and is of more advan¬ 
tage to the ground than any other grass crop. Where 
can I get the genuine Cuba tobacco seed? A Sub¬ 
scriber. 
