362 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Dec. 
co. They got a ton of tobacco, which sold for $160. 
Then sowed the land to wheat and got 30 bushels. The 
next crop was hay, and gave, at two cuttings, four tons 
The stalks of tobacco, after the leaves have been 
taken off, are scattered over the ground and plowed 
in, or placed in the manure heap to rot. It is thought 
they possess considerable fertilizing properties. It is 
known that the ashes from them contain a large pro¬ 
portion of potash. We are told that where two or 
three stalks are left on grass-ground, their effect is 
very visible in the rank growth of the grass around.* 
Farms. —Mr. Sargent’s farm consists of several 
detached pieces. He has only some eight or temacres 
about his residence, and this is becoming too valuable 
for building lots to be cultivated. About a mile up the 
river he has 63 acres of excellent intervale. Besides 
this he has about 40 acres of “ plain,” which he is im¬ 
proving to great advantage, and a tract of 40 to 50 
acres of pasturage at East Longmeadow. The crops 
cultivated on the river land are chiefly tobacco (of 
which we have spoken above,) and Indian corn. He 
usually obtains from 60 to 70 bushels of corn per acre; 
has raised 88 bushels per acre. He devotes his pas¬ 
tures considerably to grazing stock for beef. He has 
eight three-year-old steers designed for slaughter this 
winter. They were in high order when w.e saw them, 
though only grass-fed. It was thought they would 
weigh an average of 800 lbs. dressed. Three or foi^r 
of them had considerable Durham blood, and were 
really fine animals; $50 per head had already been of¬ 
fered for them. 
B. B. Belcher, Esq., has a fine situation at Chicko- 
pee Falls,—a thriving manufacturing village of about 
2000 inhabitants. Mr. B.’s buildings are new, and in 
their situation and construction he has shown much 
good judgment as well as good taste. The house 
commands a pleasant view of the village and neigh¬ 
borhood. His garden, though yet too new to appear 
to the best advantage, is prettily laid out and hand¬ 
somely ornamented with trees, shrubbery, and flowers. 
His farm consists of about 70 acres, and is mostl} r de¬ 
voted to the keeping of cows for the purpose of selling 
milk. His barn is one of the best planned and tho¬ 
roughly built that we have anywhere met with. It is 
78 feet long by 44 wide, with posts 23 feet high. It is 
divided into two stories—the first ten feet highland 
the second thirteen feet to the eaves. The cattle are 
kept in the lower story. The floorway is on the 
second story. On one side of the floorway, the bay 
extends to the bottom of the first story. The barn 
will hold 100 tons of hay, and that quantity is usually 
cut on the farm. At one end of the basement story 
there is a cellar in which vegetables are stored for 
feeding stock in winter. Carrots are preferred for 
cows. He keeps fifteen cows, besides other stock. 
The cows average six quarts of milk per day, beer 
measure, the year round. The milk is sold at four 
cents per quart in summer, and five in winter. The 
farm is kept chiefly in grass, and when it becomes 
necessary to break up the sward, it is done in autumn, 
and immediately sown again to grass on the furrow. 
A large portion of the farm is naturally rather a light 
sandy soil, though most of it is moist, and under Mr. 
B.’s management produces excellent crops of grass. 
Hay is commonly worth here $12 per ton. 
Mr. B.’s eows are a good lot. Among them are 
several full blood Durhams from the herd of Messrs. 
Lathrop, of South Hadley. One of these, four years 
old, carried the first premium at the show at Spring- 
field. Some of his eows of mixed blood have very good 
forms, and look like first rate milkers. His swine are 
of the Mackay breed, and some of them are fine ones, 
* For an account of the mode of cultivating tobacco as here 
practiced, see Cultivator for 1841, page 89. 
but the stock has apparently degenerated by too close 
breeding. 
Messrs. Abel and Sumner Chapin, of Chiekopee, 
have about 70 acres in their home farm, situated on 
the river, and 200 acres at Ludlow, six miles distant, 
besides some other out lands. This farm has long been 
one of considerable note. The father of the present 
owners, Col. Abel Chaiin, was a distinguished far¬ 
mer, quite famous for rearing cattle of extraordinary 
size and fatness. He bred and reared the celebrated 
oxen Magnus and Maximus, which took the prizes of 
the Mass. So. for Promoting Agriculture, at the Brigh¬ 
ton show, in 1817, and were considered the most ex¬ 
traordinary cattle which had been reared in the country. 
Their weight was upwards of 2000 lbs. each, dressed. 
The year following Col'. C. exhibited another ox at 
Brighton, which weighed alive 2,784 lbs. These oxen 
were descended from the “Gore bull,” presented in 1792, 
by the late Charles Vaughan, Esq., of Maine, to Gov¬ 
ernor Gore, of Massachusetts. Messrs. Chapin have 
now one cow and some of her offspring which show 
the blood and points of the above stock in a striking 
manner. They have several large and thriffy steers 
and young oxen, - among which were a pair of full- 
blood Durhams, three years old, from the herd of 
Messrs. Lathrop, that are really fine. 
Chester W. Chapin, Chiekopee, has a farm of 
about 200 acres of excellent land, lying mostly on the 
river. He keeps twenty cows, the milk from which is 
sold at Cabotville. The cows are in general superior. 
They are of various blood, though none are claimed 
as “ native.” Some are a mixture of the “ Phoenix 
stock,” as it is called, (which we shall describe in ano¬ 
ther place,) mixed with the Durham; and some are 
half Ayrshire. But taking them .all together we are 
not certain tha ( t we ever saw a lot of the same num¬ 
ber, which would surpass them in general appearance. 
—regard being had to all points which indicate a pro¬ 
fitable cow. 
Messrs. Wells & Paoli Lathrop, of South-Hadley, 
have a farm of 187 acres. It is within half a mile of 
the falls in the Connecticut, where a dam is soon to be 
built for the purpose of obtaining a large water-power 
—a power which it is calculated will be nearly four 
times greater than that of Lowell. The work has 
been commenced and is rapidly progressing, and it is 
expected that in the space of a few years a city will 
here rise that will number its inhabitants by tens of 
thousands. The enterprise has already had the effect 
to enhance the value of real estate in the neighbor¬ 
hood. 
Messrs. Lathrop purchased this farm in 1833, at the 
low price of$5,600 It was supposed to be “runout,” 
and only yielded thirty tons of hay annually. The 
highest estimate of its capabilities by its former owner, 
was, that it would keep twenty-five cows, if devoted 
wholly to that purpose. Messrs. L. have so increased 
its production that for the last ten years it has ave¬ 
raged a hundred tons of hay yearly, and supported 
from thirty-seven to forty head of cattle, with three or 
four horses. This improvement has been produced by 
no extraordinary expenditure. The first start was 
given by the application of plaster. 
A considerable part of the farm consists of hills and 
knolls—frequently rather steep—which seem to have 
been formed by the abrasion or washing away of por» 
tions of the elevated plain to which the whole tract 
originally belonged. It is evidently an alluvial forma¬ 
tion, though much older than the present “ intervale.” 
The strata composing this plain are various in com¬ 
position. A large portion of the surface, as we have 
mentioned in the first part of our article, is sandy, but 
it is underlayed, at varions depths, by strata of an ar¬ 
gillaceous character. In some places, as on the sides 
