1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
107 
“ Thus, with one plowing, with the aid of twenty- 
cart-loads of compost manure to the acre, I have ob¬ 
tained two crops of grain, and stocked the land down 
to grass.” 
Ever since that experiment, it has been his invaria¬ 
ble practice to plow but once during a rotation of crops. 
The turf is carefully inverted and there remains, through 
the whole rotation; the subsoil, or what was before the 
lower stratum, remaining on top, is ameliorated and 
enriched by the action of the atmosphere, and the com¬ 
post spread upon it. The poorer soil below has been 
gradually brought up, by deepening the furrow an inch 
or two at each sod-plowing, and I noticed that now, 
especially on fields that have been for several years 
under his liberal hand, the soil is deep and rich. 
My attention was directed to a field of 12 acres, 
which he took in hand a few years since, an old or¬ 
chard, which had been in grass for a long time, the 
soil thin, and the field covered with stone-heaps. These 
were removed, the field plowed about six inches deep, 
and the stones brought to the surface in the operation, 
picked up and carted off; thirty loads of compost to 
the acre were then spread on top and harrowed in, and 
the field planted to corn. The crop averaged between 
seventy and eighty bushels per acre, and the next spring 
the surface was loosened and leveled with the harrow; 
a compost of 6 bushels? of lime to 3 loads, or I 5 cord, 
of peat-mud was spread, 12 loads per acre, and the 
field sowed to wheat. The yield averaged 20 bushels 
to the acre, of fine quality. At the same time it was 
stocked to grass with \ bushel herd’s-grass, 1 bushel 
red-top, and 10 lbs. clover seed, per acre. The seed 
took well, and the next year the job of making and 
securing the hay was let out, and judged by those to 
whom it was referred, to be 40 tons, when in the barn. 
The grass crop has been heavy on this lot for 5 or 6 
years since. 
This liberal use of grass-seeds has several advanta¬ 
ges to recommend it to a more general practice among 
farmers. The soil is completely filled with the kind of 
vegetation wanted; and hence the quality of the hay is 
much finer, and rendered free from foul stuff, and a 
thicker and more valuable turf supplied with which to 
enrich the ground, when again broken up. I particu¬ 
larly noticed that the grass grounds on this farm were 
remarkably free from those vacant spots, and those 
large tufts of grass, which are so frequently seen on 
land seeded to grass by the hand of parsimony. The 
quality of the hay in the barn, also attracted my no¬ 
tice, as being excellent. If the poor soil and thinly 
set sward of 1829, had 12^ tons of vegetable substance 
to the acre, the same field, in its present improved con¬ 
dition, probably has a sward containing 20 to 25 tons 
of this material, per acre—which, turned under for the 
support of the growing crops of the next rotation, is 
an item of no small importance. 
We see, in connection wiih the foregoing remarks on 
Field Cultivation, why it is that farmers who have 
mainly to do with worn and hungry soils, of a sandy 
or gravelly nature, insist so strenuously upon the great 
value of a compost of two parts of peat-tnud or swamp- 
muck, to one of stable-dung 5 considering it equal in 
its effects, load for load, to animal manure alone, in a 
rotation of crops. The fact is, that light, thin, sandy 
and gravelly soils, are particularly wanting in vegeta¬ 
ble substance ,• and their nature is also such, that it is 
impossible any way can be fixed, to apply clear unfer¬ 
mented dung, without its being liable to great waste 
from the powerful operation of the sun’s rays in evapo¬ 
rating the volatile portions of the manure, through the 
coarse, loose and open pores of the soil. But in re¬ 
sorting to the muck-hole, these farmers find the very 
material for the basis of the manure-heap, which their 
soils need, and by using it freely in compost with the 
manure of farm-stock, they are enabled to supply 
speedily and in large quantities, this vegetable sub¬ 
stance. The compost being fully ripened, the gases all 
developed and absorbed by the muck, in the form of 
salts, we have a mass of vegetable matter to apply to 
these hungry soils, not so liable to the objection of loss 
by evaporation. 
The skilful farmer also finds that his sandy or grav¬ 
elly soil is generally too shallow, and he wishes to rem¬ 
edy the defect. He therefore, like Mr. Phinney, plows 
a little deeper at each breaking up, and the poor and 
lifeless soil, brought to the surface, is mixed thoroughly 
with the chmpost-dressing, and this, together with the 
action of the atmosphere, enriches and improves it. 
The vegetable matter of the sward is buried under¬ 
heath, and thus a deep and fertile bed is formed, upon 
which the growing crops of the rotation may expand, 
and find nourishment to mature into a bountiful harvest. 
The texture of these soils, as I have before said, is 
too loose and open, and this defect is greatly obviated 
by a few years tillage with the use of this compost; 
rendering the soil thereby more close and compact. In 
my opinion, such soils should always be manured with 
compost in some form. If the farmer has not muck at 
command, he may use clay, or a fine-grained, eompact 
loam in its place, to excellent advantage: as by this 
means the texture of the soil is improved, and made 
more retentive both of moisture and manure. In short, 
it may truly be said, that there is no system of manur¬ 
ing, in field cultivation, of such permanent utility as a 
judicious mixture of soils. 
I am not much given to theory, Messrs. Editors, al¬ 
though in the three paragrphs above I have indulged in 
it somewhat. You will please take it for what it is 
worth, and no more. The practice noticed in these re¬ 
marks I believe to be correct, however wild the theory 
may appear. 
In my next communication, I propose to notice 
1st. Draining and reclaiming swamps and wet land. 
2d. The fine orchards and their cultivation. 
3d. Breeding and fattening swine. 
4th. The imported stock of the “Massachusetts So¬ 
ciety for promoting Agriculture,” which is kept on this 
farm, and their treatment j with some reflections upon 
the subject. F. Holbrook. 
Brattleboro , Vt., Jan . 28, 1848. 
Lands on the Canada LrNE.—Ex-Governor Hill, 
of New Hampshire, speaking of a trip he made along 
the Canada line, between Lower Canada and Vermont 
and New Hampshire, thus expresses himself:—“Iwas 
surprised at the extent and value of this whole country 
for farming purposes. I believe the belt of country for 
100 miles south of 45th degree, and eastward of Lake 
Champlain, over Vermont and New Hampshire, through 
the whole extent of Maine to the Bay of Fundy and 
the sea, to be the most valuable tract of land in New 
England. The Canada townships, of ten miles square, 
farther north, are splendid. Stanstead may be taken 
as a sample. The best township of Vermont is said 
to be Derby, lying by the side of it,. The cattle, and 
all the productions of these two towns are on a larger 
scale than we find down south.” 
Improvement of Land in Barnstable. —Charles 
Sears, of Yarmouth, paid in 1832, for his thirty acre 
farm, $350, then thought to be its full value. Its total 
product then, was pasturage for two cows, and 25 bush¬ 
els grain. Now he pastures thre.e cows, gets 10 tons 
of good hay, 200 bushels of grain, 100 bushels pota¬ 
toes, &e. He has a cornfield'of 4 acres, yielding 40 
bushels per acre. Most is sand, a small part sand and 
peat—on a part of the latter, reclaimed, he cut tha 
past season at the first mowing, at the rate of 4 tons 
of hay per acre. 
