1853, 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
333 
and clover to the acre. This abundant supply of seed, 
gives, we think, about twice as heavy a crop as that 
afforded by the usual quantity. If the land could be 
plowed late in fall, it would probably fit it well for the 
early sowing of the grass seed. 
Farming in Windham County, Ct. 
Ms. Tucker —I observed in one of the late num¬ 
bers of the Cultivator a notice of an address delivered 
before the Windham Co. <Ct.) Ag. Society the last sea¬ 
son. This Society has been as good as dead for a num¬ 
ber of years past, but has lately revived through the 
exertions of sopie of the more enterprising farmers in 
Brooklyn and the vicinity. 
Perhaps a short sketch of its condition as a farming 
district, may be interesting to some of your readers. 
Windham County embraces within its limits a great 
variety of soil, and exhibits among its occupants every 
degree of thrift from the skillful management of our 
best farmers to those slip shod operators which scarce 
deserve the name of husbandry. 
As a general thing the eastern part of the county is 
much the poorest. The face of the country is hilly, the 
soil of a yellowish cast, very thin and full of stones. 
These characteristics find their culminating points in 
the towns of Willington, Westford, and Union. Here 
may be found lands as near barren as one could desire, 
and which I believe it would puzzle even Prof. Mapes 
to find means to renovate. In addition to this discour¬ 
aging fact, want of neatness seems to be a prevailing 
fault. Stone walls are dilapidated or overgrown with 
bushes. Door-yards are neglected. Buildings are put 
up in bad taste ; the barns especially, frequently look¬ 
ing more as if they came together by accident than 
according to any plan, while the barnyards are often 
as extensive as the farm. Pig styes are built by the 
side Gf the road, and their proper occupants are gene-. 
rally allowed the freedom of the highway. One cannot 
resist the conviction, either that farming is a secondary 
business, or that the farmer has become discouraged 
and retreated to his domicil, while his natural enemies 
are advancing upon him with rapid strides and threat¬ 
ening to drive him from the country. Grass is the 
principal crop, and one would naturally suppose that 
the most would be made of it, but instead of this I 
know of some farmers who suffer autumn to make its 
appearance before their first crop of hay is cut As a 
natural consequence the cattle are small, making but a 
slow growth, because on such -kind of feed they lose 
nearly as much in the winter as they gain in the sum- 
met. I would not impeach the industry or ability of 
the good people of this section, but if I wished in a 
single term to describe their general style of farming I 
know of none that would apply so well as the word 
slack. 
This is rather a dark picture it is true, but it will be 
remembered that I have been speaking of general cha¬ 
racteristics. There are single farms of great natural 
beauty and fertility, ind some are made such by the 
hand of patient persevering laborers. There are some 
signs of improvement too in the mode of conducting 
farming operations. Occasionally you may see the in¬ 
dependent horse-rake bounding over rocks and bogs, 
doing the work of five or six men, and doing it like a 
man. Sometimes you will find a man who has come to 
the conclusion that it is better to cut up his com at the 
roots and so save all his fodder, than to top it and save 
only half. And there are those,who prefer keeping 
their stock yarded and saving their manure, to having 
it wasted away by the streams, and so enrich the lands 
of others at the expense of their own. 
I think the greatest promise of improvement is in 
the use of guano. Though but just beginning to be in¬ 
troduced, it has already effected some very favorable 
results. The most common way of applying it as far as 
my knowledge extends, is in raising a crop of buck¬ 
wheat, To this it seems well adapted, and its effects 
are generally very marked. I have seen, this season, 
buckwheat standing waist high on a gravelly knoll 
which for a long time has not been thought worth cul¬ 
tivation, and this solely by the application of a hundred 
pounds of guano to the acre, at the time of sowing. 
I was told of another instance in which it was appli¬ 
ed at the same rate, and the yield was twenty bushels 
per acre, whil6 on land adjoining this and precisely 
similar to it in character and treatment, except the 
guano, the crop was barely worth harvesting. Still 
another instance was related to me of its successful use 
on a very" unproductive lot of land containing about 
seven acres. I think the owner told me that twenty 
acres of such land would not pasture a cow. It was 
plowed and sowed with buckwheat and guano. The 
yield was a fair one. The next year it was again 
dressed with about 50 lbs. and planted with potatoes. 
The produce this year was 400 bushels potatoes, and not 
far from 80 of buckwheat, which was self sown and 
grew with the potatoes, being carefully saved at the 
time the potatoes were dug. The last spring it was 
sowed with oats and grass seed. The crop was esti¬ 
mated at 30 bushels per acre, and there is a prospect 
of a fine crop of grass the next year. Considering that 
guano was the only manure used, and that the land 
was almost worthless at first, this may be called a very 
good operation. I am not sure whether guano was 
used with the oats. One farmer has become so well 
satisfied of its value for his land that he ordered a ton 
the last spring, the greater part of which he used 
himself. 
Such facts as these show that the spirit of improve¬ 
ment is at work even here, and that nothing is needed 
but a few more farmers of the right stamp, and the fos¬ 
tering care of one or more well organized and efficient 
Ag. Societies, to turn many of these wilderness places 
into fruitful fields. 
I have been speaking, it will be recollected, of that 
part of the county the least valuable for agricultural 
purposes. There are other portions of it which in point 
of natural fertility or skillful management will com¬ 
pare favorably with any part of the State. Such are 
the towns of Brooklyn, Pomfret and South Woodstock. 
