• 68 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb. 
the following: Fence off a number of fields in one, 
two, or three acre lots, according to the size of the 
farm; get one or two of them seeded well with com¬ 
mon clover. Begin with the first lot; turn in as 
many hogs as it will keep well during the season; a 
little corn in the fall will make them fit for market. 
Next season do the same; the third season the land 
will be rich, and can be plowed for corn, or any crop 
you please. Go on to the next field with your hogs, 
and so on till the whole is exhausted. This plan is 
well adapted to fields situated on steep side-hills, 
which are difficult of access, and to which, in conse¬ 
quence, manure cannot easily be carted. It is said 
hogs will do well on clover without water, but I 
think they will do better with it, and should there 
be no water in some of the fields, it can be supplied 
from other fields. A half hogshead, filled once a 
week, and left where it could be supplied to them 
from large troughs, would answer a good purpose in 
lieu of anything better. Great care must be taken to 
keep the hogs well rung and the fences must be 
looked to often, as hogs are sometimes unruly, al¬ 
though, as a general thing, I think that when ani¬ 
mals are well fed and taken gare of, they are not apt 
to be a trouble to either owners or neighbors. 
Irrigation. —No good farmer who has it in his 
power to irrigate a portion of his farm, from brooks 
or streams running through it, will, I am sure, neg¬ 
lect so important a means of enriching it. A neigh¬ 
bor of mine, a year or two ago, found that he could 
obtain a supply of water from a mill pond, some dis¬ 
tance off, by which he could irrigate some 40 acres 
of his land. He bought the right to do so, and the 
right of way across the property belonging to the 
miller. I think he paid $400 in cash for it, and is to 
pay $25 a year besides, as long as he chooses to let 
the water run on his meadows. Some of his neigh¬ 
bors thought him crazy, but he has already received 
benefit enough from it, to show that he was warrant¬ 
ed in paying the price he did. The difference be¬ 
tween the grass he cut before the water was put on, 
and what he cuts now, is truly astonishing. I have 
myself, this fall, succeeded in carding a stream of 
water from a brook running through a part of my 
farm, to a meadow some 300 yards distant, contain¬ 
ing about three acres, and look confidently for the 
increase in my next years’ crop of grass to pay all 
the expense of doing it, which was about $18. I 
have some streams from the hill-sides, during the 
spring and part of the summer, which do good work 
on my pastures and meadows in their vicinity. 
But the length of my communication warns me 
that it is time to stop. One word to my friends of 
the plow. The new year is come upon us; let us 
resolve with it to begin a better and more thorough 
system of improvement upon our old soil; let us per¬ 
fect old systems, if they are good, and plan out new 
ones. Read and improve ourselves. If you happen 
to belong to that class who already know enough 
and have nothing to learn, pray write and dissemi¬ 
nate your knowledge, that we who would gladly 
learn all we can, may benefit by it. H. C. W. Put¬ 
nam Valley , N. F, Nov. 28, 1850. 
Manures——Top-Dressing. 
We are indebted to Hon. John W. Proctor, of 
Danvers, Mass.,for a copy of an essay on Top-dressing 
Grass-Lands, written by Mr. Charles L. Flint for 
the Transactions of the Essex County Ag. Society. 
The length of the paper precludes the possibility of 
our publishing it entire, and we therefore give the 
following extract, which contains many useful sug¬ 
gestions : 
It is a very common practice to suffer the manure 
from the barn to lie exposed for months to the winds 
and rains of summer and winter. Many farmers 
have no arrangement by which the liquid and most 
valuable part of stable manure, is saved, and yet, 
under all these disadvantages, they are too apt to 
congratulate themselves on having so many loads of 
manure. They do not consider that it is the quali¬ 
ty, and not the quantity, which adds richness to the 
soil. The practice of digging a cellar under the barn, 
is becoming more common among enterprising far¬ 
mers, and it may be said that the increased value 
and quantity of the manure, is enough to pay far 
more than the interest of the extra expense. Shel¬ 
tered manure is far more valuable; but in cases where 
this has not, and cannot well be done, much of the 
real value may be saved by forming the yard so that 
nothing may escape. Let peat mud and loam be 
thrown in to absorb what would otherwise be lost. 
Plaster, occasionally thrown into the yard, is like 
money—I will not say in the savings bank, but rath¬ 
er put to compound interest. 
In Flanders, where the greatest economy is prac¬ 
ticed, the liquid of a single animal is estimated at 
from ten to fifteen dollars a year. This, applied as 
a top-dressing, has a surprising effect. No one should 
neglect to form a compost heap; it may be so made 
as to form an extremely valuable article for top-dress¬ 
ing. A quantity of meadow mud, should be dug out 
in the autumn, for this especial purpose. That this 
is indispensible, will be seen from the fact that two 
cords of peat mud, added to one cord of good stable 
manure, will make a compound of three cords as va¬ 
luable as clear barn manure.* This has been tried 
repeatedly, and is constantly done by those who are 
ambitious to excel in farming. To this compost 
should be added, from time to time, all the animal 
and vegetable matter adapted to enrich the soil; 
woolen rags, the remains of fish, the blood and flesh 
of animals, the hair of animals,—all these make an 
exceedingly rich manure. A most intelligent gentle¬ 
man, connected with a wool factory, informs us that 
* Peal vanes much in its value as a manure. Some may be worth 
what it is here estimated at; but we think it put too high to be receiv¬ 
ed as a general rule. Eds. 
