262 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Aug, 
penditnres for improvements, he looked forward to a 
course of years, rather than at one day or year. When 
a few years ago it became necessary to provide more 
space for the storage of the increasing crops, he erected 
an immense barn, placing it upon a southern slope, in 
order to gain warm cellars underneath it for manure and 
for the root-crops, and warm yards for the stock. The 
portion of the barn over the cellars was founded upon 
heavy granite posts, and the remainder upon granite 
walls. So also in building a grain barn, a sloping site 
was chosen, in order to obtain a ground story for the 
storage, without confusion, of carts and all sorts of im¬ 
plements. Here they might always be found, when not 
in actual use, and of a quality and variety adapted in 
the best manner to lighten labor, work the ground ef¬ 
ficiently, and harvest the crops. A farm-road was early 
laid out and fenced through the premises, dividing them 
about midway. At the entrances to the lots on either 
side from this road, where too many farmers would have 
placed unwieldly bars, consuming time in their removal, 
and liable to be often out of order, Judges Ilayes hung 
substantial gates with heavy iron hinges, upon granite 
posts, and there they have swung for years, without 
trouble or expense, monuments of economical manage¬ 
ment. In this strain I might enumerate many other things. 
Our friend displayed benevolence as well as calcula¬ 
tion in the care of farm-stock. It was his constant study 
to make domestic animals as comfortable as possible, at 
all seasons of the year; in summer by good pasturage, 
convenient shade, and an abundance of pure running 
water—in winter by stated clock time for feeding,—with 
a rule that each animal should have enough to eat but 
waste nothing,^-by warm, roomy, well-littered stables 
with comfortable tie-ups, by warm yards and sheds with 
pure water in them. The piggery planned by him is not 
excelled by any in the country, for adaptation to the 
making of compost, for comfprtable cleanly eating and 
sleeping apartments, for convenience of feeding and for 
cooking and storing food for the swine family. 
Judge.Hayes considered the making of manure as 
the business of primary importance, in New-England 
farming; and that anything which would contribute to 
that purpose, was not beneath his attention. His in¬ 
dustry and care in gathering materials for the compost- 
heap hardly had a parallel. Bushes of one years’ growth, 
ferns and coarse grasses left by the cattle in the pastures, 
the wild-grasses of the unreclaimed lowlands, potatoe- 
vines, leaves from the forest, refuse straw,—in short, all 
kinds of refuse vegetable substances on or about the 
farm, were gathered up and taken to the stables and 
yards, for litter and for manure. From a swamp near 
by, several hundred loads of muck were annually carted 
to the barn-cellar and yards, and to the piggery-yards. 
By this constant vigilance and industry in collecting ma¬ 
terials, the annual accumulation of manure was very 
large, and of course the fields were constantly advanc¬ 
ing in productiveness. Indeed it was no part of his 
farming to allow the land to deteriorate, or even to stand 
still,—every thing must move onward to a higher condi¬ 
tion. Many young farmers, applying to Judge Ilayes 
for advice, were shown how they might three and four¬ 
fold their manure heap, and thus improve their land, 
and enrich their pockets. 
The arable lands were put under a regular systematic 
rotation of crops. The first year of each rotation the 
land was manured with ten cords of compost to the acre, 
the sward was nicely turned under by the plow, and some" 
kind of a hoed-crop raised, with clean cultivation. The 
next year grain and grass-seeds w r ere sown and harrowed 
in, without disturbing the decomposing sod underneath, 
and a grain crop harvested. For about four years after, 
the land produced hay. By this course, together with 
a steady progress in reclaiming waste wet land, our friend 
lived to realise an annual crop of over 100 tons of nice 
hay, from a farm, which, at the outset, only produced 
forage enough for the wintering of six cattle and one 
horse. 
The farm extends over a high swell of land, of a sandy 
and gravelly soil, with low-lands of clay soil on one side, 
and of peaty soil on the other side. Yery satisfactory- 
results were derived from the admixture of these soils. 
Something was done each year at this business, at times 
when the teams had leisure for it. Many dry knolls have 
been permanently changed for the better by a covering 
of clay, and so have the low-lands been improved by a 
covering of sand and gravel. 
Probably no man began earlier, or has done more to 
improve his pastures, than did Judge Hayes. Some 
of the lots have been alternately in pasture and tillage, 
with favorable results. Others have been exclusively 
devoted to pasturage, and more than doubled in produce 
by plowing the sward under once in six or seven years, 
and re-seeding to grass—sowing winter-rye at the same 
time, to be fed off by the stock while the young grass 
got root. The quality of the herbage of the pastures 
has been greatly improved, as well as the quantity in¬ 
creased. On spots where wild plants originally flourish¬ 
ed, good sweet grasses have been brought in to take their 
place. 
Judge Hayes exhibited a good specimen of farming 
upon his reclaimed wet land. A bog-meadow of some 
60 acres, in its natural state a wild morass, covered with 
bushes and worthless herbage, was gradually converted^ 
into a beautiful green meadow, producing fine crops of 
herds-grass and red-top hay. With' his ample capital, 
the work of reclaiming this tract of land might have 
been completed years ago, and had he consulted himself 
only, it would have been done; but he determined in the 
out-set to show a piece of farming here that men of less 
means might imitate. By a singular coincidence, the 
last piece of waste land was prepared for producing grass 
the last year of his life. It was his annual custom to 
ditch and drain a strip of two rods wide, extending across 
the meadow, and containing three to four acres; clear 
it of bushes, hassocks and other rubbish; when frozen 
on the surface cover it one to two inches thick with fine 
gravel; manure it, and on a late snow in spring, seed it 
with herds-grass and red-top. It would produce fine 
crops of hay for some six years, and then, -wild stuff com¬ 
ing in. it was plowed, manured, and re-seeded, and so on 
with all the reclaimed land. Here is a piebe of husband¬ 
ry that ought to be imitated by hundreds of farmers 
owning such .kind of land. 
Our friend planted an orchard of fifteen acres, lying 
upon a southeastern slope; the trees are now in fine 
bearing condition, and produce all the choice varieties 
