1177 
•ft* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Stones and Grass on a Connecticut Hill 
N EAR the center of the town of Willington, 
Conn., is located the village called Willington 
Hill, as it occupies the very crest of a high hill. 
Here is the town hall and a Congregational and 
Baptist church. The village surrounds an open un¬ 
fenced common, the ground sloping gently toward 
the west. Near the center of the eastern end a 14- 
ton granite monument was erected this Spring, 
which has a bronze tablet commemorating the death 
' of all the Willington men who gave their lives for 
their country from the Revolution down. This 
monument was unveiled and dedicated on Memorial 
Day with appropriate exercises. About 2,000 people 
listened to an address by Governor Everett J. Lake 
and an historical address by George S. Goddard, 
LL.D.. State Librarian. A brass band furnished 
music. 
The old common had never been plowed since the 
wild Indians ran over it, but for more than a hun¬ 
dred years it has been mowed and a crop of hay 
taken off it. I have lived near this common for 28 
years, and I have never known of a pound of fer¬ 
tilizer of any description being put on it; yet I 
have seen in good seasons two or three big two-horse 
loads of hay taken from it. The common is 400 feet 
long by 160 feet wide. 
It was determined to plow it up and seed it down. 
Five men and a two-horse dump cart worked about 
a week digging out the stones that could be seen, 
and carting them off from the upper half of the 
common. Then they started in to plow it. The 
picture, Fig. 502, on this page, shows what was 
found under those grass roots. No man could be¬ 
lieve that so many stones could be in that ground 
unless he saw it. The plow could not move a single 
yard until men with pickaxes and crowbars had 
pried the stones loose. Many of the stones were too 
heavy to be lifted into a dump cart by men; they 
uere lifted with chains and a windlass and carted 
off. When that half of the common had been plowed 
seven men and two two-horse teams 
(shown at the top of the picture) 
worked for more than a week carting 
off the stones, which had to be carried 
only a few hundred feet, to fill in a 
low place. 
The other picture, Fig. 501, shows 
the same place as it is now—plowed, 
harrowed, leveled off, fertilized and 
seeded down. The dwelling shown at 
the top of the hill is the Congregational 
parsonage; the monument is about a 
hundred feet away - and directly in 
front. The tall hwkory flagpole shows 
to the left, and left of that (not shown 
in the picture)’ is'the Congregational 
church. The Baptist church faces the 
south side of the common, along which 
runs the main road. Nearly all the 
farms are fenced with stone walls, and 
some of the village lots; mine is. To 
a Western man, born and brought up 
where he can go a hundred miles and 
not see a stone big enough to throw at 
a bird, this picture must be a revela¬ 
tion. IIow could men ever live in such 
a place? he must be tempted to ask. 
But men have lived and loved and 
labored and prospered for 200 years up 
here in these stony hills —and still da! 
On one of these stony farms, a half 
mile from this common, on a strip cf 
ground 300 feet long by 150 wide, r 
raised 165 bushels of ears of corn, flint 
corn, that shelled 22 quarts to the 
bushel, making 113 bushels of shelled 
corn to a fraction over an acre. Match 
that, you Western men. if you can! 
Connecticut. ceorgk a. cosgrove. 
little or no value. The real cure for this is to give 
the grasses a better chance to take care of them¬ 
selves, turning in a little later in the Spring, so that 
the grass will have made some start. Where it lias 
made a start it will carry as many cattle without 
hurting it as it could possibly carry in any other way. 
When cattle are turned out early the new Spring 
second case, frequent cutting to prevent formation 
of seed and to keep down the above ground growth 
will control, if not completely eradicate the weed. 
In either case rather frequent cutting should be 
given, since when weeds are allowed to grow they 
use food and moisture that the grass needs. I mean 
by frequent cutting perhaps a couple of times a year. 
If one obtains a good stand of Sweet clover it 
would tend to smother the ragweed. A given unit 
of ground will produce only a certain amount of 
vegetation, limited by the amount of available water 
and plant food present. The Sweet clover, if once 
thoroughly established, would chase out the ragweed 
eventually. It has a more vigorous root system, and 
would prove too strong a competitor of the ragweed. 
However, with the ragweed well established, it might 
be rather difficult to get a stand of Sweet clover. 
One would have to disk the land, harrowing in the 
seed, probably in the real early Spring, when the 
chances of moisture were best. I have seen some 
very satisfactory stands of Sweet clover obtained 
by seeding directly into the worn-out pastures with 
no preparation other than disking. w. w. burr. 
A Connecticut Common After Seeding Doicn. Fig. 50x 
grass is short, has little nutrition, and the stock 
have to tramp all over the pasture to fill up. When 
left until big enough to graze there is less tramping 
and running around for the stock. Where this close 
grazing is continued the grass does not have a 
chance to produce seed, in common with all other 
Shooting At Trespassing Cows 
The time-old question of line fence has come up again, 
and I wish to state the facts in the case. Gome years 
ago I bought this farm, and I bought it right. It was 
cheap, and I couldn’t see why. I know now. I have 
never been able to harvest a crop without first seeing 
at least a third of it either eaten up or trampled down 
by the cattle from the next farm. They ruined a couple of 
acres of wheat, my three cuttings from an acre of Alfalfa, 
and a few nights ago they were in my orchard. The 
next morning they were in my pasture with my cattle. 
They remained there all day in plain view of the neigh¬ 
bor’s house. At night it took me over one-half hour to 
get them separated from my cows. The next morning 
I told the owner to fix the fence and keep it in repair, 
for I would shoot the first cow that came on my farm. 
He said he would fix it right after breakfast, but did 
not touch it. At noon the cattle broke in my pasture, 
and I loaded my gun with fine shot and went down. 
They were working in plain sight of the field. I put 
the dogs on them, and as usual it was a chase around 
the field; so when I got them separate from mine I 
commenced firing. I fired high _ and l 
fired four times. They went back in their 
own pasture. Four days later I was 
served with a summons to appear before 
a justice of the peace. In the morning 
I drove neighbor’s horses out of what was 
left of my Alfalfa. Today I received a 
visit from the humane officer with request 
to settle for a cow they claim was in¬ 
jured. This may have been a desperate 
move, but another neighbor tried shutting 
their cattle up and advertising them. 
They didn’t call for them for some days 
and said they wouldn’t, as the legal 
charge for board was cheaper than they 
could keep them at home. w. 
I 
The Stone Foundation of d.Connecticut Hill. Fig. 502 
Weeds in the Pasture 
[A reader in Nebraska asks some 
questions about weed^ pastures which 
will interest readers everywhere. He 
savs that pastures run back to weeds. 
Ragweed is oue of the worst pests. IIow can tins best, 
be killed out and would Sweet clover do the work ot 
killing it? The following comments are written by 
I’.-of. W. W. Burr of the Nebraska Experiment Station.] 
T HE problem of weeds in pastures is a serious 
question in Nebraska. In almost every case it 
is a matter of over-grazing that brings in the annual 
weeds. When the grasses are grazed so close that 
they are weakened, and especially if they are grazed 
so close that they cannot produce some seed in order 
to replace, themselves, they die out, and are usually 
replaced by either annual or perennial weeds ot 
Caching Peaches at Boston, Mass. Fig. 
(See Next Page) 
life the older plants die, and there being no seed to 
reproduce the same, other forms of vegetation, 
usually worthless, comes in to take its place. So 
after all, it comes back to the matter of grazing. 
The common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisuefolia) is 
an annual and propagates only by seed. This is the 
one that commonly comes in. Occasionally on some 
of the lower land a perennial form of ragweed will 
come in that propagates both by seed and by root¬ 
stocks. Where the first is present, cutting before 
the seed is formed is all that is necessary. In the 
X a case of this kind, where you are 
in trouble with the Humane Society 
and have been served with a summons 
in a civil suit, the best thing you can 
do is promptly to hire some good attor¬ 
ney and adjust the matter as well as 
you cau with your neighbor. You 
made a mistake when you resorted to 
the gun in this case. If your neigh¬ 
bor’s fences are poor you should send 
him a written notice to repair same. 
Do this as soon as you discover that 
they are in bad condition. If after 
getting, such notice he fails to make re¬ 
pairs in 30 days you are entitled to 
make the repairs yourself, and you can 
collect the cost from him. It is not 
necessary for you to give him notice 
in order to collect damages for injury 
to your crops. The law will give you 
fair remedy for trespassing cattle, and 
this is through civil action to collect 
damages. It is a mistake to suppose 
that the owner of adjoining property 
has a right to shoot fowls when they 
come on his land as trespassers. This 
is often done when the trespassing con¬ 
tinues through a long period, but of 
course the man who does it is not pro¬ 
tected by the law in doing so, but must 
take the consequences, which generally 
are a suit for the value of the fowls. 
This matter of trespassing, both on the 
part of fowls and large animals, is one of the 
meanest things connected with American country 
life. Probably few other things give the supreme 
annoyance which this does. It is, however, a mis¬ 
take to resort to the gun in order to settle such 
difficulties, although it is sometimes done without 
serious results. As a rule, a good dose of civil 
damages resulting from a lawsuit is about the best 
medicine that the owner of trespassing cattle can 
be compelled to take. It is wise to insist upon fence 
repairs before serious damage results. N. t. 
