146 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
“In. Agriculture, Experience is of great value— Theories of 
little, excepting as they are directly deducible from actual ex¬ 
periments and well attested facts.” 
VEBMONT TA1WS AW® FASSffifa 
Management of Meadow and Pasture Lands. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— That portion of Western Ver¬ 
mont which lies between the Green Mountains on the east, and 
Lake Champlain on the west, including the towns of Orwell, 
Sudbury and Brandon on the south, and Shelburn and Hines- 
burgh on the north, is the subject under consideration. The 
main body of this land lies in Addison county, near the center of 
which is the place of my residence. This broad tract of land is 
about 15 miles wide and 40 miles long, and very noted for its 
luxurious grass and grazing country. 
The nature of the soil and its situation is rightly adapted for 
both meadow and pasture land; we much abound in natural 
and artificial meadows, which are very free from stone. This 
section is principally clay soil, with a portion of rich loam on 
the swells^ and on. the low lands muck and black sand. The 
soil near the mountains is not so productive as that which lies 
nearer the lake. There are many indications that the surface 
of this lake was formerly thirty or forty feet higher than it now 
is; the rocks in several places appear to be marked and stain¬ 
ed with the former surface of the lake. Fossil shells and the 
limbs and bodies of trees are frequently found at the depth of 
fifteen or twenty feet in the earth ; many of the inhabitants are 
of the belief that the waters were formerly much higher, and 
spread to a much greater extent than they now do. There are 
many artificial meadows which we term intervales. Those 
meadow lands adjacent to rising ground, from their being gen¬ 
erally enriched with the fine mold washed down, are of a rich 
soil and seldom require much other improvment than the re¬ 
moving of the superabundant moisture by proper draining. 
The artificial meadows, from their being situated in wide 
spread tracts each side of our rivers and smaller streams, 
where the depth of the soil has been for past ages increasing 
by the deposition of various sorts of vegetable and other mold, 
brought down from the mountains and higher grounds, are in a 
greater state of fertility, and evidently better fitted for the per¬ 
manent productions of grain and grass than those from which 
they have derived their richness. 
This of all others is the most productive, yielding an abund¬ 
ance of sustenance through the summer, and producing an ever¬ 
lasting source of means for the support of man and beast, and 
the improvement of the higher lands. These lands cannot be 
outrivaled for constant productions of grass and grain by the 
prairies of the far West. 
The clearing and improvement of our hill lands was the first 
work of the new settlers, and the vale or flat lands were most¬ 
ly left uncultivated, considered to be of little value, by their 
appearing in many cases as vast swamps, which were often 
occasioned by the old timber that lay on the ground to obstruct 
the passing off of the surface water. In most cases, these vale 
lands or natural meadows should have been the first to attend 
to for health and profit. 
The greater portion is natural meadow land, though we have 
large tracts in this country that are flooded by Otter, Dead and 
Lewis Creeks and Lemmon-fair, a low and sluggish stream, 
New-Haven river and several other smaller streams which 
overflow their banks, in many instances more than half a mile 
in width, and become highly profitable to their owners, afford¬ 
ing not only an abundance of hay, but yielding large crops of 
corn. . , „ , , 
Our higher meadow lands, which partake more of the loam, 
demand more attention in their management as respects their 
being kept always in good heart; these higher sorts of grass 
lands admit of considerable more latitude in performing differ¬ 
ent operations, as they are capable of admitting the stock as 
well as the dung cart more early in tlje spring months, and of 
suffering them to be worked at later pe'riods in the fall without 
inconvenience. The more elevated lands often afford the 
sweetest feed, and are converted to the use of being fed down by 
sheep and oiher animals. 
Formerly large quantities of wheat were raised on our clay 
lands; this grain was very productive, and large quantities 
were taken to the Troy market. At length we were defeated by 
the grain worm, which on the whole appears *all for the best, 1 
for many meadows were materially damaged by the plan, and 
they never have obtained the durable sward that those mea¬ 
dows have which still remain in the state of nature. In such 
cases, where the grass mns out, and gets hide bound, to reno¬ 
vate them we have to resort to the plow and raise a crop of 
oats, or other spring crop, once in six or eight years, then seed 
down to grass, the roots of which are very liable to be thrown 
up by frost, where the sward is not well set. Our meadows 
are sometimes injured by converting the crop into hay for sev¬ 
eral successive years without admitting it to ripen. If atten¬ 
tion be not paid to permit some seed to fall, its quantity will 
sensibly diminish; those meadows should be the first to cut 
this year, that were the last that received the sythe last year. 
The habit of stocking moist lands, spring and autumn, with 
heavy cattle is common, but a very bad practice ; for it must 
be evident to the most superficial observer, that the breaking 
of the surface texture, or sward of grass lands, must in all 
cases be prejudicial, not only by the destruction of plants 
which is thereby immediately produced, but also by the re¬ 
tention and stagnation of water upon them in the holes and de¬ 
pressions, from small portions of the turf being forced in; the 
evident necessity of clearing and removing all sorts of live 
stock, and more especially those of the heavy kinds on both of 
those descriptions of moist meadow land, and also on pasture 
land. I came in possession of a meadow where a portion of 
about six acres was poached up by cattle every fall; it was 
thereby formed into small bogs of grass, and the space between 
these bogs produced little or no herbage. I supposed at first it 
was the nature of the land to be thus boggy, and thought of re¬ 
sorting to the bog hoe for a remedy ; but for the last ten years 
cattle have been most wholly removed, and only sheep permit¬ 
ted to graze thereon,—it has now become quite even, and those 
portions, of more than one half, where every vestige of herb¬ 
age was destroyed, are now quite well swarded with valuable 
grasses of timothy and red top. In the spring season, heavy 
cattle are too frequently turned into moist pasture lands where 
they should not be permitted until they begin to possess a pro¬ 
per degree of firmness. In some cases ten head of cattle will 
drive more turf beyond the action of light and heat in one day, 
than would require to support one of them through the sea- 
To stock a farm with horses is the least profitable of any 
beast; they will in a few years destroy a good pasture by. cut¬ 
ting up the sward; they return no manure to the soil that is of 
any benefit to the herbage. 
Another error which exists among our farmers is, in permit¬ 
ting our cattle and sheep to eat down our meadows in the 
spring. It is very plain that when they are thus treated, we 
are not sure of an abundant product, and not being so early, of 
course, they do not have that advantage of making hay and se¬ 
curing it in the proper season. One considerable item in the 
failure <*f the hay crop in this region last year was occasioned 
by pasturing our meadows in the spring. The spring season 
being wet, it bid fair for a full crop, but it came on very warm 
and dry the last of June and scorched the grass roots. Those 
meadows that were not thus early fed, produced from one 
fourth to two thirds more hay than those adjoining that were 
late fed. The tread of the animal prevents the sward from 
giving a fleecy bottom and stints the growth of the young 
shoots. Some may imagine that barely the weight of sheep in 
this way cannot have any bad effect, but I am confident that it 
does in some small degree, more especially on clay meadows, 
and those soils composed of clay and sand, where the ground 
is well saturated with water, the weight of the animal assists in 
consolidating the soil, and on the commencement of a drouth 
will bake more readily. Those who have cut the sward by a 
plow or spade across a sheep path in this period could not but 
plainly see the difference, and grass will not grow in a sheep 
path. 
The. difference of situation in pasture lands has likewise 
much influence in directing the uses to which they may be Ap¬ 
plied with the greatest benefit; the higher and more elevated 
grounds being in general mostly used for sheep, while those of 
the lower are better situated and used for the purpose of neat 
cattle. These enclosures of a moderate size are found more 
suitable for feeding than when the contrary is the case. It is a 
great fault with most of our graziers to summer different kinds 
of stock on too large enclosures. This is a point of manage¬ 
ment in grass husbandry that has been too much neglected by 
our farmers in general; not only great loss and inconvenience 
from its running up in tufts to seed, and by that means rendering 
the pasture patches and unevenly fed down, by which the ex¬ 
tent of real pasturage is lessened, but it cannot keep the same 
quantity of stock in as good plight as where less numbers are 
permitted to run together. 
The true principal of grazing for profit is, so to manage as to 
eat all and not reduce the condition of the stock, which can be 
done no other way than only by smaller enclosures than our 
farmers have.been accustomed to arrange them, by eating all 
the briers, thistles, elders and other sorts that spring or shoot 
out upon the surfaee; they are in a measure extirpated, when, 
if left remaining upon and shading the ground, they render the 
herbage sour, coarse, and improper for the food of cattle and 
sheep. And here let me recommend that in case the thistle, 
elder, Ac. have obtained too strong hold upon the ground to be 
mutilated by stock to advantage, it is a sure and most ex¬ 
pedient and profitable way of extirpating them to cut them 
down when full in the blossom; as also willows that grow on 
the margin of brooks and other streams, may be exterminated 
by cutting them in August, two or three consecutive years. 
Those pastures that are productive in grass of the more 
sharp, coarse bladed kinds, and other sorts of aquatic plants 
presenting themselves, it is very impprtant that they be close 
fed in the spring season, as by this means the water enters 
their stems and the plants decay; the young shoots being more 
readily eaten by the stock, and good grass plants thereby al¬ 
lowed to flourish. -That feeding down pasture lands of these 
as well as other kinds in a judicious manner, has the effect of 
rendering the herbage more fine and better for the support of 
stock in general, there cannot in my opinion be the smallest 
doubt. Our soil being so naturally productive of the different 
varieties of grass that very little attention is paid in regard to 
strict economy in the saving of manure to be applied to either 
our pasture or meadow lands other than what may be scattered 
about by sheep grazing. 
To keep the greatest quantity of stock on a given quantity of 
land, I believe it may be done by turning them out early in the 
season before there is a full bite, and having a change of pasture 
to give them weekly fresh feed. By turning stock upon pastures 
where there is a full bite, the better sorts of grasses are only 
consumed, the more coarse herbage being rejected and let run 
to seed, by which the lands are greatly injured at the time, as 
well as in future ; while on the contrary if the stock be allow¬ 
ed to enter during the time such coarse plants are in their more 
tender, early growth, and before the pasture is covered with 
better herbage, the whole of the other plants will be fed down 
in a regular manner with the grass; and the want of a full 
bite, on first turning out of the store stock, is of advantage to 
the animals, as they become more gradually accustomed to the 
change from dry food to succulent herbage. 
I would not contend that close feeding for a large stock to 
range together through the season could be profitable, but it 
may be done with smaller pastures, rightly managed, with 
the greatest profit, although some of our farmers are of a dif¬ 
ferent opinion, advising that all kinds of stock should have an 
abundance of feed at all times. That we have more farmers 
that over stock than fall short of it, may be too true, but this 
over stocking our pastures happens oftener on large enclosures 
than on small ones. The disadvantages of over stocking are 
scarcely capable of being repaired by cattle and sheep suffering 
a check in their growth, which, if ever, may take them long to 
regain their former thriving disposition; by over stocking in 
some cases, almost the whole produce of pasture lands are 
thrown away. 
I have my doubts in respect to the manner of stocking with 
only one kind of stock, or to have a mixed stock to produce the 
best effects. Some think the more various the kinds the better 
it is for the stock and the lands. I have found no inconveni¬ 
ence in keeping only sheep on the same pastures for a succes¬ 
sion of years in good heart. I have ever noticed that the differ¬ 
ent kinds of animals are all fondest of pasturing on that which 
is most sweet and tender. Sheep are well known to ramble 
over the whole of the pasture in order to pick out the most 
sweet and delicate morsels. . The feeding of neat cattle is per¬ 
haps less particular and delicate in this respect, but when not 
forced by hunger they mostly appear to fix upon such parts of 
the land as possess the most sweet and palatable herbage, re¬ 
jecting the coarse spots where it is less tender and agreeable. 
I think that no mixture of animals will answer the even and 
regular feeding down of pasture, for where a sufficient supply 
of herbage is before them, they will be all attracted by the 
sweetest parts, and those of the more sour kinds in conse¬ 
quence rejected. 
The giving the stock the whole range of extensive pastures at 
once will not summer as much in the same condition that it 
would if the pasture were so divided as to give them the grass 
at different times in a fresh, unbroken, untrampled state. 
There can be no doubt but that much greater waste of grass is 
made in turning upon the whole at once, especially if the full 
proportion of animals for the land be put in, as it is obvious 
that when grass has been trampled upon once, all sorts of stock 
reject or eat it with great reluctance. 
It is considered indispensably necessary that pasture be well 
supplied with water, as without having this in some degree at 
command, it is impossible that stock can thrive well. In situa¬ 
tions like many farmers on our lake towns where the natural 
situation of clay is of considerable thickness, there is little 
difficulty in the construction of such watering ponds so as to 
be perfectly retentive or water tight, but in loose porous soils 
the business is not executed without much art. 
Timothy, and white and red clover are best adapted to our 
clay soils and moist losyns, but on poor and -wet loams and 
clays it will not abide, but gives way to the water grasses and 
various plants, or other indigenous grasses. There is no bet¬ 
ter test of good land than its running spontaneously to white 
clover. I have known many fallows of new land where this 
grass took the ascendancy without any seed whatever being 
sown. Although it has not the sweetness of red clover for 
sheep, yet it is their main dependence. Whatever seeds be 
sown, white clover forms the principal part of the dependence 
for success; this plant requires close feeding to discover its 
merits, for if left to get a rank start on the ground it becomes 
sour, and sheep will grow poor and do badly on it, sooner 
starve than thrive. 
I have fattened sheep on white clover pastures where the 
grass was so short it would seem as though they could not sub¬ 
sist; this fact proves that it does not depend so much on the 
quantity of the food as it does upon the quality. The old saying 
the “ nearer the bone the sweeter the flesh,” will here apply, 
that nearer the ground the sweeter the grass. There is but lit¬ 
tle doubt of the beneficial consequences of hard or close stock¬ 
ing on the older sorts of grazing land, but on the new lays it 
should be seldom attempted, as injury may be done to such 
land; close feeding will make most kinds of anj grasses fine, 
sweet and productive, but this effect depends altogether on its 
being constantly fed close, that is, all seed stems being pre¬ 
vented from rising. The pastury^g of sheep has evidently, in 
the course of fifteen years past, improved the quality of the 
herbage so as to raise grass of a good species, and in very con¬ 
siderable abundance, where nothing formerly prevailed but bad 
kinds of grass, and these in no great plenty. 
The practice gives undoubted proof of its great advantage in 
renovating foul lands. On our dry soils it requires much long¬ 
er time to grow the second inch than the first, and consequently 
we find it much more pfofi cable on such soils to stock with 
sheep than cattle. Sheep feeding not only ameliorates by en¬ 
riching the soil and fining the herbage, but also by destroying 
the weeds; we rank Johnswort and white daisys among the 
worst of weeds; these are over-run by cattle grazing, and 
thereby frequently get foul in the extreme, but cured by pastur¬ 
ing repeatedly with sheep. It may be proper to remark, that 
when a field, has been pastured long with sheep it becomes 
rancid and disagreeable to them by large quantities of manure 
that they return to the soil, and no stock likes to feed near its 
own dung,—in such cases a rest for one or two years by either 
stocking with cattle or mowing will be beneficial and neces¬ 
sary. 
Ant hills are very common in our pastures and meadows; as 
respects their extermination and the prevention of the rising of 
these mounds on our valuable lands, they may be wholly 
guarded against. I accidently discovered that by digging them 
up by the core, which lies about level with the surface, just as 
the ground freezes, it would destroy them; since then we have 
raised hundreds of their habitations in a winter's thaw with 
complete success. 
Probably as much good fence cannot be found in any of our 
sister states, in the same extent of country, as now incloses the 
fields within the above tract, which is constructed chiefly from 
cedar, pine and ash timber. The central part of this section 
early frosts does not visit one year with another as soon, by 
some days, as it does other portions of our state. 
Yours, SOLOMON W. JEWETT, 
Weybridge , Ft., 1841. 
Building- Stone Wall. 
Messrs. Editors— Living, as I do, in a country abounding with 
stone, and having had some experience both in drawing and 
laying, and having been an attentive observer of the improve¬ 
ments that have been made around me in the business, I will 
venture to make a few suggestions; especially as so little is 
written on the subject. It demands more attention than I have 
seen given to it. A fence so costly as stone wall should be well 
made. A great deal of poor wall has been laid in the country; 
full enough I think for our credit, as it respects our economy or 
good sense. Considerable half wall has been laid, 3 ft. or so at 
the bottom, and 3 or 31 high, which would soon bulge and tum¬ 
ble down; and the stakes and rails which would be needed to 
complete the sham fence would tumble about as soon as the 
stone, on account of the stakes rotting off; and they of course 
would have to stick out in the way when stuck 2j or 3 ft. each 
side of the wall. 
In some parts of the country you may see considerable fence 
made of posts, boards, and stone, or perhaps rails instead of 
boards ; but the wind operating on the upper part, would soon 
jam the stone a little too much to make them lay well, and the 
posts would rot off before a great while ; so that the two kinds 
of fence above mentioned have found but few advocates among 
us. Give us none of your half fence; we want a whole fence ; 
so good that it will not be learning the cattle to jump, and will 
last a spell. 
Finish your wall when you begin it, and make it 5 ft. high; 
and in ground that is wet, and liable to heave, do not begrudge 
a ditch, and make a free use of sticks. 
Whole wall seems to take but little more stone than half, 
where it is as narrow at the bottom as it ought to be ; our best 
wall layers say from 2 ft. to 2|. Wall almost always bulges out 
at the side, when it falls down; and when it is wide at the bot¬ 
tom, it bulges a great deal worse than when it. is not, every one 
knows, that knows much about stone fence : therefore we think if 
it is as narrow at the bottom as we can well lay it, it will stand 
the better. Convenience of laying requires more than2 ft., but 
otherwise I do not know what objection can be raised against 
having it that width: we have tried it so narrow considerable. 
Then make it 5 ft. high, and without your sheep are smarter 
than mine they cannot climb over it. 
Sticks are of great use in a wall. Get wood that will split 
well, be durable and soft; or almost any kind will answer.: 
split the sticks 1-2 an inch or 1 inch thick, and 2 or 3 wide, and 
have them nearly as long as the width of the wall where they 
are used. Mr. Rice, of Hannibal, a man to whom no little cre¬ 
dit is due for improvements in wall laying, had some wall that 
was laid with sticks about 8 years ago, taken down, and after 
getting down a foot, or a foot and a half, from the top, the sticks 
resembled lumber seasoned under shelter, all of the way except 
the ends of the sticks. I have taken down wall after a rain and 
most of the inside was not wet at all by it. Mr. Rice was of 
opinion that basswood would last 50 years. The sticks should 
not stick out quite so far as the stone, or they will be likely to 
catch water, and carry it on to the middle. They are not need¬ 
ed at the top, where the stones reach across occasionally. 
But with tne truest proportions, and a liberal use of sticks* 
the stones will not keep their place if laid on ground that 
heaves much. Dig a ditch at least 8 in. deep, and fill with small 
stone. For such a wall as I have been describing, the ditch 
ought to be about 3 feet wide, and care taken to have it straight, 
so that the wall will not be on the edge, and especially off the 
edge, in any place. If the ground is hard to dig, and you can 
plow a straight furrow, back furrow; but do not plow too 
wide. If the ground digs easy, a line, a few stakes, a shovel and 
a peck, and a good digger, would operate to as good advantage 
as any thing, I guess. In filling in, do not put large stones in the 
side of it. 
If the ground is dry, and not inclined to swell and shrink 
much, by freezing and thawing, and especially if you build ycur 
walls north and south, a ditch would be of little or no benefit; 
but it makes almost “ all odds” on wet ground. 
If you have round and flat, small and large stone, take some 
pains to have the kinds mixed together; especially have plenty 
of small ones to fill into the middle of the wall. 
And no good wall layer needs to be told to have the coarse 
and fine, round and fiat, long and short stone judiciously mixed, 
and have the wall as well bound as may be. It wants some or 
the best stone on top, those that are coarse and will reach 
across; on account of making the wall firm, and staying on 
good. Cephas. 
Oswego, April 16, 1841. 
