LIBRARY

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS

AGRICULTURAL

COLLEGE

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FOURTH REPORT

OF THE

AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

FOURTH REPORT

OF THE

AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

COUNTIES OF FRANKLIN AND MIDDLESEX.

BY HENRY COLMAN,

COMMISSIONER FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF THE STATE.

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DUTTON AND WENTWORTH, STATE PRINTERS.

1841.

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TO

JOHN DAVIS,

GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,

THE ENLIGHTENED ADVOCATE OF DOMESTIC INDUSTRY
IN ALL ITS DEPARTMENTS,

THIS REPORT IS INSCRIBED,

WITH THE HIGHEST CONSIDERATION
AND RESPECT, BY

HENRY COLMAN.

1— «

Common toe a Itij oC fdanrtatfuinttta.

In Council, March 16th, 1841.

The Governor having laid before the Coimcil the Fourth
Report of the Commissioner for the Agricultural Survey of the
State, and the same having been under consideration, it is
Ordered, that the Secretary cause three thousand copies thereof
to be printed for distribution to the individuals and institutions
specified in the second chapter of the Revised Statutes.

Attest,

JOHN P. BIGELOW,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.

PREFACE.

This constitutes my Fourth and last Report on the Agricul-
ture of Massachusetts. The Legislature having, in their wis-
dom, seen fit to repeal the act authorising the survey before its
completion, it only remains for me to wrap my robes about me
and retire, leaving behind me my blessing for my good old
mother, the Bay State. It is a small offering ; but there is a
treasury, where the mite of the poverty-stricken, if it be the
gift of a true heart, will not be disdained even among the splen-
did offerings of the affluent.

I have given, in this case, an examination only of the coun-
ties of Franklin and Middlesex, with occasional references to
other counties ; but I have treated very fully the topics con-
nected particularly with the agriculture of these two counties,
such as the raising and fatting of neat cattle, sheep husbandry,
dairy stock, the keeping and fatting of swine, the cultivation
of hops, and the reclaiming of peat and bog meadows. I have
a large amount of materials on hand in relation to these and to
other counties, which I have examined, which I should have
been glad to compile and present : but after the resolution re-
pealing the survey, I have not been without fears that I may
have transcended my proper limits in giving as much as I have.
Should this be the case, I can only throw myself on the can-
dor of an enlightened, and therefore liberal community.

VUl

The publication of my Report has been delayed, at the ex-
pense of some little impatience on the part of some of my friends.
The delay has been occasioned, mainly, from a desire to render
it more worthy of the acceptance of my fellow-citizens ; and, as
I have given to it more than six months' anxious labor, without
any compensation, I cannot doubt that my apology will be ac-
cepted. The difficulty of selecting, compiling, and arranging
it, out of a voluminous mass of materials, has been more
than I myself had anticipated. The difficulty of obtaining the
information which I sought, can only be appreciated by those
who have attempted it. I should be very ungrateful not to ac-
knowledge the kindness, which I have, in many cases, expe-
perienced. But, in numerous instances, I have applied once,
twice, five times, ten times, but without success ; and have on
hand a large bundle of promises to pay, which have been re-
peatedly renewed, and new endorsements added, but which, in
taking account of stock, I have long since been compelled to
mark as "unavailable." By many persons, the Commissioner
has been regarded as a kind of tax-gatherer, or his visits sup-
posed to be in some way associated with a pecuniary assessment;
and his approach carried their hands, almost involuntarily, to
clench their pockets. Some old colts, if he went into the pas-
ture with the measure of oats in his hands, and shook them
before their eyes, could not be caught but by coming up the
blind side of them ; and this, at the hazard of being kicked ;
and, even if fortunate enough to catch and bridle them, they
would not suffer him to mount, or if mounted, they would not go
any more than their ancestor, spoken of in the Old Testament,
in the time of Balaam. To his great amusement, if it were
not unbecoming the gravity of an officer of the Commonwealth
to be amused, he was sometimes reminded of the woman in
Illhiois. who was first visited by the Town Assessors, and next

IX

by the Town Collector ; and in a few days afterwards came
the Agent for taking the United States census. She imme-
diately, on being apprised of the object of his visit, seized the
clock, which hung up by the wall, and threw it upon the fire,
exclaiming, that it had been already taxed twice, and should
not be taxed again ; and when he ventured to ask her the num-
ber and ages of her children, she became almost frantic, and
the poor things, there was reason to fear, had they not been her
children, would have gone where the clock went. Instan-
ces, however, of such diseased caution and obtuseness, are
rare. In general, his visits have been received with kindness,
and with the more kindness as their objects became better un-
derstood. To many is he indebted for good deeds ; to many
more for good promises, which he has no doubt they intended
to fulfil, and which he has as little doubt they have, to his
great regret, often failed to fulfil from a mistaken distrust of
their ability to communicate what would be valuable. In re-
spect to the great majority of the rural population of Massachu-
setts, the delightful conviction has been only the more strength-
ened as his acquaintance with them became the more extended,
that, taken as a whole, it would be difficult to find a more
enlightened, more moral, or more favored population. It has
been, too, with singular pleasure he has found, as he went
on, that the more the disinterested objects of his survey became
understood, the more highly were they appreciated, and the
more ready became the co-operation of the farmers, upon which
its success so much depended. Should it be hereafter renewed,
in more competent hands, some great impediments to its suc-
cess will, therefore, have been removed.

The survey being now arrested, and, with the popular and
severe notions of public economy prevailing, not likely to be

B

renewed, it may not be unsuitable to inquire what has been
done, and of what advantage to the Commonwealth has it been
instrumental 7

The whole cost of the survey to the State thus far, had it
been assessed upon the inhabitants, would scarcely have ex-
ceeded a tax of one cent per head ; and this for the advance-
ment of the greatest interest of the community, though in
many cases the least regarded. Almost all the cost incurred
in its prosecution has been expended in the State, and has not
gone out of the family. Of the amount (eighteen hundred dol-
lars per annum) paid to the Commissioner, nearly two thirds
have gone to the actual expenses of the survey ; such as trav-
elling charges, payments for information procured, books dis-
tributed, seeds and implements purchased for exhibition and
gratuitous distribution among the farmers, and for various in-
cidentals growing out of the commission. The balance, varying
from six to eight hundred dollars, can hardly be considered as
an over-compensation for the time and labor devoted to this
object.

The next inquiry is, what has the Commissioner done in the
premises 7 Candid minds will not fail to reflect that an Agri-
cultural Survey was in this country a novel and altogether un-
attempted enterprise ; that the act, by which it was established,
was couched in the most general terms ; and that it was left for
the Commissioner himself, unaided and unadvised, without
chart or pilot, to navigate an untried sea. In respect to most
things in life, it is far less difficult, after they have been done,
to say how they might have been better done, than before their
accomplishment to say how they may be best done, or even
how they may be done at all. I ask no exemption from just

XI

and honorable, though it may be severe criticism, as that,
should the work be hereafter resumed, will make its execution
more easy for those to whom it may be entrusted; but I may
claim to have brought to the work the strongest enthusiasm
and desire for its success ; and to have done what I could to
execute it in a creditable manner, and to meet the reasonable
wishes of the State. More cannot be had from the highest
talents, and it is a consolation to feel that more cannot be de-
manded of the most humble. A mind actuated by a generous
ambition of excellence never meets its own wishes, because, in
proportion to its success, its standard of duty and attainment
becomes elevated and enlarged. How can it be expected then
to meet the wishes and expectations of others ? It is no small
gratification to me that the survey has been spoken of in terms
of approbation in several parts of the country, and by those in
foreign countries, whose esteem is a high honor. If among
ourselves, from those whose cooperation seemed most naturally
demanded, it has failed, through any motive, to receive the en-
couragement which it had reason to hope, it has been to me an
occasion only of unfeigned regret. It is the misfortune of some
minds never to look at any thing but through optics clouded or
distorted by a grovelling selfishness. To take enlarged and
generous views of large subjects and to merge all personal con-
siderations in the good proposed and sought, belongs only to
that small and higher class of minds who preserve their purity
untainted, in an age diseased to the very core with avarice,
party spirit, or personal ambition. It is sometimes extremely
mortifying to learn by what influences many of the most valu-
able interests of the community are affected. It is suffi-
ciently illustrative of the manner in which public business is
sometimes managed, objects are brought up or objects put
down, to state, that of a large committee of the Legislature, to

Xll

whom the inquiry into the expediency or inexpediency of con-
tinuing the Agricultural Survey was in one case, if not in more,
committed, there is good reason to think that not a single indi-
vidual of the committee, who objected to its continuance, had
ever seen either of the three Reports of the Commissioner, or,
in fact, knew what had been done.

The commission having then been closed and my intended re-
moval into another State precluding any reasonable imputation
of unworthy motives, I shall speak with freedom of some things
which I have done or attempted, leaving it entirely to others to
say how they have been done, or with what success attempted.

Of the fourteen counties in the State I have pretty thoroughly
explored ten, having visited almost every town, sought the
acquaintance of some of the best farmers in the several towns in
each of these counties, and examined, as far as I could learn
them, the principal agricultural improvements in each of them.
I have attended all the cattle-shows and fairs, which have been
held during the term of my commission, whether county or
town shows, as far as the separate days of holding these shows
permitted me to do it. I have held meetings of the farmers for
conversation and discussion in several parts of the State. I
have maintained an extensive correspondence with farmers
in all parts of the State, and in many of the other States.
With leave of the Executive, I have travelled several thou-
sands of miles in other States for the purpose of looking at
their improvements and gathering information, which might be
useful to the farmers of Massachusetts ; into Vermont, to see
their sheep husbandry; into Connecticut, Rhode Island and
New York, to see their improved stock ; into New Jersey, to
see the application of their marls, and to look at their beet-sugar

Xlll

establishment ; into Pennsylvania, to see the application of
lime ; and into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the
District of Columbia, to look at their culture of silk. It was
understood, and expressly provided for in the Resolve author-
izing the survey, that the Commissioner should suggest such
improvements as he considered desirable and practicable in the
agriculture of Massachusetts. He could hardly be expected to
do this to the best advantage without seeing what improve-
ments had been made in other places ; and the extraordinary
facilities for travelling have enabled him to visit them, without
essentially interfering with the examination of his own State.
Besides this, by request of the farmers he has delivered, in
different parts of the State, at least twenty agricultural ad-
dresses, of which seven have been printed and gratuitously
distributed. He has published likewise in this time,

1. An extended Circular Letter to the Farmers of Massachu-
setts, pointing out, in detail, the nature and objects of an Agri-
cultural Survey.

2. A Treatise upon the use of Bone Manure.

3. A Report on the subject of a Board of Agriculture.

4. A Memorial to the Legislature on establishing a Depart-
ment of Domestic Industry, and the collection of Agricultural,
Manufacturing and Commercial Statistics.

5. A Report on the Culture of Spring Wheat, by order of the
Senate.

6. The First Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts, em-
bracing principally the County of Essex.

7. The Second Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts,
embracing the County of Berkshire.

8. The Third Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts,

XIV

embracing the subjects of Wheat and Silk, by order of the
Senate.

9. The Fourth Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts,
embracing the Counties of Franklin and Middlesex.

10. An Address to the Farmers of Essex County, on the im-
provement of their Agriculture.

11. A full Report of the Speeches of Daniel Webster and B.
Silliman, on 13th January, 1839, at the Agricultural Meeting,
in Boston, with copious notes.

12. A full Report of the Speech of H. A. S. Dearborn, at the
Agricultural Meeting, on 28th February, 1840.

13. A full Report of the Speech of George B. Emerson, on the
Forest Trees of Massachusetts, at the Agricultural Meeting, in
March, 1841.

14. An extended Report of the Remarks of Charles T. Jack-
son, at the Agricultural Meeting, 30th January, 1840, on Agri-
cultural Chemistry.

Besides these services, he has instituted and provided for a
series of weekly meetings of the farmers in the Legislature,
and others interested in agricultural improvement, which have
been held during three successive sessions of the Legislature,
which meetings he has punctually attended, and of which he
has constantly furnished full reports for the public papers.
These meetings have been the means of eliciting and diffusing
a large amount of practical agricultural intelligence, gathered
from the experience of some of the most intelligent farmers in
this, and in other States. They have been much attended, their
utility acknowledged, and they have been visited by many dis-
tinguished gentlemen of science and skill, from various parts of
the country.

XV

The terms of the Resolve enacting the survey, were so in-
definite, and at the same time so comprehensive, that the Com-
missioner deemed it his duty not merely to report on the condi-
tion of the Agriculture of the State, but, by every means in his
power, to awaken interest and inquiry on this subject : to dif-
fuse correct and useful information ; and devote his time and
talents, such as they might be, to the advancement of this
great interest of the Commonwealth. He has anxiously en-
deavored to do this.

The next inquiry is, what has the Agricultural Survey effect-
ed 1 To this, it cannot be expected that a very definite answer
can be given. Perhaps, so early as this, much visible and direct
effect was not to be looked for. Seed will sometimes lie long
in the ground, without germinating ; at best, its results are not
to be expected at once ; and we must wait for the early and the
latter rain, before the harvest can be matured. Again, much
influence is often exerted, the operations of which cannot be
detected, and much of good is often effected, which does not
admit of any sensible or definite measurement. This applies
particularly to all good of a moral or intellectual nature ; and
much, which was proposed to be eftected by an Agricultural
Survey, is of this character. We cannot possibly determine
how much knowledge has been communicated, how much zeal
for improvement has been kindled up, how much the estimation
of the agricultural art and profession has been exalted ; nor
Jearn at once, if at all, how many experiments have been made ;
how many improvements have been carried out ; and how far
the crops have been increased ; nor in what respects, nor to what
extent, the Agricultural Survey has contributed to any of these
results, if results they are. We may not know, when the rain
descends upon the parched ground, by what mysterious process

XVI

it will revive the drooping plants; how much of its quickening
influence will penetrate the leaves, and how much will be im-
bibed by the roots ; nor what property in the rain water, nor
what combination of properties, operates to produce these eflects ;
but when we see the decayed and burnt-up herbage soon
quickened into life, and assuming its natural and brightest ver-
dure, it would be useless to deny that the rain may somehow
have had its share in this extraordinary and beautiful change.
There is no doubt that the thirst for agricultural knowledge,
and the spirit of agricultural improvement, have never been so
active in our community, as at this very time.

It would be most unjust to charge me with the vanity of pre-
suming that all this, or even much of this, has been effected by
my labors. I would not be thought to place my humble ser-
vices in competition with the influences of the agricultural
press, or of the agricultural societies throughout the country,
or of many distinguished men ; men among the living, whose
eminent merits I cordially acknowledge ; and men among
the dead, the remembrance of whose wide and active useful-
ness, I cherish with deep and unaflected reverence. I will as-
sume nothing for having devoted my leisure hours, from my
professional duties, for nearly forty years, to the study and the
direct practice of this art ; and for having been more than twen-
ty years a liberal contributor to the agricultural press ; but,
having for the last four years exclusively devoted myself to the
agricultural improvement of the State, and having had direct
personal intercourse with the farmers, in their own towns and
homes and fields and ^rards, is it presumptuous to think that I
may have had some humble share in the glorious agricul-
tural revival and improvement, that is going on throughout
the State and country? Allow me the satisfaction of thinking

XVll

that I have done something in carrying the hod, while to others
may belong the far higher honor of laying the corner-stone, and
of erecting the noble columns, and adorning them with the
beaatifal embellishments of architectural taste, in this grand
edifice of public utility and national honor.

To those persons, who estimate every good in life by a pecu-
niary standard, will it be discourteous in me to propose a few con-
siderations l Suppose that the Agricultural Survey may have
been, or may prove, instrumental in inducing, upon an average,
by improved cultivation, an increase of one hundred bushels of
corn to every town in the Commonwealth. This, at 75 cents
per bushel for corn, and ten dollars per ton for corn fodder,
would be upwards of 28,000 dollars. Suppose it may conduce
to the production of an average of one hundred tons of compost
manure, in each town in the Commonwealth, which must be
valued at one dollar per load. This would exceed a yearly in-
come of sixty thousand dollars, to say nothing of the permanent
improvement it would effect in the soil. Suppose that it may
conduce to the redemption of 1000 acres of peat bog, which
is now worthless, converting it into productive meadows
yielding two tons of hay to the acre, and keeping up its condi-
tion. This would be little more than three acres to a town ;
and, rating its value by its income, (it cannot be estimated at
less than 150 dollars per acre,) this would be an increase of the
property of the State, which may be safely called an actual crea-
tion of land, to the value of 150,000 dollars, and a permanent
income of more than 20,000 dollars per year. Here is no ex-
travagant calculation, to say nothing of many other forms in
which the influence of the survey may be felt ; and among
other testimonials of approbation, in the highest measure grati-
fying to me, has been the opinion of one of the most intelligent
c

XVlll

and best-informed men in the Commonwealth, not uttered to
me, nor with the remotest expectation that it would ever come
to my knowledge, — that the survey had already been worth three
hundred thousand dollars to the State. It is due to the en-
lightened friends of an improved agriculture, both in and out
of the Legislature, who proposed and advocated and assisted
this measure of a survey, to refer to such a fact as this,
when under other circumstances it might seem indecorous.

It has been a principal object of the survey to call attention
to the great subject of agricultural improvement ; to disseminate
valuable and practical information ; to induce farmers to ex-
amine their condition, the condition of their farms and the ac-
tual results of their cultivation, the cost, the expenses and the
returns, and to note them with such exactness as may save
them from hurtful errors of judgment and practice ; to induce
experiments with a view to improvement ; to redeem their waste
lands ; to plant productive and ornamental trees ; to improve
the races of domestic animals ; to make their own habitations
more comfortable ; to attach them to their own homes, by show-
ing the capacities and resources of the State; in a word, "to
cultivate the soil and the mind ; to lead the farmers to respect
their profession and to respect themselves, and to elevate and
dignify both, by mental cultivation and by sound morals."
How much, in all these respects, has been accomplished, I must
submit to the judgment of others ; and no one can immediately
ascertain. What has been attempted, in this case, any may
learn. Man may sow the seed ; and under the unvarying laws
of a just providence, no good labor fails of its reward. The
wisest may plant ; the most diligent may water ; the Lord of the
Harvest alone can give the increase.

XIX

The subject of agricultural improvement is now arresting
attention strongly throughout the civilized world. Men on the
European continent, so long the arena of bloody conflict and
the burial-place of slaughtered millions of the human race, are
now delighting in the arts of peace. Those, who hold the
destinies of nations in their power, seem more inclined than
ever to make some atonement to outraged humanity by mul-
tiplying the comforts and improving the condition of the
oppressed and injured victims of an insatiate avarice or a
guilty ambition. Fields, often reddened with the blood of the
slain, now wave with golden harvests : and upon the smoul-
dering ruins which marked the dreadful track of war and hate,
have risen again the peaceful and happy villages, resounding
with the hum of industry and the choral songs of plenty and
contentment. Oh ! when will the great and mighty ones of
the world love above every thing else the sweetest and noblest
pleasure to be found on earth — that, in the presence of which,
the pomp and revelry of courts and palaces is an empty bubble,
the pleasure of living to do good and to make others happy.

England is waking up from a protracted sleep, and is noAV
prosecuting the subject of agricultural improvement with ex-
traordinary enthusiasm, and an array of the finest talents in
the kingdom. France has instituted several pattern farms and
schools for agricultural instruction, and has adopted a system
of obtaining agricultural information and returns from every
portion of her territory. Her methods are most exact, and ex-
ecuted with extreme punctiliousness. Austria is diligently
seeking agricultural information at home and abroad. Den-
mark has now been, for two or three years, prosecuting with
great care an agricultural survey ; and her reports have already
reached eight or more large octavo volumes. One of the most

XX

accomplished scholars in the country, George P. Marsh, of Bur-
lington, Vt., has, at my request, translated from the Danish the
inquiries proposed by the Agricultural Commission of that
kingdom, which I subjoin.^ Agriculture is indeed, in this and
in almost every other country, the great and commanding in-
terest, on the enlightened improvement and success of which,
more than upon any other, and, I had almost said, all other
instruments combined, depend the general comfort and, to a
considerable aegree, the morals of the community.

Massachusetts must live by her industry. She has reason
to thank Heaven for this condition of her being, involving as
it does the certain elements of prosperity in the physical,
social, and moral condition of individuals and of States.
In honest, enlightened, well-directed, persevering industry,
there are to be found a means of wealth, an instrument of
power, a source of comfort, a security to morals, and a ground
of independence, which the underlaying of her whole territory
with mines of gold would not supply.

Massachusetts will not neglect her agriculture, this great and
vital interest. Having, in a memorial addressed to the Legis-
lature in February, 1840, fully communicated my views on this
subject, I shall not enlarge upon them here ; but I may be
allowed to add, that what seems to me to be wanted in her
government is a Department of Home Industry, which should
be under the control of a Board of Industry, or left to the con-
duct of some intelligent, competent and faithful individual, Com-
missioner, or Secretary, who should have every facility from the
government for obtaining information, and who should annu-
ally report to the government the condition of his department.

• Appendix Q.

XXI

This department, among other things, should embrace,

1. The obtaining of full and exact information of every
branch of industry in the Commonwealth ; the amount of cap-
ital invested ; the cost and nature of the raw material used ;
the number of persons employed ; the rate of wages, and the
amount of products, with various other material circumstan-
ces which I need not enumerate.

2. An account of the condition of the persons employed in
any of the arts or forms of industry, with the bearing of these
employments upon health and morals, and the bearing and
execution of existing laws of the State upon any mechanical or
manufacturing establishments.

3. A report of all improvements or inventions by which labor
is abridged or its productiveness increased.

4. A full and detailed report of the application of all moneys
bestowed by the Government for the encouragement of domes-
tic industry ; such as bounties paid to agricultural societies, or
premiums upon any article of culture or production.

5. The account of any seminaries of education in the State
in any way connected with manual labor, either mechanical
or rural.

6. The report of the condition of all penitentiaries or houses
of correction in the State, and all pauper and eleemosynary es-
tablishments, as far as the inmates of such establishments are
supported by their own labor, of whatever description.

7. An annual and general survey of the productive resources
of the Commonwealth in regard to her agricultural, mechanical
and commercial industry.

I cannot enter into details in relation to these matters; but
respectfully throw out these hints for the consideration of en-

XXll

lightened and philanthropic minds, bent upon the true honor
and welfare of the Commonwealth, the security of the rights
of labor, and the elevation and improvement of the industrial
classes. The advantages to result from Massachusetts' becom-
ing thus fully acquainted with herself and feeling the right arm
of her power, are immense.

What would be the effects of such a measure, if well carried
out, has been already seen to a great degree, in the publication of
the Statistical Returns of the manufacturing industry of the
State, by the excellent officer, who presides in the State Depart-
ment. It would not fail to secure to her a rank among her sister
republics, which those, who now look with disdain upon her
limited and rude territory, might well envy. More than this,
it would, above all things else, serve to keep her children at
home.

The Agriculture of Massachusetts, in comparison with that
of many other States, appears a small concern. To her it is a
great concern. She may make it far more important. The
country does not present a better home market than she will
long continue to furnish for all that can be produced from her
soil. The facts, which I have presented in my several reports,
and which, whatever the sceptical may suggest, rest upon
unquestionable authority, fully demonstrate, that the com-
pensations of rural labor are nowhere more ample and cer-
tain. It will be seen, too, what abundant room remains for im-
provement, and the increase of her productive territory, under
an enlightened husbandry. My great object has been to collect
facts ; and I have done it with all the carefulness and caution
and industry which I am capable of exercising. I have en-
deavored to present them in a form, which, while it would in

XXlll

no respect, impair their weight and force, might, by an occa-
sional playfulness, attract the attention of a class of readers,
whose condition may, by these facts, be fixed for life, but who
would otherwise be repelled from tables of mere dry details.
If, instead of presenting my bundle tied by a coarse birchen
withe, I have bound it together with an awkward band of
such wild flowers as I could pick up by the road-side, though
the correctness of such taste maybe questioned, my motives, by
the candid, will not be condemned. I have occasionally inter-
woven such moral and religious suggestions as have sprung up
in my own full heart in every contemplation of the Divine
Goodness, as manifested in the charms of rural scenery and the
unmeasured and immeasurable variety and abundance of the
products of the earth, for the comfort of man and beast. If
ever man should be religious, it is the privileged dweller in the
country. If ever the reflecting mind and the feeling soul are
called upon to commune with God, it is in the open horizon,
from the darting up of the first ray of light on the eastern sky
to the soft hour of twilight, when the sun, drawing his golden
drapery around him, sinks into his evening's repose ; it is in
brushing the dew from verdant meadows enameled with flow-
ers, and witnessing the almost visible influences of the refresh-
ing and life-giving rain ; it is in watching the ceaseless miracles
of vegetable and animal life, from the opening spring to the
close of autumn. All is full of God, and every object and
occurrence is resplendent with the reflection of his adorable
power, wisdom and benevolence.

" God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ! " She is
my parent, and I would honor her with filial reverence. Her
children are my own kith and kin, and wherever I meet one of
them I shall grasp the hand of a brother. In her pride, I shall

XXIV

feel proud. In her honor, I shall feel honored. In her joy, I
shall rejoice. My prayers for her prosperity shall go up to the
God of her pilgrim fathers day and night : and no time nor dis-
tance can ever estrange my affections from her.

Boston, Dec. 20, 1841.

CONTENTS.

COUNTY OF FRANKLIN.

I. General Description, - - - - - page 1

II. Aspect, ..__.-- 2

m. Soils, - 3

IV. Condition of the Inhabitants, . _ _ . 5

V. Agricultural Pursuits, . . . - . 5

VI. Crops, - 5

I. Grasses, p. 5 ; ii. Indian Corn, p. 9 ; iii. Oats, p. 23 ;

IV. Pease and Oats, or Meslin, p. 24; v. Rye, p. 25;
VI. Wheat, p. '-^8 ; vn. Broom Corn, p. 30 ; viii. Hops,
p 34 ; IX. Barley, p. 37 ; x. Buck Wheat, p. 38 ; xi. Tea-
sles, p. 38 ; xii. Peppermint, p. 38 ; xiii. Potatoes, p. 40.

VII. The Dairy, 41

VIII Maple rSugar, --...- 44

IX. Live Stock Neat Cattle, ----- 51

I. Character and VVeiglit, p.51 ; it Cows, p. 52; iii Stall-
fed Cattle, p. 54 ; iv. Management of Stall-fed Animals,
p 55; v. Expenses and Profits of Stall feeding, p. 64 —
exan)ple 1, p 05 ; example 2, p. 0(5 ; example 3, p. 68 ;
example 4, ]). 69 ; example 5, p. 70 ; example 0, p. 71.
VI. Gain of Stallied Cattle, p. 74 — exaniplc 1, p. 74; ex-
ample 2, p. 74; example 3, p. 75 ; example 4, p. 75; ex-
ample 5, p. 75; example 6, p. 75. vii. Loss of Weight
in Driving, p. 75 ; vm. Live and Dead Weight of Cattle,
p. 76 — examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, p. 76; examples 8, 9,
10, p. 77. IX. Pasturage, p. 78.
X. Sheep, - - ^ . . - - 98

1. Experiment in Stall-feeding Sheep, - - p. 106

2. do. do. do. - - do.

3. do. do. do. - - 107
I. Weight of Sheep, p. Ill ; ii. Early Lamb.«, p. Ill ; iii.
Housing Sheej), p. 112; iv. Care of the Enes, p. 113;

V. Manger for Sheep, p. 114; vi. Diseases of do. and
Remedies, p. 115; vii. General Management, p. 118;
VIII. Yield of Wool, p. 120.

XL Swine, 121

D

XXVI

XII. Horses, ------- page 123

XIU. Manures, - 127

I. Lime, p. 127; ii. Gypsum, 127; in. Wood Ashes,
p. 130; IV. Clay, p. 130 ; v. General management of
Manures, p. 131.

XIV. Rotation of Crops, ----- 133

XV. Particular Results, - . - . . 139

Example 1, p. 139 ; examples 2, 3, p. 141.

XVI. Reports of Farms, ----- 143

I. Sunderland, p. 143 ; ii. Ashfield, p. 144 ; iii.
Heath, p. 144 ; iv. Conway, p. 145 ; v. Shelburne,
p. 147 ; VI. Shelburne, p. 148 ; vii. Bernardston, p.
150 ; viii. Bernardston, p. 152 ; ix. Bernardston, p.
153; X. Northfield, p. 153.

XVII. Domestic Economy, _ . - . - 155

Example 1, p. 155 ; example 2, p. 158.
XVm. Silk, ----.-. 160

XIX. Flax, 162

XX. Experiments, Improvements, &c. . - . 163

I. Freezing Seed Wheat, p. 163; ii. Value of Corn
Stalks, p. 103; in. Double Crops on the same land,
p. 163; IV. Time of cutting Herdsgrass, p. 104; v.
Natural and Artificial Grasses, p. 166 ; vi. Seeding
Potatoes, p. 166 ; vii. Redeeming Land, p. 166; viii.
Irrigation, p. 167 ; ix. Large yield of Grass, p. 167.

XXI. Miscellaneous Matters, ----- 167

I. Manual Labor School, p. 167 ; ii. Scythe and Snaith
Factory, p. 169.

XXIL Price of Land, 171

I. Deerfield, p. 171 ; ii. Sunderland, p. 171 ; iii. War-
wick, p. 171 ; IV. Gill, p. 171 ; v. Slielburne, p. 172;
VI. (>harlemont, p. 172 ; vii. Buckland, p. 172 ; viii.
Rowe, p. 172 ; ix. Whateh', p. 172; x. Bernardston,
p 172 ; XI. Ashfield, p. 172 ; xii. Conway, p. 172.

XXIII. Buildings, 173

XXIV. Wood and Fuel, 174

XXV. Orchards, 174

XXVL Agricultural Implements, . . - . 175

I. Roller, p. 175; ii. Wagons, p. 176 ; in. Plough, p.
176 ; IV. Hay-Knife, p. 177.
XXVII. Condition of the Rural Population, . . - 177

I. Bernardston, p. 178; ii. Sunderland, p. 178; in.
Rowe, p. 178 ; iv. Shelburne, p. 179; v. Leverett, p.
179 ; VI. Gill, p. 180.

XXVll

XXVIIl. Agricultural Society, - - - _ . page 184

XXIX. Public Roads, - - . - . 186

XXX. Natural Scenery, _ _ . . . 137

COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX.

I. General Description, - - . . . 193

II. Aspect of the Count}^, ----- ]94

III. Area of the County and its Divisions, - _ . 196

IV. Soil, 196

V. Pursuits of the Inhabitants, - . . » 197

VI. Crops and Products, ----- 198

I. Indian Corn, p. 199—1. Groton ; 2. Chelmsford ; 3.
Tewksbury ; 4. Marlborough ; 5. Pepperell : 6.
Dunstable ; 7. Tyngsborough ; 8. Shirley.
II. Wheat, p. 210—1. Shirley ; 2. Groton ; 3. Tyngsbor-
ough.

III. Oats, p. 213 — 1. ; 2. Dunstable; 3. Tyngsborough.

IV. Rye, p. 215 — 1. Tyngsborough ; 2. Groton ; 3. Dun-

stable.

V. Barley, p. 217—1. Marlborough ; 2, Bedford ; 3. Gro-

ton ; 4. Sherburne; 5. Townsend.
VI. Buckwheat, p 219.
vn. Potatoes, p. 219 — 1. Shirley ; 2, Pepperell.
viii. Mangel VVurtzel, p. 221.
IX. Beets, p. 222.
X. Hops, [). 225.
XI. Grasses, p 232.
VII. Rotation of Cro[)S, - - - . . 340

I. Tyngsborough, p. 241 ; 11. Dunstable, p. 242 ; in.
Shirley, p 243; iv. Pepperell, p. 244 ; v. Reading, p.
244 ; vr. Wilmington, p. 245: vii. Bedford, p. 245.
VIII. Dairy and Milk Establishments, - - - - 249

I. Framingliam, p. 250; 11. Waltham, [). 250 ; in. Wal-
tham, p. 251 ; iv. Weston, p. 251 ; v. Medford, p. 255 ;

VI. Lowell, p. 256.

IX. Dairy Stock, 257

Cream Pot Breed, p. 258 ; Ayrshire Cows, pp. 259 to
264 ; Improved Durham Short-Horn, pp. 264 to 280 ;
Native Stock, pp. 280 to 292.

X. Brighton Market, ----- . 297
XL Swine, - - 305

XII. Manures, ------- 327

XXVlll

XIII. Agricultural Improvements, . . - - 35,5
Redeeming Wet Meadow and Peat Hogs —
I. West Cambridge, p. 353 ; ii. Fresh Pond, p. 354 ; in.
Lexington, Groton, Framingham, Concord, p. 355 ; iv.
E. Phinney, p. 357 ; v, Ahel Moore, p. 3G1 ; vi. Amos
Bancroft, p. 362 ; vii. Rufiis Morrs, p. 3(i4 ; viii. Mark
Fay, p. 3G4; ix. Wm. Buckminster, p. 366 ; x. Wm.
Osborn, j). 3G8 ; xi. Wm. Gift'ord, p. 370; xii. North-
ampton, p. 371 ; XIII. Tewksbury, p. 372; xiv. ,

p 373 ; XV. Underlaying Meadows with Stone, p. 374 ;
XVI. Application of Refuse Tan, p. 375 ; xvii. Suhsoi!
Ploughing, p. 376; xviii. Increase of Hay Crops, p. 379 ;

XIX. Application of Cotton Waste and Seed, ]) 379;

XX. Irrigation, p. 380 ; xxi. I'.arns and Manure Cellars,
p. 380; XXII. Ploughing, 380.

XIV. Fruits and Orchards, . - - - - page 382

XV. Forest Trees, - - ' ~

XVI. Ornamental Trees, . - - - -

XVII. Particular Farms, _ . - . -

1. Elias Piiiiiney, p. 396; ii. John P. Gushing, p. 399 ;
HI. Amos Hill, p. 400 ; iv. George Pierce, p. 404 ; v.
Caleb Wetherbee, p. 406; vi. Abil Moore, p 408 ; vii.
Zaccheus Reeil, p. 408; viii. Abel B. Hey wood, p 409 ;
IX. Increase S. Wheeler, p. 410; x. Eplnaim Abbot, p.
411; XI. Tewksbury, p. 412; xii. Charles Wellington,
p. 413; xiii. George Brigham, p. 414; xiv. p. 415.

XVIII. Agricultural Implements, _ . - - 415

1 Corn-Planter; 2. Seed-Sower.
XIX. Nurseries, ------ 416

1. Messrs. Winship, p. 416; 2. William Kenrick, p. 417;
8. John A. Kenrick, p. 417.
XX. Agricultural Society, ----- 419

XXI. Miscellaneous Considerations, - - - - 423

XXll. Agricultural Education, ----- 431

XXllI. Mount Auburn, . - - - 440

388
393
396

XXIX

APPENDIX.

A. Sheep and Wool, .-.--- page 443

I. Extracts of a letter from Wm. Jarvis to Benton & Barry ;
II. " " '• H. D. Grove to " "

III. " « « « " to H. Col man.

B. Relative Value of different kinds of Feed for Sheep, - 459

C. Account of Liebig's Organic Chemistry, _ - . 461

D. Experiments in Silk Culture, .... 480

I. Letter liom James Deane, M, D.

JJ u (( a ((

E. Inspection of Hops in Massachusetts, _ _ _ 490

F. Account of a Farm, from 1811 to 1836. By Benj. Goddard,

Brookline, Mass ------ 492

G. Pedigree of Cow of Paoli Lathrop, - - - - 497
H. Pedigree of Henry Whitney's Stock, - . . 498
I. Pedigree of Cow of George Hood, - - . - 498
J. Method of determining the Weight of Cattle, - - 499
K. Extracts from Laws on cutting and packing Beef, - - 499
L. Sketch of E. Phinney's Pig Styes or Barracks, - - 500
M. G. B. Emerson's Speech on the Forest Trees of Mass. - 503
N. Amount of Plants upon an acre, - - - - 514
O. Forms of Farm Accounts, ----- 515

P. On the Feed of Slieep, 518

Q. Queries by the Royal Danish Rural Economy Society, - xx

R. Weeds. Jiy John L. Russell, _ . . - —

ERRORS AND CORRECTIONS.

Page 77, line 23, for "two," read "one."

" 224, line 17, for "seam," read "season."

" 270, line 14, for "beer," read "wine."

" 270. hne 15, for "wine," read "beer."

" 308, line 29, for " supplied," read " applied."

" 375, line 23, for "among," read " with."

" 439, line 28, after "incumbent," read "of the presidency."

FOURTH REPORT

AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS

REPORT

ON THE

AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF FRANKLIN.

I. General Description. — The county of Franklin forms
the north-western corner of Massachusetts. On the north, the
portion west of Connecticut river hes adjacent to Vermont ; the
portion east of Connecticut river is bounded on the north by-
New Hampshire. On the west, this county is contiguous to
Berkshire county ; on the south, to Hampshire county ; on the
east, to Worcester county.

The area of the county is about 650 square miles, and is
sub-divided according to the last report of the Valuation Com-
mittee, as follows :

In tillage,

Acres

20,423i

English and Upland mowing,

((

. 32,434^

Fresh meadow,

11

13,399J

Pasturage,

«

. 116,052

Wood, ....

((

64,451

Unimproved, .

li

. 80,929J

Unimprovable,

ct

59,770^

Owned by towns or other proprie

tors, "

3,740^

In roads,

•

u

6,771

Covered with water,

•

(<

4,731J

Total.

402,307i

The number of towns in the county is twenty-six, and the
population in 1837, was 28,655.

The county is watered by the Connecticut river, which div-
ides it through its whole length from north to south. The
river is of an average width of one-eighth of a mile, running
for a considerable part of the distance between high banks, but
in some cases, bordered by extensive tracts of rich alluvion.
The Deerfield river, a tributary of the Connecticut rising in
Vermont, pursues a winding course through the county, run-
ning sometimes south, sometimes north, and sometimes east,
and entering the Connecticut at Deerfield. It is navigable for
flat-bottomed boats, not more than half a mile from its entrance
into the Connecticut. Miller's river on the eastern side of the
Connecticut, rises in the northern part of Worcester county,
runs through the whole length of the eastern side of Franklin
county, and empties itself into the Connecticut about four miles
above the mouth of the Deerfield. There are several other
small streams in the county, tributaries of the Deerfield or of
the Connecticut, which mark their rough and rapid way among
the mountains and hills, and furnish supplies of the purest wa-
ter for cattle, and various mill powers for manufacturing pur-
poses. The hills, likewise, everywhere abound with springs,
so that it is extraordinary to find a farm of any considerable
extent, which is not well watered in every part.

II. Aspect. — The aspect of the county is broken and
mountainous. There are ranges of mountains of red sand-
stone, extending along the western bank of the Connecticut for
several miles, which seem to be broken portions' of the range of
mountains commencing at New Haven, Conn., on the shores
of Long Island Sound, and running in a northerly direction to
the southerly line of New Hampshire. In the western parts of
the county there are mountains, which belong to the Green
Mountain range. The Deerfield river, as you ascend towards
its source, after leaving its extensive meadows within the town
of Deerfield, seems to have threaded its way through ranges of

high mountains ; and, in its upper course, to occupy all the
room which was left for its passage. It presents to the eye
from some of the eminences, for miles in length, the appearance
of a silver ribband lying in a crooked line, and gleaming in the
sun between precipitous hills, which are fringed and covered
with a thick deep foliage of ever-greens from the base to the
summit. In other situations in the county, the mountains are
in a single pile like Mount Tobey, between Montague and Lev-
erett, which is seen like a huge animal reposing, with her cubs
lying in every direction around her.

There cannot be pointed out a single town in the county
without its fair proportion of hills. The northern, however,
are much more mountainous than the southern portions of the
county. The mountains are in general covered with a thick
growth of wood, but the hills, in most cases, though rising al-
most to mountains, are cleared. In some instances, the farm-
ers have planted their houses on the very summits, and have
around them cultivated and productive fields ; but usually these
high lands are devoted to pasturage. The rocks in the county
are principally granite, though green-stone and red sand-stone
abound ; and in two places at least, there are considerable de-
posits of lime-stone of an excellent quality.

III. Soils. — The soils are various in kind and quality. On^
the eastern side of Connecticut river, sand is the predominant
element in the soils near the river. On the hills, however,
abounding with rocks, the soil is not of a very definite charac-
ter, but seems chiefly composed of yellow loam, with a fair
amount of vegetable mould. On the alluvial lands, of which
there is a large extent at Northfield and Sunderland on the
Connecticut river, and at Deerfield, on the Deerfield river, the
land abounds with fine sand intermingled with much vegetable
matter, being the washings from the neighboring hills, and de-
posits from the occasional over-flowings of the banks, mixed
with a considerable portion of adhesive and argillaceous matter,
which gives it a strong consistency. The lands on the Deer-

field meadows are not exceeded in fertility by those in any part
of the State. The Deerfield meadows embrace an extent of
about three thousand acres, and a considerable portion of this
is annually over-flowed ; and, in some cases, more than once a
year. The Connecticut being flooded at the same time with
the Deerfield, and the outlet of the Deerfield being small in
proportion to the amount of water collected on the meadows
to be discharged, a sort of lake is formed at such times, and
the water remaining comparatively still, the deposits of the en-
riching matter held in suspension by the waters are gradually
made, and to a large amount. The depth of the alluvial de-
posits here is not easily ascertained, and varies in diff'erent
places ; but, while these annual floods and deposits continue,
the fertility of the lands aifected by them must be kept up, and
may, therefore, be pronounced perpetual.

The Deerfield presents its most extensive alluvions in the
town of Deerfield, where the meadows hemmed in on all sides
by high hills, with the river pursuing a very circuitous course
among them, presents in the season of cultivation and harvest,
one of the most variegated and beautiful pictures the eye can
rest upon. There are other patches of alluvial land of consid-
erable richness along the banks of the river, extending to the
foot of the Florida Mountains in the county of Berkshire.

The soil upon the hills difl'ers remarkably in diff'erent places.
In Rowe, Heath, Coleraine, Shelburne, Hawley, and Conway,
it is, in most cases, an unctuous mould, abounding in springs,
eminent for its fertility, and producing the best of pasturage.

The Green river, a small stream emptying into the Deerfield
about a mile above its junction with the Connecticut, flows
through a considerable tract of land of excellent quality. All
this is alluvial, though but small portions of it are now over-
flowed by this stream ; and there is every reason to believe
that this valley, as well as the Deerfield valley, were at one
time the sites of lakes, and their richness is owing to the de-
posits brought from the neighboring hills and mountains by
various streams, and left in these extensive basins.

5

IV. Condition of the Inhabitants. — The pursuits of the
inhabitants of Franklin county are in a great measure agricul-
tural. There are several considerable manufacturing establish-
ments ; but the amount of the population employed in these is
small, compared with the numbers devoted to agricultural pur-
suits. The condition of the population is that of general com-
fort and prosperity. They are intelligent and improved. There
are few examples of extraordinary wealth.

V. Agricultural Pursuits. — The general objects of hus-
bandry are the raising of neat stock, the production of wool,
and the fatting of mutton and beef. Some pork is exported
from the county, likewise, though not to a large amount.
The principal objects or matters of cultivation, are grass, In-
dian corn, broom corn, and potatoes. In some parts of the
county, hops have been cultivated with considerable success.
Hemp has been attempted in the county upon the rich river-
soils ; but owing to its exhausting nature, the expense attend-
ing its cultivation, and the difficulty, perhaps through inexpe-
rience, of rotting it, it was soon abandoned. The dairy pro-
duce has been little attended to, though many localities are fa-
vorably situated for that object; but the fatting of beef and
mutton for the market at Brighton may be considered the prin-
cipal object of agricultural pursuit. Some most valuable ex-
periments on a limited scale, have been made in the production
of silk, of which I shall give in the sequel ample details.

VI. Crops. — I shall proceed to speak first of the crops
grown in Franklin county.

1. Grasses. — Grass may be considered as the principal crop.
In the hill towns, and what may be called the uplands, the ar-
tificial grasses are cultivated, such as clover, [trifoliuin pra-
tense,) herds-grass or timothy, (phleum pratense,) and red-top,
{agrostis vulgaris.) In general, three pecks of red-top, one of
herds-grass, and four to six pounds of clover-seed are sown,
when land, which has been cultivated, is laid down to grass.

The land is laid down with some grain, either wheat, rye or
oats; and the grass-seed is sowed with the grain. Barley is
scarcely grown at all in the county.

The clover predominates the first year ; the herds-grass
the second. The clover is nearly extinct at the end of the
second year ; and the red-top, intermixed with various natural
grasses, which spring up spontaneously, furnishes a permanent
matting to the soil. In general, not nearly enough seed, par-
ticularly of herds-grass, is sown. The consequence is, that
the product is very coarse the first and second year, which it
would not be, if treble the quantity of seed were sown. Sev-
eral farmers in the State, whose authority is entitled to respect,
practise a much more liberal mode of sowing ; and find an ad-
vantage in doing it in the improved quality of the hay. The
average yield the first year is from two to three tons ; the sec-
ond it may be estimated at two tons ; and for a continuance of
three years after that, in favorable seasons and locations, it may
be rated at one to one and a quarter ton per year. These lands
in general, are mowed once only in a season. There is an in-
stance in Conway, of a piece of moist land lying at the side
and foot of a hill, where the soil is deep, being a rich mould,
resting upon a substratum inclined to clay, on which by co-
pious top-dressings of barn manure, the product has been kept
up, and averages yearly nearly three tons to the acre. Of peat
lands, 1 know of no considerable tracts in the county ; and as
yet, no great attention has been paid to the draining, either by
open or under-ground drains, of wet lands. The quantity of
this kind of lands is not considerable ; but such improvements,
where required, would be amply compensated.

The next quality of grass lands are the alluvions on the
Deerfield and the Connecticut rivers, and small patches on their
tributary streams. The alluvial lands on the Connecticut are
rarely over-flowed, excepting at the breaking up of winter ;
and they are, therefore, subjected to a course of cultivation the
same as other arable lands. The rotation on these lands is
commonly the first year corn, or potatoes with manure ; the

same the second year, and the third year oats, pease and oats,
rye or wheat, with grass. Where broom corn is planted, it
generally follows a crop of Indian corn ; and is continued often
two or more years on the same land. The annual deposits
made upon these lands by the flood are not of great advantage,
and the fertility of the soil can by no means be kept up with-
out manure.

The low alluvial lands on the Deerfield meadows, essentially
differ from these from a circumstance already alluded to. The
waters on the low Deerfield meadows are set back from the
great river, and remain comparatively quiet ; and in addition
to this, the banks and hills bordering the Deerfield and its trib-
utaries are more steep in general than those on the Connecticut.
Much more enriching matter is thus brought down from them
to the river in times of rain and freshets. These lands, there-
fore, annually and commonly oftener over-flowed, constituting
the lowest meadows on the Deerfield river, are never ploughed.
They require no manure ; and being entirely alluvial and re-
ceiving the richest deposits, are of extraordinary and inexhaust-
ible fertility. These meadows are always mowed twice ; in
some cases, three times ; and the annual yield is generally es-
timated at three tons to the acre. The hay on these meadows
is of a very fine quality, known there familiarly as the Eng-
lish bent (agrostis alba). It is a natural grass, and forms a
fine and impervious sward.

The upland intervales on the Deerfield, are devoted to culti-
vation ; and most of this land is seldom sufl"ered to rest. For
hay, the main dependence is upon the low flooded meadows ;
and those low and uneven portions, which it is difiicult to reach
with the plough.

An example has been given to me of the product of one of
these low meadows in Deerfield containing nine acres, at a
place called Old Fort.
The first crop of hay was, .... 25,325 lbs.

" second crop, 15,120

40,445 lbs.

8

The hay was sold and delivered as soon as cured,

at nine dollars per ton, .... 182 00

The fall feed, sold for .... 4 50

$186 50

The whole labor was performed by contract at four dollars

per acre for both crops, .... 36 00

Leaving a balance in favor of the land, of . $150 50

The hay was considered as sold at a low rate. The same
quality of hay in the following winter brought 13 dollars per
ton.

The land has been estimated at one hundred dollars per acre.
No manure has been put upon the ground. The produce in
this case, was not more than an average crop. This yield was
at the rate of 4,494 lbs. to the acre. First crop, 2,813 8-9 per
acre ; second crop, 1,657 7-9 lbs. per acre. This constitutes
some of the best land in the meadows. There is that, how-
ever, which is deemed even more productive.

The hay from these natural meadows is exceedingly coveted
by the cattle and remarkably nutritious. It consists of a very
great variety of plants, but what is called the English bent,
(agrosiis alba,) ])\:evai\s with a slight intermixture of clover.
I do not know what has given it the name of English, as it is
without doubt indigenous to the soil. It requires to be cut
early, otherwise it becomes hard and wiry. Some of the farm-
ers are in the habit of making or drying this hay much less
than formerly. It was considered best to dry it as much as
possible ; but this is not now the case. Hay, wet from exter-
nal moisture, whether dew or rain, always suffers and becomes
mouldy and sour, if packed away with any of this dampness
upon it. But hay when perfectly dry may be put away with
much of the sap remaining in it ; and though it sweats severely
in the mow and becomes somewhat discolored from the heat,
yet it is not the less relished by, nor the less nutritious to, the
fatting cattle. This is the actual experience of some of the

best feeders ; but though no evil may come from giving such
hay to cattle soon to pass into the hands of the butcher, yet in
the condition in which it is often given to fatting cattle, it
would be quite pernicious to horses. There is reason to be-
lieve, that hay is generally too much dried ; and with some
farmers, the practice of curing it in the cock is much approved.
In this case, the hay being perfectly dry from any external wet,
after being slightly wilted in the sun, is made up into cocks.
The second day these cocks are opened and afterwards doubled.
In good weather it will soon become sufficiently cured to be
carried safely into the barn. In bad weather it is in a great
degree secure from the effects of rain, if the cocks are made
up with care. In this way, the hay is never so much dried as
to be broken ; nor are the leaves and seeds, as in the common
way of making hay by tossing it about a great deal, scattered
and lost. Two of the best farmers in the county, residing in
Bernardston, are of opinion, that herds-grass should not be cut
until it is ripe, and the seed perfectly formed. They speak
with confidence in this matter from having made many experi-
ments in the fatting of cattle. They are persons, whose word
is above question and whose judgment is entitled to great res-
pect.

2. Indian Corn. {Zea Mays.) The next considerable crop
cultivated in this county is Indian corn. The hill-towns grow
comparatively little. It makes a large product on the aUuvial
lands of the Deerfield and Connecticut. The largest amount
I have known raised in one year by one individual has been
fourteen hundred bushels ; but many farmers produce from
three hundred to one thousand bushels. The judgment of
some of the most intelligent farmers in Deerfield places the av-
erage yield at thirty-five bushels to the acre, which seems to
be underrated. I have known upwards of ninety bushels grown
on an acre in Deerfield meadows ; an average yield of more
than seventy bushels on several acres in Northfield ; and other
abundant crops, which show at least what might be obtained
by good cultivation ; and likewise how much more profitable
2

10

is good than inferior cultivation. It is difficult to convince the
majority of farmers that one hundred bushels of Indian corn
can be produced on an acre, for no other reason that I could
ever discover, than that they have not done it. The incredu-
lous, however, now begin to admit that much larger crops may
be produced than they have been in their way of cultivation
accustomed to obtain. In producing a crop of thirty or thirty-
five bushels, it may happen that this yield makes an inadequate
return for the expenses ; but the addition to such a crop of
twenty or thirty bushels, as the difference in the expenses of
cultivation would be by no means proportionately increased,
would be almost clear profit. The extent of land employed in
such case would be the same ; the cultivation not more labori-
ous ; and the main difference would consist in higher or more
liberal manuring.

The kinds of corji planted in this county are quite various,
and designated in different places by different local names.
On the meadow lands in Deerfield, a very large kind is grown,
eight-rowed, and the ears of which are frequently fifteen inches
in length. The kernels are proportionately large, and I have
repeatedly measured more than a pint of shelled corn from one
of these ears. It is generally planted in hills, at a distance of
five and six feet each way, sometimes at a space of even nine
feet by five between the hills; and it is intended to leave three
stalks in a hill. It requires a long season to ripen. The fod-
der IS coaise, and indeed it has nothing to recommend it over
a smaller kind of corn of an eight and twelve-rowed variety,
which bears much closer planting, and yields more to the acre.
The latter was originally introduced from Canada, and, accommo-
dating itself to its new location, has gained in size and lost in ear-
liness. It ripens, however, sooner than the large kind, which
I have described. What is called the Button corn, though
tried in various cases, has not been approved. It is a twelve-
rowed variety of flint corn, and yields well; but the cob being
large, and retaining considerable moisture after the grain ap-
pears to be dry, is liable to produce mouldiness in the crib.

In discussions respecting the merits of different kinds of corn.

11

the kind with a large cob has been objected to, as not yieldino-
so much grain, in proportion to its size, as the varieties with a
small cob. From a careful examination of the subject, I believe
that this notion is not well founded. Having, in comparison
with the corn of a neighbor in Deerfield, undertaken to exam-
ine this matter, I selected, in the ear, half a bushel of an eight-
rowed variety of corn which he was accustomed to grow, and
half a bushel of a twelve-rowed variety which I had grown my-
self, measuring them in the half bushel in as equal a manner
as I was able. His corn, having been planted early, was sound
and in perfect condition ; mine, planted from a week to a month
later than his, was ripe, but not as sound as his His was saved
in small quantities ; mine in large. The result, as follows : —

Half a bushel of corn in the ear, of eight-rowed vari-
ety, weighed 25 lbs.

Half a bushel of corn in the ear, of twelve-rowed vari-
ety, weighed 24f lbs.

This was an uncertain mode of measuring. We designed as
much exactness as possible ; but a few ears more might have
been placed on one heap than on the other without a difference
which could be detected by the eye. When the above corn
was shelled, and the grain measured, there was not a difference
of half a gill — the eight-rowed measuring 1 peck and 3 quarts,
the twelve-rowed measuring 1 peck, 3 quarts and a fraction.

It has been said, likewise, that, although on the twelve-rowed
there is one third more kernels, yet the cob of the eight-rowed is
so much smaller, and the kernel so much larger, (which is indeed
not always the case,) that the quantity of shelled corn would
be considerably in favor of the eight-rowed. This matter, like-
wise, I subjected to as accurate a trial as I was able to make. —
The cob of the eight-rowed corn above referred to was remark-
able for its small comparative size. But the cobs, after the corn
was shelled, of the two parcels above, having been weighed
the result was as follows : —

The cobs of the eight-rowed weighed 4^ lbs.
The cobs of the twelve-rowed weighed 4f lbs.

12

But, in order to determine more exactly the relative propor-
tion of the cob to the grain in the two varieties, I selected two
of the best ears of each sort, shaved the butt as closely as pos-
sible ; and, having carefully shelled the|corn, caused the grain
and the cob of each parcel to be weighed separately in an apoth-
ecary's scales. Of the two ears of the eight-rowed, one meas-
ured in length 8^ inches, one 8J inches. Of the two twelve-
rowed ears, one measured 9f inches, the other lOi inches.

Of the two ears of the eight-rowed,

the grain weighed . . . 8J oz. — thecobljoz.
Of the two ears of the twelve-rowed,

the grain weighed . . . 13f oz. — the cob 2J oz.

In these cases it will be found, that the proportional weight
of the cob to the grain is precisely the same ; and this, there is
good reason to think, will be found to be generally the fact.

With a view to compare the two kinds still farther, I caused
one peck of each kind shelled, well shaken and struck, to be
weighed ; and the result follows : —

One peck eight-rowed weighed 17 lbs. — 68 lbs. to the bushel.
One peck twelve-rowed weighed 161 lbs. — 65 lbs. to the bushel.

The difference would probably have been less had each par-
cel been equally well ripened and saved. The season was par-
ticularly unfavorable to late-planted corn ; and my neighbor's
was planted very early.

It will be seen, that both kinds weighed remarkably well; —
and this will farther appear from a comparison of this weight
per bushel with that of some other corn, the product of the
same season and in the same town. These samples had been
taken by a shrewd trader, at the highest market price. The
measure was hard-shaken and struck. The corn was eight-
rowed, with a large kernel.

One peck weighed 15:^ lbs. — 61 lbs. per bushel.
One peck weighed 14i lbs. — 57 lbs. per bushel.

As the selection of the kind of corn to be planted is matter
of much importance, as will be seen from the observations
already made, I shall give the result of an examination of

13

several dilTerent kinds. They were all selected ears, and well
cured. The eight-rowed, excepting one sample, of a very large
kind.

No. I. Twelve-rowed.
One ear shelled, the grain

weighed 9 oz.

One do. do. Ti "

One do. do. 7^ "

One do. do. 6:| "

No. II. Twelve-roioed.
One ear weighed 7i oz.

One do. do. 6J "

One do. do. 7i ''

No. III. Eight-roiced.
One ear weighed 8 oz.

One ear weighed

One do.
One do.

do.
do.

6^ oz.
6 "

No. IV. Eight-rowed.

One ear weighed
One do. do.
One do. do.
One do. do.

8 oz

6t

a

No. V. Eight-roioed.
One ear weighed 4

One do. do. 4^

oz.

No. V. had been recommended as remarkable for its productive-
ness : it yielded, with my cultivation, about 40 bushels per acre.

The kind of corn planted will materially affect the result. —
Different kinds differ in productiveness, and in time required
for ripening. This last matter is of much moment in our cli-
mate ,• where, being liable often to late springs and early frosts,
we should plant those kinds which soonest come to maturity, or
we may lose our crop. In general, the smaller kinds ripen the
earliest, and the smaller the cob, the sooner it becomes dry. —
The earliness, however, with which a crop comes to maturity
will depend greatly upon a careful selection for seed of the
first ripe ears. Some facts have come to my knowlege, which
satisfy me that, in respect to productiveness, much will be
gained by the habit of selecting from stalks bearing twin rather
than single ears. This practice, continued through a succession
of years, is admitted to be the secret of the success of Mr. Baden,
in Maryland, in producing a variety very remarkable for its
productiveness. In respect to the selection of seeds of every
description, our farmers, if they have not much to learn, have
yet a great deal to do, since it is with seeds as with animals, in
order to produce the best, it is indispensable to breed from the
best kinds.

14

It has often been a question by many farmers, whether one
hundred bushels of shelled corn can be produced on an acre. —
The fact, however, of its having been done has been so repeat-
edly established, that it can no longer be disputed. If we look
at the matter more nearly, we shall see ground to hope that
we may do even more than this. If we suppose the hills of
corn planted at three feet apart each way, we shall have upon
an acre 4840 hills. Now, upon the farther supposition that four
bearing stalks should remain in each hill, each producing one
ear, and each ear producing seven ounces avoirdupois of shelled
grain, the whole amount of the acre would be 8470 lbs. of
grain ; and, allowing sixty lbs. to a bushel, (50 lbs. are the
legal weight,) the yield would be over one hundred and forty-
one bushels. Or if, instead of one pound and three quarters to
a hill, as above, each ear should average eight ounces, yielding
two pounds to a hill, the crop would amount to 9G80 lbs. ; or,
at 60 lbs. to a bushel, to one hundred and sixty-one bushels to
the acre. But if this can be done, why is it not done ? Only
one answer can be given, which is, in general, want of suffi-
cient care in the cultivation. There is want of care and exact-
ness in not making the hills, so that the number mentioned shall
be comprehended on an acre. There is too little seed sown, so .
that little chance is had to select from the hill, for continuance,
the most vigorous and thrifty plants. Manure enough is not
always given to the land ; and by placing the manure in the
hill without spreading it upon the land, the plant is prematurely
forced in the beginning, and does not find food enough -to bear
it out in the latter part of the season. In truth, the habits of
our farmers are any thing but exact in their cultivation. Few
fields of corn do not present many missing hills; and few hills
present four thrifty stalks in a hill. We have still much
to learn in this matter ; but there is every reason to hope, that
the time is not distant when, to a careful farmer, one hundred
bushels of shelled corn to an acre will be no more uncommon
than are fifty bushels at the present time. I remember well
when fifty bushels to an acre were considered as the maximum
product ever likely to be reached ; yet the average yield of a

15

farm in North field in this county has been for years not less
than seventy bushels to the acre.

The mode of managing and harvesting Indian corn is a sub-
ject deserving of attention. A diversity of practice prevails in
this as well as in other parts of the country. The custom of
making hills, that is, raising the ground in a conical form round
the plant, is well-nigh abandoned. Many go so far as to half-
hill it, but many cultivate it upon an entirely flat surface. My
own experience has taught me, that no advantage comes from
hilling the corn at all, even in respect to that point which was
mainly designed to be accomplished by this practice — that of
keeping the corn in an upright position and preventing its being
blown down. When the surface is flat, the corn may be blown
down ; but it is more likely to rise again than if it were hilled,
as, in the latter case, the hill operates as a fulcrum over which
the stalk, in bending, is broken. The roots are the natural
supporters of the stalk, and plants spontaneously accommodate
themselves to their condition. On a flat surface they throw
out more and stronger lateral roots than where the corn is hill-
ed. The crop is cultivated now with a cultivator or triangular
harrow with pointed or duck feet instead of the plough, which
was formerly used. The cultivation of corn cannot be too
cleanly ; but it is advisable not to go in among it with a plough
or harrow after the grain has begun to be formed. Before that
time, I am satisfied that the ground cannot be kept too loose
between the rows.

The subject of topping the stalks has been much discussed ;
and its inexpediency may be considered as settled. A Pennsyl-
vania farmer, highly intelligent and observing, made an exper-
iment with a view accurately to test this point. Taking three
equal rows in the same field, topping two and leaving one un-
topped, the result was as follows : —

" Produce of the row which had not been topped, nine bush-
els and five eighths of corn in the ear.

" One of the rows which had been topped and stripped, —
that is, the blades of the plant taken off, — measured seven

16

bushels and six eighths; and the other, topped and stripped,
measured seven bushels and three eighths of corn in the ear.
Thus it clearly appears that mutilating the corn plant before its
fruit is jDerfected, is a very injurious practice."

The experiment of Josiah (iuincy, of Quincy, Norfolk coun-
ty, was to the same effect. This was upon carrots, and 1 shall
give the account in his own words : —

" It was stated confidently, by some English writer on the
cultivation of carrots, that the tops might be cut early for the
purpose of feeding cattle which were soiled, not only without
injury, but even with benefit, to the roots, which, it was said,
would in this way grow larger. Mr. Q^uincy took twenty-six
beds of carrots in the same field and of the same size, with a
view of fully testing these statements ; and in the month of
July, when the lower leaves first began to wither, he caused
every other bed to be cut as directed, being careful not to crop
the crown or the head of the root — so that there was a cut to
an uncut bed alternately through the whole piece. They were
gathered, and the roots measured carefully, on the 20th Octo-
ber, The total product of the uncut beds was 104J bushels :
the total product of the cut beds was 58 bushels. Judging by
the eye, the size of the roots of the cut bed was nearly two
thirds less than that of the uncut bed."

But the question may be considered as put to rest by the ex-
periment of William Clark, Jun. of Northampton, Hampshire
county. The experiment was conducted with much care and
intelligence ; and, omitting several of the details, 1 shall give
only the results : —

Row No. 2, on which the experiment was commenced, was
as follows, viz :

46 hills on which the stalks had not been cut, gave 42 lbs. 8 oz.

dry shelled corn, equal per acre to . . bs. 60, 8 lbs.

46 hills from which the stalks had been cut, gave 33 lbs. 7 oz.

dry shelled corn equal per acre to . . bs. 47, IS lbs.

The loss by cutting the stalks per acre, was 12 bs. 46 lbs.

17

The four rows taken together, stand as follows :

No. 1 and 4, on which no stalks were cut, gave an average
per acre of . . . . 60 bs. 8 lbs.

No. 2 and 3, from which half the stalks were cut, gave an
average per acre of . . .54 bs. 25^ lbs.

Loss by cutting half the stalks per acre, 5 bs. 38J lbs.

or cutting all the stalks would make a loss equal
per acre to .... libs. 21 lbs.

The difference in the result of the two cases is 1 bs. 25 lbs.
per acre ; or in the two experiments, if it may be so termed,
there is an average loss by cutting the stalks, of 12 bs. 3i lbs.
per acre, a loss quite equal to all the expense of hoeing and
harvesting. Mr. Clark adds, " if this experiment is a fair
test, it seems that about twenty per cent, or one fifth part of
the crop is destroyed by cutting the stalks in the way they are
usually cut.*' Another exact farmer in Conway has made a
similar experiment in reference to this very point. By a careful
measurement he states that the difference between cutting the
stalks at the customary time or leaving them uncut until after
the corn is ripened was eight bushels per acre in favor of the
latter practice.

Mr. Clark advances another opinion, which is quite conform-
able to my own and to the experience of many other farmers.
" This twenty per cent, is not saved at the expense of losing
the stalks ; they are worth as much, audi think more, all things
considered, after the corn is harvested, than they are when
gathered in the usual way. If, after being bunched up in a
green state, they heat or become mouWy, (a case of frequent
occurrence,) they are utterly worthless, except it be for manure ;
I know of no animal that will eat them. But after they have
once been dried by the sun and wind, a subsequent moderate
degree of mouldiness, seems to be no injury." This conforms
to the opinion of one of the best farmers in Northfield, Frank-
lin CO., who is in the habit of gathering his corn and then cut-
ting up the stalks at the ground.

The mode of harvesting Indian corn is of considerable im-
3

18

portance. On this subject the opinions of farmers are at va-
riance. Some choose to top the stalks as soon as the corn is
glazed, and gather the corn after it has become fully ripened.
Others prefer leaving the whole until the grain is sufficiently
ripened to be cribbed, then gathering the corn, husking it as it
is gathered, and collecting the fodder afterwards. Others choose
as soon as the corn is glazed, or is so far advanced that an ear
fit for roasting is not to be found in the field, to cut the whole
up at the ground and shock it in the field for ripening. This
practice is almost universal in New York, but it prevails only
partially in Franklin co., where in general the first described
mode of harvesting is adopted. In many places the butt stalks
after the corn is gathered, are left in the field to be browsed by
cattle, a management which is wasteful, and has nothing to
recommend it.

I shall take the liberty in this matter to detail my own expe-
rience, while a resident in this county. The leaving the corn
untopped until it is sufficiently advanced for gathering, and
then cutting it up at bottom, allowing it to finish the ripening
in the shock, has sometimes with me been attended with suc-
cess. In some cases, however, I have had by this management
so much mouldy and soft corn as to question its expe-
diency. But as I think I have discovered the causes of my
failure, this method now commends itself strongly to my judg-
ment.

The summer of 1833 was so cold, that corn general-
ly was three weeks behind its usual condition ; and fears
were entertained that the crop would be entirely cut off. On
the 9th of September there was a slight, and on the 12th and
13th, there were severe frosts. Corn was generally in the
milk ; and, in many places, much was killed. The fogs on
the river near my residence served as a protection to my crop.
Under these threatening appearances, fearing through delay the
loss of my whole crop, I determined to cut up the whole at
the ground as soon as it should be slightly glazed ; and the
results and facts in relation to it, I took pains to record.

19

I was desirous to ascertain whether corn cut in the milk and
not at all glazed, would ripen. Three stalks with one ear on
each were cut in this condition and placed in as favorable a sit-
uation as possible for the access of the sun and air. They ri-
pened perfectly ; and to appearance became as fair and hard and
heavy as any ; but the experiment on a whole field could not
be advised, as so favorable a situation for curing a large quanti-
ty could seldom be obtained. I began cutting my corn on the
14th September, after having previously cut out the suckers
and barren stalks. In the field which I took first, the corn ap-
peared dead ; but this was occasioned by the rust, not by the
frosts. This corn being cut at the bottom and not suffered to
be laid upon the ground, several hills were brought together,
the stalks were spread widely at the bottom, and were tied by
a single band at the top. Much of this corn upon husking, ap-
peared of a pale yellow, and a good deal of it was soft and
mouldy. The shocks did not stand firmly, and many were
over-turned by the wind. The centre hill, around which the
stalks were gathered, should not have been cut until the time
of husking, but should have been left as a support to the shock.
Another field where the corn was slightly glazed and the stalks
very green, was cut, tied in small bundles above the ears and
put in small shocks or stooks. This came out better than the
former, but not so well as could be desired. It was cut too
early, and was not suffered to remain long enough in the
shock.

Two other fields were necessarily left to a later period after
the corn had become fully glazed, that is in the main every
kernel on an ear was well touched, though the stalks were still
green and succulent. It was tied near the top in small bundles ;
put up in small shocks, and spread at bottom so as to give free
access to the air. This corn at husking came out bright and
sound, with less refuse than ordinary ; and the fodder was suc-
culent and of the best quality.

There is a small matter connected with this subject to which
my attention was directed by an excellent farmer in the coun-

20

ty. His advice was by no means to shock the corn, thus cut
up and gathered, upon grass ground as is often done on the
borders of the field, because the grass is likely to exclude the
air from the bottom of the shocks. Upon the whole my own
judgment, especially liable as we are to early frosts, is to cut
up and shock the corn as above described as soon as it is well
glazed ; and it is a safe error to do it too early rather than too
late. The fodder in such case is always of superior quality.

Of the expense of cultivating an acre of corn in this county,
having gone fully into this subject in places where the cost of
labor and modes of cultivation do not essentially differ from the
same here, I shall give but few estimates. Labor is reckoned
at one dollar per day.

In Northfield, the estimate was made as follows :

Ploughing, . . . . . . •

Di'agging,

6 cords of manure in the hill, . . . ,

Getting out and putting in the hill.
Seed corn 1 peck planted 3J feet each way,
Planting, ........

1st hoeing with man and horse,

2d hoeing, $1 17, 3d hoeing, $1 17, .

Gathering and husking,

Fodder equal to 1 ton of hay,
40 bs. of corn, at 1 dollar,

4

00

1

00

12

00

4

00

37J

1

34

2

34

2

34

5

50

^32

89^

10 00

40 00

$50 00

Balance in favor of corn, $17 10|^

Another farmer in Northfield gives the following estimate of
the expense of an acre of corn.

Ploughing, $2 50 ; harrowing, $2 50 ; holeing, 50, 5 50

Six bushels leeched ashes, 10

2]

One bushel plaister or gypsum, 65, .... 65
Seed, 10 quarts, f 1 00 ; putting on ashes and plaister

and planting, $1 20 .
Harrowing, 30 ; weeding, $1 50,
Cultivating twice in a row, 30 ; 2d hoeing, $1 10,
Cultivating, 15 ; last hoeing, $1 20,
Gathering and husking, $5 00 ; gathering stalks, $1 50

Corn fodder equal to 1 ton of hay,
Crop 50 bs. corn at 1 dollar per bs.

2

20

. 1

80

1

40

. 1

35

) 6

50

$19

50

10

00

50

00

$60 00
Balance in favor of crop, . . $40 50

It will be seen in the above case that nothing has been charged
for manure excepting ashes and plaister. The corn was raised
after a stubble clover-crop ploughed in, or a green-sward in-
verted. I shall give hereafter the rotation of crops practised
by this excellent farmer. His corn usually averages seventy
bushels per acre.

The estimate of the expense of a corn crop in Deerfield, is
thus given by a very careful and successful cultivator.

Ploughing, $2 34 ; harrowing, 50 ; holeing, $1 00,
4 cords of manure, $8 00 ; spreading manure, $2 67,
Seed, 25 ; planting, $1 00 ; weeding, $2 00 ; horse, 25,
2d hoeing, $L 58 ; 3d hoeing, $1 58,
Topping stalks, $1 00 ; husking, 2 50,
Cutting up, and gathering butts, $1 00,

Interest on land, ......

Dr. the above crop. . . . . . . $31 67

3

84

10

67

3

50

3

16

3

50

1

00

$25

67

6

00

9

00

50

GO

|59

00

. $27

33

22

Proceeds of crop.
Fodder equal to f ton of hay, $9 00,
50 bs. corn, ....

Balance in favor of corn,

In Shelburn, the estimate of the cost of cultivating an acre
of corn is given me by a farmer, whose skilful and successful
cultivation needs no commendation.

Ploughing, |3 50 ; 20 loads manure, (7 cords,) $15 00 18 50
Getting out and spreading manure, $4 50 ; dragging

or harrowing, $1 00, . . . . . 5 50

Seed, 1 peck, 38 ; manure for the hills, (8 loads,) $6 00 6 38
Planting and manuring in the hill, $4 00, . . 4 00

Weeding and hoeing, $3 33 ; 2d hoeing, $2 33 ; 3d

hoeing, $2 33, 7 99

Cutting and shocking, $2 GO ; husking, $4 00, . 6 00

48 27

Proceeds of above crop.
Fodder equal to 1:^ ton of hay, . . . . 12 50
70 bs. corn at $1 00, 70 GO

52 50
Balance in favor of corn, . . $34 23

I have several other estimates of the expense of cultivating
an acre of Indian corn, varying from 14 to 25 dollars, but I do
not deem it necessary to add to the above. The above state-
ments are from farmers of the highest respectability for intelli-
gence and exactness, and may be relied upon.

I have already given some general estimates of the average
yield of corn to an acre in the county. It seems proper to add
some further estimates on this point.

23

In Warwick, the average yield of corn given is from twenty
to thirty bushels per acre. South Deerfield, thirty bushels. Sun-
derland, thirty-five bushels. The same farmer in Sunderland
has produced eighty bushels per acre. In Leverett it is stated
that the gravelly plain land will once in four years give an av-
erage yield of twenty bushels per acre without manure. In
Whately, thirty-five bushels. Another estimate, twenty-five to
forty bushels. In Charlemont, fifty bushels. In Rowe, thirty-five
to forty bushels. In Ashfield, thirty bushels. In Conway,
thirty bushels, and forty bushels. In Hawley, fifty bushels
have been produced. In Buckland, fifty to seventy bushels ;
and, in one case, eighty-three bushels have been raised per acre.
The difference between the extremes in this case, between
twenty and thirty and seventy and eighty bushels, is deserving
the particular attention of cultivators. When it is demonstrated
that the expenses of culture are not increased in proportion to
the amount of the crop, why should the farmers be satisfied
with any thing short of the very best products ? An experi-
enced farmer in Deerfield has practised planting corn and po-
tatoes in alternate rows ; and has, in this way, obtained in a
season, from one acre of land, seventy bushels of corn and one
hundred and thirty bushels of potatoes. This method has
been adopted by some other farmers out of the county with a
success, which induces them to pursue it. It is thought the
corn is benefited in this way by a more free access of the sun
to the plant, and a larger opportunity of extending its leaves.

3. Oats. — The next crop cultivated in this county is oats. The
average yield is thirty-five bushels. In Rowe, the crop is rated,
under good cultivation, at from forty to fifty bushels per acre.
In Buckland, fifty bushels is stated as the average. Seventy
bushels are sometimes obtained. In Hawley, forty to fifty
bushels. In Warwick, thirty-five to fifty bushels ; sixty are
sometimes obtained. The crop is generally taken after corn,
and in many instances, grass-seed is sowed with the oats and
the land laid down. In some instances, clover is sown with the

24

oats and ploughed in with the stubble as a preparation for a
crop of corn. No manure is applied with the oats.

4. Pease and Oats or Meslin. — The prevailing custom
among the Deerfield farmers, is to sow pease and oats together,
so as that the crop shall be in the proportion of one quarter
pease to three quarters of oats. The pea customarily sowed
in these cases is a green pea from Canada, which ripens
about the time of the oats, and for which while growing
the oats act as supporters. Pease and oats are usually ground
together as feed for their fatting cattle, and are deemed valua-
ble, though not so good or so much relished as Indian meal
without mixture.

I have only two estimates of the cost of cultivating oats, and
these where they come in in the rotation the year after the
corn.

Expense of cultivating an acre of Oats.

Ploughing

2 00

Sowing oats and dragging, ....

1 00

3 bushels seed, ......

1 50

Gathering, .......

4 00

Threshing, .......

1 75

Return.

|10 25

Straw, more than one ton,
35 bushels oats at 50 cents.

• •

7

00

17

50

$24

50

$14

25

Balance in favor of the oats,

Another farmer gives the following account of a mixed crop
of wheat and oats in the proportion of half a bushel of wheat
with two bushels of oats. This is thought to make an excellent
feed for animals. Some of the human family have no absolute
distaste for it.

25

Ploughing, . 2 34

Seed, half bs. wheat, $1 00 ; seed, two bs. oats, f 1 00, 2 00

Sowing and harrowing, ..... 60

10 lbs. clover, . . . . . . . 1 00

Cradling, $1 50; threshing by flail, $2 00 . . 3 50

$9 34

Return.

Straw,

35 bushels at 75 cents

3

26

00
25

$29
$19

25
91

Balance in favor of the crop,

The crop of pease and oats, when raised together, is ground
together ; and the meal is much valued both for cattle and
swine when in a course of fattening. Forty bushels of pease
and oats per acre would be regarded as a large crop. This has
been produced, however, on nine acres, in Deerfield meadows.
Some farmers sow at the rate of one third pease and two thirds
oats.

5 Rye. — This crop is grown to some extent in Franklin
county ; but it receives no pains in the cultivation. It seems
very much like a rogue in a crowd, running the gauntlet where
every one gives him a kick. If he survives the treatment, it is
a just subject of gratulation.

From any inquiry which I have been able to make in
any part of the State, I have never found a farmer who took
much pains in the selection of his seed rye. It is commonly
sown upon the poorest soils, and without manure. The produce
in general corresponds with the treatment given to it. The
yield varies from seven bushels to forty-seven. In the year
1816, so memorable for the failure of the corn crop, and the
abundance of the small grains, oats, rye and wheat, forty-seven
bushels of rye were obtained on an acre of rich pasture land new-
4

26

ly broken up. I know one instance of forty-five bushels hav-
ing been obtained on the Connecticut river intervales. The av-
erage yield on the Deerfield meadows is twenty to twenty-five
bushels. About three pecks are generally sown to an acre ; —
but an experienced and successful farmer, of Long-meadow,
many years in the habit of cultivating rye, is strongly in favor
of sowing more than double the customary quantity of seed ;
and says he finds himself amply repaid for doing it. On the
plain lands at Bloody-brook, ten bushels are deemed a good
crop ; on Pine-plains, six or seven are as much as is expected.

Rye bread constitutes, in many parts of the county, a substi-
tute for wheat ; and, when well made, is nutritious and agree-
able to most persons. Some rye is much whiter than other ;
and when made into bread, its color can scarcely be distinguish-
ed from that of wheat. I am not satisfied that the colors con-
stitute distinct varieties, as is maintained by some farmers ; but
are dependent upon the particular character of the soil, or the
nature of the manure applied, or the particular cultivation which
has preceded it. I wish this could be determined : we have
yet much to learn in these matters.

A respectable farmer in Deerfield informs me that his rye crop
yielded him at the rate of ten dollars per acre on nine acres. —
The price of rye was then 92 cents per bushel. This would
be less than eleven bushels to the acre ; quite as much as is of-
ten obtained, but much less than what is deemed the general
average. In addition to this, he sold his straw at the rate of four
dollars per ton. This fully paid the expenses of threshing the
crop with a flail. In one case, he raised sixteen bushels to an
acre on a large piece. I am at a loss to understand why the
rye crop is so negligently treated, excepting that it will live
without much care, and make a decent return even on very poor
land. Rye has somehow got a bad reputation ; and it is in
such matters as in some others, public opinion or more properly
prejudice determines, without any reference to intrinsic and sub-
stantial merit.

An eminent farmer in Worcester county has used a portion

27

of rye to great advantage in fattenmg swine. The Hatfield
farmers, some of the best feeders of stock in the country,
choose to purchase rye, of which they themselves grow scarce-
ly any, even at a price a third higher than corn, that they may
use it in feeding their fattening cattle. The dairy farmers in
Cheshire, Berkshire county, prefer it to Indian meal, to give to
their milch cows in the spring before they turn them to grass,
from a conviction, founded on long experience, that it produces
more milk and more cream. The custom of the Dutch farm-
ers, so celebrated for their dairies and the excellence of their
dairy produce, is, to give their cows daily, while in milk, a
draught of rye meal mixed with water.

Rye is not particularly an impoverisher of the soil. When
clover is sown with it, to be ploughed in with the stubble, it is
considered a good mode of enriching the land. One of the best
farmers in Franklin county informs me, that he has sown rye
for seven years in succession on the same ground, with the ex-
ception of one year — say the fifth — when he took a crop of
corn from the land. The corn was manured in the hill; but,
with that exception, no manure was applied. When the rye
was sown, from five to six lbs, of clover were sown ; and this,
in the ensuing year, was ploughed in with the stubble. By
this husbandry, the land is placed in a course of gradual im-
provement. Though this was the method adopted by one of
the best farmers in Franklin county, yet I am far from think-
ing highly of this mode of husbandry. It certainly might
be worse ; but the crop deserves far better treatment than this.
It shows however how well it recompenses even a moderate
cultivation,

I have no means of ascertaining the weight of straw which
may be expected from an acre of rye. This of course must de-
pend much upon the cultivation, and, in every case, somewhat
upon the manner in which the crop is gathered, whether it be
cut high or low, or whether with a sickle or a cradle. The gen-
eral opinion is that the weight of straw is twice the weight of
grain. Such current prejudices are not always without founda-

m

tion, but I have no grounds for speaking with confidence. The
calculation of an inquisitive farmer in Conway in respect to oat-
straw is as follows : — One shock, yielding one bushel of grain
to a shock, will make three bundles after threshing. One bun-
dle will weigh twenty lbs. or one shock will weigh fifty lbs. —
then an acre yielding thirty-five shock, or thirty-five bushels,
will give 2,100 v/eight of straw. A crop of wheat yielding five-
and-twenty bushels, it is said by some, will yield from one to
one and a half ton of straw. This is a loose mode of estimat-
ing things. I wish this matter could be ascertained ; and the
best mode would be, by repeated experiments to determine
what relation the weight of straw bears lo the weight of grain.

6. Wheat cannot be said to be cultivated to any great ex-
tent in Franklin county ; and winter-wheat scarcely at all. —
New York flour reaches the western and north-western parts of
the county directly from Troy, N. Y. ; and a great deal comes
up the Connecticut and is landed at the mouth of the Deerfield
river, from whence it is taken into different towns. Several
farmers in the county however grow it in small quantities. I
know two farmers who one year produced more than 400 bush-
els each. These were extraordinary cases; but they show
what under good management might be done. There is no es-
sential or insuperable difficulty in growing wheat in the coun-
ty, and it ought to have its place in every established rotation.
The chief circumstances of discouragement have been the
rust and the grain insect. One great cause of failure has been,
however, a negligent cultivation. The rust is to a considera-
ble degree dependent on the weather ; and when it takes place,
usually occurs at the time of the most luxuriant growth of the
plants when the air is hot and sultry, and there are frequent
changes of rain and sunshine. It is likewise somewhat con-
nected with the situation in which the crop is grown. If cul-
tivated in a low and confined situation, it seems more likely to
suffer than if grown in a high situation, where the air has a free
circulation. Against the grain insect, {cecidomyia ^n7ea,) there
seems to have been discovered a perfect preventive. I have

29

already treated this subject so much at large in the Report on
the Cultivation of Spring Wheat, and the Third Report of the
Agriculture of Massachusetts, that I do not feel at liberty to
enlarge much upon it in this place.

I should do wrong, however, to pass over the experience of
several farmers in the town of Charlemont, cultivators of wheat,
in relation to the grain insect. Lucius Ellis and Josiah Lyman
have used lime on their wheat with perfect success against the
fly. They applied finely powdered slaked lime on the crop just
as it was coming into flower, and while it was wet with dew
or rain. The flies had appeared upon the wheat ; but their op-
erations were immediately suspended by the application of the
lime. They consider the experiment decisive. The experience
of Samuel Potter in the immediate neighborhood corresponds
with this. Calvin B. Hawkes, likewise, in Buckland, separated
from Charlemont by the river Deerfield, details his success in a
similar application. He applied at the rate of three bushels to
an acre ; the lime was newly slaked and warm, and was applied
when the dew was on. The field appeared quite white. The
evening previous to the application he plucked a few heads of
wheat and found twenty worms or maggots. The ravages
ceased at once upon the application of the lime, and his wheat
crop was saved. The flies, he says, left in a body. This rem-
edy is a most important discovery, and is corroborated by other
and strong testimony from difl'erent parts of the country.

The wheat chiefly grown in this county has been spring wheat.
It is desirable to get it in as early as the state of the ground
will admit of it. This may sometimes be done in March, but
not in general until the first of April.

One of the best farmers in the county or State considers his
wheat as sure a crop as any which he grows, and his average
yield is thirty bushels to the acre. His land is manured for In-
dian corn, and his usual rotation for a long course of years has
been, first, corn ; second year, oats and pease, or oats and wheat,
or wheat, or rye. He stocks his land down to grass with wheat
or some other grain.

30

7. Broom Corn (Sorghum Saccharatum,) is the next most
important crop grown in the county of Franklin. Its cultiva-
tion is chiefly confined to the meadows on the Deerfield and
Connecticut rivers, though there have been instances of large
crops in the interior. Deerfield, Whately and Sunderland in
particular grow large amounts of it ; and it is said that the pros-
perity of the last-named town is mainly attributable to this
product.

The average yield under good cultivation is from six hund-
red to eight hundred pounds of brush or broom. One thousand
pounds are not infrequently reached. Six to eight hundred
pounds are reported as the average yield in Sunderland and
Whately. A crop of seed is obtained about once in four years,
and forty bushels of seed are considered a good yield. A res-
pectable farmer in the county informs me that in one instance,
he obtained one hundred and fifty bushels of seed to the acre.
It is planted in hills at a distance of eighteen inches between
the hills lengthwise ; and in rows about two and a half feet
apart, or at a distance wide enough to pass the plough or the
cultivator. By some farmers, broom corn is planted in hills two
and a half feet distant each way, and fifteen stalks are left in a
hill. It requires good manuring ; and is sometimes manured as
Indian corn in the hill, or the manure is spread. The culti-
vation is more expensive than that of Indian corn. No crop is
more beautiful than the standing corn, when in perfection ; and
it frequently reaches a height of twelve to fifteen feet.

The stalks of the plant are long and hard, and therefore diffi-
cult to load on a cart. They are generally considered as of no
value excepting for manure. This, however, is an error. The
Shakers at Canterbury, N. H., among the very best farmers in
the country, are as careful to save their broom corn stalks, as their
Indian corn stalks for fodder ; and, for the feeding of their young
stock, deem them equally valuable.

The usual mode of gathering is to table the corn, that is to
cut off" the top, or tassel the broom as it is called, about two or
three feet from the top, and bending the stalks of two rows
together, lay it down and leave it until it is seasoned and fit to

31

be gathered. The brush is then cut, tied in small bundles and
carried in. The remainder of the stalks are burnt in the field
the ensuing spring, and some little advantage is supposed to be
derived from the ashes. Some farmers prefer, after gathering
the brush, to cut the stalks and lay them lengthwise in the
rows, and plough them immediately under. They will be en-
tirely decomposed by the ensuing spring. A still better mode
is to carry them into the cattle and sheep-yards, where they
become incorporated with the manure and make a valuable ad-
dition to the compost heap. I am satisfied from the experiment
of the Shakers, that if properly cured, they might be well ap-
plied to the feeding of young stock. It is deemed necessary
by the raisers of broom corn to connect with it the feeding and
fattening of cattle that the necessary manure may be procured
for the cultivation of this crop.

It is considered a profitable crop when the brush will com-
mand five cents per pound. The price has been subject to
great fluctuations. Formerly, it was common for each farmer
to make his brush into brooms, and sell them when and where
he could. This was bad for all parties. It brought too many
competitors into the market, and often unduly depressed the
price. The buyers likewise were often obliged to put up with
an inferior article. The growing of the brush and the manu-
facture of the brooms are now in dilferent hands. The farmer,
as soon as his broom is ready for the market, finds in the man-
ufacturer a purchaser at a steady price ; and the manufacturer
knows that his reputation, and consequently his success like-
wise, is concerned in the quality of the article, which he fur-
nishes.

The Shakers for a long time almost monopolized the raising
of the corn and the manufacture of brooms, which like other
manufactures of this industrious community, were always of
a superior quality and generally commanded a high price, usu-
ally thirty-seven and a half cents a-piece or more. Now, corn
brooms are frequently sold from eight to twenty-five cents ;
but many of them are, like Pindar's razors, " made to sell."

32

The handles in an unfinished state, made either of maple or
ash, are furnished for a cent a-piece. The wiring and tying
on are usually done by the hundred. The scraping the seed
from the brush is an unpleasant business, and the dust is preju-
dicial to the eyes. A common flax comb is generally employ-
ed ; but an improved machine, moved by horse-power is com-
ing into use, performs the work quickly, and greatly lessens
the labor. The manufacture, when carried on extensively and
with ample capital, has yielded encouraging profits.

The seed is sold at two thirds the price of oats, and is ordi-
narily of the same weight. It sometimes weighs more than
oats, and by some persons is more highly valued. It is by
many esteemed good feed for the fattening of swine, when
mixed with other grain. Some have used it for fattening cattle
and horses, but it is not approved. The saving of the seed of
broom corn is, by the best farmers, deemed a matter of much
importance. It must be taken from that which produces a full
and square head ; and not from that which runs up in a spind-
ling form, and " branches like a pine-tree." The difference in the
seed is deemed of so much consequence, that while ordinary
seed for planting can be obtained at one dollar and fifty cents
per bushel, the best always commands four dollars. In no sin-
gle thing do farmers commit a greater error than in respect to
seed. Inferior seed of any kind of plant should never be used ;
and the diff"erence in the expense between good and poor seed,
is nothing compared with the increased value of the crop from
good seed.

It is a fact, which certainly deserves mention, that broom
corn is taken three, four, and sometimes ten years in succession
from the same field without diminution of the crop. I have
the testimony of three respectable farmers to this point. Yet
this can only be done by high manuring. By many farmers
it is deemed an exhausting crop. The brooms made from the
brush, cut and dried while green, are tougher and much more
durable than those made from the brush, when suffered to be-
come quite dry and yellow. The returns of a crop of broom

33

corn in Gill are as follows : the land cultivated was one acre
seven rods. The crop of brush was nine hundred and thirteen
pounds. Of seed, there were one hundred and thirteen bush-
els ; eighty bushels of which, sold for twenty-five cents per
bushel. This was at the rate of eight hundred and seventy-
five pounds of brush to the acre.

I subjoin also, the exact account of a crop cultivated by Al-
vah Hawkes, in Deerfield meadows, with which he was kind
enough to favor me.

Expense of cultivating one acre of Broom Corn.

One ploughing the 12th of May, , . . . 1 25

Holeing out, one third of a days' work, ... 34

Ten loads of manure at 75 cents per load, . . 7 50

Putting manure in the hills, . . . . . 2 00
Planting, one day's work, f 1 00 ; seed, 4 quarts at

75 cents per bushel, . . . . . . 1 10

Hoeing first time 3 J days, $3 50 ; hoeing 2d time, 3

days, $3 00, 6 50

Hoeing 3d time, $2 50 ; horse and boy to plough for

the season, $1 00, . . . . . . 3 50

Tabling and cutting 4 days |4 00, ... 4 00

Gathering, carting, and packing away, . . . 2 50

$28 69

The expense of cultivating one acre is as above $28 69, the
labor being rated at $1 00 per day, which is more than the ac-
tual cost. The yield was at the rate of 991 lbs. to the acre.
If the ground had been fully stocked, the crop would have been
more than 1000 lbs per acre. The brush was sold at 8^ cents
per lb. The crop of seed was light and poor ; at the rate of
50 bushels to 3 acres ; and was sold at 16| cents per bushel
or $2 77 per acre.

To the above expenses of $28 69 are to be added as fol-
lows :

5

34

Scraping 1000 lbs. |3 30 ; board of man 5 days $1 07, 4 37
Rent of land, 1 acre, 16 00

$49 06

The sales of the above brush 1000 lbs. at 8i cts. pr lb. 8.5 00
Seed upon above acre, . . . . . . 2 77

$87 77

Net profit per acre, f 38 71

This product may be deemed unusual ; but there is no diffi-
culty under suitable cultivation in obtaining it. The price is
not extraordinary ; and had the brush in this case, been kept
until the spring, it would have brought 12J cents per lb.

Another esiimate by a good farmer, is as follows :

Ploughing, $4 00; dragging, $1 00 ; manure, $12 00;

seed, 25 cents, . . . . . . 17 25

Planting 2 feet by 3^ feet apart, 75, . . . 75

First hoeing, $4 68 ; 2d hoeing, |2 34 ; 3d hoeing, |1 17, 8 19
Gathering brush and scraping seed off, . . 12 00

|38 00

Returns.

700 lbs. of brush at 8 cents, . . . . 56 00

40 bushels seed at 25 cents, . . . . 10 00

$66 00
Net profit per acre, $27 81

No charge is here made for the rent of the land.

8. Hops. — Hops are raised in one or two towns in the coun-
ty with considerable success. This cultivation is mainly con-
fined to the town of Northfield. I shall subjoin the returns

35

obtained from that town ; and shall treat the subject of the
cultivation of them more at large in my report on Middlesex.

For hops, the land is prepared as for corn. The cost
of planting an acre of hops is one dollar. For poling an
acre of hops, one thousand six hundred poles will be required,
which cost two dollars per hundred. These poles, gener-
ally of cedar or spruce, will last with care four years. The
expense of setting the poles each year, is two dollars. To keep
the stock good, the cost of poles and setting will be twelve
dollars per year. Four loads of manure are annually required
to maintain the land in good condition.

The expenses of cultivating an acre of hops in Northfield
are given me as follows :

Expense of cultivating an acre of Hops.

Expense of poles, and setting each year,
Planting, $1 00 ; tying up, $1 00, ...

Hoeing 3 times, $4 50,

Four loads of manure yearly to the acre.
Picking hops per acre, $7 00 ; board of laborers, $1 50,
Man to tend the pickers, $7 00, ....
Kiln-drying and bagging per 100 lbs. $1 00, say .
Bale, 45 cents, (3 gunny bags make a bale,)

Expense per acre, $45 45

A bale of hops weighs on an average, 400 lbs. Cost of in-
spection is 10 cents per 100 lbs. In New York this is paid by
the grower ; in Massachusetts by the buyer.

One hundred bushels of coal are required to dry 2000 lbs. of
hops. The coal in this case, costs 7 dollars per 100 bushels
at the pit. Hard-wood coal is moch preferred.

In the case above detailed, the farmer estimated his crop at
700 lbs. to the acre. He has sometimes raised 1000 lbs. and
1500 lbs. to the acre.

12

00

2

00

4

50

4

00

8

50

7

00

7

00

45

|45 45

36

Another farmer in the same town, states that he has found
plaister (gypsum) in the hill, of great service to the growth of
hops.

In 1833, two farmers in company, obtained from four acres,
three thousand pounds, which were sold for twenty cents per
pound. In 1834, from five and one half acres, they obtained
four thousand pounds, which sold for fifteen cents per pound.
In the first case, they judged that their land after deducting all
expenses, yielded a net profit of one hundred dollars per acre.

Hops are usually planted eight feet apart in the hills. The
cuttings are planted, and Indian corn is cultivated among them
the first year, the corn being planted about half as thickly as
when planted alone. The corn and hops are hoed at the same
time. The second year the hops are poled ; and a crop gath-
ered.

Green barn manure is considered injurious to the vines. Fall
manure or compost is deemed best. The hills are opened in
the spring ; the vines are then trimmed ; the ground loosened
and the manure applied to the hill. The field must be kept
clear of weeds. The hops are gathered by hand. Women
are often employed in the picking at twenty cents per day.
The hops require to be kiln-dried immediately, as they are very
liable to be injured by being heated in the heap. From forty-
five to seventy-five pounds are kiln-dried at a time ; and the
process of drying a batch, occupies about twelve hours. After
drying, they are put into a heap and suffered to sweat a little,
and then packed and bagged, which is done by a screw-press.
They are packed and screwed for five dollars per ton in this
case, and sent to market without delay. The manner and con-
dition in which they are put up is of great importance. If on
inspection any are found discolored, the whole bag is condemn-
ed. Spruce poles about fifteen feet high are generally used.

The market for hops is very fluctuating. The risk of cur-
ing them is considerable ; and to do it well requires much care
and experience. The quality and condition of the article is of
the last importance. Damaged or ill-conditioned hops are
worthless.

37

The subjoined table will show the amount grown in North-
field in one season, 1838, with the prices annexed.

Table of Hops in Northjield, Franklin County^ 1838.

Acres.

Weight.

Price.

Amount.

A. S. ... -

3

700 lbs.

15i cts.

$108 50

A. W. -

1

600 "

14i "

87 00

R. S. ....

li

560 "

15il "

85 25

H.H.

8

3500 «

\M "

507 50

S.M.

\h

600 "

10 "

60 00

M. C. ....

\

350 "

10 "

35 00

N. P. ....

2i

1100 "

loi «

170 50

LB. ....

2i

1400 «

15i "

217 00

O.H.

2

500 "

14;! «

72 50

1

450 «

8 "

33 00

B. S. ....

2

700 "

12 «

84 00

2

800 «

14 i «

116 00

E. W

4

2200 "

161 "

402 00

I. K. ....

3

700 «

Uh. "

101 50

G. H.

4

2200 «

\M "

319 00

1. M. D. -

3

1175 "

14i "

170 37

I. C

3

1000 «

10 «

100 00

2i

800 "

10 «

80 00

D. P.

1

400 »

14i| «'

58 00

Total,

48

19,925 "

$2812 10

9. Barley has been cultivated in this county, but not large-
ly. The cultivation might be extended to a profit. In Haw-
ley, it has yielded thirty bushels to an acre. In Ashfield, forty-

38

six bushels have been obtained to the acre. A mixture of this
meal with Indian meal has been found beneficial in the fatting
of swine and cattle.

10. Buck Wheat is cultivated in the county to a very lim-
ited extent, A farmer in Whately has cultivated the Tarta-
rian buck wheat, a smaller seed than the common buck wheat
and deemed more prolific. Some accidental circumstance has
given it the name of Indian wheat. He obtained in one case
forty bushels per acre, but deemed the crop uncertain. On
grinding he obtained only fifteen pounds flour to the bushel.
The bran is worthless. He likes the grain, when ground as
feed for stock. The crop has been sown by some farmers in
order to be ploughed in as a green dressing ; but in one instance,
which came within my observation, not with great success.
No use is made of the straw or haulm of the crop ; but in some
places out of the county it is esteemed good feed for young
stock.

11. Teasles have been cultivated to some small extent in
the county, and have been deemed a profitable crop. The ob-
jections to their cultivation are two ; first, the danger of being
winter-killed ; and second, the capriciousness of the market.
The cultivation, however, might without doubt be extended to
advantage. Having treated the matter of their cultivation
somewhat at large in my Second Report of the Agriculture of
Massachusetts, I forbear to extend my remarks.

12. Peppermint [Qneniha piperita) was formerly cultivated in
Ashfield in this county to a large extent and with considerable pro-
fit ; it was cultivated with a view to obtain the oil as an article of
commerce. An acre of land would sometimes yield enough of
the herb to produce fifteen pounds of oil, and thirty pounds have
been obtained. The land was prepared as for corn. The
roots were then separated and laid in the furrow. It is highly
necessary to keep the plants free from weeds. They are to be
cut when in flower ; partially dried, and then distilled.

39

The first attempts at cultivating this herb were made more than
twenty years since in Lanesborough, Berkshire co. It has be-
come a considerable article of export both to England and
France. It is put up in tin canisters, containing 20 lbs. each.
The market has been extremely capricious, and the price of the
oil has vibrated from seventy-five cents to sixteen dollars per lb.

Forty thousand pounds are supposed now to be annually rais-
ed in the country. It is stated that a farmer in Ohio had at one
time forty-five acres in mint, and in the course of two years
produced 2000 lbs. of oil. The farmers in Ashfield have in a
great measure relinquished the cultivation, as it can be produc-
ed, it is said, to greater advantage in Western New York and
Ohio. In these places it is probably favored by a virgin and
unexhausted soil. The climate at the West is deemed more fa-
vorable, and the plants are not so liable to be winter-killed. —
The land being richer and requiring no manure, the crop is not
so much infested with weeds.

The essence is prepared by putting one oz. of oil to one
quart of alcohol ; sometimes much less oil. The oil which is
exported is greatly adulterated. The essence of peppermint
has some coloring matter added to it. It is said that a single
confectionary establishment in the city of New York consumes
150 lbs. of this oil by the year. It would be well for the
health of the community if they used no worse materials.

Other herbs have heretofore been grown and distilled in Ash-
field ; and many of the ever-green herbs, which grow wild in
the pastures and forests. The business of growing, manufac.
turing and vending medicinal and aromatic oils and essences at
one time employed a large number of young persons in this
town and vicinity. They went out with all their capital stock
in essence-bottles slung in a basket upon their arms ; and re-
turned with substantial contributions to the hive. In this
humble way the foundation of several considerable fortunes has
been laid ; not a little knowlege of the world acquired ; and the
natural shrewdness of these travelling merchants somewhat
sharpened.

40

13. Potatoes are grown in the county as food for man and
cattle. The cultivation of this excellent root might be extend-
ed to great advantage. The planting and the harvesting are
heavy labors, which render the cultivation to many persons ob-
jectionable. The cultivation in general is slovenly ; and where
the fields are manured as is usually done with coarse barn man-
ure, the weeds in general contend so strongly for the mastery
that it is often difficult to say which is the victorious party.

Of their value as feed for stock, I shall have occasion to
speak presently. The crop through the county does not aver-
age more than 200 or 22.5 bushels. In one instance on the
Deerfield meadows, 612 bushels were obtained, and 300 bush-
els to the acre are not infrequent. This extraordinary crop of
612 bushels shows what may be accomplished. When our
farmers will become convinced that the best cultivation is the
most profitable, it is not easy to predict.

1 shall subjoin the account of the successful cultivator, Den-
nis Stebbins.

" The land on which this crop was raised lies in the north
meadow of Deerfield, and is of a heavy rich loam. In the pre-
vious year broom corn was raised upon it and no manure ap-
plied ; and it had been appropriated alternately to the raising of
corn and potatoes except one year a crop of hemp. The year
in which corn was raised, there was applied about five loads of
manure. The year in which this crop was raised, the field was
planted on the 15th of May in drills or rows, the rows three
feet apart and the seed dropped in about one foot asunder ; there
were applied twenty loads of manure, a small shovel-full under
each potatoe, which was cut into three pieces. The land was
first ploughed and then drilled or furrowed out for the reception
of the seed with a small plough and one horse ; the seed was
then covered with a hoe. Thirty-three bushels were the quan-
tity of seed used, and they were a long red kind known by the
name of mei-ijio {La Plata). June 11th, just as the tops began
to make their appearance, with a single horse there were turned
two furrows on to each row, which nearly covered all the tops,
and by the application of a hoe they were completely covered.

41

June 23d, there were turned two light furrows upon each row,
for the purpose of destroying the weeds, not intending to in-
crease the hills or ridges, and the few weeds that remained were
subdued by hoeing. July 6th, the few scattering weeds that
appeared were pulled up by the hand. They were dug with
the hoe and finished October 13th, and the produce was six
hundred and twelve bushels."

The measurement in this case was made in baskets and not
by weight, and the form of this kind of potatoe does not ad-
mit of close packing. These allowances are to be made, but
still the crop must be pronounced very large. The quantity of
seed sown is large ; from eight to twelve bushels is the usual
allowance.

14. Of other esculent vegetables, few are cultivated except-
ing as mere garden products for the table. In one case, carrots
at the rate of twelve hundred and ten bushels per acre, were
raised on a quarter of an acre of land. I could not learn that
any extraordinary process had been pursued in their production.
A deep soil, deep cultivation, careful thinning and weeding, and
frequent ploughing between the rows, will in ordinary cases en-
sure a large crop. The time has yet to come when farmers will
understand the importance of laying up a store of succulent veg-
etables for the feed of their winter stock instead of confining
them almost exclusively to dry feed.

VII. The Dairy. — The dairy does not enter largely into ^
the economy of the farmers of Franklin county. The river '
farmers engaged in fatting beef for market or in raising young
stock, keep only cows enough to supply their own families with
milk and butter ; and the farms of a large portion of the hill
country in the interior, are devoted to the sheep husbandry.

There are not many dairies which contain more than six v
cows, and with few exceptions very little butter or cheese are /
made for a distant market. The average produce of a cow in
new milk cheese, is rated at two hundred pounds, but this is
an inferior return.
6

42

A farmer in Gill whose main object is a butter dairy, gave me
an account of his management. The account is not so definite
as could be desired, but it may suggest some useful hints.

From twelve cows he one year sold to the amount of three
hundred and sixty dollars ; two hundred pounds of this were
cheese ; the remainder was in butter, which brought twenty
cents per pound. The price of the cheese was not remember-
ed. He connects with his dairy the raising of pigs, and the
year above referred to, he sold two litters of pigs for fifty-nine
dollars and seventy-five cents. His sows have two litters each
per year. He likewise raises all his calves. With one cow
this year he raised four calves. He gives his calves when first
taken off, new milk for three weeks ; afterwards skimmed
milk and meal. He prefers for this purpose, a mixture of rye,
Indian and oat-meal. The season I visited him, he had sold
ten cows of his own raising, and retained their calves, at a price
averaging thirty-two dollars each. From another dairy in the
northern part of the county, after supplying butter and cheese
for a large family from a dairy of thirty cows, the farmer sold
five thousand pounds new milk cheese. A small dairy in Ash-
field gave milk and butter for a family of thirteen persons ; and
besides this the farmer sold from them three hundred pounds of
butter, and six hundred pounds cheese, mostly new milk cheese,
in the same season. In Biickland it is stated to me, that many
farmers on farms of one hundred acres, keep ten cows and lay
up three hundred dollars from their proceeds.

The sales of the dairy produce of another farmer in Coleraine
amounted one year to twelve hundred dollars. The number
of cows I was unable to ascertain. This is without doubt the
most extensive establishment in the county. The dairy hus-
bandry in Franklin county must be considered as a small in-
terest, and the produce by no means equals the demands of the
county. I will subjoin a statement given me of the butter and
cheese received and sold at one store in the town of Rowe in
one year, 1836. Under the great difficulties of obtaining the
desirable information, I am obliged to avail myself of whatever
I can get.

43

Bought and sold, .... 38,000 lbs. cheese.

Deduct amount bought of individuals out

of town, ..... 13,000

lbs. 25,000, orl2 J tons.

This, excepting a small quantity of skimmed milk cheese, was
sold in Boston at an average price of
10 cents per pound, . . . $2,500

In the same year, bought and sold 18,500 lbs. of butter.

Of the above bought and sold of indi-
viduals out of town, . . . 6,000 lbs.

12,500 lbs.

This was sold in Boston at 20 to 25 cents, or say 22J cents,
which would amount to . . . $2,812 50

In the years 1837 and 1838,
Bought and sold, cheese, . . 40,000 lbs.

Deduct amount from individuals out of

town, 10,000 lbs.

30,000 lbs.

This 15,000 lbs. for each year, was sold at an average of 9J
cents per lb.

In the same years.

Of butter, 24,000 lbs.

Deduct amount from individuals out of

town, ^,000

18,000 lbs.

This 9,000 lbs. each year, was sold at an average of 20 cents
per lb.
The population of this town is about 700.

44

VIII. Maple Sugar. — This is comparatively a large product
in several towns in the county. A very small amount is ex-
ported ; but what is made goes far to supply this necessary of
life, and to prevent the expense of the imported commodity.
A large portion of what is produced is made from trees sown
or planted within the memory of persons now living, or by
their own hands.

The amount of sugar made in Leverett in good seasons, is
from 15,000 to 20,000 lbs. ; in Shelburne, 30,000 lbs. ; in Ash-
field two years since, it was ascertained at my request, to ex-
ceed 40,000 lbs. 1 have returns from individual farmers in the
county, of their own products, being 800 lbs. annually, 1,000
lbs. and 2.000 lbs. each. The fact has come to my knowledge
since my Report on Berkshire county, that in the town of
Sandisfield, Berkshire county, with a population of about 1500,
100,000 lbs. of maple sugar have been produced in a year.
These extraordinary facts, so little known, show the capacities
of the State in this particular, and the importance of cultivat-
ing and protecting this invaluable tree.

In general, a good tree may be expected to yield four lbs. of
sugar in a season. I have seen a tree, said to have produced
twenty-seven lbs. in one spring. A barrel of sap, or thirty-
three gallons, will produce eight lbs. sugar. Lucius Field, of
Leverett, whose credibility is above question, informed me that
in one season he obtained from one tree, 175 gallons of sap.
This, if manufactured, would have produced more than forty
lbs. of sugar. The quality and quantity of the sap vary in
some measure with the age of the tree and the soil in which it
grows. A moist soil produces the largest quantity and the best
sap. The sap of old trees contains more sugar than that of
young trees. The sugar sells usually from 10 to 12J cents per
lb. The color depends in some measure on the cleanliness of
the vessels used Sugar burnt upon the kettle discolors the
product. The growth of the maple is such, that it may be
used for sugar or cut for fuel in twenty years from the plant-
ing. The wood makes excellent fuel ; and is likewise used to
much advantage in cabinet work and for house-floors.

45

The tree is of rapid growth and of cleanly and beautiful ap-
pearance. As an ornamental tree, I know of no handsomer
variety. Its plantation in long avenues for the embellishment
of the streets and the road-sides is much prevailing in the beau-
tiful villages of the Connecticut valley, where it finds a conge-
nial soil and grows with great luxuriance. Some of the sugar
produced, where it is manufactured with care, in color, clear-
ness and brilliancy is equal to the best raw sugar of New Or-
leans and Jamaica. This variety (acer saccharinum) of maple
abounds in many parts of the country. The sap from the white
or soft maple is not so strong as that from the rock maple ; but
is yielded in equal abundance and makes equally good sugar. —
A sugar orchard of five hundred trees is calculated to yield over
a thousand lbs. of sugar, and often much more than this. It is
not unusual to find a tree which will yield six gallons of sap per
day.

The weather most favorable for making sugar is when it
freezes by night and thaws by day. No sap can be ob-
tained with advantage after the buds begin to swell. Sugar
is sometimes made in the autumn, but by no means with equal
advantage as in the spring. It is advisable to tap a tree on the
south side, because it is more likely to thaw there and the sap
is obtained sooner in the morning ; but no difference is perceived
in the sweetness of the sap from either side.

The best mode of tapping the trees, as I learn 'from some
practical men, who have been familiar with the manufacture
of sugar for thirty years, is with a narrow chisel. An incision
is made in the tree which is technically called a box. If made
with care, this incision is thought not to injure the tree. It will
soon close ; and, after a year or two, the tree may be tapped
again in the same place. The tapping of trees, as is often done,
by boring into them with an auger to the depth of three or four
inches, is much disapproved. Trees tapped in this way do not
yield any more sap than those tapped in other ways ; and in ex-
amining such trees after they have been felled, it is found that
these deep borings never heal like the incisions made with a

46

chisel. Some persons maintain, that trees, if the operation is
judiciously performed, so far from being injured by being tapped,
gain increased vigor from it.

In the manufacture of the sugar, cleanliness in all the vessels
for collecting the sap and boiling and refining it is of paramount
importance. Troughs made of new and unseasoned wood and
any acidity or mouldiness in the backets used for collecting the
sap are likely to injure the sugar. It has been recommended by
some persons, instead of wooden buckets for collecting the sap,
to use earthen vessels. These would be more difficult and un-
safe for transportation ; and liable to be broken by the frost.

I subjoin an account of the manufacture given to me by an
intelligent farmer, who has been familiar with it more than
forty years.

''No two persons take exactly the same method, yet all think
their own the best, I will tell you the course which we pur-
sue. The sap-tubs are made thoroughly clean by scouring with
sand and water, and scalding them as soon as they are taken
from the trees in the spring. They are housed until the next
spring, and we scald them again before they are put to the trees.
It is found impossible to make good sugar unless the tubs are
cleansed from an acid and mould which is taken from the sap
the preceding spring ; otherwise the tubs will become black and
the sugar will not grain. I tap my trees with an inch and a
quarter chisel. We cut into the wood of the tree about three
quarters of an inch in a sloping direction, so that the box (as we
call it) will hold a spoonful or more. We bore so as to strike
the lowest place in the box with a three-eighths of an inch
breast-bit. The spouts are made and sharpened to suit the bit.
A man who is used to it will box three hundred in a day ; an-
other man will bore and set the spouts. Some persons tap their
trees by boring into the trees with a half or three-quarters of
an inch bit or auger ; but 1 am persuaded that it hurts the tree
much more than the chisel. So far as the spout is driven into
the wood we get no sap, and of course we must bore into the
tree three or four inches, which will occasion it to rot at the

47

heart. I have known a sugar maple blown down which was
two and a half feet through ; and which was found, upon exam-
ination, to have been tapped with a chisel for eighty or ninety-
years, and for the last thirty years perhaps with two boxes
each year, which was very thrifty and perfectly sound, except-
ing what had been cut away with the chisel. This tree was
probably tapped first when about eight inches through, for at
that bigness we begin to tap our trees.

" I have thought the sugar maple was given to us by a kind
Providence to be used in the same way and for the same pur-
pose for which we use them, for no other tree which I know,
would bear cutting so much and for such a length of time
without injuring its growth. I am speaking of trees standing
in open land. Trees standing in a forest will not bear tapping
so well. There need be nothing said respecting gathering the
sap ; but special care ought to be taken to cleanse the barrels,
especially if those are used in which cider has been kept."
(Barrels should be kept exclusively for this purpose. H. C.)

" To make good sugar, much depends on the boiling from the
beginning to the end. We boil our sugar chiefly in iron ket-
tles, which hold about a barrel, set in arches. To prevent the
boiling over of the sap, we put into it a small quantity of but-
ter ; a piece as big as a walnut put into it at several times, will
prevent its boiling over for a day. The boiling throws the
syrup upon the hot part of the kettle, which is above the syrup,
in drops, and these immediately burn upon the kettle ; and as
the syrup settles in the kettle by evaporation, this burnt mat-
ter is continually gathering upon it. When the kettle is filled
again, this burnt matter is washed off, at least the color and
taste of it, into the kettle. This gives the sugar a dark color,
a bitter taste, and prevents its graining well. The best way to
prevent this burnt matter hurting the sugar, is to keep it off the
kettle as much as possible, which may be done in part by never
suffering the heat of the kettle to be raised to an extreme while
boiling, and by scouring the kettle thoroughly once every day.
Rubbing the kettle with a piece of brick or stone, will make it

48

bright and clean. All color gets into the sap after it is taken
frc m the tree. The sap, when it comes from the tree, is as col-
orless as pure water. I have seen maple sugar, which was
dried to sugar by the sun ; it was as white as snow, and very
pleasant to the taste. I have never thought that an artificial
color added any thing to the value of butter, cheese or sugar.
I am told that sheet-iron pans, which are much used at present
to boil the sap down in, are preferable to kettles ; they boil
faster, and it never burns upon the pan. Of this I know noth-
ing by experience. We boil the sap down at the rate of twen-
ty to one ; it is then set in tubs to settle ; and in twenty-four
hours, you turn off what is clear. It may be kept several
weeks, if you choose, without injury, unless it be very warm
weather, which will occasion it to ferment. The dregs left in
the tubs may be cleansed in several ways. They may be mix-
ed with sap from the tree and settled again, or saleratus may
be used, or milk, or an egg beat up, put into it, and boiled ;
the filth will rise and may be skimmed off, and so prevent any
material loss. The syrup ought to be boiled down to settle
once in twenty-four hours ; for the less sap is boiled to sugar
at a time, the better the sugar will be. One barrel of sap boiled
to sugar will be whiter and better than five barrels ; five than
ten, and so on.

" The operation of boiling the syrup into sugar is better learn-
ed by seeing it done than by writing. 1 will, however, give
you a sketch of the way we proceed. We boil the syrup to
sugar in a brass kettle, being lighter and easier to handle than
iron. We boil about twenty-five or thirty pounds at a time in
a common five-pail kettle. The heat should be steady without
much blaze. If it is intended for lump sugar, we boil it until
it will cleave quickly and easily from an axe or some smooth
and hard substance that is cold. We turn it into earthen pans
and stir it moderately until it is thoroughly grained, thence in-
to dishes or smaller pans to cool. If for dry lively sugar, we
boil it until it will break and fly like rosin, when streamed into
cold water or upon an axe. We then pour it into large earth=

49

en pans; and stir it moderately until it is grained and stiff as
dough ; after which we put it into a larger vessel, such as a
large tray or bowl holding nearly two pails full; and stir it
powerfully to prevent its having hard knobs in it, until it is
cold and lively. Bat the stirring of maple sugar to make it
good, cannot be learned but by seeing it done, or by a long
course of practice. If stirred too fast while graining, it tends
to make it fine-grained and clammy ; if not stirred enough, it
Avill be knobby." — This account, it is obvious, is that of a plain
common farmer, and is given as the ordinary process of man-
ufacture. By an improved method, undoubtedly a very su-
perior article may be made. As yet no attempt has been made
to refine the maple sugar on a large scale.

It has been stated that the sugar-maple reaches to the age of
one hundred and eighty years, yet seldom measures more than
four feet in diameter. It may be tapped when about two feet
and a half in circumference ; and if done properly, in the man-
ner described, neither the growth nor the duration of the tree
will be affected.

A farmer in Pennsylvania gives the following directions for
forming a sugar orchard. " To plant out a sugar camp or or-
chard, let the trees be thirty-three feet apart or forty-six trees
on an acre. One acre thus planted, will, in a good season,
yield 130 lbs. of sugar. I tapped 160 trees this year, and al-
though I lost as much sap as would have made 100 lbs. of su-
gar, I made at least 500 lbs. The farmer must not expect to
derive any benefit from the land beyond the sugar, as the shade
of the tree is very injurious to grass and ruinous to grain."

This subject of sugar from the maple is of great importance
and by no means appreciated as it should be. In large portions
of our State the tree would find a congenial soil and flourish
luxuriantly. There is good reason to believe that by proper
attention to this subject on the part of the farmers, the State in
comparatively a few years might meet from its own soil its or-
dinary demand for this useful, agreeable, and now necessary
article of life. As an ornamental tree, the rock maple is ex-
7

50

ceedingly beautiful ; and might be planted without either great
expense or trouble on our commons, by our road-sides, by the
borders of our pastures, and in many vacant places on our farms
which might, with great advantage, be occupied in this way.
As fuel, I have already spoken of its value ; and, in this res-
pect, it ranks next to hickory or walnut. In undertaking a
plantation of maple frees for an orchard, it would be well to
plant the trees much thicker than it is intended they should
stand, in order to guard against faihires. They may be thinned
for fuel, if they should be found to stand too closely together ;
and in this way the farmer be fully remunerated for any trouble
it may have cost him. The great objection, which will be made
to doing this, proceeds wholly from our selfishness. Few farm-
ers, who should undertake the plantation, would expect to live
to realize the proceeds. This, with many persons, must in all
human probability be the case ; but can we have no regard for
those, who come after us ; and are we to decline every good
work by which we ourselves are not to be immediately bene-
fited? This objection proceeds from any thing but benevo-
lence, or religion, or social duty.

The sugar made from the maple, is capable of becoming re-
fined into as agreeable and elegant an article for the table as
cane sugar. As yet the modes of manufacturing it are rude
and imperfect. If subjected to those improved processes,
which the best of cane sugar passes through, it would be
equally valuable and valued. The discoloration of it might
be completely avoided, if it were boiled in tin vessels or kettles
placed in those of iron, and the boiling were conducted by
steam introduced between the two, so that the vessel contain-
ing the sap would not come directly in contact with the fire.
Add to this, much more attention should be paid to the con-
dition of the vessels in which the sap is received. The labor
occurs at a season of the year, when in our climate the making
of sugar would not interfere with important labors of the farm.
The gain to domestic economy of families in the country pro-
viding their own sugar would be immense ; and the use of the

51

article to many benevolent minds, would be unattended with
any of those painful associations, which are connected with
the use of the products of slave labor.

IX. Live Stock. — 1. Neat Cattle. — Character and
Weight. — The neat cattle, generally prevalent in the county,
are of what is called the native breed, which is of such a mix-
ed and accidental character, that it is not distinguished by any
fixed or definite properties. The favorite color with the farmers )
is red and briudle ; and the cattle in general are of a medium
size, the cows varying, when fatted, from 600 to 800 lbs. when
dressed ; and the oxen at five and six years old, from 900 to
1600 lbs.

Ten oxen sold by a Deerfield farmer in New York market, )
produced as subjoined. The hide and tallow, as is customary
in that market, are not included in the weight.

One ox we

{(
tt

ghed

Two three years old steers,

lbs. 1084

828

916

1024

1064

1052

1128

892

1880

lbs. 9868

The returns of the weight of fatted cattle by another farmer,
are as follows :

One pair of steers 4 to 5 years old weighed
One yoke of oxen, ....

li

((

short-horn cow,

lbs. 1868

1972

1892

735

52

These minutes will give a just idea of the average weight
of cattle fatted for market in this county. Many animals of a
large size have been fatted in the county. I will give the
weight of some few which have come within my knowledge.

A pair belonging to S. C. of Deerfield, weighed in Brighton,
when dressed, . . 1791 lbs. and 16G6 lbs.=3457 lbs.

In Brighton market, the hide and tallow are included in the
weight. An ox fatted by A. S. of Deerfield, and sold at Bright-
on, weighed as follows : 4 quarters, 1716 lbs. ; hide, 154 lbs. ;
tallow, 250 lbs. ; total, 2120 lbs. This ox was five years old
in the spring preceding his being killed. He was of the native
breed ; and was never worked. His live weight was 2630 lbs.
The same farmer has since that time fatted an ox, whose live
weight was 2550 lbs. and the weight of whose quarters, when
dressed, was 1753 lbs. Three oxen sent by R. D. to Brighton,
weighed as follows : one ox, 1472 lbs. ; one 1487 lbs. ; one
1588 lbs. ; hide and tallow included in the weight.

A fat bull fed by B. S. weighed, when dressed, 1051 lbs.

A fat heifer fed by E. W. " " 832

These cattle were almost entirely of the native stock, which
does not constitute a distinct breed ; and, in respect to which,
no systematic attempts at improvement have been made in this
part of the State. Two foreign bulls, understood to be of the
improved Durham short-horn breed, have been introduced into
the county. In respect to one of them brought from Hoosic,
N. Y., his cross with some native cows has produced excellent
milkers. With respect to the other, he has hardly been long
enough in the county to test the value of his progeny,

2, Cows, — Some extraordinarily valuable cows have been
owned in the county. Two or three of them, which have come
within my immediate knowloge, deserve notice.

A cow owned by H. G. Newcomb, of Greenfield, was of na-
tive stock and owned by him nine years. Her color v/as a
bright red. She was of common size, well-formed ; small head,
short horns, neck and leg ; always healthy and in good flesh, gen-

53

tie, easy to be milked, quantity of milk large and quality good ;
usually kept in common pasture in summer. When eleven to
twelve years old, from 27th March to 25th May she produced
one hundred lbs. of butter of the best quality ; and in the same
time, one hundred and sixty quarts of her milk, not skimmed,
was reserved for the use of the family. During this time, her
feed consisted of the best of hay (excepting the last week, when
in pasture) with about four bushels of Indian and rye meal and
some boiled potatoes and slops. She was milked three times
daily except the last week, and in the last fourteen days pro-
duced 29 3-1 G lbs. of butter.

A cow owned by David Wait, of Greenfield, produced twenty-
five lbs. of butter in one fortnight. The first week twelve lbs. ;
the second, thirteen lbs. The feed during the first week was
hay only ; the second week, hay with the addition of half a
peck of provender, (oats and corn ground together) per day.
This was in April.

Daring the week ending June 2, the above cow produced
15f lbs. butter. The milk was weighed, and the average daily
weight was forty-seven lbs. per day. It was measured after be-
ing strained, and measured twenty-six quarts.

Wm. Dickinson has a native cow which was put upon the
fall feed after the Indian harvest. The first week after the re-
moval of her calf, she produced fourteen lbs. of butter ; and
during the first eight Aveeks she produced ninety-six lbs. She
had grass only while the grass continued ; and hay and meal
after she was put in the barn. The same farmer is the owner
of a cow, from six quarts of whose milk a pound of butter is
obtained.

I am not willing to leave this subject without, referring to a
beautiful example of domestic economy in the management of
two cows, which, as it belongs exclusively to one side of the
house, gives at least encouragement to believe that the race of
good dairy-maids is not wholly extinct.

This example is in Shelburne ; and the mistress of the house,
who herself took the whole management of the cows and the

54

milk, besides supplying a family of three persons with what
milk and butter were required, sold in one season from her two
cows, four hundred lbs. of butter. The feed was grass only.
In June she made in one week, twenty-three lbs. ; in one week,
twenty-five lbs. ; in one week, twenty-eight lbs. These were
cows of native stock, and this amount does not include the
butter packed for the winter use of the family.

I cite these examples of cows remarkable for their produc-
tiveness, perfectly aware that no reliance can be placed upon
such accidental individuals for the propagation of a superior
race. The calves of such animals, according to our careless
management of these matters, may be good or otherwise. The
chance is certainly in favor of their proving well when descend-
ed from a good cow ,* but no confidence can be placed in the
perpetuation of the good qualities of the parents in their prog-
eny, unless by a careful selection on both sides and a judicious
crossing, pursued systematically for a length of time with a
view to particular and desired improvements. Under such a
system, we may do something towards reversing the old prov-
erb, that a good cow may have a bad calf. As yet, however,
no approaches towards such a result can be said to have been
made in this county. The county, indeed, can hardly be con-
sidered to any great extent as a stock-raising county.

/ 3. Stall-fed Cattle. — The fatters of beef depend, for their
cattle to be stall-fed, upon animals brought from Vermont, New
Hampshire, and New York. In these cases the experienced
and practical have great skill and shrewdness in selecting
small-boned, neat, and thrifty animals as the best for their pur-
poses. Many of them find great advantage "in turning their
cattle soon," rather than keeping them on hand a long time.
After graduating a class early in the season, they go into the
neighboring hill-towns and purchase fat cattle already far
advanced for the market, and finish them so as to have another
class to send off in the spring. These cattle are generally fed
upon hay and potatoes in the hill-towns, where corn is not

55

raised to any considerable extent as in the river-towns ; but
when brought to the river-towns they are fed almost exclu-
sively upon hay and meal, and the change of diet greatly
favors their thrift. Another kind of stock much approved for
stall-feeding are three and four year old steers, which are kept
well in the winter upon good hay ; and for about two months
in the last of the winter and first of the spring have a moder-
ate allowance of provender, such as the meal of Indian corn,
or corn and oats or pease and oats ground together, and are
then turned into the pastures as soon as they can get a living.
In a good pasture these animals do well, and are generally sent
to market in June and July, when they command a good price.

4. Management of Stall-fed Animals. — I shall now pro-
ceed to speak of the manner in which stall-fed animals are
managed ; and what is much more difficult, endeavor to form
some estimate of the cost and profits. The difficulty in this
case arises from the fact, almost universal, that of all classes of
business men, none are less exact, or rather none are so care-
less as farmers in all matters of accounts. Until bv urarent
persuasion and entreaty with individuals to make exact obser-
vation and experiment, I have never yet been so fortunate as"
to find a farmer who could tell me, for example, in respect to
this very subject of fatting beef, what was the daily consump-
tion of an ox in hay ; the ordinary gain of a well-fed animal
of any particular description in live weight ; and the actual
expense of fatting an animal in any particular case. As an
intelligent farmer in the county remarked to me, " our farmers,",
said he, " in the autumn borrow money at the bank to pur-
chase their cattle for stall-feeding ; and if on the sale of their .
cattle in the spring they have something left beyond paying '
their notes, they deem themselves fortunate."

I shall first speak of the mode of feeding usually adopted ;
next, of the kind of stock generally preferred ; and lastly,
enter upon some estimates of the cost and profits of fattening
cattle for the market.

56

The stall-feeding of cattle is carried on to a large extent in
the river-towns, and to some extent in the hill-towns. In the
hill-towns they are usually fattc^d upon potatoes ; in which
case it is not uncommon to tie them in the barn and allow
them a bushel of well-washed potatoes per day, given at two
or more different times, with as much hay as they will con-
sume, and allowing them no water. It is thought by many
farmers that a yoke of oxen put up in good condition may be
well fatted or finished off for the market with what hay they
will consume and one hundred bushels of potatoes ; and that
the advance obtained on such cattle is in general a fair com-
pensation for the potatoes given them and the hay required,
which will not be large in quantity. Cattle fed upon potatoes
will, it is said, in general prove as well, that is, have as much
tallow, as those fed in any way, and the beef of such cattle is
thought by many to have a peculiar juiciness or sweetness.
In driving to market, however, the cattle fed upon potatoes
will fall away more than those fed upon hay and corn ; and
when they come into market by no means appear as well.
Several farmers are in the practice of boiling or steaming the
potatoes which they give to their cattle, and profess to find a
great advantage in it. The experiments which have come
within my own knowledge have not yet satisfied me that the
advantages are a compensation for the labor and expense
incurred by such operation.

The articles usually employed in fattening cattle are hay
and Indian meal, or corn and rye meal mixed, or pease and
oats, iDr oats and corn ground together. Besides this, many
farmers are in the practice of giving their stall-fed cattle occa-
sionally certain quantities of potatoes. An excellent farmer,
of fifty years experience in the fatting of cattle, is of opinion
that potatoes are good feed for fatting cattle in the fall and
spring, v/hen the weather is warm ; but that they do no good
in cold weather unless they are cooked. I rely much upon
his judgment and experience. The value of potatoes is differ-
ently estimated by different individuals ; some considering five

57

bushels, others rating four bushels, as equivalent to one bushel
of corn.

M. I. approves highly of potatoes as feed for fattening stock,
and deems four bushels fully equal to one bushel of corn. He
gives as many as the cattle will bear, and this varies from one
to two bushels per day. He put up a steer in autumn which
cost him twenty-six dollars, and killed him in March, weigh-
ing one thousand lbs. with eighty-seven lbs. of rough tallow.
This animal would seldom take more than five pecks per day.
The quality of the hay, which cattle consume under these
circumstances, he does not deem important ; and thinks the
straw of grain will do nearly as well as hay.

He purchased a heifer, two to three years old, at eighteen
dollars, and put her in the stall in November. She would
have been three years old in fix weeks from the time when
she was killed had she been saved. Wlien dressed she weighed
nine hundred and ninety-four lbs. and had one hundred and
seventeen lbs. of rough tallow. She was fed exclusively upon
potatoes and hay, and eat usually one bushel and a half per
day. She was sometimes induced to eat two bushels per day.

In the feeding of cattle for market a great deal of practical
skill is required, and constant observation of their condition,
otherwise they may be surfeited and their appetite destroyed ; or
their digestive powers be overtasked and the feed fail of its
object.

A farmer in Charlemont, of large experience in the fatting
of stock, considers the common English or flat turnip of little
value for fattening stock. The cattle fed upon them appear
healthy and in fine condition, but yield very little tallow. A
pair of cattle fatted by him and much admired by the butchers,
which weighed eighteen hundred lbs. when dressed, had only
thirty lbs. tallow each.

I presume the experiment has never been fairly tried, of the

value of turnips for fattening stock. This is likely to have

been only a solitary instance ; besides this, we want to know

in the case, how many turnips were given ; under what cir-

8

58

cumstances they were given ; and with what other feed ac-
companied.

The same farmer is of opinion, that oil-meal for fattening
cattle is of great value. He is quite content to pay twenty to
twenty-three dollars per ton, the current price for it in his
town. A farmer in Conway concurs in this opinion ; and
believes that for a beneficial change a farmer can well afford to
buy oil-meal with corn at bushel for bushel. The price here
rises sometimes to thirty dollars per ton. The weight of oil-
meal is about forty-five lbs. to the bushel.

I shall give somewhat in detail the practice of different
farmers in respect to feeding their stock.

C. D. with fifteen oxen in the stall.

Five of them receive one peck of Indian meal per day. Six,
six quarts each. Four, which are kept in the stable day and
night excepting when turned out for watering, have six quarts of
meal each per day, with as much hay as they will eat. They are
foddered four times morning and evening. They are tied up
about seven o'clock in the morning ; their meal is first given
to them, and then they are fed liberally with hay until about
nine o'clock, when, with the exceptions above referred to, they
are turned into the yard and remain until half-past two, when
they are again put into the stall, and the same process of feed-
ing gone through with. Their feeding being completed, they
are again turned into the yard, which is well littered, where
they remain until morning whatever may be the state of the
weather. It is the general belief, that the cattle which are
kept constantly in the stall, thrive faster than those which
thus have the liberty of the yard.

S. W. has twenty-six head of cattle in the stall. Most of
them have one peck of meal each per day ; some of them
twelve quarts. The provender given them consists of two-
thirds of Indian meal, and one-third of pease and oats, ground
and mixed.

S. S. has fourteen oxen in the stall. The average cost of
them was forty-seven dollars each, about the middle of Novem-

59

ber. In the first week of February, he calculated that many
of them would produce twelve hundred lbs. of beef each. The
mode of feeding is as described above. He considers a mixture
of provender as best adapted to their thrift ; but has made no
exact experiments.

E. W. a farmer long accustomed to the feeding of cattle for
the market, prefers to buy his oxen intended for the stall, in
the spring. If early in the season, he feeds them with coarse
fodder and two quarts of meal each, until they are turned into
the pasture. If he uses them for work during this time, he al-
lows them four quarts of meal each per day.

They are brought to the stall about the 20th of November,
and he then begins feeding them with half a bushel of potatoes
and four quarts of meal each per day. After a time he quits
feeding with potatoes ; and gives only hay and meal, from one
peck to nine quarts each ; and seldom exceeds this quantity.
His provender consists of one-third oats and two-thirds corn.

A. R. has twenty head of cattle in the stall. They are of
good size and calculated to average over eleven hundred lbs.
each, when dressed in Brighton.

He has tried a variety and a mixture of feed, such as oats,
broom-corn seed, &c., but he prefers Indian meal to every other
feed. He disapproves of excessive feeding ; and thinks it a
great error to give too much. He deems four quarts with hay
ordinarily enough ; and ten quarts a day sufficient for any ani-
mal. He feeds twice a day with great regularity. His present
cattle have never received over eight quarts per day each ; and
at first putting up a much less quantity. He deems it best to
reduce their feed of provender a few days before starting for
market. He buys his cattle for feeding in the fall ; and his
present stock averaged in the cost seventy-five dollars per pair.

S. W. is of opinion that one bushel of corn one year old for
feeding any kind of stock, is equal to one bushel and one peck
of new corn, or corn before it becomes perfectly sound and
dry.

T. C. has in stall, 27th February, five pairs of oxen, which

60

were purchased in Brighton, in June last. When purchased,
they were thin in flesh and were immediately put into good
pasture. The cost was as follows :

Two pairs cost 60 dollars per yoke, . . . 120 00

One pair cost 46 50 " " ... 46 50

" " 47 00 " " ... 47 00

" " 45 00 " " ... 45 00

These cattle were put into a good pasture until the 20th of
November, when they were brought to the stall. From that
time until the 20th December, they were fed with hay only.
From that time until the first of January, they received six
quarts of provender each daily. From the first of January,
they received each eight quarts daily. This provender con-
sists of one half oil-meal, one quarter oats and one quarter
corn ; the two last ground together and the whole intermixed
when given to the cattle.

The oil-meal in this case cost forty dollars per ton. It
weighs about forty-five pounds to a bushel. If ground very
fine, it will not weigh more than thirty-eight or forty lbs. to
the bushel. It is best, therefore, to buy it by weight. This
farmer is of opinion that his oxen, if now killed, would return
him one thousand pounds of beef each.

He has likewise in his stalls several fine steers, from two to
three years old, which cost him in the fall from ten to twelve
dollars each. These will be well fed until the spring ; turned
into good pasture early and sent to market in June or July.
The average weight of them when dressed may then be from
six to eight hundred pounds.

E. W. mentioned above, puts up his cattle in November, and
sells them in February, the average time, dnring which they
are stall-fed, being about seventy-five days. He prefers cattle
for the stall, whose weight, when dressed, will average about
eleven hundred pounds, to those which are larger, as being more
profitable in fattening ; and he deems it a great mistake on the

61

part of farmers to keep their cattle in the stall for a very long
term.

The use of succulent vegetables for the feeding or fatten-
ing of cattle other than potatoes, has not in Franklin county-
come within my knowledge. Meal made from the seed of
broom-corn is occasionally used, mixed with other provender,
but for neat cattle it is not approved by the best farmers. Flax-
seed jelly, that is, half a pint or a pint of flax seed formed into
a jelly by boiling, as an allowance for a stall-fed animal per
day, has been used for fattening cattle by some farmers with
remarkable success. It does not supersede the use of meal,
but is best mixed with it. It is believed that no article accord-
ing to its cost, can be used with more advantage than this for
this object ; and that none is known, which is more nutritious.
This jelly, which I have myself used with great advantage, is
prepared as follows : " to seven parts of water let one part of
linseed be put for forty-eight hours ; then boil it slowly for
two hours, gently stirring the whole lest it should burn. Af-
terwards it ought to be cooled in tubs ; and mixed with meal,
bran, or cut chaff, in the proportion of one bushel of hay to
the jelly produced by one quart of linseed well mashed together.
This quantity given daily with other food will forward cattle
rapidly, but it must be increased when they are intended to be
completely fattened."

D, B. a successful feeder of fat cattle, is of opinion that a yoke
of good cattle to be well stall-fed, will require from twenty to
twenty-five bushels of corn meal. The amount of hay he
cannot estimate.

I am not willing to pass over the opinions of another most
competent judge in relation to these matters.

E. H. states that in Heath the cattle are fattened mainly on
potatoes ; the largest allowance to a single ox being one bushel
per day. The beef proves of excellent quality. He mentions
the case of a farmer in Coleraine, long accustomed to feeding
cattle, who has boiled the potatoes for his cattle and found them
when cooked well adapted for fattening animals. The animals

62

thus fed have shown remarkable thrift. He continues to pursue
this method with great success.

Some farmers have ground their corn on the cob for their fat-
ting cattle. To the use of this cob-meal E. H. strongly objects.
The grain is not completely ground, but only broken, and there-
fore is not perfectly digested by the animals and is proportion-
ately less nutritious. He thinks that there is no nourishment
in the cob itself; and in taking toll at the mill, as the meal
of the grain and the ground cob do not mix thoroughly in pass-
ing into the receiving trough, the lighter remaining on the sur-
face, that the miller by a sleight of hand is very apt to gather
his toll from the lowest part of the heap and get a better share
than belongs to him.

A farmer in Shrewsbury, Worcester co. professes to have
found the use of cob-meal in fattening cattle matter of great
economy, but the point does not seem to be established. One
swallow does not make a summer ; and this single experiment
is not conclusive.

Having been for many years familiar with the Brighton mar-
ket, this farmer E. H. is strongly of opinion that all pains should
be taken to prepare good animals for the market, as they pay a
much better profit than those of an inferior description.

He is of opinion likewise that young stock should be well
kept and advanced as much as possible. If the markets in the
spring are not such as to warrant their sale, their good condition
will be so much to their advantage on going to pasture in the
spring. He deems it poor economy to stint animals, designed
to be fed for the market, in their food, so as barely to keep them
along. Under this management they are found in the spring,
in point of condition, but slightly in advance of what they
were in the fall.

The farmers are almost universally decided that a mixture of
provender is best. While Indian meal is to be considered as
the basis, certain proportions of rye, or oats, or pease and oats,
are always deemed best to be mixed with it. An excellent farm-
er, whose fat cattle do him much credit, is of opinion that the
meal given should always be scalded.

63

Of the kind of stock to be selected for fatting, oxen from
four to six years old are generally preferred. One of the most
experienced and successful farmers in the county says he prefers
young cattle from three to five years old. He would prefer to
raise them himself; but otherwise, he chooses to buy them in
the fall or spring ; feed them well in the spring with some meal ;
let them run in a good pasture through the summer ; and put
them into the stall in the autumn, to be sold the ensuing spring.
He always sells his stall-fed cattle before pasturing.

Others, as I have already stated, purchase steers of two to
three years old in the autumn. These are kept upon hay only
until spring ; they have then an allowance of meal, of perhaps
four quarts per day each ; and are turned early to pasture, from
whence they are taken to market in June or July. The prac-
tice of others is to give them no meal, but plenty of good hay
in winter and spring, and good pasturage in summer; and sell
them in the fall without coming to the barn.

Others purchase oxen in the last of the winter ; feed them
well in the spring upon hay and a reasonable allowance of meal ;
and they are then turned into a good pasture, and driven to mar-
ket through the fall months.

S. W. says that oxen about six years old have always
proved best for him. D. B. states that he has always been
most successful with steers. A. R. chooses steers from three
to four years old, or oxen six years old. He does not select
large cattle, but prefers cattle of small stature, small-boned,
and thick-set, as being most profitable in the stall. Another
farmer, of good judgment and skill, prefers oxen at six to eight
years old, if they can be purchased at a low rate ; and says he
has often " doubled his money." In this case he keeps them
well on hay and meal ; and reckons only the gross result, with-
out keeping any detailed or exact account of the amount of
hay and meal consumed.

Where the farmers mainly depend on pasturing, as in some
of the hill-towns, farrow cows are purchased in the spring,
and sold to advantage in the autumn. One farmer states, that

64

on ten farrow cows, purchased in the spring, he realized an
advance of $8 10 cents each in the fall.

It may not be out of place to mention hero the opinion of
this excellent farmer, founded upon long experience, that year-
lings bought in the fall and sold the ensuing fall usually
double their value.

Another farmer, though on comparatively a small scale, yet
whose farm throughout exhibits the very best management,
states that in one case he purchased four farrow cows late in
October, at seventeen dollars each, raised on these cows seven
calves, sold from them three hundred lbs. of butter in the sea-
son, and sold the cows, the ensuing fall, after one year's keep-
ing, at $30 each. His steers from three to four years old, kept
well in winter, and turned into good pasture, to be sold in
June, average above fifteen hundred lbs. per yoke.

I submit these different statements without comment to the
reader. It is obvious that different kinds of stock may proper-
ly be preferred by different farmers, according to their peculiar
situation and circumstances. 1 have said nothing of different
breeds of cattle, because, in truth, thee is no distinct breed
raised in the county. But the small-boned, medium-sized
animals, of good length, and strongly marked beyond question
with the Devon blood, are those which are chosen. The ex-
perienced farmer at once distinguishes, by his own practical
and long-practised skill, the most thrifty, in respect to which,
indeed, there are differences among individuals of the same
breed as well as among whole breeds or races. This is done
by the eye, and perhaps still more by the touch. When the
hair of an animal is stiff and staring, and the skin is coarse
and cleaves to the bone, he will pay little profit in the stall ;
but when the skin is loose, the hair soft, the eyes bright, and
the animal has an elastic touch or feel, you may calculate
upon his thriftiness and his profitable returns for good keeping.

5. Expenses and Profits of Stall-Feeding. — I do not
know that I can better illustrate this subject than by the par-

65

ticular accounts which have been given me. Most of these ex-
amples will appear unfavorable, and in that case they will only
confirm the opinions of many experienced farmers, one of whom,
to use his own expression, maintains that the fatting of beef
has been a bad business these twenty years. If the examples
which I give are true, it is all that can be required. It will be
then for every one to make up his judgment from the evidence
presented, or otherwise to search for other causes than what
appear for the result.

Example 1. — March 25. D. S. sent a fine yoke of oxen to
market, which he anticipated would weigh twenty-three hun-
dred lbs. when dressed at Brighton. They were purchased
last winter for seventy-five dollars, and brought to the barn
about the first of November. Their allowance, as nearly as
can be ascertained, has been as much hay as they would con-
sume, and more than one peck of provender, half corn and
half broom-seed ground together, per day, and the measure
always heaped full. The mixture, as nearly as can be deter-
mined, consisted of five quarts of Indian meal and four of
broom-corn meal. Corn meal at three cents per quart. Broom-
seed at thirty-three cents per bushel. Hay at ten dollars per
two thousand lbs. ; these being the current prices at the time
and place.

Dr. — Cost of the cattle in the autumn, . . 75 00

5 quarts corn meal, at 3 cents, 15 cents ; 4 quarts
broom meal, at 1 cent per quart, 4 cents ; 25
lbs. of hay each per day, at $10 per 2000 lbs.
12J cents ; 15-|-4+ 12^=31^ each per day, or C3
cents per day for both, for the term of 145 days, 91 35

Interest on cost, 5 months, at 6 per cent. . . 1 87

Commissions and drift to Brighton, . . . 4 00

172 22

Cr. — Supposed return 2300 lbs. at 5f cents per lb. 132 25

Balance against the oxen, .... $39 97
9

66

Example 2. — I now proceed to an estimate of the cost and
returns of the ten oxen belonging to E. W. and referred to
on page 51.

84 00
80 00
75 00
73 25
70 00

Of these cattle.

one

yoke

cost

a

ii

u

((

u

li

u

u

IC

li

Original cost,

Expense of driving to New York market,

Returns at $74 68 cents each X 10,

Or advance in favor of each ox,

• •

382 25

40 00

422 25

746 80

324 55

$32 45

Let us now come to the expenses of keeping for each ox.

per ton, 1500

> 11 bs. 1 pk.

60 days, 25 lbs. of hay per day, at

lbs

30 days, 15 bushels potatoes, at 20 cts per bushel,
30 days, ^ peck provender per day,

3 bushels, 3 pecks,
30 days, 1 peck provender per day,

7 bushels, 2 pecks,

or say 12 bushels provender — 4 pease and oats, 8

Indian meal.
Thus 4 bushels oats and pease, at 67 cents

per bushel, . . . . 2 68

8 bushels corn, at 75 cents per bushel, 6 00

8 68

Cost of feed of each ox,

$32 45 less $19 18, leaves balance in favor of each

7 50
3 00

8 68

$19 18

$13 27

67

Or, estimating the feed at a lower price, though the before-
mentioned were the current prices of the different articles at
the time, let us see what might then be the result.

Hay at |8 per ton, 6 00

15 bushels of potatoes, at 15 cents per bushel, . 2 25

4 bushels pease and oats, at 50 cents per bushel, . 2 00

8 bushels of corn, at 70 cents per bushel, . . 5 60

$15 85

$32 45 less $15 85, leaves $16 60 balance in favor of each ox.

In this estimate, the pasturage of the cattle from the time of
purchase until put in the stall, is not included. The interest
is not reckoned. The cost of attendance is considered as
balanced by the manure. The term of stall-feeding was short ;
the markets high.

At my request, a careful farmer was induced to ascertain the
amount of hay consumed ordinarily by a fatting ox. In this
case, the hay given to them was first weighed, and then the
orts or leavings were carefully weighed and deducted from the
amount.

Five oxen consumed one hundred and fifty lbs. of good hay
per day. Two of these oxen had at the same time twenty
quarts of provender — half Indian corn and half broom-seed
meal ; two of them twenty-four quarts of the same provender
per day ; and one of them eight quarts per day. Upon a
second experiment with the same cattle, fed with meal as
above, the five oxen consumed twenty-five lbs. of hay each
per day.

It is stated in the Complete Grazier, that an unworked ox
for several days together consumed thirty-tbree lbs. of hay per
day. In the New York Memoirs of Agriculture, it is stated
that an ox will eat every twenty-four hours, fourteen lbs. of
hay, half a bushel of potatoes, and eight quarts of Indian meal.
Of course no rule in this case can be exact ; as animals differ

68

much from each other in size, condition, and appetite, by which
circumstances, of course, their consumption of food is hkely
to be affected.

Example 3. — The following experiment came directly under
my own inspection. The oxen referred to here were selected
by a man of as good judgment as could be found, that the ex-
periment might be conducted with all possible fairness. The
pair of oxen cost on the first of December sixty-five dollars ;
and they were slaughtered the 26th February. They were
kept clean ; daily carded, and fed at regular hours with care
and fidelity. They were eighty-eight days in the stall, being
turned out twice a day for watering, and the food consumed at
current prices and the result are subjoined.

73 bushels of turnips, or mangel wurtzel, at 10 cents
per bushel, .......

36i bushels of Indian meal, at 60 cents per bushel,
65J bushels of potatoes, at 25 cents per bushel.
Hay not ascertained, but estimated for both at 25
lbs. per day at 50 cents per 100 lbs. .

$56 56i
Value of oxen when first put up, $65, added to cost

of feed, $56 56i cents, 121 56^

7

30

21

95

16

31i

11

00

Weight when killed 1846 lbs. for which were ob-
tained 5 cents per lb. or $5 per 100 lbs. . . 92 30

Loss upon the oxen, $29 26J

It has been said by some persons in this case, that there
was an error in using so many vegetables, and that they should
have been fed exclusively on hay and Indian meal. The loss
would have been less, but the account then would have stood
thus :

69

Cost of the oxen, 65 00

Hay as before, . . . . . . • 11 00

Half bushel of corn per day, for 88 days, amounts

to 44 bushels, at 60 cents, . . . . . 26 40

102 40

Proceeds of the sale, . . . . . • 92 30

Loss by this feeding, . . . . . 10 10

The hay consumed in this case was matter of estimate, but
from experiments above recorded it will appear to have been
greatly underrated.

I am furnished likewise with some other accounts, from a
farmer on whose accuracy I confidently rely, which I lay be-
fore the agricultural community.

Example 4. — Account with one pair of steers, four to five
years old, bought April 2d, and sold the ensuing 24th March.

Cost 2d April, . . . • . . . 68 50
9 weeks keeping at hay and meal, at $2 50 cents

per yoke per week, . . . . . . 22 50

25 weeks pasturing, at 50 cents, . . . . 12 50

Interest on cost 11^ months, at 6 per cent, . . 3 95

Keeping in stall, 6 quarts meal each per day, at 3

cents per quart, and 25 lbs, hay to each per day,

at $10 per 2000 lbs.. Ill days, at 30 cents per

day, ......

Commissions on sale at Brighton, .

Supra Cr.
By 54 days' work, at 33 cents per day, .
Return of sales, 1868 lbs. at 5| cents, .

Loss on above, ....,, $52 82

• •

66 60

• •

4 00

178 05

17 82

107 41

125 23

70

Example 5. — One yoke of oxen bought 13th May, and sent
to Brighton 11th March.

Cost of oxen, .......

4 weeks keeping, at $2 50 cents per week, .
24 weeks pastnring, at 50 cents per week.
Interest on cost, 10 months, at 6 per cent.
Keeping in stall 111 days, at 30 cents each per day,
Commissions on sale at Brighton, ....

85

00

10

00

12

00

4

15

66

60

4

00

181 75

Supra Cr.

By 24 days labor, at 33 cents per day, . 8 00

Return of sales, 1972 lbs. at $5h per 100 lbs. 108 46

116 46

Loss on oxen, ...... ^65 29

Example 6. — One yoke of oxen bought 13th May. Sent
to Brighton 11th March.

Cost of oxen, .......

4 weeks keeping, at $2 50 cents per week, . ^
24 weeks pasturage, at 50 cents, ....

Interest on cost, 10 months, .....

Keeping in stall 111 days, at 30 cents each per day.
Commissions on sale at Brighton, ....

Supra Cr.

By 24 days labor, at 33 cents per day, . 8 00

Return of sales, 1892 lbs. at 5| cents, . 97 41

78

00

10

00

12

00

3

90

66

60

4

00

174 50

105 41

Loss on above oxen, ..... $69 09

71

Example 7. — Return of short-horn cow, sent to market
11th March.

Expenses of keeping, 6 quarts of Indian meal per
day, at 3 cents per quart ; 25 lbs. hay per day, at
$10 per 2000 lbs., 12^ cents, or 30;^ cents per
day for 111 days, . . . . * . 33 85

Commissions on sale, ...... 2 00

35 85

Supra Cr.
Weight in market, 735 lbs. at 5 cents, . . . 36 75

90

Here it seems, after the cost of the feed at current prices
was met by the sales, ninety cents were left as the value of
the animal.

These are all literal and well-attested facts ; but I choose to
leave them for the present without comment.

I will subjoin here the calculation of one of the most ex-
perienced and observing farmers in the county ; but whose
name, from respect to his own wishes, I withhold.

W. O. is of opinion that the fatting of cattle can be rendered
profitable under the following circumstances, which, with good
judgment and a careful use of opportunities, may be made
ordinarily to combine.

Suppose your cattle cost in the fall four dollars per one hun-
dred lbs. ; thai there is an average rise in the market of twelve
and a half cents per one hundred lbs. per week ; that they be
fed with hay and provender, one third oats, or pease and oats,
and two thirds corn : corn at seventy-five cents and pease and
oats at fifty cents per bushel ; one peck of this mixture each
per day, and sufficient hay, which he judges will be about
fourteen lbs. of hay each per day, the hay estimated at ten dol-
lars per two thousand lbs. ', and that they be kept sixteen weeks,

72

and add to their weight one quarter of their original weight in
that time. He believes under these conditions they will make
full compensation for cost and attendance. For example :

A pair of cattle, supposed to weigh sixteen hundred lbs. when
dressed ; purchased at four dollars per one hundred lbs. on the
first of December, and sold the first of April, weighing two
thousand lbs. dressed, at six dollars per one hundred lbs. Let
them be fed with one peck of provender each per day, and hay
as they will eat. The account will then stand thus :

Cost of cattle $64, 64 00

Proceeds of sale, at |6 per 100 lbs. . . .120 00

Advance upon original cost, . . . $56 00

Expenses of above.

28 lbs. of hay per day, or 196 lbs. per

week, at $10 per ton, are . . 98

14 pecks of mixed provender, at 67

cents per bushel, ... 2 33 — per week, 3 31

3 31x 16 for 16 weeks keeping, .
Add commissions and drift, .

• •

Add original cost of cattle, .

• • •

52

96

4

00

56

96

64

00

120

96

120

00

96

Return of sales, .

Balance against the cattle, .

The amount of hay which they will consume is in this case
much underrated ; no interest is charged upon the cost ; and the
manure is considered an equivalent for the attendance. The
interest on the value of any live stock, where all risks are
considered, should never be reckoned at less than ten per cent.

73

Suppose we add 14 lbs. of hay each per day, for 16

weeks, . . . . . • . . 15 68

Interest and risk, 10 per cent, for 4 months on lEirst

cost, ........ 1 60

Add balance against the cattle as above, . . 96

Loss on cattle at above rates, . . . $18 24

Now estimate the provender as above at sixty-seven cents
per bushel, and hay at eight dollars per ton, and it will make
of course a small difference in favor of the cattle. The ex-
pense of feed will then be forty-nine dollars eighty-two cents ;
add interest and risk, one dollar sixty cents, will be fifty-one
dollars forty-two cents ; add cost, sixty-four dollars, gives one
hundred fifteen dollars forty-two cents. This, upon the pre-
sumption that the quantity of hay consumed in the first esti-
mate is not underrated, leaves a balance in favor of the cattle
of four dollars fifty-eight cents. In case the second estimate
of the amount of hay required is correct, the balance against
the cattle would be seven dollars ninety-six cents.

These accounts give no strong encouragement to the stall-
feeding of beef cattle. Many of the farmers in the county
have told me that they expect to get paid in the operation for ^
their grain only, and make no account of the hay consumed. /
One of the most experienced and most successful farmers in i
the county states that the fatting of cattle has not been a good (
business for years. He complains that the price paid for cat-
tle, in the fall, to be fatted, is as high, by the hundred lbs., as
that obtained for them in the spring ; that the markets are ca-
pricious and uncertain ; and that the farmers occasionally suffer
from gross impositions, practised upon them in the sale of their
cattle at Brighton, against which it is difficult to devise an
effectual security. The raiser of the cattle and the butcher
get the whole profit. He has known it to happen, that where
the farmer in the fall borrows money to purchase cattle for the
stall, the sale of these cattle in the spring, after being fatted,
10

)

74

^ will not pay his note. I know so many who have realized
these severe results, as to have no doubt of their frequent
occurrence.

here are other matters connected with the fattening of cat-
tle, in relation to which some facts, which have come within
my knowledge, may be useful. Some respect the gain in
live weight in any given time. Others refer to the loss of
weight in killing. In all the calculations which we make re-
specting the advantages or disadvantages, the profit or loss, of
stall-feeding cattle, these elements have a particular value.

6. Gain of Stall-fed Cattle. — I will first give some state-
ments in respect to the actual gain per day of cattle. This
few farmers have ever taken the pains to determine, and with
most of them it is wholly matter of conjecture, and that
sometimes very wild.

Example 1. — A pair of cattle owned by S. 0. weighed
Oct. 16, 2305 lbs. and 2110 lbs., together, . . 4415 lbs.
Jan. 17, 2435 " 2185 " ... 4620 "

The gain, therefore, in 3 months and 1 day, was . 205 "

The same cattle weighed on the following March 11th,
One 2590 and one 2345 lbs., together, . . . 4935 "
The gain, then, in this 1 month and 22 days, was . 315 "
The whole gain in 4 mos. 23 days, being . . 520 "
The gain during 146 days was at the rate of lbs. 3,56 per day.

These cattle had, besides hay, a small allowance of meal,
and ran in a good pasture through the summer. They were
put up to be stall-fed early in the autumn, and were soon
brought to receive together one bushel of meal per day, even
measure ; one third pease and oats, two thirds corn, with a lib-
eral allowance of hay.

Example 2. — A pair of oxen belonging to R. D. weighed
Nov. 8, 1995 lbs. and 1985 lbs., together, . . 3980 lbs.
Mar. 12, ensuing, 2250 lbs. and 2255 lbs., together, 4505 "

The whole gain in 124 days, was 525 lbs. or at the rate of
lbs. 4,33 per day.

75

Example 3. — An ox belonging to R. D. weighed, Nov. 5,
2155 lbs. In the ensuing March 12th, the same ox weighed
2435 lbs. The gain in the time mentioned was 280 lbs. ; and
for the 127 days was at the rate 2 26-127 lbs. per day.

Example 4. — A pair of cattle belonging to G. D. weighed
as follows : Dec. 12, 4002 lbs. March 2, 4425 lbs. Gain in
that time, 423 lbs. April 1, 4470 lbs. Gain 55 lbs. Total
gain from Dec. 12 to April 1, 478 lbs.

The average gain of the above for 110 days is 4 19-55 lbs.
per day.

Example 5. — A pair of cattle belonging to the same weighed
as follows : Dec. 12, 3604 lbs. March 1, 4031 lbs. Gain in
that time 427 lbs. April 1, 4032 lbs. Gain 1 lb. Total gain
from Dec. 12 to April 1, 428 lbs.

The average gain of the above for 110 days, is 3 49-55 lbs.
per day.

Example 6. — One pair of cattle fed by R. D. weighed in
the first part of Nov. 3765 lbs. Dec. 15, 4220 lbs. Jan. 15,
4410 lbs. The gain in one month was 190 lbs. March 7,
weighed 4730 lbs. The gain from the commencement was
965 lbs. ; from Dec. 15 to March 7, was 510 lbs.

The average gain of the above, from Dec. 15 to March 7,
81 days, being 510 lbs. is 6,29 lbs. per day. The gain from
Dec. 15 to Jan. 15, 30 days, being 190 lbs. is 6,33 lbs. per day.

These cattle were old, and at the time of being purchased
appeared to have been hardly driven and poorly fed.

7. Loss OF Weight in Driving. — The loss of cattle in
driving to market, for example, from Connecticut river, which
may be considered as central to the county, is estimated at
about one hundred lbs. dead weight. A very gopd farmer
estimates the loss at from fifty to one hundred lbs. ; and much
loss, he says, may be prevented by care. Cattle fatted upon
potatoes lose more than others in the passage, because they

76

will not eat upon the road. The drover receives two dollars
as his commission for the sale of the cattle and their drift upon
the road. He is therefore without motive to give them any
more or any better hay than they absolutely require, or to
drive them with any more care than what is essential to get
them to Brighton in fair condition. The actual expense to the
•^drover of getting an ox to Brighton is estimated at one dollar.

8. Live and Dead Weight of Cattle.

Example 1. — One ox, live weight in market 2393 lbs. ;
quarters weighed 418 lbs., 415 lbs., 324 lbs., 331 lbs. ; hide,
150 lbs. ; tallow, 173 lbs. = 1811. Difference 582 lbs.

Example 2. — Two oxen of A. S. killed at home, weighed
as follows :

Live— One 1979 lbs. . . Killed— XAQQ lbs.

" " 1910 " . . " 1341 "

About lbs. 29,4 loss on a hundred of the live weight.

Example 3. — An ox owned by A. S, conveyed to Brighton
on a sled, weighed at home about 2630 lbs. ; the precise num-
ber of pounds not recollected. On being slaughtered, his
weight was as follows : quarters, 480 lbs., 479 lbs., 374 lbs.,
383 lbs. ; hide, 154 lbs. ; tallow, 250 lbs. Total, 2120 lbs.
Loss, 510 lbs.

Example 4. — Ox belonging to R. D. when he left Connec-
ticut river, weighed 2435. lbs. Weight at Brighton when
dressed 1588 lbs. Loss of weight 867 lbs. This is a little
more than one third : and is a remarkable result.

Example 5. — An ox weighing on Connecticut river, 2250 lbs.
weighed in market 1472 lbs. Loss, 778 lbs.

Exam,plc 6. — An ox weighing as above 2255 lbs., weighed
in market 1487 lbs. Loss, 768 lbs.

Example 7. — A fat bull of D. S. killed at home, weighed
alive 1495 lbs. ; dead 1051 lbs. Loss, 444 lbs.

77

Example 8. — A fat heifer of E. W. killed at home, weighed
alive 1120 lbs. ; dead 832 lbs. Loss, 288 lbs.

Example 9. — An ox belonging to S. C. weighed on Con-
necticut river alive 2590 lbs. ; at Brighton, dressed, as follows :
quarters, 394 lbs., 350 lbs., 362 lbs., 358 lbs. ; hide, 120 lbs. ;
tallow, 207 lbs. Total, 1791 lbs. Difference between live
and dead weights, 799 lbs.

Example 10. — An ox belonging to S. C. weighed as above
2345 lbs. ; at Brighton, dressed, as follows : quarters, 352 lbs.,
310 lbs., 364 lbs., 308 lbs. ; hide, 115 lbs. ; tallow, 217 lbs.
Total, 1666 lbs. Difference between live and dead weights,
679 lbs.

In England, the difference between the dead and the live
weight is calculated at eleven-twentieths ; but there only the
four quarters are weighed ; the fifth quarter, as it is there
termed, being the hide, loose tallow, and offal, going to the
butcher as his perquisite.

With us, the four quarters, the hide and the rough tallow
are weighed, and the amount of the whole returned to the
owner. That is, the farmer or drover gets his cattle to Brigh-
ton ; the purchaser turns them over to one of the slaughtering
establishments in the neighborhood to be killed and dressed,
for which he pays two dollars and the offal per head, and the
meat is then furnished to the selling butchers, who are usually
the purchasers. The heart and liver are valued at fifty cents,
excepting iu the barrelling season ; the tongue is considered
worth forty-two cents; the tripe is valued at fifty cents j the
head, which has on it a large piece of the neck, being of late
years cut off at the second joint from the crown, and which
furnishes some good meat for cooking, and then when boiled
is given to swine to great advantage, and also the feet, from
which oil and glue are obtained, valued at forty cents, go
among the offal, and of course are lost to the farmer or drover.
Besides, it is said the butchers have a way by which, after

78

cutting through the shoulders, in splitting down the chine they
turn the edge of the axe outwards, thus leaving a large portion
of the neck attached to the head, and lost to the seller. The
owner does not see his ox slaughtered or weighed, and depends
wholly upon the return given him by the purchaser for its
weight. The opportunity for fraud in such case is obviously
great ; and much disappointment and complaint, with what
justice I shall not say, oftentimes exist among the farmers
when they receive the weight of the cattle which they have
sent to market.

A farmer highly experienced in the case says, that the hide
of an ox, which in December, for example, if he were killed,
would weigh one hundred lbs., if he were kept until June
would not weigh more than eighty-five lbs. The loss of hair
in such case is something ; and the hide in summer becomes
more porous and loses in a measure its consistency.

9. Pasturage. — With respect to cattle fatted in pasture, it is
not easy to come at any exact results, as especially the quality
of the pasturage differs so much in difli'erent parts of the county.
In the north-east part of the county, for example, which is
very hilly and broken land for pasturage, it is valued at seven to
fifteen dollars per acre, but the average price may be considered
as seven dollars. Four acres are deemed sufficient to fatten a
cow ; six acres are allowed to an ox. One farmer, who is re-
markable for the number and excellent quality of the cattle
which he sends to Brighton in the autumn, kept eighteen oxen
the whole season upon one hundred acres of land. Another
farmer, upon forty acres, kept ten farrow cows.

In Conway, the pasturage is excellent. Thirty acres keep
six cows and two oxen, or would keep twelve cattle, cows and
oxen.

Oxen from four to six years of age are taken to be pastured,
at from fifty to sixty-seven cents per week. Farrow cows at
twenty-five cents per week. Steers, at two years old, at sev-
enteen cents per week each. Sheep are pastured at three cents
each per week, and lambs at one and a half cents.

79

In Buckland, cows are pastured at twenty-five cents per
week, including salt. Store-sheep two cents each for sheep
and lambs. Wethers designed for fatting, and requiring the
best feed, at four cents per week. Pasturing of an average
quality will feed eight cows upon thirty acres. A yoke of
oxen require half as much again as two cows.

In Hawley, two acres of pasturage are considered sufficient
for a cow. The pasturage, it is obvious from these statements,
differs greatly in different parts of the county, and as a general
remark it may be said, that the pasturage on the west side is
much superior to that on the east side of Connecticut river.

In the fattening of cattle, universal experience shows the J
importance of a scrupulous punctuality as to the times of feed- *
ing. Under the influence of that mighty despot, habit, which
reigns thoughout the animal creation, these animals measure
time with great exactness; and if, at the customary hour, the feed
is not ready for them, they become restless, uneasy, and fretful,
dispositions exceedingly unfriendly in all cases to thrift. Dur-
ing the time of feeding they should have little given to them at
a time, that their food may not become loathsome by being fre-
quently tossed over and blown upon. They should be treated
likewise with great gentleness and kindness ; and all pains
should be taken to give them a dry bed, and to keep them
clean. An intelligent farmer in Deerfield is of opinion, that
the disease in oxen, vulgarly called the '-fouls," lameness in
the feet, from which fatting cattle are very liable to suffer, is
owing to feeding them with new corn, or corn not sufficiently
ripened. This may be the case ; but I believe it is not seldom
occasioned by their standing in wet yards and wet stalls, and
little or no attention being paid to keeping their feet clean.
The disease called the foot-rot in sheep, which is an excessively
troublesome disorder, I have little doubt is occasioned by the
same cause. At least I have observed that it has been brought
out and always aggravated by their standing in wet yards.
Perhaps there is in such cases a predisposition to the disease ;
and we know that luxurious living and repletion, as well in

X

80

human as in brute animals, tend to produce disease in the
lower extremities.

This subject of fatting neat cattle for the Brighton market
deeply concerns many of the farmers in Franklin Co. ; and
especially those in the river-towns. Estimating hay and corn
at the prices current, they are ahiiost always losers by the
operation. These articles, however, are high because farmers
are not willing to sell ; or rather they have not the articles to
sell because they require them for the purpose of fatting their
cattle. If the farmers should choose, instead of fattening cat-
tle, to sell their hay and corn, the supply would greatly reduce
the price ; and, therefore, in the estimation of the cost of fat-
tening cattle, these articles should be charged at the prices
which they would bear if cattle were not fatted. The accounts
then would present a different aspect ; yet not then perhaps in
many cases favorable to the fattener of beef by stall-feeding.

There is another consideration in the case certainly of great
'weight, and deemed by most farmers of indispensable import-
ance. The consumption of the produce of the farm upon the
farm, is thought the only means of keeping up the condition
of the farm and of continuing the crops. This is a very ma-
terial consideration, if no other means of effecting this object
are equally accessible and equally cheap. This inquiry will
come presently ; and I am now ready to admit, certainly with re-
spect to all long feed, that it is always better to consume the prod-
uce on the place, even at a nominal loss of twenty-five per cent,
than to carry it off any distance to market ; that is, it is better
for a farmer to use his hay on his farm, though it will produce
him, when thus fed to fatting cattle, but six dollars per ton,
than to carry it even a short distance to market and obtain eight
dollars for it. There are in the latter case the loss of the ma-
nure, which the hay used would furnish, the waste in remov-
ing the hay, and the wear-and-tear and toil of carrying it to
market. These circumstances seem to require that a lower
estimate should be put upon the value of these articles con-
sumed in the fatting of neat cattle than the current prices in
the market.

81

If the hay consumed on the farm nets the farmer five dol-
lars per ton, and the average product of an acre is two tons, it
will pay a remunerating profit. The average value of mowing
land in the County of Franklin will hardly range higher, if
we judge from the sales within a few years past, than seventy-
five dollars per acre. In some cases very choice spots have
brought one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. One hundred
dollars are occasionally given for several acres in a piece ; but a
good deal is sold for fifty dollars per acre, and this is deemed a
fair price for the beautiful meadows, for example, in Gill and
Northfield. Seventy-five dollars, therefore, will be deemed a
very high average. At two tons to the acre the income might
be put down at ten dollars. From this, however, is to be de-
ducted the cost of getting the hay. Farmers differ considera-
bly in the estimate of this expense. A contract for getting
both crops of hay at four dollars per acre, is referred to in page
8th of this report. Here the yield was at the rate of four
thousand four hundred and ninety-four lbs. per acre ; the cost
of getting was then less than two dollars per ton, ^nd- the
labor would have been considerably reduced if the crop had
been obtained at a single cutting. The hay too in this case
was required to be carried more than a mile and a half, and a
riVer was to be forded on the way. In another case, where an
exact and minute account was kept, not only of the days, but
of the hours employed, and on a farm where one hundred tons
of hay were cropped in the season, allowing man's labor and
board at one dollar and a quarter per day, and the labor of a
boy at half-price, the expense averaged one dollar and ninety-
two cents per ton. In this case the situation of the land and
the season were favorable, while at the same time it will be
seen that the price of labor was high, and more so than it
would have been if estimated by the month. If then we con-
sider the cost of getting hay at two dollars per ton, there will
be left six dollars as the net return of an acre of land valued
at seventy-five dollars. This would be eight per cent on the
value. The after-feed would pay the taxes, and perhaps the
11

82

expenses of keeping the fences in order. This, to men of
reasonable views, must be considered as a fair return, when
the security of the investment is taken into the account, and
the hay being consumed on the farm, its condition may be
fully kept up.

1 hardly know how to discuss this subject, without saying
what might appear like fault-finding or complaint ; and this
too in a case where, if error or fault exist, it is extremely diffi-
cult to point out a remedy. I shall allude, however, to some
points, with a sole view to provoke inquiry after better modes,
if better can be found.

The price of cattle for the stall has for several years been
very high ; as high indeed by the hundred as they will gener-
ally sell for when fatted. This price can seldom be afi'orded
by the stall-feeders. The only remedy for this is for the far-
mer to raise cattle for himself, or to buy them at a year old
coming two, when the price is seldom proportionate to their
real value. But does it not cost as much to raise stock as to
buy it ? This is often said, and may sometimes be said with
truth. There is, however, on every farm of any extent, a
great deal of coarse fodder, hay not of the best quality, the
straw of grain, the stalks and refuse of corn, which may be
used to great advantage for the keeping of this kind of stock ;
and if to this could be added a moderate supply of succulent
vegetables, turnips, mangel-wurtzel, sugar beets, carrots, ruta-
baga, or parsnips, the stock may be kept in good condition on
this kind of feed and at a reasonable expense. Now, of these
stores farmers are in general exceedingly wasteful, either from
a low opinion of their value or a disinclination to the labor of
gathering and taking care of them. We can hardly go over
any extensive farm in the country, where a great deal of fod-
der is not left to perish, which might be used with advantage
for our young stock in our long winters. In many cases the
wheat and rye straw are sold off the farm ; and sometimes
left to moulder away in heaps upon the spot where the grain
was threshed. Many farmers are entirely indifferent to the

83

value of corn fodder ; and if even the top-stalks are cut, the
batts are left to be browsed with little advantage to the stock
which feed among them, or to waste away in the field where
they grew. The haulm or fodder of broom-corn has within
my knowledge never been saved for the use of stock, except-
ing in a single instance. The Shakers of Canterbury, N. H.,
among the most economical, judicious, and thrifty farmers in
New England, save it with as much care, and consider it
equally valuable for supporting their young stock, as the haulm
of Indian corn. If farmers, therefore, would increase the
growing of vegetables for their stock, with the help of such
resources as these, straw, corn-stalks, broom-refuse, and even
buck-wheat straw, they might raise a good deal of stock at a
very small expense.

In the next place, it is confidently believed that the farmers
might to a great extent increase the products of their farms by
cultivation. They might very much increase their crops on
the land which they now cultivate, and much extend their
tillage. Where now they get one and a half ton of hay
to the acre, they should obtain two and a half tons ; fifty
bushels of corn, they should get seventy-five ; thirty bushels
of oats, they should get fifty ; two hundred bushels of potatoes,
they should get four hundred. This can be done because it
has been done. The increase of products would enable them
to increase their stock ; and young growing stock after one
year old, will be found under good management to pay as well
in their growth as fatting stock. All this will require labor
and expenditure ; but if the labor and expenditure are amply
repaid, what more can we ask for ? The farmers in the river-
towns, as far as respects the winter keeping of their stock, can
afford to keep them as cheaply as in the hill-towns ; in truth
their hay and corn do not cost them so much. In sum-
mer, the hill-towns are more favored in respect to pasturage ;
but cattle can be driven to pasture a considerable distance
without injury ; and farmers in the river-towns undertaking to
raise or to fat stock, should have pastures, even though they

84

might be remotely situated, where they may place their grow-
ing stock during the pasturing season.

The subject of fatting cattle is of such importance, that it
deserves very strongly the attention of farmers in the interior.
Many of them are so remote from market, that they know
no other method of disposing of the produce of their farms
than by putting it into the portable form of beef, mutton or
pork. But the result of such operations is in many cases a
serious disappointment and loss. Many of them are satisfied
if, without reference to the current market-prices of the arti-
cles of produce used in the stall-feeding of their cattle, they
find upon closing their farm accounts for the year, that after
supporting their families and paying the labor hired in the
management of their farms they are not in arrears, or perhaps
have realized some small gain. In such case likewise they
seldom make any charge either of their own labor or superin-
tendence, nor of the interest on the capital invested in their
farm and its equipments. This is certainly a very loose way
of getting along, and not a little discouraging. Nor can they,
under such circumstances, with any certainty calculate that
the result may not be a loss instead of a gain. More calcula-
tion and more knowledge and prudence ought to be brought to
this subject, for losses often occur in respect to it which are
very difficult to be sustained, and ultimately terminate in bank-
ruptcy and ruin. The foundation of all true practical knowl-
edge and skill is experience. But the experience of most far-
mers is so loosely recorded, and indeed the facts on which it is
grounded are so imperfectly observed, that much less advantage
is derived from this source than might be expected ; and con-
clusions which may be confidently relied on are seldom reached.

Various points remain to be settled ; and these can only be
determined by extended comparative experiments. As yet,
these experiments have scarcely been instituted among us.
The importance of a breed of cattle adapted to our climate,
condition, and cultivation, is not yet duly estimated. Among
different breeds of animals, even of those whose characteristics

85

are most distinctly marked, and whose blood is most pure,
there will be found always accidental individuals deficient in
the peculiar properties of the race, or whose characteristic prop-
erties seem almost the reverse of those from whom they are
descended. So likewise among a stock the most mixed and
miscellaneous, as that, for example, which is called our native
breed, may occasionally be found individual animals of re-
markable excellence for the stall or for the dairy. But not-
withstanding these peculiar instances, which seem to transcend
or subvert the general laws of nature, it would be idle to pre-
tend that breeding is mere matter of chance ; and prejudicial to
the true interest of the farmers to overlook the material and
established facts connected with this subject.

The great principle of correspondence between the offspring
and the parent, and the settled point that like has always a
tendency to produce like, need no confirmation. As yet, how-
ever, as already remarked, no systematical attempt has been
made in this county with a view to establish a breed of ani-
mals for the stall ; but farmers depend altogether upon chance-
selections for this object. Franklin County does not produce
much live stock. But it is believed that by extending their culti-
vation, the farmers might raise with advantage many more than
they do ; and. either by the introduction of new breeds or a
more careful selection of those from which they breed, they
might efl"ect valuable and needed improvements.

The introduction of several of the most esteemed foreign
breeds into the country presents an opportunity to the farmers
in every part of the Commonwealth to avail themselves of the
advantages of these improvements, made abroad at an extraor-
dinary expense of money, skill and labor, as far as they may
deem these improvements desirable.

In animals designed for the stall, what is first of all things
to be sought is thrift, or a tendency to keep in good condition,
and to make profitable returns for the care bestowed and the
feed supplied to them. In this respect different races of ani-
mals differ essentially. I have remarked that individuals

86

among all races will be found, who are exceptions to the char-
acteristic traits of the breed to which they belong ; but these
are literally exceptions to a general rule, and make nothing
against the established fact that races of animals are to be
found remarkable for their thrift, and for the liberal return they
give for the food which they consume. The second point
desirable is a disposition in the animals to take on flesh and fat
on the most valuable parts — on those parts which bring the
highest price in the market ; and to have those parts which go
as oftal as small as possible. A third point exceedingly desi-
rable is that they come early to maturity. Some animals ob-
tain their proper growth much sooner than others ; and are as
large at eighteen months as others at three and four years old.
All these points are matters of constitution ; and in some of
the improved races they have been combined in an extraordi-
nary manner.

In the selection of a breed of animals for our purposes, re-
gard must be had to the condition of our country. The pas-
tures in New England are short, and the winters long and
severe, and therefore ill-adapted to a race of large size, of ten-
der habits, and requiring extraordinary keeping and the most
particular care to maintain their condition. The most celebra-
ted breeds in England are the Improved Durham Short-Horn,
the Hereford, the Ayrshire, and the North Devon. Of these
difl"erent races, highly improved animals of each sex, for the
purposes of breeding, have been introduced into the country
and into the State ; and each race has found strong advocates,
who have preferred it to every other. For dairy purposes, as
far as ray own limited experience and observation go, I have
no doubt that the Ayrshire, or a first cross with the Improved
Durham and the Devon, are to be preferred. For early matu-
rity and size as beef animals, the Improved Durham Short-
Horn appear to me to take the lead. But they are tender, and
require extraordinary keeping and care to maintain their good
qualities. They seem better adapted to the rich prairies and
feeding grounds of the Western States than to our scanty pas-

87

tiires. The Hereford, of which some remarkably beautiful
animals have been imported into Albany, have warm advocates
both here and abroad, and come in strong competition with the
Improved Durhams. Those of the Herefords, which 1 have had
the pleasure of seeing, seemed to me considerably larger than
the Devons, but smaller than the Durhams. These were
choice specimens, and were remarkably thrifty and beautiful
animals, clean about the limbs, not so straight on the back and
square behind as the Durhams, but exhibiting upon the whole
admirable constitution and symmetry. Having had no farther
personal observation or experience with this breed of animals,
I will not venture to speak of them with any confidence. Of
their particular qualifications for the dairy I know nothing.
For our purposes as working oxen and for stall-feeding,
the North Devon cattle are most generally approved. This un-
doubtedly is the prevalent stock of the country, though diver-
sified and contaminated by various mixtures. No paitis have
been taken, by systematic efforts, by judicious selection and
by perseverance in endeavors to combine the best qualities and
to eradicate or remedy defects, in order to form from what we
call our native stock a distinct and valuable breed. Indeed,
where the improved blood has been introduced, it has been
suffered, after a short time, to run out through neglect, or to
become degenerate by poor keeping.

With respect to the early maturity of different breeds, that
is, their reaching a fitness for the stall sooner than others, from
several experiments which have come to my knowledge, I
strongly believe that this, to a considerable degree, is matter
of keeping almost as much as of constitution. It is certain
that no animals of any breed whatever will arrive at early ma-
turity without good keeping. It remains to be seen with us
how far any animals of any breed may be advanced with it ;
for nothing can be worse or more adverse in general to im-
provement than the treatment of our calves. There is, be-
yond a doubt, a constitutional tendency in some animals, and
in some races of animals, to keep themselves fat and in good

88

condition. This is what we call thrift, and such animals will
be kept in such condition upon even a less quantity of food
than others will consume, who do no credit to their keeping.

But while no animals can be kept in good condition with-
out good keeping, I believe that the perfection of any ani-
mal depends essentially upon his good keeping from his birth ;
and that severity or hard fare, or negligence while in a grow-
ing state, do an injury to the constitution, and so stint the
growth that no after keeping can ever repair it. I do not
mean to imply that young animals should be excessively
fed and prematurely forced into fatness, for this is another
error prejudicial to the breeder's interest ; — but that the animal
should be so liberally and carefully fed that his growth should
be constantly stimulated, and his progress and development, if
I may be allowed this term, should receive no check. This is
a point, in my opinion, of great importance, which I wish the
farmers would seriously consider ; which, if properly attended
to, would make a most essential difference in the appearance
of their live-stock, and do much to redeem the degeneracy
which to a great extent prevails among them.

I know no greater mistake that farmers commit in respect to
their animals, than in their variable and capricious treatment of
them ; sometimes filling them to repletion, at other times sub-
jecting them to the most severe usage ; taking them, for ex-
ample, from the pastures in the autumn in high condition,
and by hard usage in winter reducing them to mere skel-
etons before the spring. The animal constitution always
suffers essentially by such reverses. It is said that a sheep is
never fat but once. There is a great deal of truth in this
assertion. Perhaps it is to be received with some qualifica-
tions ; but I know how very difficult it is to raise an animal
from a low condition. The farmers prejudice very greatly
their own interest in suffering their milch cows to come out in
the spring in low condition. During the time they are dry,
they think it enough to give them the coarsest fodder, and that
in limited quantities ; this, too, at a time of pregnancy, when

89

they require the kindest treatment and the most nourishing
food. The calf itself under this treatment of the cow is small
and feeble. He finds comparatively insufficient support from his
exhausted dam ; and the return, which the cow makes in milk
during the summer, is much less than it would be, if she came
into the spring in good health and flesh. It requires the whole
summer to recover what she has lost. The animal constitution
cannot be trifled with in this way.

It is so with all live stock, and especially with young ani-
mals at the period of their most rapid growth. They should
not be prematurely forced ; but, on the other hand, they should
not be stinted or checked. It is a very important question,
whether it is more profitable to fatten young animals than older
ones. I have given the different opinions of different farmers
on this subject. In England, it seems an almost universal
opinion, that the sooner an animal can be made fit for the mar-
ket the better, and their fatted animals, especially of the im-
proved breeds, are slaughtered at two and three years old.
They are often brought to market at even an earlier age than
this ; but it is considered, and with reason, that the meat of such
animals is not so good as when they have attained a full
growth. It is natural to suppose that the animal can only be
in perfection when he has ceased to grow, and if killed before
that period, there would seem to be a loss of that enlargement
of size and weight, separate from an increase of fatness, to
which he might attain. While an animal is growing and well
fed at the same time, there is evidently a double gain ; and
if he increases one pound a day by his extra feed, he may
be supposed to increase another pound by his ordinary growth.
After this period, however, it may be advisable to send him to
market as soon as he can be put into condition. Farmers often
make great mistakes in keeping their cattle too long. There
is a reasonable calculation to be made in respect to the markets,
which are generally higher in the spring than in the autumn;
but the advance in price does not always meet the increased
expense of keeping. It is important, as a general rule, that
12

90

the animal should go to market as soon as the gain which he
makes ceases to pay the expense of his keeping. I have known
an instance in which the gain of a pair of cattle during a
whole month, though the feeding was fully continued, was
only one pound. (See Example 5, p. 75.) Here then was a
loss, which might have been avoided ; and it is exceedingly
desirable that the cattle should be weighed from time to time,
in order to determine their progress. This is easily done
by the improved platform balances, now so common in the
country.

A second question of some importance is, whether it is bet-
ter to stall-feed animals of a small or medium size, than those
of large frames. In general, the farmers incline to the medium-
sized animals. Animals do not consume always according to
their size, though in general, animals are kept at an expense in
some measure proportionate to their size. The matter resolves
itself into this simple question ; whether the same amount of
feed will produce more amount of flesh in an animal of moder-
ate than in one of large stature. I do not know that any cer-
tain rule can be laid down in this case. Small-boned, snug
and compactly built animals will be found generally to have a
much stronger tendency to fatness, than animals of large and
coarse frames. But after all, the main point is the thriftiness
of the animal. There is always a much stronger tendency in
some animals to grow fat and to keep fat, than in others, and
where this disposition predominates, the gain is likely to be in
proportion to the size.

The thriftiness of an animal may be in some measure deter-
mined by the eye ; but experienced men, in their judgment on
this point, depend more upon the hand, or what is technically
called, ihe feel of a beast. "It is," says one competent to
speak in these matters, " the nice touch or mellow feel of the
hand,' which, in a great measure, constitutes the judge of cat-
tle ;" and what you wish to find in an ox, is " a thick, loose
skin, floating, as it were, on a layer of soft fat, yielding to the
least pressure, and springing back towards the fingers like a

91

piece of chamois leather, and covered with thick, glossy, soft
hair."

The description given in an English treatise of an animal
best suited to the stall, is so skilfully drawn up, that I will not
forego the pleasure of transcribing it. It follows : — "Attention
should be paid to compactness and symmetry of form, deep
fore 'quarters, wide carcase, fine small bones, moderately thin
hide, a protuberance of fat under the root of the tongue, and
large full eyes. A well-shaped ox should then have a small
head with a placid countenance, as indicating docility, and a
consequent disposition to get fat ; a fine muzzle and open nos-
trils ; the throat should be clean ; long and thin in the neck,
but wide and deep in the shoulders ; the back should be broad
and straight near to the setting on of the tail, with the rump
points fat and coming well up to it ; the barrel should be round,
wide across the loins, and the girth deep behind the shoulders,
with the space between the hip-bone and the first rib very
small ; the fore-legs should be short and wide apart, so as to
present a broad appearance to the chest, and the thighs of the
hind-legs should be shut well in the twist, the seam in the
middle of which should be well filled, and the flanks should
be full and heavy. A form such as this is not only the best
for affording the greatest weight, but will be also generally
found to lay the flesh upon the prime parts, to produce the least
quantity of offal with such a large quantity of tallow, as, em-
phatically speaking, in the butcher's phrase, will cause the ani-
mal to die well. These marks, however, are not the only in-
dications of a propensity to fatten quickly. On the contrary,
it has been found by experience, that many coarse beasts with
large bones and gummy legs, have often proved superior in
that particular to other animals of undoubted superiority in
point of shape ; but those coarse thick hides handled soft and
silky, with a sleeky degree of mellowness, which is the char-
acteristic of a healthy habit, while the skin of the others was
wiry, and their flesh felt hard. The state of the hide and
flesh, therefore, is of the first importance as the essential prop-
erty of handling welV^

92

It has been made a question, whether heifers are not more
profitable than steers. They are as thrifty, and, in general,
pay as well for their keeping. It is the practice of some farm-
ers, to allow them to come in with calves at two years old ;
if at that time they promise well as cows, a good market can
almost always be found for them ; but if otherwise, after suck-
ling the calf three months or more, they are turned out to
be fatted for beef, and are either sold immediately at the close
of the pasturing season, or otherwise, after being stall-fed for a
short time. Their meat, if well fed, is always highly esteem-
ed. This proves, in general, a good operation. In England,
heifers designed for the stall are very frequently spayed^ by
which their thrift is greatly assisted. This is often done in
Kentucky and some other of the Western States ; but I have
never known more than one instance of its being practised in
New England. I do not feel authorized, therefore, to pronounce
upon ils advantages.

It is sometimes asked, whether oxen are injured in their
growth for being worked. If their strength is prematurely
and too severely taxed, or if they are subjected to severe usage,
undoubtedly it must prove injurious ; but, if otherwise, if reas-
onably worked and carefully and kindly attended, there is no
doubt that their health and growth are promoted by it. It is
often matter of inquiry, whether fatting cattle should be kept in
close stalls, or be suffered to lie out-doors. The experience of all
the farmers whom I have consulted, who have made any trial,
is conclusive in this case, in favor of the superior thrift of ani-
mals kept constantly in the barn, or turned out only for water-
ing and immediately put up again, over those which are kept in
open sheds, or tied up for feeding only, and at other times al-
lowed to lie in the yard. No exact experiments have been
made in this county in relation to this subject ; but experi-
ments made abroad lead to the conclusion, that cattle thrive
best in a high and equable temperature, so warm as to keep
them constantly in a state of active perspiration, and that their
thrift is much hindered by an exposure to severe alternations

93

of heat and cold. It is certain, that in order to thrift, cattle
cannot be made too comfortable ; their mangers should be kept
clean ; their stalls be well littered ; and the cattle protected
from currents of air blowing through crevices or holes in the
floors or the sides of the stables, which prove often much more
uncomfortable than an open exposure.

I have known but few trials of the cooking of food for cat-
tle made in the county, and those not exact enough to lead to
confident conclusions. The opinions of an intelligent farmer
in Coleraine are, from repeated experiments, strongly in favor
of cooking potatoes for his fatting stock. The experiments of
another farmer in Deerfield, as to cooking vegetables of differ-
ent kinds and Indian meal, satisfied him that the advantages,
if any, derived from it, were not an equivalent for the increased
trouble and expense. Some very exact experiments made in
Scotland, in relation to this subject, lead to the same conclu-
sions.

Punctuality in the hours of feeding should be most rigidly
observed. The animal stomach is a very nice measurer of
time. In general, the farmers are in the practice of only two
feedings a day, in which case they do not place aU the food
before their beasts at one time, but stay by them and give it to
them as fast as they will eat it up clean. Nothing is more im-
portant than to keep the animal as quiet and as well satisfied
as possible ; and if the time of feeding is variable, or the usual
hour is passed over, he becomes hungry and restless, and his |
condition will suffer of course.

The loss in driving a fat animal from any part of this county
to Brighton market, is generally rated at one hundred pounds.
The drover receives for driving to market, expenses on the
road, and commissions on sale, two dollars for each animal.
Some farmers in the southern part of the county may avail
themselves by driving to Springfield of the opportunity of
sending their beasts to market in the cars on the Western Rail-
road, by which, time would be saved, and the animals brought
into the market in much better condition than if driven the

94

whole distance ; but for farmers in other parts of the county,
the Rail-road is evidently too remote.

I have gone thus fully into the subject of fatting cattle, be-
cause it is one of the great interests of the county. As at pre-
sent conducted, it certainly is not managed to a profit ; and if
pursued extensively and exclusively on any farm, is not un-
likely to eventuate in the embarrassment and ruin of the farmer.
From the best observation, which I have been able to make, I
have found very few instances in which a pair of cattle or a
single ox kept for any length of time in the stall, have ever
made compensation for the produce which they or he con-
sume, even at prices considerably below the current prices in
the market. There are occasional and accidental exceptions,
but they are very seldom to be met with. There is sometimes
a sudden rise in the market, but this is a matter so entirely ca-
pricious, that no calculation is to be made on grounds like
these. If the farmers could by superior skill and cultivation
double their crops, a result which I fully^ believe to be within
their power, and instead of being satisfied with thirty-five,
would raise seventy bushels of corn to the acre, and instead of
two hundred bushels of potatoes, would produce four and five
hundred bushels to the acre, estimating these articles at their
cost and not at the market price, the result would be entirely
different, that is, in making up the year's account of the farm.

It has been supposed that farmers by going extensively into
the cultivation of esculent roots, such as carrots, ruta-baga,
parsnips, or mangel-wurtzel, could fatten cattle to much more
advantage, or rather at much less expense than on hay or corn.
This deserves great consideration. On this subject we want
light, and that which springs from actual and intelligent expe-
rience. My belief is, that for the fatting of cattle, where the
coarse fodder is well saved, few crops are more profitable to the
farmer than a crop of Indian corn at the rate of seventy bush-
els to the acre. Next to corn, potatoes at the rate of four hun-
dred bushels to the acre, would be a profitable crop. In num-
ber of bushels to the acre, there is no doubt that more can be

95

produced and at a less expense of cultivation and harvesting of
common turnips, of ruta-baga and of mangel-wurtzel, than of
potatoes. But it is believed that more nutritive matter can be
obtained from one hundred bushels of potatoes, than from two
hundred of common turnips. Ruta-baga and mangel-wurtzel,
have undoubtedly a great superiority over the common white tur-
nip, but these are much inferior to the best and most farinaceous
potatoes. Hay is without question one of the best articles
which can be given to fattening animals ; but where an abund-
ance of meal or of esculent vegetables is given, the nature of
the long feed to be given them seems of much less importance.
Rye, wheat, or oat straw, in such case, is found to be given
with an almost equal advantage as the best hay. Many of the
best beasts iu England are fatted upon straw and turnips. In
England, it is considered as doing well, if an acre of turnips
will fatten an ox for market. An experienced farmer here
is of opinion, that one hundred bushels of potatoes with a
small amount of hay will fatten an ox. Another says, that he
allows twenty-five bushels of corn to fatten an ox, and but little
hay will be required. A very good farmer in Charlemont,
speaks very strongly in favor of potatoes for fattening cattle.
A cow fatted by him on potatoes, showed one hundred lbs.
of tallow. The experience of many farmers confirms this es-
timate of their value. Yet one of the best feeders in Deer-
field disapproves the use of them. I believe this, however,
to be more the effect of prejudice than of careful experience.
Oil meal has been used by some farmers and much approved ;
but it is not estimated as of equal value with Indian meal.
These are very loose statements, but I deemed them worth re-
cording in the hope that they may induce to more carefulness
of observation and some exact experiments.

It is curious to compare the gain of fatting cattle with the
actual cost of keeping. Two pounds live weight per day in
an ox are considered a large gain. The largest gain mentioned
in this report is a little more than three pounds per day. At seven
dollars per hundred, this would be equal to twenty-seven cents.

96

To make this, we suppose the animal to receive one peck of
Indian meal, which, at 66| cents per bushel, would be 16| cents,
and 28 lbs. of hay, which, at 8 dollars per 2000 lbs., would be
11 cents and 2 mills, or both about 28 cents. Or suppose him
to gain only 2 lbs. per day, which would be 14 cents ; and his
daily allowance of meal be reduced to 4 quarts, and hay the
same as before, the daily cost of keeping would be about 20
cents ; in which case, if we place the manure as an offset for
the attendance, interest and commissions on sale, &c., there
will be a loss of about six cents per day. I believe the result
is often much worse than this ; and it is much to be regretted
that farmers are not willing to look these facts in the face. I
do not mean to deny that there are instances of success in
this department of husbandry, instances in which the farmer is
well paid for his trouble and attendance, and receives a full
compensation for the feed supplied to them ; but these instances
are comparatively rare, and so much matter of contingency,
that even the most skilful farmers cannot always rely upon
their best judgment. The farmer always feels satisfied, if he
can, as he terms it, double his money ; that is, if he receives
for his cattle in the market, twice as much as they cost him,
when he first put them into the stall. This is sometimes done.
It is seldom exceeded ; and fatteners often fall short of it. But
whether this shall happen or not, depends on so many contin-
gencies, as what is the cost of the cattle in the fall, what is
the state of the markets in the spring, how long the cattle are
to be kept in the stall, and what is the amount of food required
to their fattening, that it is extremely difficult to anticipate the
result, from a mass of elements so uncertain and fluctuating.

With respect to a business, as it is now pursued so uncertain
in its results as this is, the minds of intelligent and observing
farmers have long been inquisitive as to the best means of pur-
suing it, so as to make it if possible productive ; or if not profit-
able, so as to guard against the uncertainties which attach to
it, or the serious losses and disappointments which it often in-
volves. Whether this is practicable, and to what extent it is
practicable, are highly interesting inquiries.

97

One point is fully settled, that it is for the interest of the
farmer as far as possible to raise his own stock. I have already
remarked on this point in speaking of the advantages with
which in doing this he might apply to the support of such
stock the coarse fodder of his farm. A good deal now is
suffered to perish in the field, or is consumed there to very lit-
tle advantage, which might be applied to the raising of young
stock. Much of our straw of grain, which is now applied to
purposes of mere litter, might undoubtedly with more advantage
be applied as the feed of stock, if, at the same time, we should
produce other articles to go with it. If the English can rear
stock, and fatten stock of the very best quality upon straw and
turnips, why cannot we do the same ? I do not mean to speak
of turnips in preference to any other crop. I am disposed to
think that there are other esculent vegetables, which may be
raised for stock in equal amount to an acre, at a not much
greater expense, and to a greater profit than turnips. Farmers
can only determine this by actual experiment. But I mean
simply to say, that the farmers may raise to advantage, some
esculent vegetables, such as turnips, ruta-baga, mangel-wurtzel,
carrots, beets or parsnips, which combined with straw would
enable them to consume their straw with advantage to them-
selves and to their stock.

Few farmers on the river have pasturage sufficient for the
summer keeping of stock, even if they had the means of sus-
taining them in the winter. But pasturage can always be had
at reasonable rates either for the land or the feed, within a dis-
tance not great; or such stock could be sent in summer even
to a considerable distance, where pasturage might be found at
very low rates ; and the extraordinary advantages, which a
farmer would find in raising his own stock for his stall instead
of purchasing them, can admit of no question.

But there is another mode of raising stock, by those who
have a small extent of pasturage connected with their farms,
which I am persuaded might often be pursued to a great profit ;
and that is by soiling-r-that is, by feeding them with green feed

13

\

98

:n the barn or the yard. This might be conducted on many
farms, I believe, with signal profit ; and one very prominent
advantage which would come from it, would be the abundance
of manure, to be made in this way.

I will not pursue this subject in this place, having already
devoted a large space to its consideration ; but, with one ob-
vious truth, those who fatten cattle for the market cannot be
too strongly impressed, which is, that in fattening a young an-
imal, the farmer has not only the advantage of the gain of the
animal in fatness, but likewise his actual growth ; the latter
may, in many cases, be considered as equal to the former.

10. Sheep. — The next portion of live stock in the county,
which deserves our notice, is sheep. Of sheep six months old
and upwards, there are returned to the last Valuation Commit-
tee, 50,141, and, in respect to numbers, Franklin stands third
in the Commonwealth, containing, however, only about five-
twelfths as many as are found in Berkshire county. The num-
ber returned by Benton and Barry in 1837, amounted to 55,975.
These amounts, it is presumed, refer only to store sheep. Be-
sides these, large numbers of wether sheep are purchased an-
nually to be fatted for the market, few of which are kept over
six, and many not more than three and four months.

The largest flock of sheep kept by any one farmer in the
county within my knowledge does not exceed nine hundred.
Few flocks exceed two and three hundred, and many farmers
keep only a small number. The sheep are kept almost entire-
ly in the hill towns, where pasturage is abundant. Ashfield,
Coleraine, Charlemont, Leyden and Conway are the towns in
which the sheep husbandry prevails.

The kind of sheep principally kept are of fine wool, and,
generally, three-fourths and seven-eighths blood of the merino.
The Saxony have been introduced, and the wool of some of
the flocks is of remarkable fineness. The Saxony, however,
do not prevail to much extent, as most of the sheep are bred
without an extraordinary expense of care or pains in the se-

99

lection of the fines t-wooled, or the preservation of purity of
blood. Of the finest-wooled Saxony sheep very little pure
stock is to be found in the county. Of the sheep found in this
county, generally, the average yield of well-washed wool is
about three pounds. This, however, must be considered as a
large estimate. From the accounts of the product in wool,
given at the time of the introduction of the merino into the
country from Spain, when four pounds and more to a sheep
were stated as the yield of whole flocks, there would seem to
have been a decline in their productiveness. This is, however,
with more probability, attributable to the cleaner washing of
the wool, than what formerly prevailed. It may be likewise
that, at that time, when from their rareness they were exorbi-
tantly valued compared with present prices, they were kept
with much more liberality than they now are. The effect of
high keeping is to increase the quantity of the wool, while it
renders it less fine. It may be owing, in some degree, to ano-
ther circumstance, which is the suffering the breed to deteriorate
from a want of care and selection in the propagation. The
yield of the pure Saxony is seldom more than two pounds to
a sheep, and, in many large flocks, it is less than this. In one
case where the wool was of a very superior quality, the yield
was only one pound and ten ounces per head. Yet I know,
on the other hand, where extraordinary skill and care are used
both in the keeping and breeding of the sheep, at least three
extensive flocks, the average yield of which is nearly three
pounds of well-washed wool, which has commanded one, and
sometimes one and a half dollar per lb.

The hilly portions of the county are well adapted to the
sheep husbandry, though of late years the fluctuations and
the reduction in the prices of wool have discouraged it. There
is, however, as far as the raising of wool is concerned, a com-
pensation for this in the low price of the fine-wooled sheep,
compared with that which they formerly commanded. The
sheep are kept in general until five and seven years old ; and
the annual increase of a well-managed flock, may be set down

lOU

as from one quarter to one third, that is, one iamb raised to every
fom- or three wintered, incUiding all kinds. The losses, under
indiscreet or negligent management, are sometimes very great.
Sheep are sometimes suffered to lamb too early ; the ewes are,
in some cases, very poorly kept ; there is a want of provision,
as it respects warmth and comfort of the ewes in the season of
yeaning ; and no provision of succulent food is made for them
where they come in before the season of grass. The fine-
wooled sheep require particular care ; they are more tender
than our native sheep or the mixed bloods ; but there are, with-
in my knowledge, individuals, whose management is so excel-
lent, that they would think almost as much of losing a lamb
through neglect, as of losing a child ; and with flocks of the
very finest-wooled Saxony sheep, I have known one hundred
and one lambs raised from one hundred ewes. Such are the
results of superior skill and carefulness, which never fail to
bring with them an ample reward.

The cost of keeping a sheep is, of course, differently esti-
mated in different parts of the country. In a report made some
years since to a committee of Congress, the cost was put down
at one dollar per head through the year. There is no part of
Massachusetts where this will nearly meet the expense. Many
farmers are in the habit of rating the keeping of ten sheep, as
equal to the keeping of one cow. This is an equally loose
mode of estimating it. It may not be amiss in this case, to
refer to some actual trials of the amount of food consumed in
a given time.

Bordley states that a ton (2,240 lbs.) of hay was eaten by
700 sheep in a day, which was equal to 3 2-10 lbs. each, and
the supply was scanty. Featherstonhaugh, dating from Duanes-
burgh. New York, says : — " The winters here, average about
135 days of foddering ; and I know, by actual experiment,
that 7 healthy sheep during that period, will eat a ton of hay,
which, valued at seven dollars, leaves each sheep charged with
a dollar per head for wintering. This would be at the rate of
2 10-23 lbs. per day. Fifty-two sheep in a trial of 23 days, be-

101

sides 31-100 of a quart of com each per day, consumed 1 12-25
lb, of hay. Twenty sheep in another case, besides a liberal
allowance of turnips and corn, consumed 305 lbs. of hay in
7 days, which was equal to 2 5-28 lbs. per day. These exper-
iments give very different results ; something is without doubt
to be attributable to the kind and condition of the sheep.
Sheep of a large size will require more than the smaller kinds,
and sheep in a lean condition more than those which are fat.
It will be but reasonable to allow, I think, 2 lbs. of hay as the
daily consumption of a healthy sheep in the winter. Our
sheep in general, require foddering at the barn, ordinarily 5
months or 150 days in the year, which would be 300 lbs. of
hay to a sheep. This, at six dollars per ton, would be 90 cts.
Add to this 1 bushel of oats, 33 cents, and 30 weeks pasturage
at 3 cents per week, 90 cents, — the whole, two dollars and
thirteen cents. Add to this, the interest upon the value of the
sheep, two dollars, at 10 per cent, risks included, 20 cents.
Total, two dollars and thirty-three cents. We may substitute
for the bushel of oats, li bushel of ruta-baga, at 10 cents per
bushel, 15 cents ; and we may reduce the price of pasturage
to 2 cents per week, which would be 60 cents. Total, one dollar
and sixty-five cents, for the yearly keeping of a sheep. We
may consider the manure as an equivalent for the attendance
and interest. Now, what is the return for this keeping ? Three
lbs. of wool, at fifty cents per lb., one dollar and fifty cents ;
1 lamb in 4, or one fourth of a lamb, that is, fifty cents, which
returns produce two dollars per head. Such a result as this,
would be deemed a full and profitable compensation. These
calculations are of course necessarily affected by a variety of
circumstances, such as the season and state of the markets,
and the kind of sheep, so that it is difficult, by any mode of
calculation, to arrive at precision in results which may be
affected by so many contingencies. The farmer may always
feel satisfied if he can get a fair compensation for his produce, ,
making all due allowance for the consumption of it on the
place. This, with good management, the sheep husbandry is,

102

under favorable circumstances, as likely to do as any branch
of husbandry which is pursued It is attended with as few
risks as any, and the care of no live stock is more agreeable to
a person interested in domestic animals.

Of the different kinds of sheep among us, in selecting those
which are to be reared, regard must be had to the circumstances
of a farmer's location, and the objects for which he raises
them. At present among us, the demand for the very finest
kinds of wool is not so great as for those of a medium quali-
ty ; nor does the price, which is paid for it, bear so fair a pro-
portion to the expense and difficulty of raising it. The yield
of the finest Saxonies is not more than 2^ lbs. ; and notwith-
standing the extraordinary success of some persons in raising
them, it must be admitted that they are more tender than other
sheep ; and more likely to suffer from the severity of our win-
ters. At eighty cents per lb., which would be much beyond
present prices, the yield would be one dollar and eighty cents ;
but there is little prospect of the price of wool being so high
again very soon. The Saxony sheep being more common,
and the price of wool being reduced, there is, of course, much
less demand for the lambs, which were, at one time, readily
sold for ten and fifteen dollars each. The inferior size of the
Saxony sheep renders them unsuitable for mutton.

The next kind of sheep common among us is the merino.
The Saxony may be considered as an improved merino. The
true merino, formerly introduced into the country from Spain,
is a sheep of considerably larger size than the Saxony, and its
wool inferior in point of fineness, yet more adapted to general
use. Of the pure merino, very few flocks exist in the coun-
try ; the seven eighths and three fourths blooded, are the most
common. These, in general, give a clip of three pounds; and
when the finest Saxony brings a price of eighty cents, this
may be expected to command fifty to sixty cents. At fifty
cents, it would produce one dollar and fifty cents ; at sixty cents,
one dollar and eighty cents, which would be equal to the yield
of the Saxony at eighty cents, with the advantage on the part

103

of the merino, of superior hardiness and more certain success
in raising lambs. These prices are considerably beyond the
present market (1841). Besides these, there have been intro-
duced into the country, the Dishley or Bakewell sheep. These
sheep are remarkable for their size, symmetry, and fatness.
7^hey have small and clean heads, broad and flat backs, square
and full sterns, and round bodies; and, when in high condition,
may be said to display the art of breeding in perfection. No ani-
mals can be more beautiful. Their wool is long, and adapted
for spinning into worsted. The average clip is from six to
seven pounds, which, when half-blood merino commands forty
cents, will bring about thirty cents per lb. They are of a ten-
der constitution, and require particular care and most liberal
keeping. Their mutton is generally highly valued in the mar-
ket, though it is too much loaded with fat, excepting for the
epicurean palate. The four quarters, after being dressed,
often considerably exceed one hundred pounds, and, in some
cases, one hundred and fifty pounds. Attempts have been
made to improve the size of the merino, by crossing them with
the Dishley. The first cross has succeeded well, but the sec-
ond has resulted in the deterioration of both. The short-wooled
and the long-wooled being distinct races from each other should
not be intermingled.

The next breed of sheep likely to become prominent among
us is the South-Down. These are a sheep of medium size,
very compact in form, with clean heads and black feet and
muzzles ; extremely hardy, maintaining themselves in good
condition even upon inferior keeping ; and affording as fine
mutton as can be sent into the market. The average yield of
wool on the South-Down is three and a half pounds. The
pile is short, and the quality in respect to fineness, inferior to
the merino, though it is of ready sale with the manufacturers.
There is little doubt that a judicious cross of the South-Downs
with the merinos, would greatly improve the hardiness and
mutton properties of the latter, and the quality of the wool of
the former ; and is likely to give us a sheep well adapted to

104

our climate and mode of keeping and to the production of wool
and mutton. As yet, these sheep have been diffused in the
State in a very limited degree ; but as some of the best of the
kind for breeding have been introduced into the country, and
are available to the farmers upon reasonable terms, we may-
hope that this stock will soon be appreciated and greatly ex-
tended.

Of what is called our native sheep, we can scarcely be said
to have any distinct race. The sheep which our farmers were
accustomed to keep, before the introduction of the fine-wooled
varieties, were a large, coarse-boned, and coarse-wooled animal,
yielding from three to four pounds of coarse wool, extremely
hardy, propagating fast, and presenting occasionally accidental
individuals of great thrift and size. But the fine-wooled sheep
have been so extensively spread in the country, that it is ex-
tremely difficult to find any animals, which are not more or
less tinctured with their blood. By a selection, however, from
what remains of the old stock, individuals are often found ad-
mirably suited for stall-feeding for the market.

The demand for mutton within twenty years past has been
constantly increasing, and so is likely to continue. This has
given much encouragement to the business of fatting wethers
for the market ; and, in general, this, it is believed, has paid a
much better profit than the stall-feeding of beef. The con-
sumption of the produce of the farm upon the farm is, in this
way, rendered easy. The manure produced by the folding and
stall-feeding of sheep, especially where, as should always be
the case, they are abundantly supplied with litter and likewise
with turnips, or other succulent vegetables, is equal in value
to any which can be produced in its application to cultivated
grain crops, or to grass lands ; and where the raw material is
abundant, may be made in quantities which would surprise
the inexperienced. It is in England with sheep, as it is with
neat-cattle, that many of their best sheep are fatted upon straw
and turnips, without either hay or grain. The fatting of ani-
mals by such a process, must undoubtedly require a much longer

105

time than is given among us to that object ; and in our Indian
corn and meal, we have an article for this object, which, in
nutritive properties, when given to almost any animal, is not
surpassed, if it be equalled, by any others. Our sheep, in gen-
eral, are fed with hay, corn or meal, oil-cake, and potatoes ;
and if put up in good condition, are in six weeks, under ju-
dicious and faithful care, made fit for market. In selecting
sheep for fatting, it is indispensable to success, to select those
which are in thrifty and good condition. If is in vain
to undertake by any mode of feeding, to fat a poor or lean
sheep with any hope whatever of profit or success. The
greatest profit will always be made upon the fattest and thrif-
tiest sheep ; and loss is almost certain to be incurred by any at-
tempt to stall-feed a lean or unthrifty sheep. The best age for
selecting wethers to fatten, is from three to five years old.
They must be fed with the utmost regularity and exactness ;
strangers must not be suftered to go among them ; and the
greatest pains must be taken not to disturb or alarm them. If
folded, fifty are as many as should ever be put in one enclosure,
and a less number would be better. There should be a shed
under which they may take shelter at their pleasure, and
where they may always find a dry bed ; and their yards, like-
wise, should be always abundantly littered, because if suffered
or compelled to stand in wet yards, where there exists a pre-
disposition, they are liable to become infected with the foot
rot, a most troublesome disorder, and fatal to all thrift, separate
from its infectious character, which will cause it to diffuse it-
self rapidly through a large flock. Their feeding troughs,
likewise, and mangers, should be kept thoroughly clean, and
their yards well supplied with pure water. In selecting sheep
for stall-feeding, the fine-wooled kinds often make up for want
of size in the superior value of the fleece.

This matter is of so much importance to the farmers in the
interior, that I shall go more at large into it, and illustrate it
bysome actual experiments, of which I have received an au-
thentic account.

14

106

1. Experiment in stall-feeding sheep.

Forty wether sheep from 2 to 3 years old. Cost f 1 92 each.
Put up 1st December ; sold 5th March, at $4 per head in the
yard.

Feed. From 1 Dec. to 15 Dec. 1 gill of corn per day, 600 gills,
15 " 29 " 2 gills " " 1120 "
29 " 14 Feb. 3 " =' " 5640 "

equal to 28| bs.
From 14 Feb. to 5 March, 1 bs. per day to 40 sheep, 19

Total of corn, 47f bs.

From 1 Dec. to 10 Jan. 3 bushels of turnips per day, 123
10 Jan. to 5 March, between 5 and 6 bs. say 5J 297

Total of turnips, 420 bs.

Hay by estimation, 2000 lbs. at 10 dollars.

Corn 47f bushels at 50 cents, . . . . 24 00

Turnips 420 " 10 " .... 42 00

Hay 2000 lbs. at $10 10 00

Cost of 40 sheep at $1 92 each, . . . . 76 80

$152 80
Proceeds of sale at $4 each, 5th March, . . 160 00

Balance in favor of sheep, . . $7 20

Manure considered equivalent to the attendance.

2. Experiment in stall-feeding sheep.
Dec. 9th. Put up to be stall-fed 50 wether sheep,
" 17th. " " 12 "

'' 18th. " " 52 ''

114 at $2 50 each, $285

107

Feed consumed by them as follows.
Swedish turnips (ruta-baga) 862 bushels at 10 cents,
English flat turnips 125 " 5 "

Indian corn 37 " 70 "

Hay (rowen) 9942 lbs. at 40 cents per 100 lbs.

$158 11
Sales of above sheep, 62 at .f 4 each, and 52 at

$4 08 each — advance on 114 .... 175 16

86

20

6

25

25

90

39

76

Net balance in favor of the sheep, . $17 05

N. B, It was noted that the thrift of the above sheep was
injured by the prevalence of the foot-rot among them ; and
the sale affected by a large number in the market on the day
they were off"ered. Had they been offered a month earlier,
they would have brought as much as at the time they were
sold. In regard to circumstances of this nature, no certain cal-
culations can be made ; but they illustrate the caprices to which
all such operations are liable.

3. Experiment in stall-feeding sheep.

180 wether sheep of superior size and condition were put
up to be stall-fed on the 1st of December.

125 delivered on the 11th Feb. were sold at $5 per head.
55 " " 18th " " $5 25 "

Cost of the above sheep.
118 wether sheep at $2 50 per head, .

2 " cosset sheep at $3 00 per head,
60 " sheep at $3 06| per head.
Commissions for purchase and driving, 25 cents each.
Interest on $530 at 10 per cent, including risks,

$543 00

295

00

G

00

183

75

, 45

00

13

25

108

Produce consumed in fatting the above sheep.
519 bushels turnips at 10 cents per bushel, . . 51 90
151 " of corn at 75 " " . . 113 25

Hay at 2J lbs. per day each, 33,362 lbs.

Tons 16, 1,362 lbs. at $8 per 2,000 lbs. . . 133 44

$841 59
Cash received for above sheep, . . . . 913 75

Net balance in favor of the sheep, . . . $72 16

Note. The amount of hay charged as above was matter
of estimate rather than of measurement. Twenty of the above
flock, put by themselves and fed as fully as possible, consumed
in three days, 150 lbs. ; and in the succeeding four days 155
lbs. or 305 lbs in seven days=2 5-28 lbs. each per day. On a
previous trial of this kind of a flock of sheep of a smaller av-
erage size, the consumption of hay was equal t© 1 48-100 each
per day. Amend the account then by allowing 2 lbs. each per
day.

From 33,362 lbs. deduct 1-5=26,690 lbs. cost 106 76

Now 133 44 106 76=26 68 cents, . . 26 86

Call the interest and risk 7 per cent, instead of 10 per

cent. $13 25 9 27=3 98 . . , . 3 98

Estimate the turnips at 8 cents instead of 10 cents,

$51 90 41 52=10 38 10 38

Amount of difference in charges in favor of sheep, 41 04

Add former balance in their favor, . . . 72 16

Balance in favor of the sheep, $113 20

The above sheep, when put up, were in good condition and
of a large size taken as a whole. The price at which they

109

were sold was low compared with many sales at the time.
The native blood predominated in them.

These are the most exact experiments which have come
within my knowledge in regard to the fatting of wethers.
The result is in a degree subject to the same caprices and fluc-
tuations as the fatting of beef; but in general, under good man-
agement, it affords a compensatory return. The towns of
Shelburne and Conway, are particularly interested in this mat-
ter, and they are in the habit of sending annually many very
fat sheep to Brighton market. The ordinary commissions
charged for driving fat sheep from Connecticut river to Boston,
are from twenty-five cents to thirty-tliree cents each ; fifty
cents are sometimes charged, where the sheep are remarkably
valuable.

I will subjoin some miscellaneous notes, which will serve to
illustrate the general mode of keeping sheep.

D. B. has sixty wether sheep in preparation for market. He
allows them as much hay as they will eat, and three pecks of
corn and two bushels of potatoes daily among the whole. He
will, by degrees, increase their feed.

A. A. has seventy-five fatting sheep, and having lately added
to their feed, gives them five pecks of corn per day and one
bushel of potatoes with as much hay as they will consume,
feeding them five times a day. He mentions the case of an
excellent flock of sheep which were fatted upon corn, with
liberty to go to a stock of poor meadow at their pleasure. To
use his own expression, " the corn did the work." The qual-
ity of the hay does not seem important.

O. N., one of the best feeders in the country, has fifty-five
sheep in one yard. At daylight he gives them a feed of corn,
dividing it so as to give the flock about one bushel and a peck
in the course of the day ; after that, a foddering of hay ; at
nine o'clock, another foddering of hay ; at twelve o'clock, an-
other feeding of corn, the same as in the morning ; after which,
another feeding of hay ; at four o'clock, p. m., another feeding
of hay and the same measure of corn as before. He thinks it

110

best to have them finish their eating by night, so as not to be
disturbed after dark ; and that they rehsh their corn best at
night.

N. D. and G, D. have one hundred and eighty fatting sheep.
Feed with corn and hay ; began with one pint and now aver-
age about one quart of corn per day. Their sheep are un-
commonly fine. The Hve weight of one, 180 lbs.

I. N. has one hundred wethers ; fifty of them of a superior
character. To the one hundred, gives one bushel, heaped
measure, of oil meal per day with hay. His oil meal costs
him twenty dollars per ton, besides the expense of transporta-
tion twenty-five miles.

D. N. has sixty sheep. To the sixty gives half a bushel of
oil meal and half a bushel of corn per day.

G. S. has fifty-eight sheep. Corn and hay only are allowed.
Allows one and half bushel of corn per day to the fifty-eight
sheep.

A. R. has three hundred sheep — in pens of twenty-five sheep
in each. His aim is to induce the sheep, besides hay, to take
one quart of corn each, given at three times a day.

T. R. has one hundred and twelve sheep. Feeds with corn
and hay. Fifty of them have one bushel per day. The best
and most forward have one quart each. The live weight of
one, two hundred and ten lbs.

G. D., an experienced feeder, is of opinion that no advantage
is gained by giving the sheep meal instead of unground corn.

E. T., long familiar with the fatting of sheep, prefers weth-
ers to ewes ; prefers merinos to other sheep ; buys them at dif-
ferent ages, so that they come to the stall in succession ; thinks
five years old the best age for fattening ; and chooses to feed
them moderately until a short time before he intends to market
them, as, in his experience, they will not pay the cost of high
feeding during a long time. He often begins in March to feed
sheep, which he designs to send to market after shearing. He
is accustomed to keep his store-wethers in the yard with his
cattle upon the orts and husks that are thrown out to them. —

Ill

He is careful not to suffer his fatting-wethersever to be disturb-
ed. When he begins to feed with corn, he never permits his
sheep to be hungry. He keeps his sheep upon rowen the first
part of the season ; thinlcs merino sheep are kept at less ex-
pense than native ; and deems the fattening of sheep profitable.
He mentions a case in which he bought sixty merino wethers in
June for 133 cents each ; and sold fifty of them in the ensuing
March for 600 dollars. His wether sheep, which are not sent
to market until after shearing, often give four lbs. of wool at
a clip.

1. Weight of Sheep. — The weights of ten Dishley weth-
er sheep, fatted by a farmer in this county and sold in Bos-
ton, were as follows. The four quarters only were weighed, —
Three of them weighed 100 lbs. each ; one, SO lbs. ; one, 82
lbs. ; one, 90 lbs. ; one, 91 lbs. ; one, 95 lbs. ; one, 107 lbs.;
one, 110 lbs. Total, 995 lbs. The average weight of rough
tallow to each was 13 lbs. These sheep were three years old,
and were fed mainly upon hay and Indian corn. They con-
sumed, during the latter part of their stall-feeding, more than a
pint and a half of Indian corn each per day. Though a quart
was, in some cases, eaten by them, yet it was found to be more
than they required. Twenty dollars per head were offered for
them by the drover before they left the yard ; but, owing to an
extraordinary change in the market, the owner received only
fifteen dollars for them after being driven to Brighton.

2. Early LAivres. — The practice of raising early lambs for
market has prevailed with some farmers. One excellent farm-
er, to whom I particularly refer, has had his native ewes of
good size, crossed with a Dishley ram, and arranged to have
them lamb in January and February. Having every provision
for the comfortable accommodation of the ewes and Iambs at
that inclement season, he has succeeded in raising very fine
lambs for the early market, which have brought him two and
three dollars a-piece. In such cases, his sheep pay him a large
profit. There is no doubt that the practice might be extended
to much advantage.

112

3. Housing Sheep.— A good deal of discussion has been
had among farmers as to the propriety of housing sheep in
winter, and the practice of farmers in this respect is various.
The question cannot be answered without regard to circum-
stances. Our own native sheep bear exposure without injury
or sufTering. Few of them have known any other than the
most severe usage, and under such treatment have acquired a
hardiness of constitution adapted to their condition. Full-
blooded merino sheep, likewise, if they were susceptible to its
rigors when first introduced, have become inured to the climate.
It is not so, however, with the Saxony, which are a tender race
and need very tender treatment. All sheep which lamb early
require shelter and a warm cote. The wool, likewise, is ren-
dered coarser by exposure to the weather ; and the quantity
and compactness of the wool seem to bear a relation to the
weather. This is a beneficent provision of the Creator, that
the constitutions both of animals and vegetables should become^
within certain limits, fitted to their condition.

The practice of farmers in regard to housing their sheep, as I
have remarked, is various. I have known a case in which a large
flock of fine-wooled sheep have been kept confined in a close
stable or barn the whole winter, without ever being let out
even for the purpose of watering. An abundance of litter was
furnished in this instance, and the sheep were kept as dry as
the nature of the case admitted of. But the deaths in this farm-
er's flock were always numerous, and the health of the sheep
suffered without question from a corrupted atmosphere. In
other cases I have known farmers — and this appeared to me,
when in that part of the country, to be the general practice
with many extensive sheep-owners in Vermont and the north-
eastern part of New York — not to allow their sheep any shelter
in winter but that which they find behind the walls or under
a hay-stack. They have insisted upon it that, under this treat-
ment, their losses were many times less than when closely
sheltered.

As well as I can judge, from the observations and experience

113

of different farmers, a medium practice is to be preferred ; and
that is, to have sheds connected with the sheep-yards and open
to the south, where the sheep may take shelter when they
choose. It is natural to suppose that they are the best judges of
their own comfort. From snow, even from severe snow-storms,
sheep suffer httle ; but heavy rains in winter, where the fleece
becomes fully charged with wet and then freezes, are prejudicial
to their health, although their thick fleeces are almost as repel-
lent of water as the well-oiled feathers of birds.

3. Care of the Ewes. — The lambing season, if it be ear-
ly, demands great care. Most of the farmers are accustomed to
arrange for their lambs to come the last of April and through
May, when the sheep can get a good bite of grass. The ob-
jections to this are, that the late lambs do not go through the
ensuing winter so well as those which come earlier ; and that,
where sheep are sent to a distance from home to pasture, acci-
dents frequently occur which might be guarded against if the
shepherd were at hand. On the other hand, if lambs are to
come early, and before the sheep leave the barn, it is desirable
to have some succulent vegetable food for ewes, such as turnips
or potatoes. One of the most skilful and experienced shep-
herds in the country disapproves the giving of corn or rye to
sheep in milk, and considers potatoes the best succulent vege-
table which can be given to them. The Shakers consider a
bushel of oats for sheep, better than a bushel of corn. I do
not know the grounds of this judgment ; and after all it may be
with them mere prejudice. They are not alone however in this
opinion of the superior value of oats to corn for store-sheep. For
fatting-wethers corn is far preferable. In old countries abroad,
it is the practice for the shepherd, during the lambing season, to
sleep in the barn, that, in case of need, he may render assist-
ance to the ewes during the night. It happens in these cases,
as in all others in life, that the most careful are the most suc-
cessful ; and that what the indolent and improvident generally
denominate bad luck is only the natural consequence of neglect
and bad management.
15

114

Some farmers are accustomed to turn their sheep into pas-
tures without water, under pretence that they get enough
from the dew. There is cruelty in doing this, as sheep require
water as much as other animals, and suffer severely from the
privation. The habits of sheep, likewise, are particularly clean-
ly ; and pains should be taken, whether in the yard or pasture,
that they should have free access to clean water. An extensive
sheep-holder in a neighboring county has kept his sheep with-
out salt. There can be no doubt that this is an error, and that
salt is an essential condiment to their health. It is advisable to
place it in their pastures in small troughs with a roof over them,
that the salt may not be wasted by rains, and that the sheep
may be prevented from getting into or over the trough which
contains it. This is easily effected by a simple contrivance,
which will suggest itself. The common practice of throwing
the salt upon the ground is wasteful, and on other accounts ob-
jectionable.

4. Manger for Sheep. — Among the various racks and man-
gers which I have seen for feeding sheep, there is a simple form
which seems preferable to any other : it is as cheaply construct-
ed as any other, and it prevents all waste. In the common form
of racks, where they are inclined outward from the bottom up-
ward, nearly as much hay is drawn out and trodden under foot
as is consumed by the sheep.

The manger which is preferable to any other is of such
length as to be easily moved by two persons, and is made with
four or more upright posts, and with two boards or slats extend-
ing the whole distance round its sides and ends. The bottom
board on the side may be ten or twelve inches in width ; and
above that, leaving a space of about a foot or fourteen inches,
there may be another board of about six or eight inches in
width. The width of the manger or box should be about two
feet. It should have a tight bottom, with two pieces of board
rising to a point in the centre, say about four or six inches, so
as to form a trough on each side, into which when grain or cut
vegetables are put, they may be easily reached by the sheep on

115

the side on which they fall. The top may be left open, or a
board may be so placed lengthwise in the centre of it as to pre-
vent the sheep from jumping into the manger. I give a rough
sketch of an end view of it, though the form is very common.

5. Diseases of Sheep and Remedies. — The diseases to
which sheep are subject among us are not numerous, but some
of them are very troublesome. The rot, so much dreaded hi
England, and in which the liver of the sheep is destroyed by
worms, so far as my knowledge extends does not prevail among
our flocks. For this disease there seems to have been discov-
ered no certain remedy or preventive ; and indeed its origin
does not appear to be well ascertained.

The foot-rot is not uncommon, and is said to have been
brought into the country by the Saxony sheep. The disorder
is of an ulcerous and offensive character, and first appears be-
tween the claws of the^ sheep, from whence it extends up the
leg and assumes an aggravated form. It is extremely infectious
in its character, and I have known the presence of two or three
affected sheep to spread the disease among a hundred in a few
days. I do not know its origin, but I believe that the seeds of
the disease may lie some time concealed without germinating.
I have known a large flock to be extensively and almost con-
temporaneously affected with it, after standing in wet yards and
after a course of high feeding. Various remedies have been
tried, but all of them are troublesome in their application and

116

not always effectual. It is important, on the first appearance
of the disease, to separate immediately the sick from the healthy
portion of the flock.

In all cases it is advised to cut away the diseased parts and
to make the foot as clean as possible. 1 shall give the prescrip-
tions of three of the largest and most successful managers of
sheep in the Union — H. D. Grove, of Hosick, N. Y. ; Dr.
Jarvis, of Claremont, N. H. ; and Sam. Grant, of Walpole, N. H.

1. Use blue vitriol and tar. If the disorder is very severe,
use aqua fortis diluted with an equal quantity of water, and ap-
ply one or two drops to the lame part. In all cases the foot is
to be made as clean as possible.

2. Use f lb blue vitriol, ^ lb verdigris powdered. Pour on
them one pint of strong vinegar made hot ; add J lb of soap.
Apply this to the feet, particularly between the hoofs, with a
sash brush.

3. Take of tar, tallow, and sulphur, equal proportions well
mixed, and apply it to the foot. It forms a salve. It must be
sufficiently warmed to mix easily, but must not be made hot.

4. The subjoined are the remedies of an experienced English
shepherd.

" The lame sheep being separated from the rest of the flock,
the hoof must be cut away with a sharp knife (called a sheep-
foot knife by cutlers,) as far as the disease has spread, and which
may be traced by its becoming divided from the internal parts :
this must be particularly attended to ; for unless the sore is
probed to the bottom, no application will be of service. When
this is done, the subjoined ointment will often prove eff'ectual
at one application. It is wrong to use too strong a caustic, as
it dries up the surface too quickly and matter forms beneath.

Blue vitriol half an ounce; gunpowder one ounce: — rubbed
together into a fine powder and mixed with hog's lard sufiicient
to make the whole into the consistency of a paste.

5. vSugar of lead one ounce ; verdigris half an ounce ; blue
vitriol half an ounce : — formed into a paste the same as the
other."

117

The disease will require prompt attention, and the applica-
tions must be repeated while there are indications of it remain-
ing. It has been found beneficial to spread the stables where
the diseased sheep stand with newly-slacked lime. If the dis-
ease is prevalent among a flock of fatting sheep, all hope of,
their thrift during its continuance must be given up. If it pre-
vails extensively among store-sheep, it will be expedient, as
soon as practicable in some honest way, to get rid of the flock ;
and caution should be had not to place a new flock in a pasture
from which a diseased flock have been recently removed. Let
at least one winter intervene.

Sheep sufl"er likewise not unfrequently from the scab. For
this the following remedies have been given to me by expe-
rienced shepherds.

1. Take 28 lbs. of leaf or 50 lbs. of stem tobacco, and put
them into five pails of water ; with two or three junk bottles
of spirits of turpentine. Wash with this once in three days for
a fortnight, if necessary. When the skin becomes clear, the
cure is effected.

2. Take 5 lbs. of hogs' lard ; one oz. of corrosive sublimate
and some sulphur. Let these articles be well mixed. This is
a good application when the wool is short.

3. Take roots of the weed hemlock, [cicuta ;) make with
them a strong decoction ; or use the tops in the same way if
the roots cannot be found ; wash the sheep well with it.

A very good farmer in Conway has found one quart of sul-
phur mixed with four quarts of salt an excellent remedy for the
scab, and generally beneficial to the health of the sheep. It
is left in their troughs to be eaten at their pleasure. Another
farmer in the same town speaks highly of its efiicacy. It is
said to be much used in the sheep districts in Vermont.

For snufiies, rub the nose of the sheep with tar.

It is not within my province to go fully into the subject of
the keeping of sheep, but to record only such facts and sug-
gestions of a practical character as I have gleaned from the
habits of farmers in the course of my survey, and as appear to

118

me important. For the management of the other disorders of
sheep recourse must be had to other authorities. I shall only
add that, in respect to many of them, their causes or occasions
are to be found in the improper treatment which the sheep re-
ceive. Sometimes they are fed to repletion ; at other times
they are as narrowly stinted. Their food is sometimes of the
best, and often, of the worst description. What flesh they gain
in summer is frequently lost by the severity of their usage in
winter. But few persons take pains to cultivate a supply of
succulent food for them, but confine them entirely to dry fod-
der ; whereas ewes in milk particularly require some succulent
food.

6. General Management. — The success of one shepherd
of my acquaintance is so remarkable that I deem it proper to
record even some minute circumstances in his management.
He allows one hundred acres of pasture to three hundred sheep.
The propriety or expediency of such proportions must, it is
obvious, depend upon the quality and condition of the land,
and the character of the sheep placed upon it. At the lambing
season, he gives the ewes a small quantity of oil meal and oats,
and is sure to salt them once a week. The oil meal he regards
as very useful. His ewes in lambing, and with their lambs
after lambing, are perfectly sheltered in a warm and close stable,
and his lambs are all numbered by him on the side as they come,
and are fed every evening, late in the evemng. from a bottle
with cows' milk. Being numbered, he is not so likely to miss
serving them. By this extraordinary care and attention he is
saved from any loss of lambs, and they come into the pasture
vigorous and active. The preparation for marking his sheep
and lambs consists of three parts of rosin ; one part of tallow ;
and lamp-black as much as needed.

In washing sheep before shearing he recommends to begin
with dipping in succession the whole flock ; and, after they
have stood some short time, to wash them thoroughly one by
one, where it can be done, in running or falHng water. The
condition of, and price always obtained for, his wool nre con-

119

elusive tests of the excellence of his management ; and like-
wise the remarkable fact that, although his flock is of the
finest-wooled Saxony, he frequently raises more than one hun-
dred lambs to one hundred ewes ; and a death among his lambs
is a rare occurrence. He is of opinion that one ton of hay will
winter ten Saxony sheep.

A good farmer in Heath and another in Leyden, experienced
and well-skilled in the management of sheep, use boiled pota-
toes mixed with meal and made into thin swill for their ewes,
before and at the time of lambing.

The county of Franklin is in many parts well adapted to
the raising of wool, and to the sheep-husbandry generally ; to
the raising of early lambs for the market, and the fatting of^
wethers. This applies particularly to the hill towns. Pastur-
age is there in many cases distant from the habitations, and
mountainous ; on these accounts sheep are to be preferred to
any other stock. It is believed, likewise, that sheep will, upon
the whole, yield a better return than any other stock. The
low price of wool operates as a great discouragement ; but this
kind of stock is of easy management, and the returns are, in
general, quick and certain. Of the kind of sheep to be chosen,
the intelligent farmer will, without difficulty, determine from
the facts which I have stated in the preceding pages. Success,
however, is certain only to exactness, care, and vigilance. It
is, I think, especially to be desired that farmers in the sheep-
husbandry should go largely into the raising of roots, — potatoes
and turnips especially, both the white flat turnip and the ruta-
baga; by this means they will very much increase their ability
of keeping, and consequently may extend proportionately the
numbers kept ; and likev/ise very much improve the condition
of those which are kept.

The use of the ruta-baga is objected to by many farmers on
account of their injuring the teeth, or making the mouths of
the sheep sore ; for this reason they should be cut fine, and not
given whole, as is done by some. Several machines have been
invented for this purpose, varying in price from two to ten dol-

120

lars. A machine with a four-sided box tunnel-shaped, like the
hopper of a mill, and placed over a cylinder made to revolve
by a crank, and with four thin knives placed lengthwise and
obliquely upon it, may be made at a small expense, and will
be found useful and effectual. The English farmers are sup-
posed to have great advantage over us in their climate allowing
them to feed their turnips in the field without drawing them.
In this case the field is divided into different compartments by
moveable fences, and the sheep placed successively in the
different enclosures. The turnips are eaten where they grew,
and the manure deposited upon the field. But many even of
the English farmers, in spite of the supposed advantages of this
method of feedine, deem it better to draw and house the tur-
nips, so as to feed them out at pleasure in well-littered enclo-
sures, where the sheep may be carefully looked after ; the straw
of the farm converted into most valuable manure ; the manure
applied when and where it is most needed ,• and the great waste
avoided which must be suffered in the other case from the tur-
nips being scooped out by the sheep, and much of them being
trodden under foot, or left to waste.

The introduction of the South-Down sheep, to which I have
already referred, into the county, would be a signal advantage,
as they seem extremely well suited to this locality, on account
of their compactness and hardiness, the ease with which they
are kept, and their returns in wool and mutton.

6. Yield of Wool. — The largest average yield of wool
that I have ascertained in the county is from the sheep of Poly-
carpus Cushman, in Bernardston, one among the best farmers
in the State. A flock of 200 sheep, of three-quarters Merino
and Saxony blood, averaged 3 lbs. 3 oz. each, well-washed
wool. Mr. Cushman was anxious to ascertain if any loss was
occasioned in the weight of wool by keeping, a matter on which
opinions have been various. A large parcel of wool, closely
stowed away in a tight building, was found at the end of the
year to have lost in weight 13-16ths to one hundred pounds ;
a little more than 3-4ths per cent.*

* See Appendix, A and B.

121

XL Swine. — The county is scarcely at all engaged in the "■
breeding of swine ; and beyond the amount consumed in the
county, a small quantity of pork is fatted for exportation.
I know no large establishment for breeding or fattening swine ;
and one reason of this is, the small number of dairies which
exist in the county. The dairy in all cases may be regarded
as the most efficient means of raising and of fattening swine.
The opinion of one of the best farmers in the county is, that a
pound of pork may be made at much less expense than a pound
of beef. It is not uncommon for pork to bring more in the
market than beef. The principal part of the swine kept and
fatted in the market are brought in droves from the State of
New York, and sold, at four to six months old, to the farmers.
They are usually confined in styes until they are fatted and
slaughtered. I scarcely know an instance in the county of
hogs running in the pastures ; and the regulations of the towns
forbid their going at large in the highway. The rude manners
and unfortunate moral developments of this race of animals
seem to shut them out from the kindly sympathies of the hu-
man family and foreclose any benevolent indulgence, beyond
what is dictated by mere interest. It is a problem yet to be
determined what effect a course of kind and gentle treatment
for half a century might have upon the race, in subduing the
natural and repellent rudeness and stubbornness of their char-
acter.

What I have to say on the subject of fattening swine is ne-
cessarily reserved for another part of my Report. I shall here
only refer to a few facts, which have occurred to my observa-
tion.

One of the farmers whom I visited had then in his styes three
swine, whose average weight would equal four hundred pounds
each. They were fed three times a day, with a mess of 12
quarts of meal to each per day, composed of the meal of oats
and Indian corn, mixed in equal parts and stirred in cold water.
The price of oats at that time was 42 cents per bushel, — of
corn, 84 cents per bushel ; — 6 qts. of oatmeal would be cts, 8.4 j
16

122

6 qts. of com meal would be cts. 16.8, — total, 25 cents 2 mills
each per day as the cost of keeping. The price of pork at that
time was six to seven dollars per 100 lbs. A gain of two
pounds a day, live weight, would much exceed the ordinary
gain of a fattening hog, although, in a remarkable case, I have
known the daily gain, for eighteen days in succession, to ex-
ceed three pounds. At two pounds a day, there must be a
considerable loss in this feeding. The prices of grain, however,
were above the usual prices; and the price of pork was de-
pressed.

Another farmer, in fattening three swine, allowed them one
peck of meal each per day. The mess was composed of Indian
corn, buckwheat and oat meal, mixed in equal quantities. The
price of corn was 84 cents ; buckwheat, 56 cents ; oats, 42
cents per bushel. One peck of this mixture cost fifteen cents.

One of the most exact and careful farmers in the county fat-
tens his swine chiefly in the winter, so as to have them in the
market in March, when pork generally bears a good price. He
has close styes, which are kept with great neatness ; his swine
are fed with exactness and punctuality; and in severe weather,
he endeavors, by closing the windows and doors, to keep up a
moderate temperature in his styes by a fire in the furnace,
where he cooks his food for his swine. Another farmer in
Leverett, who makes excellent pork, prefers the winter fatten-
ing of swine, but is extremely careful that they shall not sufl"er
from cold, his styes opening to the south, and being always
abundantly littered. The farmer first alluded to has made trial
of molasses for his swine, having purchased a condemned lot
at a low price. He gave at the rate of half a pint per day to
each hog, with great advantage as he supposed, though no ac-
curate observation or test was made to determine the gain, and
the proportion of that gain, if any, to be attributed to this arti-
cle of food.

A farmer in Bnckland considers ruta-baga, fed raw to swine,
of equal value as raw potatoes. This judgment, he says, is the
result of his own experience. A farmer in Hawley thinks

123

swine may l3e fatted to great advantage, when the price of pork
is 10 cents in the market and corn is one dollar per bnshel. This
is rather a loose estimate, and I should not quote it, but for my
great confidence in this farmer's long experience and careful
judgment. An excellent farmer in Conway puts up his hogs
to be fatted in August, and he greatly prefers pumpkins to po-
tatoes. There is no doubt that the pumpkin is a very nutri-
tious vegetable. A very large amount may be raised upon an
acre. The difficulty lies in their preservation ; but when they
can be used to advantage early in the season, they are a very
profitable crop.

A farmer in Charlemont says, that, after twelve years' expe-
rience, he deems apples, bushel for bushel or pound for pound,
of equal value with potatoes for feeding swine. He prefers
sweet apples, but is not confident that they have any advantage
over sour apples.

The raising of pigs is spoken of by several farmers as an ex-
cellent business. This can seldom be done to advantage unless
in connection with a dairy. A farmer of Deerfield sold the
pigs from two sows in one season for fifty-four dollars. An-
other in Gill sold the litters of two sows, in the spring, for fifty-
nine dollars seventy-five cents. These results are, to a great
extent, accidental ; and depend on so many contingencies that
no general rule can be drawn from them. A farmer in North-
field, on the 27th September, showed me three fine, thrifty
swine, about one year old, nine tenths of whose feed, since the
13th May, had been obtained from one eighth of an acre of clo-
ver, cut and given to them in a green state.

XII. Horses. — The breeding of horses is not pursued to
any great extent in this county, nor indeed in any part of the
State. Farmers, who have a mare for farm or family use, will
occasionally take pains to get one or more colts from her, and
valuable stud-horses are found for the season in different parts
of the county ; but no expense is incurred and almost as little
pains are taken to improve the blood, or to breed and rear horses

124

either for field-work, the road, or the turf. The consequence
is, that the horses in the county are of any breed and no breed,
and are designed for horses of all work. There are occasionally
to be met with animals of great spirit and value, but most of the
horses belonging to the farmers are of a very ordinary descrip-
tion. What is properly called grooming a horse is hardly known
among us ; and our farmers have yet to learn how much the
value of a horse depends upon his training, his kind manage-
ment, the regularity of his feed, the comfort of his stable, and
the particular care which is bestowed upon him, especially after
a hard day's work or drive. Indeed, the inhumanity with
which these useful animals are often treated, would bring a se-
vere reproach upon many, if we must, according to the scrip-
tures, judge of a man's mercy by his mercy to his beast.
Though the horse is usually as constant at church as his master,
he does not always get very christian usage even there ; and
while the pious master is perhaps taking a comfortable nap in a
cushioned pew near a warm stove, the poor horse stands shiv-
ering on a bleak hill, exposed to a driving storm of sleet and
snow, wishing often without doubt, if he knew how to express
the wish, that the sermon was somewhat less orthodox as to its
length. Indeed, it is but matter of duty to say, that a good
many of the animals who are called bipeds have much to learn
in respect to what they owe to those animals who are called
quadrupeds. They have yet to learn that they, like themselves,
have flesh to smart and bones to ache ; are subject to like in-
conveniences from cold and heat, to fever and ague, to debility,
lassitude and fatigue, rheumatism, asthma, colic and consump-
tion ; and though it may seem, at first sight, that a horse has a
supernumerary set of legs, yet that in truth he can travel with
no more comfort upon three than the man can upon one.

Of the comparative expense and expediency of keeping
horses or oxen for farm labor, I design to speak, if I have op-
portunity, in another place. The farm work in this county is
almost universally done by oxen. The broken and uneven
surface of many of the farms in the county render ox labor

125

preferable to horse teams, because the gait of oxen is slower
and their draught more steady. Another reason operates with
many of the farmers who fat cattle for the market, that they
often get their spring and summer's work, without injury to
the cattle, from oxen which they design for the stall in the en-
suing autumn. Indeed, many farmers are of opinion that,
in the early stages of fattening, moderate labor, with good
usage, is upon the whole favorable to thrift.

It is difficult to say by what means in our community an
improvement in the breed of horses is likely to be brought
about. Nothing but high prices will effect it ; but prices have
considerably abated within a few years instead of increasing.
The multiplication of rail-roads will, to some extent, diminish
the demand for horses ; and many large stage establishments
have been ah-eady broken up. In England, the price of horses
is kept up, and the improvement of the breeds made an object
of the most extraordinary care, by the general use of horses in
farm labor, and the pride which opulent farmers take in their
fine teams ; by the great number of private carriages and the
large studs kept at the establishments of the nobility ; and by
the public races, where the contests are most spirited and the
stakes enormous.

None of these causes operate in New England. Ox-teams,
in preference to horse-teams, are in general use. We have no
aristocratic establishments to indulge in splendid equipages and
expensive horses; and the good sense and good principles of
the community, and the laws growing out of them, will not,
by permitting horse-racing and the gambling and profligacy to
which it leads, encourage the improvement of our breed of
horses by the corruption of our breed of men, nor promote even
a highly desirable agricultural improvement at the expense of
public morals.

What is particularly wanted in the country is an improved
system of farriery and a veterinary school of medicine. The
shoeing of a horse is an art which deserves to be studied with
great care ; but many of our blacksmiths, not from want of skill

126

but from want of education in the art, in the words of the old
dialogue, " arc not fit to shoe a goat ;" and the gait of horses
is injnred, or they arc made to stumble or rendered incurably
lame by bad shoeing.

In the art of veterinary medicine we have scarcely a scien-
tific practitioner. There are, in almost every town, some one
or more persons who pass under the title of horse-doctors or
cow-doctors ; but most of them have not even a smattering of
the knowledge of comparative anatomy, and their practice of
cattle medicine is the grossest of all quackery. Some cases of
their prescriptions and practice have filled me with indignation
for their cruelty towards the poor dumb animals, who cannot
tell their sufferings. In Europe, the governments have estab-
lished and support veterinary schools, on the most liberal scale ;
and it would be a most suitable object of encouragement with
the government of the Commonwealth, if such an establish-
ment could be got up on a proper foundation in the neighbor-
hood of a large city, where a variety of cases might be present-
ed for study. I do not know why even an educated man should
disdain the profession, for any otfices to which it might lead
would not be more disgusting than many which human medi-
cine often imposes upon a devoted physician and surgeon. It
cannot be doubted that the intelligent and skilful practice of
the veterinary art would, in many parts of the country, be a
source of ample income ; and, if humanity and the desire to
alleviate suffering in every form, to say nothing of the saving
of property in the case, can make a profession respectable,
this would be a profession in the highest measure humane and
merciful. The profession should embrace, as far as practicable,
a thorough knowledge of the construction, constitution, habits
and diseases of all domestic animals ; and the services should
be well paid. Who shall speak for the dumb, unless they,
who can speak, speak for them? And who will deny the debt
of kindness which we owe to animals, whom God has cast
upon onr care, and whom we compel to labor continually and
to the utmost of their strength for orr service and pleasure ?

127

The old horses of the benevolent Howard were regarded by
him as old friends, whose declining age, after they had served
him faithfully, he endeavored to make comfortable ; and this
simple fact, in the history of this eminent philanthropist, is a
consistent and charming feature in the picture of his expanded
benevolence.

XIII. Manures. 1. Lime. — Considerable deposits of lime
are found in this county at Bernardston and Whately ; but the
expense of burning the stone so as to render it applicable to
agricultural purposes is too heavy to make it to any great ex-
tent available. Lime from the quarries in Whately, and in
some small measure from Bernardston, has been applied to the
land, and it is said with marked advantage ; but the experi-
ments have not been so accurately conducted, or otherwise so
accurately reported, as to justify any confident conclusions of
its usefulness. A farmer of Bernardston mentions the applica-
tion of lime strewed broadcast on some light sandy plain-land,
the good effects of which were apparent for some years. Nei-
ther the quantity nor time of application nor condition of the
soil was remembered. In an experiment of the application of
newly slacked lime both upon corn land and the wheat crop, at
the rate of five hogsheads or twenty-five bushels to the acre
upon the alluvial soil of the Deerfield meadows, no effect ei-
ther beneficial or otherwise was perceived.

2. Gypsum. — In experiments made with gypsum the result
has been various. In its application upon grass lands, at the
rate of one bushel of finely powdered gypsum to an acre, its
beneficial effects have been obvious.

Gypsum, on the sandy plains of Montague, has produced no
benefit. In Whately, Gill, Deerfield, and Shelburne, it has }
been used with great advantage in the hill at planting, with
corn and with potatoes. In an experiment made in Gill upon
two rows of corn adjoining each other, the row dressed with
plaster produced one bushel and a half; of the adjoining row,
which received none, the product was only one half a bushel ;

128

in other respects the cultivation was the same. The land, in
this case, was a rich unctuous loam and inclined to clay. The
effects of gypsum in different parts of the county are variously
stated. On Montague Plains, which are almost clear sand,
though in some parts strongly marked by iron, and the growth
pitch-pine or Norway pine, it is said that no perceptible advan-
tage follows from its application. In South Deerfield, on the
opposite side of the river, where the soil is strongly aluminous,
the application of plaster proves highly beneficial. One farm-
er objected to the use of plaster that it increased the stalk of
Indian corn without increasing the grain. If it did no more
than this — and if it did not diminish the grain or rather prevent
its growth, it certainly was not to be complained of. Upon po-
tatoes, when put into the hill at the time of planting at the rate
of a small table-spoonfnl to a hill, its beneficial effects have been
repeatedly established ; and, as many persons have thought, as
well upon the quality as the quantity of the product.

The extraordinary effects of this mineral substance applied
as a manure, from its earliest use to the present time, have been
matter of just surprize and wonder ; and especially when the
smallness of the quantity used is considered. The various the-
ories suggested for the solution of its mysterious operation have
not been satisfactory. It has not been found to assist in the
decomposition either of animal or vegetable substances, but re-
mains inert when applied to them. It is thought to attract
moisture from the air ; but its obvious tendency is to absorb it,
and not give it out for the benefit of plants. It is said by some
to act as a stimulus to vegetation. The fact is obvious ; but this
explanation conveys no meaning beyond the simple fact of its
producing an increased growth. In the application of what are
called stimulants to the human body the circulations are quick-
ened, the animal heat increased, the brain rendered more active,
and the muscular energy invigorated ; but no such analogy has
been detected between animal and vegetable life as to warrant
the application to both of the same terms in the same sense.

" The action of gypsum consists," according to Liebig, " in

129

its giving a fixed condition to the nitrogen or ammonia which
is brought into the soil, and which is indispensable to the nutri-
tion of plants. Water is absolutely necessary to effect the de-
composition of gypsum on accoimt of its difficult solubility, (I
part of gypsum requires 400 parts of water for solution) and
also to assist in the absorption of the sulphate of ammonia by
the plants: hence it happens that the influence of gypsum is
not observable on dry fields and meadows. The decomposition
of gypsum by carbonate of ammonia does not take place in-
stantaneously ; on the contrary it proceeds very gradually, and
this explains why the action of gypsum lasts for several
years." *

Further inquiries and experiments are necessary in order to
establish this theory. Certain plants, such as clover and the
vines of potatoes, are found to contain a comparatively large
amount of this substance. So far as this fact appears, gypsum
would seem to constitute an essential food of the plant in which
it is thus found. On the seashore its application seems useless j
but its efficiency may be neutralized by the highly saline atmos-
phere which prevails in such situations. In the interior it op-
erates effectually upon some soils, while in the immediate vicin-
ity it may be unavailing. This would seem to imply that its
efficiency has a relation to the particular character of the soil.
On this subject we are still greatly in want of more light. One
point at present seems to be established, — that the particular
soils or places where it will operate well are to be ascertained
only by actual trial ; but this is not to be regarded as a hard-
ship, since the expense of such experiments need be only very
trifling. Such experiments, conducted with observation and
care, are exceedingly desirable. Where it operates well, no
cheaper manure'and. none more easily applied can be found. —
It was at one time supposed that, by the constant application
of it year after year to the same land, the productiveness of the
land would be diminished, and it would become, as it is termed,

* Liebig's Organic Chemistry, Webster's edit. p. 144.

17

130

plaster-sick. But this is mere prejudice. Other causes, entirely
distinct from the effects of the plaster, operate, in such cases, to
abate the fertility of the soil. The land most probably in such
cases requires cultivation ; or a change of crop ; or some manure,
either in the form of a green dressing ploughed in or animal
manure, applied to it.

3. Wood Ashes. — Wood ashes have been used upon the
land in many cases ; and, as reported, always with success.
This conforms, it may be said, to almost universal experience.
The practice of one of the best farmers in Northfield, and on a
limited scale inferior to no one in the State, was peculiar and
successful. On the alluvial meadows after grain, where the stub-
ble was full of clover, in the spring when the clover was dead
or decayed, his practice was to turn it in with tiie plough, and
on this ground to plant his Indian corn in hills, puttiug a small
amount of wood ashes and gypsum mixed, in each hill. No
barn or animal manure had been applied to the land for years,
and his crops of Indian corn averaged from fifty to seventy bush-
els per acre.

Solomon Reed, of Rowe, speaks strongly of the great bene-
fits arising from the use of leached ashes. The good effects
have been apparent eleven years after their application.

Gardner Dickinson, of Conway, applied one bushel of crude
ashes per acre to four acres of grass land. The ashes were
spread in the spring. The crop was considered as doubled by
the application. In Sunderland, Whately, and in various other
places, the testimony was equally unanimous and strong in
their favor.

4. Clay. — In one or more cases it has been for some time
the practice to carry clay on to the mowing land, and after lay-
ing it in heaps, when it becomes broken by the frost, to spread
it as a top-dressing upon the grass. This has been followed
with the best results ; and the application is represented as equal
to a dressing of the best barn manure, and in its effects more
permanent. The application of a good dressing of clay upon
peat lands has, in other parts of the State, been greatly approved,
and preferred by some who have used it to any other. A soil

131

abonndiijg with clay is always favorable to the growth of
herdsgrass, which seems to delight in it as the most congenial
to its nature.

The practice of many of the farmers in this county is, after
planting, or in the autumn, to carry out their manure and leave
it in the fields uncovered, to be used in the planting of the next
year. No practice is more wasteful or deserves more to be rep-
robated. Manure, when carried into the field, if not immedi-
ately ploughed in, should be covered completely with a thick
coat of mould. The enriching gases of the manure, which
would otherwise escape into the air, will thus become ab-
sorbed by the mould ; and this mould itself will be convert-
ed into an enriching manure.

5. General Management of Manures. — The subject of ma-
nures is among the most important in husbandry. I shall do
no injustice to the farmers in Franklin county in saying, that
it is not appreciated by them as it should be ; nor as it is in
many other parts of the State. I do not recollect an instance
of a barn cellar on any farm in the county ; nor any provision
for covering the manure and keeping it excluded from the sun,
and rain, and air ; nor any attempt at forming a compost heap,
and availing themselves of the various materials to be found on
almost every farm and by the road-sides, for increasing the
stock of manure. The butt stalks of Indian corn, after being
browsed by cattle, are usually left to perish in the field. I have
already referred to the practice of ploughing in the stalks of
the broom-corn in the spring, instead of carrying them into the
barn-yard, where they would be broken up by the treading of
the cattle, and saturated with the rich liquids of the manure
heap, and be thus brought into a condition much more favor-
able to be applied to the crops. I am not disposed to deny a
considerable advantage to the land from ploughing in what
remains of the broom stalks, or from the ashes which come
from burning them on the ground, as is the practice of some
persons ; but there is reason to think that this advantage is
small compared with what would be derived from carrying

132

them into the barn-yard for the absorption of the urine and in-
crease of the compost heap. No husbandry can be eminently
successful, or be considered as improved husbandry, without
the most devoted attention to the increase of the manure heap.
Manure, if not, as some choose to denominate it, the right hand
of the farmer, may, if so homely a comparison is allowable, be
considered as one of his legs, without which he must either
stand tottering or unsafely upon crutches, or, what is more
likely, not stand at all. The practice of constructing a base-
ment story or cellar under a barn, for the reception of the ma-
nure, both liquid and solid, cannot be too strongly recommend-
ed. The bottom, in such cases, should be hollowed out and
puddled with clay, so that it may hold what falls into it. It
should be well stored with mould, or mud, or peat, or some
other absorbent material to take up the liquid parts of the ma-
mu'e, which are beyond all question the most valuable parts of
it. This mould or mud should be applied at successive times,
as the manure is thrown in, so that the manure and absorbents
may be interspersed like the leaves of a book, miless Vw'here
the better practice prevails of keeping those useful laborers the
store hogs in the cellar, who, in their philosophical turn of mind,
are accustomed to deep investigations and generally go to the
root of matters, and will therefore save the farmer the trouble of
compounding these materials. If we would keep our manure
from evaporation, and preserve not only its quantity but its
strength, we cannot too effectually exclude the sun and air.
The advantages to be derived from such provision for saving
and composting manures, are a fourfold compensation for the
expense of making it. A good farmer ought to regard it
equally needful as a barn for his hay or a cellar for his potatoes.
There is another advantage in the case which deserves consid-
eration. Where such manure cellar is well walled or banked
at the north, the manure, being to some extent secured from
frost, may be much more early worked in the spring ; and in
this "w^ay, in some cases, considerable and most valuable time
may be saved. Too much stress cannot be laid upon this point.

133

We cannot in any respect contravene the laws of nature. In
that unbroken chain of mutual use and dependence, which
pervades universal nature, the fertility of the earth can be
maintained only by a return to it, in an altered form, of its
own products. In a region like the county of Franklin, where
there are no extraordinary resources for maniu'e, either vegeta-
ble or mineral, the more pains and vigilance are required in
husbanding what they have. The manure heap must be con-
sidered as the gold mine of the farmer.

In planting Indian and broom corn, the manure is usu-
ally applied in the hill. This is not the best mode of appli-
cation, but is adopted with a view to making it go farther,
a less quantity being required when placed in the hill than
when applied broadcast over the field. The manure is almost
always applied to the first crop in the rotation ; and usually at
the rate of eight or ten buck-loads to the acre ; a buck-load
being considered as about forty bushels. No great exactness,
however, prevails in any case.*

\

XIV. Rotation of Crops. — I have alluded to the rotation
of crops, a matter which perhaps I should have sooner touched
upon. Little of what may be called systematic husbandry
prevails in any part of Massachusetts ; and the crops which are
cultivated, and the manner in which they succeed each other,
are rather dictated by accident or convenience than by any
well-considered principles of vegetation. Experience has long
since demonstrated that the same vegetable cannot be advan-
tageously cultivated, year after year without interruption, upon
the same land ; that in order to the largest product there must
be a change of crop, or the land must be suffered for a year or
more to lie in fallow. It has been found that some crops may
be repeated oftener than others ; and that some cannot be culti-
vated on the same land oftener than once in five or even twelve
years, while others require an interval of only two or three.
It is found, likewise, that, although in many cases the replen-

* Appendix, C.

134

ishing of the soil annually with manure will keep up its fertil-
ity, or permit the continued repetition of the same crop for a
considerable length of time, yet in other cases the application
of the ordinary manures, in any quaiitity, will avail nothing to
the renovation of the productiveness of the land without rest,
or without a change of , crop, when, after awhile, the first crop
may again be resorted to.

The occasion of this obviously lies in the soil. The atmos-
pheric influences are the same, and no change of seed has been
found to remedy the evil. Two causes have been assigned for
a fact better attested than understood. In the first case it is
supposed that the soil, by certain plants, becomes exhausted of
the peculiar element necessary to the perfection of that kind of
plants, but retains all that is sufficient for another class ; in
the second place, it is supposed that, as with animals, so plants
excrete, or throw off from their roots those portions of the food
they receive, which they cannot assimilate ; and the soil be-
coming, by cultivation, filled with these excretions, the same
crop being renewed is, if it consumes them, poisoned by them,
or otherwise it fails to find the nourishment which it requires.
Nor can the crop be repeated with advantage until these excre-
tions become dissolved or decomposed, and again incorporated
into the soil. Both these suppositions are compatible with each
other, and may operate at the same time. Chemical analysis
has determined, as analogy would lead us to believe, that differ-
ent plants are composed of different elements, and these too in
various jiroportions ; and observation equally shows that that
which, in the process of digestion or assimilation, has been ex-
creted by an animal or plant cannot, without change, be made
again to contribute to the nourishment of the same animal or
plant.

It is obvious, likewise, as suggested by a profound observer,
that the" excretions or excrements of plants may be of two
kinds. Plants, it is a well-established fact, are liable to take
up by their roots whatever is in their vicinity in a soluble state,
the process of absorption being, in this case, purely mechanical,

135

or the result of what is called capillary attraction. A plant, a
portion of whose roots were placed in lead water, or water in
which lead was suspended or dissolved, has been ascertained to
absorb a portion of it, which, being incapable of assimilation
by the vital process, has been afterwards excreted from the
roots of the plant. It is evident then that growing plants may
take up matters from the soil which are not congenial to them,
which are not altered by the vital action, and which, conse-
quently, must be again thrown off. Now these particular sub-
stances, though not congenial to the plants then growing, may
yet constitute the natural and proper food of another class,
which consequently will flourish in succession to them. There
is another species of excretions, which are properly the result
of the vital action. The substances of which the vegetable
organism consists, such as sugar, starch, gluten, albumen, are
never found in the soil in a formed or crude state ; or, if arti-
ficially presented to the plant, will either not be absorbed by it ;
or, if absorbed by it, will prove injurious or fatal to it, as the blood
of one animal transferred to the veins of another, but they are the
products of vital action in the plant upon the food presented to it.
But as in the animal so also in the vegetable life, that portion of
what has been received, which, after having passed through
the digestive process, is incapable of being assimilated, will be
excreted or passed off by the natural organs. But it is obvious
that this species of excretions is incapable, in an unaltered state,
of going to the nourishment of any vegetable substance. By
the operation of light and moisture and air, assisted by the
stirring of the ground, this presently becomes converted into
humus, or the enriching mould of the soil.

But besides these effects of the cultivation of the soil in the
growth of plants, the earth becomes exhausted of particular
elements, which are essential to their growth, and form a sub-
stantial part of them, and which are carried off from the soil in
the form of seeds, or hay, or straw, or vegetables. These are
alkaline substances, such as potash, soda, and the phosphate
and carbonate of lime. These are found in very minute quan-

136

titieSj — in some plants more than in others ; bnt are to almost all,
in a certain measure, absolutely essential. Now these may be
artificially supplied, either in a crude form or in combination
with other substances ; or they will be gradually supplied by
the disintegration or waste of the rocks, under the common
influences of the elements, where the soil is suffered to lie at
rest or fallow.

These general principles, appertaining to the art of culture,
suggest the reasons for a rotation or change of crops. The
custom formerly was, to recruit the soil by suffering it to re-
main idle, or, as it is termed, fallow and unused. An improved
husbandry has discovered that this is not necessary ; but as
different crops require different elements or take different sub-
stances from the soil, it is only necessary to substitute such a
crop as does not demand what the crop immediately preceding
has taken, and thus the land, without injury or impoverish-
ment, under a judicious rotation, may be kept under a contin-
ual cultivation.

The rotation of crops in Franklin county is very limited, as
the crops cultivated' are few. In Buckland, the first year the
land is broken up corn is planted and manured ; the second
year, oats are sowed without manure, and the land laid down
tO- grass. It is continued in grass five years and then broken
up, and the same course repeated. The first year of grass the
produce is about two tons per acre, and when it yields not
more than fifteen hundred pounds it is considered proper to
break it up again. In Shelburne, on one of the best farms in the
State, the course is, first year, Indian corn on green-sward, ma-
nured ; second year, spring wheat, and laid down to grass; — the
grass seed sowed with the wheat ; one peck of herdsgrass and
one of red-top to the acre. The land remains in grass ordinarily
five years. The average yield of grass is estimated at three
tons to the acre, which I think must be an over estimate, and
the cost of getting the hay at two dollars per ton. For spring
wheat, in the second year of the course is sometimes substi-
tuted, rye, or oats, or oats and pease, or oats and wheat.

137

In Whately, first year, Indian corn ; second year, oats, and
laid down with herds grass and clover, and remains in grass
three years.

On much of the meadow land in Deerfield, the first year the '\'^
land is in corn ; the succeeding year pease and oats, and so on
continually. The corn is manured in the hill. The land,
after the corn is gathered, is sometimes sown with winter rye.

In some parts of Deerfield, the usual rotation is, first year,
corn, usually manured in the hill ; the second year, spring •
wheat, or wheat and oats, or pease and oats, or rye with south-
ern clover ; third year, clover ; and then plough again.

The best farmers universally advise to sow the southern or
June clover with grain, to be ploughed in with the stubble
where the land is not to remain in grass, with a view to enrich
the land. If the grain is winter grain, the clover is usually sown
in the spring before the snow has left the ground, at the rate of
a bushel of clover chaff or clover seed not cleaned, or else at
the rate of six or seven pounds of cleaned seed. One of the
most experienced farmers in the town has been accustomed to
sow rye and clover together on the same land for a succession
of years ; in which case the clover and stubble were always
ploughed in together for the purpose of enriching the land for
the succeeding crop, and in this process he states that the con-
dition of the land was continually growing better. The crops,
however, at best were not large.

I think proper here to mention the statement of another farm-
er, a man of much intelligence and experience, in confirmation
of the experience of two other farmers referred to in a former
report, that it is much better that the clover should be withered
or dead when it is ploughed in rather than in a green or succu
lent state.

In some instances, as in Sunderland for example, broom corn
is repeated several years in succession on the same land, and, as it
is stated, without a diminution of product. In these cases, the
crop is manured in the hill every year ; and the corn stalks, af-
ter the brush is gathered, are burnt upon the land.
18

138

Potatoes have no determined place in any rotation.^ They
are not frequently taken upon sward land broken up, although
this is sometimes the case ; in general they follow corn and are
commonly manured in the hill with the coarsest manure which
the barn-yard affords. Turnips are frequently sown among In-
dian corn at the last hoeing, and in this way one hundred bush-
els or more are in many cases obtained to the acre- With the
exception of potatoe , no succulent vegetables are cultivated to
any extent excepting for family use. I cannot have a doub{
that the farmers in Franklin county would find a great advan-
tage in going extensively into the cultivation of turnips, ruta-
baga, mangel-wurtzel, sugar-beet, and especially carrots and
parsnips, for their store, milking, and fatting stock; and that
these will presently find their place in a judicious rotation of
crops. The farmers would soon perceive the advantage in their
manure heaps ; as there are no means by which so much val-
uable manure can be made, where there is plenty of straw or
of other substances to litter the yards as absorbents, as by
the free use of succulent vegetables. There cannot be a question
likewise that the health of every kind of live stock would be
greatlj/- promoted by the occasional or daily use of succulent
vegetables, even in small quantities, instead of keeping them,
through our long winters, wholly upon dry fodder. I have
mentioned above parsnips, as among the vegetables Avhich might
be advantageously cultivated for stock. I know no case in
which this has been done to any considerable extent, though
practised and greatly approved on the islands of Guernsey and
Jersey in Great Britain. An experiment on a small scale has
fully satisfied me that no feed will more increase and enrich the
milk of milch cows, or conduce more to the thrift of fatting an-
imals. They are of very easy cultivation ; the seed is of tri-
fling expense ; they are not known to be subject to the depre-
dations of any insect ; they n)?y be as well sown in the autumn
as the spring, which would be in many cases matter of great
convenience ; and they may be left in the ground, where it
might be expedient, to be taken out in the spring as the cattle

139

might require them, and at a season when such feed is particu-
larly desirable. The great objection to them, the difficulty of
getting them oat of the ground, may be in a great measure ob-
viated by sowing them on ridges, so that when they are to be
raised, by passing a plough near them the roots will be so much
uncovered that they may be drawn out by the hand. Whether
tliey gain or lose anything in nutritiousaess by remaining in the
ground, chemical analysis, or experiments in the use of them,
mast determine. Theie is no vegetable within my knowledge
of which cattle seem more fond.

In English husbandry, the cultivation of vegetables for stock
makes an essential element. Labor, with the English, is much
cheaper than with us ; and their cultivation is much more exact
and minute than our habits would permit us to submit to. But
especially, they have not our Indian corn, one of the richest veg-
etable products which the earth yields ; which is so simple and
easy of cultivation and likewise of appropriation, and at the
same time, under the best culture, yields so large an amount of
the most nutritious food for man and beast, and where its prod-
uce is well managed returns so much to the soil, that it is ex-
tremely difficult to persuade our farmers that any substitute is
to be preferred to it.

XV. Particular Results. — Facts are in general so inte-
resting and so important, that I am always desirous of record-
ing them, leaving it to others to make such inferences from them
as they may deem proper. My principal solicitude is, that they
should be well attested, and of such a character as to suggest
useful instruction to others. They are the only infallible teach-
ers and their lessons cannot be controverted. It may be safely
asserted that there is nothing which has heen done which can-
not be done again ; and under the same circumstances and influ-
ences, the same results will follow. These established truihs
render facts of so much importance, and make them the safest
of all teachers.

Example 1. — Management of seven and a half acres of land

140

in Northfield. The land is alluvial ; of good quality ; on the
banks of the Connecticut.

In 1828, the land was leased ; the proprietor to furnish fifty
buck-loads of manure from his barn-yard ; and to receive, as
rent of the land, half of the whole product. He received half
the top stalks, all the bottom stalks, and twenty-five bushels
of corn per acre.

In 1829, the land was leased on the same terms, and he re-
ceived as above the coarse fodder, and twenty-two and a half
bushels of corn.

In 1830, the proprietor leased it for broom corn, and stipu-
lated to deliver on the ground six loads of manure to the acre.
The brush, prepared for market, one half the crop, which he
received as rent, amounted to twenty-seven dollars per acre ;
price at which the brush sold in this case not ascertained.

In 1831, he leased it again for broom corn, delivering upon
the land six loads of manure to the acre, at a cash rent of six-
teen dollars per acre.

In 1832, without manure, he sowed it with oats, and ob-
tained from thirty-three to thirty-five bushels to the acre, which
he sold at forty-two cents per bushel.

In 1833, without manure, he obtained an average yield of
twenty bushels of sound wheat to the acre, valued at one dollar
fifty to one dollar seventy-five cents per bushel.

The land was valued at sixty dollars per acre ; at which

price, at that time, land of the same quality in the immediate

vicinity was sold.

Smwinary per' Acre.

In 1828, 25 bushels of Indian corn, at 75 cts. per bush. 18 75

" 1829, 22* do. do. do

" 1830, returns from broom corn sold,

" 1831, rent of land in cash, ....

" 1832, 24 bushels of oats, at 42 cents per bushel,

1833,20 do. of wheat, at $1 50 cents,

((

Six years' interest upon 60 dollars, price per acre.

Net profit of six years upon each acre, . . $97 lOJ

16

87i

27

00

16

00

10

08

30

00

118
21

70k
60

141

The manure was furnished on the farm, and the stalks and
straw may be considered as a full equivalent for the manure,
seed and threshing.

2. Produce of three and a half acres of land in Deerfield-
street, in 1833.

Hay, 3 J tons, at 12 dollars per ton,
Winter wheat, 11 bushels, at $1 50 cents per bushe!,
Stubble and clover, one ton, at 4 dollars per ton,
Corn fodder, three tons, valued at .
Indian corn, one hundred and twenty bush, at 80 cts.
Potatoes, one hundred and seventeen bush, at 20 cts.
Apples, sixty bushels, at twelve and a half cents per
bushel, ........

Pumpkins, one cart-load, .....

42

00

16

50

4

00

10

00

96

00

23

40

7

50

0

00

!^199 40

3. I give, in the subjoined case, the actual expenses of culti-
vating several lots of land on the same farm the same year,
with the returns. The expenses include every thing until the
delivery of crops in the barn, with the exception of threshing
the grain, and the interest upon the value of the land. I have
myself affixed the value of the crops, as nearly as I could as-
certain it at the prices then current in the county.

1. Four acres and 106 rods in Indian corn.
Whole expenses of cultivation, .... ^90 83

Returns. 352 bush, of corn, at 75 cents, 264 00

Corn fodder, ten tons, at 4 dollars, 40 00

304 00

2. Three and a half acres in corn.

Whole expenses of cultivation, .... 109 75

Returns. Corn, 236i bushels, at 75 cents per

bushel, . . . . 177 37J

Fodder, 9 tons, at 4 dollars, . 36 00

213 37^

142

In the former case, gypsum and ashes only were used,
charged at $5 50 cents ; in the latter case, 35 loads of barn-
manure were used, charged at one dollar per load.

3. Five acres in oats.

Expenses of cultivation and seed, . . . . 35 50

Returns. 280 bushels oats, at 42 cents, . 117 60

Straw, say four tons, at 3 dollars, 12 00

129 60

4. Five acres in rye.

Expenses and seed, . . . . . . 21 50

Returns. 60 bushels, at one dollar per bushel, 60 00

Straw, say four tons, at 3 dollars, 12 00

72 00

5. Two and a half acres in winter wheat.

Expenses and seed, . . . . . . 13 75

Returns. 20 bushels wheat, at $1 50, . 30 00

Straw, two tons, at 3 dollars, . 6 00

36 00

6. Two and three fourths acres in spring wheat.

Expenses of cultivation and seed, . . . . 15 58

Returns. 38 bushels of wheat, at $1 50 cents

per bushel, . . . 57 ^

2 tons of straw, at 3 dollars, . 6 00

63 00

7. Fourteen acres in grass, home lot.
Expenses of getting two crops, in both 45 tons,
Forty-five tons of hay, at 8 dollars per ton,

8. Seven and a half acres in grass, in meadow.
Expenses of getting the hay, 15 tons,
Value of the hay, 15 tons, at 8 dollars.

The foregoing may be considered as examples of extraordi-
nary success. I give them as such. They are examples of
extraordinary success and extraordinary skill and good manage-
ment. The success is the result of the good management.
The good management others can command ; and consequently

65

00

360

00

20

75

120

00

143

the same results are within their power. Men pretend that
there is a great deal of "good luck" in these cases. There is
very little of what may be termed good or bad luck m this
world's affairs, and these terms are mainly used to soothe a
conscience troubled with a sense of its own recklessness, neg-
ligence or indolence.

XVI. Reports of Farms, — I shall now give several returns
of particular farms in the county, selected promiscuously and
with a view to present the average results.

1. Sunderland, — Acres, 1.52. Of these, 30 are in wood ;
30 in pasturage ; 10 v/aste.

Products.

English hay, .

Fresh meadow hay,

Wheat, .

Indian corn,

Rye,

Potatoes,

Winter apples,

Broom corn, .

Straw,

Corn fodder, .

The stock on the farm consists of 1 horse, 4 oxen, 5 cows,
30 sheep, 4 swine, 12 young neat stock.

The soil is loamy, dry and level. The English mowing
consists of 15 acres. The manure bought, 5 cords.

The amount of labor is not given. The cost of man's labor
by the year, board included, is 216 dollars; per month, 22 dol-
lars; per day, one dollar. The price of board of man, per
week, is rated at %\ 75 cents.

Broom corn is deemed the most profitable crop. The ex-
pense of cultivating an acre of Indian corn is rated at 14 dol-
lars ; of wheat, $7 50 ; of oats, .$4 00 ; of rye, $5 50 ; of pota-
toes, $15 50 ; estimating man's labor at one dollar per day,
and a yoke of cattle the same.

25

tons.

. 20

11

. 10 bush.

250

u

, 150

li

200

u

30

u

2000

lbs.

5

tons.

5

C(

Beef fatted, .

3000 lbs.

Pork, .

1400 "

Butter,

300 '•'

New milk cheese,

500 "

Wool, .

100 ■•'

Maple sugar.

100 ''

Cider, .

15 bis.

Wood used, ,

20 cds.

Manure made.

100 "

144

The value of land is, mowing, $50 per acre ; pasture, $20 ;
woodland in pine, $30 ; in hard wood fit to be cut, $50.
Average weight of hogs fatted, at 18 months old, 350 lbs.

2. AsHFiELD. — Acres, 88^. Tillage, 3; Enghsh mowing, 10;
pasture, 60 ; wood, 12 ; waste, 3. Soil described as loamy,
sandy, dry and hilly.

Stock — 1 horse, 7 cows, 12 sheep, 5 swine, 4 young neat
cattle.

Products.

English hay.

.

15 tons_

Pork, .

. 930 lbs

Fresh meadow hay, .

10 "

Batter,

950 "

Indian corn.

,

30 buoh-

Wool,

50 "

Buckwheat,

• *

20 "

Maple sugar,

. 100 "

Potatoes,

• •

30 ".

Corn fodder.

1 ton

Beets,

• •

25 "

Wood used.

12Gds

Swedish turni

ps,

50 "

Wood sold, .

72 "

The value of land per acre given here, is, mowing, $25 ;
pasturage, $15 ; land in hard wood, fit to be cut, $30.

The sales from this farm in 1838 amounted to $350 ; the
value of produce used, or on hand at the time of the return, to
$381 50.

The cost of labor amounted, at one dollar per day. to $250.

This farming is on a small scale, but it seems proper to give
well-attested examples of every description.

3. Heath. — Acres, 110. In tillage, 6; English mowing,
20 ; pasturage, 70 ; wood, 10. The soil is described as loamy
and hilly.

The stock — horses, 2; cows, 4; sheep, 250; swine, 4;
colts, 2.

Pr'oducts.

English hay, 2} tons per acre, ... 45 tons.

Wheat, 20 bush.

Indian corn, ....... 20 "

145

Oats,

• a •

Potatoes,

• • •

Swedish turnips,

• • •

Flat turnips, .

• • •

Pork,

1200 lbs., sold for

Butter,

400 "

New milk cheese

400 " "

Wool,

900 "

Cider,

10 bis.

Winter apples,

20 bush. "

Manure made,

500 loads.

Wood used,

50 cords.

200 bush.

1000 '

(

20 '

c

• •

20 '

i

$120

00

. 66

67

. 28

00

. 675

00

10

00

5

00

The sheep are described as a mixed race of Saxony and me-
rino blood, and the average yield of wool as 3 lbs. 10 oz.
This, presuming that it was well washed, is an extraordinary
yield. The size of the loads of manure is not given ; we can
only infer it from the facts that the team was light, the land
hilly, and the number unusually large.

The whole amount of sales reached $1075. Value of pro-
duce used or reserved, $200. The cost of labor, $200.

Man's labor, board included, is rated at per year, $200 ; per
month, $17 ; per day, 75 cents. Board of man at $1 50 cents
per week.

This farmer states that five acres of his land produces annu-
ally an average of four tons of hay to the acre at one cutting.
The situation of the land is not given. He mentions a farmer
in his neighborhood having produced, the current year, from
seven cows and one two-year old heifer, which calved in June,
2150 lbs. of new milk cheese and 725 lbs. of butter.

4. CoNWAT. — Acres, 145. Of tillage, 25 ; English mowing,

25 ; pasture, 65

in wood, 30

waste, 5 acres.

The soil is represented as loamy, gravelly, dry and hilly. The
hills in Conway furnish some of the best pasturage in the
county ; and the character of the soil, wherever capable of til-
lage, is very good.
19

146

Products.

Eng. hay, Iri tons pr ac. 40 tons

14 bus.

II.

((

a

a

75

30

50

3

250

110

1

10

20

100 lbs

5

a

Beef fatted,

7000 lbs.

Pork " .

1000 "

Butter,

400 "

New milk cheese

, 600 "

Skim milk cheese, 200 "

Wool,

100 "

Maple sugar,

400 "

Cider,

. 10 bis.

Winter apples.

30 "

Straw,

2 tons.

Corn fodder,

3 "

Manure made,

. 100 loads

Wheat, 18 bus.
Ind. corn, 30 "
Rye, 30 "
Barley, 40 "
Beans,

Potatoes,25a "
Beets,
Carrots,
Turnips,
Swedish turnips.
Broom corn,
Hops,

The live stock on the farm consists of, horse, 1; oxen, 6;
cows, 3 ; sheep, 30 ; swine, 5 ; young neat stock, 10.

Amount of produce sold in 1838, $630 ; amount used or on
hand when the return was given, $689 ; cost of labor, $220 ;
incidental expenses, $150. The poultry sold amounts to $15
yearly.

The cost of cultivating an acre of Indian corn is estimated
at $24 ; of oats, at $12 ; of rye, at $13 ; of potatoes, at $30.
The price of man's labor, besides board, $150 per year; $14
per month ; $1 per day. Man's board is rated at $2 per week.

The value of tillage and mowing land is set down at $40
per acre ; of pasture, $25 ; of woodland in pine, $20, in hard
wood, fit to be cut, $30 ; of hard wood per cord, $2 50 ; pine do.
$1 50 ; merchantable pine boards per M. $10; charcoal, 6 cts.
per bushel.

The average yield of a cow in milk is 800 gallons ; in but-
ter, 200 lbs. ; in new milk cheese, 300 lbs. Average weight
of a hog fatted at 18 months old, is 400 lbs. Average yield of
a sheep — native, 3 lbs. ; merino, 2J lbs.

For tillage land this farmer uses about ten loads of manure
per acre ; and for grass, about fifteen loads, spread on in the

147

fall. He speaks of having derived great advantage from spread-
ing leached ashes on grass, and on spring grain after it is up ;
and in the hill, mixed with good manure, for corn and potatoes.

He deems himself, in respect to crops, most successful in the
cultivation of rye, for which his practice is to turn over green-
sward in June ; in August, drag and cross-plough the land ;
and, about the first of September, sow about one bushel to the
acre. He thinks that his grass land and the raising of live stock
yield him the largest profit. He has found great advantages in
raising early lambs for market, having the most comfortable
quarters for the ewes, which yean early.

The management of this farm is excellent ; and if a general
rule did not forbid, I should certainly pay my respects to this
farmer by name. His buildings are not expensive but exceedingly
well contrived ; and every part of his premises, as well as the
live stock under his care, show an exact order and carefulness.

5. Shelburne. — Acres, 130. In tillage, 6 ; English mow-
ing, 15 ; wet meadow, 10 ; pasture, 65 ; wood, 31. The soil
clayey, dry and uneven.

The stock — horse, 1 ; oxen, 2 ; cows, 6 ; sheep, 40 ] swine,
7 ; young cattle, 6.

English hay, . 30
Fresh meadow hay, 10
Wheat, 25 bush, pr acr. 40 bush.
Corn, 50 " " 80
Potatoes, . . 200

The amount of sales in 1838 was $600 ; value of produce
used and on hand, |500. The expense of labor was |400.

The proprietor mentions that, in cultivating wheat, the seed
is washed and soaked. At sowing, he turns off the brine and
mixes with it as much lime as will adhere to the kernel. His
wheat is sown on the land on which he had corn the preceding
year, and is merely dragged or harrowed in the last of ApriL

Products.

tons.

Pork,

900 lbs.

li

Butter, .

469 "

Dush.

Skim milk cheese.

600 "

i:

Wool, .

120 ''

11

Winter apples.

150 bu.

148

After the wheat is up, he spreads upon the crop about 20 bush-
els of ashes to the acre. In this way his success has been very
good.

6. Shelburne. — Acres, 285, exclusive of woodland.

Rotation of crops. — First year, corn ; second year, wheats
oats or barley, and stocked down with grass seed. The land
remains in grass usually six years. The grass seed is usually
sowed with the spring grain, at the rate of twelve quarts of
herdsgrass and redtop to the acre. Spring wheat is sowed at
the rate of two bushels to the acre. Of rye, three pecks of
seed are sowed to the acre.

Plaster is applied as a top-dressing on all the stiff loams.
The moist grass land, which is unsuitable for tillage, is dressed
with barn and compost manure once in three or four years, —
about 20 or 25 loads to the acre.

Twelve to fifteen acres of this farm are usually in tillage.
Eight to ten loads of manure to the acre are applied when In-
dian corn is manured in the hill ; and from twenty to twenty-
five loads when it is spread.

Greensward, for planting, is usually turned over in April.
Twenty or twenty-four loads of manure are spread and har-
rowed in ; but care is taken not to disturb the sod during the
cultivation.

The mowing land consists of 36 acres upland, and the aver-
age crop exceeds two tons to the acre. Six acres of the mow-
ing land are occasionally irrigated. The crop and the quality
of the hay are greatly improved by this process. There are
mowed, likewise, eight or nine acres of low land, averaging
two tons of English hay to the acre- Five acres were planted
in corn. One and a half acre planted on oat stubble ; the
stubble was turned under in August ; the land ploughed again
in the spring. Ten loads of well-rotted manure were put in
the hill. The crop was 86 bushels of corn.

Another piece in greensward was turned over in April, con-
taming one acre and twenty^five rods. Twenty-five loads of

149

green yard manure were spread and harrowed in lightly. Nine
loads of well-rotted manure to the acre were put in the hill. It
produced 116 bushels of corn, averaging 100 bushels and 10
quarts per acre. Another piece of worn land, about the same
size, produced 84 bushels of corn.

Another piece, containing a few rods over an acre of pasture
land which had never been manured, was turned over a little
while before planting, harrowed lightly, and ten loads of green
stable manure put in the hill. The produce was 67 bushels
of corn.

This farmer's whole crop, of which he was kind enough to
keep an exact account for me, averaged 70 bushels and 6 qts.
per acre. The corn was planted in hills three feet apart each
way ; four stalks were allowed to stand in a hill. The seed
was planted without preparation. The corn was hoed three
times, and a cultivator used each time.

Two and a quarter acres were in potatoes, on greensward
ploughed in May. Ten loads of green manure were put in the
hill. The season was unfavorable for potatoes, and the yield
only 250 bushels. On a part of the potatoe lands, prepared as
above, a third of a gill of gypsum was dropped on the manure
upon the seed. Two rows in this same piece were left with-
out plaster. The effect was, that the two rows without plaster
did not produce half as much as the adjoining rows with plas-
ter. The soil here was a stiff loam ; and this farmer is of
opinion that plaster has little if any beneficial effect on a light
loam.

The stock on this farm is — oxen, 14 ; cows, and heifers that
brought calves, 8 ; young stock, 23 ; horses, 3 ; colts, 2 ; sheep,
8 ; hogs, 14.

The calves are taken from the cow at three days old and
taught to drink milk; kept on new milk four weeks ; and then
skimmed milk will answer, if half a gill of rye or oil meal be
added to two quarts of milk. They are weaned at twelve
weeks old.

Five calves were raised. Seven hundred lbs. of butter and

150

five hundred lbs. of new milk cheese (exclusive of the free
use of milk in a large family) were made.

The quantity of pork fatted was 3600 lbs. The swine are
a mixture of the Byfield breed.

The swine run in the pasture in summer, and are fed with
the slops from the house and dairy. The fatting is commenced
with apples and potatoes boiled together, in the proportion of
one-third apples and two -thirds potatoes. After being well
boiled, about ten or twelve quarts of Indian or mixed meal is
added to a barrel. For four or five weeks before killing, the
hogs are fed with a clear provender of meal.

The labor employed consists of three men in winter, with
some extra help in the haying season. Wages from ten to
twelve dollars per month by the year ; eighteen or twenty dol-
lars per month in the season of haying and harvesting, besides
board.

7. Bernardston. — Acres, 300. In tillage, 10 ; English
mowing, 20 ; wet meadow, 3 ; pasture, 100 ; wood, 75 ;
waste, 90.

Live stock — horses, 2; oxen, 4; cows, 7; sheep, 120;
swine, 11 ; young neat cattle, 9.

Products.

English hay.

37

tons.

Beef, .

1100 lbs.

Fresh meadow hay, 3

((

Pork, .

2100 "

Wheat,

32 bush.

Butter,

600 "

Indian corn.

100

New milk cheese,

100 "

Rye, .

75

Wool,

250 "

Oats, .

80

Honey,

160 "

Potatoes,

150

Maple sugar,

100 "

Swedish turnips,

270

Cider,

50 bis.

Winter apples,

12 bis.

Wood used,

40 cds.

Straw,

10 tons.

Manure made.

40 "

Corn fodder,

6

((

Value of produce used or on hand, $1266. Cost of labor,
$675. Incidental expenses, $75.

151

. The expense of cultivating an acre of Indian corn is put
down at $25 ; of wheat, at $10 ; of oats, at $5 ; of barley, at
$8 ; of potatoes, at $20 ; of ruta baga, at |20.

The expense of man's labor by the year, board included, is
estimated at $225 ; per month, at $18 50; per day, at $1.
The price of board is estimated at $1 50 weekly.

The value of tillage and mowing land is rated at $50 per
acre ; of pasture, at $20 ; of land in hard wood fit to be cut,
$15.

The average yield of a merino sheep or Saxon merino is
three pounds ; of a cow in butter, 100 lbs. The weight of a
hog fatted at IS months old is 350 lbs.

The item of labor, in this account, makes a large figure. I
am not aware of the particular causes, which render the charge
so heavy. It will be obvious to every candid mind that, for
many of these accounts, we must claim an indulgent judgment.
Few farmers keep any accounts whatever. Those who do keep
them, and are very competent to instruct the community, suffer
their modesty or diffidence to overbalance the claims of the
public good, which might be essentially served by the exhibi-
tion of faithful and exact accounts. In some cases, even in
New England, farmers are not capable of keeping any orderly
accounts ; and to attempt to arrange their miscellaneous memo-
randa is like trying to find your way in a dark night through a
dense forest where there is no path and there are no blazed trees.
Even a lanthorn, in such cases, is of little value. By mere
chance you may get through ; but you are most likely to be
" brought up standing " or to be sloughed. I mean no disre-
spect to the farmers, whose improvement as a class of men I
desire above that of every other. But I want the opportunity
to say that this is the fault of our public schools, where the
systematic keeping of accounts is seldom taught, but where
book-keeping both by double and single entry, for females as
well as males, should be an established and indispensable branch
of education. It would prove of rather more practical import-
ance than to be able to work embroidery and paint artificial
flowers ; to understand the geography of the moon and learn

152

from a wood-cut all its continents and volcanoes ; or to be able,
in answer to printed questions, to inform us how the Esquimaux
clothe themselves in the skin of the white bear and the Kam-
schatkians grow fat upon blubber and train-oil.

It is to be added, that agricultural operations seldom admit of
that exactness of account which belongs to mercantile transac-
tions ; and that it is, in most cases, only an approximation to
accuracy which can be expected. The importance of this sub-
ject to the farmers cannot be overstated and should not be over-
looked. Farmers cannot be too strongly urged to keep exact
and faithful accounts with their farms, their animals, and every
crop which they raise. It would immensely assist the improve-
ment of their farms and their own personal comfort and self-
respect. It would enable them to decide intelligently and with
confidence what they had best cultivate and what avoid. It
would reveal to them their true condition, the knowledge of
which is essential to their safety, and sometimes save them from
embarrassment, mortgages, bankruptcy and ruin. Accurate ac-
counts of expenses, capital employed, labor applied, seeds,
utensils, improvements, products and final results, are as im-
portant in agricultural as in mercantile transactions.

8. Bernardston. — Acres 300. Of tillage, 15 ; English
mowing, 36 : pasture, 100; in wood, 75 ; waste, 75. Soil
characterized as loamy, clayey, gravelly, and hilly.

The live stock comprises — horse, 1 ; oxen, 4 ; cows, 5 ; sheep,
300 ; swine, 18 ; young neat stock, 9.

Products.

Eng. hay, liton

pr acr. 55 1

Lons.

Beef fatted,

. 700 lbs.

Wheat,

.

12 bus.

Pork "

. 1500 ■■'

Ind. corn, 40 bus

((

200

a

Wool,

. 800 "

Rye, 10 "

ii

43

(.'

Cider,

30 bis.

Oats, 35 "

IC

100

u

Straw,

8 tons.

Buckwheat, .

•

40

ii

Corn fodder.

8 ''

Potatoes, 67 "

((

200

11

Wood used.

25 cords

Rut. bag. 575 "

li

360

11

Manure made.

100 "

Winter apples.

.

20 bis.

153

The value of produce used or on hand is $2100. The cost
of labor, $300, Incidental expenses, $150.

The price of labor (board included) per year, is rated at
$225 ; per month, $18 ; per day, $1. The price of board is
$1 50 cents per week.

The expense of cultivating an acre of corn is rated at $25 ;
of wheat, at $10 ; of oats, at $5 ; of rye, at $8 ; of potatoes,
at $20 ; of ruta baga, at $20.

Average weight of a hog, at 18 months old, is 350 lbs. Av-
erage yield of a merino sheep, 3 lbs.

9. Bernardston. — Acres, 515. In tillage, 12 ; English
mowing, 50 ; pasture, 150 ; wood, 200 ; waste, 100 acres.

Live stock — horses, 2 ; oxen, 6 ; cows, 6 ; sheep, 450 ;
swine, 8 ; young neat stock, 19.

Products.

English hay.

75 tons.

Beef,

2500 lbs.

Fresh meadow hay, 10 "

Pork,

2000 "

Wheat,

12 bush.

Butter,

500 "

Indian corn.

. 200 "

New milk cheese,

340 "

Buckwheat,

25 "

Wool,

1250 "

Potatoes,

300 ''

Maple sugar,

200 ^•

Swedish turnips.

100 "

Cider,

18 bis.

Straw,

4 tons.

Winter apples, .

33 bush.

Corn fodder.

5 "

Wood used,

25 cords

Manure made,

150 cds.

Value of tillage and mowing land per acre, $50 ; pasture,
$20 ; woodland in pine, $10 ; in hard wood fit to be cut, $20

Average yield of wool to a sheep, per year, Saxon merino,
3 lbs.

10. NoRTHFiELD. — Acrcs, 150.J. In tillage, 24 ; English
mowing, 21 J ; pasture, 45 ; wood, 60 ; soil loamy ; the tillage
land chiefly alluvial.

Stock — horses, 2 ; cows, 2 ; swine, 3 ; oxen, 29, with a view
to stall-feeding.

20

154

Products. .

English hay.

60 tons.

Potatoes,

. 32 bush

Wheat,

58 bush.

Winter apples,

. 200 "

Indian corn.

. 588 "

Straw,

. 18 tons.

Rye, .

60 "

Corn fodder,

. 19 "

Oats, .

280 "

Wood used,"

. 25 cords

The amount of sales from this farm is not given ; the pro-
duce was mainly consumed in the fattening of beef cattle,
which were usually purchased in the autumn and sold at Brigh-
ton in the spring. By this process, as the farmer expressed it,
he usually doubled his money. But the result in such cases must
depend on various circumstances ; as the rate at which the cat-
tle Avere purchased ; the length of time they were fed ; the
amount consumed ; and the condition of the markets when
they were to be sold.

This farmer, whose whole management was exceedingly ju-
dicious and careful, was in the habit of sowing clover with his
wheat ; and after mowing it one year, and sometimes when in
stubble, ploughing in the clover after it became dead, planting
corn on this land without other manure than a small amount
of gypsum and ashes mixed and put in each hill. His corn
crops, planted three feet apart by two and a half, averaged
a yield of seventy-five bushels to the acre. His yard manure,
in such cases, was applied to his grass land as a top-dressing.

I might extend such examples ; but those which I have pre-
sented will give fair specimens of the general management in
the county. I shall leave it to the careful reader to make
such remarks respecting them as may suggest themselves to his
own mind, — observing only by the way that, while the yield
to an acre is in several cases large (though in none has it near-
ly reached its maximum), yet in most instances the amount of
land cultivated, in proportion to the size of the farm, is small.
No one more entirely than myself acquiesces in the position that
it is better to cultivate a little land well than to cultivate a great
deal poorly or imperfectly ; yet it would seem, where profit is

155

the object, that it is advisable to extend the cultivation as far
as the means of the farmer will allow him to go — this, how-
ever, always upon the supposition that the crops which he cul-
tivates pay a profit. This is obviously the case with those crops
to which we have referred. In a systematic and improved ag-
riculture the same rules hold as in any branch of trade or art.
Where the stock in trade is small, and the attention and labor
bestowed upon its management are likewise small, the gains will
be proportional. There is this advantage however in agricul-
ture that, although it is not wholly without its risks and uncer-
tainties, under judicious management they are less than in al-
most any other business whatever.

XVII. Domestic Economy. — In traveUing over New Eng- y(
land, one is frequently struck with examples of thrift, comfort t
and humble independence, the direct results of industry, sobri-, v,
ety and frugality, as instructive as they are beautiful. A bene-
volent mind always contemplates them with unmingled pleas-
ure. They present themselves often in circumstances to ordi-
nary view the most inauspicious. The conditions, which ap-
pear most unfriendly to success, seem, to constitute the very
grounds or occasions of it. The courage is kindled and the
resolution strengthened in proportion to the difficulties to be
met ; and, in a manner the most encouraging to honest labor
and strict temperance, they show the power of man, in a high
degree, to command his own fortune. Massachusetts is full of
these examples. I do not know that they are not as common
in other places. It is impossible however that they should ex-
ist but in a condition of freedom, where a man has a freehold
in the soil ; where, unawed either by overgrown wealth or op-
pressive power, he wears the port and has the spirit of a man ;
and where, above all things else, he has the voluntary direction
of his own powers, and a perfect security in the enjoyment of
the fruits of his own toil.

Example 1. — It will not be without its use, if it does no
more than present to the imagination a charming picture of ru-

156

ral comfort and independence, if I refer particularly to one in-
stance which strongly attracted ray attention. In one of those
beautiful valleys in which the county abounds, where the sur-
rounding hills in June are covered to their summits with the
richest herbage and dotted over with the rejoicing herds, at the
foot of the hills, near a small stream which here and there
spreads itself like a clear mirror encased in a frame of living
green, and then at other places forces its gurgling waters through
some narrow passes of the rocks, you may find an humble un-
painted cottage, with the various appurtenances of sheds and
styes and barns around it. Three or four stately trees present
themselves in front of it. The door-yard is filled with flow-
ers and shrubs ; and the buildings seem to stand in the midst
of a flourishing and full-bearing orchard, the trees of which are
clothed with living green, with no suckers at their roots, una-
dorned with the nests of the caterpillar, unscathed by the blight
of the canker-worm, and with their bark clean and bright, indi-
cating alike the health of the tree and the care of the proprietor.
Every part of the premises exhibits the most exact order and
carefulness. No battered axe lies at the wood-pile ; no rotten
logs, no unhoused sled, no broken wheels, no rusted and point-
less plough, encumber the roadway; no growling sow, with her
hungry and squealing litter, disputes your entrance into the
gate ; no snarling dog stands sentry at the door. The extend-
ed row of milk-pans are glittering in the sun ; and the churn
and the pails are scrubbed to a whiteness absolutely without a
stain.

The house is as neat within as without ; for such results are
not seen but where harmony reigns supreme, and a congeniality
of taste and purpose and character exists among all the partners
in the firm. The kitchen, the dairy, the bedrooms, the parlor,
all exhibit the same neatness and order. The spinning wheel,
with its corded rolls upon its bench, keeps silence in the corner
for a little while during the presence of the guest. The kitch-
en walls are hung round with the rich ornaments of their own
industry — the long tresses and skeins of yarn, the substantial

157

hosiery of the family, and the home-spun linen, emulating the
whiteness of the snow-drift. The floors are carpeted, and the
beds are made comfortable, with the produce of their own
flocks and fields, all wrought by their own hands. The gold-
en products of the dairy ; the transparent sweets of the hive,
obtained without robbery or murder ; the abundant contribu-
tions of the poultry-yard, the garden, and the orchard, load the
table with delicious luxuries. There are books for their leisure
hours ; and there stands too the reverend bass-viol in the cor-
ner, constant like its owner to appear at church on Sundays,
and kind always to assist in the chant of the daily morning and
evening hymn. Better than all this, there are children trained
in the good old school of respectful manners, where the words
of age, and grey hairs, and superiority, still have a place ; en-
ured to early hours and habits of industy, and with a curiosity
and thirst for knowledge stimulated the more from a feeling
of the restricted means of gratifying it. There is another
delightful feature in the picture ; the aged grandmother in
her chair of state, with a countenance as mild and benignant as
a summer evening's twilight ; happy in the conviction of duty
successfully discharged by training her children in habits of
temperance and industry ; and receiving, as a kind of household
deity, the cheerful tribute from all of reverence and affection.

Some may call this poetry ; it is indeed the true poetry of
humble rural life, but there is no fiction nor embellishment about
it. The picture is only true ; and if it were not a violation of
the rules which I have prescribed to myself to mention names
in such cases, and that I might offend a modesty which I high-
ly respect, I would show my readers the path which leads to
the house, and they should look at the original for themselves.

The owner, when I visited him, was forty-five years old. —
At twenty-one years old, he V\'as the possessor of only fourteen
dollars, and with the blessing only of friends no richer than
himself. His whole business has been farming and that only.
He married early ; and though he did not get a fortune loith a
wife, he got a fortune in a wife. They have comforted and

158

sustained their parents on one side of the house. They have
brought up three children ; and, with the co-labor of the chil-
dren, they have given them a substantial and useful education,
so that each of them, now of sufficient age, is capable of keep-
ing a good school, as they have done, with a view to assist their
own education. He began with thirty-five acres of land, but
has recently added fifty-five more to his farm at an expense of
nearly thirteen hundred dollars, for which there remained to be
paid five hundred — a debt which, if health continued, he would
be able to discharge in two years. The products of his farm
are various. He raises some young stock ; he fattens a consider-
able amount of pork for market, and occasionally a yoke of cat-
tle. He sells, in a neighboring village annually, about one
hundred dollars worth of fruit, principally apples and peaches.
Such a situation may be considered, in the best sense of the
term, as independent as that of any man in the country.

Now what are the causes of such success ? Persevering in-
dustry ; the strictest and most absolute temperance ; the most
particular frugality and always turning every thing to the best
account ; living within his own resources; and above all things,
never in any case suffering himself to contract a debt, except-
ing in the purchase of land, which could be made immediately
productive, and where of course the perfect security for the
debt could neither be used up, nor wasted, nor squandered.

Example 2. — I met with another example of domestic econ-
omy as interesting, but I cannot dwell upon it. The house
was filled with beautiful and substantial fabrics, the products
of domestic industry ; and the matron of the household, though
she had completed her sixty-ninth year, still plied at the wheel
and the distatf with all the energy of youth. These are pic-
tures of what rural life once was in New England ; but of
which, in their original simplicity, instances are more rare than
formerly. Such men need have no envy of the city milli-
onaires, whose slumbers are often broken in upon by the whis-
tling storm which forebodes destruction to their floating barks,

159

or the fluctuations in fancy stocks which alarm them with the
horrors of coming to want ; nor of the planter, with his thou-
sands of acres and his hundreds of slaves, who barricades his
door at night and lays his pistols at his bedside in terror of an
insurrection, and does not hear an unusual rustling of a leaf or
barking of a dog without a shudder, and without the mother's
hugging her children closer to her bosom.

I shall not enter upon the question whether, in a mere pecu-
niary estimate, the supplies of a family may not be more cheaply
obtained by purchase than by product. But it must be consid-
ered as an established principle in domestic economy that ev-
ery farmer should look to his farm for all that his farm can
furnish him. Though it may seem better to sell his wool and
buy his bread, yet in all such cases he pays a double commis-
sion, to the purchaser of the wool and the seller of the bread,
who must both get their living out of the operation. But be-
sides this, the improvement of the farm, in such cases, gener-
ally comes to a stand ; habits of industry are not formed, or are
broken up ; habits of luxury and expenditure are engendered ;
and, with this, comes generally also the habit of getting trusted
and running in debt. This is the fatal snare ; and the farmer
presently finds himself irretrievably enfolded in the meshes of
bankruptcy ; and assignments, and mortgages, and writs, and
executions, those great curses of life, bring up the rear, with a
black cloud of mortification and misery. But besides these
considerations, in the resolute habit of living within one's own
means and depending mainly upon one's own exertions, there
is a moral gain, which can scarcely be overvalued. The first
lesson to be taught to every child is a lesson of self-dependence.
I know very well the advantages springing from a division of
labor, and as well, that every general rule must be modified by
various qualifications ; but it is a sound maxim in personal,
domestic, and, I may add, public economy, never to depend on
others for that which you can do for yourselves. This is that
element which more strongly marks the Yankee character, and
gives them that shrewdness and adroitness for which the

160

New Englanders have always been distinguished. These qual-
ities may sometimes degenerate into troublesome impertinence
and low cunning and overreaching, but these instances are
much less the peculiarity of our people than in general they
have credit for. On the other hand, the instances are far more
numerous in which they prove themselves the foundation of
the highest intellectual power, the noblest personal indepen-
dence; and the most distinguished public usefulness.

XVIII. Silk. — I should have adverted earlier to the cul-
ture of silk in this county had I not gone largely into this mat-
ter in my Third Report. Since the publication of that Report
farther experiments have been made, which, if they have not
met the high-wrought expectations and the golden dreams in
which some have indulged, fully demonstrate that, under cer-
tain circumstances, the culture of silk may be made a profitable
branch of husbandry ; and where a certain kind of labor
abounds which would be unavailable in severer employments,
the culture of silk may become a most valuable branch of do-
mestic economy. The time, I believe, is not distant when
much more than this may be looked for ; and it may become a
specific and independent article of culture, yielding an ample
remuneration for the labor and capital employed.

In many cases the last year the cultivators of silk experienced
severe disappointments in the destruction of their worms by
disease. I regretted that I had no opportunity of seeing this
disease ; but it is understood to be a disease well known among
the silk culturists of Europe under the designation of musca-
dine ; and that an efficient remedy is found in sprinkling the
worms with newly slacked lime. The experiments of the
present season will undoubtedly furnish most valuable informa-
tion on this subject.

An invention likewise of an ingeniously constructed frame,
by Edmund Morris, of Burlington, New Jersey, by which the
care and cleaning of the worms are much facilitated, promises
great advantages.

161

It is the tendency of what is called public opinion to change,
and to vibrate from one extreme to another. There are few
men at any time capable of forming and maintaining a just and
independent judgment on any subject of much importance.
The public are moved by impulse, by caprice, by acclamation,
by accident, by sympathy, by fashion. In no case has this
caprice been more exemplified than in respect to the culture of
silk. Over estimates of its productiveness, made under the
inlinence of the imagination stimulated by an inordinate ava-
rice, first kindled the fire. The introduction of a new plant
into the country promised extraordinary facilities and advan-
tages in its cultivation. The enthusiasm, when the public
mind from other causes was in a state of feverish excitement,
every where became inflamed. There were those sagacious
enough, not to say wicked enough, to take every and some-
times the basest advantage of the public credulity ; and to
seek, on the top of one of the high tides which occasionally
occur in the affairs of men, to float into fortune. But it was
one of those unnatural swells whose ebb soon follows its flood,
which, leaping over all natural barriers, forebodes only destruc-
tion, and many a pitiable and forlorn wreck was left high and
dry upon the shore. My allusions are well understood. The
Morns Multicaulis speculation is a most extraordinary chapter
in our history, blotted and blurred all over with folly, credulity,
delusion, imposture, fraud, disappointment, bankruptcy and
ruin. The chagrin and disgust growing out of these miserable
results extended themselves most unreasonably to the cultiva-
tion of silk itself. But after the smoke and dust of the excite-
ment have cleared away, men will look at the subject with a
more just discrimination ; and silk will find its place in New
England among its valuable products.

The importance of this subject is very imperfectly appreciat-
ed. How few among us are not, in one form or another, in-
debted to the silkworm for some portion of our dress, furniture,
comfort or luxuries. An importation of silk amounting to
more than twenty millions of dollars a year, and for a large
21

162

portion of which specie only is paid, makes a formidable item
in our national expenditures. If then, without reference to the
production of raw silk for exportation, upon which many san-
guine persons have calculated with a confidence much more
reasonable than is generally allowed, by the employment of la-
bor at present not available we can to any considerable extent
prevent this expenditure or supply this want, the pecuniary gain
will be great, but it will not equal the moral gain. To all the
arguments of the utter impracticability of doing any thing to
advantage, and to the sneers with which many persons always
meet the subject, it is enough to point to the little town of
Mansfield, in Connecticut, where, under very ordinary and Inn-
ited facilities and against many disadvantages, the culture of
silk, for more than half a century, has been a source of large
and substantial income and a full remuneration of the labor em-
ployed in its production.

In Charlemont, the silk culture has been prosecuted by Jo-
seph Field with moderate but with uniform success. For feed-
ing, he has cultivated only the white mulberry ; and it is well
known how much this tree may be improved by culture. James
Deane, of Greenfield, has continued his experiments with great
intelligence and zeal, and has produced to a fair profit as beau-
tiful an article of raw silk as any market can show.*

XIX. Flax. — Flax has been sometimes cultivated to con-
siderable advantage in Sunderland and Gill. In Sunderland,
500 lbs. and from twelve to fifteen bushels of seed have been
obtained to an acre. In Gill, upon four acres of land 1600 lbs.
of flax and 50 bushels of seed have been produced. Flax un-
doubtedly might be cultivated in many places to advantage. It
has generally been considered an exhausting crop, and that it
would not bear repetition on the same land oftener than once in
five or seven years. In some towns in New York, where it is
largely cultivated, the farmers repeat it once in three years, as
they think without disadvantage. This practice is compara-

* Appendix, D.

163

tively modern. The value of flax seed for fatting cattle is not
yet by any means justly appreciated. I should have inserted
flax more properly among the crops of the county ; but its pro-
duction is so rare that it seemed hardly entitled to a place among
them.

XX. Experiments, Improvements, &c. 1. Freezing
Seed Wheat. — Polycarpus L. Cushman, one of the best farm-
ers in the county, tried an experiment which has been often
recommended in the public papers, of freezing in water his seed
wheat, keeping it frozen until the spring, and then sowing his
winter wheat in the spring. It had been confidently stated, that
by this process winter wheat might as well be sown in the
spring as in the autumn. The seed in this case came up well,
but from some cause unknown the plants soon after perished.
One bushel sown produced a crop of only two bushels.

2. Value of Corn Stalks. — Gardner Dickinson, of Con-
way, made a trial of keeping cows entirely upon corn-stalks
several weeks in December and January. The stalks were pur-
chased at I cent per bundle or 175 cents per acre. He prefer-
red purchasing at that rate by the acre. I would not record the
name of the individual willing to sell them so, if I knew it. —
They would be cheaply bought at that rate for manure only.

Five cows were kept exclusively upon these top-stalks, and
the ordinary allowance of each cow was five bundles per day.
Their condition was as good as when kept upon hay. They
preferred stalks to hay. The cost of keeping these cows, at
the price at which these stalks were purchased by the acre, was
28 cents each per week. Hay at this time in Conway was at
15 dollars per ton. A cow, by actual trial, requires about 25
lbs. of hay per day. This would be worth 13 IJ cents per
week.

3. Double Crops on the same Land. — Orlando Ware, of
Deerfield, approves of cultivating parsnips ; they remain in the
ground over winter to be given to his cattle in the spring. He
sows pease among them, for family use in summer, in the same

rills in his garden.

164

4. Time of Cutting Herdsgrass. — I have already referred,
in page Oth, to the opinions of Polycarpus and Ralph Cushman,
of Bernardston, founded on long experience in feeding cattle
and horses, that herdsgrass should not be cut until it is ripe and
the seed perfectly matured. This conforms to the results given
in the experiments ordered by the Duke of Bedford to test the
nutritiousness of different grasses, and to ascertain the season of
their growth when they yield the largest amount of nutritive
matter. These tables may be seen appended to Davy's Agri-
cultural Chemistry ; and they show that much the largest
amount of nutriment is to be found in herdsgrass when it is
fully ripe. The farmers in the neighborhood of the capital are
accustomed to cut their herdsgrass early, when it is in early
flower. It has then a peculiar greenness and brightness, which
render it more saleable in the market ; but, if the above state-
ments are to be received, and they are confirmed by the experi-
ence of many farmers in the interior, it is less nutritive than
when cut in a condition of perfect ripeness.

In general, the cutting of grass is much later in the interior,
and especially in the western parts of the State, than on the sea-
board. The farmers there are of opinion that in this way they
obtain more grass, and it is made into hay with much less trou-
ble, than when an earlier cutting is practised. In Deerfield
meadows, where two and sometimes three crops are to be taken
in a year, the first crop is necessarily mowed very early ,• and
the kind of grass usually obtamed there, the English bent, if
not mowed early, is said not to be relished by the cattle. It is
the opinion of several intelligent farmers, however, that many
of the farmers in Deerfield cut their grass too early ; and that
it would bo better, in many cases, to take one crop only, where
two are now taken. Long-established habits are changed only
with great difficulty and reluctance, and are to be primarily pre-
sumed to be founded on the sound dictates of experience — but
they are not always well founded. It is desirable that this point
should be settled by fair experiment. The question is, wheth-
er as much hay, by postponing the mowing and allowing the

165

grass to thicken at bottom, would not be obtained, in many ca-
ses, on the Deerfield and other aUuvial meadows at one cutting
as is now obtained at two ; or if not, whether the abatement of
labor in cutting but once instead of twice, and the superior ease
in making the hay when fully ripe rather than in an unripe con-
dition, would not be more than an equivalent for the smaller
amount of crop. It is said that cattle prefer early to late-cut
hay, and that their taste is the best criterion of its nutritiveness.
I am not quite disposed to admit either of these positions. Taste
is with all animals very much a matter of habit and cultivation.
Instinct is not always an infallible guide, or we should never
find sheep nibbling laurel,* nor cows killing themselves by brows-
ing the wild cherry,! nor children poisoned in eating hemlock.."]:
I know that some men insist with great pertinacity that nature
is always a safe guide in all these matters. If so, we might go
back to the practice of Bruce's Arabs, and cut and eat our steaks
out of the cow as we drive her along. If so indeed, matters in
civilized life have come to a strange pass, and the human ani-
mal at some of our city tables and our French restaurants
must be sadly in error.

William Pomeroy, of Northfield, to whose authority in this
case I should yield as much deference as to that of any man in
the county, is in the habit of not topping the stalks of his In-
dian corn, nor of cutting the plant at all until he has gathered
the ears. He leaves every thing until the corn is fully ripe ;
he then gathers the ears, sometimes husking them on the stalk
and sometimes carrying them into the barn. He then cuts up
the stalks at the bottom, which are then in a condition to be
put away, and immediately bundles and houses them. His
cattle eat them well and do well upon them. He prefers this
management to any other mode. Many farmers say that their
cows show as good thrift and yield as much milk when fed
upon the leaves and husks of the corn-butts, which are of
course dried late in the field, as when fed with the top-stalks
cut early, and saved in a green and bright condition.

* Kalmia angustifolia. f Prunus Virg:miana. % Conium maculatum.

166

5. Natural and Artificial Grasses. — In general, what are
called the natural grasses on the Deerfield meadows are much
more highly valued than the artificial grasses, such as herds-
grass, red top and clover. A highly intelligent and experienced
farmer is of opinion that the Deerfield farmers might cultivate
the artificial grasses, herdsgrass and red top, to advantage ; and
states that some of the best beef cattle ever produced in the
county were fatted by McCrellis, of Coleraine, upon pota-
toes and coarse herdsgrass hay.

6. Seeding Potatoes. — G. Dickinson planted two rows of
potatoes, five rods in length, and the hills three feet apart. In
some of the rows he put two potatoes in a hill ; in the others,
one potatoe only. The former yielded four quarts in a row
more than the latter ; but the extra yield was not deemed a
sufficient equivalent for the extra expense. This can hardly
be considered as very decisive. Indeed, the results in experi-
ments on the planting of potatoes, sometimes planting whole
potatoes, sometimes cut, sometimes the eyes, and sometimes
the sprouts merely, are so variously reported that it is difficult
to speak with confidence. If the root, as can hardly be ques-
tioned, depends for its first nourishment upon the decay of the
bulb out of which it starts ; and if it is most important, at the
starting of the plant, that this nutriment should be abundantly
supplied, it would seem to be much better to plant whole than
cut potatoes ; and this point may be considered as established.

7. Redeeming Land. — One experiment in Deerfield, in re-
deeming peat meadow, is worth recording as a caution. It was
ditched, and pared, and burnt ; but from the fire being set
when the meadow was too dry, it was essentially injured, many
lar^e holes being burnt in it.

An improvement is going on in Whately and Hatfield on a
large scale, which promises most valuable results. The Con-
necticut river, by a narrow inlet, flowed in upon a very large
and low piece of land, keeping it saturated with water, making
a mere swamp of it, covered with alders, reeds, and aquatic
grasses, and rendering it comparatively worthless. Heretofore,

167

it has been in the hands of- various owners, and it was difficult
in all such cases to effect any plan of general improvement.
Most of the rights have been purchased by some spirited and
enterprising individuals. They are ditching and draining the
land, clearing up the bushes, and have erected a dam and sluice-
gate at the narrow inlet, so as to exclude the river, and will,
in this way, bring into productive use an extensive and most
valuable tract of land.

8. Irrigation. — It is to be regretted that there is not more
of a spirit of agricultural improvement prevailing in the county
than appears ; and that in a region, where water is so easily
commanded and where the hills abound with permanent
springs, the subject of irrigating lands has not attracted more
attention. But I hardly know a case in the county where
it has been attempted. The pasture as well as the mowing
lands admit in many places of being essentially benefited in
this way.

9. Large yield of Grass. — The largest yield of grass re-
ported to me in the county was by Dr. Lyon, of Gill, on his
own farm. He states it to be five tons to the acre. In this
case the land receives the washings from the house and barn.
This is an extraordinary product, but the authority on which
this statement rests is entitled to confidence.

XXI. Miscellaneous Matters.

1. Manual Labor School. — At Shelburne Falls a school has
been established, connected with which are workshops, and a
considerable and valuable farm, it being intended that the pu-
pils, by devoting a portion of their time to mechanical and
agricultural labor, should in this way defray in part the ex-
penses of their support and edncation. The number of pupils
has averaged, since the foundation of the school, about ninety,
and the experiment may be considered so far as successful.
The cost of board at the institution is for females, one dollar;
for males, one dollar and twelve and a half cents per week,
washing not included. The price of tuition, three dollars per

168

quarter. Labor on the farm is credited per hour ; in mechan-
ical employments, at some specific rates. It is thought that an
industrious young person can give three hours per day to labor
without interfering with his studies. This is not, properly
speaking, an agricultural school ; but it would be easy to com-
bine with it instruction in scientific and improved agriculture,
and a course of agricultural experiments in a high degree ben-
eficial to the pupils and the community.

Every benevolent mind must rejoice in the extension of the
means of knowledge among all classes, and especially among
those whose humble and limited circumstances would otherwise
render it impracticable for them to acquire an education. I do
not accede at all to the opinion that a poor education, meaning
by that an imperfect or limited education, is worse than none.
1 believe that any measure of education whatever is a great deal
better than none. You cannot let a little knowledge into the
mind without awakening a desire and impatience for more, and,
by giving any, you confer a proportionate power of acquiring
more. There is an advantage likewise, than which nothing is
more obvious in this and other departments of life, in making
any good that we desire to a large extent dependent upon our
own exertions to acquire it. The combination likewise of phys-
ical with intellectual effort and labor is a most wise and useful
union. The growth and vigor of the mind are essentially de-
pendent on physical development and energy. But at the same
time, in all our establishments for instruction, we should aim to
give the best education which can be reached ; and in our com-
munity we should not make the attainment too cheap lest we
should render the education inferior and much below the
standard to which we ought to raise it. In our attempts there-
fore to make, as has sometimes been attempted, these manual-
labor schools altogether self-supporting schools, we do more than
the wants of the community demand, and we impair our pow-
er of furnishing the best instruction and the best means of
knowledge. There are few young persons of either sex among
us, who are deserving of an education, who cannot do a great

169

deal for themselves toward attaining it ; and all purely eleemos-
ynary establishments of education deserve no support from the
community. They are likely to be the resort of the idle, in-
efficient and worthless. I do not mean to utter a word in dis-
respect of this institution. Its location is extremely favorable,
and under good management it will prove a signal blessing to
that community ; bat it seems to me an attempt, doubtless well
intended, to make an education too cheaply attainable ; — likely
therefore to lower the standard of education, and certain not to
alford means of increasing the literary advantages of the insti-
tution or of adequately compensating the toil of instruction.

2. Scythe and Snaith Factories. — There is at Shelburne
a magnificent water-power, where the Deerfield river, after a
union with its two principal branches, makes in the course of a
short distance a descent over a broken ledge of rocks, I should
judge, of more than twenty-five feet. This presents a most val-
uable water power, and the village in its neighborhood is des-
tined to become the seat of many factories.

There is a scythe factory established, where the business is
carried on to a considerable extent. The scythe made here has
a deservedly high reputation. There is an improvement in its
form, which consists in the usual concave bottom of the blade
being rejected and a raised edge formed on the upper and under
side, by which great stiffness is given to the blade. The blade
appeared to me too narrow ; but they are much approved by
those who use them. The English scythes are in general much
wider in their blades than ours ; they are consequently not so
soon ground down and the motion of them is much steadier ; —
they are not, on this account, so liable to be bent, and their cut
is more even and close.

There is likewise here, in the immediate neighborhood, an
extensive manufactory of snaiths. The particular form of a
snaith, or scythe-handle, was formerly matter of chance or
sleight of hand. It was scarcely possible to find two alike ;
or, after a man had made one, to be sure that he would make
another of the same pattern. It is said that in Hingham for-
22

170

merly, where the manufacture of pails was carried on extensive-
ly, the bucket-makers could cut out the bottoms of their pails
successfully only at the time of a full moon. The snaith-makers
had not even such an advantage, unless they had taken one of
the constellations, but were obliged to proceed as it is said by
guess, or to depend on mere skill to fashion two alike or even
to fashion one well.

Every good mower knows how much the character of his
work and his own ease in working depend upon the hang of his
scythe, and these improved snaiths are on every account a val-
uable invention. The difference between one of these beauti-
ful and graceful frames by which the scythe is balanced like a
feather upon the hand, and the old-fashioned almost straight
handle by which it hung like a dead weight, is remarkable.

These snaiths are made of the wood of the white ash. They
are split out and sold in the rough at five dollars per hundred.
The nibs or handles are made of black or yellov/ birch, and cost
^2 50 per hundred. The irons for the nibs and ends are fin-
ished at fifteen cents a set. Men finish the scythe-snaiths — that
is, after they are taken from the oven — at two cents a-piece,
being boarded in addition : and a man will finish forty, or sixty,
or sometimes one hundred, per day.

About 75,000 are manufactured per year. The article in the
rough state is first steamed three hours ; then placed in a cast
iron frame to give it the proper shape, four being put into one
mould at a time. A number of these moulds are then placed
in a frame, which moves upon a railway, and is shoved directly
into a drying-room or oven, where they remain forty-eight
hours. They are then taken out, shaved smooth, and rubbed
with sand paper, and returned again to another drying-room, to
remain forty-eigbt hours longer. The nibs or handles are then
put on, and the work finished.

The article is very beautiful. Great improvements have
been made in fitting the ring to the scythe, by which it can be
driven tight without the use of wedges, always objectionable
in former modes ; in sinking an iron socket to receive the claw

171

of the scythe, so that the scythe does not become loose by the
wearing away of the wooden mortice, as was formerly the case ;
in so fitting the nibs or handles that they can be loosened, or
driven tight, or removed one way or another, or placed at any
inclination, at pleasure, and this without the trouble of move-
able wedges ; and in so fitting the bottom of the handle to the
snaith, that the strain is brought upon the snaith instead of the
iron, which passes through the handle, and is therefore much
less liable to be broken.

Students of the school, above spoken of, are often employed
in this shop in diff'erent operations, at ten cents an hour. They
are at liberty to work three hours a day, and may still keep up
with their classes. Some of the students in this way defray
all their expenses.

Two lads were pointed out to me, then at work rubbing the
snaiths with sand paper, who earned in the shop the last year
one hundred and fifty dollars. They were brothers, one sev-
enteen years old, the other younger ; and were the children of
a deranged parent, Avho was unable to provide for them. This
was a beautiful example of most commendable industry, and
evinced their worthiness of the education they were seeking.

XXII. Price of Land. — 1. The alluvial meadow land in
Deerfield, that which is of the best quality and annually flood-
ed, commonly when sold commands one hundred dollars. If
very favorably situated, it would bring a much higher price.
The price of good pasture land, in the interior of the county,
is from ten to fifteen dollars.

2. In Sunderland, the meadow land of the best quality, near
the village, has been recently sold for one hundred and twenty
dollars per acre ; farther from the town, land of the same qual-
ity commands sixty dollars.

3. In Warwick, pasturage land is valued at seven to fifteen
dollars.

4. In Gill, the price of meadow land varies from twenty-five
to fifty dollars per acre.

1

172

5. In Shelbiiine, farms have been sold recently for twenty-
four dollars per acre.

6. A farm of 200 acres recently sold in Charlemont, with
excellent buildings upon it and in fine condition, for six thou-
sand dollars, or thirty dollars per acre.

7. In Buckland, the average price of farms is put at twenty-
five dollars per acre. The price of land here has very greatly
increased within a few years ; and it was stated to me by an
intelligent authority that farms which, eight or ten years since,
were sold for less than $2500, would now command $5000.

8. The cost of clearing wild land, as in Rowe for example,
so as to fit it for the harrow, is ten dollars, though of course
something must depend on the amount and nature of the
growth upon it.

9. The value of tillage and mowing land in Whately is put
down at thirty dollars per acre ; of pasture land, at twenty dol-
lars ; of wood land in pine, at twenty-five dollars ; in hard
wood, fit to be cut, at forty dollars.

10. In Bernardston, the price of tillage and mowing land is
rated at fifty dollars per acre ; of pasturage, at twenty dollars
per acre ; of wood land fit to be cut, at ten to twenty dollars ;
the land, the year after the wood is cut off, at ten dollars.

11. In Ashfield, tillage and mowing land is estimated at
twenty-five dollars per acre, and pasturage at fifteen dollars.

12. In Conway, tillage and mowing land is estimated at
forty-five dollars, and pasture land at twenty-five dollars per
acre. Land in hard wood, fit to be cut. at thirty dollars per
acre.

It is difficult to arrive at any fair average of the value of
lands, either in a county or a town, so much depends upon a
variety of circumstances of time, place, aspect, and condition ;
but many of these estimates are based upon actual sales ; and
others, the judgment of respectable farmers, and will serve to
give some general idea of the price of real estate in the county.

It ought to be remembered that the price of an article and
the value of it are not always the same. The price depends on

173

various circumstances ; on the number of purchasers, the abun-
dance or scarcity of money, the necessities of the seller, and
sundry other things. The value of land is to be deter-
mined by what it can be made to produce. If an acre of
land, after all expenses of labor, manuring, care and taxes are
paid, will, on an average of years, produce a crop worth six or
seven dollars, and, at the same time, furnish the means of
keeping up its condition, it must be considered as worth one
hundred dollars; and, as such, may be regarded as a secure
and eligible investment of capital.

XXIII. Buildings. — The general growth of the county is
maple, hickory, yellow and grey oak, beech, ash, white and
yellow pine. The county, to a considerable extent, is cleared ;
and though there is still an exportation of boards and timber to
a small amount, yet it is largely dependent upon a foreign sup-
ply for its building materials. The buildings are principally of
wood. Brick houses are very rare, and stone houses, though
the material is abundant in all parts of the county, are more
rare. This conforms to the almost universal taste of New
England. The difference in the first cost between buildings of
rough stone, or of wood with its finishings, is not great ; and
when the superior comfort, both in winter and summer, of a
well-built stone house is taken into view, together with its du-
rability and the repairs incessantly incidental to a wooden
building, this material ought to be preferred. There is an ob-
jection which has its effect to buildings of stone, which is likely
to continue to have an influence ; and that is, in the perpetual
change of estates, residence and profession which prevails
among us. Our habits are too much habits of adventure. Few
estates remain in the same family through three generations ; s _;_
and many of them change owners almost with the facility with
which a conjurer changes his cups and balls. We have no law H
of primogeniture ; and, much as it is to be regretted, few farm- j '
ers find their sons willing to follow the profession of their /
fathers. Employments, presenting prospects of larger and

V

174

more rapid gains, seduce them from the farm ; and, in the set-
tlement of the estate among several heirs, the homestead, with
a view to the division of the property, is sold and passes into
other hands. There is therefore much less inducement to build
permanent and durable structures, that may last for centuries
and go down to a distant posterity, than prevails in older
countries.

XXIV. Wood and Fuel. — The price of hard-wood fuel in
the county, if bought and delivered at the door, varies from one
dollar seventy-five cents to two dollars fifty cents, and in some
cases three dollars, per cord. Wood is the only fuel used. Of
peat there are few deposits, and none which have been ever
opened for fael, and mineral coal can be had only at a heavy ex-
pense. It is the opinion of an observing farmer in Conway that
there is as much wood now growing in that town as there was
twenty years since. I cannot think however that such a re-
mark is applicable to many towns in the county. Since the in-
troduction of stoves, much greater economy prevails in the con-
sumption of fuel than when it was burnt in fire-places capable
of admitting sticks of four feet in length, and at the same time
of accommodating a small — perhaps I should say the small — por-
tion of the family in the corner in a cold winter night. The
increase of his wood ought to be a subject of much care and
consideration with every farmer who has a Christian feeling for
those who shall come after him. Plantations of the rock maple
and locust, both of which flourish well in this climate and soil,
might be made to very great advantage and ultimate profit. —
The former would supply both sugar and fuel ; and the latter
would furnish most valuable timber for fencing, posts, ships'
knees and treenails, — and is of rapid growth.

XXV. Orchards. — Fruit is cultivated in the county at large
to a comparatively small extent ; and since the progress of the
temperance reformation throughout the country, cider has fallen
into almost entire disuse ; apple orchards are neglected, and

175

young orchards are not planted as frequently as formerly. This
is greatly to be regretted. Ripe fruit, as one quaintly observes,
was the food of Paradise. It is nutritious, and highly condu-
cive to the health of children and adults. But besides this, I
have the opinion of several farmers in the county, and of one
after twelve years' experience in the use of them, that, for fat-
ting both cattle and swine, apples are of equal value with
potatoes. This corresponds with the opinions of a great many
farmers in other parts of the State.

XXVI. Agricultural Implements. — The common imple-
ments of husbandry do not differ from those in other parts of
the State.

1. A ROLLER is scarcely known in the county ; but the farmers
would every where find great advantage from its use. The
farmers in the intervale lands object to its use ; the soil being
aluminous, they are of opinion that it would tend to consoli-
date it too much. There is not much in this objection, unless
the land is wet when it is rolled. Where it is dry and in a
proper condition the roller will serve to break the clods and re-
duce them to fineness, and thus effectually cover the seeds
which may be sown. On other lands its effects are always
beneficial, both in covering the seeds, in pressing the small
stones into the earth, and thus rendering the soil smooth for
the scythe, and oftentimes beyond a doubt in crushing and de-
stroying large numbers of pernicious insects. It is of great
advantage to pass it over the fields of young grain in the spring,
thus giving a firm hold to many plants which have been
thrown out by the frosts and might otherwise perish.

Any farmer, familiar with the use of an axe and saw, may
soon supply himself at a trifling expense with a very useful
roller. But the most approved forms are of a large diameter,
made, for example, of four cast-off forward wheels of a
common wagon, and covered with plank in strips of three
inches thickness. In such cases, the axle should have a joint
in the middle, so as to render the turning at the ends of the

176

field more easy. The large diameter of the roller proportion-
ately diminishes the weight of draft, makes it less likely to
drag the dirt before it, and leaves the work smoother.

2. Wagons. — The vehicle in general use for farming pur-
poses is the common four-wheeled wagon, a heavy and clumsy
vehicle. A horse-cart is scarcely known in the county ; but
where manure is to be carried to a considerable distance on a
comparatively level road, as on the intervale lands for example,
and, when there, distributed in hills either for broom or Indian
corn, two horse-carts which in many cases, in going a distance,
might easily be managed by one driver, would accomplish
much more than could be done with a wagon drawn by four
oxen, as is customary. The superior ease likewise with which
they are unloaded deserves to be considered.

3. A PLOUGH has been constructed by John Wilson, of Deer-
field, which is much approved. It is, in my opinion, well
adapted for the turning in of stubble, or the ploughing under of
green crops.

As it properly belongs to the county and is much used, I
subjoin a drawing of it, and likewise a statement of its de-
signed advantages, in the words of Mr. Wilson.

" Some of the most important improvements attempted are
the following. The share enters the ground with a most easy
and gradual slope ; and forming with the mould-board a regular
curve, the furrow slice is raised and turned over with the least
possible resistance."

177

" The share being twelve inches wide, cuts the full width of
the mould-board at the heel, by which the whole width of the
furrow is raised and mellowed. The land-side of the plough
is of equal height with the mould-board, which makes greater
resistance to the lateral pressure on that side, giving steadiness
to the plough in its course, and preventing obstructions of ev-
ery kind from hanging on that side or falling into the furrow."

For the ploughing of greensward, where it is desired com-
pletely to invert the sod, this plough is not so well adapted.

4. Hay-Knife. — The farmers here use a long knife, in the
shape of a ditching-knife, for the purpose of cutting down their
hay as they feed it to their cattle. I refer to it, not that there is
any thing remarkable in its construction, or that it is unknown
in other places, but for the sake of recommending a practice
which is somewhat peculiar to this part of the country. The
mow of hay, when it is fed to the stock, is carefully cut down
in slices of three or four feet width, as exactly as a loaf of
bread would be cut, and the hay is not, as in most cases,
pitched off as it is wanted promiscuously from any part of the
mow. This slice is used from the top to the bottom as it is
needed ; it is in this way more easily handled ; the top of the
whole mow is not turned up and exposed to the air, and to be
trodden upon ; and besides the neatness of the practice, the hay
is undoubtedly expended with more carefulness.

XXVII. Condition of the Rural Population. — The con-
dition of the agricultural population of Franklin county is com-
fortable, and upon the whole prosperous. Some few years ago
the debts of the farmers in the county were understood to be
large ; but they are known to have been greatly reduced and are
in the process of gradual extinction. In some of the towns
not promising most, it is said that the farmers, after paying all
their bills and expenses, will lay up two hundred dollars a year ;
in other towns, from two to six hundred, to eight hundred, and
in some cases to a thousand. It is understood in this case that
the farmer charges himself with all his hired labor and all he
23

S

178

purchases for his family, but does not charge his own or that la-
bor in his family, for which he is not obliged to pay. It is ob-
vious that, in all such cases, the returns must depend upon the
size of the farm, the amount of capital employed, and the labor
expended, as well as the kind and disposition of the products.

1. When Bernardston received its share of the surplus rev-
enue, amounting to $2000, it was agreed that it should be loan-
ed upon interest ; but no borrowers could be found. Much land
was in Bernardston, a few years since, devoted to the production
of rye for distillation : then a crop of rye was taken once in
four years ; and in the meantime the land was left untouched,
in order to recruit itself until another crop of rye should be taken.
This miserable husbandry, miserable in respect to the course of
cultivation and still more so in respect to the application of the
products, has been for a long time abandoned ; rye is now cul-
tivated solely for family use ; and the husbandry of the town is
fast improving.*

2. Sunderland is represented as eminently prosperous, and
appearances confirm these statements. It for a long time lan-
guished under the annual visitation of a fatal fever, which baf-
fled the best medical sagacity and skill both as to its cause and
cure. It was generally supposed to be connected with the stag-
nant waters of a swamp in the rear of the village, which has been
carefully drained. The health of the town is now good, and
the cause of sobriety is triumphant. It is said that not a single
farmer in the whole of this beautiful village uses ardent spirits.
Temperance, united with industry and safe enterprize, are as
sure to be followed by all reasonable success and prosperity as
careful and skilful cultivation is by a certain and abundant har-
vest. These things are not quite so much matter of chance as
the idle and reckless and profligate would have us believe.

3. RowE, in the north-western part of the county, formerly
had a whisky distillery which, in the time of the late war, yield-
ed large profits. The liquor was obtained from potatoes; and
potatoes sold for 20 and 25 cents per bushel, a bushel of potatoes

* See Second Report for Agricultural Returns from Bernardston.

179

yielding from 3 to 4 qts. of whisky — somewhat dependent, as
in the case of city milk, upon the proof of the spirit, or the con-
venience of water. Whisky and war are generally very good
friends to each other in private as well as public life ; and out
of whisky the parties interested contrive to manufacture a spu-
rious product, which passes for courage and patriotism. It is a
melancholy infatuation ; and what were called profits in this
case were all stained with human blood. The good people of
Rowe have reason to thank God that the curse of this distillery
has ceased from among them ; that, as one remarked to me,
" their tavern died a natural death ;" and that temperance, and
its ordinary consequences, universal comfort and independence,
prevail among them. Their mountain air gives vigor to their
minds and energy to their muscles ; and the crystal springs
from their own hills refresh them under fatigue and toil. "^

4. Shelburne produces more than sugar enough for its own
consumption ; the greater portion of its bread ; and a large
amount of its clothing. Broken and rough as it is, there are
few towns where the indications of general comfort and thrift
are more emphatical.

5. Leverett, in its aspect among the most unpromising of
any of the towns in the county, rough and mountainous in its
surface and rocky and hard in its soil, has, under its rude ex-
terior, a respectable population, industrious and frugal in their
habits, enjoying a full measure of the means of subsistence,
and abounding in the common comforts of life. Leverett pro-
duces its own bread and meat ; its own sugar ; and likewise a
great portion of its own clothing, and buys but little. It pre-
sents many examples of humble but substantial independence.
One farmer stated to me, that he sometimes gathers from his or-
chard one thousand bushels of winter apples, for which he finds a
market in some of the neighboring villages. These are among
the many littles, which, according to the Scotch proverb, '•' make
a meikle." It is delightful to the reflecting and benevolent mind
to»contemplate the compensations, v/hich abound in the arrange-
ments of the divine Providence, and serve to equalize the va-

180

ried conditions of human life ; and, as it would sometimes seem,
cause the scale to preponderate in favor of those whose exter-
nal advantages seem fewest and least auspicious. It is an old
proverb, that "necessity is the mother of invention." The in-
habitants of very cold climates in general suffer much less from
cold than those of milder temperatures, because, in their dress
and dwellings, they much more carefully fortify themselves
against it. So too in restricted circumstances, where men are
urider the necessity of contending with adverse influences of
climate and hardness and barrenness of soil, by increased
energy, enterprize and skill they compel the reluctant earth to
yield her supplies ; and these efforts give sharpness to the wits
and strength to the hands ; and, above all, a richer zest to the
enjoyment of the fruits of toil.

6. Gill is represented as making rapid advances in agricul-
tural improvement and productiveness. In its location it is
one of the most beautiful towns in the county and in the State,
and has a large proportion of excellent land, both upland and
intervale, capable of great improvement. Gill likewise was
once cursed with a cider-brandy distillery, whose liquid fires,
wherever they spread themselves, carried with them a worse
blight than rust or mildew, than frost or flood. The habits of
the town, since its removal, have greatly improved ; and the
improvement of their farms and condition goes on with an
equal step. I have referred to these towns in particular, in
different parts of the county, because these circumstances were
pointed out to me ; or they otherwise strongly attracted my
attention. I might give as favorable a picture of other towns
in the county, though not of all.
/ It would seem at first blush very extraordinary that, in New
England, a farmer, who has for example his farm free of in-
cumbrance, should ever become bankrupt. So intimately con-
nected is this subject with the prosperity and respectability of
the agricultural profession, that some remarks in reference to it
will not, 1 hope, be deemed misplaced. Among the Romans,
six acres were considered ample for the support of a family ;

181

with their hundred acres, some of our farmers grow poor, and
become hopelessly insolvent. In many cases not a tenth part
of such farms is cultivated. Instead of asking how he can
make every acre of his farm productive, the farmer inquires
how he can .subsist wit),i the least possible expenditure of labor
in its cultivation, or of capital in its improvement. No good in \
life can be attained without labor ; and sometimes, oftentimes,
large and valuable tracts of land lie unproductive and worth-
less, because the farmer is unwilling to expend any thing in
their redemption and improvement.

Then again in the families of many farmers there are too \ \
many unproductive hands. In the changes which, since the /
introduction of extensive manufactories of cotton and woolen'
among us, have taken place in our habits of domestic labor,
some of the internal resources of the farmer have become dried
up, and new occasions of expenditure introduced. I cannot
better illustrate this matter than by a recurrence to a conversa-
tion, which I had with one of the most respectable farmers in
this county. " Sir," said he to me, '' I am a widower, and have
only one daughter at home. I have gone to the utmost extent
of my limited means for her education. She is a good scholar,
and has every where stood high in her classes, and acquitted
herself to the satisfaction of her instructers. She is expert in
all the common branches of education. She reads Latin and
French ; she understands mineralogy and botany ; and I can
show you with pleasure some of her fine needle-work, em-
broidery and drawings. In the loss of her mother, she is my
whole dependence ; but instead of waiting upon me, I am
obliged to hire a servant to wait upon her. I want her to take
charge of my dairy, but she cannot think of milking ; and as
her mother was anxious that her child should be saved, all
hardship, for she used to say the poor girl would have enough
of that bye and bye, she never allowed her to share in her la-
bors ; and therefore she knows no more of the care of a dairy,
or indeed of housekeeping, than any city milliner ; so that in
fact I have sold all my cows but one. This cow supplies us

182

with what milk we want, but I buy my butter and cheese. I
told her, a few days since, that my stockings were worn out,
and that I had a good deal of wool in the chamber, which I
wished she would card and spin. Her reply was, in a tone of
unaffected surprize, — Why, father ! no young lady does that ;
and besides, it is so much easier to send it to the mill and have
it carded there. Well, I continued, you will knit the stockings
if I get the wool spun? Why no, father ! mother never taught
me how to knit, because she said it would interfere with my
lessons ; and then, if I knew how, it would take a great deal
of time, and be much cheaper to buy the stockings at the
store "

/ This incident illustrates perfectly the condition of many a
farmer's family, and exhibits a serious drawback upon his pros-
perity, and a serious impediment to his success. The false
notions, which prevail among us in regard to labor, create a
distaste for it ; and the fact that, if the time required to be
employed in many articles of household manufacture be reck-
oned at its ordinary value, the cost of producing or making
many articles of clothing would be more than that of purchas-
ing them at the store, is deemed a sufficient reason for aban-
doning their production at home. In many cases, however,
this time is turned to no account, but absolutely squandered.
But yet the clothing, if not made, must be bought ; and they
who might produce it must be sustained at an equal expense,
i whether they work or are idle.

/ Another great occasion of many a farmer's ruin is the credit
which he easily obtains, and a practice of dealing at the village
store for barter. The fact, so common and notorious, that the
owners of most of our village stores obtain liens in the form of
mortgage, attachment, or forced sale, upon many of the farms
in their vicinity, shows how great is the danger of the almost
universal system of store trust and credit. Few farmers keep
any accounts, and before they are at all aware they have a long
score on the trader's books, and that not only for the current
price of the goods, but enhanced by an additional charge for the

183

delay of payment. But there is another circumstance in this
case which is not always considered. In many instances, the
trader will purchase the produce of the farmer only upon what
is called store pay — that is, making his payment in goods from
his store. The farmer, in this way, is not only obliged to sell
at the lowest market price and pay the trader his profit upon his
goods, but he and his family are induced to purchase a great
many things which they do not need and which they would be
better without. This leads likewise to the keeping of an open
account ; which, if not most rigidly watched and frequently set-
tled, is as sure as fate to surprize the farmer with an unexpected
and heavy balance against him. This usually produces ill blood
between both parties, leading to vexatious lawsuits and all their
miserable consequences ; and so far as any further comfort or
success in life are concerned, a farmer might as well see at his
elbow a personage, whom it may not be civil to name, as get
into the fangs of the -law, or have a sheriff npon his premises.
They are alike, equally ruthless and inexorable. Unless therefore
in the rare instances, and there are some such, of men disposed
to deal with perfect honor and integrity, a village store in the
vicinity of a farm must but too often be regarded as a precursor
to debt and ruin to the neighborhood.

The farmer should as far as possible sell only for cash ; and
endeavor to supply his wants, and those of his family, wholly
from the farm. He should beware of debt under all circum-
stances, excepting for property — such as land for example —
whose value is not likely to be reduced, and which is susceptible
of immediate improvement and profit. He must recollect that,
at least in New England, the returns of his husbandry come in
various and small forms : and that it will never be easv for him
to discharge any large debt but by a slow and gradual process
from the products of his farm. Especially must he remember,
that his principal capital is labor ; that he can never afford to
support many hands which are idle, inefficient or unproductive ;
that the drones do not only not fill but exhaust the hive and /
consume the products of the working bees ; and that an ex- /
pense avoided is a double gain. _y

184

XXVIII. Agricultural Society. — The counties of Hamp-
shire, Hampden and Franklin formerly composed the single
county of Hampshire, and remain embraced in one agricultural
society. The funds of this society are such, that it receives
from the treasury of the State six hundred dollars annually, to
be disbursed in premiums, and in other forms, for the benefit of
the agricultural interests. The annual meetings and cattle-shows
of this society are usually held at Northampton, though they
have in some instances been migratory ; in one case having
been held at Greenfield in Franklin county, and in another at
West Springfield in Hampden county. This change of place for
holding the annual show is attended with expense and inconve-
nience ; and Northampton being more nearly central than any
other town in these counties, it is most commonly holden there.
The distance however of Northampton from the remoter
parts of the county of Franklin being in some places nearly
forty miles, the attendance becomes inconvenient, and much less
interest is taken in the matter than should be. From a jealousy,
likewise, too apt to grow up among neighboring villages and
towns, it has been insinuated, I believe without a shadow of
justice, that competitors living within the immediate vicinity of
the customary place of meeting were always particularly favor-
ed in their competition for premiums. But the only advantage
which they ever had arose, without a doubt, from their proxim-
ity and the greater ease with which they could bring fheir ani-
mals and products to the place of exhibition. It will not be de-
nied however that the farmers in Franklin county, to whatever
reason it may be attributed, have been most censurably negli-
y 1 gent in this case and have shown a culpable want of interest in
the management and success of this society. In the hands of
the few individuals to whom its affairs have been entrusted, its
management has been conscientious and faithful ; and the farm-
ers of Franklin county, so little labor or attention have they
been willing to bestow on its concerns, have neither right nor
reason to complain.

The territory which it embraces is generally admitted to be

186

too large, and it would be advisable to form a society expressly
for the county of Franklin. In order to a county society's
receiving the patronage of the State, the county must contain
at least 25,000 inhabitants, and the population of Franklin
county now exceeds this number. In this case, it might be
advisable to attach several of the towns in the north-western
part of Worcester county to this association, to whom, for
these purposes, it would be more easy to reach the centre of
Franklin than of Worcester or Hampshire county.

An Agricultural society established in this county, and con-
ducted with spirit and intelligence, would be productive of the
highest benefits. The county is to some extent engaged in the
rearing of cattle and sheep. The farmers are largely interested
in the fatting of beef animals. The exhibition of the best
specimens of animals of every kind, and the comparisons to
which this exhibition would lead, would kindle a strong com-
petition and result in immediate and general improvement. —
Franklin county is likewise to a considerable degree engaged in
cultivation. The exhibition of the best products of her soil in
grain, vegetables and fruits, would powerfully stimulate compe-
tition. Besides this, a committee of a county society, with
power to award liberal premiums, who should go through the
county twice a year to inspect such crops and farms as might
come under their observation, would stir up inquiry and obser-
vation, and create an ambition of agricultural excellence and im-
provement, in the highest degree conducive to the enhancing
the value of property and the general prosperity of the county.
Agricultural associations have been formed in some of the towns
for mutual inquiry and information, and for the establishment
of social and circulating libraries, embracing chiefly books of an
agricultural character. These associations promise essential ben-
efit ; and if, in the meantime, while there is no general agricul-
tural show in the county, the inhabitants in some of the princi-
pal towns would bring out on some fixed day once a year, their
best cows, oxen, sheep and swine for exhibition in their own
towns ; and the best products of their gardens and fields ; and
24

186

try their skill in plonghing-matches and in the management
of their cattle, the day would be well devoted to such objects,
and afford to the farmers, with the exception of Sunday, the
best holiday in the calendar. This experiment has been suc-
cessfully tried in several towns in the State — in Barre, Hard-
wicke, Westborough and others ; and though committees
should be appointed who should impartially examine and
report upon the merits of the different animals and objects
presented for exhibition, and upon the ploughing and draw-
ing matches, it is not at all necessary, as experience has fully
attested, that there should be any pecuniary premiums to be
awarded in order to excite a spirited and wholesome compe-
tition.

XXIX. Public Roads. — The public roads in the county,
considered at large, are quite too much neglected and their con-
dition by no means creditable. This however does not apply to
all the towns ; but it would be invidious to particularize. In
some of the towns, where the making of good roads is most
difficult and the expenses for repairs are necessarily the largest,
the expenditures have been most liberal and the roads are
in the best condition. The county commissioners have, within
a few years past, made some essential amendments and im-
provements in straightening the roads, iti shortening distances,
and reducing hills. These improvements, while they strikingly
indicate how much more is to be done, will stimulate the desire
for its accomplishment, and better satisfy the people in having
more done. Our boards of commissioners for the laying out
and surveying of public highways are altogether popular insti-
tutions and elected directly by the suffrages of the people. —
This circumstance, and the fact likewise that, by the provisions
of the law, when anew road is laid out or an old one amended
by their authority, half the expense of doing this falls upon
the town in which the improvements take place, tend greatly
to limit their power, or at least prevent its free exercise. The
desire of conciliating public favor, which may be expected to

187

influence in some degree those who want the honors and emol-
uments of office, too often induces them to forego important
improvements because of their expense: or, with a view to
disarming opposition and securing good will, to adopt a sort of
half-wajr measures, which fail of their proper object and serve
essentially to defeat, for years, the substantial improvements de-
sired. It was much better under the early provisions of the
law, when the appointment of commissioners rested exclusively
with the Executive of the State, and they were in a great de-
gree independent of the people ; but this did not suit the tem-
per of the times. Private rights should be always sedulously
protected ; but where the public good obviously demands their
surrender, there should be no hesitation in compelling it. This
is the only ground on which we can rest for the security and
advancement of the general welfare. Where a just compensa-
tion is made for any sacrifice required, there may be reasons for
regret but no just cause of complaint. In all matters wherein
private interests conflict with the public good, it is important
that such questions should be decided by an impartial and inde-
pendent tribunal ; but a tribunal can scarcely be expected to be
impartial and independent where power rests directly upon pri-
vate interest or popular caprice. The importance of good roads to
a town or county is seldom sufficiently appreciated. The conve-
nience, the saving of time and the saving of expense, are consid-
erable ; but more than that, the condition of its roads and of
its schoolhouses, and of every thing else of a public nature,
materially concerns the character of the people and essentially
affects the value of property.

XXX. Natural Scenery. — I am unwilling to close this
report on the agricultural condition of Franklin county, with-
out adverting to the charming and picturesque scenery of this
region. Its hills are beautiful, its valleys are beautiful ; and
within my knowledge it would be difficult to find a country,
of no larger extent, combining more of what is attractive in
the natural world and presenting more objects to please the

188

sight and delight the imagination. The man of refined senti-
ment and cuUivated mind, with a taste for rural scenery, might
pass at least a month in this county with continually new and
rich gratification in exploring its many agreeable rides and
varied objects of curiosity.

The Connecticut river cuts this territory through its whole
breadth. Standing on an eminence in Gill, near its banks,
and contemplating its course through the valley of Northfield,
with its wide and fertile meadows, its hills crowned with
verdure, its grand mountain scenery in the distance, and the
village of Northfield with its modest steeples and its white
houses in the centre, worn as it were like a gem on its bosom,
the prospect is one of remarkable interest and beauty. Fol-
lowing the river in its course, you soon reach its junction with
Miller's river, and its transit over Turner's falls, a rocky barrier
which seeks in vain to impede its progress, and over which, at
periods of high water, it pours its broken and impetuous stream
with peculiar grandeur and magnificence. Here too the mind
and heart are stirred by the recollections of the perils and strug-
gles of former and yet not very distant days, when a body of
the aborigines were driven from the shores in their canoes by
their enemies in pursuit, and, swept away by the current, per-
ished in their terrific descent down this foaming cataract.

As you descend the river, which, after its passage over the
falls, spreads itself out into a quiet and placid stream, you soon
reach the foot of Sugar-Loaf mountain, which, on the side
towards the river, rears its naked and perpendicular front of red
sand-stone ; and on the road round its base seems, in its over-
hanging cliff's, to threaten the destruction of the unwary trav-
eller. This mountain, which appears to form a part of the up-
heaving which first presents itself at New Haven, in Connecti-
cut, and extends far into the interior, in several of its aspects
is one of the most picturesque objects any where to be
found. On one side, the mountain is not diflicult of ascent,
and the view presented from its summit is sufficient to compen-
sate for the toil of the ascent, if it were a hundred times more

189

difficult than it is. At the foot of the mountain lies the hand-
some village of Sunderland, with its long and straight street,
its white houses, its steepled church, its cultivated fields, its
rich gardens, its regular orchards, and its ornamental trees
everywhere interspersed, with here and there a laborer, a herd
of cattle, a team, a wagon, a chaise, reduced in the distance to
so miniature a size that they seem like children's toys, the
whole presenting a picture of exquisite beauty. The river is
seen winding its quiet way, sometimes hiding and at other
times disclosing its mirrored surface, through fields of the rich-
est cultivation and of eminent fertility. At the sun-setting,
the whole picture is lighted up with dazzling brilliancy.
The village and college at Amherst, with its glittering win-
dows and tower, is a fine object, and occupies a commanding
position. The town of Northampton, with its splendid emi-
nences crowned with rural palaces, delights the eye. Here
and there you see the spires of the village churches lifting their
proud tops among the tree?, and their vanes sparkling in the
sunbeams, appearing like so many stars. On the left, rises
Mount Toby, reposing in its grarjdeur, with many smaller
prominences, as it were its oflspring huddling around it, covered
with its rich maple forests, so thick and so even that it seems
as though you might walk upon them as upon a carpet, and,
when clothed in the variegated mantle of the decaying year,
exhibiting an unsurpassed gorgeousness and splendor. At the
east and south are the fine ranges of Mount Holyoke and
Mount Tom, bounding in that direction this magnificent val-
ley, and opening between themselves a narrow and guarded
passage for the exit of the Connecticut in its silent but steady
movement to the ocean. On the west are seen distant ranges
of green hills, in some cases cultivated to their summits, and
in others covered with their original forests. Here and there
is a solitary dwelling or a cluster of dwellings, the abodes
of laborious but healthful toil, of humble, peaceful, and happy
life. When on such a scene the glittering sun goes down, bright-
ening every summit with his radiance, pouring his shower of

190

golden light upon river, hill and tree, giving as it were new
life to every leaf and flower, and, like the human eye in the
hour of death, sending forth its softest and brightest radiance
at its closing, I ask where is to be found a nobler temple, and
where is the human soul more loudly invoked to pay its hom-
age to the mighty architect of nature, the exhaustless fountain
of all this beneficence, the Lord of all life, the divine painter
of all beauty !

The Deerfield valley is separated from the Connecticut by a
high range of hills, of which llie Sugar-Loaf forms one ex-
tremity, and the Indian name Pocumtuck, further up, designates
one of the highest prominences. In proceeding up the valley
to the north, you soon pass the memorable field of battle at
Bloody Brook, "where the flower of Essex fell," now con-
verted into fertile fields, and the seat of the pleasant village of
South Deerfield. Passing farther on the Deerfield valley, lying
between two high ranges of hills, there opens upon the view
a wide-spreading tract of meadow and intervale, of extraordi-
nary fertility and the richest cultivation, once the favored resort
of the Indians and the haunt which they quitted with the
greatest reluctance, with the village of Deerfield lying in the
very centre of this magnificent basin, and the village of Green-
field, one of the most tasteful and beautiful on the banks of the
Connecticut, appearing on an elevation in the distant perspec-
tive. From Pocumtuck, a hill in the rear of the village of
Deerfield, the view is perfectly charming, and can only be
appreciated by being seen. Deerfield, with its neat private
dwellings, its academy and churches, and. above all, its mag-
nificent ranges of ornamental trees, the rock maple and the
elm. lies directly at your feet. The fields are spread before
you like a figured carpet, in all the richness of cultivation,
with their different shades of green and the varying colors
of the crops in their progress to maturity. The lines of culti-
vation are every where distinctly marked. The intervale mead-
ows, which are seldom or never ploughed, marked by a depth
of coloring which cannot be surpassed, with here and there a

191

scattered elm rising in the midst of them, its spreadhig limbs
extending themselves in forms of the most graceful expan-
sion, and the river distinctly traced in its curious meander-
ings, as it were doubling itself continually in its progress from
one end of the valley to the other, where it soon mingles
with the Connecticut, and the forest-covered hills, which on
three sides enclose this valley, present altogether a landscape
of transcendant richness.

The road through Erving's Grant, now the town of Erving,
by Miller's river, following the course of this swift and brawUng
stream under a long range of high and beetling cliffs, of singu-
lar and extremely picturesque formation ; the cave at Sunder-
land, on the north side of Mount Toby, a remarkable fissure in
the rocks ; the Shelburne defile, where the road from Green-
field to Coleraino, following a small and rapid branch of Green
river, finds its way among steep hills, which, at every few rods,
gather in and seem to defy all passage ; the road from Leyden
to Bernardston, of a similar character and extremely beautiful ;
the glen in Leyden, where the Green river appears to have forced
a passage through a deep chasm in the rocks, and at last makes
a sudden escape by a cascade of surpassing brilliancy and
beauty ; the junction of the two great branches of the Ueerfield
river in Shelburne, and the grand passage of the river over the
Shelburne falls ; and the whole road of most remarkable inter-
est and picturesqueness of natural scenery by the banks of
the Deerfield river, for a distance of perhaps twelve miles,
through Charlemont and Zoar, to the foot of the Hoosic moun-
tains, are all suited to charm the man of taste, and want noth-
ing but the fictions of romance to make this region the true
home of poetry. Ascending the Hoosic mountain, and from its
summit looking back upon the country which you have trav-
ersed, mountains and hills, combining the highest forms of
grandeur and elegance, crowd upon the sight. The Deerfield
river is seen for a long distance, like a narrow thread winding
its silver current among these mountains, covered with the
thickest foliage from the base to the summit, with here and

\

192

there a cultivated spot to relieve the picture, and to show the
triumph of human labor and enterprize over the roughness and
fierceness of nature, and the whole view is one of innumerable
attractions and great magnificence. A gentleman of distinguished
intelligence and cultivated taste, who has more than once made
the tour of Europe, has pronounced it scarcely inferior in inter-
est to any view which he has seen abroad. It seems to want
nothing but the fallen battlements of some ancient castle, or
the moss-grown walls of some deserted chateau, or the bloody
exploits of some ancient bandit, or the thrilling tale of some
love-sick damsel, borne away as a prize in the chivalrous arms
of some iron-clad knight-errant, to convert it into a perfect re-
gion of romance. Or, perhaps, it only needs to be farther re-
moved from us, and to demand for the sight of it the expense
and toil of a voyage to Europe, to attract admirers from all
parts of the country.

I hope I shall be pardoned for departing from the proper
gravity of an agricultural report to speak of the enchanting
scenery of this delightful region ; but the pleasures which I
have myself enjoyed in its exploration, I am anxious to recom-
mend to others. The kind residents among these hills and
along these sequestered valleys will be happy in knowing how
much pleasure they afford to those who traverse them ; and

\ even the plain matter-of-fact men, the most grovelling and mer-
cenary, may not deem it labor lost if, by the beauties of the

I country, we can honestly attract the summer visits and resi-
dence, or even the passing tours, of the inhabitants of our cities,
who may thus furnish a quick and generous market for their
surplus produce.

REPORT

ON THE

AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX.

I. General Description. — Middlesex is one of the largest
and most populous counties in the State. On the east it is
bounded by Essex county and a portion of Suffolk ; on the
south, by Norfolk ; on the west, by Worcester county; and its
northern line is, throughout, contiguous to New Hampshire.
Its population in 1837 was 98,565, and to a square mile, 123.
It embraces forty-six towns, among which are the city of Low-
ell, and the large towns of Charlestown, Cambridge, Brighton,
Watertown, Waltham, Groton and Concord. It is watered in
different parts by several rivers, as the Merrimack, the Con-
cord, the Nashua, the Medford, and the Charles rivers ; and
Charlestown, Cambridge and Medford lie upon Charles and
Medford rivers, which are connected with and form a part of
Boston harbor. Medford, on Medford river, has long been cel-
ebrated for the building of ships, the hulls of which are, at
seasons of high water, got down, not without considerable
labor, into Boston harbor ; but excepting in such cases Medford
river is used but to a small extent for the purposes of naviga-
tion. Flat-bottomed boats sometimes proceed as far as Water-
town, on Charles river. Sloops and schooners, loaded with
lumber and lime, discharge at Cambridge ; and Charlestown,
below its bridges, affords some of the best anchorage in the
25

194

world. A considerable portion of its marine shore is occupied
by the navy-yard of the United States.

Middlesex county is intersected by rail-roads in a manner
which renders the communication of its ditferent parts with
the capital extremely easy and expeditious. The southwestern
part of the county is traversed, to a considerable extent, by the
Worcester rail-road, soon to be transformed into the great West-
ern rail-road. Towards the northeast, the Lowell and Nashua
rail-road, and, connected Avith it, the upper Eastern rail-road,
traverses the whole breadth of the county. Besides these, the
Middlesex canal, the first work of the kind of any considerable
extent in the country, lies wholly in this county, and connects
the waters of the Merrimack river with Boston harbor, thus
opening a free communication between the interior of New
Hampshire and the capital of Massachusetts, and furnishing a
convenient transit for a vast amount of goods and produce, and
especially of lumber and fuel. No part of the State presents
so many good markets for agricultural produce, and so conven-
ient means of access to them, with such facilities of general
intercourse.

II. Aspect of the County. — The general aspect of the
county presents nothing interesting or picturesque, but the
neatness and good condition of the buildings and appendages
on the farms, the ample evidences of wealth and abundance,
and the general appearances of industry and thrift, indicate a
condition of distinguished success and prosperity, if we put
aside the commercial cities, not to be found in the same extent
of territory any where else in the United States. The exten-
sive manufacturing capital invested here and in active opera-
tion ; the expensive and useful public improvements ; the fairs
at Brighton, where so many thousands of cattle are sold weekly,
and vast amounts of capital are kept in active use ; the liberal
institutions for education in Harvard University and other semi-
naries; the provision for the relief of the insane at Charlestown ;
the establishment for the purposes of penal justice in the State's

195

prison, at the same place, hardly less an establishment for the
insane, or for those afflicted with the most pitiable of all kinds
of insanity, a moral unsoundness ; the United States navy-
yard, at the same place ; the extensive nurseries and botanical
gardens at Brighton and Cambridge ; the monuments of taste
at Mount Auburn, and of patriotism at Concord, and Lexing-
ton, and Bunker Hill ; and the innumerable beautiful private
dwellings, may I not say palaces, which crown the hills and
adorn the valleys in Brighton, Cambridge, Watertown, Wal-
tham, Medford and other places, — conspire to render the county
of great interest. Perhaps no spot in the United States has
connected with it so many marked and stirring associations in
reference to the great events of our national history ; few places
have more at stake in the great interests of national industry ;
and from none are there sent out influences which operate with
more power upon the intellectual and moral condition of the
community. It does not, properly speaking, fall within my
province to go largely into these views ; yet there are few of
the interests of any community which are not directly and in-
timately connected with its agriculture. The population and
the employments of that population ; the numbers devoted to
the production of the fruits of the earth, and the numbers con-
cerned in their consumption ; the agricultural products used in
various branches of manufactures and commerce ; the variety
and demands of the various markets accessible ; the facilities of
communication with different markets, and the influence of
general employments and the means of education enjoyed upon
the character of the rural population, are all circumstances en-
titled to consideration in the present case.

The surface of the county is in general flat, and not marked
by any great elevations. In looking at the present condition
of the county, and especially the vicinity of the capital, it is
instructive and impressive to contemplate the changes which
have been effected in a period comparatively not long. In pro-
ceeding northerly from Boston or Cambridge, in the course of a
very few miles the country becomes somewhat broken, and a

196

range of hills stretches to a considerable extent from west to
east. When our ancestors made their settlement at Shawmut,
now Boston, it is said that they sent out a number of persons
to examine the country to the north. These persons, having
reached this first range of hills, then covered with forests, re-
turned and reported, that, having reached a mountainous and
rocky country, they deemed it best to come back, as there was
no probability of the settlements ever extending beyond these
mountains. How short-sighted are all human calculations, and
how far and how widely, destined to be checked only by the
waters of the great Pacific, has the tide of population rolled be-
yond these limits !

III. Area of the County and its Divisions. — The area of
Middlesex county includes 800 square miles, and its territory
is thus divided, according to the last report of the Valuation
Committee :

In tillage,

acres

)

30,019

English and upland mowing,

. 59,600i

Fresh meadow,

36,977i

Salt marsh,

2,3223

Pasturage,

136,241J

Wood, ....

71,567^

Unimproved, .

112,678*

Unimprovable,

12,031

Owned by towns or other proprietors,

13,302

In roads, . . ,

.

] 2,025 J

Covered with water,

.

Total,

. lC,573i

503,938^

IV. Soil, — The soil of Middlesex county is in general hard
and rocky. This remark applies particularly to the elevated
parts of it. The rocks abounding in the county are granite.
There are deposites of clay slate in the southern part of the
county of unknown depth, and which furnish to their vicinity

197

excellent building materials ; but there are no extensive tracts
of soil which come mider that denomination. Clay soils are
found in the neighborhood of the great estuaries, and on the
banks of the Merrimack. In the centre of the county and in
some other parts are extensive tracts of sandy soil. There are
very large tracts of fresh-water marshes, the drainage of many of
which is now rendered impossible by the dams of the manufac-
turing establishments. Bog and peat meadows are frequent and
extensive throughout the county, furnishing large supplies of
fuel, and many of them, under highly skilful improvements,
transformed into most productive meadows for vegetables and
grass. The soil of the county, considered as a whole, must be
pronounced hard and unproductive. The abundant and profit-
able crops which are gathered from it — and in many instances
the agriculture of the county for its success and returns is not
surpassed in the State or country — are the result of distinguished
skill and well-applied and indefatigable labor.

V. Pursuits of the Inhabitants. — The pursuits of the i
inhabitants are various, and trade and manufactures greatly pre-
dominate over the agricultural interest. Property to a vast
amount is invested in the different manufacturing establishments,
and especially at Lowell and Waltham. Many persons engaged
in trade and commerce in the capital have their residences in
the vicinity in this county ; and though in general their occu-
pations are on a small scale, yet their means give them the pow-
er of free expenditure and their establishments do much to im-
prove and adorn the country. The capital, with the large towns'
in its vicinity and the several villages and manufacturing towns
in the interior, afford a ready and quick market for all the prod-
ucts of agriculture. This condition determines in a great meas-
ure the character of the agriculture of the county — which is
confined rather to the production of vegetables, fruits, butter,
and articles that find an immediate sale in the towns, than to
products on a large scale, to be sold in great quantities or con-
sumed upon the farm. Large amounts of hay are produced in

198

many of the districts; but of this hkewise no small part is sold
in the towns, at taverns, to stage and wagon establishments, and
not consumed upon the farms. In the immediate vicinity of
the capital, the cultivation would rather come under the desig-
nation of garden culture than of field culture. In some parts
of the county, this cultivation is carried to a high degree of im-
provement. A considerable portion of the rural population
are themselves marketers, sending directly to Boston or other
principal markets daily or weekly ; and through every part of
the county market-wagons pass at regular times, taking the
produce of the farmers in butter, eggs, poultry, veal, &c. and
selling it upon commission.

In addition to this, a large number of farms are devoted to the
production of milk, which is sent to Boston daily, in some cases
a distance of twelve or fourteen miles ; and the small farmer,
the keeper of four or six cows, disposes of his milk to the large
dealer, who receives it on his route or to whom it is sent in or-
der to be taken to market. It is difficult to form an estimate of
the amount exported, or the cash received in this way and from
these innumerable and various sources of income ; but it must
be very large. Sales of fifteen hundred dollars' worth of tur-
nips from a single farm in one year ; from another, of more than
twelve hundred dollars' worth of winter apples ; from another,
three hundred dollars' worth of peaches ; and another, of near-
ly eight hundred dollars' worth of strawberries, and early pota-
toes to the amount of six hundred dollars from two acres, have
been reported to me under circumstances which do not allow me
to doubt the truth of these statements.

VI. Crops and Products. — The crops cultivated in the
county are to a certain extent the same as in other parts of the
State : Indian corn, rye, oats, barley, wheat, potatoes, carrots, ru-
ta-baga, mangel-wurtzel, and common turnips. Every variety of
culinary vegetables which the climate allows is produced in all
parts of the county. Grass is raised to a great amount for mar-
ket ; and hops, heretofore much more than at present, have been
cultivated for exportation. With the exception of hops, apple?,

199

and some garden vegetables, no agricultural produce is grown
for foreign exportation, and the produce grown is not sufficient
to half-satisfy the wants of the county. Much of it indeed goes
into other counties ; but a great deal more is brought into than
is carried out of the county. Considerable amounts of pork
are fatted, but few hogs are raised in the county ; and of beef
and mutton a small amount is either raised or fatted. Occasion-
ally, a farmer is found who fattens a yoke of cattle after they
have become too old to be worked ; but in no case within my
observation is the fatting of cattle made a regular part of the
farming operations.

Of the crops raised it will be expected that, as in other coun-
ties, I should give some statements of the expense of cultiva-
tion and the yield ; and this I shall do from farmers in the
county who have communicated them. I have to regret, how-
ever, that, notwithstanding many promises of full and detailed
reports, my returns are few and stinted.

1. Indian corn is raised, to a greater or less extent, on every
farm, but it is cultivated exclusively for home consumption. It
would be difficult, when all circumstances are considered, to
name a plant whose uses are more numerous, or whose value is
greater ; and the cultivation of it might be extended to great
advantage. Crops of one hundred and sixteen bushels have
been produced in the county. Under good cultivation fifty
and sixty bushels are obtained, but the average yield is not
more than thirty-five bushels. When it is seen what can be
done and what ordinarily is done, it would seem as though the
comparison must have its natural effect.

I shall give the statements of particular farmers as to the
amount of their own crops ; probably in this case the highest
yield is given.

In Chelmsford, 70 to 80 bushels per acre. In Tyngsborough,
50 bushels and 70 bushels ; the average yield through the
town is supposed to be 40 bushels. In Dunstable, 30 to 40
bushels. In Tevvksbury, 35 bushels. In Shirley, 35 bushels.
In Lexington, 75 bushels. In Westford, 30 bushels. In Fra-
mingham, from 40 to 60 bushels. In Marlborough, 30 to 40

200

bushels ; sometimes 50 bushels. In Pepperell, 40 to 50 bush-
els. In Groton, 50 bushels. In Townsend, 25 to 30 bushels ;
sometimes 40 bushels. These results are quite various ; but I
must leave them as they are given.

I. In Groton, the expenses of cultivating an acre of corn, al-
lowing, as in all other cases, one dollar per day for labor, are
given as follows :

Ploughing, 3 50 ; rolling and harrowing. 75, . . 4 25

Compost manure, 15 loads, consisting of 3 loads of
dung mixed with loam, clear barn manure being
not approved, . . . . . . . 12 00

One man and one yoke of oxen, IJ day putting ma-
nure in the hill, .....

Seed, 25 ; first hoeing and horse, 2 50,

Second and third hoeing and horse,

Topping stalks, 1 50 ; cutting up and gathering, 2 00,

Husking, 3 50,

Returns — Stover = 1 ton of hay, .
50 bushels corn,

•

3 00

• •

2 75

.

4 00

g, 2 00,

3 50

•

3 50

32 50

12 00

50 00

62 00

Balance in favor of corn, $29 50

2. In Chelmsford, the expense of cultivating an acre of corn
is estimated as follows :

Ploughmg, 3 00 ; furrowing and planting, 1 50, . 4 50

Manure, 5 cords, 35 00, 35 00

Three hoeings and horse, 4 00 ; topping stalks, 1 50, 5 50

Seed, 25 ; gathering, 1 76 ; husking, 2 50, . . 4 50

Returns — Corn, 40 bushels, at 1 25,
Stalks and butts,

49 50

50 00

12 75

62 75

Balance in favor of corn, f 13 25

201

The value of manure, as rated above, is enormous. It is
charged as distributed in the field. To most persons, the price
will appear incredible ; yet I have known it sold in the county,
delivered at the stable, at ^6 50 per cord. The amount of
crop, likewise, is small for such manuring. The price of the
corn, also, is above the average price. I give the amount as I
received it from a respectable farmer, but it obviously deals in
extremes.

3. In Tewksbury, the expense of an acre is rated as follows,
by a most careful and successful farmer :

Ploughing, 2 75 ; planting and manuring, three men

and one yoke of oxen, . ... . . 6 75

Manure, 12 buck-loads = 3 cords, half manure and

half dirt, taken from head-lands, . . . . 9 00

Two hoeings, 3 50 ; topping stalks, 1 00, . . 4 50

Gathering, 2 00 ; husking, 2 00, . . . . 4 00

Reiwns — Corn fodder equal to half a ton of hay, 7 50
35 bushels of corn, . . 35 00

24 25

42 50

Balance in favor of corn, $18 25

4. In Marlborough. Expense of an acre of corn.

Ploughing, two yoke of oxen, boy and plough,
Four cords of barn manure, at 4 dollars per cord,
Three co-rds of compost, at 2 25,
Getting out 12 loads, spread broadcast.
Manuring in the hill, 3 00 ; harrowing in manure, 1 00
Furrowing, 50 ; planting and covering, 1 50, .
First hoeing, including horse, 2 00 ; 2d and 3d hoe
ings, 1 50, .......

Topping stalks, 1 50 ; cutting up and gathering, 1 25
Husking, 3 00, ......

26

4

00

. 16

00

6

75

3

00

', 4

00

2

00

3

50

, 2

75

3

00

45 00

202

Returns — Stover on an acre = 1 ton of hay, 15 00

50 bushels corn, . . . 50 00

65 00

Balance in favor of corn, $20 00

The cultivation in this case is quite expensive, and the return
of stover, in value, large. The cost of manure is great ; and
the crop is not so large as this cultivation should make it.

5. In Pepperell, the expense of cultivating an acre of corn is
represented as follows. In this case, it is understood to follow
potatoes. This reduces the expense of ploughing.

Ploughing, 2 00 ; furrowing and harrowing, 50 ;

seed, 25, ........ 2 75

Manure, 12 loads, equal to 4 cords — carrying out and

manuring in the hill, ....
Three hoeings and horse, 4 00 ; topping stalks, 1 00,
Gathering, 1 50 ; husking 40 bushels, 2 25,

Returns — Corn fodder, ....
Corn, 40 bushels.

.

16 00

s, 1 00,

• 5 00

• •

3 75

27 50

10 00

40 00

nn on

Balance in favor of corn, 1^22 50

6. In Dunstable. Expense of an acre of corn.

Ploughing, 3 00 ; harrowing, planting, and getting

out manure, 4 00,
Fifteen loads or four cords of manure in the hill.
Harrowing, both ways, 1 00 ; first hoeing, 1 50,
Second and third hoeing, 2 50 ; topping and tying

up stalks, 1 50, .
Cutting up and getting in, 1 00 ; husking, 3 00,

7

00

20

00

2

50

4

00

4

00

37 50

203

Returns — Corn fodder, . . • • 15 00

40 bushels corn, . . . 40 00

55 00

Balance in favor of corn, $17 50

•

•

31

00

0,

•

8

00

•

•

7

00

62 12^

18

00

50

00

68

00

7. In Tyngsborough, the expense of cultivating an acre of
corn is given as follows :

Ploughing, 4 00 ; seed, 12* ; planting, 2 00, . .6 12J
Ten loads compost manure, 25 00 ; getting out and

applying manure, 6 00,
Hoeing twice, well, 7 00 ; topping stalks, 1 00,
Gathering, 2 00; husking, 5 00,

Returns — Stalks and butts,
50 bushels corn,

Balance in favor of corn, $15 87 J

The expense in this estimate is very extraordinary. Manure
constitutes the great item ; but it is to be remembered that
only one crop is manured in the rotation, and the beneficial
effects of the manure are felt through four years at least. A
fourth of the expense only then should be properly charged
to the corn. The estimate of the corn fodder is high, but the
farmer rated it, when well cured, as equal to one and a quarter
ton of hay. My own opinion, when the crop is fifty bushels,
would place it at three fourths of a ton.

Another estimate of an acre of corn, given me in this town,
is subjoined.

Ploughing, 3 00, • ^ ^^

Manure, 16 loads, equal to 5 cords ploughed in, . 20 00

Getting out and spreading manure, . • • 3 00

Two loads compost, put in the hill, . • • 2 00

Manuring in the hill and planting, . • • ^ 00

204

Hoeing, 4 00 ; horse to plough, 75, ... 4 75

Topping and binding stalks, 1 00, . . . . 1 00

Gathering, 1 50 ; husking, 3 00, . . . . 4 50

40 25

Returns — Value of corn fodder equal to \\ ton of

hay, . . . . . 18 75

40 bushels corn, . . . 40 00

58 75

Balance in favor of corn, $18 50

8. In Shirley, the subjoined was given as the expense of
cultivating an acre of corn.

Ploughing, 4 00 ; manure, 15 loads or 3 cords, 12 50, 16 50
Manuring in the hill, with two men and one yoke of

oxen, ........ 3 00

Furrowing, 15 ; planting and covering, 1 50, . . 2 25

First hoeing, 2 50 ; second and third hoeings, 4 00, 6 50

Topping stalks, 1 00 ; gathering corn, 1 50, . . 2 50

Husking, . . . . . . . . 2 00

Returns — Value of corn fodder,
35 bushels of corn,

Balance in favor of corn, $16 25

Of two of the largest crops of corn ever raised in the county
it may not be amiss for me to give the particulars of the culti-
vation.

The land had been used for pasture ground for nearly thirty
years. In the fall it was ploughed. In the ensuing spring it
was again well ploughed, and planted with corn in the hills, in
the common form ; but well manured in the hill with a mix-
ture of horse-dung, lime and ashes. When the corn was fit for
weeding, half a pint of unleached ashes was applied to each

32 75

14 00

35 00

49 00

205

hill ; a part, however, was left without any ashes. The differ-
ence between the corn which had ashes applied to it and that
which had none, was very apparent. The corn had a slight
ploughing when it was weeded, and was half-hilled early on
account of its rapid growth. After this, a plough was not
suffered among it, nor had it any more hoeing, except to de-
stroy the worst of the weeds, and to stir in the turnip-seed
which was sown among it. The product of this corn was at
the rate of 78J bushels to the acre.

The same field was ploughed again in the fall after the gath-
ering of the crop; and again well ploughed in the spring and
harrowed out at a distance of four feet, leaving each furrow one
foot wide. The furrows were well manured with a compost of
horse-dung, lime, ashes and dock-mud. The seed raised the last
year was planted in the drill on every furrow, making three rows
to each. Care was taken to drop the seed about six inches apart.
When the corn was at a proper stage, it was carefully thinned ;
and after weeding, it was dressed with unleached ashes through
each drill or furrow. It was half-hilled early in the season on
account of its rapid growth, being undoubtedly strongly stimu-
lated by the high manuring of the land the previous season. —
It had a slight ploughing at this season ; and soon after half-
hilling, the suckers or barren stalks were all carefully cut off.

The corn was planted in the latter part of May ; the stalks
topped the first week in September, at which time most of the
corn was dry enough for grinding. On the 13th of October it
was gathered, and a measured acre of this corn produced one
hundred and eleven bushels and one peck. The soil was deep
black upon a yellow loam, and that resting upon a gravelly and
clayey pan. It will be found that, by this mode of planting
three rows to each furrow, there will be more than double the
stalks of corn on the same surface than if planted in the usual
way.

I subjoin an account of the cultivation of another field of corn
in the county.

The soil is a deep yellow loam. It was manured with ten

206

cart-loads of green barn manure spread on the ground, and eight
loads of compost manure put in the hills, and a crop of corn
taken from it. The ensuing year it was twice ploughed in the
spring, and twenty cart-loads of green barn manure spread on
it. It was then furrowed in rows about three feet and a half
apart ; and about twenty cart-loads of barn, hog and slaughter-
yard manure were put in the rows : with the last manure was
mixed a hogshead of lime. The kernels were planted eight
inches apart in the rows. The corn was hoed three times ; all
the suckers were pulled out in Jnly ; and in August were taken
away together with the false and smutty stalks. On the 1st of
September the stalks were topped ; and on the 26th the corn
was harvested and spread on a floor, under the roof of a long
shed, that it might dry well. On the 14th Nov. the whole was
shelled : — it measured one hundred and sixteen bushels, and
three and a half pecks of clear sound corn. Weight of the
corn 56 lbs. to a bushel.

The value of the stalks and suckers was considered equal to
two tons of English hay. The expenses of the cultivation
were estimated as follows : —

Ploughing, 2 50 ; manure, 25 00 ; seed, 50, .
Furrowing and planting, 4 00 ; hoeing, 4 00,
Suckering and topping, 4 00 ; harvesting, 4 00,

$U 00

This, it must be admitted, is an extraordinary crop, but
the account is well attested.

It has been made a question whether more corn can be ob-
tained from an acre planted in hills than from an acre planted
in drills or rows. In an experiment to test this point, made
with much care by an intelligent farmer, half an acre, planted
in drills, gave twenty-eight and a half double bushels of ears ;
and the adjoining half-acre gave twenty-three and a half double
bushels of ears, making a difference of five bushels in favor of
the half-acre planted in drills. This does not, in my opinion,

28

00

8

00

8

00

207

settle the point : the result must depend on the question, by
which method the largest number of plants can be produced
upon an acre — allowing to each plant ample room for its culture
and the expansion of its roots and leaves, with sufficient space
for the free admission of the sun and circulation of the air.
Where corn is intended to be ploughed both ways, it must be
planted in hills at a distance of not less than three feet each
way. Corn planted in rows three feet apart, and in double lines
in alternate distances eight inches apart, would give many more
plants than if planted in hills at three feet square, leaving from
three to four plants in a hill. The produce from a field thus
planted in rows is likely therefore to be considerably larger than
if planted in hills. Where manure is spread likewise on the
field, the separation of the plants, which is more likely to be
provided for in drills as above than in hills, where the seeds
are commonly thrown into close proximity, will enable their
roots to come more immediately at the manure. Whore the
corn is manured in the hills, there of course the plants come di-
rectly upon the manure. The land is not benefited equally by
manure put in the hills only, as by manure spread broadcast, and
the planting is in a trifling measure more expensive ; but then,
on the other hand, as much manure is not applied. For the
benefit of the land, the manure should always be spread : at
the same time, where manure is abundant, it is well to put some
directly under the corn at planting, that the development of the
plant at its first starting, when all its nourishment is derived
through the roots, and before the leaves are unfolded in order to
gather food from the air, may be as much as possible assisted
and stimulated. The largest crops of corn which have come
within my knowledge have been raised in drills, with manure
placed under the drills and likewise spread liberally broadcast
upon the field. At the same time, 1 know farmers in the State
whose crops average seventy-five bushels to the acre, who al-
ways plant in hills because they deem the cultivation easier. I
submit these facts to the judgment of the reader.

On the culture of this crop, to which I have repeatedly refer-

208

red, I do not fear being too strenuous. It should be considered
as the great crop of New England, and its cultivation ought to
be increased tenfold ; that is, Avhere a farmer now cultivates one
acre of corn he ought to cultivate ten acres. This, in most
parts of the State, is practicable and may be done to great ad-
vantage. Of the actual amounts produced to an acre under high
cultivation 1 have mentioned several instances so extraordinary
as to stagger the belief of many farmers. Their belief or un-
belief, however, does not affect the facts in the case ; and these
facts are authenticated beyond all reasonable question. In this
county, one hundred and twelve and one hundred and sixteen
bushels have been raised to the acre ; ni other parts of the State
even larger crops than these ; in New Hampshire, one hundred
twenty-nine and one hundred thirty-two bushels; and in New
York more than one hundred and seventy bushels have been
produced to an acre. These statements ought to stimulate
every farmer to improve his cultivation so that he may increase
his crops to their utmost extent. Many farmers, intelligent and
skilful, in their attempts to produce a hundred bushels of corn
to an acre, have failed to do it and therefore maintain that it
cannot be done. I do not see that this inference necessa-
rily follows. Why they have failed in attempts which have
been apparently well conducted, it is not easy to say. But their
failure, although it may affect the intrinsic credibility of the
statements of others, does by no means disprove the evidence
by which such statements are authenticated. The real causes
of their failure deserve the most critical inquiry and experiment.
It has been made a question whether, on a farm where the
supply of manure is very limited, it would be best to apply the
whole of the manure upon one acre only and produce one hun-
dred bushels of corn, or upon two acres and produce fifty bush-
els to the acre. If the object be merely to obtain a single crop,
undoubtedly it would be best to get the crop from a single
acre, as the cultivation would be but half the expense of culti-
vating two acres. But if it be desirable, on account of the
condition of tlie farm, at once to turn up more land with a view

209

to its renovation and to succeeding crops, it may be better to
apply the manure and labor to two acres than to one. Not-
withstanding such exceptions, it may be laid down as an estab-
lished rule that the best cultivation, and, consequently, most
productive cultivation, is to be preferred ; and that whatever
land we cultivate should be cultivated to as high a degree as
possible. I confess the only substantial objection which I ever
heard made to producing, where practicable, one hundred bush-
els of corn to the acre, was that made to me by a farmer in
Franklin county, that " it was too much trouble to husk it."
To how much consideration such an objection is entitled, I
leave to the judgment of others. The amount of corn annually
produced in Massachusetts is reported by the Valuation Com-
mittee at l,775,073f bushels. The fraction in this case would
seem to imply an extraordinary degree of exactness in ascertain-
ing the quantity ; but persons familiar with the manner in which
these returns are made, will regard this only as an approach
to exactness. It probably falls considerably short of the actual
amount ; but the amount, whatever it may be, ought to be
largely increased. Acres and acres of land, now comparatively
unproductive, might be placed under a course of productive
cultivation ; and the estimates and accounts already given of
expenses and returns show conclusively that Indian corn, at
prices which it usually bears among us, is a most profitable crop.
The practice of hilling corn has now generally gone into
disuse. The labor of cultivating the corn was considerably
increased by the practice of half-hilling and hilling ; and,
so far from the heaping up of the earth round the plant
strengthening it against violent winds, it seemed to serve only
as an edge or fulcrum over which the stalk of the corn was the
more easily broken. The corn being cultivated on a flat sur-
face, without this artificial support, accommodates itself to its
situation by throwing out the more abundantly and strongly
those natural roots or shoots by which it establishes itself
against the wind ; and is ordinarily able to right itself after be-
ing blown over.

27

210

It may not be improper to mention here that an enterprising
farmer in Hampshire county has practised laying down his
land to grass while in corn, sowing the grass seed among the
corn at the last hoeing. The corn serves to shade the young
plants of the grass against the summer's heat. The corn in
such cases was not hilled at all ; and the experiment has proved
eminently successful.

Experiments have been made to test the advantages, if any,
of suckering corn ; that is, cutting or pulling off the suckers
from the plant, and the barren stalks. In respect to the suck-
ers, the experiments which have come to my knowledge, in a
form to be relied upon, have shown no advantage whatever, or
none which would compensate for the labor and for the injury
which the corn almost inevitably suffers from cutting the suck-
ers and carrying them out of the field.

A very observing farmer in Groton, however, is of opinion,
after several years' experience, that great advantage is obtained
from suckering corn before it is in flower ; but after this, it is
unadvisable to sucker it. The cases which have come under
my observation have been, where the suckers were taken out
after the corn had flowered. The opinion of this farmer de-
serves much regard.

One of the best cultivators of this crop in the State never
suffers the plant to be topped or suckered ; and when the corn
is ready to be harvested, the plant being entirely dead and dry,
he then gathers the corn in ears ; and afterwards cuts up the
plants at the bottom, puts them in bundles, and stows them
immediately away in his barn. He says the fodder is equally
well relished by, and equally nutritious to, his cattle as if the
stalks had been topped, or the whole cut up in a less ripe state
and dried in the shock. I cannot come so strongly to the same
conclusion ; but there is a considerable saving of labor in this
management, and his own experience speaks well for the
practice.

2. Wheat is cultivated on a limited scale, and I have
the testimony of several respectable farmers in the county that

211

they raise wheat with equal success and certainty as Indian
corn. This is the opinion of E. Phinney, of Lexington, and
we can have no higher authority ; and of William Adams, of
Chelmsford, who has grown wheat twenty years with but a
single failure in that time, and whose crops average thirty
bushels to the acre. Forty bushels have been grown. The
crop of wheat usually gives twenty bushels. Spring wheat is
the kind planted. It is commonly taken after corn, sometimes
with a good manuring of compost manure, but generally with-
out manure in the year of the wheat.

1. The following estimate of the expense of cultivating an acre
of wheat was given me in Shirley. This was taken after corn.

Ploughing, 2 00 ; sowing and harrowing, 1 50, . 3 50

Seed, li bushel wheat, 2 50 ; cradling and getting

in, 3 00, 5 50

Threshing by machine, 1 50, , . . . . 1 50

10 50

Returns — Wheat, 18 bushels, (25 have been pro-
duced,) , , . . 27 00
Straw, three quarters of a ton, . 3 00

30 00

Balance in favor of wheat, $19 50

2. In Groton, the following estimate is given of the cultiva-
tion of an acre of wheat :

Twenty-four loads of compost manure, (no green
dung applied,) estimated at 6 cords, at $2 per cord,

Carrying out and spreading, 3 00 ; If bush, seed, 5 00,

Ploughing shallow upon the old sward so as not to
break it, ....... .

Reaping and harvesting, .....

Threshing, with machine, 10 cents per bushel,

25 67

12

00

8

00

1

67

2

00

2

00

212

Returns — 20 bushels of wheat, at 1 75, . 35 00
Straw, 1^ ton, . . . 5 00

40 00

Balance in favor of wheat, $14 33

The items here are extraordinary. The wheat in this
case followed corn. It is not usual to manure for wheat as in
this case ; the manure which was given to the corn, where
wheat follows corn, being deemed sufficient. The compensa-
tion for this extra manuring is not to be found in the crop re-
turned, but in the permanent improvement of the soil. The
price paid for seed, likewise, is enormous ; and the wheat is
valued at a high price. I have known these and indeed
higher prices paid, but they are not common.

It is the practice of this farmer, when breaking up land for
corn, to invert the sward completely, laying it as tlat and close
as possible. His corn is cultivated without breaking the sward.
The second crop, which is wheat, rye or oats, is sown with a
light ploughing or harrowing, without disturbing the sward,
and grass seed is sown with the small grains. The vegetable
matter thus turned over becomes gradually converted into hu-
mus or mould, and remains protected from evaporation by the
sun and air for the nourishment of the plants cultivated upon it.

3. In Tyngsborough, wheat has been successfully cultivated.
In one case, 1^ acre produced 22J bushels ; in another case, 1^
acre gave 32J bushels. Another farmer speaks of having raised
wheat for fifteen years in succession, and with advantage, hav-
ing in that time had his crop injured twice only, and that by
blight. In Littleton and in Pepperell the farmers reported to
me a uniform success in raising wheat for several years ; and
speak highly in such cases of the application of ashes.

These are all the estimates I shall now give on the culture
of wheat. Having gone so fully into the subject in my Third
Report, and in the Report on the Culture of Spring Wheat,
prepared by order of the Senate, it would seem superfluous to
treat the subject more at large. There is no natural impediment

213

in Middlesex to its cultivation. The soil most favorable to wheat
is one strongly aluminous. This kind of soil does not prevail
in Middlesex county, and but to a comparatively small extent
in Massachusetts ; yet there are few places where the natural
deficiencies may not be supplied, or the natural difficulties
overcome by cultivation ; and wheat, at twenty bushels to the
acre, may be considered as one of the most profitable crops in
the ordinary rotation. What seems mainly wanting to success
is cleanness and carefulness of cultivation, liberal manuring for
the previous crop, and a plentiful supply of ashes to meet the
deficiency of potash in the soil. Some experiments have been
made in the application of saltpetre, sown broadcast over the
growing crop. The efli"ect apparently has been to increase the
luxuriance of the growth of the plant without increasing the
product of the grain ; but few trials have been made, and those
not conducted with much exactness, so that in the present im-
perfect state of the inquiry no great confidence can be placed
in the conclusions supposed to be reached.

3. Oats are frequently made the second crop in the rotation.
They are not grown to much extent, compared with the popu-
lation and demand, though nearly one hundred and three thou-
sand bushels are given as the annual amount to the Valuation
Committee. The crop is rated upon an average at forty bush-
els to the acre. The price is generally about three eighths the
price of Indian corn. This is almost always above their in-
trinsic value, but the convenience in using and transporting
them, and the constant demand for them in livery stables, se-
cure a large price.

They are generally taken as a second crop, after corn or po-
tatoes, the manure being applied to the previous crop.

1. The subjoined is one estimate of the cost and returns of
cultivation.

Ploughing, 2 00 ; seed, three bushels, 1 50, . . 3 50
Cradling and harvesting, . . . . , 2 00

Threshiiig, ........ 3 00

8 50

214

Returns— AO bushels of oats, 20 00 ; straw, 7 00, . 27 00

Balance in favor of oats, $18 50

2. In Dunstable, the charges of cultivation are as follows :

Ploughing, 1 50 ; 3^ bushels of seed, 1 75,

Sowing and harrowing.

Cradling and stooking, 1 50 ; threshing, 4 00, .

Returns — 40 bushels of oats, .
Straw, one ton,

• •

3 25

.

75

.

5 50

9 50

20 00

8 00

9,R nn

Balance in favor of oats, f 19 50

3. In Tyngsborough, the cost is thus given. The crop is
taken after corn.

Splitting corn hills, sowing and harrowing,

Seed, two bushels of oats.

Cradling and tying up, 1 00 ; threshing, 2 00

Returns — 40 bushels of oats, .
1 ton of oat straw, .

• •

• •

1
J

2 50
1 00

3 00

20 00
8 00

6 50

9ft no

Balance in favor of oats, $21 50

This is very light cultivation ; and the land is ploughed once
only for the whole course. The seeding too is small ; very
few farmers allow less than two bushels to an acre. Crops of
sixty bushels and more are frequently raised, where the land is
in high condition. In Worcester county, I have the assurance of
the present Governor of the Commonwealth, that he has produced
one hundred bushels to an acre ; and in Berkshire county, a
crop of eight acres has averaged ninety-six bushels to the acre.
The general yield through the State, however, does not exceed

215

forty bushels. Two kinds of oats are cultivated in the State, — •
the common oat, with a branching and spreading top, and the
Tartarian or horse-mane oat, so called from the seed hanging
together in clnsters on one side. The plants ripen at different
times, and it is therefore improper to mix them in sowing. —
The Tartarian oat is generally of stouter growth than the com-
mon oat, and is about equally productive, the crops of one
farmer within my knowledge, who has cultivated it for several
years, averaging sixty bushels to the acre. His cultivation
throughout, however, is of the best character, and his other
crops correspondent.

4. Rye is frequently sown by the farmers, in the place of
oats, as the second crop in the rotation. •

1. In Tyngsborough, the expense of cnltivation, and returns,
are thus estimated :

Ploughing, 2 00 ; 1 bushel of seed, 1 25, . . 3 25
Sowing and harrowing, 1 00; reaping, 2 00; thresh-
ing, 2 00, 5 00

Returns — Rye, 20 bushels, at 1 25,
Straw, . . . .

8 25

25 00

6 00

31 00

Balance in favor of rye, $22 75

There is no crop, the cultivation of which in general is so
negligent and slovenly as that of rye. Twenty bushels are much
beyond the usual yield. The product always commands a good
price, so little is raised among us, and that which is imported
from other parts of the country too often abounds in ergot or
smutted rye. The straw of rye commands in general, in the
city, a price which seems quite disproportionate, so little is
brought to market and it is so desirable for litter. I have known
forty-five bushels of rye produced on an acre. In my opinion few
crops would pay better for improved cultivation. On newly

216

ploughed land in Dunstable, it is said to produce from 15 to 20
bushels to the acre ; in old fields long under cultivation, where
it is repeated from year to year, it yields 7 and 8 bushels. On
pine lands, on which a crop is obtained once in four years, the
product is stated to be from 10 to 15 bushels : 15 must be the
maximum, for no manure is applied in such cases, and the land
is left by rest to recruit itself. This must be considered as very
bad husbandry. In such cases clover should be sowed with the
rye, in order to be ploughed in, in the second year of its growth.
Gypsum and ashes should be tried upon such land. Ashes sel-
dom fail to be beneficial ; of gypsum it can never be said wheth-
er it will be efficacious or not without a trial, but a trial is eas-
ily made. If the grass seed do not take readily on such land,
the application of only a small quantity of manure, or even of
rich loam, will remedy the evil ; and after the clover has once
a firm footing in such soil, its improvement is easy and certain.
This land is valued in Dunstable at ten dollars per acre. In
many parts of the State such land may be purchased for seven.
Though under this management it pays a fair profit, yet such
husbandry deserves condemnation. There are thousands of
acres in the Commonwealth of this kind of soil, which are
capable of being made quite productive, sufiiering, if not under
the original curse, under the present curse of neglect and occa-
sional severe croppings.

2. In Groton, rye is represented as subject to blight ; from
what local cause, if any exists, is not known. Here it is obtained
on pine-plain land once in three years, the average crop being
from 10 to 12 bushels. Spring rye only is cultivated. In
Tewksbury, rye is taken once in three years, and gives eight
bushels to the acre.

3. An estimate of the cultivation of rye in Dunstable is as
follows : —

Ploughing and harrowing, 2 00 ; seed, 1 bush. 1 00, 3 00
Reaping and binding, 1 50 ; threshing, I 25, . . 2 75

5 75

217

Returns — 15 bushels of rye, , . . 15 00

Straw, 4 00

19 00

Balance in favor of rye, $13 25

This is the estimate of an intelligent and respectable farmer ;
but he must pardon my distrust in suggesting that fifteen bush-
els is an extraordinary yield for such cultivation. Farmers in
general are of opinion that, with the same cultivation and on
the same land, they can get as much wheat as rye. The supe-
rior value of wheat therefore gives it a decided preference. The
seed of wheat is more expensive ; the dangers of blight and
failure are more numerous. Rye is considered a more hardy
plant than wheat. Wheat would repay a much more careful
cultivation than it receives, and so undoubtedly would rye.

5. Barley is sometimes raised, but is not to be considered in
any part of the county as an established crop. In Marlborough,
the yield is rated at from 25 to 30 bushels : in Groton at 35
bushels. These estimates are to be considered rather as individ-
ual than as general facts ; as, in a crop of this nature, very
much must depend on soil, manuring and cultivation.

1. Its cost of cultivation in Marlborough is thus given :

Ploughing, 2 00 ; seed, 2^ to 3 bushels, at 80 cts. 2 40, 4 40
Sowing and harrowing, . . . . . . 1 50

Mowing and getting in, 2 50 ; threshing, 2 80, . 5 30

Returns — 28 bushels of barley, at 80 cents, 22 40
Straw on an acre, . . . 5 00

11 20

27 40

Balance in favor of barley, $16 20

This crop was the third in the rotation ; first, corn ; second,
potatoes ; third, barley. The corn and potatoes were both
manured.

28

218

2. In Bedford, the expense of a crop of barley is thus given :

Ploughing, 2 00; sowing, harrowing and rolling, 1 50, 3 50
Two bush, seed, 2 00 ; mowing and harvesting. 2 00, 4 00
Threshing by machine, at 5 cents per bushel, . . 1 00

Returns — 20 bushels barley, . . . 20 00
Straw, 10 00

8 50

30 00

Balance in favor of crop, ^21 50

3. In Groton, the culture of an acre of barley is thus rated :

Ploughing, 1 67 ; manuring, 15 00 ; 3 bush, seed, 2 25, IS 92
Reaping, 2 00 ; threshing, 2 00, . . • . 4 00

22 92
Returns — 35 bushels barley, at 75 cents, 26 25

Straw on an acre, . . . - 5 00

31 25

Balance in favor of barley, $8 33

4. Fifty -four bushels of barley have been raised upon an acre
in Sherburne. The land in the previous year was in Indian
corn, and received about twenty loads of barn-yard manure,
spread and placed in the hills. The soil is a dark rich loam,
level and moist. The crop of corn was forty bushels. The
ensuing spring it was ploughed early, and eight loads of barn-
yard manure were spread on the land and ploughed in. This
ploughing was about eight or nine inches deep. It was then
ploughed a third time with a horse plough, and fifty quarts of
clean seed were sowed upon the farrows and harrowed in. It
was harvested in July, and the product was fifty-four bushels
of sound barley. The amount of seed here sowed was about
half the usual quantity, but it was thought the crop would not
have been increased by sowing more seed ; and the large
yield was attributed to the excellent preparation of the land.

219

5. Ninety-seven and a half bushels, or at the rate of sixty-
five bushels to the acre, have been raised in Townsend on an
acre and a half The particulars of the cultivation I have not
been able to obtain.

6. Buckwheat is seldom cultivated. One of the best farm-
ers in the county obtained, in one case, ninety-six bushels on
three acres. This was upon an intervale meadow on the Mer-
rimack river, considered an inferior portion. The production
in the county is however so limited that it is hardly entitled to
a place among the crops grown.

7. Potatoes are raised as matter of course by all the farmers
in the county for family use, and by the market-gardeners in the
vicinity of the large towns for sale.

In Dunstable, the average yield is rated at 150 to 200 bush-
els. In Tyngsborough, one farmer rates his crops at 200 bush-
els to the acre; another at 300 bushels. In Chelmsford, a
farmer reports having raised 490 bushels to the acre. They
are often planted upon greensward newly broken up, and fre-
quently follow corn as the second crop in the rotation.

A Middlesex farmer reports having made an experiment in
the cultivation of potatoes with two different kinds of manure.
In one field he applied " a compost manure of a year old, made
up of about one half of clear cow and horse dung ; and the
other half of the best meadow mud, and put in the hill the
same quantity that was used for corn." In another field he
used " coarse and long dung, being the moist and newly made
manure from the barn-yard and cellar, with a good mixture of
old refuse hay and straw and nothing else." The field planted
with the coarse manure produced a third more potatoes than
that planted with the old manure.

Early potatoes are cultivated with great pains in the vicinity
of Boston, where, at their first coming, they sometimes com-
mand fifty cents a peck. I have known six hundred dollars
obtained from two acres of early potatoes, but such a case is very
extraordinary. The earliest kind in this case are selected and
laid upon a bed of hot manure from the stable, early in the

220

spring, on the sunny side of a hill, covered with a very light
covering of loam. In this way they sprout early, and are then
transplanted into the rich and warm ground, where they are
intended to remain. They must be transplanted with much
care ; and are yet liable to be cut down by frosts. The first
potatoes brought to market command a high price.

It would be dilRcult to enumerate the various kinds of pota-
toes cultivated, and more especially as the same potatoes are
differently designated in different places. The early potatoes
are a small white flattened potatoe ; the Chenango or Pennsyl-
vania blues are a kidney-shaped potatoe, and are much valued
for their eating qualities, their earliness, which places them soon
after the first which come, and their continuing good for the
table even until quite late in the season. They are likewise
good bearers. The La Plata, or long red potatoes, are much
cultivated for an eating potatoe late in the spring, as they are
scarcely in an eating condition until that time. They are like-
wise good bearers. It seems however scarcely possible, in a
comparatively old country like this, to produce as good eating
potatoes as are found in a new soil and in a cold and moist
climate.

1. I give an account of the cost of cultivating potatoes ; in
Shirley, for example.

Ploughing, 4 00 ; manuring in the hill, 15 50,
Seed, 20 bushels, 5 00 ; two hoeings, 4 00,
Digging,

Returns — 200 bushels potatoes, ....

Balance in favor of potatoes,

2. In Pepperell the account is thus :

One acre of potatoes.
Two ploughings. 6 00 ; furrowing, 50, . . . 6 50

Twelve loads of manure spread, six put in the hill, . 16 00

19

50

9

00

10

00

38

50

50

00

111

50

221

Ten bushels of seed, 3 33 ; covering and planting, 4 00, 7 33
Hoeing twice, including ploughing, 5 00 ; digging,

five days, 5 00, . . . . . . . 10 00

39 83
Returns — Produce, 150 bushels, at 25 cents, . . 37 60

Loss, |2 33

Of the best method of cultivating potatoes, whether in hills
or in drills, the question is not yet determined. I believe that
more may be produced to an acre, and that upon the whole
they are more easily cultivated, in drills than in hills ; yet some
excellent cultivators advise to plant them in hills, to plough
both ways, not to raise the earth round them, but to leave the
hill formed by the passage of the plough both ways in a flat or
rather concave state, so that whatever water falls upon the sur-
face may be directed to the centre of the hill, and consequently
to the roots of the plant.

8. Mangel Wurtzel, &c. — Of other vegetables raised in
the county it cannot be necessary to go into a particular ac-
count. The usual varieties are produced in all parts of the
county ; and the market in Boston is supplied with some of its
earliest and best vegetables from the gardens in Middlesex. It
would be interesting and useful to point out the particular
modes of cultivating and forwarding these different varieties,
but this would occupy more time and space than I now feel at
liberty to devote to it. The details in these cases would excite
surprize ; and it might stagger the credulity of some persons to
tell them that horse-radish, to the amount of sixty dollars, has
been annually sold from two rods of ground ; and that the cul-
tivation of the common dandelion is a source of considerable
profit. Many statements of this kind which have been made
demonstrate how much may be accomplished by mmute, con-
centrated, and well-directed labor.

A crop of mangel wurtzel obtained in Charlestown deserves
particular observation. The soil on which this crop was grown

is described as a black loam with a clay bottom, on a gentle
slope to the northeast. The year previous to the crop of man-
gel wurtzel, three fourths of the land was planted with pota-
toes, with a moderate supply of manure in the hills ; the residue
was in mangel wurtzel and grass. Early in May, in the suc-
ceeding year, there was spread on said land about eight cords
of compost manure, and ploughed to the depth of eight inches
and harrowed in the usual way. i\bout the twentieth of May,
the seed was sown in rows about twenty-two inches apart,
and the plants, when about the size of a goose-quill, were
thinned to about eight or twelve inches apart. The thinning
would have been done earlier, but the crop was threatened with
wire-worms. The soil was kept loose about the roots and the
land clear of weeds. The under-leaves were frequently crop-
ped, from which much excellent food was obtained for swine
and cattle, and the sun and air were freely admitted to the
roots. It was desirable to do this by the middle of September,
that the crown of the roots might have time to heal. They
were harvested in the third week in October. The crop pro-
duced 1433 bushels, or 86,961 lbs., or 43 short tons and 961
lbs. The actual expense of producing the crop was thirty-five
dollars. The cost was not quite two and one half cents per
bushel. The quantity of land, one acre.

9. Beets are often a very profitable crop. They are raised
in considerable quantities ; are packed in barrels and shipped
to the south. One dollar and a half is a common price for a
barrel containing two and a quarter bushels. The farmer giv-
ing this statement has often produced 600 bushels to the acre.
They are planted on ridges about four feet apart, in double
rows; and the intermediate spaces are often sown with turnips.
The ridge planting is decidedly preferred here for all vegetables
of this kind. In my opinion, and so far as my own experience
goes, which has not been small, it would be better to make the
ridges about twenty-seven inches apart, plant the beets in single
rows, and cultivate them with a plough. A very useful ma-
chine for planting beets is a wheel, set like that of a wheel-

223

barrow, with pins projecting from the rim two inches, and
placed eight inches apart, which is pas-sed along on the top of
the ridge, and the seeds dropped by hand into the holes marked
by the pins. They may then be covered by drawing a rake-
head along the top of the ridge. Too much care cannot be
taken to perform all operations in planting, where the vegetable
is afterwards to be cultivated, in straight lines. The work is
by this means greatly facilitated.

Since making the above account, I have received a statement
of a crop of sugar-beets grown this season on Nahant, Essex
county, by Frederick Tudor, which I have no hesitation in lay-
ing before the agricultural community, though it may seem out
of place. I shall give the account with which Mr. Tudor has
favored me in his own words.

" In the spring of 1840, 1 caused about an acre of land of the
pasture lands of this place (Nahant) to be fenced in and trench-
ed 20 inches deep. The ground had never before had an agri-
cultural instrument of any kind in it. It was a pasture of in-
different soil, with many stones in and upon it.

" The trenching consisted in reversing the soil for 20 inches
in depth with the spade, and afterwards putting in all the stones
(which were found) in the bottom; three inches of muscle-
mud were put on them, followed by the turf and best of the
soil ; then two inches of rock-weed and kelps fresh from the
shores, or cut from the rocks ; then the less rich part of the soil
and more muscle-mud — the top left with the poorest and most
gravelly soil. In all, there were about eight inches in perpen-
dicular height of manure added to the soil, which, when press-
ed, might have been five to six inches in perpendicular height ;
so that the land had been moved with the spade a depth of lit-
tle more than two feet. In the spring of 1840 it was sown with
sugar-beets, but did not do very well, the top-soil being extreme-
ly poor. In the spring of 1841 I had it ploughed about six
inches deep, but the plough did not reach any of the richer
parts of the soil below, exhibiting little more than yellow loam
and gravel. I caused 93 rods of this to be again sown with

224

sugar-beet seed this spring ; and after the beet seed had come
up, had the land dressed on the surface, merely spreading it on,
with fifteen cords of rich cow-yard manure. This caused the
young plants to grow greatly. There has been no particular
care given them, and indeed several patches in the ninety-three
rods were to be seen where the seed had failed, and which
should have been filled with plants if the object had been to
try the utmost possible. During the dry weather in August,
the tops of several of the rows were cut off for fodder for the
cows. My own belief is, it would have been possible to pro-
duce on the same piece of ground, if much care had been taken,
sixteen hundred bushels.

" I think the crop on my land has not been caused by trench-
ing but by the looseness of the soil and the top-dressing of rich
manure of which I have spoken. The usefulness of a top-dress-
ing, more especially in a dry seam, is undoubtedly great."

The whole crop was carefully weighed and sold by weight.
The amount 42,284 lbs. This would be at the rate of 36 tons
746 63-100 lbs. net weight to the acre, or about 1300 bushels
per acre at 56 lbs. per bushel. One of the roots, cropped and
cleaned, weighed 31 lbs.

This is a highly interesting experiment and result. I have
long desired an opportunity of witnessing, on actual trial, the
beneficial effects of a thorough trenching ; — but have never
seen it except in the case of asparagus beds formed after the
prescriptions of former times. The practice of subsoil plough-
ing is in fact trenching. I am much better satisfied with Mr.
Tudor's result than with the philosophy of his explanation. I
believe much is due to the trenching of the soil, whereby it
was rendered permeable to air, moisture and warmth. The
partial failure of the first crop after the trenching may be in a
degree accounted for by the fact that the subsoil had been so
recently brought to the surface that it had not been acted upon
and enriched by atmospherical agency. The deposit of the
stones at the bottom in a kind of bed served to draw off and to
retain the moisture, which had its effects upon the growing

225

crop. The bed of manure, though buried as deeply as described,
since the earth above was light and porous, undoubtedly, in the
evolution of its gases, contributed its full share to the growth of
the crop. The top-dressing certainly was not without its great
advantages, not only in supplying the necessary nutriment to
the plants, but likewise, as is suggested, in protecting the soil
from the severe drought.

It'^vill be questioned by some whether so expensive a culti-
vation can be afforded. The price of manure is not given. If
it were not overvalued, the first crop, even at five dollars per
ton, or more than 180 dollars to the acre, would undoubtedly
pay the expenses of culture and leave a large profit ; but in the
next place it is to be remembered that the land is now in con-
dition for at least six or eight years' profitable cropping without
any additional manuring. ^

10. Hops. — One of the great crops of the county is hops,
although within a few years the cultivation has been somewhat
reduced. This may be considered as the only crop raised for
exportation, and at one time it is said that more hops were
grown in Middlesex than in any other part of New England or/
in the whole United States.

I have already, in the report on Franklin county, spoken of
the culture of hops to some extent. I have little to add to that
account excepting what is furnished me by a Middlesex farmer
experienced in the cultivation and well acquainted with the
whole subject of culture and curing.

The hop plant, in the county of Middlesex, succeeds best
on a deep yellow loam and on soils well adapted to Indian corn ;
but the burr seldom has a bright straw color, it is pale and in-
sipid on a deep black soil. Light sandy loams, or pine plains,
produce a small amount to the acre, but the hops are frequently of
a good straw color and well suited for pale ale ; but not so strong
in resinous properties as those grown on a deep yellow loam.

To form new plantations, the ground is to be prepared as for
Indian corn ; sets or cuttings of roots are used for planting. —
The hills should be eight feet apart, giving sixty-four square
29

226

feet to each hill ; this will make about 680 hills to the acre. Air,
light, and the full influence of the sun, are very important to
the perfection of the flower and the forming a good portion of
the lupulin, the yellow flower in which nearly all the essential
properties of the plant consist.

The first season of planting, Indian corn, potatoes, beans,
&c. may be planted in the same field, in the vacant spaces, as
the hops will occupy only a quarter of the ground. Hops once
planted frequently do well for ten years in succession, if the
roots, in the month of April or early part of May, are well dress-
ed and pruned.

The second year after planting, the poles are set. Two poles
go to each hill and two vines to each pole, selecting four of the
best and most thrifty vines ; and when about two feet long they
are to be trained to the poles by some slight fastening. About
1360 poles are required to the acre, which in this county are
worth three dollars per hundred or about forty dollars for an
acre. Cedar, spruce, hemlock and larch poles, with proper care
will last from seven to ten years; it will require an annual ex-
pense, not exceeding six to seven dollars, to keep the poles good.
Pine, maple, oak, birch, and other kinds of wood, are used for
poles ; but these do not last so long as those first mentioned. —
The length of the poles varies from 16 to 22 feet. They
should not be too stiff", but a pole with considerable elasticity is
to be preferred. They must be firmly placed in the ground, so
as to stand against the wind. Strong winds injure hop fields,
and especially if the poles, as is sometimes the case, are from
25 to 30 feet long ; but the height of the poles should bear
some relation to the strength and richness of the soil. It is
desirable, other circumstances being equal, to select a situation
not exposed to the violence of the winds.

The best way of manuring hops is to spread the manure on
the ground and plough it in when the vines are dressed. In
this way it affords gradually and universally the nourishment
which the roots require. I3y applying it directly to the hill it
forces to an excess the growth of the stem and leaf, and its cffl-

227

ciency is abated, when it is deemed most necessary in the for-
mation of the burr. When the manure is applied to the hill
the worms are more likely to injure the plant.

The ground should be ploughed and hoed, and be kept free
from weeds, but the roots and fibres of the plant should not be
disturbed after the blossoming commences. Frequent attention
is requisite to keep the vines to the poles. The time of begin-
ning to pick usually varies a few days. There are not more
than fifteen days at most in a season, when hops are in a fit
condition to be gathered. This is generally from the 1st to the
15th of September. Many are in the habit of picking before
the burr is fully ripe, to great loss both in quality and weight.
Hops should be picked free from stems and leaves ; and de-
cayed and bruised hops should be separated from the good. —
Some of the best cultivators place the poles over a box and
carefully pick off all the decayed, bruised or inferior qualities ;
then pass the pole to another box, where the best qualities are
picked. Hops should not be gathered when wet with dew or
rain ; and green hops, if left in the boxes after being picked five
or six hours in any considerable quantities are liable to be heat-
ed, which should be guarded against. The forenoon's picking
should be put on the kiln at noon ; the afternoon's picking at
evening.

The kilns in common use are built with sides of common
rough stone, about twelve feet square ; the inside is filled in at
the bottom to about three feet square, forming an inverted
cone ; the walls are about seven or eight feet high ; some joists
and lathes are placed across the top, over which a thin cloth is
stretched, and upon this cloth the hops are placed to dry. On
the front side, at bottom, is a flue to put the fire in. For fuel,
well-charred coal is to be used. It is said that a furnace has
lately been constructed for using wood, with a flue to carry off
the smoke, which promises well.

Much attention is required to keep the degree of heat regu-
lar, in order to evaporate the watery fluid ; this may be ascer-
tamed by occasionally placing the hand on the cloth under the

228

hops. Two hundred pounds of green hops, when dried, pro-
duce only 50 to 54 lbs. If the heat is too great, the lupulin is
destroyed. If the heat is not sufRcient, a partial fermentation
takes place and injures the lupulin. The best-cured hops are
generally from eighteen to twenty-four hours upon the kiln.

Much care is requisite in removing the dried hops from the
kiln and placing them in a dry loft, so as not to break them.
When properly cured they may be laid in this loft three or four
feet thick for some months before packing. In this situation
they pass through a slight fermentation and "make," as hay
"makes" in the mow, and become very aromatic and resinous.
It is a bad practice to pack them soon after drying.

Many of onr cultivators have erected expensive and close
buildings over their hop kilns. These close buildings are
injurious. They prevent the vapor from freely passing off; it
lodges on the sides of the building. When the hops arrive to
a certain degree of dryness, they attract moisture and absorb
some of this vapor, to their very great injury in this warm
state. This moisture cannot be perfectly extracted again. In
the case of a bag of hops set endwise on a green plank and
allowed to remain in this position three or four weeks, the
hops at the end of the bag next to the plank, to the depth of
six or eight inches, became entirely rotten from the moisture
attracted from the plank.

The mode of packing within a few years has been improved.
Formerly, they were trodden into round bags, but are now
pressed by screws into square bags. There is an evil however
in that many of the screws are too short, and it is necessary to
tread the hops in the box, which breaks and bruises them. It
is highly important that the hop should go to the consumer as
whole and sound, with the exception of evaporating the water,
as when taken from the poles. The essential properties of
hops for brewing consist in the lupulin ; when this is injured or
dissipated the value of the hop is much diminished. The proper-
ties of the hop are subtle and concealed ; the best chemists have
not been able to extract and concentrate it's essence for the

229

purposes to which the hop is applied. It would be an improve-
ment to have a long screw, or a box sufficient to hold the usual
quantity put into a bag, so as to avoid treading upon them :
and it would be desirable to find some better method to take
them from the kiln than that which is now practised, in shov-
ing them off the kiln while warm and very brittle.

This farmer suggests farther a plan for removing the hops
from the kiln, which he thinks would be useful. To a kiln
twelve feet square, on the top make eight boxes or cribs three
feet by six ; put laths on the bottoms of them and some short
pieces of rope in the corners of these cribs, for handles. Fill
them in with green hops ; place the boxes, when filled, over
the kiln to be dried, and when dry carry these boxes with the
hops into the loft where they are to be deposited. Leave
these boxes there unemptied, and have another set of boxes to
place upon the kiln ; when the second course becomes dry
take them to the loft and leave them as before, emptying the
first set of boxes, and using them for the third kiln, and so on
alternately. In this way the hops, with care, may be kept
nearly as whole as when plucked from the vines ; and this
would add much to their value.

The packing machine should be directly under the loft, so
as to avoid the necessity of moving them beyond the putting
them down through a scuttle into a bag to guide them into the
box. The head of the screw should come up into the loft and
there be turned by a large lever.

The hop is an uncertain crop and liable to many casualties ;
but it will be seen by the table given in the Appendix,* that,
for more than thirty years, it has been among tlie best crops
grown, averaging a profit of more than $100 per acre. The
crop exhausts the soil less than almost any crop usually grown.
After hops have been cultivated several years on a particular
spot, the soil is in a condition to bear large crops of grain, roots
and hay.

The consumption in the United States is estimated at one

* Appendix, E.

230

million five hundred thousand pounds. The greatest crop
grown in the United States, in any one year, is about three
millions. Our surplus hops are chiefly sent to the north of
Europe, and sometimes to England when their crops fail.

The above information of the hop culture, given mo by the
intelligent and exact inspector of hops in Massachusetts for
many years, embodies such full information on this subject
that I know it will be read with interest. In England, there
are known several different kinds of hops, distinguished by local
names, of different qualities, suited to differeiit soils. The plants
there are manured every year v\^ith dung, hair, rags, wool-
clippings, or lime, but good dung is preferred to every other
kind of manure.

A careful farmer in Littleton is of opinion that the price of
hops should be twelve and a half cents, in order to pay ex-
penses. Another farmer, in Bedford, is of opinion that they
cannot be raised to advantage under fifteen cents per pound.

An excellent farmer in Littleton, long familiar with the cul-
ture of hops, was kind enough to give me the following mem-
oranda. The land is to be prepared and planted in corn,
excepting every fourth hill, which is to be set with cuttings
two in a hill of seven or eight inches in length. It is important
to select the best varieties, as hops differ both in quantity and
quality. Hops, the flower of which is open and loose, are sub-
ject to blast. Hops of small size are not productive. Those
which are large and close are to be chosen ; the while vine
hops are to be preferred. The cultivation is to go on the same
as for corn. The hops are to be poled the second year ; two
poles to a hill. Birch poles cost one cent each, and will last
two years. When prepared for setting, the cost is two cents
each ; and the expense of setting an acre is one day's work,
one dollar. In the second year beans may be planted among
the hops, but such management is of questionable advantage.
He has sometimes obtained six or seven bushels to the acre.
It is advisable to cultivate hops exclusively. The hills of hops
should be eight feet apart.

231

They should be ploughed and hoed three times in a season ;
this will be two days' work, or two dollars each time. One
thousand pounds of hops to an acre is a fair yield ; and one
pound to a hill is the general average. Sometimes more than
two pounds are obtained to a hill : and there are about eight
hundred hills to an acre.

Three girls, at fifty cents per day each, will ordinarily pick
one hundred pounds per day. During the time they are occu-
pied in picking an acre, the service of one man to take down
poles, &c. will be required for two days.

The kiln for drying is eleven feet square ; seventy-five to
one hundred pounds are dried at a time. One hundred bushels
of coal are required to dry a ton of hops ; the coals cost eleven
cents per bushel. Hops are taken to dry at one dollar and
twenty-five cents per one hundred pounds, including coal.
Thirty-three and a half cents are paid for packing, pressing
and sewing bag. Two hundred pounds are put in a bag ; the
cost of gunny-bags is ten to eleven cents each, and four gunny-
bags will make a pack; the bags will weigh from four to six
pounds ; this weight is included in the weight of hops, and
this pays for the bag. Three cords of manure are required
annually to an acre. Hops must not be poled too early, and
the poles must be proportioned to the size of the hop. Small
hops do not do well on large poles. Half a cent per pound is
paid for the inspection. This farmer has contracted for five
years to sell his hops at thirteen cents per pound.

He speaks of a neighbor in another town who produced four
thousand pounds on two acres. The price was then very high.
He sold his crop for forty cents per pound, making sixteen
hundred dollars. This is a remarkable case. The price is ca-
pricious and fluctuating.

An experienced and excellent farmer in Groton states, that
liops cannot be raised to advantage for less than fifteen cents
per poimd. With him, hemlock poles cost four dollars per hun-
dred, and with care will last seven or eight years. He places
seven hundred hills to an acre ; they will usually average one

pound of hops to a hill, though he has sometimes obtained
more than two pounds. Success, he says, depends on high
manuring ; but the quality of the hops is not so good where
the land is greatly enriched. Hops, in his opinion, do not im-
poverish land ; their roots extend to a great distance, as he has
sometimes followed them to a distance of fifteen feet. He
says they may be planted fifty yetirs in succession ; that the
hops in such case will deteriorate, but the land not.

11. Grasses. — The grasses cultivated in Middlesex county
do not differ from those cultivated in other parts of the State,
of which I have already spoken ; they are herdsgrass, (phleum
pratense ;) redtop, (agrostis vulgaris ;) and red clover, (trifo-
lium pratcnse.) Lands are generally laid down to grass with
a second crop, and that a crop of small grain, such as wheat,
rye, oats or barley. Some of the best farmers for this purpose
prefer barley to oats, but on no very obvious ground, unless it
is that the greater thickness of the barley-stubble better protects
the young plants of the grass.

The amount of grass seed sowed in laying down land by one
farmer, a good cultivator, is — herdsgrass, one peck ; redtop,
half a bushel ; clover, seven pounds. The price by his estima-
tion, when this statement was given, was for the herdsgrass,
75 cents ; the redtop, 50 cents ; the clover, $1 05 — or for the
acre, $2 30. Another farmer, in Bedford, sows twelve quarts
herdsgrass, half a bushel of redtop, and three pounds clover
seed to an acre. In Wilmington, a respectable farmer, but
quite of the old school, sows six quarts herdsgrass, twelve
quarts redtop, and six pounds clover to the acre — sometimes
less clover and more redtop ; the land light and favorable to
redtop.

It will be seen by these various statements, of which I might
give many more, that the ground is very lightly seeded; too
lightly I have no doubt. Where more seed is sown the grass
is of a finer quality and makes better hay ; besides that, the
land, where the grass is thick, does not suffer so much from
drought. It is questionable with many farmers, whether any

233

clover should be sown or not. An observing and experienced
farmer, who has given much attention to the cultivation of
grasses, is of opinion that, in the immediate vicinity of the
capital or a large town, from which manure is brought to the
farm, there will be in general sufficient clover seed in the ma-
nure ; but farther off, he advises to sow from six to eight lbs.
to an acre. He likewise insists upon sowing at the rate of at
least half a bushel of herdsgrass seed, and an equal quantity of
redtop. I have great respect for his authority, as his crops
have measured more than four and a half tons to the acre of
well-made hay, upon his best lands. The farmers in Essex
county, as may be seen by my first report, who were in the
practice of omitting to sow clover when they laid down their
lands to grass, have returned to the practice — as otherwise, they
say, they get a comparatively inferior first crop.

Much discussion has been had as to the time of sowing grass
seed, whether with the grain in the spring, or in the fall after
the crop is taken off, sowing it by itself as early in September
as it can well be got in. The latter method is, by the best far-
mers, almost universally preferred. It gives them an additional
ploughing, but this is compensated by the ploughing in the stub-
ble as manure, and in general the better manner in which the grass
takes. The grass seed sowed with the small grain in the spring
often perishes by the heat of the sun after the grain crop is re-
moved : in September the temperature becomes moderated
and the usual autumnal rains give the young plants a favorable
start. In such cases, where the herdsgrass and redtop are sow-
ed in the fall, some persons prefer sowing their clover on the
same in the spring, as the young clover plants are more likely
than the others to be killed by the severity of the winter.

The tall meadow oat (avena elatior) has been cultivated in
the county. This grass is not familiar to our farmers, but the
success which has attended its cultivation encourages its exten-
sion. A Virginia farmer of the highest authority speaks of it,
after fifteen years' experience, as a hardy plant bearing drought
and frost, heat and cold, better than any other grass known to
30

234

him. A Pennsylvania farmer pronounces it of all other grasses
the earliest, latest, and best for green fodder or hay. It blos-
soms about the middle of June and is preferred to all others by
horned cattle. It must be cut seasonably or it becomes hard
like straw. A Middlesex farmer, who has cultivated it several
years and whose authority is of the highest character, confirms
the above statements of its excellence both for grazing and hay.
He says, from its early flowering it is adapted to be sown with
red clover, and is fit to be cut about the first of June. His own
account is as follows :

" In the spring he sowed with barley a field of four acres, and
put on 2i bushels of oat-grass seed, 5 lbs. of red clover, and 2
lbs. of white clover seed, to the acre. The soil was thin and
had been exhausted by long cropping. On the 3d of June in
the following year it was cut, and gave two tons to the acre of
the finest and best hay, either for cattle or horses, he ever had
in his barn."

He thinks three bushels of seed should be sown to the acre.
It is well adapted for grazing on poor and exhausted lands, as
well as on those of a richer quality. It is a fortnight earlier
than the common grasses, and throughout the dryest weather
exhibits a green appearance. From three fourths of an acre, in
good condition, be obtained over twenty bushels of well-
cleaned seed.

The late John Lowell, a man behind no other in his intelli-
gent, successful and disinterested efforts to advance the cause
of an improved agriculture in Massachusetts and New England
generally, says that " under his cultivation, it has proved a most
valuable grass and fully sustained its high character. It is a
very early and tall grass, yielding a good burden. It will start
rapidly after cutting. It is a perennial and enduring grass, and
on his first experiment it lasted seven years without the neces-
sity of renewal."

A farmer in Waltham objects to sowing the tall meadow oats
and the herdsgrass together, as they do not ripen at the same
time. The tall meadow oats, when 1 visited him, would be

235

ready for the scythe in ten days, or about the middle of June,
while the herdsgrass, at the same time, had not begun to show
its head.*

The opinion of the farmers generally in this county is in fa-
vor of cutting herdsgrass early rather than late ; perhaps for the
reason that the hay is then of a bright green, and on this ac-
count commands in the city market a higher price. If we can
rely upon chemical examination in determining the nutritive
properties of grasses, it will be found that the gain in this re-
spect, in cutting herdsgrass when its seed is ripe over cutting it
when in flower, is as 86.1 to 37.2.

Red Clover (trifoliiim pratense) is sown extensively in the
county, with other grass seeds, when land is laid down to grass ;
seldom is it sown by itself. As I have before observed, where
manure is brought to the farm from the city stables, there is
usually clover seed enough in the manure without applying any
more. The seed usually sown in the county is the large north-
ern clover ; and in general the growth is so rank and the hay so
badly made, that the fodder is worth little. It would be a great
deal better, in many cases, if the June or southern clover
were sown instead. This is smaller and more easily cured ;
and makes, when well cured, an excellent fodder. Two of the

* " This grass— avena elatior, tall oat grass — sends forth flower-straws
during the whole season ; the latter math contains nearly an equal number
with the flowering crop. It is subject to the rust, but the disease does not
make its appearance till after the period of flowering. It affects the whole
plant, and at the time the seed is ripe the leaves and straws are withered
and dry. This accounts for the superior value of the latter math over the
seed crop, and points out the propriety of taking the crop when the grass is
in flower. The nutritive matter afforded by this grass, when made into hay
according to the table is very small." — Geo. Sinclair.

J. Buel speaks of his " field experiments with this grass not being so suc-
cessful as he expected — owing partly to the seed not vegetating well ; and
partly, he supposed, to the soil (a light sandy loam) not being sufficiently
strong and tenacious."

Taylor, of Virginia, says that, " according to his experience, it will not suc-
ceed in lands originally wet, however well they are drained."

236

best farmers in the county, and it would be difficult to find their
superiors in the State, who keep a milk farm in the neighbor-
hood of the city, prefer clover to any other hay for their milch
cows ; and their clover hay, as I saw it, is of a very superior
quality. It is cut early : after a very little drying, and without
any tossing about or spreading, it is put into moderately sized
cocks, where it is left to make by its own fermentation : when
it is deemed sufficiently dried, the cocks are turned bottom up-
wards, and as soon as all dampness is dried off, they are carried
into the barn. While they are in cock, even a considerable rain
upon them does not so materially injure them as many would
fear, provided they are attended to on the weather's becoming
good. This is the account given me by these farmers, whose
management of their farm in Medford is a model of good
husbandry.

The yield of grass per acre in Middlesex is, as was to be ex-
pected, variously estimated by different individuals, the soil and
cultivation differing much in different places. In VVestford it is
put down at 1^ ton per acre. In Concord, at 1^ and 2 tons to the
acre. In Lowell, at If ton. In Marlborough, li to 2 tons per
acre. — In another estimate it is thus given : first year of being
laid down, 2J tons ; second year, 2 tons ; third year, 2 tons ; fourth
year, 1 ton : or about 1| ton per year during the course. In Gro-
ton, first year, 1 ton ; second year, If ton ; third year, If ton ;
fourth year, IJ ton. In Tewksbury, first year IJ ton ; second
year, IJ ton ; third year, 1 ton. In Weston, 1 to 2 tons. In
Burlington at less than 1 ton. In Woburn, Vj ton per acre. In
Reading, first year 2 tons ; second year, IJ ton. In Bedford,
first year, IJ ton ; second year, 2 tons : another estimate, first
year, 2 tons ; second year, 2 tons ; third year, 1^ ton ; fourth
year, 1 ton. The above returns will enable the reader to form
an estimate of the crop. The ton with us is 2000 lbs net weight.
In this account of the average yield of grass in the county, I
have left out all large and extraordinary returns, of which I
have many, and shall speak of them when I come to treat of
agricultural improvements and redeemed meadows.

237

The average price of hay in the various markets accessible to
the farmers of Middlesex is not less than 15 dollars : the cost of
getting per ton is considered as two and a half dollars, and the
expense of marketing as two and a half dollars. This would
leave the worth of the hay to the farmer ten dollars per ton ;
and, placing the average yield of an acre at one ton and a half,
it would give a net profit per acre, in hay, at fifteen dollars. —
The elements of this calculation are unquestionable and the re-
sults therefore equally certain. The grass crop must be consid-
ered, where there is a quick market for hay, as eminently a
profitable crop. How far is it an impoverisher of the soil ? —
This is a question which deserves consideration. In this re-
spect different grasses will be found to differ from each other.

Although, from the absolute and inherent obscurity of the
subject, it certainly is not placed beyond doubt and question,
yet it seems generally admitted that plants which mature their
seeds exhaust the soil much more than those which are cropped
before the perfection of the seed ; and this on the assumption,
that that which goes to the formation of the stem and leaves of
the plant is derived from the air, while that which goes to the
formation of its seeds is derived from the soil. This may be
so, but must, I believe, be considered at present as purely the-
oretical. It will not be questioned however that, the larger the
plant and the longer it continues growing upon the soil, the
greater demands it must make either upon the earth or the air
for the supply of its food and the perfection of its growth. —
Grass, being cut early and usually in the season of flowering,
exhausts the soil less than those plants which are allowed to re-
main until they are perfected.

Grasses, whatever they take from the earth, necessarily leave
a large portion behind. Their roots are abundant ; and, the of-
tener they are cut, seem the more to extend themselves and be-
come the more thickly matted. The tap-root of the clover
plant leaves a large amount in the soil ; it contributes likewise
to loosen the soil and render it the more permeable to mois-
ture ; and its expansive and abundant leaves gather a large

238

amount of food from the air. Clover likewise, and the finer
grasses, after being cut, soon start again ; and, if not closely de-
pastured, leave a large amount of vegetable matter on the sur-
face, which decays in the winter and goes to enrich the soil. —
In this respect, herdsgrass is very inferior to the clovers and the
finer grasses. Clover however is not a perennial grass. Its pe-
riod is little more than two years ; and it is an established fact
that, if too long repeated on the same land without intermission,
it will cease to flourish.

The turning in of clover has always been found materially to
benefit the land; and so likewise the turning under of any
grasses, or greensward which abounds in vegetable matter, (a
large proportion of which beyond all question has been drawn
from the atmosphere,) must essentially contribute to enrich the
soil. It has been supposed by some persons that in this way
the fertility of the soil may be continually kept up without arti-
ficial manuring. The soil will become exhausted of its alkaline
ingredients, which must be supplied ; and the effect of ashes
applied broadcast upon greensward, as well as when it is sown,
as it is by many persons at the rate of thirty or forty bushels to
the acre with their grass seed, is often very remarkable. Some
persons, accordingly, when their manure has been insufficient for
planting a crop, have simply turned over the sward, and, culti'-
vating it thoroughly with a harrow and roller, have immediate-
ly sowed it with grass seed. This I have seen done in Essex
and Middlesex counties with decided advantage. In the latter
county it was, in one instance, in the case of a low piece of
land covered with coarse and worthless grasses, which through
this process were succeeded by a fair crop of English grass. —
It is not however to be expected that the condition of land can
be permanently kept up in this way ; and yet the case of the
farmer referred to in Franklin county, who applied no barn or
compost manure to his corn land, but simply ploughed in his
stubble and clover and applied leached ashes and gypsum in the
hill,* obtaining ordinarily seventy bushels of corn to the acre,

* See pp. 21, 27.

239

and that of another farmer who year after year sowed rye upon
the same piece of land, always sowing freely clover with the
grain, to be turned under with the rye-stubble, and by this hus-
bandry found his land continually growing better, — are exam-
ples which show that a good deal may be done in this way
where there is a deficiency of barn manure. How well such
an experiment would succeed, if long persisted in, actual trial
only can determine. Without a question, where land has be-
come, as it is termed, bound out, the sward matted, and the herb-
age fine, small and stinted, much would be gained by simply
turning it over, keeping the sward unbroken, harrowing it and
freely sowing grass seed upon it, especially with the application
of ashes or plaster, or some other alkaline substance. But it is
alike settled that, in order to the greatest yield, an occasional
manuring, and the cultivation of the soil so as to break up its
tenacity and expose it freely to the mfluences of sun and air,
are indispensable. The coarse grasses will soon come in again
if the land is not cultivated and manured. The j)roduce of the
farm cannot be continually carried off without some means are
taken to replenish the soil for the substances thus abstracted,
and for the supply of that vegetable matter which, in a course
of nature, the decay of these products would furnish. In a
forest the soil is not injured by the growth of the wood but rath-
er is enriched ; that is, the vegetable matter, or humus, is in-
creased, because the annual decaying matter from these trees,
their leaves and rotten limbs, is continually accumulating on the
ground, passing into a state of decomposition, and increasing
the vegetable mould.

One of the best farmers in New England, resident in this
county, is in the habit of turning up his greensward when he
deems the crop of grass less than it should be — rolling it, man-
uring it thoroughly, harrowing it well, and then immediately
laying it down to grass, without taking any other crop. Doing
this in April, he gets a good crop of grass the same season, av-
eraging at the rate of two tons to the acre. The same practice,
as I saw in repeated instances, was pursued by Ichabod Nichols,

240

of Salem, in Essex county, since deceased, a brave and good
man, whose farm lay on the Salem turnpike, land at one time
very aptly denominated the " abomination of desolation," but
on which he, with an indomitable perseverance and great saga-
city, effected as extraordinary improvements as have ever been
made in the State ; and converted this pasture, deemed scarce-
ly worth the fencing, into a most productive farm. He found,
among the rocks and bushes, many peat bogs, which having
drained and cleaned, and inverted the sward, he applied compost
manure largely mixed with loam, and sowing freely of grass
seed in the spring, obtained an abundant crop the same season.
The Middlesex farmer to whom I have above referred is in the
habit of renovating and recruiting his grass lands in the same
way.

VII. Rotation of Crops. — The usual rotation in the coun-
ty is generally limited to two shifts, and sometimes to only one
ploughing, seldom more than two. Greensward is generally
broken up when it ceases to produce more than one ton of grass,
and corn is planted, manured with barn manure either in the
hill or spread broadcast ; and very often, where a large crop is
desired, manure is placed in the hill and spread also. Some-
times the corn crop is repeated, and not unfrequently potatoes
are taken as a second crop after corn. The next crop is com-
monly oats, barley, rye, or wheat ; and the land is stocked
down to grass.

A eminent farmer in the county has been in the habit of
ploughing once only, completely inverting the sward and rolling
it : on this he plants corn manured, the manure either in the
hill or spread ; and the ensuing spring he simply harrows the
ground very finely and sows his grass seed with small grain. —
His success certainly commends this practice. Where the au-
tumnal sowing of grass seed is preferred, the crop of corn is
not always removed in season to do this.

The usual rotation then is, — first year Indian corn ; second
year oats, wheat, rye or barley, with grass seed ; third, fourth,

241

fifth years, grass. Or sometimes, first and second year Indian
corn and followed as above ; or otherwise, first year corn, second
year potatoes, third year small grain and grass seed, fourth, fifth
and sixth years grass. The cultivation of esculent vegetables,
such as ruta-baga, mangel-wurtzel, carrots, &c. may be consid-
ered as accidental. These crops form no part of a regular or
systematic rotation. Several farmers having entered with me
into some calculation of the proceeds of their farms under this
system, I shall subjoin some of these estimates. The expenses
of cultivating several of the crops, such as corn, oats, wheat,
barley, &c. having been given in detail in previous parts of my
Report, the results only will be subjoined. The cost of man-
ure is always included in the account of the first crop ; but its
benefits extend through several years.

1. In Tyngsborough, the rotation is — 1st year, corn ; 2d
year, rye, with grass seed ; 3d, 4th and 5th years, grass.

Balance in favor of corn, 50 bushels per acre, all ex-
penses allowed, ....... 15 87^

Balance in favor of rye, 20 bushels per acre and

straw, all expenses allowed,

3d year, 2 tons of hay, expenses of getting deducted,
^f|, ({ li II ii II

5th " U " " " "

Interest on land, valued at $100 per acre, 5 years.
Net profit on a five years' course upon one acre,

Tyngsborough. — I add the amount of another farmer in the
same town. These estimates were obtained without one farm-
er's knowing what return any other had made.

Balance in favor of Indian corn, 40 bushels, expenses

deducted, 18 50

Balance in favor of oats, 40 bushels and straw, ex-
penses deducted, . . . . . . 21 50

31

. 22

75

i, 25

00

. 31

00

. 23

25

117

87^

. 30

00

$87

871

• •

• •

• *

15 00

18 00

19 50

30 00
1 50

92 50
31 50

•

$60 00

242

3d year, hay, 2 tons, getting deducted,
4th " " " "

5th " " IJ " "

Interest on land, at $100, five years.
Cost of grass seed, . . . .

Net profit on five years' course.

The cost of grass seed in this case was — 1 peck herdsgrass,
75 ; clover, 5 lbs. 621 j redtop, 12|. The value of the hay is
placed at a lower estimate than before. The improved quality
of the hay is understood to render it more valuable per ton the
second than the first, and in the third than in the second
year.

2. Dunstable. — Corn, oats, grass — 3 years.

Balance in favor of corn, 40 bushels, expenses de-
ducted, 8 75

Balance in favor of oats, 40 bushels and straw, ex-
penses deducted, . . . . . . 19 10

3d year, hay, 1| ton, expense of getting deducted, . 15 50

2d " " 2 tons, " " . 25 00

3d " " 2 " " " . 25 00

93 35
Grass seed — 1 peck herdsgrass, 75 ; half a bushel

redtop, 37^, i 12

Interest on land 5 years, at $100 per acre, 30 00

31 12i

Net profit on five years' rotation, .... $62 22|

Dunstable. — Corn 2 years, manured ; 3d year, rye ; 4th,
5th and 6th years in hay.

243

Balance in favor of corn, 40 bush., expenses deducted, 17 50

u u a u 14 371

" " rye, 15 bushels and straw, ex-

penses deducted, ....

4th year, hay, 1^ ton, gettmg deducted, .
5th " " li " "

6th '' " 1 "

({

13

25

11

75

19

25

15

00

91

621

36

00

;55 62|

Interest on land six years, at $100 per acre,
Net profit on six years' rotation,

3. Shirley. — The industrious and skilful family of the
Shakers have furnished me with the subjoined estimates. To
a considerable degree this sect may be considered as model
farmers.

First and 2d year, corn ; 3d year, wheat ; 4th, 5th and 6th
years, hay.

Balance in favor of corn, 35 bush., expenses deducted, 17 75

3d year, balance in favor of wheat, 18 bushels and

straw, expenses deducted, . . . . . 21 00

4th year, hay, If ton per acre, at $12 per ton, ex-
penses deducted, . . . . . . 17 50

$3 50 is considered the cost of " getting " an acre
of grass.

5th year, . . . . . . . . 17 50

6th year, crop diminished one third, . . . 11 50

103 00

Expense of grass seed — 1 peck herdsgrass, 75 ; clo-
ver, 6 lbs., 75; half a bushel redtop, 37|, 1 87^
Interest on land, at $100 per acre, 6 years, 36 00

37 871

Net returns on an acre for six years, . . . $65 12|

244

4. Pepperell. — The following account has been given me
in this town. First year, potatoes ; 2d, corn ; 3d, oats ; 4th,
5th and 6th years, grass.

First year, potatoes — yield, 150 bushels, 37 50 ; cost of
cultivation, 39 83. Loss on potatoes, $2 33.

Second year in corn.

Balance in favor of corn, 40 bushels per acre, . . 19 50

3d year, oats, 20 bush, and straw, expenses deducted, 6 00

4th " hay, 2 tons, getting ($4) deducted, . . 16 00

5th " " 2 " " u u _ 26 00

6th " " 1^ '' 19 50

Loss on potatoes,

Interest on land valued at $40 per acre, six years.

Net profit for six years, .....
Or value land at $100 — interest for six years, .

Net income for six years, ....

5. Reading. — The subjoined is from a farmer on whose
judgment and exactness I should place entire reliance.
Rotation. Corn ; potatoes ; oats ; grass, two years.

Balance in favor of corn, 50 bushels per acre, expen-
ses deducted, . . . , . . . 17 25

Balance in favor of potatoes, 250 bushels per acre,

expenses deducted, . . . . . . 22 70

Balance in favor of oats, 40 bushels per acre, (straw

included.) expenses deducted, . . . . 19 00

Hay — first year, 2 tons ; second year, 1^ ton.

34 tons grass, sold standing, at $15 per ton, . . 52 50

87

00

2

33

84

67

14

40

70

27

36

00

$34

27

Net proceeds of one acre in five years,

HI 45

245

Land valued at 100 and 200 dollars per acre ; say in-
terest on 150 dollars for five years, . . . 45 00

Net balance in favor of land, ..... $66 45

6. In Wilmington, the following account is furnished.
Rotation. Corn ; potatoes ; oats ; hay, two years.

Balance against the corn, 40 bushels per acre, less ex-
penses, 874 cents.

Balance in favor of potatoes, 250 bushels per acre, at
25 cents, less expenses,

Balance in favor of oats, 40 bushels at 50 cents, less
expenses, .......

Hay — first year, \\ ton ; second year, 1 ton, sold
standing — 2A tons

. 29

90

iS

. 19

40

u
. 30

00

79

30

•

871

78

421

. 15

00

. $63

421

Deduct balance against corn, .

Five years' interest on land, at $50 per acre,
Balance in favor of land,

7. In Bedford, I have the following statement from a skil-
ful and successful farmer.

Rotation. Potatoes ; corn ; oats ; grass, two years.

Balance in favor of potatoes, 200 bushels, price 33
cents, less five cents per bushel paid as commission
for marketing, .......

Balance in favor of corn, 30 bush., expenses deducted,

" " oats, 40 bushels at 55 cents, and

straw, expenses deducted, .....

4th year, hay, 1| ton, getting deducted, .

5th " '' 2 tons,

(.i

Interest on land at $50 per acre.

Net proceeds, $82 40

15

50

17

50

22

40

18

00

24

00

97

40

15

00

246

This land was top-dressed the fifth year, but the expense
not estimated. The after or fall feed in these cases is, in gen-
eral, an equivalent for the taxes.

This farm presented an example of neat husbandry. The
labor was performed by the father and two boys, his sons, — the
extent of land fifty acres. The owner is a farmer only, with-
out trade or profession ; and has paid for his farm from his la-
bor. The estate is now valued at $2000, and he has supported
his family from his farm besides. This is a beautiful example
of good husbandry and sound economy.

A second example is given in Bedford.

Rotation. Corn ; potatoes ; barley ; grass, three years.

Balance in favor of corn, 50 bushels, valued at $1 16|

per bushel, expenses deducted, ....

Balance in favor of potatoes, 200 bushels at 30 cents,

" " barley, 20 bushels and straw,

4th year, hay, 2 tons pr acre sold at $12 pr ton, standing,
5th " " 2 " " "

6th " " 11
7th " '' 1

U ((

6

00

7

48

21

50

24

00

24

00

18

00

12

00

112 98

Interest on land seven years, at .^50 per acre, 21 GO
Grass seed sowed — 7 lbs. clover, 87^ ; half a
bushel herdsgrass, 1 50 ; half a bushel red-
top, 37-|, 2 75

23 75

Net proceeds in favor of land, .... $89 23

These are certainly remarkable results ; yet they are the
statements of men long experienced and familiar with the whole
subject, and made altogether independently of each other. But
if the results are so favorable, I shall be asked why it is that
farmers do not become rich oftener than they do ; and why it
is they are continually complaining that their farming runs them

247

in debt ? I shall not go fully into this subject here, but I will
offer a few suggestions, in regard to the matter, which may be
entitled to consideration. First, then, the crops are badly spent,
or expended without judgment and carefulness, so that their ac-
tual value is by no means realized. There is often a great deal
of waste in feeding stock ; and the more abundance there is,
there is commonly the more waste. A horse is, for example, a
great consumer, requiring, as horses are ordinarily kept, from
four to five tons of hay besides grain. Now, two horses are of-
ten kept when one would suffice ; and on small farms, one is
frequently kept when none is needed. Besides the saving of
feed in keeping a horse, by great care in not giving him more
at a time than is necessary, and in not suffering him to waste
any, a saving of at least one third might be made by cutting his
food and giving him a mixed provender. In the next place,
farmers often keep supernumerary oxen and cows, which are a
great drawback upon their prosperity. Our winters are long.
The cost of feeding a yoke of oxen through the winter is very
great. So it is with a cow ; and she perhaps is dry for three or
four months, and it may be for three other months does not
yield enough to pay her keeping. In many cases a yoke of
oxen is kept through the six months of winter at the farmer's
mow, when there is hardly work enough to be done to keep
them in health, far less to pay anything towards their support.
In such cases, to use a phrase well understood among the
farmers, these animals, before the spring, will have " eaten their
own heads off;" that is, the hay and provender consumed in
keeping them will have been of more value than would pur-
chase others in the spring. Sometimes, in the next place, the
farmer, rather than sell a yoke of cattle in the fall, which he
proposes to turn off, for a low price, or what he deems less than
their value, will undertake to fat them in the stall, and but too
often gets, in the market for them in the spring, little more than
he could have obtained for them in the previous autumn.

These are some of the ways of disposing of the products
of the farm so as to make farming a losing business. The far-

248

mer who would farm to profit should keep no animal which
does not, either in growth, labor, or produce, fully pay for its
keeping ; and if he is unwilling to part with a favorite cow,
or a favorite yoke of oxen, or a favorite horse, even when the
keeping of them is a loss to him, he must not charge against
the farm that which he voluntarily sacrifices for the gratifica-
tion of his fancy or caprice. If the cow, for example, does not
through the year much more than pay for her keeping, though
he may admire her breed, or her color, or her horns, or any
other quality which pleases his fancy, if profit is his object, she
is not to be kept. If he chooses to keep a favorite yoke of
oxen, when he has not sufficient work to employ them, or the
luxury of a supernumerary horse, instead of carrying this item
to the farm loss, it would be proper to credit the farm with
their keeping, and charge the loss to his own misjudgment, or
pleasure, or pride.

But another source of error in calculating the profits of farm-
ing arises from neglecting to credit the farm with what it con-
tributes to the support of a family. In estimating the yearly
proceeds of a farm this is seldom taken into the account. The
farmer frequently obtains from his farm his house-rent, fuel,
bread, vegetables, wool, pork, beef, mutton, poultry, eggs,
milk, butter, cheese, fruit, and the services of a horse for him-
self and family; yet in making up the account he credits the
farm with that only which he sells, and which is returned to
him in the form of money.*

In the third place, while the profits of land in grain and
grass are comparatively large, the aggregate return to the farmer
is small, because in truth his acres are few and his cultivation
extremely restricted. I knew in one case, on a farm of three
hundred acres and much of it land susceptible of great im-
provement and productiveness, not more than eight acres to be
under tillage and a very small amount in grass. The rest lay
unimproved and unused. Supposing each of these improved
acres to have yielded a large return, yet, compared with the

* Appendix, F.

249

size and value of the farm, the aggregate would be small. The
gains of the merchant, if his business is profitable, will be in
proportion to the capital employed which he can manage to
advantage. In order that the profits of a farm should be large,
the farm must be as large and as much of it must be cultivated
and improved as the farmer himself can well superintend, and
as his means enable him to bring into culture and use. We have
no right to demand impossibilities ; and the same rules which
apply to commercial and manufacturing pursuits apply to agri-
culture, as far as we look to it as matter of pecuniary loss or
gain.

VIII. Dairy and Milk Establishments. — Middlssex county
is not a dairy county. Properly speaking, there are no large farm
dairies. No cheese is made unless in very small quantities for
family use ; and the butter made, of which in the aggregate
there is a considerable amount, finds a cpiick and weekly mar-
ket in the capital and the other large towns in the county. A
very large proportion of the population of the county are en-
gaged in commercial, manufacturing and professional pursuits,
who, of course, must have their bread buttered for them as they
have no time to do it for themselves. The farmers of Middle-
sex therefore find a ready and a cash market for every thing
which their farms or gardens produce.

I have many returns of the average yield of cows in but-
ter, some of which I will give. From the nature of the
case, so various are the animals, so different their feed and con-
dition, so great or so little the skill employed in their manage-
ment, that it becomes difficult to infer any general rule as to
their product. I can only present the different statements and
leave to my readers to draw their own conclusions.

In Waltham, the cows in June average six lbs. of butter
each per week ; this upon grass only. One farmer in this town
states the average yield in June at seven lbs. butter per week,
and from June 1 to November 1, at five lbs. per week. In
South Reading, in the best of the season, the average is from
32

250

seven to ten lbs. In Reading, in the best of the season, one
pound of butter per day. In Billerica, for three months, six
lbs. butter per week. In Wilmington and Billerica, the yield
of a cow for the season is rated at one hundred lbs. of butter.
In Bedford, the yield is rated at four lbs. per week, or one hun-
dred lbs. per season. The above are similar to returns given me
in other parts of the county, which need not therefore be re-
ferred to.

I will subjoin a few particular results.

1. In Framingham, the farmer had twelve cows. The calves
were fatted and sold to the butcher.

From April 1 to January 1 ensuing, there were sold, as the
produce of these cows, 1627 lbs. The cash received in the
same time is for butter sold, ^328 43 ; and for milk sold in the
same time he received $46 48 — total, $374 91.

The cows were wintered upon coarse feed ; in the spring
they received English hay. The expense of pasturage in the
summer was fifty cents per week for each cow. The commis-
sion for selling the butter in the market was two cents per
pound. This is the statement of a farmer distinguished for his
general exactness, and yet the amount of butter and milk con-
sumed in his own family, from these same cows, is not reck-
oned ; nor what amount of pork ought in justice to be carried
to their credit.

2. In Waltham, at a dairy to which I referred in my second
report, the owner made a trial of his cows for thirteen weeks.
He had two cows in milk the whole time and two heifers, two
years old. The whole of the milk of one of these heifers was
taken by a calf during six weeks out of the thirteen, and be-
sides, this milk was used for the family, but the amount not
ascertained. In fairness, therefore, the stock cannot be consid-
ered as more than three cows for the thirteen weeks. The
cows were soiled in the barn-yard upon green feed cut for them,
and were never out of the yard in the time. They had like-
wise three pints of meal each per day. From them were made
in that time 389 lbs. butter — one additional pound would have

251

made it 30 lbs. each week. One of the cows was one quarter
Denton improved short-horn blood ; the rest native stock.

3. Another farmer in Waltham, distinguished for the excellent
butter which he brings to market, deems the average yield of
a cow through the year as four lbs. per week. Eleven of his
cows in milk in the best of the season have produced 75 lbs. of
butter per week. Thirteen cows produced in the year, 1500
lbs. butter and 1600 lbs. cheese, partly skimmed or three meals
milk. He obtains a second rising of cream from his milk ; the
butter is not so good as the first made, but of tolerable quality.
The cream is salted and the churning takes place once a week.
He is of opinion that butter should be made soon from the
milk, as the fresher the cream the better the butter. Tin pans
are preferred to any other. He considers clover as the best feed
for butter, and as much better in winter as in summer. One
pint of salt is used to twenty lbs. of butter. I am thus partic-
ular in this account of his management as his butter is greatly
esteemed in the city ; and either by good butter, good cus-
tomers, or good address, he gets forty-five cents a pound for all
his fresh butter in winter, certainly a very unusual price in our
market.

On another farm in this town one cow and two heifers, be-
sides furnishing two gallons of milk per day for sale, and ex-
clusive of some milk used in the family, produced 27 lbs. but-
ter in the month of September. This farmer's three cows had
produced 30 lbs. of butter per week. It is his opinion that
vegetables given to cows are injurious to the butter.

4. A dairy firmer in Weston, from fifteen cows, produced in
the season 1500 lbs. butter. I could not ascertain how long
the season was understood to be, nor what amount of milk was
used in the family ; but this is a specimen of the returns with
which one is compelled to put up. They are very indefinite,
but they are worth something. The butter of this farmer com-
mands the best price ; and he urges strongly the importance of
churning cream while it is fresh. The butter in the French

252

market, he says from personal observation, is always churned
from fresh cream, and commonly churned daily.

Of the amount of milk required to make a pound of butter,
quite various accounts are given. The milk of some cows is
much richer than that of others. The milk of a cow in gen-
eral increases in richness from the time of her calving. The
richness of a cow's milk is in some measure dependent on the
food she receives. The milk first drawn is quite inferior in
richness to that last drawn from the cow, known as the strip-
pings. All these circnmstances will of consequence affect the
amount of milk necessary to make a pound of butter. It may
be well however in this case to give the statements of different
farmers. In one case 7 quarts, in another 8, in another 9 ;
in another case, 12 quarts are required for a pound of butter. —
In S. Jaques's stock, which he designates as the cream-pot breed,
two quarts of the strippings, by his account, have produced one
pound of butter. I have already referred to this fact in my
Second Report.

/ Middlesex county, in the vicinity of the capital and the large
towns, abounds in milk establishments, at several of which as
many as forty cows are kept — in some cases more — and their
produce is daily carried to the market. It used to be the prac-
tice to milk the cows before the departure of the cart in the
morning. This obliged the farmers, in some cases at consider-
able distance from town, to begin their milking between one
and two or two and three o'clock in the morning, and was oth-
erwise objectionable. A different course is now in many cases
adopted. The milk of this morning, for example, is not carried
until to-morrow morning, and the milk of to-night will go at the
same lime. The milk after being drawn is thoroughly cooled
off, and kept in the cans in iced water until it is taken in the
morning to the market. After this thorough cooling, the cus-
tomers find, especially in the warm season, tiiat the milk retains
its sweetness longer than when put into the cans and brought to
the market warm from the cow.

I believe there is no city supplied willi better milk, or

253

in a more cleanly condition, than Boston. The milkmen
are in general a respectable class of men, and pride themselves
on supplying their customers with good milk ; and the Bosto-
nians are in general equally particular in requiring pure milk for
their money. Several of the milkmen who come daily to town
are substantial farmers who have attended the market for forty
years. A milkman who, in his visits to the city, should be found
taking improper liberties with any pump or well on the road
would soon be likely to have some inconvenient questions put
to him as to the breed of his cows and his mode of feeding^--
them. In New York city it is not so. With the exception of
a few milk establishments, where a sacred pledge of pure milk
is given, a system of fraud is almost universally practised. The
milk is twice watered ; first in the udder of the cow, who is
fed upon distillers' swill, of which she has two or three barrels
per day with only hay enough to form a cud for rumination ; —
and next, after it is drawn, it is a very general rule to add one
quart of water to every four quarts of milk. It is not easy to
prevent this; as, where the proprietor is himself honest, the
carrier, who may be otherwise, may be tempted to increase his
quantity, that he may appropriate to his own use the proceeds
of the amount sold beyond that for which he has to account.
In the arrangements at the celebrated Harleian dairy, in Glas-
gow, Scotland, the most remarkable establishment of the kind
ever known, the cans were so constructed and fastened with a
lock (the key of which was retained at home), that there was
no possibility of introducing anything into them after they were
taken from the milk-house ; and there such various checks were
applied, that it could hardly be done without detection. In-
deed I have been let into the secret, at New York, of the actu-
al manufacture of milk at a grocery store, where hardly real
milk enough was used to " swear by," and this compound was
sold to the poor and miserable for three cents a quart. The
grocer, though he kept no cow, offered to supply the milkman
with what he required whenever his quantity was insufficient
to meet the demands of the day.

254

There is no such thing to be had in Boston, within my know-
ledge, as distillers' swill, the refuse grain after the whisky has
been extracted from it ; but some use is made of brewers' grains,
the malted barley, wliere they can be had. They increase the
quantity of the milk but injure the quality. English hay
and corn fodder are the general feed, with sometimes carrots,
ruta-baga, or mangel-wurtzel. The ruta-baga, and all the tur-
nip family, are apt to give a turnip taste to the milk, which 1
never knew to be otherwise than disagreeable to every person
excepting William Cobbett, who had ruta-baga seed to sell, and
so, perhaps honestly, thought the flavor and odor pleasant. A
milkman of my acquaintance, however, remarkable for his care-
fulness, says he finds no objection of this sori to the ruta-baga,
if they are given to the cows directly after and not before being
milked. Before the next milking comes, he says the disagreeable
odor is entirely got rid of. The best milkmen prefer good clover
hay for cows in milk to any other. Potatoes and mangel-wurt-
zel increase the quantity without improving the quality of the
rojlk. Carrots, parsnips and sugar-beets improve the quality. —
A milk farm, well situated and with a good custom, is a profit-
able husbandry where the milk brings 5 cents in summer and 6.^
cents in winter. A good deal of milk is sold by the farmers to
the milkmen for three cents per quart, of the profits of which
management to the farmer 1 have strong doubts. If we sup-
pose that it requires 10 quarts of milk to make one pound of but-
ter, this at 3 cents per quart would be 30 cents. Suppose the
milk to be made into butter, there is a pound of butter worth
25 cents, and, if of superior quality, 33 ; there are the skim-milk
and butter-milk remaining, worth certainly for young pigs 1|
cent per quart — say 9 quarts, 13 cents ; and there is the manure
made by the swine kept, which is of considerable value.

The amount of milk furnished by a herd of cows through
the year is very ditfcrenily estimated by different persons. —
Rare individual cows may be occasionally met with, giving
ten, and perhaps, in some remarkable case, even eleven quarts
of milk per day through the year — that is, 365 times 11 quarts,

255

or more than 4000 quarts per annum ; but such cases are very
few in number. In Curwen's dairy of 28 cows, kept and fed
with great care for 220 days, the average was eight wine quarts
per day, or a little more than six beer quarts. In the Harleian
dairy, where a hundred cows were kept, it is said that twelve
wine quarts were about the daily average ; but the statement,
in the form in which it is made, is very imperfect and doubt-
ful. Twelve wine quarts would a little exceed nine beer
quarts. Nothing could surpass the pains used in the selection
of these cows, the care taken of them, and the abundance
with which they were fed. If the statement were positive, I
should regard it differently ; but as it seems to be rather
matter of conjecture than of proof, I place little dependence
upon it. In a private letter to a respected friend from the cel-
ebrated Fellenberg, it is stated that, at that institution, the
cows, which are considered among the best milch cows in the
world, average through the year about six quarts per day. But
here again we are left at a loss to know, v/hether the year in-
cludes only the season while they are in milk, or 365 days.
These are foreign statements. I wish I had those from among
ourselves, on which entire reliance can be placed. Men in
these cases are so in the habit of dealing in conjectures instead
of facts, that it is exceedingly difficult to arrive at the truth,
I have been so often deceived in these matters that I place lit-
tle confidence in any thing which is not matter of actual meas-
urement and positive verification. The most intelligent and
careful milkmen whom 1 have consulted are of opinion, that
their cows average about six quarts per day for 305 days, and
go dry in that time from two to three months. A very careful
milkman, who may be entirely relied on. from 20 cows pro-
duced ll,131| gallons of milk in a year. This was at the rate
of 6J quarts per day for 3G5 days, or 7| quarts per day for 300
days. These cows were native stock, extremely well selected
and well fed. Successive trials on this same farm give about
the same result.

On a milk establishment in Medford, under excellent man-

256

agement for many years, with twenty cows in summer and more
than thirty in winter, the average product for 365 days is from
five to six quarts to a cow per day. The cows are fed in win-
ter upon clover hay made in the manner described in p. 236, an
allowance of a peck and a half each of succulent vegetables,
and some Indian or oil-meal cake. The summer feed is not
stated, but great advantage has been derived from green Indian
corn fodder. Oil-meal cake is not considered of equal advantage
with Indian. It is deemed too dear if more than $25 per ton.
Carrots are preferred to all- other vegetables when the quality of
the milk and the condition of the animal are regarded. Since
the use of the most powerful hydrostatic presses in extracting
the oil from the flax seed, the cake is by no means so valuable
as formerly, and the price should be proportional.

In the case of a milk establishment in the vicinity of Salem,
on an average of thirty-five cows in milk, the product in one
year was 17,171 gallons of milk, beer measure ; in another
year, it was 17,530 gallons. In the first case it would be
about 5h quarts to a cow ; in the latter, 5| to a cow per day
through the year.

At Lowell, connected with the manufacture of printed goods,
was an establishment of fifty cows, kept for the special pur-
pose of obtaining their manure for fixing some of the colors
employed. The milk of the cows was sold to persons- con-
cerned in the factories at a low rate, and an exact account kept
of the yield, and the amount and cost of feed. With this ac-
count I have been favored, and deem it well worth preserving.
Fifty cows have been the average number kept, and kept con-
stantly in the barn upon hay and green vegetables, such as pota-
toes, &c. The average number of cows giving milk has been
thirty-five. The quantity of hay spent for two years was 418
tons, at an average cost of $18 50 per ton ; and for green veg-
etables, &c. during the same time, were paid $1018. The average
yield of the cows was four quarts daily. The amount of hay
required for a cow was 4 9-50 tons, exclusive of vegetables. —
The quantity of milk obtained in the two years from the whole

257

stock, was 99,705 quarts ; or, rating the average niTmber of
cows in milk at 35, it would be, for 365 days, 3 31-35 quarts
per day to each cow. No calves were raised. The whole sum
expended in this case for feed, exclusive of attendance, milk-
ing, &c., was $S751. The value of the milk obtained, at five
cents per quart, was $4985 25 — leaving a balance against the
establishment of $3765 75. This would be a serious result to
any common farmer. The keeping of the cows through the
year upon dry feed, and the high cost of the hay, go largely to
swell the expense. The large number of dry cows kept, av-
eraging fifteen through the year, is a heavy drawback upon the
returns. In the New York city milk establishments, as soon as
a cow ceases to give milk more than sufficient to balance her
cost of keeping, she is sold. It is the aim- of the cow-keepers
to keep their cows so well, and in so good condition, that, after
a few weeks extra feeding, they may be fit for the butcher.
Their place is then immediately supplied with new milch
cows. In the Lowell establishment, as the object was not milk,
cows were probably kept long after they had ceased to give
milk enough to pay for their keeping. To whatever it may be
ascribed that the balance was so heavy on the wrong side of
the page, the experiment is a highly instructive one, and may
induce farmers engaged in the milk business to look more care-
fully into their own results.

IX. Dairy Stock. — Middlesex county, though very poorly
suited to grazing, and, on account of the high prices of all cat-
tle feed, not at all adapted to the raising of stock, has yet sev-
eral individuals of intelligence and public spirit engaged in this
patriotic object.

Some years since, (about 1830,) a number of gentlemen as-
sociated for the purpose of establishing a stock farm, and pur-
chased in Charlestown a valuable property for this object.
"It was proposed to establish a stock farm in the vicinity of
Boston, devoted to the important objects of breeding and rear-
33

258

ing the best breed of horses, neat cattle, sheep and swine ; the
receiving and selling on commission all kinds of live stock ;
and combining also with these the business of agriculture and
horticulture, upon the most approved and economical system.
This farm consisted of 222 acres, was made up of a variety of
soils, and was well adapted to the purposes either of summer or
winter feeding of animals, yielding a great quantity both of
English and salt hay." Samuel Jaques, a man well experi-
enced and of excellent judgment in these matters, took the
farm with this view ; and has succeeded, by judicious selection
and crossing, in rearing a milking stock of extraordinarily valu-
able properties for the dairy. Of this stock 1 gave a full ac-
count in my Second Report, and, as far as appears, there is no
reason to withdraw the commendation there bestowed on them.
Their cheese properties have not been tested ; nor have I been
able to ascertain the quantity of milk afforded by them in any
given time ; but the quality of their milk for butter is not sur-
passed by any animals which have come under my observa-
tion. There can be no doubt that cheese from their milk
would correspond to its superior quality. Mr. Jaques informs
me that they still maintain their excellent character in this
respect. My only regret is that 1 have not been able to induce
him to make such continued experiments of their yield in milk
or butter, for a week, or month, or three months, as would
warrant me in speaking with more confidence. Without any
personal reference whatever, I may be allowed to say that, in
my opinion, intelligent farmers, who have valuable animals,
owe it to the agricultural community to make such trials as
will fully test their distinguishing properties. All conjecture
and guess-work in this case ought to be utterly rejected. The
trial of a day or a week is a small matter, and will seldom war-
rant any confident conclusions. In the case of a valuable cow
or race of cows, the age and condition of the cow should be
stated, her breed and pedigree, her feed and treatment, with the
utmost particularity ; the times of milking, and the amount

259

yielded for one, or two, or three months, in pounds and in cu-
bic measure ; the actual amount of butter or cheese produced
in the time, and the quantity of milk and of cream required to
make a pound of butter or of cheese. There may be some
trouble in making these observations and experiments, but the
satisfaction of this exact knowledge is an ample compensation
for any trouble which it might cost. I am compelled to say,
that, in respect to most of the statements which men make in
regard to their stock, unless they are founded upon some such
exact measurements and observations continued for a length of
time, no reliance can be placed upon them.

Another breed of cows has been introduced into the county,
from which great improvements in the dairy have been antici-
pated. These are the Ayrshire, the most celebrated dairy
stock of Scotland, The Massachusetts Agricultural Society,
with that eminent liberality and single desire to advance the
agricultural interests of the community which have always
marked all the proceedings of their board, imported an Ayrshire
bull and three cows. The gentleman empowered to select
them was well qualified for that object, and took particular
pains to carry the patriotic designs of the society into effect.

The bull has been placed successively in different counties
of the State, and the cows distributed with different individuals,
P. C. Books, of Medford ; Elias Phinney, of Lexington ; and
Daniel Webster, of Marshficld.

John P. Gushing, of Watertown, whose public spirit and re-
gard for the agricultural interests of the country have been dis-
played in the management of his farm, in the importation
of some of the best animals from abroad, and the gratuitous
distribution of their progeny among the farmers with a view
to improve their stock, has likewise imported some of the
finest animals, which skill and money could select, of the Ayr-
shire stock.

It does not lie in my way to go into a history of this stock
in this place. They are generally agreed to be the best dairy

260

stock in England. They are reputed to yield large quantities
of milk and produce large amounts of cheese and butter ; be-
sides keeping themselves in good condition and being easily
made ready for the butcher. The cows are eminently beauti-
ful. In size, however, and symmetry, they are decidedly in-
ferior to the improved Durham short horns ; but there is good
reason to think them a hardier race of animals.

From some of the gentlemen to whose care the society's an-
imals were committed, I have been unable to obtain as full
information as is desirable. Mr. Webster's foreman, in his ab-
sence, informed me that the cow was quite superior as a milker.
Mr. Brooks says, " My cows give about the same quantity
each, but I cannot boast of their doing like many which I
have heard of. My Ayrshires do not, I think, give more than
thirteen or fourteen quarts at best, and the milk no richer than
others with the same feed. It is however a valuable race in
our State, as doing well in our common pastures and not run-
ning to fat like some. They are very gentle."

Mr. Phinney, in a recent letter, thus writes : '' I have given
the Ayrshire stock a pretty fair trial, considering my limited
means, — enough however to satisfy me of their valuable dairy
properties, and of their capacity for enduring the cold winters
and short keep of the northerly part of the country. In the
month of June, 1840, I selected from twenty cows my best
native cow, for the purpose of making a trial with my Ayrshire
cow as to the quantity of butter each would make. My old
pastures, for I had then done little to improve them, afforded
but a very short bite of grass. These two cows ran with my
other stock, and had no other food than what they could get
in these dry pastures. The quantity of milk from the Ayrshire
was not greater than that from my native cow; but the Ayr-
shire made nine and three quarter pounds of butter in a week,
while the native cow in the same time made but eight and a
half pounds ; besides, the quality of the butter from the Ayr-
shire cow was decidedly better than that from my other cow.

261

The trial was made with great care, and the correctness of the
result may be relied on. The Ayrshire cow has been kept
with my other stock and fared no better than the rest ; still
she appears in better thrift than any of my other cows, and en-
dures the cold of winter quite as well. She has given me
three fine calves ; the first a bull, which I now have, a very
fine animal ; the second I sent into the county of Essex, and
is owned by Mr. Marland, of Andover, and at the cattle-
show in that county in 1840, the first premium offered by the
State society on bulls was awarded to him. The third is a
heifer, now little more than a year old, and is a beautiful crea-
ture. Upon the whole, from the little experience 1 have had,
I cannot doubt that the Ayrshire, for its dairy properties, is
greatly superior to the Durham for this part of our country."

Mr. Gushing has been kind enough to favor me with an ex-
act account of the produce of four Ayrshire cows on his farm
for the times therein specified, which I here subjoin.

1. Memoranda of Milk given by imported Ayrshire

for one year, 1837.

From 17th of May, to 1st of June,
1st of June to 1st of July,
1st of July to 1st of August,
1st of August to 1st of September,
1st of September to 1st of October,
1st of October to 1st of November,
1st of November to 1st of December
1st of December to 1st of January,
1st of January to 1st of February,
1st of February to 1st of March,
1st of March to 1st of April,
1st of April to 1st of May,
1st to the 20th of May,

At 10 lbs. per gallon, 773 gallons.

iC

il

II

u

II

cc

u

ci

cow Flora

608

lbs

1192

1064

841

718

489

409

432

442

388

484

419

242

7728 lbs.

262

2. Memoranda of Milk given by imported Ayrshire

for one year^ 1837.

From May 23d to June 1st, .
" June 1st to July 1st, .
" July 1st to August 1st,
" August 1st to September 1st,
" September 1st to October 1st,
" October 1st to November 1st,
" November 1st to December 1st,
" December 1st to January 1st,

January 1st to February 1st,

February 1st to March 1st,

March 1st to April 1st,

April 1st to May 1st, .

May 1st to 7th, .

At 10 lbs. per gallon, 530 gallons.

((

u

cow Juno,

243 lbs
796
845
600
475
313
340
394
401
326
328
216
30

5307 lbs.

a

3. Memoranda of Milk given by imported Ayrshire cow Venus
from June 20th to May 2lst.

From 20th June to 1st July, .... 283 lbs

1st July to 1st August, .... 805

1st August to 1st September, . . . 693

1st September to 1st October, . . . 567

1st October to 1st November, . . . 498

1st November to 1st December, . . . 319

1st December to 1st January, . . . 403

1st January to 1st February, . . . 406

1st February to 1st March, . . . 351

1st March to 1st April, .... 308

1st April to 1st May, 319

1st May to 21st, 151

II

u

((

5163 lbs.

At 10 lbs. per gallon, 516 gallons.

263

4. Memoranda of Milk given by imported Ayrshire coio Cora,
from November 17th to May list.

From November 17th to December 1st,
December 1st to January 1st,
January 1st to February 1st,
February 1st to March 1st,
March 1st to April 1st,
April 1st to May 1st, .
May 1st to 21st,

At 10 lbs. per gallon, 462 gallons.

It

a

u

388 lbs

834

846

776

704

670

405

4623

lbs

The mode in which these cows are fed is as follows : " Our
Ayrshire cows, during the winter, have half a bushel of sugar
beets or potatoes ; with the former, about a pint of rye meal
mixed with the cut beets ; but when they have potatoes, the
meal is omitted. With the above, they have as much English
hay as they can eat. In the summer they have nothing but
what they get in the pasture. They are driven, morning and
night, from the pasture to the barn to be milked, and after that
operation are driven again to the pasture."

In addition to these statements, I am favored with an ac-
count of the produce of an Ayrshire cow imported and owned
by George Randall, of New Bedford. His letter to me is as
follows, dated Sept. 9, 1841.

" My thorough-bred full-blooded Ayrshire cow, Swinley, was
imported by me from Scotland in 1839. She was six years old
in May last. She calved on the 31st of last March. She was
milked regularly three days previous to dropping her calf; and
had drawn from her in the time from 45 to 50 quarts. Com-
menced setting her milk for butter on the first day of April. —
The calf was not allowed to touch a teat, was fed on new milk
for nine days, and after that on skimmed milk. In all April,
the quantity made from her was 43 lbs. 6 oz. The quantity in
May was 42 lbs. 4 oz. In this month her milk decreased.

264

Quantity in June was 44 lbs. 7 oz. In July and August, her
milk was not kept separate from that of other cows. Weighed
her milk (for one day, H. C.) on the 7th of April ; it weighed
43 lbs. 9 oz. On the 2d of September commenced weighing
her milk ; in four days it has averaged 25 lbs. 8 oz. and has
made in four days just five lbs. of butter. My pasture through
the season has been very poor and short, owing to the dry wea-
ther and having too much stock for the quantity of pasture.*
From the time this cow was turned to grass until this day, (9th
Sept.) she has had by measure two quarts of Indian meal per
day regularly.

The Ayrshire bull belonging to the Society has been kept in
Berkshire, Hampshire and Worcester counties ; and a fair oppor-
tunity will soon be had of testing the qualities of his stock.
One of the best farmers in Berkshire county speaks to me of
their promising extremely well. In my opinion, the only cer-
tain test of the dairy properties of a cow is in the milk-pail and
the churn.

Of the Improved Durham Short Horn race we have undoubt-
edly had some of the best animals ever brought into the coun-
try, both with high aristocratic pedigree, and without pedigree,
of uncertain and plebeian origin. In some parts of the coun-
try, large expenditures have been incurred in the importation
of this stock ; and Admiral Coffin, of the British Navy, in
grateful remembrance of the land of his nativity, presented to
the Massachusetts Society several fine animals of undoubted

* When such farmers as Messrs. Phinney and Randall say, as does the
former, " that his pastures afforded but a very short bite of grass, and that
these two best cows ran with his other stock and had no other food than
what they could get in these dry pastures ;" and the latter, that his pasture,
where he kept his Ayrshire cow, was poor and short and overstocked, 1
cannot but hope they had a few twinges of conscience for presenting such
an evil example to their brother farmers, who are looking to them as fugle-
men. This is certainly not the way they treat their other friends ; nor are
they at all suspected, from appearances, of sul)jecting themselves to the
same penance. The general treatment of the cows in New England would
not be an inapt subject of presentment by a grand jury.

265

pedigree of the improved Durham short-horn race, which were
some time kept for the improvement of the breed. In addition
to these, we have had a valuable bull imported by a merchant of
Boston, understood to bo the sire of Mr. Jaques's cream-pot
breed; and the superior bull Bolivar, injported by John Hare
Powell, of Pennsylvania, from J. Whitaker's stock in England,
celebrated for its extraordinary dairy properties. This bull was
the finest animal of the kind which I have ever seen. —
A full-blooded short-horn bull (Denton) was likewise im-
ported into Worcester county, whose progeny has been high-
ly esteemed. Several other animals of the same breed have
been imported and kept in the State ; and their blood has
been considerably diffused throughout the country.

In point of size according to their age, in respect to symme-
try and perfection of form, these animals are in my opinion not
surpassed, indeed not equalled, by any wliich have come under
my observation. The Herefords are extremely beautiful ; in
neatness and fineness of form perhaps superior to the Im-
proved short-horns. The Devons likewise, though considerably
smaller in size, yield, in compactness of shape, in quickness of
movement and muscular strength, and in softness of hair and
beauty of coloring, to no other race known among us. —
They are the prevalent race of our country ; and in an extraor-
dinary instance, when I had the singidar pleasure of seeing
three hundred yoke of these cattle — that is, all more or less of
this breed — in one team, in Connecticut, I could not resist the
conclusion that a finer team, of the same number of ca'tle,
could not be found in the whole country. Yet I am ready to
admit that I have seen some few yokes of oxen of mixed blood,
of the Improved Durham, as fine in appearance, and in reputa-
tion as good animals for work, as any that I have met with ; and
some individual animals of the Improved Durham Short Horns,
both pure and half blood, bulls, oxen and cows, when all points
have been considered, have surpassed anything which I have
scon. They have approached as nearly to what I in^.agine the
perfection of form in this race of animals as is to be looked
34

266

for. With good keeping, they come early to maturity, and
attain a large weight. The butchers, however, whom 1 have
consulted, give it as their opinion that they do not tallow so
Avell, in proportion to their size, as our own smaller cattle. In
my observation, no animals degenerate sooner under neglect
and poor keeping ; and they require extraordinary feed and the
most careful attendance to keep up their character and condition.

The progeny of Bolivar, from some of our best native cows,
according to the testimony of a farmer who probably has had
many more of his stock than any other man among us, have not
proved remarkable for milk or butter ; to use his own expres-
sion, " they are, upon the whole, above mediocrity." The prog-
eny of Coelebs has been quite various ; in some cases very good,
in others inferior. Mr. Jaques is of opinion that the excellence
of his cream-pot breed is principally to be ascribed to a cross
with Coelebs, but on what rational grounds it is difficult for me
to discover. Their beautiful color is certainly derived from the
dam ; and as the distinguishing feature in this stock is the rich-
ness of their milk, and this being precisely the quality for which
the dam, the Haskins cow, was distinguished above all others,
and it not appearing that any stock of Coelebs but when con-
nected with this cow has ever been remarkable for this quality,
it would not seem difficult to determine on which side of the
house this excellence belonged.

So much sensibility exists in reference to this subject, the
dairy properties of the Improved Short Horns, and so much of
private interest and speculation is now mingling itself in the
judgments which are formed or the opinions given in the case,
that, if it is not difficult to speak with calmness and sobriety, it
may be unreasonable to expect to be heard with candor and
impartiality. My business is however with facts ; and having
no prejudices of which lam conscious to warp my own views,
I shall, as fairly as I can, state those facts which have come gen-
erally within my own observation and leave the conclusions to
the honest judgment of my readers. I have already touched on
this subject in my First and Second Reports, and the reader

267

will not have a full view of the case, as intended here to be
presented, without a reference to them. As to what these cows
are stated to have done abroad, it would lead me too far to treat
much of that here. When a bull will bring at a public sale one
thousand guineas, cows more than four hundred guineas each,
and heifer calves over one hundred guineas apiece, we may in-
fer that guineas are more abundant than with us. It would
not be an unreasonable suspicion that a fever of the same
type which prevailed to so alarming a degree among us in
1835-6, &c., and known here as the multicaulis fever, may
have infused itself into the veins of some of the bidders and
competitors on these occasions.

It may be premised that a very large number of these ani-
mals have been brought to this country, and those of the high-
est character, both as to pedigree and attested merits, since
persons of the greatest skill have been commissioned to make
the purchases, without any restriction as to cost or expense of
transportation. As early as 1825 fifty-six of these animals, all
of them of high blood, had been exhibited at the cattle-shows
in Pennsylvania, and before and since that time large importa-
tions have been made into Maryland, New York, Ohio, Con-
necticut and Massachusetts.* I have seen large numbers of
these cattle, and have to regret that 1 have not been able,
after repeated private and public solicitations, to obtain more
exact and authentic accounts of their products. From this
backwardness on the part of the owners and importers I
think there is reason to infer that some disappointment in
respect to their dairy properties has been experienced. My
belief is, that our expectations in this matter were too highly
excited ; and that qualities, for which some extraordinary ani-
mals among them were remarkable, I mean particularly the qual-
ity and yield of milk, were deemed invariable characteristics of
the race. In a former report I quoted the opinion of a distin-
guished Scotch farmer, Mr. ShirrefF, and the authority of a pri-
vate letter from a competent judge in England. Shirreff pro-

* One hundred and fifty of Improved Short Horns and grade cattle were
exhibited at the Fair of the American Institute iu New York, Oct. 1841.

268

noiinces them, in an off-hand way, "the worst milking breed
in Britain." The private letter stated " that this breed of stock
has not been held of late years in great estimation for milking.
Short Horns are only calculated for the best and most powerful
land ; on poor soils they will do nothing." To these I now
add the remarks of George W. Featherstonhaugh, in a letter to
Mr. Powell, of Peinisylvania. Mr. Featherstonhaugh, from
his acquaintance with the farming interests both in this coun-
try and abroad, will be deemed a competent judge. He says " the
property of being very deep milkers, therefore, is to be consid-
ered accidental, rather than one which can be continued with
any certainty in the breed. Take one short horn with an-
other, no breed is more valuable for its milk, or keeps in better
condition under the same circumstances ; or goes to beef at less
expense ; or furnishes more money and manure* in a given
time. In order to keep up these great qualities we must re-
member that, in their native country, it is considered indispen-
sable to keep them extremely well, and in a very diflerent
manner from the general custom prevailing here; which is, in
summer, to leave cattle to help themselves to what they can
find, even in the most severe droughts ; and, in winter, to give
them a moderate quantity of hay and straw. In England,
where they are less troubled with dry weather than we are,
they have always green crops and roots to give them, and they
give them in abundance. It is there considered that the higher
this sort of keep the better the health of the cow, the richer
her milk, the stronger her calf, and the greater the quantity
and value of her dung. If all this provident attention be
necessary in that moist climate, it is certain that the breed will
degenerate with us if it is not kept in high condition. Hot

* This " fnrnisliing more manure in a given time " is rather an equivocal
recommendation ! It has once happened to me to know a case where the
sale of tlie manure at a livery stable more than paid for the cost of the hay
given to the horses; and the litter was furnished gratuitously by tlie pur-
chaser to the stable-keeper, I will save the rei)Utatioii of the farmers in this
case ; the maiuu-e and litter were wanted for a particular use in the arts.
This was certainly a novel and economical application oiliorse-power.

269

climates produce shallow milkers ; and where exceptions occur,
they get poor very fast when indifferently kept, and it becomes
more expensive to recover their condition than to keep it up.
The wear and tear of condition in deep milkers is very great,
and is only to be checked by abundance of succulent food and
roots ; or, when these are not to be had, by occasional feeds of
meal with their hay."

These remarks are so well founded and so much to the pur-
pose that I have giveu them at large. That this highly im-
proved race of animals is of all others best suited to our climate,
soil, mode of husbandry, and general condition, is a question I
shall now pass over ; but on the subject of the milking or
dairy properties, I will give the most exact returns of which I
have been able to avail myself, and shall subjoin an account of
what we call native cows, that any one may compare them at
his pleasure.

It may be said that the native cows to which I refer are all
select animals. I admit that they are remarkable animals;
some of them very extraordinary ; but, in respect to the large
majority of them, I have met with them accidentally : and I can
find in the State hundreds and hundreds equal to them, if any
justice were done to their keeping. But the tnUh is, that, in
general, nothing can be more negligent and mean than the
manner in which a large portion of our cows are kept. On the
other hand, it will not be denied that the Short Horns to which
I refer are selected and highly fed animals. It seems not a
little remarkable among the many hundreds which have been
brought to and produced in the country, if extraordinary dairy
properties are the characteristic of the breed, as many of their
advocates maintain, and when there is such an extreme eager-
ness to establish this point, that more of these distinguished ex-
amples should not have been given to the public.

Let us look, however, at the facts in the case and make up
our judgment accordingly. In all matters of inquiry or debate
our object should be truth, not triumph.

1. An improved Durham short-horn cow (Belina), imported

270

by John Hare Powell, of Pennsylvania, produced in three days
eight pounds and thirteen ounces of butter, which would be at
the rate of 201 lbs. per week. The cow was fed with slop of
Indian meal, clover and orchard grass. She has yielded re-
peatedly by measurement, and so far as can be ascertained by
the bucket, twenty-six quarts within twenty-four hours. One
quart of her cream produced one pound five ounces and one
quarter of an ounce of butter. In one case two minutes, in
another case only three seconds, were required to convert the
cream into butter.

The butter trial was certainly a short one, and it is to be re-
gretted that it had not been longer continued. The quantity
of milk was very great, though we are left at a loss whether it
were wine or beer measure. If it were beer measure, one fifth
is to be deducted to bring it to wine measure. The measure-
ment of milk in the bucket is always a very uncertain measure-
ment. This cow was a most extraordinary animal, and it were
to be wished that we had returns from others of Mr. Powell's
fine stock, and some particular information of the progeny of
this cow.

2. The celebrated cow Blossom, an improved Durham short-
horn cow, owned by Mr. Canby, in Delaware, is stated to have
given in 1840, in one week, 247^ quarts of milk, or more than
35 quarts per day — from which were made 13| pounds well-
worked butter. This summer, (1841,) two months after calv-
ing, she gave in one week 253h quarts, or 36 quarts per day,
which yielded 17i lbs. of superior butter. On the 13th July,
fourth month after calving, the following is a record of one
day's milking : — Morning, 12| quarts; noon, 11| do. ; evening,
11 do. =35 quarts. She gave 16 quarts per day up to the
time of calving. The measure is understood to be wine meas-
ure. This is one of the largest products on record. —
In the first case it seems to have required 18 44-53 quarts to
make one pound of butter ; in the latter case, 14 48-69 quarts.
This is a large amount. For the difference in the two cases it
is not easy to account. The mode of her keeping is not stated

271

with any explicitness. The owner of the cow is not known
to me, either in person or by reputation.

3. My next account is from PaoU Lathrop, of South Hadley,
in this State, a farmer distinguished for his intelligence and
success, and on whose statements, made on his own knowledge
or observation, entire reliance may be placed. I give an ex-
tract of a letter, which I have recently received from him : —

" We have now twenty-five head, which are thorough bred
improved Short Horns, without the least mixture of other blood,
and are, beyond question, as pure blood as can be produced. —
These animals generally possess great weight and are very
perfect in symmetry. At two and a half years old the heifers
will average about 1200 lbs., and I have raised one bull calf
which weighed 1020 lbs. the day he was a year old. Our
stock has been fed upon grass and hay only, with the exception,
of a small quantity of roots in the winter months. One of our
cows is sixteen and two others fourteen years old, and they
now exhibit the appearance, so far as constitution is concerned,
of being young animals, which I think is conclusive evidence
of this race of animals being well adapted to our cold climate.
They mature early and take on fat easily, and, in these respects,
have a decisive advantage over our native stock. To test an
experiment between a native and a short-horn, I took a cow of
each of about the same age, dried them from milk at the same
time, tied them side by side at the same manger, and fed them
both exactly alike on hay only through the winter. The re-
sult was, that the Durham, in spring, had gained flesh and was in
high condition, while the native was in only ordinary condition.*

" Their product, in both butter and milk, is much better
than I have ever been able to obtain from native cows with
the same keep. We have one cow which made more than
twelve pounds well-worked butter per week in April last, and
I have repeatedly converted the cream of this cow into butter
in fifteen seconds. She gave in June last, upon grass alone,

* To have made the trial exact, tlie two cows should have been weighed
at the beginning and end of the experiment. Their food likewise should
have been weighed at least for a portion of the time.

272

360 lbs. milk in a week, having been milked but twice a day,
and she averaged 51 lbs. per day for two months. We have
another cow which gave 48 lbs. milk per day through the
month of June ; and we have still another, (now quite old,)
which a former owner has assured me has given 28 quarts milk
per day. We have two heifers, with their first calves, which
averaged 35 and 37 lbs. milk a day through the month of June.
"I have tested the quantity of cream obtained from given
quantities of milk from the above cows, and find it to be 1^ to
li inch from 10 inches of milk. There are some persons who
deceive themselves, and doubtless others who are guilty of de-
ception knowing it to be such, in representing mixed blood
Short Horns as ' full blood,' 'pure Durham,' ' thorough bred,'
&c. Now it is not sufficient that an animal is called 'full
blood,' or guessed to be ; the breeder of this race of animals,
who understands himself, will require evidence of the fact, and
such evidence as cannot be called in question." *

4. Of the Short-horned cow Annabella, presented to the Mas-
sachusetts Agricultural Society by Admiral Coffin, E. H. Derby
states, " that he has a perfect recollection of weighing her milk
repeatedly in June, when she had no other feed than what she
obtained from the pasture ; the milk, morning and night,
weighed 48 pounds. At the same time, we weighed the milk
of a very fine native cow with the same keep, which gave 33
pounds. The greatest objection to them in my opinion is, that
they incline to go dry longer than our native stock."

I cannot agree with Mr. Derby in thinking the going dry a
long time a constitutional feature in this stock. This circum-
stance depends not upon the stock but upon their treatment
and keep ; especially their treatment with 'their first calf.

5. A short-horn cow, imported by F. Rotch as I understood,
then I believe of New Bedford, and owned by C N. Bement
of Albany, a farmer well and deservedly known to the agricul-
tural community, was one of the most beautiful and promising
animals of the kind that 1 have seen ; her pedigree undoubted

* Appendix, G.

273

and carried up to the highest sources. At my request, Mr. Be-
ment tried her capacities for butter, and in one week in Sep-
tember obtained six pounds.

6. A cow, owned by George Johnson of Lynn, of whose
pedigree, after much inquiry, I can learn nothing, but of whose
genuineness as an improved Short-Horn I have no doubt, if not
of full blood yet very high bred, has produced this season, from
12th March to 12th September, (six months,) 7100 lbs. of milk,
averaging 15 beer quarts of milk per day for that time. She
is now (November, 1841,) giving at the rate of nine quarts per
day. Her feed is now one bushel of mangel-wurtzel and half
a peck of wheat-shorts per day, with what hay she will eat.
The butter properties of this cow have not been ascertained, as
her milk is sold daily by the quart. She is a superior animal,
both in appearance and product.

7. Wm. K. Townscnd, of East Haven, Connecticut, had
eighteen cows of the Durham Short-Horns, full-blooded or in
part, which were kept for supplying milk to the city of New
Haven. These, in milk, gave a daily average of 110 quarts,
besides the milk and butter used in the family. It will be at
once perceived how indefinite this account is, though given by
the intelligent committee of the New Haven Agricultural Soci-
ety. We are at a loss to know how many cows were in milk
at a time, whether all or a part only, and how much butter and
milk were used in the family. The family, it is said in anoth-
er place, was large.

I have had the pleasure of seeing this remarkably beautiful
stock. Their appearance was in the highest degree favorable
to their character and keeping. The average return of milk,
as above, was 6 2-9 quarts per day, exclusive of the reserv-
ed quantity.

8. I subjoin an extract of a letter from one of the most in-
telligent and public-spirited farmers in New England. Henry
Whitney, of New Haven, giving an account of his Improved
Short-Horn stock. Perfect reliance may be placed on it, and it
will be read with much interest. Mr. Whitney's personal im-

35

274

provements in agriculture and gardening, his liberal expendi-
tures in his importations, with a view to improve our live stock,
and the intelligent and efficient aid which he is rendering to
the great cause of an improved husbandry, entitle him to the
grateful respect of the agricultural community. Many men
are like the spindles in a factory, which make a great deal of
buzzing and racket, yet perform a very humble part, Mr. Whit-
ney, without noise or ostentation, moves with the force of a
power-wheel. He turns the spindles, while the little things,
with their heads always erect, imagine that they fly round of
their own accord. Though we would give honor to whom
honor is due, it is not worth while to undeceive them. They
perform their part well, and their operation is essential. The
Connecticut agricultural loom is now turning out many a beau-
tiful and substantial fabric.

" I have never kept an accurate account of the milk given,
for any particular length of time. The calves generally have
been allowed to suck until three or four months old, after which
it was given to them from the pail until eight or nine months
had expired.

" I have imported four cows, all of which were carefully se-
lected in England and at high prices. They have all produced
one or more calves since I have owned them, and with one ex-
ception they have been dropped in winter. Strawberry, the
cow you saw at Northampton, calved in July 1840. I have
carefully measured the milk from each soon after calving, and
they have averaged from 22 to 29 quarts per day. Betsey,
the first cow I imported, gave in January 1839, soon after calv-
ing, 29 quarts, and four months afterwards she was giving 20
quarts. Her milk was only of a fair quality. She continued
to milk very largely until within a few weeks of slipping her
calf, which occurred about the 7th or 8th month after taking
the bull, when she again increased the quantity to 16 quarts.

" My second cow, Violet, gave, after calving, 24 quarts of very
rich milk, and continued to milk deeply for three or four months,
when the quantity was diminished to 10 or 12 quarts per day.

275

" My third cow, Strawberry, gave by measurement 22^ quarts
of milk on the grass she could clip from my short pastures. —
Her milk was very rich and yielded a large amount of batter,
though I cannot say accurately how much as it (the milk) was
not all brought to the house and a fair proportion was used for
ordinary purposes in the family. Mr. Lathrop, on whose farm,
at Hadley, she remained four or five weeks, wrote to me on her
return as follows ; — ' I must speak in the highest terms of
Strawberry for a milker, and butter cow. As for size and shape
she speaks for herself She is without doubt a very superior
cow. She was at Hadley in October, 1840.

" My fourth cow. Ringlet, calved about a year since, produc-
ing twin heifers. She was milked three or four times, giving
from 10 to 12 quarts each milking, when she fell sick with the
milk fever and was two or three weeks before she recovered. —
During her illness she bruised one of her teats so badly that she
has lost the use of it. This cow is undoubtedly the best milch
cow I have ; but as the calves have sucked her until within a
very short period, I cannot give any particulars. She is now
five months in calf: her twins are one year old, and she gives
now from three teats 8 quarts per day. You will please under-
stand that I measured the amount with cave, full BKEnmeasiwe ,
purposely for my own gratification and without giving any ex-
tra feed for the purpose of increasing the milk.

" My cows were fed in winter on cut straw with corn or oil
meal mixed — say half a peck of corn meal to 4 bushels of finely
cut straw and about 2 quarts oil meal added. About a bushel
was given to each cow once a day, and 3 pecks of turnips or
ruta-bagas twice a day to each, besides a little hay. This was
my feed Avhen they were in the greatest flow of milk. In sum-
mer they are out at pasture, and when it is short, corn-stalks and
other green feed are given to them. On our dry soil, however,
it is difficult for the Durhams to thrive when the summer
droughts commence. They suffer, too, much from the heat and
from the stings of flies, which almost set them crazy. They
stand our winters fully as well as our common cattle, and put
on flesh very rapidly at that season if well fed.

276

" My calves, at a year old, weigh from 900 to 1050 lbs. ;
and I feel confident that a thorough-bred Durham steer can be
made to weigh as much at three or four years old as a common
steer at five or six. There are certainly objections to the breed
where pasturage is short and a full supply of hay is not given.
They are greater consumers than the common cattle of the coun-
try, but they are of much greater size and, as said before, ma-
ture much earlier. My cows are mostly herd-book animals,
thorough-bred. I enclose yon the pedigrees in full of Straw-
berry, Ringlet, and Violet, as requested."*

9. Cow. Levi Lincoln, Worcester, 1825, A cross from Den-
ton on a superior native cow. " This cow has often given from
24 to 27 quarts of milk per day of excellent quality, yielding
a large proportion of cream. The least quantity of milk given
by her in any one day during the summer drought, on grass-
feed only, was 13 quarts." [Mr. Lincoln states to me that this
was beer measure.]

For the dairy and the stall, he speaks with the utmost con-
fidence of the preeminence of Denton's stock. One of his
three year old heifers (a half or three fourths blood) gives from
16 to 20 quarts of the richest milk by the day since calving ;
the other a little less, from the circumstance of having been in
milk continually for more than a year ; but her milk is in no
degree inferior in quality. The last season she gave eleven
quarts at a milking, with grass only, and this not infrequently.

Mr. Lincoln likewise states to me, that on putting six of our
best native steers, purchased from Vermont, and six others of
the mixed blood of Denton into the same open yard in the fall,
and keeping them through the winter at the same manger on
the same feed and in the same exposure, the growth and con-
dition of the mixed bloods in the spring were greatly superior
to those of the native stock.

10. Cow. Dolly. George Hood, Lynn. " Dolly had her
first Calf in April, 1833, before she was two years old. In the
following June she gave 14 quarts per day, measured a number

* Appendix, H.

277

of days in succession, and made 10 lbs. and 2 oz. of butter per
week. She calved in October, 1839, and from the 15th of that
month to April 13th, 1840, 180 days, she gave IG quarts per
day, which sold for $180. In January, 1840, she gave 565
quarts measured out, averaging over 18 quarts per day in the
coldest winter month, and three months after she calved.
Some days in that month she gave 20 | quarts per day. She
calved again in December, 1840, and from the 17th December,
1840, to July 14th, 1841, 212 days, she gave 3004 quarts
milk, being 14 1-6 quarts per day for 7 months, which was
sold for $168 67. Her milk is rich and makes delicious butter.

" She is fed on three pecks of sugar-beets and carrots per day,
with good hay, and in the coldest weather a bucket of warm
water with a quart of shorts in it. Dolly is remarkable for
transmitting her milking qualities to her offspring. Three of
her calves have been raised here, and they are all great milk-
ers. One of them, called the Countess, gave last winter 14
quarts per day for some months after she calved, being 4 years
old. I have a heifer from her, 15 months old, and a bull 11
months old from Dolly, both sired by Wyecomet from Mr
Wells' stock. They are fine animals, and I expect to get a
good stock from them.

" Dolly's colour is light red, with a few white spots. She
has the fine mellow skin, beautiful proportions, and majestic
mien peculiar to the noble race from whence she sprung."*

11. Cow. D. N. Breed, Lynn, 1841. This cow is supposed
to be one fourth of the Durham blood. The subjoined is
given as her product.

1839. April 15. I bought a cow 6 years old that month.

15 days in April I took from the cow more than the calf
received, ___-_- 90 quarts milk.

May 31, 31 days, average 14 quarts per day, 434 "

June 30, 30 " 16 " '' 480

July 31, 31 " 13 " " 403

* Appendix, 1.

278
Aug. 31, 31 days, average 12 quarts per day, 372 quarts milK.

Sept. 30, 30

a

11

a

330

Oct. 31, 31

i(

10

u

310

Nov. 30, 30

11

10

li

300

Dec. 31, 31

a

9

ii

279

Jan. 31, 31

ii

9

ii

279

Feb. 28, 28

ii

7

ti

196

March 15, 15

days

30

li

3,503 quarts milk,
in 12 months ; cow calved April 10, 1840.

12. Cows. Enoch Silsby, West Bradford, Mass. " The
Durham Short-Horns. I think highly of, for the improvement of
our country stock, and should prefer half and three quarters
blood, to full ; they come in as well at two as ours at three
years old, feed well on the same food as the natives, and look
better in the spring ; the pure blood were fair milkers and
would hold out till calving, if required ; I purchased at differ-
ent times, ninety-eight selected, country heifers ; would keep
none if they did not give 7 quarts at mght and five in the morn-
ing, on a flush of feed, at three years old. Many did it, but
would fall off, and by November, become dry or nearly so. Out
of the said ninety-eight, I kept but two who would give a good
mess of milk up to the time of parturition [if ivanted). From
these and their progeny, I have been most successful in rais-
ing, by putting the Durham Short-Horn bull to the cows.
The production has been a great improvement on the na-
tives both for milk and appearance, and I have not had a sin-
gle failure. I feed principally on English hay, occasionally
oat and barley straw, and roots, and bring them in at two years
old as well as the natives would come it at three. I have
never kept a particular account of the quantity and quality of
the milk, but I know they are superior to my neighbors' ; with
good feed, they will give from 16 to 21 or 22 quarts per day ; for
curd I cannot tell, as I do not make cheese."

279

B. Shnrtleff, of Chelsea, who has for many years kept an ex-
tensive milk farm near Boston, and who has had several of
these animals of different grades, and had likewise many calves
from Bolivar, the bull before referred to, says — " they have no
merit as milkers above our common stock/' A farmer in one
of the best towns in the county, who has been some time en-
gaged in raising this stock, says without hesitation, " he should
much prefer our native stock for a dairy." A farmer in Marl-
borough, who is one of the best managers in the county, and
who keeps a dairy of twenty-five cows, will not have a Dur-
ham among them ; and the farmers in this excellent farming
town are agreed in the opinion that a calf of one of the Im-
proved Short-Horns, at six weeks old, is very inferior to a calf
from a native cow. A great amount of veal is sent from Marl-
borough to the Boston market; and the marketmen and the
butchers agree with the farmers in this opinion, which is
very probably, after all, mere prejudice.

From a letter received from a farmer in Rhode Island, second
for his excellent management to none other within my knowl-
edge, the following is an extract : —

" My experience in cows is confined to native stock and a
cross of the native and Durham. Some of the latter have been
good milkers, but not superior to the common stock. From
one I probably obtained nine quarts per day on an average for
the year ; and from a native cow, twelve quarts for the same
period. I do not know the exact quantity, but from the cir-
cumstance of having milked them myself from first to last,
and from weighing at different periods, I am confident it is not
overrated. Their keeping while at pasture, which was poor,
was some hay daily, and perhaps three quarts of Indian meal.
When confined to the barn there was an addition of three
quarts of oil meal, or, as a substitute for this, twice the quan-
tity of shorts."

I give an extract of a letter from another farmer, resident in
Medford, in this county : —

" Of the Durham stock, I have but three, a bull and two

280

cows, imported by R. D. Shepherd, in 1S39. One of these
cows is of no value as a milker. The other is a very fine ani-
mal in appearance, bat has twice slipped her calf, and until this
season has given no milk. She had her first living calf on the
2Sth August last, and while the feed was good averaged about
fifteen quarts of milk per day. She has since gradually fallen
off to about ten and a half per day, which she gives now (No-
vember). Her milk has never been separated from that of the
native cows ; I can therefore say nothing definite of its quality.
I have been less curious and exact in measuring it and trying
its quality from having always understood this stock to be more
distinguished as beef cattle, than for any peculiar excellence
as milkers."

These are the only particular and detailed statements which
I have been able to obtain. My own experience, either with
the full bloods or the mixed breeds, has not been favorable to
them for milk or butter. I visited some time since the yard of
a farmer in the State, who has passed the highest encomiums
on this stock for their dairy properties, saw his cows milked,
and measured the milk. He had 5 animals, — 2 as I imderstood,
of full blood, Denton's progeny ; 3 of mixed blood ; and some
other native cows. It was in September, and the pasturage
was abundant. The best animal in the yard at the morning's
milking did not give more than four quarts ; the second not
more than three ; the third, one quart and a half. It is not
necessary that I should give any farther minutes.

I feel myself bound in honor to state these facts and these
prevailing impressions, leaving them to have the weight to
which any may think them entitled,

I shall proceed now to give an account of some native cows,
or cows raised among us, which have fallen under my observa-
tion ; and I have only to add, that in my opinion, nothing is
wanting to multiply such cows among us by hundreds but
more care in the selection of the best, and a great deal more
liberality and carefulness in feeding and nourishing them, I
have referred to some of these cows in my former reports ; I

281

shall add others, and hope to be pardoned for the repetition on
account of the importance of presenting this whole subject in
a connected view.

I shall refer in the first place, to the celebrated Cramp cow,
owned in Lewes, England, because as yet she bears the palm
of all others ; and because I wish to direct particular attention
to the extraordinary care with which she was kept. She was
not of the Improved Durham Short-Horns. She was bred in
Sussex from a Sussex-bred cow ; and it would seem as though
she had some aristocratic blood in her veins, as it is said her
great great grandsire received a prize cup at Petersham, in 1726,
though 1 think this must be an error for a much later pe-
riod, as she was calved in 1799.

From the first day of May, 1805, the day she calved, to the
second day of April, 1806, a space of forty-eight weeks and one
day, her milk produced 540 lbs. of butter. The largest amount
made in any one week, was 15 lbs. From May to June, she
gave 20 quarts per day. From 20th June, to 10th September,
18| quarts. In forty-seven weeks, she produced 4,921 quarts
of milk.

In the next year, from 19lh day of April, 1806, the day she
calved, to the 27th February, 1807, forty-five weeks, she pro-
duced 450 lbs. of butter. The largest amount per week, was
12 lbs. The quantity of milk for the time was 4,137 quarts.
During this year, she was sick and under a farrier's care three
weeks after calving. She went dry seventeen days only.

In the third year, from the 6th of April, 1807, the day she
calved, up to the 4th April, 1808, fifty-one weeks and four days,
she produced 675 lbs. of butter. The largest amount made in
a week, was 18 lbs. The quantity of milk given in that time,
was 5,782 quarts. In the fourth year, from the 22d April,
1808, the day she calved, to the 13th February, 1809, forty-two
weeks and three days, she produced 466 lbs. of butter. The
quantity of milk given in the time, was 4,219 quarts. In the
fifth year, from April 3d, 1809, to May Sth, fifty-seven weeks,
her produce in butter was 594 lbs. The amount of milk given
36

282

in the time, was 5,369 quarts. The largest quantity of butter
in any week, was 17 lbs. This is the most extraordinary cow
of which we have any record. Though it has been presented
to the public before, yet the account may not be accessible to
all ; and I deem it useful to state the mode of her treatment.

"In the summer season, she was fed on clover, lucerne, rye
grass and carrots, three or four times a day ; and at noon, about
four gallons of grains and two of bran, mixed together, always
observing to give her no more feed than she eats up clean. In
the winter season, she was fed with hay, grains, and bran,
mixed as before stated, feeding her often, viz. five or six times
a day, as was seen proper, and giving her food when milking ;
keeping the manger clean, where she is fed with grains ; not
to let it get sour ; wash her udder at milking three times with
cold water, winter and summer ; never tied up ; lies in or out
the barn as she likes ; particularly careful to milk her regularly
and clean. Milch cows are often spoiled for want of patience
at the latter end of milking them."

I now proceed with a list of cows produced and raised among
ourselves ; not a distinct but a mixed race ; raised under innu-
merable disadvantages; yet showing, in a remarkable manner,
what valuable materials we have to work with.

1. The Oakes Cow in Danvers, Mass., produced in 1813,
ISO lbs. of butter; in 1814, 300 lbs. ; in 1815, over 400 lbs. ;
in 1816, 484J lbs. During this time, one quart of the milk
was reserved daily for family use, and she suckled four calves
for four weeks each, in the course of those years. She pro-
duced in one week 19i lbs. butter ; and an average of more
than 16 lbs. of butter per week, for three months in succession.
The largest amount of milk given by her in one day, was 44|
lbs. She was allowed 30 to 35 bushels of Indian meal per
year and all her own skimmed milk and most of the butter-
milk. At one time, the owner gave her potatoes, which in-
creased her milk, but not her butter. In the autumn, he gave
her about six bushels of carrots.

This cow came into the possession of Josiah Quincy, then of

283

Q,uiiicy, who had at the same time a large cow of English
blood, the progeny of a celebrated imported cow, and owned
by John Welles, of Dorchester, whose improved stock are held
in high estimation ; but as to their legitimacy in the Short-
Horn family, or the strict purity of their blood, I cannot speak
with confidence. On a trial of this Oakes Cow with this Eng-
lish Cow for a fortnight under the same food and treatment, the
English Cow produced 16 lbs., the Oakes Cow thirty-two lbs.
and a few ounces in that time.

2. The Nourse cow, owned in North Salem, made 20 lbs.
of butter in one week, and averaged 14 lbs. butter per week for
four successive months.

3. The Haverhill heifer, two to three years old, produced
14 lbs. of butter in a week after her calf was killed at six weeks
old, and more than 18 lbs. of butter in the ten days after her
calf was killed.

4. Cow owned by John Barr, in Salem.

1S22. In 274 days the weight of milk was . 7611 lbs.

No. of quarts, beer measure, . . 296

o

1

1823. In 268 days, weight of milk was . 7517

No. of quarts, beer measure, . . 2923

The sales from this cow, including the calf at 5 dollars and
milk at 5 cents per quart, in 1822, was $153 25. In 1823,
$151 15.

5. Cow. John Stone, Marblehead. From June to Octo-
ber this cow averaged 11 lbs. of butter per week.

6. Cow. N. Pierce, Salem. 3,528 quarts milk per year ;
nearly 10 quarts per day.

7. Jeremiah Stickney, Rowley. 19 quarts daily ; calf at
6 weeks old weighed 196 lbs. ; gain 2 3-7 lbs. per day.

8. Cow. Isaac Osgood, Andover. 17 quarts of milk per
day ; made 50 lbs. of butter in the month of June.

9. Cow. S. Noah, Danvers. In 148 days from 2d May,
gave 587J gallons milk ; more than four gallons per day for
that time. This cow calved on the 28th of April, and in the
148 days succeeding the 2d of May, she yielded C054| lbs.
of milk.

284

10. Cow. T. Flanders, Haverhill. From 20th April to
22d September, besides 46| gallons milk used for family, made
163 lbs.v4 oz. butter.

11. Cow. Daniel Putnam, Danvers. " This cow calved
May 21st. The calf was sold June 20th for $7 62|. During
the 30 days that the calf sucked, there were made from her
milk 17 lbs. of butter. From June 20th to September 26th
(fourteen weeks) she gave 3370 lbs. of milk, or more than 34
lbs. 6 oz. per day. The greatest quantity on any one day was
45 lbs., or 17h quarts. The weight of a quart of her milk is
2 lbs. 9 oz. The greatest quantity in one week was 288 lbs.
The quantity of butter made in the same fourteen weeks was
139 lbs. The greatest amount in one week was 12 lbs. 2 oz."

12. Cow. Owned by William Osborn, Salem. The milk
of this cow from January 24th to April 10th, was 3127 lbs.
varying from 33 to 48 lbs. per day, averaging 40.^ lbs. per day
during that time.

13. Cow. Owned by Richard Elliot, Danvers. This cow's
milk gave 16 lbs. of butter in one week ; and she yielded on
an average from 15 to 18 quarts per day, beer measure, for a
length of time.

14. The yield of a cow owned in Andover is remarkable.
Her origin is not known, but her appearance indicated a mixed
blood ; and I was led to believe she partook of the Yorkshije
blood, a race of cattle which I have found in the neighborhood
of Moultonborough and Canterbury, N. H., but whose intro-
duction I am not able to trace.

In 1836, besides supplying the family with cream and milk,
there were sold 1272 gallons milk at 14 cents per
gallon, _ _ - - -

166 lbs. butter at 25 cents, - - -

Calf sold, . - - - -

^67 38
" The keeping was good pasture and swill of the house, in-

$17

88

41

50

8

00

285

eluding the skim milk, with three pints of meal per day."
These statements show, in a strong light, the difference be-
tween a good and a poor cow ; and the utility of liberal keep-
ing.

15. A cow of Samuel D. Colt of Pittsfield, from 1st De-
cember to 26th April, 148 days, produced 193 lbs. of butter.

16. A cow owned by R. Campbell of Pittsfield, has yield-
ed 26 beer quarts of milk per day.

17. A cow owned by Hosea Merrill, gave 30 beer quarts of
milk per day.

18. A cow owned by D. Fenn of Stockbridge, 8 years old,
produced in one week 12 lbs. 9 oz. butter. During the same
time, 10 quarts of the milk were sold, and in addition cream
and milk were used freely in the family.

19. A cow owned by Calvin Davis, 4 years old in the
spring of 1838, in 172 days produced 225 lbs. butter, and fat-
ted a calf An accidental injury to the cow prevented a con-
tinuance of making butter.

20. Two cows of Wm. Dewey, of Alford, in good season,
averaged, for a length of time, 14 lbs. of butter each per week.

21. A cow belonging to the late Dr. Hyde, of Stockbridge,
for some time produced fourteen pounds of butter per week.

22. Two cows in Yandeusenville, produced 14 lbs of but-
ter each per week.

23. A cow belonging to Millard of Egremont, pro-
duced 14 lbs. of butter per week.

24. From two cows belonging to Russell Brown, in Che-
shire, besides the free use of milk and cream in the family, 90
lbs. of butter were produced and sold in three weeks, and in
four successive weeks 114 lbs.

25. A cow owned in Stockbridge, by Stephen Willard,
produced as follows :

In 321 successive days 331 lbs. butter.
" 284 " " 293 "

" 306 " " 318 "

911 days 942 lbs.

286

" The above is exclusive of 25 lbs, made while fattening
three calves." He adds " my method of keeping has been
grass only, from spring to fall. In the fall I begin with pump-
kins and potatoes, and feed moderately during the time she
gives milk. An account has been kept for only three years;
but it would not vary much from the above, for the twelve
seasons I have had her, except the present season she has been
farrow." This cow is now eighteen years old, " and will
calve again about the middle of February."

26. Two cows owned in Pittsiield, produced each 50 lbs.
of milk per day ; and one other 32 lbs. at a milkmg.

27. A cow owned by Thomas Hodges, in North Adams,
produced last year 425 lbs. of butter ; 4U0 lbs. of this amount
were made in nine months. Her feed consisted of one quart
of rye meal, and half a peck of potatoes per day; and very
good pasturing.

2S. A cow is owned by Joseph F. Upton, of Ashfield,
Franklin Co. From the first of April, 1837, to the middle of
February, 1838, her product was 335 lbs. 15 oz. From the
9th of May, 1838, to the 28th December, 1838, she had pro-
duced 303 lbs. 3 oz. of butter, and was still making at the
rate of one lb. per day.

The owner adds, " In the year 1837, I killed my calf at
three days old, and gave my cow the skimmed milk through
the summer. 1 commenced the first of October to feed on po-
tatoes. I gave her about one peck per day boiled, as long as
she gave milk. In the year 1838, I fattened my calf and
killed it at four weeks old. It weighed 75 lbs. She has
had nothing but grass this year, until the first of October ;
since then I have fed her with one peck of boiled potatoes per
day. My cow is seven years old last spring." Her winter
keep at present, while giving milk, is as much hay as she will
eat, and one peck of boiled potatoes per day.

29. Cow. N. Sanderson, Waltham, Mass., 1828. Thirteen
and one half lbs. butter per week through the season, on an
average.

287

30. Cow. Luke Fisk, Waltham, Mass., 1824. Made 12
lbs. butter per Aveek.

31. Cow. Geo. H. Hardy, Waltham, Mass., 1826. Ave-
raged, for four months, llf lbs. per week.

32. Cow. John White, Dedham, Mass., 1826. Gave

12 lbs. butter six weeks in succession ; one week 12 lbs.

13 oz. ; three months, averaged 10^ lbs. per week ; gave 18
quarts milk per day, at times.

33. Cow. James Robbins, Watertown, Mass., 1827. May
and Jure, frorn 10 to 13 lbs. butter per week.

34. Cow. Ralph Haskins, Dorchester, Mass., 1827. Eigh-
teen quarts per day — average 14 to 15 quarts. Before grass feed
in April, the cream of two days made 2f lbs. butter, and was
made from 2 1-16 quarts of cream. Two or three minutes in
churning. This was the mother of Mr. Jaques's famous Cream-
pot breed.

35. Two cows— Rev. Mr. Phenix, Chicopee, Mass., 1828 :
for several weeks averaged 20 lbs. per week, besides what milk
and cream were used in the family.

36. Cow. W. Chase, Somerset, R. I. 1831. Most of the
season, 20 quarts milk daily ; averaged nearly 14 lbs. butter per
week during the season ; 120 lbs. made in ten weeks.

37. Cow. Israel Graves, Northampton, Mass., 1830. Four
years old; one week, 13 lbs. 9 oz. butter.

38. Cow. L. Hosmer, Bedford, Mass., 1830. 14 lbs. but-
ter per week.

39. Four cows. - Jesse Putnam, Danvers, Mass., 1830. Ave-
raged more than 208 lbs. butter each in the season ; highly fed.

40. Six cows. J. Curtis, Marblehead, Mass., 1830. Ave-
raged over 181 lbs. butter each in the season, without extra feed.

41. Cow. W. Dickinson, Deerfield, Mass., 1830. One
week, 14 lbs. ; first eight weeks after calf was taken away,
made 96 lbs. Six quarts of milk made one lb. of butter.

42. Cow. H. G. Newcomb, Greenfield, Mass., 1830. From
March 27th to May 25th, made 100 lbs. of butter, and reserved
160 quarts milk. In 14 days, made 29 3-16 lbs. butter.

288

43. Cow. D. Wait, Greenfield, Mass., 1830. In one fort-
night made 25 lbs. butter. In May 1832 she produced, in one
week, 15$ butter. Average daily weight of milk, 47 lbs. —
Measured one day 26 beer quarts.

44. Two cows Hart, Shelburne, Mass., 1834. Be-
sides milk and butter used for a family of three persons, they
sold from these two cows, in one season, upwards of 400 lbs.
butter ; feed, grass only. In June, they made in one week 23
lbs., one week 25 lbs., one week 28 lbs.

45. Cow. Barrett, Northampton, Mass., 1830. This

cow milked, for one fortnight, every eight hours ; at each milk-
ing has yielded a pailful, holding 10 quarts — the weight of the
milk averaging daily 49J lbs. Her milk has yielded daily 2
lbs. 5 oz. butter, making 32 lbs. 6. oz. in 14 days. From one
milking alone, 1 lb. 6 oz. were made, which will give 4 lbs. 2
oz. butter in one day, from one cow ; the butter was of a supe-
rior quality, and brought a high price in the Northampton
market.

46. A cow owned in New London, Connecticut, yielded 10
quarts milk per day, for 14 successive months.

47. Cow. I. G. Tyler, Bradford. This cow, from April
1 to Sept. 28, produced 154^ lbs. of butter. In the second
week in June, she yielded 126 quarts of milk, beer measure,
at the rate of IS quarts per day for that time.

48. Cow. C. C. Sewall, Danvers. From the 26th of June,
in 95 days she gave 3189 lbs. or 1275 quarts beer measure. —
The greatest quantity in one week was 116 quarts ; in one day,
17 quarts, 1 pint. The daily average quantity was 13 quarts.

49. Cow. Albert Johnson, Lynn. From 27th March,
1840, when she calved, to 28th September, 184 days, she pro-
duced 6840 lbs. of milk, or 2736 beer quarts, averaging nearly
15 quarts per day. The largest quantity any one day was
52 lbs. or 201 quarts. She had good pasturage until the drought
in summer, and then some hay and one bag (four bushels) of
shorts.

The account of this cow for part of the present year is as

289

follows. From March 29rh to September 30th, 186 days, she
has given 6783 lbs. of milk, equal to 271.4 quarts, averaging
14|- quarts per day. The largest quantity given in one day
was May 9tli, 51i lbs., equal to 20| quarts. She has been sick
a part of the season, by browsing the leaves and branches of
the black cherry-tree, which has occasioned some diminution
of her milk.

50. Cow. Charles F. Putnam, Salem. From November
15, 1839, to November 13, 1840, she produced 4214 quarts of
milk, beer measure, being an average of 12 quarts per day
through the year. Mr. Putnam writes to me, " that the first
month this summer, (1S41,) with two quarts of meal per day,
she averaged eighteen quarts of milk per day. I am confident
that the cow will give twenty quarts per day in good fair feed.
She was milked till within three weeks, and could have been
milked to the time, of calving."

51. Cow. Hobart Clark, Andover. Butter in a week 14 lbs.

52. Cow. Julius Smith, Cheshire, Conn. This heifer, two
years old, averages IS quarts milk per day.

53. Cows. Spencer, Guilford, Conn. These cows aver-
age 14 quarts daily through the season.

54' Cows. Allen, Cheshire, Conn. Eight cows. 15
quarts of milk each, daily,

55. Cow. Shelburn, Yt. Has yielded 26 quarts, beer
measure, in a day ; and at two milkings in 24 hours, produced
3 lbs. 14 oz. of butter. This cow was raised in Vermont.
Some persons, from her great product, call her English ; but
the admixture of blood is very small if any; and if any, it is
not known, whether Durham, or Ayrshire, or what. There is
nothing but her color, which indicates any ditference from our
best formed native stock. She has some progeny by an Ayr-
shire bull, which are very promising.

56. Cow. S. Henshaw, Springfield. 17i| lbs. of butter
per week, and in one case, 21 lbs. of excellent biuter. In
4| days that is 4 days and one milking she produced 14 lbs.
3 oz. of butter at the rate of 22^ lbs. per week. 1 had in a

37

290

former publication marked this cow as a cross from a Dur-
ham bull ; but I was misinformed. Mr. H. tells me she was
a native cow without mixture of foreign blood.

57. Cow. West Springfield. This cow in sixty days pro-
duced 2692| lbs. of milk, averaging 44 5-6 lbs. per day. This
was equal to 22| quarts per day for that time. She repeatedly
produced over 50 lbs. and sometimes 54 lbs. of milk per day.
I have the exact daily returns for the time.

58. Cow. O. Morris, Springfield. '' The summer after she
was seven years old, the quantity of butter made from her be-
tween the first day of April and the first of September, five
months, was 206 lbs. During the time, we used milk and
cream in the family freely. Some weeks we have made 14
lbs., exclusive of milk and cream used for family purposes. I
have often weighed her milk in the month of June, and she
has frequently yielded 31 lbs. at one milking at night. We
have been particular to have her milked in the summer at five
o'clock in the morning and at seven o'clock in the evening, and
always by the same person. I think much of regularity in the
times of milking; and that one person only should be permit-
ted to milk the same cow the same season. My cow has al-
ways had a good milker, and her milk has been rapidly drawn.
Her food in the winter is good hay, and in addition thereto
from 2 to 4 quarts of rye bran at noon. I feed and give her
water three times each day. In the summer, besides the pas-
ture, she has 4 quarts of rye bran at night. From the experi-
ence I have had with this cow, I feel quite sure that many cows
which have been considered as quite ordinary, might, by kind
and regular treatment, good and regula)^ feed'w]^ and proper care
in milking, have ranked among the first-rate."

59. Cow. Roxbury. This cow, besides taking care of her
calf, produced 3975 beer quarts of milk in one year or before
her next calving, which was within the year.

60. Cows. J. P. Cushing, Watertown. " There has been
no account kept of any of our native cows. Several of them,
however, on grass, and also in the winter (soon after calving)
have given 20 quarts a day for a month or more. Several of

291

our native cows, particularly two which you recommended,
give a greater quantity of milk than any of our imported cows,
with a single exception."

61. Cow. Page, Danvers. 13 lbs. butter in one week ;
30 lbs. in three successive weeks.

62. Cow. B. Shurtleff, Chelsea. Supposed to be of the
Galloway breed, small cow, has given 21 quarts per day.

63. Cow. Daniel Breed, Lynn. " She is six years old.
She gives now (Nov. 19,) on grass and 1| peck of roots, six
quarts of milk per day. She has not had any hay or meal this
fall, and all the hay consumed by her last winter, was 2900
lbs. without meal. She calved last April, and comes in again
March 12th. She gave in June an average of 45 lbs. of milk
per day, and has given 2490 quarts the last seven months. She
is milked until within a few days of her calving. What is re-
markable about the cow is her small size, and its requiring so
little food to produce so much milk." The above measures
are all ale and beer measure.

64. Cows. " George Goodnow, of Southborough, in the
county of Worcester, keeps 10 cows upon his farm. He has
kept an accurate account of their produce for a number
of years. The amount of butter made from these 10 cows
in the season of J 839, was 2172 lbs. The amount sold 2028
lbs. The amount used in his family, 144 lbs. During the
month of .lune, the same season, the 10 cows averaged 9 lbs.
each per week on grass feed alone. He has a number of cows
that have made 10| lbs. per week, and one that he has made
11| lbs from. After the 1st of December he makes no butter,
but sells his milk during the winter, the account of which has
been mislaid. His calves suck till they are 7 weeks old, then
they are mostly slaughtered. The cows are dry from 2 to 3
months previously to calving. In the season of 1840, the but-
ter made from 10 cows was 1965 lbs. Amount sold, 1831 lbs.
Amount used in the family, 134 lbs. Mr. G. had not footed
the account for the present season, (1841,) but he said it would
not probably vary much from the two previous years. The

292

cows are all native. You may rely upon the above being cor-
rect."

65. From 30 cows in Cheshire, Berkshire county, all native
cows, an average of 425 lbs. of new milk cheese has been
produced to each cow, and 10 lbs. butter, or 300 lbs. in the
whole in a season.

66. Two dairies in Cheshire : one of 21 cows, produced
626 lbs. of new milk cheese, and 1700 lbs. of pork were made
on the same farm, half of which was to be credited to the
cows ; one of 18 cows, produced 6321 lbs. of new milk cheese
in a season, and 1000 lbs. of pork were made the same season
on the same farm. Two quarts of rye meal were given to
each cow two months the first of the season, and one quart for
one month during the last of the season. Most of the time
they had their whey.

I might greatly enlarge this list by a mention of other native
cows as remarkable as those to which I have referred ; but
here 1 shall submit the case. The beauty of the Improved
Durham Short-Horns and their perfection of form are admira-
ble. They come with good keeping early to maturity. They
have a tendency to keep themselves in good condition ; and
with extraordinary feeding and care, they arrive at a large size,
and some individuals, all points considered, have surpassed any
thing within my knowledge. The Claremont ox, a half-blood
Durham, whose pedigree is not known, which was sent from
this country to England for exhibition three years since, was
pronounced by competent judges the finest animal of the kind
ever seen there. His live weight was reported as not far from
3700 lbs. The Greenland ox was nearly as heavy, and singu-
larly beautiful. A native ox exhibited in Boston, in 1840, did
not differ much from these in size, fulness, and weight ; but
compared with them in appearance, he was misshapen and de-
formt'd The Durham cows, in general, especially the selected
ones, which have been imported on account of these qualities,
are large milkers ; but their milk seems generally inferior as to
richness or butyraceous properties. The milking properties of

293

Mr. Whitney's stock at New Haven, are very remarkable.
The Durham cows are large animals, and should be expected
to secrete largely of milk ; but many of them, however, are in-
ferior as milkers ; and, upon as calm and impartial a view of
the subject as I can take from my own personal observation, I
cannot pronounce them, as a race, distinguished and preferable
to all others for their dairy qualities. I have come to this con-
clusion with very strong prejudices in their favor ; and as I
measure my words in this case, I wish to be judged only by
what I say. Whenever a Short-Horn cow proves an inferior
milker, the enthusiastic advocates of the race are pleased to
tell us that it is because she has no pedigree, and is not a herd-
book animal ; but admitting that her genealogy is somewhat
mixed, it is singular that the virtues of the blood should not
show themselves to a degree, and that the impurity or defect
should always predominate. It is certain, however, that many
mixed bloods have in every respect excelled many of the pure
bloods.

In regard to what we call our native stock, in which various
bloods and breeds are intermingled, many of them are indeed
miserable in appearance, in shape, in condition, and every other
quality. This comes in general from neglect and indifference,
because we kill or sell to the butcher our best calves, and com-
monly leave what we do attempt to raise, " to shift for them-
selves." Yet at the same time, without presumption I think,
New England may challenge the world to produce finer teams
of oxen, by fifties and hundreds of pairs, than are to be found
at our cattle-shows. Let any intelligent judge of stock go into
Worcester county, Mass. ; into New Haven and Hartford coun-
ties, in Connecticut ; or especially to Saccarappa, in Maine,
where ox teams are constantly employed in carting lumber to
Portland, and if he will find any superior oxen for labor and
condition than are to be found there, he would do a signal fa-
vor to the agricultural public in letting us know where we may
look for them. I have seen none. I believe we should search
the world over in vain to find any.

294

Our native cows are of every variety, but there are several
parts of the State where, though it cannot be said that any sci-
entific or systematic improvement has been undertaken, yet by
a long-continued selection from the best, whole families or
breeds aie to be found distinguished for their excellent proper-
ties as dairy stock. The list of native cows, which I have
given, shows conclusively that we have those which, for the
quantity of milk they give, are scarcely inferior to any ; and
for the amount of butter and cheese which they produce are
surpassed by none. The numbers referred to prove that they
are not rare.

Whether any thing would be gained by substituting the Im-
proved Short-Horns for our present stock, is, to say the least,
questionable. The Short-Horns are great consumers. Though
animals do not always consume in proportion to their size, yet
this must be considered as a general rule. They require most
particular attention and liberal feeding to bring them to maturity,
though we admit that they arrive at maturity early. Many of
the Short-Horned premium young animals which have been
exhibited at our cattle-shows have had the benefit of two wet-
nurses for six months. Most of our native calves are put off
with two teats, and at eight or ten weeks old are turned adrift
into the pasture to live or die as they please. Our own stock
has never had fair play ; and if treated in the same manner as
the best Short-Horn stock they would not perhaps fall so far
behind them as might be supposed. Our pastures are in gen-
eral short and our winters long. A smaller race of cattle, there-
fore, and a more hardy stock would seem better adapted to our
condition.

The London milk establishments are mainly supplied with
the Short-Horns, because, it is said, they give more milk, and
after becoming dry, take on llcsh sooner than other races,
and are therefore more easily disposed of to the butcher. The
size of these animals would naturally indicate a larger yield of
milk, and, at the same time, a greater consumption of food.
But the yield of milk is put down at an average of nine quarts

295

daily. These are presumed to be wine quarts, and deducting
one fifth, it does not much exceed the yield of some milk es-
tablishments among us. Besides, in the London dairies, cows
are not suffered to become with calf.

One of the most extraordinary Short-Horn cows known in
England, it is said, produced 373 pounds of butter in 32 weeks ;
17 pounds being the largest quantity made in any one week.
This is quoted as quite remarkable ; but this, as far as it goes,
does not equal the Oakes, the Noiu-se, the Adams, or the Spring-
field cow. One of the best-informed and most ardent advocates
for the Short-Horns, the late Henry Berry, remarks: — "That
their milk does not contain the same proportionate quantity of
butter as that from the Long-Horns, the Scotch cattle, or the
Devons, is probably true ; but we have reason to believe that
the difference has been much exaggerated, and is more than
compensated by the additional quantity of milk." Whether
this additional quantity of milk can be procured without an
additional quantity of food, is a question which naturally ari-
ses, but which I have no means of answering Avith confidence.

The quantity of cheese made in a year from a cow in the
celebrated cheese district of Wiltshire, Eng. is thus stated. —
" The quantity of cheese that is made from each cow in this
district is greater than is common in any other cheese-making
country, sometimes as much as 4^ cwt., or 5 cwt. per cow,
seldom lower than 3 cwt. Perhaps 3| cwt. is a fair average in
a good cheese-making year on every cow that calves in proper
time." In the famous district of Cheshire in England, the av-
erage amount of cheese to a cow, is stated at 2^ cwt. The
old breed of Irish cattle, much valued for the dairy, will pro-
duce from 84 to 112 lbs. of butter per year ; a very good cow
will yield 1| cwt, that is 168 lbs. net. Of the Ayrshire cows,
kept in the highest condition for giving milk, it is stated that
the yearly average in milk may be 650 gallons or 2600 quarts,
(wine measure 1 presume is intended) and 90 gallons will make
24 lbs. of butter, or 15 quarts (wine measure) to a pound.
In another case it is said " that a well fed cow of a good

296

breed, will produce on an average 180 lbs. of butter in the
season ; though the common calculation is 150 lbs. In the
Epping district, where there is an indiscriminate mixture of
Devon, Suffolk, Leicester, Holderness and Scotch, the calcula-
tion in a well managed dairy amounts to 212 lbs. per year to
a cow. In one case in Sussex, upon an actual trial, the cows
produced only 136 lbs. per season."

As far then as we can depend on these accounts, our own
native cattle for dairy stock will not suffer by comparison with
the best English stock of any of those races most distinguish-
ed for their milking properties. Our own Cheshire cheese dai-
ries certainly yield the palm to none.

The cross of the Durham Short-Horns with the Devon, has
produced in many cases an excellent stock. But if of no other
value to the country, their introduction will prove an immense
benefit by showing our farmers what can be done in improving
the size, form, and condition of their own stocks, by a most
careful selection from the very best, by persevering attempts
to amend defects and engraft good properties in the animal con-
stitution, and by constant care and good keeping.

It cannot be denied that a vast proportion of our cows are
Avretched in their form, health, and condition. There is no
reason on the other hand to doubt that by breeding only from
the best on both sides, and by a liberal mode of keeping, we
may produce a dairy stock, and a stock for labor, as well
adapted to our pastures, climate, and husbandry as can be
found. Perhaps I should be authorized to add for beef also,
that is, producing as many pounds according to the expense
of their keep. The average weight of bullocks slaughtered at
Smithfield, the great cattle market of England, is 656 lbs.
At Brighton in this county, the average weight of oxen is 875
lbs., and of steers 600 lbs. each. The last is thought by some
persons to be overrated. The weight used at Brighton is net
weight; one hundred weight being now reckoned at 100 lbs.
avoirdupois.

297

X. Brighton Market. — The great Cattle Fair of the
State, and indeed of New England, is held at the beautiful vil-
lage of Brighton, about six miles from Boston, on the Monday
of every week. Here capacious pens are erected for the recep-
tion of such live stock as may be brought in, and the drovers
and butchers assemble from all directions. The business of sell-
ing and buying is principally got through with on Monday,
though cattle and other stock, when prices are not satisfactory
to the seller, are frequently kept over, for a week or fortnight,
for a better market. With the exception of a small fair at Dan-
vers, in Essex county, held occasionally in the fall, I know of
no other cattle fair in New England. Cattle, sheep and swine
are brought here from the interior of the State, from Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont — from New York, and sometimes
from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.* Ordinari-
ly few sheep are ever brought to market except it be weth-
ers fatted or to be fatted. Great numbers of pigs and shoats
are driven here to be sold for keeping, but except an occasional
drove from some distillery establishment few fat hogs are
sold here either alive or dead. Nor is it any mart for horses,
though occasionally they are brought here for sale. The cat-
tle principally consist of young stock for wintering, working
oxen, milch cows with their calves, and fat cattle for barrelling
and for the retail market in the city and vicinity. The cattle
for barrelling are taken at once to the large slaughtering and
packing establishments, where they are disposed of accordingly ;
and fat cattle are likewise purchased for the butchers by the

* 1 ascertained some time since at the Bull's Head Market, in New York,
that the expense of a drove of cattle consisting of one hundred head from
the vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, to that place, including the expenses
of one night and a day in New York, was 1300 dollars, or 13 dollars per
head. This was at a season when the drovers could avail themselves of
pasturage. The price of corn is not recollected. They came in in good
condition.

Store hogs or shoats, driven moderately in the mild season and well fed
on the road, will gain in flesh, it is said by some, almost sufficiently to pay
the expenses of their drift.

38

298

slaughterers, who kill and dress for one dollar* per head with
the customary perquisites, or else purchase and kill on their own
account, and supply the marketmen in the city and vicinity

* In my report on Franklin county, I stated this fee at two dollars. I was
misinformed, though including the perquisites, it is considered equal to that.
At Brighton, five quarters are made, as the tallow and hide are considered a
fifth quarter, and their weight returned and paid for as the meat. In New
York Markets, only four quarters are made ; the hide and tallow are not
weighed or reckoned in the price, and this fact is to be regarded in compar-
ing the prices of cattle in the two markets.

In Brighton Market, the offal or perquisites of the slaughterer, are the en-
trails, the feet, the head, a strip from the fore shin, and the blood. The
tongue, cheeks, and heart of the bullock goto the butcher. The slaughterer
sells the feet and head to tiie tallow chandler and soap boiler, who extracts
the tallow and oil ; the claws go to the comb-maker, the bones and pith of
the horns go to the bone-mill for manure, or for the purpose of obtaining
animal charcoal, and the blood to the sugar refineries. A thorough system
of economy pervades all the branches of the business.

It is a fact worth recording in reference to one extensive slaughtering es-
tablishment, and it may a])ply to others for aught 1 know, that the hides sold
from it command alwavs twenty-five cents per one hundred lbs. above the
market price. The solution is this. No spirituous liquor has polluted these
premises for nearly twenty years, and no man has been employed here, who
was known to use any. The consequence is that the hides are never cut ;
and are eagerly sought after for factory bands and various other purposes,
where holes in the leather would render it hazardous and unfit for use.
When we consider the ten thousand ramifications in respect to the security
of human lile and the practice of all arts and trades into which the curses
of intemperance and the blessed influences of sobriety extend themselves,
we cannot feel too deep an interest in establishing a system of universal ab-
stinence, and in exorcising this worst of all evil spirits, intoxicating spirit,
from every hold where he has had jjossession.

It is extremely desirable that the system of buying and selling by live
weight or on the hoof, should be adoj)ted at Brighton. It would be greatly
to the advantage of the drovers both in respect to interest and morals, to be
able to finish their business in one day, receive their jnoney on the sale of
their cattle and return immediately to their homes. It would prevent the
suspicion of iiaud which now sometimes exists in the returns of weight
made by the slaughterers, by removing all opportimity for it. I may men-
tion an occurrence, which shows the boldness with which these frauds are
sometimes committed, and the extraordinary circumstances by which in
many cases crimes, when deemed most safely covered up, are detected. A

299

with such beef and with such amounts of beef as they may de-
sire. The drover generally waits for two or three days until he
gets the returned weight of his cattle after being slaughtered,
and receives his money. The butchers who come from a dis-
tance in order to get supplies for the small and remote villages
and towns, of course drive their cattle to their respective homes
to be slaughtered ; and large numbers go from hence to Lowell,

farmer on receiving the returns of the weight of a yoke of oxen, which he
had entrusted to a drover for sale, was very much disappointed and dissat-
isfied. He had no reason to distrust the honor of the drover, and the drover
returned the weight of the full niunber of cattle sold. It seems after the
drover had delivered his herd of cattle to the purchaser, the purchaser se-
lected this yoke of cattle, and, instead of killing them, sold them at a high
price, putting another inferior pair in their stead, whose weight on being
killed was returned to the drover. In the mean time, the yoke in question,
which were sold to a farmer, broke out of his yard and returned to their first
owner, which led to the discovery of the fraud.

It would be very desirable if several competent persons of established
character and responsibility, were resident at Brighton, who should not
themselves be buyers, but who should receive and sell cattle upon a fair
commission. This has been done to some extent ; but the irici*easing prac-
tice of having the droves picked of the best cattle, before their arrival at
market by forestallers, renders respectable dealers unwilling to engage in
disposing of the remainder, as the low prices which they must necessarily
get for what remains after the best are selected, fail to give satisfaction to
their employers, and tend to bring their own honor or competency into
doubt or suspicion.

Business hitherto at Brighton has been very loosely conducted, though in
general without doubt, and quite as far as under the circumstances is to be
expected, with honor. The amount is immense and continually increasing.
The business is done almost exclusively in cash, as any desire of credit on
the part of the purchaser brings him at once under suspicion. The facilities
for intemperance and gambling, which have sometimes existed at JJrighton,
have been dreadfully prejudicial to the drovers and others, who visit there
and are obliged to remain there or in the capital some days without occupa-
tion for the return of the weight of their cattle. Young men coming from
the interior with cattle for sale, are often ruined by here being entrapped
and laying the foundations of fraud and drunkenness. If there is a place
in our community, Brighton is one, where the friends of sobriety should
combine their forces in this great cause of order and humanity; and where
the banner of Total Abstinence should throw its broad folds to the breeze.

300

New Bedford, Fall River, Providence, R. I. and other con-
siderable towns. The number of head of cattle, of all descrip-
tions, brought here frequently exceeds eight thousand on a mar-
ket-day. Five thousand sheep have sometimes been driven there
in a sitigle day. The cattle are often sold on the hoof — which is,
on many accounts, a preferable mode for both parties, as it leaves
no room for fraud or suspicion of fraud in regard to their weight.
It is very desirable that the practice of selling on the hoof
should become more common. Experienced judges " lay " the
weight with surprising accuracy. The live weight affords an
uncertain rule, as the weight of an animal is so materially af-
fected by a full or an empty stomach. Mathematical rules are
given, and tables for determining the live weight of animals
have been framed abroad, which are said to give results very
nearly exact, but they have not been introduced here.*

Great impositions are often practised in the selling of swine
by live weight. They are supplied abundantly with salt and
filled to repletion with corn before the sale. The buyer in this
case does not suffer from an over weight only, but from the
injury done to the hogs, who do not recover from the effects of
such excesses for a long time, and in many cases have been in-
curably injured ; in some instances have died within a few days
in the hands of the purchaser. We call ourselves a christian
community ! In Turkey such rascalities would speedily give
the villain an opportunity of carrying his head under his arm.
In times of a quick market, droves of cattle and sheep are
often waylaid a day's or more journey from the market, and
sales are effected without their reaching Brighton. Large
numbers of the droves reach on Saturday night the resting
places within such a drive of the market as is easily accom-
plished on Monday morning. At these places the Lord's day is
loo frequently desecrated by these premature negotiations; and
the gathering of the droves towards the market, proves many
times a troublesome annoyance to the sober part of the com-
munity in the vicinity of the great avenues. On these ac-
counts, it has been much desired that the market-day might be

* Appendix J.

301

on another day than Monday : bnt the present custom is so
strongly established that any alteration seems hopeless.

The laws of the State prescribe the manner of cutting up
and packing beef, and of making returns to the seller. They
may be seen in the Appendix ;* but as they allow the parties
to make their own arrangements at their pleasure, they are lit-
tle observed, and custom rides over the law. For the last ten
years ati intelligent and exact person has been employed as re-
porter at the Brighton market. He takes account of the num-
ber of animals of all descriptions and varieties, excepting hor-
ses, brought weekly into the market, and notes the average
prices at which they are sold. His reports appear the next
morning in one of the most widely published daily papers in
Boston, and the ensuing day in other papers, and are circulat-
ed throughout the State. Before this arrangement, farmers
and drovers in the interior depended on mere rumors, which
seldom reached them in season to regulate their movements in
regard to the market, and were not always to be relied on.
The exact reports now given, are received with confidence,
and are of great importance to the farmers and drovers. They
now learn whether the markets are glutted or thin, and the
prices which they may calculate upon. This saves them
from many mistakes and disappointments.

The importance and responsibility of the situation occupied
by this reporter are very great. The farmers and drovers in
the interior understand his reports to be made up with careful
inquiry and the strictest impartiality, so that they feel an en-
tire reliance upon them, and regulate their movements accord-
ingly. There is good reason to think that attempts have
sometimes been made to bias these reports, so that by putting,
for example, the prices lower than the truth, droves might be
purchased before their arrival at market at a lower rate than
they would otherwise command. Any reasonable distrust of
the mtegrity and impartiality of the reporter would at once, it
is obvious, render his reports, which are now so valuable,

*Appendix K.

302

worthless. It concerns all honest men, as well bnyers as
sellers, to regard such attempts with indignation, and expose
the parties making them to public censure and contempt.

This gentleman has been kind enough to reply at large to
several interesting inquiries which I addressed to him on the
subject of Brighton Market, and I cannot do better than to insert
his letter. I can only regret that other gentlemen alike com-
petent in the case, to whom similar inquiries were addressed,
have not done myself and the public the same favor.

" The following is the number of beef cattle, stores, sheep and
swine, offered for sale at Brighton since 1S29, one of which
years, 1830, was reported by another person (since dead).

1830.

1831.

1832.

1833.

1834.

Beef Cattle,

37,776

33,922

40,807

49,180

36,382

Stores,

13,685

15,400

9,886

3,286

18,485

Sheep,

132,697

84,453

100,583

90,722

93,766

Swine.

19,639

; 26,871

14,697

17,408

27,844

1835.

1836. 1 1837.

1838.

1839.

1840.

Beef Cattle,

51,096

38,504

32,667

25,830

23,263

34,160

Stores,

15,872

11,858

16,216

9,573

15,252

12,736

Sheep,

91,160

82,830

110,206

104,640

95,400

124,170

Swine.

23,141

15,667

1

7,052

26

,104

26,(

)86

32,350

Estimated Sales.

1835.

1836.

1838.

1840.

Beef Cattle,

$1,373,054

$980,018

$1,377,330

$1,366,400

Stores,

201,960

204,988

315,907

277,456

Sheep,

205,999

169,307

261,600

217,321

Swine.

97,019

86,370

163,165

129,400

First interrogatory — " Does the character of the stock
generally improve ?"

I think there is some improvement in the stock of cattle gen-
erally. In mutton, there is no improvement, but there is in
wool. In switie there is a decided improvement.

Second — " What is the average weight of oxen — of steers —
of cows, — and of wethers when dressed ?"

Oxen, 875. Steers, 600. Cows, 450. Wethers, 42.

303

Third — " Are any animals sold by live weight, and if so,
what is the ordinary allowance for shrinkage, or loss, or offal,
by slaughtering ?"

There are a few beef cattle every week sold by live weight,
and occasionally a lot of sheep. The ordinary allowance for
shrinkage, is from 30 to 35 per cent, on market cattle. Some
cattle which have been driven a long distance, or are very fat
or hollow from the want of food, will not shrink more than 25
per cent. ; while others thin of flesh, or full of food, will
shrink 40 per cent. ; wethers usually shrink 50 per cent., and
sometimes more. It depends very much upon the state of the
animal at the time of weighing. Oxen fresh from the pasture
at night, have frequently been weighed and reweighed on the
following morning at 9 o'clock, and found to have shrunk 80
to 100 lbs. each.

Fourth — " Are animals more generally sold on the hoof
by estimate than formerly ?"

There are more, and it is to be regretted that the number is
not larger.

Fifth — " Does the system of slaughtering the animal, and
then returning its weight to the drover, expose or lead to many
frauds in your opinion ?"

The system undoubtedly leads to more or less frauds ; the
temptation is great. Very few, however, are exposed, it being
exceedingly difficult to detect the fraud. The butchers, how-
ever, as a class, for punctuality and honesty, will probably com-
pare with any other class of business men.

Sixth — "Are there any practices prevailing within your
knowledge in cutting up or weighing, which are illegal and
against which the farmers complain?"

No regard is now paid to the statute law in dressing and cut-
ting up beef cattle. The common law seems to have taken its
place, an agreement between the parties makes the statute void.
There is now a very general and uniform practice in dressing^
cutting up, and weighing cattle, against certain parts of which
the farmers and drovers a few years since complained consider-

304

ably, but less latterly, and the practice is now silently complied
with.

Seventh — " Can you suggest any valuable improvement
in the management of matters at Brighton ?"

1 think it would be a very great improvement, if all beef
cattle were sold either by live weight or on the hoof. It would
save many harsh words, and very many suspicious and fearful
thoughts, perhaps unjust, though they may not be so.
/Eighth — " Are the animals sold at Brighton, principally
from this State, or is any considerable proportion of them from
other States; and if so, from what States?" •

About two thirds of the stall-fed cattle are from this State,
the balance principally from New Hampshire, Vermont, and
Maine ; now and then a lot from New York. The sheep are
about half from this State, the remainder from New Hampshire,
Vermont, and a few from New York. The swine are principal-
ly from the State of New York ; in these animals which now
take so conspicuous a place in Brighton market, there has been
a decided improvement ; occasionally there is a lot from Ver-
mont and New Hampshire, but they diminish every year. "

Ninth — " Excepting Mr. Sweetser's stock from Athol, are
there as many cattle brought from Worcester county, as from
any other county ?"

Yes; the number from Worcester county is probably twice
that of any other county, exclusive of Mr. Sweetser's stock ?"

Tenth — " Do many come by the Railroad, within your
knowledge?"

Occasionally a few yokes of very large and fat cattle ; but
more frequently a drove of sheep, and a still larger number of
swine, particularly in the coldest and also very warmest months.
Should the freight be reduced, I think the number would be
greatly increased.

Eleventh — " Is any difference made in price within your
knowledge, between potatoe-fed cattle, or stock fatted on In-
dian meal ?"

Not any ; very few cattle are now fed on potatoes.

305

Twelfth — " Are stock often sent from Brighton to New
York, or from New York to Brighton market?"

None are sent from Brighton to New York ; occasionally in
the summer season, a few hundred come from New York to
Brighton. This happens when there is a very large supply at N.
York of southern and western cattle ; and we sometimes see in
our market, very fat cattle fed in Kentucky and Ohio. Of cat-
tle of the pure Durham blood, we have very few ; hardly enough
to give a single butcher a chance to test the quality. A mix-
ture of blood, will, undoubtedly, improve almost any stock ;
and it is to be regretted that there is not more attention paid to
this important fact.

The market business at Brighton, is now conducted upon a
system, which is either cash, or short credit, which never ex-
ceeds a week. This is very frequently and necessarily done to
enable the butcher to kill and weigh his cattle. If the practice
of buying and selling cattle by the hoof or live weight could
be brought about, the cash system could be made complete ;
if, however, a v/eek's credit was occasionally necessary, a note
might be given, and the money received at the bank by paying
the discount, which would probably be less than a single day's
board, and the drover could be immediately on his way home.

XI. Swine. These form a considerable portion of the
live stock of Middlesex county. Though Middlesex is not a
hog-raising county, yet such is the number of swinish emi-
grants into it, and the respectability of the condition to which
they are advanced after their arrival, that I might be liable to
the charge of some Jewish prejudice if I passed them over in
silence. Some years since, at a Brighton Cattle Show, an ac-
complished scholar, then a professor of Harvard University,
and afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, whose wit was al-
ways racy, and, when let out, sparkled and bubbled like a soda
fountain, in toasting the farmers of Massachusetts and the
literati of her college, expressed a wish that their pens might
equally do them honor. Without disparagement to the other
39

306

side of the house, this wish I may say, in respect to the farm-
ers of Middlesex, seems accomplished.

Large numbers of swine, as appears from the reports of the
Brighton market already given, are brought into this county
for sale. These come mainly from the state of New York.
Until within a few years, a breed known as the Grass-fed hogs,
constituted the principal stock. This was a hog, raised with
little other feed than clover pasturage for the first six months,
of a white color with black patches sprinkled over him, long
and well formed, of good thrift, and who, with good keeping,
at eighteen months old, was easily brought to 400 and 500 lbs.
weight. Within the last few years the Berkshire hog has been
introduced. His symmetry, thrift, cleanliness, fineness of
bone, his excellent shoulders and hams, and, above all, his
good humor and his marked deficiency in tlie organ of tune,
secured universal favor. In my visits among the farmers since
the introduction of this race, I have been amused with their
enthusiasm for their swine, resembling that of parson TruUiber,
in Fielding's History of Joseph Andrews; and in finding them,
I had almost said, more proud of their Berkshire pigs at their
troughs, than of their chubby and rosy-cheeked children round
their supper-tables. I am a great admirer of the Berkshire
swine, but I could never sympathize in these preferences ; and
my respect for human nature has considerably increased since
the progress of the blessed Temperance reformation, and since
men are now seldom seen as formerly with all rationality ex-
tinguished, and even their animal nature outraged and degraded.

We have been compelled, however, in this as in many other
cases, to witness the capriciousness of public favor ; and to
adopt, with the variation of only a letter, the familiar proverb,
and say in this case, that " every hog must have his day."
The popularity of the Berkshire swine is on the wane. It is
objected to them by many farmers that they are not large
enough, though they are easily made to reach, at fourteen
months old. 300 or 350 lbs. ; and further, that they do not cut
up well ; and that the fat on their backs and sides is not thick

307

enough, especially for packing down for fishermen, who would
be glad to have their pork all fat, and whom I have seen spread
their uncooked salted fat pork, as landsmen spread butter, on
their bread.

The former objection is not made by all persons, as many
would prefer for their tables the pork of a hog weighing 300
lbs. to that of hogs weighing 600 lbs., of which I have seen
many in our market. With respect to the latter objection, I
was half disposed at first to consider it as mere caprice, but that
E. Phinney, of Lexington, a farmer in this matter "not un-
known to fame," — and another most respectable farmer of
Franklin county, admit that there is some truth in it ; and they,
as well as many others, prefer a cross to the pure blood. The
impression is becoming general, and the butchers in Q,uincy
market are unanimous in their unfavorable opinion of the Berk-
shire hogs. They admit that their hams and shoulders are
good for bacon ; but their backs, where they most require it,
have no depth of fatness, and they are therefore unsuitable for
salting. They are good breeders and nurses. They may be
kept, therefore, to much advantage where the object is to raise
roasting pigs for the market. This is sometimes quite profita-
ble where a sow has two litters a year. A roast pig, only wean-
ed by the knife, has from time immemorial been deemed a most
luxurious dish. So it is likely to continue to be. Charles
Lamb says that the Chinese never knew the lusciousnsss of a
roasted pig until an accidental fire occurred which destroyed a
pig-stye with its inhabitants. In pulling the bodies of these
poor creatures burnt to a crisp from the fire, some of the skin
or flesh adhered to the fingers of the Chinese, and in putting
their hands by chance to their mouths, they for the first time in
iheir lives inhaled the odor and tasted the deliciousness of the
roasted skin. After that, the accidental burning of pig-styes
became so common that the civil authorities were compelled to
interpose.

It is but just, however, to the Berkshires to say, that the un-
favorable impression in regard to them, though general, is not

308

universal. An intelligent and very exact farmer at Braintree,
B. V. French, has found them to answer his expectations. Up-
on recently killing a number, he was well satisfied with their
appearance, and is of opinion that much of the prejudice which
exists against them belongs properly to the impure but not to
the genuine race.

The introduction of the Chinese hogs into this country and
into England seems to have been the foundation of all the ex-
traordinary improvements which have taken place in this race
of animals — improvements which, within less than half a cen-
tury, have doubtless enriched the State of Massachusetts many
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the country by millions.
The effects of this cross with other swine have been to give
fineness of bone, plumpness and fulness of form, extraordinary
thriftiness, and quietness of demeanor. The old race of hogs,
seemed to be of the wolf species in temper as well as condition,
and were the personification of ugliness and rapacity. The
first introduction of one of these animals into a secluded part of
Scotland, within the last century, is matter of comparatively
modern history. Having got loose from his stye, he appeared
to the terrified imaginations of these simple people as the arch-
fiend himself, and crowds hovered together through fear — the
parish schoolmaster being at their head with an open bible, to
endeavor to lay this evil spirit ! The animal now, in his im-
proved condition, is regarded as one of the farmer's best friends ;
he eats what nothing else will eat ; he is a general scavenger,
and an excellent composter of manure. His own manure is
one of the most enriching substances which can be supplied to
the soil, though not one of the most lasting in its effects ; and
his flesh is the most frequent dish upon the farmer's table. —
This county may boast of great improvements in their swine.
A Mr. Mackay, of Boston, owning a faim in Weston, obtained
from abroad, some years since, a valuable hog, whose natural
good qualities by good management he greatly improved. Some
of this breed of swine have been most remarkable for thrift and
weight. Besides this, a hog called the Mocho hog, long, round

309

and thrifty, whose pedigree is not known, has been introduced
here. Some of the best hogs which I have seen have been
from an admixture of these three bloods. Mr. Phinney empha-
tically approves this cross ; and the weight of his swine when
killed, of some of which I subjoin an account, establishes the
soundness of his judgment.

In 1840, Mr. Phinney sent the following hogs to market :

Feb. 6. j Feb. 15.

1 weighed 407 lbs.' 1 weighed 469 lbs.

2
3
4
5
6

414
413
305
364
366

2
3

4

367
362
331

Fee. 17. Mos. old.

1 weighed 763 lbs. 20

2 " "

3 "

4 "

5 "

6 "

7 "

8 "

591

15

476

15

430

12

475

12

465

12

430

12

464

12

1 weighed 528 lbs.

1

weighed

487 lbs

2

523 "

2

i(

480 "

3

517 "

3

((

476 "

4

503 "

4

li

441 "

5

501 "

5

it

400 "

In 1841, the subjoined is a list of fifteen Berkshire and
Mackay hogs from the same farm :

Februanj 22, 1841.

1 weighed 738 lbs.

2 " 655 "

3 " 579 "

4 " 574 "

5 " 556 "

The grass-fed hogs, which I have before mentioned, are re-
gaining their popularity. They have been, to a degree, crossed
and intermixed with various valuable breeds in the interior,
and are now preferred to all others in the Brighton market.
With good care and keeping, at fifteen and eighteen months
old they are easily carried to 500 and GOO lbs.

Of four, fatted by Stephen Morse, of Marlborough, the cur-
rent season, the weight was as follows : 539 lbs., 530, 506,
459 — averaging 508J lbs. each. These hogs were put into the
stye in September, 1840, weighing between 70 and 80 lbs.
each, and were killed in October, 1841. They were kept
mainly upon boiled potatoes the first winter, and since that,
upon the slops of the dairy, skim milk, butter milk, whey and
Indian meal.

310

Some of the best hogs which I have ever seen have been
fatted at the slaughtering establishment of Jesse Bird, in Wa-
tertown. He keeps his swine about six months. He pur-
chases the grass breed above mentioned, preferring hogs with
a small head, round and full body though not deep belly, and
with full shoulders and broad backs. They are taken in, weigh-
ing from 170 to 200 lbs., kept in the slaughter-yard for a time,
and, previous to killing, are fed upon potatoes and Indian meal
cooked, and are brought to weigh from 450 to 600 lbs.

At the slaughtering establishments in the vicinity of the cap-
ital, large amounts of pork are supported and fatted upon the
offal. Sometimes this is cooked for the swine ; in other cases,
it is given in its raw state, so that without any troublesome
change in the way of preparation, the hogs eat the cattle and
then men eat the hogs. It is easy, but not agreeable to imag-
ine in such cases what the pork may be. The richness of ani-
mal food becomes thus a little too much concentrated even for
the epicurean palate ; and few persons knowingly would have
the courage to touch such food when coming directly from the
slaughter-yard, excepting some, who are cannibals by nature,
and by some accident have been misplaced in a civilized coun-
try. It answers very well for shipping pork, for no questions
of taste are ever held over a barrel of provision either on a slave
plantation or at sea. It is ascertained, however, that in fatting
swine, some portion of animal food and pot liquor is highly
conducive to thrift. In the best establishments, the hogs some
time before being slaughtered, are put upon vegetable food, po-
tatoes, Indian meal, &c., so that the rankness of the pork is ta-
ken away.

E. Phinney's swine establishment at Lexington, is among
the most extensive in the county. His number of fattening
swine averages about 100, with fifty store hogs, and they are
killed in February and March, when from 10 to 18 months
old, being of the fall and winter litters of the previous year.
His pens are well arranged ; seldom occupied by more than
three or four in a pen. They have a manure-yard attached to

311

each pen, into which bog-mud and Utter are thrown for their
manufacture and compounding, and they have always a dry
and comfortable bed. They are fed regularly three times a
day. I shall subjoin an account given by himself of his mode
of management, which the farmers will read with interest ; and
shall annex in the Appendix,* a sketch of his styes or barracks.

"An inquiry is often made as to the best time of killing, or
at what age it is most profitable to slaughter them. On a large
farrh where much green herbage is produced and where the
value of the manure is taken into the account, the pigs killed
at the age of 15 and 16 months, give the greatest profit. When
it is intended to kill them at this age, they may be kept on
more ordinary and cheaper food for the first 10 or 12 months,
or till within 4 or 5 months of the time of killing. The man-
ure they make and the extra weight of pork more than pay the
expense incurred in keeping them the longer time ; but the
spring pigs which are to be killed the ensuing winter and spring,
must be kept upon the best of food from the time they are ta-
ken from the sow until they are slaughtered.

" The older class of pigs for the first 10 or 12 months are
kept principally upon brewers' grains, with a small quantity of
Indian or barley meal, or rice, ruta-baga, sugar-beet, &c., and
in the season of clover, peas, oats, cornstalks, weeds, &c., they
are cut green and thrown into the pens ; the next 4 or 5 months
before killing they have as much Indian meal, barley meal or
rice, with an equal quantity of potatoes, apples or pumpkins,
as they will eat, the whole being well cooked and salted, and
given to them about blood warm. During the season of fat-
tening, an ear or two of hard corn is every day given to each
pig. This small quantity they will digest well, and of course
there is no waste. Shelled corn, soaked in water made as salt
as the water of the ocean for 48 hours, with a quart of wood
ashes added to each bushel and given to them occasionally in
small quantities, greatly promotes their health and growth.
Their health and appetite is also greatly promoted by throwing

* Appendix, L.

312

a handful of charcoal once or twice a week into each of their
pens. Their principal food should, however, be cooked thor-
oughly and nicely. From long practice and repeated experi-
ments, I am convinced that two dollars' worth of material well
cooked, will make as much pork as three dollars' worth of the
same material given in a raw state.

" Pigs when first taken from the sow should be treated with
great care, to prevent them from scouring and becoming stinted ;
when either of these happen, it will require many days and
sometimes weeks to put them again into a healthy, growing
condition. When first deprived of the maternal food, a little
new or skim milk, boiled and slightly salted and given to them
often and in small quantities, will prevent scouring and greatly
promote their growth. If intended for killing at the age of 9
or 10 months, they should be full fed all the time and kept as
fat as possible. If, on the other hand, they are intended for
killing at the age of 15 or 18 months, they should not be full-
fed, nor be made very fat for the first 10 or 12 months.

" To satisfy myself of the benefit of this course, 1 took 6 of
my best pigs 8 weeks old, all of the same litter, and shut them
in two pens, three in each. Three of these I fed very high
and kept them as fat all the time as they could be made. The
other three were fed sparingly, upon coarse food, but kept in a
healthy, growing condition, till within 4 or 5 months of the
time of killing, when they were fed as high as the others.
They were all slaughtered at the same time, being then 16
months old. At the age of 9 months the full-fed pigs were
much the heaviest, but at the time of killing, the pigs fed spar-
ingly for the first 10 or 12 months weighed, upon an average,
fifty pounds each more than the others. Besides this additional
weight of pork, the three "lean kine " added much more than
the others to my manure heap. These results would seem very
obvious to any one who has noticed the habits of the animal.
In consequence of short feeding, they were much more active
and industrious in the manufacture of compost, and this activ-
ity at the same time caused the muscles to enlarge and the

313

frame to spread, while the very fat pigs became inactive, and
like indolent bipeds, they neither worked for their own benefit
nor for that of others.

" For the purpose of increasing my manure heap, my pens
are kept constantly supplied with peat or swamp mud, about
three hundred loads of which are annually thrown into my
styes. This, with the manure from my horse stable, which is
daily thrown in, and the weeds and coarse herbage which are
gathered from the farm, give me about 500 cart loads of man-
ure in a year.

" On regular and systematic feeding and clean and dry bed-
ding, the success of raising and fattening swine very much de-
pends. A faithful feeder, also, who has some skill and taste,
and withal a little pride of vocation, is indispensable."

Of all articles ever given to fatting swine Indian meal is,
without doubt, the most nutritious. Mr. Phinney, it seems,
has by actual trial settled a much vexed question, whether
hogs should be forced by full feeding when young, or at first
be only kept well in a growing state. He found it better, when
designed to be kept more than a year, to let the young animal,
by sufficient but not excessive feeding, have time to develop
himself and acquire a natural size, rather than, by filling him to
repletion, to bring on a premature state of fatness, which
seemed to check the growth. To young pigs, milk, whey
and butter-milk are the best of all feed ; but where cows are
kept for the purpose of supplying the market with milk, the
pigs will be of course regarded as very poor customers. " The
milkman will not call." There is however, as I have shown
in page 254, under some circumstances, a mistake in this matter.

The establishment of J. P. Cashing, Watertown, for keeping
and fatting swine, is upon a large scale, and is exceedingly well
contrived for his situation. It consists of a long one-story
building, with separate pens on one side extending the whole
length, each designed for four swine, with an open yard and a
lodging and eating room to each, besides some lying-in apart-
40

314

ments.* A commodious passage-way runs the whole length of
it, with the troughs projecting into the passage-way, and a shut-
ter for the troughs so contrived that the trough is easily cleaned
at any time, and the food of the hogs is placed before them
without admitting that which, in the usual slovenly mode
of feeding, is but too common, an uncivil interference on their part
before all is ready. Some contrivance as effectual as this for
another class of animals would be quite useful at some of our
public hotels and steamboats, and save us from the severe re-
marks of those foreign travellers who have little sympathy with
our customary dispatch of business, and seem to look upon us
as a nation of fire-eaters.

The cooking apparatus is at one end. Had economy of room
and ease of feeding been studied, the building might have been
double the width, with pens on each side. In England, they
are sometimes made circular with the cooking apparatus in the
centre and the feeding troughs all within the circle ; but in such
cases there must be much waste of room. Mr. Cushing's bar-
racks are lengthwise of his cattle-yard, so that the manure from
the pens of his swine is thrown immediately into the yard, and
any litter or muck easily supplied in the same way. His store
hogs, too, at pleasure may be turned into the cattle-yard with
the advice given in iEsop's fable by the dying father to his
sons, " that there is a treasure buried in the field which they
would find by digging for it." The swine however do not
much need the advice. They are natural philosophers and go
by instinct into deep investigations. Some of them should al-
ways be kept in barn-yards and cellars. They are of great use
in turning up and mixing the manure ; and in yards where cat-
tle are fed upon grain, and the sweepings of the barn floors are

*The length of this building, inchiding the cooking-place, is 252 feet,
width 12 feet, and height the satne. There are twenty pens, each 12 feet by 8,
and a yard of 12 feet attached to each pen. The number of hogs that can
be accommodated depends upon their sizes — from three to six, say au aver-
age of four of 300 weight each. There were fatted fifty-two hogs last season,
weighing, dressed, 15,573 lbs.

316

thrown out, they take care that nothing is lost. I have known
a considerable nnmber of store hogs kept in a thrifty condition
upon that only whicfi they obtained in a yard where a propor-
tional nnmber of beef cattle were stall-fed. The philosophy o(
reciprocal uses, which is apparent in every department ot na-
ture, though it frequently presents itself in a form offensive to a
fastidious taste, is to a reflecting mind always instructive on
the wonderful economy of the divine providence.

A very large hog establishment in this county is to be found
in West Cambridge on the farm of Abner Pierce. He keeps in
his enclosure about 500 hogs. They are supported upon the
city swill or refuse. No hogs are allowed to be kept in Boston
but by special and extraordinary permission ; and among the
excellent municipal regulations, the refuse vegetables, meat,
garbage, and offal of the houses are required to be kept by each
householder in a box or barrel which is emptied once a week
or oftener by the city scavengers. This, being taken into the
covered city carts, is delivered at Mr. Pierce's establishment,
about five miles from the city, daily — he paying therefor to the
city 4000 dollars per year on a contract for five years.

His hogs, when I visited him, were in an enclosure of about
fourteen acres, partly covered with trees and bordering on one
of the beautiful ponds in that vicinity, a picturesque situation
most certainly, for animals making such humble pretensions to
taste and sentiment. If nothing else, however, in the summer
months they enjoy, as much as their betters, the luxury of a
refreshing bath and quiet repose under the shade, both essen-
tially conducive to their health and thrift. He has had no
general disease among them, though occasionally a case of
the "blind staggers." He considers this troublesome disease
as proceeding wholly from indigestion ; and he finds no diffi-
culty in its cure, by procuring an immediate evacuation. For
this purpose he gives a dose consisting of half a pint of lamp
oil, and half a pint of molasses, strongly charged with pound-
ed brimstone. This remedy is important to be known, as the
disease is not uncommon among swine, and often proves fatal.

Q

16

This disease can hardly be considered local, though the " blind
staggers " in years gone by, has been known to prevail in
some localities near at least one of these ponds among a class
of animals, who assume to be of a higher rank, but who occa-
sionally pollute these beautiful regions by a resort to them for
purposes of dissipation ; but a simple and perfect preventive is
at last found for this disease, (so much more humiliating and
dreadful in its effects on them,) if they can be induced to take
it, in " total abstinence."

Mr Pierce's hogs are purchased ; he raises none. He buys
them at a weight of 100 to 150 lbs. Their average weight
when killed, is from 250 to 300 lbs. He has a killing twice a
year, though many of his hogs are kept a year. The supply
of refuse from the city, is sufficient, excepting at certain sea-
sons of the year, when some meal and corn are given. They
fatten in the yard without extra feed, excepting as above. At
killing, the skins (that is the small entrails) are sold at 10 cents
a set ; the harslet at 8 cents ; which pay fully the expenses of
dressing. The remainder is cooked for the swine, after saving
and selling what can be used by the soap maker. The man-
ure made in their beds where they are littered, is sold readily
at four dollars per cord and in quick demand. The average
sales of manure are not less than one thousand dollars.

In the enclosure there are extensive plank platforms on
which the garbage is spread when brought from the city.
The right of cleaning the tables, after the hogs have filled
themselves, is purchased by several neighboring farmers at
'^2 50 per day. Much of the refuse thus obtained is spread upon
their grass lands, or ploughed in on their cultivated grounds,
or placed round their apple trees, and in every case with the
greatest advantage. If not used immediately it is put into a
compost heap and covered with mould. Some farmers who
obtain it use much of it for feeding their own swine. One
farmer stated to me that he had purchased the right of obtain-
ing it two days in a week. He kept the last year fourteen
hogs entirely upon these gleanings. The gain upon these hogs

317

in live weight from 1st October to 1st April, when he sold
them on foot, was 2800 lbs. Other farmers have been equally
successful in this economical process.

The average gain of the hogs at this establishment is rated
at a pound per day, live weight. A large amount of bones are
brought out in the carts, and these find a ready sale at the
bone-mill for manure.

The question of profit in keeping and fattening swine has
been much discussed, and so much depends on circumstances
of age, breed, food, length of time kept, and price in the
market, that the question must remain open. Mr Phinney
gives it as his opinion that with Indian corn at one dollar per
bushel and potatoes at 33 cents, and the price of pork 12
cents, they may be fatted to a profit. In his experience, he
says, four quarts of Indian or barley meal with an equal quan-
tity of apples, pumpkins, potatoes or roots cooked, will give
two pounds of pork.

A small example of fatting swine in Medway, Norfolk coun-
ty, which came under my notice, seems worth recording, be-
cause an exact account of their cost was kept. The owner was
a mechanic and bought every article of their feed, not even
keeping a cow. His two hogs when killed weighed, one 420
lbs — one 382 lbs., and pork was then worth 12 cents per lb.
Value when dressed $96 24 cts. They were killed at 14
months old. They were bought in November and killed in
the December of the next year. They were kept in the stye
the whole time ; were fed three times a day with weeds, corn,
and potatoes. The potatoes were boiled and the Indian meal
mixed with them into a mash. They were fed exclusively on
corn one week before being killed. They did as well in win-
ter as in summer. Salt was frequently given to them in their
swill. The price of corn bought for them was 117 cents to
136 cents, or an average of 130 cents per bushel. Potatoes
were 30 cts per bushel. The whole cost of the hogs when fat-
ted was $62 including the price of purchase, or 7.8 cts per lb.

I shall here subjoin some careful experiments made by my-

318

self a few years since in relation to this subject. They were
given to some portion of the public at the time, in another
form ; but they may here reach many by wlioni ihey liavp not
been seen, and to wijdm they may be interesting.

Jil vperiment 1. Two liogs about one year old : one of them
a barrow in very good condition ; the other a barrow recently
gelded and in ordinary condition, were put up to be fed exclu-
sively upon Indian hasty pudding or Indian meal boiled with
water. We began feeding them the first of March, 1831, and
weighed them again on the nineteenth of the same month. In
the eighteen days they consumed six bushels of Indian meal.
They were offered cold water to drink but did not incline to
take any.

The result —

No. 1 weighed on 1st March, . . 233 lbs.

" " 19th " . . 269

gain 36

No. 2 (recently gelded) weighed on 1st March 190

" " 19th " 247

gain 57

The gain of the two was 93 lbs. in 18 days. The quantity
of meal consumed by them was 10 quarts per day to the two.
We allow 30 quarts to a bushel deducting two for grinding.
The price of corn at the time was 70 cents per bushel. The
expense of the increased weight is 4.5 cents per lb.

March 21, 1831. Killed the hog mentioned first in the fore-
going experiment. Live weight 273 lbs. Weight when dress-
ed 215 lbs. Loss in offal, loose fat included, 58 lbs. or a little
more than one fifth.

Experiment 2. No. 2, mentioned above, weighed

on 23d March, . . 253 lbs.

do. on 30th April, . . 312

In 3S days, gain, 591bs.

319

No. 3, a shoat purchased from a drove, weighed

on 28th March, . . 100 lbs.

do. on 30th April, . , 151

Gain in 33 days, . . . . 51 lbs.

This is a fraction over 1 lb. 8 oz. per day each, nearly 1 lb. 9 oz.
In this case their food was exclusively boiled potatoes mashed
with Indian meal. The exact amount consumed not ascer-
tained, but fed as freely as they would bear.

Experiment 3. The two last-named hogs were for the next
20 days put upon Indian hasty pudding exclusively, with the
following result :

No. 2 weighed on 30th April,
" " 20th May,

Gain in 20 days.
No. 3 weighed on 30th April,
" " 20th May,

Gain in 20 days,

The two in the above named 20 days, consumed four and
one half bushels of meal, cooked as above. Meal 78 cents per
bushel. Gain of the two, 104 lbs. in 20 days.

Experiment 4. Sundry swine purchased from a drove, and
fed with meal and potatoes, washed and mashed —

312 lbs.

382

70 lbs.

151

185

34 lbs.

28th March, 1831,
No. 1, weighed 97 lbs.

2, " 134

3, '• 100

19th May, 1831,
165 lbs., gain in 52 days, 68 lbs.
182 " " 48

186 " " 86

The two following, raised on the farm, and fed as above —

25th April, 1831, 19th May, 1831,

No. 4, weighed 151 lbs. 206 lbs., gain in 24 days, 55 lbs.
5, " 140 165 " '' 25

320

Experiment 5. In this case it was not intended to force their
thrift, but to keep the swine in an improving condition. They
were shoats of the last autumn, and were of a good breed.

Tuesday, 3d April, 1833. Put up four shoats, and began
feeding them with Indian hasty pudding.

3d April, 22d April, 25th June,

No. 1, 176 lbs. 202 lbs. gain 25 264 lbs. gain 62

2, 119 153 ■ " 34 226 " 73

3, 150 170 " 20 218 " 48

[Total, 183 pounds.

4, 121 145 '' 24 Killed 30th May.

From 3d April, to 22d April, the above swine consumed
seven bushels and one peck of Indian meal. From 22d April,
to 25th June, seven bushels of Indian meal, cooked as above.

One of the above. No. 4, was killed on 30th May; being ab-
sent, the live weight was not ascertained.

On the 25th June, the three remaining hogs were weighed,
and in the 63 days from 22d April to 25th June, they had gained
in that time 183 lbs. as above.

After 30th May, when one of them was killed, one peck of
meal made into hasty pudding with a small allowance of the
waste of the kitchen for a part of that time, lasted them three
days, that is 22-25 or less than a quart, say ^ of a quart per
day to each.

At first we employed half a bushel of Indian meal to make
a kettle of hasty pudding ; but we soon found that a peck of
meal by being boiled sufficiently would make the same kettle
nearly full of hasty pudding and of sufficient consistency. The
kettle was a common-sized five-pail kettle, set in bri<jk work
in the house ; and it was remarkable that the peck of meal
produced nearly the same quantity of pudding, that we obtain-
ed from the half bushel, which showed the importance of in-
ducing the meal to take up all the water it could be made to
absorb.

The price of Indian corn was at that time 75 cents per bushel

321

— 30 quarts of meal to a bushel deducting the toll. The amount
of meal consumed in the whole time from 3d April to 25th
June was 14:^ bushels — the cost $10 69 — the total gain, mak-
ing no allowance for the gain of No. 4, from 22d April to 30th
May, which was not ascertained, was 287 lbs.

The gain of No. 1, 2 and 3, from 22d April to 25th June
was 183 lbs. in 63 days ; and allowing one peck to serve the
three hogs for three days, required 5| bushels, the cost of which
Avas f 3 94. The live weight could not be estimated at less
than 4 cents per lb. when pork was at market 6 cents.

The value of the 183 lbs. therefore was equal to $7 32, or
at 5 cents to $9 15 cents.

The gain of the swine for the first 19 days, from 3d to 22d
April, was

No. 1, 26 lbs. or 1,368 per day.
" 2, 34 " or 1,789 "
" 3, 20 " or 1,052 "
" 4, 24 " or 1,263 "
The gain from 22d April to 25th June, 63 days, was
No. 1, 62 lbs. or 0,984 per day.
" 2, 73 " or 1,158 *'
'' 3, 48 " or 0,761 "
The difference of daily gain in the two periods was attribu-
table to the diminished quantity of meal. The question then
arises, whether the first mode of feeding was as economical as
the second.

In the first 19 days, 7 bs. 1 peck consumed, gave 104 lbs. gain.
'' next 63 " 5 " 1 " " " 183 "

Had the first gain been in proportion to the second gain in
reference to the meal consumed, the 7^ bushels which gave
104 lbs. should have given 252 5-7 lbs. This great disparity
can be explained only in the more economical preparation of
the meal, by which a peck, taking up as much water as it would
contain, gave a kettle nearly full of pudding, whenhalf a bushel
of meal, imperfectly prepared, gave little more. This seems
to demonstrate the great advantage of cooked food, both as it

41

respects its increase of bulk and the improvement of its nutri-
tive properties. Whether it would apply to those substances,
whose bulk is not increased by cooking, equally as to Indian
meal and the like, is a matter which experiments only can de-
termine.

Such are some few trials in reference to the feeding and fat-
tening of swine, which I have made, or information of which
1 have obtained from other sources, which may at least lead
the inquisitive farmer to further experiments and inquiries, on a
subject of great importance to his interest. The inferences to
be made from them I shall leave to others. The results, as
will be observed, are not uniform. The thrift of animals must
depend on various other circumstances besides the kinds or the
quantity of food given them. Much depends on the breed, as
every farmer knows ; much on the health of the animal ; some-
thing on the season of the year. I failed in attempting to fat-
ten several swine in one case, though they were carefully at-
tended and various kinds of feed were tried, and the failure
was totally inexplicable until they were slaughtered, when the
intestines were found corroded with worms, resembling those
found in the human stomach, and this, I have no doubt, pre-
vented their thrift. The same fact has occurred in another in-
stance, and with the same result. I failed in attempting to fat-
ten some other swine, who had been driven a considerable dis-
tance and exposed, probably not even half fed on the road, to
severe cold and storms. Some of them were frost-bitten in their
limbs ; and though attended and fed in the most careful manner
they made no progress for months. In an experiment recently
made, of giving swine raw meal mixed with water, I have
found a falling off in their gain of nearly one half, compared
with giving their food cooked, such as boiled potatoes and car-
rots, mixed with meal while hot ; the result being, in a stye
containing a number of swine, as 279 to ,500. In respect to
confinement or freedom, various opinions are entertained. The
Shakers at Canterbury, N. H., deem it indispensable to the
thriving of their swine that they should have access to water

323

to wallow or wash themselves in ; and that they by no means
do so well without it. On this point I have had no trial further
than to satisfy myself that fatting hogs are sometimes injured
by being suffered to root in the earth.

With respect to the age at which it is advantageous to put
up swine to fatten, I have only to remark, that it is with swine
as with other animals, there are some breeds which come much
sooner to maturity than others. A successful farmer in Sarato-
ga county, N. Y., says that March pigs, killed about Christmas,
are the most profitable for pork. Four pigs of what is called
the Grass breed, were slaughtered at Greenfield, N. Y., which
weighed 348 lbs. 318 lbs. 310 lbs. and 306 lbs. at nine months
and seventeen days old.

On this point, I present a letter with which I was honored
by the late John Lowell, whose authority in the agricultural
community is justly estimated.

" Dear Sir, —

" I have been prevented answering your inquiries as to my
experience in raising old or young pigs. I may say that I have
fully and clearly ascertained, from a trial of 20 years, that young
pigs of from 25 to 30 lbs. will give nearly double, in some re-
markable cases three times, as many lbs. as shoats of 6 months
weighing from 100 to 150. I have taken two pigs of 100 lbs.
each, age six months, and never was able between May and
November, to get them above ISO, rarely above 170. I have
taken three pigs of about 30 lbs. each, and on the same food
which I gave to the two, they would weigh from 170 to 180
each in the same period ; — nay I have taken pigs of 200, and
never could get them to weigh more than 300 in 7 months on
my food. The way I ascertain the quantity of food is, that I
never give any thing but the produce of my dairy, and the ref-
use of the garden, peaches, apples, and cabbage, which are
uniform generally,

" 3 pigs of 90 wt. or 30 wt. each, will give ordinarily 510 lbs.

less original wt. 90 often

not more than 60.

gain 420 lbs.

324

2 pigs of 100 wt. each, will give ordinarily 340 lbs.

less original wt. 200

gain 140 lbs.

" But the 3 pigs of 90 will not consume for the first 3 months
half so much as the 2 of 100 each, and I have kept a 4th and
sold it in August for quarter pork.

" There is nothing new or remarkable in these facts. It is
the law of the whole animal creation. It is true of the calf
and of man. The child of 7 lbs. quadruples its weight in 12
months ; and the calf of 60 wt. if fine and well fed will weigh
600 wt. at the end of the year, and (if a female) will not dou-
ble the last weight at any age.

"P. S. It should be remarked that the weight at purchase
is live weight, and at sale dead or net weight, because in truth,
to the owner this is the true mode of considering the subject.
No doubt my sort of food is peculiarly favorable to young ani-
mals, it consisting in very liberal allowance of milk. If the
older pigs were at once put on Indian meal they would attain
to 250 lbs. at a year old, but the cost of the meal at 70 cts. per
bushel would amount to 9 dollars, and if the first cost, 5 dol-
lars 50 cents, be added, and the pig sold at 6 cents, there would
be but 2 dollars gain on 2 pigs of 100 lbs. each ; while 3 small
pigs without meal fed on milk would give 24 dollars in the
same time. I do not mean to give minute details but general
views. As an important qualification of the foregoing state-
ment it should be added, that shoats of 6 months bought out
of droves have usually been stinted in their growth, and ani-
mals, like trees, recover slowly after a check. I presume if
shoats were taken from a careful and liberal owner the differ-
ence would be less. But as a general law it may be safely af-
firmed, that weight for weight at the purchase, the younger the
animal the greater the positive, and the far greater the net gain.
At least such is my own experience and belief."

The preceding facts and experiments encourage the belief
that hogs may be raised and fattened by the farmer to advant-

325

age, where corn is worth about 70 cents per bushel, and his
pork will bring him 6 cents per lb. Success must greatly de-
pend on skill, care, selection, and good management. The best
swine that I have ever found have been in dairy countries, for
there cannot be a doubt that milk and whey for every animal
are among the most nutritious of aliments. Indian meal prob-
ably ranks next, though many farmers prefer a mixture of prov-
ender, such as corn, oats, rye, or barley ; but I believe in all
cases cooked food will have a decided advantage over that
which is given in a raw state : an advantage more than equiv-
alent to the labor and expense of its preparation. Potatoes are
a valuable article of food, but the pork is not so good as that
fattened upon corn. Carrots are more nutritious than potatoes.
Corn given in a raw state or on the ear is a most wasteful
management.

Swine ought to be kept on every farm in sufficient numbers
to consume all the offal and waste of the dairy and kitchen.
If beyond this, a breed can be obtained, which will arrive at
early maturity, and which can be advantageously grass-fed or
kept at a small expense and in an improving condition through
the summer ; and being put up to fatten early in autumn and
forced as much as possible so as to be sent to market early in
the winter, the farmer will ordinarily find a fair profit in this
branch of husbandry. A great advantage is found in the keep-
ing of swine from the valuable returns of manure both in quan-
tity and quality, which are obtained from them, where care is
taken to supply them with raw materials for the manufacture.
Too much care cannot be bestowed in the selection of the
breed and the general health of the animal when put up to
feed ; and it is strongly recommended to every careful farmer
occasionally to weigh the animal and measure the feed, that he
may ascertain seasonably on which side the balance of debt or
credit is likely to fall. Nothing is more prejudicial to good
husbandry than mere guesses and random conjectures ; and
though the result of our operations may not meet either our
wishes or expectations, an intelligent mind will be always anx-

326

ions as far as practicable to know precisely how far they cor-
respond with or disappoint them.

The profit of fatting pork with us has become much more
questionable since such vast amounts of salted pork and hams
are brought into our markets from Ohio and the far Western
States, through the great and constantly increasing facilities of
transportation. It is judged that much more than a year's sup-
ply is now on hand in the city of New York, and the new has
not begun to come in.

This must essentially affect our markets. But it is to be
considered that to a certain extent our own pork here will al-
ways be preferred ; and that fresh pork, the lean pieces, will
always be wanted in our market, with which the Western
pork cannot at present come into competition, though after the
experience of the last five years, it might be almost rashness
to say that our markets may not yet be supplied with roasting
pigs and fresh spare-ribs from Cincinnati. Then again there
is on every farm a certain amount of refuse and offal, which
may be profitably given to hogs, and would otherwise be lost.
There is another circumstance, which must go to the credit of
our swine. Manure in Middlesex county is every where valu-
ed at least at 4 dollars per cord on the farm. A hog duly sup-
plied with the raw material, for a hog cannot, more than an Is-
raelite, make bricks without straw, will make three cords of
valuable manure in a year. A sow well kept likewise, may
raise a litter of pigs, and may be fitted for the market in the
same year. These circumstances may encourage us to think
that, in spite of Western competition, a certain amount of pork
may be profitably fatted among us every year. It is compara-
tively a recent discovery that apples are as good for fatting
swine as potatoes. This opinion has been expressed to me by
many farmers in this county. Apples may be cultivated to an
indefinite extent and at a small expense. We may easily avail
ourselves of this advantage. The opinion of many of these far-
mers is, that they are better given raw than cooked. This
point will, I hope, be made matter of experiment. The fat-

327

ting of hogs, however, is subject to so many contingencies,
that under present circumstances, excepting where extraordi-
nary supplies of food are easily obtained, upon a large scale it
can be safely undertaken only with extreme caution and care.
Many, who have undertaken it, have been unsuccessful.

XII. Manures. — The price of manures in this county is very
high. The farmers in the vicinity of Boston depend upon the
city stables for a large portion of what they use. The price in
Boston varies from three to four dollars a cord. I have known
a market farmer to purchase one thousand dollars' worth in a
year. Since the value of liquid manure is established, and its in-
trinsic efiicacy is so much superior to the solid parts of man-
ure, it is strange that no provision is made by the farmers for
saving the vast quantities that are now lost in the city. Hard-
ly an instance can be found, there is not one within my knowl-
edge, of any provision for saving it at their own barns. This
is an improvement yet to be effected. I have urged this mat-
ter so strongly, though not beyond its importance, in my for-
mer reports, that I shall add little more.*

*" In respect to the quantity of nitrogen contained in excrements, 100
parts of the urine of a healthy man are equal to 1300 parts of the fresh dung
of a horse, according to the analyses of Macaire and Marcet, and to 600
parts oftho.se of a cow. Hence, it is evident that it would be of much im-
portance to agriculture if none of the human urine were lost. The power-
ful effects of urine as a manure are well known in Flanders ; but they are
considered invaluable bj' the Chinese, who are the oldest agricultural peo-
ple we know. Indeed so much value is attached to the influence of human
excrements by these people, that laws of the State forbid that any of them
should be thrown away; and reservoirs are placed in every house, where
they ai'e collected with the greatest care. No other kind of manure is used
for their corn fields.

" How infinitely inferior is the agriculture of Europe to tliat of China!
The Chinese are the most admirable gardeners and trainers of plants, for
each of which they understand how to j)repare and apply the best manure.
The agriculture of their country is the most perfect in the world, and there
where the climate in the most fertile districts differs little from tlie Europe-
an, very little value is attached to the excrements of animals. With us
thick books are written, but no experiments instituted ; the quantity of man-

328

I have known $6 50 paid per cord for stable manure taken
at the stable ; and a farmer, whose soundness of judgment in

ure consumed by this or that plant is expressed in hundredth parts, and
yet we know not what manure is.

" If we admit that the liquid and solid excrements of man, amount on an
average to li lbs. daily (5-4 urine and | lb. feces) and that both taken to-
gether contain 3 per cent of nitrogen — then in one year they will amount to
547 lbs. which contain 16.41 lbs. of nitrogen, a quantity sufficient to yield
the nitrogen of 800 lbs. of wheat, rye, oats, or of 900 lbs. of barley.''
— Boussingault.

" This is much more than it is necessary to add to an acre of land, in
order to obtain, with the assistance of the nitrogen absorbed from the at-
mosphere, the richest possible crop every year. Every town and farm
might thus supply itself with the manure, whicii, besides containing the
most nitrogen, contains also the most phosphates ; and if an alternation of
crops were adopted they would be most abundant. By using at the same
time bones, and the lixiviated ashes of wood, the excrements of animals
might be completely dispensed with.

" The urine of horses contains less nitrogen and phosphates than that of
man. According to Fourcroy and Vauquelin, it contains only five per cent,
of solid matter, and in that quantity only 0.7 of urea, whilst 100 parts of
the urine of man contain more than four times as much.

" The urine of a cow is particularly rich in salts of potash ; but according
to Rouelle and Brande, it is almost destitute of salts of soda. The urine
of swine contains a large quantity of the phosphate of magnesia and am-
monia,

" When it is considered that with every pound of ammonia whicli evapo-
rates, a loss of GO lbs. of corn is sustained; and tliat with every pound of urine
a pound of wheat might be produced, the indifference with which these liquid
excrements are regarded, is quite incomprehensible. Inmost places only
the solid excrements impregnated with the liquid are used, and the dung-
bills containing them are protected neither from evaporation nor from rain.
The solid excrements contain the insoluble, the liquid all the soluble phos-
phates: and the latter contain likewise all the potash which existed as or-
ganic salts in the plants consumed by the animals." — Liebig's Agricultural
Chemistry.

I have quoted the above from this valuable work, of which a full account
will be given in the Appendix. 1 commend this work to the perusal of ev-
ery intelligent farmer. It is full of instruction, and of stimulants and food
for inquiry. It is in the highest degree creditable to our agricultural com-
munity, that two large editions of this work, published in this country by
Prof Webster of Harvard University, with valuable notes, have been dis-
posed of, and a third is forthcoming.

329

other matters I have always respected, expressed his willingness
to purchase all the manure from the cow-stable in Lowell at five
dollars per cord, though he must then cart it four or five miles in
order to reach his farm. These prices are enormous, and the
more surprising, since almost every farmer in Middlesex has at
hand the means of preparing a compost -dressing for his land of
equal value, at not half the cost.

Upon the farms in the vicinity very great quantities are
carried from the livery-stables in the city. The hog estab-
lishment at West Cambridge supplies a large amount of manure
to the farmers in its neighborhood. I do not refer in this case
exclusively to the excrementitious matter of the swine, but al-
so to the refuse garbage from the tables, of which I have spo-
ken. This is spread upon their grass lands, or ploughed in on
their cultivated grounds, or spread round their apple trees ; and
in every case with great advantage. If not used immediately,
it is placed in a compost heap, and covered with mould, to be
used when needed. It has been found particularly useful when
applied to fruit-trees at the roots. It is of course full of ani-
mal matter, and must furnish in abundance the principles of
vegetable life. The intelligent farmer who gives me this ac-
count speaks of the eifects of this manure as immediate and
powerful. To night-soil he objects that its influence is tran-
sient. He gives the preference over all others to stable and
horse manure. He raises largely of early vegetables and small
fruits for the market. The stable manure is more convenient
for his forcing beds in the spring, and, after it has performed its
part there, is easily applied to other crops.

Large amounts of night-soil are obtained in Boston and
Charlestown, and applied by the market -gardeners. It is
brought out in a crude state in covered and tight wagons,
and too often, without regard either to decency or comfort, is
carelessly deposited by the road-side near the dwelling-house
in a kind of basin, where a quantity of mould is at hand to
mix with it, to absorb the liquid parts, and to put the whole in-
to a condition to apply to the soil. The slovenliness with
42

330

which these matters are sometimes managed deserves no light
censure. I knew a case in which, in the opinion of his physi-
cians, the life of a respectable individual was a sacrifice to one
of these negligently managed deposits made by a neighbor in
his immediate vicinity. I do not know why, in a civilized
community, the public have not an equal right to claim that the
air shall not be needlessly corrupted, any more than the wells
in a neighborhood poisoned, whether it be by the effluvia of
some odious manure-heap or the scarcely less disgusting odors
of tobacco. These places of deposit, as matter of public de-
cency, ought never, under any pretence, to be permitted by the
highway. By careful management of them in some suitable
place on the farm, remote from the road and the dwelling, this
great nuisance might be abated.

I am aware upon what a homely subject I have fallen ; but
I know how essentially it concerns the farmer's interest and
the public health. " Evil be to him who evil thinks." I
would advise a fastidious reader to pass over this whole chapter,
but that 1 fear if I did, as it happens with forbidden passages
in the classics in college, he would think that he owed it to
himself to determine on the propriety of such advice, by first
reading with increased attention what the chapter contained.

Every advance in cleanliness is an advance in civilization, a
contribution to health and an equal help to good morals. The
unfortunate beings who live in cities, are doomed to inhale
and exhale the innumerable odors, which are there comming-
led from cellars occasionally filled with bilge-water, mud-
docks which the receding tide has left bare, common sewers,
and broken gas-pipes. In the country there is no apology for
allowing any thing offensive on the premises. The farmers
who obtain the night-soil from cities, would find an advantage
in digging a long and deep vault, at least four feet in depth,
walled up with stone and plastered and floored so as to be
made thoroughly tight, and having a close and moveable cov-
ering. Into this the contents of the carts should be carefully
turned, with such a constant supply of soil or muck orashes

331

or effete lime or gypsum as would completely absorb the li-
quid parts, and might be so intimately incorporated with the
solid parts as to bring all into a feasible state of application to
the land. This vault or stercorary should likewise serve as a
place of deposit for all dead animals in the place, and all other
offensive matters, which might be converted into manure.
The contents of the family vault, being freely mixed with
mould or spent tan, should likewise be conveyed there at least
once a week. This would be a great gain to comfort and
health. I saw such an arrangement on one farm, and its ad-
vantages were most obvious. It formed an excellent bank of
general deposit, whose discounts in the spring were always
most liberal and useful.

The preparation of night-soil for easy use and transporta-
tion, has been the subject of various chemical experiments.
The prepared article goes under the name of poudrette ; and
though there have been occasional disappointments, I have
seen it used with great success. The admixture of effete or
slacked lime with it has the same effect as any other absorb-
ent ; but the application of quick lime, while it destroys its of-
fensive odors, expels its ammonia and proportionately reduces
its value. Liebig recommends its mixture with gypsum or
chloride of calcium or some mineral acid. I have not known
this tried. This would fix the ammonia and give it out to the
plants as the vital process is prepared to take it up. The
mode of preparing it in Paris, is by drying it in large vats in
the sun until it can be reduced to a fine powder and loses all
smell. Its best properties are then gone. Fine peat, muck,
fine mould, powdered charcoal, tanners' bark burnt and charred,
are substances which maybe mixed with it to great advantage.
It is beyond all question one of the most powerful of manures,
but can only be applied advantageously in a prepared state. An
establishment for this purpose is about being made in the
county which may prove eminently beneficial.

Bone manure has been tried to some extent ; in some cases
within my knowledge, with great and decided success ; in oth-

332

erSj without perceptible benefit. These diverse results con-
vince us of our ignorance, and show how much we have to
hope from the investigations of chemistry and philosophical ex-
periments in relation both to manures and soils, and the hith-
erto scarcely approached mysteries of vegetable life. Much of
the bone manure which has been used has been from bones
which have passed first through the hands of the soap-boiler,
and after all the gelatinous parts have been extracted. A consid-
erable portion of their fertilizing properties has thus been taken
away. The most successful application of bone manure which
I have known was where they were mixed at the rate of about
one part to eight with leached ashes or mould, and a fermen-
tation brought on before they were applied. They were then
spread lightly in the furrow, where carrots were sown. The
effects were most favorable, and surpassed a free dressing of
barn manure in the neighboring part of the field to the same
kind of crop. 1 have known this manure applied likewise
with great advantage to corn in the hill, a small amount in
each hill without other manure, and to turnips in the drill.
Peat mud is used with much success by many persons. Its
application, when spread directly from the bog upon the soil,
has not been approved ; but when it has been thoroughly de-
composed and reduced by a mixture with stable manure, with
ashes, or with quick lime, it has furnished a valuable manure
for spreading upon grass ground or putting in the hill with
corn.

Various other manures have been used with great success.
Ashes are every where commended as excellent for corn and
wheat, and likewise for grass. Ashes being the direct result
of vegetable combustion, contain of course that which is es-
sential to vegetable growth and life, and being constantly car-
ried from the earth by the removal of its vegetable products,
must in some form be returned to it.

In some cases the waste from the cotton mills has been used
with much advantage. This consists of that which is thrown
out when the cotton passes through the picker, and is made up

333

not only of the wool itself but a considerable amount of the
seeds, which are known to abound in oil, and at the South are
much valued as a manure. This manure is sometimes spread
thinly on grass land, and at other times put into the compost
heap. It has been too little employed for us to determine the
best mode of its application.

The waste from the woolen mills has likewise been used as
a top-dressing for grass both in Tewksbury in this county, and
at Northampton in Hampsh-ire. I have seen its effects in these
places and in some other parts of the country. They have been
most remarkable, and surpassed by no manure which I have
ever seen applied. This refuse used formerly to be accumulated
in the neighborhood of the woolen factories at Lowell ; and being
surcharged with oil used in cleansing it, there was great risk al-
ways of spontaneous combustion. When thrown into the river
it was complained of as interfering with the shad fishery. The
amount of wool used at the Middlesex mills in Lowell is more
than 600,000 lbs. per year. Being full of animal matter it is a
most excellent manure. Its value has long been appreciated in
England, but we seem to have come late to the knowledge of it.
I have seen it spread directly upon grass land, both in mow-
ing and pasture grounds, with surprising effect. It is much to
be desired that the water in which their wools are washed, full
as it is of animal oils and alkalies, could likewise be saved and
applied to the land. It would prove beyond doubt a most val-
uable manure either applied on the grass lands or mixed in the
compost heap. In the economy of nature nothing is without
its use ; and the first duty of the farmer is to remember that
nothing should be lost.

A very exact and intelligent farmer in Groton made some
comparative experiments with different manures on pieces of
land contiguous to each other, of which he has favored me with
an account. The land to which these different substances
were applied was what is there termed reclaimed meadow, and
rich in vegetable mould.

One bushel of ashes applied to three square rods of land at

334

the rate of 53 bushels per acre ; this produced a heavy burthen
of grass, and was considered the best of the several manures
applied.

Salt, applied at the rate of one peck to three rods, or four-
teen bushels per acre, produced a fair crop, and was consider-
ed the next best to the ashes.

Gypsum, sown at the rate of three bushels to the acre, man-
ifestly much improved the crop, and was much the least ex-
pensive application. Lime was dry slacked and applied at the
rate of one bushel to six rods, or 26 bushels per acre, without
any perceivable effect.

I do not present these examples as furnishing any decisive re-
sults, but rather with the hope of inducing farmers to make
and record exact experiments though on a very limited scale,
that by the accumulation of such facts we may arrive at some-
thing more definite. Little can be deduced from the above ex-
periments, unless equal quantities of each kind of manure
had been used ; and then we want likewise to understand the
nature of the soil, as in respect to some soils, it is obvious cer-
tain kinds of manure are much more suitable than others.

Saltpetre has been used to some extent in Middlesex coun-
ty. The use of this manure and the nitrate of soda abroad,
has, according to the reports which we have had, been pro-
ductive of so much benefit, that every fact connected with
their application here is important. I shall subjoin some few
of the results which have come within my knowledge.

E. Phinney of Lexington thus writes to me :

"My experiments with saltpetre as a manure have satisfied
me of the inexpediency of using it for that purpose. In the
spring of 1839, I purchased 400 lbs. for which I paid $S per
cwt. I tried it upon wheat, rye, and grass. Fifty pounds to
the acre on wheat and rye had no perceptible effect, and on
grass but very little. One hundred pounds to the acre occa-
sioned a very considerable increase of straw and grain, both in
wheat and rye as well as grass. But had I bestowed an equal
outlay in compost made from peat-mud and stable manure, or

335

peat-mud and ashes, I have no doubt the immediate crop would
have been more benefited and the land have received more per-
manent improvement. I have in one instance seen very striking
effects produced by the use of saltpetre upon a light, sandy
soil. But the quantity used I could not learn, any further
than that it was much greater than the quantity to the acre
used by me. I believe a portion of saltpetre and common salt,
say ten pounds of the former and twenty pounds of the latter
to a cord of compost manure well mixed, would greatly im-
prove it. The beneficial effects of saltpetre in the destruction
of insects that annoy our crops, cannot be doubted. I noticed
on the farm of Mr Whipple of Lowell, two orchards separated
only by a stone wall. The trees upon one side of the wall
were badly eaten and almost destroyed by canker-worms,
while those upon the other side were untouched. On enquir-
ing the cause, I learnt that saltpetre had been used upon the
land of the latter orchard and none upon the former. The
remedy may be an expensive one ; but were my trees attacked
by this terrible scourge, I should immediately apply it. The
saltpetre, instead of injuring the trees, as most applications do
which are made for this object, would greatly promote their
growth."

I think proper to subjoin here, though from another county,
the experiment of John E. Howard, of West Bridgewater, Ply-
mouth county, an account of which he was kind enough at
my request to furnish me. Mr Howard's exactness and intelli-
gence are well known.

" You expressed a wish to hear further concerning the exper-
iment which 1 made the past season, to test the efficacy of
saltpetre, when applied as a top-dressing to grass land.

" Of the patch selected the soil is a light sandy loam. On this,
some time in the latter part of May last, I sowed saltpetre at
the rate of one pound to the square rod. The effects were
soon visible ; the grass exhibiting a deeper shade and a more
luxuriant growth than in any other part of the lot. It contin-
ued to grow thriftily until the period of its maturity, when on

336

cutting it, the produce was judged to be double that grown on
any equal number of feet in the same field. The beneficial ac-
tion of this substance, however, seems not to have extended
beyond the first crop ; as, since that was removed, no appear-
ance of superior fertility has marked the spot where it was
spread."

O. M. Whipple, of Lowell, the proprietor of a large estab-
lishment for the manufacture of gunpowder, in which much
of this material is used, has favored me with successive com-
munications on this subject, which I can do no better than
present in his own language.

" It is now about sixteen years since I commenced using salt-
petre. The grounds upon which I have used it, have yielded
large crops, and have held out much longer than grounds in
general, of the same quality of soil, and of the same kind and
quality of dressing commonly used.

The kind of saltpetre which I have used, has been that part
extracted from the common saltpetre while undergoing the
process of purification, and is not fit for gunpowder. I have,
therefore, not been particular as to quantity, using what I have
had to spare ; but 1 am satisfied that it requires but a very
small quantity to produce favorable results ; I have thought
that one hundred and fifty pounds per acre, would be a suffi-
cient quantity to be used generally. The best mode of using
it, is to mix it with barn manure, meadow mud or any kind of
compost which may be at hand ; although I have used it in
various other ways, as I shall now describe.

I have one piece of ground of 2f acres. It had been used
for a long time as mowing ground, and had, as it is termed,
run out, and grew but a very small crop of grass, say 1500 lbs.
to the acre. I ploughed it in the fall of 1830; in the spring
of 1831, I covered it with barn manure, mixed with saltpetre,
as described above, and harrowed it in, and planted corn with-
out disturbing the furrows. I had a very handsome crop of
corn. In the spring of 1832 I again dressed it as before, that is,
with barn manure and saltpetre, sowed oats and stocked it down

337

The oats were good. In 1833, I took from, it a crop of grass,
which was estimated to be six tons. It has grown grass every
year since, and I believe not a less quantity than the estimate
above has been taken from it since the first crop. I should be
safe in saying that there were six tons grown upon the lot the
last year, and this year the crop is good. I have another lot,
containing If acres, which like the other yielded little grass ;
20 cwt. being all the lot produced in 1822. In the spring of 1824,
I dressed it upon the surface with manure, meadow mud, and
saltpetre mixed ; and it yielded a moderate crop that year. In
the spring of 1825, I sowed upon the surface, as you would sow
rye, a quantity of saltpetre. The result was, that I took from
the lot at least four tons of hay, as it was adjudged. This too
was in a lot containing apple-trees, and the grass much lodged
all over the field. I continued sowing upon this lot a small
quantity of saltpetre once in two years, for five or six years,
and at the same time raising a very large crop of grass yearly.
Nothing has been done to this lot for the last six years, and there
is at this time upon it more than a middling crop of grass.

I have another lot of light-soiled ground, of about four acres ;
it had been used for growing rye. It occurred to me that I
would try the experiment of saltpetre upon a small piece of this
ground. The result was so favorable, that the next year, in
the spring, I covered the piece with meadow mud mixed with
saltpetre. The result was. that I obtained from the ground as
large a crop of grass as it was considered profitable to raise.
Last year, which was the fifth, it yielded two tons per acre.
There has been, however, a small quantity of saltpetre sowed
upon the lot since. I could describe other lots upon which
saltpetre has been used, but with the same results as those al-
ready mentioned.

I shall now designate the above lots and describe the kind of
soil.

The first, is No. 1, of a middling quality, neither very wet
nor dry.

43

338

The second, No. 2, is an orchard adjoining Concord river,
of a damp soil and of a very good quality.

The third, No. 3, is a dry, sandy soil, considered by me of
no value, until I practised using saltpetre upon it as a dressing.
With regard to the mode or manner of using saltpetre upon
ground, I do not think it makes much difference, if it is but
put upon the ground. I have practised sowing it upon the
surface, and mixing and ploughing it in Avith, for aught I
know, equal results ; but I should be rather in favor of mixing
and ploughing it in. In this case it would require a larger
quantity, say 300 lbs. per acre ; the effects would be more slow
and lasting. In sowing upon the surface, it would require a
less quantity, say 150 lbs. ; but it would be necessary to repeat
the dressing yearly, until the crop should be satisfactorily large.
I am more in favor of bringing up the ground gradually, by the
yearly application of a small quantity of saltpetre, than I should
be by a larger quantity, and getting a large crop the first year."

Since the foregoing, the same farmer has furnished me with
some additional information, which follows ; and again, the pres-
ent year, assures me of his continued success in this application.
I could have wished that the experiments had been made with
more exactness.

" Since my communication to you in June last, respecting
the use of saltpetre as a manure, I have had a more particular
practical demonstration of its utility.

Having an island in Boston harbor, called Spectacle island,
and its distance from land rendering it very expensive to fur-
nish manure for it, in the spring of 1838 I concluded to try the
experiment of using saltpetre as a substitute, and in order to
test its ability with some exactness, out of two acres which
had been cultivated the year before, half an acre was set apart
for the purpose of receiving 150 lbs. saltpetre, which were sowed
on the surface and the whole two acres were then ])loughed and
planted with potatoes. At harvesting, I found that there was
an increased crop upon the ground where the saltpetre had been
iapplied. I directed the man in charge to dry 5 hills upon the

339

ground where the saltpetre had been applied, and also 5 hills
where there had been no saltpetre, and weigh each parcel. The
potatoes on the ground where the saltpetre was applied, weighed
9 lbs., the other 4 lbs. ; this, it will be perceived, was the re-
sult of one year's application only. I am inclined to think
that its influence will be felt more or less the second, or even
the third and fourth years.

A field containing two acres from which grass had been ta-
ken for 8 years, I had ploughed in the spring of 1838, once
only ; it was ploughed deep, and 90 rods were appropriated to
the growth of ruta-baga. The seed was sown upon the tops
of the furrows, without any manure in the drill, and the result
was, that I obtained 500 bushels of the article specified above;
the remainder of the field was sown to oats, but the crop was
mostly destroyed by the unexampled growth of hog weed.
This field had been wholly sustained by the application of
saltpetre upon its surface, previously to its being ploughed, ex-
cepting at the time of ploughing, when there was turned in a
small coat of manure."

D. S. Haggerston, the intelligent and experienced manager
of J. P. Cushing's garden and farm at Watertown, has been
kind enough to favor me, at my request, with some practical
observations and experiments on the subject of manures, which
deserve attention, and are therefore subjoined.

" I send you an account of experiments made on the farm of
J. P. Gushing, Esq., of the diff'erent composts used as manures,
and the apparent effects of each.

Meadow muck or peat has been used in various ways, and
found so very beneficial, that two thirds of the manure used
on the farm is dug from the swamp.

A compost for top-dressing mowing land is made from leached
barilla ashes from the soap-boilers' and meadow muck, in the
following manner. The muck is dug from the swamp, the last
part of August, or early in September, and lies one year on the
surface, after it is thrown out of the pit. It is then carted to a
convenient place to make the compost heaps, which are formed

340

by spreading a layer of muck ten feet wide, eight inches thick,
and of any length desired ; on the muck four inches of ashes
are spread, then another layer of muck, and so on for five lay-
ers of each, which makes a pile five feet high, in the form of
a ridge. This is to lie through the following winter. As soon
as the frost is gone in the spring, the pile is turned over, well
broken, and mixed together. It then lies till the October or
November following, when it is spread on the land at the rate
of fifteen cart-loads to the acre.

Two accurate trials of the above compost, in comparison
with decomposed stable manure, resulted as follows ; 4 squares
of equal size which are kept as lawns and mown seven or eight
times in a season were manured, two with the leached barilla
and muck compost, and two with a compost of well-rotted stable
manure. It was spread at the rate of twenty cart-loads to the
acre. The grass on the different squares was much the same
in quantity, but on the squares manured with the muck com-
post, it was decidedly of a darker and richer color, and the man-
ure introduced a greater quantity of white Dutch clover or ho-
neysuckle. The second trial was in a field mown for hay, 2^
acres. The field was divided into two equal parts, as near alike
as possible, one half manured with muck compost, the other
half with rotted manure, at the rate of fifteen cart-loads to the
acre. Eight tons and eighty lbs. of hay were cut from the
field. No difference could be discovered in the parts manured
by the different composts. This proved that for a top-dressing,
the compost of leached barilla and muck is equal to stable man-
ure. After using it to a large extent for several years, I am still
in favor of it as a top-dressing. The compost manure, which
we use for ploughed land, is made np of two thirds muck, and
one third manure. The muck in all cases is mixed with the
manure before it ferments, and care is taken not to put in so
much muck as to prevent the compost's heating. The fermen-
tation of the manure decomposes the muck rapidly, and I am
convinced the greatest art in the use of muck, as a manure, is
to have it in a proper state before it is put upon the land. To

341

dig it from the swamp and apply it before it undergoes a chem-
ical change is undoubtedly injurious. This change is brought
on rapidly by hot horse manure or unslacked lime, but with
colder substances it requires longer. For mixing with cow
manure, or putting in hog styes, it ought to be dug from the
swamp, at least six months, and it is better that it should be ex-
posed to a winter's frost, before it is used. The air then, in
some measure, effects the change. The action of the manure
soon decomposes the fibre in the muck. It falls to pieces like
lime, and then has an earthy appearance. In this state, a mix-
ture of one third manure and two thirds muck has never failed
with me to produce better crops of all kinds of vegetables than
clear manure. For the last five years we have thought it waste-
ful to use manure without being mixed. Before coming to this
strong conclusion of the benefit of muck, when used as a man-
ure, many experiments were made, and universally resulted in
favor of muck.

We have tried bone manure to some extent, but have found
no benefit from it. The following are two experiments on
potatoes and corn. Rows were planted in three different places
in a field of potatoes recently broken up from the sod, A pint
of bone dust was put in each hill of the three rows, and well
mixed with the soil, A row was planted alongside of the
bone dust without any manure. The remainder of the field
was manured with compost, a shovel full to a hill. The
rows with compost yielded 91 bushels to a row ; the rows
without manure 4 bushels, and the rows with bone dust
2i bushels, each. When the potatoes were dug, cedar posts
were put down firmly, so as not to be moved by the plough,
in different parts of the rows where the bone dust was used.

The following year the crop was potatoes again ; the man-
ure was spread on the field and ploughed in. The rows, that
came in a line with the cedar stakes, were all small potatoes
and wormy, the only wormy potatoes in the field. A field of
two acres was planted with corn ; the compost manure plough-
ed in ; the corn was planted in rows ; on half of the field bone
dust was sown in the row, at the rate of 55 bushels to the acre.

342

An extra price was paid for this in order to have it ground
finer, that the effects might appear sooner. At no part of the
season could any difference be seen. The yield of corn was
not at all improved by the bone dust; the part where none was
used being quite as good as the others. The field yielded 160
bushels of ears to the acre. Several hundred bushels of bone
dust have been used on grass land, and round fruit trees, but
no perceptible good has been derived from it.

A small experiment with poudrette was tried on turnips. It
was a failure. They did quite as well side by side without
manure, and yielded four times the quantity where compost
was used.

We have used salt from 15 to 25 bushels to the acre ;
have found it useful in destroying the cut worm, but never
thought it increased the crop, except sea-kale or asparagus,
which are both maritime plants.

Liquid manure has been tried on grass, but the result was
not so favorable as anticipated. It appears to make the grass
grow very unevenly in bunches.

The experiments we have made with lime are not yet ma-
tured sufficiently to determine the result, and my experience
with it is rather limited.

From experience I know that the effect of manures is so
variable on different soils, that what is beneficial on one farm
is of no use on another ; as in the case of bone manure Avith
us. I have known land where no manure could be used with
a quarter of the benefit that bone dust was, and its not having
the desired effect on this farm ought not to militate against it
in the least. By chemical analyses of soils you can come gen-
erally to the result at once, and I believe it to be the only
true way of determining the propriety or expediency of one
application or another."

To this I deem it useful to add some remarks of E. Phinney,
in a recent letter to me :

" I am satisfied there is great economy in having a year's
stock of manure beforehand. Stable manure, when put upon the

343

land in its green state and ploughed in, must t^ liable to more or
less waste — whereas if made into compost, especially if lime be
mixed in, it is subject to little or no loss. From two hundred
sheep and a dozen young cattle, well bedded with loam and
vegetable mould during the last winter, I have now a compost
heap of 300 cart-loads, and an equal quantity made from the
manure of my horse and cow stables, mixed with peat-mud
drawn out last winter. The first, being made principally of
loam and vegetable mould, is intended for top-dressing the grass
upon my reclaimed meadows ; the other pile, being a mixture
of peat and stable manure, is intended for uplands. These
piles will be in fine condition for my crops the next spring, and
will contribute more to the improvement of my grounds than if
my last winter's stock of manure had been taken green from
the stables unmixed and unfermented, and spread upon the land
last spring. The bulk is quadrupled ; and no farmer, I believe,
Avill pretend that four loads of this compost will not enrich the
ground more than one load of green manure, especially that
composed of peat-mud — which has been ascertained, on chem-
ical analysis by a very distinguished agricultural chemist, to
contain as much vegetable nutriment as an equal quantity of
cow-dung.* The peat-mud, however, should be combined

* The following is the analysis of C T. Jackson, M. D. the accomplished
geologist of Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, of some of the peat
from Mr Phinney's farm.

"It was sent to me in as dry a state as is required when it is used for fu-
el, but it still contained water in considerable proportions. One hundred
grains of the peat dried at 300«> Fah. weighed 74 grains, loss 26 grains wa-
ter. The dry peat was burned in a platina (;rucible and left 5.0 ashes of
gray color. The vegetable matter by difference is 69.0. The ashes anal-
yzed yielded

Silica 1.0

Alumina, iron and manganese, 0.6
Phosphate of Lime, 3.0

Potash, traces, 00

4.6
100 grains of dry peat would give 7 grains of ashes and 93 grains of veg-
etable matter.

344

with a small portion of alkali or fermented with animal man-
ure. In addition to the foregoing 1 shall take over two hun-
dred cart-loads of manure from my hog-stye."

To these accounts I subjoin the experiments of the Superin-
tendent of the Glass Manufactory, at Sandwich, Plymouth Co.,
Deming Jarves, in the use of a material not much known as a
manure. I am much indebted to his kindness for this account.
As there are some extensive glass manufactories in Middlesex
county, this substance may be equally procurable there.

" Agreeably to your request, I herewith give you a statement
of the mode of using, and of the effects as a manure, of the mate-
rial obtained by the glass manufacturers in refining their pearl or
pot ashes — usually called neutral salts, being that part of the
ash not soluble in water. After many experiments I found a
barrel of this material well mixed with 10 horse cart-loads of
soil or loam, was the best proportion. Too much care cannot
be taken in mixing the material well with the earth — as from
its unctuous nature it is apt to lie in lumps, and do more injury
than good. When well prepared, I have found it the most
powerful manure I have ever seen used. 1 have successfully
applied it — and in all cases as a top-dressing — on cold grass
land, meadow, and high grass ground ; also on ploughed fields
for rye, corn, oats, &/C. Wherever used it has been marked
by powerful effects. In the various experiments I made, no
other manure was applied the same year. On one field in

The analysis of peat made by the same geutleman from Mr Cushing's
farm at Watertown, presents similar results.

One hundred grains of the thoroughly dried peat yielded 4.5 grains of
ashes, wiiich do not effervesce with acids, hence do not contain any
carbonate. The composition of the ashes is

Silex, 1.3

Alumina, ox.iron, and manganese, 1.5
Phosphate of Lime, 1.7

4.5
The vegetable matter in this peat amounts to 95.5 per cent., and consists
of vegetable fibre and of the apocrenic and crenic acids combined with the
bases obtained from its ashes."

345

grass of about 10 acres, I dressed a few acres at a time with this
material ; the other part of the field I dressed with barn manure,
at a rate equal to 15 ox-loads per acre. Before mowing, the
eye could readily discover the difference in the growth ; and
when mowed, the part manured with the mineral yielded full
one quarter more crop. For five years, the field has averaged
two tons per acre, and is by no means a rich soil. I am no chemist,
and cannot describe by what property it acts on the land. I
found in grass ground where the various kinds of foul grass or
weeds grew — such as some call lamb's tongue, sorrel, &c., all
these disappeared, and the clover and herdsgrass took their
place. I am this fall dressing the last acre with this material,
and do not intend to use any other manure ; my practice has
been to spread about 20 loads to the acre. In ploughed land I
have found the same beneficial result when compared with
that part manured with barn manure.

How long its good effects will last, I cannot say; certainly
for three years its influence is felt. Wet ground will bear more
of it than dry ; too much on dry ground burns the land.

It has been used in this vicinity, at times, for twenty years ;
but the want of knowledge in tempering it, made its usefulness
very limited. One farmer for many years secured all a glass
manufactory made ; and he told me 10 years since, he used it
secretly and with great success; so much so as to occasion
much surprise among his neighbors, that his farm yielded so
luxuriantly, when he did not appear to make more barn manure
than they did.

1 once ploughed under a strong dressing, but did not discover
any good effect from it ; my impression at the time was, I lost
my labor and material.

Its alkaline property cannot be very strong, as all that can be
obtained from it by the several processes which it passes through
in the hands of the glass manufacturer, is small, yet strong
enough to neutralize the acid in the soil. When mixed as here-
tofore named, and thrown in a pile, no weeds will grow in it
for two or more years, but it will remain dry and barren."

44

346

It will not be out of place here to refer to an experiment
made by C. N. Bement, of Albany, N. Y., distinguished for his
enterprise and success as a farmer, on the use of hog's bristles
as a manure. He has obligingly communicated the results to
me in a private letter.

" I have made some experiments the past season with, to me,
a new kind of manure, hog's bristles. I have used horn sha-
vings from the card manufactories, and crushed bones for corn,
potatoes, and ruta-baga, with good success ; and from analogy
it occurred to me that bristles might contain as great fertilizing
qualities as horn shavings or bones. I applied to a brush man-
ufacturer in the city for his refuse bristles or sweepings of the
shop, which he had been in the habit of paying a cartman to
remove. I obtained only about thirty bushels, the greater part
of which I applied to potatoes, putting a handful in each hill.
The result was most satisfactory, the yield being more than
double to those where a shovelful of yard manure was put in
each hill, and, other circumstances being the same, many of the
hills furnishing a peck of potatoes too large for the table. This
kind of manure, as well as horn shavings, have a powerful re-
commendation in that they carry no foul seeds to the soi). I
also tried bristles on Indian corn, putting the same quantity in
each hill, and the eftect surpassed my most sanguine expecta-
tions. The corn came up very soon, grew rapidly, maintained
a dark and healthy color during the whole season, the ears filled
well, and it Tipened early.

A farmer in Worcester county has been long in the habit of
applying salt. On his wheat ground he sows as much salt as
seed wheat, and for corn he puts it with his compost manure ;
not, however, in large quantities. He deems it a remedy
against the Hessian fly, of which I have great doubts ; and
mixed with compost, he puts it into the hill with corn, and con-
siders it a remedy against the wire-worm. In the latter case,
from his long experience and facts stated to me, I am inclined
to think it efficacious.

A composition which I have myself applied with advantage

347

on a light mould, is as follows ; raise a platform of earth on the
headland of a field, eight feet wide, one foot high, and of any
length according to the quantity wanted. On the first stratum
of earth lay a thin stratum of lime fresh from the kiln ; dissolve
or slack this with salt brine from the nose of a watering pot ;
add immediately another layer of earth ; then lime and brine as
before, carrying it to any convenient height. In a week it
should be turned over, carefully broken and mixed, so that the
mass may be thoroughly incorporated. This was applied in
the hill to corn. The crop was equal to that obtained by barn
manure on parts of the field immediately contiguous.

O. M. Whipple, of Lowell, to whose experiments with salt-
petre I have referred at large, gives it as his opinion " that equal
quantities of common salt and saltpetre mixed together and these
mixed with compost manure would form one of the best and
most economical manures for enriching land. The proportion
of common salt to be taken for the purpose can be determined
only by experiment, and this must somewhat depend on the
nature of the soil." A large amount of valuable manure is ob-
tained from the print works in Lowell. The principal ingre-
dient in it is sulphate of lime. It has been used by the farmers
in Dracut with great success, producing, as I have seen, large
crops of grass. In Nantucket, the refuse of the oil manufac-
ture, or where the whale oil is purified, is greatly valued as an
ingredient in compost. It consists principally of animal or fatty
matter and potash.

I have gone thus largely into the subject of manures, for the
purpose of showing the practice of some of the best farmers in
the State; and likewise the great number and variety of re-
sources which we have for enriching the land. Wherever there
is waste or decay, there is manure, so that in the great system
of nature, death itself seems to be the element of life. Few
arts or manufactures are carried on without supplying in their
refuse a valuable manure ; and a sagacious farmer can hardly
look round his premises without finding in abundance the means
of increasing his compost heap. His sink, his vault, his fire-

348

place, his chimney, his wood-yard, his stable, his hog-stye, his
poultry-yard, his dove-cote, his road-side, his meadows, his
peat-bogs, his Avoods, every mud-hole on his farm, every loit-
ering place for his cattle, every clay pit, every marl-bed should
be laid under contribution. As the main element in agricul-
tural improvement and success, the farmer should direct his at-
tention to the increase and protection of his compost heap.

Mr. Phinney's notions in respect to the application of man-
ure in a green or fermented state, seem to deserve a remark.
That the efficacy of green barn manure is much greater than
that of an equal quantity of decomposed or rotted barn man-
ure cannot be questioned, because the experiments of many dis-
tinguished cultivators have fully determined this. Manure of
course is not so easily applied in a crude as in a fermented state ;
and on this account it is perhaps always desirable that it should,
by being turned over and made short, be made to undergo a
degree of fermentation and applied to the soil in as warm a
state as possible. But Mr. Phinney, by the plan which he
adopts, has another object in view, which is the increase of the
quantity of his manure. For this purpose he compounds it ;
using a third part of stable manure with two thirds peat-muck,
and in the mode in which he mixes them, the fermentation of
the stable manure dissolves the peat — and the peat, acting as an
absorbent, takes up and fixes all the enriching volatile gases of
the fermenting manure, and thus becomes itself enriched. This
is undoubtedly a good method ; but the keeping of barn man-
ure by itself until it becomes thoroughly decomposed and effete,
instead of applying it in a green state, would be a wasteful and
object ionable process.

The application of quick lime to barn manure or animal man-
ure of any description, is, 1 believe, always bad. It consumes
or drives off all the enriching parts of the manure, and renders
other parts insoluble. The application of quick lime to night-
soil, which is often recommended, will, it is true, remove all
offensive odors, but at the same time, it drives off and removes
all the most valuable parts of the manure. The lime which

349

remains, may be valuable as an element in the doil, or as a me-
chanical divider of the soil, but no farther. It is not an en-
richer of the soil. Though in the form of a carbonate, it gives
out its carbon with an extreme reluctance. As constituting
an element in the plant itself, the amount required for any plant
is so small as to deserve very little consideration, and, from its
being found every where in sufficient quantities to form the
eggs of birds, and the bones of animals, it may be regarded as
every where diffused in equal sufficiency for the purposes of
vegetation. In its application to peat composts, it assists in
their decomposition, but here likewise its tendency is to expel
the ammonia, to drive off the enriching parts of the manure, and
to reduce much of the remainder to an insoluble state. Here,
however, its pernicious effects may be counteracted, where
there is a sufficient covering of mould to absorb the gases,
which would otherwise be dissipated in the air. Under such
circumstances its use may sometimes be advised.

The ill-success of Mr. Haggerston, in his application of bone
manure, does not, as he sensibly remarks, imply that it may
not be very efficacious in other situations. If the bones, from
which his manure was obtained, had passed through the soap-
boiler's hands, or had been long bleaching in the rain and air
and sun, there remained only the phosphate of lime, an import-
ant element in vegetation, but of which perhaps there was al-
ready a sufficiency in the soil. Had these bones been full of
animal matter, it cannot be doubted that their efficiency would
have been seen. Of the poudrette, too, in the use of which he
seems to have been equally unsuccessful ; before deciding against
its efficacy, it would be desirable to know the composition.
No one questions the extraordinary power of human excre-
ments ; but what other substances were in this case combined
Avith them, and in what proportions, does not appear. They
may have been such, or furnished in such proportions compared
with the material which they were designed to neutralize,
as to render the actual amount of night-soil applied insuffi-
cient to warrant the expectation of any marked effect. If it

350

were prepared by the use of caustic lime, and just so far as it
was so prepared, for reasons which I have given above, no
marked effect was to be expected. Lime in a caustic state ap-
phed to the soil, may operate to supply, where there is any de-
ficiency, the very small amount of calcareous matter which
some plants require ,• or to correct any hurtful acids in the soil ;
or to operate as a mechanical divider of the soil, rendering it
more pervious to light and warmth and rain and air ; or to des-
troy insects and grubs. Beyond these effects, I want more ev-
idence than I yet have, to satisfy me that it has any valuable
use separate from what the mixing of any other ingredient not
found in the soil would have. In its application in a caustic
state to all animal manures, I believe its effects to be always
pernicious and destructive. Lime in the form of a carbonate,
unless where reduced by trituration to a very fine powder, has
very little effect other than as a mechanical ingredient in the
soil, it being almost as insoluble as granite, and requiring not
less than 900 parts of water for the solution of 1 of lime.

The philosophy of manures is yet very imperfectly under-
stood. Every intelligent experiment with manures is valuable ;
but so many circumstances must go in every case to affect
the result — such as the kind of manure, its condition, its
quantity, the mode of its application, the time of its applica-
tion, the plant to which applied, the nature of the soil, the
condition of the soil, and many nameless contingencies — that
an experiment, to be the ground of certain and positive con-
clusions, must be conducted and detailed with the greatest ex-
actness, and be many times carefully repeated. Much advan-
tage may be expected, as has often been suggested, from the
chemical analysis of soils ; but we must not be too sanguine in
our expectations, even from this source. If the process of veg-
etation were as simple as some men would have us believe, we
might then hope much more from chemical analysis than we
can now expect. I do not doubt that every process in nature,
however mysterious in its appearance to us is, properly speak-
ing, simple, that is depending on certain elements and laws

<3

51

always operating with a certain exactness and to certain ends.
So no doubt is every process connected with animal and vege-
table life ; yet with our limited views and imperfect means of
observation, we are at present unable to approach an explana-
tion of it. I do not say that we may not hope to reach it. The
process of analysis is a destructive process. How little are we
able to determine what a building was by being shown only
the bricks and stones and sand and lime and wood and glass
and iron of which it was composed. Take any six or eight
simple elements, and by a simple rule in arithmetic, calculate
the immense number of combinations of which they are capa-
ble. Every thing which exists in nature is reducible by chem-
istry to a few simple elements ; but under what an infinite
number of forms of combination do they present themselves;
and substances the most opposite in nature are separated by the
minutest lines and shades of difference ; that which is sweet
from that which is bitter, that which is nutritious from that
which is deadly.

In analyzing a soil, and reducing it, so far as chemistry will
do it, to its constituent parts, the chemist may detect the pres-
ence of some poisonous substance or the absence of some
useful ingredient ; but beyond this, by the separation of the
individual parts how little can he understand their operation
when combined and exhibited under the various forms in which
they are found to unite ! In order to understand what the plant
takes from the soil, it would be necessary to examine the soil it-
self before and after its growth. But this is not all ; the plant it-
self must be analyzed. This cannot be done without its destruc-
tion or alteration by the action of some powerful acid or by fire.
Burn it, and there remains a very small amount, in proportion
to the whole, of incombustible matter or ashes. Now, how lit-
tle can we know of the nature of a plant by the mere exami-
nation of its ashes ! There is another fact, of a nature equally
confounding. Every soil is capable of bearing an infinite vari-
ety of plants, and many of these of the most opposite charac-
ter. Yet this variety of plants shall, in many cases, without

352

interference with or obstruction to each other, flourish and per-
fect themselves equally well in the same soil and in the same
atmosphere, and each of them shall abstract from the same soil
or the same manure or the same air that, and that only, which
it requires ; and appropriate it and so much of it, and no more
than it needs, to its own specific nutriment and use, and distrib-
ute it according to its nature in exact proportions to its stem, its
roots, its leaves, its flowers, to its coloring, its tasfe, its odor,
its fruit. Now at what a distance, for any thing that we can
see, do human sagacity and science remain from any solution
of this inscrutable mystery. I do not say these things in dis-
paragement of science or in discouragement of inquiry. Far
otherwise ; but rather to stimulate inquiry by showing what a
boundless field is open to our curiosity, and how little we have
accomplished, and how little ground there is for pride and dog-
matism in what we have already done. Inquiry is the only road
ta knowledge; and as food for the body, so is knowledge the
only proper aliment for the mind, alike indispensable to its
health and vigor and power. No great advance has ever been
made in human knowledge, but by united and concentrated ef-
forts. We should all do what we can. Whoever contributes
but a single accurately observed and well authenticated fact in
nature to the general stock performs a valuable and an essential
part in the erection of the glorious fabric of useful knowledge.
The prosecution of inquiries into natural science, in the inter-
est which it creates brings with it its own reward. The far-
ther we advance, the more this interest is quickened, until at
last in our converse with nature, ' God's earliest revelation of
himself,' we are never less alone than when alone ; dumb na-
ture every where is eloquent, and the whole creation becomes
instinct with life and beauty. Science has already conferred
immense benefits upon agriculture, but what she has done is
nothing compared to what she has in store for us.

I cannot (juit this great subject of manures, the very sinews
of husbandry, without adverting to one or two facts, which
certainly are not creditable to the farmers of Massachusetts.

353

The first is that ships are continually loading at our wharves
for the transportation of bones and other substances to Europe
for manure ; and the second is that we are willing to sell our
ashes to the farmers of Long Island, N. Y., who can afford to
visit all our seaports for that purpose, and find an advantage in
even scouring the shores for the whole length and breadth of
Lake Champlain in Vermont, for the same objects. They go
even to Canada for ashes, leached or crude, and transmit it by
canal to New York. Where is our enterprise ? If they can
afford to do this, cannot we find an advantage in using these
materials ourselves, while we have them on hand ?

XIII. Agricultupal Improvements. — Though in a great
degree in its general aspect unpromising, yet no county in the
State is more distinguished for its agricultural improvements
than Middlesex. It exhibits many beautiful examples of the
triumph of labor and art over nature ; in which valleys have
been filled, rough places smoothed, and the desert made
to bloom. All these are the achievements of an improved hus-
bandry, and exhibit the most ample compensatory returns of la-
bor directed by skill and capital expended with sound discretion.
I do not know where I should in preference take a farmer, to show
him what may be done under discouraging circumstances, and
therefore what he may accomplish in improving his own
husbandry.

1. In the district of West Cambridge, and to the west of seve-
ral ponds which adorn this beautiful region, there is a tract of
country exhibiting as much labor, skill and success in the cul-
tivation, and as much improvement, as are to be found in New
England. It is principally the residence of many market-gar-
deners, who supply the city with fruit and early vegetables. —
In these sheltered situations, they are successful almost beyond
competition in bringing forward their vegetables early in the
season, and reap a rich harvest from their enterprise. Much of
this country had at one time little to recommend it, being re-
garded as a thin and sterile soil ; but the estimation in which
45

354

it is now held — land which ten years since was purchased for
37 dollars per acre being now worth 300 dollars — is proof of
the improvement which it has undergone. The extensive hog-
establishment of Mr. Pierce, which 1 have already described,
by its abundant supply of manure has materially assisted its im-
provement. But very great improvements have been made
here in ditching and draining wet meadows, by which, within
a comparatively short time, lands which scarcely produced any
thing, or else an aquatic herbage which was worth little but as
litter, now bear as fine crops of the best of hay as the rake ever
gathered. These meadows are not peat meadows, but rather
a rich deposit of mud. The lands have been thoroughly drain-
ed by ditches and sometimes laid into beds ; a crop of potatoes
well manured taken from them, and then laid down to grass.
After this process they soon become capable of producing al-
most any crop.

2. A very extensive improvement is now in progress in the
eastern part of this district, in what is called the Fresh Pond
meadows, which promises great results. An extensive tract of
land lying to the northward and eastward of Fresh Pond, part-
ly in Cambridge and partly in West Cambridge, embracing, as
one of the commissioners informed me, not less than five hun-
dred acres, formerly so saturated and flooded with water as to
be in many places scarcely passable, is now likely to be brought
into a state of productive cultivation ; and when once reclaim-
ed and reduced, cannot be estimated at less than two hundred
dollars per acre. If well cultivated it will pay the interest of
four hundred. The outlet is at the North into Medford river,
where the influx of the tide forces back the water upon these
meadows. The first object was to exclude the tide, and
then cut ditches into which the surface water might be led, and
cut off the springs on the margin of the meadow at the foot of
the hills and turn the water from them into the ditches.

The petition to the courts by whose authority this improve-
ment has been carried on, desired "that the tides from the
'meadows during a certain portion of the season, should be
shut out ; and that there should be constructed at the joint ex-

355

pense of the proprietors such principal ditches through the
meadows as would enable the individual owners to drain their
meadows so as to be able to introduce the cultivated grasses in
all, and perhaps plough a large part of it." The commission-
ers having examined the meadows, decided under commission
to put in a self-acting gate, which would allow the water ac-
cumulating in these meadows to run off during the recession of
the tide, and which would prevent the reflux at the approach
of high water. They also decided to straighten, widen and
^deepen the outlets of Fresh Pond and Spy Pond, and to open
ditches into those parts of the meadows remote from these out-
lets, so that each proprietor would have the means of draining
his own land without trespassing upon his neighbor. These
principal water-courses were made under the immediate super-
intendence of one of the commissioners, who is a farmer and
lives near the meadows. Some of the principal proprietors fol-
lowed out the subject pretty thoroughly, by cutting off the
springs upon the margin, and opening such cross ditches as were
necessary to produce the desired result. This was done the
same season that the principal ditches were excavated under
the commissioners. Should this experiment succeed according
to its early promise, it will be one of the finest improvements
ever attempted in this part of the country ; and convert, under
the skilful cultivators who reside near it, the whole of this
hitherto unsightly region into productive gardens and verdant
and waving meadows.

3. The most remarkable improvements in the county have
consisted in the redemption of peat bogs and their conversion from
sunken quagmires into most productive arable and grass lands.
Such improvements are to be found all over the county, and are
to be seen to great advantage in Lexington, Groton, Framing-
ham, Concord, and many other towns. Large tracts of peat bog
yet remain in the county to be redeemed. The general method
has been to open sufficient drains for the removal of the water
entirely, or else to reduce it so that it may not at any time stand
higher in the ditches than within eighteen inches of the surface.

356

It is indispensable that the water should be removed, and if en-
tirely, undoubtedly the better. The next step has generally
been to pare the surface and burn the sward and hassocks in
small heaps, and spread the ashes over the ground. Some per-
sons then have immediately sown their grass seed in abundance
and have gathered good crops. Others, as soon as it has been
thus prepared, have manured it plentifully with a compost ma-
nure mixed with a large proportion of loam ; and others have
given it a good dressing of mould or of sand. Others, after
draining the meadows, have applied a top-dressing of three or
five inches of coarse gravel directly upon the sward ; and then
have sowed their grass seed with a good coating of manure.
Sometimes, as in Groton, the land after being pared and burnt
has been broken up by a plough, and after being exposed in this
state to a winter's frost has been planted with potatoes manured
in the hill, and then laid down to grass. It is not easy, without
a personal knowledge of the premises, to point out the best mode
to be always adopted. The covering of the meadow with a
thick coating of gravel without removing th(3 sward is pretty
generally condemned, as in a short time the coarse grasses make
their appearance again. The application of coarse sand to a
certain extent is approved, as it serves to divide the vegetable
matter and to consolidate the meadow so as to make it passable
with teams. The paring and burning of the turf is always
an advisable process unless it be in a season of drought, when
the great body of peat might take fire and burn large and deep
holes in various parts. The application of mould and compost
manure to almost any extent is always beneficial, and grass seed
should be sowed very abundantly in order that the hay may not
be too coarse and that a thick and strong sward may be formed.
The taking of a cultivated crop at first is not so desirable as
to get the meadow as soon as possible into English hay, and af-
ter two or three crops it will become consolidated, and may then
be ploughed and cultivated to advantage. In redeeming meadow
land of this description, I have myself found an advantage in
making a large open ditch through the centre of the meadow,

357

and then cutting side ditches at right angles with it to empty
into it, and sometimes cutting off the springs by covered drains
round the margin of the meadow. The centre ditch may be
four or five feet wide at top, and two or three at bottom, or six
feet at the surface and two at the bottom, according to the quan-
tity of water to flow in it, and of a suitable depth to take off all
the water ; and the side drains may be two feet at top and one
at bottom, with six inches of rough stones thrown in at the
bottom and these covered with straw or brush so as to prevent
the dirt sifting through, and these again covered in with the
material which was at first thrown out. It is necessary that
the top of the stones with which the drain is filled should be
below the ordinary depth of ploughing so as not to be disturbed
when the land is cultivated. I do not know how I can better
serve the objects of my Report than by allowing several of the
farmers, who have most distinguished themselves for these im-
provements, to give their own account of the methods adopted.
1 may here add that among other applications the application
to a peat meadow after it has been pared and burnt, of a good
dressing of clay has been signally beneficial. Herdsgrass, to the
growth of which these reclaimed bogs seem particularly con-
genial, peculiarly delights in a soil strongly clayey or aluminous.
Three tons of hay to the acre from these lands is not uncom-
mon, and their productiveness may be long kept up by good
management. Four and five tons are sometimes produced.

4. I begin with an account of his mode of reclaiming peat
meadow, with which my respected friend, Mr. Phinney, to
whose high reputation as a farmer my praise would add nothing,
has favored me. His meadows present examples of some of
the most judicious and productive improvements to be found in
the State.

" I consider my peat grounds by far the most valuable part
of my farm. They are more valuable than my wood lots for fuel,
more than double the value of an equal number of acres of upland
for the purposes of cultivation, and in addition to these, they
furnish an inexhaustible supply of the most essential ingredient

358

for the compost heap. Some years since, I occasionally sold
to my neighbors, a few rods of my peat land, annually, to be
cut out for fuel at $3 per rod square, being at the rate of $480
per acre, but finding this sum to be less than its value for culti-
vation, especially when laid to grass, 1 have declined making
further sales at that price. I have raised upon my reclaimed
meadows, 75 bushels corn, 500 bushels potatoes, and from 4 to
5 tons of the best hay at the first and second cutting, to the
acre, at a less expense of labor and manure than would be re-
quired to produce half this crop upon my uplands.

" To render these lands productive, they should be thoroughly
drained, by cutting a ditch around the margin of the meadow,
so as to cut off the springs and receive the water that is con-
tinually flowing in from the surrounding uplands. If the mead-
ow be wide, a ditch through the centre may be necessary, but
this will be of no use without the border ditches. This being
thoroughly done and the surplus water all drawn off, the next
step is to exterminate the wild grasses and herbage of every kind
that grow upon the surface. To effect this, the method hereto-
fore, and now by some pursued, is to cover with sand or gravel
from three to six inches deep, top-dress with manure, sow the
grass seed, and rake or bush it over. This, for the first year or
two, will give a good crop of hay. But after this, I have inva-
riably found that the more hardy and coarse kinds of wild grass
would work their way through the sand and gravel, and com-
pletely supplant the cultivated grasses, when the whole must
have another covering and another top-dressing, or be aban-
doned as worthless. If to be planted with corn or any of the
root crops, my course has been to turn over the turf or sward,
with a plough having a wrought-iron share and coulter, both
ground to a sharp edge, in the driest season, say in the month
of September, roll down as hard as possible, carry on the fol-
lowing winter a sufficient top-dressing of com})ost, about 20
cart-loads to the acre, and in the spring spread the same, and
plant with corn or roots, without disturbing the sod. When
the corn or root crop is taken off, the surface is made smooth

359

with the cultivator or hoe and harrow, and late in November,
or just before the severe frosts set in, sow with herdsgrass and
red-top seed, half a bushel of the former and a bushel of the
latter, to the acre; the field is then rolled, which completes the
process. If the plough does not turn the sward entirely over,
it will be necessary to follow with the bog-hoe, to level the un-
even places. By keeping the sod undisturbed during the culti-
vation, a more firm and compact surface is formed, upon which
oxen or horses may walk, generally without danger of miring.
If the ground be intended for grass without the intervention
of a hoed crop, the turf is turned over as before stated, in Au-
gust or September, or as early in the season as the surface be-
comes dry enough to admit the oxen or horses upon it, then
follow with the hoe and roller, and make such parts smooth
as may be left uneven by the plough, and late in November
cart and spread on not less than twenty cart-loads of compost
to the acre, made of equal parts of loam or vegetable mould
and stable dung, then sow the grass seed and bush and roll
down.

" If, after all requisite draining, the land still remains so wet
and miry as to render the use of the plough impracticable, the
bog-hoe must be resorted to, and the whole turned over by
hand, the top-dressing carried on in the winter and the grass
seed sowed in the spring, and if done before the frost is all out,
' it may be bushed and rolled down, otherwise it must be raked
in by hand. The cost of turning over with the hoe will not
exceed $20 per acre at the usual prices of labor.

" This mode of culture completely subdues the natural
grasses and wild herbage, and gives a compact rich surface of
vegetable mould, which will give an abundance of crop of the
best hay for four or five years without the aid of more manure.
If the sod be disturbed and attempted to be pulverised in the
course of the cultivation, the surface when laid to grass will be
loose and spongy, an extra top-dressing of compost will be re-
quired, and after all, the surface will never become so compact,
nor the produce by any means so great.

360

" Should meadows be found too soft and miry to admit of
being ploughed in the summer or autumn, and the expense of
turning with the hoe be thought too great, I would recommend
ploughing in the spring, when the frost is out to the depth of
three or four inches, carting on the manure and then sowing or
planting at a convenient and proper season.

" The most important parts of the business in reclaiming
these meadows, consist in taking off all the surplus water by
judicious draining, and in thoroughly exterminating the natural
herbage and grass. This being effected, we have our rich bot-
toms equally as productive as the deep alluvions of the west,
and obtained at a cost and sacrifice very much less.

" In answer to your inquiry whether I have turned over green-
sward and sowed it directly down to grass without manuring,
I reply that I have not ; my course has been to top-dress the
inverted sward with compost. With reference to the ultimate
improvement of the soil, I plough deep, which brings to the
surface a considerable portion of the poor subsoil, requiring to
be mixed with manure to render it productive. That land may
be greatly benefited by turning over the greensward after the
crop of hay is taken off, and immediately sowed to grass with-
out manure, I have no question ; but for present profit, as well
as with a view to future improvement, it may be well to dress
with manure. My best crops of grass are, however, from fields
which have been planted, the season of turning over the green-
sward, with corn or roots, and sowing to grass the next spring
without disturbing the inverted sward. I have found that when
grass seed is sowed upon the sward without cultivating it for
one season, the poorer kinds of natural grasses spring up be-
tween the furrow slices, and in the course of a year or two en-
tirely supplant the better kinds of cultivated grasses. This is
a great object with farmers who raise hay for the market. The
quantity grown upon an acre, without putting on a hoed crop
for the first season after turning over, may be quite as great,
but of inferior quality."

5. The next account which I shall give is that of Abel Moore,

361

of Concord, in this county, whose improvements have been
remarkable and in the highest degree productive. The land,
which has thus been renovated, before his improvements, though
almost in the centre of the beautiful village of Concord, would
scarcely have brought a retit of 25 cents to the^acre. Those,
who would see what magic power there is in skilful cultivation,
would find a high gratification in comparing a part of this
meadow which now remains in its original state, with that which,
I had almost said, Mr. Moore has raised from the dead and
adorned with life and beauty. The mode in which Mr. Moore
forms his ditches, by making them so wide at top that the slope
to the bottom is so gradual that they may be crossed in the
summer season with a team without a bridge, deserves partic-
ular attention. Here is no heaving of frosts and caving in of
banks, or undermining of the edges of the ditch ; and the slope
of the bank is so easy that grass may be grown and mowed to
the very bottom.

"In the winter of 1826 I began to cut off the brush from
about 20 acres of my farm, lying between the old county road
and the turnpike leading from Concord to Boston. In the sum-
mer of 1827 I commenced ditching this meadow land by cut-
ting ditches through the same about 4 feet wide and from 3 to
4 feet deep. In the fall of the same year I commenced gravel-
ling about two acres of the same land by carting on about 500
loads of sandy loam to the acre. In the spring of 1828 1 sowed
these two acres down with oats and grass seed, and had a large
crop of oats. I have ever since had a large crop of grass twice
every year without any depreciation. On about one half of
this land I have never put any manure since it was first sowed
down, but it has the wash of the road which does it considera-
ble good. I have continued reclaiming more or less of this land
every year since, and have already finished about 23 acres. I
am doing more at this time, and shall continue to reclaim this
land until 1 get the greater part of it done.

You ask me if I have ever pared and burnt the land. An-
swer. I have not ; but 1 have a paring machine which I have
46

362

run through both ways so as to cut it in junks about five inches
deep. I have then turned it over, rolled it down, added sandy-
loam and compost, and sowed it down with oats and grass seed.
This I did two years ago last spring, and had the best crop of
oats I ever raiSed. and I have had since as large crops of grass
on this as on any other land. I have ploughed four or five
acres of the land since I fixed it, and have raised the first year
large crops of potatoes, and then laid it down the next spring
with oats, wheat, and grass seed. In every instance I have not
failed of having a large crop.

You ask me how often it requires top-dressing. Answer.
About once in two or three years. 1 always put on the dress-
ing in the fall if convenient. I spread it, then harrow it well,
and roll it down.

You ask me if I have measured any of my meadow and
weighed the hay. Answer. I caused a small square piece be-
tween two ditches to be measured. It contained 84 rods. The
grass was well dried in two days of as good hay weather as we
had last year, and weighed 38 hundred and 5 lbs. I cut a good
second crop on the same which I did not weigh.

I have never kept any particular account of what it costs me
to redeem my meadow. But I am sure the two first crops
have amply repaid all expense for the whole labor.
: In ditching my meadow of late, I have left no raised banks,
but have levelled it back, so as to have grass to the very edge
of the bank, and to prevent the banks from caving in."

G. My next account is from Amos Bancroft, M. D., atGroton,
whose method will be found to be in some respects different
from that pursued by others. The appearance of his mowing
fields and the amount of his potatoe crops certainly speak well
for his husbandry.

" I will give you a concise account of my method of reclaim-
ing the peat meadows. I have tried ploughing, paring, and
planting with potatoes. I think ploughing in the beginning
does not answer. I first drain the ground by ditching, if it re-
quires it. Then I bog and cut off" the hassocks, stack lliem

363

and bum them on the ground or remove them to the upland.
Part of our peat meadow has no hassocks or bogs. My practice
has been to plant before breaking the surface. I place a shov-
elful of manure and earth, or any good compost, in hills
on the ground about 3 feet apart for my potatoes, and in dressing
them with bog hoes, cover them from the surface sods and
make potato hills of a suitable size ; they require but little
more attention until they are dug. After this, if the surface is
sufliciently rotten or pulverized, I give it a dressing and sow
with timothy and redtop ; if not, I plough and plant another
year. The more gravel or loam I carry on the better. The
first crop of potatoes I think pays for the labor. After it is
sown down it will require to be ploughed or dressed every three
or fom* years. My meadow gives me two tons of hay to the
acre. Where the ground is too wet to be ploughed I cart on I
gravel and manure, and repeat every three or four years. Po-
tatoes and hay are the only crops I have succeeded in bringing
to profit. Oats will grow rank, but are liable to be blasted and
fall down. Wheat and rye, I think, will do no better ; but I
have experimented on a very small scale on the two latter.
Lime, plaster, and ashes T have never tried. The reason I
plough my ground on the meadow, instead of letting it lie and
dressing it every few years, is because I raise my potatoes on
it easier than on the upland. I think likewise the process of
ploughing and harrowing improves the soil by pulverizing and
warming the surface. The annual quantity of potatoes raised
on the meadow is from three to five hundred bushels."

Dr. Bancroft's crops are excellent. Two winters since his
grass was entirely killed out by severe freezing, the meadows
being covered with ice. The gravel which he speaks of apply-
ing is from a clay bank in the neighborhood, and contains a
large portion of alumina.

The meadows in Groton are quite extensive to the east and
west of the town : in the former case a tract of 100 acres ; in
the latter, of 150 acres. The soil is peat ; but of fine grain,
not abounding so much in fibrous matter as some neat, and but

364

little of it is suitable for fuel. Much of this land is now under
very high improvement, though some of the proprietors with an
incredulity and obstinacy peculiar to some men, and evidently
in a degree constitutional, will not seethe improvements, though
their own land in its original swampy and tangled condition,
presents a strong contrast with the improved meadows of their
neighbors. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Much land remains to have its face washed and its hair combed.
These meadows are easily drained ; the level of the meadow
being 115 feet above the Nashua river, and there being an out-
let at each end.

When these lands become perfectly subdued and cnriclied,
lying as they do open to full view with the beautiful village of
Groton upon their margin, with the wide horizon and the dis-
tant mountains bounding the prospect, it will not be easy
to find a more charming landscape.

7. Another farmer in Groton, Rufus Morrs, whose farming is
excellent, has effected great improvements in the reclamation
of peat meadows. His premises indicate indefatigable indus-
try directed by great skill and judgment.

He disapproves, he says, from long experience, the applica-
tion of gravel to these lands. He " bogs " the meadow with
a hoe, that is, turns over all the sods ; carries on a compost of
loam and manure mixed, plants potatoes, or lays it down with
oats to be cut green, or sows it in the fall without any grain.
He has sometimes taken up a piece in the autumn ; repeatedly
harrowed it until it was reduced to a fine state ; manured it ;
then sowed grass seed at the rate of half a bushel of herdsgrass
and a quantity of red-top, but no clover, and the next season
has taken a large burden of grass from this land.

8. I have found nowhere on a small scale, more skilful im-
provements executed tlian on the farm of Mark Fay, inMarlboro'.
He made various attempts of which he gives the subjoined ac-
count. From 1829 until 1836, he states that he tried various
ways, until he adopted the plan of turfing, and burning the
turf in heaps and spreading the ashes. He then in June seeded

365

the ground with grass seed, and at the same time sowed oats,
which he cut in August for fodder, and as nearly as he could
judge, he had about two tons to the acre. The next season he
had a crop of herdsgrass and clover. He mowed the ground
twice, and obtained by estimation, four tons to the acre. In
September, 1837, he turfed and burnt about one fourth of an
acre and sowed winter rye. In Juno the ensuing season, he
cut about two rods of the straw for braiding-straw, which
proved very good. He reaped the remainder, which yielded
five bushels of good rye. In August, 1838, he turfed about
one acre, and let the turf lay about a week turned bottom up
and then set fire to it as it lay. It burnt very well. He thinks
this better than to burn it in heaps, as it leaves the ground more
even, and saves the labor of collecting, the turf. The expense
of turfing, burning, and seeding this acre, was about 12 dollars,
whereas his first experiment cost him more than 50 dollars per
acre. In the second year, he gives the ground a top-dressing
with compost manure, and continues this yearly. His first
movement is to ditch the ground thoroughly, and so to drain
that the water in the ditches certainly may not stand within
eighteen inches of the surface, and he finds it necessary to cut
a ditch near the hard land, the margin of the meadow, so as to
intercept the cold springs. He usually plants the banks of the
ditches two or three years with potatoes ; and after this part
of the ground gets well warmed and rotted, he spreads it on
the grass for a top-dressing.

I inquired the result with some carrots, which by way of ex-
periment, he had sowed upon the banks of his ditches. He
answers that he obtained thirty bushels on ten rods, and thinks
he should have had fifty, had he not been too sparing of his seed.
They would have done better in the other parts of the ground,
as the banks of the ditches proved too dry for them. He has
now obtained a turf-cutter, which is calculated to be used with
ox or horse-power. The share is like that of a common plough,
excepting that it wings each way eight inches from the centre.
It has no mould board. It has a coulter, and this with the

366

shares are ground to a sharp edge. It cuts the turf in strips
without turning them over ; and they are then cut crosswise
with a knife and inverted.

Mr. Fay's plan of cultivating the banks of his ditches is, on
some accounts, not to be approved. Leaving the mud thrown
out of the ditch upon the edge, increases the danger of their
caving in. Mr. Moore's (of Concord) plan of excavating his
ditches will, I hope, attract the particular attention of farmers.
Mr Fay — and many other of the excellent farmers of Marlboro'
agree with him — is of the opinion that the first crop in these cases
usually pays for the cost of the improvement. They agree,
likewise, in pronouncing loam and manure in compost the best
dressing ; and that gravel is to be avoided.

9. This subject of reclaiming meadow is of so much import-
ance, that I shall ofler no apology for giving in detail the prac-
tices of many of our best farmers. I now add the views of
Wm. Buckminster, of Framingham, Editor of the Massachu-
setts Ploughman, published in Boston, to whose agricultural in-
telligence and enterprise, and likewise mechanical ingenuity,
the farmers of the county and State are much indebted.

" We were not long in discovering that we could raise good
English grass on all peat bottoms which could be drained. We
now consider all such land the most valuable we possess for
obtaining hay. We adopt various modes to subdue these bogs,
according to their condition and to the materials in the vicinity
suitable to be applied to the surface. Some of the bogs will
bear up a team, and we are able to subvert the surface-sod, by
means of a large plough with a sharp share and coulter. In
some cases, we use a paring plough which cuts the sod, and
leaves it in its place to bear up the team. After an acre has
been thus cut, the bog-hoes are made use of to cross-cut the
furrow and to subvert it. Loam, gravel, or sand is then carted
or wheeled on, covering the sods one inch or more in depth,
according as we judge necessary to make the surface even, and
to give it warmth. When a bank of loam, gravel, &c. is near
and the surface of the bog is even, we cover completely all the

367

vegetable growth, that it may rot and become manure for the
future growth ; and this mode is found preferable to any other
where the material for covering is found near the bog ; two
men with wheel-barrows being able to cover an acre in one
week, at an expense of 12 dollars. In all cases we apply com-
post manures to the surface, and mingle them with the loam,
&c., before sowing our grass-seed. When the surface is rough
and the vegetable growth consists of bushes, coarse grasses and
hassocks, we pare and burn the whole surface soil, and obtain
aslies enough for manure for two or three years. After that we
apply composts, consisting mostly of gravelly loam to warm
the surface and to keep out the wild grasses. This mode of
subduing is often as cheap as any, when the meadow is broad
and materials for covering the surface are not near. Gravel is
the material which we prefer when the meadow is quite cold
and wet, as it gives more warmth to the surface and brings the
peat mud more readily to action. But when the bog is dry, and
consequently does not want so much warming, loam is prefer-
red to gravel ; and the richer the loam, the less compost man-
ure will be required to start the first growth. Sand is some-
times carried on, but we consider sand the least suitable mate-
rial to be applied in large quantities to cover these bogs. It
lies heavy and does not bring the peat to action so readily as
fine gravel ; though sand in small quantities is found quite use-
ful when mixed with heavy soils not consisting of peat.

" The best calculators endeavor to get these bogs ready for
the seed by the first of September, if possible, since they are
then enabled to cut a good swarth in the following summer.
They usually sow herdsgrass and red-top seed at that season,
and a little clover in the winter, as this is more liable to be
winter-killed than other seeds.

" Our first step is to drain the bog sufficiently to enable us
to operate on the surface and to root out the water grasses. In
cutting the drains, we have regard to subsequent operations
which may be needed to renovate the soil again when the sour
grasses have encroached too much on those which we intend

368

shall be a substitute. When the springs will permit, we cut
our ditches parallel with each other, and thus form lands which
may be readily ploughed after the ground has been filled with
grass roots. These meadows grow harder continually as we
continue to grow the better grasses in them, and we often find
it practicable to use the plongh as in case of higher lands when
the sod requires to be subverted. Wild grasses will invariably
creep in ere many years elapse, and we subdue them by plough-
ing about the first of September and seeding again on the fur-
row."

10. A successful instance of this same kind of improvement in
Essex county has been reported to me by Wm. Osborn, of Lynn,
and is so creditable to him for its exactness that I think proper
to annex it.

Four acres of peat meadow in Saugus. Mr. Osborn com-
menced in 1837 by paring and burning ; but finding it likely to
be too wet, and thinking this method was at the expense of the
soil, he turned it over and left it to the action of the frost in the
winter. In the spring had the whole surface chopped fine with
sharp grub-hoes for after-crops ; cut four ditches across it, with
a sufficient outlet to keep the water down at least fifteen inch-
es from the surface. The ditches were four feet wide and three
deep. The land was formerly covered with a heavy growth of
pine and maple, the stumps of which remained ; audit was now
covered with a young growth of maples, alders, dog-wood, &c.
The process of paring and getting out the stumps was going on
at the same time ; and all the work was done by hand, as the
bottom was too miry for cattle to assist in removing the stumps.
I am best satisfied, Mr. Osborn remarks, with that part where
the sods were burned. I find, by throwing it into beds or ridg-
es that I have no trouble from the water; and unless the sea-
sons prove very wet, the land may be cultivated with any root
crop whatever.

I annex a sketch of the different plots divided into seven
parts by ditches.

1. Q,uarter acre pared and burned and ashes spread. The sods

369

which were not fully burned, were put into a compost heap
and mixed with stable manure, lime, and salt. The land was
thrown into drills, manured with compost and unbleached
ashes, and sown with cabbage.

2. Cultivated and manured in the same way excepting the
ashes, and sowed with ruta-baga.

3. 4. The sods were turned over ; the mud spread from
the ditches and raked in with a handrake. Land sown with
rye and grass.

5. 6. Planted with potatoes, squashes, pumpkins and cu-
cumbers ; manured with very coarse yard manure.

7. Planted with corn, potatoes and squashes, and manured
much the same as 5 and 6.

The part on which the sod was burnt, produced most abun-
dantly ; on a small space of thirty paces, three drills in width,
we dug nine bushels of potatoes uncommonly large. We could
fill a bushel basket without removing it, and we had no occa-
sion for hoes in digging them as we had only to pull the vines
to bring them all out.

1 will add the account of expenses and products.

Cost of land, ......

$25 00

Labor by contract, .....

86 50

94 days help from the farm, ....

70 50

Potatoes for seed, .....

15 00

Rye and grass seed, .....

1 17

Six cords of manure, .....

30 00

2 casks of lime, .....

2 00

22 days in gathering crops, ....

16 50

$246 67

Products.

327 bushels potatoes at 60 cents
5 do rye at $1 25.
8 1 do corn at $1 00,

47

$196 20
6 25

8 50

30 00

12 00

25 00

20 00

25 00

$322 95

370

100 bushels ruta baga at 30 cts. .
1800 to 2000 lbs. hay,

50 dozens of cabbages at 50 cts.
2000 lbs, squashes,
Value of fuel taken off, at least

Balance in favor of the improvement the first year, $76 28

The prices of the produce are estimated at a high rate ; but
they were the current prices at the time. The improved value
of the land is not rated; but it would be fair to place it at 100
dollars per acre.

11. An improvement of a similar kind by William Gifford of
West Falmouth, Plymouth county, is equally remarkable.
This was a low piece of sunken peat bog, which he began to
drain by ditching it, making his ditches 4 feet wide at top,
three feet at bottom and two deep, thus laying the ground
into beds or plats 20 feet in width. The contents of the
ditches were carefully spread upon the land. In the ensuing
winter, while the ground was frozen, the whole surface was
covered to the thickness of half an inch with fine mould.
This ground was sewed with wheat and grass seed early in the
spring when the frost was out not more than three inches, and
a dressing of about six tons of horse manure applied to the
acre, and the whole carefully harrowed. The wheat and
grass grew finely. He obtained about six bushels of excellent
wheat to the acre, and his stubble crop of clover and herds-
grass afterwards amounted to two tons to the acre. The land
now for two years has continued to maintain its condition. He
applies annually a dressing of horse manure about the same as
when he sowed it the first time. It has become so hard he
can now drive a ton weight upon any part of it, though when
he began he could thrust a pole into the ground ten feet with-
out difficulty, and it was difficult to walk over it without
sinking. By actual measurement it has yielded three tons of

371

excellent hay to the acre, and the first crop paid the whole ex-
pense. This improvement strongly arrested my attention
when in that part of the country ; and Mr Gifford writes to
me that it would not be for his interest to sell it for 500 dol-
lars per acre, although when he began it did not pay the in-
terest of five dollars per acre,

12. Another case of improvement, although not of peat-bog
yet of low wet land (producing scarcely any thing), and by ditch-
ing, draining, and manuring, making it in the highest degree
productive, is so remarkable that, although in another county, I
will not withold it, especially as I shall not have another op-
portunity of presenting it in this form. The land has been
thoroughly relieved from standing water; and without doubt
much of its productiveness is attributable to the application
of the wool waste. It belongs to the woolen factory near
Northampton, in Hampshire county, and is under the manage-
ment of the intelligent superintendent, S. Brewer. Recent ac-
counts of the same land speak of its undiminished pro-
ductiveness.

" I find, on reference to the deed, that there are eight acres
and one hundred rods, about two thirds of which is a cold, un-
even, swaley, piece of land — and the residue, the last two years,
has been under high cultivation.

When we purchased this lot four years since, nothing of any
consequence had been done to it for some time, and the first year
we did but little to it ourselves. The second we manured it
pretty high, and the third (which was last year) we put all on
it that it would bear.

The result of the year 1837 (that part of the lot to which I
now particularly allude) has been as follows : —

The land from actual measurement containing five hundred
and sixteen rods (3 acres, 36 rods), the product from the same
at two cuttings — the first July 8th and the second Sept. 6th —
has been 15 tons, 642 lbs. of the best quahty of English hay.

About one half of the manure put upon this piece of land
was from the barn yard, and the other half our waste wool

372

spread in the fall and raked off as early in the spring as the frost
would admit. That part of the lot which received the latter
manure was more productive than the other. From having had
so good a covering, the roots of the grass were kept warm
through the winter, and as soon as the snow disappeared in the
spring I noticed a more healthy appearance, and the grass came
forward much earlier than it did upon that part of the lot which
received the barn-yard manure.

I am now breaking up and draining the other part of this lot,
and as soon as practicable I intend getting it into grass. When
that is once done, I have no doubt but we shall be able to cut
annually from this entire lot containing eight acres and one hun-
dred rods, thirty-jive tons of the first quality of hay.

I have no means of knowing the exact quantity of manure
used the last year upon this land ; but when I say 100 common
cart-loads, I believe that it will prove more than there were."

13. Another experiment in Tewksbury, in Middlesex county,
which in its progress has been entirely successful, and illustrat-
ing particularly the value of the wool waste, is deserving of
being recorded.

" I have commenced reclaiming my meadow. On ^ of an acre,
which I completed two years ago, by way of experiment, good
English hay was cut this last season at the rate of five tons per
acre. 1 ditch, pare, and burn, sow on grass seeds, spread the
ashes and give a coat of wool waste, never touching it with
either plough or harrow. I use an instrument in paring, for the
purpose of cutting the surface into strips or slices of about 12
inches wide, so that the long iron plough with a broad and
sharp sock or share, fixed to it to cut the bottom of said slices,
shall easily turn them over. This instrument consists of an
iron shaft of about three feet long and two inches diameter ; on
this, at the distance of one foot apart, three sharp steel, sword-
shaped cutters 1\ feet long, are fixed ; in the intervals between
the swords, on the said shaft, two strong handles are fixed,
which extend back and over the cutters, say 7 or 8 feet — the
cattle are attached by a chain and hook to the centre of the

373

shaft; the man bearing merely his weight on the handles.
With this tool it is very easy to cut through the grass roots of
common meadows ; on my meadow which is, or was all has-
socks, I think from what I have tried, that two men with a
yoke of oxen will pare one acre per day."

The following is a rough-sketched view of this instrument.

I shall add but one example more of this description of im-
provements, which as it comes from one of the best and most
successful farmers within my knowledge, and shows a differ-
ent process from any before given, will be read with interest.

14. " 1 have reclaimed 12 acres of meadow. Of thse 4 were
pared and burnt at an expense of ^25 an acre ; the ashes being the
only dressing. Three were turned with the spade at the same
expense, and manured with 6 cords of manure to the acre. The
remaining 5 were covered with the turf and mud from the numer-
ous ditches, but not being subdued by this method were finally
turned over with the spade. Thiity-five dollars an acre would
have covered the expense including ditching, but for the useless
labor to which I have alluded. The last 5 acres being partially
decomposed, were burnt over at a time when the moisture below
prevented the fire from penetrating much under the surface.
These and one of the first four have had no other dressing.
The last crop being the third year was about 1| ton to the acre.
The manured part has done best. The whole v/as planted
previously to being stocked to grass which was done either late
in summer or early in autumn."

374

The improvements in different parts of the county are quite
remarkable, and to be seen to some extent in almost every
town. There are still large tracts to be recovered. It is hoped
that what has been done will excite a universal ambition to
convert every such worthless bog mto a fruitful field. While
farmers are constantly seeking to enlarge their number of acres,
how much is it to be desired that those, which they already
have, should be brought into a condition of productiveness.
The usual objection to all improvements, that they cannot af-
ford them, will not apply here, where by an outlay of twenty-
five dollars the value of one or two hundred may be realized.

15. But much more expensive improvements than those
to which I have referred have been made in the county,
and with a success, which has afforded a full remuneration for
the labor and money expended. On the farm of Nathan
Smith, Jr., in Waltham, and so likewise on Mr Phinney's
farm, in Lexington, considerable tracts, which it was not easy
to drain by a ditch, have been redeemed in this mode. The
whole ridge of broken land, which is included in Lexington
and the upper part of Charlesto wn, and indeed the whole of
this region, abounds in large rocks and stones of granite. Jt is
as important for the improvement of the uplands that these
rocks should be removed, as for the bogs that they should be
drained. In order to effect this they have been frequently
piled up in walls of four and six feet thickness, or made up
into single heaps on different parts of the farm. In the im-
provements to which I now refer, two purposes have been
answered — the first to drain the bog, the second to get rid of
the stones. Besides this, large amounts of raw material are ob-
tained for the compost heap. Accordingly, in these cases the
farmers have gone into the centre of the meadow and dug a
deep ditch, throwing all the mud upon one side ; they have
then, at a season either of frost in winter or extreme drought
in summer, filled in these places with stones until they were
raised to such a height as they judged best, and then they have
returned upon these stones the mud taken out of the ditches.

375

They have then made another ditch within the first, which
they have filled in with stones and then covered with the mud
thrown out as before ; and so have kept on until they have
reacfied the margin of the meadow. The bog then is com-
pletely underlaid with this bed of stones, which serves to drain
the land ; and the surface above the stones may be cultivated
or kept in grass as may be desired. This appears to be an ex-
pensive improvement, but the excellent crops soon repay the
cost, and furnish land of the most productive nature.

16. Improvements of this kind of land have been made in some
other parts of the State by another process. In Hingham and
Abington, Plymouth county, in the case of individuals owning
large tan yards, they have, after draining these meadows as
well as the situation admitted of, covered them wiih spent tan of
hemlock bark from their tan pits, to the depth of six inches or
a foot; upon this they have spread a covering of mould or
loam and compost manure and then sowed grass seed freely.
These meadows liave produced most abundant crops of hay ;
and as the tan, where so much wet remains, is fast rotting, the
whole surface must presently become a deep and lasting bed of
rich vegetable matter. There has been in many places a diffi-
culty among tanners in disposing of their refuse tan. There
has been a prejudice against using it for manure. When ap-
plied in a crude state it is undoubtedly unfriendly to vegetation ;
but in a decayed and rotted state it is as beneficial in the soil
as any other thoroughly decomposed vegetable matter. This
use of it demonstrates its value.

There is a large amount of this bog land in Middlesex coun-
ty, yet to be redeemed. The extensive and unsightly mead-
ows in Sudbury, which' might, if the draining of them were
practicable, be brought into fertile fields, must remain as they
are, as the damming up of the water-courses on account of the
mills below will prevent the reduction of the water.

17. The reclaiming of these peat bogs and quagmires is un-
doubtedly the greatest improvement in the agriculture of Middle-
sex county ; but there are other improvements going on of much

376

importance. In my First Report on the Agriculture of Massachu-
setts, the attention of the farmers was strongly called to the
use of the subsoil plough, which after a trial of more than
twelve years, in connection with the system of thorough drain-
ing, was then effecting a most beneficial revolution in English
agriculture. Confirmations of its extraordinary utility were
abundantly furnished in my Second and Third Reports. Since
that, a subsoil plough after the most approved model has been
introduced into the country and subjected to a most successful
experiment. Improvements in Great Britain are undertaken
upon a scale far beyond any thing likely to be attempted
among us. There they think the subsoil ploughing must be
preceded by a thorough draining of the land or the good
effects of it will not be fully realized. Some few attempts
among us at subsoil ploughing without draining, have been so
beneficial as to warrant the most sanguine expectations of ad-
vantage, when the joint system shall be completely carried out
on lands adapted to it. The success is dependent on three
particulars; first, the freeing of the land from all superfluous
wet. Tlie deepening and loosening of the soil to a depth of
sixteen or twenty inches with drains, completely underlaying
the field, will cause the water, which falls and which would
otherwise remain in the ground, at once to pass off. The sec-
ond is, by deepening and loosening the soil to render it permea-
ble to the roots of the plants, which then easily extend them-
selves in search of their proper nourishment, and accessible
likewise to light and air, which are both essential or conducive
to vegetation. The third is, by bringing the subsoil gradually
to the surface to cause it to become enriched by the air, by
manuring and cultivation, and ultimately rendering the whole
depth of soil moved by the plough of equal fertility. The eft'ect
of light and air in enriching soils exposed to them is observed
easily where the dirt from digging a well is thrown out, which,
though at first absolutely sterile, will after awhile become
covered with a healthy vegetation. There can be no longer a
question of the great improvements which are to come from

377

the proper use of this instrument ; and I am happy to record
the success which has followed the partial use of it on Mr.
Phinney's farm.

" My potatoe crop this season fully demonstrated to me the
great utility of the subsoil plough. Early in June I planted a
field of four acres of my hard stony upland with potatoes —
half the field with rohan, and half with long red potatoes.
The soil a thin vegetable mould upon a gravelly subsoil. The
same field I planted a few years ago with potatoes, and owing
to the hard crust beneath this thin mould which the roots could
not penetrate, the dry weather in August killed the tops and
my crop hardly paid the expense of digging. The last spring
I spread upon the field ten loads of manure from my hog-styes,
being mostly composed of peat mud, to the acre. The drills
were made by the common plough, drawn by one horse and
followed by the subsoil plough, drawn by two yoke of oxen,
which effectually broke the hard crust, and loosened the earth
from 12 to 15 inches below the surface, and though the drought
was very severe the tops remained perfectly green and thrifty
through the season. At harvesting I dug 270 bushels of ro-
han from the acre, and 280 of the long red potatoes from each
acre. Taking into view the hard dry condition of the land,
the light dressing of manure, the almost unprecedented drought
and the entire failure of the crop in a former year, I fully believe
the crop this year (1841) though but a moderate one, is owing
mainly to the use of the subsoil plough. This was made more
apparent from the fact that a few short rows at one corner of
the field, where the subsoil plough was i?ot used, yielded but
about half the quantity produced on an equal space on other
parts of the field.

"The astonishing results of numerous experiments made by
farmers in Europe, in subsoil ploughing and under-ground
draining, would seem incredible did they not come too well at-
tested to admit of a doubt. Most of our farmers have a portion
of cold wet land lying at the foot of high lands; having no
vegetable deposit, they cannot be called or treated like swamps

48

378

or peat meadows. The top consists of a thin black mould
resembling in some degree the poorer kind of alluvial soils,
resting upon a hard pan of gravelly or sandy clay, and notwith-
standing they are too wet in the spring to be susceptible of
cultiva4ion, they become by midsummer baked and very hard,
producing nothing but a small crop of sour, worthless grass.
Upon grounds of this character I have made some attempts at
under-draining, and after relieving them entirely of the surplus
water, have introduced the subsoil plough, breaking and
loosening the stilf, hard subsoil to the depth of fifteen inches.
I drain by digging ditches three feet deep and two feet wide
in all directions, where it was apparent that the springs from
the surrounding high lands might be intercepted ; and in lieu
of tiles, which are used for this purpose in England, I used the
common stones from my fields, leaving an open space of about
eight inches square at the bottom, to conduct the water off.
The drain is then half filled with small stones, which are cov-
ered with the tough hassocks taken from my bog meadows, to
prevent the dirt from getting into the drain. They are then
filled with earth and the field made smooth. Tlien follows
the common plough, and after it the subsoil plough. Of all
the agricultural experiments which I have made, this is decid-
edly the most satisfactory, and yields a greater profit on the
amount expended."

B. V. French, of Braintree, Norfolk county, has likewise
commenced some improvements of land with the subsoil
plough. "He ploughed nearly eight acres in April and May
last. The land was strong with a tenacious subsoil. 'J'he
work was done by first turning a furrow with a connnon
plough, and then following with the subsoil plough to the depth
of from 16 to 20 inches, excepting when ploughing near small
fruit trees, when it was run out in order to avoid cutting the
roots." The experiment is yet but imperfect, and I regret that
Mr F. has not given me an account of the crops cultivated, but
he speaks of the results as being " most satisfactory."

18. It would be difficult to enumerate the various individuals,

379

who have spoken to me of the increase of the products of their
farms, and especially of their hay-crops within a few years.

Jacob Pierce, of Woburn says, ten years ago he cut not more
than five tons of hay upon his farm. Now his crop is from 35
to 40 tons. Asa Locke, of the same town, says that thirty
years ago his farm did not yield four tons of hay ; now it pro-
duces forty tons. Francis Richardson, of Billerica, bought his
farm in 1S16. The yield was at that time two tons of hay.
He now cuts forty tons. Pursuing the business of a butcher
aid soap boiler, he has peculiar advantages, which are not
available to all, and shows that he understands the proper use
of them.

19. Benjamin P. Hutchings in Carlisle, has made very great
improvements with very limited means. Twenty-two years ago
he did not obtain a single ton of English hay from his farm.
Now his crops are large, having sold the last year, besides re-
taining enough for his stock, standing grass to the amount of
sixty dollars, and liay in the market to the amount of two
hundred dollars.

This farmer has used largely of the cotton waste and seed
obtained at Lowell, of which I have before spoken. He spread
it upon dry and gravelly grass land with great advantage ; the
grass was one third larger than that part of the field which
was manured with barn manure. The same substance, when
well rotted, produced on low lands excellent rye and pota-
toes. Its application to corn on low land was beneficial, on
high or dry land it was not so useful. This cotton waste costs
at Lowell 50 to 75 cents per load ; it is as heavy as barn man-
ure ; and should be well rotted and mixed with mould or com-
post before being used.

20. Zaccheus Read, of Westford, whose farming is highly
creditable to him, has an example of irrigation on a small scale.
He conducts a small stream into a field on a side hill and by
carrying it in a zig-zag direction by channels or furrows on the
side hill is able to flash the water over the whole field. This
has been attended with great advantage. The experiment is on

380

so limited a scale that it would scarcely have deserved notice,
but that I wish earnestly to attract the attention of the farmers
to this subject. As yet it has hardly received any considera-
tion ; yet where circumstances are favorable to it, its results are
among the most beneficial. It must be the case in respect to
many drained meadows that by a dam and gate at the outlet,
they might in a dry time be flooded at pleasure and to great
advantage. The keeping of the water upon meadows through
the winter by flooding them has proved injurious, destroying
the artificial grasses, and either leaving the ground naked or
bringing in the coarse aquatic grasses, which are worthless.

21. A great improvement has taken place throughout the
county in the construction of barns. Few farmers now think of
building a barn or stable without having under it a commodi-
ous cellar for the manure, where it is protected from the sun
and air and rain. Some have added to their yards a well, in
which the liquid manure from the yard is collected, and by a
pump is occasionally thrown again upon the compost heap.
All this is commendable ; and such provisions for the saving of
the manure soon pay for themselves many times over. The
strongest indication of an improved, and the surest indication
of a successful husbandry, is in the sedulous care which is
taken to protect and increase the manure heap.

22. I ought not to quit the subject of agricultural improve-
ments in Middlesex county, without adverting to the subject of

ploughing land ; and to an improvement in this matter, the
advantages of which, if it had not its origin here, have been
exemplified in this county. The first ploughing match in the
United Stales, took place under the direction of the Massachu-
setts Society for promoting agriculture in Brighton in this
county, in 1817; and these ploughing matches, which now an-
nually take place in every county where there is an Agricultu-
ral Show, have been of the most essential service in improving
the form and making of ploughs and the art of ploughing.
Perfection is as yet very far from being reached, but in com-
paring, as many of us are able to do, a field after being plough-

381

ed thirty years ago with one at the present day, the improve-
ment seems most extraordinary.

The great aim of the ploughman now is not only completely
to invert the sward, but so completely to cover in the vegetable
matter upon the surface that it shall be kept under for the en-
riching of the soil instead of being exhaled by the sun and air.
The importance of this vegetable matter in its decay to the suc-
ceeding crop is not a recent discovery. It is mentioned by early
cultivators; and Lorain, of Pennsylvania, one of the most sen-
sible and practical writers upon improved husbandry we have
ever had, particularly insists upon it. But E. Phinney, of Lex-
ington, in this county, is the first person, within my knowledge,
who undertook to demonstrate its advantages by showing the
actual amount of vegetable matter ordinarily contained in the
surface of an acre of land in grass. By taking a cubic foot
of greensward in a mowing field, and carefully separating
by hand and weighing all the vegetable matter which it con-
tainedj^he ascertained that it would equal at least thirteen tons
to the acre. This was a remarkable result, and evinced the
importance of a mode of ploughing by which this herbage
should be completely covered. This is done by turning the
furrow slices perfectly llat so as to drop one within the other.
Where the field is to be laid immediately down to grass this
method is good ; but where it is to be cultivated in corn or po-
tatoes, it seems to me preferable to turn the furrows at such an
angle that they shall lap one upon the other. When this is
done by a skilful and careful }>loughman, the vegetable matter
on the sward will be as completely covered in as if the sward
were laid perfectly flat ; and this advantage will follow, that
where the furrow is thus laid obliquely a larger portion of the
surface is exposed to the enriching influences of the sun and
air, and when the harrow passes over it, it is reduced to a finer
tilth.

It is considered desirable in these cases not to disturb the
vegetable matter turned under during the rotation ; and some
farmers are in the practice of ploughing once only for theso

382

crops. Thus, for example, the land being turned over to the
depth of six or eight inches, corn is planted ; the next year this
same ground is not ploughed again, but merely harrowed and
sown with wheat or rye, or some small grain, and laid down to
grass. The saving of the labor of one ploughing is something ;
but the chief advantage in this case is in not disturbing the veg-
etable matter buried by the complete inversion of the sward,
until it is thoroughly decomposed, and in a condition to go to
the nourishment of the growing plants. On the farm of R.
Morss, in Groton, I saw the advantages of this mode of cultiva-
tion strongly exemplified, where, in one case, in the same field,
grass had been sown after only one ploughing — the second crop,
wheat, having been cultivated by only splitting the hills of
the Indian corn, and giving the ground a thorough harrowing ;
and in the other part of the field, two hoed crops had been ta-
ken before the land was laid down to grass, and the land plough-
ed deep without regard to breaking and bringing up the sward
before it was thoroughly rotted. On the former ground the
crop of grass was a third heavier than on th.e latter.

XIV. Fruits and Orchards. — Middlesex county is distin-
guished for the abundance and excellence of its fruit, embrac-
ing many varieties. I had intended to have gone at large into
the cultivation of the fruits and garden vegetables with which
the market is supplied from this county, but it would too much
extend my report.

One of the largest products of small fruits is that of strawber-
ries. These are cultivated in great perfection and with corres-
ponding profit. In one case, I Iiave known an individual to sell
six hundred dollars' worth from an acre in a single season ; and
in another case, from a little more than an acre, another farmer
to sell 3000 quart-boxes, averaging, after commissions of sale
were deducted, 25| cents per box, or, in the whole, 765 dollars.
These are cultivated in wide drills, on narrow beds. In the
autumn, they are covered with straw, sea-weed, or fresh-mead-
ow hay ; in the spring this is raked off, and good manure is

383

abundantly dug in between the drills, and then the litter is re-
placed between the rows. This serves the double purpose of
keeping the ground moist, and likewise of keeping the fruit
from the dirt. The vines require to be replanted once in three
years.

Peaches are cultivated to some extent, though under many
discouragements. They were raised nearly half a century ago
with much more success than of late years. A farmer in Wal-
tham has sold 700 dollars' worth in a season from his peach or-
chards. I mention such facts as these, which are unquestiona-
ble, with a view to stimulate the farmers to the cultivation of
fruit of every description. With the present rapid increase of
the population in the cities, and the multiplication of manufac-
turing villages, there is no danger of over-production. With
the extraordinary increase of wealth likewise, to which our
community is evidently destined, we may expect an increase
of luxury ; and I have known within the two last years,
peaches, which were brought forward very early in a green-
house, and were of the best kind, to be sold for six dollars per
dozen in the market. The cultivator, whose establishment is
small, sold to the amount of seventy dollars in a season, and
could have doubled his sales, if he had had the fruit. It need
not trouble the conscience of the farmer to administer to so
innocent a luxury as that of indulging in fine fruit, however
liberally his customers may be willing to pay for it. In gene-
ral, peaches are a short-lived tree, but as they are easily culti-
vated, and come soon into bearing, a supply should be con-
stantly coming forward. A rare-ripe peach-tree, on the farm of
John Welles, in Natick, in this county, producing fruit of an
excellent quality, continued in bearing more than a third of a
century, and being a natural peach, that is, not engrafted,
the trees from the stones of this fruit preserve entirely the char-
acter of the original. The best cultivators advise to keep
a peach orchard constantly cultivated, and cover the roots of
the trees with salt hay or litter, in the autumn. Some prefer
to plant these trees on land with a northern rather than a south-

384

em aspect, as in the former case their vegetation is retarded in
the spring, and they are not so liable to the alternations of
freezing and thawing.

A very successful and most skilful farmer, George Pierce, of
West Cambridge, who, by his skill and industry, deserves all
the success which he obtains, succeeded last year in spite of
the drought, in obtaining an abundant crop of peaches, when
many others failed. The quality of his fruit may be determin-
ed by the fact, that many of them brought at once in the mar-
ket, one dollar per dozen. They were grown in the open air.
He surrounded his peach-trees, which he cultivated with the
same care as his corn and cabbages, with a bedding more than
a foot thick of litter, being his refuse bean vines, embracing a
space of two yards or more in diameter. Several times during
the drought, he poured one or two barrels of water from the
neighboring pond upon his litter, so that it was kept constantly
moist. He did this once a week until rain came. The effects
upon the trees were excellent and almost immediately apparent.
His trees yielded an abundant and perfect crop. When such
results are seen as the fruits of great care and well directed la-
bor in cases most unpromising, it is time for many of us to
cease talking about our " bad luck." A large part of mankind
never succeed because they are not willing or are too indolent
to take the obvious means of success. They want the reward
without complying with the conditions ; and to have the pleas-
ure of the dance without paying the fiddler. It is not strange
that such persons find " no luck about the house."

The cultivation of apples in Middlesex county is carried on to
a large extent, and might be increased with great advantage.
Great pains are taken to produce the very best engrafted fruit,
especially for winter, and among these, the Baldwin Apple and
the Golden Russet, are in most esteem. The Porter Apple,
which is an early autumnal fruit, is greatly valued. It would
be out of my province to go largely into this subject. The
amount of sales however, from some of the farms in the coun-
ty are quite large. A farmer in Waltham is accustomed to put

385

up for market, from 500 to 700 barrels. On a farm in Woburn,
which has been almost created by the labor of its present pro-
prietor, now in a green old age, enjoying the fruits of his in-
domitable industry, the sales of apples the year before the last
amounted to 1200 dollars. There are other farms, where the
product in fruit is greater than here, but as I have not the pre-
cise accounts, I do not state them. These results may surprise
many of the farmers in the interior. I hope they will surprise
them into the imitation of such industry and enterprise. To
many of the farmers in the interior, the extension of the rail-
roads will afford, in this matter and in many others, an oppor-
tunity of coming into equal competition with the farmers in
the immediate vicinity of the capital. There are new reasons
for the cultivation of apples since their value for the feeding of
swine and cattle has been discovered. If they are only
half as valuable as potatoes, and many farmers deem them of
equal value for this purpose, the ease with which they are raised
strongly recommends their cultivation.

There are many orchards in Middlesex of large extent and
in excellent condition. Two were some time since the subjects
of premium from the Massachusetts Agricultural Society. The
one belonging to Nahum Hardy, of Waltham, who reclaimed
eight acres of land from a wild and rude state, and planted it
with 500 apple-trees, all engrafted fruit ; the oiher of E. Phin-
ney, of Lexington, who brought a rough piece of land into a
suitable condition and planted it with 400 trees. Both these
farmers have extended their cultivation since that time, and the
admirable condition of their trees evinces the skill and care of
their management. The product of the orchard of the latter,
makes a large item in the returns of his farm. He has more
than a thousand trees in bearing.

Mr Phinney saved some of his trees a few years since by a
process which is worth recording. They had been completely
girdled near the ground in the winter by the mice, who had
eaten the bark round to a width of two or three inches or more.
By cutting scions, and inserting the ends of several of them
49

386

in the spring ronnd the tree, under the bark, above and below
the injury, so as to form a communication for the sap, the in-
jured parts have begun to grow together, the whole wound may
ultimately be covered, and the tree live and flourish. To most
persons, after the injury their situation would have seemed des-
perate. Mr Phinney avoids planting his trees deep ; but culti-
vates them as near the surface as he can, and at the same time
sufficiently to cover the roots.

John Welles, whose farm is in Natick, in this county, and
than whom few men among us have given more attention to
the subject of fruit and" forest trees, considers the ordinary life
of apple trees about sixty years ; but it would be desirable to
replace them soon after their decline commences. The situation
most favorable to an orchard is a sheltered situation with a moist
soil. He succeeded in producing a valuable growth of trees on
a light and unfriendly soil, by making a hole for planting four
feet square ; after removing about a foot of the top soil, which
was to be returned round the tree, taking out the hard pan at
bottom to a sufficient depth to deposit in it a load of stones,
and then sprinkling some mould on the stones and planting his
tree. The stones served to preserve moisture for the roots and
gave likewise in their interstices room for the roots to extend
themselves. No farmer need complain that his land is not suit-
able for an orchard ; because he may make it suitable, at an ex-
pense which the fruit of the tree after it comes in bearing will
soon compensate.

James Cutter, of Weston, has been remarkably successful in
transplanting trees of more than ordinary size. He has remov-
ed pear trees of 8 and 10 inches in diameter. His practice is
to clean the dirt entirely from the roots of the tree ; to cut oft"
all the roots, at a distance of four or five feet from the tree ; and
to put no manure in the hole.

I. M. Gourgas, of Weston, a farmer of much experience and
intelligence, disapproves of applying white-wash or any caustic
wash to the trees ; but he has found great advantage in the ap-
plication of ashes to them at the roots. To my inquiries of

387

one of the best farmers in the county, whose trees were in the
most healthy and perfect condition possible, what wash he ap-
plied to the bark, he answered the only wash he applied was
to the roots ; that is, he kept the trees themselves enriched and
cultivated in as careful a manner, as he wouli if they had
been the most delicate and valued exotics. An apple-tree grow-
ing in Kingston, Plymouth county, and planted in the year
1669, the year of Philip's war, bore, in 1838, thirty bushels of
good fruit. It is a high-top sweeting, a favorite apple among
the settlers of the Old Colony. Many of these trees, planted
many long years ago, still remain, productive, and of a large
size. They resemble the pilgrim fathers and their early des-
cendants in the vigor of their growth and the energy of their
endurance ; and the virtues of the good men whom they have
survived, in the sweet and precious fruit, which they continue
to yield.

The largest apple-tree, which I recollect, I found in Duxbu-
ry, in the same county ; and it was evidently an early settler.
On measuring it, I found its girth at the smallest part six feet
seven inches, at the dividing of the limbs, twelve feet five in-
ches, and the girth of one of the limbs, two feet five inches.
It produced in one year, 1211 bushels.

The fine orchards in the highly cultivated districts of West
Cambridge, to which I have referred, have been, in a great de-
gree, exempt from the scourges of the canker-worm, from which
others, in places not very far distant from them, have suffered.
Some of the farmers have given as a reason for this exemption,
that they make friends with the birds, never suffering one of them
to be disturbed, or scared, or killed. The birds, grateful for
this hospitality, destroy the canker-worms, who are much like
pirates, who plunder the cargo and burn up the vessel. I am
not convinced that the bu'ds are entitled to all the credit in the
case, though, undoubtedly, they should have a due share of it ;
but the protection which these good farmers show to the inno-
cent and defenceless, is as creditable to their humanity as to
their discretion. The birds are, in general, good friends to the

388

farmer ; and the man who can wantonly destroy the life of one
of these beautiful creatures can hardly with safety be trusted
with a child.

The crows who come into the field when the corn is
just coming out of the ground, destroy the only means of sup-
ply, and strangle all the hopes of the husbandman in their birth,
are not entitled to the same indulgence. If any offence should
be made capital, this would seem to be one. O. M. Whipple,
however, of Lowell, suggests a protection, which is effectual
and harmless.

'' A quart of corn soaked in strong saltpetre liquor, and sown
upon the surface of an acre of ground at the time the corn is
coming out of the ground, or at the time the crows commence
pulling it up, will serve as a sure protection against their inter-
fering at all with the corn. I have practised it for fifteen years
without ever knowing a hill of corn being touched after the
corn was sowed upon the field."

XV. Forest Trees. — The principal growth of the county
is white and yellow oak, pine both white and yellow, hickory,
soft-maple and white birch. Very little if any wood is stand-
ing, which is not comparatively recent. The original forests
have long since disappeared. The value of wood in the coun-
ty as fuel makes its increase and preservation of great import-
ance ; and I shall merely recur to such facts having a bearing
upon this subject as have come within my knowledge.

Edmund Parker, of Reading, in whose statements entire
confidence may be placed, says that he had occasion to sell
40 acres of woodland in Wilmington, on which the wood was
of only 20 years' growth. The wood on one half acre of this
land was cut and measured, and produced 36 cords, 5 feet of
white and yellow (or pitch) pine. This was at the rate of 73
cords 2 feet to the acre. The whole lot averaged more than
40 cords to the acre. The pitch-pine had ceased its growth ;
the white was still growing when cut. The soil was sandy J
and, it is evident, peculiarly favorable to the growth of thi^
kind of wood.

389

Addison Flint, of Reading, states upon his own knowledge
that a lot of wood in Andover of 33 years' growth, consisting
of fifty acres, yielded 900 cords of wood. Two thirds of the
wood were wahiut and maple ; one third was pitch-pine.

The value of standing wood in Reading, is from 2 to 3 dol-
lars per cord. The price of cutting and cording it, where it
grows, is from 58 to 62 cents. Mr. Flint speaks of four farms
within his vicinity devoted entirely to wood. On one of them
the greater part of the wood then standing was blown down in
the tremendous gale or whirlwind of 1816. It now yields
wood to the value of 100 dollars per acre. A white pine within
his knowledge, 39 years old, produced 15| cubic feet of wood.

A lot of 40 acres was, seventy years ago, completely stripped
excepting 110 trees. Since that time 200 cords have been
blown down upon it and sold. In this time the owner has, be-
sides, obtained the fuel necessary for the family, and sold 20
cords per year. It is judged that there are now 1500 cords
standing upon the lot. He is of opinion that no property fur-
nishes a more productive investment of capital than wood land
thus situated. The facts in the case would seem fully to con-
firm this opinion. The land after the wood is cut off is
usually sold for ten dollars an acre. I have found it a prevalent
conviction, both in this and Norfolk and Plymouth counties, in
all which much land has been thrown out of cultivation and
devoted to the raising of wood, that in general it may be cut
over once in twenty years, and yield in that time at least 20
cords. The return therefore upon the purchase at ten dollars
per acre, may be considered as equal to one cord of wood per
year standing, which can seldom in any situation be rated at
less than $2,50 per cord. This would be at the rate of 25 per
cent per year, without any risk of being indicted for taking
usurious interest; and without any of those compunctious vis-
itings which some men must fee!, if such men had any con-
science, whose accumulations are wrung from the sweat and toil
of the oppressed and defenceless, the over-worked and the half-
fed victims of avarice.

390

Wm. Blanchard, one of the oldest farmers in the county, and
since my visit to him called by Providence, I trust, to a higher
field of labor, gave it as the observation of a very long life, that
a thin and exhausted soil will give 25 cords of wood to an acre
in 25 years, and that good land in 30 years will give 50 cords
to an acre. Three years previously, from a lot of seventy acres
he cut 3000 cords of wood.

Elpaiet Loring, of Hingham, Plymouth county, states that
oak wood may be cut once in 15 or 20 years, and that he obtains
30 cords to the acre. Nathaniel Brooks, of Scituate, in the
same county, cuts his oak wood once in 15 to 20 years. This
subject is. in my opinion, of so much importance that I shall
subjoin the opinions and experience of some farmers, whose au-
thority is entitled to respect and confidence.

Elijah Atherton, of Stoughton, Norfolk county, writes me
thus :

" Wood land is considered to be the most profitable in our
vicinity. Land that is favorable to the growth of wood, with
proper care will produce twenty cords of wood per acre in
twenty years; (to wit,) one cord per year per acre, for twenty
years, at which time it is generally fit to cut off. The price of
good oak wood in the centre and westerly part of the town, is
$5,50 per cord, and in the easterly part, $6,00 per cord. Pine
wood is about two thirds that sum. There are nearly a thou-
sand acres of land in Stoughton, which twenty years ago, were
either mowed or pastured, but are now turned out and growing
up to wood. The raising of wood has now become a subject
of great importance with us. We consider it almost as injurious
to allow cattle to go into our young sprouts and browse, as into
our cornfields. Pine wood may easily be raised in our old,
worn-out fields and pastures of light land. Some of our farm-
ers have already begun to sow the pine seed, and transplant
small pino trees. Where this has been done, the prospect of a
fine growth of wood is very flattering. It often happens that
when the seeds fall from the large pine trees, the young trees
come up five or ten times as thick as they can grow to advan-

391

tage. In this case a large portion of them may be pulled up
without injury to the others ; and if the ground is properly pre-
pared, a rnan may transplant as many of them in a day as he
could of cabbage plants, and with as sure success. In doing
this, with a very little pains, he may have his trees completely
in rows, which will add much beauty to his forest, and to his
convenience when the wood is cut off."

Morrill Allen, of Pembroke, Plymouth county, among the
farmers in Massachusetts most distinguished for intelligence,
practical skill and success, in reply to inquiries as to the best
mode of cultivating wood, writes to me : —

" From limited observation and experience I should recom-
mend leaving the land without any culture, where the wood
removed was of a kind and age that shoots would be likely to
grow from the stumps. It may be true that shoots will grow
more vigorously after stirring the soil in preparation for a crop
of rye ; but the burning, an operation necessarily preceding,
will often be so deep as to prevent the springing of many
shoots.

" Where there is no prospect of a second growth from the
stumps, either from the age of the cut timber or the kind of
wood, then it will be prudent to burn, plough or harrow, sow
rye, and with it such forest seeds as we would choose to have
the next growth proceed from. Two advantages may be anti-
cipated in this management ; first, wood will grow sooner from
seed sown on a pulverized soil than it would from that natu-
rally scattered among the rubbish of woodland bottom ; a sec-
ond advantage is, where we sow seed, the kinds of wood com-
prising the future growth are placed very much within our
choice."

John Welles, to whom I have before referred, whose intelli-
gent and strong interest in the agrieultural improvement of the
Commonwealth for many years claims for him the grateful re-
spect of the farming community, has favored me with the fol-
lowing note :

" As a general principle it is considered by many that after

392

cutting off a wood lot, a period not far from 30 years may be
advantageously allowed before the re-growth should be again
recurred to. A period of little over 20 years is allowed by some,
prompted often by a desire to avail of the capital.

" But when the annual growth in circumference in each thrifty
tree is considered as about one inch, the latter period appears
too'short. If, however, the wood is of birch, &c., or the smaller
growth is wanted for hoops and other uses, a different calcula-
tion must be made. These differences of time may be corrected
and brought to a better result by the observation and experience
of our farmers.

" The growth of an apple tree in one year, is from 1:^ to 2^
inches in circumference. An elm in 20 years gave 1§ inch.
An ash in 20 years gave If inch. These trees stood alone.
In some instances where trees have stood from half to three
fourths of a century, their growth has been found to be 1|
inch per year."

I have entered somewhat upon this subject in my First Re-
port, and shall not, therefore, extend my remarks. The sub-
ject cannot be too earnestly pressed on the consideration of the
farmers in every part of the State. The growth of the com-
mon white birch is a source of considerable profit in many
parts of the state, as it will generally answer to cut it in 7 or 8
years. If suffered to stand until twelve years, it is often in a
state of decay. Our forests should have as much attention as
any portion of our husbandry. The cattle, at least in the
early growth of the trees, must be effectually excluded from
them. On the island of Nantucket, where no wood scarcely is
grown, and where the impression prevails generally, that none
can be grown, the sheep which run at large over the island,
mutton-heads as they are, if they could speak, would at once
solve the mystery. On the island of Tuckernuck near by, and
equally exposed, I saw a flourishing growth of young oaks of
seven years old, which as well as I could learn, fortunately
for the owner of the lot, the Nantucket sheep had not seen, un-
less it were across the water. The exposed situation of such

393

places nndonbtedly affects the growth, and especially of de-
tached trees or clump of trees ; but where large plantations
are made, if proper pains be taken, all reasonable success may
be expected. It may require in the outset much care and ex-
pense to get the trees under favorable way ; but there is
hardly a situation where they may not be successfully culti-
vated ; and success will abundantly compensate the expense.*

XVI. Ornamental Trees. The cultivation of ornamental
trees ought to be strongly pressed upon the farmers. " Put a
tree down ; it will be growing while you are sleeping."
Many of them enrich the country ; all adorn it, and thus essen-
tially increase the value of an estate, and render the country
more healthful as well as beautiful. Every place on a farm,
where they can grow without injury to the crops, ought to be
planted with trees. Timothy Walker, of Charlestown, Mid-
dlesex county, lately deceased, left a legacy of some hundred
dollars to be expended in planting ornamental trees on some of
the great roads in that town. This was a noble bequest ; and
places him among the benefactors of the community. It is an
example worthy of imitation. A taste for the beauties of natu-
ral scenery cannot be too much cultivated among us. A taste
for natural beauty is closely allied to a taste for moral beauty.
The more attractive our homes are rendered, the more shall we
love our homes ; and the love of home is the parent of many
kind and noble affections.

A taste for natural beauty is an original element of the mind.
It may be strengthened, elevated, and enlarged by education ;
but it appears even in the rudest minds, and thus speaks its di-
vine origin. I believe the perception of beauty exists in all
animals ; or why should they have been made so beautiful ?

Natick in this county was the seat of the first christian mis-
sion to the Indians, where the benevolent Eliot, designated as
the Apostle, sought to pour into the minds of these children of

* Appendix M.

50

394

nature, benighted with the thick darkness of superstition, the
heavenly rays of inspired truth. Eliot was followed by a wor-
thy successor, Oliver Peabody. The Indians appreciated
the blessings of the religion of peace and love which he taught
them ; and in gratitude for his services, these sons of the forest,
to whom the trees seemed as their own kindred, came in a dep-
utation bringing two elms, and asked leave to plant in front of
the humble dwelling of the missionary these ^'^ trees of friend-
ship.^^ This was in 1722, and these trees stood for ninety
years, when one was rived by lightning, and the other seemed
to perish through sympathy. When the successor of Mr. Pea-
body, Mr. Badger was settled in 1753, the Indians offered the
same token of respect and the same pledge of good will to him.
These trees are still in full vigor, and remain as beautiful mon-
uments of affections, which have gone out on earth, but are
destined to be re-kindled and burn with a purer flame.

Nature is every where prodigal of beauty, as if she would
stimulate the passion for it to the utmost extent. Among the
varied combinations of charming objects, which mingle in a
rural landscape, the trees are preeminent. Sometimes rising in
single cones so exact and symmetrical in their form, that they
seem the perfection of art ; sometimes spreading their umbra-
geous limbs in curves and lines of the most graceful expansion;
sometimes bending their boughs to the earth loaded with golden
and crimsoned fruit, and when the sun pours its bright rays upon
them, presenting not an inapt image of that sacred bush where
the divine presence wrapt itself in robes of fire ; sometimes
seen in long single lines skirting the traveller's path ; sometimes
in beautiful clumps and clusters, affording a grateful shade to
the panting herds ; at other times in the wide spread forest,
shading a valley with their deep and black green ; here again
burnishing the mountain's side with their thick and mat-
ted foliage ; now in autumn robed in the gorgeous vestments
of more than oriental magnificence ; and oftenin winter bend-
ing under their ])iled-up fleeces of snow, or glistening with
matchless splendor when cased in ice and changed into a crys-

395

tal forest of glass and diamonds ; in all these cases how suited
are the trees to charm the eye and delight the mind ! Why
should not the eye be charmed? Why should not the imagi-
nation be delighted ? Why should we not take pleasure in
the beauty of God's works ? Why should we not do what we
can to make our homes continually more and more beautiful ;
and to multiply and fill to overflowing these innocent sources
of pleasure ?

The country is full of poetic sentiment and religious moni-
tions. The privileged inhabitants of the country should seek
to rise above the mere drudgery of life, and make themselves
familiar with nature in her ever varying and charming aspects.
It will not hurt their industry, but it will cheer their toil to
study the benevolence of the Creator in the perfection of all
his works ; and, I trust I may add without irreverence, to sec-
ond his provision for the happiness of his creatures in multiply-
ing every where around them the forms of beauty.

1 hope I shall be pardoned for the enthusiasm which I may
betray on this subject. Let those, who think my remarks out
of place, kindly pass them over. Penetrated to the depths of
my soul with a sense of the beauty of nature and the charms
of rural life, 1 am anxious that even the lowest laborer may
have his toil alleviated, his self-respect quickened, and a senti-
ment of the dignity of his own nature breathed into his heart
by a habit of observing and studying and enjoying the wonders
and glories of the visible creation around him. I cannot think
it difficult imder a just education to awaken this sentiment and
form this habit even in the humblest minds ; and what sources
of gratification in such case shall we open to him, which the
wealth of cities cannot purchase, and what motives to religious
trust and joy shall we inspire, which written teachings can
never impart. For what a prodigality of beauty is every where
manifested in the natural world! Light itself is the perfection
of beauty, and wherever it spreads its glittering robe, converts
every thing which it touches into beauty. Take the great fea-
tures of nature, the earth, the water, the sky, the sun, the moon,

396

the stars ; and what beauty is resplendent in every one of them.
Take the vegetable tribes, the trees, the flowers and the verdant
fields ; take the animal creation, from the fairy bird that cleaves
the liquid air with his burnished wing, to the pearl of exquisite
brilliancy, that lies buried in the depths of the sea ; and what a
divine beauty shines out in the whole. Examine the minutest
atom, which you can pick from the earth with the finest nee-
dle, the smallest flower that drinks in the refreshing dew, the
least insect that floats in the sun-beam, the tenderest leaf that
quivers in the breeze, and the vast continent with all its mixed
and varied features of land and water, of valley and mountain,
of prairie and forest ; take the vast ocean, with its ceaseless
heavings, and its deep cerulean waves, and the golden and
crimsoned heavens at the rising and setting sun ; look at na-
ture, even in her decay, in the variegated glories of autumn,
or reposing under her jewelled mantle in the death of winter,
look at every thing in its individual form, or in its combina-
tions, and even in objects which seem offensive or loathsome,
or terrific, — all, all, is flooded with beauty. I have stood hour
after hour, gazing at the mighty Niagara ■ and while I beheld
in its tremendous movement, an image of the Divine Power,
and in its ceaseless flow, a symbol of the Divine Eternity, yet
in its deep torrent of living green, its glittering tresses, of a
whiteness which the drifted snow does not surpass, and in the
dazzling iris, spanning its troubled and foaming abyss, and
girding, as it were, the lion's neck with a cincture of brilliants,
beauty, ineffable beauty, pervaded and triumphed over the
whole ; and there, of all other places on earth, seemed to have
fixed her shrine and to demand universal homage.

XVII. Particular Farms. — 1. In giving an account of the
agriculture of Middlesex county, the farm of Elias Phinnky,
of Lexington, may be expected to occupy a prominent place.
In the skilful and judicious improvements which he has
effected, I think the farmers of Massachusetts would not long

397

hesitate to allow him the precedence. This I know is high,
but not undeserved praise.

I am unable to procure a detailed report of the products of
this farm, but its improvements constitute its principal interest.
It consists of 160 acres, of rough and hard land, of knolls and
peat swamps, which by extraordinary skill and labor, have been
converted into a most productive farm, every where exhibiting
the triumphs of intelligence and skill, and of labor directed by
sound judgment.

When his improvements commenced, ten tons of hay were
the annual product ; now one hundred are obtained. The stock
on the farm consists of six horses, three yokes of oxen, twenty-
four milch cows, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty
swine, and a large flock of wether sheep for fatting.

I have already given some account of the pork usually fatted
on the farm, and the whole method of keeping and fat-
tening his swine. The milk is daily taken at the farm by a
neighboring milkman. Large amounts of fruit, apples and peach-
es, and grapes, and of vegetables, are sent frequently to mar-
ket, and considerable amounts of hay are sold. One great prin-
ciple, however, is constantly regarded, to consume on the place
all the produce of the place, when it can be done without loss,
for the sake of the manure.

The improvements on the farm have consisted mainly in the
redemption of the peat meadows, and of these 1 have given a
full account. He has, to some extent, likewise practised the
irrigation of his lands by conducting water from a pond, which
is situated on a high part of his farm, by successive channels
on a side-hill through his orchard, and upon a portion of his
mowing land. The benefits of this he pronounces very great.
The transit of mere spring water, without any intermixture, has
the most beneficial eff"ects in quickening and perfecting vegeta-
tion ; and many farmers in the State might avail themselves at
small expense, of local advantages which they enjoy for doing
this, which are now wholly neglected.

398

A second great improvement on Mr. Phinney's farm, may be
said to consist in the manufacture of manure. On this point,
likewise, I have spoken at large, and it is one which ought
strongly to attract the attention of the farmers. Many a farmer
now expends large sums in the purchase and transportation of
manure, when he has on his own farm, or in his immediate vi-
cinity, the means of making a compost of equal value at half
the expense.

The third great iip.provement now going on, on this model
farm, is the improvement of the pasture lands. This is a
matter which I have often urged, but to which few farmers
have given any consideration ; and therefore in general nothing is
more disreputable to the large majority of farmers throughout
the State, than the condition of their pastures. Mr. Phinney,
as far as his manure heap will allow him to do it. ploughs and
manures his pasture ground, removing as many of the stones
as can conveniently be taken away ; but where his manure is
deficient, he simply ploughs the land, completely inverting the
sward, sowing rye and grass-seed and rolling it down. This
effects at once a beneficial change, greatly increases the amount
of feed, and is preparatory to a more liberal cultivation.

The fourth improvement is in the extensive cultivation of
fruit. Mr. Phinney has stocked his place very fully with the
best of engrafted fruits, of apples, pears, peaches, and grapes ;
and does not deem the common method sufficient though gene-
rally practised, of planting the trees, and then telling them to
grow of themselves ; but gives to every one of his trees his par-
ticular personal attention, and considers their cultivation, by
ploughing and manuring his grounds and carefully trimming
and supporting his trees, of equal necessity and use as that of
any garden plant whatever.

Mr Phinney's crop of corn the current year by measurement,
averaged 70 bushels to the acre ; his potatoes 300 bushels, and
his hay from two to upwards of four tons. He has been in the
habit of raising wheat for years. His crops of wheat average
from 25 to 30 bushels, and he considers it ordinarily as certain

399

a crop as any which grows upon his farm. I apprehend this
is owing to abundant manuring, and clean cnUivation for the
crop that precedes it, and to the excellent condition of the land.
It is spring wheat, and generally sown after corn. He chooses
to get the seed in early in April.

The farm of Mr Phinney every where displays energy, judg-
ment, and skill ; courage to conflict with obstacles and perse-
verance in subduing them. The sole object is profit ; every
thing therefore is managed in the most frugal manner consist-
ent with the proper accomplishment of the object in view.
His farming, on this account, may be recommended to the poorest
farmers as an example, as it shows them v/hat may be accom-
plished under discouraging circumstances ; and the means with-
in reach of those, whose circumstances are restricted, of con-
verting their now profitless lands into the most productive
fields ; and demonstrating under what circumstances in agricul-
ture labor and capital may be amply compensated.

2. John P. Cushing's farm and gardens present a beautiful
example of the management of land under the most liberal ex-
penditure of capital without regard to profit. Every thing will
be found in this place in the highest order, and the crops are
abundant and of excellent quality. Mr Cushing's experiments
with various manures, have been already detailed, and the con-
tinuance of such experiments, if conducted with exactness,
must prove of the highest benefit to the agricultural communi-
ty. Mr Cushing's improved stock are singularly beautiful.
They have been imported at great expense ; and with the most
honorable liberality and public spirit, he has sought to advance
the general interest of the farmers by the gratuitous distribution
of their progeny in different parts of the Commonwealth. I
have no interested motives, thank Heaven ! to flatter any man ;
and I express only my own honest convictions in saying that I
know no more beneficent use of wealth than in the encourage-
ment of honest labor ; in showing what art and skill can do in
embellishing and rendering the earth productive; and in the
introduction and liberal diff"usion of valuable seeds and useful

400

plants and improved animals, thus seeking to advance the sub-
stantial welfare of the whole agricultural community. 1 cannot
but hope that the examples of a few such men may not be lost
upon the many hundreds of men of wealth in our cities, who,
having devoted the early part of life exclusively to accumula-
tion, give up its close to mere indolence or sensual indulgence ; or
like the dog in the manger, think it enough to lie down upon
their heaps of gold to guard with sleepless vigilance against the
abstraction of a single sixpence; and know nothing of the pur-
est of all felicity and the highest of all honor, that of doing good
and living to the benefit of others. In this beneficent use of
wealth its actual value is doubled ; and while Mr Gushing
finds a useful occupation and an interesting pleasure in making
these experiments and improvements, there is here no monop-
oly or exclusion, for others find an equal pleasure in observing
their progress, and learning and applying their results.

3. The next farm to which I shall refer is that of Amos Hill,
in West Cambridge, in that highly cultivated district of which
I have before spoken.

Mr. Hill's farm consists of 194 acres. Tillage 25, English
mowing 60, wet meadow 60, pasture 20, orcharding 15, wood
10, salt marsh 4 acres. The salt marsh is distant from home. The
greater part of the remainder is in one body, and most of it on
a level surface.

Mr. Hill commenced some years since the draining of his
meadows. He completed, at his own individual expense, the
draining of one hundred acres, before application was made to
the Legislature to eff"ect the great improvement in this way of
which 1 have given an account in page 354. To this tract his
land lies adjacent. This improvement is still going on, a sec-
ond gate having been erected by which the water is brought
entirely under command. The advance in the value of these
lands by this improvement is enormous. It may well quicken
the ambition of others to improve their grounds, wherever im-
provement is practical lie. Before this operation this land was
sold for 20 and sometimes 10 dollars per acre ; that which is

401

now thoroughly redeemed and cultivated would readily com-
mand two hundred dollars per acre, and will pay the interest
upon a larger sum than this, and keep up its condition. The
whole tax for the common improvements has been about two
dollars an acre ; but even of this trifle some of the proprietors have
complained. This reminds me of a case in which a kindly dis-
posed man having given a poor neighbor his winter's fuel from his
own wood-pile, was in the spring presented by this same neigh-
bor with a bill for cutting the wood given him. Where are the
limits to human cupidity ? As I observed before, the greater part
of this soil is a deposit of rich alluvial mud and decayed vegetable
matter, though in some parts a small amount of peat is fou!id.
Mr. Hill speaks with strong emphasis of the value of clay ap-
plied to these lands as to be preferred to any manure which can
be put upon them. He puts no clover upon them, but sows
herdsgrass, redtop, and fowl-meadow, which last he considers a
valuable grass. These meadows when subdued are capable of
producing almost any crop. From some acres the last season
he obtained crops which yielded him 150 dollars per acre. This
improvement promises to be one of the most beautiful as well
as one of the most productive in the commonwealth.

Mr. Hill's objects are the production of vegetables, fruits,
milk, and hay. His ordinary number of cows is from 10 to 12,
These he changes twice in a year ; purchasing new milch cows
in the autumn which he turns off in the spring for fatting, and
selling in the fall the cows which he purchases in the spring.
He ov^^ns pasturage in New Hampshire to which bis cows are
sent in the spring, to be latted ; and his sales of beef the present
year amounted to about 15,000 lbs. In this way he has the
full advantage of his cows in the best of their milking condi-
tion ; and his sales of milk average about 800 dollars. The
average yield of milk he considers about 6| quarts, or a can a
day to a cow, which seems not a large yield under this manage-
ment. In changing his cows so frequently, he perhaps does
not give the same attention to the selection, as if they were
designed to be kept longer. The average cost of his new milch
51

402

cows is 25 dollars ; and their value when turned off in the
spring is estimated at 15 dollars. He fats annually about 1000
lbs. of pork.

The returns which he has given me of some of his crops are
as follows : English hay 75 tons, of which he sells about 40
tons ; salt hay G tons, fresh meadow hay 35 tons; pease sold green,
275 bushels : potatoes, 1000 bs. ; onions, 200 bs. ; beets, 250 bs. ;
ruta baga, 400 bs. ; winter apples, 350 barrels ; cider, 10 bar-
rels ; asparagus, squashes, and melons, 500 dollars' worth ; horse-
radish, 100 dollars; celery, 150 dollars; five acres of cabbages,
savoy and drumhead. These are principally drumhead, which
are sold to coasters and ships and bring from four to seven dol-
lars per hundred ; the price at the present time is ten dollars
per hundred. His sales of cucumbers for pickling have this
year amounted to ^1000. There are many small items which
it is unnecessary to particularize.

Mr. Hill has usually six or seven acres in squashes and mel-
ons, and one acre in asparagus. His melons are planted in the
rows of his pease. The pease are sowed in rows five feet apart.
The melons in every other row of pease, in hills ten feet apart.
Tlie hills for the melons are manured with two good shovelfuls
of manure when the pease are sown, though the melons are not
planted until some weeks after the pease.

The cultivation of asparagus was formerly a laborious and
expensive affair. It has ceased to be so. Mr. Hill deems his
lightest and most sandy soil best suited to this crop. The land
after being well tilled, is laid out in furrows or trenches, three
feet apart and about a foot deep ; the plants are then set in the
trenches ; and the land kept clean and well manured. In this
way it is as easily cultivated as Indian corn, and is a very profi-
table crop. Horse-radish is cultivated much in the same way;
the land requires very high manuring, and the plants are set
out by cuttings in narrow rows. As the, root is taken up, this
requires a frequent planting. I have known two square rods of
horse-radish to produce 60 dollars in one season in the market.

Mr. Hill's cabbages are set out in rows three feet apart, and

403

the plants two feet apart in the rows. This would give 7260
plants ; but of these a great many must be expected to fail.*

From an acre in apples Mr. Hill in one case obtained 300
barrels. As a wash for his trees, he uses a composition
of one pound of potash to one gallon of water ; but is of
opinion that this or any application to the bark will seldom be
required, where the land is well manured and cultivated.

Mr. Hill differs from many farmers, in preferring to feed his
meadows in the autumn ; as he thinks they will produce more
hay than when the *' old fog " is left upon them. Where the
grass is cut early, this may be the case ; but where a late haying
is practised, and an opportunity is given for the thorough decay
of the old vegetation, I apprehend a different result would be
found. At any rate, the poaching of the meadows by cattle,
where the land is soft and clayey, so as to leave many holes for
the water to stand in, must be prejudicial. The observations and
experience of so successful a farmer, who has been exclusively
devoted to agriculture for thirty-seven years, and, in that time,
has sold much more than 75,000 dollars' worth of produce from
his place, exclusive of the consumption of his family, are highly
valuable, and I, therefore, make no apology for going into these
details.

Here is the encouraging example of a man making himself
rich and independent by farming, unassisted but by his own
labor and the resources of his own farm, which his improve-
ments have continually multiplied and enlarged. He began
before the mast, and now walks the quarter-deck. Many men
think it extraordinary that they cannot walk the quarter-deck
without knowing, far less pulling, a single rope in the ship.
They are afraid of getting tar upon their hands. Agricul-
ture is a trade or profession to be studied and learnt as
much as any other trade or profession. The general opinion is,
that any dnnce may be made a farmer; so any dunce may be
made a merchant, or a lawyer, or a minister ; but what sort of
merchants, or lawyers, or ministers will dunces make ? Not

* Appendix, N.

404

long since, in one of my excursions, I visited a gentleman
brought up in city liabits from his childhood, who had recently
removed into the country with a view to farm for profit. As
a farmer, he had not got a single wrinkle upon his horns, for
he was then only about six months old. He showed me his
plantations, his buildings and multiform conveniences, and
above ail, his Berkshire pigs, which he proposed to fat upon
ruta-baga and hay-tea. He then told me, with admirable self-
complacency, that he had thought there was some mystery in
farming ; but he had found none, and in three months, had
learnt all that there was to be known about it. Had he said
all that he could learn of it, I should have agreed with him.
It would have been hopeless in me to have attempted to unde-
ceive him ; but the barrenness of his products, and the bottom
of an empty purse, soon brought home the conviction of a too
common error ; and, 1 am sorry to add, provoked some curses
upon farming, which belonged entirely to his own ignorance and
indiscretion. He was not the man who, because his beans came
up the wrong way, caused them to be turned and planted with
the top down ; but he was first cousin in the same family.

Mr. Hill employs five men in the winter, and twelve through
the summer. He pays high wages, because the best services
are required, and no men work more hours in a day, than men
employed by the farmers in the vicinity of the capital, who
supply the market.

Mr. Hill purchases the right for a portion of the time, of
clearing the refuse from the plat-forms in the hog-establishment
in his neighborhood, which I have described. He knows no
manure so efficacious as this wherever applied. It is always
composted. Next to this, he ranks night-soil, whicli is like-
wise mixed with mould or peat-mud.

4. George Pierce, whom 1 have already named, has a home-
lot of little more than seven acres whicii he cultivates, in the
same favored district of which I have been speaking. Besides
this he sometimes extends his cultivation by hiring occasionally
small lots in his neighborhood.

405

The extent of his out-lots is not given ; but it may be infer-
red from the fact that for one of them he pays an annual rent
of 35 dollars; for the other piece 40 dollars.

The amount of sales from the whole three within the year
thus far, is $3428 54. The amount of sales from his home-lot
of seven acres, is $2675 54. The amount paid for labor on
the whole up to this date (27th Nov., 1841) is $499 99, with-
out including the expense of board of the men. This, I pre-
sume does not embrace any charge for his own labor and super-
vision and marketing. The bills paid since the last spring for
manure amount to $224 75 ; but he thinks the whole used
has amounted to twice that sum.

His particular aim is to raise fruit and vegetables for the mar-
ket, such as apples, peaches, strawberries, raspberries; and lettuce,
radishes, spinach and other greens, early cabbage, cucumbers,
squashes, melons of various kinds, cauliflower, brocoli, beets,
carrots, turnips, pease, beans, onions, &c., all of which are pro-
fitable crops, when he is successful in growing them.

He plants little of corn and potatoes, as he thinks he can use
the ground to much better advantage. Some of his most pro-
ductive crops the present season have been fall-sov/ed onions,
from a piece of land 3 rods in width, and 8 rods in length,
which gave him 167 dollars. Another profitable crop was saba,
or as they are sometimes called seve beans. There were 1248
hills, which, on the first picking yielded 38 dollars. The yield
according to the account kept, amounted to 70 dollars, when
having lost his minutes, he was unable to ascertain the entire
amount. Of string beans he had the last season two acres.
From this lot it was not unusual to carry ten barrels in a day
to market. In two weeks he carried to market from this lot
172 bushels, the average price of which was 67 cents per
bushel or $115 24. At the same time this ground was occu-
pied with other crops, such as melons, tomatoes, cauliflowers,
cabbages, &c. As soon as the beans had ceased to bear, the
vines were immediately removed, and the ground being well
cultivated, there was ample room and time for the other crops

406

to grow. Many of his early vegetables are forwarded in hot
beds under glass. On most of the ground which he cultivates,
he gets from two to four crops. A crop of radishes, lettuce,
beans, and cucumbers may be had on the same ground the same
season ; and to these a fifth crop, fall spinach, is sometimes
added. In the past season he says he has had crops, which, by
the old modes of husbandry, would have occupied ten acres,
growing upon four acres.

His practice is for the first crop to give such a dressing of
manure as will carry that and the succeeding crops well through
without renewal. He never manures sparingly.

His onions are sowed in July or the first of August. They
/ are lightly covered with litter in the fall, and early in the spring
are uncovered and become soon fit for the market ; and the crop
is off the ground in season for its successor.

Mr. Pierce values very highly stable manure, and wishes to
apply it 10 his crops in its hottest state. It then forces vegeta-
tion most rapidly and powerfully. He has seen the powerful
effects of night-soil more than five years after its application ;
but it was in this case applied liberally ; and it must never be
used without composting. For ashes he has a high estimation,
and when the soap-boiler calls to buy his ashes for the custom-
ary price of ten cents a bushel, he replies by offering the soap-
boiler twenty cents a bushel for all he has, and buys them, if
he can. I give his opinions as those of a strictly practical man,
of much experience and perhaps inferior to none in the admira-
ble skill and success of his cultivation. It is pretty evident
that he does not wait in the morning for the sun to call him.

In referring to these extraordinary results it would be idle to
think that they are reached without skill, judgment, energy,
perseverance and toil. But it is a skill which sharpens the
wits; and a toil, if not excessive, which quickens the appetite,
and strengthens the muscles, and keeps off idle dreams. The
earth is a good paymaster; but it does not acknowledge any
obligations to those to whom it owes nothing.

5. The farm of Caleb Wetherbee, in Marlborough, consists

407

of 120 acres. I give the report for one year. In tillage 15 acres,
English mowing 25 acres, wet meadow 20 acres. His stock
consists of — horses ; swine ; cows 25, oxen 5. Two pairs are
usually fatted.

English hay,

Fresh meadow hay,

Indian corn,

Rye,

Barley,

Potatoes,

Pumpkins,

((

375 bushels,
193 "
133

900
50 cart-loads.
Apple trees from 600 to 800.
Pork fatted, 6,408 lbs.

60 tons, 2^ tons per acre.
less than one ton do.

50 bushels per acre.

16

22
150

II

u

From 25 cows, from April 1 to Dec. 1, four having been
dried from 1st September, 2,951 lbs. of butter were produced.

Mr. Wetherbee was kind enough to furnish me with the pro-
ceeds of his farm for three successive years.

In 1835 there were sold from it-

Butter,
Pork,
Cider,
Fruit,

In 1836— Butter,

" Veal,
" Hay,
Beef,

((

In 1837— Butter,
" Veal,
" Pork,
" Beef,

$740 92
. 660 28
. 108 34
. 89 62

. 810 62
. 167 94

. 20 88
. 90 00

. 60981
. 219 83
. 775 30
. 170 53

Potatoes,
Oats, .
Calves,

Pork,

Apples,

Cider,

Potatoes,
Apples,
Cider,
Hay,

$25 70

. 48 20

137 60

Total, 11810 66

802 24
92 38

262 74

Total, $2246 SO

43 02
51 98
71 66
21 00

Whole amount of sales in three years, $6020 59

Total, $1963 13

408

6. Farm of Abel Moore, of Concord, 130 acres exclusive of
woodland. Tillage 16 acres : upland mowing 6 acres, averag-
ing two tons to the acre ; low meadow 25 to 30 acres, yielding
40 tons : reclaimed meadow 25 to 30 acres, producing from two
to five tons per acre : corn 6 acres, averaging 65 bushels per
acre : on half an acre produced 40 bushels of corn : potatoes 4
acres, crop 1500 bushels : other vegetables — one-half acre of
carrots, 450 bushels ; one-fourth acre of sugar-beets, 320 bush-
els ; one-tenth acre mangel-wurtzel, 165 bushels ; 1 acre of
ruta-baga, 200 bushels. The last crop was a repetition on the
same land. The previous year the crop was 1132 bushels. This
crop is a great exhauster of the soil ; and should not be repeated
soon on the same ground.

Besides these crops, he cultivated the same year three acres
of barley, half an acre of wheat, and one acre of oats. The
amount of these crops was not reported. One and one-third
acre of buckwheat produced 51 bushels. The butter made on
the farm, 600 lbs. From first of November to first of June the
milk is sold. The pork fatted is 2000 lbs.

The stock kept on the farm are — oxen 7 yokes : cows 13 :
young cattle 4 : horse 1 : swine from 50 to 75. One breeding
sow on the place produced 111 pigs in 11 litters. Another, four
years old, has raised eight litters, from eight to ten in a litter-

The amount of manure made on the place was 1200 cart-
loads. For labor on the farm he paid 550 dollars.

Of Mr. Moore's extraordinary improvements in ditching and
draining his meadow, I have already spoken at large in page 360.

7. Z. Reed, Westford. 85 acres ; tillage, 7 acres. Man-
ures highly, 25 cart-loads of compost manure to the acre : his
greensward inverted, the land rolled, and the manure spread and
harrowed in. Mowing, 30 acres of upland, averaging two tons
to the acre — twelve acres of low meadow, not suitable for the
plough, affording 25 tons of hay, of good quality. His low
lands are occasionally manured with 20 loads of compost to the
acre.

Five acres in corn, averaging 36 bushels per acre. Two

409

acres in potatoes, 350 bushels per acre. Seven acres in grain,
oats and barley.

Butter made, 1000 lbs. Cheese — ^ new milk — 600 lbs.

Sheep 25, native, yielding 95 lbs. of wool. His sheep lamb
in February ; and he sells the lambs, in May, for a price aver-
aging three and four dollars each. He loses one in ten by cold,
when he ought to lose none.

Stock kept : 8 oxen : 8 cows : 12 young cattle : 25 sheep.
Apple trees 700, engrafted fruit : other fruit, peaches, pears,
&c. 250.

From two acres he obtained one year 600 bushels potatoes ;
and from the same land the ensuing year 80 bushels of barley.
Though 25 miles from Boston, he has sometimes sent there 40
bushels peaches, and sold 200 barrels of apples.

8. In Concord. Abel B. Heywood. Tillage 30 acres :
English mowing 20 : wet meadow 30 : pasture 80 : orchard-
ing 4 : wood 50 : waste 50 : total 264. Stock — Horse 1 : ox-
en 6 : cows 10 : swine 15 : young stock 10. Amount of sales
$700. Value of produce used or on hand $480,89. Cost of
labor $165,49. Incidental expenses $35.

Products.

English hay.

20

tons.

•

•

H

per acre

Fresh meadow hay,

60

u

•

•

2

«

Wheat,

7 bushels

)

Indian corn.

200

40

bushels

<(

Rye,

100

20

(C

Oats,

100

50

<(

White beans,

20

15

(C

Potatoes, .

700

200

a

Onions.

30

200

li

Carrots,

10

300

((

Beets,

10

350

11

Parsnips, .

8

225

H

Turnips, .

100

500

11

Ruta baga.

15

400

u

52

410

Beef fatted,

8000 lbs

Pork, " . .

• •

1000 "

Butter,

• •

330 "

New milk cheese,

300 "

Cider, . . . .

20 bis

Winter apples,

10 "

Straw, . . . .

8 tons

Corn fodder, ,

8 "

Wood sold,

60crds

Do. used,

20 "

Manure made, .

200 loads.

Do. bought.

20

((

Avei^age value of Land.

Tillage and mowing land, . 15 to 40 dolls, per acre.

Peat meadow, . . . 20 " 50 " "

Wood land in pine. . . 30 " 100 " "

" in hardwood fit to be cut, 150 " 250 " "

Land 1st year after wood is taken off 10 " 20 " "

9. Framingham. Increase S. Wheeler. Acres 245: mow-
ing and tillage 70 acres : wood land 30 acres.

Products

Hay, .

100 tons,

Indian corn.

350 bushs..

Potatoes,

800 "

Ruta-baga,

1000 "

Oats,

60 "

Barley,

57 "

Wheat, .

22

Butter,

. 2455 lbs.

1 to 2| tons per acre.
50 bushels "

320 " "

500 " "

Cheese, new milk, 55.
Skim milk, 478

Pork fatted, 5237 lbs.

Pigs soldamou't to $40,11.

The amount of produce sold from this farm for seven years
past has averaged $2000 per year. Largest amount in any

411

single year has been $2444. In hay, during the seven years,
11054.

Compost manure is made of one load of barn manure and
two of peat or dry mud.

Meadow land is redeemed by draining, using the meadow
plough, applying compost manure freely, harrowing and seed-
ing. Stock on the farm ; 3 yokes of oxen : cows 26, of which
20 only have been milked : one bull : five calves : 140 merino
and Saxony sheep. Labor employed, the tenant and one
hired man at $18 per month : 35 days labor in addition, hired
in haying.

10. Westford. Ephraim Abbot. Acres 230 : tillage 19 :
English mowing 26 : wet meadow 20: pastures 91 : orchard-
ing 2 : wood 72.

Stock. Horses 2 : oxen 4: cows 11: young neat stock 8 :
swine 6. Amount of sales |480 90 : value of produce used or
on hand $1,058 78: cost of labor, $423 49: incidental ex-
penses, uncertain.

Products.

English hay.

29

tons,

u

ton per acre.

Fresh meadow hay,

20

((

Wheat, . / .

32

bushels, 11^

tons per acn

Indian corn,

166J

30i

u <f

Rye,

14

8

u a

Oats,

IH

20

li ((

Buckwheat,

70

24

a ii

Potatoes

294

120

Flat turnips,

15U

260

Beef,

1100 lbs.

Pork,

16731 u

Butter, not ascertained,

Cider,

23 barrels

Winter Apples,

40

Straw,

2 tons.

Corn Fodder,

8 "

Onions, carrots, beets, pai

'snips, «S

LC, in

garden.

Manure made,

• >

•

75 loads.

412

Produce and provisions sold to laborers, not included in pro-
ceeds.

Mr. A. has successfully redeemed peat meadow, by draining,
applying loam and compost manure, and sowing grass-seed.
The first year he obtained one ; the second year two tons per
acre.

11. Tewksbury. Acres 100 : in tillage and English mow-
ing 25 : meadow 5 : pasture 40 : wood 30.

Live stock. Horses 2 : cows 6 : calves 3.

The soil, a mixture of loam, clay and gravel about six inches
deep, on a hard yellow pan.

Products.

5
3
2

2

1

a

4

a.

4

((

il

U

3 acres.

12J acres in English hay,
Meadow,
Indian corn,
Wheat,
Buckwheat,
Spring Rye,
Barley,
Oats,
Potatoes,
Sugar Beet,
Turnips,
Squashes,
Straw,

Corn Fodder,
Milk sold,
Butter made,
Calves raised.

The course of crops : — 1st year, corn. 2d, esculent roots, po-
tatoes chiefly. 3d, wheat or rye, with grass 3 or 4 years.

When the fariu was taken 5 years ago, 150 dollars' worth of
hay were purchased to keep the stock through. Besides the
wool waste from Lowell, 150 dollars have been expended for

22 tons.

4

((

200

bushels

25

30

27

28

22

800

50

100

1000 lbs.

8 tons.

G

li

5600

quarts.

100 lbs.

3

413

manure, chiefly night-soil, which is delivered on the fields at 5
cents per cubic foot.

12. West Cambridge. Charles Wellington. Acres 88 : till-
age 15 : Enghsh mowing 30 : salt marsh 3 : orcharding 30 :
wood 10.

Stock. Horses 4 : oxen 6 : cows 2 : swine 20.

60 tons.

4 "

1600 bushels

800

500

4000 lbs.

30 barrels.

600 "

50 cords.

100 "

Products.

English hay,

Salt,

Potatoes,

Beets,

Turnips,

Pork,

Cider,

Winter Apples, prime.

Manure made,
" bought,

The cost of cultivating an acre of potatoes is estimated at ^40

" " " beets " 50

The value of tillage and mowing land here is estimated at 150

of pasture land at ..... 30

of salt marsh at ..... 100

The amount of manure usually applied to an acre is 4 cords.
The cost of labor, board included, is charged at $1000. About
25 acres of this farm was almost covered with large and small
stones; this land has been cultivated with great labor, and is
now in orcharding. Twenty acres were formerly low, wet peat
meadow, and bog ; now all in tillage and English mowing, and
yielding abundantly,

Mr. Wellington raised the present year twenty tons of the
marrow squash, on about six acres of his orchard ground, al-
though most of the land was covered with apple-trees.

Mr. Wellington remarks that fruit trees of all kinds require
cultivation, both by ploughing and manuring. About 2 cords

414

of manure annually to the acre, with a frequent passing over
the land with a cultivator, is deemed necessary to insure a crop
of good fruit.

Hay, beets, potatoes, and marrow squash, are all profitable
articles, but fruit is the most profitable. In addition to the crop
of winter apples, he has sold 100 bushels of early apples, 75
bushels of the best kind of pease, 80 bushels of quinces, and
3000 quart-boxes of strawberries.

The whole product of this farm, including that already sold,
and that which is now ready for sale, will not fall short of six
thousand dollars.

Mr. Wellington adds: — " My crop of fruit, the current year,
has not been so great by one third as in 1840. and probably not
more than two thirds of an average crop. The sales of prod-
uce, the present year, fall considerably short of those of former
years. I have not enumerated, in the above statements, many
of the smaller vegetables raised and sent to market — such as
pease, beans, cucumbers, summer squashes, asparagus, turnips,
melons, &c. which amount to no inconsiderable sum, in addi-
tion to the wholesale products."

To these statements of farms I might subjoin various oth-
ers, but it cannot be necessary. These, together with the pre-
ceding statements in the Report, will give a sufficient view of
the mixed husbandry of the county. In presenting among oth-
ers some of the best-cultivated farms in the State, I can but
hope it will stimulate the ambition of our intelligent husband-
men. In showing what has been done, they will see what they
can do. In agriculture there is no monopoly of advantages, and
every man is benefited by the success of his neighbor. In the
present condition of our population, there is no danger of over-
production.

13. The produce of a small piece of land in Groton belong-
ing to George Brigham, is so remarkable, that I subjoin it. —
The owner, the year I visited him, besides a full supply for his
cow, sold ten dollars' worth of hay. The abundance of the
yield is, I believe, to be in some measure attributed to the fact
that a large potash establishment, 40 years since, stood on the lot.

415

" The small plat of ground which yon saw when at Groton,
contains one and a half acre ; about one half of which is mead-
ow bottom, deeply gravelled more than thirty years since. I
mowed the grass about twelve years, and once in three or four
years gave it a light dressing of common manure. Finding it
to yield much more hay than was necessary for a cow, and
wishing to save the trouble and expense of pasturage, perhaps
a mile or more from home, I appropriated one half acre for that
purpose. It produced a good supply for five years ; when I
gave it a light dressing of compost manure, and reduced the
pasture to sixty-eight rods by accurate survey. It has for the
last four years supplied my cow with an abundance of feed,
from early turning out to September first. The pasture is low
ground bordering on meadow, and is always moist. I have
never noticed a dry spot, even in the driest seasons.

" The adjoining acre, about two-thirds of which is meadow
bottom, has with common usage, produced from two to two
and a half tons of hay annually. It might be made to produce
a much larger quantity."

14. I will add but one among many examples of admirable
management on a small scale, which came under my notice,
all of which would illustrate in the strongest manner the almost
certain results of industry, united with the strictest temperance
and frugality.

This farm consists of 36 acres, and is devoted to raising wheat,
corn, barley, potatoes, and other customary crops. The farmer
began life $900 in debt ; he has brought up a large family, and
given one son $500. He has earned usually in the winter
$125 by shoemaking. He owns his farrn, and his debts do not
exceed $100. The farm has been his only resource excepting
the products of his winter labor as above.

XYHI. Agricultural Implements. — The farming utensils
in the county have nothing peculiar in their construction. Wm.
Buckminster, of Framingham, has invented a corn-planter,
which I have seen used with great advantage both for ruta-baga

416

and Indian corn. I annex a cut of it with his own description.

<^.

" A beam four feet in length has four consecutive teeth, simi-
lar to those of a Cultivator, inserted into it. A wheel fourteen
inches in diameter and four inches thick is attached to the hind
end of the beam to regulate the whole, and to beat down the
loam which is thrown upon the seed to bury it.

The hind tooth is hollow, and the hopper is placed above it
containing the seed corn. Cogs on the wheel strike a rod
which pimips the seed corn out of the bottom of the hopper and
lets it fall through the hollow tooth into the channel which
has been cut in the soil by the four consecutive teeth ; the corn
falling through the tooth to the bottom of it is buried suffi-
ciently deep for vegetation.

Rows are made in one direction, and the hills are dropped at
the distance of one, two, or four feet from each other, at the
option of the planter. A thirty acre field may be planted by a
double inaclmie, with one man, one boy and one horse, laboring
ten hours and travelling three miles per hour.

Nothing but the finest loam of the field ever falls on the seed
corn, and it is planted more exactly than is usually done by
hand."

The same farmer has invented a machine for sowing grass
seed, which is drawn by a horse and drops the seed with great
uniformity. It seems to me well adapted for the purposes de-
signed.

XIX. Nurseries. — 1. The nurseries of Jona. Winship 6c
brother are in Brighton, in this county, four miles from Boston.

417

There are twenty-five acres in the three nurseries, all closely
filled with a great variety of fruit, and ornamental trees, and
shrubs of every kind that it has been in the power of the pro-
prietors to obtain in this or foreign countries, with an extensive
green-house establishment for exotic and tender plants of this
continent.

The borders for herbaceous, flowering, and useful, or medici-
nal plants, extend round and across the two principal nurseries,
are from twelve to fifteen feet wide, and would form in extent
a mile or more.

In extent of land, variety of plants, neatness and judicious
arrangement through the different sections of the gardens, green-
houses, and nursery, these highly cultivated grounds are full
of gratification for the gardener and the lover of fruits and
flowers.

2. The nursery of William Kenrick, at Nonantum Hill, is in
Newton, 6.^ miles from Boston. Thirty acres are comprised in
the nursery grounds, including the land on which are the build-
ings, garden, and those vacant lands which for a season are
necessarily and occasionally appropriated to other uses in some
of the interval years of rotation. These nursery grounds are
principally devoted to the cultivation of the most approved and
superior varieties of fruit trees, and also the most hardy and
beautiful ornamental species of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous
plants. No pains, labor, or expense have been spared in obtain-
ing all that is new and valuable and beautiful, and adapted to
our climate, from the most celebrated resources and collections
of all countries ; — these selections are adapted to every section
of the Union.

3. In the same neighborhood is another extensive nursery of
the same kind, belonging to John A. Kenrick, a place designa-
ted as Nonantum Dale. It is well stocked with fruit trees, and
a large collection of ornamental trees of the most approved va-
rieties, flowering shrubs, and herbaceous plants.

There are several other nurseries and gardens for the sale of
plants and flowers, and fruit trees, in the same town, and in

53

418

several other parts of the county, which it is not necessary that
I should enumerate.

The existence of these establishments, their extent and
yearly increase indicate the ample patronage which they re-
ceive, and speak emphatically in favor of the intellectual, may
I not add, the moral improvement of the community.

In the two great floral kingdoms of nature, the botanical
and the human, if we must yield the palm to that which is
alike transcendant in the beauty of form and motion, and in
the higher attributes of intelligence, innocence, and moral per-
fection, yet it can be no derogation to admire, with a rapture
bordering upon enthusiasm, the splendid products of the gar-
den. What is the heart made of which can find no sentiment
in flowers ?

The vast creation of God, the centre and source of good,
is, as I have observed, every where radiant with beauty. In
the floral kingdom it appears in an infinite variety ; in an un-
stinted and even a richer profusion than in other departments
of nature. While these contributions are thrown out so lav-
ishly at our feet, and a taste for flowers seems almost an instinct
of nature, and is one of the most innocent and refined senti-
ments which we can cultivate, let us indulge and gratify it to
the utmost extent, wherever leisure, opportunity, and fortune
give us the means. There is no danger of an excess, under
those reasonable restrictions, which all our sentiments demand
" But," says some cynical objector, " flowers are only to please
the eye." And why should not the eye be pleased ? What
sense may be more innocently gratified ? They are among the
most simple, and at the same time among the cheapest luxuries
in which we can indulge.

The taste for flowers, every where increasing among us, is
an omen for good. Let us adorn our parlors, doorways, yards,
and roadsides, with trees, and shrubs, and flowers. What a
delight do they give to the passer-by ! What favorable im-
pressions do they at once excite towards those who cultivate
them for their own gratification, and find, after all, their chief

419

pleasure in the gratification which they afford to others ? What
an affecting charm, associated as it is with some of the best
sentiments of our nature, do they give to the sad dwelling
places of the departed and beloved ?

The moral influences of such embellishments deserve our
consideration. I do not mean simply the substitution of such
refined tastes and pursuits, in place of the gratification of the
lower appetites. This is no small matter. But another influ-
ence should not be overlooked.

Every one familiar with human life must be sensible that
mere personal neatness and order are themselves securities of
virtue. As we cultivate these habits, and in respect to our
residences and the things and objects around us, make a study
of rendering them orderly and beautiful, and of adding to them
the highest embellishments of art, our own self-respect is
greatly increased. Next to religious principle nothing operates
more than self-respect, as a safeguard of virtue and a stimulant
to excellence. The direct tendency of all such embellishments
in our grounds and habitations is to multiply the attractions of
home, and to strengthen the domestic ties. It is the glory of
New England, that these precious ties are no where stronger or
more sacred.

XX. Agricultural Society. — Middlesex county has, for
many years, had a respectable agricultural society, which, in
addition to its own funds, receives from the State six hundred
dollars per year for disbursement in premiums. The annual
meeting is holden at Concord in the autumn, when a ploughing
match is also appointed. The benefits of these shows and
competitions have been very great, though, in my opinion, they
fall far short of accomplishing all the good which they might.
It is from no assumption of any superior sagacity and in no
spirit of complaint ; but from a sense of official duty and an
anxious desire that the liberality of the State should not fail of
its excellent purposes, that I shall offer some suggestions res-
pecting the management of this and other agricultural societies
^n the Commonwealth.

420

1. In the first place, a large proportion of the premiums
is paid upon live stock. The object of these premiums
should be not the reward or complimenting of an individual
for the mere accidental possession of a fine animal but for some
improvement attempted, or effected, or intended to be effected
in the breed of animals in question. Animals are sometimes
purchased at a distance or in another county, and brought into
the county for no other purpose than to secure the premium.
Now why should the owner of such an animal, to whose im-
provement he has contributed nothing, and who by offering or
buying this animal, has no view to the improvement of the
live stock of the county, why should he be rewarded with a
premium ? If a man will import a valuable animal from abroad,
with a view to testing his qualities, or propagating his blood,
or if he will raise a superior bull, which he keeps for the use
of his neighborhood as well as the improvement of his own
stock, or if he will raise a cow for the good quahties of those
animals from whom she has descended, or show by successive
experiments, that he has actually effected some amendment in
the dairy or thriving properties of an animal, or if he will show
by exact experiments in feeding his animals, how their milking
properties or their dairy properties may be improved, then most
certainly he would merit a premium. But if it is the mere
showing of some single animal, which may have accidentally
fallen into his hands, his possession of which indicates no
merit on his part and promises no direct benefit to the agricul-
tural community, the premium bestowed on him, to say the
least, fails entirely to accomplish the objects of the govern-
ment.

But again, with the exception of some swine, Middlesex
county is not, and never can be, a stock-raising district. This
matter cannot be forced. The deficiency of pasturage, the high
price of land, and the value of agricultural produce in the
market, will prevent the raising of neat stock in the county
ever being other than an expensive and unprofitable operation.
It wonld not seem desirable that it should be encouraged by

421

many or large premiums. Every direct and well conducted ex-
periment, however, in the improvement of the breed of ani-
mals, every importation into the county of valuable animals for
this object, ought, to a certain extent, to be encouraged ; but
these cases will be easily distinguislied from those in which
none of these objects are sought, or are likely to be accomplished.
2. The objects in my opinion to which the Middlesex Agri-
cultural Society should principally direct its attention, are ag-
ricultural experiments, the redemption of waste lands, the im-
provements of pasture grounds, the irrigation of lands, the
planting and care of wood lands, the cultivation of live fences,
experiments with various manures, the amendment of soils, the
increase of manures, the culture and improvement of crops of
every description, the fatting of pork, the management of poul-
try, the management of milking establishments, the making
of butter, the winter keeping of cows, the fatting of calves,
the management of bees, the introduction of new fruits, the
culture of orchards, the care and keeping of horses, the fatting
of wethers, the invention of agricultural implements, the con-
struction of farm buildings, the art of ploughing, the training
of cattle, and especially the general management of farms.*
These objects are intimately connected with the agriculture
proper to Middlesex, and to which their premiums might, with
much more advantage be directed, than to the mere exhibition
of cattle, from which no general or special advantage is to come
other than in the form of a premium to the accidental owner.
There is, I know, always a difficulty in inducing farmers to
come forward as competitors for the premiums on farms ; and
this often arises from diffidence or the apprehension of failure
in obtaining the premiums. To obviate this, let an active and
respectable committee of the Society appropriate a week, each
season, to going through the county and visiting, with or with-
out invitation, such farms as attract their attention, and induce
the farmers to show their improvements and communicate their
farm accounts ; and then let them appropriate where they think

• * Appendix, O.

422

they are deserved, such premiums as the funds of the Society-
will authorize for these objects. Let there be a viewing com-
mittee of five ; let them devote five days in succession to this
service ; and let them be paid two dollars a day each, for their
time. Fifty dollars cannot be better bestowed, and the benefi-
cial effects would soon be obvious. If the committee are paid
for the service, they will be held responsible for its faithful per-
formance.

3. In the next place, the shows or fairs of the different coun-
ties, certainly those which are holden in the vicinity of each
other, should be arranged so as not to fall on the same day.
Competitors likewise from any parts of the State, should, if citi-
zens of the State, be at liberty to contend for premiums at any
cattle-show, under the regulations of the particular society hold-
ing it, provided, however, that no person should be a competi-
tor for the same, or a similar object, at two different cattle
shows in the same year, or receive a premium twice for the
same object. It is often much more convenient for persons liv-
ing on the border of a county to attend a show in another
county than in their own ; and as the money bestowed in pre-
miums is derived from the common treasury of the State, there
is no reason why it should not be free to every citizen of the
State.

This would render the competition more extensive and more
spirited,

4. In the fourth place the premiums should always be given in
some durable form, either of plate or books ; plate especially is
to be preferred with suitable inscriptions ; and the names of the
successful competitors should be announced and the premiums
distributed in public meeting on the day of the exhibition.
The premiums would then be carefully preserved and handed
down in the family as an excitement to others to excel ; and
being delivered with solemnity and a suitable address in public
would create an intense interest, and an enthusiastic compe-
tition.

6. In the last place, every society should annually publish

423

an account of its proceedings, the report of its awards, the names
of the successful competitors, with a full statement of the
grounds and occasions of such awards, in a pamphlet, to which
should be appended the annual address before the society and
such agricultural intelligence as it may be deemed useful to
disseminate. This might be done at no great expense, and
would keep up an interest in the society and induce the acces-
sion of new members beyond any other method which now
occurs to me. This has been successfully tried in Essex
county for years ; and the Transactions of the Essex Society have
now reached to three octavo volumes, are full of valuable mat-
ter, and are sought after with eagerness by members and others.
There are many other things in respect to the agriculture of
Middlesex which I should be glad to refer to, of equal impor-
tance with those which have been considered, if my limits
allowed it. But I must leave this to those who shall come
after me.

XXI. Miscellaneous Considerations. — Middlesex county,
rough and sterile in many places as the soil is, is yet possessed
of extraordinary advantages and encouragements for an im-
proved agriculture. The population is rapidly increasing. The
county and vicinity abound in wealth. The best markets in the
country are accessible to it ; and it has ample resources for ma-
nure. I have already spoken of the extraordinary improvements
which have been made in it ; and of the equally extraordinary
compensations which have followed such improvements. These
improvements have been made under the most discouraging
circumstances ; and, therefore, leave no excuse for any farmer
to fail to do what can be done, and what he can do. The
profits of farming in Middlesex are demonstrated ; demonstra-
ted by the showing of the farmers themselves. Let any candid
man read the 7th Chapter of this Report, page 240, which con-
tains the frank and unbiassed statements of practical, plain farm-
ers, under no extraordinary advantages, and then say what hon-
est occupation yields a fairer recompense ? Let them look,

424

likewise, at the admirable record given in the appendix F,, of
Benjamin Goddard of Brookline, in Norfolk county, of several
years' experience, a man who is as incapable of deceiving others
as he is of being deceived himself; whose sound judgment
and accuracy are proverbial ; and whose exact and ex-
emplary husbandry is the index of his whole character and
life.

Such is the increase of our population engaged in trade and
manufactures, and the mechanic arts, and what may be called
the intellectual, the talking, the teaching, and the ornamental
professions, and the large class belonging to the do-nothing-but-
spend-money profession, that Middlesex county being so imme-
diately accessible to the markets which these create, I believe
there is scarcely a rod of ground in the whole county, which
may not be cultivated to a profit. But we must not expect im-
possibilities. We must not look to husbandry, which in Middle-
sex must be a kind of mixed and retail husbandry, for sudden
or large accumulations. The gains must be small and gradual ;
but they are a full recompense for labor steadily exerted, fru-
gality strictly maintained, and capital judiciously applied. We
ought not to expect more ; and if all our reasonable notions of
gain and wealth had not been deranged and excited to a pitch
of insanity by an inflated paper and bubble currency, continu-
ally exploding in a man's pocket like a bunch of friction matches
or Chinese crackers, disordering men's intellects, and throwing
prices and values into infinite confusion, we should see this
thing in a different light ; and find in a judicious agriculture
all reasonable expectations answered.

I say all reasonable expectations ; for men, in this respect arc
not reasonable, which I beg leave to illustrate by some exam-
ples, in which I will not expose those who have sat for the
likeness, if they do not betray themselves by their own emo-
tion.

A very industrious, sober, frugal man. who left a lucrative
business in the city six years ago, to go upon a farm^ told me
not long since he had not found farming as profitable as he ex-

425

pected. He had conducted matters, for one so inexperienced,
with admirable skill, and had made extraordinary improve-
ments, having increased the actual value of his estate, accord-
ing to its produce, a hundred per cent. I asked him if his crops
did not much more than pay the cost ; — yes, much more ; if
his improvements had not fully compensated the expense ; yes !
land which he had redeemed, which cost him only ten dollars
an acre, was now worth more than a hundred. Where was
the deficiency then or the disappointment ? Why! he did not
find so much cash in his pocket at the cud of the year as in
his former business, which was an extensive concern, employ-
ing a large capital. But what had he done? First, he had
nearly doubled the value of his farm. Next, he had supported
his large family in the abundance of all the substantial com-
forts which the farm could be made to yield. Next, he had not
incurred a single debt. Better than all this, he had given to
his children vigor of muscle and energy of resolution ; and
taught them the use of their own eyes and hands and feet,
which many children in the city never learn, because they must
use those of other people, or " spoil their servants. " Now
the fresh breezes of summer, wafted over the green meadows
and forests, had supplied odors, and the clear winds of winter
sweeping over fields glittering with frost and snow had painted
his daughters' cheeks with a vermilion hue, which all the es-
sence and perfume shops in the city could not supply ; and he
himself, then a poor nervous, consumptive dyspeptic, patron-
izing all sorts of quackery from Brandreth's pills down to the
Indian Specific, and looking like a half-withered poplar tree,
now wore the figure of a man, and could stand out in a storm
like the gnarled oak waving its head with a triumph correspond-
ing to the violence of the tempest. Was this no gain ? When
he expected more than this from a farm not one fourth so large
as he could manage, his expectations were as unreasonable as
for a retail dealer in tea and coffee and nutmegs and indigo, to
look for the same large returns as the successful merchant who
owns the whole ship and cargo, in which they came. His
54

426

farm was a small one. He expected more from it than even
with the best management it could be made to yield ; and I
took leave to remind him of a bachelor friend in the ministry,
who being asked by a kind spinster in his parish, whose heart
was full of compassion for the forlorn, why he did not get mar-
ried— replied with great simplicity, that "his salary would
not carry double."

In another case, a farmer undertook to catechise me for other
men's sins, if sins they were, and for which I was no way re-
sponsible. You, said he, make extravagant statements of farm-
ing products, which none of us realize. I find farming poor
business. I have been a farmer these thirty years, and I am
now deeply in debt. You induced the Trustees of the Massa-
chusetts Agricultural Society to give such a man a premium for
his improvements — (in which most certainly the Trustees judg-
ed for themselves) and what has he done — nothing but what
any of us could do ; drained his meadow, and put on loam and
sand, and applied compost manure and sowed grass-seed. Any
body could do this. I knew how this was to be done twenty
years ago, and T have thirty acres of jast such peat meadow, as
easily drained and reclaimed as his. Well, I replied, why have
you not done it? Why, said he, because I had no money to
work with. But had this man reclaimed one acre a year in
his leisure hours, he would long since have had ample means
of reclaiming the whole. Bnt " he could not find the means
of doing it ; " though he could borrow money to purchase
Eastern lands and Texas scrip, which, and not the farm have
laid him flat upon his back, and tied him down with bands if
not as numerous, much stronger than those which fastened
Gulliver down in the island of Lilliput.

Another farmer complains that farming has irrecoverably in-
volved him in debt. But how is this ? He has one of the best
farms in the country. His fixtures are of the most expensive
and improved character ; and even the horns of his working
oxen are carefully filed, and the brass-balls upon them kept
bright with rotten-stone. Besides this, he has an excellent ag-

- 427

ricLiltiiral library, and he reads constantly the American Farmer
and the New England Farmer and the Albany Cnltivator; and
lies in bed until eight o'clock, for he went into the country
to enjoy himself; and cannot allow a hired man to come " be-
tween the wind and his nobility, " because he smells so strong
of the barn ; and then he wants to enjoy his friends, and keep
his carriage and give his dinner parties, and carry the city man-
ners into the country with a little extra extravagance, that his
family may convince their friends that they can entertain them
as well in the country as in the town ; and all this time he
professes to wonder that his farm does not support him and his
family and make him rich into the bargain. This disap-
pointment is very apt to sour his otherwise amiable temper ;
and he goes on to curse the farm as though like a clock, if it
were only wound up once a week, it would keep time of itself ;
and then he goes on to curse his industrious neighbors, who
succeed when he cannot succeed, though he is at four times the
expense which they are at ; and then he curses the poor hard-
working Irish, who he wishes were back into their own bogs ;
and then he charges the whole race of hired men as having
conspired to defraud him ; and in the midst of all his disap-
pointments, his dreams of rural felicity and farming profits
have vanished like the evening clouds and left him in darkness.
Could he have expected it should be otherwise ? Would he
under similar conduct have succeeded better in any line of bus-
iness whatever ? Will the study of Babbage's Calculating
Machine or Blaine's Cotton Manufacture or McCulloch's Com-
mercial Dictionary, or Bowditch's Navigator, qualify a man
at once to superintend a cotton mill or to embark in an extend-
ed commerce or to navigate a ship, or in any respect supply the
place of practical experience and personal assiduity, inspection
and vigilance ? 1 need not answer these questions. Men can-
not be successful, in the same sense of the term, farming can-
not be made matter of pecuniary profit, even under the most
favorable external circumstances, in truth, men cannot escape
loss in its prosecution, but upon the same common-sense prin-

428

ciples of give and take, of labor and reward, of practice and
skill, which apply to every other honest and practical business
in life.

The expectations of men in this case are so unreasonable,
that 1 hope I shall be excused if I detail here as well as I can
remember it, an actual conversation which I had with a farmer
not far from this very county. Some curious person may ask
me, who it was — I shall only answer, it was not Charles Wel-
lington, nor George Pierce, nor Amos Hill, nor any of that
family.

This man, then, had a farm which was fully valued at four
thousand dollars. The father, who had given the farm to the
son, had begun lile without a dollar, had run into debt for a
large part of the purchase money, but had some time since,
while he supported his family, earned from the proceeds of the
farm, sufficient to pay for it. Without any incumbrance he
had then put it into his son's possession, and now lived with
him under the same roof.

Said the son, farming is a miserable business !

But why so ? Let us look into this matter. What is the es-
timated value of your farm?

Four thousand dollars.

Is it increasing in value?

Yes ; by its favorable location, and by every improvement
that is made upon it. «

Do you get all the produce from it which it can be made to
yield ?

No, not one third. It consists of one hundred and twenty
acres. At least fifty acres of it are in wood, and a considerable
portion in pasture. Besides that, I have several acres of peat
bog, which might be redeemed and brought into English
grasses.

What is the value of the wood land ?

We supply our family with fuel, and besides this, the growth
of tlie wood, and the hoop-poles which we obtain from it, pay
a large interest upon the current value of the land, so that we
consider this as one of the most profitable parts of the farm.

429

Have you done anything to improve your pasture lands ?

No ; I suppose 1 ought to. I tried one hundred weight of
plaster spread upon a part of it, and the effects were visible as
far as the land could be seen ; but then after that, plaster rose
half a dollar on a ton, and I thought I would not get any more.
Then the huckleberry bashes and the sweet fern, and the brakes
and alders have come in so, that I cannot keep as much stock
as I could formerly.

Have you attempted any improvement upon your bog mea-,
dows ?

No ; sometimes I have thought I would. My neighbor J.
B. has redeemed eight or ten acres, and now gets two tons and
a half of hay to the acre, herds-grass and clover and red-top of
the best quality, where formerly he got scarcely any thing ; but
then it cost him at least twenty or twenty-five dollars an acre
to drain and manure it ; and he will have to top-dress it at least
once in five years or it will never hold out. Then, too, he has
put on at least half a bushel or more of grass-seed to the acre ;
and grass-seed which I used to buy for twelve cents a pound,
or two dollars and a half per bushel, is now twenty cents a
pound, and herds-grass three dollars per bushel. Then, too,
labor is so high, I cannot afford to hire.

Have you plenty of manure ?

No ; that is a great want. I have a bog-hole where 1 sup-
pose I could get two hundred loads a year, but then 1 should
have to go more than a mile for it, and it is wet work. I have
not any of the advantages which the farmers have who live
within six or seven miles of Boston, and can go in and buy a
load of good dung whenever they want.

Do you know what these farmers have to pay for manure in
Boston ?

Why, yes! I have been told they have to give sometimes
three to five dollars a cord at the stables. Sometimes our tav-
ern-keeper sells a iew loads, but he 'asks five dollars a cord.
Have you a barn cellar ?
No ; I have often thought it would be a very good thing,

430

and my barn is well situated for one ; but then it would cost,
besides what work I should do with my own team, full fifty
dollars to make one.

Do you keep cows ?

Yes ; I keep some just to eat up our coarse fodder ; but our
women-folks do not like dairy work, so we buy our butter and
sell some milk to the milk man for eleven cents a gallon.

Do you keep swine ?

Only one or two for our own pork. We do not have any
skim-milk or butter-milk for them. Besides there is no great
profit in fatting hogs. They will not much more than pay for
what feed they will eat. I know they will make a large quan-
tity of manure, but then you must cart in a great deal of stuff
into their pens, or else they can't make any. But come ! I
must show you a sow I have got ; she is only fifteen months
old, and I sold her pigs for more than forty dollars. I suppose
I shall make her weigh four hundred in the fall.

Do you raise your own grain and potatoes?

Not all. I raise about three acres of corn and about as much
rye, and about six hundred bushels of potatoes. We sell hay
and buy Genesee flour. We have tried wheat, but sometimes
it is blasted ; and it don't make white flour ; and our women-
folks say they cannot make handsome pie-crust or white bread
with it.

How many have you in your family ?

1 have a wife and eight children, and my father lives with
me.

Have you any trade ?

No ; I have nothing but my farm.

Does your farm support your family and pay your labor?

Why, yes ! I have nothing else, excepting a little interest
that comes from some money which I received for the sale of
wood from the farm, some time ago, which came to about five
hundred dollars, and which I put out at interest. We sell
enough produce from the farm to pay our hired labor, which
costs about a hundred dollars per year, and our store bills and
taxes.

431

Here is a husbandman on a farm valued at four thousand
dollars, not producing more than one third of what it might be
made to produce, yet supporting a family of eleven persons
and paying all expenses, excepting the labor and superintend-
ence of one man, and the farm gradually increasing in value
by every expenditure, however small, for its miprovement ;
this man, too, not working half the time, and he and his family
living in the enjoyment of all the luxuries, if they choose to
have them, which they can reasonably ask. Let such a man if
he will, take his two hundred and forty dollars income and la-
bor no more hours than he does in tlie country, and go into
Boston and try to support his family there. The end of the
year would show him a result which would make him ashamed
to complain of his present condition.

XXII. Agricultural Education. — Middlesex county is the
seat of Harvard University ; the earliest public literary institu-
tion founded on this continent. It has been the long-cherished
object of private and public munificence. This subject may by
some be deemed inappropriate to an agricultural repdrt ; yet is
no class in the community more deeply interested than the ag-
ricultural, in the subject of education.

It has always been my earnest desire to see the agricultual
profession exalted, and rendered attractive to the young. How
shall this be done ? The highest distinctions in human charac-
ter, the brightest ornaments which can be worn in life, those
which " sparkle with an inherent lustre all their own," and
differ from the mere artificial trappings of society, as the dia-
mond differs from the paste, are moral integrity and religious
principle. I shall not farther speak of these in this case. But
the distinction which, separate from these, gives elevation to the
character is the improvement of the mind. This confers a rank,
which wealth cannot purchase. This commands a respect,
which the proudest aristocracy may envy.

In order to render the agricultural profession more attractive
and respectable, we must seek its intellectual elevation. In

432

general intelligence and practical wisdom, the farmers of New-
England as a body are not wanting. Much more than this is
desirable. There is no class in our community who have more
favorable opportunities for the improvement of their minds than
our farmers, if they would, and knew how, to use them. Our
long winters, which bring so protracted a respite from labor,
furnish quiet evenings for reading and study. Many intelligent
men among us, some of whom have been the boast of science
and the ornaments of literature, have made themselves what
they were in the devotion of the hours of leisure, which their
long voyages or intervals of business afforded, to the improve-
ment of their minds, the cultivation of taste, and the acquisition
of knowledge. Our farmers have equal, in some respects more
favorable opportunities. The improvement of our common
schools, therefore, and the elevation and extension of the course
of instruction pursued in them, particularly concerns the agri-
cultural interest. It is not enough to meet the present condi-
tion of society that our boys and girls are able to read and spell,
to write and cypher, and to have some knowledge of geography.
The highest branches of natural science, the principles of moral
and intellectual philosophy and of political economy, should be
at least so far taught in them, which is at present perhaps all
we have a right to expect, that a taste for their continued pur-
suit might be formed, inquiry awakened, and the track marked
out by which they might unassisted advance at their own pleas-
ure to high attainments. The establishment of social libraries
and lyceums in every village and town ; and associations bring-
ing both sexes together for mutual intellectual improvement,
should have every encouragement, and would be followed with
the best results. Such cultivation of the mind need not inter-
fere with the necessary and useful labors of the farm ; but
would render these labors, otherwise, in some cases, discourag-
ing and severe, light and cheerful. Education is a good, meas-
urable by no pecuniary standard. As the cultivation of the
highest attributes of our nature ; as furnishing resources of
pleasure and gratification in the solitary and the cloudy hours

433

of life ; as fitting us to be more useful and to do more good to
our fellow-beings than by any other means we can adopt ;
as enabling us to use to the best advantage the power which
God has furnished of providing for ourselves and those depen-
dent on us ; as increasing our self-respect, and saving men
from low pleasures and pursuits ; and as securing a position of
respectability and influence in society, — education, in the best and
most enlarged sense of the term, cannot be too much regarded
by the rural and laboring classes. There is indeed no reason
and no hindrance in the way, why our farmers and their chil-
dren should not be among the best-informed persons in the
community.

But knowledge has a specific value to farmers in respect to
the improvement of their art.

It is too late in the day to decry the value of science in agri-
culture. Who can name an art, or trade, or business, in which
knowledge is a disadvantage or a prejudice to success ; or in
which indeed it is not a substantial help? Who are the men,
who best succeed in life ; the ignoramuses, the blockheads, the
dunces, or the intelligent, the inquisitive, the observing, the
experienced ? Why should agriculture, combining as it does so
many occasions and opportunities for the application of skill
and knowledge, be an exception to every other art and busi-
ness ? But it is said that agriculture is altogether matter of ex-
periment ! Who then are so well qualified to make, to observe,
and to report these experiments, as men of disciplined and en-
lightened minds ?

All the great improvements which have been made in agricul-
ture here or abroad have been made by men of intelligence, in-
quiry, education and science. The present improved structure
of the plough, the great instrument of the farmer, so infinitely
superior to the implement of former times, and by which the
power of draft required in its operation is reduced in many cases
more than fifty per cent from what was formerly demanded, is
the result of of a profound application of mechanical science to
the construction of the mould-board and the general manufac-
55

434

ture and make of this important implement. All that has been
effected among us in the production and improvement of fine
fruits, in the increase of crops, in the cultivation of crops, in
the construction of farm implements generally, in the multi-
plication of articles of culture, in the redemption of waste
lands, doomed otherwise to perpetual unproductiveness, has
been first made by men of active and enlightened minds,
whose attention has been absorbed by these matters ; who ex-
periment in various processes, carefully noting the results ; and
who are not infrequently stigmatized by the sneering applica-
tion of book-farmers.

How much have we yet to learn of soils, of manures, of the
particular improvements which particular soils require, of the
proper application of manures, of their mode of operation, of
the structure and habits of plants, of their best modes of cul-
ture, of the part which the soil performs in vegetation, of the
uses of manures which have been little known among us, of
the improvements which have been made and are still making
in foreign countries ; and how is all this or any of it to be
known but by inquiry, scientific inquiry and examination ?
Who will pretend to set any limits to improvements which may
be made ; or say to what great results inquiry may still lead ?

Fifty years ago, by the example and influence of some of
the most enlightened men in the kingdom, the turnip husband-
ry was introduced into Great Britain. It has added uncounted
millions to their wealth. Fifty years ago the cultivation of
cotton was among the smallest of our agricultural products.
Now the value of this great staple approaches one hundred
millions of dollars a year. Thirty years ago it was scarcely
known that sugar could be obtained from the beet root. Now
the product in France alone is annually 120,0U0,000 of lbs.
What has contributed more largely to the prosperity of the
culture of cotton than any thing else? The scientific labors of
Whitney in the invention of the cotton gin. Who discovered
the existence of sugar in beets, and who has perfected the art
of manufacturing it ? The most eminent chemists in Germany
and France.

435

The most common farmer observes a difference in soils ; and
his familiar observation enables him to choose with advantage
for his different crops. The most common farmer is aware of
the importance of manure. Practice soon teaches a man the
times of sowing and reaping and the common modes of saving
and using his crops. But why should we be satisfied with
this ; and why should we think that this is all?

The soil may be suited to some crops better than to those
which we now cultivate upon it. It may be deficient in some
elements ; it may superabound in others. Both of these cir-
cumstances may have a material bearing upon its culture and
productiveness. It may have intermixtures, which are poison-
ous to some products, but which art would enable us to cor-
rect, or modify. How shall we come at these secrets but by
scientific and laborious chemical analysis ? The subject of
manures is matter of vast importance to the agricultural inter-
est. As yet we are comparatively in the infancy of knowledge
in respect to them. The power of some substances to affect
the crop, when applied to the soil, are among the profound
wonders of nature. Who, before experience had taught us
what it has, would not have ridiculed the idea that half a
bushel of ground plaster of Paris strewed over an acre of
ground, would cause land otherwise unproductive, to be-
come covered with a most luxuriant vegetation and to yield
tons of hay to the cultivator ? Yet who will pretend that this
is any thing more than the first step in the profound science
of manures and their influence upon vegetation.

Various mineral manures of extraordinary efficacy are now
coming into use in Great Britain and in this country, as for ex-
ample, saltpetre and the nitrate of soda? What is to solve the
secrets of their operation, and consequently determine the best
modes and times of applying them, but the science of chemis-
try, aided by practical observation ?

" The fit period," says Daubeny, " for collecting the fruits of
the soil, depends upon the physiological fact, that the farinaceous
matter which constitutes the nutritive portion of those tubers

436

that serve for food to man, being designed for the nourishment
of the bud, begins to be consumed as soon as the latter starts
into existence."

Here now is a most important fact, which science alone
could have discovered, and which has at once various practical
bearings in the gathering and uses of these productions.

How far the productiveness of plants is affected by the na-
ture and condition of the soil, how manures operate to produce
their effects, what relation the fertility of a soil bears to its
mineral constituents, the dependance of vegetable life upon air
and water, and heat and light, are all questions, which with
many others must materially affect our cultivation. These are
points, which science, properly so called, alone can solve.

When many minds are concentrating their rays upon the
same point, why should it not be rendered luminous ? It is to
the glory of Massachusetts that she has taken the lead among
these States in forwarding the plans of scientific improvement ;
and by her geological, botanical and zoological surveys she has
already contributed to practical science in the most essential
manner. These contributions are not to be estimated by a pe-
cuniary value ; and the cost, compared with the good accom-
plished and ultimately to result from them, deserves not a sec-
ond's consideration with an inteUigent and patriotic mind.

It is only for these sentiments, which are founded on the
highest truth, to become more deeply impressed on the minds
of the agricultural community, for them to take a just interest
in the great subject of practical education ; and to see that,
where their patronage is in any form bestowed, it should be ap-
plied with an impartial hand to the advancement of their inter-
ests in a just proportion to those of other departments and class-
es in the community. It is my honest opinion, which I should
be most happy to correct upon farther light, that this is not
done in any of our colleges or universities to the extent which
is desired. The course of education in general pursued in these
places, is adapted almost exchisively to the training young men
for the learned professions ; and very little for the more practi-
cal and productive pursuits of life.

437

Education may be considered as having three prominent ob-
jects ; first, as a mere exercise of the intellectual powers, the
strengthening and disciplining of the mind for action ; and in
this respect it matters little what the particular study is, provid-
ed it is of a nature to call out the faculties, to form a habit of
attention and concentration, and to bring the powers of the
mind entirely under the command of the will. The second is
as matter of ornament and luxury and personal gratification.
Education tends to give refinement and elegance to the man-
ners and character, and puts within reach of its possessor in-
numerable means and sources of pleasure ; yet though it is cal-
led liberal with a large portion of those who enjoy its advanta-
ges, it seems to serve only as an instrument of personal
ambition and vanity, or of selfish indulgence or gratification.
But the third and highest object of education, is that of forming
the mind and character to every thing that is manly and useful,
developing the physical powers in their highest perfection and
seeking a correspondent development of the intellectual and
moral man ; preparing men for the practical business of practi-
cal life ; to provide for their own subsistence and welfare, and
the subsistence and welfare of others; to advance civilization ;
to increase the wealth of the community ; to adorn and em-
bellish society by all the arts which ingenuity can invent, and
to contribute to the general comfort ; to multiply and extend the
means of enjoyment and improvement, and further the progress
of mankind in all that is useful and good.

For these objects, which are the best objects of human aim,
education cannot be made too practical. To these objects the
great pursuits of agriculture, manufactures and commerce,
when under an enlightened direction and raised to the dignity
of liberal professions, must essentially contribute ; I will not say,
more than all the learned professions, because 1. wish to insti-
tute no ofi"ensive comparison ; but I may say without these,
the learned professions could do nothing ; and as far as experi-
ence goes, the intellectual and moral progress of society corres-
ponds to the advanced condition of these great interests.

438

In every institution therefore for liberal and general educa-
tion, these objects should be prominent. They are at least en-
titled to their place in the system. In every university there
should be for example a professor of commerce and trade, em-
bracing in his instructions all the subjects of trade, all the cus-
toms and laws of trade throughout the world, the subjects of
currency, banking, and exchange and the arts of ship-building,
equipment, and navigation. There should be likewise a pro-
fessor of manufactures, who should give instruction in the me-
chanic arts and inventions, in the various machinery employed
in these arts, and in the history of their condition and prog-
ress. There should be likewise a professor of agriculture,
whose department should embrace every department of this
great art, with the kindred sciences of botany, zoology and
chemistry, as far as they bear upon it. The university could
not establish more useful courses of instruction. In regard to
this latter subject many of our young men, who are graduated
with a fair classical reputation, seem hardly to have discovered
that the bread which feeds them does not come as the manna
did to the ancient Israelites.

Count Rumford, in 1815, left a considerable property to
Harvard University, for an institution which should teach '• by
regular courses of academical and public lectures, accompanied
with proper experiments, the utility of the physical and mathe-
matical sciences for the improvement of the useful arts and for
the extension of the industry, prosperity, happiness, and well-
being of society." Two competent professors have in succes-
sion filled the chair of this department ; and I can only express
my wish that the course of instruction under it were more
widely extended and its advantages more diffused.

An agricultural department is still wanting. In the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, such a department has been filled by an
accomplished professor, who has given to the agricultural com-
munity one of the best books on practical agriculture extant

* Low's Practical Agriculture.

439

and is now publishing a full account of live stock, with em-
bellishments of extraordinary richness. In the university of
Oxford, they have a chair of Rural Economy, filled by a prac-
tical man, full of enthusiasm for the art, who has presented some
valuable publications to the world, and who is now prosecuting
in the botanical garden of the university, a series of most im-
portant experiments in vegetation and manures.

In Harvard University, the learned professor of chemistry
has recently given to the public a valuable English work upon
Agricultural Chemistry,* wi'h highly instructive notes ; but
this is all to be considered as extra duty, as his instructions
in chemistry are understood to be mainly limited to the con-
nection of the science with medicine. There is wanted, there-
fore, a distinct department for this great object.

In 1805, a number of public-spirited individuals presented to
the university a fund of more than $31,000, for the establish-
ment of a botanical garden with a view to horticultural and
agricultural improvement. It is greatly to be regretted that
the patriotic views of these donors should in any respect have
failed of accomplishment, as we learn from the elaborate and
elegant history of the university by President Quincy, that the
funds were some time since inadequate to the support of a pro-
fessor, and the trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural Soci-
ety, who were the proper guardians of this important trust,
deemed it expedient to resign all charge of it to the corpora-
tion. Some persons had hoped that when the present distin-
guished incumbent, who was one of the most accomplished,
enthusiastic and best practical farmers in the State, was ad-
vanced to this high post of public service, he would have car-
ried with him a strong feeling of the importance of this great
branch of public education, and have made it a particular ob-
ject of interest ; but eminent as have been his merits in all
other departments of official duty, he seems in this case only
to have added another example to that of the Chief Butler
when advanced in the palace of the Pharaohs, " who did not

* Liebig's Organic Chemistry.

440

remember Joseph but forgat him." I can but express my strong
wish that some of our rich men, upon whom Heaven with ample
means may in its kindness have conferred the far better gift, a
disposition to use them for the general welfare, will presently
provide effectually for this great object of public utility.

XXIII. Mount Auburn, I cannot quit the privileged and im-
proved county of Middlesex, without adverting to this beautiful
retreat, which owes all its natural and local attractions to its rural
embellishments. I confess I am drawn to it by still stronger ties,
for there sleep under its green banks and its waving boughs,
those who were as dear to me as any thing this side Heaven ;
and there, too, side by side with them, it is my consolation to
think, I shall, myself, repose, when my days' humble work is
done, and I fall like the leaf by the autumnal blast.

This cemetery, embracing now more than a hundred acres
of land, of most varied surface and aspect, was originally in-
tended, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, for an experimental garden as well as burying place ;
but it is now exclusively devoted to the last object. It abounds
with elegant monuments of taste and touching testimonials of
affection ; and with singular beauty intermingles the charms
of floral culture with the untrained wildness of nature. Its
silent walks, its shaded retreats, its calm waters are all sacred
to tender and reverential sentiments ; its monuments, from the
simple rough stone to the marble, chiseled by the touches of
exquisite art, are all eloquent ; and it exhibits every where the
affectionate offerings of the heart to that idol, which Heaven,
in its mercy to our weakness, permits us to adore, the precious
memory of the beloved and revered dead.

It shows, too, most emphatically, that strong passion for ru-
ral beauty which the Creator seems to have made instinctive in
the heart ; and that spontaneous acknowledgment of the charms
of the country, which the deep absorption of business or the
dissipations of city life cannot extinguish, nor even so far abate,
but that the mind reverts to them as the most favored elements

441

in man's earthly condition, and vainly thinks that after the
turmoil of life is over, the sleep of death will be more peaceful
in the midst of them. They love to see the sweetest flowers
blooming upon the graves of those fairer flowers, which per-
ished without maturing their fruit ; or shedding their fragrance
over those whose virtues still breathe a divine perfume to the
heart. They love that the birds should salute the humble
sleepers here with their thrilling morning hymn ; that the gen-
tle breezes of a summer's evening as they whistle through the
trees, should sing the requiem of the departed in jEolian strains ;
and that the unsullied snow should spread its mantle over vir-
tues as unsullied. They combine all the beautiful embellish-
ments of the country, as though out of nature's own unrival-
led materials they would build the palaces of the dead.

What an eloquent tribute is this to the strong attractions and
the matchless glories of rural scenery and life ! How happy
would it be for thousands in our cities if they would yield ear-
lier to these impulses, and seek the country early fir the living
as they now seek it late for the dead. How happy would it be for
thousands, whom success has blessed with the means, if after
acquiring more than enough, they would quit the slavery and
drudgery of business, so often debasing to the mind and some-
times almost the extinction of the man, and find a rich enjoy-
ment in the embellishment of the country for the common and.
grateful delight of all who see it ; and in improving the culture
of the earth, for the sustenance and comfort of some portion of
the vast multitude, who are fed at this common table.

56

APPENDIX.

A.— (p. 120.)

SHEEP AND WOOi;.

I subjoin a communication from William Jarvis, American Consul at
Lisbon, in 1809 — 10, and then a large purchaser of Merino Sheep to be
sent to this country. He is now an extensive farmer in Wethersfield,
Vermont; and has as good sheep as are to be found. I have never
seen sheep in better condition. Two other communications follow from
Henry D. Grove, a native of Germany, bred a farmer and a shepherd,
and at one time President of the New York Agricultural Society.
Such men are a great acquisition to the country and do much for our
agricultural interests. No man is more competent to speak with au-
thority in these matters ; for no man's flocks are better managed or
make better returns. 1 have had repeatedly the pleasure of visiting his
premises, and of being instructed by their excellent condition.

Two of these communications were addressed to Benton & Barry,
who published Statistical Accounts of the Sheep and Woolen Manufac-
turing Establishments in the country, in 1816 ; a work of great labor
and value, showing in a striking manner the great importance of this
interest.

I. — Extracts from a Letter of William Jarvis to Benton and Barry.

" Out of a hundred Spanish Merinos five may, be selected that are a
shade better than the rest, and five that are somewhat inferior ; the
other ninety will be so nearly alike as to the quality of the wool, as to
leave but little other choice than what arises from shape and size. A
quf;stion will very naturally arise here, how it happens that the Spanish
Merinos should be so much better built and stronger, and yield a fleece
one third heavier than does the Saxony, when the latter is derived from
the same stock. This is a question of difficult solution. The best
reasons that I can assign for it are, that all the feebler sheep in Spain

444

sink under the fatigue of travelling from the winter to the summer
pastures, and vice versa; that owing to this mode of management, the
shepherds of Spain feel the particular necessity of paying attention to
the strength of the male as well as the fineness of his wool ; and as
every attentive breeder must have observed that the most healthy and
vigorous sheep carry the heaviest fleeces, the Spaniard in selecting for
streno;th has also secured heavier fleeces. From the mildness of the
climate of Spain, too, the Spaniard is enabled to keep his sheep in the
open air the year round, which may also have contributed to give
them a better constitution.

The climate of Saxony and the neighboring states of Germany where
those sheep are bred, is not dissimilar to the northerly part of the State
of New York, and the southerly part of New England, in which shelter
is necessary to defend sheep against the pelting storms in winter. The
Saxons, too, carry this system of housing far beyond us ; they are not
only very careful to have warm shelters in the winter, but most of their
breeders build sheds in their pastures, into which their sheep are driven
during the stormy weather of spring, summer, and autumn, being only
let out a short time to feed in the fore and afternoon while the storm
lasts. This treatment alone would enfeeble the constitution of those
animals. Owing to the very low price of labor in Germany too, their
flocks are constantly attended by shepherds, whose watchful care makes
it of less consequence to have vigorous lambs and healthy offspring?
than it is in Spain, particularly as in Saxony the sheep are not pastured
at a great distance from the winter establishments. For these reasons
the Saxon breeders have not found it so necessary to pay as much at-
tention to the strength of the sheep as in Spain, and it is probable, there-
fore, that the principal object with them in the selection of both the
male and female, has been the fineness of the fleece without any great
regard to the animal's constitution. But whatever may be the cause, it
is certain that the Saxony wool is somewhat finer than the Spanish.
This fact partly answers your question, whether the wool of the im-
ported sheep has deteriorated in this country. Twenty-five years'
experience satisfies me that the wool of the Spanish Merino has rather
improved. About six years ago, I compared my Merino wool with fif-
teen or twenty samples of the Paular flock that had been sent me from
Spain, where I purchased ; and eight or ten judges who examined the
two, gave a decided preference to that taken from the backs of my
sheep. Mr. James Shepard, when he carried on the factory at North-

445

ampton, and who purchased my Merino wool for several years, told me
that the superfine broadcloths made from my wool, handled softer than
did those from the best imported Spanish wool he could purchase.
Where the Merino has been bred with attention and care, the wool has
not deteriorated in any other country beside England, and the deteriora-
tion there has unquestionably been owing to the uncommon humidity of
that climate.

You next inquire, what is my particular mode of management. I at
an early day became satisfied, that if the Merino could not thrive under
a similar management to that which our good farmers afforded to the
native breeds, they would never become popular in this country. I
therefore adopted a management similar to theirs, and happily found
that they throve under it beyond my most sanguine expectations. At-
tached to my barns I have sheds connected with large yards ; in those
yards I place my racks, and carry out the hay and put into them morn-
ing and evening for their food ; at noon I give them a gill or a half pint
of oats a head in troughs ; if a half pint of oats is given a little less hay
is fed out, if a gill a little more ; about two pounds of good hay with a
half pint of oats per head per diem, will keep them in good case, or
about two pounds and a half of hay with a gill of oats. When I have
an abundance of hay, I give no oats, but feed out about three pounds of
hay per day, at three times, morning, noon, and night, although I think
it makes but little difference whether this quantity is fed out three times
a day or twice, for it must be remarked, that when sheep are in pasture
they rarely feed from ten till three or four o'clock in the afternoon. I
leave the doors of my sheds open, and let the sheep go in and out when
they please. My sheds are occasionally strawed to prevent their be-
coming very filthy, and there is no waste in so doing, as all the best of
the straw the sheep will eat before laying upon it.

I am careful to have water both in my yards and pastures, as I think
water essential to their health as well as thrift. If the hay was well
salted when put into the mow, no salt will be necessary ; if not, they
will require salting weekly. My rule is, to take them up in the fall
when the grass ceases to be nutritious, owing to severe frosts, which is
ordinarily about the 25th of November, and never let them go out of
their yards until I turn them to pasture in the spring, which is commonly
about the 25th April to the 5th of May, according as the grass is more
or less advanced. Some attention ought to be paid to the ewes in the
lambing season, and in cold easterly storms, or in heavy rains they

446

ou"ht to be housed at night, when the lambs are young. During the
rest of the season no attention is given to them except wliat is necessary
in shearincr, and to salt them once a week and see that the fences are
up. It is better to salt them in long narrow troughs than on the ground,
as they waste less, and all get an equal share. Six by six slit work,
dug out triangularly with an adze, makes the best ti'oughs for salting.
I ought to have mentioned above, that if corn is given, only half the
quantity is required that it does of oats, but I think oats are better for
sheep. Between the 1st and 10th of May I think the best season for
lambing.

My remedy for foot-rot is, three parts of blue vitriol, and one part
verdigris, pulverized as fine as Indian meal, then pour in sharp vinegar
made as hot as water with which we commonly scald hogs, not boiling,
and pour in as much vinegar as will make it of the consistence of thick
milk, stirring it briskly all the while ; clean the hoof with a knife, and
put on the mixture with a small paint brush, taking care that it comes
in contact with the inflamed part ; it is also better to put it on the sound
hoofs of the affected sheep as a preventive. Strong tobacco liquor is
the best cure for the scab, immersing the sheep all over except the head,
and scrubbing the part well that is affected. This remedy does best
directly after shearing, but will answer any time during the summer or
fall months ; for lambs, the liquor must be much weaker. For bloating,
the best remedy is a great spoonful of castor oil, mixed with a tea-
spoonful of pulverized rhubarb, and about a gill of hot water, which
may be put down the sheep's throat with a great spoon."

//. — Letter from H. D. Grove to Benton and Barry.

Gentlebien, — I will endeavor to give you an outline of the history
of the Saxon Merinos, their introduction from Spain into Saxony, and
subsequently into the United States, with a few remarks on sheep hus-
bandry.

In the year 1764, the Elector of Saxony obtained, by special nego-
tiation through his ambassadoK, a grant from the king of Spain, for
the purchase of one hundred ewes and one iiundrcd rams, and a ^nw
surplus ones to keep that number good in case any should die during
the passage. Accordingly one hundred and nineteen ewes and one
hundred and ten rams were selected, principally from the Escurial

447

flocks, the king's private property, under the care and management of
the monks belonging to the monastery of that name, and which were
considered the finest sheep in the kingdom. They were shipped at
Cadiz, in the month of May, 1765, accompanied by two Spaniards to
take care of them. Five rams and three ewes died on the passage, the
remainder arrived safely at the Elector's private domain at Stolpen.
The Spanish shepherds remained with, and took care of the flock till
the middle of the following year, when they took their departure for
Spain. During the time however, they remained in Saxony, they in-
structed Saxon sliepherds in the care and management of sheep.

In order the better to make this valuable acquisition benefit the coun-
try as much as possible, the Elector appointed a commission, to super-
intend and direct the general concerns of the sheep establishment,
whose particular duty it was made, to spread all the information they
could obtain on the care and management of sheep before the public,
and who were especially instructed to dispose of the young rams at low
prices, in order to induce the sheep owners to improve their flocks.
The tenants of the government domains were particularly favored, by
giving them the preference in the purchase (which is kept' up till th s
day), while every possible care was taken to induce farmers generally
to improve their breed of sheep throughout the Electorate. It was
further required of the said commission to make a detailed report to the
government, annually, on the condition of the sheep establishment, and
at the same time to submit a list of the persons who had received sheep
from the national flock.

During the first years these valuable animals found many opponents,
and the improvement of ihe Spanish flock was very slow, mainly on
account of the common prejudice of the farmers, which was heightened
when the scab broke out among them, but afterwards they became
convinced of their value, and the improvement was more rapid. But as
most of the flocks in Spain are more or less affected by the scab, those
transported to Saxony had to undergo the same ordeal. This of course
heightened the prejudices of many against them, who pronounced
them as entirely unfit for the country, their meat not eatable, or at
best, of a miserable description ; a notion, however, which soon explod-
ed. The scab, however, caused great ravages among them before
they were entirely cured of this disease.

When the commissioners had exercised their functions ten years, th 3
call for young rams was so great, — and in order the more rapidly to

448

improve the breed of the country, — that they resolved to petition the
government to make another importation of ewes and rams from Spain,
for which purpose the Elector obtained another grant from the King of
Spain for three hundred rams and ewes. At the end of the year 1777,
a gendeman by the name of Vaigt, manager of Count Eiorsidel's farms,
who was considered one of the best judges of sheep at that day in Sax-
ony, was provided with the necessary credentials and sent on that mis-
sion. But, for some cause unknown, he selected only one hundred
and ten two-year old rams and ewes, and returned home with them.
These were, however, of a very superior quality, selected from the
best flocks of Leon, Escurial, Cavagnon, Negretti, Montarco and So-
rian, and exceeded greatly in beauty of form and quality of wool, the
first importation. The cost of them was about forty rix dollars per
head.

With this acquisition, the commissioners then planted the Merino
Tree on the fruitful soil of Lohmen and Rennersdorf, from whence, in
conjunction with Stolpen, many pure-blood flocks derive their origin.
And 1 owe it to truth to remark, that I have examined private flocks
equal, if not superior, to the national flocks.

It would lead me too far here, to detail the introduction of the Span-
ish and Saxony Merino, into other parts of Germany, Prussia, Austria,
&c. Suffice it to say, that many districts rival Saxony ; Prussia, es-
pecially, fosters her flocks, not only by premiums bestowed through
her agricultural societies, but by that enlightened protection to domes-
tic industry, which so truly characterizes that government.

It may perhaps be supposed, that as these kinds of sheep are great-
ly increasing in number, they would depreciate in value. This how-
ever is not the case ; for the prices at which they have been selling for
the last twenty years, far exceed those of any period previous. So
highly are they esteemed in Europe, that they have been trans-
ported to almost every corner where sheep can be raised to advantage ;
— they have been transported to Russia, and some of her possessions in
Asia, to New South Wales, and my Leipsic correspondent informs me,
that in October and November last (1836), six hundred rams and ewes
were exported to Buenos Ayres ; and but a kw years since, old Spain,
the mother country, from whence the fine sheep in Germany date
their origin, has imported bucks from Saxony for the improvement of
her flocks. The exportation of wool is very great, the amount in
1835 to Great Britain alone, was 24,000,000 pounds, and considerable

449

quantities are exported to the Netherlands, France, and America, sup-
plying at the same time her own factories, which are not inconsidera-
ble, and which turn out a fabric that exceeds, for durability, that of
England or any other country. It will be readily admitted that these
sheep are a great source of wealth to Germany, and especially in those
districts , where they are raised to the greatest perfection and purity ; and
probably will continue to be so, for a great many years to come. The
demand for the pure race is great and constantly increasing ; and I
have been informed by my friends in that country, that the supply has
not been equal to the demand for the last three years,

A person not acquainted with the system of breeding sheep in Ger-
many, may perhaps be led to doubt the vast difference that is made
there in the price, between the pure race and those of the mixed, or
cross-bred sheep, though possessing many excellences. Yet such is
the case. My friends in Saxony write me, that two hundred and fifty
rix dollars have been paid for individual rams within the last year, and
I have known of much higher prices having been paid. Those of the
mixed, or cress-bred race, are comparatively low, and can be obtained
at from three to fifteen rix dollars (the maximum price) per head, ac-
cording to quality and goodness, and among these are very often indi-
viduals possessing all the characteristic excellences of the pure race.
Yet they are not so valuable for breeding. Here arises a question, why
the fine sheep are so much higher in Germany, than in this country .''
the answer is, that capital is so abundant and the rate of interest in
that country so low, that it is more profitable for agriculturists to invest
part of their surplus capital in fine sheep than to let it out at simple in-
tei'est.

I have been thus particular in giving you an outline of the introduc-
tion of the Escurial Merino sheep into Germany, and the high estima-
tion in which the now called Escurial Saxony sheep are held in that
and other countries, as many of our farmers have not a correct idea
of the origin of the Saxony Merinos ; and as a fear has often been ex-
pressed, that the growing of wool will soon be overdone and not be
worthy the attention of farmers. To those, let me answer, that fifty
years ago similar fears were entertained in Germany, but that experi-
ence has proved them groundless ; and that, whenever that time arrives,
it may fairly be presumed, that all other agricultural pursuits will be in
a similar condition.

I will now briefly notice the introduction of the Saxony Merino sheep

57

450

into this country. The first importation of which I have any positive
knowledge was nr.ade in 1824,* by Messrs. George and Thomas Searle,
merchants of Boston, of which I had the care and management. They
stood the fatigue of the voyage remarkably well ; there were only
seventy-five ewes and rams, of which 1 owned a few myself. The
whole cargo was sold by public auction in Brighton near Boston, and
were scattered in various parts of the country, but mostly in the New
England States and the State of New York. The following year
(1825) another importation of one hundred and eighty rams and ewes,
and a few lambs, was made by the same gentlemen, in which I was
concerned, and came out also under my care and management, and
were likewise sold by public auction, in Brighton, near Boston. Thoy
sold however much higher than the first importation ; several rams
brought as hich as four hundred dollars a head, and one sold at four
hundred and fifty dollars.

These prices were sufficient to excite the spirit of speculation, and
consequently the year of 1826 witnessed the arrival of Saxony sheep, in
Boston and N. York, and other ports, to the number of two thousand five
hundred ewes, rams and lambs. Many of these sheep wei'e well descend-
ed and of pure race, but a great share, I am sorry to say, were not so.
It is certain that many, — I might say some entire cargoes, — were im-
ported and sold for the '■'pure Electoral Saxon sheep^'''' that were only
of cross breed, and some of them as low as three quarter blood,
or as a German shepherd would say, '^ of the second generation.'''' It
is to be regretted, that the importation of the Saxony sheep became a
speculation, for it not only retarded the improvement of sheep in this
country, but it is a positive injury to those who may possess the pure
race. The importations being large, prices declined greatly, and many
importers suffered great losses. There were several cargoes which
sold for about fifteen dollars per head, which was insufficient to cover
the expense of transportation.

The different voyages to this country, and travelling in the interior,
satisfied me, that the Northern and Middle States, as far as 1 examined
the soil and climate ; were exceedingly well calculated for the produc-
tion of fine wool, and would, in time, become decidedly wool-growing
States. Upon which I made up my mind to settle in this country, and
being fully satisfied that the raising of fine wool would be a profitable

* I have been informed, tliat at tbc instance of Col. James Shepard of
Northampton, a few were imported in 1823, as an experiment.

451

business for farmers to pursue, I determined to make an importation for
the purpose of breeding from them, and establish myself as a wool-
grower. For this purpose, I embarked at New York in the fall of 1826
for my native country, and spent the winter following to select my
flock. I landed with them in New York in the month of June, 1827.
It consisted of sixty yearling ewes, twenty-five rams and twenty lambs,
and I drove them into the section of country where I now reside. In
1828, I imported an addition of forty yearling ewes, twenty rams, and
ten lambs, to my flock, which, added to the importation of 1827, made
one hundred ewes, forty-five rams, and thirty lambs.

With this number I laid the foundation of my Electoral Saxon flock,
which I have maintained in all their purity, and visibly improved them.
Their descendants not only are as fine as the original stock, but they
yield more wool, and are larger and better-shaped sheep. The whole
number of Saxony sheep imported amount to about three thousand.

It has frequently been asked, " Whether as fine wool can be grown
in this coimtry as in Saxony ? " Of this 1 do not entertain a doubt. Ten
years' experience has fully satisfied me on this point. In some respects
this country possesses natural advantages over Germany, and with the
same care and management, we can grow as fine wool here as there.
There, pasture lands in many sections are superior. Maine, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, &c.,
afford, by nature, a healthier herbage, though not so much, as the best
sheep districts in Germany ; for instance. Saxony. There, in wet sea-
sons, many flocks are subject to the rot, a calamity which is almost a
stranger to our flocks, and need never occur if proper precaution is
taken. This is an important consideration in our sheep husbandry,
and after there shall have been generally introduced ihe German mode
of sheep husbandry, as far as applicable to the condition and situation
of our country, we shall be able fully to compete with them.

It is an important consideration to keep sheep in a thriving condition
the whole year round. First, it improves the quality of the wool ; sec-
ondly, it increases the quantity ; thirdly, less sheep are liable to die ;
fourthly, the increase of lambs will be greater. Wool from sheep thus
kept, possesses more elasticity, strength, and better felting properties,
than if kept poor, and consequently makes a stronger and more dura-
ble cloth. To keep sheep too fat depreciates the quality though it in-
creases the quantity ; but to keep sheep too poor injures the quality
and diminishes the quantity ; besides which, it is injurious to the consti-

452

tution,and if kept so for a number of years in succession, will run them
down into a diminutive little animal. Extremes should be avoided.
Many of our wool-growers keep their sheep part of the year in a fleshy
condition, which generally is in summer, and during the other part let
them grow poor. This course of treatment is very injurious to both
animals and wool. When shorn, such wool appears of a better quality
than it actually is, and deceives those who are not judges of the article.
There are, in fact, two different qualities in the same staple (in the
length of it) ; the growth during the first part is coarser than during
the latter, and though it appears finer, yet it is not so strong, but is
feeble and makes an uneven fabric. If sheep are kept too poor they
produce a wool, poverty-stricken, and though it appears very fine and
of superior quality, yet it is deceptive, and the quality is not so good
as if the same sheep had been kept in good and thriving condition ; it
is deficient in elasticity, strength, and the felting properties, and is fee-
ble ; the cloth itself made from such wool, is feeble, and frequently
tears before it is finished.

Wool from diseased sheep is poorer still : the quality is greatly in-
jured, is subject to waste in the process of manufacturing, and never
makes a perfect fabric, but makes a feeble cloth, which easily tears.
Wool from sheep that have died is likewise injured, for it seems to be-
come in a measure lifeless. Cloth made from such wool is said to be
much more subject to the depredations of the moth, than cloth made
from live wool, shorn from healthy sheep. This article is well under-
stood in Germany ; the manufacturers pay but two-third prices for such
wool. The discrimination in the selection of their wool is, probably,
the reason why the German cloths are so much stronger and more du-
rable than the English or American cloths.

I repeat, therefore, that it is very important to keep sheep in good
and thriving condition the whole year round. And in order to do this,
they should have sufficient food to fill themselves twice a day. In this
country this is done on pasture and hay. In Germany the keeping of
sheep is based upon the same grounds, but it varies in many respects.
I will mention a few of the leading features.

The Germans keep their sheep under comfortable shelter durinor the
winter. By this means they do not require, in the first place, so much
provender ; secondly, the tip ends of the wool do not get weather-beaten,
which is an injury ; thirdly, a great quantity of manure is saved. They
hurdle their sheep during summer for the purpose of manuring the

453

land, which makes it more productive. They raise large quantities of
roots, such as ruta-baga, potatoes, mangel-wurtzel, carrots, round tur-
nips, &c., to feed out during the winter. Combined with straw, it is
considered an economical mode of wintering sheep. They enrich their
land, moreover, by this course of management, which enables them to
keep still more sheep and cattle, and raise more grain. Many farmers
in that country keep their sheep from nine to ten months of the year in
the yard ; some only part of their flock, and others their whole flock.
For this purpose, they sow red and white clover, lucern, and Espar-
sette, which is mowed and fed to them in racks, three times a day, and
in wet weather a foddering of straw. It follows, as a matter of course,
that the stables and yards are well Uttered with straw every day. It is
considered that an acre, thus managed, will maintain double the number
of sheep, or cattle, than it would to turn them out to pick for themselves.
By this course of management they are enabled to keep large numbers
of sheep, without infringing much upon their grain-growing, and are
enabled to come in competition with the wool-growers of otber coun-
tries. As there are no fences in that country, the sheep are attended
by shepherds. One shepherd with his dog will manage from five hun-
dred to eight hundred in the summer, all in one flock.

This mode of keeping sheep during the summer season is, however,
not altogether practicable in this country, for the reason that pasture
lands are cheap and labor too high. Yet there are some particular lo-
cations, where, on a small scale, it might be introduced to great profit.
But the German mode of keeping them during the winter, is a subject
worthy the imitation of our farmers, and is altogether practicable.

I calculate upon two pounds of good hay per head per day, for my
Electoral Saxon sheep, or an equivalent in grain, roots, or straw. This
will keep them well. 1 oftener undergo than overrun that quantity. If
I give them grain or roots, I deduct from the hay in proportion to the
quantity of grain. My breeding ewes I feed part of the time on roots,
and straw, and hay, at the rate of three bushels of potatoes per hun-
dred per day ; about a month before lambing time I increase this quan-
tity, and during lambing, from four to four and a half bushels per day
are given. When through that period, I gradually decrease until I turn
them to grass. Sheep thus kept, hardly ever scour in the spring of the
year. I raise from eighty-five to ninety lambs from an hundred ewes,
on an average. Sometimes a lamb from every ewe that yeans one.

I have comfortable shelter provided for all my sheep, with a cellar
attached to it, for the purpose of storing roots. I feed altogether out of

454

racks, with troughs attached to them, for the purpose of feeding short
provender, and to catch the leaves that may crumble off, and the hay
the sheep may pull through. Eight tons of hay fed to sheep in this
manner is of as much benefit to them as ten tons fed in the open field
from a stack.

My lambs are yeaned the latter part of April and the fore part of
May. At four months of age I wean them, and put them in the best
pasture I h:ive, and put the ewes in the shortest feed for a short time,
in order to dry up their milk. I have never had an)'- sheep's udder in-
jured in this manner ; but if ihey are turned into fresh feed, a large
quantity of milk is produced, which is very painful to the ewe, and fre-
quently injures the udder.

I think it of importance that sheep should have free access to water
everyday, but especially during the foddering season.

Sheep are subject to various diseases, the most foi'midable of which,
are the rot, scab, and foot-rot. Time and space will not permit me to
treat upon them to-day, but I may perhaps give my views on this sub-
ject at some future time.

Very respectfully,

H. D. GROVE.

Hoosick, ( Buskirk''s Bridge Post Office^) \

Rensselaer Co., N. Y. ,24th June, 1837. )

III. — Letter from H. D. Grove to H. Colman.
Buskirk's Bridge Post Office, Wash. co. N. Y. 13th Jan. 1839.

Mr. Colman, —

Dear Sir, — It is now more than eleven years ago when I landed with
my flock of Electoral Saxon Sheep in this country, and have ever made
it my unremitting attention and study to preserve them in all their pu-
rity, to improve the quality and quantity of their fleece, and to improve
them in size and symmetry of form. How far 1 have succeeded, I leave
for impartial judges to decide. But you will, nevertheless, permit me
here to remark, that 1 have improved the quality of their wool consid-
erably, and that I have increased the weight of fleece at least 6 oz. on
an average. I mention this, merely to repeat an established fact, that
even the high-bred improved sheep, is susceptible of still further im-
provement.

455

Previous to my coming to this country, I followed the profession of
agriculture in Germany. The fine-wooled race of sheep, especially,
attracted my particular attention ; but not until I made several journeys
in different sheep districts in that country and examined a great many
flocks which excelled in excellence, that my predilections in favor of
this interesting and very useful animal, were more particularly aroused.
Being permitted to examine the flocks of some of the most eminent
breeders, their courtesy and liberality to communicate their experience
and observations, exact experiments and their results, gave me advant-
ages for acquiring knowledge on this subject, for which twenty years'
experience in my individual flock would have been insufficient. T could
make comparisons between the different modes of breeding, and noted
the favorable and unfavorable results, but I always found, that where
the mode was based upon scientific principles, the improvements
were much more rapid, than when bred on the hap-hazard plan.

One of the modes of the systematic breeder in Germany is an exact
classification of his flock, and the keeping a correct record of it. Since
the introduction of this system in Germany, the improvement of sheep
took anew start and was much more rapid than it ever was before.
Those flocks where it was first introduced, soon went ahead of others,
and it was not long before most of the owners of fine flocks followed
their example.

The first class is denominated " Super Electa ;" second class
" Electa ;" third class " Prima ;" fourth class " Secunda ;" fifth class
" Tertia ;" not many have more than the first four classes, and any in-
dividual falling below tlie last, is at once rejected and disposed of.
Three small samples of wool, one from the neck, one from the shoul-
der, and one from the thigh, are taken from each sheep (they should
be cut off with a pair of scissors and not pulled out) and rolled up in a
piece of white paper with the number and age of the sheep marked on
it. In order to make the classification with accuracy, the animal is
placed upon a table made for that purpose and held by a man, so that
the examinator has a fair chance to view it critically. A clerk with
paper, pen and ink, is in attendance, who notes down the texture of the
staple, whether short or long, round, flat, or spiral, exterior appearance
of the fleece, evenness, size and shape, &c. &c.

Every sheep is numbered and recorded in a book kept for that pur-
pose, which is called the " Sheep Register." It is done by making notches
and holes in the ears, an ingenious method, invented and brought into
notice by the celebrated agriculturist, Mr. Albrecht Thaer, of Marglin,

456

near Berlin in Prussia, to whom the agricultural community of Germa-
ny and even adjoining States, owe a debt of gratitude for the light he
has spread upon the subject of agriculture.

In my own flock, the notches denote the number, and the holes the
age, of the sheep. When my lambs are one or two days old, I number
and classify them. The first ewe lamb gets number one or the lowest
number, and the last one the highest number. In like manner, I num-
ber my ram lambs. They are all recorded in a book, which I call my
" Breeding Register," which forms part of my main book, " the Sheep
ivegister." This book I carry to the stable with me, sometimes every
day, and sometimes only every other day during lambing time, and for
convenience sake, make my remarks with a pencil, which I afterwards
fill out with ink. The whole is then transcribed into the " Sheep Reg-
ister."

The Breeding Register presents the following columns.

Breeding Register, from 1 July 1838, to 1 July, 1839.

Year

111 whicli

born.

TupM by
Rain No.

D.ve

No. Lamlis.

Cla-sifica-
tiuii (if ihe
Lamb, &c.

No.

of
Lambing.

Rams.Ew -^

General Remarks.

25

1833

2 7-4

G-4

1

-

ICI.sml.
and close
curled.

Thin lambs — one was very
feeble and died.

1

1834

2 6-4

7-4

1

2 CI. mid

die, small
curls.

The lamb lias a few hairs
under the belly, &c.

This is the form in which I keep this book.

In the first column is the number of the ewe ; in the second, her
age, and instead of writing it out in full, I merely write 3, 4, 5, and 6,
which means either 1833, 34, 35, and 36, &c. In the third column is
the number and age of the ram, thus 27-4 — 27 means the number, and
4 his age, namely, 1834, &c. In the fourth column is the day and
month when the lamb is yeaned, thus 6-4 — 6 means 6th day, and 4,
fourth month. In the fifth and sixth columns are the number of ram
and ewe lambs. In the seventh is the classification of the lambs,
when one or two days old, and the last column is for general remarks.

I am very particular in classifying my lambs, with as much accuracy
as possible, to enable me to decide upon the good or bad qualities of
a progenitor as a breeder ; if his progeny is not such as I desire, I re-

457

ject him at once from further service. I do not often use my I'ams
after they are 5 or 6 years old, for when they have attained that age,
their progeny begins to fail in vigor and strength. Much, however, de-
pends upon the treatment he receives. If a ram is carefully used, not
over-ioorked, he will retain his vigor and elasticity much longer, and I
have known rams- 7, 8, or even 9 years of age, whose progeny was as
vigorous, as that from a ram of 3 years old.

I select my stock rams with the greatest care, for I consider this the
most important point in breeding ; and here I find my records of great
value in aiding me to make the best choice. If, for instance, I have a
ram before me, who has, in every respect, the requisite quaUties, and
turning to my records, I find his ancestors occupy a high i-ank, that is,
stand in the first class for a number of generations back, I then have
no hesitation to appoint him a sire for my ewes, and in nine cases out of
ten, he acquits himself to my entire satisfaction. Or, if I have two
rams before me of equal quality and hardly knowing to which one to give
the preference, my records decide the question, for the one who has
got the best ancestry is preferred to the other.

The experienced shepherd knows that even in full-blood flocks, not
all individuals are equal in quality of wool, size, form, &c., but that
some families arrive to much greater perfection than others. Here again
my records are of great value, for with their aid I can designate every
individual member of each family, and cross them with other families,
and in such divisions as I think most beneficial. For eleven years have
I thus managed my flock and selected my stock rams from those of my
own raising, and yet I have no very near relationship, and I can go on
eleven years more in the same manner and avoid that error ; only tak-
ing a little more trouble, and some years use more rams, than to a su-
perficial observer would seem necessary. Now if my sheep were not
numbered and recorded, I could not go on without running the risk of
injuring my flock by too close breeding. This is an important point in
the principle of breeding domestic animals of all kinds, and if once
lost sight of, the injury will soon be perceived by the experienced and
discerning eye ; often the injury is irreparable. That it is lost sight of
and is overlooked by too many of my brother shepherds, is but too true,
and this is one reason, why so many make but little progress in the
improvement of their flocks. These considerations lead me to the prin-
ciple of what is termed, " Ireeding in and in,'''' a principle that em-
braces much, and is but little understood by the great mass of our farm-
ers, b'.tt which, for want of time, I must pass over in silence.

58

458

I have said before, that my sheep are all numbered by making notches
in the ears. For this purpose, I have a pair of instruments resembling
a shoemaker's punch. With one, I make a round hole, and mark the
age ; and with the other, a notch, thus A, the number of the sheep.
These notches and holes have a permanent meaning in the ditferent
parts of the ears. A notch in the upper part of the left ear means 1.
A notch in the lower part of the same ear, means 3. A notch in the
upper part of the right ear, means 10. A notch in the lower part of
the same ear, means 30. With these figures you can mark from No.
1 to 99. A notch in the end of the left ear, means 100. With this
additional notch, you can mark from No. 1 to 199. A notch in the
end of the right ear, means 200. With this additional notch, you can
mark from No 1 to 399. Two notches in the end of the left ear, means
400. With these additional notches, you can mark from No. 1 to 499 ;
or, instead of two notches, cut off the end of the left ear, and you can
express the same number. Two notches in the end of the right ear,
means 500, or, cut off the end, and add one notch in the end of the
left ear, and you have 600, and can mark as high as 699. You can go
higher by making the end of the left ear cut off mean 600, and of the right
ear, mean 700. But by the time one gets a flock of sheep large enough
to raise 699 ewe lambs, and as many ram lambs yearly, it will be found
that he has got over 4,000 sheep, and the sheep establishment becomes
so unwieldy, that it will be necessary to organize a new one. But
few flocks in Germany having attained that number are kept on one
farm. I know of none in this country.

The age of my sheep I mark, by making holes in the ears, when they
are one year old. A hole in the left ear, means 1. A hole in the right
ear, 3. Thus, if a lamb is born in 1838, it gets 2 holes in each ear.
One that is born in 1839, gets three holes in the right ear, &c. &:c.
Lambs that are born in 1840, 50, &c., do not receive any holes. And
after a sheep reaches the age of ten years, she is generally unfit for
further service, though I have had several ewes that reached the age of
13, 14, and 15, and raised lambs. If, however, you retain any ewes
over 10 years old, you can easily distinguish them by their general ap-
pearance, and note them in the general remarks.

I intended to give you a more accurate description and more in de-
tail than I have done, and answered the other questions which you pro-
pounded, but want of time forbids me.

Yours, &c.

H, D, GROVE,

459

B.— (p. 120.)

RELATIVE VALUE OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD FOR SHEEP.

By M. De Domhasle.

Some experiments performed by this celebrated agriculturist, are
well worthy of being recorded, as approaching nearer to an exact deter-
mination of the question of the relative nutritive properties of a ^evf of
the more common aliments of sheep and cattle than any which we re-
member to have seen.

He divided forty-nine sheep into seven lots, of seven sheep each, in
such a manner that the total weight of each lot should be as nearly as
possible equal to each of the rest. Each lot was kept in a separate di-
vision of the stable ; the food was given to each lot in rations of equal
weight ; and by means of scales, the total weight of each lot was taken
once a week, and the experiment was continued five weeks. The
weight of each lot was four hundred and thirty-six pounds.

The substances subjected to examination were : 1. Dry Lucern :
2. Oil cake from flax seed : 3. Oats and barley : 4. Crude potatoes :
5. Cooked potatoes : 6. Beets : 7. Carrots.

The dry lucern formed the unit of the estimate. One of the seven
lots was fed exclusively on dry lucern ; and each of the six others re-
ceived just half the quantity of lucern, and the remainder of the ration
consisted of such a portion of one of the alimentary substances as was
found sufficient by a careful weighing during the five weeks, to keep
each lot in the same healthy condition. The following table shows the
current progress of the experiment ; the quantity of water drunk by
each lot of sheep during the five weeks being also measured by a guaged
trough. The author concludes that fifteen pounds of dry lucern may be
considered as a proper ration for one sheep per week, or rather more
than two pounds per day. The primitive weight of each lot, as before
observed, was four hundred and thirty-six pounds.

460

Lots.

Food.

1st week.

art week

1

3d week.

i

tthweek.

5lh week.

1st,

nry Lucern,

437 lbs

433

4374

437i

443

2d,

Lucern and Oil Cakes,

428 "

428

432i

439

444i

3d,

Lucern, Oats and Barley, .

422i «

433d

429^

4361

437i

4th,

Lucern and crude Potatoes,

441 "

440^

434

4321

4391

5th,

Lucern and cooked Potatoes,

437 <'

435i

447i

4444

45U

6th,

Lucern and Beets,

435 "

424

436

437

444i

7th,

Lucern and Carrots, .

417 «

407

4194

4264

4274

The quantity of water drunk by the seven lots during the five weeks
was as follows, showing the relative degree of thirst occasioned by the
different aliments.

1st lot 223 quarts.

4th lot 123 quarts,

7th lot 35

qua

2d lot 189 "

5th lot 108 "

(C

((

3d lot 164 "

6th lot 95 "

((

((

Fifteen pounds of dry lucern being considered as a proper ration for
one sheep per week, or seven and a half pounds a half ration, he finds
that the following quantities of each of the other aliments are equivalent
in nutritive value to the half ration of lucern.

Oil cake, 4J lbs. ; barley, 3^ lbs. ; oats, 5 lbs. ; crude potatoes, 14
lbs. ; cooked potatoes, 13 lbs. ; beets, 16J lbs. ; carrots, 23 lbs.

Thus taking the quantity of lucern as a standard, the nutritive powers
of the different substances will be —

Dry lucern,

Flax seed oil cake,

Barley,

Crude potatoes,

Cooked potatoes,

Beets (white variety),

Carrots,

100 lbs.
57 "
47 "
187 "
173 "
220 "
307 "
Bih. Univ. Mai, 1832.

461

C— (p. 133.)

AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

The application of Chemistry to Agriculture is now attracting so
much attention both in Europe and in this country, that I feci I shall be
only in the way of my duty in giving an account of a recent work of
Liebig, one of the most eminent men in his profession as a chemist now
living. The work has created a great sensation abroad ; and an edition
with valuable notes has been published in this country by Professor
Webster of Harvard University. This notice may draw attention to
the subject, which cannot fail to issue in good. It has already been
mainly given in the North American Review ; but as that work is like-
ly to reach but few farmers, and as I designed originally that it should
appear here, I make no apology for presenting it.

Organic Chemistry in its applications to Agriculture and Physiology :
By Justus Liebig, M. D., Ph. D., F. R. S., M. R. I. A., &c. Profess-
or of Chemistry in the University of Giessen. First American Edi-
tion, ivith an Introduction, Notes and Apjoendix, hy John W. Webs-
ter, M. D., Professor of Chemistry in Harvard University.

This Treatise makes a contribution to the cause of an improved ao-ri-
culture, of extraordinary value. It has been received with great inte-
rest in England, and will be i-ead with equal eagerness by a large por-
tion of our own people. Intelligent minds among us are everywhere
awake to the immense and universal importance of the subject to which
it relates.

The perfection of agriculture, as an art, implies the obtaining the
greatest amount of pi'oduct from the earth, with the least injury to the
land, and at the least cost of labor. It has been often remarked, that
the actual productive powers of an acre of land have never yet been
fully tested ; the maximum of product has not been reached. Magnificent
and surprising results have been attained ; but in no case can it be said
with confidence that more might not have been effected. In general,
the agricultural art falls far below the condition of productiveness and
improvement which it might obviously attain ; and the aversion among
farmers to change their established habits, and the slowness with which

462

agricultural improvements of great and decided advantage extend them-
selves, even into neighboring districts, ai'e well known and sufficiently
remarkable. Something of this has been owing to the stationary habits
of farmers, to a want of education, and neglect of reading and inquiry
necessarily growing out of this ; and much to prejudice, the natural
child of ignorance, against scientific suggestions and the application of
science to an art which, so far as they are concerned, is wholly of a
practical character. This prejudice against the applications of science
to agriculture, or to what in vulgar parlance is called hook-farmings
has, we confess, found some natural encouragement in the fact, that
many persons, wholly destitute of practical knowledge and skill, have
undertaken to apply purely theoretical rules, without regard to ditlerenc-
es of soil, climate, nature of the crop, and nameless circumstances by
which the application of these rules should be varied, or might be-
come unseasonable or futile ; and that in truth, many persons have un-
dertaken to make books, and to give directions in husbandry, who were
grossly ignorant of its great principles, and possessed little knowledge
of its various practical details and rules. It must at the same time be
admitted, that science has accomplished comparatively little ; and that,
beyond that knowledge which any intelligent, practical and experienced
man easily and almost necessarily acquires of soils, manures, vegeta-
tion and crops, little has been ascertained of a practical value ; and the
profound secrets of vegetable life, or what is properly termed vital ac-
tion in vegetable organism and growth, remain in all their original ab-
struseness and mystery. The little success therefore which scientific
men have had in their attempts to resolve and explain them, and espe-
cially the little practical utility which has come from their theoretical
explanations, have created, with the purely practical, a prejudice against
such inquiries as invincible as it is unworthy of sensible men.

But it will not be denied, in this case, that we know as much of veg-
etable as we know of animal life. Anatomy may be termed an ex-
act science ; it is to a great extent matter of sensible observation and
measurement ; but the operations in the human organism, which are
strictly vital, are altogether undisclosed. We know in truth as much
how the stems and leaves and fruit are formed and perfected, as we
know how the food, which we receive, is converted into blood, and
serum, and bile, and muscle, and fibre, and tendon, and bone ; and we
know no more. Shall we despair of going further } By no means.
There seems, indeed, in this case, to be a limit to inquiry ; an impassa-

463

ble barrier, where human sagacity and inquisitiveness are at once re-
pelled ; the darkness is intense before, above, and around us, and the
mere rush-light, which we hold out to guide us, serves no purpose but
to render this darkness visible. Shall we then be discouraged in all
attempts at further advancement ? Not at all. It may be indeed that
we have reached the end of our line ; and that, until new endowments
are bestowed, the mind can soar no higher in its flight. But with equal,
nay, with much more reason may we suppose, that the cause of failure
is not so much attributable to the limitation or impotence of our faculties
to proceed further, as to the imperfection or error of our modes of ap-
proach and inquiry. The philosophical mind, valuing truth and knowl-
edge as the highest of all attainments, will never rest satisfied with pres-
ent acquisitions ; will regard that which is conceivable as knowable ;
like a vigilant and skilful officer before a besieged fortress, whose direct
approach is precluded, will be continually seeking some private or con-
cealed mode of access ; or, like the man in the Scriptures knocking at
his neighbor's door at midnight, and hoping presently to be heard for his
importunity.

The immense importance and value of knowledge in this case no
sensible man can doubt. If knowledge and science are useful in any art
or department of business, why should they not be in agriculture, an art
which involves many others, and which in its success combines the in-
fluence and operation of more elements than any other ? It is well
ascertained that certain plants will grow only in certain situations, and
under certain circumstances ; that different soils have different pi-oper-
ties, prejudicial to the growth of some plants, favorable to the perfection
of others ; in some cases distinguished by an exuberant fertility, in oth-
ers by an almost incurable barrenness, but yet in most cases capable of
modification, remedy, or improvement ; that the operation of various
manures is various ; and that their efficiency or injury depends upon
their condition, preparation, or modes of application. It is equally well
ascertained, that by some modes of cultivation, double the produce is
obtained on the same land that is obtained under a different cultivation,
and the land, at the same time, placed under a progressive impi'ove-
ment. It is ascertained that by the application of gypsum, or potash,
or soda, or salt, or various animal substances, an extraordinary produc-
tiveness follows, and the crops are often trebled and quadrupled. How
shall we pretend, then, that there is not here the most ample room for
the application of science in the resolution of these remarkable facts.

464

and in profiting by these remarkable means for the improvement of the
soil and the increase of its productiveness ? Separate, however, from
the obvious utility of such inquiries, it is difficult to conceive of subjects
more interesting to a philosophical curiosity than all those connected
with animal or vegetable life and growth ; for what in nature is more
wonderful than the birth and progress of a human being, or the ger-
mination of a dried seed, and its advancement to the perfection of its uses
and fruits ?

There are besides grounds of encouragement in this case, which the
philosophical mind will duly appreciate. In the ordinary course of na-
ture th'ere is no such thing as accident or miracle. As far as man's
sagacity has penetrated into the material world, — and of the spiritual
world, we know nothing but by divine revelation, — all the phenomena
of natm-e are found to proceed upon fixed principles and laws, and to
be the results of nicely established and well balanced, compounded, and
adjusted influences and forces. Many of these operations man is capa-
ble of imitating, and the most extraordinary results are obviously at his
command. We cannot have a doubt, therefore, that the most recondite
as well as the most familiar operations of nature are all the result of es-
tablished pi'inciples and laws. Many of these laws we have already
ascertained, and they are of daily application and use in the common
business of life. How much further we may proceed in the discovery
of them, time only can tell. As yet we have only placed our foot on
the first step of the threshold.

Professor Liebig illustrates the spirit of which we speak. He is a
bold inquirer of nature for the laws which govern her operations. He
is for explaining the phenomena of vegetable life and growth upon the
established principles of chemistry, as far as their application can be
traced ; and he is not willing to take a general answer where a partic-
ular answer can be obtained. He does not feel satisfied to be checked
in his inquiries under the presumption of inexplicable mystery, when
fui'ther inquiry would untie the Gordian knot, and show that some of
the problems, hitherto considered most difficult, are explicable upon the
established principles of chemical science.

" A rational system of agriculture," says he, " cannot be formed
without the application of scientific principles; for such a system must
be based on an exact acquaintance with the means of nutrition of veg-
etables ; and with the influence of soils and the action of manure upon
them. This knowledge we must seek from chemistry, which teaches

465

the mode of investigating the composition, and of studying the charac-
ters, of the different substances from which plants derive their nourish-
ment."— p. 7.

" Innumerable are the aids afforded to the means of life, to manufac-
tures and to commerce, by the truths which assiduous and active in-
quirers have discovered and rendered capable of practical application.
But it is not the mere 'practical utility of these truths, which is of im-
portance. Their influence upon mental culture is most beneficial ; and
the new views acquired by the knowledge of them enable the mind to
recognise in the phenomena of nature proofs of an infinite wisdom, for
the unfathomable profundity of which human language has no expres-
sion."— p. 6.

The work is devoted to an explanation of the proper food of plants,
and the modes in which, and sources from which, they receive this
nourishment. Connected with these matters, come, of course, the value
and uses of manures, and the true art of culture. These subjects are
all obviously of the highest importance ; and it is exceedingly interest-
ing to see how a mind so powerful and learned discusses them. The
author speaks with just respect of that distinguished man, the late Sir
Humphrey Davy, who first taught systematically the application of
chemical science to agriculture ; and he shows himself not an unworthy
pupil of so eminent a master. We can do but imperfect justice by an
abstract of his views ; yet it is all for which we have room.

The elements or constituents of all plants are carbon, water, (or its
elements, hydrogen and oxygen,) nitrogen, and some earthy or alkaline
salts. The food of plants can be received only in a gaseous or soluble
form, and it must come from the atmosphere, from the earth, or from
both. No earthy substance can ever be received into a plant unless
in a dissolved or combined state ; and though crude substances, inca-
pable of assimilation, may in som.e cases be taken up by the roots of
the plant, which seem to have no power of selection in regard to their
food, yet they will be exuded from the roots in the state in which they
were received. The alkaline substances received and assimilated by
plants can only be ascertained by their ashes after incineration, and
constitute a very minute portion ; but, however minute, they are evi-
dently essential to the perfection or fructification of the plant. Besides
these there are certain organic acids, which are found in the juices of
plants and usually combined with some inorganic bases. The alkaline
bases or earths must exist in the soil, or they cannot be found in the

59

466

plant. In some cases, however, one kind may be substituted for an-
other.

The author discusses at large the doctrine of humus, humin, ulmin,
humic acid, apotheme, geine, all referring to one substance, as the food
of plants. This matter is generally understood to be a certain brown
or cai'bonaceous substance resulting from vegetable decomposition.
Some portions of it are soluble in water or alkalies ; other portions are
insoluble but by extraoi'dinary means. The common opinion has been
that it constitutes directly the food of plants, and requires only to be
dissolved to be taken up by the roots of the plants and assimilated by
them. Others have maintained that it requires to be dissolved by the
application of alkalies, and combining with them in the form of an acid,
it becomes then prepared for the food of plants. Our author wholly
denies these positions by showing that so far from humus being ex-
tracted from the soil, it is in fact increased by cultivation, as in the case
of a forest, the more abundant the growth of wood upon it, the greater
the amount of humus in the soil, where the debris of the wood is suf-
fered to remain upon the land,

" A certain quantity of carbon is taken every year from the forest
or meadow in the form of wood or hay ; and, in spite of this, the quan-
tity of carbon in the soil augments; it becomes I'icher in humus." — p.
68.

" The opinion that the substance called humus is extracted from the
soil by the roots of plants, and that the carbon entering into its compo-
sition serves in some form or other to nourish their tissues, is so general
and so firmly established, that hitherto any new argument in its favor
has been considered unnecessary ; the obvious difference in the growth
of plants according to the known abundance or scarcity of humus in
the soil, seemed to alford incontestable proof of its correctness. Yet
this position, when admitted to a strict examination, is found to be un-
tenable ; and it becomes evident that humus in the form in which it ex-
ists in the soil does not yield the smallest nourishment to plants." — p.
61.

He attempts to prove his position, that the carbon of the plant can-
not be derived from the soil, by a calculation in weights and measures.
Humic acid, or the humus of the soil, can only be absorbed by the
plant in combination with some inorganic bases or metallic oxide. We
do not think it important here to give any thing inore than the results
of some of his calculations. He supposes that upon an average 40,000

467

square feet of land, Hessian measure, yield annually 2650 lbs. of dry
fir wood, which contain 5.6 lbs. Hessian of metallic o.xides. Now it is
ascertained in what proportion humic acid combines with the metallic
oxides, with lime for example. Having determined the metallic oxides
exising in such a product, he easily determines the amount of humic
acid thus introduced into the trees ; and, allowing humic acid to contain
58 per cent, of carbon, this would correspond only to the production of
91 lbs. Hessian of dry wood. But 2650 lbs. of fir wood are actually
produced. These calculations are well worth examining, and, if ac-
curate, it is difficult to deny the inference which follows from them,
that the humic acid existing in a soil, supposing all its carbon to be ta-
ken up and assimilated, will supply but a very small portion of that,
which exists in the crop grown upon the soil.

The same remarks are applied to a crop of wheat. From the known
properties of metallic oxides existing in wheat straw (the sulphates and
chlorides also contained in the ashes of wheat straw not included), it
would be found, that the wheat growing on 40,000 square feet Hessian
of land would average 1780 lbs. Hessian of straw, independently of
the roots and grain, and the composition of this straw is the same as
that of woody fibre. Now, according to well-ascertained properties,
it could receive but 57i lbs. of humic acid, which would supply with
carbon only 85 lbs. Hessian of straw.

Another calculation respects the amount of humic acid which plants
can receive through the agency of rain water. The amount of rain
falling in one of the most fertile districts of Germany, during the
months of April, May, June, and July, is estimated to be 17J lbs. Hes-
sian upon every square foot of surface, or upon 40,000 square feet
Hessian, 700,000 lbs. Hessian of rain water. Now this extent of land
averages a product of 2850 lbs. Hessian of corn (wheat) ; 390 lbs. of
humic acid calculated to be absorbed in this case, cannot account for
the quantity of carbon contained in the roots and leaves alone, even if
we suppose the whole of the rain water to be absorbed by the plants,
whereas a large portion of it must necessarily be lost or pass off" in some
other form than through the organs of the plants. If these calcula-
tions be correct, it is evident that a small portion only of the carbon
existing in plants can be derived from the humus of the soil. Another
idea is suggested, viz. that as humus results from the decay of plants,
none existed at the time of the creation to form the pabulum of the
primitive vegetation. This must have had other sources of supply.

468

Dr. Dana is of opinion that geine or humus is an original creation, co-
eval with the creation of hydrogen and oxygen and carbon. The con-
jecture is sufficiently plausible, but it would be idle to advance any opin-
ion on the subject. The only fact which can be said to favor one opin-
ion above the other is, that the plants found in the earliest coal forma-
tion are plants with small roots and expanded foliage, implying that they
drew their chief nourishment from the air.

The inquiry which next arises is, if plants do not derive their carbon,
or but a very small portion of it from the soil, whence is it obtained ? This
interesting question Liebig discusses at large, and certainly with much
ability. The seed itself contains the first supply of nourishment for the
roots of the infant germ of the plant. Before it appears above the sur-
face, the humus in the soil quickens and invigorates its growth by the
supply of carbonic acid. This supply of carbonic acid is furnished by
the accession of atmospheric air from the loosening of the soil, the car-
bon of the humus combining with the oxygen of the air to produce
nourishment for the young plant. When it rises above the surface, and
its external organs of nutrition, its stem and its leaves, are fully devel-
oped, it ceases to draw nourishment from the earth, and obtains all its
carbon from the air. It is not a new doctrine that plants absorb car-
bonic acid from the atmosphere. This fact has been long established ;
but it is new that this is the principal source ; and the inquiry naturally
arises whether the atmosphere, containing, as it does, only a thousandth
part of carbonic acid, can furnish in this way a supply of all the car-
bon which is required by the plant. To this inquiry Liebig replies as
before, by making it matter of exact calculation.

" It can be shown, that the atmosphere contains 3,000 billion Hessian
lbs. of carbon ; a quantity which amounts to more than the weight of
all the plants, and of all the strata of mineral and brown coal, which
exist upon the earth. This carbon is therefore more than adequate to
all the purposes for which it is required." — p. 74.

The absorption of carbonic acid from the air, in his opinion, is a purely
chemical process. Many others have chosen to regard it as a vital op-
eration ; and have considered the leaves as respiratory organs, resemb-
ling the lungs of animals. He does not admit the analogy, and thinks
that the cause of science is injured hy the supposition of a resemblance,
where no similitude exists. The absorption of carbonic acid from the
air, the assimilation of its carbon, and the return of its oxygen to the
air, are chemical processes, effected under the operation of light and

469

heat. Without the aid of chemistry, they are inexpUcable ; with it,
they become perfectly inteUigible. The vital action creates nothing.
It does not produce carbon, oxygen, or hydrogen ; but it puts them in-
to activity; and they then arrange themselves according to chemical
principles ; each organ of the plant having its own specific influence
in the production of the results.

The author discusses, at large, the nature and action of humus.
Humus is merely decayed vegetable substance, whose decay or de-
struction is effected by the absorption of oxygen from the air. Exclude
it from the external air, and the decay would cease ; but would be
renewed again as it should be brought in contact w'nh the oxygen of the
air. Woody fibre, in a state ' of decay, consists of carbon and the ele-
ments of water. Alkaline substances assist its decay. Humus, how-
ever, is not composed exclusively of woody fibre ; other substances
are associated with it. We have not the room to follow Liebijj- in his
curious and profound remarks on this subject, and can give only a sum-
mary of his views. The constant tendency of humus is to form car-
bonic acid by the abstraction of oxygen from the air. The stirring of
the soil, and opening it to the effects of light and heat and moisture,
assist this process, by bringing it in contact with the decaying humus.
It forms around itself an atmosphere of carbonic acid, and supplies
carbonic acid to the plant in the first period of its growth. The roots
of the plants, in the beginning and before the formation perform the
functions of the leaves. They extract from the soil the carbonic acid
generated by the humus. When a plant is matured, and when the or-
gans by which it receives its food from the air, are perfected, the car-
bonic acid of the soil is no further required. Humus does not afford
nourishment to plants, by being taken up into their vessels in an unal-
tered state ; but only by the supply of carbonic acid, which it generates
from the presence of atmospheric air.

Hydrogen is another constituent of plants ; for woody fibre is com-
posed of carbon and the elements of water. Water is decomposed
under the power possessed by plants of separating its elements, and of
assimilating its hydrogen, and dispensing with that portion of its oxy-
gen not required by the plant in other processes of its growth. Nitro-
gen is another constituent, found in all plants; abounding in some, and
supposed to form the principal portion of the nutritive properties of
some of the cereal grains. The nitrogen of the air cannot enter into
combination with any element excepting oxygen. The combination of

470

nitrogen with hydrogen, in the pi'oportion of one volume of nitrogen
and three of hydrogen, produces ammonia. It is in the form of am-
monia, that plants receive their nitrogen. This ammonia is furnished
to the roots of the plants by the decomposition of animal matter in the
soil, and to their leaves by the effluvia arising from decayed and
decaying animal and vegetable substances. This decay is continually
going on, and, together with the excrements of animals, supplies the am-
monia contained in the atmosphere. There are, indeed, some natural
subterranean sources of ammonia, connected with volcanic action ;
and ammonia is found in many springs, which, Liebig supposes, derive
it wholly from the atmosphere. The principal part of the nitrogen,
which is found in plants, is, in his opinion, obtained in the form of am-
monia in rain water. Though it appears that it has been discovered by
others, that rain water contains ammonia, yet it is believed that Liebig
has been the first to annoimce the fact. He goes on to show, by the
elements made use of in a former calculation, that by means of the
rain falling annually upon 40,000 square feet of soil, the field must
receive 80 lbs. of ammonia, or 65 lbs. of nitrogen, which is more ni-
trogen than is contained in the amount of crops usually produced upon
such a surface. The experiments made to ascertain the presence of
ammonia in rain water, are decisive, and this interesting fact may be
considered as now established. He likewise detected ammonia in the
juices of the maple and the birch tree ; this, being obtained remote from
any house, was evidently derived from the atmosphere.

There are facts here connected with cultivation, and showing the
effect of different manures upon the quality of the products, which are
extremely curious. Different wheats are found to contain very differ-
ent proportions of gluten, of which nitrogen forms an important con-
stituent. Some French wheat was found to contain 12.5 per cent,
of gluten, while Bavarian contained 24 per cent. Davy obtained 19
per cent, from winter, and 24 from summer, wheat. Sicilian wheat
afforded 21 percent. ; Barbary wheat, 29 ; Alsace, 17.3 ; wheat grown
in the Jardin des Plant.es 26.7, and winter wheat 3.33 per cent. In
regard to these differences, Liebig remarks :

" An increase of animal manure gives rise not only to an increase
in the number of seeds, but also to a most remarkable difference in the
proportion of gluten which they contain. Animal manure acts only
by tlic formation of ammon'a. One hundred parts of wheat, grown on
a soil manured with cow-dung (a manure containing the smallest quan-

471

tity of nitrogen), affording only 11.95 parts of gluten, and 64.34 parts
of amylin or starch ; whilst the same quantity, grown on a soil man-
ured with human urine, yielded the maximum of gluten, namely, 35.1
per cent. Putrified urine contains nitrogen in the forms of carbonate,
phosphate, and lactate of ammonia ; and in no other form than that of
ammoniacal salts." — p. 136.

As illustrative of the value of ammonia in vegetation, Liebig refers
to guano. This is the excrement of sea-birds, and found in large
quantities on several islands in the South Sea. The effect of this man-
ure is understood to be most powerful. It renders the soils, which
consist of clay and sand, and contain, as is represented, no organic
matter, highly fertile. This manure is composed principally of salts of
ammonia, and a few earthy salts.

Liebig, if his theory be well founded, has solved the secrets of the
operation of gypsum. Jt has been supposed, that gypsum acted upon
plants as a stimulus, or like ardent spirits upon animals. But plants
are not animals. They have no nerves, which may be tightly drawn
or relaxed ; and such suppositions, which serve only to betray our ig-
norance, are without foundation. No substance can cause the leaves
of plants to appropriate an excess of carbon from the atmosphere,
when the oiher constituents of the plants are wanting. The influence of
gypsum is to fix the ammonia which is brought into the soil, and pre-
venting its evaporation, give it out as the plants may receive it. This
effect is produced by the double decomposition of the carbonate of am-
monia, and of the gypsum or sulphate of lime, by which sulphate of
ammonia and carbonate of lime are formed. His notions on this sub-
ject, being the first satisfactory attempt at a solution of the mystery al-
ways connected with the application of this extraordinary substance, are
curious and interesting.

" In order," he says, " to form a conception of the effect of gypsum,
it may be sufficient to remark, that 100 lbs. Hessian of burned gypsum
fixes as much ammonia in the soil as 6,250 lbs. of horses' urine would
yield to it, even on the supposition that all the nitrogen of the urea and
hippuric acid were absorbed by the plants without the smallest loss, in
the form of carbonate of ammonia." — p. 143.

He is equally original in his explanation of several other facts.

" The advantage of manuring fields v/ith burned clay and the fertility
of ferruginous soils, which have been considered as facts so incompre-
hensible, may be explained in an equally simple manner. The oxides of

472

'ron and alumina are distinguished from all other metallic oxides by
their power of forming solid compounds with ammonia. Minerals con-
taining alumina or oxide of iron also possess in an eminent degree the
remarkable property of attracting ammonia from the atmosphere and
of retaining it." — p. 144.

Powdered chai'coal is another element which powerfully absorbs am-
monia ; and will take up ninety times its volume of ammoniacal gas,
which it gives out upon being wet with water. Decayed wpod resembles
charcoal in this property, absorbing seventy-two times its own volume.
This explains further the operation of humus, which supplies not only
carbonic acid, but likewise nitrogen, to the growing plants.

Liebig concludes this chapter with a beautiful reflection :

" Carbonic acid, water and ammonia contain the elements necessary
for the support of animals and vegetables. The same substances are
the ultimate products of the chemical process of decay and putrifaction.
All the innumerable products of vitality resume, after death, the origin-
al form from which they sprang. And thus death, — the complete disso-
lution of an existing generation, — becomes the source of life for a new
one." — p. 147.

The next subject of discussion with Liebig relates to the inorganic
constituents of plants. These are potash, soda, lime, magnesia, oxide
of iron, manganese, silica, and other substances. The plants cannot be
perfected without them. Alkalies of one kind may often be substituted
for those of another ; but they are always found in equivalent propor-
tions. These inorganic substances are admitted to the plants in combi-
nation with some acid. They exist independently of the plant, and are
not the product of vital action. They are found in different soils, and
are the result of the decomposition of various rocks. Potash is an im-
portant constituent of most felspars. Some of the salts are evaporated
in sea-water, and in that way carried far into the interior, and after be-
ing spread upon the earth, are carried down by the rains. They are
returned to the soil in decayed vegetable and animal matter, and in the
excrements of animals. They are found in the ashes of plants, in the
form of carbonates ; and by careful analysis their amounts in different
cases have been accurately ascertained. The amount of alkaline sub-
stances required by plants is very minute. But that amount is requisite
to the perfection of the vegetation. It is easy to conceive how small an
amount is required in the soil, when it is understood that sea-water con-
tains only 1-12400 of its weight of carbonate of lime, and yet that is

473

sufficient for the formation of all the banks of coral in the ocean, and
the various shells of the marine animals.

Having given this account of the constituents of plants, and the sourc-
es whence they are derived, Liebig proceeds to discuss the art of cul-
ture and the action of manures. I should be glad to quote the whole of
this chapter, but must limit myself to a brief sketch. Humus is not sol-
uble in water; if it were, a great part of it would be carried off the
ground by rains. Its office is, by the presence of water to convert the
surrounding oxygen into carbonic acid, which plants absorb, and then re-
turn to the soil a large portion of carbonaceous matter, that they abstract
from the air, so that the humus of the soil is not diminished. The fre-
quent ploughing of the soil, so as to promote, by admitting the oxygen
of the air to the humus, the formation of carbonic acid, the application
of alkaline substances, and whatever tends, as Liebig expresses it, to
put the organic matters of the soil in a state of oxidation, increase the
fertility of the soil. The oxygen then assists in the formation of car-
bonic acid to go to the nourishment of plants.

Knowing the substances which go to form the plants, the object of a
wise agriculture will be to supply them, and to render them accessible
to the plants. Potash, the most common and important of the inorganic
constituents of plants, is more universally and abundantly diffused over
the earth than any other alkaline substance. But the alkalies, by con-
tinual cultivation, may be exhausted, and the soil cease to be produc-
tive. This indicates the necessity of a fallow or rest to the soil, by
which, under the operation of air aud moisture, a further disintegration
of the rocks may take place so as to furnish the necessary alakalies to
the soil, or, without resting, they may be artificially supplied. Plants
themselves in their decay return alkaline substances to the earth ; and
it is well ascertained that plants themselves act powerfully in the disin-
tegration of rocks.

Some crops may be repeated on the same soil more frequently than
others, because some consume more of the alkalies than others. One
hundred parts of the stalks of wheat yield 15.5 parts of ashes. The
same quantity of barley, 8.54 parts ; and of oats, only 4.42. The
ashes of these different plants are of the same description, but it is ob-
vious that the demands which they make upon the soil must be different.

The interchange of rotation crops and the application of manures
are materially connected with this fact, and with another in the habits
of plants, to which we shall refer. Plants of different kinds absorb or
take up different substances, from the soil ; and^one kind therefore may

60

474

flourish, where another would fail. The same kinds of plants cannot
be cultivated in succession on the same soil for any length of time
without declining in productiveness. Some plants, as flax for example,
will not bear a repetition on the same soil oftener than once in five
years. It has been supposed that plants themselves assimilate, and
consume in their growth, certain ingredients in the soil necessary to
the perfection of the plant, which should not be repeated on the same
ground until this material is again supplied. But this is not all. No
artificial supply of any ascertainable ingredient can control this general
law of the necessity of a change in the rotation, growing out of other
circumstances. DecandoUe suggested, and may be said to have estab-
lished, another theory, namely, that plants excrete from the roots cer-
tain substances, which are innutritions or hurtful to the same kind of
plant in succession, but which may serve as the food of other plants.
But there are difliculties, in respect to this subject, upon which we
cannot dwell, which Liebig's theory solves with remarkable ability and
equal reasonableness. The exudations or excretions of plants may be
considered of two kinds. Plants, as we have before said, have no se-
lection in their food but take up with little discrimination what is acces-
sible to their organs of nutrition, and in a condition to be absorbed.
They consequently may take up many things, which they can assimi-
late but in part, or not at all. These are exuded, and may serve as the
food of other plants of a difl^erent character. But there is another class
of excretions, or properly speaking excrements, which are purely the
result of the vital action of the plants, and which, in the form of gum
or otherwise, after having served the purpose designed in the nutrition
of the plants, pass off" by the appropriate organs into the soil. These,
of course, cannot serve as the food of the same kind of plants, or of any
other in their present condition ; and these go to assist in forming the
humus of the soil. In their unchanged condition, these excrements are
pernicious to the kind of plants from which they were discharged, and,
it may be, to others ; and after becoming converted into humus, under
the operation of air and moisture, the eftects are the same as those of
humus.

After all, where the crops are removed from the soil in the forms of
seeds, roots, and leaves, the soil is of course deprived of many of the
constituents requisite to a healthful and productive vegetation. The
substances removed are then to be supplied by manure. The seed of
the plant contains within itself the food, which it first requires in order
to the protrusion of its radicles. The humus in the soil will give out its

475

carbonic acid, until the plant rises above the ground, and the leaves
and other portions of its organism are formed, to enable it to gather, in
the form of carbonic acid, its food from the air. Its organic constitu-
ents must be found in the soil or in the manure in the form of silicates,
carbonates, or phosphates, and may be supplied in a crude form as in
potash, ashes, lime, bones, &c. Its nitrogen is to be supplied, in the
form of ammonia, from decayed animal or vegetable substances in one
way or another. The excrements of some animals are in this respect
much richer than those of others. The excrements of man are much
richer in nitrogen, than those of any other animals, and those of men
living upon animal more so than those of men living upon vegetable
diet. In the urine of animals nitrogen is found in much greater abun-
dance than in the solid excrements. In respect to nitrogen, 100 parts
of the urine of a healthy man are equal to 1300 parts of the fresh dung
of a horse. This ammonia is supplied in the soil ; or floating in the
air, it is taken up by rain water or by snow, and supplied to the vege-
tation in that form. The manures of different animals likewise return
to the soil the inorganic constituents of plants, the various salts which
have formed a part of the vegetable products, which have been taken
from the fields and been consumed by the cattle ; and thus every thing
goes on in an eternal round of reciprocity.

I have thus given a general and imperfect sketch of the main princi-
ples of the work of Liebig. I have confined myself to the part, which
is principally agricultural. The second part, on chemical transforma-
tions, fermentation, putrifaction, decay, and various kindred subjects,
is equally interesting. The work of Liebig displays extraordinary phi-
losophical acumen, and confers upon him the highest honor. The
more it is examined, the deeper will be the interest which it will create,
and the stronger the admiration of the ability with which it is written.
It is not a work to be merely read, but studied ; and if further inquiries
and experiments should demonstrate, as seems to us from many facts
within our own knowledge in the highest degree probable, the sound-
ness of his views, his work, not merely as a matter of interesting
philosophical inquiry, but of the highest practical utility, will be inval-
uable.

There are various notes, appended to the volume, of great interest.
A long and highly interesting note is appended, containing some letters
from Dr. S. L. Dana, of Lowell, to Dr. Hitchcock, of Amherst Col-
lege, and taken from the forthcoming third edition of Dr. Hitchcock's

476

" Geology of Massachusetts," on geine or humus, and some views of
Dr. C. T. Jackson, of Boston, on the same subject.

The views of these gentlemen in some measure conflict with each
other, and with those of Liebig. I shall not presume to arbiti'ate be-
tween them, but only to remark on them, in a very few words, with a
perfect respect for all the parties concerned. The eminent Swedish
chemist, Berzelius, had discovered in several vegetable substances, a
residuum, which he regarded as the proper food or pabulum of vege-
tables, and which he denominated humus or geine. Dr. Dana, by his
independent researches, had arrived at the same result. This geine or
apotheme was found to be the universal result of decayed vegetation ;
and soils are in general found productive or otherwise, as this vegeta-
ble substance or residuum is more or less abundant in them. The
opinion of Dr. Dana has been that geine in a dissolved state is taken up
as the food of plants. If obliged to relinquish this ground, and with
Liebig, regard geine as only a source of carbonic acid to plants, he
would regard its value to vegetation in the same light. But he obviates
in a most ingenious manner one of the difficulties of Liebig, in respect
to the solubility, or, we may more properly say, the solution of geine,
by showing that it contains whhin itself the instrument, to a considera-
ble degree, of its own resolution, in the water forroed by the union of
the hydrogen of the geine with the oxygen of the atmosphere. " The
amount of water produced in this case," he remarks, " is truly aston-
ishing. It has been found equal per hour, from an acre of fresh
ploughed sward, to 950 lbs. This is equal to the evaporation per hour
from an acre, after most copious rains. To show that this depends
upon the decomposition of the geine, the quantity of water evaporated
per hour in the day-time, from a well-manured acre, was found equal
to 5000 lbs."

That humus or geine does not constitute the actual food of plants,
would seem to be established by vai'ious considerations. Liebig has
shown by several calculations, as exact as the nature of the case would
seem to admit of, that the amount of humic acid contained in any soil
is insufficient to supply the carbon in the average product of that soil,
in the proportion of 91 to 2,(550. Secondly, volcanic soils containing
not the slightest trace of vegetable matter, as is evident from their ori-
gin, with a due mixture of earths, are among the most fertile in the
world. The ashes being exposed to air and moisture, a soil is gradual-
ly formed, and the decomposed lavas furnish alkalies in abundance,
which, by being exposed to air and moisture, become the source of rich

477

nourishment to plants. A third reason, and certainly a strong fact in
the case, is, that the humus in a forest, so far from being diminished by
the growth of wood, is continually increasing. It is so likewise in a
cultivated field, where the produce of the field is returned in the form
of manure.

Berzelius is reported to have altered his opinions of the nature of
geine by a more exact analysis of its composition, and now denies its ex-
istence as a proximate principle ; and Dr. C. T. Jackson, who has dis-
tinguished himself as a chemist by his analytical researches, appears to
have made, without knowing what had been done by Berzelius, the
same discoveries, in ascertaining that the substance called geine is only
a combination of crenic and apocrenic acids, with some other substanc-
es, all of which are not yet determined. How many of these may
have been, as suggested by Dr. Dana, the mere product of chemical
manipulation, or whether any of them, are questions which, in the pres-
ent state of the inquiry, cannot be determined. Upon the supposition
that these are original and fixed elements in the composition of geine,
we consider Dr. Jackson entitled to much honor for his investigations.
All truth is valuable ; but in the present condition of our knowledge,
in a practical view, these points are not of great importance, or rather
not of immediate utility. According to the principles of Liebio-, Ras-
pail, Dana, Jackson, Hitchcock, and others, the presence of humus in a
soil is, quoad hoc, an indication of fertility. Now, whether it be a prox-
imate element, or a mere combination of crenic and apocrenic acids
with other substances, though exceedingly interesting to the philosophic-
al inquirer, is, without some further light on the subject, of little mo-
ment to the farmer. Dr. Jackson has not, as we understand, discovered
either of these acids in the plants themselves ; he has not as yet shown
us how they are to be used, or what part they perform in vegetation. —
He is not able, by any artificial process which he can adopt, separate
from the vegetable organism, to produce an atom of geine ; and how-
ever nearly he may have approached it, and we commend him for ev-
ery step in his progress, he has by no means reached the ultima thule ;
for crenic, and apocrenic, and ulmic acids, are themselves resolvable
into certain proportions of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen.
The question, however, whether geine constitutes in itself the food of
plants in its solution by water or by some alkaline substance, or whether
it merely acts as an instrument of the supply of carbonic acid to the
plant in the first stages of its progress, is another question which is cer-
tainly not without its difficulties.

478

I am not able to understand by what process it is ascertained, that,
after the leaves of the plant are formed, it ceases to draw any nourish-
ment from the earth. This is a fact in vegetable physiology, of which
at present we are without the proof. Dr. Dana has never denied that
plants receive much of their nourishment from the air. His inquiries
were limited wholly to what they gather from the earth. Nor is there
any difficulty in the supposition that geine may serve, in its decom-
position, as the food of plants. For, if geine, according to Dr Jack-
son, is a mixture of crenic or apocrenic acids, and if crenic and apoc-
renic acids are resolvable into carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen,
these are the very elements of vegetable substance ; and we may leave
it to the subtile operations of the vital action, wonderful and mysterious
as it is in its operations, to accomplish what human skill and sagacity
have as yet in vain essayed, the separation and appropriation to itself,
by the living plant or animal, of the proper materials of its own growth.

Tt is exceedingly gratifying to see men of science engaging in these,
I will not say humble, for scarcely any are more important, but use-
ful subjects of investigation. Every department of nature abounds in
matters of interesting inquiry ; and none more than that of organic
life. Nature in her various changes, transformations, and productions,
is everywhere full of the miracles of wisdom, power and goodness.
The perfections of the Creator are written all over her in letters of liv-
ing light. The highest duty of rational beings is " to read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest them."

In looking at the infinitely multiplied productions of the vegetable
world, in observing a small seed rising into a towering plant, an acorn
changed into an oak, and what seems a pellicle, driven about by the
wind, growing up into a wide-spreading elm, we must be lower than the
beasts, which repose under its grateful shade, if we do not ask. How
do these things come ? When we see the earth in a measure obedient to
our commands, and in return for our labor pouring into our lap the
means of subsistence and luxury with an unstinted liberality ; when we
see the dependence everywhere existing between what we do and what
we receive, what we sow and the harvest we gather ; when we observe
the changes of the seasons, and the obvious elTects of light and heat,
and moisture and manure, we can hardly claim the character of ra-
tional beings, if we do not seek to understand these things. Tt is idle
to preterul that the mysteries of nature are too sacred for inquiry.
The gift of understanding and the power of its use imply the duty of
inquiry. It is as idle to pretend, that they arc mysteries which never

479

can be understood. The human understanding has its limits, doubtless,
beyond which it cannot pass ; but how far is it at present from having
reached them ? Every day is disclosing to us some new truth. Many
things, once enveloped in all the terrors of mystery, arc now familiar
to the understanding of a child. The works of God and the courses of
his providence, are not so many isolated facts, but they are facts com-
pacted together, and under the control of general laws ; so that, beyond
all question, many of the most extraordinary phenomena, which present
themselves in nature, are explicable upon the simplest principles. In
many cases a single key will open the most complicated lock, and is at
the same time applicable to a thousand others. The discussions of Lie-
big furnish some beautiful illustrations of these principles.

In order to solve the secrets of vegetable life and growth, we must
watch the plant from its germination to its maturity, and i-emark, with
all possible exactness, the vai'ious influences which bear upon it. We
must study its nature, its relations, its changes ; its relations to the soil,
to the climate, to the light, to the moisture, and to its whole culture.
Botany, considered as a mere form of classes and a mere catalogue of
arbitrary names, is a meagre and comparatively worthless science ; but
when it involves the whole physiology of plants in all their aspects and
conditions, in their growth, culture, maturity, and uses, it becomes a
profound philosophy. Chemistry, likewise, must here come to our aid.
In order to know what the plant needs, we must know what it is com-
posed of; in order to learn what it obtains from the soil, we must as-
certain what the soil has to yield to it ; and we must consider the con-
dition of the plant, in reference to the condition of the soil in which it
is planted. Manures, likewise, everywhere the acknowledged means
of fertility, require the most exact examination. Ascertaining, by the
aid of chemical inquiry, the elements of the plant, we shall at least
learn something of what it requires ; ascertaining the nature of the soil,
we shall see how it is suited to the plant cultivated ; and knowing the
composition of the manures, we may come to understand their opera-
tions. Chemical analysis seems to offer the only means of solving these
mysteries.

It has already made distinguished advances ; but yet they can be re-
garded only as first steps. Thei'c are difEculties in the case, which it
would be in vain to deny. All chemical analyses are necessarily des-
tructive of the subjects to which they arc applied. We cannot take the
separate elements from the analysis of a plant, a manure, or a soil, and
put them together again like the pieces of a dissected map. We can

480

easily infer from a thousand facts, which chemistry has already dis-
closed, how much depends upon the form of combination of the most
simple elements ; and when we consider of what an almost infinite
number of permutations and combinations a few simple substances ad-
mit, we perceive difficulties in the nature of the case which must cer-
tainly very much qualify our confidence of success. They should at
least check all haste in our conclusions, and disarm all severity of judg-
ment in respect to the conclusions of others, how much soever these
may difier from our own. Truth should be our great and only object.
Philosophy stimulates to the pursuit of it as the most precious of all
gems. Nothing should abate our zeal ; nothing should discourage our
efforts in the search. Fifty years ago chemistry was hardly known as
a science. Now, what triumphs has it accomplished, and what a world
of wonders has it opened to our view ! In its application to agriculture
it presents itself as the natui'al solvent of its now difficult mysteries.
Its whole tendency and aim, in this matter, unlike many other of its ap-
plications, are to confer unmixed good upon mankind. It discloses to
our adoration more and more of those mighty operations of a benefi-
cent Providence, by which, in an unbroken circle of dependence and
subserviency, the most offensive substances are converted into all that
is nutritive, delicious, and beautiful. It shows us how, by the exact
and wonderful combination of a thousand subtile influences in the earth,
the air, the rain, the light, the dew, daily and hourly the table of the
Divine bounty is spread for all that live ; and not one of his great fam-
ily is, by the m.aster of the feast, ever sent empty away.

D.— (p. 162.)

EXPERIMENTS IN THE CULTURE OF SILK.

I have the greatest pleasure in laying before my readers the annexed
communications on the culture of silk, from my respected friend
James Deane, M. D., of Greenfield, Mass.

They are exact, perspicuous, direct, and conclusive. It would be
difficult to ask more in order to determine the question of the profit
and success of this branch of domestic economy or household hus-

481

bandry, if so it may be called. I cannot persuade myself that, now
the paroxysm of the multicaulis insanity is over, they will not attract
that attention from the farmers, which their intrinsic importance claims ;
and from the admirable manner in which they are drawn up, they can-
not fail to be read with interest. I commend them especially to the
farmers' wives and daughters, if I am not presuming too much in
thinking they will honor any portion of my pages with a perusal. Will
not they take an interest in the history of the wonderful and disinter-
ested labors of those humble operatives, to whom they owe so much
that is useful and beautiful, oi'namental to their persons and gratifying
to their taste, — those delicate and exquisite fabrics which were once the
exclusive property of the palace, but are now within the reach of the
humblest cottager.''

Letter I. — From James Deane, M. D.

Greenfield, Jan. 5, 1841.

Mr. Colman, —

Dear Sir, — The past summer, remarkable for the duration and uni-
formity of its high temperature, has been favorable to the cultivation
of the mulberry tree, but from causes not sufficiently investigated, the
rearing of silk worms has been attended, all over the country, with a
succession of mishaps and disasters. The larvae composing my own
stock were perfectly healthy, and commenced winding their cocoons
on the twenty-eighth day, and as in the experiment I deem myself to
have been successful, it is with true pleasure that I am enabled to pre-
sent you a detailed statement of operations, together with some reflec-
tions naturally suggested by an acquaintance with this great subject.

There are several absolute changes in the life of the precious silk
worm, which require for their complete development just one year, and
as each change is regulated by peculiar principles, a thorough under-
standing of them all is essential to the success of those who undertake
its artificial management. These changes embrace four distinct peri-
ods, the last terminating where the first began, to wit : the quiescent
state, or that of the egg ; the state of the larva, or of nutrition and
the formation of the cocoon ; the chrysalis state, or that intervening
between the worm and moth ; and finally the state of the moth, or that
of reproduction. These divisions are natural boundaries, and they
cannot be too well understood.

The period occupied by the egg is about ten months, and when left

61

482

to the action of natural causes, terminates in the spontaneous produc-
tion of the young insect, reciprocally with the first growth of its appro-
priate leaf, when spring has far advanced. But to render exotic mul-
berrys, which have been retarded by annual transplantation, available,
it has been necessary to retard in a corresponding degree the hatching
of the egg. This can only be accomplished by subjecting it to the
continued action of low temperature, somewhere between the freezing
point and the 45° of the thermometer. This state should commence
before the egg has felt the slightest influence of the vernal heat, and
the method I adopt is to deposit early in March a tin box, containing
the eggs, in contact with ice, and so keep them until wanted. In this
way they have been known to keep two years and hatch well.

The eggs employed in my experiment were removed from the ice-
house on the 20th day of July, and as an intermediate state between a
low and high degree of temperature, they were placed in a cool cellar
for a few days, and then subjected to the

TEMPERATURE OF THE HATCHING-ROOM.

1st day,

2d day, 3d day,

1

4th day,

5tli day.

6th day.

72°

73°

73°

74°

73° to 80°

76° to 88°

7th day,

8th day,

9th day,

10th day,

11 Ih day.

76° to 80°

76° to 80°

75° to 81°

75° to 82°

76° to 82°

Nearly the entire amount hatched vigorously on the tenth and elev-
enth days, and all others were rejected. It will be noticed that the
temperature was gradually elevated about one degree each day during
the hatching process, and was maintained as nearly as possible to 77°
during the subsequent feeding state, the essential features of which are
presented in the following table.

483

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484

The silk-worm being a cold-blooded insect, receiving its temperature
from the atmosphere, the necessity of keeping up a suitable degree of
warmth will at once be perceived. The degree of temperature has
been found by experience to be not far from the numbers indicated in
the table, and it must be maintained not only through the feeding and
spinning state, but also through those of the chrysalis and moth. It is
indispensable, for in all the mysterious changes of the silk-worm heat
is the existing agent ; it is nearly in a state of torpor between 50° and
60°, yet it will spin, but the time required will be twice as long, and
the amount of silk not half so much, as when stimulated by a conge-
nial degree of heat. Near the temperature of 77°, under active man-
agement, it completes its feeding state in 24 to 30 days, its spinning
state in 5 or 6 more ; it is a chrysalis about two weeks, and a moth one,
during which time the sexes unite, and the female laying two or three
hundred eggs, the circle of transformations is for the first time broken
by death.

French writers compute an ounce of eggs to contain 40,000, but
from numerous calculations I have never found the number to exceed
25,000. In this experiment I hatched an ounce, and the number of
worms was not greater than set down in the table. The novice is
always over-estimating numbers. I stifled the chrysales with camphor,
and approve of the method as being cheap, expeditious, and perfectly
efficacious, and at the same lime not hardening the gum of the cocoon,
which consequently reels with uninterrupted freedom. Miss Barton,
who reeled my silk excellently, preferred cocoons treated with camphor
to those not stifled, because the dead chrysalides gave her much less
annoyance in the heated water of the basin. Reeling silk is a beauti-
ful process that never fails to excite admiration, yet it is accomplished
with ease, and with a little practice and steady perseverance, a young
woman will reel a bushel of cocoons, yielding a pound or more of silk,
in a day. The art is not however yet carried to such perfection as to
enable us to make the most of our materials, for all but expert reelers
waste a considerable proportion.

The actual amount of labor required in the first ages of the silk
worm is very small, it is an agreeable pastime. But when immense
numbers pas^s into the fifth age, the labor, difllculties and cares become
great and incessantly greater, and for the first time we are sensible of
the enormous service which the establishment demands. Then we dis-
cover the obstacle, and it is like a mountain ; we suddenly find our-
selves surrounded by myriads of voracious insects that double their

485

dimensions daily. Dirt and filth rapidly accunaulate, signs of putres-
cent decomposition begin to appear, the weather is perhaps moist
and suUry, and finally wc perceive indications of disease and confusion.
These considerations teach us the necessity of preparation, and of per-
fecting our systems with prudent forecast.

The sudden and enormous demand of labor in the fifth age, is the
great barrier to an unlimited production of silk. It in a great degree
prohibits the application of capital, and the culture of silk naturally be-
comes an incidental branch of agriculture. Whoever discovers the
method of dispensing whh the tedious labors of this age, will confer
everlasting obligations upon his country. That it will be systematized,
and even in a great degree abolished, I think no one who is acquaint-
ed with the subject can reasonably doubt. It has already attracted the
attention of American culturists, and plausible theories have been an-
nounced. We may confidently predict that when the subject has once
taken hold upon the public mind, as it surely must, peculiar systems
will be unfolded, based upon a study of natural laws and upon the ap-
plication of scientific principles.

I fed upon hui'dles consisting of a light frame of wood three feet
square, intersected every three inches with broom wire. They were
strong and light, and ran upon grooves nailed to upright frames, so that
they could be drawn in and out at pleasure, thus affording great facili-
ties to the operations of feeding and cleaning. These hurdles are
cheap, and, materials included, cost less than two cents per square foot,
and are very durable. I placed them in tiers eight inches asunder,
and each tier was separated by a shelf a foot in width placed on the
same level with the hurdles to hold the brushwood for spinning. The
hurdles were covered with paper, and when the worms left them for
the spinning shelves, they were removed with the last remains of dirt.
We should anticipate our preparations for spinning, and may derive
from our knowledge of the habits of these insects many practical appli-
cations. When it has ceased to eat, the silk worm for the first time in
its life manifests a disposition to ramble. Its desire is to ascend as far
as possible, and if no impediments exist, it will wander away many
yards. If it can possibly get to the ceiling it is perfectly satisfied with
the corners and angles it discovers there. The entire surface of the
ceiling can be rendered available by nailing to it strips of board edge-
ways, and making suitable communication with it and the feeding shelf,

486

which is perfectly practicable. It is a great object with the culturist
to get them out of the way, and their instincts certainly harmonize with
our wishes. I succeeded in the following manner. My hurdle frames
terminated whhin two feet of the ceiling, and this space I filled with
green ferns, supported upright, not however quite touching the ceiling.
Underneath this mass of brush, which occupied a superficial area of
less than forty square feet, we had an aggregate of nearly three hun-
dred feet of hurdles. The communication between the hurdles and
brushwood, was by means of rods and strips of boards nailed to the
hurdle frames so as nearly to touch the hurdles. In this way, with a
little care the entire family ascended to the brushwood, which, in a few
days was converted into a web of cocoons full forty pounds in weight.
Every hurdle, of which there were thirty, was removed. An ingenious
observation of these little artists will suggest a hundred ways of promot-
ing their instructing labors, and the culturist must make his own se-
lections.

From data acquired by practical experience I proceed to draw up a
list of expenditures in cultivating silk, which under judicious manage-
ment I believe will be found to appro.ximate actual results. But 1 must
say that there can be no standard of cost, where every thing depends
upon skill, knowledge and judgment ; and since the audacious falsehoods
of mulberry dealers have been circulated to accomplish their objects, I
have looked upon published statements with some distrust, and accord-
ingly invite to my own the sharpest scrutiny. Good land, with a warm
rich mellow soil, will contain from 10,000 to 15,000 plants of the mul-
ticaulis variety, and they may be computed to yield 5,000 lbs. and up-
wards of foliage. For this amount of fodder five ounces of eggs will
be required to be hatched, producing full 100,000 cocoons, a quantity
at least sufficient to reel 35 lbs. of pure silk. It sells readily for $5 50
per lb., and would therefore bring the gross sum of $192 50

EXPENDITURES. — FoT FoUage.

Rent of land, $6 00

Preparations for planting, . . . . , . . 4 00

Planting and dressing two or three times, . . . . 8 37

Interest on trees worth $100, , 6 00

Taking up trees, trimming, protecting, &c., . . . 5 72

487

For Feeding.

One lad, 16 or 17, first two ages, .
Two lads " third age, .

Three " " fourth " .

Five " " fifth " .

Gathering and curing cocoons, .
Interest on 2,000 feet hurdles, worth $40,

" " apartment and fixtures.
Reeling 35 lbs. of silk, 75c,

Net income for one year,

86 00

6 00

10 00

25 00
5 00
2 40
4 00

26 25

$114 74

$77 76

The farmer must bear in mind that this sum is over and above a
handsome compensation for labor, in fact, that if his daughters perform
the reeling, every dollar will remain with his family. Can persuasion
be wanting to induce him to see if these things be so ? Here is no
competition to frighten him ; the consumption of the article is truly en-
ormous, and no product of the soil finds a quicker market. I will not,
however, weary you with further comments, but will close this long
letter by expressing my belief, that the enterprize of cultivating silk in
the United States will speedily make its way against the tide of preju-
dice and derision which now sets so strongly against it, and that silk will
become one of the staple products of our fruitful land.

I am, dear sir, respectfully.

Your ob't servant,

JAMES DEANE.

Letter II.

Greenfield, 20di Oct. 1841.
Mr. Colman, —

Dear Sir, — I take pleasure in acquainting you with a very success-
ful experiment in raising silk, made by Mr. Benjamin Barton, of Gill,
which I deem to be so conclusive, that its publication is well calculated
to dispel the prejudice which exists against this important branch of ag-
riculture. The silk worms were reared by an invalid member of the

488

family, and the silk beautifully reeled by his daughter, whose smallest
daily product was one and one quarter pounds of superb silk of the pea-
nut variety. This fact may forever settle the question of reeling, con-
cerning the difficulties of which so much has been said by those who
know nothing of the art. Miss Barton is a young lady of intelligence,
energy, and ingenuity, and will reel without difficulty in a perfect man-
ner, two pounds of silk of twenty fibres in a day.

Partly at my suggestion, the details of this experiment were accur-
ately noticed. The weight of eggs hatched was, 2^ oz. The worms
spun in 28 and 29 days. The amount of leaves consumed was 2500
lbs. The weight of cocoons was 248 lbs. The weight of reeled silk
was 20 lbs., and the amount of labor was one month, that is, the first
half was greatly less than that, and the last days something more. The
building used, was the vacant corn-house, which, of course, should not
enter into the list of expenditures, and the fixtures were merely tempo-
rary shelves of rough boards, and a £ew hurdles to contain the larvse,
during their three first ages. Neither should there be any charge for
e^gs, as a great quantity was produced for future use. The expenses
therefore stand as follows :

Labor, one month, $12 00 ; board do. $6,
2500 lbs. mulberry leaves, 50 cents per 100 lbs
Gathering cocoons, camphor for curing do.
Reeling 20 lbs. silk at 75 cts.
Interest on reel and fixtures.

And the income,
20 lbs. silk for which Mr. B. has refused$ 5 per lb. ,
The state bounty of 15 cents on 248 lbs. cocoons,
" «' 50 " 25 " reeled silk,

Deduct,

Profit, including bounty,
" excluding "

$18 00

12 50

2 50

15 00

1 00

$49 00

$100 00
37 20
10 00

$147 20
49 00

$98 20
47 00

$51 20

489

The reader will observe that the cost of cultivation, including every
thing, was less than $2 50 per lb. and that it is very nearly covered by
the bounty of the Commonwealth. There is, moreover, another fact
that deserves peculiar attention. The toorms passed each entire age
without the removal of their litter, which service was only performed
immediately after moulting. The worms were remarkably large and
perfectly healthy ; they were fed during their first three ages with
chopped leaves, and during their two last ages on branches. This is
unquestionably the best method ever adopted, to promote the perfection
of the worm and its economical management. It is in harmony with
the natural habits and the peculiar structure of the silk worm, that when
large, it shall extend and repose itself upon the stems of those branches
that furnish its nutriment. The insect is thereby elevated above its lit-
ter, it has a natural support for its body, its respiration is uninterrupted,
it is high and dry above the fermenting mass of litter, and consequently
an immense deal of fatiguing manual labor may be dispensed with. If
we can dispense with the distressing labor of cleaning silk worms, ex-
cept at the period of moulting, we have nothing more to desire ; that
such is the fact, I cannot doubt, for the instance I have just related, is
but one of the many, that the experience of this year has disclosed.

I hope this letter will be acceptable ; there is such a degree of pre-
judice, hostility and ignorance displayed by some leading organs of
communication, that facts are either studiously suppressed, or converted
into contemptuous ridicule and sarcasm, but truth will triumph still.

With great respect,

I am always yours,

JAMES DEANE.

62

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492

F.— (p. 248.)

ACCOUNT OF A FARBI, FROM 1811 TO 1836.

By Benj. Goddard, BrookUne, Mass.

The insertion of the two following letters requires no apology to the
reader. They are full of interest ; and their statements are entitled to
implicit confidence.

Letter I.

, Feb. 18, 1822.

Mr. H. Colman, —

Dear Sir, — I present you with an expose of my farming operations
for ten successive years, not because I have any thing extraordinary to
show, but because you have requested it. Had I begun solely with a
view to profit, I should have managed very differently in some things.
My object in choosing this pursuit was, to be retired from the perplexi-
ties of a commercial life ; not for money, or the ease of the body, but
of the mind ; in these respects 1 have not been disappointed. Consid-
ering the little similarity there is in conducting mercantile and agricul-
tural affairs, it may be expected that many errors and mistakes relating
to the profit of farming will at first accompany the progress of the busi-
ness. Notions adverse to profit are very apt to obtrude ; this I know
is true in my case. Included in the following calculations is considera-
ble labor for making roads and walks, for ornamental trees, &c., and
something in expensive fencing ; in fact, all I have expended for these
objects : besides, to avoid the necessity of too much personal applica-
tion, I have omitted the cultivation of vegetables for the market, having
always done as little as possible in that department, consistent with being
sure of a supply for family use. The surplus makes up the vegetable
column.

My farm contains, according to a plan, 29 acres and 34 rods, about 4
acres of which may be considered as taken up in house and barn-yards,
roads, and unimprovable land, leaving for cuUurc and pasture 25 acres ;
and 5 acres of salt marsh ; also a wood lot, situated at about three
miles distance, which is used for a supply of fuel only ; and which af-
fords a sufficient quantity without lessening the quantity of wood ; there

493

being 56 acres, the growth is considered much more than I consume.

All which I value as follows ; viz. —

The 25 acres under cultivation at 8200 per acre, (which

is to include the land taken up for yards, &c.) . $5000 00
Five acres of salt marsh, at $75 per acre . . . 375 00

The wood lot, cost 1122 87

$6497 87

I have kept an accurate account of the proceeds of the farm as sold ;
and have made an estimate of what it has furnished for family use each
year, for ten years, from' 1811 to 1820, inclusive ; each description of
produce will be seen in its appropriate column in the following table,
from which it will be seen that the average annual income, in cash, for
ten years, has been ....... $869 37

ACCOUNT OF SALES FOR TEN YEARS FROM 1811 TO 1820.

Vinegar

Ciirn

Date,

Vegetables.

Fruit.

:illd
Cider.

Meat.

Hay.

stock.

Milk.

and
Barley.

Total.

1811

$132 06

*126 76'* 183 94

$14 38

$4.57 14

1812

181 91

145 48 12 83

81 92

.^130 18 $32 00

$17 13

.f32 05 642 63

1813

112 93

68 07

93 47

69 67

202 08 30 00

44 97

75 1023 80

1814

180 38

63 71

254 92

41 21

253 08 112 00

15 00

103 50 1105 59

1815

162 38

151 56 206 60

61 37

506 69 i " "

16 99

u u

1160 87

1816

16.5 36

169 73 187 17

60 69

399 69

37 00

12 71

128 50

1071 09

1817

132 49

240 37

295 31

48 24

329 93

u n

24 75

u u

816 04

1818

84 34

116 71

246 30

77 99

162 21

30 02

98 47

(( ((

821 36

1819

103 85

280 68

131 95

25 84

185 00

(( (C

94 04

« ((

974 64

1820

111 62

248 88

191 83

87 21

207 43

(( ((

128 27

u «

1367 341611 95

1803 72

568 522376 89 241 02

452 33 264 80

8693 70

To which I add sundries supplied from the farm for the use of my
family, viz :

Wood, without its preparation for the fire, . . . $120 00

Keeping of a horse, ....... 10000

Milk, 365 gallons, at 20 cents per gallon, ... 73 00

Fruit 40, vegetables 61, meats 30, corn 15, cider and vine-
gar, 15 dolls. .......

Average annual income.

161 00

$454 00
869 37

$1323 37

494

The above articles I have estimated at the price I should have to
pay, had I no farm ; and as I hereafter charge the whole of my man
hire to the farm, I here give the farm credit for a man's labor, which I
should have to pay without a farm. I will say only half the expense
of a man, although I do not see how I could do without the whole, un-
less I should make a boy answer ; say .... 872 00

1323 37

From which I deduct the average annual expenditures for
period, which have been as follows :
Blacksmiths' work,
Farming utensils.
Grain bought,
Man's labor,
Manure bought.
Pigs,
Seeds,
Trees,

As there has been no loss in the val
mals employed, but rather a gain, the oxen and cows having
produced as much more (being turned off fat) as the horse
has lessened in value, I charge the interest only on the value,
which I consider $260, .......

$1395 37

the same

$48 37

56 16

55 64

344 89

87 83

15 02

2 64

12 15

le of the stock or ani-

Annual amount of income brought forward.
Annual expenses to be deducted.

Balance,

15 60

$638 30

1395 37
638 30

1757 07

This balance is considered the net annual income of the farm for ten
years before-mentioned, but something may be added for the improve-
ments made during that time, as it was in a low state of cultivation in
1811, though it did then contain a good number of fruit trees. For a
criterion to fix this amount, I take the increased income (inconsequence
of betterments) for the last five years, which I find to be $199 28 oji
an average above the average income of the first five years; this, added

495

to the above balance, gives $956 35, which may be considered a fair
calculation for the present net annual income ; and this may be ex-
pected gradually to increase without any additional expense, as it has
done for the past time.

The result then stands, that the average income for the ten years is
$11 68 per cent., which includes nothing for improvements ; or, for the
last five years, $14 70 per cent., upon the value of the land, in which
value I have not included buildings, because the house belonging to the
farm is leased ; and the income is not considered in this calculation ;
were it to be added to the value of the farm, and the rent to the in-
come, the result would be nearly the same.

The variations of the income in different years have arisen from sev-
eral causes, viz : increase and decrease of produce ; by a difl^erence in
the seasons ; the difl^erence of value in different seasons ; and some-
times in consequence of articles being sold in one year that were the
produce of the former.

Mr. Henry Colman, —

Letter II.

Brookline, Dec. 5th, 1840.

Dear Sir, — In compliance with your request, I have transcribed
from my books the proceeds of my farm from the year 1821 to 1836,
having presented to you a memorandum of the same from 1811 to 1820
inclusive. My object in keeping such an account was, in the first in-
stance, to learn where the greatest profit might be produced, compared
with the labor and expense, in the mode in which it was most conve-
nient for me to manage my farm, that it might not bring me in debt ;
and not altogether that of making the greatest profit from it. I kept
no vehicle for the market, but sold the produce to others, to sell again ;
therefore the result as to profit would be quite an unfit example for
farmers, who must live from the product of the farm alone. Yet, from
this limited experience, I am satisfied that had I been destitute of other
resources, I could by method and industry, with suitable economy, have
produced from my twenty-five acres sufficient for all the necessaries
and comforts of my family, and a reserve every year for old age, with-
out laboring any more than is necessary for health and pleasure.

It has been a delightful employment for me, while my age permitted
me to direct the concerns. I yet take an interest in the occupation,

496

and indulge it as far as my strength will permit, on a little reserve I
have made, having leased the most of my land since 1836. Until then
1 continued my farm account in the same manner as when I exhibited
to you the result to the year 1820. I could give the items as I then
did, but having pursued so nearly the same course it may answer every
purpose to give the amount produced each year, in gross, and save the
time of separating the items. The expense of labor may be consid-
ered the same, the variation from year to year being very trifling ; also
the supply for family consumption has been about the same. You will
see that the sales from year to year vary considerably. This is owing
not so much to the amount produced as would seem. My account was
kept of sales within the year ; in the year 1828 I sold no hay of conse-
quence, it being very low at that period, and the sales were made the
following years ; the average of the whole gives the fair result.

Sales.

1821,

. $1,059 26

1829,

. $1,107 74

1822,

1,272 45

1830,

1,004 80

1823,

986 81

1831,

949 33

1824,

867 54

1832,

1,086 74

1825,

861 58

1833,

998 98

1826,

1,034 92

1834,

1,050 27

1827,

827 45

1835,

1,296 14

1828,

569 28

1836,

1,389 84

$7,479 29

$8,883 84

7,479 29

$16,363 13

Which is an average of ... . $1,022 68 per annum.
Add for products used in my family, as stated

in memorandum of 1820, . . 454 00

.$1,476 68
Deduct for expense of labor, etc., as then,
though rather less, but there is so little
variation I state the same, . . 566 30

$910 38
I then deduct 6 per cent, on the value of the

land, $6,497 87, as then stated, 389 87

$520 5] balance

497

for my personal services, which was an ample remuneration, as profit
was not my sole object. I have kept a diary from 1811 to the present
time, — an expense account, and an account of the sales of my farm to
the time I gave it up, — from which I have derived much pleasure, and.
I think some profit. It has been a chart, to say the least, to prevent
the ship from running against rocks, and upon quicksands, and has en-
abled me, with very little experience previously acquired, to keep the
ship always in good order, and when I resigned the command to leave
her much better than I found her. Many farmers I have no doubt
keep good reckoning. Of such I would ask, have you not realized
pecuniary profits, and has it not afforded you much pleasure, from time
to time, to reviev/ the past ? But I am writing to Mr. Colman, and not
to the public. Were I writing to the latter, I would try to induce them
to spend a short space of time at evening, while they rest from their la-
bors, in noting daily occurrences, and in keeping their expense account,
as well as that of their income. Reference thereto, as they may find
occasion, will assist them in varying their operations in business, their
expenditures, and show them the results of any experiments they may
make, and give them great satisfaction in reviewing their labors.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. GODDARD.

G._(p. 272.)

PEDIGREE OF COW OF PAOLI LATHROP.

I annex the pedigree of one of our animals which is taken from
Coates' Herd Book, and the remainder of our herd have equally un-
doubted pedigrees.

Coio Nonpareil. — Rod and white ; calved September 30, 1827 ; bred
by Stephen Williams, Northboro', Mass. ; sired by Young Denton
(963) : dam Arabella, (bred by Mr. Wetherbee in England,) by North
Star (460) : grandam Aurora, by Comet (155,) sold for 1000 guin-
eas : great-grandam, by Hervey (301) : great-great-grandam, by Danby
(190).

Yours respectfully,

PAOLI LATHROP.
63

498

H.— (p. 276.)

PEDIGREE OF H. WHITNEY's SHORT-HORN COWS, NEW HAVEN, CONN.

" Strawberry y — Roan ; bred in England by Charles Tempest,
Esq.; imported 1840 by H. W. ; got by Ambo(i636): dam Fair
Helen, by Young Albion (15) : grandam. Miss Foote, by Pilot (496) :
great-grandam, Fair Maid, by Agamemnon : great-great-grandam, Mad-
am, by Marshal Beresford (415) : great-great-great-grandam, Tube-
Rose, by the Lame Bull (359) : great-great-great-great-grandam, Moss-
Rose, by Suwarrow (636.)

" Ringlet.'''' — Roan; bred in England by the Earl of Carlisle; im-
ported 1840 by H. W. ; got by Belshazzar (1704) : dam Rose, by Nav-
igator (1260) : grandam, by Jasper (331) : great-grandam, by Marshal
Beresford (415): great-great-grandam, by Cecil (120): great-great-
great-grandam, by a son of Favorite (252.)

" Violet.'''' — Roan ; 7 years old ; imported 1840 ; got by Regent,
dam Flowery, by Blucher : grandam Primrose, by St Albans : great-
grandam Cowslip, by Masons, son of Chilton.

" Harriet and Cornelia.'''' — Twin calves ; got in England by Bir-
mingham : dam Ringlet, by Belshazzar, &c. &c.

H. W.

I.— (p. 277.)

PEDIGREE OF GEORGE HOOD's COW.

" Dolly, a full blood Durham Short-Horn cow, ten years old in
April, 1841, was raised by Benjamin J. Phillips of Lynn. — Pedigree as
follows. Dam, a two-year old heifer, as raised by Mr. Phillips from a
Durham cow which he owned, sired by young Comet, (owned by E.
H. Derby of Salem.) He was from Comet imported, and out of Mr.
Derby's imported cow. Dolly's sire was Cicero, (owned by Mr. Wil-
liams of Chelsea.) He was from Coelebs out of imported cow Flora."
There is some little confusion of names here, which probably will not
be found in the established Herd Book ; but I give it as I received it.

499

J.— (p. 300.)

METHOD OF DETERMINING THE WEIGHT OF CATTLE.

The following rules are given in an English agricultural work of es-
tablished reputation. 1 cannot vouch for their exactness ; but should
they upon trial be found of use, the table, calculated upon these prin-
ciples, might be easily published in a convenient form for general use,
like an Interest Table.

" The following method of ascertaining the dead weight of cattle by
measurement when alive, has been adopted to a considerable extent.
It is found to be an expeditious mode ; and if not to be implicitly de-
pended upon, at least furnishes a very important assistance to the judg-
ment of the dealer.

Rule. — Take the girth of the beast by measuring round with a string
or tape close behind the shoulder-blade, and the length by measuring
from the fore part of the shoulder-blade, along the back, to that bone of
the tail which is in a perpendicular line with the hind part of the but-
tock. Multiply the girth (in feet) by itself, and that product by the
length, and then again by 42 ; the last product, divided by 100, will
give the weight in Smithfield stones of 8 lbs each. If stones of 14 lbs.
are required, the multiplier will be 24 instead of 42."

Baxter'' s Library of Agricultural Knowledge, p. 364.

K.— (p. 301.)

EXTRACT FROM CHAP. 28, REVISED STATUTES.

All beef cattle, except bulls, sold in market by weight, shall, when
slaughtered, be prepared for weighing, in the following manner ; the
legs shall be taken oif at the knee and gambrel joint, the skin shall be
taken from all other parts of the animal, the head shall be taken off at
the second joint of the neck, the entrails taken out, and all the fat of
the same be taken off and weighed as rough tallow ; and every other
part of the animal, including the hide and rough tallow, (the udder of
cows excepted,) shall be weighed.

600

All beef shall be weighed upon the first week-day succeeding that on
which it may be slaughtered ; and every person, who shall slaughter
beef, so sold in market by weight, and prepare it for being weighed, in
any other manner than as herein prescribed, Shall forfeit a sum not ex-
ceeding thirty dollars for each offence ; provided, that nothing herein
contained shall prevent the buying and selling of beef cattle on the
foot, or the slaughtering or weighing of cattle in any mode or at any
time, which shall be agreed upon between the buyer and seller. — Re-
vised Statutes, p. 260.

L.— (p. 311.)

PLAN OF MR. PHINNEy's IIOG-STYES.

" The annexed is a rough plan, which may serve to give you an idea
of the compact manner in which my hogs are kept. It is intended for
a plan of the upper story and one end. The lower story corresponds
with the upper, except that the promenade is extended out about six
feet from the line of the upper outside promenade line.

501

a
be

Cm

Dormitory

5 feet

square.

Eating

apartment

5 feet square

Promenade, 10 ft. square.

PLAN OF THE FLOOR OF THE UPPER STORY.

502

END VIEW.

" The roof covers the passage way and eating and sleeping apart-
ments on each side, and is made sufficiently high to enable the feeder to
pass between the pens. The floors of the eating and sleeping apart-
ments are made perfectly tight ; the floor of the promenade in the up-
per story is laid with narrow planks, placed about one inch apart, so that
whatever is dropped by the pigs falls through on the compost beneath.
The promenade of the lower story has no floor. The only passage for
passing the pigs out and in, is by a slide-door between each dormitory
and the main passage way. The pen being on ground which is a little
higher at the end where the boilers arc placed than at the other, the
floor of the boiler room is on a level with the passage way of the up-
per story, where the pigs kept in this part of the building are taken in
and out. At the other end of the building, the floor of the passage
way in the lower story is on a level with the natural surface of the
ground, and by a door at that end of the passage way, the hogs in the
lower story are taken in and out. You will perceive that a pen 100
feet long and 34 wide, with 3 in a pen, will furnish ample accommoda-
tions for 120 hogs. A passage way for the feeder is made from the
cooking room to the passage way in the lower story." — New England
Farmer for September, 1840.

503

M.— (p. 393.)

G. B. EMERSON ON THE FOREST TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS.

At the instance of the Commissioner for the Agricultural Survey,
during three successive sessions of the Legislature, a series of weekly
meetings was held, of farmers in the Legislature and others interested
in Agriculture, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, for con-
versation and discussion on this subject. These meetings were well
attended, and excited much interest. It was said by one of the best-
informed men in the State, seconded by several others, " that if the
Agricultural Survey had accomplished nothing more than to have in-
stituted and reported these agricultural meetings, in the interest which
they created in the subject, and the information which they elicited and
diffused, the Commonwealth was far more than compensated for its ex-
penditures upon that object."

At the Tenth Agricultural Meeting of the session of 1841, Geo. B.
Emerson, President of the Society of Natural Plistory in Boston, was
kind enough to address the meeting on the subject of the Forest Trees
of Massachusetts. His remarks in this case were so interesting and
instructive that I took pains to report them at large from my notes as
well as I was able. A report of this kind can do but very imperfect
justice to a public speaker ; but I have taken care to do him no injus-
tice, as I have obtained his i-evision of my report. The speech seems to
me to deserve a more permanent preservation than in the columns of a
newspaper; its appearance here will give additional value to my book,
and I am persuaded be received with pleasure.

Mr. Geo. B. Emerson, agreeably to previous appointment, entered
upon the subject of the Forest Trees of New England, announced be-
fore as the subject of the evening's discussion.

He began with the expression of the strong interest he had always
felt in the forests of New England. He had visited among them, and
had dwelt among them, with a pleasure and interest always increasing
by indulgence. He had been more than twenty years familiar with
them. When wearied and worn down with the labors of his profession
in the city, he was accustomed to seek the retirement of the forest, and

504

to hold converse with the trees. He found in such intercourse an inex-
pressible delight, and returned to his duties refreshed and invigorated
in body and mind.

He proceeded to say, that he had occasion constantly to lament the
disappearance of the forests, which are suffered gradually to be wasted
away. He should be most happy, if he could be in any measure in-
strumental in arresting this destruction. A few generations since and
wide-spreading forests covered the whole land. Our ancestors on their
arrival found the country a land of woods. But a large portion of them
have fallen, and their beauty and glory have departed. Our forests
are as interesting from the variety of trees which they present, as from
their vast extent. Few of us are justly impressed either with their va-
riety or value. It will be interesting to contrast the New England for-
ests with the forests of our native country, of Old England, the land of
our ancestors. I mean, said he, the forests of Massachusetts, with the
native forests of England ; for England has laid every temperate cli-
mate under contribution. The introduction of foreign trees into her
territory for planting is more than^ a century old. She had added to
her native trees and shrubs by importation 1300 or 1400 species. It
would be exceedingly interesting to know the value of these acquisi-
tions. She has gathered them from every island and continent ; she
lias taxed the whole world ; and of these exotics more than 500 are
from North America.

In comparing the trees of America with those of England, Mr. E.
went on to observe that in Massachusetts there were ten oaks large
enough for ship timber ; in England only two. Our white oak and our
swamp white oak correspond nearly with the oaks of Great Britain.
In some parts of Massachusetts we have the post oak, which is called,
in Martha's Vineyard, the rough oak. We have the chestnut oak,
the rock-chesnut oak ; we have another oak, but he deems it a variety
of this last. There are then five or six oaks of thi? first kind. There
are five others of great, but of less value. There is the black, or yel-
low bark oak ; the scarlet oak, improperly called red oak ; the pine
oak, found in the southern part of the State ; the red oak, which attains
a large size, but is of little value for timber or fuel ; another called red
oak, but often distinguished from it by the name ; the grey oak, a vari-
ety well known in Maine, and much more valuable as timber than the
true red oak. The scarlet oak does not grow in Maine. Besides these
there are two small oaks of little importance.

505

Of maples there are three timber trees ; the rock-maple, the white
maple or river maple, and the red-flowering maple, commonly called ,
in this neighborhood, the white maple. In England they have only
two large maple trees, and but one of them is considered indigenous.

Of ash trees we have three, and it is believed four, white,black, red
and yellow ash. In England there is only one ash, of which there are
several varieties.

We have one hornbeam ; there is one in England, so called, from
the resemblance in the longitudinal projections upon the trunk to the
ridges on the horn of a deer. We have one beech ; the English have
one.

We have also the hop-hornbeam, or iron-wood, (ostrya) to which, in
England, there is nothing analogous.

We have the tupelo tree, and in this instance, as in some others,
there is no name universally known for this tree, as there is no tree at
all resembling it, in the native country of our ancestors.

We have one chestnut tree ; the English have one. We have four
birch trees of considerable value ; the small white or grey birch tree,
the white or canoe birch, the black and yellow. The white is a tree
of easy growth, and of great value.

We have two or three willows of some size, besides many small
ones ; the English have five or six willows. We have many fine Eng-
lish willows growing in this neighborhood. We have the celebrated
Duke of Bedford's willow growing here. We have the white willow,
the blue willow, the crack willow, and others growing in this neighbor-
hood.

We have at least four large poplar trees ; the English have four.
We have one sycamore ; the English have none. We have three
elms ; the English have seven, of which two or three are doubtful na-
tives. We have the hoop ash. We have two walnut trees ; the black
walnut and the butter-nut. The black walnut, though not always re-
cognized, may be found gi'owing in about every county in the State.
If a man wants a gun-stock, he will be sure to find this tree. The but-
ter-nut grows every where. The English walnut is not a native of Eng-
land. We have four hickories belonarina; to Massachusetts, and to
these England has nothing to correspond. The sassafras tree is pecu-
liar to this country. It was the first tree which attracted strongly the
attention of our ancestors ; and it composed a part of the first cargo re-
mitted to their native country. We have one bass-wood tree. We

64

506

have three pines; the white pine, the pitch pine and the red pine. The
Enghsh have a pine, vv'hich they call the Scotch fir, which resembles
our pitch pine. We have two spruce trees, one hemlock, one larch,
one fir, two cedars, and the arbor vita;. We have not the yew tree,
but in its place a low plant called the ground pine, growing abundantly
in Berkshire county. It is not like the juniper, but resembles the yew
tree. We have the tulip tree ; but there is nothing of this kind grow-
ing in England. We have one cherry tree of timber size.

We have thus fifty-six timber trees, while the English have but
twenty-seven. Our fathers in England have set us an example in the
preservation of their forests, and the introduction and cultivation of for-
eign trees, which demands our imitation.

We have also many smaller trees, as, for example, the holly tree,
which is an evei-green, but not of the pine family. We have one na-
tive mulberry — two alders, and at least four thorn trees. There are
more than 720,000 acres in Massachusetts, occupied as woodland.
Then there are 950,000 acres, which are unimproved, and 360,000
acres which are considered unimprovable. Mr Emerson questions the
propriety of saying that any land is unimprovable. There are instan-
ces of the most hopeless sandy wastes being converted into forests.
France has set us an example in this particular, worthy of all praise.
In the southwest of France there was an extensive desert. It was a
soil of loose sand, and began to excite considerable alarm because its
ravages were continually extending themselves, and the blowing sand
threatened to lay waste a large territory. They have in France a Board
having charge of the forests. Under their direction, an engineer by
the name of Bremontier, undertook, in 1780, the improvement of this
waste territory. He began by making a fence with hurdles and
branches of trees to windward, along the sea-coast. He then sowed
upon the sand the seeds of broom, mixed with those of the maritime
pine. There was danger of this sand being blown away ; he therefore
covered the whole with brush and branches of trees. The seeds of the
broom and pines came up. The pines, when young, are an exceeding-
ly delicate plant, and it is almost impossible to make them grow. The
broom formed a protection for them, under which for seven or eight
years the pines continued to grow — afterwards the pines became large
enough to protect each other, and the broom died, having fertilized the
ground with their leaves. The pine will grow upon barren sand,
wherever the rain and the snow fall. No land is too barren for it.

507

Nutrition will be obtained from these sources to give support to the
pines.

The rocky hills among us, which have been left bare, might be im-
proved by being planted with the rock chestnut oak or with the larch.
The barren hills of Scotland have been planted by the Duke of Athol,
who has many thousands of acres under forest cultivation. The char-
acter of soils is dependent upon the rocks out of which they are formed.
The geology of Scotland in many parts resembles that of Massachu-
setts. The experiment of the Duke of Athol has been perfectly suc-
cessful ; and the land on which these plantations have been formed,
has vastly increased in value. We have many thousands of acres of
what are now barren rocky hills, of a character extremely similar to
what have been thus converted into forest.

Mr Emerson expressed confidently his belief that there is not an
acre of land in the State which cannot be redeemed and made more
or less valuable ; even the wet marshes, where grass does not grow, or
which yield no valuable product. There is probably no marsh, how-
ever waste and unproductive, which might not be redeemed by planting
the white cedar or some other tree. The seeds of the white cedar
might be scattered upon the marsh, and in most instances would
presently take root. He has seen many acres which have been sown
with this tree, by the processes of nature, within the memory of man.
The cedar is a prolific tree ; and often grows so closely in a swamp
that you cannot get through it — in such unlimited abundance have the
seeds been sown.

The forest land, the unimproved and that which is called unimprova-
ble, constitute nearly one half of the territory of the State, or above
2,000,000 of acres — the whole of the territory being, according to the
I'ecent valuation, somewhat less than 4,500,000 acres. The whole of
this might be devoted to trees.

Mr. Emerson then proceeded to speak of the uses of the forest. He
noticed first its influence upon climate. Since the forests have been cut
off, the climate of the country has been essentially changed. The for-
est collects moisture. Since the wood has been cut away, in many
places where there were formerly streams with water sufficient to drive
mills throughout the year, no perennial streams are now to be found.
A forest is a great reservoir of moisture. The roots form a spongy
mass, v/hich retains the moisture ; the leaves check its evaporation. —
Under these circumstances it must have a material influence upon cli-
mate in rendering it mois

508

Forests are conductors of electricity. It is supposed by some writ-
ers that the reason why great portions of Spain, formerly rich and pro-
ductive, are now barren, is because the forests have been cleared. —
Nothing now arrests the electric fluid ; nothing arrests the clouds and
makes them pour their treasures on the earth. The electric fluid may
be considered as having an important influence upon vegetation. For-
ests serve as natural conductors of electricity, to convey it to the earth.
We should carefully leave our hills covered with trees.

Another advantage of foi'ests lies in their aflecting the winds of a
country. On a country stripped of trees there is nothing to break the
force of the winds. A bare hill does not protect a plain. If you cover
a hill with trees, they will furnish a protection to the adjacent lands.
Over a bare hill the wind pours like water in a cascade. The iTiotions
of great currents in the air resemble currents in the water. A gentle-
man of intelligence in Worcester, had stated to him that he believed
that the reason why many delicate plants and fruits, which were for-
merly cultivated with success, now fail, is because the hills are stripped
of their trees, which formerly furnished a protection. Trees are of
great value as protectors on a small scale. Massachusetts is a country
of winds, as the sailors well know.

Almost all the valuable trees which are planted in England, have
nurses planted to protect them. Mr. Emerson had heard many com-
plaints made that forest trees, when transplanted, would not grow ; but
no pains arc taken for their protection. We often set out delicate plants
on a bare plain, or on a windy side of a hill, and complain that they
will not grow ; but under such circumstances we can never look for
success, unless we give them some protection.

Another advantage of the forests is in the preservation and improve-
ment of the soil. When the land is stripped of trees, the soil is liable
to be carried off on lands which are inclined. When the rain pours
down on unprotected hills, it forms torrents which carry with them large
portions of the soil. Most of this the matted roots of the trees would
retain. Besides, every tree returns more to the soil than it takes from
it. Every tree has thus a tendency to retain and to improve the soil.
Trees growing ia the forest improve the soil. The processes by which
soil has been formed upon rocks have been watched. At first the lich
ens appear ; they want nothing but foot-hold ; and their almost invisi-
ble seeds, or sporules, are perhaps always floating in the air; there is
no rock so hard and bare but they cling to it. They get their nourish-

609

ment from the atmosphere. In dying, they leave behind lliera a thin
layer of soil, in which other lichens of a more succulent nature, and
mosses, take root. Herbaceous plants will succeed these ; and in pro-
cess of time trees will follow, and clothe these barren wastes with
wood ; and as their successive deposits continue to form and enrich the
soil, the wood will be continually growing better.

The next great value of forests is for fuel. This is a matter of vast
importance. Here the value of trees cannot be over-estimated. The
population of Massachusetts is 718,000. A family in England has been
estimated to average 4 persons and 7-lOths. In Massachusetts, families
are larger ; we marry younger and rear more children ; and here a
family may be considered as averaging six, perhaps seven persons.
The prices of wood vary much in different parts of the State. In some
parts of the State it is worth two dollars, and in Boston seven or eight
dollars. The average price may be set down, as nearly as can be cal-
culated, three dollars and eighty-thi'ee cents. Suppose it to be three
dollars and a half. Mr. E. had received estimates from all parts of the
State, which varied from four or five to thirty or forty cords for a fam-
ily. A fair estimate would give thirteen or fourteen cords on an aver-
age to a family. But call it only twelve. These at $3 50 per cord,
will give $42 as an average for the expense of the fuel for each family.
Calling seven individuals one family, and we have more than 100,000
families in the Stale, and the annual cost of their fuel over $4,200,000.
If we count six persons a family, the expense will exceed- $5,000,000.
Ail this is or might be furnished by the forests of Massachusetts. How
valuable, then, are our forests, and how important it is to know the best
means of managing them, and the proper time of cutting them — thb
most important trees to cultivate, and what should be eradicated. There
is a great choice of valuable materials for fuel. The hickories are
among the best, and perhaps, on the whole, preferable to any other
trees for this purpose. The maples rank next. These woods are as
valuable for charcoal as for wood. That which is best for wood is best
for charcoal. The woods which contain the largest amount of carbon
will produce the largest amount of heat. The hickories produce the
most carbon, and are therefore the most valuable as fuel.

The next value of forests is in the timber which they furnish for
ship-building, for joiners' work, for house-building, and various other
purposes. Vast sums might have been saved to the country by cultivat-
ing oaks. The English oaks grow here as readily as any where, as

510

readily as our native oaks. The English oaks and our white oaks very-
much resemble each other. These oaks are furnished for the English
navy. For this purpose they are probably superior to ours. The ob-
jection made by many to planting them is, that they would not be pro-
ductive in their time, requiring as many as seventy or eighty years to
perfect their growth. Shall men act only with reference to themselves ?
Will they be governed by such mean and narrow principles ? Let
them plant them for the benefit of their grandchildren, or those who
shall come after them. If they do not grow to be of use in our times,
others will have the benefit of them. The success of the Duke of
Athol in his plantations is most remarkable.

[The late Duke, John the Second, planted in the last years of his life
6500 Scotch acres of mountain ground solely with the larch — which, in
the course of seventy-two years from the time of planting will be a for-
est of timber fit for building ships of the largest class in the navy. It
will have been thinned out to about 400 trees per acre. Each tree will
contain at least 50 cubic feet or one load of timber, which, at the low
price of Is. per cubic foot, only half its present value, will give <£1000
per acre, or in all a sum of =£6,500,000 sterling. Besides this, there
will have been a return of £7 per acre, from the thinnings, after deduct-
ing all the expense of thinning and the original outlay of planting. —
Further still, the land, on which the larch is planted is not worth above
9d. to Is. per acre rent. After the thinnings of the first 30 years, the
larch will make it worth at least 10s. per acre, by the improvement of
the pasturage on which cattle can be kept winter and simimer. — Rep''r.^

It is surprising with what indifference our valuable trees are cut off.
Mr. E. remarked that within his own recollection, in Maine, vast num-
bers of acres had been laid smooth. It would requii'e two or three cen-
turies to restore them. The same is true in New York. The forests
ai'e gone and going, and it particularly behoves Massachusetts to be
taking care ; and by a wise foresight to supply the actual deficiency or
prevent its further wasteful progress ; to be providing against future
want. The next value of forests is as furnishing materials for furniture.
Our own timbers are in this respect of the best description. Pei'haps
few have seen a table made of the roots of the white oak. In England,
five pounds sterling have been given for the roots of a white oak. The
pieces have been taken out, and when sawed and planed present a wood
of extraordinary beauty. The roots of the black birch likewise have
)j>een used for the frames of pictures, and nothing of the kind within

511

his knowledge has been more beautiful. The roots oi' ^rees have been
generally neglected even for ship-building, where they might often be
employed to advantage. A great deal of very elegant furniture is now
made from our own trees ; from the rock maple, which displays its rich
curled knots and eyes and cloudings, and from the soft maples, whose
wavings are so beautiful ; and these woods of super-eminent beauty are
much cheaper than mahogany.

We require in the next place much wood and timber for implements
of husbandry, for carriages, and for a variety of other indispensable
uses. Ash, oak, and hickory are and always will be in constant de-
mand.

The lofty ash of England is valued for its toughness. The ash of
New England is tougher still, and makes better oars and materials for
carriages. Our carriage-builders are now obliged to go to Maine or
to the South or West for their timber. We require such timber for
fencing, and for this purpose the chestnut tree and the white cedar
furnish the best materials. In the growth of cedar two thirds, often
nine tenths, should bo thinned out ; and with these thinnings a fence
may oftentimes be made by driving the pieces into the ground, inclin-
/ ed at a considerable angle to the ground, and in two rows, touching
each other, and leaning in opposite directions, the pieces to be wattled
together where they cross. He has seen a very cheap and durable
fence made in this way. Larch may be used in the place of cedar.

Our forests furnish many materials for tanning. Our shrub white
and our shrub red oak, which correspond with the trees which are used
abroad as producing the greatest amount of tanning, are here burnt.
We are wasteful of these materials. We require likewise materials
for dyeing. The alders are much used in the North of Europe for
dyeing. A strong dye is to be found in the birches ; and birches are
likewise used in foreign countries for tanning. But of these uses we
know little ; and while no attention is paid among us to the cultivation
of trees, the preservation of those which exist among us is treated with
indifference. One advantage which comes from the study of forests is
the discovery that plants of the same families have the same proper-
^ties.

The manufacture of chairs, which is a large and productive business
in Massachusetts, requires a great amount of materials, and those,
which are at present of necessity employed, are in general much infe-
rior to those formerly obtained. Basket-making is a considerable busi-

512

ness, and for this object young white oaks are worth twenty dollars a
cord. The amount of timber required among us for barrels, hogs-
heads, pails, and hoop-poles, is immense ; and this demand must not
only continue, but increase.

Walking-sticks are always in demand. This is a great article in
Great Britain ; and it is a curious fact that within the last year 25,000
walking-sticks were cut and sold in the vicinity of Niagara Falls.

The cultivation of the rock maple for sugar is a matter of great im-
portance. From trees planted by persons now living sugar is made in
great quantities, and several towns in this Commonwealth, from these
resources within themselves, are now able to supply their own sugar
and molasses.

Mr. Emerson expressed an unwillingness, on account of the lateness
of the hour, to trespass upon the indulgence of his audience, though
the subject was large, and he had intended to say much more.

Trees deserve our cultivation as matter of taste, for their ornament
and their shade, and for the rich beauty which they impart to the land-
scape. In travelling in a sultry dry day of summer, he has many
times found occasion for the most grateful acknowledgments under the
wide-spreading and refreshing shade of a tree planted by some kind
hand on the road -side.

He has often been filled with delight in the survey of some of the
beautiful prospects and scenery presented in our own State. Many
travellers are familiar with a hill in Bolton, on the road to Lancaster,
which opens a prospect of surpassing beauty, in the wide area of many
miles circuit, spread out to the view, comprehending the charming val-
ley of Lancaster, through which the quiet Nashua marks out its wind-
ing channel, and presenting in the distant prospect some of the highest
hills of Massachusetts, and some lofty mountains of New Hampshire.
The magnificent elms, which proudly spread their wide branching tops
upon the meadows — the groves here and there, which the a.\e lias
spared — the frequent orchards, which indicate the wise care of the cul-
tivator— and the extensive forests in the distance, with their mingled
shades of green, from the most sombre to the brightest tint — conspire
to present a landscape which fixes the attention of the most careless,
and in its varied forms of light and shade, of forest and cultivation, of
valley and mountain, of crops and trees, with here and there a beauti-
ful village with its spires pointing to Heaven from among the trees, can
never fail to charm the eye and to touch the heart. The prospect from

513

Mount Holyoke, at Northampton, presents a scene of still higher beauty
and grandeur and interest. Here too the elms in the village and on the
meadows are seen in their unrivalled majesty and pride. Both these
views owed much of their beauty to the preservation of a single species
of trees, the American elm.

Mr. E. said that there were a thousand beautiful views in all parts of
Massachusetts — a thousand spots where it would seem delightful to
spend a life — a thousand spots where he almost envied those who had
the luxury of living — of seeing the sun rise and set — and the heavens
always above and the green earth always around them.

We have a beautiful State ; it was much better, it was a glorious
State. He honored old Massachusetts ; he gloried in being a citizen
of this State. He honored her for the stand she had, from the begin-
ning, taken in regard to the education of her sons; for being the first
to declare that they should all be educated. He blessed her for her
example in this matter ; an example which others had not been slow to
follow — an example whose value it would be impossible to over-esti-
mate. He honored her for what she had done for those causes which
were the highest distinction, the truest glory of man ; for what she had
done in the great cause of civil and religious liberty — in the holy cause
of charity. He honored a people whose energy and industry and skill
are such that they have more to show for a year's exertions than the
same number of men any where else ; and who, while they were so la-
boring, and so successfully, were still so far from being absorbed in
the love of money, that they freely did more and paid more for the
education of their children, for institutions of charity and for the cause
of science, than the same number of people elsewhere under heaven.
These were things to be proud of; — and when he travelled among such
people — he desired to see them dwelling, as they deserved to dwell, in
the pleasantest habitations.

Now there was many a spot which might easily be made much more
beautiful. For houses and farms, there was no element of beauty so
important and none so controlable as that produced by trees.

A sinorle tree ! what a charm it gives to a farmer's house ! It was
something for the imagination to dwell upon : it was something that the
owner mifrht look upon and point out to his children, as something better
than could be estimated by money. What effect might not a single oak
or birch with its golden tassels or an elm have, in awakening the sense of
the beautiful, upon a child who was just learning to look upon the beau-
tiful creation !

65

514

N.--(p. 403.)

NUMBER OF PLANTS ON AN ACRE,

The following table shows the number of plants contained in an acre,
planted at the several distances specified in the columns marked " feet
apart." For example, an acre will contain 10,890 corn-hills two feet
apart ; 2,151 four and a half apart, &c. These numbers are obtained
by dividing 43,560, the number of square feet in an acre, by the square
of the number of feet the plants are distant from each other; thus —
the square of 2 is 4, and 43,560 divided by 4 gives 10,890, as above.
If the plants be set in an oblong form, as five feet by six apart, multiply
the two distances together, and divide 43,560 by their product, for the
answer. When setting out trees, farmers generally name the distance
in yards. In this case, divide 4840, the square yards in an acre, by
the square of distances apart, if they be equal, or by their product if
they be unequal, and the quotient will be the number of trees in an
acre. For example : at 7 yards apart, an acre contains 98 trees ; for
the square of 7 is 49, and 4840 divided by 49 gives 98, the nearest
whole number. If the distances be 7 and 10, their product is 70, and
4840 divided by 70 gives 69 trees. — Newbern Spectator.

Ft. apart.

No. [il.iiits.

Ft. opurt.

.No. plants.

Ft. apart.

No. plains.

Ft. apait.

No. plants.

1

43,560

u

19,360

2

10,890

2d

6969

3

4840

2k

3556

4

2722

U

2151

5

1742

5i

1440

6

1210

6h

1031

7

889

7h

774

8

680

8h

602

9

537

9h

482

10

435

lOh

395

11

360

12

302

13

257

14

222

15

193

16

170

17

150

18

134

19

120

20

108

25

69

30

48

35

35

40

27

-

-

-

-

515

O.— (p. 421.)

' FORMS OF ACCOUNTS.

Forms of accounts are sometimes highly useful. Many persons
would be glad to keep exact accounts of all their proceedings, but from
want of experience or an imperfect education, are incapable of doing
it. Books of forms for the use of farmers would be very serviceable.
From the Table of the returns of Hops inspected in Massachusetts, it
will be perceived with what remarkable and creditable exactness
this record has been kept. S. Jaques, the Inspector of Hops and the
proprietor of the Ten Hills Stock Farm in Charlestown, Mass., has
been equally exact in some of his arrangements there ; and as he has
been kind enough to furnish me with the forms in which some of his
accounts have been kept, I subjoin them for the benefit of the farmers.

516

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P.— (p. 120.)

ON THE FEED OF SHEEP.

Extract of a Comviunication from H. D. Grove to the New York State

Agricultural Society in 1833.

[This should have followed Appendix B., but was accidentally omitted
in that place.]

" In respect to the effect of grain, roots and hay upon the increase of
flesh, wool and tallow of fine sheep, we are indebted to M. de Raumer,
for his experiments, which throw much light upon the subject, and
whose results are the more creditable since they are in accordance with
the experience of others. I communicate his results because they may
be considered as a sure basis in this matter.

IncroHse of

Produced Produced

weight in the

Wool- Tallow-

living animal.

lbs.

lbs, oz. lbs. oz.

1000 lbs

. Potatoes, raw, with salt, .

46^

6 8| 12 5a

1000 «

do. without salt,

44

6 8 10 m

1000 "

M angel- wurtzel, raw,

S8h

5 3i 6 5h

1000 «

Pease,

134i

14 11 41 6

1000 "

Wheat,

155

13 13.J 59 9

1000 «

Rye, with salt, .

90

13 14a 35 11

1000 "

do. without salt,

133

12 lOa 43 8a

1000 "

do. meal, wet, .

129

13 6h 17 7a

1000 «

Barley, ....

136

11 6^ 60 1

1000 «

Oats,

146

9 12 42 8

1000 "

Buckwheat,

120

10 4a 33 8

1000 «

good Hay, ....

58

7 lOa 12 14

1000 "

Hay with straw, without other fodder.

31

15 8

6 11

1000 "

Whisky-still grains, or was

fi, .

.

35

6 1

4 0

Potatoes, raw and cut into slices, sheep ate with good appetite and
greediness in duration — one sheep ate daily 7 lbs., with straw in-
terchangeably after the potatoes : they remained lively and heal-
thy, and drank IJ quarts of water per head in 24 hours.

Mangel-wurtzel, sheep ate with greediness, 8 lbs. per head daily in dura-
tion, interchangeably with straw as with potatoes : they drank 1
quart of water per head in 24 hours, and remained likewise heal-
thy.

519

Pease, 2 lbs. per head daily readily eaten in duration : drank from 2 to
3 quarts of water per head in 24 hours, and remained perfectly
healthy. In an unsoaked condition pease are hard for sheep to
eat, and wear their teeth.
Wheat, sheep ate greedily 2 lbs. per head in duration, and drank from
2 to 3 quarts of water in 24 hours ; made them very lively, and
remained perfectly healthy.
Rye, sheep do not eat readily, and it does them little good, as is exhib-
ited in the above results of the increase of weight : they drank
from 2 to 3 quarts of water daily.
Barley, 2^ lbs. per head daily in duration with greediness, and sheep
do extremely well on it : they drank 3 quarts of water per head
in 24 hours.
Oats, had the same effect as barley upon the appetite and health.
Buckwheat, sheep eat with great avidity, and with the best results upon

the health and liveliness of the animals.
Good hay, 4^ lbs. per head daily in duration, and drank 2 J to 3 quarts

of water in 24 hours.
Flag-hay, rush, &c., the lighter and the less sheep eat of it the better,
as it makes them weak and inactive ; and two of the sheep on
which the experiments were made, became sick — one was killed,
the liver and gall of which were found infected, and the other
died.
M. de Raumer also considers, in accordance with M. Von Thaer,
1 lb. oil-cake meal to be as nutritious as 2 lbs. of hay.
80 " clover hay like 100 lbs. ordinary hay.
84 " vetches, esparsette and lucerne, the same.
200 " good sound straw of pease and vetches like 100 lbs. hay.
300 " barley and oat straw like 100 lbs. hay.
400 " wheat straw like 100 lbs. hay.

100 " turnips nourish as much as 40 lbs. potatoes or 50 lbs. mangel-
wurtzel.
The above I have for a number of years, say 12 or 13, taken as my
guide in foddering sheep, and have found that my flock did extremely
well whenever I proportioned their food according to nutritiousness, and
in such manner as that which 2 lbs. of good hay would give to each
animal. If, therefore, I fed potatoes or other roots or grain, I gave straw
with it in order to fill the belly. The best way I have found to be, a fod-
dering of straw in the morning before roots. It seems to be congenial to

520

the nature and economy of the sheep, and digests better than roots on
an empty stomach. This practice is pursued by the most intelligent
breeders of sheep in Germany."

Q. — (p. XX.)

QUERIES BY THE ROYAL DANISH RURAL. ECONOMY SOCIETY.

1. What is the soil, both superficial and subsoil ? Is it high or low
ground ? Flat or hilly ? Does the soil suffer from water ? Could ir-
rigated meadows be introduced ?

2. Are there springs or small lakes .' Has the quantity of water in
these latterly diminished ? To what cause is such diminution ascribed ?
Have lakes or marshes been drained ?

3. What is the climate 1 Dry, moist, cold, mild, &c. ?

4. Have the common lands been divided ? And if so, into small par-
cels ? What have been the results of such division in respect to popu-
lation, agriculture, stock, &c. ?

5. What is the prevailing system of culture? What variations from
the system occur ? Are naked fallows used, or alternate white and
fallow crops ? What is thought of these respective practices ? Is much
ground kept constantly in grass ?

6. Is the practice of soiling gaining ground? What objections are
urged against it .''

7. Are lime, muck, marl, or other artificial manures applied ? Have
experiments been made in paring and burning both plough-land and
meadow .? If so, with what success ? On what soils has this been tried,
clayey, sandy, marly, or turfy ?

8. Are oxen used for farm work ?

9. What are the agricultural implements ? Is the superiority of the
swing plough (English plough,) admitted ? Are the modern labor-sav-
ing implements known and used ?

10. Are there wild and uncultivated lands ? Are these reduced to
cultivation ? And how ? With what succession of crops ? And with
what success ? In the new clearings, unconnected with the established
system of husbandry, do they use the labor of horses or oxen ? What
stock have they introduced, horn cattle or sheep ?

521

11. Are the farmers careful in procuring good seed ?

12. Are any uncommon grains, or other crops, cultivated ?

13. Is grain afiected by rust, blasting, or other diseases ? Is there
any satisfactory knowledge of the causes ?

14. Is there any settled rule as to the degree of ripeness, which grain
should have when harvested for market .''

15. What is the character of the grain ? Is there apparatus for thor-
oughly cleansing it .'' For drying it ? And are measures taken for its
improvement ?

16. Is there difficulty in the sale of agricultural products, from want
of market towns, or facilities for shipping ?

17. Is the fall feeding of cultivated lands practised f Are new
hedges planted, or the old kept up ?

18. What is the condition of stock husbandr}', both with regard to
the character of the stock, and the number to a farm of given extent ?
Do milch cows or fat cattle yield the best profit ?

19. Are more or fewer horses raised than formerly, and why ?

20. Are the finer-wooled sorts of sheep increasing ? Is sheep-fold-
ng practised ? Are the sheep ever stall-fed ? Is the native breed di-
minishing or increasing ?

21. Is Horticulture advancing ? How large gardens do the farmers
commonly cultivate ?

22. Are there forests which supply fuel and timber ? New planta-
tions ? Is there turf for use or sale ? Are plantations for hedges, or
trees for fuel and timber of the extent of three, five, or seven acres,
meditated .?

23. Is domestic industry thriving ? And employed upon articles for
domestic use only, or for market ? How could domestic industry be
encouraged, so as to bring its products more into commerce .'*

24. Are there any distinguished agriculturists, either large or small
proprietors, and are they among the peasantry, or not ? What have
they accomplished }

25. Is there any Economical society, and what does it accomplish .?

26. Is the price of lands rising or falling ? Is any portion of the
population unemployed ? What are wages ? Might the people intro-
duce collateral sources of income, besides agriculture, such as lime-
burning, or the manufacture of clay wares ?

27. What special branches of rural industry deserve special encour-
agement ? Does animal or vegetable production merit the preference ?

66

522

And of the former, whether the raising of cattle, sheep, or horses ?
What plants, for grain, fodder, or market, can be most advantageously-
cultivated ?

28. Is there any thing special in the husbandry of your district, wor-
thy to be followed or shunned elsewhere ?

29. What local improvements, is it supposed, would be particularly
advantageous ?

R.

WEEDS.

" Weed. — A weed is a Plant out of Place.''^

The subjoined Table was prepared at my I'equest, by John L. Rus-
sell, minister of Chelmsford, Middlesex county, Mass. Mr Russell has
distinguished himself by his botanical researches and his ardor and
success in the study of Natural History. Why should not he preach
about the flowers of the field, after the example of the highest of all
teachers, who charged his disciples to " consider the lilies hoio they
groio,'''' that they might learn a lesson of the ceaseless and benignant
Providence of God ?

Native and Introduced Plants growing about Fields and Gardens:
considered as Weeds by the Agriculturist.

Daucus Carrota, L. — Wild Carrot, (introduced :) in mowing ; abund-
ant in Chelsea.

Ligusticum Scoticum, L. — Sea Lovage ; edges of meadows near the
sea.

Pastinaca Sativa, L. — Wild Parsnip, (introduced :) fields and way-
sides ; liable to spread if neglected.

Clematis Virginiana, L. — Traveller's Joy ; climbing over bushes and
stone walls.

Ranunculus Acris, L. — Acrid Buttercup ; in very wet meadows.

Chelidonium Majus, Willd. — Celandine ; probably introduced — in
gardens, way-sides, &c.

523

Cochlearia Armoracea, L. — Horse Radish ; troublesome as a weed
in mowing.

Lepidium Virginicum, L. — Wild Pepper Grass ; on poor land and
by the way-side.

Raphanus Raphanistrum, L. — Cadlock ; Wild Radish.

Sisymbrium Officinale, Dec. — Hedge Mustard.

Thlaspi Bursa Pastoris, L. — Shepherd's Purse ; in gardens and fields.

Berberis Vulgaris, L. — Barberry ; more abundant near the sea-
shore.

Malva Rotundifolia, L. — Low Mallows ; a weed near houses.

Hypericum Perforatum, L. — St John's Wort ; in old gravelly and
sandy fields and pastures.

Parnassia Caroliniana, Mx. — Grass of Parnassus ; occasionally seen
in wet meadows.

Saxifraga Pennsylvanica, L. — Water Saxifrage ; wet meadows.

Epilobium Angustifolium, L. — Willow Herb ; fire weed, — on new
burnt land and occasionally in fresh meadows, — increases rapidly by
seed.

(Enothera Biennis, L. — Scabish ; Tree Primrose ; old stony fields,
rye fields and gravel pits.

Lythrum Salicaria, L. — Purple Loosestrife ; growing in bunches
with pendent stems over ditches and ponds.

Sanguisorba Camadensis. — Wild Burnet ; in fresh meadows, Ipswich,
Topsfield, &c.

Potentilla Argentea, L.^Silver Fivefinger ; old sandy fields, just
after cultivation.

Potentilla Norvegica, L. — Do. do.

Rosa Corymbosa, Ehrhart. — Swamp Rose ; among stone walls,
do. Rubiginosa, L. — Sweet Briar ; do. do.

Rubus Villosus, Alton. — High Blackberry,
do. Trivialis, Mx. — Low Blackberry.

Crataegus (species varise). — Thorn Bush ; Hawthorn.

Apios Tuberosa, Ph. — Ground Nut ; climbing on bushes near the
boundaries of fields and pastures.

Baptisia Tinctoria, R. Brown. — Wild Indigo ; pastures.

Crotalaria Sagittalis, L. — Rattle Box ; fields, Weston, Mass.

Genista Tinctoria, L. — Wood Waxen ; dyer's weed, peculiar to the
vicinity of Salem — introduced.

Lespedeza Capitata, Mx. — Tall Trefoil ; dry pastures.

524

Lupinus Perennis; L. — Wild Lupine ; sandy and gravelly soils.

Medicago Lupulina, L. — Nonesuch ; resembles yellow clover, and
perhaps nearly as good.

Pisum Maritmum, L. — Beach Pea ; sea-coast, eaten by horses.

Urtica Dioica, L. — Nettle ; walls and road-sides.

Comptonia Asplenifolia, Alton. — Sweet Fern ; old pastures.

Myrica Cerifera, L. — Bay Berry ; useful for its vegetable wax.
do. Gale, L. — A low bush in swamps and edges of fresh meadows.

Celastrus Scandens, L. — False Bitter Sweet ; wax work, a tall strong
climber on trees and over stone walls.

Ampelopsis Quinquefolia. — Woodbine ; false grape, on stone walls
and running up trees.

Rhus Radicans, L. — Poison Ivy ; found as above,
do. Vernix. — Poison Dogwood ; Bigelow's Med. Bot. pi. x.

Geranium Dissectum, L. — Wild Cut-leaved Geranium ; sandy fields.

Agrostemma Githago, L. — Corn Cockle ; introduced, seen among
wheat — annual and increases by seed.

Dianthus Armeria, L. — Slender Pink ; with the above.

Saponaria Officinalis, L. — Bouncing T3et ; soap wort — introduced,
and spreads by the root ; edges of fields and near heaps of compost.

Spergula Arvensis, L. — Corn Spurry ; among corn and wheat, es-
pecially in light warm land.

Phytolaca Decandra, L. — Poke ; barn yards.

Polygonum Aviculare, L. — Knot Grass ; troublesome about house
yards.

Polygonum Scandens. — Climbing in cultivated fields, with Polygo-
num Fagopyrum, L. Buckwheat, &c.

Rumex Crispus, L. — Curled Dock ; exceedingly troublesome in

mowing and meadows.

do. Acetosella, L. — Field Sorrel, — indicates a poor, thin soil.

do. Obtusifolius, L. — Broad Leaved Dock ; do. do.

Campanula Perfoliata, L. — Clasping Bell Flower ; in light cultivated

soils.

Lobelia Inflata, L. — Indian Tobacco ; every where causing horses to

slaver. ,

Plantago Major, L. — Plantain ; common near door steps.

do. Lanceolata, L. — Ribbed-Leaved Plantain, or Rib-wort, fields.
Ambrosia Elatior, L. — Hog Weed ; Anakim, Roman Wormwood.
Anthemis Cotula, L. — May Weed ; stinking camomile, on sides of

roads, and on heaps of compost.

525

Bidens Frondosa, L. — Burr Marigold ; troublesome in moist corn-
fields, and in cleared-up and cultivated swamps.

Bidens Tripartita, L. — Trifid Burr Marigold or Beggar's Lice ; tick
seed, sheep ticks, ditches, swamps.

Cnicus Arvensis, Willd. — Canada Thistle ; destroyed by mowing it
when it flowers.

Cnicus Lanceolatus. — Common Thistle.

Onopordon Acanthium, L. — Cotton Thistle ; waste grounds ; very
large in rich soils.

Centourea Nigra, L. — Knap weed ; black thistle, troublesome in sto-
ny, rich soil : introduced.

Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, L. — Oxeye Daisy ; White Weed,
&c. Introduced.

Cichorium Intybus, L. — Succory ; Middlesex county : introduced.

Erigeron Integrifolium. — Rye Fields.
do. Canadense. do.

Gnaphalium Polycephalum, Mx. — Sweet-scented Everlasting,
do. Margaritaceum, L. — Pearly Everlasting.

Helianthus Tuberosus, L. — Artichoke ; gardens. Introduced.

Inula Helenium, L. — Elecampane ; in clayey soils ; Essex Co.

Senecio Vulgaris, L. — Groundsel ; in gardens.

do. Hieracifolius, Mx. — Fire Weed ; on new-burnt land, spread-
ing with great rapidity by its downy seeds.

Tanacetum Vulgare, L. — Tansey ; if neglected, grows in very dense
and troublesome patches. Introduced.

Asclepias Syriaca, L. — Milk Weed ; road-sides ; young shoots used
for asparagus ; fibres of the stems spun for thread, and silky down of
seeds, in the ornamental work of capes. Several other species growing
in swamps.

Convolvulus Arvensis; L. — do. Sepium, L. — do. Stans, Mx. — Morn-
ing Glory ; in fields and on stone walls ; the second species a great
creeper, with beautiful flowers.

Antirrhinum Linaria, L. — Toad Flax ; a great pest in cultivated
fields, especially among wheat on rich stony land, and difficult to extir-
pate.

Datura Stramonium, L. — Apple of Peru ; Thorn Apple ; sea-shore
and way-side, near rich compost heaps, and contiguous to barns. In-
troduced. Seeds a violent emetic, and whole plant dangerous.

526

Hyoscyamus Niger ; Henbane ; in waste places; valuable in medicine.
Nicandra Physaloides ; Persoon ; strayed out of gardens, and likely
to prove a weed.

Verbascum Thapsus, L. — Mullein ; pastures, old fields, &c.

do. Blattaria, L. — Moth Mullein ; Essex Co.

Lamium Amplexicaule, L. — Hen Bit ; Dead Nettle, old gardens and
nurseries.

Leonurus Cardiaca, L. — Mother Wort ; everywhere.
Marrubium Vulgare, L. — Hoarhound ; road-sides. Introduced.
Nepeta Cataria, L. — Cat Mint ; under stone walls.
Trichostema Dichotoma, L. — Blue Curls ; in sandy soils, as rye
fields and poor pastures. (Annual.)

Alisma Plantago, L. — Water plantain ; in wet places and muddy
ponds.

Iris Versicolor, L. — Blue Flag or Wild-Iris ; wet meadows.
Iris Gracilis, Bigelow. — Boston Iris ; do.

Allium Canadense, L. — Wild Onion ; Meadow Garlic ; apt to in-
crease in grain fields, and giving the alliaceous flavor to flour ; a bad
weed.

Smilax Rotundifolia, L. — Green Briar ; in swamps, and covering un-
der-growth with green, prickly branches ; difficult to kill.

Typha Latifolia, L. — Cat Tail ; in ditches and mud-holes, well known
as Flags.

Acorus Calamus, L. — Sweet Flag ; in wet meadows.
Pothos Foetida, Mx. — Skunk Cabbage ; cattle are said to be fond of
the dried leaves, which are sweet.

Conium Maculatum. — Hemlock ; (a dangerous plant,) by way-sides
and waste places.

Arctium Lappa. — Burdock ; troublesome, and next to useless.
Agrostis Clandestina. — Hidden bent Grass ; a coarse weedy species,
about barns and in cultivated grounds.

Leersia Oryzoides, Svvtz. — Cut Grass ; tall, coarse, with sharp cilia-
ted leaves.

Bromus Secalinus, L. — Chess, or Cheat ; in wheat and rye fields.
Introduced.

Andropogon Nutans, L. — Beard Grass ; common on poor stony dry
soils, growing in tufts, a wiry indifferent species.

Digitaria Sanguinalis, Mx. — Purple Panic Grass ; a common weed in
cultivated grounds.

527

Panicum Crus Galli, L. — Cocksfoot ; a coarse annual grass in gar-
dens and in rich fields.

Panicum Glaucum, L. — Panic (irass ; in similar situations.

Triticum Repens, L. — Couch Grass ; Twitch Grass ; troublesome
and very difficult to eradicate ; the roots eaten in Italy.*

Carex, Sp. — The Carices are grasses with three-sided stems, and
compose the principal herbage of the coarser products of fresh mead-
ows ; some species always growing in hummocks.

With the Carices are some of the Cyperi, distinguished by the inflo-
rescence being in branching heads and of greater beauty, but coarse
and wiry in structure.

The Scirpi enter largely into fresh meadow hay.

Equisetum Arvense, L. — Horse-tail ; Mare's-tail.
do. Hyemale, L. — Scouring Rush,

do. Sylvaticum, L. — Wood Horse-tail.

More or less common in moist meadows, and sometimes increasing
rapidly when the soil has been ploughed and again laid down. Al-
though silicious in their structure, and very brittle when dried, yet cat-
tle are said to devour them greedily. A fourth species, viz : Equise-
tum Uliginosum, Muhl. — Pipes ; is considered valuable as hay.

Aspidium, several species. — Polypodium, do. do. — Osmunda Cinna-
momea, L. — do. Regalis, L. — do. Interupta, Mx. — Are usually known
as Polypod, Brake, Fern, Buckhorn, &c., and of little if any value.

Pteris Aquilina. — Eagle Brake ; a tall, trifidly leaved fern in damp
woods.

The Mosses (Musci) are generally small plants, scarcely distinguish-
able as species by any but the botanist. They in some species cover
the ground with a speedy growth, even when under cultivation. Seve-
ral are parasitic on trees, and injurious to the orchard, as the refuge
and hiding places for insects, and should be removed by scraping the
bark. Several species of Sphagnum are the especial agents in the
production of peat. Some of these are used in packing boxes of but-
ter and the like, being retentive of water and very cool.

The Lichens and Fungi are also parasites, on timber and orchard
trees, and oftentimes indicate decay.

* 1 have reason to think this grass one of the most valuable that ai*e
found. G. B. E.

528

The Algse are especially useful in manuring land contiguous to the
sea, and the most valuable for this purpose is Laminaria Saccharina,
Agardh. — Kelp, or Devil's Apron. Next to this, perhaps, Fucus No-
dosus, L., and F. Vesiculosus, L., Ulva Lactuca, &c. &c.

[ 1 ]

The subjoiiied Advertisetnents are annexed to the Report as
being matter of general interest to the Farmers. They are
printed at private expense, and not at the expense of the State.

PKOSPECTUS OF THE

NEW GENESEE FARMER,

AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL.

VOXiUMS 3, FOR 134:2.

16 large Page's irionthly, (with Engravings.) Only 50 Cents per year.

HENRY COLMAN, EDITOR.

Late Ajrricultural Commissioner of the State of Massachusetts.

D. Thomas, J. J. Thomas, M. B Bateham, and many others. Contributors.

^^ RATEFUL for the extensive patronage which the New Genesee
\y^ Farmer has received during the past year, the proprietor has now
the satisfaction of announcing that he has made such arrangements for
the coming year as cannot fail to be highly gratifying to the readers of
the paper, and secure for it a still more extensive circulation. Being
determined to make it the most useful and widely circulated agricultur-
al paper in the Union, the proprietor has engaged the services of
HENRY COLMAN, the late Agricultural Commissioner of the State
of Massachusetts. Depending on the co-operation and support of the
friends of agriculture in the State of New York and the Great West, Mr.
Colman has consented to leave the field where he has heretofore labor-
ed and locate at Rochester, where, through the medium of the new Gen-
esee Farmer, he expects to find a more extensive field of usefulness.

The former editors and contributors will continue their assistance ;
and care will be taken to make the paper interesting and useful, not on-
ly to farmers but to all persons engaged in rural or domestic affairs. Un-
der these auspices, it is hoped that the New Genesee Farmer cannot fail
to obtain a wide circulation, give a new impetus to the cause of agricul-
ture— promote the best interests of the community, and tend to increase
the wealth and prosperity of the nation. It is hoped that every friend of
agriculture — every well-wisher of his neighborhood and his country —
will lend his aid, and not only subscribe himself but induce his neigh-
bors to subscribe also. The paper will be continued at its present low
price, in order that its influence may be most widely extended. Its ap-
pearance will be considerably improved, and having now a power-press
exclusively for the work, greater promptness and regularity will be se-
cured. Careful clerks are engaged to mail the papers, so that it is be-
lieved there will be little cause for complaint hereafter.

Post-masters and their assistants are authorised and respectfully soli-

1

[2]

cited to act as agents and remit subscriptions for the Farmer. The low
price at which it is pubhshed will not allow of much pecuniary com-
pensation to agents, but it is believed they will find a reward in the ben-
efits which result from the circulation of such periodicals in their neigh-
borhoods.

Persons ordering papers are requested to strictly observe the Terbis,
and be careful to write plainly the names of subscribers, their Post
Office, County and State ; and in all cases to send the money with
the order, so that the perplexity of keeping accounts may be avoided.

M. B. BATEHAM, Proprietor.

Tekbis. — If current money is sent (such as New York or New Enp^-
a nd bills,) commission will be allowed as follows: —

Seven Copies, for . . . . . $3 00

Twelve "for 5 00

Twenty-five " for . . . . . 10 00

Payments altoays to he made in advance.

If uncurrent money is sent, (such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Penn-
sylvania, Canada, &c.) no commission will be allowed ; but bills of all
solvent Banks will be received when no commission is asked.

All subscriptions must commence with the volume. A limited num-
ber of volumes 1 and 2, can still be furnished, at the subscription price.

All letters must be free of postage.

Address, M. B. BATEHAM, Rochester, N. Y.

In Boston, Messrs. Ruggles, Nourse & Mason, Quincy Hall, Messrs.
HovEY, at their Agricultural store in Merchants Row ; and Messrs.
Little & Brown, Washington street ; and in Salem, John M. Ives,
at his Seed store, will receive subscriptions for the New Genesee Farmer.

December 1, 1841.

THE MASSACHUSETTS PLOUGHMAN.

r¥lH]S is the title of a new Agricultural and Family Paper, to be
X conducted by WM. BUCKMINSTER, Esq. the former Editor of
the Boston Cultivator. The Ploughman will be a large Folio Sheet,
containing much more reading matter than any weekly Agricultural
paper in the United States. One quarter part of the paper will be con-
stantly devoted to Farming, Gardening, and the Mechanic Arts. The
remainder of the paper will be filled with the most important domestic
and foreign news ; proceedings of Congress, and of our State Legisla-
ture ; and a well arranged Price Current, corrected weekly.

Party Politics will be totally excluded ; but a correct history of po-
litical events will be constantly given.

Farmers and Mechanics, generally, are invited to join us in the pro-
motion of a cause which we trust will be ever held dear by Freemen,
and the Tillers of the Soil.

The paper will be published at Boston, every Saturday morning.
The first number was issued on the first Saturday of October last.

[3 ]

Terms, $2 00, in advance ; and if payment is delayed for more than
three months, $2 50 will be charged.

Each Postmaster to whom the Prospectus is sent, is requested to act
as Agent for the Ploughman ; and fifty cents will be allowed for every
responsible subscriber obtained by him.

Lists may be returned to the said WM. BUCKMINSTER, the Con-
ductor, at No 5, Quincy Hall, Boston.

The Yankee Farmer, recently published in Boston, is to be united
with the Massachusetts Ploughman, from 1st January, 1842. Subscrib-
ers to the Yankee Farmer are respectfully solicited to continue their
subscriptions to the Ploughman.

Boston, December 20, 1841.

THE FAR ME US' JOURNAL,

AND

MAGAZINE OF USEFUL ARTS.

EDITED & PUBLISHED BY S. W. COLE,

{Former Proprietor, and, until July, Editor of the Yankee Farmer.)

(The Office of the late Yankee Fai'mer,)

OFFICE NO. 45, NORTH MARKET STREET, BOSTON.

THE Journal is designed to improvci the soil and its productions;
encourage the useful arts and sciences, and promote the interest
of the farmer and mechanic by giving the best information in their
pursuits.

It will contain original articles from some of the best practical cul-
tivators in the country, and choice selections fi'om the most able works
on Agriculture, Horticulture, Mechanics and Economy ; giving the
best management, and new discoveries and improvements in these de-
partments.

This is one of the cheapest papers in the country ; and no pains
will be spared to render it strictly practical and useful. The form is
neat and convenient for preservation and reference, and it will be a
valuable addition to a library, as the matter is of lasting utility.

Terms : The Journal is published monthly, on a royal sheet, in
quarto form, at 50 cents a year, always in advance. Five copies for
$2. Any person procuring four subscribers and sending $2, can have
the fifth copy gratis.

Post Masters are agents, and will forward names and money. The
Volume commenced Oct. 1. Back numbers will be sent to new sub-
scribers, that the Volume may be complete.

Boston, January 1, 1842.

[4]

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[ 7 ]

NEW ENGLAND
AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSE,

SEED STORE,

AND OFFICE OF THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER,

Nos. 51 & 52 North Market Street, Boston.

JOSEPH BRECK & CO.

rilHE proprietors of this establishment would inform their friends

JL and the public, that they keep constantly on hand and for sale,

the greatest variety of Agricultural Implements, Crrass Seeds, Garden

and Flower Seeds, Bulbous Roots, Double Dahlias, ^c. 4*c. to be found

in the country, — among which are the following : —

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

C, Howard Improved Ploughs,

do. do. Subsoil do.
Side Hill do.

Double Mould Board do.
Wrought Iron and Wooden Ploughs,
Scott Keith, and other Plough Cast-
ings,
Willis's Improved Cultivator,
Green's Patent Straw Cutter,
Willis's do. do.

Common hand do.

Manure and Hay Forks,
Scythes of all kinds,
Patent and other Snaiths,
Hall's and other Hay Rakes,
Grindstones on Rollers,
Corn Shellers,
Grain Cradles,
Chains of all kinds.

Willis's Improved Seed Sower,
Gault's Patent Churns,
Self-Operating Cheese Press,
Horse Power and Threshing Ma-

chme,
Davis's Road Scrapers,
Hale's Rotary Pump,
Lead Pipe,
Force Pumps,
Copper do.
Iron do.

Cast Steel Axes,
Bark Mills,
Corn and Cobb Mills,
Harris's Paint do.
Winnowing do.

Grater Cider, do.
Cast Iron Cider Screws,
Yokes of all kinds.

With a great variety of Agricultural and Horticultural tools, too
numerous to mention.

FIELD SEEDS.

Northern Clover,

Southern do.

White Honeysuckle Clover,

Lucerne,

Herds grass, or Timothy,

Red Top Southern Seed,

do. Northern do.
Fowl Meadow,
Orchard Grass,
Ruta Baga,
Mangel Wurtzel,

Sugar Beet, &c.

Winter and Summer Wheat,

do. do. Rye,

Barley,
Oats, English,
Corn of various sorts.
Millet,
Hemp,
Flax Seed,
Potatoes.

[ 8]

GARDEN SEEDS,

Of every desirable variety, will be furnished wholesale and retail ; by
the pound, box, or package.

Seeds in Boxes, for retailing, done up in the neatest manner in
packages, with the name and directions printed on each parcel. Re-
tailers supplied on the most favorable terms, with boxes from $1 to
$100.

FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN.

We have a very extensive collection of choice Flower Seeds, em-
bracing all the Annuals, Biennials, and Perennials worthy of cultivation.
Packages of twenty fine sorts for one dollar.

Dutch Bulbous Roots. — We import of these annually from Hol-
land, a splendid collection, consisting of double and single Hyacinths,
double and single Tulips, Crown Imperials, Narcissus, Iris, Crocus Gla-
diolus, Amaryllis, Ixias, &c. &c.

Double Dahlia Roots. — Of this beautiful and popular flower, we
have more than two hundred fine varieties, embracing all that were
shown at the exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
Roots can be furnished from the first of October to the first of July,
safely packed in moss, and sent to any part of the country.

Fruit and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs furnished to order at Nur-
sery prices.

We would call the attention of the public to the New England
Farmer, one of the oldest and best agricultural newspapers in the
country, containing a great amount of interesting and useful matter for
the practical farmer and gardener. It is issued at our oflice weekly, on
Wednesdays, at the moderate price of $2 per year in advance, or $2
50 at the close of the year.

Among our Agricultural Books we keep for sale, The Complete Far-
mer ; Kenrick's Orchardist ; American Gardener ; Bridgman's Gar-
dener's Assistant ; Moubray on Poultry ; Silk Grower's Guide ; Cobb's
Silk Manual ; Loudon's Works, together with a great variety of useful
and interesting works in this line.

We hope by unremitting attention, to sustain the credit of this estab-
lishment, in making it one of the most complete depositories for every
thing in the Agricultural and Horticultural line in the country.

JOSEPH BRECK & CO.

BOSTON CULTIVATOR,

A FAMILY PAPER,

EVOTED to Farming, Mechanic Arts, Literature, and news
of the week.

Terms: $2 00 in advance, or $2 50 if delayed beyond 6 months.

OFFICE over S9, State Street.

OTIS BREWER, Proprietor.

D

[9]

HOVEY & GO'S
AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSE

AND

SEED STORE,

NO. 7, MERCHANTS ROW, NEAR STATE STREET, BOSTON.

HOVEY & CO. offer at Wholesale and Retail, one of the most ex-
tensive assortments of Agricultural Implements, Garden and
Grass Seeds, Plants, &c., as follows :

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Cultivators, 2 sizes,

Prouty & Mears' Ploughs,

Seed Sowers, 2 patterns,

Hay and Straw Cutters,

Harrows,

Shovels, Spades & Forks,

Tree and Bush Pullers,

Sugar Mills,

Corn Shelters,

Paint Mills,

Sausage Machines,

Cheese Presses,

Hoes, Rakes and Scuffles,

Hedge Shears, Billhooks,

Garden Trowels, Syringes,

Scythes, Sickles, &c.,
Pruning Knives and Saws,
Garden Implements, of all kinds

and patterns,
Partridge's Patent Forks,
Axes and Hatchets,
Trace Chains,
Ox yokes and Bows,
Pick Axes,

Iron Bars and Post Spoons,
Chains, of all kinds,
Gault's Patent Churns,
Scythes, of all kinds,
Patent Scythe Snaiths,
Edging Knives.

GRASS SEEDS.
An extensive supply always on hand, among which are

Northern Clover,
Southern Clover,
White Clover,
Lucerne, or Fi'ench do.
Herds Grass, or Timothy,
Red Top, Southern,
Do. Northern,

Fowl Meadow Grass,
Orchard Grass,
Perennial Rye Grass,
Winter and Summer Wheat
Oats, Barley and Rye,
Millet and Buckwheat,
Bird Seeds, of all sorts.

<^

[ 10 ]
GARDEN SEEDS.

E are now receiving our stock of SEEDS for 1842, comprising
the largest and finest assortment to be found in New England.
The seeds are all raised expressly for us by experienced growers, and
are warranted of the growth of 1841, and of the best quality. Par-
ticular pains have been taken in the selection of Sugar Beet, Long
Blood Beet, Carrots, Ruta Baga, Turnips, Cabbages, &c., and purchas-
ers may relv upon the genuineness of the Seeds. A few of the more
important kinds are annexed : —

Sugar Beet and Blood Beet,
Mangel Wurtzel,
Carrots and Parsnips,
Ruta Baga and Turnips,
Red and White Onions,
Cabbacfes, Cauliflowers, &c.
New Vv hite Carrot,

Eirly and Late Pease,
Early and Late Beans,
Summer Squashes,
Winter Squashes,
Cucumbers and Melons,
Tomato, Egg Plant, &c.
Pot and Sweet Herb Seeds.

FLOWEH SEED S.

4:©® varieties of Flower Seeds, including in addition to the most
superb Double German Asters, Balsams, Rockut Larkspurs, &c. culti-
vated at our own garden, every neic annual to be had in London, wor-
thy a place in the Bovver garden. 20 kinds put up in a box, 81 00.

Seeds put up in boxes of various sizes, from $5 to $50 each, all
ready for retail ; every kind neatly labelled whh the name, and prac-
tical directions for their cultivation ; and liberal discount made to pur-
chasers.

Grape Vines of all kinds, from 50 cents to $1 00 each.

RhuharJ) a7id Asparagus Roots, of the finest quality.

Straivlerry Plants, 6 kinds, including Hovey's new Seedling,-the
largest variety cultivated, the fruit varying from 5 to 6 inches in cir-
cumference.

Raspberry and Currant Bushes of all kinds.

Ornamental Trees and Shrubs, Greenhouse Plants, Herbaceous
Plants, &c.

Dahlias, embracing a collection of more than 90® varieties of their
choicest in New England.

Fruit Trees of all sorts. Apples, Pears, Peaches, &c., from their new
Nursery Establishment at Cambridge, called the Cambridge Nursery,
only 2^ miles from the city.

Agricultural and Horticultural Books of all kinds.

Seeds packed so as to be safelj' transported to any part of the world.
Catalogues of Seeds, Trees, Dahlias, &c. gratis, on application.
Personal attention given to all orders.

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AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSE

AND

SEED STORE.

CHARLES H. B. BEECK having taken the Seed Store, No. 45,
North Market street, will keep constantly on hand and for sale,
as large an assortment of Field, Grass and Garden Seeds, as can be
found in the country. No exertions will be spared in procuring Seeds
of the first quality, and superior varieties. His arrangements are such
that he is well assured of a full supply at all times, and will never ex-
pose an article for sale that he cannot with confidence recommend.

Garden Seeds, of every desirable variety, will be furnished, whole-
sale and retail, by the pound, box or packages.

Seeds in Boxes, for retailing, done up in the neatest manner in pack-
ages, with the name and directions printed on each parcel. Retailers
supplied on the most favorable terms, with boxes from $1 to $100.

Every variety of Flower Seeds, embracing all the Annuals, Bien-
nials, and Perennials, worthy of cultivation. Packages of twenty fine
sorts, for $1.

Agricultural Books of all kinds, among which are the Complete
Farmer, American Orchardist, Bridgman's Gardener's Assistant, Mou-
bray on Poultry, Loudon's Works, &c., &c.

Ai lorders from the country shall be promptly attended to ; and Seeds
packed in good condition to go to any part of the United States or
British Provinces.

Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, Grape Vines, and all Nursery
productions, furnished at one day's notice ; and when requested, can be
packed in mats or boxes so as to be safely sent to Europe, or any part
of America.

AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSE,

4^, NORTH MARKET STREET.
AGRICULTURAL AND GARDENING IMPLEMENTS.

THE subscriber begs to call the attention of Farmers and Garden-
ers to his stock of IMPLEMENTS and MACHINES, selected
from the most improved patterns, and finished in a thorough and work-
manlike manner.

The stock comprises every article that is useful in the management
of a farm or garden. Among which are —

Ruggles' Premium Ploughs ; Prouty Sf Mears' do. do. do ; Charles
Howard''s do. do. do. ; Bigeloio and other Wrought Iron do. do. ; Rice'^s
Common Wood Ploughs.

Side Hill and Double Mould PLOUGHS, of various improved pat-
terns. Extra Mould Boards, Land-Sides and Shares, constantly on
hand.

[ 12 ]

Cultivators and Harrows, of all patterns and sizes, constantly on
hand.

Green's celebrated Strata and Hay Cutters, operating on a mechan-
ical principle not before applied to any implement for this purpose.
This machine is simple in its construction, made and put together
strongly. It is therefore not so liable to get out of order as the com-
plicated machines in general use. This Machine is in extensive use
and highly approved of. It is warranted to give the best satisfaction to
those who use it.

Also, Boynton's Straw Cutter. This machine, when in operation by
Horse or Steam power, will cut from three to six bushels per minute.
Price $50.

Willis' Improved Vertical Straw Cutter.
" " Guillotine " "

" " " Hand " "

Common Dutch and Hand " " These machines are in very
common use, and known to every practical farmer ; are considered
good machines for small farms and stables.

Hay Knives. Vegetable Cutters.

Grind Stones, hung on friction rollers — Family Hand Mills — Paint
Mills — Winnowing Mills.

Cheese Presses. — Improved Self-governing Cheese Presses, and all
other kinds, both patent and common.

Gault's and other Churns.

Corn Shelters. — Willis's Improved Double Corn Sheller.
New York do. do. do.

Seed Sowers. — Cole's Impi'oved Seed Sowers.
Willis's do. do.

Willis'' s Improved Sausage Machine.

Sugar Mills. — Tree and Bush Pullers.

Parlridge''s Hay and Manure Forks, and Dung Pullers.

Axe Handles, Post Augers, Pick Axes, Post Spoons, Iron Bars,
Churn Drills, Hand Drills and Hammers, Bull Rings, Trace Chains,
Halter Chains, Truck Chains, Hay Pullers, Wheel Barrows, Hand En-
gines, Barn Lanterns, Lamps, &c.. Brass Syringes for Gardens, Prun-
ing Chisels and Saws, Budding and Pruning Knives, Fruit Shears, Fruit
Gatherers, Switching Bills, Cheese Hoops and Cheese Cloths.

The above, with many other Implements and Machines, are for sale
at the Agricultural Warehouse, No. 45 North Market Street, Boston,
by N. P. H. WILLIS.

a^y^