Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1844-06-13
MOVES ON FARMING.

farm well stocked with thrifty fruittrees in Somers
4 on the North side ofthe CrotOn Pcnd-witness Mr.
Underhill, who has seventy acres planted with de-
licious grapes on Croton Point, and much fnef
fbeside-but the mass Of farmers, after you leave
Sing Sing two miles behind, evidently belong to
another class. Meadows undrained and rank with
sour wild grass fields unnnanufed and given over
/ to the prediction Of consumptive looking Rye.
i plowed lands not fertalzed and expected to grow
corn unreasonably the Israelites in Egypt were
commanded to make brick without straw, such are
i the more usual aspects. The result must inevita-
bly, be harvest not one fourth 50 abundant as it
might and should be with better culture.
/ All this would be bad enough any where; but in
Weschester, where land is worth from $50 to 5000
per acre, it is absolutely insane. No farm half cul
tivated after thsiashion can pay three per cent
its price: and the man who cultiyates it, (espe-
cially if he owes for part Of it, has habit Of
slipping toddy,) win soon be on his rapid down hill
Journey. His sons will come to New Yeork to beg
places as tape-measurers or lacqueys, and he will
be pushing West, and farther West to find that un-
dscoverable place where mans business will take
first rate Of itself and leave him to sit day af
ter day in the bar room.
/ Now the land Of this portion Of Weschester is
| mainly rugged, stoney, and broken, though of
pretty god soil wherever il can be pl0wed It is
rather hard land to work, and must be sceI culti-
waited or worked at loss. Twenty bushels Of corn
to an acre do not pay, but sixty would. A man who
4
goes behind The rugged hills that cannot be
plowed should be planted with the choicest timber
and not allowed to grow up to any stuff that choos
es to work in. Their southern slopes should be
festooned with grape vines while groves Of Hick-
| DRY, Sugar Maple, &c. should abound. The arabic
upland should be covered with the mud Of the
swamps and meadow, and manure, until brought
to the highest state OF fertility Nofoot Of it should
be suffered to bear half crop. Better cultivate
halfthe ground and let the restb idle.
F. But, says one, can't afford to cultivate my
land SO nicely am not able Then, sir, sell all
you are unable to use properly and obtain means to
cultivatc thoroughly what you retain If you have
hundred acres sell fifty, keep twenty acres Of ARA
Bile and thirty rock woodland and bring this to per-
fection OF course you won't do this in moment.
nor a year !; but be doing it at once. Plow but
five acres you are only able to fertalize and tho
roughly till SO much put the lime, the plaster,
&c. after you have exhausted your immediate re-
Sources and roll out crops that will make the earth
laugh for iov.-In truth, no man who knows how
10 look for manure and really sets about it ever
finds deficiency, except for materials to qualify
and bring out the virtue Of what he has One load
of lime mixed with twenty Of brook mud, swamp
muck, forest mold, sc. will make the best mater-
al of it all. Of course, the man who knows how to
prepare this will not neglect or throw away any
which is more steadily at hand
No man owning one of these farms ought to con-
slider himself excused from planting an acreoi fruit
l
land is we'll covered with timber and his fruit Of
all kinds is abundant. Neither need be much in
the way of cultivation, il properly disposed. Ten
acres oftilage cultivated to perfection will produce
more then fifty usually done. And what moral
| right has any man, we would like to know, to at
fict and overshadow fifty acres to produce a crop
which might with less labor be obtained from ten
acres! Is he not monopolizing the earth to his
| own detriment and that of the Race
+ This region has natural capacities which appear
to be entirely neglected 1t overlies stratum of
limestone but very little lime appears to be used
on the soil. It is better watered than almost any
section weknow and vet Irrigation appears not to
| have entered the minds of the Farmers. Yet there
is hardly farm which might not, by water alone,
be made to double its product--water gushing abun-
dainty from it's hills, and easily made subservent
to the purposes of enhancing the utfulness of the
soil. Even drainage, where il is easy and would
be most useful is seldom attempted. What can
the Farmers mean I.s .es. 49,.
Last and worst Of all, the insufficient orchards
already existing are this attacked by the cat
erpillar in great numbers, and the Farmers, IN stu
pid apathy are allowing them to destroy their fruit
and even kill the trees Why this is NOT respec-
table as madness--it is driveling diocy! What do
1.-The men mean! Can they not make swab Of old
rags, fasten il the end Of pole, din It in spirits
of turpentine and rub it over their afflicted trees
This will do the business promptly and effectually
might have been better in season PERHAPS to have
bored small hole in each tree, filed with sulphur
andsdriven plug after that as this 1--WE believel
would at once have killed the worm and benefited
the tree. But the turpentine is always in order.-
We Insist that no farmer has right to let the
worms DESTROY his trees unresisted. He may be
able to spare them but he is harborng and breed
ing pests for the whole neighborhood, and ought to
be indictable at common law for committing anui-
sance. Ifanv one should leave the worms unmoles-
tied his neighbors should in seIf-defence destroy
them. ISL s4..
These hasty remarks POSSIBLY erroneous in some
points as our Farming experience is rather rusty
from disuse> are made fer the latitude Of Wesches
ter. but, with some accommodation, aypossibly an
swer, as the Almanacs say, for this and the adj
Joining States.'--.N Y. Tribune. htg ss.l1es
/ -a- THE MISERIES OF WEALTH. r
"Tt is to have subscription paper handed you
every hour in the day, and be called nlggard AZ
| YOU refuse your name. II is to eat turkey, and
drink wine, at dearer rate than your neign6ors.
/ II is to have every college, in6rmary, and asyum
make run upon the bank Of your beney0lence and
then wonder at the smallness Of the dividend.
il to have sectarians contend for the keeping OF
your conscience and lawyers struggle for the keep
i ing al YOUR purse II is to be remembered from
/ Seguint to Talbot leland. whenever dinner or
i loan is wanted II is to be taxed for more than
Won are worth. and never be believed when you say
SO. Ii is TO have addition Of dollars, subtraction
of comforts and multiplication Of anxieties, end in
division among spendthrift heirs It's to have the
interest of every about you exceed their prin-
ciral II is to make up the merchant all the prof
its he loses BY knavery, or frugality. II Is never
TO be allowed to be upon easy terms, even with
coat or shoe. Il is to be married for your money
or have wife always casting up the sum total OF
In . u ~ IN