Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1859-03-18
Extraordinary improvement upon
Small Farm.

Mr.. EprroR There is an instance o
farm Improvement in this town, three mile:
from my residence, that justly deserves to
be known to all appreciators and lovers OIL
Agricultural advancement. l visited that
farm last July, and was so struck with its
altered appearance from that of former
years, that requested permission of its
owner, Mr.. Nathaniel Spaulding, to make
statement in writing to some Agricultur-
al paper, of the ways and means he had
adopted and pursued to make such distin-
guished mark in so few years-not only in
the change and improvement Of the soil,
rendering valuable and fertile, what few
years ago was comparatively Of but little
value and almost barren, but the change in
the buildings, in the general aspect of the
place-now comely, convenient and beautl-
full, where but a few years since 1t was the
picture of desolation, uninviting in the ex-
IRENE.
This farm consists Of twenty-five acres,
brook meadow, of clayey soil; some part
of it approaching to swamp muck; and IL
acres upland, of cobble stone surface, in
wood and pasture,--42 acres in all. MIR.
S. Informed me that he bought it at auction,
and moved on to it in 1S53-price $3.50.
'An old she'll of house and barn." Ito use
his own expression,) was then upon it, ''and
some parts of the meadow so wet that a
team could not be driven over it TO get
what little poor hay grew upon it." There
was but little of it that could be plowed to
advantage. From eight to ten tons water
grass OF poor quality was the product of
the first years hay crop. Mr.. 5. says he
has made over 600 rods of drain. Main
bitches, three feet wide, and from three to
six feet deep; the bottom Of the drains are
boards space IL inches square, covered
with fiat stones, with shavings from the
lumber with which he was erecting new
buildings, and hemlock brush, thrown into
the drain upon the covering stone, and then
filed with earth. The cost of these main
bitches averages 62a cents per rod. His
cross drains leading into the main ones, are
four rods apart, 10 inches wide, stones (cob-
bles) thrown in loose, covered with brush,
and filled with earth. The cost of these
cross drains is 80 cents per rod.
Mr.. 5. thinks the increase of production
for the two years following the draining,
paid the whole expense of making these
drains. He is undoubtedly correct in his
estimates, for this work was performed by
himself and boys.
Mr.. S. says the production of these %
acres in 1857, only four years from the
time he commenced on the farm, was 80
tons English hay, $50 bushels of corn, and
250 bushels oats. and this from a soil,
though not exhausted, but so located as to
be kept saturated and filed with cold spring
water, to such degree as to discourage and
forbid cultivation only on the dryest parts
and in the dryest seasons.
Those skeleton buildings, or mere apollo
gies for house and barn Of which Mr.. s.
speaks, have given place to a convenient and
co,nmodious stone house, of permanent du-
rability, and other out-houses sufficient for
every convenience, forming group Of farm
buildings for durability and beauty not often
surpassed in our rural districts. And all
this is the work of one man and his family,
in less than six years; for think but little
has been paid for labor, and that little to
carpenters and joiners.
The value of this little farm has nearly
increased to ten-fold in the hands of its
present OWHer; anu SUCH All eAdtnple eah-
not but have its effect in its immediate To-
cality. Already the contagion is caught
and some of his neighbors are beginning to
construct drains. Tiles are now made here
and find ready sale. The reclining wet
lands and bringing them into fertility has
been proved to be paying investment !;
and thousands of acres in New England,
now worthless or nearly SO, are destined
within the next ten years to become our
most valuable and permanent grass lands
while other thousands of acres, now too wet
for the pillow, will be so drained as to be-
come among our best grain growing lands,
suitable for annual rotations of the grasses
and the cercals.-J. w. CoLBURN, Spring
field, u.