Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-09-18


rains, through Spring and Summer, the ear
lier and the later harvests, are general
hence, for ever, crop shortened by drouth
there are many beaten down and rusted out
by excessive moisture Hence our Iuinously
shallow blowing, blindly copied from opr an
cestors, who could 10 no better, and knew 70
such need Of depeened soils as we confront;
hence, moreover, our utter and damaging
neglect OF Irrigation
Au able and successful farmer, living not
far from me, who has proved his faith by his
works, sums up forty years experience in the
axiom that Water is the cheapest and best
manure on earth OF course, / know that
this may be very true of some water and not
true at all of 9th r, and that il may bC emi
nently true IN California yet not true AT all
in Connaught. All dogmatie assertion as 10
Agriculture, as TO anything else, implies
sense and discrimination in the nearer; for a
fool may cut his throat with the best razor
ever made, and ruin himself in tancied obe-
dience to the Creates truth ever uttered. |
mean to insist only on this-that according
to my dim recollections OF farming in western
Vermont forty years ago, drouth was the
farmers chief anita gonist, often diminishing
| MS crops ny One nan 10 thICS'louTNuo'
| think the western part of this county and
perhaps the most of flowing, perhaps TO
the interrogation of clouds by the savage
! Switzerland Of New York on the one hand
and BY the Green Mountains on the other
peculiarly exposed to long spells of severe,
damaging drouth, The clay flats and swales
of the lake towns especially change speedily
under the influence OF the burning suns OF
Summer from state resembling that of the
mortar mixed Yesterday TO that of the mortar
laid up in a sheltered wall hundred years
ago. Under the influence of fierce drouh,
| have known naturally good meadows in
| Westhaven yield less than a tun Of
hay to three acres, and corn6eds whereof a
squirrel must devour two hills to make out a
decent breakfast Yet very much OF the
land of this region, especially of the clay in
! tervals that slop- imperceptibly from rivulet-
ribbed mountains or high hills on one 81 e to
copious streams or petty rivers on the other,
are better disposed naturally for irrigation,
and can more cheaply be rendered amply
and uniformly productive by a sure supply OF
water, than almost any other on the face OF
the earth.
Do not mistake me on this point. do net
insist that all the nearly level land of western
Vermont can be proftably irrigated pre-
sumo that much OF it ueve can be. | am
sure if every one we're to rush into Irrigation,
Merino or Multi aulis fashion, while some
would succeed, very many would be ruined.
Bat this do maintain-that there are local
tiles all around Us where one hundred, one
thousand, ten thousand dollars might b.
expended on works OF irrigation to decided
advantage--that the same works might often
supply power to tue manufacturer and MOST
ure to the soil-and that il becomes the wise,
intelligent, and thrifty tanners oil all (hls
State TO consider aud examine, each Tor him
self whether there be not on his land brook
or petty lake-at least spring-whch a
single dam might suffice 10 render avallabr
for irrigation over very considerable area
whether the stream might not also be made
to threSh and winnow, grind and churn, turn
grindstone, saw wood, &c, while supply ing d
stream 10 house and barn, dissolvlng manur
and distributing them IN their most etfica-
clous form at minimum cost. Mech, OF ra
zor-strop notoriety in London. the most spur
tied if not the wisest farmer in England, has
his farm all laid with cast iron pipe for the
diffusion of liquid manures, and calculates
that he thus distributes them at the cost OF
penny per load, and in the very best con.
ditIon for immediate efficiency. do moi
sui pose we shall be ready soon to follow
him very closely but whoever takes a steF
forward affords example or else admoniior
to all behind him. Though not always to bt
prohtably followed, every bold innovation
may be wisely and thoughtfully considered.
must say something here of Draining though
am aware that the impulse to general under
draining in Great Britain has local justification
to which we are measurably strangers. No mar
presume, who has bog would not thank his
neighbor, who would, without charge, transform
it into firm, dry land; and the moist climate, tht
excessive rains of the British Isles supply rea
sons for understanding which have here but
limited and subordinate application. Still, if
were Obliged to say whether | would have al
lands underdrained, | must answer no, for
would not have all lands titled at all. We till al
ready far larger area than we ought Do yol
tell me that barren, gravelly soil, all made w
of boulders and pebbles can be rendered arabl,
and fruitful =? | admire it, and only add that thu
same outlay applied to land already arabic anC
fertile will yield a much larger return Gu
farmers, as general rule are far too indiscrimi
nate-I might say inconsiderate-in the appca
ton of manure and labor The divine rule "tt
him that hath shall be given" holds good in il
application to soils. Have you fifty acres of av
erage land, all naked and in some sense arabic
Select the worst twenty or twenty-five of it to b.
let alone; fence your cattle out of it, and get i
into choice timber as soon as possible Every
body admits that every body works too mucl
land, and each goes on acting as if he didn't be
lieve one word of it. For New England farm
er who hires no help, ten acres at once in tillag
is a great abundance. And the need of breIEin
up grass land every fifth or tenth year, is one o
our most fragrant instances of making void thu
lawthrough tradition. Plow your land deep
Uery deep-manare it generously-lay it down il
good heart, seed it amply, cut your grass early
be content with one good crop per annum, tol
dress often, and that field, if it was ever wortl
tilling, will hold grass longer than you will b.
likely to live The best meadows | ever saw
those of Bucks county, England was assured
had been in grass at least hundred Years-hov
much longer no one could tell. Our harsher eli
| mate and our lack of drainage combine to max
winter killing real danger; but nine times il
ten our grass is run out by the mserably short
sighted practice of letting it be gnawed into TIL
ground in Autumn or in Winter, and some of tn
hardest cases allow the gnawing to 90 on till fa
into Spring. Such treatment would destroy, ant
OUGHT to DESTROY any meadows on earth.