The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-08-03
8itll'n|,1l;oeaHd l'|,1;ea 1ispatth,

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THE CIRCULATION on TEE "DIsPATCH' =
Is LARGER THAN THE COMBINED C1RCu
LATIoN OF ALL THE ,oTHER Daily NEWS
PAPERs oEs THIS CRY. ~ /, ~ ~
MONDAY. 49,. |. ...,,.-..AUGusT 5, 1868
A -Tritirnph OF Seientfsaci sEIII age
e Farm OF the Hate SFrosessor James
l.. Mspes. ei~sdS - ss3iJ253hH -
= About twenty years ago q New York gen.
leman purchased q, small Homestead two
miles west of Newark. There were forty
acres, and when the first ,paymentwas made
he had no fundsin bank TO make Improve
ments withy for 'helhad taken this piece Of
land, not to have q polite way Of showing
how much money he had made, but that he
and his children might live by tilling it. 1,
was rough old farm, with q half.ruinous
farm house, q large musty-smelling cider
she'd, and q small old-fashioned barn
Great, sprawling stone fences, dilapidated
.aad overgrowna for two or three yards on
each side-with elder bushes and sumac and
briers, ran across the tract in various direc.
tionss when he put his share Ia to see
what was the prospect for rye-bread and
potatoes, he found he: had q tough case Of it
There were about three inches of soil
in some places four perhaps, and below q
hard pan of yellow clay, full of red stones
small and large. 1t was hard rough work
for ploughman and steers to get up six
inches Of this stubborn earth, ,Iand when
ploughed and sowed what would it pro-
duceS Five, and in g0od seasons, seven
bushels of rye to the acre.. One field was
oyergrown with young persirnmons,sso they
called 1t the persimmon lot. Sometimes ii
would give fifty bushels to the acre of Irish
potatoes, and sometimes it would not. But
with these discouragements' and drawbacks
the purchaser had one supreme, oyermas-
tering advantage. He had the knowledge
the, ideas, the conviction, that make one a
scientific farmer. Heiyoslievede that che
mistry, in whlca he D was learned, would
aid him Z the operations of agriculture
that skill, patience, labor, and shrswd man
agement. would, enable, him to bring order
out Of the. chaos and make the rough hill
side yield beauty for, ashes. He be-
lieved that the productiyeness Of q soil
depends no more on its chemical con-
stituents than on its mechanical condition
as much on the plough as on the dung-heap
and that nobody has improved much on old
Roman Catc's three rules for farming
First First, plough thoroughly Second, plough
again. Third, put in,the Fertilizers He
commenced with one corner, about tenth
of the tract, and ploughed it well and ma,
nured it liberaliy. =, A great number Q,
stones came, to the surface; these were
picked of and hauled away, to make deeI
and perpetual road bed. The bushes were
grubbed out, and the old stone walls al
hauled away for foundation stones and
roads. This was kept up year after year
till more than three thousand cart=loads Of
rock had been taken from the surface. Pro
|; fesser sMapes was not satisfied that he haG
obeye1 Cato's first rule about ploughine
thoroughly. He thought he ought to in.
wade that tough subsoil, and let air and
moisture into it, and make it porous, SO in 8
dry spell it would act as o sponge and draw
up moisture from the stratum below. Now
came the question, how he was to loosen it in
the best manner. He could take, a, big
plough and two or three yoke Of oxen and
break up and turn over the earth. But this
would invert the soil, throwing the dark
tilth now enriched with stable manure, and
lime, and salt, and bones, and blood, and
decayed fish, ten inches below the upturnec
subsoil. This did not seem to be the thing o.
all, 80 he set himself to work to invent 6
plough. The mole that can work in the
ground so fast gave him, a. hint He made
a model, and then changed it, and changed
if again, tillsit worked to suit him. He die
not call it plough, but subsoil-lifter-
"Mapes's Subsoil-Lifter. 1t looks like 6
big, slender fat-iron attached to the plough
beam. 1t goes six or eight inches below
the bottom of o furrowbed, lifting anC
breaking up the hardpan, but not turning
it,. He used it in all isifields, and went OF
adding blood, and bone, and fish, and lime
and dung to the soil till he made q place
which is pronounced the best farm in thu
United States. We walked all over these
acres the other day, spadeland rule in hand
to probe the sol, and question itiwith scru
tiny. There is surface of twelve inches
alike throughout the mass,lof dark color
mellow and fine, neither! muddy In we
weather nor dusty in drought. BE
low this is q, subsol that for 81,
inches is mellow and porous, though unfer
tilted, And below this are tile drains OF
most Of the tract, forty feet apart. Some ides
Of the. Yigor of this soilamay be obtained
by knowing that Mr.. Quinn, the mana
ger, who realizes upon the surface all th
plans and calculations of the Professor, Cal
plant cabbage on that old, persimmon lot 0
seven acres, two and a half feet apart eact
way, and be sure that ninety out Of every
hundred will head. 0It makes no difference
whether itsrains or not on the Mapes farm
In 1868, when there was parching droutl
over half the country, the blades of corn al
fired and turned yellow, the lower leaves O.
cabbages shrivelling and dropping off, Mr.
Quinn made full crop. He kept Q, small
subsoil litter constantly moving between
the cabbage rows, and thus drew moisture
from below, since it was not given from
aboves5A good ploughing is frequently a!
helpful, and some times more 80, than q
generous shower. .<ZD.s Il
Does the Mapes farm pay? st@
Yes, it does, as well as any equal area II
the country. For agricultural purpose!
alone, these acres are now worth thousanc
dollars each. The old house has been re-
placed ;bytan elegant and spacious home
One finds pictures and carvings, broad gal
ieries,, Swell-flled alcoves and pleasant
grounds, allboughtWith what came from the
Soil. The gross income from. the sale o.
fruits,and Vegetables is< from six TO ter
thousand q year, the average coming te
about eight Thousand. z The labor fbih- is
about, sixteen hundred, and the expendi