Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-08-14
agricultural.
Farming in New York State.

A correspondent of the Landscape Garden
er and Rural Landscape, writes as follows
q Having scarcely left my home and nv
chief field OF labor (the Monumental City and
its environs) for the past two years, | deter
mined to take short trip, so | left Balti-
more on tee first of July in pursuit Of recrea-
ton and a cooler temperature, and to observe
what progress had been made in the arts in
nv native state New York;, in the few
years that had passed since | was there
What had been done and was being done in
agriculture, architecture, engineering and
lands cape gardening, were matters of special
interest to me, as they are respectively
branches of my profession. In the former,
the most important of all arts in this country,
| found in many districts evidence of great
Improvement | learned everywhere | went
that the past and current years had been
remarkably dry, and in places, the severity
of the drought in conjunction with the des
truction Of vegetation by insects which are
more active and destructive in dry than wet
seasons, had nearly ruined farmers, who
were heavily in debt l found the most
marked prosperity in the dairy districts In
central New York where, seventeen to
twenty years since, large majority of the
Of the farms were heavily mOrtgaged now
very few of them are suffering from this very
unpleasant incumbrance, and the fertility
and pr0ductiveness of the land is greatly i'm
proved, as also the architectural character
of the dwellings and also, in some instances,
the farm barns but the structures used as
cheese factories generally very insight
ly, and so numerous that you see one by the
roadside on an average about every four
miles, and the dairy product is immense.
g Notwithstanding the unfavorable tOpO
graphical character of this region of the
state, numerous well-graded and well-stocked
railroads have been constructed within the
past few years, and although they are said
70 be mainly built with the q skinned
cheese they appear the same as other good
railroads.
:" The grass, winter grain, tobacco, peas
GA is and hops of the portion of New York
which / visited, are all seriously affected
with drought, and the late cold spring
Corn, though planted late promises an aver
age crop; apples numerous but small, owing
to the severity of the drought.
al was pleased to find in several districts
that the existing road law prohibited live
stock of all kinds from running on the
highways. The hedge rows are generally
removed, and roadsides are mown for hay
and In many places there are road fences,
where the land is mainly cultivated and
mown.
81 observed that many of the large dairy
farmers are, also, breeding quite extensively
an excellent quality of horses. Very little
grain is grown in the best dairy districts
but wheat refuse, the products of the i'm
mense Touring mills OF the West, is used
for COW feed in large quantities, this added
to the entire products of the soil, minus the
cheese and butter extracted, rapidly in
crease fertility. The average price of cows
in the dairy district is about fifty dollars.
examined a large number of them and
found them very low in the scale of test By
Mr. GuenOn's system of ascertaining the
tactical qualities, and am satisfied that the
value of the same number of COWS might
have more than doubled, in the past eight or
ten years, had the calves of both sexes been
carefully and intelligently selected by the
marks designated by Guenon. Few calves
are reared IN the dairy districts, and most
of them are destroyed at the age of day or
two, called deaconipg.' Canada thistles
abound in the best grazing districts of New
York are mown and consumed with the
hay, and when the pastures are overstocked
as MANY of them are, they are eaten by the
cattle in green state they are a great
nuisance and will probably never be eradi-
Gated, and are annually rapidly spreading
south, but they do not thrive well in Mary
land and VirgIn mia, as / have observed when
they were introduced in northern hay dur
ing the war. The dairy animals are mainly
of the native breed with few grade short
horns Devons, Attorneys and Ayrshires.
however, saw few good herdbook Attorneys
IN Madison county, but neither thorough
breds nor grade Attorneys are highly es.
teemed by dairymen- / saw a large number
of dairy stables, but not one that considered
properly constructed or well kept; there is
not that degree Of neatness and cleanliness
that hoped to see. The stables are gen
orally too open and cold to admit using of
water for cleaning in winter
g The main dependence for manure, is on
that made on the farm, though both carbon
ate and sulphate of lime act with great ad
vantage where / saw their effect There is
a great want of system and neatDess ap-
parent on all the farms which visited, not
withstandiDg there is vastly more profit
realized from the same area, in the daily
districts, than in any other with which / am
familiar except in the best peach and straw
berry growing regions of Maryland and Della
ware.