The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1878-03-02

Hon. JoHN MERRYMAN AND HIS FARM, ebay
FIELDs."-The Westminster Advocate of last week
contains lengthy account of "Hayfelds," the
home of Hon. John Merryman, located in the 9Th
district of this county, together with excellent
portrait of the owner and two. cuts of his prize
Hereford cattle, the raising of which he makes a
speciality. From this account we compile some
interesting facts as to Mr.. Merryman's mode of
farming, &c. A short time ago we copied from
the Belair -Egis description of "Hayfelds, "
which contains $50 acres of rich farming lands.
The Advocate says:
"Hayfelds produces about 900 bushels of
wheat annually, sells from fifty to sixty tons of
hay, and the sale of Herefords in 1877 amounted
to 81 500. The crop light, that year, not
exceeding 500 barrels. Mr.. Merryman believes
in good farming and his methods may interest our
readers Lime has been used extensively upon
his farm. Col. Bosley, his predecessor was a pi-
oneer in the use of it for agricultural purposes.
He uniformly put so bushels to the acre, and upon
the land after it had been plOwed and narrowed.
The present proprietor discarded this practice for
two reasons First, lime is the heaviest article
applied to land and sinks below the surface soil
too soon. Second, upon undulatng or steep-roll-
ing ground heavy rains carry off large quantities
of lime, and what does not go into the streams is
concentrated in the bottoms where it is not re-
quired. lie puts 40 bushels to the acre and al
ways on timothy sod that has been standing at
least two years. The quantity used per annum
varies from 1000 to 1000 bushels Good fencing
he deems adesiderdtu0i upon any farm, and partc
ularly npOn a stock farm. Nearly all his outside
fencing is post and rail- locust posts and five chest
nut rails. Division fences wOrm of chestnut
rails. When he cultivates field his custom is to
move the worm fence fifteen feet as to prevent
filthy fence corners and utilize the land occupied
by the fence bed which is usually more fertile than
the land adjacent.
"The stabling has stalls for 60 head of cattle,
and every beast of one year old and upward is
stalled at this of the year and thereby Sc
cures its proper share of food There are stalls
for twentythree head of horses, besides sheds for
wagons and carts. The economy of good sheds is
demonstrated by wagon now in use that was
made for Col. Bosey in 1915, 33 years ago. Ma
nure is indispensable, and the proprietor of Hay
fields makes the most of his resources by making
compost. There is much open ditching; these are
always cleaned out and the banks leveled, when
the field is cultivated in This sod and muck
is hauled to a convenient place in the field to be
seeded in grain and timothy. There it is placed
in layers with barnyard stable manure; plaster
of Pasis is strewn over the manure, and when the
heap is finished it is covered with a heavy coat of
wheat straw and there remains until the time ar
rives to put it out. In addition to good dress
ing of this compost he puts through the drill from
100 to 1875 TBS. of ammOniated dissolved bones,
which starts the grain and timothy and generally
assures good set of the latter. EVERYTHING valu-
able is utilized in the preparation of compost,
from dead fowls, dogs or cats, to horses or other
beasts which may happen to die on the farm
Thirteen and half tons Of fertilizers were used
on the farm last year."