“THE PICKMAN FARM, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

MESSRS. EDITORS:–I know not how I can, at the present moment, better respond to your request to furnish facts of a practical character, useful to the farmer, than, by stating some of the impressions derived from a recent visit to Mr. Horace Ware, jr., the tenant of the Pickman farm, in Salem.

The farm–situate on the south-westerly borders of the city, adjoining Marblehead and Lynn–containing upwards of four hundred acres. It borders on Forest river, from the marches of which much of the best mowing land on the farm has been reclaimed.  About half of the whole is rough pasture, of which no use has been made, except to feed the numerous stock of cows kept on the farm–generally from thirty to fifty: at the present time Mr. Ware said he had thirty-four.  In answer to an inquiry as to their produce, I was surprised to hear him say, one gallon per day for each cow through the year.  I should have guessed that good cows, running in good pastures like these, under good management like Mr. Ware’s, would have yielded much more than this; but I remember to have learned, twenty years since, on a visit to the farm of Mr. J. Nichols, of Salem, then one of the best managed milk farms in the vicinity, that the average produce of the cows was five quarts, or one and a quarter gallons, per day for each cow, through the year.  I have seen it stated recently, that on a celebrated milk farm in the vicinity of Boston, the average produce to each cow per day was eight quarts, or two gallons.  I think this must have been for the season of milking, and not through the year.  I cannot understand why the amount should have been so much greater at Boston than at Salem, unless their famous water-works help the quantity.

This lead me to speak of the supply of water on the Pickman farm.  It is obtained by means of an hydraulic ram, from a small pond, situate in the pastures, at the distance of half a mile or more from the buildings.  This pond is about twenty feet above tide-water.  A fall of fifteen feet is used for the purpose of forcing the water.  The click of the machinery has been constant for the last two years, requiring no superintending care whatever.  The water is conveyed through pipes, across the channel of Forest river, and distributed at such points on the farm and about the buildings as most needed.  I noticed in the cow-yard a long trough, filled with clear water, at one end of which bubbles were constantly rising on the surface.  I learned this was where the supply came in, through the aperture of a pipe-stem of smallest dimensions; and in this way there was a sufficiency for the supply of the entire stock of cattle. I could not but admire the simplicity, the neatness, and the convenience of the arrangement.  When I called to mind how many hours I had labored when a boy, to pump water for a stock of a dozen cows, and convey it, by means of temporarily-placed conductors, to the cow-yard, I could not but think that the daily saving in this item of labor would go far towards balancing all the outlay of expenditure.  Then the purity of the water, and the constancy of the supply, are considerations of great importance.  To the mingling of the water with the milk after it is taken from the cow, as is sometimes done, there are decided objections, which do not apply to a full supply before it is taken.  On the contrary, I have ever considered a full supply of pure water to milk cows, just when they want it, one of the most important things to be regarded in taking care of cows.  I have always found the best products of the dairy to be obtained from cows that feed in pastures fully supplied with pure water.  Spring or running brook is preferable to pond water.  That which is best for man to drink is best for cows also, provided it is not too cold.  And it may be doubted whether the health of men is benefited by the reduction of temperature or the addition of stimulants. Nature understands very well what she is about in her order of arrangements.  I learned from Mr. Ware, that the entire expense of material and preparations, for thus bringing the water 2,500 feet was 1225.  It is now conveyed through leaden pipes.  I should prefer block tin, which can be had at about the same cost; as I have no fancy for lead on the stomach, either cold or hot, or in any other manner; and am by no means satisfied that it is any better adapted to the stomachs of the cows.  At all events, if the water is once impregnated with lead, I am not quite sure it will be entirely purified by passing through the cow’s laboratory in being converted into milk.  This is a consideration I leave to be determined by scientific gentlemen; I make no pretension beyond practical observation.  This supply of water for all the purposes of the farm, struck me as one of the most simple, economical, and useful applications of scientific principles to ordinary purposed, that I have ever witnessed.  It does on a small scale, what the power of the Schuylkill does on a large scale for the comfort and convenience of Philadelphia.

From the same pond Mr. Ware obtains annually two hundred tons of ice, which he uses for the purposes of the farm; to wit, the keeping of the milk and products of the dairy in best condition.  To my astonishment Mr. W.  said he could cut and house on the margin of the pond, at an expense not exceeding six cents per ton; and it could be taken home as they had occasion to use it.  Here, then, from one little pond of one quarter of an acre, in an obscure pasture, surrounded by hills and hedges as rough as can be imagined, is drawn an inexhaustible supply of pure water and cooling ice, for a dozen men and sixty cattle through the year, at a cost not exceeding thirty dollars. This is  a luxury that any common farmer, even on a small farm, could command, who has a spring or pond hear his premises; for from the spring a pond could be filled.  Did our farmers know the comforts at their command, so many of them would not drudge on from year to year in the paths their fathers trod before them, without any improvement; but they would arouse from their lethargy and embrace their privileges.

The Pickman farm had been distinguished for the products of the orchards upon it; but Mr. Ware stated that these products have fallen off very much for the last half dozen years.  There has been no want of care in ‘digging round and dunging’ the trees, and their growth and appearance are luxuriant but still no fruit is not forthcoming, or comparatively speaking, nothing to what it used to be.  Here is another field for the speculation of gentlemen of science.  The understanding has been, that when trees are well taken care of, the laborer will be rewarded for his toil; but the rule is not universal, no man being more thorough and persevering in what he undertakes to do than Mr. Ware.  Possibly that element is the soil which feed the growth of fruit has been exhausted by an over product, and something should be applied to replenish it.  What that something is, is the question.  Heretofore, more than one thousand barrels of the first quality apples have been gathered in a single year, on this farm; now it would be difficult to find one hundred barrels, although this is the bearing year for the Pickman apple, which has been long celebrated.  In my glance at the premises, I have felt it to be a duty to speak of things as they are, whether for or against, as presented to observation.

Mr. Ware is now engaged in reclaiming about sixteen acres of wet meadow land, for which he is to have when complete fifty dollars an acre for his labor.  He thinks the land will then be worth two hundred dollars an acre.  It is situate alongside of the ‘Eastern Railroad’, for the space of a quarter mile by which manure can be taken from the city of Boston, at an expense of three dollars per cord.  Mr. Ware has had much experience in reclaiming wet meadow lands on his own and his father’s farm in Marblehead, an account of which it was my intention to give when I took my pen in hand, but find my paper filled.

One thing should not be omitted in relation to the Pickman farm.  It has been under the care of tenants for fifty years or more, and has constantly grown better.  This is so different from the ordinary operations of tenancies, that it should be marked to the credit of the owner and the occupant.  None but judicious owners and faithful laborers could bring about such a state of things…

With great regard, I am your obedient servant,

J.W.PROCTOR.”

Reference Data:

American Farmers Magazine, Vol 4, 1852, pages 215-7