ADVICE TO 5TOUNG FARMERS. 



375 



market, and yet allow a handsome margin of profit to the pro- 

 ducer, and the consumer will thus be benefitted also. But it 

 would be entirely useless for a man to attempt to raise gar 

 products and know but little of the business. He must thoroughly 

 understand the nature of his soil, the kinds and quantities of 

 manures to be applied to advantage, combined with a willingness 

 to work early and late for the success of his crops. No doubt is 

 at present entertained that more money can be realized from an 

 acre by market gardening than by any other way. I will give an 

 instance to prove this. The Lewiston Journal of September 12, 

 1872, contained the statement that Mr. J. Jordan of Cape Eliza- 

 beth produced from an acre of land enough strawberries to fill 

 4,100 boxes, which he sold at an average price of 18 cents a box. 

 Total, $738.00. A gentleman in West Minot this year raised 400 

 bushels of onions on a quarter acre piece, netting $400.00. In- 

 stances can be multiplied, but it is unnecessary. The statement 

 that market gardening pays is believed by all. It is universally 

 admitted that grass is king of crops in New England, especially 

 in Maine. It is estimated on good authority that the grass crop 

 in Maine, annually, (including pasturage) is $30,000,000. This 

 amount of money is of great importance to the farmers - of Maine. 

 The great problem of the day is, how best to convert this grass 

 into cash. When one is near a good market, it is well to convert 

 it at once. There are other ways. Mutton and wool-raising is 

 oftentimes profitable, if a person's farm is well calculated fur the 

 support of sheep. But, notwithstanding all these, I thick that 

 the dairy cow is the best machine for the conversion of grass into 

 cash that we know of. Probably there is no branch of agriculture 

 which Maine farmers can so well make a specialty of as the pro- 

 duction of milk and the manufacture of butter and cheese, and 

 there is no branch of agriculture in Maine that needs a more 

 radical reformation than this. Persons that would try dairy 

 farming should be well acquainted with all its particulars. One 

 essential point in dairy farming is the selection of your cows. You 

 seldom get a cow that is good for more than one purpose, not 

 combining in herself the properties necessary for the production 

 of both butter and cheese. A dairyman should be able to jurige 

 correctly of the qualities of a cow, and see for himself whether 

 a cow is or is not suited for his business. The cows in Maine 

 have deteriorated the last fifty or sixty years, and wh}' is it? 

 The farmers and breeders of neat stock in Maine have not 



