DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. IV. 



BOSTON, JANUARY, 1852. 



NO. 1, 



RAYNOLDS & NOURSE, Proprietors. 

 Office. ...Quincy Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, i associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, 5 Editors. 



A NEW VOLUME. 



Our most respectful bow was made to old Father 

 Time in our last number, as he floated by us, as 

 gracefully as the thistle's down on the gentle Octo- 

 ber breeze. Bearing him company through the 

 Past, he has wafted us quietly along his ceaseless 

 current, and landed us on the shores of this New 

 Year. Happy are we to greet so many fellow-pas- 

 sengers on this side the boundary line, to wish for 

 them continued gales of prosperity, and large ex- 

 emption from inroads by the sharp "tooth of 

 Time." 



To the hundred thousand who compose our con- 

 versation Club, — our respected readers — we wish 

 tins may be a Happy and pleasant Year. You can 

 do much to make it so, yourselves. Fling regrets 

 to the winds, engage in honest and earnest labor 

 — no matter what it may be — and these blessings 

 will be yours as surely as contentment came to 

 old Izaak Walton's friends who "loved virtue and 

 angling." 



It is scarcely necessary to enter into detail of 

 what it is our intention to do in this new year. 

 The age, character and purposes of the New Eng- 

 land Farmer are already well known. For nearly 

 thirty years it has been welcomed to unnumbered 

 homes in the country, until it has gained a popu- 

 larity and strength which enables the Publishers 

 to avail themselves of every improvement of the age 

 which will render it more valuable to the reader. 

 In nearly every State in the Union, in Canada, 

 England and Scotland, its pages are regularly pe- 

 rused. Its purposes are still 



"To improve the Soil and the Mind," 



to note the progress of Science, Experiment and 

 the Common Practice, and declare their results, 

 with such reflections, deductions and opinions, as 

 seem to be called for to make them available every- 

 where on the farm. To accomplish this, men of 

 distinguished ability in all the various departments 

 of husbandry are enlisted with us. Scattered in 



gress of improvement — the march of mind — in their 

 locations, and centre them here, whence they are 

 sown broad-cast over the land. In this manner 

 most that is valuable, however remotely it may 

 originate, will be gathered up and laid before you. 



To cling to old modes of husbandry would be as 

 wise as to practice old modes of travelling, — and 

 no more so. What was well enough once in many 

 particulars, would be expensive or ridiculous now. 



Public favor justifies us in enlarging the Farmer 

 in the book form, to 48 pages, instead of 32, and 

 issue it on the first of each month instead of once 

 a fortnight, as heretofore, although the price will 

 remain the same. This is done to afford more 

 room for a full and free discussion of the new and 

 important phases in agriculture which are constant- 

 ly coming to light through the aid of science. 



The terms and condition of the paper will re- 

 main as heretofore. We offer no system of club- 

 bing or premiums, and no modes of "pressure" 

 whatever, to increase our list. We want no man's 

 money who is not satisfied that he gets that money's 

 worth in the paper which he receives. 



(gp We thank our brethren of the Press for 

 their numerous and favorable notices, and shall en- 

 deavor still to merit their commendations. To 

 those who have gathered up our sheaves and scat- 

 tered the wheat among their flocks, without in- 

 forming them where they obtained it, we only re- 

 commend an early perusal of Lord Chesterfield ! 



And now, with coat off, and sinews strong and 

 lusty, we are again ready to enter the field with 

 our fellow-laborers, and go to work "with a will," 

 as the sailors say. While you plow and harrow 

 the soil, we will plow out useful experiments and 

 improvements with the pen, and harrow the world 

 over for your pleasure and instruction. So we are 

 co-laborers, hitched in the same team, and depend- 

 ent upon each other for smiling fields and bounte- 

 ous crops. 



.JT Weeds exhaust the strength of ground, and 

 different parts of the country, they note the pro- if suffered to grow, may be called garden sins. 



