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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Europe has a cotton "jacket ;" for one that will an- 

 swer every intention can be made cheaper of cotton 

 than ef wool. The comfort of domestic animals at 

 the South is sadly and most expensively neglected. 

 — Southern Cultivator. 



EXTENSIVE FARMING. 



We have before us, says the Exeter News-Let- 

 ter, the San Francisco Morning Post for Nov. 15th, 

 in which we find a very interesting account of an 

 Agricultural Fair held in San Francisco on the 13th 

 of°Nov., and which throws completely into the 

 shade all our farming operations on this side of the 

 Rocky Mountains. A committee, consisting of 

 Hon. J. C. Fremont, Hon. T. Butler King, Hon. 

 J. R. Snyder, B. C. Saunders, Esq., and Hon. G. 

 W. Wright, awarded a silver goblet to John M. 

 Horner, of Santa Clara Valley, for the best variety 

 of vegetables and grains. Mr. H., during the last 

 season, raised from 800 acres of land with the as- 

 sistance of 60 laborers, the following : 



withered ; Shelton's mammoth clover, whose stalks 

 from one root covered an area of 81 square feet, 

 some of the stalks 6 feet long, a half inch in diam- 

 eter, and the clover head five inches in circumfer- 

 ence ; single stalks of the white lily, producing 100 

 flowers, of indescribable delicacy and beauty ; 

 stalks of the oat gathered by Mr. Shelton, 13 feet 

 high ; specimens of wheat and barley having 150 

 and 200 mammoth stalks springing from one root, 

 the produce of a single seed ; the red sugar beet, 

 28 inches in circumference and weighing 47 lbs. ; 

 a cabbage, weighing 50 lbs., and measuring 7 feet 

 in circumference ; cucumbers, raised by the same, 

 18 inches in length ; onions, 5, 6 and 7 inches in 

 diameter, and weighing 3 and 4 lbs. each ; pota- 

 toes 120 lbs. from 5 vines of a single hill — one from 

 Mr. B. J. Stevens, of Santa Clara, 13 inches in 

 length, 27 in circumference, and weighing 7 1-4 lbs. ; 

 the Russian bald barley, weighing 66 lbs. to the 

 bushel, with a kernel double the size of large wheat; 

 raspberries 5 inches in circumference ; barley from 

 the San Jose Valley, of which 965 bushels were 

 produced from less than 5 acres of land ; luscious 

 grapes, single bunches weighing 10 lbs. ; tomatoes 

 weighing 2 lbs. each ; pumpkins and squashes 100 

 to 140 lbs. ;• cabbages 2 feet in diameter and weigh- 

 ing over 50 lbs. 



And thus, at a cost of about $50,000, producing 

 a crop worth at present prices some $200,000. 



An address was delivered at the Fair by A. Wil- 

 liams, Esq., in the course of which he read a state- 

 ment from twelve citizens of the county of Santa 

 Cruz, men of unquestionable integrity, from which 

 the following is an extract : 



" On land owned and cultivated by Mr. James 

 Williams, an onion grew to the enormous weight 

 of twenty-one pounds ; on this same land a turnip 

 was grown which equalled exactly in size the head 

 of a flour barrel. On land owned and cultivated 

 by Thomas Fallen, a cabbage grew, which mea- 

 sured while growing 13 feet 6 inches around its 

 body, the weight is not known ; the various cereal 

 grains also grow to a height of from 6 to 12 feet ; 

 one redwood tree in the valley, known as Fremont's 

 tree, measures fifty feet in circumference, and is 

 nearly 300 feet high." Added to these astonish- 

 ing productions are a beet grown by Mr. Isaac 

 Brannan, at San Jose, weighing 63 pounds ; car- 

 rots three feet in length, weighing forty pounds. 

 At Stockton a turnip weighing 100 lbs. In the 

 latter city, at a dinner party for twelve persons, of 

 a single potato larger than the size of an ordinary 

 hat, all partook, leaving at least the half un- 

 touched. 



In the hall itself were exhibited nearly 1,000 

 varieties of pressed flowers, nearly 200 of which 

 were illustrated by beautiful drawings ; scuds of 

 more than 300 varieties of native flowers ; 20 varie- 

 ties oflily and other bulbous roots; about 30 varie- 

 ties of the principal grapes and clovers, many of 

 the specimens pressed, embracing the burr clover, 

 that feeds to fatness " the, cattle of a thousand 

 hills. " when all other sustenance is parched and 



AGRICULTURE— ITS ORIGIN AND DIG- 

 NITY. 



When the earth was untracked by any intelli- 

 gent being, when its fertile fields and lofty forests 

 remained untouched by the hand of cultivation or 

 any pruning instrument, the Creator was moved to 

 design the formation of man ; and the purpose of 

 his creation was more than intimated. When the 

 songster cheered the grove and the lion roared on 

 the banks of the flowing stream, when the prairie 

 shot up its cedar-like grass and the serpent re- 

 mained unawed by any e$s of human-kind, God 

 saw that the earth needed yet one more inhab- 

 itant, for "there teas not a man to till the ground." 

 The earth's cultivation was the first expressed 

 reason for the creation of man. Then moved the 

 infinite Designer. He said, in council with the 

 archangel, and with cherubim and seraphim, 

 "Let us make man in our image, after our like- 

 ness ; and let them have dominion over the fish of 

 the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 

 cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 

 creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." So 

 man was created, and stood erect in majesty, and 

 cast his eye over the spreading fields and flowing 

 streams, and saw the creeping insect, the finny 

 tribes, the feathered inhabitants of forest and field, 

 and the cattle upon a thousand hills, all made 

 subject to his dominion. 



And while he gazed with admiring wonder, he 

 heard the voice of blessing, and the voice of com- 

 mand ; for "God blessed them and said unto them , 

 Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, 

 and subdue it." He saw the gentle lamb approach 

 him as if to declare her special need of his assist- 

 ance, and lowing cattle followed the example get, 



