138 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



and the benefit of early fall feed, whatever may be 

 said to the contrary. 



You will see, by the above statement, that I re- 

 ceived only 16 2-3 cents per lb. for my butter. 

 This was owing, in part, to the crowded state of 

 the market at the time. Had I received 20 cents 

 per lb., the profit, per cow, would have been 

 something over fifty dollars. 



In conclusion, I will merely say that I have as 

 yet made but little progress in improvements, nor 

 would it be the part of wisdom to promise too 

 much ; but perseverance in a good cause we think 

 is rather laudable. — Maine Farmer. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



Now is the season for farmers' clubs to hold their 

 meetings. Nothing has yet been devised more 

 likely to advance the best interests of agriculture, 

 than farmers' clubs. Every district has a school 

 house, and such meetings may be held without ex- 

 pense. If the farmers of a neighborhood get 

 together and spend a single hour at a conversa- 

 tional meeting on agriculture, some good result is 

 sure to follow. The conversations at these meet- 

 ings should not be conducted' diffusely, but a 

 chairman should be appointed, a subject chosen, 

 and such members as choose to speak should ad- 

 dress the chair on the subject of the evening, and 

 in this way the reading and experience of all pres- 

 ent will become the common property of the neigh- 

 borhood. We have attended many such meetings, 

 and never without learning some new and valua- 

 ble fact. 



Winter evenings are long, and at this- season of 

 the year, when the farmer is not required to rise 

 as early in the morning as in summer, he can sit 

 up to a later hour, if necessary or profitable, and 

 therefore should, as often as once each week, 

 meet his neighbors to communicate and receive in- 

 formation. A farmer must have been slothful 

 indeed, if during the past year he lias not learned 

 one new fact in relation to agriculture ; and 

 should a hundred neighbors meet and each com- 

 municate one new fact, then each will learn 

 ninety-nine new facts for one communicated. 

 Those who repudiate the use of books, could have 

 an opportunity of learning without their use, and 

 they need not fear being decived by some ingeni- 

 ous theorist — for with 100, or even 20 farmers 

 present, the theorist would find it difficult to propa- 

 gate an error, where all felt free to contradict his 

 views. 



Merchants, manufacturers and mechanics hold 

 such meetings, and why should not farmers ? 

 Can any one man working alone on his farm , learn 

 as much as 100 men 1 May not each discover 

 some practical fact, and should not his neighbors 

 know it 1 How else can the improvements of the 

 day be made known ? 



Take your sons and workmen to these meetings, 

 and they will learn to respect an employment 

 which calls into active use the talent of all. If 

 you have a sick animal, you may have advantage 

 by the experience of all your neighbors, and proba- 

 bly save the life of the animal. If you have excess 

 of crops, such as are usually used on the farm, or 

 are short of others, may you not at such meetings 

 learn where you may sell or exchange ? Do not 

 such meetings tend to soften asperities, cement 

 friendships, and do away with peculiartics of tem- 



per, which always occur with men who work 

 alone'? We would sooner forgot much of our 

 reading, than to lose the recollection of such 

 practical improvements as we have been acquaint- 

 ed with at farmers' clubs. — The Working Farmer. 



FIFTH AGRICULTURAL MEETING, 

 At the State House, Feb. 10, 1852. 



Subject for discussion — Manures . 



Hon. Amasa Walker, of North Brookfield, pre- 

 sided at the Agricultural meeting on Tuesday 

 evening. On taking the chair he said that the 

 subject for discussion was the most important of 

 any connected with farming. If the scholar is 

 asked, what is power, he will reply, knowledge ; 

 if the same question is put to the political econo- 

 mist, he will reply, money ; and if it is put to the 

 farmer, he would say manure, for with it I can 

 do anything, and without it I can do nothing. 

 This statement is emphatically true in regard to 

 New England, where all the fertile properties of 

 the soil have been exhausted by long tillage. Ma- 

 nure is our only resource for renovating and restor- 

 ing those properties. To illustrate this fact he 

 mentioned an experiment of his own, the result of 

 which was, that from a piece of land which five 

 years ago yielded but three-fourths of a ton of 

 hay, he now cuts seven-and-a-half tons of excellent 

 quality. In producing this result there was no 

 mystery. It is only what every farmer may do 

 by a judicious application of manures. It is what 

 might be done on almost every acre of land in 

 Massachusetts, if farmers could but get manure 

 sufficient. But here is the difficulty. Manure is 

 scarce. The amount of natural manure is limited, 

 and thus the farmers are thrown back upon oth- 

 er resources. The great question is, then, how- 

 can the quantity of manure be increased ? Farm- 

 ing has been justly defined to be the science of 

 manuring. If this is so, what does this science 

 teach us? It teaches us, first, to preserve our 

 natural manure ; second, to augment the quan- 

 tity as far as we can by means within our reach 

 on the farm ; and third, to adapt our manures to 

 our soils. First, as to preservation, manures are 

 of two kinds, solids and fluids. In former days the 

 latter were considered of but little if any value, 

 but now they are generally considered to be as val- 

 uable as the former. All are now persuaded of 

 the necessity of cellars under barns, or of sheds 

 where their manures may be covered up, and pre- 

 served from the exposure to the sun and rain. 

 Formerly, he believed one-half of the value of 

 manure was destroyed by being thus exposed be- 

 fore being taken on to the ground. As to aug- 

 menting our natural manures — he said nature has 

 provided abundant resources in our meadows of 

 peat and other substances. This muck he would 

 bring up, and expose it to the atmosphere for two 

 years, and then place it in his barn cellar to ab- 



