168 



Ql\)t laxnms iilont!)lij llisiior. 



Wietclietl condition of this class was tnaile a|r- 

 paient at a meeting of Iheir " order," held re- 

 cently at Wiltshire, where a woman, Mary Ferris, 

 said that the men, many of them, were afraid to 

 Bpeak. A voice answered, that they who w-ere 

 living on pntatoes and water had not the spirit to 

 do so. Mary Ferris proceeded:— " She thmight 

 11 little more land would he of great service to 

 the lahorers generally. Her luishand had to 

 ftiaintain her and five cliililren nnt of 8s. per 

 week. They had half an acre of land, hut that 

 was not snfficient, witli his low wages, to main- 

 tain them in a manner fitting to do a day's worU. 

 This last snnnner they had no potatoes for a coil- 

 siderahle length of time, and nothing hnt the 8.". 

 per week. Htr children were often crying round 

 her for food, and she did not know how to get 

 any. She said llie men knew nothing of their 

 hardships in comparison to the women; they 

 brought the 8s. home on Satinilay night ; but the 

 management was left to the women, who could 

 not supplv the wants of iheir families from it. 

 She staled that they did taste a morsel of animal 

 food for two montlis together." All the laborers 

 who did not speak, complained of their misera- 

 ble condition. 



A Puff for the Lokg Reds. — The Maine 

 Farmer, s|ieaking of the disease in potatoes, says: 

 " We believe thai the worthy stannch old Long 

 Reds have not as yet been affected in this way: 

 at least we have seen none that were, and we 

 should be very sorry to hear that they are. We 

 have great respect for this potatoe. They have 

 been so steadlast in their qualities and character, 

 remaining the same mid all the mutations of 

 crops, and seasons, and fashions — growing luxu- 

 riantly even when hard used, and stretching 

 away both at top and bottom, till the frosi comes, 

 giving up neither to rust nor rot, bowing to noth- 

 ing but tlie old Ice King himself, and turning 

 out the "thumping big" 7H!(/7;/iiVs at last, full o( 

 comfort and nourishment to man and beast. — 

 This potatoe has never received its due meed of 

 honor. All the other varieties have been lauded 

 above their deserts ; but the Long Red, so hardy, 

 so prolific, so true to its character, is little prized 

 in the market and little praised at home." 



From the Southern Planter. 

 Economy of Farm Labor. 



There is no subject of greater importance to 

 the farmer than the judicious application of his 

 farm labor, and there is none that receives so 

 bttle of bis attention. False economy often in- 

 duces men to use an old worn-out tool when, for 

 want of a good oi.e, tiiey lose more every hoiu' 

 than would pay iiir two. A wood-cutter with an 

 old stun.py axe labors hard all day and is dispir- 

 ited because he has nothing to show for his la- 

 bor; be is scolded probalily for what is entirely 

 the fault of the tool : with a good tool he is active 

 and cheerful, because be feels that his day's work 

 will speak for itself. Some men use wooden 

 pitchforks for hay ; the time lost in hunting for 

 a proper stick and in cutting it, woidd often se- 

 cure as much hay as would ]iay for two steel 

 ones ; and then to see a man make five or si.x in- 

 effectual efforts to stick the fork into a pile of 

 hay, and at last take up about one-third of what 

 he might with a goud one, and having one-half 

 of that falling hack into liis face, is enough to 

 disgust any body in the world who loves to see 

 work done as it ought to be. It is ihe same thing 

 with dung forks. Give an ordinary hand a good 

 steel Ibrk and he will load a carl in less time than 

 the best band uill with an inferior one — but to 

 observe the indifference of our f irmers to such 

 things is to me, who have been used to different 

 things, a matter of astonishinent. 



Raking up Hay. — As I observed in your paper 

 once before, one man «ith a horse-rake is as 

 good as tour and I believe six with the ordinary 

 baud implements. Pine boards for compost 

 should be collected whilst the ground is wet; 

 then a |)ortion of parth is taken up with them, 

 which keeps them compact, ami a cart carries in 

 the bulk double the weight. The size of the 

 manure heap depends upon the facility with 

 which it is aecumidated ; what we obtain easily 

 we use bountifully. As to the 



Application of Manure. — Suppose a farmer has 

 twenty head of cattle; he pens them in his farm- 

 yard and hauls in trash to litter it with. In this 

 way he may make eight hundred loads of nian- 



lu-e, which it will take him eighty days, at ten 

 loads a day, to haid out upon his fields. Of this 

 prnliably five hundred were litter, uhich it has 

 taken him fifty days to haul in. Meie is one 

 brmdrcd and thirty days emidoyed in hauling. 

 Suppose inslead of ibis, he |)ens his caltle upon 

 his groimd previously broken up, on a quarter 

 acre at a time, and hauls the five hundred loads 

 of littei- diiectly to these pens of plowed laud, 

 is it not eviilent that he gels the same amount of 

 manure with fifty days hauling, instead of one 

 himdred and thirty ? If this process is tVillowed, 

 and lime added «hcre the soil is deficient in it, 

 the loss from evaporation and washing is less 

 than by any ether means that I know of, and cer- 

 tainly the saving in labor is very great. 



Hours and IVectlher for Work. — It is bad econo- 

 my to rouse your bands, as some do, by starlight, 

 keep them at work for several horns on an emjity 

 stomach, make them guzzle down their meals, 

 and off again to work as long as ihey can see, 

 and then depend upon their feeding in the dark. 

 Some lliink a little rain wont litut, and drive on 

 through a drizzle; the body hot from work and 

 the skin cool from rain, induces cold, and lays 

 the foundation oftentimes of the very wni-st dis- 

 eases. The loss of time, and sometimes of life, 

 from such causes, together with the doctor's bill, 

 doidiles the amount of gain tiat can ever accrue 

 from such means. 



The following is my plan of 

 fr'orking Corn. — Lay off the corn rows deep 

 with a two-horse plow; plant in the bolloui with 

 the usual covering; then v\ hen high enough to 

 woik, put in the cultivator so that the right hand 

 tooth will split the edge of the fnirow on each 

 side, and the com will he v\ed, and hilled ;i little, 

 and the ground left light and fine without hoeing. 

 Now he not deceiveil here ; deep planting is not 

 deep covering. Plant deep down, hut cover light, 

 and when well rooted below, work as above 

 directed, and yom- corn will liear working close 

 to the stalk, and will, in my opinion when the 

 dry weather comes, bear working at least ten 

 days longer. 



1 could enumerate many other points afford- 

 ing a fair scope tor Ihe exercise of economy in 

 labor, but it is probahle that be who will not 

 take the hint from what has been already said, 

 woidd hardly be profited by a more detailed view 

 of the suhject. 1 will close this commnnicatinii 

 by a single other remark upon tools in gencr;d, 

 and one of my own in p.irticular. It may be 

 asked shall we throw away our old tools and buy 

 new ones.' I answer, if your gi.od fork is worn 

 too short for a strong man to make a good day's 

 work, give it to a boy, or keep it for work that 

 may injure a new one ; hut never expect a full 

 day's work from a good hand with an iiderior 

 tool. 



i would mention an impiement of my own 

 invention for cutting down and picking up corn ; 

 it is llie circular part of an old reap liook, with 

 a shank bent to it which is a little turned and 

 driven into a short handle; with it when ground 

 keen, a man can cut with the right hand an( 

 heap with the left a? fast as one can cut and 

 another heap in the ordinary way. 



iMy aim in this counnimieation is to encoii 

 rage those who are without means to be their 

 own means, and to work out their own iudepeii 

 dence by the shortest route : but do not ihiiik 

 for a moment that your implements are complete 

 without having some agricultural work coming 

 constanlly to you with the latest news, that you 

 may profit by the advice and experiein e of others 

 J. M. D. LowKES. 



which, at a net yield of $3,,')0 per acre for the 

 market, would roi|uiie 1.800,000 acres of land, 

 worih at ,«!|2 ]ier acre, $21,000,000. The capital 

 invested, then, by the fainier in this business 

 alone is about .$22.5,000,000, and the annual value 

 accruing to him, ahont 31,500,000, while the 

 capital stock invested hy the maimfiicinrer him- 

 self in building, machinery. &c, to work up ihe 

 whoks annual product woidd not perbafia exceed 

 $45,000,000, or about one-fifth of that of the 

 agriculturist. — Troy ff'hig. 



Wind Mills fob Irrigation. — The Boston Culti- 

 v.ilor, speaking of Ihe farm of the Mc Lean Asylum, in 

 Somerville, AJassachusetts, and especially ol" the system 

 of soiling adopted there, says : 



Irrigation, as well as soiling, is but little attended to in 

 this country, thougn it may he often practiced to great 

 profit. On this farm is a lar[ze amount ol drain water 

 tVom the buildings, received in a larse reservoir in the 

 grass field. A rude windmdl constructed atn small expense 

 is the power used for raising the water, which is conduc- 

 ted over the grass lands to a c(msiderable extent by spouts, 

 and it produces a wonderful effect. Some persons em- 

 ployed on this place, doubted the utility of this manure, 

 and to test its advantages, the water was first applied to a 

 piece of poor laiid, which proiluced but little grass. The 

 rjonsequence was a large and very early crop ; and three 

 good crops were obtained during the season. 



We have often thought that windmills might be used at 

 very little expense for watering farms, and we are glad 

 that it has been found successlu! in this instance. U i9| 

 of course, made to propel a pump.— /^o». Jour, 



The Wool Trade. — .According to the hest 

 calcidation, says Mr. Williams, in his admii'able 

 address on the Tariff, it is supposed that there 

 are about 34,000,000 of sheep in the United 

 States, worth on an average about .?2 a head 

 and \ieldina- about 90,000,000 pouiuls of wool, 

 worth at 30 cents per lb. about $27,000,000. 

 These sheep at three to the acre for summer and 

 winter, would require 11,333,333 acres of land 

 lor their sup[iort, which at .'$12 per acre, whicdi 

 is considered a fair average, would he worth 

 .$130,000,000. To mamifacture this clip of woo 

 will require about 45,000 hands, who with 

 families averaging three persons each, and 

 amounting in all to 189,000, at a consumption of 

 .$25 per annum each would require §1,500,000 

 worth of agriculiural products for their snppcrt, 



For the Visitor. 

 Debt a Blessing. ' 



Mr. Editor: — A friend of mine, now and fop 

 several years past of excellent character and 

 baliits in all respect.'', in the earlier jiart of his 

 married life, and when sobriety and iiidu.stry 

 were unhappily less common in the larming 

 community than now, became involved in seve- 

 ral hundred dollars of debt. This debt he fbuiiH 

 himself unable, by reason of the increase of his 

 family expenses, to pay, with the ordinary pro- 

 cess of his labor. The consequence was, that a 

 part of his real estate must be sold and interest 

 money stopped, or the whole would soon go im- 

 der the hammer of the auctioneer. In these 

 circumstances he advised wiili friends and de- 

 liberated, and finally, with great reluctance, con- . 

 eluded to sell a part of his farm. A neighhor 

 bought some thirty acres, including a large share 

 of liis hest land, and paid him a sum, which 

 nearly liquidated all his dcbt.=. Thus shorn, and 

 thinking it doubtful whether his diminished facil- 

 ities for a living, woidd not soon compel him 

 to sell the rest of his farm, he went to work. — 

 As he coi tinned his labor, what he had deemed 

 the miserable remnant of his fiirm began to feel 

 the stimulant of his iiidustiy. And the result of 

 five years toil is, that he actually harvests more 

 hay, and of a better quality, and more of the 

 different varieties of grain, than he ever did 

 from the whole farm. 



As one specimen of iuiproveuienr, he has a 

 small bog, wliere he used to cut about forly cocks 

 of poor hay whicli, hy ditching and a iiinre lluir- 

 ougli clearing, now yields more than one hun- 

 dred and forty cocks of good English hay. He 

 has also taken the past season, two tons of hay 

 to the acre from a p;ut of his old pasture, which 

 used to hear lillle else than bushes and stones. 



Thus you see Mr. Editor, that dehi, though 

 often a calamity, and sometimes crimin.il, has 

 proved in one iii>tance a blessing. It h:is proved 

 so iiy compelling my friend to do, what necessi- 

 ty alone would probably have induced, viz. cul- 

 tivate less land, and cultiv.ite it well. I have 

 certainly no wish that others of the (arming fra- 

 ternity should be similarly compelled to take 

 the best way. But I am persuaded that were a 

 large majority of the farmers of my acquain- 

 tance to reduce their tillage land one half, the 

 present amount of labor and siiiriiilants to the 

 soil woiitti return them lar;;cr harvests, wilh a 

 large saving of time and of steps. Suine have 

 adopted this theory, and find it to work admira- 

 bly. And almost all are convinced of its cor- 

 rectness; hnt h;irflly know how to hcgin the 

 work of reiluctiun. With the light which the 

 Visitor and other kindred puhlications have cast 

 upon the matter, together with the siiecimens of 

 good fanning, which are beginning to exist in 

 every community, and which may he known and 

 read of all men, it would seem that those un- 

 convinced ofthe best way must be few. The chief 

 thing now to be done is the actual adojilion of 



