82 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



tended for corn the next year, should be plowed- in 

 the fall or not, or whether it should be plowed 

 twice in the spring. 



It is an open question, whether corn stalks should 

 be taken into the barn before the juices are entirely 

 evaporated, or whether they should remain in the 

 field, exposed to all the rains of autumn, till they 

 are "done up brown." 



It is an open question whether potatoes liable to 

 disease should be dug early or late in the fall. 



It is an open question, whether manure should 

 be kept under cover, that its ammonia may be re- 

 tained, or throAvn out to the action of the sun and 

 rain, that those powerful disinfectants may deprive 

 ■ it of its offensive odors. 



It is an open question, whether it is best to have 

 a drain running from the barn-yard into the road. 



It is an open question, whether green or dry 

 ■wood makes the best fire ; but when the mercury is 

 ten degrees below zero in the morning, there is lit- 

 tle doubt in the mind of the "hired girl" who is 

 compelled to make it, which she had rather have 

 provided. 



It is an open question, whether it will pay to dig 

 and cart meadow mud, and compost it with stable 

 manure for the crops next spring. 



It is an open question, whether guano or artificial 

 manures, at their present high prices, can be profit- 

 ably used in New England. 



And, finally, it is an open question with many of 

 the tillers of the soil, whether they ought to take 

 the JVew England Farmer, and with some who now 

 take it, whether they ought to pay for it. 



Here, Messrs. Editors, endeth the present com- 

 munication, for I have not the time, nor you the 

 space, this week, to consider what can be done to 

 settle these and many other questions, which are 

 yet open among the farmers of our country. 



fraliham, Dec, 1855. D. C. 



For the New England Farmer. 



FARM WORK FOR WINTER. 



Mr. Editor : — In the JVeiv York Tribune of the 

 24th ult., there is an article on this subject, and as 

 it is addressed to the farmers of the country, I 

 propose to examine the ideas advanced. In the first 

 place, they assert that farmers in the country are in 

 the habit of hiring help of both sexes, in large num- 

 bers, from the city through the busy season, paying 

 them only such wages as will sustain them for the 

 time, and then turning them adrift on the approach 

 of winter, and they make their way back again to 

 the city to starve or five on "soup" at pubHc ex- 

 pense and charity till spring. 



Now that there are many laborers that go into 

 the country from the city in the spring season, is 

 probablj' true ; and that many of these laborers 

 seek work among the farmers is also true ; but that 

 the great majority of such help is just the poorest 

 help the farmer can have is more true still. But 

 owing to the extreme scarcity of Yankee help, the 

 farmer is obliged to hire this foreign help, which, 

 in some cases is good ; in the majority of cases it is 

 unskilled and awkward in the extreme. But that 

 such help invariably make their way back to the 

 city again at the close of the busy season, to winter, 

 I want more proof of. So far as my knowledge 

 goes, when these laborers are discharged from the 

 farm, they generally seek employment in the man- 

 ufacturing villages and towns, to work as waiters 



and tenders in the shops, coal bearers, wood saw- 

 yers, livery stables, &c. I much doubt whethei- one 

 in twenty of such laborers who leave the city in the 

 spring, to seek work and get a hundred miles in- 

 land, go back to the city again to winter, unless they 

 have parents or relatives to receive them. The 

 truth is, these hordes of lazy beggars that infest the 

 city at all seasons of the year, never go into the 

 country at all to any extent, unless they are car- 

 ried there by main force. Tliis fact is plain to us, 

 when it is known that such people very seldom beg 

 Avhen in the country at any season of the year, but 

 they look around for something to do to earn 

 enough at least, to keep soul and body together, till 

 the warm season opens again. The great object of 

 this class is, to live to-day and let to-morrow take 

 care of itself. 



But the Tribune says, "if a farmer cannot afford 

 to pay wages in the winter, he can afford to feed 

 his summer laborers, and he should do so instead 

 of discharging them, and sending them back upon 

 the city. It is a mistaken notion that a farmer 

 cannot find employment for laborers in winter. In 

 this latitude, one-half the days of the winter months 

 are good working days, and with very slight excep- 

 tions, there should be no lost time." Now, what 

 are the facts in regard to farm labor during winter ? 

 Many farmers know well that in a latitude between 

 40° and 50° North, that very little or no practical 

 farm labor can be done between the first of Decem- 

 ber and the first of April. There will be years when 

 mild weather will hold out till the 15th or the 20th 

 of December, but they are only exceptions, and not 

 rules. In 1835-6, or twenty years ago, this season, 

 winter set in the 20th of November with a snow 

 and ice storm, and that snow did not go off" till the 

 next April. There was in this section of country 

 over a hundred days' sleighing that Avinter, and more 

 still at the North.' I had a field of turnips caught 

 under the snow in November that season, and I lost 

 them ; other farmers were caught with crops out. 

 In 1839, I worked at farm fences from Thanksgiv- 

 mg till about the 15th of December. The weather 

 was as mild as it has been the past season from the 

 1st to the 20th of November. On or about the 15th 

 of December that year, a north-east snow storm set 

 in on Saturday evening, which continued till late 

 Monday afternoon following. There was no frost 

 in the ground and the snow lay from two and a 

 half to three feet deep on a level. My sheep I 

 found, after the storm, on a neighboring farm, some 

 under the fence, some under bushes, and others un- 

 der the snow-banks, and my woodpile was standing 

 up in the woods, not a very comfortable satisfaction 

 to think of either. Had I spent the first two weeks 

 in December in hauling a wood-j)ile together in- 

 stead of fence-making, it would have been time and 

 labor better laid out. That snow did not show bare 

 {ground again till the last of February. 



I name these two cases to show what our winters 

 often are, and that generally speaking, winter farm- 

 ing in this climate is just no labor at all on the 

 farm. November is a good month to finish off farm 

 [work. Crops — with the exception of tiu-nips — 

 ' should be secured in October, and as early in No- 

 'vember as convenient. During November, trees 

 !may be transplanted and late fall plowing may be 

 'done. Stones may be dug up in the fields, and large 

 'rocks blasted out with powder. If a light snow 

 ' should fall, large stone and rocks may be removed 

 [on a stone sled or drag, to a good advantage, to the 



