178 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



as markets and means tempt them to it. The Eng- 

 lish ascribe their substitution of horses for oxen, 

 their large out-lays for manures and fertilizers, for 

 levelling, subsoil-plowing, draining, and to large 

 farming, but these things are signs of rich and intel- 

 ligent, rather than of large, farming. Small and 

 middling farmers understand the benefit of these 

 things quite as well as great; they are unknown 

 only where farmers are poor and ignorant. What 

 characterizes English farming is not so much large 

 farming, so called, as the raisuig of farming into a 

 business of itself, and the amount of capital at the 

 disposal of farmers. We have settled how much 

 capital is needed to carry on most manufacturing 

 operations, but not how much is needed to carry on 

 the operations of a farm, which is, as we have shown, 

 no more nor less than a manufacturing operation ; 

 but the English farmer before 1848, lield, that to 

 conduct a farm, he must have a cajaital of $40 to 

 the acre, and now he thinks $80 to the acre not too 

 much. 



But markets, markets, are the greatest and most 

 pressing requirement of agriculture. How to pro- 

 duce is a question which thousands of minds settle 

 after the demand for production comes. In mar- 

 kets, the English farmer has the advantage of far- 

 mers of all other countries. From the develo])- 

 ment of manufactures and commerce in England, 

 the farmer there is surrounded by industrial and 

 commercial populations, which exist nowhere else 

 in the world. One-third of the English nation is 

 congregated at two points, London in the south and 

 the manufacturing towns of Lancashire and West 

 Riding ; these human-ant hills are as rich,as they are 

 numerous. If the Yankee farmers were thus sur- 

 sounded l)y markets, think you they m'ouUI not set- 

 tle, as the English have done, the questions, what 

 produce brings the highest ])rice relatively to its 

 cost of ])roduction, and by what means the cost of 

 production is to be reduced in order to increase the 

 net profit ? The English farmer, for examjile, 

 gives a preference to the production of meat, but 

 this is not only because the animals by their ma- 

 nure maintain the fertility of the land, but because 

 meat is an article much in demand and the popula- 

 tion are rich enough to buy it. So of milk, and so 

 of wheat. 



I think an observer can see that the markets of 

 New England begin to speak in a voice, which the 

 farmer must hear in many a farm-house, whose oc- 

 cupant has thus far raised but little more than was 

 needed for his own consumption, and that the in- 

 crease, in the populations of the towns and cities of 

 New England, portends an agricultural revolution. 



The agricultural population of England has de- 

 veloped a law of increase, which I trust, will not be 

 developed by ours ; and yet there are indications 

 that Ave tend in the same direction. The more pop- 

 ulous England has become, the less proportion has 

 the agricultural population borne to the whole popu- 

 lation. At the end of the last century the agricul- 

 tural population was sixty per cent, of the entire 

 population of England ; it is now but twenty-five 

 per cent of the entire population. In 1800, it was 

 reckoned that there were about nine hundred thou- 

 sand agricultural families in Great Britain ; now 

 there may probably be a million. But now the 

 non-agricultural families amount to five miUion, 

 while in 1800 they did not probably amount to a 

 million. 



If this be the law of increase of agricultural pop- 



ulation, as a country advances in population, then, 

 as a country advances, the processes of agriculture 

 must improve, the products of agriculture, on a given 

 surface be greatly increased, and the price of agri- 

 cultural products must advance. 



There is a feeling of discouragement in New Eng- 

 land respecting agriculture ; but it will jjass away ; 

 she has taken the two great ste])s towards agricul- 

 tural ])rosperity ; she has developed commerce and 

 manufactures and thus multiplied consumers, and 

 improved the means of communication which bring 

 consumers and jn-oducers together. Will the fer- 

 tihty of the West keep New England agriculture at 

 a stand '^ M. 



For the New England Fanner. 



SEED POTATOES. 



Mr. Editor : — As much has been written in 

 your paper about seed potatoes, permit me to give 

 the views that I have obtained from my experience 

 and observation in growing them. 



As respects small potatoes for seed, I have some- 

 times planted them, and have had a good crop ; 

 but experience has taught me that, by continuing 

 to plant the smallest size a few years successively, 

 you will have small potatoes. And this we might 

 reasonably infer from the nature of things. 



I think we should select for seed those that are 

 most jierfectly grown and matured. I would not 

 select all the largest size to plant, for they are of- 

 tentimes defective. Neither would I select those 

 that are covered with prongs, or in any way defec- 

 tive. 



Potatoes intended for seed, I think should be 

 grown upon a soil which has not been made so ex- 

 cessively rich by manuring, as to force their growth 

 to an enormous size ; such are not likely to be ma- 

 tured in a very healthy state, and consequently are 

 unfit for seed. This rule will a])ply to many other 

 things. Animals raised upon very high keeping, 

 may be forced to an unusual growth : l)ut this will 

 exhaust the powers of their natures, and they will 

 become unhealthy, and be short lived. Such would 

 l)e poor breeders. One thing more, in respect to 

 seed potatoes. They should be grown in a soil in 

 which ])otatoes are least aflected with the rot. 



Ipsivich, February, 1856. 



Remarks. — One thing seems generally to be for- 

 gotten in speaking of "seed"' potatoes — and that is 

 that we do not use the seed for planting, but the tu- 

 ber. We have experimented for years by using 

 large and small potatoes, and have never been able 

 to discover any difference in the product. Indeed, 

 we heard Mr. BuCKMixSTER, of the Ploughman, 

 state a few evenings since, at a Farmers' Club, that 

 It was highly probable that an unripe potato is ac- 

 tually better for planting than one that has come 

 to perfection ; and we are more than half inclined 

 to agree with him. In times of scarcity, some per- 

 sons cut out the eyes, and use them only, and still 

 without any diminution of crop. This is usually 

 the case with sweet potatoes, — nobody thinks of 

 planting the whole potato to remain as the source 

 of a hill. Too much care cannot be observed, in 

 using the most perfect seed — when seed is used. 



