1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



223 



Fw the New England Farmer. 



THE DOUBLE PLOW. 



Mr. Editor : — I have a piece of high loamy 

 land that I wish to plant with corn the ensuing sea- 

 son. I wish to plow it deeper than it has been in 

 times past, and should like some information about 

 the double plow. I should like to know what pro- 

 portion harder thej- draw than No. 2, Eagle. I 

 I have never seen one, but if they are an improve- 

 ment, I should like to try one, if they can be man- 

 aged in land where there is some fast rocks, but 

 not many small stones. 



I have been actively engaged in the cultivation 

 of the soil for more than half a century, and my in- 

 terest in it increases with my experience. I am 

 satisfied that it is the best employment for all who 

 are calculated to follow it. 



Making money should not be the sole object of 

 the farmer ; utility should have some weight with 

 him. If he can take one acre of unproductive land, 

 and make it produce fifty dollars worth of the nec- 

 essaries of life, he has done much towards supply- 

 ing the real wants of the race. Another has dug 

 five hundred dollars worth of gold in the mines of 

 California ; he has done nothing towards supplying 

 the real wants of life, but has been living upon the 

 products of the farmer all the time. 



TiiojiAS Haskell. 



Gloucester, March, 1856. 



Remarks. — It is said by good judges who have 

 used the double plow, that it requires no more 

 team to plow ten inches deep with the double plow, 

 than to do it with a single mould-board. Indeed, 

 they say it does not require so much team ; and 

 from the experience we have had — and we have 

 used the double plow considerably — we are inclined 

 to agree with them. The double plow does the 

 work better, because it separates the sod or turf 

 from the lower part of the furrow, and lays it all 

 snug on the bottom of the preceding furrow. 

 When plowed well in this way, the field presents a 

 mellow seed bed, which may be wrought without 

 disturbing a single turf. 



For the Neio England Farmer. 



PASTURES ABOUT THE MONADNOCK. 



Mr. Browx : — In your last, I noticed a commu- 

 nication over the signature of "Jonas Wilde," call- 

 ing in question my statement respectnig the pas- 

 tures in N. H. If in error, I certainly wish to be 

 corrected. If I have been deceived, and what 

 appeared to me poor gi-ass, spreading over whole 

 townships, and converting, what was once fertile, 

 fattening pastures, into "old fields," if this was an 

 optical illusion, — if the many intelligent farmers 

 with whom I conversed, and who made special men- 

 tion of this evil, if they were mistaken, and the 

 pastures are still "as good as new," it will certainly 

 afford me pleasure to stand corrected. 



"If New Hampshire," says Mr. Wilde, "makes 

 less butter and cheese than she did formerly, it is, 

 no doubt, owing to the increasing manufactures." 

 Now if increasing manufactures have a tendency to 

 kill out the grass upon the hills, and thus diminish 

 the quantity of butter and cheese, the matter ought 

 to be looked into. 



The opinion extensively prevails, that manufiic- 

 tures and agriculture are twin sisters ; that they as- 

 sist, and are mutually dependent upon each other ; 

 that together with commerce, they constitute a 

 trio, which is indispensable to a full develojiment 

 of the human faculties, and the highest possible de- 

 gree of perfection in civilized life. 



The legitimate effect of manufactures is to im- 

 prove agriculture. This it does in various ways ; 

 but especially by creating a home market, and giv- 

 ing to the products of the farm, and the farm itself, 

 an increased market value. And when farmers, as 

 is soTnetimes the case, manifest a disposition to 

 quarrel with manufactures, they are, unconsciously, 

 perhaps, but not less truly, laboring to bite off their 

 own noses. 



That the evil of which I made mention, does ex- 

 ist, and that, too, in the region round about Monad- 

 nock, and in many other parts of the State, and in 

 Massachusetts, is a truth so obvious, that he who 

 runs or walks through any of those regions, in the 

 months of August, September or October, may 

 read and understand. R. B. H. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



LINES. 



B Y H. D. WHITE. 



■Written on the margin of an engraving entitled — "The Fae- 

 mer's Winter Hearth." 



! if there be one spot on earth 

 Where cloudless bliss and joy have birth, — 

 Where blighting sorrows seldom come. 

 And envy's bitter tongue is dumb — 

 That spot of quiet, peace and mirth 

 la found beside the "Farmer's Hearth." 

 Thrice blessed spot ! where friendship's light 

 In many a lovely eye is bright — 

 Where hearts and hands to kindness given 

 Prepare an antepast of Heaven, 

 And consecrate a "humble cot" 

 With that which kings in vain have sought. 

 Windham, Me., 1S56. ^ 



For the New England Farmer. 



MR. HUNTINGTON'S COW. 



This afternoon (March 24th,) in company with 

 a friend, a good judge of cows, I travelled a mile, 

 to see this animal. We found her all she had been 

 reputed to be, and more. My friend thought her 

 the finest looking animal of the kind he had ever 

 seen. She is now seven years old, of a uniform 

 chestnut red color, considerably above the medium 

 size, with all the points of a superior milker fully 

 developed. She is expected to calve this next 

 month, but still yields a fair quantity of milk. It 

 will be remembered that she yielded two pounds of 

 butter per day, tlie last season. 



Mr. Osborn has a heifer from her, now thirty 

 months old, expected to calve soon, a perfect like- 

 ness of the original. I speak of these animals for 

 the information of those who are curious to look at 

 animals worth seeing, and challenge the production 

 of their superiors. 



The Guenon sign is fully developed, both in the 

 mother and her offspring. This animal is larger 

 than was the celebrated Oakes cow, but in all other 

 res])ects quite her equai. She is worthy to be seen 

 — the owner is not inclined to part with her. 



South Danvers, March 24. P. 



