240 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



has read my sketch of them, and of their soil, will 

 agree with me, that New England soil is not infe- 

 rior to the soil we have travelled over, in these 

 southern counties. We have been on Romney 

 Marsh, and met the New Kent sheep ; on the 

 South Downs, and seen the South Down sheep on 

 their native soil ; among the mountains of Devon- 

 shire, and seen the New Devon cattle ; among the 

 heather of Hampshire, and seen the Bagshot sheep ; 

 we cannot find in New England but few (and those 

 iQiported) sucli breeds of sheep and cattle, but a 

 soil as good as that which sustains these breeds of 

 animals, is abundant enough in New England, 

 The soil of New England, then, will not prevent its 

 equalling, at least, the southern counties of England, 

 in agriculture ; this is a fixed fact. Is it then a 

 very vain imagination, that the day will come, when 

 New England will have breeds of cattle and sheep, 

 markets, labor and capital, such as will bring her 

 agriculture u]) to English agriculture ? It would 

 not surprise me, if the child, and perhaps the man 

 is nnv hving, who will see Mr. Rigden's farm 

 repeated in New England. And it would not 

 surj)rise me if there were many a sturdy New Eng- 

 land farmer who will not lose heart under the com- 

 petition brought to his door from the rich lands of 

 the West, more than Mr. Huxtable did, when the 

 corn laws were repealed. Why should the New 

 Englander lose heart more than Mr. Huxtable, 

 when it costs nearly as much to carry a barrel of 

 fiour from New York city to the interior market, 

 where the New Englander sells his produce, as it 

 does to carry the same fiour to the market where 

 ^Ir. Huxtable sells his produce ; there being now 

 no duty in either case. 



The course to be pursued in New England at 

 present, appears to me to be this — to keep up the 

 agricultural spirit and courage of the people, and 

 the love of country life ; to improve our l)reeds of 

 sheep and cattle, and pigs and horses, and wait the 

 time, not so distant as some think, when markets, 

 developed liy the growth of commerce and manu- 

 factures, and greater abundance of cajjital and labor, 

 shall bring with them agricultural prosperity, and 

 the marriage of forming and capital. Farther than 

 this, our course is to demonstrate, if we can, and fix 

 the conviction in the minds of fiirmers — if it be 

 true — that success will crown the efforts of small 

 proprietors, if farming be united with capital. The 

 improvement in British agriculture has been 

 through large farming ; its origin has been aristo- 

 cratic ; we must show that success and improve- 

 ment can attend farming liy small proprietors ; our 

 improvement must be democratic in its origin, but 

 accomplished by the aid of capital. No man is 

 more capable of great exertion than the New Eng- 

 land farmer; but to induce the exertion he must 

 see he has the prospect of bettering his condition ; 

 whereas, now he too often looks for bettering his 

 condition by spending the money he gets off the 

 farm in investments off the farm, or by leaving the 

 farm altogether. M. 



ternoon, was fed with meal and cut-feed as usual, 

 but for his supper he had nothing but dry hay, 

 which did not agree very well with his sense of 

 right, after travelling twenty miles with a load 

 through snow drifts. However, he kept his thoughts 

 to himself till we were all out of the way for the 

 night ; then, sundering his rope in some way. he 

 passed through the cow stable, crossed the barn 

 floor and the carriage-room to the granary, at the 

 further end of the barn, some forty feet, where he 

 had often seen us get the meal for him ; he there 

 found two bags of meal standing by the bin, tied up 

 tight, but the top one being too heavy for his pur- 

 pose, he threw it aside, and after examining the 

 other bag, which weighed between fifty and sixty 

 pounds, he took it in his teeth, and carried it about 

 twenty feet, to a clean spot on the barn fioor. 

 Finding it difficult to untie it, he cut a hole in the 

 side and shook out about a peck of meal, and ate 

 w^hat he wished; and seeing the cow (the only 

 comjjanion he has these long winter nights) looking 

 with a longing eye at his pile of meal, he took up 

 the bag again, and carried it about ten feet further 

 to her manger, and shook out some more meal for 

 her. They were found in the mornhig feasting to- 

 geihev. 



A Knowing Horse. — "E. M.," of Belchertown, 

 writes to the Amherst Express about a very intel- 

 ligent horse, of which he is the owner. The follow- 

 ing incident, among others, illustrates the matter : 



"One day last week he was driven a few miles ..„^„._... „. 



out of town, and on his return, some time in the af-JMilwaukie, for $8000 



For the liew England Farmer. 



GRAFTING THE GRAPE. 



Mr. Brown : — From reading the queries and re- 

 marks in your paper of 29th ult., I feel disposed to 

 tender my mite of information and experience to 

 Mr. Farrai-, and all would-be-grafters of the noble 

 grape. I have grafted the grape vine with good 

 success, and it always pains me to see one of these 

 native vines, after becoming well established in the 

 soil, ruthlessly dug up us a nuisance, simply for the 

 want of a mite of information to enable its owner to 

 change it to any (or even all) of the different va- 

 rieties to be desired. In addition to Mr. Down- 

 ing's remarks, I would say, that it is better to use 

 Babbit's grafting wax, as it facihtates the union be- 

 tween the stock and scion, and if put on with care 

 (the same as in ordinary grafting) it prevents the 

 stock from bleeding; so that one can graft them as 

 early in the spring as the frost will permit, thereby 

 securing a better growth and ripening of the wood, 

 than if postponed till June. The grand secret of 

 success is, in keeping all sprouts from groiving on 

 the head or bulb of the vine grafted. Generally, on 

 a vine, where the roots and top unite, there is an 

 enlargement, (which I call the head,) which is full 

 of eyes, which are very ready to put forth and ab- 

 sorb the sap and supply the place of the old vine 

 removed. As often as once a week I dig around 

 the head of the vine, and remove all the sprouts, 

 taking great care not to break the buds of the sci- 

 ons or disturbjthem in the least. I never leave but 

 two buds on a scion, and cover them with fine earth, 

 over which strew a little fine mulching, so that it 

 will keep moist around the buds. 



I hope Mr. F., and many others, will try the 

 above, lor I think they will be more than satisfied 

 with the result. ' Reader. 



Winchester, Jipril, 1856. 



lEF^Mr. Willis, of Orange, Mass., has sold the 

 right of his "Improved Stump Extractor," for the 

 States of Wisconsin and Iowa, to a gentleman in 



