322 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



be so affected as to lose their identity, and produce 

 the next year a flower of another color and form. 

 But is this ever the case ? In the seed you will see 

 tlie effects of their proximity. So with dahlias as 

 with ])otatoes, who ever heard of the bulbs or tu- 

 bers being changed by standing near others ? I 

 have had a hundred sorts planted out together year 

 after year without the slightest change having ta- 

 ken place, but "like produced like," and will contin- 

 ue to, till the last great trumj^et blows. That the 

 seed of these dahlias would have produced varieties 

 very unlike, and have shown the effects of standing 

 with other sorts, I grant. The ])osition the gentle^ 

 man takes will lead him into innumerable difficul- 

 ties from wliich he will find it hard to extricate 

 himself, because according to his theory the ferti- 

 lizing matter, or pollen, has such an influence as 

 not only to change the flower, (or rather the seed 

 from tlie flower,) but exerts an influence on stock 

 and root so that we might expect a Baldwin apple 

 tree would be so wrought upon that it might pro- 

 duce Kussetts, or Hubhardston Nonsuch, the next 

 year. I trust that every person acquainted with 

 vegetable physiology will see the ftillacy of such 

 reasoning. Again, he says, in proof of his i)osition 

 that he planted Jenny Lind potatoes, and they 

 changed color ; does not the gentleman know that 

 some varieties are not fixed, but constantly sj)ort in 

 this way. I, too, have the Jenny Lind potatoes 

 and though most of the potatoes are a light red, 

 yet some are perfectly white ; some other sorts do 

 the same, but it is not owing to being plan- 

 ted together, they would do it if planted a hun- 

 dred miles from any other sort. 1 know a seed- 

 dling Camelia, belong...g to Messrs. Hovey & 

 Co., of I5oston, that produces four or five different 

 colored flowers, and would do so if transj)lanted 

 any distance you ])lease from all other plants of 

 that class. Dahlias and many other things sport 

 in the same way. I pretend to know somethin^ 

 of potatoes, having for the last few years ])lanted 

 many sorts, and that too in the same field, and with 

 the closest observation I have never been able to 

 detect anything like the tubers mixing through 

 the flowers. This year I have planted sixty-six 

 kinds in the same field, a row of each, and I am 

 willing to risk my reputation in saying, that "like 

 will produce like" in color, form, quality, and every- 

 thing else. J. F. C. H. 

 JVewton Centre, May Slst, 1856. 



About Trees. — The attention of the reader is 

 particularly called to the proposition of our able 

 correspondent Wilson Flagg, Esq., to deliver two 

 Lectures on "The Relation of Trees to the Atmos- 

 phere and Climate." It is a subject little understood 

 — we are glad to find it in such able hands, and 

 hope the services of the lecturer will be secured by 

 most of the towns in the State. He will make the 

 lectures interesting and profitable to any audience. 



The Ohio Valley Farmer, is anew paper, just 

 issued at Cincinnati, by Messrs. Cropper & Brown. 

 It is in quarto form, monthly, at $ 1 a year. Its 

 pages are well filled, and the salutatory, by the ed- 

 itor, B. T. Sanford, is of the right sort. Success 

 to the enterprise. 



J'^or the New England Farmer, 



RURAL ECONOMY OF THE BRITISH 

 ISLES-No. 14. . 



northern counties. 



Lancashire, Yoek, Dckham, Westmoreiand, Cumberiaitd, 

 Northumberland. 



The northern region, the last to come under our 

 notice, before quitting England proper, commences 

 with Lancashire, appended to which, and of the 

 same character, is the West Riding of Yorkshire. 

 Here, everything is on a large scale. Lancashire 

 has an area of 1,200,000 acres, and a population of 

 upwards of 2,000,000, which is nearly two per acre ! 

 The southern part of the county is the chief 

 seat of manufactures, and the most densely popula- 

 ted, and Liverpool and Manchester cover it with 

 their dependencies. 



This is the most productive, and the dullest dis- 

 trict in the world. Let any one fancy an immense 

 morass, shut in between the sea on one side, and 

 mountains on the other ; stiff clay land, with an im- 

 pervious subsoil, every way hostile to farming ; add 

 to this, a most gloomy climate, continual rain, a con- 

 stant cold sea wind, a thick smoke shutting out what 

 little light penetrates the foggy atmosphere, ground, 

 inhabitants and dwellings covered with a coating of 

 black dust, — a strange country ; earth and air, in it, 

 seem to be a mixture of coal and water. Such, 

 however, is the influence upon agricultural produc- 

 tion of an earnest mai-ket for its products, that 

 these fields, so gFoomy, are rented, on an average, 

 at seven dollars and a half an acre ; and, in the 

 environs of the two cities, arable land lets at $20 

 the acre. 



At one time, Lancashire was a county of large 

 property, and large forming ; large property still 

 remains, but farming is more divided with the 

 increase of population. Even in the midst of this 

 dense population, room is found for a number of 

 gentlemen's parks — much to the discontent of the 

 Manchester school, who dislike to see these large 

 tracts withdrawn from farming. An association 

 has been formed, with Mr. Cobden at its head, 

 which numbers thousands of adherents, and a large 

 subscription, for the purpose of buying large prop- 

 erties and cutting them up into small lots. In fact, 

 the opinions of this district are as democratic as 

 those of New England. The repeal of the corn- 

 laws was the work of Manchester ; yet Lord Der- 

 by, one of the most strenuous opposers of the meas- 

 ure, is one of the largest proprietors in Lancashire. 

 At one time, he a])peared likely to overthrow the 

 repeal, as minister ; but ended by confirming it. 

 Before yielding, as minister, to the force of public 

 opinion, he made up his mind as proprietor. He 

 succeeded in averting any reduction of his rents, by 

 using the great antidote, that universal remedy — 

 drainage. His whole lands were under-drained, 

 the farmers paying five per cent, on the outlay, in 

 addition to their rents. Such is the effect of drain- 

 ing upon these clay lands, under that damj) climate 

 that every one profits by it, even Lord Derby, him- 

 self, in spite of himself. English farming was 

 brought into competition with the farming of the 

 whole world, by the repeal of the corn laws — pro- 

 prietors met the competition by advancing still 

 more capital to agriculture, in outlays for drainage. 

 New Engalnd, when brought into competition with 

 the Western States, in farming, has, so to speak, 

 left her plow in the furrow, and moved into the 



