410 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



at least the first year. The season for planting is 

 the last of May or first of June. The acre produ- 

 ces, as things are favorable or unfavorable, from 

 ten to twenty hundred pounds. 



Hitherto, it has been cultivated principally in 

 Holland; the province of Zealand, according to a 

 late traveller, being almost covered with if, and 

 from whence it is exported to every part of England 

 and America, "jielding almost incalculable profit." 



Several years since it was stated that the imports 

 of madder for the use of our own manufactures 

 amounted, annually, to more than two miUions of 

 dollars ! There is no reason, as it appears to us, 

 why our farmers should not succeed as well in the 

 cultivation of this imjiortant and valuable product, 

 as the Hollanders, and thus avail themselves of a 

 new resource, and an amount of income which 

 would be of great benefit, not only in its effects up- 

 on their own interests, individually, but upon the 

 interests of the country at large. 



Successful experiments have already been made 

 in Otsego and Madison counties, New York, and 

 very favorable results are anticipated by those who 

 have commenced the business of growing it, as a 

 field crop, in other parts. 



For the New England Fanner. 



OBJECTIONS TO FARMING. 



Mr. Editor : — As I like farming best of all oc- 

 cupations to which I have as yet turned my 

 thoughts, the desire to become a fiirmer is natural- 

 ly uppermost in my mind ; but the pleasures and 

 advantages of learning which the farmer enjoys are 

 so few, — when there is no capital to work on, — 

 that I am deterred from ever trying to become a 

 farmer. 



In your valuable paper of June 7th, in the biog- 

 raphy of Luther Carlton, were contained those very 

 objections, which I have against the life of a far- 1 

 mer. Although it was written for the express pur-j 

 pose of encouraging, yet it has the tendency of di- 

 heartening the young beginner in the all important 

 branch of business, farming, if I may judge from 

 myself. The account was altogether too true to be 

 passed by unheeded. It was the only piece, Mr. 

 P'ditor, that I have seen in your ever-w^elcorae pa- 

 per for a great while, which pictured out in ti'ue 

 colors the life of a poor farmer. The condition of 

 liUther Carlton, from childhood till death, was the 

 same as that of many farmers by whom we are sur- 

 rounded. 



And now, who, Mr. Editor, having read the life 

 of this wortliy man, and being in the same situation 

 in regard to the good things of this world — name- 

 ly, money, — could ever wish to become a farmer ? 

 Who is there to whom tlie love of this life is so 

 dear that he would be willing to bend his neck to the 

 yoke of ignorance, and submit himself to the servi- 

 tude of a farmer's life for the sake of living ? Who 

 is there, who is willing to work hard from sun to sun, 

 toil with might and main six days out of every seven, 

 following in the steps of his fathers, without the 

 means of trying any new course in the art of hus- 

 bandry, and without the means of carrying out any 

 new thought of his ovm which may appear to hira 



to be advantageous? Who is there, who will 

 choose a life in the country, and work and toil da_ 

 after day for the pri^ilege of breathing the open air 

 and be deprived of the advantages of learning which 

 are opened to professional men ; and, to a greater 

 degree to the mechanics who reside in the city 

 than to tiie farmer ? What, Mr. Editor, is a far- 

 mer without learning ? Even though a man has 

 heaps of money — if he is without the desire of 

 study — is it anything more than downright slavery ? 



Perhaps, you ask, why has not the farmer the 

 advantages of learning ? has he not the privilege of 

 attending lectures on different subjects through the 

 winter? Are there no books and newspapers in 

 the country ? Yes, Mr. Editor, there are all these ; 

 yet a few farmers only of the "upper ten" can af- 

 ford to enjoy them ? And why ? First, because 

 we have not time to spare. Secondly, because our 

 motto is, and has been, and must ever be, if things 

 remain as they are now, "a penny saved is two 

 pence clear." Thirdly, because, having never 

 learned the first principles of science when young, 

 the farmer has no desire to study them when he is 

 old. 



These, then, are my objections against farming ; 

 first, because I have no money, and no chance of 

 gaining it by farming ; secondly, because there are 

 so few opportunities enjoyed by the farmer of im- 

 proving iiis mind ; and I consider that the only 

 thing worth living for ; the only lasting work 

 which we can accomplish upon the earth ; the only 

 thing which we can do that will be of any advan- 

 tage to us hereafter. And therefore, that avoca- 

 tion, and that only, which affords the greatest means 

 for the accomplishment of this purpose will be 

 chosen by mc ; and would to God that it was, as 

 it might be, farming. Yours respectfully, 



BriJgcwaler, June 9. A Farmer's Son. 



Remarks. — The foregoing is one of a class of 

 letters that we occasionally receive, and to which 

 we have on several occasions more or less fully re- 

 plied. This one has remained on file some weeks, 

 not because we lacked the disposition to take im- 

 mediate notice of the communication, but because 

 other pressing duties have fully occupied our time, 

 and, we may here confess, — as the apology has a 

 direct bearing on the subject of the letter before 

 us, — because, after considerable experience in both, 

 we find it much easier to w'ork on our farm, than 

 to write editorials, and that it is with a hearty re- 

 luctance that we go from the labors of the fields to 

 those of the editorial office. 



As an expression of the feelings of a multitude 

 of the sons of farmers in all parts of the country, 

 we are disposed to regard with much deference 

 these well-stated objections to farming, however in- 

 conclusive they may appear to ourselves. 



We must confess, at the outset, to no little sur- 

 prise at the impression which a biography lately 

 published in our paper has made upon the mind of 

 our young friend. The individual who wrote that 

 article wished to avoid that indiscriminate praise 

 and eulogy which are too common in obituary no- 

 tices, and he might perhaps have thought too little 



