54 



NEW ENGLAND FARI^IER. 



Jan. 



es to the adjoining fields and woods ; the com- 

 fortable enclosures that resounded with the low- 

 ing of cattle and the cheerful noise of poultry, 

 and worst fate of all, the old farm-house, Avhere 

 the patriarch of a small estate presided over a 

 happy family, happy, because they were free and 

 healthfully employed — all, all arc sv/ept away by 

 this besom of improvement. 



And where are the inhabitants ? The sturdy 

 yeoman, who, though doomed to hard labor, 

 foimd this labor sweet, because it was volunta- 

 ry ; the happy and independent swain who called 

 no man master, and who was really a king in his 

 own acres, is now a hired servant of the corpo- 

 ration The farmers, their wives and their chil- 

 dren, have all been reduced to servitude in this 

 grand manufactory of corn and vegetables. The 

 tiller of the soil has become a slave to his crops. 

 Each thousand acres devoted to a single crop is 

 managed by an agent imported from the city, 

 who understands book-keeping, but was never ac- 

 customed to labor. He receives a large salary, 

 and pays out their weekly pittance to the farm 

 laborers. In order to facilitate operations, there 

 is a minute division of labor, as in the cotton 

 and woollen factories. Some of the farmers are 

 employed exclusively as shovellers ; some are 

 used as drivers of cattle ; some ride on the en- 

 gine ; others are employed continually to follow 

 after the cattle and pick up their droppings, 

 which are all nicely economized, and never al- 

 lowed to lie and waste one minute upon the 

 ground. 



The several families, with the exception of 

 those who emigrated to some other place, are 

 tenants of wooden boxes, put up close to the 

 ground, for the economizing of land. All these 

 are in exact uniformity, and are owned by the 

 corporation. I ought to add that the majority 

 of the farmers, flattered with the hope of sudden 

 wealth, invested all their capital — the proceeds 

 of the sales of their estates — in the corporation 

 stock, which they were soon obliged to sell, at 

 an immense sacrifice, because the extravagance 

 and dishonesty of the company's agents, ab- 

 sorbed all the profits, and cut down their divi- 

 dends. In less than ten years, almost every one 

 of these independent farmers was a poor man ; 

 and th" village children who lived as free as the 

 birds of the air in their humble rural homes, now 

 work in platoons upon such parts of farm labor 

 as they are able to perform. Before the village 

 was sold, you might see these little children, 

 with their satchels, going regularly to the dis- 

 trict schools, clad in neat and various attire, 

 skipping and playing on the route, full of glad- 

 ness and freedom. Now they are called up in 

 the morning by the ringing of a bell. They rise, 

 they work, they eat, they go to bed and they 

 sleep to the sound of a bell, that tolls dismally 

 in their weary ears, the knell of all their former 

 joys. 



In the story of this once happy village and its 

 inhabitants, we may read the fate of the whole 

 country, should the steam-engine ever be intro- 

 duced into the business of agriculture : and this 

 would inevitably follow, if farming were to be 

 carried on by corporations, involving large 

 amounts of associated capital. Such a class as 

 that of independent laboring farmers — the only 

 under/eneraiedcliiiif, in any civilized community — 



would cease to exist. If it be '"progress" or "im- 

 provement" to convert all these valuable men 

 into hirelings, under the agents of mammoth 

 corporations — then we must adm.it the utility of 

 the change. But I am n:>t yet ready to admit 

 any measures to be progressive, which lessen the 

 happiness and liberty of men, how much soever 

 they may increase the productiveness of the arts. 



"Ill fares the land, to lurking ills a prey. 

 Where wealth accumulates anil men decav. 

 rrinces and lords may flourish and may fade ; 

 A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; 

 But a bold peasaatry — their country's pride — 

 When once destroyed, can never Iv supplied." 



For the New England farmer. 

 ROOT CROPS. 

 Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent "E. E.," in 

 the Farmer of November 6, inquires if I). Need- 

 ham can gather a hundred bushels of turnips for 

 three dollars ? and if so, he will try and hire him 

 to do it for him ; yet in his last paragraph, he 

 says he would not let you (or any one else,) put 

 a hundred bushels into his cellar, if they were 

 given to him. 



He then goes on to say, the raising of root 

 crops in his "region" was as fashionable fifteen 

 or twenty years ago, as it is unfashionable now. 

 He does not undertake to say, why others 

 changed, but gives his own reason for so doing. 

 His first trial, was to put some seeds into his hen 

 manure that he intended for corn, which resulted 

 in a great loss to his corn, where there was one 

 or two good turnips in the hill. Now I think 

 that is a new and very novel way of raising ruta- 

 bagas ; and I think it would not be surprising 

 to any one, that "one or two good stout turnips" 

 would take the "starch" out of a hill of corn ; 

 and that pretty effectually too ; and no wonder 

 that a portion of the stalks had "no maturing 

 ears on them." I can tell "E. E." that the sur- 

 est and the best way to raise root crops, is to 

 raise them separate from any other. If he would 

 like to know of an easy and expeditious method 

 of raising rutabagas, I can tell him how my ex- 

 perience has taught me. 



Select a piece of land that is suitable for corn, 

 that has been planted the last year to corn or po- 

 tatoes, so that it shall be mellow, and of fine 

 tilth. In the spring, when the ground is suf- 

 ficiently dry, plow it thoroughly, deep and fine, 

 and then harrow it down level ; now prepare a 

 good supply of manure, at the rate of twenty- 

 live to forty cart-loads to the acre ; then about 

 the last of June, spread on your manure, and 

 plow it in crosswise. Then harrow it again and 

 brush it perfectly smooth ; previous to which, 

 however, the stones and other obstacles should 

 be removed from the field, so as to facilitate the 

 running of the seed-sower. Now sow the seed 

 at the rate of a pound to the acre ; have the rows 

 at least thirty inches apart, so that you can 

 use a horse and cultivator ; with the aid of a boy 

 to lead, you can do the work of eight men with 

 hoes easily. When the plants are about two or 

 three inches high, thin them to one foot apart, 

 keep the ground clean and free from weeds, and 

 I will warrant a crop of turnips that will be a 

 pleasure to look at, equal to anything upon the 

 farm. 



As regards the labor of cutting turnips by 



