100 



NEW ENGLAiSTD FARMER. 



Feb. 



At one of the barns where the stock is kept, 

 water is brought by a hydraulic ram, to the yard, 

 and thus an otherwise heavy and constant labor 

 is averted. Arrangements are being made to in- 

 troduce water to the other barn by the same 

 means. Just as we were leaving the premises, we 

 noticed eight fine shoats, and about 100 fowls. 

 Mr. W. informed us that he had made careful 

 experiments in feeding the fowls, and had ascer- 

 tained that he cou)d feed them liberally on a va- 

 riety of food, at a cost not exceeding one-third 

 of a cent per day, and that the results -were so 

 favorable that he intends to increase the number 

 to five hundred, the coming summer. 



In managing these farms, Mr. Wood introdu- 

 ces the best implements he can find, whether his 

 great grandfather ever used them or not. His 

 grass is mostly cut with mowing machines, and 

 raked by horse-power, while his plows, harrows, 

 seed-sowers and weeders, are all of the latest con- 

 struction, if he finds they work better and quick- 

 er than older ones. He is a man of progress. 

 His farm-work is all twice performed ; first by 

 Head- Work, and then by Hand- Work, — so that 

 his men are moved by a system, and are never 

 vexed by delays and contrary directions. He 

 makes his '-brief," as well as the lawyer, and a 

 glance at it shows him precisely where he stands, 

 or in other words, where he stuck up his hoe ! 

 When he is appointed to lead in a discussion at 

 the Farmers' Club, he devotes an evening to an 

 investigation of the subject, and is thus prepared 

 to speak upon it with profit to others, and credit 

 to himself. 



Last summer he had some dozen acres of rye 

 to harvest, very little of which stood less than 

 six feet high. It occurred to him that reaping 

 rye was a slow and laborious process, so he in- 

 troduced scythes into his fields, and before three 

 acres had been gone over, skill had been acquir- 

 ed to cut it, and lay it out in rows quite as well 

 as the reapers did, and at least five times as fast. 



The first year I obtained about a quart of tu- 

 bers from the size of a pea to that of a walnut — 

 the second season some of them increased to a 

 moderate size for the table — the third many of 

 them were full size — and the last year they av- 

 erage as well as potatoes generally for size. 



Though the seed was from an early dark pur- 

 ple roundish potato, the produce is nearly all of 

 a yellow cast — many of the Carter shape — some 

 ripened with early potatoes, some are late. 



Now as to quality. I have never found one 

 decidedly good. Some few, not many, have rot- 

 ted. They are generally pretty smooth, the eye 

 less sunken than most potatoes — most of them 

 are hard and require thorough boiling, and then 

 appear more like a natural than a cultivated 

 plant. What may be the result of further cul- 

 ture, remains to be seen. 



We are more inclined to speak of success than 

 of a failure, and while it would have been grati- 

 fying to me, I prefer to state facts, and the re- 

 sult of experience and observation, believing it 

 to be the true way to promote the cause of agri- 

 culture in its various departments. 



Truly yours, S. s. 



Amlierst, Jan. 3, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 BAKN CELLAK VS. OUT-DOOK MANUBE. 



Friend Brown : — I have read lately an article 

 in the Farmer from the pen of Mr. Mansfield, of 

 Needham, on the subject of manure ; and as I do 

 not believe in the doctrine therein advanced, I 

 propose to say a few words about it. 



If his doctrine is true, it must be that I live in 

 a very benighted neighborhood, so far as manure 

 and barn cellars are concerned, at least. There are 

 in this neighborhood twenty-three farms adjoin- 

 ing each other ; seven in iJracut and sixteen in 

 Pelham, with cellars under the barns where ma- 

 nure is kept and composted, and I will venture the 

 assertion that there cannot be found that number 

 of adjoining farms in New England where better 

 corn, in quantity and quality, is raised than we 

 have raised since those cellars were built, taking 

 the quality of land into the account — and more 

 than that, we have no trouble about our corn 

 coming up, so far as I have learned. 



It is well known to every good farmer that 

 manure may be, and often is, strong enough to 

 kill corn and other tender plants, when the seed 

 is put directly upon it, and the man who does 

 not compost and reduce this cellar manure, or 

 use it in some other way than putting it in the 



For the New England Farmer. 

 POTATOES PBOM SEED. 



"Reader, will you write for ?" 



This question, which I find in a leading agri- 

 cultural journal, awakened a desire to make I hill, has scarcely taken his first lesson in farming, 

 some small return for the valuable information 1 1 and ought to lose' his crop a few times, until he 



obtain through agricultural journals, none of 

 which do I prize more highly than the New Eng- 

 land Farmer. I have no theory to maintain, but 



can learn better. Your correspondent says not 

 one word about the way he uses his manure, so 

 that wc mav infer that it kills, let him use it as 



in what I have to say, and with full leave for the he will. He had better take 100 pounds of clear 

 free use of scissoi's or fire, I will give you my ! manure, dried in the cellar, and another 100 



experience in 



RAISING POTATOES FROH SEED. 

 Five years ago, finding on some early purple 

 potatoes an abundance of very large balls, it oc-,. ^ . , 



curred to me that it must be a healthy variety, j^ » cellar under cattle, as th^y do out in good 

 and a good one to test the experiment of invigor-P^ns or on horse manure ^^. 1. CUTTER, 

 ating the tuber, and producing new varieties. I Felham, N. H., Dec. 2J, lbo». 



from under the eaves of the barn, and make them 

 separately into a liquid and give them a fair trial, 

 before he gives up his cellar. 



I am well aware that hogs do not do as well 



