118 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



those situations on the plains near the river are 

 healthiest. This may be a fact ; but it determines 

 nothing against the principle. If they are health- 

 iest, it is because the miasma rising into the air 

 passes over the plains. But somebody gets it — 

 those v.'ho live on the hills and highlands. Fogs 

 will be seen settling on the hills. This may be 

 the reason why some situations on the hills are 

 so unhealthy, as some in this town are more so 

 than other places ; and thus by the miasma rising 

 higher into the air, the injurious effects are more 

 widely spread. For even a light wind, moving 

 at the rate of twenty or thirty miles an hour, 

 will carry the noxious effluvia over a broad ex- 

 tent of territory. Therefore the question is not 

 altogether local, but concerns the inhabitants of 

 distant parts of the State. The flowage of so 

 much land in various parts of New England may 

 be one cause of a decrease of health ; for few 

 things are more injurious than impure air — 

 whether in doors or out. 



Then, as flowage of land, not only in this case, 

 but in others, is for the advantage of a few indi- 

 viduals to the injury of many, is it not the duty 

 of every advocate of equality of rights to define 

 the privileges of all according to strict justice ? 

 Will future legislators show the blindness of 

 their predecessors to common rights and privi- 

 leges, by further enactments, or remain silent 

 regarding the present, favoring incorporated 

 companies at the expense of general loss ? Can 

 an individual man, without money and without 

 influence, boast of an independent government 

 and equality of rights, if money and influence are 

 weights in the scale of justice ? 



It is to be hoped that the agitation of this 

 question will not cease, until justice shall have 

 asserted its power in determining the rights and 

 privileges of incorporated companies, and in sus- 

 taining the common rights of all. 



L. H. Sherman. 



Wat/land, Mass., Jan., 1859. 



For the equestrian spirit manifested by this 

 society I cannot say as much. Premiums for 

 horsQS, in every possible form, and twice as much 

 as for neat stock, are still proposed. This seems 

 to indicate, a sort of bravado interest, as much 

 as to say, we know what we are about, and will 

 do as we please, let others say what they may 

 against it. I do not run to horse, so much as do 

 our fri'-nds at Plymouth, at Springfield, and at 

 Worcester, and I think the time will come, when 

 they will see the error of their ways. If they do 

 not, I think their practices will be a great dam- 

 per upon healthy agricultural improvement in 

 the Commonwealth. Essex. 



January, 1859. 



For the Aeto England Farmer. 



AGRICULTUBAL TKAWSACTIOJSTS AT 

 PLYMOUTH COUNTY. 



I always look at these with great interest, know- 

 ing the wisdom and experience that has directed 

 them. I was particularly pleased to see in the 

 publication for 1850, a compendious digest of 

 the mode of growing Indian corn, in that region 

 by r gentleman who has probably given more at- 

 tention to this matter ihan any other in the 

 State. On looking it over, I do not find any es- 

 sential difference in his rules, from what I had 

 been taught from my youth. He would have 

 the ground plowed six or seven inches deep, and 

 dressed with about eight cords of manure to the 

 acre. He would have the seed selected in the 

 field — well-formed ears, that ripen the earliest ; 

 hills about three feet apart, and four stalks, the 

 most vigorous, ultimately left in the hill. These 

 will give a sufficiency of stalks to yield an abun- 

 dant harvest — say eighty bushels to the acre. 

 More than this may not be expected, without 

 extra hoeing and manuring. For the manures 

 about our barns and pig-sties he gives a prefer- 

 ence, not rejecting entirely the new-fangled pre- 

 parations, far-fetched and dear-bought. Such 

 sound advice as this I respect, wherever found. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ROOT CHOPS. 



Mr. Editor : — As I am the only one of your 

 correspondents, who does not think much of tur- 

 nips as a crop to raise for stock and hogs, you 

 will allow me to be heard oftener than you would 

 if others took the same side. Your correspond- 

 ents give me all sorts of advice, and recommend 

 turnips for all kinds of stock. Gentlemen, I am 

 much obliged to you, but I have tried chem to 

 my entire satisfaction, and reject them. 



They raise them much cheaper than I ever did, 

 but even at their tables of cost, I do not Avish 

 to buy. I would like to see a statement of the 

 exact cost of raising a field, from the time the 

 ground was plowed in the spring, till the last 

 bushel was fed out, either in hours or dollars, not 

 estimated, but kept from day to day. Your cor- 

 respondent, Mr. Bassett, gives his statement, but 

 I presume he will not say that $7 was the exact 

 cost of raising his 103 bushels of turnips, but 

 only the estimated cost, in his opinion. 



He took sixteen rods, or one-tenth of an acre, 

 and calls the manure 81,00. I do not know the 

 worth of manure with him, but here at 85 a 

 cord, and to those who buy it costs more, it would 

 be about one-half an ox-cart full, or allowing 

 that but half the goodness of the manure was 

 spent, one cart full, or ten loads to the acre. To 

 use his own language, "Would any sane man ven- 

 ture to put ten loads of manure to an acre of 

 land for a root crop ?" 



He recommends me to read a communication 

 signed "The Desponding Farmer." I do not 

 think that v/ould apply to me, as I both like 

 farming, and think I find it profitable. I love 

 the farm, the stock, the barn, the produce, and 

 all that a good farm produces. I have had quite 

 a number of farms thrown upon my hands, as 

 guardian, executor and administrator, and in ev- 

 ery instance, I have been able to show an income 

 in dollars and cents, more than the interest of 

 what the farm brought, over and above the carry- 

 ing on, taxes, &c., and that without cutting wood 

 or timber. 



I agree with Mr. Bassett that the hog, proper- 

 ly cared for, is a very important consideration 

 with regard to the corn crop, and all other crops. 

 I believe that a hog, well cared for, will make 

 extra corn on an acre enough to fat him. 



But his last conclusion I do not believe in : — 

 "That no turnips, no hogs." I have thirty of 

 the hog kind, large and small, and I do not find 



