1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



447 



that the farmers themselves showed rather small, 

 — that they were pushed, or fell into the back- 

 ground — and but little was actually done, to pro- 

 mote the growth and improvement of agriculture. 

 When the energies of a society are expended in 

 getting up a grand festival, the real object of its 

 organization is apt to be overlooked. We take 

 it, the "chief end" of a country agricultural soci- 

 ety is to awaken in the people a deeper sense of 

 the importance of Agriculture, and to stimulate 

 the farmers to greater efforts to develop the ag- 

 ricultural capacities of the country. For this 

 purpose, the best specimens of stock and other 

 farm products are brought together, that they 

 may be seen and examined, and the improve- 

 ment, from year to year, noted. Premiums are 

 awarded to reward and encourage effort. If 

 military displays, military music, and fancy balls 

 and other side shows, are needed to accomplish 

 the legitimate objects of the societies, then let us 

 have them, by all means. 



"The whole programme of exercises for the 

 occasion was entirely and splendidly successful," 

 and "Wednesday and Thursday are days long to 

 be remembered in the history of the Barnstable 

 Agricultural Society." Well, we shall see. 



cannot raise beets, tomatoes, melons, onions, let- 

 tuce, and furnish her own table with them ? What 

 woman cannot plant a raspberry bush, or currant, 

 or gooseberry and tend it well ? Come, good wo- 

 men, study your health, your usefulness and hap- 

 piness, and your children also. — Valley Farmer. 



WrOMESN IN THE G^HDSN. 



Much in these days is said about the sphere of 

 woman. Of the vexed question we have nothing 

 now to say. The culture of the soil, the body 

 and the soul are our themes. Rich soils, healthy 

 bodies, pure, cultivated souls, these are what we 

 are aiming at. And to this end we recommend 

 that every country Avoman have a garden that she 

 keep and dress with her own hands, or that she 

 supervise and manage. The culture of straw- 

 berries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, 

 currants and garden vegetables is as delightful 

 and profitable as anything in which a woman can 

 engage. She may sprinkle her garden well with 

 flowers. All the better for that. A snowball in 

 this corner, a rose in that, a dahlia bed there and 

 a moss border here will not be out of place. Only 

 let the substantial and useful constitute the chief 

 part. A touch of the ornate, like a ribbon on a 

 good bonnet, is not in the least objectionable. In 

 all the schools the girls study botany. In all 

 families the women ought to practice botany. It 

 is healthful, pleasing and useful. The principles 

 of horticulture are the principles of botany put 

 into practice. Farmers study agriculture, why 

 should not their wives and daughters study hor- 

 ticulture ? If any employment is feminine, it 

 ■would seem that this is. If any is healthy, this 

 must be. If any is pleasurable, none can be 

 more so than this. A rich bed of strawberries, a 

 bush of blackberries or currants, a border of flow- 

 ers produced by one's own hand, what can well 

 afford a more rational satisfaction ? We say to 

 all our country sisters, have a garden, if only a 

 small one, and do your best with it. Plant it 

 with what pleases you best, with a good variety, 

 and see what you can do with it. What woman 



For the New England Farmer. 

 IS THERE ANY PROFIT IN FARMING? 



Mr. Editor : — I have been some seven or 

 eight years engaged in the business of agricul- 

 ture, and have generally found the answer to the 

 above question to be in the negative in most of 

 my direct operations on the farm. I have been 

 also somewhat observant of the progress of my 

 brother farmers in this section, and New Hamp- 

 shire, to some extent; also, I have taken some 

 pains to inquire of those whom I meet from oth- 

 er sections of this, and other States ; and if I 

 should tell what I honestly believe in the matter, 

 I should say that not one farmer in ten is mak- 

 ing a living, unless he has some resource besides 

 the farm, and laying by three per cent, on the 

 capital invested. 



Perhaps you will say, it is not good policy to 

 publish this to the world, as most farmers are in 

 debt, and, as the Frenchman said, "they are 

 growing no better very fast." Now, if what I say 

 is true, that agriculture is not a paying business 

 in New England, that the farmers are working 

 hard and long, to no profit, that they are gener- 

 ally in debt, and many hopelessly so — that farm 

 property is deteriorating in value, (I mean the 

 real property,) in three-foutths of the towns 

 where farming is the principal pursuit ; that the 

 report on the poor in this State shows that it 

 costs nearly double according to the population 

 for their support in the agricultural, than in the 

 manufacturing and mechanical towns and cities 

 of the commonwealth ; that no poor man, howev- 

 er industrious, can expect to succeed in the busi- 

 ness ; if he makes the attempt, it is only to his 

 sorrow ; that, while catering to the wants and 

 comforts of others, he can but illy afford to enjoy 

 them himself; that, in short, while seeing the 

 thrift and prosperity of the different classes all 

 around him, who are non-producers, he must re- 

 main content. 



Now, says the reader, is this so ? I supposed 

 that the farmers all the time lived in clover : that 

 they were almost the only truly independent and 

 happy people amongst us ; that they had nothing 

 I to do but to pluck and eat. What made you thnik 

 I so ? Have you been in the habit of listening to 

 [the speeches of some official or ex-official, (who 

 I is anxious to cut off the ex,) at some County or 

 I State show, or perhaps on the eve of an election, 

 ;or is it some "three-cow gentleman farmer" who 

 jhas told you about the "six bright milk pans 

 which reclined against the fence," or "the angel 

 ■cow that stood in the yard ?" All this is very 

 pretty to talk about, and it is undoubtedly high- 

 ly agreeable to farm when one has money to 

 1 spend that he never earned, or having earned a 

 'fV)rtune at some other pursuit, is willing to spend 

 a portion of it in this way. to make a show, or 

 for the public good, either of which is highly det- 

 rimental to the true interest of the farmer. Per- 

 haps this class of farmers of whom I am now 



