448 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



speaking, take a good deal of pride in showing 

 folks how things can be done, and what mon- 

 strous crops can be raised, and what mammoth 

 cattle can be produced. The reader will recollect 

 that it is the profit that we are looking at, and not 

 that great things can be done, or that farming is 

 not a very agreeable way of spending money. 



I never heard of but one man who had made 

 anything like a fortune at farming, and this was 

 an honest old deacon, who was so highly elated 

 with his great success, that he concluded to lec- 

 ture on it before the town society. Of course 

 everybody was on the qui vive to know how it was 

 done, so he had an anxious auditory. I will not 

 undertake to follow him in his remarks here, but 

 will merely state that he closed evidently with as 

 much satisfaction at his success at lecturing, as 

 at fortune-making. The lecture had no other ef- 

 fect that I could see, than to create a smile on 

 the part of the listeners, and reminding one of 

 the anecdote of the lawyer and the iron kettle. 

 The lawyer arose in court with a good deal of 

 pomposity, and says, "Your honor, my client 

 here is accused of stealing an iron kettle, now, 

 may it please the court, I shall prove in the first 

 place, that this plaintiff here never owned an iron 

 kettle ; and in the second place, that the ket- 

 tle was broke when he took it ; and in the third 

 place, that he never took the kettle at all." This 

 was about the way with the deacon's fortune. 



The reader will please excuse this seeming di- 

 gression, although it is not really so, for we have 

 just this class in the community, who, like this 

 deacon, imagine they have great success, and 

 never find out their mistake, till it is too late to 

 remedy the evil. 



Does the reader want any facts to prove what I 

 have said ? If so, and he will listen one momt-nt, 

 I will give him a few of the many that are now 

 on my mind. Go into the rural districts and see 

 what proportion of the farms have been long in 

 the market without a customer, price them, then 

 figure up the improvements, and see if the soil is 

 not a free gift. Go further than this, and price 

 the yearling heifer you see in the yard, Now ask 

 what it cost to raise it, and you will be told, I 

 don't know. This is true, he don't know. But 

 Dr. Bartlett, of this town, will tell you that it 

 costs twenty-three dollars to raise a yearling and 

 this is probably about double the price named. 

 Then ask what he gets for his milk? Two cents 

 per quart. Is this the cost ? I don't know. Hear 

 what the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture 

 in this State, says in the matter. '"By actual ex- 

 periment at the State Farm at Westboro", it has 

 been proved to cost twenty-five cents per day for 

 the six cold months, and six cents per day for the 

 other six, to keep a cow." This would make the 

 cost of keeping a cow one year, fifty-seven dollars 

 and twenty cents. Now, how much milk will a cow 

 give in a year? Our farmer says he don't know. 

 And he tells the truth, undouhte ily. But what 

 ■^-ill our authority tell us has been proved to be 

 the fact ? On the average for each day in the 

 year, a good cow will give four quarts per day, or 

 1460 quarts a year, which, at two and a half 

 cents per quart, amounts to thirtj'-six dollars 

 and fifty cents a year, making a loss of twenty 

 dollars and seventy cents a year, for each cow, 

 calling the manure suihcient compensation for 

 taking care of them. 



I might carry these remarks to a much greater 

 extent with about the same result, but fear I am 

 getting tedious, and intend to refer to the subject 

 again, if the Farvier will give me the privilege. 



Now, I want to thank the editor of this paper 

 for bringing up the subject in his last issue ; for 

 it is the profit of farming that we want to talk 

 about, and not what we can do. But the grand 

 question with the farmer is, will it pay to do it? 

 I have the very best authority for saying that no 

 business that does not pay, is useful and health- 

 ful. T. J. PiNKHAM. 



Chelmsford, Mass., July 25, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 UNFRUITFUL GRAPE VINES. 



I noticed in the Farmer, some time since, an 

 inquiry why a particular vine of the Isabella 

 grape could not be made to bear ; and in reply, 

 an intimation that the cause might be its stand- 

 ing at a distance from any other vine. I have 

 proved by numerous experiments, that the grape 

 does not need the vicinity of another vine, as each 

 flower has all the organs necessary to fruitfulness. 

 I will suggest that exposure to the cold of winter 

 sometimes injures vines without killing them. In 

 this case the vine will leave later in the season, 

 but afterwards may make a luxuriant growth. In 

 such cases the flower buds, though perfectly 

 formed before, develop only leaves. This is al- 

 most uniformly the case in all attempts to culti- 

 vate the peach in Maine. The trees will grow 

 rapidly, and one acquainted with the peach will 

 find abundance of flower buds perfectly formed 

 in the fall; but in the spring these buds throw 

 out only leaves, the flower germ having been 

 killed by freezing, while the leaf germ, (if I may 

 use such a distinction,) survives. Grape vines 

 must be sheltered in winter to secure fruit. When 

 the IsabelU, left without proper shelter, succeeds 

 in making fruit, it will be a fortnight later in ri- 

 pening than the fruit of a properly protected 

 vine. J. S. SwiFT. 



Farmington, Me., August, 1859. 



Remarks. — Mr. J. J. H. Gregory, of Mar- 

 blehead, in a recent communication on this sub- 

 ject gives as a reason why some grape vines do 

 not bear fruit, that they are imperfect ones. He 

 says: "Struck by the phenomenon of vines 

 abounding in fragrant blossoms without setting 

 fruit, I gathered the blossoms and compared them 

 with those from fruit-bearing vines. The diff'er- 

 ence was at once apparent ; the blossoms of the 

 two vines which had never borne were not perfect 

 in structure ; the stamens were present, but the 

 pistil was wanting. Such vines cannot bear — it 

 is a physical impossibility. Had the pistil been 

 present they might have borne, though the sta- 

 mens had been wanting, receiving pollen from 

 the stamens of other vines." 



^^ There is an average of 300 bushels of whor- 

 tleberries brought into the Boston market each 

 day. The consumers do not., however, all reside in 

 Boston. 



