1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



203 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 A DAY AT BRIGHTON, 



Thursday, oi- market day at Brighton, is dis- 

 tinctly announced, by the many carriages which 

 are seen rattling along the road ; these are usual- 

 ly distinguished by the absence of ladies, and 

 sometimes still more conspicuously by the addi- 

 tion of a lame or bliad horse hitched on behind, 

 while a yoke of oxen or a couple of cows, sound 

 or unsound, frequently bring up the rear. As 

 we approach still nearer to Brighton, the number 

 of carriages increase, fast horses rush past us at 

 every turn, while the jolly farmer with his fat and 

 contented horse may be seen plodding slowly and 

 happily along. The rattling of carriages, the low- 

 ing of cattle, and the bleating of sheep announce 

 our entrance to the great cattle market of New 

 England. 



Having put up our tired horse at the stable 

 near the Brighton Hotel, where a hundred other 

 equally tired horses are hurriedly eating their 

 provender, the first thing that attracts our atten- 

 tion, (if it is in the fall of the year,) is, the great 

 quantity of goods offered for sale in the open air 

 on the piazza of the Brighton Hotel, and in front 

 of the neighboring stores. The voice of the auc- 

 tioneer is distinctly heard above all the bustle 

 and confusion of the place ; and, although very 

 many useful articles are sold here very cheap, yet 

 sometimes the buyer l)ays pretty dear for his 

 whistle. Good leather trunks have been sold 

 here for the low price of two dollars, but they af- 

 terward proved to be made of brown paper ; and 

 woolen cloth for twenty-five cents per yard, but 

 it afterwards proved to be made from old rags. 



As it is near eleven o'clock, we will next visit 

 the place where any quantity of old, lame, blind 

 or diseased horses may be bought at prices va- 

 rying from seventy-five cents to five dollars, and 

 where better ones may be bought from that sum, 

 up to any price you wish. Some apparently good 

 horses are sold here very cheap, but sometimes 

 horses are sold here, having various diseases, 

 from glanders down ; and having all manner of 

 ugly tricks, from kicking wagons to pieces up. 

 We think there must be some risk in purchasing 

 here, without alluding to the chance of getting a 

 stolen horse. 



We will now pass to the cattle-yards, where 

 W'e see superior beeves, strong working oxen, 

 handsome heifers and steers, beautiful cows, in- 

 nocent lambs and fat sheep, and a large number 

 of swine, judging from the music they make. 

 With these, also, there is much inferior stock, 

 and sometimes a diseased or an ugly cow, or an 

 ox that has been strained by overdrawing, or bit- 

 ten by a mad dog, is skilfully sold to an unsus- 

 pecting purchaser. After having considered all 

 these things, we conclude to purchase, and, in 

 our haste to do so, we run against a couple of 

 Irish women who are buying a pig ; attempting 

 to apologize, we stumble over the pig himself. 

 We pick ourselves up, and see a mulatto sitting 

 on a plank, playing on a banjo and singing about 

 glorious Brighton day. 



We next buy a yoke of oxen, very cheap ! The 

 fellow who sold them seemed to be in a great 

 hurry, he takes his money and runs. One ox 

 turned out to be very badly strained by over- 

 drawing, and we believe the name of the disease 



which it caused, is termed red water. We soon 

 ascertain that the cattle had been sold there four 

 times before, and were pretty well known by 

 those Avho frequent Brighton. We sold them to 

 a person who was well posted up in Brighton af- 

 fairs for twenty dollars less than we gave, and as 

 one ox was worthless, we think we made a good 

 trade. He sold them the next market day at a 

 fair profit. We then bought another yoke of cat- 

 tle which proved well, and we returned home ap- 

 parently satisfied with our day's labor. AVe con- 

 clude this imperfect but truthful sketch with the 

 wish, that the farming readers of the Farmer 

 have all made as many good trades in Brighton 

 as the undersigned, and not half as many poor 

 ones. » J. N. s. 



South Walpole, Muss. 



Remakks. — We long since learned that it is 

 not all gold that glitters, nor can it be all sham or 

 false at Brighton. Would it not be well for our 

 correspondent to give some of the real merits of 

 Brighton Market ? 



HOGS VS. DOGS. 



""WTiat a dog lives upon Mill keep a hog." If 

 anybody doubts the truth of the saying, let him 

 kill his useless dog, and put a pig in the pen and 

 give it the dog's allowance. He M-ill find in a few 

 months that he has a fine fat porker fit to be eat- 

 en, a use the dog could not be possibly applied 

 to by any Christian man. There are too many 

 dogs in the countrj-, by far too many — if they 

 had all been killed a year ago, there might be 

 two hundred pounds of good fat pork in the coun- 

 try to balance against every dog so set aside, 

 which would be no inconsiderable item in the 

 present scarcity of supplies. Dogs are a nuisance, 

 and should be taxed. While every farmer keeps 

 his dog, and every slave his dog, and every free 

 negro his (wo or three dogs, sheep stand a poor 

 chance to get through the world and yield their 

 annual fleece with untorn throats. The increase 

 of the dog po])idation accounts for the scarcity 

 of sheep. — N. C. Planter. 



MANURES. 



Mr. T. W. Field, in a paper read before the 

 Farmer's Club of the American Institute, on ma- 

 nures, states the following propositions : 



1. Manure does not waste, so long as it is un- 

 fermented or undissolved, and these conditions 

 may be effected by drying or saturation. 



2. Fresh manure is unfit for food for plants. 



3. Fermenting manure, in contact with inert 

 matter, has the power of neutralizing vicious prop- 

 erties, such as the tannic acid of peat, and ma- 

 king it a fertilizer. 



4. ]\Ianure wastes in two ways — the escape of 

 gas, and the dissolving of its soluble salts. 



5. The creative power of manure, mixed with 

 other substances, is capable of multiplying its 

 value many times. 



G. The value of manure to crops is in propor- 

 tion to its divisibility through the soil. The 

 golden rule of farming should be — small quantities 

 of manure thoroughly divided and intermingled 

 with the soil. — American Farmer. 



