1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



44-; 



ton, Mass., having occasion to set a pair of bar- 

 posts, cut a swamp white oak of proper size to 

 split, and set one of the halves in the ground, 

 upright, as it grew, and the other inverted. The 

 result was as follows : Some thirty years ago, I 

 helped my father replace the upright one with a 

 chestnut post; which, also, some three years 

 ago when I visited Taunton, had given place to 

 one of cedar ; while the inverted post was appar- 

 ently as sound as forty years ago. 



The same has also been observed of wood 

 stacked up to season ; the inverted will be well- 

 seasoned, while the other is heavy and inclined 

 to rot. I have examined many stakes in Iowa 

 and Wisconsin, and have always found the in- 

 verted stakes in the soundest condition, and be- 

 lieve ninety-nine out of a hundred reasonable 

 men, who will take the trouble to examine such 

 as have been set five years or more, will become 

 converts to the inverted system, the "Ashfiekl 

 Farmer" to the contrary, notwithstanding. So 

 thinks ZiNA RouND. Nevada, Wis., May, 1858. — 

 Wis. Farmer. 



For tlia Nezo England Fanner. 

 ABOUT MR. MECHI'S FARMING. 

 BY HENUT F. FRENCH. 



"Mr. Sheriff Mechi" — as he is pleased to write 

 himself down on the title-page of his pamphlet, 

 "How to farm profitably, particularly on heavy 

 clays" — Mr. Sheriff Mechi has his farm of 170 

 acres, all underdrained with tiles, all also under- 

 laid with iron pipes, at '"Tiptree Hall," in Essex 

 county, in the southeast part of England, about 

 fortj' miles from London. 



Mr. Sheriff Mechi drains his land from four to 

 five feet deep, and then by help of a cistern of 

 80,000 gallons, and a steam engine, irrigates his 

 green crops in summer, by forcing liquid manure 

 into each field through the iron pipes, and dis- 

 tributing it by means of hose over the growing 

 rye, grass, clover, beans, vetches and turnips. 

 The sheriff is not such a blockhead as to suppose 

 that draining and irrigation cannot be necessary 

 on the same land. Taking out the cold water 

 in spring, and putting on water in dry times, 

 seems to him as consistent as it does for a man 

 to drink in a hot summer day, though he may 

 have got out of the river when he fell through 

 the ice the winter before. 



Mr. Sheriff Mechi raises about 40 bushels of 

 wheat, 56 bushels of barley, and 88 bushels of 

 oats to the acre, as he states, no doubt with 

 truth, for average cro])S. 



I had an introduction to Mr. Mechi, in Lon- 

 don, last summer, and I visited Tiptree Hall, 

 and I afterwards had the pleasure of seeing the 

 "Sheriff of London" rolling through the city in 

 his coach, in splendid state, with horses and 

 footmen blazing with gold, and I had the curios- 

 ity, also, to peep into his shop, where he made his 

 fortune by his trade of manufacturing dressing- 

 cases and the like. 



The Sheriff is "a good fellow" every way, 

 full of life and kindly feeling, a good sheriff, no 

 doubt, and a good farmer. He is one of the 

 very few, who rise from low condition to be the 

 companions of Lords and Nobles, in old England, 

 and he has done it by having in him a good deal 

 of what we call "go ahead." 



The land at Tiptree Hail was a hard, sterile, 

 water-logged clay, for the most part, and Mr. 

 Mechi has brought it by "high-farming" to the 

 height of productiveness. He says, "As a gen- 

 eral estimate, you cannot effectually improve stiff 

 land under £25 ($125) per acre ; your drainage 

 will cost you £6 ($30,) fallowing, levelling, sub- 

 soiling, &c., £7 ($35 ;) a good heavy manuring, 

 £7 ; lime or chalk, £5." 



Will this sort of farming pay ? Mr. Mechi says 

 it does pay him, and he enunciates this as his 

 principle, that "whatever does not pay in agri- 

 culture is not an improvement," and he shows by 

 his balance sheet, with carefully kept accounts, 

 that his farming pays handsomely. 



Will such farming pay in New England ? I think 

 it will not, at present prices of labor and pro- 

 duce. Produce is higher and labor much lower in 

 England than in America, and this makes the 

 difference which men who insist upon our copy- 

 ing English farming, without understanding it, 

 overlook. Mr. Mechi's example is constantly 

 held up for our imitation, as if it followed of 

 course, that what is profitable there must prove 

 so here. 



Now, professing myself an advocate for "high 

 farming" and deep farming, and especially for 

 draining, which is Mr. Mechi's first command- 

 ment, I cannot see my way clear for under- 

 laying my farm with liquid manure pipes in this 

 cold country, where nature imposes many ob- 

 stacles unknown in the south of England. 



A few figures will show where Mr. Mechi 

 would find his balance, if we substitute American 

 prices of labor and products, instead of English 

 prices. 



On the \'ery soil at Tiptree Hall, I inquired of 

 laborers and of the steward the price of labor 

 there. The answer was nine shillings ($2,25) a 

 week for a man's labor, the laborer boarding him- 

 self. The "Encyclopaedia of Agriculture" states 

 the price in 1850, in Essex county, at from eight 

 to ten shillings, and so confirms these state- 

 ments. 



Mr. Mechi states the "gross expenses, per 

 acre, on the whole farm," to be, reduced to our 

 currency, $38,54, of which the items of labor 

 amount to $12,87. 



Now, if we call the price of labor here 935 

 cents per day, we have it just twice and a half as 

 much as at Tiptree Hall. Then call the labor 

 per acre, twice and a half $12,87, which is 



