878 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Aug. 



AMOiNTQ THE FARMS. 



Planting — Highways— Crop 

 prospecta — Potatoes — This 

 eeason and last— Pastures 

 — The grass crop — Value 

 of clover, 



UR own planting being 

 finished, we improved 

 the occasion by enjoying 

 the luxury for a few 

 days of looking at some 

 of the farms, and con- 

 versing with some of the 

 farmers, scattered over 

 a space of about a hun- 

 dred miles, in the direc- 

 tion of our route. 

 Where the roads were repaired in April we 

 found them smooth, hard, and pleasant to 

 drive the team over. Occasionally, however, 

 parties of men, with implements and oxen were 

 ploughing up the turf and fine sand or loam 

 which had been washed from the bed of the 

 road, and throwing it back to the places where 

 it had been probably thrown twenty times be- 

 fore ! Thus, in a sweltering hot day in June, 

 when the young crops demand the farmer's 

 care, these men were making the roads in 

 worse condition than they were in before they 

 commenced upon them. In some instances 

 the earth was drawn on to the road with a 

 scraper, and in others shovelled on, lumps and 

 sods included, where it was suffered to remain 

 very much in the condition in which it was 

 dropped there. Where the stones were nu- 

 merous, and too large, the workmen sometimes 

 condescended to throw out the thickest of 

 them on to the side of the road, where they 

 could evjoy the pleasure of ploughing them 

 back again during some hot day next June ! 



The roads left in this condition — and there 

 were many patches of them — are truly execra- 

 ble. Trotting a horse over them, even in a 

 light buggy, was out of the question. The 

 direst punishment we could wish such road de- 

 structives, would be to ride over their own 

 works until they should learn that there is a 

 night and a wrong way to repair a road, so that 

 when they labored again, it should be in the 

 right way. We sincerely believe that ten dol- 

 lars, judiciously expended on those roads in 

 the month of April, would accomplish more 

 good than twenty- five dollars would in the 

 month of June. Some of the places which 

 had been worked over within a few days, were 



mere beds of shifting sand, or, If in low 

 places, were cut into deep ruts and holes, and 

 the earth sun-baked, so that the road-bed was 

 about as comfortable to ride over as a road 

 would be covered with bricks dumped down 

 miscellaneously upon it. When will men learn 

 wisdom and cease to sin against light and 

 knowledge. It was not only vexatious but sad, 

 to see so much labor misdirected, and so much 

 discomfort follow from It. The freth air from 

 the hills, and the nodding blossoms by thy 

 wayside, were only partial compensations for 

 all this waste of human toil. 



Generall3% the crop prospects arc good. 

 Nearly all seeds committed to the ground 

 came quickly, in good color and strength. 

 The corn is an entire week beyond Its condi- 

 tion at the same period last year. Winter 

 grains are stout and forward. Barley and oats 

 have set finely, and promise large returns. 

 Potatoes look well. A great change has taken 

 place In regard to the time of planting them. 

 In all the region about cities or manufacto- 

 ries, — anywhere, where a home market is 

 found, early potatoes, — that is, potatoes that 

 are fit for the table in July and early August, 

 may be sold in almost any quantity. This 

 stimulates the farmer to get In the seed as 

 early in April as the ground will permit. He 

 finds it a profitable crop, and Is enabled to har- 

 vest it in season to get a crop of turnips from 

 the same soil, or to lay it down to grass for 

 future years. By this course, the returns are 

 quick and the profits fair. 



All small seeds have come remarkably well 

 this season ; beet, carrot, onion, parsnip, cel- 

 ery, egg plant, and other seeds In the garden, 

 never came better. The small field seeds, 

 also, mangold, rutabaga and beets have come 

 qukk and strong. 



The 2)cistures all along the way seemed un- 

 usually rich this season. We do not believe 

 the fresh flowers, the singing birds, or the 

 music of the brooks, beguiled us Into an un- 

 usual harmony with the nature about us. It 

 was not that. If it had been, the execrable 

 roads we were obliged occasionally to pass, 

 would have neutralized and dissipated it all. 

 The impression on the mind of our young and 

 intelligent companion harmonized with our 

 own. He saw the new and promising life all 

 about us in the same glowing light. The pas- 

 tures were rich and plentiful in their verdure, 



