1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



393 



iginating from this town, and also of Dr. 

 Allen's Stump Puller, would have been given 

 had the limits of this article permitted. 



D. W. Heywood. 

 Barre, Mass., June 23, 1869. 



For the Xew England Farmer, 

 STKAY THOUGHTS OF A FARMER. 



This being a dark and rainy morning, I am 

 shut in-doors, and being in somewhat of a 

 musing mood, I have concluded to put my 

 thoughts on paper, and if worth anything to 

 the public, use them, — if not, consign them 

 to the waste basket. 



It i-i painful to look on our New England 

 hills and valleys and to see our pastures and 

 fields covered with thin, scanty crops, where 

 fifty years ago rich harvests were gathered, 

 our farmers purchasing their flour and corn 

 from the West, paying freight over a distance 

 of a thousand miles, with commissions and 

 merchants' profits, while at the same time we 

 are continually saluted with complaints that 

 "farming does not pay." But here there 

 must be something wrong, — something out of 

 shape "in the premises," as the old Justice 

 used to say. No particle of matter has been 

 destroyed since this globe first commenced its 

 journey round the sun ; but the particles of 

 manurial matter that go to make our crops 

 have become most sadly displaced on most 

 of our farms. The same loving atmosphere 

 still encloses the earth that was enjoyed by 

 our fathers, abounding in ninety per cent, or 

 more of plant-forming material. We have 

 also the glorious sun of our fathers, shining 

 with all his power, as he well knows how to 

 in a New England summer ; and we have fur- 

 thermore, "the early and latter rain ;" so that 

 there seems to be no lack of material, only of 

 the skill to compound and put together. 



I am not a believer in the immediate usher- 

 ing in of the agriculturail millennium, for there 

 are only a few farmers who learn anything in 

 relation to their calling after forty ; scarcely 

 any, after fifty, — of those who have made 

 farming a life-pursuit. Farmers in New Eng- 

 gland are now in about the same situation that 

 those of England were one hundred years ago. 

 Their wheat crop then averaged about ten 

 bushels per acre. But since that period they 

 have applied I rains to their soil and the crop 

 of wheat has risen to over thirty bushels 

 throughout the kingdom, though the soil has 

 become a hundred years older. 



As agriculture languishes, so will all the 

 mechanical and mercantile pursuits. In con- 

 versation the other day with a merchant, he 

 remarked that he had no fancy for farming. 

 I said to him, sir, if we stop farming, your 

 business will soon come to a stand still, for 

 you will not have anything to trade upon. He 

 acknowledged that it would be so, as agricul- 

 ture is the chief corner-stone of a nation's 



greatness, — the main foundation of human civ- 

 ilization. 



We have made some progress in the last 

 twenty years in the improvement of stock. 

 The old scrub ox has given place to a nobler 

 animal. The same is true of cows, sheep and 

 swine. The skilful mechanic has given his 

 mind to the subject, and has invented new and 

 im[)roved tools, by which much of the hard la- 

 bor is lightened and the work more thoroughly 

 done. But many, very many of the masses 

 plod along in the steps of their fathers, gath- 

 ering their scanty crops, and appear to have 

 no wish to better their condition. 



A remark is occasionally made like the fol- 

 lowing: — "I do not want 'Boston folks' to 

 tell me how to manage my farm. I have man- 

 aged it for forty or fifty years, and think my- 

 self more competent than they are." Many 

 of this class of men are working a good soil, 

 and are barely making the "two ends meet," 

 as the saying is, and are contented, thinking 

 they are doing well. There is much land in 

 New England that is not fit for cultivation, 

 and it should not be attempted. There is 

 good land enough, and it should be cultivated 

 to its utmost capacity. It should be made to 

 produce on one acre what now is done on 

 three, and the crop will be produced cheaper, 

 thus leaving a larger profit. 



The time is slowly approachjpg when the 

 unskilful farmer will be crowded off the track. 

 Men buy where they can buy the cheapest. 

 The skilful agriculturist can afford to sell 

 cheapest ; consequently he will monopolize 

 the market. Labor I know is high, but it 

 must be carefully laid out, so that each day 

 shall, if possible, pay for itself and leave a 

 small profit to the employer. The time for 

 haphazard farming has passed. What other 

 pursuit, managed as farming has been, would 

 not have resulted in a complete failure. Can 

 the merchant afford to let a stream cf water 

 run through his sugar and flour, or can the 

 dealer in volatile materials expose his goods 

 to the air, allowing their value to escape, and 

 at the close of the year expect the balance to 

 be on the right side of the sheet ? This expe- 

 riment has been tried in farming until the bal- 

 ance sheet is now a very close thing. H. 



Epping, N. II., 1869. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURAIi 

 COLLEGE. 



From the Mirror and Farmer'' s review of the 

 annual report of the Trustees of the New 

 Hampshire Agricultural College, to which is 

 appended a report to the Trustees of Prof. 

 Dimond, we make the following extracts : — 



Eleven young men were connected with the 

 College during the course of the year. After 

 giving some details of the results attained 

 during the year. Prof. Dimond considers "the 

 aim and policy of the institution." Under this 



