1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARAIER. 



561 



bushels of lime. The result is that I have 

 raised as handsome a piece of wheat as can be 

 found in New England. It filled out and 

 ripened well, but as I have not threshed it yet, 

 I cannot give the precise amount of the crop. 

 It is estimated at from twelve to fifteen bush- 

 els. All who have seen it were much sur- 

 prised as I believe there has been but very 

 little if any raised in this vicinity for many 

 years. I have no doubt it was thought a great 

 piece of presumption for a green farmer like 

 me to undertake to raise wheat. Many of 

 my neighbors had about as little faith in rais- 

 ing oats as in raising wheat. They said that 

 oats generally mildewed and musted so that it 

 seldom filled out or ripened ; and hence they 

 cut them green for fodder. But I determined 

 to try them, and the consequence was that 1 

 had about two acres of very handsome oats 

 well filled out and well ripened. 



I have a reclaimed meadow of five or six 

 acres that formerly produced a heavy crop of 

 good grass ; but it has been neglected until it 

 has grown up to a coarse, wiry grass, and is 

 becoming filled w'th hassocks. A small brook 

 runs through it. The old ditches have been 

 neglected for years, and had become filled up. 

 I am having them cleared out, but fear that 

 will not bring it into good condition with(,ut 

 ploughing, which must be a hard job. Can 

 you give me any information on the subject ? 

 There are many other questions that I should 

 like to ask, but I have scribbled so much al- 

 ready that I fear you will throw it all into the 

 waste basket. If you should not, you may 

 hear again from 



An Old Young Farmer. 



Rosedale Farm, Lexington, Mass., Sept., 1869. 



li'or the New England Farmer. 

 GEEf. BUTLER'S SPEECH. 



Gen. Butler in his speech before the Agri- 

 cultural Society at Worcester, has called at- 

 tention to important matters, aflfecting not 

 only the Agriculturist but all classes in the 

 community as well. There is a tendency not 

 only in individuals, but in classes, to make use 

 of public institutions and legislative authori- 

 ity to advance their own special interests. 

 This is shown by the fact which he mentions, 

 that a large part of the last session of our 

 Legislature was occupied by special legisla- 

 tion. The same thing is shown by the con- 

 flicts between private interests in the Legisla- 

 tures of all the States, and in Congress also. 



The various "rings" that are formed, and 

 the immense sums that are paid and used, not 

 without suspicion of indirect infiuence, af- 

 ford abundant evidence that regard to pri- 

 vate interest, rather than public good, is the 

 cause cf the persistent pressure brought to 

 bear upon legislation. 



In our own State, an immense capital is in- 

 vested in manufactures. Our prosperity as a 

 State depends very much upon their success. 



But this is no reason why other interests 

 should be sacrificed to the interests of manu- 

 factures. There is surely no reason why the 

 interests of agriculture, which is the basis of 

 all national prosperity, should be sacrificed to 

 any other interests. 



We have had, and now have, some striking 

 illustrations of the fact that the interests of 

 the farmers of our Commonwealth weigh but 

 little in our Legislature in comparison with 

 the inteiests represented by large and com- 

 bined capital. There is now in the centre of 

 Middlesex County a large tract of land, em- 

 bracing thousand of acres of the best land in 

 the county, almost entirely ruined, to enable a 

 comparatively small manufacturing establisli- 

 ment to save the difference between the cost of 

 running their works by water power and steam 

 power. The same fact exists in Norfolk 

 County and in various other places in the 

 State. 



A law was enacted a few years since, re- 

 quiring a certain dam to be reduced for the 

 benefit of a large number of farmers. The 

 very next year, manufacturing capital com- 

 bined and procured the repeal of the law, lest 

 other dams should be reduced in the interest 

 of agriculture. 



But we fear that there is a disposition not 

 only to make use of legislation to promote 

 private interests, but also to make use of pub- 

 lie institutions to advance private ends. There 

 are indications that some of our Agricultural 

 Societies, which are sustained by a tax upon 

 the whole community, are falling out of the 

 control of the farmers into the hands of 

 "fancy men" and "specialists," who use them 

 to promote their own special purposes. We 

 have noticed that owners of fast horses offer 

 premiums to be awarded through the com- 

 mittees of County Societies for the best colts 

 sired by such horses, which looks to us very 

 much like using these institutions to advertise 

 their horses, and put money in their own 

 pockets. Herds of fancy stocks, bred with 

 reference to high prices, atid fixed up for 

 show, occupy conspicuous positions at our 

 cattle fairs, and carry off a large share of the 

 premiums, under the pretence of promoting 

 the public good, to the disgust of the plain 

 farmers who too often find thei? claims en- 

 tirely overlooked. So, too, nursery men and 

 inventors are not satisfied with making these 

 occasions means of advertising their wares, 

 but claim the premiums as well. There is no 

 doubt that many patriotic and public spirited 

 men have imported stock and fruits from re- 

 gard to the public good ; but surely at the 

 present day, there is no need of taxing the 

 community to reward those who do it for the 

 special purpose of making money by the op- 

 eration. 



The man who imports the best leather, or 

 the best woolen cloth, or the best silk goods, 

 may with equal justice (^laim a premium ou 

 his importation, on the ground that it tends 



