562 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



to improve our own manufactures. It un- 

 doubtedly has this tendency, by exhibiting the 

 best models, and co.npelling our manufactur- 

 ers to greater exertions in these directions. 

 But the day has gone by, for ta ing.tlie com 

 munify for such a purpose. Self interest is a 

 sufficient inducement. Indeed this is the 

 moving power in most of the so-called pub- 

 lic enterprises of the day. 



Charters are granted for rail-roads, and 

 their stocks are guaranteed by Congress and 

 State Legislatures, on the ph'a that they pro- 

 mote the public good, and they doutless do 

 promote the public good to a certain extent. 

 But the motives underlying them, are to ena- 

 ble individuals to speculate in lands, and to 

 enrich themselves by exorbitant freight charges 

 at the expense of the laboring classes. This 

 last evil has become a giievious oppression to 

 the whole nation, and will require a remedy in 

 na'icnal legislation. Farmers are generally 

 men of small capitals. 'Lhese capitals have 

 not been and cannot be combined for self-de- 

 fence — and there would be no occasion for such 

 combination, were not accumulated capital, 

 employed for other purposes, allowed to over- 

 ride and oppress the interests of agriculture. 



Excessive legislation may become oppres- 

 sive, and when it is employed to promote the 

 interests of individuals and classes, at the ex- 

 pense of the community, it has already be- 

 comean oppressive burden, calling loudly for 

 a remedy. Although Gen. Butler, in the 

 speech referred to, said some things which we 

 cannot fully endorse and some things which we 

 think unwise, yet on the whole, we thank him 

 for the bold words which he has uttered, and 

 we trust they will prove good seed on good 

 ground. K. 



Concord, Mass., Oct., 1869. 



For the IS^ew England Farmer, 

 ■WHITE DOYENNE, OS ST. MICHAEL. 



It has long been asserted, and was recently 

 by the honorable President of the American 

 Pomological tSociety, that; the above pear had 

 become worthless, and probably would con- 

 tinue to be so. I feel a great diffidence in 

 questioning anything emanating from so high 

 authority ; yet I think the ISt. Michael is des- 

 tined to bless the coming generations as it has 

 the past. 



I have been cultivating the pear for a few 

 years on a small scale. I have twenty-eight 

 varieties of trees ; fifteen varieties have fruited, 

 and I rank the St. Michael among the best. 

 There are several so excellent in tree and fruit 

 that I don't know which to call first. 



I have one tree of this kind, about eighteen 

 years old from the seed, which commenced 

 to bear when very small, and has borne full 

 every year since. The fruit is of good size 

 and always fair, and as juicy and delicious as 

 those I ate at my uncle's, in old Newbury, fifty 

 years ago. and 1 have never seen a pear 



cracked or unhealthy. I have now one and a 

 half bushels which grew on that tree which 

 will compare well with th:; same pear fifty 

 years a;^o, though some of them are smaller 

 than they should be, for I did not thin them as 

 much as I ought. 



About eighteen years ago I set si-sty pear 

 trees on a piece of ground where I had raised 

 corn two years previous, with a light dressing 

 of barn manure each year. The trees *id 

 veiy well for one or two years, and then be- 

 gan to be sickly, the limns dying and some of 

 the trees djing nearly to the giound, and it 

 went on from bad to worse till every tree was 

 dead. Several of my neighbors and aqcjuain- 

 tances had a like experitnce. I was some- 

 what discouraged, but not willing to give it 

 up. I set more trees than I had bef'orci, and 

 then went to work to make a soil for their 

 proper nourishment. I concluiled to follow 

 the teaching of Nature, and enrich my Lmd by 

 top-di'essing and mulching with wood and 

 leaves. The result has been that every tree 

 that 1 have treated liberally in that way has 

 done all that I could wish, though my land is 

 in a valley where the original growth was mostly 

 hemlock and spruce, which is unfavorable for 

 fruit raising. My trees are all on greensward 

 and most of them overrun with witch grass. 

 I prune in the fall and winter. 



Stephen Adams. 



West Nenifield, Me., Oct. 15, 1869. 



For the yew England Farmer. 

 GEN. BUTLER'S ADDKB&S. 



On taking up one of my papers, I saw in 

 large type, "Address of Gen. B. F. Builer, 

 before the Worcester Agricultural Society, 

 September 23d, 1869." And holding Gen. 

 Butler's ability in very high esteem, I natu- 

 rally said to myself, here is a treat ; here will 

 be something new. I found something new, 

 indeed, but altogether of a different charac- 

 ter from what I expected. Our agricultural 

 orators generally try to create and strengthen 

 sympathy between employees and the em- 

 ployed, and to show that their interests are 

 one. But it appears that a large part of the 

 General's address, rather tends to create dis- 

 satisfaction among the hired portion of our 

 laborers, — (I was about to say laboring classes ; 

 but, Mr. Editor, we are all laborers.) 



Was it the desire of the speaker to create 

 such antagonism between labor and capital as 

 exists iu Ireland ? What has this antagonism 

 done for Ireland? It has almost ei>iirely 

 driven out capital, and destroyed manufactur- 

 ing in that country, and agriculture has gone 

 down with them, until a large portion of the 

 inhabitants are obliged to emigrate or starve. 



The General, speaking of niventions, says, 

 that while a great deal has been done for the 

 manufacturer, very little has been done for 

 the farmer ; so little, in fact, that he enumer- 

 ates them at once: "The reaper, mower, 



