352 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



The cattle pens were admirably filled ; and we 

 Terily believe that no persons upon the i^round were 

 more surprised at the excellence of the exhibition, 

 than were the different, exhibitevs themselves. The 

 orator, Dr. IJeekman, of New York, fresh from the 

 fields at Albany, where was exhibited the best stock 

 in the country, said that the cattle-show was in the 

 highest degree creditable for the first essay. He had 

 seldom seen better stock ; the show of horses was 

 also considered excellent ; while the sheep were of a 

 superior order. This, coming from a good judge, 

 who is not given to flattery, is praise indeed. There 

 was a full-blood Durham, two years and nine months 

 old, from E. C. Starkweather, of Walpole, which 

 was esteemed by some the finest animal in the pens. 

 He took the highest premium for two years old. He 

 is of fine proportions, and by next spring will be 

 excelled by no animal in the state. 



We regret that our state of health forbade us to 

 attend the ploughing match. The field was located 

 about half a mile from the centre of the town, upon 

 an elevated plain. The land was dry, and free from 

 stones, but covered with a thick, tough sward.— 

 There were upwards of two thousand spectators. 

 The number of entries was eleven single ox teams, 

 and three horse teams ; the ploughs used were Cur- 

 rier, Doe, & Go's., and J. L. liobinson's patterns, 

 both Concord ploughs. The teams were well trained, 

 of fine proportion.?, in good order, and were a.s fine 

 specimens as need be seen. One eighth of an acre 

 was allotted for each team. The time of ploughing 

 did not exceed twenty minutes. There have been 

 better matches than this ; there should be better at 

 the next show. 



We close as we began, by saying, that, all things 

 considered, the fair showed a strong interest among 

 the people ; one which will, rightly directed, accom- 

 plish great good for the state. It was triumphantly 

 successful. 



THE VALUE OF CANALS AND RAILROADS 

 TO FARMERS. 



Canals and railroads are what, in popular lan- 

 guage, are termed internal improvements, the phi- 

 losophy of which has not generally been duly con- 

 sidered. The community has seemingly looked upon 

 them with apathy. Instances have not been few, 

 where there have been obstacles thrown in their way, 

 as if the country were to be ruined by them. And 

 they have been mainly viewed in reference to the 

 stock-owners, as sources of unnatural wealth. Or, 

 if canals and railroads were to be tolerated among the 

 yeomanry of a country, they must be located in the 

 immediate vicinity of every man's own door ; or they 

 were to be execrated and condemned. 



Dr. Blake, in his recent excellent work, the Every- 

 Day Book for Farmers, remarks, " Canals and rail- 

 roads may now and then be found first-rate invest- 

 ments. Ordinarily, they are not. Hence, nothing 

 is now said of them as investments. This is a matter 

 for individual capitalists to investigate. The yeo- 

 manry and the business men of a country are to look 

 upon them principally as the agents for develnping 

 and promoting the individual and combined wealth 

 connected with, or located in, the districts att'ccted by 

 them. Hence a state or a populous city, in estab- 

 lishing them, may be comi)aratively indifi'erent about 

 the percentage annually to be received upon their 

 cost. If the locations are judicious, it is of minor 

 importance nothing is received. 



We will illustrate that meaning by a familiar case, 

 readily understood by agriculturists. Here is an in- 

 dividual owning a farm of two hundred acres of 

 excellent land. A broad river, without a bridge, 



runs through the centre of it. The land was be- 

 queathed to him on the condition that he should 

 never sell or lease any part of it, but cultivate the 

 whole as one farm. His house and outbuildings are 

 on one side of the river ; and, to get at the other 

 side, for every day's work, or for ev«ry load of ma- 

 nure put on it, or every load of produce to be returned, 

 he has to go a distance of five miles ; ten miles both 

 ways, which takes up one half of an entii-e day. 

 Now, is it not apparent that it costs the owner double 

 to cultivate that portion of his farm beyond the river 

 that it docs the other ? Hence, if the latter is worth 

 one hundred dollars per acre, the other cannot be 

 worth above fifty dollars an acre. Now, if a bridge 

 were made across the river, connecting the two por- 

 tions of the farm together, it is evident that the one 

 beyond the river would be doubled in value ; that is, 

 that hundred acres will at once be worth one hun- 

 dred dollars per acre instead of fifty, as it was before. 

 The bridge, therefore, to this farmer is really worth 

 five thousand dollars. Here is exhibited the opera- 

 tion of railroads and canals." 



We will now suppose an individual, with a valu- 

 able farm in the south portion of the state, and two 

 hundred miles from the city of New York. The 

 farm is fertile, and produces most abundantly — per- 

 haps four times as much as needed for consumption 

 on it ; but so far from any market, nothing could be 

 sold from it. This farm, in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood of the city of New York, would be worth two 

 hundred dollars per acre ; but, remote as it is, it has 

 been estimated at no more than fifty or seventy-five 

 dollars per acre. Yet the moment the Erie liailroad 

 is completed, it becomes worth, at least, one hundred 

 and fifty dollars per acre, inasmuch as all its surplus 

 produce can be carried to market, as conveniently 

 and as cheap as though it were only fifteen or twenty 

 miles from the city, and no railroad. Thus, under 

 corresponding circumstances, all property upon or 

 adjacent to a good railroad or canal rises in value, 

 perhaps, even more than to balance the amount of 

 outlay for the improvement. 



Why is it that in the northern part of the state of 

 New York cities and villages have arisen, and wealth 

 has been created, as if under the influence of magic ? 

 It is because of the Erie Canal. So hereafter cities 

 and villages will arise, and wealth will be created iii 

 the south part of the state, on the completion of the 

 Erie Railroad. So it would be every where under 

 analogous auspices. Farmers, therefore, should not 

 fail to encourage internal improvements. Choose men 

 in your state and national legislatures who will vote 

 for them. No matter whether they are near you or 

 remote. No matter if they pass through the centres 

 of your farms, obliging you to make miles of ad- 

 ditional fence. You will be paid for it over and over 

 again, no one can tell how many times. No matter 

 it they are ten, fifteen, or twenty miles from you ; the 

 life-giving impulse to business will be felt by you. 

 Every one cannot be equally near to them. To a 

 community, good roads, good bridges, and railroads 

 or canals, are the same as good fences and fertile 

 fields are to a single farm. Here is a rational founda- 

 tion for politics, whether exerted for the state or the 

 general government. Viewed in reference to such 

 an end, the elective franchise is of inestimable worth ; 

 whereas exerted only for the benefit of demagogues 

 and poverty-stricken politicians, it is of no essential 

 value. — Thii Farmer and Mechanic. 



None are so hard to please as those whom satiety 

 of pleasure makes weary of themselves ; nor any so 

 readily provoked as those who have been always 

 courted with an emulation of civility. 



