40 



NEW ENGLAND F.\EMER. 



Jan 



in most of the States which are adapted to the 

 purpose, and it will make a great impression 

 upon the prci^pcrity of the country. It is, how- 

 ever, in the breed of fine cattle that wo are likely 

 most to excel. Gentlemen having country-.seats 

 Lave shown a laudable desire to import the best 

 stock, on the principle that a few good animals, 

 in a country where labor is dear, are l;otter than 

 numerous pour ones, and that animals of fine 

 shape and color are objects of interest in their 

 lawns. The county of Westchester, especially, 

 has become eminent for its num-erous and superior 

 breeds of imported stock. Among the earliest 

 importations into that county vrere some noble 

 cattle from Holland. They Avere beautiful in 

 shape, large, and good milkers. These have been 

 crossed with the Durham, and a breed known as 

 Dutch and Durham is soattered over the county. 

 Old Mr. Bathgate, who lives there, and who has 

 been engaged in this busineiss for half a century, 

 speaks of them as being among the best for milk- 

 ing. Stock of the Alderney, Ayrshire and Devon 

 breeds, have been imported by other gentlemen ; 

 but importations of the Durham have been most 

 numerous, and, where the pasturage is good, they 

 are considered the best stock, not only for the 

 dairy, but al*o for the shambles. Col. Morris, 

 the president of the State Agricultural Society, 

 who resides there, has been very active in the 

 business of importing good stock into the country. 

 His sales of cattle have attracted a great con- 

 course of people, and large prices have been paid. 

 It would, no doubt, very much advance the 

 interest which gentlemen feel in this sulyect, if 

 annual sales were made of improved stock, at 

 some convenient locality near the city, open for 

 all sellers. They need some mode of disposing 

 of choice animals which will atti-act competition, 

 and enable them to dispose of their surplus stock 

 without disadvantage. In England, the most 

 useful of the m^ljility have for years been engaged 

 in attempts to improve the breed of cattle, in 

 which a degree of perfection has been reached 

 that can hardly be excelled. They look upon 

 fine stock as the best ornaments of their grounds, 

 lilany citizens of public spirit in the United 

 States have imitated this excellent example, and 

 conferred very great benefit upon the country by 

 their intelligence and zeal in this service. — A^. Y. 

 Jour, of Com. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MACHINE FOR PEELING WILLOW. 



Mk. Brown : — Those of your numerous readers 

 who are engaged, or contemplate engaging in the 

 cultivation of the basket loillow, will ha pleased to 

 learn that there is a machine for peeling the wil- 

 low. !^Ir. George F.CoLiiv, of Jamesville,Yt., the 

 inventor, has had a machine made by which its 

 merits have been fully tested ; and all who have 

 witnessed its operation, agree tliat it docs the 

 work to perfection and with the greatest facility, 

 and believe it to be one of the greatest labor- 

 saving machines of the age. This, 1 believe, is 

 the first machine ever invented for the purpose, 

 either in this or tlic old country, and must add 

 vastly to the cultivation of the article in this 

 country. Mr. C, who has been successfully en- 

 gaged in the cultivation of the willow for several 

 years, estimates the cost of peeling, in the or- 



dinary way, at from JftSO to $120 per acre, or at 

 $40 per ton, while he claims that his machine, 

 which requires but one horse power, with two 

 men, will do the same work within at least from 

 two to three days, at the rate of one ton per day. 

 Mr. C. has taken measures to secure a patent. 

 Bolton, Vt., Dec, l^b^. J. R. Jewell. 



CYCLE OF GOOD AND BAD CROPS. 



The article given below, from a recent number 

 of the Scotsman, will be read with interest by 

 every inquiring, investigating farmer. The the- 

 ories advanced are new, and as yet are only 

 theories, but we must confess they have some 

 plausibility. It will be seen that for thirty-seven 

 years past, there have been successive periods of 

 four and five years of alternate good and bad 

 crops, and that science sheds a glimmering ray of 

 light upon the cause of these periodic variations. 

 It will also be seen, that, if the theory proposed 

 prove a correct one, we have just entered upon a 

 four or five years course of poor crops generally 

 over the globe ; and consequently a season of cor- 

 responding high prices. The article is as follows : 



The " uncertainty of the weather " has been a 

 subject of complaint to the husbandman from 

 time immemorial. Science has shown, however 

 that law and. order prevail in many phenomena 

 once deemed to be under the blind dominion of 

 chance, and ingenious men have indulged the 

 hope that a key might yet be found to the irreg- 

 ularity of the seasons — not that we shall be able 

 to prognosticate whether any particular day or 

 week will be foul or fair, but that we may have 

 rational grounds for expecting a good season or a 

 bad one, or a series of good or bad seasons. In- 

 telligent farmers generally believe that a course 

 of abundant crops is pretty sure to be followed 

 by a course of deficient ones ; but whether the 

 cycle of good and bad crops is of a determinate or 

 a variable length, and if determinate, how many 

 years are required to complete it, are points upon 

 which opinions difler widely, and csrtainty is 

 perhaps despaired of. 



A pdper read a few days ago by jM. Becquerel 

 to the Academy of Sciences, on the culture of 

 wheat in France, supplies statistical facts of some 

 value bearing on this suliject. They show that 

 there is a periodicity in the r •*virrence of good 

 and bad harvests ; tliat five or si" years of abund- 

 ance, and five or six of scarcity, follow each other 

 pretty regularly. From want of capital and en- 

 terprise, and good means of internal communica- 

 tion, the French are more dependent on their own 

 harvests than we are in this country, and the 

 difi'erence between a good and a bad year telling 

 more strongly on their markets, serves better to 

 test the influence of the seasons. M. Becquerel 

 quotes from Count Hugo the followirg table of 

 the average price of wheat for all France : 



Francs Shillings 



per hect. per qr. 



1816 to 1821— period of scarcity 23,66 643. 6(J. 



1822 to 1827 — period of abundance 16,80 36s. 4d. 



1828 to 1832— period of scarcity 22,00 50s. 7d. 



1833 to 1837— period of abundance 16,16 37s. 2d. 



1838 to 1842— mixed period 20.31 46s. 8d. 



1843 to 1847— period of scarcity 25,68 693. Od. 



1848 to 1852— period of abundance 16,68 38s. 4d. 



We arrive at a similar result by comparing the 

 imports and exports of wheat, and taking the 

 excess of the one over the other : 



