1G6 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



sole charge of every thing ; doing all the work, 

 with her own hands. 



I, at least, must speak well of "improved 

 stock," since my present stock is composed of| 

 wliai would be called such, with the exception of 

 one animal. 



The eight head of 1852 produced 122G lbs. 9i 

 oz. butter. They should be credited in addition 

 with cream for tho family. j 



The twelve head of 1854 yielded 2296 lbs. 11 

 oz. buttor, as weighed in so many distinct weigh- 

 ings. One milking daily of one of these cows was 

 taken fi"om the dairy, from the early part of 

 August till the 23d day of November. 



It will be' seen that, with a poorer pasturage in 

 1854, I have added 470 lbs. to the yield of my 

 dairy, above what the increas-e in the number ofj 

 animals over 1852 would have led me to expect. 

 How will Essex account for this? It seems to me 

 there can be but one explanation. 



Still, I do not look upon this comparison as at 

 all fGir. To satisfy me, the comparison should 

 be made by a trial of an equal number of cows, 

 of improved and native breed, kept upon the same 

 farm, milked by the same person, and the whole 

 dairy under the same management. If the trial 

 was continued for a year, we should lay a foun- 

 dation for judging about breeds of animals. If, 

 after that, tlie experiment could be conducted by 

 some half dozen different persons, in different 

 parts of the State, we miglit hope to settle the 

 question, so far as the ftirmcrs of this State were 

 concerded. 



In conclusion, by way of concession to the "en- 

 tirely native" feeling of my friend Essex, let me 

 say, that, were I to have remained upon my pre- 

 sent farm another year, I should have discarded 

 from my dairy a full-blood and a J Ayrshire cow, 

 not, jiowever, because they were inferior milkers, 

 but, because being superior milkers, they were 

 not above the average of cows for butter. 

 Yours, in great length, 



Worcester, Feb. 17, 1855. W. S. Lincoln. 



For the New Eni^liind Farmer. 



LETTER FROM MR. FRENCH. 



A Yankee Farm near Washington — Apples and Peaches — Pear 

 Tr.'e P!i;^ht — Draining — Oxen and Mules — Subsoiling — Shell 

 Lime — "The Peculiar Institution." 



Lest oyr readers should l^e too strongly im- 

 pressed with views of the shady side of agricul- 

 ture in this district, lot me give them a glimpse 

 of something brighter. 



Yesterday, on the tenth of January, when I 

 supposo all New England was frozen as hard as 

 an iceberg, I made, with the owner, a visit to 

 the farm of Mr. William M. Morrison, of this 

 city, and observed, with much pleasure, the ap- 

 plication of "northern principles" of agriculture 

 to southern soil. Mr. Morrison's farm contains 

 about a hundred and tA^enty acres, and lies near 

 the RockviUe plank road, four miles from Wash- 

 ington. He is a New Hampshire man, a native 

 of Sanborntou, and, although he has been thirty 

 yews away from the Granite hills, has not for- 

 gotten his native State, or lost his taste for culti- 

 vating the earth, acquired on his father's farm in 

 boyhood. 



He bought this farm about four years ago, for 

 thirty-five dollars an acre. It was then destitute 

 of buildings, and almost without fences. He has 

 erected a pleasant though not expensive bouse, 

 and a barn on the New England plan, with a 

 tie-up for his cattle — a luxui-y to which the 

 cattle in this region are very little accustomed ; 

 most of the steeds and heifers of three years old 

 never having seen the inside of a barn in their 

 lives. His land is rolling, a part a sandy loam, 

 with a clay subsoil, and a part clay loam, with a 

 considerable extent of what we call swamp land, 

 of a dark alluvial character. It looks much like 

 a INIiddlesex county farm, entirely free from 

 stones. The fences, which divide it into three 

 or four enclosures, are of che^tLut posts and 

 rails, four rails high, such as we see in some parts 

 of New England. Mr. Morrison has fenced off 

 forty acres for a pasture, which he is improving, 

 and is giving great attention to the raising of liay 

 and fruit. He has already planted altout one 

 thousand apple trees, six hundred of which are 

 Baldwins, about twelve hundred peach trees, six 

 hundred plums, and seven hundred pear trees. 



He has fears that the Baldwin may prove too 

 early in this latitude, and now prefers some vari- 

 eties which originated further south, and ripen 

 later. His trees, most of them, look thriving. 

 Many, liowevcr, have marks of injury, which he 

 attributes to the locusts, an enemy with which 

 fruit-growers at the north have not been much 

 acquainted. The trees are yet so young, that it 

 is too early to be confident of their success, and 

 although I see daily fine apples in the market, 

 said to be raised in the neighborhood, I have 

 looked in vain for an acre of what at the north 

 we should call a good orchard, in bearing. The 

 care, however, which we bestow upon our trees, 

 is entirely unknown here, and it is to l)e hoped 

 that our friend may find abundant success in hia 

 fruit-growing. His pears, which are mostly 

 dwarfs, have suffered very much from the bliglit, 

 which, like some diseases in the human system, 

 seems to select for its victims those of fullest life 

 and vigor. Many almost perfect trees, six feet or 

 more in height, were shown me, utterly blafctod. 

 ilr. ]M. attributes their destruction to the heat of 

 the sun ; but, whatever it may be, the symptoms 

 and result appear to me to be the same which we 

 everywhere see and hear of, under the name of 

 sa-p-blight, and the like, aad as to the causes of 

 which, as about most other matters, "commenta- 

 tors differ." Mr. Morrison philosophically re- 

 marked that he could go out and cry over his 

 pear trees, if it would do them any good ; but he 

 did not see that it would. He thinks the peach 

 rather an uncertain crop even here, as it seems to 

 be everywhere. 



As to his grass lands, he is pursuing a thorough 



