1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



213 



yearly, equal in quantity to the crop taken off. 'position as peculiarly unfortunate and dangerous. 

 Mr. D. raises his own seed and sows with a ma-' From the wao;es whicli they regarded as so con- 



chine. He procures different varieties of seed each 

 year, so as to select choice roots for the raising of 

 seed for the following year to improve it. 



As to feeding with roots, Mr. D. says they are 

 exceedingly valuable to keep all kinds of stock 

 thriving, healthy and pi'oduetive. He feeds them 

 to all his stock in Avinter, and till they go out to 

 grass, once or twice a week, as tiic store will 

 hold out, giving about a peck at a time to a cow 

 or an ox. lie never cuts them except for sheep, 

 and then it is easily done with a sharp shovel in 

 a box for the purpose. Mr. D. has tried and still 

 uses turnips and carrots, and says ho would as 

 soon have in his stock five bushels of beets as 

 four bushels of carrots. The beets do much bet- 

 ter for sheep than turnips. The lambs are strong- 

 er and more hardy. But the beets are especially 

 valuable for cows giving milk. They increase 

 tlie quantity and excellence of the flavor more than 

 any other vegetable. Turnips always give a bad 

 flavor. 



So much for the Mangel Wxirzel. It may sug- 

 gest to those who have not turned their attention 

 particularly to the subject, what is one of the se 

 crets of raising choice stock, and also the great 

 profit of cutivating well and manuring highly a 

 small piece of land. — Granite Farmer. 



For the New England Farmer. 



COTJNTaY FAEMERS AlfD CITY ME- 

 CHANICS. 



Country people generally are very much mis- 

 taken in their impressions as to the average wages 

 and salaries received by city mechanics, clerks, 

 ka. 1 have often been surprised at the opinions 

 expressed I)y my country friends on this point, and 

 am somewhat at a loss to account for so general 

 misappreliension. Bat then so it is in everything. 

 Let twenty men go to the city, to the West, or to 

 California, nineteen shall utterly fail in their ex- 

 pectations of bettering their circumstances, may 

 even die among strangers or by the way-side, or 

 become wretchedly poor, vicious, criminal ; one 

 shall svicceed as a merchant prince, a rich farm- 

 er, or the lucky possessor of a largo "pile ;" — and 

 in the minds of the people, as on the canvas of 

 the painter, the nineteen will be placed far in the 

 Uxck-ground — mere pigmies, if seen at all — while 

 in the fore-ground, and in bold relief, stands out 

 the twentii/h, large as life and "twice as hand- 

 some," lining up the wliole picture. Thus it is 

 with wages. The foreman of a shop or overseer 

 of a number of hands, in the city, may get his 

 ten to twenty dollars per week, wliile the work- 

 men under his direction earn from five to ten dol- 

 lars, and we shall find, in the country, that every- 

 body has heard of the twenty dollars a week, 

 while not a word has ever reached them of poor 

 five dollars a week. 



This misapprehension, inoffensive and harmless 

 of itself, is a very dangerous one to act upon. 

 Under its influence many a young man, becoming 

 disgusted with the "fifty cents a day" that are 

 offered for his hard labor on a farm, resorts to the 

 city with expectations as vague as they are certain 

 to be disaiipointed. I havewatclied the progress 

 of many such, and have learned to look upon their 



temptible in the country, they could lay aside 

 from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five 

 dollars a year, as a fund for future indepen- 

 dence, while in the city they find it is about as 

 impossible, as it is unfashionable, to lay by any- 

 thing atall. They become disheartened, reckless, 

 improvident; turn radicals, agrarians, infidels ; 

 rail against "corporations," the "money-power," 

 &c., while they make themselves unhappy by 

 brooding over the wrongs of "the working class- 

 es." 



Upon the subject of the average of wages earned 

 by mechanics in the city, I have lately made some 

 inquiry, but with small success, so far as respects 

 the collection of facts that can be of use in this 

 place. I regret this, because I believe the truth 

 of the case would do more than anything else to 

 satisfy country boys, with the farm and its hard 

 work and small profits. 



Thus much was written several months ago, 

 when I stopped with the hope of receiving some 

 statements that had been promised by several city 

 establishments. iSo few and unsatisfactory, how- 

 ever, were the facts obtained, that my article has 

 been delayed, until the question of high or low 

 wages is of little importance in the minds of thou- 

 sands of city mechanics, compared with that of 

 work or no work. 



I will, however, here make one or two brief 

 statements in respect to wages. 



Among u)y personal acquaintances, there are a 

 few who receive from fifteen to twenty dollars a 

 week, atmy business, while the journeymen whoso 

 bills I have made out for the last seven years^-va- 

 rying in number from one or two to eight or ten 

 a week — have not averaged over six dollars a 

 week. 



A shoe-dealer in the city told me his men aver- 

 aged rather over six dollars a week ; and I have 

 been told by men who have worked there, that the 

 shoemakers of Lynn do not average a dollar a 

 day. 



A friend of mine, who is engaged in another 

 kind of busines3,ancl employs some seventy hands, 

 boasted that his workmen averaged eight dollars 

 a week ; which he said was higher than the av- 

 erage at any similar establishment in the city. 



AVhere large wages are paid we often find some 

 reason or qualificixtion, that did not appear at 

 first sight. Cari)enters, masons, and some others 

 have little to do in the winter season. Some 

 kinds of business depend on the weather ; some 

 are irregular and fluctuating, — now, in a great 

 drive ; now, nothing doing. A ship-carpenter told 

 mo th;it five days' work a week was considered a 

 pretty good average for the season, on account of 

 weather, &c. This business, besides, is somewhat 

 unsteady. Before the California demand fijr slip- 

 ping, the business was so dull that a neighbor of 

 mine went off chopping wood ])y the cord one 

 winter, earning seventy-five cents to a dollar and 

 a quarter a day, — boarding himself of course, — 

 while his country friends probably supposed be 

 was earning two dollars andahalf or three dollars 

 every day. Such are all thefiicts and figures that 

 I liave to ofier upon city wages. I inight adduce 

 almost any amount of "estimates" and "guesses" 

 l>y those who have goi»J> '^ortunities of forming 



