360 



NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



Aug. 



making them healthy and les8 liable to disease, stuff into the town, there may be at least a suffi- 

 I treat my flock yearly, although I seldom see a ciency raised for home consumption. There needs 

 tick. a change in many particulars, but a few of which 



I send you a sample of wool taken at random I can now be noticed. Tliere is a mistake some- 

 from a fleece, taken off June 1st, from a two* where in respect to there being so few laborers 

 year old buck, with the weight of sheep and fleece, on the land. Is it because farming is not honor- 

 Sheep weighed before shearing, llTi lbs., fleece ;]a1)le or profitable^ Or is the labor moi'o severe 

 1-i 1-16 lbs. of loell washed wool, of one years I than to drive a truck, or express, or omnibus, in 

 growth onli/ ; breed, from "Native American" i Boston ? Is it thought more honorable to meas- 

 Meriuo descended from stock imported from jure tape behind the counter, than to preside at a 



Spain, many years since. If any of your readers 

 can beat this, I should like to hear from them. 



J. B. Proctor 

 Rutland, Vt., June 11, 1855. 



Remarks. — The sample of wool before us is 

 very beautiful, and shows, with the above de- 

 scription, to what a degree of perfection our 

 sheep-growers have brought their fleeces as well 

 as mutton. We should feel obliged to Mr. Proc- 

 tor for a dozen samples of wool taken from the 

 various breeds of sheep in his neighborhood, with 

 a brief description of each sample. 



weekly meeting of a farmers' association, or to 

 swing the scythe in a summer's day ? Let agri- 

 culture take its proper place with the professions 

 of the day, and it will not be thought degrading 

 to be seen in the field with spade in hand. 



Ask the retired merchant what he thinks, 

 while busy on his model fixrm, surrounded with 

 everything to charm his eye, the lowing herds, 

 the waving grain, the well-filled purse. Ask the 

 man of small meads and few acres, with health 

 and a smiling family, who makes the two ends of 

 the year meet ; ask him if he would exchange his 

 happy, peaceful fireside, the lovely village 

 church, and the district school, for the turbu- 

 lent waters of a trading life in the crowded city, 

 where boys are brought up amidst crime and dis- 

 honesty, which, without a mighty moral effort, 

 will certainly destroy them. 



Again, the farming community ought to be a 

 reading and writing community. There should 

 be books and papers of an agricultural character 

 on every farmer's table and a day-book beside 

 them to note down every little incident worthy to 

 be remembered. These little scraps can be gath- 

 ered up at any time, sufficient to note down a col- 

 umn to spread before the readers of an agricultu- 

 ral paper. These ideas and experiences can be 

 matured and practised by others, and we be mu- 

 tual helps, while we enjoy the luxuries of liie in 

 all their purity, and find that it is good to give 

 as well as to receive. 



These thoughts suggest themselves to me while 

 here as a resident. Stranger. 



Meredith Centre, N. IL, 1855. 



For the New Eng/and Farmer. 



LIGHT FKOM THE GRAIJITE STATE. 



Mr. Editor : — After living in the Old Bay 

 State the most of my days, and getting my living 

 by farming, I find myself here in the Granite 

 State. 



Looking out over the country at the close of a 

 dry season, when vegetation suffered so much, I 

 find the agriculture of this portion of the State 

 needs a reform. The farmers around Boston are 

 well posted up in improved implements, the new 

 methods of cultivation, and in the progress of ro 

 tation and change of crops. By the middle of 

 June you can detei-mine almost to a certainty 

 what the hay crop will be. If it is destined to be 

 light, then corn and millet make up tlie deficien- 

 cy, and the root crops will insure a surplus. Not 

 so here : what hay can be cut and stored, must 

 carry the stock through ; sometimes there is plen- 

 ty and to spare, at other times, the stock suffers 

 for the want of fodder that might be secured 

 with a little forethought and labor. An acre or 

 two of gi'cen corn used for soiling would be a 

 great benefit. Then there is millet, which is 

 strictly a summer grain, thought to be as valua- 

 ble as any other fodder for winter use. By tlie 

 way, will not some of your correspondents relate 

 their experience in millet raising ? 



Now a word of advice to my neighbors and 

 townsmen here in Meredith. Let every farmer 

 and mechanic in this town give his name and 

 money to the postmaster to order and pay for the 

 New England Farmer for one year, and study 

 the improved husbandry of the nineteenth centu- 

 ry ; then practice tlie same, and I will venture 

 the assertion that they will find seventy-five per 

 cent, increase of profits. 



The soil of this town is good, and though some 

 parts of it are hard to work, yet this can be met 



and overcome, bv study, toil and perseverance. n,r„T. ^^-r, n.,,^T-m r^,. / n/r ■ ^e r^uir. 

 „., 1 " 1 "^ . 1 ^ . 1 i p Lure for Garget. — Joseph Merriayn, or Unio, 



ihe manure heap can bo increased at least four-' j. . . , ^, . 7-, , ,. -, ■■, 



fold, the land can be plowed with half the team , j ^*^t^«' i" ^'^^^ ^^"'' I'armer, that raw linseed oil. 

 the expense of cultivating crops can be much re-! cubbed over the cow's bag, will cure the garget, 

 duced, and instead of bringing so much bread-jlle says it is a certain remedy. 



OFFICEES OE SOCIETIES. 

 Franklin County Agrictiltural Society. 

 H. W. CusiiMAN, Bernardston, President. 

 Edward F. Raymond, Secretary. 



Housatonic Agricultural Society. 

 Henry Smith, of Lee, President. 

 E. P. WooDwoRTH, Gt. Barrington, Treasurer. 

 J. Sedgwick, Great Barrington, Secretary. 



Rutland County Agricultural Society. 

 Henry W. Lester, Rutland, President. 

 John L. Marsh, Clarendon, i Vice 

 Alanson xIllen, Fairhaven, J Presidents. 

 Daniel Kimball, Rutland, Secretary. 

 Zen IN Howe, Castle ton. Treasurer. 



