1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:\IER. 



4«9 



Bartlett, of Chelmsford, Mr. Wentworth, of Lowell, 

 Mr. Bro\TO, of Concord, and Messrs. Clark and 

 Proctor, of Danvers. 



Upon the whole, the first Exhibition of the new 

 Society has been a successful one ; but it will take 

 more than one year, to hitch the team and straight- 

 en the chain so as to get an even draft and full pow- 

 er ; but the team is there, and will perform the work 

 effectually by-and-hy. We tender our thanks for 

 kind attentions, congratulate them upon their au- 

 spicious prospects, and wish them abundant success 

 in all their future efforts in the noble cause. 



/tir t/te 2\ew England Farmer. 



THE POTATO BORER. 



Friend Brown : — Hanng your attention called 

 to a worm found in the potato vines, you express a 

 desire to be mule acquainted with his history and 

 character. With this worthy I think I may claim 

 an acquaintance of many years standing, and though 

 knowing no good of him, douiit his capacity for any 

 very extensive evil. Unless very greatly deceived 

 in the individuil, I have had the honor — am I to 

 say rare honor ? — of his acquantance, man and boy, 

 some thirty years, having occasionally met him at 

 liis work in potato and dahlia stalks, and more 

 or less every year in corn stalks. 



Five years siijce I had some choice dahlias present- 

 ed mc, which he almost entirely destroyed, before I 

 detected the cause. This year he figured pretty ex- 

 tensively in my stalks, both corn and potatoes, which 

 I attributed — as 1 did the excess of grubs and other 

 similar vermin — to our cold, backward spring. He 

 is al)out one inch in length, with a dark head, flesh- 

 colored neck, tail and belly, and a brown or choco- 

 late-colored back ; in motion, nimble and active, 

 moving up and down his hole in the pith or heart of 

 the stalk witli great ease and speed, ibr a worm, and 

 when placed upon the ground, jjrojjelling as if he 

 heard the dinner-horn. Evidently a slalk-']ohheT by 

 profession, though rarely seen, I jjresume, at the 

 broker's hoard. lie has, however, com])letel}- 

 wormed himself into the business, and is quite as 

 successful in his oj)erations, and as essentially uses 

 up the stocks upon which he operates, as the most 

 accomplished among them ; I should never suspect 

 him of the "j)otato-rot," however, as does one of 

 your correspondents, stalk-p\)hcT though he be. — 

 Indeed, from my knowledge of his hal)its and pro- 

 pensities, I should deem him much more capable 

 of tunnelling the Hoosac, and that, you perceive, 

 is setting him down as a very great bore, as since 

 that scurvy affthir of the dahlias I have a perfect 

 right to do. h. p. 



East IVohurn, Sept., 185o. 



Lakk .SuPKRion Copper Mines. — From reliable 

 sources we learn that the ])ro(luclion of roi)])erthis 

 season will l)e about 5,000 tons mine weight, amount- 

 ing to say 3,.jOO tons of ingot copper, being fully 

 one-seventeenth of the entire ])rodnct of the world". 

 The product of another year will, in all proliability, 

 be much greater than that of tlie jjresent. The val 

 ue of copper for the ])rescnt year will l)e about 

 $l,7o(),(IO(). Another year it will probably reach 

 $2,000,000. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



BOOKS FOR FARMERS. 



In your paper for April, page 197, in answer to 

 one of your corres])ondents, you gave a list of Ijooks. 

 I had Johnston's Chemistry and Geology, Browne's 

 Muck Manual, and Youatt and Martin on Cattle ; 

 the others 1 have purchased, with the exce])tion of 

 Downing's Fruit and Fruit Trees. Li asking for 

 Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, they gave me a 

 London edition of 1844, by Sir Humjjhrey Davy, 

 but edited liy John Shur. Was that right ? 



Is there no later edition of the Farmer's Ency- 

 clopaedia and Harris on Insects, than 18o2 ? I have 

 perused these books with pleasure and profit. 



Remarks. — There has not been, to our know- 

 ledge, an American edition of Davy's Chemistry, 

 and no later edition of the Encyclopa-dia or Harris' 

 Insects than 1852. 



WANTS TO BE A FARMER — QUESTIONS HARD TO 

 ANSWER. 



"I wish to ask if there is much chance for a young 

 man without money to get ahead in the country ? 

 Is there much time for reading and study ? Do 

 you know of a good farmer that wants, or would 

 take on trial such a youngster as I shall describe my- 

 self to be ? I am 5 feet 8 inches high, rather slen- 

 der, 19 years of age, have a good common school 

 education ; I am industrious, honest and sober, and 

 can obtixhi certificates to these facts from reliable 

 persons, and I neither chew or smoke tobacco." 



Remarks. — Industry, Honesty and Sobriety are 

 three cardinal virtues, and they do not often fail of 

 success. But it is an up-hill work to go to farming 

 "without money." That must be earned or bor- 

 rowed first. Now who will take our young friend, 

 on trial, among our numerous good farmers, and 

 pay him a fair compensation for liis labor, and teach 

 him the art which he aspires to learn ? That, in 

 our opinion, is just what his case requires — to go 

 into a kmd family, on a good farm that is conducted 

 systematically and with some considerable degree 

 of science, where he could at the same time earn 

 something with which to make a beginning, and ac- 

 quire a knowledge of the business of the farm. 



We could refer to gentlemen in our own, and 

 many other towns in the State, who could be ex- 

 ceedingly useful to young men in this way, and not 

 be losers themselves. Most happy shall we be to 



inform "F. E. C," of N 1, of such an opjjortu- 



nity whenever it is made known to us. In the 

 meantime, we refer him to the article in another 

 column, on the Study of ^Agriculture, and to the 

 advertisement of Prof. Nasu. 



FINE APRICOTS. 



I send you a few of my apricots, for the ])urpose 

 of ascertaining the name of tiie kind. I sujipose 

 tliem to be either the Moorjmrk or J'eitch .i/jricot, 

 l)ut as I have no other sort with which to compare 

 them, I cannot satisfy myseli' of wliicii variety they 

 are. The descriptions in the liooks are very much 

 alike. On the 25th of last month, I took one from 



