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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



I have noticed that many farmers, when they wish 

 to sow rye after corn, will cut up the corn and stook 

 it upon grass gromid. This is wrong, wholly wrong ; 

 and those who practice it are sure to have a much 

 larger quantity oi' soft corn, than those who dry off 

 their corn on ploughed ground. Where there is so 

 much green vegetation and moisture under and 

 around the stooks, it never dries off properly. These 

 are facts, and if these few lines shall induce even 

 one man to follow them out, I shall be amply paid 

 for writing them. 



Yours truly, II. Stratton. 



JVodhfteld Farm, Sept. 15th, 185o. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WHEAT-HIGH PRICES. 



Mr. Editor: — Your issue of this morning 

 touches upon the high prices of flour and grain, by 

 a correspondent, "N. Q. T." In the main, I per- 

 fectly agree with him ; but how far such complaints 

 are justifiable, I projjose to look at, and also to 2)ro- 

 ])Ose a remedy in part, which Ues in the hands of 

 New England farmers. 



In the first place, Europe is at this moment mak- 

 ing a heavy demand upon us for flour. With no 

 old stock and a shoi't crop, they are knocking at 

 the door of our granary, and will continue to do so 

 till the end of the war. 



Russia has ever been a large exporter, and our 

 principal comjjetitor in the markets of Europe. It 

 is not so now. She is at war, with every port em- 

 bargoed, and her tens of thousands of farmers are 

 bearing arms for their country, eating up her crops 

 and producing nothing. Should France, England, 

 and other parts of Europe call for bread (as they 

 are calling) to what country can they flee but to the 

 United States ? 



This is the primary cause for the now high price 

 of flour. The farmers of the West are posted in 

 all these matters, and like the farmers of the east, 

 when the demand for hay or apples is great, they 

 make prices to conform. Speculators are not swift 

 enough in the race — the benefit enures to the far- 

 mer, he not being forced to sell. Unexpectedly to 

 all, our "overwhelming crop" will be disposed of at 

 high prices.* 



Now, does all this open a book of lessons for 

 your New England farmers ? Lands they have in 

 abundance, but their wheat grows in Wisconsin 

 i-ye, oats and barley are every farmer's home crop,' 

 but within the past four years he has eaten bread 

 from cargoes of wheat imported from the Mediter- 

 ranean. Should tliis be so ? Perhaps that year of 

 scarcity in the West, would have j)roved one of 

 abundance in the East. But a doubting mind nev- 

 er makes progress. If we never sow, how can we 

 expect to reap ? 



Ninety-four bushels of winter wheat were raised 

 on less than two acres of land on Milton Hill (near 

 Boston,) by S. F., Jr., Esq. ; yet the farmers ridi- 

 culed the idea of his trjing to raise wheat. Provi- 

 dence has furnished you with spring and fall grains, 

 but the agricultural conclusion is that the "soil has 

 lost its lime," and it wont grow. Late as it is, if I 

 were a farmer, I would put down some wheat, and 

 try a remedy for high prices. H. Poor. 



JVeiv York, Sept. 22. 



*Six thousand barrels of flour are daily consumed in this city, 

 quite an item in tlie national bread-basket. 



For the New England Farmer. 



APPLE TREE WORMS. 



In the Farmer of week before last a correspon- 

 dent asks, "What ails the Apple Trees ?" and then 

 describes just such an affliction or disease as has at- 

 tacked my trees. He says that in his examinations 

 he found but one worm ; and by his remarks I con- 

 clude he suspects the trouble to be the efiect rath- 

 er of the wash he had used, than of the worm. But 

 as I find plenty of worms, and as my trees have not 

 been washed at all during the two past years, I can- 

 not agree with him in that conclusion. I find on my 

 trees spots of dead and sunken bark, from the size 

 of a button to that of half the diameter of the tree 

 in width and a foot in length. The worms are in 

 and under the live bark. The largest are about 

 one-third of an inch in length, and of a reddish- 

 white color, but many are much smaller. 



Mr. Horatio Symms, of this town, a man of much 

 experience and observation in matters pertaining to 

 fruit, tells me that these worms are what the wood- 

 peckers Avere after when they bored those Httle holes 

 into the bark, which used to be considered as con- 

 clusive evidence that the peckers were destroying 

 the orchards. Now that we have driven off or de- 

 stroyed these birds, he says we must cut out the 

 worms vnth a knife, or they will kill the trees. They 

 have made bad woi'k on several of my trees, espec- 

 ially where they have found a lodgement at the fork 

 of the branches, — almost entirely girdling them in 

 some cases. It mutilates the tree sadly to cut out 

 the worms ; is there no other way of preventing 

 their ravages ? Would that we could call back the 

 woodpeckers ! s. F. 



Winchester, Sept. 24, 1855. 



For the Netv England Farmer. 



HARVESTING CORN. 



I perceive, ]Mr. Editor, that Mr. J. Underwood, 

 of Lexington, does not agree with my suggestions, 

 as to the best mode of harvesting the com crop. 

 It is a subject upon which I could hardly expect an 

 identity of opinion, for there certainly is a wide dif- 

 ference in practice. I was, myself, schooled in the 

 somewhat "old fogie" practice of cutting oft' the stalks 

 of corn, one by one, in order to save them for fod- 

 der, and to give the ears a fair chance of ripening in 

 the sun. But I found that tliis j^ractice involved a 

 degree of labor greatly bej ond that of harvesting 

 the entire crop by cutting it up with a sickle. I 

 was therefore led, somewhat reluctantly — for I had 

 imbibed similar news to those expressed by ]Mr. 

 Underwood, to try the experiment of cutting up the 

 crop, after the corn Avas out of the milk, and the 

 leaves had partially turned, binding it m bundles, 

 and "stooking" it up to cure. At first, I tried about 

 half an acre, alongside of an equal quantity harvest- 

 ed in the old way of cutting the stalks. There was 

 no perceptible difference in the appearance of the 

 corn thus harvested, after husking it, or after it was 

 ground into meal. Both sorts made equally good 

 bread, and there was no evidence of a difference in 

 the quantity of nutritive matter. The "stover" from 

 that portion cut up with a sickle greatly exceeded 

 in quantity that Avhere the stalks only were cut above 

 the ear. The labor of harvesting was at least twice 

 as great in the latter case as in the former. I have 

 tried the experiment repeatedly since, and I have 

 found no reason to change the views forced upon me 

 by the first experiment. 



