1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER. 



319 



dustry, saving untold burdens of freigLtage, ] other line of business throw all their 

 excessive profits and extortions of middle- and energies into specialties 

 men, insurance, breakage anci manifold losses 

 prevents reduction of prices from burdened 

 markets, lightens damages from failures of 

 single products, gives employment to all 

 classes, conditions and capacities of labor, in- 

 sures remunerating \^ages for workmen, ren- 

 ders possible necessary rotations, and the 

 production of farm manures, and increases 

 the wealth and intelligence of a State. The 

 smaller products of a diversified industry are 

 far more than an equivalent for a single result 

 of organized labor, however absorbing or im- 

 portant. The cotton crop for example of 

 Georgia in 1860 was 701,840 bales, yielding 

 little more than $30,000,000, while the butter 

 of New York in 1865, one of several products 

 of the dairy, was estimated at $60,000,000, 

 and yet the census gives to New York 370,- 

 911: farmers and farm laborers, and to Geor- 

 gia 316,478 ; including white farmers and 

 farm laborers and only the male slaves. Be- 

 sides the other dairy products, milk, cream 

 and cheese, and the multitude of smaller pro- 

 ducts of the fiirm, the principal crops make 

 astounding aggregate — as in 1861, when the 

 coin crop of New York was estimated at 

 $38,000,000, the wheat at $25,000,000 the 

 oats at $33,000,000, potatoes at $19,000,000 

 and hay at $90,000,()00, including the minor 

 cereals, products of gardens and orchards, 

 the production of beef and mutton fi-om pas- 

 turage, and a great variety of miscellaneous 

 and exceptional products, the currency value 

 of the agricultural productions of this one 

 State in that year was far greater than the 

 money returns of any cotton crop ever pro- 

 duced in the country." 



capital 



If farmers will all rush into butter-making, 

 butter will fall from an over-supply. So with 

 cheese or with potatoes or grain of any kind. 

 It has been so with wool-raising. When the 

 rebellion broke out there was a great demand 

 for woolen goods, prices for the raw material 

 rose enormously, and the farmers of the West 

 and East rushed into wool-growing, and the 

 result is just the same. It will be so with the 

 grape and wine business after a while. If a 

 large number of city merchants, owing to the 

 high price of coffee, tea, or any particular 

 labric, should make large importations and 

 overstock the market, there would be but one 

 result, — effect following cause. 



This being so, we think that the snggestions 

 which we have often made to the general 

 farmer to follow a system of mixed hvshandry 

 is the best in the long run, the profits being 

 far more certain and the risk a great deal less. 

 — Germantoion Telegraph. 



BUTTEB OR CHEESE ? 



In central New York there appears to have 

 been for the last ten years such a mania in 

 behalf of converting milk into cheese instead 

 of butter that the latter has become quite ig- 

 nored and high in price. The papers in that 

 section have been filled with a(;counts of the 

 different cheese factories and the prevaih"ng 

 prices from week to week. We have for 

 some time been well assured in our own minds 

 that the business was being run into the 

 ground — that is, overdone — and so it proves 

 to be. Cheese manufjicturers jyid dairymen 

 Vho supply the milk are both complaining that 

 the ruling prices of cheese are getting to be 

 too low, affording so little profit to the busi- 

 ness as not to make it an object of sufficient 

 importance to many of them engaged in it. 



Thus, while butter is yearly commanding 

 higher prices and milk and cream have ad- 

 vanced, affording good profits, cheese is fall- 

 ing, and we may add will' continue to do so 

 until butter-making and cheese-making occupy 

 a compensating attitude toward each other. 

 It is so whenever farmers or persons in an 



Heifers Oalving in June. — A writer in 

 the Practical Farmer, in speaking of the 

 value of heifers that drop their first calves in 

 June, says : 



"A heifer having lier first calf in the menth 

 of June, or when pasture is best, will make a 

 far better milker than one that calves' in the 

 lall or winter. Such has been my experience, 

 and yet in all the articles which I have read 

 on the breeding of dairy stock, I have never 

 teen it stated as the sine qiia nan of a, first 

 rate cow. But so well am I convinced of its 

 importance, that I would give twice as much 

 for a heifer of the same stock and age to calve 

 in June, as for one that would calve in winter. 

 The grass being then in the best condition to 

 produce a full liow of milk, all the parts that 

 tend to the secretion of milk are developed to 

 their utmost capacity. The udder, the teats, 

 the milk veins, become enlarged permanently 

 — and the best cows I ever raised we had to 

 commence milking several weeks before they 

 calved, for fear of garget, as they would ap- 

 pear to be in pain from the fulness of their 

 udders." 



Quinces. — A fit-w years ago, this fruit was 

 easily grown and large quantities found their 

 way into the great cities, where they were sold 

 at moderate prices ; but latterly they have 

 failed, and,- like the apple, have ben scarce 

 and high. The quince seems to flourish best 

 on a rather stiff, moist soil, in somewhat shel- 

 tered locations. We have often seen trees or 

 bushes loaded with fruit, growing beside 

 brooks or around small ponds. It has long 

 been a favorite fruit for preserving in sugar, 

 and for marmalade, on account of its texture 

 and peculiar and agreeable flavor. We know 

 of no reason why the cultivation of this fruit 



