410 



NEW ENGLAND FARJVIER. 



Sept. 



patent grapes, strawberries, wheat, rye, bar- 

 ley, oats, &c., or for patent horses, cattle, 

 slieep, pigs, and poultry. But the question is 

 already before the people, and very likely 

 Congress will be called upon to take some ac- 

 tion on the subject. 



DOES PAKMINQ PAYP 



Having seen a number of inqwirlcs in rela- 

 tion to the above subject, I take the liberty to 

 give yoii an item that will show what a young 

 man in this place has done. 



He was born and brought up on a farm, and 

 learned the trade from his father, who was 

 called a thorough going farmer. This man 

 started for himself in 18G1, with $275 in 

 money, wliich was all he was worth in the 

 world. He bought thirty-six acres of eld pas- 

 ture land for $1025 ; bought his team and 

 •went to work. 



He built a good substantial house and bam, 

 with cellar under the whole, o2 by fifty feet, 

 for the making and storing of manure. His 

 neighbors said — "Do not make a cellar; if 

 you do, } ou will lose all your stock with the 

 ■cattle disease, and it will ruin the neighbor- 

 hood as well as yourself." But he heeded 

 not .their advice, and his cellar has paid better 

 than any other investmenton his farm, unless 

 it is underdrains of stone, which have been 

 put in to the amout of over one mile. Neigh- 

 bors shook their heads and said — "He will 

 starve on that place ;'" but, by perseverance 

 and plenty of work, he has made great im- 

 provements, and has also lived on the place. 



He is a bachelor, and, of course, hires his 

 help in the* house as well as out doors when 

 necessary, and does manage to make both ends 

 meet. He keeps an account of all his trans- 

 actions, and would be able to tell, if asked, 

 what it had cost him to make a pound of pork 

 in more than one instance ; also, if there is 

 any profit in the raising of poultry in large <or 

 small lots. An inventory is taken at the close 

 of each year, and then he can tell at once 

 what the profits and expenses have been for 

 the past year, and this will help to form plans 

 for next year with better results than if it were 

 all mere guess \iork. 



His farm was rented one year, while he en- 

 listed in the army, but it was no improvement 

 to the farm, or his pocket either, for his health 

 was so poor that he was not able to do any 

 work for more than a 3 ear after his return. 



The past season he refused an offer of $4200 

 for his farm and his out lands (which have 

 been bought by piecemeal since his first pur- 

 chase of tlie farm,) will pay all his debts, and 

 the personal property will bring at auction 

 from $1200 to $1500 more, making over $5000 

 for five years' work, which I thmk is .doing 

 very well on a farm in this country. Now if 

 one man can do this on a farm without a wife 

 to help him over the rough road of life, and 



with all the drawbacks that a young man with- 

 out money has to encounter, why cannot 

 another do the same? It requires tact, energy, 

 and industry to achieve success on a farm as 

 well as in other vocations in life. — D. T., 

 West Springfield, Mass., in Country Gent. 



ASSOKTING- FRUIT. 



Dr. Claggett of St. Louis said, "I wish I 

 could impress upon fruit-growers the import- 

 ance and profit of assorting fruit. Fruit will 

 not only bring better prices if assorted, but 

 depreciation of prices will be prevented. Too 

 few shippers assort their fruit ; such as do, 

 get from one-third to one-half more for it than 

 those who do not do so. Full one-third of 

 the fruit found in packages had better have 

 been given to the pigs. The market is over- 

 run with packages of inferior fruit. We who 

 are dealers have to assort it. If one-third of 

 the fruit sent to this market were left at home, 

 the other two-thirds would bring more money 

 than the whole does now. It is every man's 

 interest to leave imperfect fruit- at home ; if 

 he does not, the buyer has to throw fully one- 

 third of it away. If a dealer knows a shipper 

 has a reputation for assorting his fruit, he can 

 recommend his packages confidently without 

 examination ; but, so far as nine-tenths of the 

 packages received from shippers are con- 

 cerned, dealers know nothing about them that 

 will warrant them in asserting the excellence 

 of the fruit to a customer until it has been ex- 

 amined. I wish every shipper knew the value 

 to him of a good reputation, — of a reputation 

 that will sell fi-uit-packages bearing his brand 

 at the highest market-price, without examina- 

 tion. Every fruit-grower should aim to get 

 such a reputation." — Am. Pomological Soc. 



THE CURRANT "WORM. 



About the middle of May they begin to ap- 

 pear on the lower leaves near the ground, and 

 what afterward proves to be many hundreds 

 may be found on a single leaf. They travel 

 slowly until they attain considerable size, 

 which gives ample time to destroy them before 

 they have done much damage. By the 1st of 

 June small black skins, with the worm's head 

 attached, may be seen on the ends of the 

 branches, and in a very few days no worms are 

 to be seen. I have seen hundreds of worms 

 on the top of a bush in the evening, and 

 in the morning each one had left behind 

 it its skin, and disappeared. Whether in one 

 night the larva changes into a fly, unlike 

 other insects, or whether it goes through 

 the regular transforming process of a chrysa- 

 lis' life in a cocoon, in the earth beneath the 

 bush, 1 have not ascertained, but intend to re- 

 move a bush, sift the soil, and learn the facts, 

 if possible. I placed three sizes of the worms, 

 from one-third to fully grown, in a glass ves- 

 sel, and put in with them some currant leaves : 



