1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



107 



fluence is very apparent in the growth of all annua! 

 plants. The seed of all annuals, indigenous or ex- 

 otic, after it has come up, advances more rapidly to 

 maturity than in Europe, especially in Great Brit- 

 ain. This fact is particularly noticeable in the an- 

 nual flowers of our gardens. 



But the glory of our New England climate is the 

 autumn ; and this season, over all the North Ameri- 

 can continent, is unrivalled, and beautiful enough to 

 compensate for all the defects of the other seasons. 

 It is not our intention, in this essay, to describe the 

 appearances of nature, but rather of the influence 

 of our climate on the character of our people. 

 Thomas Hood's description of an English Novem- 

 ber could never be applied to that of America. Our 

 brilliant autumns, with their bracing winds and 

 clear skies, must necessarily ])roduce an invigora- 

 ting influence upon the inhabitants ; and we see 

 this effect in the general activity that prevails in the 

 community. There is no other season when so much 

 labor, both of the body and the mind, is accom- 

 plished. Men av7ake out of the languor of summer, 

 and commence with renewed energy all the enter- 

 prises of the time. 



To conclude, we cannot agree with those who are 

 constantly finding fault with our New England cli- 

 mate. We grant it is a bad climate for invalids — 

 one must preserve the health of his body, by tem- 

 perance and invigorating exercise, to be able to en- 

 joy our weather. But if he be well, he Vtould be 

 unable to find any other climate in which it is more 

 easy to preserve his health, or which affords him 

 more of those blessings that proceed directly or in- 

 directly from climatic influences. 



For the New England Farmer. 



SMALL FAIIMS vs. LAE(JE FAEMS. 



Much is said in praise of small farms, and much 

 is said against large farms. Agricultural writers 

 seem to vie M'ith each other in praise of the one, 

 and denouncing the other. I wish those writers 

 would tell us what a small farm is, whether 10, 20, 

 30, 50, or 100 acres. 



It looks very nice on paper, to talk about a snug 

 little cottage, a nice little garden, and a little farm, 

 one or two cows and a horse, and no trouble of 

 hired help. In practice it is a very different thing. 

 I should like to see the first contented man who 

 had to farm for a living in that situation ; the first 

 one that did not want a little more land. 



If a man is going to gardening, and lives near a 

 market, 5 or 10 acres will do, — but if a man is go- 

 ing to farming, let him have a farm from 100 to 

 500 acres, one that he does not have to sell off his 

 stock in a dry year, or buy the corn for his own 

 bread. That is the case back in the country fre- 

 (pjently with the small farmers. I will give you 

 some of the inconveniences of small farming, as I 

 have been there, and know them well. 



You cannot keep a team, but must be dependent 

 ou your neighbors to do your ox work, and they 

 will do it when they can attend to it, or when they 



have got theirs done. At many kinds of work, one 

 hand works to great disadvantage, such as haying, 

 digging stones, laying heavy walls, plowing, &c. The 

 buildings on a small farm must be nearly as costly 

 as those on a large farm, to make you comfortable. 

 The cost of a small farm is almost all buildings. 

 But the worst of all is, you have nothing to sell, 

 or nothing comparatively. I am not speaking of 

 gardening, but of farming, of raising corn, potatoes, 

 oats, wheat, rye, hay, dairy stock, &c. If 40 acres 

 will support a family in a house worth 10 to $1500 

 dollars, then 80 acres will support 2 families, with 

 the 10 per cent, interest on the cost of the buildings, 

 and 160 acres will support 4 families with from 3 

 to 500 dollars, saving on interest and repairs on 

 buildings yearly. 



Every other branch of business can be done best 

 and cheapest on a large scale. Great factories, 

 great ships, great machine shops ; but little farms is 

 the talk. I said I had been there. I commenced 

 farming on a little farm about 20 acres, say 6 in 

 mowing and tillage, 5 in woodland, and 7 or 8 in 

 pasturing and brush. I was more plagued to carry 

 on that than I am now with 2 or 300 acres. I could 

 keep a horse and cow. I could not afford to have 

 tools — no small farms can. It was borrow, borrow, 

 borrow. Capt. S., can you let me have your cart 

 to-day? Dea. E., can you lend me your plow, your 

 harrow, or something? No team, no tools ; I was 

 soon sick of that, and I bought more land. 



Give me a good large farm, and then I can have 

 every thing that a farmer wants, and have something 

 to sell. Can buy a dozen head of cattle at any time, 

 or sell 20, just as fancy or interest may dictate. I 

 want an orchard that would cover a little farm all 

 over. If it is profitable to cultivate one acre well, 

 it is profitable to cultivate 100 well. I know of no 

 way that a man can make a little farm rich, but 

 what could be adapted to a large farm. If their is, 

 I wish your correspondents would point it out for 

 the benefit of X. 



HoUi^, JV. H., 1857. 



Remabks. — Farming, like other business, is sub- 

 ject to the laws of trade, or capital. You want land 

 in proportion to your capital, provided you possess 

 skill to manage both. We think the positions which 

 X. assumes are sound. 



A Tall Borek. — A correspondent of the South 

 Carolina Jlgriculturist, in cautioning southern hor- 

 ticulturists against mulching trees in their climate, 

 on account of the harbor which it forms for insects 

 which prey upon their trees, — insects by the side 

 of whom their northern cousins sink into pigmy 

 insignificance, — says, that happening to put his 

 hand upon an apple tree around which a mulch of 

 litter had accidentally been thrown, he found it to 

 yield to the touch in a mxanner that led him to 

 think it had been broken at the root. On lifting it, 

 however, it broke short off near the ground, and 

 there, within a cavity formed by its own industry 

 stood on end a monster borer, some four inches 

 long and half an inch across the shoulders. The 

 whole of the woody fibre had been consumed, leav- 

 ing nothing but the bark. 



