1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



155 



No palace was the prize — but soothing shades, 

 And flowers that laugh along the varied meads, 

 To more sincere delights in%'ited ease, 

 And promised dearer joys, more lasting peace." 



De LUle. 



For the New England Farmer. 



INSUHAKCE COMPANIES. 



Mr. Brown : — An article in your last number, 

 February H, on Fire Insurance, together Avith your 

 suggestions, has stirred one of the readers of the 

 Fanner not a little. Your correspondent, P. B. P., 

 can give the name of (hat company which refused 

 payment, on the ground of additional risk of a por- 

 tico attached to the house, when the barn was 

 burned; especially, when the insured took means 

 to ascertain of the company's secretary the relation 

 it had to his policy. 



I am insured in one of the mutual companies in 

 Mass., (or have a policy.) and if the one to which 1 

 belong has been guilty of so m.ean a transaction as 

 that stated above, I want to know it. Can these 

 things be so ? Job offices I have always consid- 

 ered unsafe ; but mutual companies are not all so, 

 or at least, I have not so considered them. If the 

 one in which I hold a policy is obliged to take such 

 a course to live, the presumption on the face of it 

 is, that it is a rotten concern, which should be 

 known to be avoided. 



I wish your correspondent would name to which 

 he alluded. At any rate, the public is indebted to 

 him for his A^aluable suggestions. H. J. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MOWING MACHINES. 



There seems to be a strong impression abroad 

 that mowing machines will not operate well on 

 New England farms. From the experience of one 

 year's use of Manning's mowing machine, I think 

 that impression is wrong. 



Last hay-time, I commenced on the Monday af- 

 ter the 4th of July, with a raw hand, never having 

 used a mower over five minutes before. I went in- 

 to a piece of clover of about one acre, and mowed 

 it in two hours, and I mowed it well. This was my 

 first trial. The clover was about a ton to the acre, 

 and the stones but indifferently picked. My team 

 consisted of two old horses, both of age, but they 

 carried it with perfect ease. After that, I proceed- 

 ed to mow with the mower all my upland that had 

 been laid down tolerably smooth, and I liked it 

 much. I could go into the field after the dew was 

 off, and cut from two to three acres, as I chose, be- 

 fore noon. I did not make but one trial of time 

 after the first ; then I cut one-half an acre in forty 

 minutes, without much hurrying. After the hay 

 was dry, it made fifteen stout cocks, and a good 

 load. Myself an invalid, and my two old horses, 

 could cut as much grass as three hands could take 

 care of through the day, and get in. I remained 

 in the field from two to five hours, just as I thought 

 we could take care of the gi-ass cut. 



In the afternoon I would hitch one of my horses 

 to my horse-rake on wheels, and rake at the rate 

 of one to two acres per hour. The help allowed 

 that I did more than half the work on the upland. 

 I am surprised that the horse-rakes on wheels are 

 not more used ; I have used one 5 years, and would 

 not take $100 for it, if I could not get another. 



The objections urged against the mowing ma- 

 chine are, first, the cost. That is considerable ; 

 from $90 to $130, according to size. '^\e next is, 

 that it costs so much to keep it in repair. I broke 

 out three teeth, which I put in myself with a screw- 

 driver in fifteen minutes each. And last, that my 

 three hands had nothing to do while I was mowing. 

 My help consisted of two Yankees and an Irish- 

 man, who did not mow, but was otherwise a good 

 hand, hired at five shillings per day. They thought 

 they had work to do. First to milk ; then to un- 

 load two or three loads of hay; mow around the 

 fences and runs ; open from fifty to one hundred 

 and fifty cocks of hay, and turn it. Then there 

 were five or six acres of corn and potatoes, and a 

 garden, neither of which was the worse for an Irish 

 visit. They thought they worked, and I thought 

 they worked, and was satisfied to pay them for 

 their work. I usually keep two horses, but in hay- 

 ing time have had but little use for them in the 

 forenoon, until I had a mower. 



This is the first year's experience in the use of 

 the mower. All who saw it allowed that my grass 

 was cut extra well, and without much fatigue to 

 myself or horses. Next haying, I intend to have a 

 mower with a reaper attached, and if I succeed as 

 well as last year, I shall consider my upland hay- 

 ing but half the job it was ten years ago. 



Hollis, jsr. H., Feb., 1857. E. Emerson. 



Remarks. — That is the way a practical man 

 tells his story. O, ye cavillers and doubters ! Go 

 and see Mr. Emerson next July, and argue him 

 out of all that nonsense, if you can ; but go in as 

 obstinate a mood as possible, so as not to get con- 

 verted yourselves. 



GOV. BOUrWELL ANSWERED. 



It may be recollected that Gov. Boutwell, of 

 Massachusetts, in an agricultural address delivered 

 by him last year, undertook to make some very 

 sober comparisons between the West and the East ; 

 in which he showed, amongst other things, by sta- 

 tistical facts, that after all which is said of the 

 immense productiveness of the Great West, right 

 here, in old sterile New England, in Massachusetts 

 and Vermont, where the population per square mile 

 is ten times as dense as in the Mississippi Valley, 

 there is more actually raised annually, per capita, 

 for the sujjport of life, than in Ohio, Indiana or Illi- 

 nois. Such a fact as this would hardly escape the 

 notice of Western speakers and writers, and we 

 have been looking for some candid answer to Gov. 

 Boutwell, which should relieve the West from a 

 comparison so unfavorable. Hitherto all is silent ; 

 but at length the silence is broken by Hon. A. C. 

 Barry, who, in an address delivered by him befors 

 the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, in Mil- 

 waukie, in October last, notices this statement of 

 Gen. Boutwell, and proceeds to reply to it in the 

 best manner he could. But hia reply is exceeding 

 impotent and futile — a virtual confession, as it ap- 

 pears to us, that the fact is as Gov. B. stated it. — 

 Drew's Rural Intelligencer. 



Sd' The Green Mountain Farmer says that there 

 are 5,159,641 pounds of maple sugar made annual- 

 ly in Vermont, being 2,973,293 pounds more than 

 are made in all the rest of New England. 



