448 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 





BOSTON FAl MILL. 



The grain harvest of New England will soon be 

 gathei-ed, and among the machines which the far- 

 mer needs to prepare his produce for the market, 

 the one represented at the head of this article oc- 

 cupies an important place. The purposes of the 

 mill are easily understood, and few words of com- 

 ment are necessary at this time. The mill is light 

 and portable, but made in a strong and durable 

 manner, and cleans grain and small seeds rapidly 

 and at a single operation. Four sizes of the mill 

 are manufactured, by Nourse, Mason & Co., vary- 

 ing in price from $13 to $18. They can be obtain- 

 ed at any of the agricultural warerooms. 



for the Neto England Farmer. 



WHEAT CROP. 



Farmers of New England, how are your wheat 

 crops this season ? Has experience taught you the 

 safety and superiorih/ of winter in preference to 

 spring wheat ? Safer, on account of its early ripen- 

 ing, superior in quality for every kind of cookery. 

 Perhaps your courage, or faith, yet remains to be 

 developed, and you are waiting the slow movement 

 for neighbor Barker to begin first to raise wheat. 

 He is always in luck with other grains, but "wheat," 

 he says, "1 am shy about." You ask him for his 

 reasons, and he has none. Did you ever try the 

 experiment ? No. Did neighbor Gage ever try ? 

 guess not. Does he raise other grains? O, yes, gets 

 big crops. Never raised any winter wheat ? "No, 

 wal, they say, there is no lime in the soil, and fact 

 is, we don't like to take the risk." 



Now this is about the sum and substance of the 



argument, which reminds one of the farmer who 

 made all his cows bob-tailed, that they might tnrive 

 better, believing the short club was surer to kill 

 flies than a "dangling tail," which he considered a 

 useless appendage. 



The cereal family, or small grains, are classified 

 thus : — Wheat, rye, barley, oats. We have winter 

 and spring wheat, and winter and spring rye. Bar- 

 ley and oats are spring grains only. Now, are we 

 to distrust a providential hand, and cast out the 

 most valuable of these grains, being faithless in the 

 nature or capacity of the soil to produce wheat, 

 while our confidence is unbounded in regard to the 

 other grains ? It might be said of the apple orchard 

 with the same propriety, plums, pears and peaches 

 are fruits, but the lack of lime or some other soil- 

 element, is a bar to their thriving in the apple or- 

 chard. No error cculd be more fatal, and no non- 

 sense more Hke moonshine. 



In my recent journeyings through some of the 

 middle and western counties of Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut, I was struck with the miserable apolo- 

 gies of rye fields (with few exceptions) as reflecting 

 more discredit than honor to the husbandman. Not 

 a blade of wheat to be seen. Allen's "combined 

 machine" would have found little to do on these 

 gravel knolls and sand flats. It is only surprising, 

 that farmers will spend so much time and labor 

 merely to get their seed back. One acre of winter 

 wheat on good sod soil, would produce more than 

 five or six acres of these forlorn gravel hills of sand 

 beds. 



This being a subject that should interest deeply, 

 every farmer in New England, I shall, Mr. Editor, 

 ask permission to be heard again. I have read 

 with great pleasure, the instructive letter of Mr. 

 French on the wheat-growing interest of Old Eng- 



