1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



475 



serve them. They would welcome and treat with 

 kind hospitality any intelligent farmer who should 

 go on a tour of observation among them. 



Among the pleasant pauses in my rambles was 

 one with Col. Moses Newell, of West Newbury. 

 He is at present an efficient member of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, and a gentleman of singular 

 good judgment in most branches of farming, but 

 especially so with regard to stock. He has a sixty 

 acre field directly behind his house, cuts a hundred 

 tons of hay, keeps a fine dairy of about twenty 

 cows, young and old, a team of six noble oxen, 

 one hundred sheep, and other matters correspond- 

 ing with these. He is of opinion that the keeping 

 of sheep, with present prices of lambs and of wool, 

 is more profitable than the ordinary products ob- 

 tained from cows, while the labor of the women is 

 vastly less. 



I have examined the various crops which have 

 fallen under my observation, and have stated in 

 other letters that they appear well, — and, superfi- 

 cially observed, they do. Upon a more critical in- 

 spection, however, of the corn crop, I am led to 

 think that it may not prove so favorable as was 

 supposed. In passing through some larg« fields 1 

 find the ears are thicker and larger op the edges, 

 than in the body of the field, and thai in the latter 

 place there are a great many ears set that will not 

 mature. If corn, this season, had been planted 

 ^ve feet apart instead of three and a half or four 

 feet, I think the crop would be larger. The con- 

 stant rains have urged a great growth of stalks 

 and leaves which have shaded the land, — and this, 

 with the lack of hot suns, the best friend of Indian 

 corn, will prevent that- consummation of the crop 

 which I had hoped would cake place. Three-fourths 

 of the usual crop is all I expect. 



Potatoes, up to the 20th of August, never ap- 

 peared better; but soon after that time Chenan- 

 goes began to roS badly, and those not early dug 

 will be lost. On entering a field of them belong- 

 ing to Mr. Ay^r, he said any person might have 

 them who would dig them. Some other kinds are 

 attacked and are going fast. What shall be done 

 to arrest this calamity ? 



Beans of all varieties look well, — no favorite 

 politician at the polls ever ran better ; there is no 

 knowing, if they had poles long enough, where the 

 climbing beans would go. 



I am only able to speak of a few things that 

 come under my observation, — but am convinced 

 that if farmers would take opportunity to visit 

 each other, examine into their modes of culture, 

 cost of draining, reclaiming and raising crops, of 

 rearing sheep, cattle, swine and fruit, of the man- 

 agement of the dairy, modes of feeding, &c,, &c., 

 they would be mutually instructed and benefited. 

 This might be done in the most agreeable manner, 

 by spending one or two days in each three months, 



and I am quite confident would prove to every ob- 

 serving and inquiring mind more profitable than 

 the labor of any other days in the year. 



I should be glad to speak more at length of 

 those men who labored with, and cherish the mem- 

 ory of Lowell and Pickering and Colman, and who 

 are willing to spend time and money and influence 

 to promote our delight/ul art. I should be glad 

 to mention in terms of the warmest approbation, 

 the name of such men as Mr. Proctor, Mr. Wa- 

 ters, of Beverly, Mr. Fay, of Lynn, Mr. Ayer, 

 of South Danvers, Mr. S. P. Fowler, of Danvers, 

 Col. Newell, of West Newbury, Dr. Kelly, of 

 Newburyport. and Mr. Nathaniel Brown, of 

 Marblehead, all of whom reside in this ancient 

 county, and who have often instructed me either 

 by precept or example. It is especially such men 

 that give dignity to the calling, because they enno- 

 ble it, not only by their skill in the cultivation of 

 the soil, but by their enlightened and intelligent 

 minds. They are emphatically producers, — the 

 earth yields up her bounties to their skill, and they 

 produce a love of the calling in the young by their 

 candid and attractive writings. 



But I must pause. A long story in our busy 

 journal is like too long a nap at noon in hay-time, 

 — so I will only commend to others to go and see 

 for themselves as I have done. 



Truly yours, SiMON Brown. 

 Joel Nouese, Esq. 



KINDNESS TO ANIMALS. 



We have much to say in this Department of the 

 Farmer, upon the qualities, breeds, characteristics, 

 and treatment of stock. In this article we wish to 

 speak especially of kindness to domestic animals. 

 Humanity alone would seem to urge a sufficient 

 plea for the animals we rear. But this does not 

 always secure to our domestic herds the kindly 

 treatment they should have at our hands. Men of 

 human feelings often abuse animals with whip and 

 cudgel, with hunger, cold and neglect. Working 

 animals are often abused with overwork, galled 

 with bad yokes and harness, with the oft repeated 

 stroke of the lash, till they seem almost indifferent 

 to the pain of blows and galls. A good old friend 

 of ours who has been a successful farmer for nearly 

 forty years, gives it as his opinion that men com- 

 mit more sin in the sight of God in the abuse of 

 animals than in all other ways put together. See 

 the jaded horses, the stiffened and worn out oxen, 

 the poor scrawny cows, the starved hogs all over 

 the country. Somebody has abused them. See 

 the great whips, spurs and other instruments of 

 torture everywhere in use. With good feed and 

 kind treatment these are never needed in working 

 animals. They are simply instruments of torture. 

 They are evidences of a prevailing inhumanity to 

 animals. Many people whip animals as a matter 

 of course, because they have always seen them 

 whipped. If they drive often, they go whip, whip, 

 whipping along as though the poor creatures' hides 

 were already tanned into sole leather, and they do 

 it more than half from habit. If they drive horses 



