82 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



are exeelleut spread 1)roailcast on grass land ; so 

 are they about apjilc trees, dug into the soil, and 

 CHI any of the garden crops. 



THE GOOD OLD PLOW- 



Let them sing wlio iu:iy of the battle fray, 



And the deeds that have long since past, 

 Let them chant in i>raisc of the tar whose days 



Are ppent on the ocean vast. 

 I would render to these all the worship you please. 



I would honor them even now ; 

 But I'd give far more from my heart's full store, 



To the cause of the Good Old Plow. 



Let them laud the notes that in music float, 



Through the bright and glittering halls ; 

 While the amorous twirl of the hair's bright curl. 



Round the shoulder of beauty falls. 

 But dearer to me is the song from the tree, 



And the rich and blossoming bough. 

 0, these are the sweets which the rustic greets 



As he follows the Good Old Plow. 



full many there be tliat daily we see, 



With a selfish and hollow pride. 

 Who the plowman's lot, in his humble cot, 



With a scornful look deride ; 

 But I'd rather take a hearty shake, 



I'rum his hand, than to wealth I bow ; 

 For the honest clasj) of his hand's rough grasp, 



Has stood by the Good Old Plow. 



All honor be then to these gray old men, 



When at last they are bowed with toil ; 

 Their warfare then o'er, they battle no more, 



For they've conquered the stubborn soil ; 

 And the chaplet each wears, is his silver hairs ; 



And ne'er shall the victor's brow. 

 With a laurel crown, to the gave go down 



Like the sous of the Good Old Plow. 



Genesee Farmer. 



MR. PROCTOR'S ADDRESS. 



We are under ol)ligations to Brooks Shattuck 

 Esq., President of the Hillsborough County, N. H. 

 Agricultural Society, for a copy of Mr. Proctor's 

 Address, delivered before that Society in Septem 

 ber. We listened to the Address with much grati 

 fication at that time, and spoke of it through these 

 columns, as one that Avould l)e remembered. AYe 

 do not understand Mr. P. as ol^jecting to the in 

 troduetion of foreign stock, or of free experiments 

 in crossing ; but rather, that our native cattle hav 

 not had a fair trial with others — no one family 

 having been kept pure, and receiving that careful 

 attention in feeding Mdiich the Short Horns, Dev- 

 ons, Ayrshires and others have had. 



Two or three paragruplis are given from it be- 

 low, with the liojie of referring to it again. 



Working Oxen. — I have witnessed not less than 

 forty plowing matclies, -with an average of twenty 

 ox-teams in each ; but I do not remem!)er a single 

 instance where any superiority of power was man- 

 ifested in tlieir operations, by the imported over 

 the native cattle. If tliey possess this power, 

 would it not have been made apparent under such 

 circumstances? I luive know attempts to exclude 

 expert ploAvmen from liolding the plow, but I nev- 

 er knew any attempt to exclude export oxen from 

 drawing it; and if I had, I query, whether the 

 slow moulded Durhams would have been thus pri- 



vileged. I have seen the massive Durhams, the 

 descendants of the far famed Denton of Northbo- 

 rough, moving in the plowing field side hy side 

 with the snug built, bright-eyed native ox from 

 Sutton — a little more than half as large — and was 

 constrained to say, that the work was quite as well 

 done by the latter as the former. If you were about 

 to select your man for promptness and expertness of 

 labor, would you take the largest to be founds 

 By no means. I have seen the snug built little man, 

 weighing not over IGO pounds, who would lay on 

 his back the largest lubber tliat came along. The 

 same rule applies to oxen for labor. 



MiLcn Cows. — Our milch cows, for the making 

 of butter and cheese, the primary object for which 

 they are kept on most farms, are certainly not in- 

 ferior to any others. In expressing this opinion, I 

 take into view their feed as well as their products. 

 I have seen many cows within" thirty years, and 

 the very best I have seen have been native. Such 

 was the opinion of Timothy Pickering and John 

 Lowell, gentlemen of discrimination, observation 

 and high character for intelligence and truth as 

 any others. Not speculators in stock — vvith no 

 prejudices to conquer, or preferences to reward. 

 That I may not do injustice to these venerable pi- 

 oneers in improvements, who did more in Massa- 

 chusetts to awaken public attention to the inter- 

 ests of the farmer than all others, I beg leave to 

 quote a single sentence from a Report submitted by 

 Mr. Lowell, on milch cows, exhibited at the show 

 in Brighton, October, 1822, when Mr. Pickering 

 was associated with him on the committee ; and I 

 myself was present, a stripling looking on. Says 

 he : 



"Although the milch cows of Great Britain and 

 the Netherlands are in general far superior to our 

 own, I have never seen an imported cow with equal 

 merit with some of our own, that iiave been oifered. 

 So fully am I convinced of this |4;uth, as well as 

 that our country possesses a very considerable 

 number of these fine cows, that I am persuaded if 

 Great Britain or the Netherlands, or all Europe 

 combined, were to send us te7i cows, selected each 

 of the best quality there to be found, New Eng- 

 land alone would furnish twenty, that would equal 

 them in the quantity of 7nilk, butter and cheese, 

 they would respectively produce.'' 



Obstacles in the Way. — Perhaps there arc no 

 greater obstacles in the way of the advance of the 

 farmer than w^hat arises from the mistaken ap- 

 prehension of the superiority of the employment. 

 There are many young men, (of which I confess 

 myself to have been one,) who foolishly seek what 

 they imagine to be a more elevated and dignified 

 pursuit than the tillage of the ground. They wan- 

 der from the home of their birth, where contented 

 labor would have insured peace and prosperity, in 

 pursuit of a phantom of the imagination, dazzling 

 to the eye, Init not easily grasped by the hand, — 

 and when the hand is supposed to be upon it, it 

 not unfrequently is found not to be there. Many a 

 man, after struggling in vain, until he has no 

 power to struggle longer, looks back uj)on the less 

 asjjiring companions of his youth, comfortably 

 provided on the farms secured Iiy their well direct- 

 ed industry, and bemoans his own erratic judg- 

 ment. 



So many instances of the kuid have occurred 

 that I consider the principle as well estiiblished ''^ 

 any other, in political economy. Often, by gr*sp- 



