1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



357 



support — the consequence is, both partake and 

 both suffer. Your corn-leaves are rolled up like 

 so many segars, and instead of a full crop of corn 

 j-ou are liable to receive only an apology for one. 

 Sloicc, Junel, 1854. n. F. 



WHAT KIND OF FARMING? 



Henry F. FiiENcii, E^q., — Dear Sir : — You 

 will certainly pardon me for introducing myself 

 to you in this manner ; but sir, after having read 

 many articles from your pen, published in the 

 New England Farmer, I believe you are capable 

 (if you will) of giving mo just such advice as 1 

 most need. I notice an article in the Fanner for 

 June, with your name attached, headed, ^^Siick 

 to the Farm.''' Now, sir, my object in vpriting 

 this, is to inquire what kind of a farm, in your 

 opinion, will be for the next 10 years the most 

 profitable? I mean to take everything into cou- 

 sideratiou, the cost of labor as well as the price of 

 differ!;nt kinds of farm produce, and to farm it in 

 New Ea;^land. 



What [ mean by inquiring what kind of a farm, 

 &c. , is whether there is the most money to be made 

 on a grass farm, or both combined, or whether it 

 !? best to improve but a little land, devoted wholly 

 to raising vegetables for marketing. In case yoi.. 

 decide in favor of a grass farm, please tell me what 

 is the most profita)le stock to stock said farm 

 with 1 Whether it would be best to select a dairy 

 farm and manufacture butter and cheese for the 

 market, or would it best to stock with young 

 stock, or sheep, or both combined, and turn off as 

 much beef or mutton or both as may be ? * 



I am a young man, and have had but little ex- 

 perience in farming ; henco I am desirous of ob 

 taining the advice of the experienced. 



Please answer soon. 



Yours truly, j. d. 



Juned, 1854. 



Exeter, N. H., June 17, 1854. 

 My Dear Sir : — I wish it were in my power 

 to afford you the assistance you ask, in your letter 

 of the 'Jth inst., for I know by experience, the dif- 

 ficulties which beset every thoughtful man, at va- 

 rious critical points on his life-journey, when im- 

 portant stjps must be taken, and the path is not 

 plain before him. As I do not know the extent 

 of your pecuniary means, or your habits or condi- 

 tion in life, were I as wise as Solomon, it would 

 1>D imp03sil)le for mc to do more than to suggest 

 some general views as t > the advantages and dis- 

 advant;igC8 of the different kinds of farming. Tak- 

 ing it for granted, that you are married or soon 

 will be, to a well educated, industrious New Erg- 

 hind girl, whose comfort and taste you will al- 

 ways consult, and who will be ever ready to do 

 more than you desire, for the promotion of your 

 interests, and that you have some means of pur- 

 chasing a farm, and are determined to remain in 

 New England, let us consider first what are the 

 objects to bo attiiincd, and thonliow to attain them. 

 Money is always a 7/uans, and not an end, and 

 you probably would not consider it a very desi 

 rable speculation to die rich, sit the end of five 



years, as so many of the most fortunate adventur- 

 ers to California have done. The advantages of 

 good society, and good schools, go far to corapen 

 sate us for the want of the fertile lands and gold- 

 en streams of the far West, and no amount of 

 wheat or corn or gold can compen.«:ate one child 

 for the want of a good education or an uprigW: 

 heart. 



A man of good education, as your letter showa 

 you to be, would find his own happinc's and that 

 of his family essentially promoted, by living in or 

 near some considerable town or village, where 

 they would be within convenient reach, not only 

 of neighbors, and schools, and churches, but of the 

 railroads and telegraph, and of lyceums and con- 

 certs and libraries. To be sure, these things are 

 not money, but they are money's worth, which ia 

 all that wealth is valuable for. 



Now a sheep or stock farm must necessarily be 

 extensive, and of course, be located where land is 

 cheap. For such a farm you need large pasturee, 

 and six or eight dollars an acre is as much as you 

 can afford to pay for it. Again, to raise animals 

 you must feed large quantities of hay, and gener- 

 ally, neat cattle will, at three years old, have con- 

 sumed more hay at eight dollars a ton, than they 

 are worth. For a sheep or stock farm, you must 

 generally go into thinly settled regions, where the 

 pastures arc new and rich, and where the market 

 value of hay is low. 



If you are willing to waive the advantages, to 

 which I have alluded, the inducements for select- 

 ing such farms are at present very strong. They 

 require less labor to manage them, than any oth- 

 ers, and the prospect is, that their products will 

 remain at high prices. I do not live in a sheep 

 growing district, and have very little knowledge 

 of this branch of husbandry, and so the less I Siiy 

 of it, perhaps, the better. 



In the lower part of New Hampshire, and 

 much of Massachusetts, I consider hay and apples 

 the most profitable crops we can raise, but in or- 

 der to raise hay we must have manure, and whert^ 

 this cannot be bought it must bo made, and to 

 make it, wc must keep stock of some kind. My 

 notion of the matter is, that one must use coasid- 

 arable Yankee shrewdness to manage a farm prof- 

 iUibly, in this region. For myself, at present, 1 

 should, if I wanted a farm, look lor the best one I 

 could afford to buy, near a railroad, within thir- 

 ty miles of Boston or some other good market, 

 with a good tract of low meadow, Avhich might 

 be reclaimed into mowing, with the upland toler- 

 ably free of stones, with wood enough for use and 

 ornam-mt, with apple ti'ees already grown, which 

 I slioald graft to suit mysolf, with water running 

 through it, for my cattle to drink, for my children 

 to play by, and to'bring into my buildings by aque- 

 ducts, or hydraulic rams. I should have the. 

 idea of keeping ab.iut twenty cows, or as many aa 



