362 



NEW ENGLAND PARMER. 



Aug. 



that time of year when self-improvement is more 

 Civsily pursued than any other, and when schemes 

 for this object are usually devised and consumma- 

 ted. What are you going to do the coming Fall 

 and Winter? Are you going to form reading and 

 debating clubs 1 Are you going to form circles for 

 cultivation in composition ? Are you going to 

 lay out for yourself, or under the advice of friends, 

 a course of private reading 1 Or are you only cal- 

 culating on some private whist parties, or a few 

 public cotillon parties ? These are questions in 

 which we feel a greater interest than we can ex- 

 press, for we know, and can but profoundly feel, 

 that upon their decision depend the future useful- 

 ness, respectability and happiness of many a young 

 man and woman. 



MASSACHUSETTS VS. CALIFORNIA, 



The California Farmc/ , publisiicd at S:in Fran- 

 cisco, by Warren & Son, in noticing thcagricul 

 tural movements in this Commonwealth, s.ay3 :— 



"The Secretary of the Board of Agriculture of 

 Massachusetts presents us in his grain table with 

 the following data, and we present them to our 

 readers in contrast to those of California. The 

 following are the average crops of Massachusetts, 

 as reported to the Board, and with them in con- 

 trast the crops, as reported to us by the record at 

 the exhibition of last year. 



MassachustUs. California. 



Barlej', per acre 21 bush 60 bush. 



Wheat 17i 50 



Oats 30 45 



Rye 14i 50 



Carrots 709 1 500 



Beets 800 1500 



Ruta Baga 500 loOO 



Mangel Wurtzel SCO 1600 



O.iions 400 600 



Potatoes 150 250 



In many cases the crops of barley in this State 

 upon entire ranchos will average 75 bushels, and 

 those of wheat CO bushels. Potatoes, in many 

 instances, yield 300 to 350 bushels in large fields. 

 In some cases that have come to our knowledge, 

 the yield of root crops has been 25 and 30 tons to 

 the acre, and onions have yielded ten or twelve 

 t^ns to the acre, and even sixteen tons have been 

 grown." 



The Farmer then adds, that "the .Middlesex 

 County Agricultural Society present, in their pre- 

 mium lists, an inducement to agriculturists that 

 should stimulate them to renewed exertions, and 

 thus develope hidden treasures in the soil that 

 could be brought forth in no other manner. The 

 example of this county should be followed by every 

 county in this State, where the subject of agricul- 

 ture is prominent, and premiums should be offered 

 in proportion to the advancement of the science." 

 And after giving a list of each class of premiums, 

 it says that "needlework, machinery, household 

 manufactures, agricultural tools and implements, 

 all have due attention, and a liberal allowance of 

 special prizes. The total amount of cash premiums 

 is over one thousand dollars, besides valuable pri- 

 zes in books, &c. Such exertions to arouse a prop- 

 er interest are beyond all praise." 



The Messrs. Warren arc making strong efforts 



to impress the minds of the people of that new 

 State with the importance of agriculture. They 

 liave established the Farmer, and the earnt ^tnees 

 and ability with which they conduct it, will un- 

 doubtedly be of more value to the State than the 

 accumulated gold of a thousand-miners. 



AGRICULTUEE IE EGYPT. 



It is as true now as in the days of Zcchariah. 

 that in the land of Egypt there is no rain — Zech. 

 siv. 17 — and the country is watered wholly from 

 the Nile. A trench is dug from the river lead- 

 ing to a reservoir below its level, in which the 

 water continually flows ; from this the water is 

 dipped up in buckets, by a contrivance like the 

 rudest well-pole — the Shadoof — which is worked 

 by hand, or by a wheel with buckets — the Sakia 

 — which is turned by a rude cog-wheel apparatus, 

 m oved by a buffalo or a camel. Sometimes, where 

 the banks are high, there is a succession of plat- 

 forms with Shadoofs or Sakias to raise the water 

 from one to another. At the surface it is poured 

 in a trench, from which — as from an artery — 

 smaller trenches branch off at intervals, and usual- 

 ly at right angles, intersecting and irrigating all 

 the adjacent land. 



As the whole of Upper Egypt is but a fertile 

 strip — four or five miles wide by as many hundred 

 miles in length — lying upon both sides of the Nile, 

 Ijetween two deserts and their mountain bounda- 

 ries — i*" is possible in this way to keep the whole 

 country well watered. In the broader parts of 

 the Nile valley canals are cut, into which the 

 water flows when the river rises by tlie effort of 

 rain in the mountains of Nubia and Abyssinia, 

 and from these canals it is dipped up by the Sha- 

 doof and tlie Sakia, and poured into smaller 

 trenches. In the Delta, or Lower Egypt, below 

 Cairo, the different l)ranchesofthe Nile, with the 

 aid of artificial canals, suffice to flood the whole 

 country during the season of high water ; and in 

 the time of low water, the Shadoof and the Sakia 

 perform here, also, their customary office. It has 

 been computed that there are in Egypt about 

 40,000 Sakias, or about four to every square mile 

 of cultivation ; but this seems to bean over-esti- 

 mate. The large sugar plantations of the Pasha 

 along the banks of the Nile, as well as the royal 

 and tlie public gardens at Cairo, are now watered 

 by means of steam forcing-pumps. In Nubia each 

 water-Avheel is taxed about fifteen dollars per an- 

 num ; but there is no tax upon the land. In 

 Egypt the land is taxed about three dollars per 

 acre — which is from ten to fifteen per cent, of its 

 cost — but there is no tax upon the water-wheel. 



In this state of things, it was natural that the 

 Shekh, on hearing of the great American Nile, 

 should wish to know the cost of irrigating the 

 country from the river as a first item in his com- 

 parison of the two countries. He was surprised 

 to hear that there were no Shadoofs or Sakias on 

 the Mississippi, but that sufiicient rain fell to ir- 

 rigate the land, and seemed to regard this as a 

 great advantage. And so it is : for in Egypt the 

 land-owner must erect his own water-wheels, and, 

 as the land is held or rented in very small lots, the 

 expense of watering it by the toilsome process of 

 the Shadoof is a main item in the cultivation. 

 Frequently three or four neighbors combine and 



