572 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



countrj'-scat, and can talk about his herds and 

 his flocks. All this is well. Agriculture is a 

 grand subject to be interested in. Its practice 

 has a line influence upon the mind, and, rightly 



fursued, a purifying influence upon the heart, 

 t Avas the first pursuit of man, and it shall be the 

 last ; and without it all other interests must per- 

 ish from the earth. — Boston Post. 



For the New England Farmer. 



FALL PLOWING. 



Mr. Editor : — It is an old adage that any fool 

 can make money, but it requires a wise man to 

 keep it, and the same is true relative to manure. 

 I am led to this reflection by seeing my neighbor 

 farmers all about me plowing their corn, potatoe 

 and other lands, which were highly manured last 

 spring, thereby exposing the unexhausted manure 

 (which laid securely buried,) to all the ensuing 

 fall, Avinter, and spring rains, by which means 

 one-fifth of all the manure applied is lost. If 

 any one disbelieves the assertion, let them try the 

 experiment and they will be satisfied of its truth ; 

 it will cost them nothing to try. Now if every 

 farmer wastes one-fifth of his manure, what is 

 his loss ? I will estimate it at from five to thirty- 

 five dollars, according to hia circumstauces — 

 enough to pay all his taxes ; in the aggregate for 

 the State of New Hampshire, making a large 

 sum, which had much better be saved than lost. 

 The theory that we cannot plow our land too 

 much is correct, if plowed at a proper season ; 

 but to plow our manured lands in the fall, be- 

 cause our teams are then strong, &c., is a very 

 bal practice. 



1 believe that every one that you may induce 

 to suspend plowing in the fall, as above, if but 

 one acre, can well afford to subscribe for your 

 paper two years. 



Yours with respect, H. S. Perrin. 



OrfordvUle, N. H., 1854. 



Remarks. — We thank our correspondent for the 

 expression of his opinion about autumn plowing, 

 although our own experience has led us to very 

 difierent conclusions. We are earnest advoeates 

 of this practice, bolievina: t'l'^'- *"--'^'^^ "-^c in better 

 r.o^ait;^.! to plow in the autumn, — that the farm 

 work is generally less pressing, — that manure 

 well mingled, with the soil in the spring, becomes 

 so mucli decomposed and incorporated with the 

 surrounding particles, as not to lose its valuable 

 properties by exposure, — that there is not sufii- 

 cient heat to evolve its ammonia, and that the 

 soil, by being light and porous, receives from the 

 atmosphere and snows valuable additions through 

 out the winter. The opinions below are expressed 

 by " S. B. F.," in the Rural Neiv-Yorher. 



Fall plowing I think an important item in 

 farm operations, for past experience has taught 

 me that better crops of barley and oats may be 

 secured, on any of our lands, by plowing in the 

 fall, and we can invarialjly get them in better 

 condition. I consider it indispensable, however 

 that no surface water be allowed to remain long, 

 and neglect in this respect I believe to be the 



cause of so many ftxilures in the experiment. 

 Some say, "plow dry lands, but you must not 

 plow those which are wet ;" but with all defer- 

 ence to the opinions of such, I (from past expe- 

 rience) advise to the contrary. 



If I have a rather wet clayey lot, which is in- 

 tended for spring crops, I by all means plow in 

 the fall ; not, however, in an indfferent manner, 

 as is the practice of some, but with great care, 

 putting it in narrow beds and cutting cross fur- 

 rows or ditches, in order that all the surface wa- 

 ter may quickly run off and not lay upon the 

 land to harden it. In this condition the legiti- 

 mate effect of the frost is to pulverize the soil, 

 and when spring comes, once harrowing, and 

 then going over it with the wheel cultivator, 

 will put it in as good condition for sowing as it 

 possibly can be. 



For the Ifew England Farmer. 



NOVEMBER MONTHLY FARMER. 



Considerable space in this number is occupied 

 by accounts of various Cattle Shows in New Eng- 

 land, by the valuable report of the proceedings and 

 discussions of the American Pomological Society 

 at its meeting in Boston, and by several articles 

 on Fruit, such as Mr. Hovey's description of the 

 Concord Grape, "A New Apple," "Sweet Ap- 

 ples," "Fine Pears," "Fig Trees," "Cranberries 

 on Upland," "Tolman's Sweeting" "Apple Tree 

 Borer," &c., and yet there is room for more arti- 

 cles beside these than I can profitably notice. I 



gin with — 



"(Some Wants wanted by Farmers.''^ — A pretty 

 good article on a capital subject. Want of 

 means, want of knowledge, want of interest or 

 love of business discussed. To raise the "means" 

 a mortgage is suggested. Mortgages ! I have 

 learned by experience to shudder at the mention 

 of that word. How they sweep the board to pay 

 the "interest, annually," and still hang over the 

 old homestead, generation after generation — a 

 smothering night-mare on enterprise, ambition, 

 hope ! Mr. French said, in an article published 

 some months sine?, t-hat^ New_ England fsirmers 

 were v^orc extravagant in buildings, furniture, 

 dress, carriages, &c. for show, than any other 

 people in the world. Retrench, here ; keep a bare 

 parlor, wear cheap clothes, ride in the old wagon, 

 endure a "lean kitchen," sell a few acres, — any- 

 thing, before a mortgage on the farjii. Yet the 

 lack of means is undoubtedly the want of New 

 England farmers. Mr. J. J. Thomas, of New 

 York, in an essay published some ten years ago, 

 enumerates the items of stock, tools, labor, seeds, 

 and the feed of animals, &c., (Ijcside the support 

 of the owner's family) required for the first 

 year's satisfactory management of a hundred-acre 

 farm, which foot up at $1,832 00. Besides pay- 

 ing for the farm, then, according to Mr. Thomas' 

 estimate, almost two thousand dollars will be re- 

 quired the first year to enable the farmer to per- 

 form the different operations of his business in the 

 best possible manner and at the best time. He 

 also says, that in England a man who merely 

 rents a farm there must have as large a capital as 

 the man who buys and pays for a farm of equal 

 size in the best p irts of western New York, and 

 that the great mistake of American farmers is in 

 expending all their means for land, and thus Lave 



