190 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DEC. It.HS'ia. 



Ann HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. | 



Boston, Wednesday, Dkcember 14, 1842. 



LYING ABOUT CROPS AND PROFITS. 1 



" Some books arc lies frae end to end, 

 And some great lies were never penn'd ; 

 Ev'n mmisters. they have been kenn'd 



In holy rapture, 

 A rousing whid,at times to vend, 



And nail't wi' scripture." 



Mr Editor — There seems to me a spirit of lying 

 abroad which ought to be rebuked, and I wish you 

 would give your roaders a homily on the subject, " And 

 nail't vvi' scripture." From my recollection of your ef- 

 forts in that way in " old times," I have reason to know 

 that such an exercise would bo as wholesome to some 

 of your correspondents and to many of your readers, as 

 are your excellent hints on the management of the farm. 

 I refer more particularly to the habit of bragging, so 

 mueh indulged in in the papers and public reports. In 

 your paper of the 7th December, there is an article cre- 

 dited ? to the Worcester Spy, and headed " Apples," 

 which is a good specimen of what I refer to. It con- 

 tains as many lies as lin«s. There is no doubt that the 

 person referred to in the article has the thirty acres of 

 apple trees, and just ns little doubt that he has spent 

 fifty years in rearing them, and that they are nearly the 

 whole result of the labor of a life. The fact, however, 

 that the 15U0 trees on tliese 30 acres, now in a " fine 

 healthy slate and full bearing," produce no more than 

 800 barrels of apples, shows a want of skill in their se- 

 lection or management, which I should think he would 

 be slow to brag of. There was no occasion for "scour- 

 ing" the country for trees to make additions to his orch- 

 ard. Enough might be found within ten miles of 

 Boston and at reasonable prices loo, for his wants, if they 

 were ten times as great as they are. 



The assertion that he could have three dollars and a 

 Haifa barrel for his 800 barrels of apples, is too gieat a 

 lie to dwell on. Every one ^who has dealt in the arti- 

 cle this year, knows that selected Baldwins can hardly 

 be sold at retail for two dollars, and that the wholesale 

 price has not been, and is not now, above one dollar and 

 a half a barrel. 



If" the demand for exportation is limited only by the 

 supply," as the article asserts, why do not the dealers 

 now ship off some of the thousands of barrels that are 

 now rotting in our cellars and cannot be sold here.' It 

 is true that one merchant has shipped about 500 barrels 

 of this article annually for a few years past, to Calcutta 

 but wiih various and not uniform success. He ships 

 them <in his cargoes of ice, and could not of course send 

 them in any other way. He bought his supply this 

 year for $1 50 a barrel. This, after rejecting fully one 

 third as unfit for shipping such a distance, makes the 

 cost of what remain $2 25. Only the very fairest are 

 ever shipped to that market. 



It i» notoriously untrue that shipments to England, the 

 West Indies, S. America, and the Mediterranean give 

 equally good returns. Shipments to nearly all those 

 places have been almost uniformly disastrous. Unless 

 shipped with ice, every body who knows any thing 

 about the matter, knows tiiat they cannot be sent a 00 

 days voyage with any chance of success. 



1 would not be thought, by any thing I have said, to 

 underrate the cultivation of the Apple. It is undoubted- 

 ly one of the best, if not the very best crop that can be 

 raised between the Kennebec and the Hudson, and 

 whin its cultivation is belter understood, the barren 



looking hills in many pans of that great region will be 

 covered with the trees. 



Whilst on the subject of bragging, I meant to have 

 said something of some of the slati'inentB made to our 

 late excellent Siale Commissioner, the cessation of whose 

 useful labor.-i, we all regret. But I have only time now 

 I to hint to the assessors of some of the towns in the 

 eastern part of MiddUsex county, that if they will read 

 his Report f.r 1811, (the 4th), ihey will find one " facul- 

 ty," richly developed whicli they probably -never have 

 1 taxed : and such disclosures of " incomes" as canno 

 f^iil to be of great benefit to them when they next take 

 an account of the " gudes and gear" of the worthy peo" 

 pie in those parts. Yours, very truly, 



A MIDDLESEX FARMER. 

 inr Lying, is it .' Perhaps it is. Much is published 

 about farming in general, and nbout the productiveness 

 and profits of particular farms, that no farmer can be- 

 lieve. Whether this is the result of downright ii/m^> 

 or the result of ignorance and llioughtlessnes?, it may 

 not be easy to determine. It is unfortunate that so 

 many false and misleading things in relation to farming, 

 should be circulated. They give false and deluding no- 

 tions to the people of all other pursuits — they tend to 

 make the inhabitants of cities and villages look upon 

 faimers as the most unthankful and grumbling set of 

 men upon the face of the earth — they operate also to al- 

 lure many a mechanic and trader from a business by 

 which he can earn a good living, to a farm where he 

 will almost surely run behind hand. In these times of 

 mercantile embarrassments, and of perplexities in trade, 

 hundreds and thousands are asking whether it would 

 not be well for them to leave the thronged city and sef 

 tie down upon a farm. To such we must say emphati- 

 cally, that there is no probability— that there is scarcely 

 a possibility that a man who has spent many of his days 

 in the city, and got city habits and tastes fixed upon 

 himself and his family— there is scarcely a possibility 

 that he can get a bare living from a 5 or 6000 dollar 

 farm. If he can live where he is, he had better stay 

 where he is, unless he has several thousands to spare 

 after the farm is paid for. To those who are practically 

 unacquainted with farming, we must say, do not believe 

 the many statements which represent farming as very 

 ■profitable. Now and then a particular crop niay give its 

 grower a large profit, but this is an exception to the gen- 

 eral rule. 



We hardly know where the chief fault lies. Papers 

 devoted to ngricultftre are established, and must be fill- 

 ed from week to week or month to month. The farm- 

 ers themselves, they who know all the facts, are reluc- 

 tant to write them out; but an attempt must be made to 

 get them. Let an editor talk awhile with a farmer and 

 he may get at some of the desirable facts as to his pro- 

 cesses and results — but it is generally only a part of 

 them, and that part such as lead to wrong inferences. 



In some such way as this, many of the objectionable 

 articles are made up, we presume, though we cannot 

 plead guilty to doing much in this way. 



A plentiful intermixture of lies and exaggerations, 

 and marvels makes a paper the more palatable to too 

 many readers, and perhaps extends the fame and circula- 

 tion of the paper. This may argue a depraved public 

 laaie ;— but the existence of such depravity will mani- 

 fest itself, whether argued into light or not; and there 

 are loo many writers ready to earn a copper by catering 

 to this depravity. 



The evil alluded to, and pointed out by our corres- 

 ptindent, does prevail most extensively. We see it and 

 feel it every week. We are obliged, much against our 

 will, to give circulation to many things coming through 

 most respectable exchange papers — that we can't make 



up our minds to believe, and yet, we can't doubt, with 

 out saying to some rsspectable man — " you lie, air." 



We are not sorry to see the lies of such an article n: 

 that which our correspondent has criticised, thus expos 

 ed — some of them are apparent to every reader ^ho lia 

 sold a barrel of apples. And if it is thought right tlir 

 we should bear a portion of the blame for admitting ili 

 lies to the columns of the Farmer — we must say Jlmcn 



Self Culture, by William E. Channing, D. D,w:i 

 a Biographical ijketch of the Author. 



James Munroe & Co., Boston, have just published ai 

 uncommonly neat little vol., comprising a few fact? i 

 Dr. Channing's life, and also an address by this gifle 

 man, on Self Culture, which he delivered in Bostui 

 September, 1838, as introductory to the Franklin Lti 

 tures. 



The well known views of this gifted man, in regar 

 to the nature, capabilities and destiny of the human sou 

 and in regard to man's duty to himself, are all that nee 

 be remembered, to show that a work from his polishc 

 and soul stirring pen, would be instructive and useful I 

 every reader. We are glad to dee the address in a fori 

 which will make it not unseemly on the centre table i 

 in the parlor. It will make a pretty and useful Chris 

 mas or New Year's present. 



Distemper among Cattle in Brairtlree. — We last wet 

 mentioned the death of an ox and two cows in Brai; 

 tree — and a report also that nine hogs, that eat of tl 

 meat of the ox had died. This part of the story, that i 

 the death of the Jwgs, is all fabulous. 



Stores — It is downright madness, isn't it.' to say 

 word against the general use of stoves. They are 

 convenient — they save so much fuel — they keep t, 

 house so warm. All these benefits are claimed ; ai 

 let them be allowed. But even then it is questional 

 whether Ihey are worth having. The confined and u 

 healthy air, and the great heat, though not unpleasii 

 to many people, while breathing and feeling them, j 

 must have, in very many instances, very debilitating 

 fects. Good, pure air is one of the absolute requisites 

 general good health. Stoves generally, and anthrac 

 coal in small or close rooms, both work a portion of t 

 debility and also of the dejection and low spirits whi 

 are common, and are, we think, on the increase. 



Consumption. — Mr Adams Mott gives the follow! 

 statement in the Maine Farmer: — "A friend of mil 

 who resides in Industry, in this State, told me his w 

 was sick of what the doctors call consumption. S 

 was visited by five physicians, who gave her over. S 

 was very sick — was unable to set up — had a sevi 

 cough — and grew no better, but rather worse. She 

 collected that she had before received benefit from t 

 use of St. Johnswort : her husband procured some 

 it — it was steeped, and she made it her constant drir 

 For four or five days there appeared to be but little al 

 ration; but afier this, she grew belter very fast; a 

 her health was so much improved, that in the coi 

 six or eight weeks she was able to resume ber custon 

 ry occupations." 



Man is an embodied paradox, a bundle of contrad 

 lions; and as some set-off against the marvellous thin 

 that he has dono, we might fairly adduce the monstro 

 things that he has Wieserf. The more gross the frat 

 the more glibly will it go down, and the more greedi 

 will it be swallowed — since folly will always find fai 

 wherever impostors will find impudence. — Lacon. 



