292 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH IS, 1843. 



uary. My manure is part of it l<ept under cover, 

 and part exposed to the weather. 



22. None of my stock is of the entire native 

 breed — all crossed with the Durham. 



23. My common practice with calves is to take 

 them from the cow soon after the milk gets good, 

 and (Ved them with new milk about six weeks, 

 then u'ilh skimmed milk about as much longer, with 

 a little provender. 



24. I should think my cows would make 250 lbs. 

 of butter each, and 50 lbs. new milk cheese. 



25. My flock of sheep varies from 65 to 90. 

 The breed is a cross of the Merino and Saxony : 

 they cut this year nearly four pounds per head: 

 they have for two or three years back, cut from 3 1-4 

 to 3 1-2 lbs. each. I let my sheep run in the open 

 air through the winter, except in severe storms. I 

 endeavor to have my lambs come about the first of 

 May, at which time they require but little atten- 

 tion, except in case of storm. Perhaps one in ten 

 dies. Causes, getting caught in storms unexpect- 

 edly ; ewes not owning them ; and they often die 

 without my being able to give any reason for it. 



26. I usually fatten from five to eight swine, and 

 keep about the same number through the winter. 

 I make from 20 to 30 cwt. of pork. Swine are a 

 cros.s of the Berkshire and Moco. 



27. I feed them on potatoes boiled and the slop 

 of the kitchen, and fatten on boiled roots mixed 

 with provender or corn meal, until within about 

 four weeks of killing, when I feed them mostly on 

 corn. 



26. Have from 30 to 40 loads of hog manure, 

 made of leaves, muck and all refuse stuff suitable, 

 with the straw of their beds. 



29. I have usually carried the farm on with the 

 help of two boys from lO'to 14 years old. Wages 

 in this place are from 10 to 16 dollars per month. 



30. Have 140 apple trees : all the trunks are 

 natural fruit except 15; although I have grafted 

 many with our best fruit. Tlie best of them I put 

 into my cellar, or sell them ; the rest I feed to my 

 hogs and cattle. 



31. I have 18 bearing clierry trees, five bearing 

 plum trees, two pear trees, and five bearing quince 

 trees; also, six young cherry trees, twenty plum 

 trees, three pear trees, and about forty peach trees, 

 that do not bear; I have also a nursery of about 

 2000 young apple trees. 



32. My trees have not been attacked by t!ie 

 canker worm or borer. 



33. I do not use ardent spirits. 



EDSON SEXTON. 

 Stockhridge, Oct. 25, 1842. 



Recipe for Erysipelas. — Mr Aaron Sargeant, of 

 N. Y. city, on hearing of the prevalence of the 

 erysipelas in Vermont, sent the following recipe 

 to the Postmaster of Montpelier : 



Dear Sir — The cause of humanity induces me 

 to write to you, that you may make public without 

 delay, the following recipe for the Erysipelas, 

 which I am sorry to see is prevailing to an alarm- 

 ing extent in Vermont: 



Recipe. — 1 pint French brandy, 5 oz. common 

 table salt — put in a bottle, and let it stand for 24 

 hours. Let the patient take two table-spoonsful 

 three times a day, in a tea-cup of lukewarm water. 

 He may sweeten it to make it palateable, if he 

 chooses. Rub the parts affected with the liquid. 

 The recipe is from Mr Gardner, a gentleman of 

 undoubted veracity. The medicine i.3 harmless, 

 and a sure cure. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY. 



If our readers will turn to the New England 

 Farmer, of Dec. 7, they will there find an article 

 copied from the Massachusetts Spy, which describes 

 an orchard in the vicinity of Boston, as womhrfuUy 

 profitable. A correspondent in our next paper, 

 criticised that article, and considered it a fit speci- 

 men by which to show that many published arti- 

 cles give false accounts of crops and profits. The 

 editor of the Spy, in his paper of Dec. 28, noticed 

 the strictures, and loads us to infer that he believes 

 in, and is dispnsed to maintain the truth of his 

 statements. For reasons which the editor of that 

 paper understand.?, and which need not be more 

 publicly told, we have had no opportunity until 

 now, to copy his rejoinder. 



As to the facts in regard to the profits of (he 

 particular orchard, we know nothing. Upon the 

 general subject of " lying about crops and profits," 

 we hold the same opinion as before, viz : that it is 

 often done ; that it misleads many ; and that it 

 ought to be rebuked. But whether the Spy was 

 guilty in the case in question, we have no means 

 of learning, for wo know not whose the orchard is, 

 and cannot make inquiries. Should we learn that 

 the statements were incorrect, we should be much 

 more ready to surmise that the fault was that of 

 the editor's informant than of himself. We cer- 

 tainly do not lay any blame now, and never did, to 

 the editor of the Spy. We editors have not pow. 

 er to "send for persons and papers," and put wit- 

 nesses under oath ; and we are often under the ne- 

 cessity of making public many things that are not 

 proved to be true. As an act of justice to the 

 editor of the Spy, we now willingly copy his arti- 

 cle.— Ed. N. E. F, 



LYING ABOUT CROPS AND PROFITS. 



This is the heading of an article in the New 

 England Farmer, of Doc. 14, in which a corres- 

 pondent of that paper comments on a paragraph 

 taken from an article published in the Spy in April 

 last, which was copied into the papers generally 

 at the time, but which did not find its way into the 

 Farmer till Dec. 7. It was in relation to the ap- 

 ple, and gave the statements of an extensive culti- 

 vator in the vicinity of Boston, as communicated 

 by him to us. The writer in the Farmer snyg, in 

 his own gentlemanly language, the paragraph con- 

 tained ''as many lies as lines." He does not 

 however, attempt to point out more than two or 

 three, and these we will briefly notice, as well as 

 some other points in the article where no charge 

 of lying is made. 



The writer admits that there is "no doubt that 

 the person alluded to has the thirty acres of npple 

 trees," and he adds, "just as 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." 

 We do not know our informant's age, but he can. 

 not be far from fifty. He cannot, therefore, have 

 spent that time in the rearing of his orchard. The 

 writer in the Farmer proceeds to say, "the fact, 

 however, that the 1.500 trees on these 30 acres, 

 now in a 'fine healthy state, and full bearing,' pro- 

 duce no more than 800 barrels of apples, shows a 

 want of skill in their selection and management, 

 which I should think he would be slow to brag of." 

 No such '' fact" was stated in the Spy, nor any 

 other from which such an inference could fairly be 

 drawn. In so representing it, then, is the writer 

 guilty of a "lie" — or by what other name will he 

 call it ? He proceeds: 



''There was no occasion for 'scouring' the 

 country for trees to make additions to his orchard. 

 Enough might be found within ten miles o( Boston, 

 and at reasonable prices too, for his wants, if they 

 were ten times as great as they are." 



True, if he had been satisfied with such trees 

 as were to be found within ten miles of Boston ; 

 but every one who has had occasion to know any 

 thing about it, knows that such sized trf-s as are 

 most profitable for setting, to those who desire 

 fruit soon, cannot be obtained in that vicinity, ex- 

 cept at extravagant prices, and but very few at any 

 rate. We hap[)en to knoiv, that a dealer in trees 

 in Boston, has, for two seasons past ordered con- 

 siderable numbers from this place, at 50 per cent. 

 above the price at which they might be bought of 

 such size as arc to be found in the nurseries about 

 Boston; and the person alluded to in our former 

 article, purchased two lots in this place, fur which 

 he paid something like double the price of such 

 trees. Again, he says : 



" The assertion that he could have three dollars 

 and a half a barrel for his 800 barrels of apples, is 

 too great a lie to dwell on. Every one who has 

 dealt in the article this year knows that selected 

 Baldwins can hardly be sold for two dollars, it re- 

 tail, and that the wholesale price has not been, and 

 is not now, above one dollar and a half per barrel." 



Very logical I Because in the fall of the most 

 fruitful year that has occurred for a long period, 

 apples may be had for $1 50 or $i per barrel, 

 therefore, the assertion that fine, sound selected 

 fruit, as was that of our informant, would bring 

 $3 50 per barrel the spring before, " is too great 

 a lie to dwell on." 



"If 'the demand for exportation is limited only 

 by the supply,' as the article asserts, why do not 

 the dealers ship oflT some of the thousands of bar- 

 rels that are now rotting in our cellars and cannot 

 be sold here ?" 



This is a question of the writer's own asking, 

 and we have no objection to his answering it to 

 suit himself. This much, however, we know, that 

 there is a good market for them near at hand. It 

 is a universal complaint in the cities and towns at 

 the south, that but very few apples are to be ob- 

 tained, and those of a very inferior qu.'ility, and at 

 exorbitant prices. We have, ourselves, bought ap- 

 ples in this place to supply an order from Pliiladel- 

 phia, and sent them on by way of Boston. I'he 

 obvious intent of the writer is, to have tlie infe- 

 rence drawn that the supply already exceeds the 

 demand. On this point we will bring himself as 

 a witness. He says, a little further on, that the 

 opple " is one of the best, if not the very best, crop 

 that can be raised between the Kennebec and the 

 Hudson, and when its cultivation is better under- 

 stood, the barren-looking hills in many parts of 

 that great region, will be covered with the trees." 

 We should like to know how this is to be brought 

 about, if the supply is already equal to the demand. 



The writer admits that one merchant in Boston 

 has shipped 500 barrels to Calcutta annually for a 

 few years past, with various and not uniform suc- 

 cess, and that such as he ships (selected fruii,)co3t 

 hijn, this year, $2 25 per barrel. That is precise- 

 ly what we staled was offered for such last year, 

 when they were much less plenty than this year. 

 But he says — 



" It is notoriously untrue that shipments to Eng- 

 land, the West Indies, S. America, and the Medi- 



