308 



NEY^ ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRIL 6, 1S36. 



MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 

 AGRICUI.TURE. 



BARLEY. 



To the Trustees of t\,e I\I:issaclnisetts Society for 



the Promotion of Agriculture : 



William Carter, of Fitchburg, in the county of 

 Worcester, claims the Society's premium for the 

 following crop of Barley from one acre of laud, 

 of which he herewith presents the certificate of 

 Phillip F. Cowdin of the measurement of the 

 same piece of land. 



The above-named piece of land is the same on 

 which the undersigned raised the preceding year 

 (1834) 513 bushels of potatoes, and for which he 

 received the Society's premium, and he refers to 

 his statement of the last year for the product and 

 general state of cultivation and quality of manure 

 used during that year. The land in the spring of 

 1835 was as it was left after digging the potatoes 

 the last year, was twice ploughed, and sowed 

 about the first of May on the furrows, and har- 

 rowed in. There has been no manure used on 

 the land the present season. The quantity of 

 need was 4 1-2 bushels. The crop was harvested 

 about the middle of August, and the amount of 

 the product by actual measurement was found to 

 befiftyeight bushels of barley. The entire expense 

 of cultivation and harvesting the crop, exclusive 

 of seed, was $13. Wm. Carter. 



Fitchburg, JVov. 25, 1835. 



I hereby certify that I assisted to harvest, thresh 

 and measure the above-named crop of Barley, and 

 that the amount was fiftyeight bushels, and also 

 that the above statement made by William Carter, 

 is, in my opinion, corre(^t and true. 



John Sticknet. 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Worcester, ss. 

 JVou. 25, 1835. Then the within named William 

 Carter and John Stickney made oath that the 

 ■within statements by thera severally subscribed, 

 are true. Before nie, Ebek'r Torret, J. P. 



This is to certify, that I, P. F. Cowdin, being 

 a sworn surveyor of Fitchburg, in the county of 

 Worcester, have this day surveyed a certain tract 

 of land on which Barley grew this season, for 

 AVilliam Carter, of said Fitchburg, and find the 

 same to contain one acre and no more. 



P. F. Cowdin. 



Fitchburg, Oct. 15, 1835. 



POTATOES AND SMYRNA WHEAT. 

 To the Committee on Agricultural Products pre- 

 sented for the several premiums offered by the 

 Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Society : 



Gentlemen, — The field on which Potatoes were 

 grown the present season, was broken up in Au- 

 gust, 1834. The soil a deep loatu, suitable for 

 grain, (Chesnut land.) Early last S|)ring the field 

 was cross-pliiughed, an<l 18 cords unfermented 

 manure, evenly spread, and deeply ploughed in ; 

 sods harrovved down, then furrowed 3 feet apart, 

 and seed placed 18 inches apart in the furrows, 

 and covered 2 inches deep ; hoed twice previous 

 to being in the bud. On the 6lh October, the 

 vines or tops generally covering the ground, the 

 cutting of them for fodder commenced. These 

 tops, after drying 6 or 8 days, were packed away 

 in the barn with wheat straw sprinkled with salt 

 say one peck to the ton, and will probably be 



equal in value to one half a ton of hay. It is 

 believed, that when hay is as scarce as it is in this 

 vicinity the present season, say worth $20 per 

 ton, potato tops will more than ]'ay for the e.x- 

 pense of cutting and curing them ; they are good 

 food for neat cattle. The harvesting the roots 

 was completed Oct. 12th, when, by careful mea- 

 surement the crop was found to be 515 bushels on 

 the acre. The quantity of seed was 28 bushels ; 

 26 the reds of La Plate, 2 the Roxbury whites. 



Payson Williams. 



Jackson D. Williams. 

 Fitchburg, Oct. 15, 1835. 



JForcester, ss. Oct. 16, 1835. Then the above- 

 named Payson Williams and Jackson D. Williams 

 made oath that the above statement, by theirrsev- 

 erally subscribed, is true. Before me, 



Ebek'r Tobret, J. P. 



Expenses of Potato Crop. 



Breaking up the field, $4 00 



Carting manure, 5 00 

 Cross ploughing and ploughing in manure, 6 00 



Its proportion of 18 cords manure, 20 00 



28 bushels seed at 2s. 9 33 



Labor in 2 hoeings, 8 00 



Labor in harvesting the crop, 22 00 



Labor in cutting and curing the tops, 3 00 



.$77 33 



$80 00 Profit, $42 50 



The field on which potatoes were grown in 

 1834 was well ploughed as early in the following 

 spring as practicable, and 2 1-4 bushels of the 

 Smyrna or Black Sea Wheat was sown, (second 

 week in May, 1835,) ploughed in, bushed, and 

 rolled. 



Crop harvested first week in August ; threshed 

 (by horse power) in September, and after being 

 carefully cleaned and measured, was found to be 

 35 bushels (of 60 lbs. to the bushel) from the acre. 



A much larger ci'op would have been grown 

 but for the encumbrance of a granite ledge ])erva- 

 ding a considerable part of the field many rods 

 of which approach within six inches of the sur- 

 face. The drought of last summer severely 

 pinched the wlieat on the ledge. 



Payson Williams. 

 Jackson D. Williams. 



Fitchburg, Oct. 15, 1835. 



Worcester, ss. Oct. 16, 1835. Then the above- 

 named Payson Williams and Jackson D. Williams 

 made oath that the foregoing statements, by them 

 severally subscribed, are true. Before me, 



Eben'r Torrey, J. P. 



I, Phillip F. Cowdin, sworn surveyor of the 

 town of Fitchburg, and county of Worcester,], 

 have this day measured a certain plat of groundifit 

 on which jiotatoes were grown the present season, ■ 

 owned by Payson Williams, of said Fitchburg/ 

 and found the same to contain one acre and no 

 more. 



Also, one other field on which was grown 

 wheat the present season, owned by stid Williams 

 and found the same to contain one acre and no 

 more. p. F. Cowdin. 



Fitchburg, Oct. 15, 1835. 



(Fj-om the Maine Farmer.) 

 CAUSES OP POVERTY 



AMONG SOME FARMERS IN MAINE. 



Mr Holmes: — I have thought that I might do 

 good by mentioning a few of the causes of the 

 poverty of the ftirmers in the state of Maine. 

 And first, in a negative point of view. It is not 

 because the crops are not as good or as much to 



the acre as other parts of the United States. 



When Greenleaf prepared his statistics of Maine 

 some years ago, the average of wheat crops were 

 in the County of Kennebec, eighteen bushels per 

 acre, and it is believed there has since been an 

 improvement in that, and a very great one too in 

 this section. I think we may now state the ave- 

 rage at more than twenty bushels. It is alike 

 good for all the small grains. Grass is abundant 

 in most seasons. We nuist, therefore, look for 

 the positive causes somewhere else, and not in the 

 unproductiveness of the soil. I will now mention 

 a few things which I think have a bearing to a 

 great extent on the farming community. And 

 first, their mode of living. It costs a farmer in 

 the state of Maine more to live than it does per- 

 ha])S in any other state in the Union, and I am 

 certain that it costs more to our farmers to raise 

 up a family of four, than it used to sixty year* 

 ago, in Massachusetts, to raise up a family of four- 

 teen. 



Second. The raising of so much poor and 

 ordinary neat stock and horses. At the present 

 prices none but the best will pay for raising. Our 

 farmers are under family temptations to raise bad 

 stock, a calf coines, round and fat; at three weeks 

 old he is a handsome creature. The boys plead 

 to have him raised. Good family cows being 

 heifer calves, the good housewife insists that they 

 shall be ke[it and raised, ivith this argument, viz.: 

 that they will make as good as their dams. An- 

 other cause of raising calves is, the wife says she 

 cannot spare the milk to fatten it. Now you 

 should resist all these : kill all your calves but the 

 very best, and give them good keeping. It is 

 impossible that a country where black cattle and 

 horses are fed on dry food go long in the year can 

 afford to raise poor cattle. Set down the first 

 stormy day and calculate the cost accurately and 

 satisfy yourself. 



Third. Not ploughing land as oflen as it ought 

 to be, is another reason. They must sow more • 

 and they do not employ as much capital upon 

 their farms as would be profitable. An English 

 farmer would have a compost heap worth $4000, 

 while many of our farmers carry on extensive 

 farms, without using manure of every description 

 enough to cost as many cents. 



The crops of some Pennsylvania farmers, from 

 one hundred acres, amount to from three to five ' 

 thousand dollars per annum. Calculate if you 

 please the profits of almost any tilled crops, and 



