164 



NEW ENGLAND FARMi.R. 



April 



tion, he should judge that not more than six in 

 one hundred acres of land throughout the State 

 were in a condition fit for the use of the plow. He 

 thought tbis strong evidence that our people need 

 stimulating. 



Dr. Reynolds, of Concord, remarked that it was 

 a most important subject, upon the solution of 

 which might depend the question whether our 

 young men should cultivate their native acres, or 

 dig in the golden sands of California or Australia, 

 though it had been remarked that they were choos- 

 ing the latter. What is necessary, is to make ag- 

 riculture more respectable and successful — not that 

 he meant it was not respectable, but that it should 

 be made more respectable in the eyes of our young 

 men, v/ho ai-e taught even by their fathers that it 

 is unprofitable, and beneath tlie ambition of enter- 

 prising men ; that it is fit only for men who can 

 do nothing else ; and that men who have failed in 

 all things else can fall back upon it. Young men 

 must be taught to give weight, influence and char- 

 acter to farming ; and this can only be done by 

 making it more intellectual. When the intellect 

 is as vigorously exerted in agriculture as in other 

 professions, it will engage the ambition of our 

 young men. 



Intercourse among men, he urged, was a great 

 means of increasing knowledge, and by means of 

 institutes the farmers would be brought into more 

 frequent intercourse with each other, to their great 

 benefit. The mind strikes out new paths, and 

 new thoughts are eliminated. The speaker alluded 

 to the teachers' institutes as improving and stimu 

 lating the teachers themselves, and rendering them 

 more efficient, from which he inferred the same re 

 suit would follow the establishment of institutes 

 for the farmer. 



He believed that much benefit would accrue from 

 lectures, and had no fear from the diffusion of sci- 

 ence even in its present state, or that the theories 

 of scientific men would mislead our strong common- 

 sense farmers to any great extent. Science is the 

 basis of all true agriculture. The speaker recog- 

 nized the necessity of kindling up an increased in- 

 terest among the farmers in our State, and ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the Board of Education 

 had a duty to discharge in reference to the mat- 

 ter. They should secure the introduction into our 

 high schools of the study of agricultural chemistry, 

 geology, &c. It would be of great benefit, and 

 prepare the way for agricultural colleges. We 

 should begin in the small circles. 



Mr. Sprague, of Duxbury, expressed himself fa- 

 vorableto the formation of such institutions, and 

 gave it as his opinion that more is to be learned by 

 intercourse with well informed men than in any 

 other way. The difficulty with farmers, is, that 

 they make a great many mistakes owing to a lack 

 of accurate scientific knowledge. We cannot dis- 

 cuss agriculture without benefit. 



Mr. CoGGSWELL, of Bedford, remarked that the 

 more intelligent the farmer, the more successful 

 he would be, — farmers should be thinking, reflect- 

 ing men, and should study their soils as closely as 

 the physician does the materia medica. 



Prof. Nash, of Amherst College, thought much 

 might be done without legislative aid, by voluntary 

 association. He agreed witli Dr. Reynolds, that it 

 is necessary to make farming appear more respect- 

 able to our sons, and the only way to do this is to 

 make it more intellectual. These institutes will 

 have a tendency to draw out the farmer, and make 

 him more intelligent. In regard to lectures, the 

 lecturer should not only be thoroughly versed in 

 agricultural science, but also be a practical farm- 

 er, else his teachings will be liable to mislead. 



Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, in explanation of his 

 former remarks, said he would not be understood 

 as opposing science, lectures, or farmers' insti- 

 tutes. The meetings, so far as they bring farm- 

 ers together, are useful. Farming is extremely 

 variable, and the same rules of science will not al- 

 ways apply. As for instance you may raise wheat 

 on one side of a hill, and not upon the other, al- 

 though the soil is identically the same. 



The hour of adjournment having arrived, the 

 meeting adjourned until Tuesday evening nest, 

 when "The cultivation and preservation of Fruits'' 

 will be taken up for discussion, and an interesting 

 meeting is anticipated. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HOUSING AND PAINTING FARM 

 VEHICLES. 



It is strange what a diflTei'ence there is among 

 farmers with regard to the importance of housing 

 their wagons and carts. Prudent, economical 

 men, in most things, are wholly insensible to the 

 great loss they experience by allowing their expen- 

 sive vehicles to be beaten upon and soaked by the 

 storms, and checked and shrunk by the blazing 

 sun. 



Wagons and carts from the maker's shop are 

 seldom well-painted. The owner gets so anxious 

 to be using his new cart, and the old one seems so 

 unbearable, that the cart is taken from the shop 

 before the little openings in the wood and the joints 

 are half filled with paint, — the farmer "guesses it 

 will do," and away it goes to commence a straight- 

 forward course to decay. A few days after, it 

 rains. The cart body is soaked through. The 

 joints absorb water and swell. By-and-by, when 

 the water has dried out, after having been dragged 

 about the farm for several days, the joints become 

 loose. Tliis process needs only to be repeated a 

 sufficient number of times to give you a heavy, 

 rickety body, which, in a few years, breaks up and 

 sends you to the mechanic again. 



But the wheels are the most important part. Upon 

 them has the most labor been expended in propor- 

 tion to their weight, and of them should the most 

 care be taken. The hubs, generally, are made of 

 elm. Elm, exposed to the weather, is of short du- 

 ration. It is used because it is difficult to spht it 

 in driving the spokes. White-oak hubs invaria- 



