216 



NEW ENGLAND FARME^ 



Mat 



plows, or even to the Belgian." '^'Do you know," 

 retorted Johnson, "that in our country, we have 

 fields, without a fence, or a rock, or a stump, lar- 

 ger than your whole island of Great Britain ; and 

 these plows have been found to work well there, 

 as they will work well anywhere. This flour is 

 made from the wheat, you see yonder ; and the 

 wheat was grown on land plowed with implements 

 like these ; that crop of v/heat averaged 62^ bush- 

 els to the acre, weighing 03 pounds to the bushel." 

 So with the reapers. The Lo/idon Tii'/nes paraded 

 an account of tlie American department, and chris- 

 tened McGonuick's machine, "a cross betwixt a 

 flying-machine, a ti*ead-mill, and an Astley's char- 

 iot." "That fiying machine must be tested on the 

 field," insisted the sturdy Johnson, "and let them 

 laugh that win." The tread-mill was tried. The 

 grain, green and storm-soaked as it was, went 

 down before it, as if it were the shears of Fate ; 

 "and loud, though late, v^ere the honest congratu- 

 lations of our discomfited critics. The introduc- 

 tion of the 2\merican Reaper, alone, was by com- 

 mon consent, allowed to compensate England for 

 all the gross expenses of the exhibition. In like 

 manner, the plows were found to work well on 

 English land. And, finally, the bitter opponent 

 of all that is American and republican, — that same 

 London Times — confessed that the United States, 

 by their contributions for ensuring the good of the 

 many, instead of pandering to the luxuries of the 

 few, had carried off the palm, in this World's Tour- 

 nament. 



Why was it that at the eleventh hour, only, 

 was justice done to one of the competing countries 1 

 Why did thousands, whose voices were afterwards 

 loudest in praise, — to their honor be this said, — 

 for so long time speak, but to scoff? Prejuc-ice 

 had pre-oceupied their minds, and jaundiced their 

 vision. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 NEW BRUNSWICK. 



Mr. Browm : — ^I have been a reader of the New 

 England Farmer this last twelvemonth, and like it 

 very much. But I have sometimes felt a little 

 nettled at never seeing the name of New Brunswick 

 mentioned in it, either as regards farming or any 

 thing else. You must be aware that there is such' 

 a place as New Brunswick, and that your paper 

 extends its circulation hither ; but I suppose you 

 think that "New Brunswick is no good for fiirm- 

 ing." It is better, however, than you are perhaps 

 aware of; and to convince you of that, I have re- 

 solved on writing you some particulars regarding 

 its capabilities. What kind of land we have — how 

 we get along — and what we can raise. I do not 

 feel myself altogether qualified for the undertak- 

 ing, having only been two years in the country, 

 and not being much used to writing, but it seems 

 there is no one with better qualifications that thinks 

 it worth their trouble. 



This place is situated thirty miles from Frederick- 

 ton the seat of the Provincial government, and thii'- 

 ty-five from the American frontier — Calais, Me. 

 The settlers are a mixture of Scotch and English, 

 the first of which commenced in the forest fifteen 

 years ago. They have stuck to their farms and 

 done well. The soil is a clayey loam, (not very 

 stony) and rests upon a hard pan. The geological 

 formation is grey sandstone and granite. The 



growth of wood may be said to be a mixture of 

 spruce and hemlock, birch, beech and maple. 



Chopping down, clearing up, and fencing new 

 land, costs £3 10s, or $14 an acre. When it i& 

 sown with oats 3 bushels is allowed to the acre, 

 and the return is 50, more or less ; 70 is sometimes 

 obtained. The ground is only harrowed twice 

 over, and raked round the stumps. It ought to 

 get more stirring. 



We raise famous potatoes here. We hajj 300 

 bushels from the acre last season, good and sound. 

 There was 800 bushels raised on one acre, near 

 Frederickton, last year. The ground was a sandy 

 loam, plowed out of the sward, and had no manure 

 except .50 bushels of leached ashes. I saw some 

 bushels of them at the Provincial Exhibition. We 

 are not very particular in planting our potatoes on 

 new land ; we make no hole for the seed — ^just lay 

 down the cuts (3 to a hill) on the surface, and 

 draw the ashes and dirt round them. A neighbor 

 of mine says, "he thinks they are gie wed rigged 

 if he gets a chip on them." We raise grass seed 

 in large quantities, and of superior quality ; per- 

 haps you may have heard of the Harvey Timothy, 

 a great part of it is sent to Boston. We sow only 

 3 pints to 4 quarts on an acre — sometimes a little 

 clover is added. The clover grows very strong ; a 

 neighbor of mine tells me that he used to sow 

 some clover, but it grew so strong that he could 

 not cut it, and he quit sowing it. 



We top the herds-grass with the sickle, hence 

 the seed is very pure. A good hand is allowed tc- 

 top an acre a day. Four bushels from the acre is 

 a fair crop. As for plow land farming, I have sev- 

 eral times seen oats, barley and wheat raised here, 

 which weighed respectively, 50, CO, and 70 lbs- 

 per bushel. The land would do well, if it was 

 well attended to ; but there is great room for im- 

 provement. Indeed, I have often been surprised 

 to see the crops which are obtained by the )uode 

 of cultivation sometimes practised. I know the 

 farmers in my country would think hard to expect 

 a crop from the same system. I have often 

 thought that the farmers in this country calculate 

 too much, sir. Tlie fiirmers in Scotland do not 

 calculate so much, and yet they are bettor farm- 

 ers ; moreover they have been allowed to be the 

 best farmers in the world, and yet it has been said 

 of them, that "they are strong as tlie ox, and as 

 ignorant as sirong." 



I shall just state that oats here this winter have 

 sold at 2s. QhL per bushel, potatoes 23., Timothy 

 seed 14s., and hay £4 per ton, all on the spot. 



A Scotchman in the backwoods of New Bruns- 

 wick. John Taylor. 



Harvey Settlement. N. B., > 



Via Calais, Me., March 2nd, 18S3. 5 



Remarks. — The New Brunswickers shall have a 

 fair chance with us. They send us the finest grass 

 seed the world can produce, and we suppose the 

 men and women would come under the same com- 

 parative degree. A "Scotch backwoodsman" 

 seems to be as glib with the pen as the axe, and 

 if he can impart something to benefit "mankind 

 in general, and farmers in particular," why he 

 can "put it through" our columns. 



FRAMrNGH.Mu Farmers' Club. — We had the pleas- 

 ure of attending a meeting of this Club, at Fra- 



