1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



271 



gome of them from gentlemen of large experience, 

 and who are also excellent writers, for which it is 

 difficult to find room. The object of the writer is 

 - partially defeated, in writing long articles, as a 

 long article is seldom copied, while one of three 

 pages, written well, would, perhaps, pass through 

 half the agricultural papers in the country. Be 

 brief and comprehensive. There is no subject 

 ■which can be fully discussed in a single article ol 

 suitable length for a newspaper. 



FARMER PENNYWISE AND FARMER 

 POUNDWISE. 



There is a Farmer Pennywise with whom I am 

 acquainted, who will occasionally raise a good 

 heifer, steer or colt, for his neighbors who keep 

 good breeds, and he is by accident occasionally 

 benefited thereby. When he has such an animal 

 in his flock, he is apparently uneasy until it is dis- 

 posed of; and after selling such an animal, a heif- 

 er for instance, you may hear something like the 

 following : 



"Well, my dear, I have sold the big heifer for 

 fifteen dollars; is that not a good price for a heifer 

 of her age 1 ' ' 



"Good price, indeed!" his wife would reply, 

 "you had better have sold two of them cat-hammed, 

 crooked legged, scrawny things that you always 

 keep for cows. The reason that our cattle al- 

 ways look so bad, and that we sell so little butter 

 and cheese is, that you always sell the best heif- 

 ers." 



Poor woman ! I pi^ her ; her pride and ambi- 

 tion are injured, her children and self in rags, be- 

 cause her native industry and economy ai-e cramped 

 by the foolish and niggardly policy of her hus- 

 band. 



The picture is reversed in farmer Poundwise, 

 who always keeps his best animals until full grown ; 

 then selecting his best breedei's for his own use, 

 ■he sells the rest. If he has a good young horse, 

 he will say that he will make a fine team horse ; a 

 mare, she will make a fine brood mare. 



"And what will you do with that?" says his 

 neighbor, pointing to an ordinary animal. 



"Between you and I," says he, "I shall sell that 

 colt the first chance. Such an animal spoils the 

 looks of all the rest, and will not pay for his keep- 

 ing." 



Thus he will sell his poor steers, heifers, sheep 

 and pigs at the first offer. If not sold, he would 

 fatten those tliat would pay the expense, and give 

 away those that would not. Not pay the expense 

 of fattening ! Are there any cattle, sheep or hogs 

 that will not pay the expense of fattening? — 

 Reader, take some of each — of the real Pharaoh 

 breed — feed them until fiit ; keep an exact account 

 of the expenses, and you can answer this question 

 yourself, fn this way Farmer Poundwise always 

 has valuable stock; his steers are ready sale, and 

 command a good price ; his horses are the best in 

 the neighborhood, and the first to be looked at by 

 purchasers. So with all the animals he raises. 

 Pennywise, on the contrary, is thronged with an 

 ill-shaped, worthless stock, that none will buy or 

 pay the expense of raising ; which are continually 

 eating out his substance and making no return. 

 Thus Pennywise drags on a miserable life in the 



road to ruin, while Poundwise moves easily and 

 happily along in the road to wealth. — Maine Far' 



For the New England Farmer 



FARMING IMPLEMENTS AND MA- 

 CHINES. 



Mr. Editor : — I have noticed for the last twelve 

 years that one of the greatest drawbacks to im- 

 proved farming is a want of good implements aad 

 machines. Even those farmers who go in for im- 

 provements, and are known as friends to "new 

 things," and are opposed to this "old fogyism," 

 many of them are sadly in want of good tools to 

 carry on farming with. This arises more from a 

 careless indifference and a want of knowledge of 

 what good tools are worth over poor, inferior ones, 

 than it does from other causes. I say now what 

 I have often said before, that I have seen more 

 "slack farming" in the last ten years directly 

 from this cause alone than from all other causes 

 put together. Poor tools and indifferent imple- 

 ments beget careless habits in farmers, whereas 

 improved farming implements give new life, ener- 

 gy and activity, and enable the farmer to go on 

 and strive to do his work in the best manner. — 

 There is a class of farmers, when they find out 

 the real difference between good tools and bad 

 ones, will immediately lay aside the old unes, aud 

 take the new ones. There is still another class 

 of farmers who are well convinced of the impor- 

 tance of having good tools, because they have seen 

 the good effects of them in their neighbor's fields. 

 And yet they go on, from year to year, using the 

 same tools, and why, simply, because they love 

 their money better than they do good tools. So 

 the consequence is, they keep their money, or 

 spend it for something else, and let the tools go. 



For the last six or eight years I have used two 

 of Prouty's plows, the old Sod C pattern, and No. 

 5^, self-sharpening. Both of these plows do good 

 work, as well as many of their new patterns, 

 which they now make. Ruggles, Nourse, Mason 

 & Co. also make a variety of good plows of differ- 

 ent patterns, which are in extensive use, some of 

 which are hard to beat. There are also many 

 otlier good plow-makers in the country. What 

 the farmers want is to get a good plow or plows 

 of some kind that will do good work. The "sub- 

 soil plow" is another implement which should be 

 used much more than it is by fiirmers. All soils, 

 in the course of a six years' cultivation, will be 

 more or less benefited by subsoiling. 



The best harrow that I have ever used is 

 "Geddes' Hinge Harrow," with thirty teeth. This 

 harrow works well, cuts the ground up fine, and 

 as it is made in the triangle form, it works much 

 easier than the square harrow with the same num- 

 ber of teeth, and it is not as liable to clog up. A 

 single yoke of cattle can draw the harrow on any 

 soil with ease, as it does not lug like the old catch 

 harrows. 



The "horse rake" is another important farm 

 implement, and one of the greatest labor-saving 

 machines in use on the farm. It is astonishing 

 now to see how many farmers still rake hay by 

 hand, preferring, as it would seem, to pay a dol- 

 lar or more a day for hand rakers in preference to 

 seven or eight dollars for a horse rake, which will 

 pay for itself twice over in one season to any far- 



