1853. 



iNEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



548 



partment, other subjects are by no means neglect- 

 ed. Under the caption 



CULTIVATION, 



We will place an article by Mr. Ilolbrook, on 

 "Fall Plowing. Making and Application of man- 

 ure— Pulverization of the Soil." Every farmer who 

 is short of manure, and shall subscribe for the Far- 

 mer, will have his dollar's worth if he gets nothing 

 but this one article. 



The particular value of Mr. Holbrook's agricul- 

 tural hints and directions consists in i\\Q\v practi- 

 cability — in the fact that almost every farmer in 

 the land can apply them to himself and his farm ; 

 while many of the prescriptions of agricultural 

 writers are necessarily confined to localities and 

 circumstances that are the exceptions, not the rule, 

 of the great mass of farmers. 



With two horses and three or four shoats, Mr. 

 H. manufactures every fortnight a cord of muck, 

 &c., into manure that "for corn, particularly, can 

 rarely be surpassed." Farmers must study the 

 economy (1 did'nt say "science") of manures. 

 There is much in composting that, I apprehend, 

 is poorly understood. One of my neighbors, a 

 spring or two ago, remarked, as my manure was 

 hauled out, "If that puts corn through, I'll give 

 in to book-larming." It did "put the corn 

 through ;" and another neighbor who saw the corn 

 after it was husked, and was looking at the field 

 on which it grew, asked, " Where did you raise so 

 much corn?" There are, also, three other articles 

 belonging to this heading — one on "Plowing," by 

 Mr. French ; one on raising "Marrow squash," 

 by A. Holman ; and another on the "Neglect of 

 Pastures," — all capital articles in their way. 



Inquiries and directions for " Cranberry culture" 

 on meadow land ; philosophical "Observations on 

 setting young trees for orcharding in ^lassachu- 

 setts," by J. Boyce, who has set trees for more 

 than fifty years ; a fine picture and description of 

 the V'Muskingum pear ;" inquiries andremarkson 

 "Russet apples;" outlines, description, and rec- 

 ommendation of "Seckle and Louise Bonne de Jer- 

 sey pears;" with a caution against "Fraud in 

 Fruit Trees," which are manufactured by the 

 process of root-grafting. 



fP FARMERS SORTED. 



Mr. Comings classes them in three divisions — 

 "the farmer whozs a farmer, the farmer who is no 

 farmer, and the farmer who cannot make a far- 

 mer." Spending money on a farm don't make the 

 man a farmer ; studying learned essays and dis- 

 sertations don't make the man a farmer ; nor does 

 hard work, that only runs him in debt, make the 

 man a farmer. The true farmer must not onlj 

 make his farming his business, but it must be made 

 a profitable business, or he loses caste, with Mr. 

 C. My grandfather used to say that farmers could 

 not stand mathematics — that while figures might 

 show that nothing is made by farming, yet they 

 raise up large ftimilies, and seldom go into bank- 

 ruptcy. Possibly the very farmer whom Mr. C.'s 

 figures run in debt some $53 a year, will neverthe- 

 less support and educate his family, and in the 

 evening of life be in better circumstances, than 

 many mechanics find themselves at that period, 

 whose large wages look so temptingly to young 

 farmers. 



In reply to an inquiry whether the ashes of 

 Anthracite coal are of value as manure, the editor 

 gives the analyses of White and of Red Ash coal, 

 by Prof. Norton, and some favorable experiments 

 in the use of coal ashes in England on turnips. I 

 have somewliere seen a caution against the use of 

 coal ashes, for some reason that I do not remem- 

 ber. A few years since, noticing that ashes had 

 been placed around the trees of an orchard in 

 Maiden, I inquired as to their benefit. The owner 

 replied "I dont know as they do any good as ma- 

 nure ; I put them under the trees to kill the grass. ' ' 

 Yet Mr. Cole, (p. 84, vol. I. of the Farmer,) says 

 "We have seen excellent effects from their use," 

 and most writers recommend them as of some val- 

 ue. The practice of Mr. Holbrookin making and 

 saving manure, detailed in his article in this num- 

 ber, need only to be alluded to, in this place. A 

 little bit of sparring occurs between the editors ot 

 the Farmer &n& of the N. Y. Tribune, on "Mead- 

 ow Mud ;" and we then have an account of a 

 "Great Gypsum Field" lately discovered at the 

 head waters of the Red river. 



STATISTICS. 



Questions proposed by the Secretary of the 

 Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, for the pur- 

 pose of collecting facts and statistics in relation 

 to the agriculture of the State. I hope the Sec- 

 retary will not feel disheartened if this plan should 

 prove utterly insufficient for the accomplishment 

 of the object proposed. I fear he will receive but 

 few replies to his circulars. Men who read of 

 140 bushels of corn being harvested from an acre, 

 will be reluctant to name one-fourth of that 

 amount as the average of the towns in which they 

 live, even should they honestly believe it could be 

 stated no higher. And so of English hay, of the 

 average of butter, of the per cent, realized on the 

 value of farms, &c. A tender regard for the fair 

 fame of one's own town will in many cases, I ap- 

 prehend, suggest the policy of keeping silence on 

 these questions, when the probable average is so 

 very far below the high-water mark of the "bet- 

 ter system ' ' he reads about in his agricultural pa- 

 pers. The general inefficiency of the "voluntary 

 system" for the collection of statistics, even where 

 the facts sought are of a character to gratify the 

 vanity and pride of the community, is another 

 reason why I expect that these circulars will be 

 but feebly responded to. Nothing short of cflicial 

 duty, and that enforced by some kind of "pains 

 and penalties," will be found adequate to the 

 work. While, therefore, I cannot indulge the 

 "hope" of the editor, I will repeat his exhorta- 

 tion, that all persons who receive this circular, 

 will make some response — fully, if they can ; 

 partially, if they must. 



SOUTHERN FARMING. 



A description of a fifteen-thousand-acre farm 

 in South Carolina ; and one in Maryland, perhaps 

 somewhat smaller. These planters do up farm- 

 ing on a scale very different from what we are ac- 

 customed to in New England. And by way of 

 contrast, their management and operations are in- 

 teresting. But who will envy the position of that 

 man who cannot be a kind master without "his 

 neighbors complaining that, by his indulgence, 

 he spoils all the negroes in his neighborhood." 



