NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the Nno England Farmer. 



EXPERIMENTS AND CONCLUSIONS. 



Mr. Cole : There is great jironeness in the human 

 mind to form theories from single facts — to generalize 

 and lay down principles from isolated observations. 

 This aptitude to form hasty and erroneous opinions, 

 from few facts and experiments, is remarkable on 

 agricultural subjects. Hence theories and dogmas 

 are promulgated one year as fixed truths, that are 

 exploded the next. On no subject is it more difficult 

 to come to any certain conclusion from an exi:)crimcnt, 

 or even half a dozen experiments, than in agricul- 

 ture and kindred arts. 



So many elements enter into the operation, that 

 much uncertainty must rest on what prodixces the 

 result. The infinite variety of soils, the different 

 qualities of manures, and the ever-varying weather, 

 in different seasons, will baffle the efforts of the most 

 acute experimenters ; and nothing but long experi- 

 ence, close observation, and skilful management, va- 

 ried for a series of years, can settle, with reasonable 

 certainty, any principle in agriculture. The chemist, 

 in his experiments, uses no articles whose strength 

 is not known, and then he weighs each ingredient 

 with scrupulous exactness, and makes his combination 

 with the nice and prescribed rules of science. The 

 agriculturist cannot, with like precision, make his 

 experiments, but must exercise discretion and judg- 

 ment in approximation to probable correctness. 

 Many writers for agricultural papers do not seem to 

 be awai'e of the difficulty of farming experiments, and 

 of the uncertainty of many of their conclusions. 

 From this arises the want of confidence, in the pub- 

 lic mind, in paper speculations on the subject. Did 

 writers for the periodical press content themselves 

 with stating facts, and all attending circumstances 

 likely to affect results in their experiments and oper- 

 ations, they would render much more service to the 

 public, and command more attention and confidence, 

 than in hastily spinning theories, or announcing 

 some supposed discovery of mighty import, fi-om a 

 partial and imperfect experiment, that in fact proves 

 worthless. 



For instance, the numerous speculations, principles, 

 and dogmas in regard to the potato, often laid down 

 "with the air of infallibility, are known to every experi- 

 enced farmer to be nearly all merely imaginary. So 

 of the disease that has of late so nearly destroyed 

 that useful root, its cause, remedy, and prevention, 

 almost daily is announced some great discovery, 

 drawn from a single fact or experiment, that proves 

 fallacious. One man Mill notice a shower just be- 

 fore his potatoes arc struck with the rot, and he 

 will lay it down as the certain cause, as though that 

 shower e.xtended over Eui-ope and America. Anoth- 

 er discovers some fly or insect about his potato tops, 

 just before he discovers they are diseased, and then, 

 with flourish of trumpets, he announces the great dis- 

 covery of the cause. 



Some assert dogmatically that the cultivated 

 potato has lived out its life, and must be renewed ; 

 others, that the disease is undoubtedly the effect of 

 high cultivation ; and so on to the end of the chapter, 

 if the chapter is ever to have an end. Such conclu- 

 sions, jumped at from slight observations, were finely 

 illustrated by a neighbor, who said his potatoes in his 

 long rows were but slightly diseased, while those in 

 the short ones were nearly all rotten. He did not, 

 however, lay down the dogma, that long rows were a 

 certain remedy, for he was a man of sense, and 

 sought for some explanation from other circumstances, 

 and recollected that in planting, he furrowed his 

 ground with his oxen, where he could do it conve- 

 niently, forming long rows, and planted his potatoes 

 there deeper than in his short rows, where the hoe 

 was used instead of the plough. 



Ilis conjecture as to the cause was probably correct 



in the circumstances of that particular case, of the 

 nature of the soil and season, so far as the virulence 

 of the disease was concerned ; but the experienced 

 farmer, who has suffered for a series of years by the 

 disease, knows that, under some circumstances of 

 season and soil, the deep-covered potatoes suffer 

 least, and under others, the most. 



Those considerations demonstrate the necessity, in 

 making experiments, of great care and accuracy in 

 the operation, and of continuing them for a series 

 of years before any certain or valuable conclusions 

 can be drawn from them. The facts and results. 

 Avith so many of the cu'cumstances detailed as pos- 

 sible, should be yearly published, as facts for the bene- 

 fit of other experimenters, and as useful hints for 

 the practical farmer, as well as the experimenter. In 

 communicating such facts to the public, the nature 

 of the soil should be accurately described, the time 

 of the various operations, and character of the season 

 as to temperature, and moistness, or dryness, and par- 

 ticularly for what articles of production the seasons 

 are most favorable and otherwise. 



RUFUS M'INTIRE. 



Parsonfield, Me., Oct. 1848. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 POULTRY 



A PROFITABLE PART OF FARM PRODUCE. 



Mr. Editor : There are no animals raised on a farm 

 that are more neglected by farmers than poultry. 

 They, in fact, receive but very little attention, and ai-e 

 rather left to take care of themselves, than fed at 

 regular seasons, and in other respects projjcrly 

 provided for. "\\'Tiy this is so, it is difficult to say, 

 unless it be that the profits of poultry are not supposed 

 to pay for the expense of feeding them. But that 

 tliis is a mistaken notion, the experience of those who 

 have bestowed care and attention in keeping poultry, 

 wUl Avarrant any one in asserting. 



The objects of the farmer in keeping poultry are 

 twofold : 1st. The raising and fattening of them 

 for market ; 2d. Obtaining from them eggs for the 

 same purpose. These two articles, fowls and eggs, 

 are generally quick of sale, and command good 

 prices. If any farmer believes otherwise, let him 

 enter any large market stall, or grocery store, where 

 eggs are sold, and witness the piles that from day to 

 day are disposed of and replaced by others ; or, what 

 is far better, ascertain the amount of sales which the 

 egg account shows at the end of the year. Let him 

 ascertain, too, the amount of eggs consumed at a 

 single hotel in the city, or at any large confectionary 

 or bakery. Let him count up the probable number 

 of dozens consumed in a large city in a single day ; 

 and he will almost begin to think that the chief food 

 of its inhabitants is eggs — eggs — and nothing but 

 eggs. 



So, too, of poultry. Take the following item, which 

 appears in a recent English journal, as in point on 

 the consumption of this article abroad. " Mr. Bailey, 

 poulterer, of London, states that one London sales- 

 man sells annually £100,000 worth of poultry ; that 

 he himself paid £81,000 last year for poultry, and 

 that £15,000 are paid yearly at Aylesbury for young 

 ducklings." That the sales of poultry in the Boston 

 market would present a corresponding exhibit, there 

 can be little doubt. Perhaps some poulterer there 

 might be induced to make an estimate on the subject. 

 In the absence of such an estimate, it may be stated, 

 on good authority, that in the town of Lynn are 

 two poulterers, who kUl, in the warm season, on an 

 average, one 500 and the other 300 chickens every 

 week for the Nahant tables. They have men spe- 

 cially employed to collect poultry from a large cir- 

 cuit in that vicinity. 



