142 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



NOVEMBER 9, tl-f.. 



BOSTON. WEIJiNESDAY EVF.NING, NOV. 0, 1836. 



FARMERS' WORK. 



Sowing Seeds of Garden Vegetables in Autumn. 

 Many things, wliicli are usually sown in the spring, 

 would be belter soi/in in (Ae /aH ; and especially when 

 we consider how little time there is for doing all things 

 in the spring. I'arsnips, carrots, b. ets, onions, and 

 many other seeds may be safely sown in autumn. The 

 seed will not perish, if covered hy the earth. Cabbages, 

 parsnips, carrots, spinach and onions are sowed to the 

 best advantage in the fall, when it is desirable to gi't 

 tlicni early the next otasno. Miller's Gardener's Dic- 

 tionary says, " to cultivate parsnips, soic the seed in au- 

 tumn, soon after they are ripe; by which means the seed 

 will come early in the following spring, and let the 

 plants get strong before the weeds will grow to injure 

 ihem. The young plants never materially suffer through 

 the severity of the season.'' 



Cvhbeit's Ameriean Gardener asserts that " early peas 

 would be best sown in the fall, could you have an assu- 

 rance against mice. We all know what a bustle there is 

 to get in early pens. If they were sown in the fall they 

 would start up the moment the frost was out of the 

 ground, and would be ten days earlier in bearing in spite 

 of every etlort made by the spring sowers to overtake 

 them. Upon a spot where 1 sowed j eas for seed, last 

 year, some that were left in a lock of haulm at the har- 

 vesting, and that lay upon the dry ground till the land 

 was ploughed late in November, came up in the spring 

 the moment the frost was out of the ground ; and they 

 were in bloom full fifteen days aarliei than those sown 

 in the same field as early as possible in the spring. In 

 some cases it would be a good way to cover the sown 

 ground with titter, or with leaves of trees, as soon as 

 the frost has fairly set in ; but not before, for if you do 

 it before, the seed may vegetate, and then may be killed 

 by the frost. One object of this tall sowing is to get the 

 work done ready for spring ; fur at that season you have 

 se many things to do at once Besides you cannot sow 

 the instant the frost breaks up, for the ground is wet 

 and clammy, unfit to be d Jg or touched or trodden 

 upon, so that here are ten days lost. But the seed, 

 which has lain in the ground all the winter is ready to 

 start the moment the earth is clear of the winter frost, 

 and it is up by the time you can get other seed into the 

 ground in a good state. 



Fall of the year. In a country where the springs are 

 backward, as in the northern parts of New England, 

 farmers should do all they can in autumn, to diminish 

 or lighten the labors of the following spring, when they 

 will have much work to perform in a short time. Sum- 

 mer dung and ci niposts should be cart.'d out at this sea 

 son. Fences should be built or repaired, not only to 

 prevent h:iving them to do in the spiing, but to keep 

 cattle from injuring the lands with their feet. All the 

 ground should be ploughed in the fall, that is to be 

 seeded the following spring. Ploughing in autumn is 

 saving labor at a time when teams are most apt to be 

 faint and feeble, and when there is too often a scarcity 

 of fond for tbeni. Ploughing in autuum is of great im- 

 portance in a clay soil, as Ny exposing it to the frost, the 

 cohesion of the parts is much broken — Deane. 



But although fill plouirhing may be rerouimended as 

 a general rule, we believe that in some soils it should 

 not be practised. A light, sandy soil, which is naturally 

 too loose for vigorous vegetation, is injured by late 

 ploughing The frost destroys what little tenacity the 

 land possesses, and reduces it to such a state that many 

 of its most fertile particles are either swept away by 



winds or washed away by floods. Such soils should be 

 kept coated and bound together by vegetation as much 

 as possible. No farmer should suffer such land to lie in 

 a bare and finely pulverized state, either in summer or 



in winter. 



East Windsor, Con. Oct. 31, 183G. 

 T. G. Fessekden, Esq., — Sir, Having this day seen 

 in the N. E. Farmer, the number of the fat oxen exhib- 

 ited at the Worcester Cattle Show the 5th Oct. 1 thought 

 1 would just inform you that old Connecticut is not far 

 behind Mass. in fine cattle. That I last week weighed 

 for Ralph Watson, of this town, his fine Durham Bull 

 Althorp — in ordinary flesh, and not yet /our years old, 

 he weighed two thousand two hundred and eighty 

 pounds. I was iciformed that he kept hini in the stable 

 entirely on hay and two pumpkins per day. 



Yours respectfully, 



ASA BOWE, Weigher. 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTrRAIj SOCIETY. 



Saturday, Nov. 5, 13a6. 



ESHIEITION OF FRDITS. 



Pears — By L. P. Groivenor — Bell pear,St Michael, 

 a fine sample 



By B. V.French — Wilkinson. 



By Tho. Brown — a handsome pear for a name. 



By R. Manning — Pope's Quaker, great bearer, fine 

 for market ; Wilkinson, small size : Nulli Secundem. 



Apples. — By J. Morton —supposed to be Harvey 

 apple. 



Bv R. Manning — Rambo or Romarite; Coxe No. 20 

 For the Coinmi tee. 



S. POND. 



EXHIBITION OK FLOWERS. 



From Messrs Winship — Spirea Filipsendula ; new 

 Phlox; Lobelia syphilitum. 



Size of Farms. — Farming, when it is carried on 

 merely as a money-making business, to be most profit- 

 able, requires farms of such size rs to furnish regular 

 employment to the head farmer and all the hands in 

 such a way as to make the greatest return of their labor 

 at the least expense. This can only be effected on 

 farms of considerable siie. The immense advantage of 

 a regular division of the labor is shown in all extensive 

 manufactories where extraordinary expedition in the 

 various operations is attained, by allotting each depart- 

 ment to separate individuals. For division of labor to 

 be etl'ected in farming, farms of considerable size are 

 required, or where several hands can be constantly em- 

 ployed to advantage Where farms are very small, and 

 one man does the whole labor, it cannot be executed at 

 so small an expense as when the work is divided. 



The productions of a farm shcmld not be confined to 

 one or two articles ; the farmer should not be principal y 

 a wheat grower, nor a drover, nor a shepherd, but 

 should attend nearly equally to all these difi'erent 

 branches. When the business is thus varied, too much 

 work does not occur at one time, nor too little for the 

 employment of the hands at another. This variety of 

 business is also necessary to the improvement and en- 

 riching of the soil — to the production and application 

 of manure, and to maintaining the benefits of rotation 

 in crops. But it cannot be advant.igeously adopted on 

 very small farms, as there would be a very great waste 

 of ground, and at a great expense of material, for parti- 

 lion fences, and a loss of time by attention lo a great 

 number of small crops. 



Another disadvantage of small farms is, that labor 

 saving machinery cannot be so profitably used on them ; 

 for where these are expensive, and the quantity of work 

 they perform is small, the interest on them is a heavy 

 dr-iwback on the profits of the farm. 



Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, theie is not 

 one farmer in a hundred who has not more land than he 

 can cultivate in the best possible manner; or to speak 

 more correctly, there is not one in a hundred who has 

 sufficient additional capital to carry on profitably all the 

 operations of the farm A farmer must be able to ex- 

 pend a large sum in addition lo what he does in paying 

 for his laud, if he expects to make money by the busi- 

 ness. But instead of this, the common practice is, to 

 expend all the additional capital which is realised by 

 farming, in purchasing more land. Instead of doing this, 

 it would be much belter for the farmer to sell a part of 

 what he first had, if this is the only way of obtaining 

 addition 1 capital for carrying on his operations. 



We will suppose the case of a farmer who commenced 

 business with five thousand dollars; if, with one half 

 this sum he bujs a farm ol'filty acres, and with the other 

 half he improves it to a high state of fertility, he will do 

 far better than if he should purchase a hundred acres, 

 and have no further means of improving it or of per- 

 forming the work upon it in the most advantageous 

 manner. Most land, by a judicious expenditure to the 

 amount of its cost upon it, may have its productiveness 

 increased four fold, and its profits to an almost incalcu- 

 lable amount ; if, therefore a farmer can raise from fifty 

 acres twice the amount of produce that he does from a 

 hundred acres, hi» will not only receive twice as much 

 from it, but he will be able to raise this amount with 

 even less than half the labor that he does from the hun- 

 dred acres, because land in good condition is much more 

 easily tilled than that in poor condition. Thus, with 

 only fifty acres, he would in fact experience the advan- 

 tage of large farms to a far greater extent than if he 

 should purchase a hundred acres. — Gen Far. 



ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIKTY. 



The following Officers were elected at the late Annu- 

 al meeting of the Essex Agricultural Society. 



President — James II. Duncan, of Haverhill. 



Vice Presidents — Hobctt Clark, of Andover, David 

 Cummings, of Salem, Solomon Low, of Boxford, Dan- 

 iel Adams, 3d, of Newbjiy. 



Treasurer — Andrew Nichols, of Danvers. 



Secretary — John W. Proctor, of Danvers. 



Trustees — Stephen Barker, of Andover, Andrew 

 Breed, of Lynn, Jeremiah Colinan, of Newburyport, 

 Nathaniel Felton, of Danvers, Daniel Fuller, of Mid- 

 dlelon, Moses French, of Salisbury, Edward Ford, of 

 Beverly, Frederick Howes, of Salem, Nathan W. Hazcn, 

 of Andover, William Johnson, Jr., Andover, Joseph 

 Kiitri-d^e, Andover, Amos Kimball, t)f Boxford, Daniel 

 P. King, of Danvers, Jesse Kimball, of Bradford, R. 

 Augustus Merriam, of Topsfit'ld, Richard J.;ques, of 

 Newbury, Moses Newell, of West Ne\Nbury, Daniel 

 Putnam, of Danvers, Jesse Putnarn, of Danvers, Dean 

 Robinson, of West Newbury, Amos Shelden, ol' Bev- 

 erly, Jeremiah Spofford, of Bradford, Bowman Viles, of 

 Lynnfield, Eraslus Ware, of Marblehead. 



Fires in Germany. — 27 buildings were destroyed 

 by fire in the Duchy of Brunswick, and sixtyfour 

 with a church on the 2Sth. in Blankinburg. The 

 beautiful Rotunda at Limburg, on one of the steepest 

 mountains rear Aix la Chapellc, and the Chateau 

 of the Duke of Armbeg, have been also destroyed by 

 fire. 



