150 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



NOVICMBRR 14, 1S3S. 



AND gardener's JOURNAL. 

 Boston, Wednesday, Novembeb 14, 1838. 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES AND PREMIUMS. 

 No. III. 



The amount of money offered and disbursed in premi- 

 ums aimually by the different agricultural societies in the 

 Stale is very large. We have not at hand Iho means of 

 ascertaining this amount with exactness, but it considera- 

 bly exceeds five thousand dollars. The pteiniums offer- 

 ed, according to their published list, by the Massachusetts 

 Society amount to 2(]yi) dollars; by the Worcester Soci- 

 ety to (iG9 dollars ; by the Ilanipshire, Hampden, and 

 Franldin Society to (iJl dollars; probably the amounts 

 offered in premiums by the Berkshire, Middlesex, Essex, 

 and Plymouth Societies do not fall short of six hundred 

 JoUais each ; — supposing this to be the precise sum, the 

 Wm total would be 57ri0 dollars. It probably exceeds this 

 (mount; and a disbursement of this amount for this ob- 

 ject is in a high degree creditable both to public and pri- 

 vate liberality ; and ought to be productive of much and 

 immediate and obvious advantage. That this has been 

 the case we know. We have already adduced evidence 

 of it. That proof might easily be extended; and it 

 meets the intelligent and candid mind, wherever it directs 

 its inquiries. But we are anxious that this good should 

 1)e increased ; that these premiums should create more 

 attention ; and kindle everywhere a more spirited emula- 

 tion. Massachusetts v\-ith her rocky soil, and her inhos- 

 pitable climate, has the honor of having done more for 

 the'encouragement of agriculture, with the exception of 

 the wheat bounty paid last year in Maine, than all the 

 other States put together In this matter she lias acted 

 with a sound discretion and lias done herself honor. Her 

 proffered bounties on silk, boet-sugar, and wheat, will, 

 vre have no doubt, largely increase the debt, which her 

 own citizens, and the whole community owe to her mu- 

 nificence. She has already reaped the greatest advantages 

 from her liberality ; and the seed, which she has bountiful- 

 ly sown promises a more abundant and enduring harvest. 

 The Massachusetts Society has this year offered six 

 hundred dollars in four premiums, for the best cultivated 

 farms. It is now several years since such premiums 

 were first proposed ; but they have never until this year 

 been raised to so liberal an amount. The Essex Society 

 has offered liberal premiums for the same object for years. 

 The Middlesex Society has done the same. So also we 

 believe has the Plymouth Society. The competition for 

 these premiums has not been so spirited as was to have 

 been expected. This has in a degree arisen from the 

 proposals of the State Society not being so extensively 

 known as it should be. This has not been the fault of 

 that Bociety ; but of the persons to^whom the prospectus 

 has been sent or entrusted, not having taken pains to cir- 

 culate or publish them. Copies have been always dis- 

 tributed among the members of the General Court; and 

 sent to every postmaster in the Slate ; but there is a cul- 

 pable indifference or want of public spirit somewhere by 

 which the patriotic views of the soriety have failed of be- 

 ing seconded. In the next place there is a diffidence on the 

 part of m;my of our best farmers, which makes them re- 

 luctant to enter the competition. They are unwilling to 

 present their farms as pattern farms, and to come into 

 comparison with others Many whose ajrricultuie and 

 husbandry are highly creditable to them, keep no account 

 whatever of their e-xpenses or products, no minutes of 

 any agricultural experiment or operation, which they 

 perform ; and never know the ichcn, or the how^ or the 

 huw mitchj or t)ic lehcrfforr^ of anvthing in which they 

 are concerned. In this iiiijiortanl jiartirular we cannot 



but liope for alteration and improvement. If tlie agricul- 

 tural survey of the Commonwealth now in progress re- 

 sults in no other good, we believe it will confer a benefit 

 vastly more than a compensation for its labor and ex- 

 pense, in inducing farmers to keep accounts of their hu.s- 

 bandry, to study exactness in all their operations and ex- 

 periments, and to know liow they stand and where they 

 stand. To this object the attention of the Commissioner 

 has been particularly directed ; and the blank form of a 

 Farm Report, which he has distributed among the far- 

 mers, wherever he has been, strongly attracts their atten- 

 tion to this subject ; and shows those, who are little ac- 

 customed to making up accounts, how it may be accom- 

 plished with ease. Another objection to entering their 

 farms has been in tlie fact that few or no farms in tho 

 State combine that universal variety of husbandry, which 

 the requisitions of the Society seem to imply. With the 

 exception of raising such variety, and in such quantity, 

 of articles as the immediate wants of the family render 

 necessary, or in the vicinity of market-towns as the de- 

 mands of such markets require, our husbandry is as it 

 should be, comparatively single in its objects, and accom- 

 modated to the nature or condition of the soil, and the 

 localities of the farm as it respects tillage, manure, cli- 

 mate, and market. This renders it impossible for the 

 generality of farmers to come into the competition under 

 present arrangements, with the hope of success. Should 

 the premiums of this character be continued by the Mas- 

 -sachusetts Society we would respectfully suggest for their 

 consideration a different form of presenting them. We 

 begin by saying that we think them too large, and that 

 no premium should exceed one hundred dollars. This is 

 mere matter of judgment ; and we understand well the 

 motive which induced the Trustees to make them as lib- 

 eral as they have done, in hopes, by strongly tempting 

 the cupidity of our farmers, to induce them to do, what 

 they had heretofore found it so difBcult to induce them 

 to do, enter their faims for premium. But we believe it 

 has not hitherto been that the premiums were not liberal 

 enough that the farmers have been kept back from the 

 competition. By reducing the size and enlarging the num- 

 ber of the premiums, competitors feeling that they had a 

 greater chance of success, would be more numerous. Six 

 hundred dollars divided into six, eight, ten or even twelve 

 premiums, would be deemed an ample compensation 

 and honor, by any successful competitor among the far- 

 mers, for any pains he may be at in keeping and presentini' 

 an exact account of his husbandry to the Trustees ; or for 

 any skill or industry, v\'hich he may display in the culti- 

 vation or management of his farm. Gentlemen accus- 

 tomed only to deal in thousands, tens of thousands and 

 hundreds of thousands can have but imperfect notions of 

 the estimate in which a plain working farmer would hold 

 the sum of fifty or a hundred dollars, to be obtained as a 

 gratuity or premium. Their acquisitions are usually the 

 result of small and minute earnings and savings ; and 

 the obtaining of fifty or a hundred dollars in a single sum 

 without actual hard labor, is a thing, which does not even 

 present itself in iheir golden dreams, if at any time the 

 poor fellows are not too tired to have any such dreams 



In the next place we think it would be expedient to 

 distribute these premiums somewhat in this form. A 

 premium should be given for examjile on the best sheep 

 farm. The number of sheep kept should not be less 



than , and the account required by the Board should 



embrace their whole history and management ; their 

 kind; the quality of their wool ; the amount of wool to 

 a fleece ; their cost of keep ; their feed ; the kinds of 

 feed; the quantity required to any given number; the 

 value of hay, straw, Indian meal, oil meal, potatoes, tur- 

 nips, carrots, cabbages; the number pastured on an acre; 

 the value of pasturage ; the average number of lambs 



raised to any number of ewes, or any mixed flock ; tl 

 number of bucks required to a flock ; the time of la 

 ing ; the mode of managing sheep at the lime of lainl 

 ing; the comparative value of ewes and wethers; th 

 utility of salting or withholding salt from sheep ; the ag 

 to which sheep may be advantageously kept ; the tin 

 of shearing; the mode of washing sheep; the mode 

 preparing the fleece for market; the loss in weight, if ani 

 which the fleece sufl'ers from keeping ; comparisons 

 profits or advantages among the different breeds ; the r« 

 suits of crossing with ditierent breeds; the raisina 

 early lambs for market ; the fatting of wethers for mai 

 ket ; the most eligible condition, age, modes of feeding 

 and kinds of feed ; the proper construction of sheep peni 

 racks, mangers, cots, houses ; the comparative advantage 

 or disadvantages of housing or exposing slieep ; the ord 

 nary diseases and accidents to which sheep are liablt 

 and the remedies or preventives ; and many other pai 

 ticulars, which are important, and would naturally sue 

 gcst themselves to any practical inquirer. 



The next subject of premium might be for example 

 Dairy farm, whether of butter or cheese, and this like 

 wise should embrace its entire management. The num 



ber of cows should not be less than . The compet 



itor should bo required to state their number ; age ; breed 

 whether raised or not by himself; mode of raisin 

 calves; feed of cows ; pasturage; value of land for pa 

 turage ; number of acres required for a cow ; winte 

 feed ; hay ; corn-fodder ; vegetables ; such as turnip; 

 carrots, parsnips, pumpkins; Indian, rye, or oil meal 

 their quantities and comparative value from actual tri: 

 and observation ; cost of feed ; pounds of hay or vegeta 

 bles consumed in any given lime ; trials of cooked or ur 

 cooked feed ; of simple or mixed ; cut or long feed; tin 

 of milking; mode of milking; ■anagement of milk 

 setting of milk for cheese ; mode of preparing and keep 

 ing rennet ; of breaking and draining curd ; of pressing 

 best form of press ; time the cheese is kept in press 

 coloring cheese ; anointing cheese ; capping or coverin, 

 cheese with cloth ; quantity of milk required for a poum 

 of cheese; mode of sending cheese to market; loss ill 

 weight by keeping ; value of whey for swine ; butte 

 from whey ; quantity obtained and uses to which applied 

 number of swine kept compared with number of cows 

 number of bands required in milking a given number o 

 cows ; female help required, and cost of such help ii 

 making and managing the cheese. So likewise in regari 

 to a butter dairy, it should embrace every important par 

 ticular in the management of the stock or the ruanufac-i 

 ture of the produce — as for example, in addition to ihf 

 above as far as they are applicable to butter, all the par. 

 ticulars should be required as to the mode of salting the 

 milk ; the kind of pans, whether earthen, wood, for 

 metal ; whether the milk be scalded or not ; how Ions 

 allowed to stand before it is skimmed ; whether butter be 

 made from milk or cream, and compaiative advantaues 

 of using either; temperature of the cream when churned; 

 usual time of churning ; kind of churn ; cream how kept ; 

 milk room or cellar ; deep or shallow pans, and which 

 most eligible ; advantages of putting water in milk when 

 set, if any ; of freezing milk, if any ; butter, how work-1 

 ed when taken from the churn ; salt used ; quantity and 

 kind ; modes of preparing butter for market ; of packing 

 butter for keeping ; trials of the butter ; qualities of the 

 milk of difi'erent cows, by a lactometer or by weight ; 

 quantities of milk or butter made by individual cows; 

 quantity of milk or cream required for a pound of butter; 

 and in all cases of application for a dairy premium sam- 

 ples of butter and cheese ; and of a wool premium at 

 least a whole fleece properly done up to be sent for the 

 inspection of the Board. 



H C. 



