1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



53 



New York, valued at $60,000. Here is sixty 

 thousand dollars' worth of phosphorus and nitro- 

 gen, (ammonia,) which stands in the same relation 

 to the soil as $60,000 v/orth of alcohol does to the 

 tillers of the same, to stimulate them to more la- 

 bor in changing the vegetable material around 

 them into bread, meat and clothing. The soil 

 should not be stimulated by phospliorus and am- 

 monia, until it has been well supplied with all the 

 inorganic elements necessary to furnish an in- 

 creased amount of grain, any more than a man 

 should cb'ink alcohol upon an empty stomach. If 

 a person v.ill drink alcohol, drink it immediately 

 after eating. Ground bones will furnish phospho- 

 rus, and copperas iron. The urine and hard ex- 

 crements of the human species contain those for- 

 ces in great abundance, and careless agriculturists 

 are unaware of the enormous amount of these 

 powerful fertilizers daily going to waste about the 

 privies and slaughtering houses in large villages 

 and cities. To make these more available, build 

 a vat or cistern, immcdiatelj' under one end of the 

 cow-leanto, in the barn cellar, where they can be 

 diluted in several times their bulk of water, and 

 turned upon the manure-heap made as first men- 

 tioned. This collecting and compounding of car- 

 bonaceous and nitrogenous manures is practically 

 agricultural science, and will supersede the neces- 

 sity of purchasing commercial manures, at reck- 

 less prices, and rebut the charge that "farming is 

 unprofitable." Add to this manure heap lime and 

 ashes, and you have all the fourteen elements that 

 enter into a kernel of wheat or corn. 



Lewis L. Pierce. 

 East Jaffreij, N. H., Nov., IHod. 



Por the New England Farmer. 



PRACTICAL PROOFS OF PROFIT ITJ" 



FARMING. 



Mr. Editor : — I have noticed in your paper of 

 late, discussions on "the Profits of Farming," by 

 correspondents from difi'erent sections of the Com- 

 monwealth, in which they profess to give their own 

 experience. Having no particular knowledge of 

 these writers or their locations, I cannot judge of 

 their statements. But I can tell you what I have 

 witnessed in my own town, and will leave to you 

 and your readers to judge whether or not farm- 

 ing is profitable here i' 



We have a neighborhood in which are situated 

 thirty or more individuals, v.ho own the lands 

 they cultivate, say from five to twenty acres 

 each, and so have owned them for twenty years 

 or more. These men have convenient houses, 

 with suitable buildings around, and families at 

 home well cared for. Their only means of acquir- 

 ing property is by the application of their indus- 

 try to their land. Most of them have so managed 

 as to lay up, besides maintaining themselves and 

 their families, several hundred dollars a year. I 

 cannot say how many hundred — because they are 

 rather shy of informing the assessors on this 

 point — but this I do know, there is no class of 

 citizens among us more reliable than these culti- 

 vators of the soil. 



We have others who branch out in manufac- 

 tures, an trade — build large houses, and high 

 work-shops — drive fast horses — and figure for a 

 time as Directors of Banks, and they wind up 



with a per centage — some thirty, some fifty, and 

 some nothing. Now, Sir, my conclusion is, that 

 the culture of the soil, in these diggings, is the 

 most profitable. *. *. 



South Danvers, Dec. 10, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PREMIUMS FOR MONSTERS. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCn. 



\^^lat is the object of agricultural societies in 

 ofiering premiums ? It is Avell, occasionally, to go 

 back and try our conduct by first principles. We 

 should ofi"er these inducements v.ith some definite 

 and commendable aim. - Because a thing has long 

 been done is not conclusive evidence, especially in 

 this new and changing country, that it should al- 

 ways be done. Many a proposition is admitted as 

 conclusive that a slight examination may show to 

 be powerless. There Avas good sense in the reply 

 of the simple gentleman, in a novel of Dickens, 

 to the suggestion that his room was too small, not 

 large enough to sv/ing a cat by the tail. "Why," 

 said he, "I don't want to swing a cat by the tail." 



If we go on to the grounds of a so-called cattle- 

 show, the most prominent objects that meet our 

 eyes may, probably, be a balloon, a military com- 

 pany, a half dozen fire-engines v/ith their men, and 

 a race-course. Among the lesser attractions, may 

 be noticed tents with the fat woman and small 

 boy, the two-headed calf, and the learned pig, 

 while the cattle and such every-day affairs occu- 

 py modest and retired positions in the rear. All 

 this makes a very attractive show for the factory 

 girls, and the horse fanciers and the children, and 

 l)rings money to our purse, which, to be sure, 

 must somehow be had. 



Whether it encourages or discourages the far- 

 mer, is not the question now to be discussed. 



If we look at the premium lists, we shall find 

 the stereotyped off"er of a premium for the largest 

 crop to the acre of Indian corn, the largest 

 crop of oats, and so on. No conditions are im- 

 posed as to the quantity of manure to be used, or 

 the amount of labor expended. The premium is 

 for the man who shall by any means produce the 

 greatest quantity to the acre. 



Now there may be various objects in off"ering 

 premiums. If it is thought advisable to encour- 

 age experiments in the culture of some new crop, 

 as of silk, or of beets for sugar, it may1)e well to 

 give premiums by v/ay of bounty to help defray 

 the cost of the first attempts, and thus afford 

 means of deciding whether the particular product 

 can be cultivated with advantage in the particu- 

 lar locality. And the same encouragement may 

 be properly given to the introduction of new 

 breeds of stock. 



Again, in a new country, there may be advan- 

 tage in testing the capacity of the soil and climate 



