114 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Marcu 



For the New England Farmer. 



FARM OF ETIISrE AND OISTE-HALS' ACRES. 



Keplt to Inquiries of "C. L. W." 



Mr. Editor : — "C. L. W." would like my ad- 

 vice as to buying a farm of 9^ acres. 



It is difficult to advise people that you do not 

 know. Before advising a person, you want to 

 know his capacity for doing the particular thing 

 lie asks advice upon. If "C. L. W." likes garden- 

 ing, if he likes to weed beds and be doubled up 

 like a jack-knife during the hot part of the days 

 of May, June and July, weeding his beds, pick- 

 ing his strawberries, killing the bugs on his vines, 

 &c. ; if he can graft, bud and transplant, so that 

 nine-tenths of what he plants will live and do 

 well ; if he loves to market small articles, such as 

 a garden produces — if he loves busy work all the 

 time, late and early, then he will make a good 

 gardener. 



If there is a good market near at hand for his 

 garden produce, he may make it profitable. The 

 apple and pear trees Avill not help him much the 

 fii'st ten years, yet they would suit me much bet- 

 ter than the other half of his garden. 



If "C. L. W." has no taste fur the work him- 

 self — if the market is distant or doubtful, then 

 my friend would want capital to carry it on, rather 

 than to expect to make capital from it. 



I am one of those farmers who believe in a 

 good large farm. Were I a young man, and going 

 to farming for a living, I should want from 100 

 to 200 acres of land. But I am not one of those 

 that think that I could make more money from 

 a little farm than a great one. I believe that 

 I can pay for a farm really worth $5000, if I had 

 to make the money from the farm, quicker than I 

 would from a $1000 farm. A man Avants about 

 the same cost in building, and about as many 

 tools, to carry on a small farm, as he does to car- 

 ry on a large one. If it will not pay to hire help 

 to farm, then you had better not farm for yourself, 

 but work out. 



The great failure of those who have large farms 

 often is, that they do not work help enough. 

 They do not put in the crops. A man who has ten 

 acres plants one acre ; a man with one hundred 

 acres, should plant ten acres by the same rule. 



I believe your doctrine is, Mr. Editor, that a 

 man should not cultivate any more land than he 

 can manure well ; but I do not believe in that 

 doctrine. I l)elieve if a man buys a v/orn-out farm, 

 as it is called, the best way is to tear up a good 

 lot of it and get something to put on it. At first 

 his crops may be light, but they will increase if 

 he continues to cultivate in that way, and put the 

 products back on the land, that is, if he spends 

 the produce on the Hirm. 



But I have got far away from my starting- 

 point ; it was gardening and an orchard that I 

 started on, and not a farm. I never loved gar- 

 dening, and I only raise in my garden what I 

 want in my family. I will not weed carrots for 

 my cattle. I prefer to raise hay, corn, wheat and 

 oats for them. " El). Emerson. 



EoUis, Dec. 24, 1859. 



How TO Paint New Tin Roofs. — Scrape 

 off the rosin as clean as possible, and sweep the 

 roofs.^ Wash it with strong soda water, and let it 



remain until a shower of rain has fallen upon it. 

 Give it a coat of pure Venetian red, mixed with 

 one-third boiled and two-thirds raw linseed oil ; 

 the second coat may be any color desired. The 

 soda water dissolves the rosin remaining after 

 scraping ; and it destroys the greasy nature of the 

 solder, and that of the new tin, so that there will 

 be sufficient "grip" for the paint to adhere firmly. 

 The pure Venetian red is one of the most durable 

 paints for metallic roofs, but is often rejected on 

 account of its color. The above mode of paint- 

 ing will set aside this difficulty. — Scientific Amer- 

 ican. 



LEGISLATIVE AGSICULTTJRAL 

 MEETING. 



[Reported for the New England Farmer by Thos. Bradley.] 



The second meeting of the present series of the 

 Legislative Agricultural Society was held in the 

 Representatives' Hall at the State House on Mon- 

 day evening. There was a full attendance of 

 members and others, and the remarks of those 

 taking part in the discussion were frequently ap- 

 plauded. 



The meeting was called to order by Hon. Si- 

 mon Brown, Chairman of the Executive Commit- 

 tee, who announced Hon. John A. Goodwin, of 

 Lowell, Speaker of the House of Representatives, 

 as Chairman of the evening. 



On assuming the chau', Mr. Goodwin said that 

 the subject for discussion was, ^^What will tend to 

 make agriculture profitable and pleasarit as a 

 pursuit ?" He did not feel himself competent to 

 discuss the question as it ought to be discussed, as 

 he had not had time to devote to the considera- 

 tion of it on account of other public business, yet 

 it was a subject of such vital importance to our 

 Commonwealth that he felt it his duty to give his 

 views on it, notwithstanding they would be neces- 

 sarily somewhat rambling in their character. 



He considered that the principal way in which 

 farming might be made both profitable and pleas- 

 ant, would be for agriculturists to till smaller 

 farms, alld instil more of the social clement into 

 their households. The population in the farming 

 districts of our State is so sparse, that young peo- 

 ple who have once been to the city become dissat- 

 isfied to remain at home, from the fact that in 

 consequence of the great size of farms there is no 

 sociability or amusement around home. 



Mr. Goodwin then spoke of the County of Mid- 

 dlesex, which he considered a fair sample of the 

 State, and said that there were 4500 farms in that 

 county, and yet there was two-thirds of the land 

 which was not occupied for any purpose at all ; 

 there were men in the heart of the county who ob- 

 tain a living solely by hunting ; even in Concord 

 and Lincoln, the latter one of the best farming 

 towns in the Commonwealth, there are a number 

 of men whose living is gained in this way. This 

 two-thirds of the waste land, the speaker said, was 



