1860. 



NEW ENGLAiND FARMER. 



225 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FAKMING IS PROFITABLE. 



Mr. Editor : — A writer in your paper of March 

 10 speaks of Mr. Jefferson, as saying that "the 

 farmer is the greatest of all gamblers ;" and in 

 another paragraph the writer says, "Man sows, but 

 God giveth the increase." No one will doubt the 

 truth of the last declaration ; and I admit, that God 

 and the farmer are co-workers, but I will not ad- 

 mit, for a moment, that God or farming have any- 

 thing to do with gambling. Your correspondent 

 asks, must the mass of farmers live as cheap as 

 they can, and trust to God for the result of their 

 labor ? To this I would answer, that no class of 

 people in the world live better than the farmers. 

 For proof of this, look to their health and strength ; 

 and I rejoice that the farmers as well as all other 

 classes of people, must trust in God for the re- 

 sult of their labor. He speaks of the painter as 

 making very accurate calculafions of the stock 

 and labor for doing a given job. But can that 

 painter make any calculations, how much it will 

 tax his health ? How often do we meet a painter 

 in the street that would give all he possesses, if 

 he could have his health restored to him. 



He also says, "let a general farmer cultivate all 

 the crops — in no season will more than half of 

 them be successful in Massachusetts." In this I 

 think he commits a great error. For the last sixty- 

 five years, I never have known any one year Avhen 

 half the crops were cut off. During that period I 

 have known the corn crop to fail but three times. 

 A few large crops do not determine that farming 

 is profitable, neither do a few small ones prove it 

 unprofitable. I do not undertake to say what 

 profession the Pilgrims followed before they left 

 the old country ; but one thing is very certain, 

 after arriving here, they must have practiced farm- 

 ing or starved. I can very well remember events 

 for the last sixty-five years. Almost the entire 

 community then were farmers. Have we ever 

 heard of any country in the known world, that has 

 equalled our own in the rapid accumulation of 

 wealth ? Have not the farmers been the founda- 

 tion of all this ? Have they not changed the New 

 England States from a howling wilderness, to 

 what they now are ? Is not the soil of New Eng- 

 land, now, on an average, worth a hundred-fold 

 what it was when the Pilgrims landed at Ply- 

 mouth ? Have not the farmers laid the foundation 

 of all the improvements, manufactures, rail-roads 

 and every improvement in the country ? And do 

 they not, at the present day, give support to all of 

 them ? What class of people have gone, and are 

 still going to settle our Western States ? It is 

 the farmer. And if there should be no profit in 

 their business, would there be any chance for the 

 doctor, the lawyer and the shaver of notes to 

 get a living there ? I know there is, occasionally, 

 a man who does not work at farming, that dresses 

 better, holds his head higher, and in appearance 

 seems to think himself better than farmers. I 

 know not what his occupation may be, but let it 

 be what it may, if all farming operations were sus- 

 pended, I presume he would feel the eff'ects of it 

 equally as much as a beautiful, green sucker, with 

 a smooth bark, growing out of an old apple-tree, 

 would, if the main stoclc should be cut off. 



I am frequently asked, "if there is a profit in 

 farming, what becomes of it?" I will answer 



that, by relating one fact. About fifty years ago, 

 a farmer in this town had two sons, and thought 

 he would prepare them for business. He spent 

 about $500 on each of them in education and 

 clothing, and then gave each of tliem $1000, to 

 estabhsh himself in business, making the snug 

 little sum of $3000. Now, if any of your readers 

 will reckon the amount of this, at comjjound in- 

 terest, they will find it amounts to quite a sum. 

 I presume hundreds of thousands, have done like- 

 wise, which tells us where the profits of fiirming, 

 have gone. 1 am firm in the belief, that there is 

 not property enough in the New England States, 

 separate from the farms, and the property owned 

 by farmers, to pay the sum with compound inter- 

 est that the farmers have expended, the past sixty- 

 five years, to help along Avhat friend Mcrriam calls 

 the "sister arts" of business. Shall we keep harp- 

 ing in the ears of the few aged farmers that re- 

 main, and as we pass the graves of the departed, 

 "there is no profit in farming." 



Asa G. Sheldon. 

 Wilmington, March 27, 1860. 



For the New England Fanner. 

 HOW TO RAISE LARGE CABBAGES. 



Mr. Editor : — "Old Subscriber" wishes to 

 know how to raise large cabbages. Let me tell 

 him. Plow land deep, harrow fine, put on twelve 

 cords of strong manure to the acre ; plow and 

 harrow as before, then take a small plov/ and fur- 

 row twice in a row ; put one large shovel full of 

 strong manure in each hill, 2-^ feet apart ; chop 

 fine with a hoe, and cover with two inches of 

 earth. Drop from five to twenty seeds in each 

 hill. After the plants are Avell up, cultivate and 

 hoe twice a week, and thin to one in a hill as 

 they become large enough. 



As I have followed the sea till within a few 

 years, my plans may be a little difi'erent from 

 most farmers. Perhaps "Subscriber" will ask how 

 I get manure at this rate for so much land ? I 

 will tell him. I keep one pair of oxen and two 

 horses in the winter season to draw manure ; first 

 we get all the vault manure possible, kelp from 

 the beach, and all kinds of manure that I can buy, 

 never being afraid of getting too much. 



Capt. Samuel Graves. 



Marhlehead, Mass., 1860. 



Regularity in Milking. — Mr. O. E. Han- 

 num, a very successful dairyman of Portage Co., 

 Ohio, a native of old Berkshire, Mass., names the 

 points of his management as follows : Good cows, 

 good feed, good milking, good care and manage- 

 ment of the milk. He puts "good milking" in 

 italics, and remarks : "Each cow should have a 

 steady milker, be milked as fast as possible, and 

 all the milk drawn. I am satisfied that there is a 

 loss of one-third in many dairies, by the lazy, hap- 

 hazard way in which cows are milked. I have 

 known persons sit down in the milking-yard and 

 go through with some long yarn, and be from ten 

 to twenty minutes milking one cow, when it should 

 be done in less than five." 



