226 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



For the New Ensland Farmer. 

 HIGH PARMIU'G OK" LOjNTG ISLAND. 



Mr. Editor : — I have been much interested in 

 the discussion in your paper, for some weeks past, 

 upon the question, "is Farming Profitable" and I 

 desire to state to your readers what has been done 

 upon "Long Island," upon lands similar in every 

 respect 10 those I advertised in your paper for 

 sale a few weeks since. One person owning a 

 farm of 40 acres, at Fiatends, G miles from Brook- 

 lyn, raises principally early potatoes, peas, lettuce, 

 &c., with an after-crop of cal>bages, has, for twenty 

 years in succession, been able to invest regularly 

 $2000 upon bond and mortgage, and has now 

 $40,000 safely invested, and thinking he has made 

 sufficient, offers his farm for sale at $500 an acre. 



Another farm of about 200 acres at South Ja- 

 maica, about 12 miles distant from market, is oc- 

 cupied by three brothers, who cultivate a general 

 variety of vegetables and small fruits. I am told 

 by an intimate friend of theirs, that they expend 

 $3000 annually for manure, and that their average 

 annual profit, over and above all expenses, beside 

 making their farm more valuable, is §6000 per 

 • annum. I might go on and fill a column with such 

 cases. And I hold that what these men have done 

 others may do. Your readers may say these peo- 

 ple are nearer to market than the lands I advertise. 

 I answer that we have made a favorable arrange- 

 ment with the Long Island Railroad Company to 

 run a nightly train through the market season, and 

 a barge in connection with the railroad, deliver- 

 ing at the principal market in New York, early 

 every morning, all kinds of marketing we choose 

 to send. We consign them to reliable commis- 

 sion merchants, who dispose of them, and make re- 

 turns without seeing the owners at all. I am sat- 

 isfied "farming is profitable," intelligently con- 

 ducted, and if these men I have mentioned can 

 make their farms pay a good interest upon a val- 

 uation of $500 to $1000 per acre, what may be 

 done upon just as good land at $20 to $50 the 

 acre ? Yours truly, Aaron Stone. 



New York, Feb., 1860. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 GBOTON FARMBBS' CLUB. 



Mr. Editor : — Our farmers' club have adopted 

 and put in practice, what I understand to be the 

 practice of the Concord Farmers' Club, i. g., the 

 writing and reading of an essay, by a member of 

 the club, on some subject pertaining to the farm, 

 and after the reading, discussions, or conversa- 

 tions by the members on the subject of the essay. 

 Since adopting this practice, a much warmer in- 

 terest has been manifested in the meetings of the 

 club, and we have reason for hoping that good 

 will result from the practice. 



At the meeting of the club on the 5th inst., we 

 had the pleasure of listening to a lecture by Henry 

 C. Vail, Esq., of Sing Sing, N. Y., on subjects per- 

 taining to the farm. The attendance was very 

 large. Mr. Vail illustrated much of his lecture, 

 by means of diagrams, by the aid of which many 

 things were made plain, which otherwise would 

 have been shrouded in mystery. He riveted the 

 attention of his audience for nearly two hours, 

 and at the close of the lecture, questions were 



asked by the audience, and answered by the lec- 

 turer. The close attention paid by all present to 

 the lecture, for so long a time — nearly two hours 

 — plainly spoke the deep interest imparted to the 

 subjects by Mr. Vail's method of presenting them. 



After the meeting adjourned, many members of 

 the club, among whom was Ex-Governor Bout- 

 well, expressed to Mr. V., in flattering terms, the 

 pleasure they had enjoyed. We hope to have Mr. 

 V. deliver a course of lectures before the club at 

 some future day, and most heartily Avish that he 

 may lecture before every agricultural club and so- 

 ciety in this Commonwealth. His method of 

 treating agricultural subjects makes his lectures 

 interesting to all classes, not excepting the ladies, 

 many of whom were present at his lecture here, 

 and expressed the wish to hear him again. 



Yours truly, A. H. C. 



Groton, March 12, 1860. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 EXACT COST OF A CORM" CKOP. 

 FARMING IS PROFIT.VBLE. 



I have been somewhat surprised, and not a lit- 

 tle amused, by the perusal of several articles in 

 the Farmer by j\Ir. Pinkham, of Chelmsford, in 

 which he labors very energetically to make him- 

 self and others believe that the whole farming 

 community, or at least all such as are not fortu- 

 nate enough to have rich relations to give them a 

 start, are coming to poverty at railroad speed, as 

 at the rate of ten dollars for every acre of corn 

 they cultivate, and a like proportion for every 

 thing else. 



He reminds me of a certain grocer I once knew, 

 who was the only one in a small village, and doing 

 a first-rate business, but so great was his fear that 

 some one would start in opposition, that he al- 

 ways made a practice of running down his busi- 

 ness so as to deter others from going into it, not- 

 withstanding in a few years he retired from bus- 

 iness with a fortune. I don't say that friend Pink- 

 ham has made a fortune, or is ever going to, by 

 farming ; indeed, I think he never will, if it costs 

 him as much to raise an acre of corn as he says it 

 does, but one thing I am sure of, which is this, — 

 a great many men have made money by farming, 

 and by raising corn, too. I think if all his neigh- 

 bors are as liberal in their estimates of labor as 

 himself, that Chelmsford must be a perfect para- 

 dise for the day-laborer, although rather expen- 

 sive for the employer. For instance, he puts down 

 against his corn crop, $4,25 as the cost of plow- 

 ing an acre. I venture to assert that any man 

 with a good team, can aff'ord to plow common 

 kind of land for from i$2,50 to $3 per acre, and 

 make a good living at that. Then, again, he 

 charges the corn with all the manure, which ought 

 not to be done, for any intelligent farmer knows 

 that manure spread broadcast is not more than 

 half exhausted the first crop. He charges $6,50 

 for harvesting 30 bushels of corn and taking care 

 of the fodder, which is $1,50 more than any rea- 

 sonable man would ask, to do it by the job, or any 

 other way. He also charges 50 cents for pulling 

 weeds, which would not be necessary to be done 

 if the hoeing was done, as it should have been, at 

 the price allowed for it. As to marketing and 

 shelling, there is no place in New England or New 



