278 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



For the New England Farmer. 



PRICES OP FARM PRODUCTS IN 1843 

 AND 1860. 



Mr. Editor : — With your permission, I pro- 

 pose to institute a comparison of jorices, in a few 

 of the leading farm productions, between the pres- 

 ent and sixteen years since, at which time I com- 

 menced life for myself, as a farmer. This is sug- 

 gested by hearing, almost every day, some one 

 of this class complaining of hard times, falling 

 off of prices, &c. 



By reference to my diary, I find that, in the 

 fall of 1843, I bought of one man, five cows, good 

 ones, for $50, or $10 each ; four calves, for $7 for 

 the lot ; one yearling heifer, with calf, for $5 ; one 

 pair working cattle, (bulls) of seven feet girth, 

 for $45 ; one pair of very fine three years old 

 steers, for $G0 ; a fair three years old colt, for 

 $50. The following spring, I purchased cows, 

 the host I could find, to make up my number to 

 twelve, for from $15 to $22, and a pair of oxen, 

 in fine condition, and of over thirty-two hundred 

 pounds weight, for $72 — $70 being all the owner 

 asked for the cattle, but he charged me two dollars 

 for giving six months credit, which I was, by pov- 

 erty, compelled to ask, not only on this occasion, 

 but for all else that I purchased. The oxen I sold 

 the following September, for $G8, in better con- 

 dition than when I bought them. The butter made 

 from my cows, not much odds of eighteen hun- 

 dred pounds, brought me 13 cents per pound— 

 12^ cents being the price paid, by same buyer, for 

 his choice in the lots, of which there were many 

 about town. My pork brought 4| cents, poultry, 

 G cents, oats, 25 cents, corn, 83 cents, it being on 

 one of the hills of New Ilampsliire, where corn 

 is never abundant, wheat, $1,50, hay, I hauled 

 three miles, and sold for $6 per ton, (and was 

 cheated out of my paj' for it at that.) 



For apples, common fruit, such as my farm pro- 

 duced, there was no sale, and for cider, I got 75 

 cents per barrel, and 4 cents for dried a])ples ; 

 potatoes, delivered at the "starch factory," 17 cents 

 per bushel ; wool, in the season of 1845, brought 

 me 30 cents. 



Now look on that, and then on this. Before 

 me lies the Sullivan RepubJ lean, of the 25th inst., 

 published in the town in which I sold most of my 

 produce, from which I quote the following items, 

 from under the head of "Prices Current :" wheat, 

 per bushel, $1,75, oats, 50 cents, corn, $1,12, 

 pork, round hog, per pound, 6 and 8 cents, pota- 

 toes, per bushel, 25 to 42 cents, apples, common, 

 50cto$l,00, apples, dried, per pound, 7tol0 cents, 

 butter, 18 to 20 cents, poultry, 8 to 12 cents, wool, 

 50 to 55 cents, hay, per ton, $10 to 12. And 

 here the list ceases to help me in the comparison ; 

 the prices of horses, oxen and cows are not re- 

 ported, and, moreover, with the present prices of 

 these your readers are familiar, and will not fail 

 to see that farmers are now-a-days realizing prices, 

 for all they have to sell, nearly double what they 

 did sixteen years ago. And yet they complain of 

 bard times. You, Mr. Editor, or they, may sup- 

 ply the moral. E. J. 



To Save Squash and Melon Seeds Pure. 

 — L. Ij. Langstroth v;rites the Ilural A^ew- Yorker: 

 The following method of obtaining pure seed, 

 where different kinds of melons, squashes and cu- 



cumbers were raised on a small plot of ground 

 was practiced by me about twenty years ago : 



Piise in the morning by break of day, before the 

 bees arc abroad. Select a number of female blos- 

 soms which have opened during the night. They 

 may be known by growing on the end of the young 

 squash, melon, &c., while the male blossoms ("false 

 blows," as they are often called,) have no fruit. 

 Scatter the pollen of the male blossoms upon the 

 stamens of the female ones, and carefully cover 

 the latter with millinet, or anything which will 

 protect them from the visits of the bees. A piece 

 of cotton cloth, or even a squash leaf, kept in 

 place by a few clods of earth, will answer a good 

 purpose. When the blossom withers, the cover- 

 ing may be removed, and the fruit marked by a 

 colored string tied loosely around the vine. 



CDTiTIVATION' OP PEACH TREES 

 The general destruction of peach trees by the 

 unfavorable seasons of 1858-9 has discouraged 

 many of our people in the further cultivation of 

 this delicious and wholesome fruit. Is this right ? 

 Is it not probable, that, guided by the experience 

 we have gained in the past, we may continue the 

 cultivation with some success, — that we may get 

 a crop once in two or three years, at the worst, 

 and perhaps annually for a succession of years. 

 It is not likely that untoward seasons, such as 

 those alluded to, will become general, and if they 

 do not, by avoiding some of the errors which 

 wore quite common in cultivating the peach, we 

 think paying crops may still be produced in most 

 parts of New England. We prize the peach so 

 highly that we should be willing to cultivate a few 

 trees if we could get a crop only once in two or 

 three years. 



There are two diflSculties in the way of our rais- 

 ing this delicious fruit. The first is the winter-kill- 

 ing of the trees, either by extreme cold, or, what is 

 more probable, by the sudden and extreme chang- 

 es that sometimes take place in our climate. This 

 may be prevented, as a general thing, on a few 

 trees, by inserting slender evergreens, pines, spru- 

 ces, or hemlocks, into the head of the peach tree 

 in the autumn, and keeping them there until the 

 next spring. This will so sift the wind and pro- 

 tect the tree as to prevent winter-killing, in many 

 cases. 



Another preventive is to keep back the blos- 

 soms in the spring until all danger of frost is ov- 

 er. This may be eff"ected by covering the roots 

 with straw after the first light snow in the fall, or 

 in the spring, when the snow is going off". This 

 article being a non-conductor, will retain the frost 

 about the roots till such times as it may be safe 

 to favor blossoming. Trees also may be set on 

 the north side of buildings, or hills, where their 

 growth will be checked early in the autumn, and 

 where they will come out late in the spring. In 

 such positions, what wood grows, ripens and hard- 



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