1860. 



KIEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



313 



known, but often neglected principle of human 

 nature, we do honestly believe there is danger 

 that the advice to farmers' sons to stick to the 

 farms may be too frequently repeated. Certainly 

 there is such danger, if those whom we seek to 

 influence by our advice see, or think they see, 

 either in the frequency, or in the manner of our 

 admonitions, anything that has the appearance of 

 coercion, or of an attempt to interfere Avith the 

 freedom of individual action. In the choice of a 

 profession and of a wife, young America brooks 

 no dictation. He may possibly bear advice of the 

 simplest kind on either point ; but if he mistrusts 

 that there is a particle of compulsion in its com- 

 position, it will be rejected, though by doing so, 

 he should be forced to act against his own convic- 

 tions of duty and policy. Under the influence of 

 this dogged wilfulness, mistaken for indepen- 

 dence, many leave the flirm, resolutely deter- 

 mined not to return, and with that determination 

 so positively and repeatedly expressed, that they 

 axe ashamed to return when fully satisfied that 

 such is their wisest course. With them, exclusive 

 familiarity all their lives with the business of 

 farming, has bred a hearty contempt, while dis- 

 tance has given enchantment to the view of other 

 occupations. Among our personal acquaintances 

 many of the most contented and successful farm- 

 ers are those who have, by personal experience or 

 observation, had the best opportunities of con- 

 trasting the advantages and disadvantages of the 

 various trades and professions with those of agri- 

 culture. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



AROOSTOOK COTJIyrTY, ME. 



The Fanner for Mechanics — Soil of Aroostooli — Limestone — 

 Surface Undulatin;-c — Growth of Timber on Hi;j:h and Low 

 Lands — Grain Crops, Oat?, Wheat and Biicliwhcat — Corn — 

 Bucliwheat Straw Injurious to Pigs and Young Stock — Laying 

 New Sliiugles on Old Ones. 



I like the Farmer very much ; although I am a 

 mechanic, and my farming is limited to a small 

 garden, yet I find much information profitable to 

 nearly all classes. 



Aroostook is a large and extensive county, 

 with a rich and fertile soil, exceeding anything 

 this side of the far west. The soil is of a lime- 

 stone formation, a ledge of it underlying nearly 

 the whole country, from two to six feet deep from 

 the surface. 



The surface is not rough, neither is it a dead 

 level, but undulating, or lying in swells. The 

 growth on high lands is beech, birch and maple ; 

 in the valleys, fir, cedar and spruce. There is very 

 little waste land in comparison to other parts of 

 the State. The crops average larger here than any 

 other place I have been acquainted with. Oats 

 average from forty to fifty bushels per acre, al- 

 though one hundi'ed are sometimes raised. One 

 of my neighbors in 1858 raised from four acres 

 382 bushels, averaging 35^ pounds to the bushel. 

 20 bushels of wheat per acre is an average, and 

 everything else except corn in proportion. 1 do 



not think the soil suits com so well as it does 

 other crops ; corn is raised, but not to great ex- 

 tent. There is no end scarcely to buckwheat — it 

 is very extensively grown ; some farmers raise 

 two thousand bushels, and not one in twenty but 

 raises one hundred. 



Some time last year I saw an inquiry in the 

 Farmer as to whether buckwheat straw was inju- 

 rious for stock to live on, and as I have never 

 seen an answer I would say that it is injurious to 

 young pigs, and if they lay in it, it will set them 

 crazy, and they will finally die. It is hurtful to 

 hogs and young stock to run through it when 

 green, making their head and ears sore and itch 

 very much. 



I saw a suggestion the other day in the Farmer 

 about laying new shingles upon old ones : that is 

 practiced here, but we lay a coat of lime mortar 

 on the old shingles andjnit the new ones on while 

 the mortar is soft. This makes it safer on account 

 of fire. J. A. Hubbard. 



Ilodgdon, Me. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY MAY" 

 KTJMBEB OP M". E. FARMEB. 



Page 202 — Hungarian Grass. — After reading 

 dozens, yea scores, of reports in reference to the 

 yield, value, uses and superior advantages of the 

 crop whicli is variously designated as millet, Hun- 

 garian grass, German millet, Egyptian millet, &C.5, 

 and after examining a large number of specimens; 

 of the seeds sold or held under some of the above- 

 names, (as also under the nameof "HoneyBlade,")/ 

 together with some of the plants grown from these ■ 

 seeds, I have come to the conclusion that they are ■ 

 all of one genus or species, botanically, and that, , 

 in common farmer phraseology, it would be prop- , 

 er and of some advantage to speak of them all, as \ 

 varieties of millet. We have a great many varie- 

 ties of oats and of wheat and of corn, and as it is 

 absolutely necessary in some cases, and of advan- 

 tage in almost all, when speaking of these grains, 

 to designate the particular kind or variety con- 

 cerning Avhich you may be making such or such 

 an assertion, — as there would be great confusion, 

 misunderstandings, and contradictions, without 

 such particularizing of the kind or variety spoken 

 of, — so is it now as to the difl"erent varieties of 

 millet. They are not accurately distinguished, 

 nay, they are supposed by many to be entirely 

 different kinds of plants, and both seeds and 

 plants of different kinds pass current under the 

 name of Hungarian grass. From these causes Ave 

 have much want of clearness in our descriptions 

 and our apprehensions of Avhat is said or written 

 about the subject. ItAvould, therefore, be a great 

 advantage if some one would do for the varieties 

 of millet, Avhat has been done for the similar va- 

 rieties or kinds of wheat, oats, corn, Sec, and of 

 apples, pears, cherries, &c. 



I have been led to the train of thought which is 

 outlined in the foregoing remarks, partly in con- 

 sequence of repeated proofs in agricultural publi- 

 cations, and in talks with farmers, that the majori- 

 ty are ignorant of the fact that Hungarian grass, 

 honey-blade grass, &c., are nothing more than 

 new names for a grain long known as millet, or 

 for a mere variety of the same, and partly in con- 

 sequence of an attempt, in the article under no- 



