1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



425 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FARMING AS AW AVOCATIOI7. 



Friend BRO^YN : — It has been a long time 

 since I have contributed anything to the Farmer, 

 though I have been a constant reader, and, I trust, 

 have read with profit. I look forward with much 

 interest to your monthly visits, and am sure ever 

 to find something that is new and much that is 

 valuable. 



The profitableness of farming has been fully 

 discussed in the Farmer, but it is still a mooted 

 question. Much may be said, both for and against. 

 Science has much to do with forming, but farming 

 is, by no means, to be ranked among the certain 

 sciences. The modes of culture — the methods of 

 procedure, are almost as numerous as the opera- 

 tors. In farming, as in other vocations, while one 

 man will get rich, another with equal zeal and in- 

 dustry, and under equally favorable circumstances, 

 will become poor. 



It is safe to conclude, then, that in husbandry 

 as in government, that system which is best ad- 

 ministered is best, and that Pope's distich, whose 

 orthodoxy, as applied to matters of religion, may 

 well be questioned, is true when applied to the 

 tillers of the soil : 



" 'Bout modes of faith let praceless zealots flght 

 His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right." 



There is a great deal of thrifty farming still, 

 even in Nev.' England. Agricultural societies and 

 papers have done much by diffusing information 

 and awaking a spirit of inquiry. Multitudes have 

 got out of the old ruts and are driving on pros- 

 perously in the highway to thrift. But the masses 

 are still plodding along in the old paths which 

 their fathers trod. 



The prejudice against "book-farming has not 

 been entirely removed. Multitudes scratch the 

 surface of their grounds, instead of plowing it ; 

 plant four acres, when they should plant but one ; 

 put a bushel of manure in the hill, when they 

 should spread a cart-load evenly over the ichole 

 surface ; manure for the crop, when they should 

 manure for the land and the crops ; look for im- 

 mediate returns, when they should rather look 

 and labor for the future, embracing five, ten or 

 twenty years ; dodging about among stumps, rocks 

 and bushes after a scanty crop of poor grass when 

 by a little resolution, and one-half the labor, they 

 might enjoy the plcasui-e of cutting a good crop of 

 good grass from a smooth surface ; plunging an- 

 nually into a quagmu-e and tugging and flounder- 

 ing among bogs to secure a few loads of sage grass, 

 so sour as to ruin the dispositions of their cattle, 

 to say nothing of their physical condition ; when 

 this same swamp might and should be made the 

 most valuable and productive land on the farm, 

 and contribute largely to the improvement of all 

 the rest ; and so on to the end of the chapter, 

 showing that the Avork of improvement is not all 

 done yet. But the leaven is at work, and I hope 

 and trust that you and your coadjutors, who are 

 diffusing your light broadcast over this fair land, 

 will not be weary in well-doing. 



The farming prospects hereabouts are decidedly 

 good. Of grass there is an unusually large crop. 

 Winter grain about middling. Spring grain un- 

 commonly good. Wheat and oats never looked 

 better. By the way, wheat is becoming a staple 

 in this region. Thirty years ago it was as rare»to 



see growing wheat, as now it is to see flax. Now 



most of the farms in this valley have a plat of 

 either winter and spring wheat. It is found that 

 wheat may be grown as easily and surely as rye, 

 and with about double the profit. Land that will 

 produce good corn will l)ear wheat. 



Apples are abundant ; and what is remarkably 

 gratifying is the fact that our old enemies, the cat- 

 erpillars, have entirely disappeared. I have not 

 seen one this season, and the webworm, which for 

 a few seasons past has made such terrible havoc, 

 has also left us, and those disgusting fiUibusters, 

 the cut-worms or the army worms, have likewise 

 taken offense and left us, mayhap to turn up in 

 Central America about this time. 



Yours, &c., R. B. H. 



Amherst, Mass., 1860. 



A NEW MOWING MACHINE. 



A few days since, Mr. O. Hussey, of Baltimore, 

 sent us a mowing machine of a new and peculiar 

 construction for trial. It has two driving wheels, 

 each about two feet high, is exceedingly compact 

 and simple, having but very little machinery 

 about it, the whole machine occupying a space 

 only about three feet by two. It is intended for 

 one horse, and has a cut of three feet. 



On the first day of August, Mr. Hussey came 

 to our farm to set it in motion, and in a few min- 

 utes it was ready, and perforrjing its duty in the 

 field. At first a ten hundred horse was attached 

 to it, and driven round an acre three or four times. 

 Then an eight hundred horse was hitched to it, 

 and the acre finished. The draft did not seem too 

 heavy for the lightest horse, and the grass was 

 cut well, although badly lodged in some places, 

 and quite wet with the rain of the previous day. 

 The ground was meadow, and rather soft. The 

 trial was entirely satisfactory to Mr. IL, and grat- 

 ifying to the spectators. The machine had never 

 been used before, with the exception of a thirty 

 minutes use when first put together. Its weight 

 is about 4-30 pounds, and Mr. Hussey thinks it 

 can be sold when it has received some improve- 

 ments suggested by this trial, for $75, and per- 

 haps a little less. 



There is a steady advance in the ability and 

 value of this important labor-saving machine. 

 Some of the early ones had wheels, and cogs and 

 metal enough in a single one to make two or three 

 of this, and then were without half its effective 

 power. The idea that a good mower must weiph 

 seven or eight hundred pounds has gradually 

 given way to the practical tests of the machi.ie, 

 and, at the same time that they have been made 

 lighter, friction has been reduced so that only 

 about one-half the power to draw them is now re- 

 quired. With two or three changes in Mr. Hus- 

 sey's machine, unimportant in cost, we think it 

 will compare favorably with the best in our 

 knowledge. 



