1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



541 



express so deep and constant an interest in the 

 crops, the weather and the harvest ; for a faihire 

 of the crops there brings distress and even fam- 

 ine, while with us no failure has ever been so 

 general, that the want could not be supplied with- 

 in our own borders, and our only complaint has 

 been of a rise in the price of flour and meal. 



FARM IMPLEMENTS. 



But let us look further into our paper. Here 

 is one of a series of articles upon "Farming with- 

 out the Plow." This, to one who has seen Eng- 

 lish husbandry, moans much more than others 

 might suppose. The writer advocates not any 

 new Terra-cultor, like that recently patented out 

 West, a sort of rotary digger to claw up the earth, 

 as Talpa suggests, like the claw of a mole, but the 

 use ot a class of implements well known in Eng- 

 land, but almost unknown here. 



If we turn to the advertising columns, v,'e find 

 advertisements illustrated with cuts of scarifiers 

 and cultivators, heavy, powerful implements, with 

 from seven to tea steel teeth, some eighteen inch- 

 es long, curved forward, borne on wheels two or 

 three feet high, the structure of which at once in- 

 dicates their adajjtation to old, well-tilled fields. 



I have seen a scarifier of this description drawn 

 by five horses through wheat stubble after har- 

 vest, before any other process. The design was 

 to clear the field entirely of all rubbish prepara- 

 tory to the next crop, which would be turnips. 

 The long, sharp, shining teeth forced, a foot deep, 

 through the soil, give a fine pulverization, at 

 small expense, for the scarifier, although requir- 

 ing a heavy team, works a breadth of several feet 

 at once, and thus compensates for the power re- 

 quired to move it. 



Upon many of our fields clear of stones and 

 stumps, such an implement, instead of the shal- 

 low cultivator in use in New England, might prof- 

 itably be substituted. We find also cuts and no- 

 tices of Drills of various kinds, for sowing Avheat, 

 turnips, and other seeds. Nearly all the grain in 

 England is sowed in rows or drills, with these 

 machines, drawn by horses. VvHieat is drilled 

 from G to 10 inches apart, and a breadth of say 8 

 feet is covered at one operation. In the after- 

 cultivation, horse-hoes, made exactly to match 

 the drills, are drawn between the rows working 

 the same number of drills. A man follows the im- 

 plement, carefully watching and guiding one hoe, 

 and all the rest of the set are governed by this 

 one, and as the implement goes in the track of 

 the drill, the rows of which are parallel, although 

 not precisely straight, there is little injury to the 

 crop. The turnip and mangold crops are hoed in 

 the same way, four or five rows at a time, with 

 great facility. Horse-hoeing, upon wheat is only 

 practised on light soils, but universally, the wheat 



is horse-hoed or hoed and weeded by hand, on 

 all well conducted farms. This skilful use of 

 tools, and thorough cultivation and care, tell of a 

 more perfect husbandry than is any where seen in 

 America, at least in the Northern States. 

 MOCK AUCTIONS OF LIVE STOCK. 

 Further on, we find several communications on 

 the subject of auction sales of cattle, in which it 

 is charged that many of the pretended sales of 

 short-horns and other animals, so common among 

 breeders in England, are mere shams, in which 

 men of respectable position engage to get rid of 

 their poor stock, by advertising their well known 

 and high bred animals to attract bidders, and 

 procuring the best to be bid in for their own use. 

 The Mark Lane Express has contained several 

 articles recently on this subject. From what I 

 know of English gentlemen and English farmers, 

 I should expect to find as much fairness and hon- 

 or in their dealings as in those of any class in any 

 country. Honesty is an English trait, and char- 

 acter is an Englishman's capital, and if such 

 practices have prevailed there, public sentiment 

 will soon drive them from existence. 



MARKET FAIRS. 



This paper contains regular reports of all the 

 grain markets in the world, agricultural reports 

 from the various counties of the condition and 

 prospect of the crops, reports of the cattle, wool 

 and provision markets, with weekly averages of 

 prices. Fairs are regularly held all over Great 

 Britain, in the principal towns, weekly, monthly, 

 or at other intervals, at which farmers, and oth- 

 ers buy and sell all their farm products. I at- 

 tended several of those fairs, and witnessed the 

 manner of conducting their business, and was 

 struck with the perfect reliance placed upon 

 the seller's representation. Grain is usually 

 sold by samples. The farmer is met by a buyer 

 who accosts him with, "What have you to-day to 

 sell ?" or the like. The farmer replies, "So many 

 quarters of white wheat, so many of red wheat, so 

 many of barley." "Have you samples ?" The far- 

 mer takes from his capacious pocket several small 

 bags of a half-pint each, opens them, and allows 

 the buyer to examine, which he does carefully by 

 feeling, tasting and smelling. The price is named, 

 and agreed on, and the buyer takes the sample 

 and pays the price, and never sees his purchase 

 till received perhaps in Liverpool or Manchester. 

 I was assured that fraud was almost unknown in 

 these sales, and most of the grain sold in the 

 country changes hands in this way. Can we not 

 profit by this example ? The farmer wants free 

 trade and an open market, in order to protect 

 himself. In this country, an agent from the city 

 slips round before harvest, and bargains private- 

 ly for all the wheat, or wool, or apples, for all 



