554 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 IMPORTAJXrCE OF THE "WHEAT CROP. 



Mr. EDiTOrv: — It has been my pleasure, the 

 paf5t week, to receive a superior specimen of 

 White Flint Winter Wheat from my esteemed 

 friend, James F. C Marshall, E^q., from his farm 

 in Westboro', Mass. At my suggestion, he says, 

 he was induced to try the experiment which has 

 resulted in giving him thirty bushels per acre. 

 The size and plumi^ness of the berry indicate a 

 weight of G3 to 65 lbs. to the bushel. Here is the 

 value of seven barrels of flour to the acre, while 

 the strav/ for tlie farm or the markets in tnat local- 

 ity, will nearly pay for the labor. Such an exam- 

 ple should be followed by every farmer in this 

 neighborhood and surrounding towns. 



1 am more than hopeful of every farmer of New 

 England in relation to this matter of raising his 

 bread. He neglects no other crop, and surely no 

 crop is so indispensable to his household com- 

 forts as this. 



I notice in your issue of Saturday last, "A sen- 

 sible movement of the Worcester South Society," 

 — the first question being, "Can the raising of 

 wheat be made the most profitable crop of the 

 small grains ?" This question would seem to be 

 affirmatively answered by the foregoing statement 

 of my worthy friend from Westboro'. His state- 

 ment falls somewhat below some others that you 

 have published the past season, but it is fair to 

 estimate it at two dollars a bushel when the price 

 of the best flour is eight to nine dollars per bar- 

 rel, and seldom below this figure. While this 

 would seem to answer the question, as being /ar 

 the most "profitable crop of vhe small grains," 

 (probably nearly doulile of any other,) yet it is 

 the imperative duty of the farmer to raise his rye, 

 barley and oats for the general wants of his farm. 

 Let us suppose the product and value of an acre — 



30 bushels wheat, at S2 $60,00 



30 " rye,at$l,25 37,50 



50 " oats, at 50c '25,00 



40 " barley, at 80e 32,00 



Now, this tabular statement is much in favor of 

 wheat. The ryo and oat crop is pretty largely 

 represented, but it may be a fair showing, rela- 

 tively — cost of producing, the same. 



Mr. Editor, you may recollect ten years ago, 

 and since, I was urgent in advocating and recom- 

 mending that Massachusetts and the otlier New 

 England States should ofi'er a special bounty on 

 wheat-growing, showing by statistics at that time 

 that your State alone imported about twelve mil- 

 lions of dollars of bread-stuffs. These figures look 

 immense, but they are, nevertheless, true ! With 

 the few past years of development and encourage- 

 ment to the farmer, if aided by a State bounty of 

 a few cents on a bushel, for a term of three to five 

 years, would it not bo an additional stimulus ? It 

 would add millions of revenue to your State. It 

 would add value to your now worthless, unpro- 

 ductive acres. It would keep your valuable, solid 

 young men with their families, at home, who seek 

 (to be disappointed,) a more prolific soil in the 

 West. There the church, the school-house, the 

 farmer's club, the social gatherings, the rollick- 

 ing sports of the young — all disappear by reason 

 of loneliness, far-off neighbors, compelling every 

 sacrifice, better known to those who have ex- 

 changed them, for a happy New England homo ! 



Wheat and corn are nearly all the marketable 

 products of the West, if, perchance, the season is 

 favorable to make them. At your own New Eng- 

 land home you can raise your wheat and corn, 

 and every pound of hay, every pint of milk, every 

 chestnut, apple, pear, onion, cucumber, cab])age- 

 head — nay, all of mother earth's productions, have 

 value and a ready home market. Then encourage 

 the avenues to agriculture. If it is bread, and a 

 small State bounty required to make it, then by 

 all means propose it — for all the oxd!^, the ins will 

 be returned a thousand fold to vcur State. 



Brooklyn, L. I., Oct. 22, 1860. H. PooE,. 



TEXAS. 



A correspondent of the New York Evenivg 

 Post declares that Texas is not an agricultural 

 State. He says : 



"Ten years' wandering through almost every 

 part of Texas, with some little experience in stock 

 raising, gives me reasonable grounds for ventur- 

 ing an opinion on her capacities and resources. 

 Along the Gulf coast, and in the bottoms of the 

 lower Brazos, Red and such large streams, crops 

 are generally sure ; elsewhere, Texas has not one 

 single clement of an agricultural country. Farm- 

 ers, with all their labor, are never sure of raising 

 corn and breadstuff's for the su]iport of their fam- 

 ilies ; and in my short experience I have knov/n 

 several seasons when the people through the 

 greater portion of the country have subsisted al- 

 most entirely upon meat. 



Texas is, however, a stock country, and in the 

 western part of the State, pre-eminently so. There 

 the Mozquit grass, which stands the frosts of win- 

 ter and long resists the droughts of summer, cov- 

 ers immense tracts of country, and cattle range, 

 multiply and keep fat through all the vicissitudes 

 of climate. 



Sheep-raising is yet in its infancy ; it is an ex- 

 periment in which more persons have failed than 

 succeeded. But a very small portion of the coun- 

 try is suitable for sheep, and some species of the 

 Mozquit grass have their seed armed witli needle- 

 like and barbed spires, which torment and even 

 kill the sheep, and render their wool unprofita- 

 ble." 



To succeed as a cattle raiser, the emigrant 

 needs from six to ten thousand dollars, otherwise 

 he must go to the extreme frontier, and shift his 

 stock from place to place, as settlements crowd 

 upon him. He has to depend for protection 

 against the Indians upon his rifle and revolver, 

 and leads a life of constant danger and hardship, 

 without neighbors, and debarred the necessari(5^ 

 and comforts enjoyed by the negro on one of our 

 poorest Southern plantations. 



English Horses. — A writer in the London 

 Review complains that the noble breed of useful 

 English horses is becoming ruined. He says : 



Our country, once famed for the best breed of 

 saddle-horses in the world, is becoming overrun 

 with a lot of worthless, weedy, refuse racing stock, 

 which by many inexperienced farmers and breed- 

 ers, are gradually "neing crossed with, and thus 

 deteriorating the brood of our short-legged, deep- 



