1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



575 



THAT TKACK. 



The Editor of the Homestead attended the late 

 Fair of the New London County Society. The 

 association has leased twenty acres of ground, near 

 the city of Norwich, for its annual exhibitions, 

 and, among other fixtures, has prepared an excel- 

 lent half-mile track. The contemplation of this 

 level, wide and well rolled highway must have 

 left the most pleasing impressions on the mind of 

 the sedate Editor of the Homestead ; for he writes 

 out an account of the show, in which we find such 

 facetious reflections on the future of this "circu- 

 lar show ground" as the following : 



It is furnished with a judges' stand, and a spa- 

 cious amphitheatre of seats where farmers' wives 

 and daughters, and genteel ladies from the cities, 

 can look on and see the sport of fast horses and 

 faster men. We should think it was a race-course 

 if it was in any other place, and if running horses 

 for money was in fashion. But appearances are 

 deceitful. Sometimes they mean a good deal more, 

 and sometimes a good deal less than they ought to. 



Some have fears that this track or circular show 

 ground will degenerate into a race course ; that if 

 it do not become such at the fairs, it will be used 

 for such purposes on other occasions. Here it is 

 in the neighborhood of a city, and the Society 

 has no use for it beyond three days in the year. 

 It is so good a track and so handy, why should 

 not other people have the benefit of it ? But such 

 fears are probably a little old-fogyish. 



There are others who are afraid that the interest 

 of the multitudes who come up to the farmers' an- 

 niversary will be all concentrated upon the track, 

 and the fair will become mainly an annual horse 

 fair ; that if the horse is introduced every half day 

 in the exhibition, not much else will be seen but 

 horse, that the v/omen and children will hear 

 nothing but horse talk, and will go home to talk 

 and di'eam of horses for a month after the fair ; 

 that the mothers will be naming their babies after 

 fast horses, and the family Bibles will be lit up 

 with blazonry of modern horse nomenclature ; as 

 for example, Flora Temple Smith, born Oct. 10th, 

 I860— Putchen Smith, Nov. 1st, 1861. 



Now, ye gentlemen of the old school, please 

 put off your spectacles, and do not see too much. 

 We will say a word in behalf of the management. 

 There may be some danger of the calamities you 

 imagine, but they can be guarded against. Great- 

 er speed is what is wanted in all domestic animals, 

 including man, and the track can be so used that 

 it will result in quickening the pace not only of 

 horses, but of all Now London County. Perhaps 

 you have overlooked in the programme a foot-race, 

 with a prize of ten dollars for the greatest human 

 .speed. This is classic, and as you love the good 

 I'old times, the managers have brought something 

 from heathen Greece for your entertainment. ]VIen 

 and ambitious youth emulous of fame and an X 

 mark are to scour the track promiscuously. Yo'i 

 have often complained of Bill's laziness, and 

 scolded Seth as a slow-moulded blockhead. Here 

 is something that will take the mould out of them, 

 and limber their joints. We want nimbler feet 

 on the farm, after the plow, after the cart, after 

 the cows, everywhere, and there is nothing like 

 exercise to make perfect. The track is not simply 



to perfect the speed of horses, but of men and 



other animals. 



Probably another year the programme will be 

 varied somewhat, and be made still more i)ractical. 

 We might have a race with loaded wheelbarrows, 

 say ten dollars to the highest speed in wheelbar- 

 row, loaded with three hundred pounds of dirt, 

 best two in three, half mile heats. This would 

 bring out the Michaels and the Patricks, and 

 would tend to quicken the pace of all who use 

 wheelbarrows, in all parts of the county. 



Then we need a faster gait in cows, especially 

 in those that run in poor pastures, where they 

 have to walk far to get their food. Now many a 

 cow is not able to walk far enough in a day to get 

 a full stomach, and does not make the milk or 

 butter she would with a higher speed. Perhaps 

 we shall have a premium on a cow race, best three 

 in five. 



Then cats are a neglected class of domestic 

 stock, that need to be improved. Many a mouser 

 now just misses her prey for lack of a little higher 

 speed, and the farmers' cellars and corn-cribs suf- 

 fer by reason of the slow gait of cats. If they could 

 be brought up to a 2.40 speed it would be the sal- 

 vation of many a grain bin and root cellar. Thou- 

 sands of dollars are sacrificed every year to a slow 

 moulded race of cats. Shall we have a cat race ? 



Indeed, there is hardly an animal upon the farm 

 that does not need rubbing up, and that may not 

 be improved by a judicious use of this track. 

 Many a hen brings up a lean, half-starved brood 

 of chickens, for want of a higher activity in 

 scratching. Shall we not have a hen race, in 

 which the delinquent biddies shall be made to 

 come up to the scratcJi'? 



So you see, gentlemen of the old school, that 

 your fears about this track's running away with 

 the Society are utterly groundless. It is designed 

 to bring up universal nature, including yourselves, 

 to a higher speed. 



Raising Cotton and Corn. — A correspondent 

 of the Southern Bural Gentleman, in an article 

 advocating a greater diversity of agricultural 

 products at the South, makes the following state- 

 ment : 



"I was told by a planter this summer, that he 

 had sold twenty-one bales of his last year's crop 

 for $170 nett. This cotton grew on about twen- 

 ty-one acres of the best land in the world, and land 

 that would have produced sixty bushels of corn 

 per acre with the same culture that was bestowed 

 upon it while in cotton, could have been saved 

 with one-fourth the labor that it took to save the 

 cotton; and would have amounted to 1260 bush- 

 els, or $1260, and that at home and in the crib." 



Agricultural Meteorology. — The Smith- 

 sonian Institution is preparing, by order of Con- 

 gress, a most interesting report on agricultural 

 meteorology, which will be a welcome boon to our 

 farmers. Besides meteorological statistics, col- 

 lected during the last ten years at nearly four hun- 

 dred stations, it will contain the arrival and de- 

 parture of birds, fishes, and other migratory ani- 

 mals, and also the time of planting and harvesting 

 of crops, etc., at different parts of the United 

 States. 



