24 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



SCIENCE IS KING. 



We are often told, perhaps for the purpose of 

 intimidatinar the good Republicans of the North 

 and their electors, that the South will not sell us 

 her cotton if Mr. Lincoln goes into the Presiden- 

 tial chair, and if they cannot have their way anoth- 

 er four years ; and moreover, that they will dis- 

 solve the Union, fimcying that that will punish us 

 worse even than cutting us off from their cotton. 



But there is a material interest at present com- 

 ing into existence, which providentially will make 

 us quite independent, comparatively speaking, of 

 the cotton crops of the Southern States. South- 

 ern politicians declare cotton to be king; and as 

 they grow cotton, they fancy themselves the dic- 

 tators of Northern interests, which they know are 

 largely connected with manufactures. But Sci- 

 ence is king — not cotton nor (as Brodcrick on one 

 occasion boldly responded to one of those haugh- 

 ty Southern gentlemen) gold. Science and art are 

 the sovereign rulers of our national greatness and 

 commercial prosperity. 



The cotton gin has made the South rich, impor- 

 tant, proud and imperious. But the same North- 

 ern ingenuity that invented a cotton gin has also 

 recently invented another machine calculated to 

 make as great a revolution in our commercial af- 

 fairs as the invention of Eli Whitney brought 

 about in the culture and manufacture of the cotton 

 plant. The inventive intelligence of a Northern 

 man has now brought forth, and is perfecting the 

 machinery for converting common flax into a fibre 

 and staple as white, fine, soft and silky as any cot- 

 ton grown in Alabama or Georgia. Besides, the 

 operation of the machinery is so simple, rapid and 

 effective, that an incredible quantity of raw mate- 

 rial can be worked in a short space of time. 



The entire North and the boundless West can 

 raise flax at the cheapest rate ; and in two years 

 we should not be dependent on the South for cot- 

 ton fibre, if necessity compelled our manufacturers 

 to turn their encouragement to textile materials 

 of pure Northern growth. We have been recently 

 informed that one manufacturing establishment 

 alone can use (judging from thtir practical expe- 

 riments) this Jiax cotton as a mixture with their 

 cotton fibre, so readily as to make a saving of sev- 

 enty thousand dollars per year, over their present 

 profits ; and that, to do this, it is not necessary 

 to alter their machinery or the shape of a spindle. 



It is utter madness for the Southern Slates to 

 think of national prosperity, internal security and 

 domestic happiness, when disunited from these 

 Northern States. The prosperity of the North 

 would not be interrupted by the secession of all 

 the slave States. National prosperity depends 

 on agriculture, manufixctures, and a mercantile 

 Uiarine. AVe lack in the North only one agricul- 

 tural product to make us wholly independent of 

 the South — that is a textile filjre fit for a substi- 

 tute in our manufactures for their cotton fibre. 

 We have it in flax, and it can be raised by free 

 labor in the Middle and Western States, and in 

 all temperate latitudes, cheaper than cotton can 

 be grown by slaves anywhere on the earth. The 

 inventive genius and the capital of Massachusetts 

 have already commenced this vast agricultural and 

 commercial revolution. Machinery has already 

 been set up in several regions of the West to ef- 

 fect the first processes in the manufacture neces- 

 sary to prepare the raw material for bleaching and 



reducing the flax into an almost silken fibre far 

 more capable of receiving and holding colors than 

 cotton. 



Hundreds of acres will be added next year to 

 this source of prospective industry and wealth. 

 Thousands and millions will be added hereafter. 



We shall not need so much cotton in a year or 

 two as we have been in the habit of using ; and 

 if compelled to pay a very high price for it, and 

 ))ay the cash in advance, we shall the sooner be 

 disposed to encourase Northern agriculture and 

 free labor. England will not be long in follow- 

 ing our example ; and if, in ten years from now, 

 the South finds less use for her slaves, and is com- 

 pelled to sell her cotton very cheap, and to beg 

 purchasers wherever she can find them, even on 

 the curb-stones of Boston, she will have only 

 South Carolina to thank for the prostration of her 

 great interest. — Boston Journal. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 KING PHILIP OR BKOVWPf CORN. 



This corn has, in years past, been highly re- 

 commended in the Patent Office Reports. I pro- 

 cured some seed of it, three or four years ago. 

 Hardly half of the seed was brown, the rest yel- 

 low. I have raised it ever since, but found that 

 last year the corn was mostly yellow — but few 

 brown ears. The brown ears I took pains to save 

 for seed, and this year planted only the brown, 

 but on harvesting it, as much as four-fifths of the 

 ears are yellow. Is this the experience of others 

 who have raised it ? 



Among the old sort of yellow corn that I raised 

 several years ago, there would be a few ears en- 

 tirely red. I have planted, in a piece by itself, 

 this entirely red corn, and the produce was but a 

 few red ears, the rest flesh color and yellow. The 

 red, when planted in a field with the yellow, 

 would not mix by the kernel — here and there a 

 scattering corn, like other sorts ; but the ears 

 would be all yellow or all red. 



THE POTATO ROT. 



This year the long red potato rotted badly in 

 this vicinity. Of a piece which I dug the last of 

 October, from which I had eighteen bushels, but 

 two bushels and three pecks were sound. About 

 the same time I dug a quantity of the Jackson 

 Whites, and all of them were sound — not a rot- 

 ten potato among them. As for the Davis Seed- 

 lings, but few were rotten. White Apple pota- 

 toes also some rotten. Black potatoes escaped 

 the rot. 



I am satisfied, and have been for a long time, 

 that the rot is caused by a blast upon the vines 

 which causes a stagnation of the circulating sap, 

 and hence putrefaction. I have perceived that 

 when the potato leaves turn suddenly black, the 

 rot soon follows. 



A neighbor of mine, in August last, found that 

 his potato vines were suddenly turning black. 

 He immediately pulled up the tops and dug his 

 potatoes. He told me the other day that they 

 were all sound — not a rotten one among them. 



Isaac Stearns. 



Stock in Maine. — There are in the State of 

 Maine 54,508 horses, 61,578 oxen, 132,645 cows, 

 374,095 sheep, and 45,923 swine. 



