142 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



Mr. NicuoLSON, of Cambridge, being called 

 on, exhibited samples of flax, explaining the va- 

 rious processes, from the straw to the printed 

 cloth. He said the flax retained the color of the 

 dye much better than cotton, and as well as wool. 



Being asked how much fibrilia the manufactory 

 in Roxbury had made, he said that they had made 

 400 lbs. of fine per day, but as they were enlarg- 

 ing their works, they were not making any now. 



Mr. Randall, of Rhode Island, the inventor 

 of the machine for breaking the stalk, gave an 

 interesting account of his experiments in spin- 

 ning flax on cotton machinery, from 1850 to the 

 present time. 



In answer to an inquiry by Mr. Walker, of North 

 Brookfield, Mr. Tappan said that from 10,000 to 

 11,000 lbs. of fibrilia had been made in Roxbury. 



It was then announced that the subject for dis- 

 cussion at the next meeting would be — "Sheep 

 husbandry — Its advantages compared tvith other 

 branches of agriculture in Massachusetts," and 

 that Sanford Howard, editor of the Cultivator, 

 would preside. The meeting adjourned. 



for the New England Parmer. 

 NEW ENGLAND TTV'HEAT. 



Mr. Editor : — In the early days of New Eng- 

 land, and for a long series of years, wheat was 

 extensively cultivated, and the crops were very 

 abundant. All the inhabitants, with few excep- 

 tions, raised their own wheat. The few who were 

 unable to raise their own wheat, purchased of 

 their neighbors, by exchanging their labor for 

 wheat ; so that all were well and cheaply supplied 

 from the soil of New England. 



But our fathers, though wise beyond the com- 

 mon herd of mankind, did not know everything, 

 any more than we do. They never imagined 

 that a time would come in which they or their 

 descendants would not be able to raise wheat 

 enough to supply all the inhabitants of New Eng- 

 land. They believed and acted upon the princi- 

 ple that "To-morrow shall be as this day, and 

 much more abundant." They continued, year af- 

 ter year, for a great length of time, to raise wheat 

 from the same pieces of land, with a continually 

 decreasing crop every succeeding year, till the 

 land would produce no longer. So they conclud- 

 ed, finally, that the soil was exhausted, or run 

 out, and they abandoned the cultivation of wheat 

 entirely. 



From that day to this, that is, for the last fifty 

 or sixty years, but little wheat has been raised in 

 New pjugland, from the mistaken idea that it can- 

 not be successfully and profitably cultivated here. 

 Though the quantity of wheat consumed here 

 has been, and still is, enormous, yet we continue 

 to look to the great States of the West for the 

 supply of our wheat and flour, and for most of 

 our other kinds of grain. "These things ought 

 not so to be." We have a soil naturally hard to 

 subdue and cultivate, but when properly subdued 

 and cultivated, it is sufficiently exuberant and 

 productive to supply all our inhabitants with 

 wheat, and with all other kinds of grain. It is, 



therefore, a great mistake to think that we can- 

 not raise our own supply of wheat. We can do 

 it, if we only know how, and exercise the perse- 

 verance and skill. 



A few years since, in order to encourage the 

 cultivation of wheat, the State of Massachusetts 

 ofi'ered a bounty upon the best crops of wheat, 

 which, if it had no other effect, went to prove 

 that it could be successfully and profitably culti- 

 vated here ; nay, more, that it was more profita- 

 ble than any other kind of small grain. Perhaps 

 no private individual has said and done more to 

 encourage its cultivation than your old friend 

 and correspondent, Mr. Henry Poor, of Brook- 

 lyn, N. Y., who has ever manifested a very lively 

 interest in this business, and who, some time dur- 

 ing the past year, requested your correspondents 

 to report the results of their efforts in the culti- 

 vation of wheat. 



We do not raise any winter wheat in this town, 

 for this plain reason, because we do not try. We 

 raise considerable spring wheat, and when we 

 take pains to cultivate it pi-operly, we have very 

 good crops. We might, perhaps, by taking the 

 like pains, succeed equally well with winter wheat. 

 But as we have been in the habit of seeding down 

 our lands to grass in the spring, we do it upon 

 spring wheat, because we consider wheat as the 

 most profitable of all the small grains, and as the 

 best to seed upon. 



Tne following is a true but imperfect account 

 of the crop of wheat I raised the last year. The 

 land on which it grew is a deep, rich, vegetable 

 loam, very tenacious, and slightly inclining to the 

 south-east. The seed used was the Michigan 

 wheat, a very large, round, plump berry. And 

 the product was a little more than thirty-two 

 bushels to the acre. The land was cultivated in 

 the following manner : When it was first broke 

 up, it was plowed very deep, and the sod com- 

 pletely turned over. It was then harrowed length- 

 wise on the furrows, furrowed out and planted to 

 potatoes. No manure was applied except ashes 

 and plaster. The product was very great. The 

 second year I plowed in at the rate of forty loads 

 of stable manure to the acre, and planted with 

 corn on the 7th day of May. The corn was the 

 most perfect I ever saw, and with it I furnished 

 a large number of the inhabitants with seed corn 

 the following year. The third year, on the 1st day 

 of May, I plowed and harrowed my land, sowed 

 my wheat and harrowed it in, then sowed my 

 grass seed and bushed it in. The only application 

 I made to the land was a considerable quantity of 

 air-slacked lime. The result I have given above. 

 The seed wheat was thoroughly cleansed from 

 foul seed by washing. It was then soaked in salt 

 brine for about twelve hours, and sowed at the 

 rate of two bushels to the acre. 



JOUN GOLDSBURY. 



Warwich, January, 1861. 



American Pomological Socikty. — We have 

 before us, through the polite attentions of Hon. 

 Marshall P. Wilder, the Proceedings of the 

 Eighth Session of the American Pomological So- 

 ciety, held in Philadelphia, Sept. 11th, 12th and 

 13th, 18G0. The first paper is the address of the 

 President, Col. Wilder, liberal extracts from 



