166 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



Crowd's Patent Thermometer Churn, which my 



folks are well pleased with, as it is easy to op- 

 erate, brinj^s the butter quick, and is easily 

 cleaned, which last item is a very important con- 

 sideration M'ith those makinj; butter. We have, 

 also, one of Johnston'n Patent Churns, Avhich has 

 been in the house over a year without l)eing 

 used, as it appears to be such a herculean task to 

 clean it i)roperly that my wife will not have it used. 



In what I have said respecting the above 

 churns, I do not wish to convey the impression 

 that I have any other "axe to grind" than a desire 

 to promote inquiry on the part of dairy farmers 

 for the best churn for their use, which I conceive 

 to be that which will give us the most good but- 

 ter in a reasonable time, with the greatest ease of 

 operating and cleansing after being used. 



liochester, Jan. 'SOlh, 1861. K. o. 



HOPS. 



Prices have ranged low since 1855. Until this 

 season, the crops of 1855, '5G and '57 averaged 

 not exceeding G cents, first sort. 



The market for '58, hops opened at 10 a 12.Jc, 

 but afterwards receded to 6 a 8c. The market for 

 1859, ho])s opened at 12^ a 14c ; but in the sum- 

 mer of 1860 receded to 8c. The crop of 1800 was 

 mostly purchased of the growers before coming 

 to market; first prices were 10 a 12jjc, but owing 

 to a large export demand, prices advanced to 30, 

 35 and 40c. Then the panic in the money market, 

 together with ihe falling oflf of the rates of ex- 

 change, and the difficulty of negotiating foreign 

 Bills of Exchange, stopped the export demand, 

 and prices declined to 25 and 30c, at which prices 

 the market is now firm. The price of tlie growth 

 of 1859 is now 12 a IGc ; growth of 1858, 6 a 8c ; 

 growth of 1857 and 1856, 3 a 6c. The price of 

 these older growths has been higher, but has de- 

 clined for the same reason above given. 



The stock of hops, new growth, in this market, 

 and to come to this market, will not exceed 700 

 bales. 



The quantity of hops exported the past year, 

 and to the 20th ult., is about 35,000 bales ;— 

 28,000 bales of the growth of 1860, and 7,000 

 bales of older growths ; and with no further ex- 

 port demand, the prices v/ill not be less, but will 

 undoubtedly improve as the season advances. 



If the crop of 1861 is good, and there is no ex- 

 port demand, it will undoubtedly pay remunera- 

 tive prices to the growers. 



We give below the annual statement of Walter 

 Blanchard, Inspector General of Hops. 



INSPECTION OF HOPS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



Statement of the amount of Hops inspected in 

 the Slate of Massachusetts, agreeable to and in 

 accordance with the Law of said State, from Jan. 

 1st, 1860, to Jan. 1st, 1861 : 



1st Sort. %lSurt. llefuse. Total. 



Bales. Lbs. Bales. Lbs. Bales. Lbs. Bales. Lbs. 



1856 169 31,676 109 31,676 



1857 423 80,320 67 9,{07 4i!0 90,227 



1858 131 23,796 44 8,157 10 2,160 185 34,113 



1859 647 122,430 143 27,467 27 5,719 817 155,616 



1860 378 73,965 78 15,327 13 2,756 467 92,048 



Total.. 1,748 33,2187 322 00,858 50 10,635 2118 403,080 



Average weight of whole number of bales, 190J 

 lbs., nearly. Waf.tkh Blanchard, 



Inspector General of Hops. 



liEGISLATIVE AGRICTJIjTURAIi SOCIETY. 



[Reported for the N. E. Farmer, bt Tuomas Bradley.] 



The seventh meeting of this Society was held 

 in the Representatives' Hall on Monday evening, 

 and was attended by a very large number of farm- 

 ers, and others. The meeting was called to or- 

 der by Col. White, of Petersham, who intro- 

 duced Mr. 1). Orlando Fisk, of Shelburne, as 

 the Chairman of the evening. 



On taking the chair, Mr. Fisk said that at the 

 close of the session of the House in the after- 

 noon he was notified that he was expected to pre- 

 side at this meeting. The Committee had hoped 

 that His Excellency the Governor might find lei- 

 sure and preside, but he had informed the Com- 

 mittee that it would be out of his power to meet 

 with them. 



He then announced the subject for discussion 

 as "The most advantageous methods of improving 

 pasture and meadow lands.^' The first clause of 

 the subject, the improving of pastures, may be a 

 subject in which some of our agricultural friends 

 may not be much interested on account of their 

 having no pastures, and desiring none, having 

 some of the best farms in the State, and keeping 

 mostly cows and oxen, and soiling them, making 

 an almost incredible amount of manure, and dis- 

 pensing entirely with the pasture, and making all 

 their land fit to till. Not having an acre of land 

 but what they plow or mow, and by their increased 

 amount of fertihzers producing such crops as per- 

 fectly astonish farmers of moderate means and 

 poorer soils ; yet while, said he, they are pursu- 

 ing this very profitable mode of farming, and set- 

 ting an example worthy of all praise, they need 

 not be, and are not, excluded from a participation 

 in the discussion of the evening. The second 

 clause of the subject for discussion certainly comes 

 home to this class, and the assembly would sure- 

 ly expect them to tell how they have made their 

 meadows what they are. 



Ho said that the pasture, to most of the farm- 

 ers in Massachusetts and New England, is the 

 right arm, and a good pasture is the one thing 

 needful for every stock farmer. As our pastures 

 are wearing out year by year, and deteriorating 

 in quality and quantity of feed by over-stocking, 

 by the bleak winds and severe frosts of our long 

 winters, and by many other causes, it certainly 

 behooves us to look for a remedj', and to inquire 

 diligently what can be done to renovate and im- 

 prove them. 



He would say that much every way could be 

 done. In the first place he urged the ceasing to 

 over-feed them, and where a pasture has been 

 over-fed and hard pressed, to put in only two ani- 

 mals where there usually have been four, and oc- 

 casionally, perhaps once in seven years, leave a 

 pasture unfed entirely, cutting down all the brush 



