270 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JuNt: 



the largest kinds, to the little popper, stuck full 

 of ears from the ground to the tassel. 



3. In a succession of years, on account of early 

 and more perfect maturing, the whole crop, hard 

 and soft, will be worth much more by the bushel. 



Now, sir, if this article does any one any good, 

 I suppose it will be by leading him to think. He 

 will study the laws of growth and maturity of 

 the different varieties. He will not approve or 

 condemn indiscriminately. If he has a dry, rich 

 soil, and can plant early, he may venture the large 

 kinds. If, on the other hand, his land is cold, 

 the season late, and the location one exposed to 

 early frost, prudence will dictate a different course. 



One fact I cannot say, which variety has re- 

 ceived the most premiums, but I can say, that 

 in the Berkshire societies the first premium has 

 often honored the eight rowed variety, the test 

 question being "the best acre of corii." 



Plttsjield, April, 1861. S. Reed. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE LESSON" TAUGHT BY lEISH 

 HUSBANDRY. 



BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



"In the day of adversity consider," is the admo- 

 nition of the Preacher, and possibly now, when 

 the heart of every patriot sinks within him, with 

 shame at the disgraceful position of a portion of 

 our country whose Union was until recently our 

 pride and boast, possibly now, we may be humble 

 enough to conceive of the possibility that, as a 

 nation, we are, in our agriculture, tending to de- 

 struction. Ireland, "First flower of the earth, 

 first gem of the sea," is an illustration of the ruin 

 which bad husbandry may bring upon a people. 

 Ireland has a better soil and better climate than 

 England. No country in the world equals it for 

 pasturage. "The south-west coast," says a relia- 

 ble writer, "enjoys a perpetual spring, owing to 

 the ocean currents that set in from the tropics. 

 IMyrtles there grov/ in the open air, and the ar- 

 butus or strawberry-tree is one of the commonest 

 of shrubs." 



Prior to the famine of 1846, the rural popula- 

 tion of Ireland numbered about twenty-five per- 

 sons to each hundred acres of land, while it is 

 but twelve in England, and fifteen in France. 



The country was cut up into small farms, there 

 being o()0,000 farms of less than five acres each. 

 A system of dividing the leased land among the 

 children prevailed. The owners of the soil lived 

 away from it, in England, or elsewhere, leaving 

 agents to manage it in any way they pleased to 

 get the most rent for the time, and send to the 

 landlord to expend in foreign lands. The whole 

 object was not to improve the soil, but to plun- 

 der it. 



No improvements of a permanent character 

 were made, no system of rotation was adopted, 

 but every tenant was allowed to get what he 



could from the land. One expedient adopted 

 was a sort of partnership, termed Rundale, in 

 which a village of a hundred or more rented a 

 tract of land together, using the pasturing in 

 common, and each year dividing anew the arable 

 land, so that it was for the interest of each to 

 get annually what he could, with no interest 

 whatever in the next year's crop. The only cap- 

 ital was human labor, few carts or wagons being 

 employed, and the manure and crops even being 

 conveyed either by men and women, or by don- 

 keys in panniers. Potatoes yielding by far more 

 sustenance per acre than wheat or other grain, 

 were the principal crop. 



The English government beheld with appre- 

 hension the approaching ruin, and devised vari- 

 ous plans to avert it. It was manifest that a re- 

 dundant and rapidly increasing population upon 

 a soil growing yearly less productive, must bring 

 upon itself starvation and ruin. Then came the 

 potato disease, and with it the famine, whicb 

 carried off by actual starvation and attendant dis 

 eases more than a million of this ill-fated people 

 more than one-eighth of its whole population. 



And now let us look at home, at 



A PICTURE or FARMING ON THE PRAIRIES. 



And this was the natural result of bad hus 

 bandry, of relying on a single crop without rota 

 tion, and of plundering the soil for present gain 

 with no regard to its future condition. 



The Country Gentleman published a lettei 

 from which the following is taken. 



"I enclose you a copy of a letter from an Illi- 

 nois farmer, who was brought up to the business 

 from a boy, in a good agricultural region in one of 

 the counties bordering on the Hudson river, and 

 was successful before removing West : 



" 'Regarding forming here, you already know the 

 first two or three years we met with heavy losses by 

 trying to raise wheat. The first fall I sowed 150 acres 

 at an'expense of ^'3 per acre — the spring following, 40 

 acres, thinking it best to tiy both winter and spring 

 varieties. It yielded about 20 bushels per acre, and 

 sold for 50 cents per bushel, hardly paying first cost, 

 including harvesting and threshing. 



" 'Next fill I sowed 80 acres more, which proved 

 a total failure. I then went on and prepared 180 acres 

 during the lall for spring sowing. When spring came 

 the weather was favorable for early sowing, and I had 

 it all in nicely by the last week in April. 



" 'About tills time it began to rain, and continued 

 until Illinois was most all afloat, up to about the ?Oth 

 of June. Then we had several weeks of dry and hot 

 weartior, which gave the wheat not already rotted a 

 chance among the greatest growth of weeds }-ou ever 

 saw. On the upland the weeds yielded somewhat to 

 the wheat, but took full possession on far the greatest 

 portion. The result was that the wheat harvested and 

 threshed did not pay for the labor of doing it, saying 

 nothing of the cost of sowing. That fall 1 fell in debt 

 ^500 for lal)or and materials used, besides the expense 

 of living. But I went on, and put 120 acres to winter 

 wheat again. !My teams were poor from wallowing in 

 the mud, and from scanty feed, and had to go into 

 quarters in this condition, with a chance only at 

 coarse, flashy hay, and a little poor corn through the 

 winter. You can judge how they must have looked 

 in the spring. 



