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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



THE FAKMEK AND THE "WAH. 



s an agricultural editor, our 

 mission is one of peace. It 

 leads us among the quiet avo- 

 cations of men, into green 

 fields, by the water-brooks, or 

 /^upon hills teeming with feed- 

 ing kine, — and in the arts of 

 peace we have labored cheerful- 

 ly and earnestly, feeling that 

 those labors were productive, 

 and that we were precisely in 

 "the line of duty." But these 

 matters have not engrossed our whole attention. 

 The general politics of the country have been 

 familiar, and its prosperity and glory as dear to 

 us as life itself, — and when it has been defamed 

 by ungrateful and indiscreet men at home, or 

 assailed by its enemies abroad, we have kin- 

 dled as though our personal honor had been in- 

 sulted. AVhen our glorious flag, floating over a 

 free and brave people, but unarmed and defence- 

 less, was fired upon by unprovoked, arrogant and 

 rebellious madmen, we were ready for war, as 

 preferable to the then existing state of things. 



We believe, (and we possess some private evi- 

 dence of this,) that war has, virtually, been de- 

 clared against the free States by the leading pol- 

 iticians of the South for more than ten years, and 

 that, during that time, the attacks upon our mem- 

 bers of Congress with bludgeons, bowie knives 

 and pistols — the insults heaped upon the New 

 England States, and upon Massachusetts, espe- 

 cially — the hanging, burning and drowning of our 

 citizens while engaged in their legitimate busi- 

 ness at the South, and the scourging and expul- 

 sion of women, who were engaged in teaching 

 their own children, have all been done to gratify 

 a malign hatred, and to precipitate the country 

 into a civil war ! As this paper, however, is 

 sent into all classes of our people who hold dif- 

 ferent political opinions, we have rarely, or nev- 

 er, alluded to the gross outrages committed upon 

 the laws as well as the persons of the free States. 

 Forbearance, in this matter, has now ceased to 

 be a virtue. The Executive wisely practiced it, 

 until the people were ready to rise in their 

 might to repel the assailants, and avenge the in- 

 sults to our flag. 



One s])irit, only, now animates our people, — 

 — to vindicate the government, and vanquish the 

 traitors. Both objects will be accomplished. Every 

 man is ready to fight, where he can do the most 

 service. No drafting will be necessary. Volun- 

 teers press themselves upon the authorities to 

 four times the number that can be received ! These 

 are not mere fighting men — but farmers, carpen- 

 ters, machinists, blacksmiths, engineers, lawyers, 



scholars, clergymen, storekeepers, physicians, 

 road and bridge builders, printers, — in short, 

 Freeholders, who will show the bloody front of 

 rebellion that the men of the North have courage, 

 as well as conscience. They will march wherever 

 the national flag is insulted, suppress revolution, 

 and visit terrible retribution upon the rebels. 



Our resources in men and provisions are am- 

 ple, and would have been so in all the munitions 

 of war, but for the stupendous robberies commit- 

 ted by the arch traitor Floyd, and his chivalric 

 Southern allies. They robbed the Exchequer, the 

 arsenals, the mints, and, aided by one worse than 

 all, because a son of New England, Toucey, then 

 Secretary of the Navy — a name covered with 

 loathing and scorn — sent all our national ships 

 into distant seas. Notwithstanding this, the en- 

 ergy and reproductive power of our people will 

 soon supply deficiencies, and the legions that are 

 panting to punish this wicked design upon the 

 best government the world ever knew, may all 

 be supplied as they are called to the seat of war. 



The farmer has already shown that it is neither 

 his duty or desire to absolve himself from any of 

 the burdens or perils introduced by a state of 

 war. The thousands of stalwart and intelligent 

 sons who have gone out to fight at their country's 

 call, are sufficient evidence of this. He has 

 another duty, however, scarcely less important, 

 at home, — and that is to occupy as much ground 

 with the ordinary crops as he can manure and 

 tend well. It will be a grave error to do more 

 than this. Some have already recommended that 

 large and unusual breadths of land be sowed to 

 wheat, or other grains, or planted with corn or 

 potatoes. Such advice is as inconsistent as it 

 would be to advise the ship-builder to construct 

 a vessel of such proportions that she could never 

 be floated out of the harbor ! 



Our advice is this : — Use all the manure you 

 can possibly press into service ; pi-epare it from 

 every source ; purchase it, if possible, even at a 

 high rate ; use it liberally, especially on the corn 

 crop 5 cultivate with care through the season, 

 never allowing a weed to grow among the crops, 

 and the result will be a harvest more valuable in 

 every way, than one obtained from a large breadth 

 of land badly managed. On rich river bottoms, 

 or in the West, where fair crops may be obtained 

 without manure, the expanding policy may an- 

 swer, but it will prove disastrous in New Eng- 

 land. 



All you can produce will certainly be needed, 

 even if the war should be closed in three months. 

 The demand will be quick, at high prices, and at 

 your own doors. There is no need of alarm on 

 the part of the farmer. No evil becomes so gen- 

 eral and destructive as to leave no compensations 

 behind. The withdrawal of 50,000 men from the 



