1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



315 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE FAEMES AND MECHANIC. 



Mr. Editor : — T run not a farmer, nor a son of 

 a farmer. Being a son of a farmer is no indica- 

 tion that the son will be a farmer ; for farmers' 

 sons are not the materials of which farmers are 

 made ; or, in other words, farmers' sons, general- 

 ly speaking, do not make farmers. I can think 

 of but six men of my own age and acquaintance, 

 who have chosen the farmer's profession. 



Reading the "Thoughts and Queries" by "G. 

 F. T.," in the Farmer of January 26, led me to 

 pen these lines. He says the contributions of 

 the young men of the country, elicited by your re- 

 quest for them, may contain ori^wa/ ideas, but 

 at the same time, absurd and useless ones. In 

 his article, I think, are statements, questions and 

 ideas to which these same objections will apply. 



He says the sources from which farmers' sons 

 usuallij obtain information of current events, are 

 the Farmer^s Almanac and local newspapers. 

 Now that is too bad. Do not the Neio England 

 Farmer, New York Tribune and Boston Cultiva- 

 tor — and these are not local newspapers — circu- 

 late freely in the country, not naming scores of 

 other papers ? Are not farmers' clubs and agri- 

 cultural societies organized in every county in 

 New England ? Do not the correspondence be- 

 tween friends and relatives, the meetings of neigh- 

 bors, visits to the village store and post-office, 

 &c., furnish opportunities for news-telling, and 

 news-hearing? Why! does not every farmer's 

 son of fifteen years talk more of secession than 

 his father ? Farmers' sons and the rest of man- 

 kind "know every thing now-a-days ;" means of 

 communication and facilities for obtaining infor- 

 mation on all subjects are unlimited. It is one 

 turn of the screw too much for "G. F. T." to 

 speak of his means of learning, &c., as limited, 

 when all can see from his own writings, that he 

 is well posted, that he reads agricultural papers, 

 hears addresses on the subject, attends cattle- 

 show's, and knows as well as any one, that they 

 are nothing hut "show," 



He asks, "Do not farmers receive proportion- 

 ately less pecuniary reward for their labor ?" I 

 answer, no. I have heard mechanics remark, and 

 I know by my own experience, that we mechan- 

 ics could not get a living, if we did not work 

 harder and more hours in a year, than farmers do. 

 "G. F. T." winds up by saying that happiness is 

 the most desirable possession, and that content- 

 ment is happiness. Well, that is true. But why 

 farmers' sons should manifest so much discontent 

 and dislike to farming, is more than I can see. 

 It seems that they will do any thing, or rather 

 nothing, rather than farm. Farming, like every 

 thing else, is a very different affair from what 

 it was twenty-five years ago. Labor, as such, 

 certainly is not elevating or ennobling. The 

 ox may labor his life-time, and still be an ox. 

 The unlearned Irishman and American slave la- 

 bor and dig during their life-times, and are no 

 higher, intellectually, or otherwise. The labor 

 performed by the farmer fifty or even twenty-five 

 years ago, did not much more for him ; he la- 

 bored from dire necessity. Now, labor is per- 

 formed with pleasure, though the laborer is no 

 less dependent on his work for his daily bread 

 than in former years. The operations of the ma- 



chines and implements of the present day, please 

 the operator. 



Who wonders that Daniel Webster liked the 

 "hang" of his scythe better in the apple tree than 

 in his hand ? I don't suppose it did hang at all 

 well. Who does not love to use the bright, elas- 

 tic steel plate hoes, shovels and forks ? Just 

 compare these with the ancient tools of like kind, 

 which weighed half as much as what was lifted 

 with them. Mark the handsome and scientifical- 

 ly made plow, the team that draws it, and the sat- 

 isfied look of the plowman as he sights the straight 

 lines across the field, and those lines may be 

 straighter for his having studied "geometry." A 

 man will dig rocks no less advantageously for 

 having studied "mechanics." A farmer who has 

 a decided mechanical turn, will be a better farmer 

 than one who has not. A farmer who studies and 

 takes close observation of everything which comes 

 in his way, makes the best farmer. Finally, all 

 that is beautiful and pleasing in nature and art, 

 most of the means and opportunities for intellec- 

 tual and moral culture, can, and should be, and I 

 believe are, enjoyed by the farmer more fully than 

 by men of any other calling whatever. ' ''/ 



Marlow, N. E., 1861. A Mechanic. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GOOD FAKMING REQUIRES THOUGHT 

 AND SYSTEM. 



Farming, in its broadest sense, is a trade, and a 

 trade that requires as much experience and ob- 

 servation as any other employment of man. The 

 longer a man tills the soil, the more he will see 

 the necessity of experience in order to succeed in 

 his calling. Some men think they can take up 

 farming at any time and succeed, but a man might 

 as well take up any other profession and ex- 

 pect to succeed, after having spent the first half 

 of his life in other employments. It will not pay 

 to farm, unless we farm it well ; unless we lay 

 out for good crops, good cattle, good horses ; that 

 is, in order to prosper we should endeavor to 

 raise the best of everything of its kind. It costs 

 justs about as much to raise a poor crop or a poor 

 animal, as a good one, and I think the true way 

 to manage land, is very much as we would man- 

 age our oxen, or horses, or hired men, in order to 

 get the largest avails from their labor. Feed and 

 tend them well. Just so with the land ; keep it 

 fat, and we can raise a good crop of some kind 

 every year, and leave the land fat. 



There is a great want of system, of calculation, 

 of thought, among us. Every man needs to study 

 his own land to know what course to pursue. We 

 have a disposition to spread over too many acres. 

 People are very apt to say that such a piece of 

 land is worth one hundred dollars because it will 

 pay the interest of that sum. But a farmer ought 

 not to be satisfied with six per cent, on his in- 

 vestment ; he had better sell and till the remain- 

 der so as to realize at least from fifteen to twen- 

 ty or thirty per cent. How will a man live and 

 ever pay for his land if he only gets six per cent. ? 



In tilling the land we must be governed very 

 much by circumstances, as no one rule will apply 

 to all kinds of soil. The great point is to keep 

 the land in a high state of cultivation. I have a 

 piece of interval land, which I plow for corn twice 



