320 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



for the construction of our dwellings, every im- 

 plement of husbandry, the mighty steam-ship, 

 and every lesser invention, down to the apple- 

 parer. Whether this self-important, blustering 

 member of the great agricultural family succeed 

 in his usurpation, or not, he must have been one 

 of the more recent offsprings of the race. Since 

 my remembrance, very little cotton was raised in 

 the States; there was a scanty supply of dirty 

 cotton from the West Indies, abounding in seeds 

 which required both diligence and patience to 

 prepare for the spindle, which came to us at a 

 very high price. 



In the latter part of the last century, say from 

 1794 to 1797, I paid at Charlestown, fifty cents a 

 pound for cotton for domestic manufacture. A 

 cotton shirt then was a rarity ; woolen shirts in 

 winter, and linen and tow in summer, were the 

 prevailing materials for the "under-dresses" of 

 the times in country towns. Those unfortunates 

 whose destiny compelled them to wear tow shirts, 

 were exempts from using the flesh-brush, as the 

 shirt proved a sufficient stimulant. This hot-bed 

 upstart of a self-constituted king was then in his 

 embryo state, and had not yet issued his bluster- 

 ing decree, claiming regal power. 



King Cotton must have a limited knowledge 

 of geography, and the width of the world, or a 

 high estimation of his own importance, to sup- 

 pose he can compel Europe and America to bow 

 to his sceptre. The retrogade motion, to the use 

 of linen and woolen goods again, will be but a 

 step. Linen has always been considered the 

 richer cloth, and now the improvement of cotton- 

 izing flax bids fair to supersede the use of cotton 

 for summer wear. Flannel is now worn by many 

 people the year around ; in our changeable cli- 

 mate it would be more conducive to health, if it 

 were still more worn instead of cotton. The 

 Yankee has always been remarkable for accommo- 

 dating himself to surrounding circumstances ; if 

 he gets defeated in the pursuit of one kind of 

 business, as the merchants did in embargo times, 

 the last war with England, and by tariff laws, it 

 sharpens his invention to substitute a better kind 

 in its stead. The very causes which depressed 

 and ruined merchandise, were the causes of en- 

 riching our country, by filling it with machinery, 

 which makes employment for the industrious, 

 and supplies the inhabitants with every variety of 

 manufactured articles, without crossing the ocean 

 to get them, as formerly, from foreign lands. 



Silas Brown. 



North Wilmington, May, 1861. 



Love of the Wonderful. — What stronger 

 pleasure is there with mankind, or what do they 

 eatlier learn or longer retain, than the love of 

 hearing and relating things strange and incred- 

 ible. How wonderful a thing is the love ofivon' 

 dering and of raising wonder ! 'Tis the delight 

 of children to hear tales they shiver at, and the 

 vice of old men to abound in strange stories of 

 times past. We come into the world wondering 

 at every thing ; and when our wonder about com- 

 mon things is over, we seek something new to 

 wonder at. Our last scene is to tell wonders of 

 our own, to all who will believe them. And amid 

 all this, 'tis well if truth comes off but moderately 

 tainted. — Shaftesbury. 



For tin New England Farmer. 



STATEMENT OP OBAIN CROPS. 



Mu. Editor : — I send you a statement of my 

 oat, rye and corn crops the past year. I sow with 

 oats first, then with rye, and seed with clover. 

 The third year plant with corn and spread the 

 manure on the land j I then plow it 9 or 10 inches 

 deep, harrow it smooth, and make a small hole for 

 the hill, and put in a composition of hen dung, 

 plaster and ashes, and plant the corn upon it. In 

 this statement the work was done by myself and 

 son, two pairs of steers of our raising and a horse. 

 Perhaps my estimate of the work may be high ; 

 it was kept by the day, and the grain measured 

 and sold at the barn : 



OAT CROP. Dr. 



To plowing 6.^ acres $6,50 



To sowing the same 3,00 



To see<I 19.^ bushels 8,39 



To cutting and carting 6,00 



To threshing 8,50 



To interest on land 24,00 



$56,39 

 Cr, 



By 221 bushel 3 of oats at 43 cts. per bashel $95,03 



By 4 tons of straw 36,00 



$131,03 

 RYE CROP. Dr. 



To plowing 3i acres $3,50 



To sowing and seed 3,55 



To cutting and carting 6,00 



To threshing 4,60 



To interest on land 18,00 



$3t,65 

 Cb. 



By 71 bushels of rye at 80 cts. per bushel $56,80 



By 3 tons of straw 21 ,00 



$77,80 



CORN CROP, SIX ACRES. Dr. 



To 17 days' work planting $17,00 



To team work 8,50 



To manure 50,00 



To ashes and plaster 3,00 



To seed corn 1,25 



To hoeing first time 8,50 



To hoeing second time 6,75 



To hoeing third time 7,68 



To hoeing fourth time 1,75 



To cutting stalks 7,00 



To picking corn 17,00 



To interest on land 24,00 



$152,33 

 Deduct \ of manure 17,00 



$135,33 



Cr. 



By loss bundles of stalks $10,88 



By 664 bundles of corn fodder 9,96 



By 1 ton of corn husks 12,00 



By 256 bushels corn at 75 cts. per bushel 192,00 



By 10 bushels of roots 2,50 



By 4 loads of pumpkins 4,00 



By ^bushel of beans 75 



$232,09 



I have some four acres of swamp land to work 

 upon, and am underdraining in part with tile, and 

 part with chestnut timber. I use timber, fearing 

 the tile may not keep their place in the soft 

 muck. The muskrats go in at the mouth of the 

 timber, drain and dig out at the head, thus mak- 

 ing a current of air through the drain. Will the 

 air passing through the drain rot the timber ? 



I have read the Farmer a number of years, 

 with pleasure and profit, and hope to, many years 

 longer. N. Hitchcock. 



Leerfeld, Mass., April, 1861. 



