50 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



000 in the same year. Yet England is a great and 

 prosperous nation. We have no able bodied male 

 paupers, but are -we not vastly more able, for that 

 very i-eason, to send an army into the field, and to 

 maintain it there ? Less than 50,000 persons in 

 England are classed as landed proprietors, whUe 

 here, except in cities, everybody owns land. 



Tliis diffusion of property is the secret of the 

 ability of every one to take care of himself. The 

 (famine of 1846 and 1847, in Lreland, was the result 

 ; of the poverty of the people, rather than the scar- 

 city of food. There Avas abundance of food in 

 Great Britain, and ship-loads ready to go to her 

 ports, but the people had no means wherewith to 

 buy food, and so they perished by actual starva- 

 tion, while the granaries of capitalists and wealthy 

 land-holders were filled to overfloAving. Before a 

 sheaf of wheat was cut, in 1847, flour and meal be- 

 came a drug in the English market, and many deal- 

 ers were ruined by the sudden reduction in prices. 

 We have no means of knowing the surplus of our 

 crops tliis )'ear, but as yet, they give no signs of 

 exhaustion. A few cents advance in price will en- 

 able those who have lost or wastefully consumed 

 their wheat and corn, to bring it into market. The 

 increased demand wUl open new faciHties for trans- 

 portation, and stimulate those who remain at home 

 to increased exertion. Labor will be directed more 

 exclusively to the production of articles of neces- 

 sity, and patriotism and self-interest will both caU 

 upon all to sacrifice something at least of our usu- 

 al luxuries at home, for the comfort of our brave 

 sons and brothers, who are so nobly maintaining 

 our rights in the field. 



We have no cause for discouragement. Repub- 

 licanism, with her equal distribution of land and 

 of privileges, is exliibiting a sublime spectacle be- 

 fore the Avorld to-day, such as kings and poten- 

 tates have never before beheld, and will never see 

 in their own kingdoms — an army of more than 

 500,000 freemen volunteering to fight for their 

 country, with abundance at home, supplying the 

 markets of the world Avith bread, wliile its Con- 

 gi'ess in the first week of its session is considering 

 the expediency of sending relief to the homes of 

 tlie brave Irishmen who have rallied so readily to 

 the standard of their adopted country. 



Chemical Experiments with the Wheat 

 Crop. — From some recent and careful experiments 

 with wheat, on English soil, a British chemist as- 

 serts that, reckoning tha soil to be one foot deep, 

 it Avould require, of ordinary rotation Avith home 

 manuring and selling only corn and meat, about 

 one thousand years to exhaust as much phosphoric 

 acid, about two thousand years to exhaust as much 

 potash, and about six thousand years to exhaust 

 as much silica, as, according to the average results 

 of forty-two analyses relating to fourteen soils of 

 very various descriptions had been found to be so- 

 luble in dilute hydrocliloric acid. 



For the Aeu> England Farmer. 

 THE PATKIOTIC FARMER'S MUSINGS. 



BY D. TV. L. 



Farmer Stubbs in his furrow trod pensive along, 



Wliile the hills were all echoing melodious song ; 



Uncle Sam had just bargained for Tim and for Dave, 



And given them muskets the Union to save. 

 "Get along, Buck and Bright," and he hit them a slap, 

 "Out of this, boys, now, forward, kedap !" 



"King Cotton, the tyrant, with lash in his hand, 

 May rule his slave minions of half-heathen land ; 

 But men of New England — they born of the rocks — 

 Will square off and give him a few solid knocks. 



Now, stir up, my Buckeyes, you're taking your nap ; 



Away with the old plow, but steady, kedap. 



"The Union's a bargain for better or worse, 

 But broken at will, a political curse ; 

 The voice of her people must questions decide. 

 And ever remain the Republican's pride. 



So move along, Buckeyes — 'twill be no mishap ; 



And both pull together, now — steady, kedap. 



"There's honest Abe Lincoln, a man for the times, 

 Who fences off slavedom in well-defined lines. 

 And holds up our flag with a firm, steady hand. 

 Resolved it shall wave o'er a united land. 



Bear away, now, my darlings, or I'll hit yoii a tap ; 



Haw Brigh' and White-Face, come around here, kedap. 



"But men of the South, do not boast of your strength, 

 For the cause of mankind can but triumph at length ; 

 And know ye, proud rebels, whose cause is so black, 

 With their hands to the plow, Yankees never look back. 



So push along. Buckeyes, or you'll get a slap ; 



Don't play the secesh, now, but forward, kedap, 



"And men of the North, from the field and the shop. 

 Whose young blood is pledged to the very last drop. 

 Let all the world know, in a quarrel so just. 

 You'll crush out rebellion or sink into dust. 

 Then root out the stubble, and make the plow snap^ 

 A Yankee's behind ye, old sojers, kedap." 

 JFest Medford, Dec, 1861. 



For the New England Farmer. 



COBRESPONDENCE FROM MAINE. 



First Snow — Sheep Manure — Sheep for Mutton and Wool — Profits 

 of Sheep — Matching Steers. 



Snow fell so as to make quite good sleighing, 

 November 24, throughout the northern part of the 

 State. The ground Avas frozen but little in any 

 place, and the frost has mostly come out since it 

 has been so mild ; had it not snoAved repeatedly 

 since, the ground Avould have been bare again. 

 This has given sheep a longer grazing fall than Ave 

 are ahvays sure of, Avhich is quite an item in the 

 fodder designed for them. 



Sheep Mania. — This year brings round another 

 cycle of this disease, and the cry is sheep ! sheep I 

 have you any sheep to sell, or lambs to let ? Since 

 Avool advanced in prices, nearly every one Avants 

 more sheep to keep, and are eager for them at 

 much higher prices than for years previous. Store 

 sheep and lambs are quick at tAvo and one-half to 

 three cents per pound, live Aveight, Avliich is a liigh 

 figure Avith us. Speculators are letting sheep for 

 one pound and a half of avooI, per head, and the 

 taker bears all the risk, and pa}'s the taxes — so I 

 have been informed. 



It is very generally calculated here that sheep 

 pay the best of any stock for their keeping, upon 

 the amount invested, and the necessary labor re- 



