82 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MABKET BEPOBTS. 



Mr. Editor: — The statement is often made 

 that a certain newspaper article, or a certain mar- 

 ket report, is worth the whole cost of a year's sub- 

 scription. This is doubtless very true. I think, 

 myself, that some articles from the pen of the edi- 

 tor or associate editor of the Farmer, are worth 

 the price of the paper, and yet it does not always 

 follow, by any means, that every one can afford to 

 pay for it. Some farmers, who are deeply in debt, 

 feel that they can hardly afford to expend any 

 thing that does not promise a speedy return in 

 money value. 



If there is one department of an agricultural pa- 

 per of more importance, in a pecuniary point of 

 view, to the farmer, than any other, it is reliable 

 market reports. The faithful record we get from 

 •week to week through the Farmer, of the sales^ at 

 Brighton market, have elicited the commendation 

 of several writers, and deservedly so, for they are 

 honest reports, (without partiality to buyer or sell- 

 er,) showing every farmer, at a glance, the true 

 market value of the different kinds of stock. In 

 my own judgment, Brighton market is better re- 

 ported in the Farmer, than is the New York mar- 

 ket by Solon Robinson, Esq., in the Tribune, in- 

 asmuch as it seems to me more in the farmer's in- 

 terest, or, perhaps, I should rather say, in every 

 one's interest, the reporter himself having no par- 

 ticular interest of his own, or Ids own locality, to 

 gratify. 



But my object in writing was, not to commend 

 the reports of Brighton market alone, nor the va- 

 rious other market valuations of farming produc- 

 tions so fully and impartially given in the Farmer, 

 which are all, I doubt not, appreciated, but to 

 suggest what I conceive might be an improvement 

 in your report on hay. Since the partial failure 

 of the potato crop, farmers in tliis vicinity have 

 very generally turned their attention more to the 

 sale of hay, and we depend on the Farmer just as 

 much to give us the Boston value of that article, 

 as we do on the Brighton report to give us the 

 price of a yoke of fat oxen ; and what I wish to 

 suggest is, whether it would not be an improve- 

 ment, instead of quoting country hay so much, 

 and Eastern pressed so much, to specify the price 

 of the several qualities, as you do on beef, lumber, 

 &c., by first quality, second quality, hay for bed- 

 ding, 8zc. I find some of our farmers are at a loss 

 to know whether their hay goes into Boston at the 

 price of Eastern pressed, or country hay. I sup- 

 pose that country hay has reference to loose hay 

 drawn in from the vicinity of Boston ; still I con- 

 clude our first quality hay, pressed and sent in by 

 the cars, commands about the same price. By 

 giving the price of the different qualities in Bos- 

 ton, farmers will readily perceive its home value, 

 and govern themselves accordingly. 



Those whose business it is to report the state 

 of the markets, cannot be too fully aware of their 

 responsible position. They act in an important 

 sense as agents for the whole community. How 

 desirable that those agents be so reliable as to give 

 no just cause for the remark sometimes made, that 

 "we can tell nothing by the papers." 



Farmers should not be too sensitive to their 

 own interest, nor strive to obtain more for an ar- 

 ticle than its true market value, but they are sur- 



rounded by speculators, and, as a body, go so sel- 

 dom to the city, that they need all the advantage 

 the market affords ; and an agricultural paper, of 

 all others, should be, (as I think the Farmer is,) 

 in the farmer's interest. JoHN F. FRENCH. 



North Hampton, N. H., Jan., 1862. 



Remarks. — We thank you for your sugges- 

 tions, and your good opinion of the Farmer. 

 The attention of the Reporter will be called to the 

 matter. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE SEASON AND CBOPS. 



Friend Brown : — ^For a long time, as often 

 as I have perused the pages of the Farmer, which 

 I always do with pleasure and profit, I have been 

 resolving and re-resolving that I would contribute 

 my mite to your columns. 



I have now screwed my resolution up to the 

 writing point, and dipped my quill — no, we have no 

 quills, now-a-days, except for tooth-picks. Que- 

 ry — What becomes of all the quills ? Have the 

 geese yielded to the pressure of the times, and 

 stopped discounting quills, as the pigs have bris- 

 tles, since pegs have been substituted therefor ? 



But, as I was saying, I am about to "Avrite for 

 the papers." Now for a theme. Your multitu- 

 dinous and able correspondents have raked the 

 ground all over, leaving less encouragement for 

 gleaners than was provided in Old Testament 

 times. But agricultural, like moral precepts, will 

 bear repeating, and if I should advance what has 

 been said, and better said, by others, my labor 

 may not be lost. 



The season just passed has been one of uncom- 

 mon jjroducliveness in this region. IMost of the 

 staple crops gave abundant yield. Corn was nev- 

 er better ; hay very abundant, and got in in good 

 condition ; potatoes from fair to good, and little 

 or no rot ; oats about middling ; wheat was in- 

 jured by the lice — not more than half the yield 

 of the previous year. 



Quern — Would it not be better to sow in the 

 fall ? Why more liable to be winter-lulled than 

 rye ? Or why not sow a month or six weeks lat- 

 er in spring, and thus come it over the varmints ? 

 In Wolfboi-o', N. II., I was told by a farmer, in 

 the winter of 1857, that he sowed wheat on the 

 16th of June, and harvested it on the 16th of Oc- 

 tober, the same yielding twenty-eight bushels per 

 acre. Rye has been a leading crop Mith the farm- 

 ers in this valley. Rye bread in summer, and rye 

 and Indian in winter, have been regarded through- 

 out the whole valley of the Connecticut as lawful 

 tender, from time immemorial. But Avheat is now 

 crowding it out. Our miller told me a few days 

 since that he grinds much more wheat than rye. 



In fvuit we have suffered in common with all 

 New England. I vdsh some of your contributors 

 would tell us why there was such a dearth of fruit 

 last season. Apples, pears and grapes, next to 

 none ; cherries, peaches, plums, none. Was it the 

 cold ? A large orchard in my neighborhood pro- 

 duced more apples last season than in any one 

 year for five years previous. My Isabella, Con- 

 cord and Hartford prolific grap«^s did Avell, while 

 the natives, of which I have ten varieties, all failed. 

 Most of my quinces were killed down to the 



