214 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



post, north or soutli, with a window to slide on 

 the north side, and in front a door 3^ feet high, to 

 elevate or depress at pleasure by means of weights, 

 to shut the sheep in, or out, in the yards in front, 

 and we have in this apartment a yard 14 by 50 

 feet, and so on, as many yards as may be wanted, 

 and bring water to all the yards, on a level, to 

 every trough, and brought in at the bottom, and 

 then there will be no freezing. A barn finished 

 up this way will be found very convenient to haul 

 out manure, and the shed attached will give great 

 additional strength to the main structure — the 

 barn. 



If cattle are to be kept in the cellar, the finishing 

 may be made to accommodate them, also, equally 

 well. H. G. 



Walpole, N. H., Feb., 1862. 



For the New England Farmer. 



KETBOSPECTIVE NOTES. 



"Planning and Preparing Work."— If every 

 reader of this joui-nal would turn to the March No., 

 page 106, and read or re-read this excellent com- 

 munication from the pen of Mr. Goldsbury, and 

 then put to himself the question, do I practice all 

 the planmng and preparing of work which Mr. G. 

 here represents as essential to success and pros- 

 perity in the business of farming ? he would be 

 enabled, if he answered the question honestly, to 

 determine his true position as a farmer. 



The purpose of the writer of the article now un- 

 der notice, seems to have been to persuade his 

 brother farmers that success in their business de- 

 pends vei-y much upon the earnest application, not 

 of their muscles, but of their minds, in planning 

 and preparing for the work of the busy season of 

 spring and summer, during the comparatively 

 leisure season of winter. Unfortunately, this is a 

 truth of which a great many seem to be either ig- 

 norant or regardless ; and this ignorance or neg- 

 lect operates not only to the injury of these indi- 

 viduals themselves, but tends to lower the respec- 

 tability of the really noble profession to which Ave 

 all belong. It is from this and similar neglects to 

 employ mind in the management of our business, 

 that farmers are so generally considered and called 

 mere clod-hoppers, and other names manifesting a 

 like disrespect for us and for our profession. 

 Hence it comes that we aU suffer in reputation on 

 account of the thoughtlessness and laziness of a 

 part. Hence, too, we derive our right to protest 

 against unthinking, unprogressive characteristics 

 of those who will neither read, nor think, nor study 

 to make advances in the management of their bus- 

 iness, but content themselves with plodding on in 

 the footsteps of their predecessors. Hence, too, 

 » it follows, that we all owe a debt of gratitude to 

 j such men as Mr. Goldsbury for their efforts to 

 convert the unthinking, and plodding routine-fol- 

 lowers among us from the error of their ways, and 

 to elevate and give a higher dignity to the profes- 

 sion of providers of the food of the world. Thanks, 

 then, to Mr. Goldsbury for his efforts to stir up 

 his brethren to a sense of the need which there is 

 of applying mind as well as muscle in the business 

 of farming, and to a practical recognition of the 

 fact that God has so ordered a/fairs that a farmer 

 must continually be aiming to make improvements, 

 must continually be aiming to do better the next 



year than the last, and must plan and prepare for 

 his work beforehand, or in winter, so as to be 

 ready to take it up at the proper time, and to do 

 it in a proper, or the best, manner. 



And now, supposing that Mr. Goldsbury's ef- 

 forts and ours have been successful in enkindling 

 in some a determination that every year shall Mit- 

 ness some improvement upon farm management, 

 it is quite probable that not a few may be at a loss 

 how to make the reading, thinking, planning and 

 other work of the mind, in the leisure of winter, 

 help the muscles in the busier season, in working 

 out higher success. For the assistance of such I 

 will now give a brief sketch of the way in which a 

 farmer of my acquaintance endeavors to make all 

 his reading, thinking, planning and information or 

 suggestions from every quarter, contribute to his 

 purpose of constant improvement. 



First of all, he has a map of his farm on the first 

 page of a writing book made of several quires of 

 note paper stitched together. Of this book he de- 

 votes several pages to each of his fields, and every 

 year writes what he calls Historical Notes of the 

 crops raised, the manm-es applied, and the condi- 

 tion and capacity of the field generally. Another 

 series of pages is devoted to a record of his plans, 

 of the crops to be raised, the manures to be ap- 

 plied, the mode of culture to be adopted, &c., up- 

 on each field. This record he generally makes in 

 March of each year, which has very appropriately 

 been called, by the editor of this journal, the 

 make-ready month, when all plans should be ma- 

 tured for the campaign of the season. Then he 

 has a number of pages devoted to a record of what 

 he calls Intended Improvements and Projected 

 Experiments. And finally, he makes a record on 

 the remaining pages, of every suggestion that may 

 occur to himself or come from others, and of every 

 item of information he finds in his reading, which 

 he may think likely to be useful. These he reads 

 over and fixes in liis mind, and then proceeds to 

 make his plans, &c., for the coming season. 



More Anon. 



Duties on Trees, Plants and Seeds. — The 

 Gardener's Monthlxj, published at Philadelphia, 

 states that the "Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety have taken steps to memorialize Congress 

 to impose a duty of 50 per cent, on imported ag- 

 ricultural productions." This may be so — though 

 we have not heard of such action. The Concord 

 Farmer's Club recently petitioned Congress to 

 lay a duty upon imported seeds, but not upon 

 plants or trees, and gave what we thought a valid 

 reason for such a request. 



1^ We learn that Mr. George Campbell, of 

 West Westminster, Vt., has recently bought four 

 ewe lambs of Wm. R. Sanford, of Orwell, at $100 

 per head ; fifteen young ewes of Edgar Sanford, of 

 Cornwall, for $1800 ; and six breeding ewes of Ed- 

 win and Henry Hammond, of Middlebury, at 

 $1400. The cost of the twenty-five sheep is 

 $3600. Mr. Campbell is one of the most intelli- 

 gent and enterprising sheep-raisers in the coun- 

 try. 



