312 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



imitation. Some of its members, we know, are 

 not persons to engage in a good cause, and aban- 

 don it, short of obstacles that cannot be easily re- 

 moved. 



HO"W MTJCH MONEY WILL IT 

 PRODUCE ? 



We make the following extract from an address 

 upon the Agricultural prospects of New England, 

 delivered by the Hon. Daniel Needham, at Stan- 

 stead, C. E., on the 22d ult. : 



"When the young man leaves his New England 

 home, and with wife and children emigrates to the 

 far West, what influences move him ? Is it not 

 the bold statement that the virgin soil of that dis- 

 tant land readily produces fifty bushels of corn 

 and forty bushels of wheat to the acre ? Is it not 

 for this prospect, that he leaves all his old associa- 

 tions, the land of his birth, the land of abundant 

 schools and churches, the land of good roads and 

 great comforts, to suffer privations in a new coun- 

 try, where school-houses, churches and roads are 

 to be built ? The question lie should put to him- 

 self is, will I better my condition by emigrating ? 

 If the land is more productive of corn and wheat 

 in Illinois, Wisconsin and other Western States, 

 is it more productire ofmone;)'') Admitting fifty 

 bushels of corn can be raised to the acre, do we 

 not raise that quantity on many farms in New 

 England ? According to the census of 1850, fifty 

 bushels was the average of the State of Connecti- 

 cut. But if you raise fifty bushels, how much 

 money will it bring ? At this very moment, Avith- 

 in sixty miles of Chicago, corn can be bought for 

 twelve cents a bushel. Fifty bushels at twelve 

 cents a bushel, will give you six dollars ; and in 

 order to produce this paltry sum of moneij, you 

 must plow, harroio, hoe, harvest, shell and market 

 an acre of corn. What will your acre bring you 

 in Vermont ? Corn is now seventy cents a bushel ; 

 — and if you raise fifty bushels, as you should if 

 you are a good farmer, your acre will produce you 

 thirty-Jive dollars. 



How is it M'itli Avheat ? Wheat is now worth 

 M'ithin sixty miles of Chicago, sixty cents a bush- 

 el. The average crop of Illinois is less than twenty 

 bushels ; and for your acre you will realize less 

 than twelve dollars. In Vermont, our average 

 crop is seventeen bushels, which to-day is worth 

 one dollar and twenty cents a bushel, yielding for 

 the acre, twenty dollars and forty cents. 



But suppose you convert your corn into pork, 

 will that hel[) the matter? Pork has been selling 

 this entire winter, within sixty miles of Chicago, 

 at two cents a pound. 



The man who leaves Vermont and goes West to 

 get rich liy agricultural industry, makes a sad mis- 

 tukc. Northern men have gone West and secured 

 wealth, but it has been by fortunate investments 

 in real estate. Such men can be found in every 

 school district of our State, men who by fortunate 

 sjjcculations have amassed wealth. But the time 

 is far in the future, when men, by legitimate agri- 

 cultural industry in the West, will reach the cov- 

 eted goal of wealth." 



Keep no more stock than you can keep in good 

 order, and that of the best kind. 



PEBFUMES, 



The chief places for the growth of the sweet 

 perfume-producing flowers are Montpellier, Grasse, 

 Nismes, Savoy, Cannes and Nice. Nice alone pro- 

 duces a harvest of a hundred thousand pounds of 

 orange blossoms, and Cannes, as much again, and 

 of a finer odor. Five hundred pounds of orange 

 blossoms yield about two pounds of pure Neroly 

 oil. At Cannes the acacia thrives particularly 

 well, and produces yearly about nine thousand 

 pounds of blossoms. One great perfumery distil- 

 lery at Cannes uses yearly about one hundred and 

 forty thousand pounds of orange blossoms, twenty 

 thousand pounds of acacia flowers, a hundred and 

 forty thousand pounds of rose leaves, thirty-two 

 thousand pounds of jessamine blossoms, twenty 

 thousand pounds of tuberoses, together with a 

 great many other sweet herbs. The extraction of 

 ethereal oils, tlie small quantities of which are 

 mixed in the flowers with such large quantities of 

 other vegetable juices that it requires about six 

 hundred pounds of rose leaves to win one ounce 

 of otto of roses, of course, demands a very careful 

 treatment. 



Nice and Cannes are the paradise of violets, pro- 

 ducing annually something like thirteen thousand 

 pounds of blossoms. The variety cultivated is 

 generally the double or Parma violet, which is so 

 productive that the flowers are sold at about five 

 pence per pound ; and Ave all know what sort of 

 bouquet a pound of violets would make. 



The abundance in Sicily of every floAver which 

 in our climate is most highly prized, recalls the 

 traveller in the story, who arrived in a country 

 Avhere the children played at pitch-and-toss and 

 marbles Avith diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and oth- 

 er precious gems : "These are, doubtless, the sons 

 of some powerful king," he said, and boAved re- 

 spectfully before them. The children, laughing, 

 made him soon perceive that they Avere the street- 

 boys, and that the gems Avere only the pebbles of 

 that country. In Sicily the crimson grenade and 

 rose trees, the peach-colored rhododendrons, and 

 the delicate Avhite camellias, form the country 

 hedges. The white and green myrtles, and pink, 

 Avhite, and flame-shaped and flame-colored tulips, 

 grow Avild. When a pleasure-garden is made, the 

 orange and lemon trees are taken out because 

 they are too common. By the same rule, veryfcAV 

 people trouble themselves Avith flowers — they are 

 too vulgar. Alphonse Karr Avas much surprised 

 to notice that the ladies of Nice never decorated 

 themselves Avith real flowers, but seemed to dis- 

 like them. He observes this is all the more strange 

 in a country Avhere it is no longer a mythological 

 flattery to say that flowers spring from under the 

 ladies' feet. The roses, violets, jessamine and 

 mignonette are cultivated only by the peasants for 

 perfumery purposes, and honored but as Ave hon- 

 or potatoes or cabbages. 



We are now AvhoUy dependent for our finest 

 perfumes on France, so that Avhen the crop of a 

 flower fails, as did that of the jessamine last year, 

 it Avill put the manufacturers to serious inconve- 

 nience. It Avould, therefore, be the interest of 

 perfumers to promote the production of those floAV- 

 ers in other countries ; and the high price they 

 fetch in the market Avould make it a very ju-ofita- 

 ble s})eculation. It has been proposed to cultivate 

 floAvers in England on a large scale, for perfumery 

 purposes, but the climate renders this scheme to- 



