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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PLANT ONE ACRE MORE. 



A suggestion made by a merchant, a few days 

 pince, that we ought to raise all the grain we can, 

 now that we have so many men in the army, has 

 led me to think it would be well to bring the sub- 

 ject before the farming community as widely as 

 possible through our agricultural and other papers. 



All the productions of the country are tending 

 upward, and, in all probability, will continue to so 

 long as this terrible war we are now engaged in 

 continues. This, of necessity, must be the case, 

 as so many of our farmers and laboring men are 

 withdrawn from producing the necessaries of life. 

 The pork and beef market will not feel the effects 

 of this state of things as soon as other farm pro- 

 ducts, as Western farmers, in the absence of labor, 

 turn their cattle into their corn fields and let 

 them do the harvesting. 



Thousands of acres, the past season, have been 

 devoted to this method, that, under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances of labor, would have found their way to 

 our markets in grain, instead of coming in beef 

 and pork. Our present situation and future pros- 

 pects demand of every man who cultivates the 

 8oil, to make the most of the means under his 

 control, to produce all the grain and other crops 

 he possibly can for the sustenance of man and 

 beast. Plant, if possible, another acre, even if it 

 be at the risk, in some measure, of impoverishing 

 your land. On your strongest lands plant corn ; 

 on your poor, beans. You may, in this way, ren- 

 der incalculable service to your country, in keep- 

 ing the price of life-supporting substances within 

 reasonable limits. 



It will be impossible for our great grain grow- 

 ing States to put in their usual quantity of corn 

 the coming spring — or in grain, to forward their 

 last season's crops to our markets. The result of 

 this state of things we can readily see. As wise 

 and patriotic men let us act in view of it, and in- 

 crease our products as much as possible. 



Rochester, Jan. 30, 1863. o. K. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PROFIT OF SHEEP. 



Mr. Editor : — It affords me pleasure to find 

 an occasional article in the Farmer on the subject 

 of sheep and wool-growing. I presume there are 

 many others of your readers, who, with myself, 

 would be glad to have you devote more space to 

 this important interest. To the farmers of New 

 Hampshire and Vermont, at least, this is an inter- 

 esting subject. 



From my acquaintance with farming in Eastern 

 Massachusetts, I had supposed that most of the 

 farmers there knew but little, and cared even less 

 about sheep. But I observe in a recent number 

 of the Farmer, that even in Boston, and in a leg- 

 islative agricultural meeting, there was sufficient 

 interest in the sheep question, to lead that honor- 

 able body to devote an evening to its discussion. 

 From your brief report of the views advanced on 

 that occasion, I infer, however, that Massachusetts 

 farmers have not yet become very much excited 

 about sheep. The opinions expressed, do not ap- 

 pear very decidedly in favor of wool-growing in 

 Massachusetts, (a) Numerous examples of suc- 

 cessful effort in this direction seemed to have been 

 wanting. 



Now, it is a wonder to me, that the farmers of 

 Massachusetts — a little removed from a good city 

 market — have not long ago found it for their in- 

 terest to keep sheep. In this section — where we 

 are practically as near Boston market as the large 

 majority of Massachusetts farmers — cattle and 

 horses are mostly kept from necessity or conve- 

 nience, but sheep, for the i-eal j^ro^fU of the thing. 

 And we realize what we keep them for — a profit. 

 And not a few of our farmers make a very hand- 

 some profit, too. 



If you were here, I could take you to several 

 flocks, within a few miles, where the average annu- 

 al income, from the ewe sheep old enough to raise 

 lambs, would exceed ten dollars per head. Now, 

 the cost of keeping these sheep a year does not 

 exceed two dollars per head ; showing a net profit 

 far exceeding anything, so far as I am acquainted, 

 obtained from neat stock. These are fine wooUed 

 sheep, commonly called Spanish Merino, although 

 but few of them ai"e pure Merino. 



You will bear in mind that I do not claim the 

 above results in favor of all our farmers. But 

 what a few have done by persevering, careful 

 management, may be done by any one in a like 

 manner, whether in this State or Massachusetts. 



A. B. Palmer. 



Orfordmlle, N. H., Feb. 1863. 



P. S. I shall be pleased to see what you have 

 to publish on the "influence of food on the quality 

 of sheep." A. B. P. 



REM.4.RKS. — (a) Hundreds, if not thousands, 

 of farmers, in Massachusetts, would be glad to 

 keep sheep, if they could — but where their neigh- 

 bors are licensed to let a ferocious beast run at 

 large and destroy them, they will not incur the 

 risk, and a still more important one, that of get- 

 ting into a quarrel with neighbors with whom they 

 might otherwise live in harmony for a life-time. 



F(jr the New England Farmer. 

 INCREASE THE FODDER. 

 Mr. Brown : — As it is the season of the year, 

 when every good farmer is mapping out the com- 

 ing season's work, and endeavoring to estimate its 

 results, I may be pardoned if I take the liberty 

 of suggesting to such, that their plans and purpo- 

 ses should be governed by the peculiar circumstan- 

 ces of the country at present, and as it in all hu- 

 man probability will be for the coming year, so far 

 as its production of life-sustaining crops are con- 

 cerned. We have a greater interest here than 

 in the prices of cotton and wool, or the worse 

 than worthless production of tobacco and alco- 

 holic drinks. The producing and laboring classes 

 of our great grain growing States, have been sad- 

 ly decimated by the war, since last spring's plant- 

 ing and sowing season, and in consequence, im- 

 mense quantities of corn now remain unharvested 

 from this cause. Had it not been for the very 

 warm winter, which kept the fields too muddy to 

 work in, or haul the corn from when harvested, 

 much would have found its way to market as 

 grain, that now will be consumed by cattle and 

 hogs, or wasted upon the ground. As in a previ- 

 ous article I have alluded to these facts for the 

 purpose of urging upon every farmer the raising 

 of all the food he can for man, I now urge the in- 



