172 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



made any headway during the eight years. A 

 sorry sight, said he, but how many such sorry 

 sights meet the eye as we pass from farm to farm 

 in our country journeys. 



If anything gladdens the eye, even to a feast, it 

 is the hill side orchard ranges, laden with fruit. 

 How mean is a farm without its fruits. 



Brooklyn, L. L, 1863. H. Poor. 



For the Nete England Farmer. 

 "WHAT IS THE MOST PROFITABLE 

 CROP? 



Mr. Brown : — Many of your readers in New 

 England, in view of the increased demand which 

 the future must press upon them, will give many 

 a thought to the question, What is the most prof- 

 itable crop I can raise the coming season ? 



The location of a farm must decide in many 

 cases ; as, for example, those in the immediate 

 vicinity of cities will raise vegetables for market. 



ItTias seemed to me that too much consequence 

 has been given to the Indian corn crop, and that 

 it is not the renumerative crop still so generally 

 believed. The fact is, the times have changed, 

 and farmers must change with them in some of 

 their crops and methods of cultivation. 



When our town was first settled, the corn crop 

 was the staple. Plenty of fish were taken from 

 the then noble river, a privilege since destroyed 

 by a corporation dam miles below, and many 

 planters put in a shad to a hill. No doubt the 

 corn crop then, not only here, but over a wide re- 

 gion around, was the best they could cultivate. 

 Corn was the simplest and most nutritious and 

 convenient food they could procure. It still fills 

 a large place among the supplies for man and 

 beast. 



It will be at once remembered, that in those 

 early days of the first settlers, transportation of 

 bulky products for any considerable distance was 

 a thing almost impossible. What Avas needed for 

 subsistence must be produced at home. But now 

 we live in better days. A more numerous popula- 

 tion, with abundant means, has covered the States 

 with a net work of railroads, and opened the 

 great West with its vast fields of inexhaustible 

 fertility to the farmer. Have we an adequate idea 

 of the richness of those prairie farms ? Barns are 

 built on the banks of streams that the manure 

 may be got out of the way without expense. 

 Barns are moved away from the manure in cases 

 where long accumulations have made a formida- 

 ble pile. 



Wheat fields sometimes improve by several 

 years cropping, as the stalk grows at first too rank 

 to hold up the grain. 



I have in my house an ear of corn raised bj a 

 relative in Nebraska. It grew out of the first 

 turned sod. No manure, no hoeing. The work 

 was simply to plough the land, "chop in" the seed, 

 and team off the heavy ears. 



Does it not seem, then, that the West connect- 

 ed with us by railroad and water, can furnish New 

 England with corn cheaper than it can be grown 

 here, as a general thing ? Shall we continue to 

 raise Indian corn as our chief crop, simply because 

 it has been the best for our ancestors, to whom the 

 West was almost unknown ? 



Corn is a very convenient article of freight. It 

 can be moved in hot or cold, wet or dry weather. 

 It can be stored in large quantities. It is changed 



from vessel to warehouse, and from thence to cars, 

 in streams as if a fluid, by steam elevators. It is 

 largely an article of exchange, and has been sent 

 East in large quantities the past season to pay 

 debts. No doubt more would be welcome. 



Grain crops are exhausting to our lands. If 

 abundant, they must depend on the most liberal 

 supply of manure on a good soil. The fast trav- 

 eling horse depends on the oat bag. The cow that 

 gives so much milk has a well filled crib. We 

 cannot squeeze out of our sandy, rocky soil, grain 

 crops like the West without ploughing in a liberal 

 dressing of manure. w. D. B. 



Concord, Mass., 1863. 



Remarks. — Please tell what crop or crops 

 would be better for a majority of Massachusetts 

 farmers. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 CUIiTUBE OF SWEET POTATOES. 



Mr. Editor :— In the Farmer of Feb. 14, there 

 is a communication from Mr. IVES, of Salem, 

 giving an account of a yield of sweet potatoes the 

 most remarkable of any that ever came to my 

 knowledge, and which, I think, has some mistake, 

 of which more will be said. Some time last spring 

 a writer from Connecticut, I think, (I have mislaid 

 the paper,) put an article in your paper, the i:mr- 

 port of which was that he had tried sweet potatoes 

 once, and had seen the "elephant" They were a 

 failure, and he advised farmers not to try them. I 

 think that it is modest in us, when we make an 

 experiment, and it fails, to intimate that, possibly, 

 as it is the first time, we did not know how to do 

 it, or the soil or seasoi1%night not have been good, 

 instead of giving advice to others. 



[A mistake occurred in Mr. Ives' manuscript, 

 he stating that his ground measured "three-quar- 

 ters of a rod square," when he intended it to be 

 just one rod more. We omit, therefore, what our 

 correspondent says of that eiTor. — Ed.] 



I think I am a pioneer in raising sweet potatoes 

 in any amount, from slips of my own starting in 

 this State. Having raised them steadily for sev- 

 enteen years, perhaps my experience will have 

 some weight. The first year was small doings — I 

 saw the elephant ; but although he did appear like 

 a Goliath, I went forth to meet him like little Da- 

 vid, and the third year he was subdued, and I got 

 75 bushels of excellent potatoes. Their fame be- 

 gan to spread, and the people desired me to raise 

 plants for them. The fourth year 375 bushels, 

 the next 400 bushels. By this time there was a 

 perfect fever for slips, and I planted eleven barrels 

 of potatoes in my beds to meet the demand; but 

 that very year that such a great number of people 

 had them, was the poorest that I have known. It 

 was a failure. Reducing my beds, I have gone 

 steadily on raising potatoes, and raising plants for 

 those that know their %vorih by experience. They 

 have their ups and downs like other things. Last 

 year was a very good year for them ; I raised over 

 200 bushels, l)ut the year before they surpassed in 

 flavor anything I, ever saw; they tasted almost 

 like a confection, and those that I put into my 

 cellar kept until February, when the last were 

 cooked, and not a sign of rot had been seen. 



From my experience, I can safely say that in 

 some sections of our State, the sweet potato is as 



