1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



365 



the marhine outs it. It is pretty snug work ; but 

 the binciiug is well done, and without great efl'ort, 

 apparently. Yet some one suggests that he can- 

 not do it all day. His blood is up instanter ! lie 

 oflfers to bet that he can cut, with one man to 

 drive, and bind alone, twelve acres in twelve suc- 

 cessive hours. No one takes the bet ; but sundry 

 neighboi-s who know what he can do, cry, "Yes, 

 Sir, and he will do it, too." But let us see what 

 data he has from this time test upon which to 

 base this bet. How long was he cutting and bind- 

 ing this acre ? Fifty minutes, the official timer 

 eays. The wheat stood up finely, was a pretty 

 good stand, and was probably a fair average test. 

 Tile field was well cut. There was not a particle 

 of waste. No cleaner field was found after any 

 machine. No better bound grain was set up dur- 

 ing the two days. These are very suggestive 

 facts, which will not be lost upon the inventors 

 and reaper men present, you may be sure. 



"OF MY OWN" RAISING." 

 In a late number of the New Hampshire Jour- 

 nal of Agriculhire, Mr. Z. Breed gives the result 

 of six years' experience in wheat raising. He first 

 tried winter wheat, but now prefers the spring 

 wheat, for ihe cultivation of which he gives the 

 following brief directions : 



In the first place, the weevil is pretty sure to 

 attack it if it blossoms when the fly is ready for it. 

 To avoid this difficulty the seed should be put in 

 early. To accomplish this the plowing should be 

 done late in the fall. A slight coat of manure on 

 the surface is what I begin with in the spring. 

 The ground is well harrowed and levelled. The 

 wheat is washed, poured upon the barn floor and 

 thoroughly coated with slacked lime. My grass 

 seed is mixed with the wheat. It is all put on the 

 ground together, thoroughly harrowed and rolled. 

 Thus managed, my crops are all good, and six 

 years of this kind of experience gives me full con- 

 fidence in the plan. Good crops are raised on 

 sward ground, turned under in September, and 

 treated in the spring as described above. The ex- 

 posure of the soil to the frosts of winter prepares 

 it for the grain, and the straw will stand up better 

 and the grain will be more perfect than when the 

 plowing is done in spring. 



Mr. Breed thinks his success authorizes him to 

 assure the farmers of New England that many of 

 them may enjoy, with him, the satisfaction, bor- 

 dering on pride, of being able to say to their 

 friends who eat bread at their tables, "This is 

 made from wheat of my own raising ;" a remark 

 he suggest, that makes one feel a little larger — 

 as though he occupied more space in the world 

 than he does when tt^ling the price of his last 

 barrel,, or saying whether it was branded "St. 

 Louis" or "New Orleans." Mr. B. further dis- 

 courses as follows, upon the interest which we all 

 have in the result of the labor of our brain or mus- 

 cle, and which is as much a part of our reward as 

 the pecuniary compensation received or expected. 



One always has an affection for his own. The 

 products (^f his own labor are nearer and dearer to 

 him than any other. They are a part of him. He 



has worked himself into them. His thought and 

 his muscle have been expended in their produc- 

 tion. No matter upon what one labors with brain 

 and hand — it becomes his own. It is the result 

 of his effort. Let him scrub up the bushes and 

 stum])s upon an old bog ; dig in mud and water 

 and drain it; the time comes when he will go a 

 little out of his way to walk over that ground and 

 compare it with what it was before. He treads 

 the firm ground under his feet with an earnest, 

 proud step that others know nothing of. This is 

 all right. He is getting his reward. His pocket 

 feels it, too, but the lover of improvement does 

 not reap his reward entirely in dollars and cents. 

 He has changed tlie future of nature from a for- 

 bidding, unproductive aspect, to a pleasant and 

 productive one. In the contemplation of the 

 change he has wrought he gets a portion of his 

 pay for labor expended. 



PRICE OF ■WOOL. 



A New York farmer who is holding on to his 

 clip of wool for a higher price, which he believes 

 will yet be offered, gives the following reasons 

 through the FMral New Yorker, for the faith that 

 is in him : 



I claim that wool is absurdly low, — I mean the 

 yarme/s wool, — though I am by no means sure 

 but it will stay so. I think forty cents ])er pound 

 would be about the average that Western New 

 York farmers have received for their wool in past 

 time. JkVhenever it has taken a plunge down, as 

 it often has, it was owing to a sudden contraction 

 of our currency. A short supply of hank favors 

 has very frequently tumbled wool down ten or 

 twenty cents per pound, and now that there is no 

 limit to nfoney that can be had for "good paper," 

 I know ivot why wool should not tumble tip at 

 least ten cents per pound ; — in fact, the deprecia- 

 tion of our currency is such that fifty cents now 

 is not more than equal to forty cents in the aver- 

 age of years ; so we will call it fifty cents. The 

 army demand may reasonably raise it five centfs, 

 by reason of the greater consumption and destruc- 

 tion of garments, so we will call it fifty-five cents. We 

 muH import a part of our supply, the price of 

 which determines, by a law of trade, the value of 

 the remainder; and as we virtually pay for it in 

 gold, worth about thirty-one ])er cent, premium, this 

 should advance wool about twelve cents, from which 

 we are to deduct the five cents already allowed for 

 inflation, making seven cents, which leaves wool 

 at sixty-two cents per pound. The absence of 

 cotton, (and it can't come again in a month at the 

 wave of a magician's wand.) creates a very great 

 additional consumption of wool, and ought at the 

 least to advance wool eight cents, which leaves it 

 at seventy. 



Now it is well known that as cloth advanced, 

 we hung to our old garments till they would not 

 hang to us ; and there is now a necessity for more 

 than an average purchase of clothing through the 

 length and breadth of the land, and the universal 

 emi)loyment given to labor, and the abundance of 

 cash, will insure these purchases to be made, se- 

 curing a fall and winter trade never better in the 

 history of the country, and this should advance 

 wool at least five cents, making scventij-fne cents 

 per pound, which is all that I ask for my clip! I 

 don't say that wool will bring this, but I do say, 



