154 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



in the human species. Why should not this medicine 

 apply to sheep equally as well as the other ? 



Washington, Vt., March 27, 1864. H. P. Gale. 



1 saw an inquiry for a remedy for scouring sheep, 

 by "W. N. C," of Vernon, Vt., to be sent through 

 the columns of the Farmer. My method of treating 

 such sheep is, to take raspberry leaves and hemlock 

 bark, steep them together and give H pint three times 

 a day. I have tried this with my sheep, and never 

 knew it to fail. The remedy is simple and certain. 



Benton, N. H., 1864. w. c. w. 



IN" CpUWCIIi WITH THE HlLLSBORO', 



N. H., FAKMEKS. 



Some of the farmers in the southern pajt of 

 Hillsboro' county, New Hampshire, having invit- 

 ed us to meet them and discuss some of the mat- 

 ters of general interest pertaining to their avoca- 

 tion, we went to Amherst on Monday last in com- 

 pany with Dr. Joseph Reynolds, of Concord, 

 and found the people assembled in the Town Hall 

 when we arrived, at about 8 o'clock, P. M. No 

 special subject for discussion having been previ- 

 ously suggested, it was decided to adopt the fol- 

 lowing : What course is it for the inta'est of the 

 farmer to pursue, under the preseiit circumstances 

 of war and high prices ? The discussion was en- 

 tered into with zeal, soon became animated, and 

 many striking facts and suggestions were present- 

 ed and enforced. Dr. Reynolds spoke about 

 twenty minutes with energy and directness, and 

 adduced reasons why the farmer should not stay 

 his hand in producing the crops that must not 

 only supply our home wants, but which are also 

 indispensable in sustaining our brave armies that 

 have been sent into the field. He thought it the 

 duty of the farmer to extend his labors rather than 

 abridge them, under this state of things. That 

 he should hire his usual help and pay the ad- 

 vanced price of wages, and trust, for remunera- 

 tion, to the higher prices which his products will 

 be likely to bring in market. He said, 



When a man attempts to speak to his fellow- 

 citizens, his mind almost instinctively reverts to 

 the subject that is in all our hearts and in all our 

 thoughts — our country, torn, distracted, bleeding 

 at every pore. We have now become so hard- 

 ened, by familiarity, that we can think and talk, 

 more calmly, and with less excitement, than at 

 first ; but we never, for a moment, forget it ; we 

 carry the burden wherever we go, and think of it 

 whatever we do. We have reference to it in all 

 our business arrangements. When we buy or 

 sell, we are reminded of it, by war prices. If 

 we propose to hire a laborer, the question occurs 

 at once, whether we can afford to pay his price ; 

 whether we had not better let our land lie fallow, 

 and barely cultivate enough to feed our families. 

 Every thoughtful, and sensible, and patriotic man 

 has come to the conclusion, or will soon do so, 

 that he can best serve his country, and assist in 

 completing the great work on our hands, by pur- 

 suing skilfully and energetically, the industrial 

 avocation in which he is engaged. Large sup- 

 plies of mechanical and farm products are want- 



ed, not only to supply our wants at home, but to 

 supply the warns of the armies in the field. Meat 

 and meal, flour and wool, are as much material of 

 war as powder and ball, and guns and swords, 

 and the war can no more be carried on without 

 the one than the other, and it is the business and 

 the duty of the farmer to supply the former, as it 

 is the business and the duty of the soldier to use 

 the latter. If we had money, and could supply 

 the government with all it wants, this would not 

 feed the armies. They want beef and poik, and 

 flour and corn, and must have them, and we must 

 supply them. If labor is high, we must cultivate 

 more skilfully, and then make the labor more 

 productive. We must use more machinery and 

 more animal power. We must make the horse 

 do the labor that has been done by human hands. 

 Mark out the field, and drop your potatoes in a 

 row, and cover them by turning a furrow with 

 your horse, on to each side of the row. In this 

 way, a horse and one man will plant faster than 

 two men can in the usual way. Then use the cul- 

 tivator between the rows, and in the autumn use 

 the potato digger. Plant your corn with the corn 

 planter, drawn by the horse. Use the drill to 

 sow your seeds, even your wheat and millet, and 

 you will plant not only more rapidly and cheaply, 

 but will get larger crops. Thus the high price of 

 labor will introduce better and cheaper methods 

 of culture. There will be more farm machinery 

 used this year than ever before. Farmers will 

 use the best tools they can find. The manufac- 

 turers of the Buckeye mowing machine could not 

 fill their oi'ders last year, but fell behind several 

 hundreds of machines, and there will be more 

 wanted this year than last. 



He did not mean that every farmer should try 

 to raise every kind of crop. Let each raise that 

 crop which he can raise best ; that which is best 

 suited to his soil, or which he is best prepared to 

 cultivate. Immense quantities of beans and oats 

 are wanted, and bring high prices. They are 

 easily raised, and if you use a threshing machine, 

 the labor will be comparatively small. Butter is 

 at present enormously high, and if you were sure 

 the present prices would be kept up you could 

 aff"ord to make milk for market. But whether it 

 will be best to change your dairy arrangements, 

 and convert your milk into butter an<l pork, each 

 must determine for himself. It will depend very 

 much upon his conveniences and the skill of his 

 family. It is very certain that the present prices 

 of milk do not compare with the price of butter. 

 The raising of stock and pork requires less labor 

 than the raising of hoed crops. But whatever 

 you do, do it well. Raise the best stock, the best 

 sheep, the best swine. If you make butter, get 

 the best butter cows. Milk difi'ers in the quanti- 

 ty of butter it yields, from six to twenty per cent. 

 Use the lactometer, and if you find that the milk 

 of a cow yields less than ten or twelve per cent., 

 turn her to the butcher, or exchange with the 

 milk raiser. The butter maker certainly cannot 

 aff"ord to keep her. It costs more wear and tear 

 of mind as well as body to carry on business now 

 than it does in quiet times, when everything 

 moves on in the ruts ; and we have got to be ac- 

 tive. We must join the wide-awakes, or we shall 

 run ofi' the track. The world is full of ideas, and 

 ideas are the seeds of facts, the germs of work. 

 We must gather them up, reduce them to order, 



