1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



155 



arrange them into machines, and set them to work, 

 and thus the forces of nature will be subjected to 

 the service of man. It is thus that while we are 

 carrying on the greatest and most expensive war 

 of modern times, we must supply the material of 

 war, and at the same time supply our domestic 

 wants. 



Mr. John Mills, Secretary of the Hillsboro' 

 Co. Ag. Association, in the course of his remarks, 

 related the story of a farmer's wife who, a few 

 days ago, went to the store to purchase a new 

 dress. When the seller told her the price of the 

 cloth, she thought it ruinously high and extrava- 

 gant, but when the price of the butter and the 

 eggs was stated, with which she was to pay for the 

 dress, she declared that she had purchased it as 

 cheaply as ever ! 



The Rev. J. Gardner Davis sustained the 

 views of the former speakers, and urged that a re- 

 laxation of effort in a crisis like the present would 

 be unmanly and disastrous. He had always ob- 

 served that men were successful that were persis- 

 tent — whose motto was, "stick to it, stick to it." 

 These are the men who achieve victories in every 

 department of labor, whether in the closet, camp 

 or the field. 



Col. C. H. Campbell, of Amherst, and others 

 engaged in the discussion, which was continued 

 with unabated interest until nearly ten o'clock. 



After a night of refreshment in the hospitable 

 family of E. D. Boylston, Esq., editor of the 

 Amherst Cabinet, — my companion stopping with 

 Col. Campbell, — we went to Milford, and had a 

 morning and afternoon meeting there. The sub- 

 jects discussed at these meetings related more di- 

 rectly to the practices of agriculture, under the 

 general question — "How can agricultural employ- 

 ment be made profitable ?" 



In answering this question, many facts were 

 stated and questions asked and responded to, and 

 the culture and profit of many crops stated. 

 Among others, the comparative profit of selling 

 milk, or of making it into butter and selling that, 

 was earnestly discussed. It was urged that more 

 profit can be derived from milk by making it into 

 butter than by selling the milk at any prices yet 

 paid for it to go over the road, — and that about 

 the only reason why the farmer who seeks the 

 largest profit should sell his milk, is, where his 

 circumstances are such that he would be obliged 

 to hire just so much extra help as would be re- 

 quired to perform the labor. 



Another strong argument was presented, and 

 illustrated by many facts, that selling the milk 

 impoverished the fiirm more rapidly, even, than 

 selling off the hay ; as in this case nothing is re- 

 turned from it to the soil, while in making butter 

 the skim milk goes to the swine and the butter- 

 milk to family uses. 



In replying to the general question, as to what 

 proJUable farming ts, the subject of thorough work, 

 as far as the farmer goes, was earnestly urged. 

 The grass crop was stated to be the basis of all 

 agricultural operations, underlying and sustaining 

 all, both man and beast, and that unless this crop 

 is made a profitable one with the farmer, little 

 success could be expected in any other depart- 

 ment of the farm. Some of the modes of reclaim- 

 ing lands were given, the crops used preparatory 

 to seeding, and the various ways of increasing, 

 preparing and using manures. The importance 

 of draining grass land was dwelt upon at consid- 

 erable length, and its influence upon the soil and 

 crop was illustrated in various ways. It was shown 

 that drained lands bear the drought longer than 

 wet ones, — that they are earlier and much more 

 easily cultivated — that they receive more benefit 

 from showers — that the grass roots are not so lia- 

 ble to be winter-killed, and that for these and sev- 

 eral other reasons, few improvements of the farm 

 are so proJitabU as that of thorough draining. 



Another source of profit which was strongly 

 urged, was that of rearing stock upon the farm 

 instead of selling off the hay. Mr. Mills stated 

 that he kne'w a farmer who had sold from his land 

 $100 worth of hay annually for forty years in suc- 

 cession, without purchasing any manure to supply 

 this waste. At the end of this time his farm was 

 so reduced that he could spare no bay to sell, nor 

 was it capable of feeding the amount of stock that 

 he began with forty years before. He argued that 

 if his neighbor had raised three heifer calves an- 

 nually, he could have sold them at three years old 

 for about $33 each, and in that case would have 

 realized his $4000 in cash, in the forty years, and 

 had the droppings of one hundred and twenty head 

 of young cattle returned to the fields which he had 

 been cropping. Under this system, at the end of 

 forty years, the farm would probably be in a con- 

 dition to sustain more stock than ever before, and 

 would have gained as much in its grain, vegetable 

 and fruit crops as in the grass. 



The discussion was participated in by Francis 

 Wright, Vice President of the Association ; P. 

 M. RossiTER, Mr. Bartlett, Abel Chase, and 

 others, with great apparent interest. 



We found many earnest thinkers and inquirers 

 among the Hillsboro' farmers. A few well attend- 

 ed meetings, and a lively discussion of some of 

 the important questions now presented to cultiva- 

 tors of the soil, would rouse the farmers of the 

 whole country into a new interest, and some )iew 

 practices in their business. We trust these will 

 take place. They cannot seek profit more direct- 

 ly in any other way. There are plenty of intelH- 

 I gent men among them to take the lead in the good 

 I work. 



