18G7. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



189 



this means precisely, protection for the manu- 

 facturers, but none for farmers. Ohl King 

 Solomon was perhaps not fiir from right when 

 he saitl there was nothing new nnder the sun ; 

 for these apparently new doctrines are simply 

 a revised edition of the tarilf of 1812, which 

 was founded upon the principle of proti'ction 

 to maniillicturers, so they might allbrd to i)ay 

 a goo'.l price for wool. How high a price they 

 did pay, wool growers very well remember, as 

 under its Ijenelicent operations wool depreci- 

 ated in value from forty-seven to twenty-seven 

 cents per pound, and to how low a figure it 

 would have fliUen, had not the taiiff of 1816 

 taken its place, we can only conjecture. The 

 fact is self-evident, that people, of whatever 

 trade or profession, will buy where they can 

 buy the cheapest, and sell in the best attain- 

 able market. Hence, if manufacturers can 

 obtain their wool cheaper in South America 

 than in New England, they will most assuredly 

 do so ; and our wool may lie in our wool rooms 

 till the day of jubilee, wdiich for farmers will 

 probably very soon come. 



With proper encouragement the farmers of 

 the United States can raise all the wool which 

 is needed for home consumption, instead of 

 from one-half to three-fifths of a supply, as is 

 now the case, and that interest which in the 

 courtly language of our Was-hington dispatches, 

 "requires much skilled labor and large capi- 

 tal" may be equally prosperous with us. 



Another argument used is that if Texas or 

 Missouri can raise wool at a profit at a very 

 low figure. New England has no right to com- 

 plain, and may quit the business. Grant this, 

 ye most worthy high priests of free v.ool ; but 

 will you have the goodness to tell us whether, if 

 by proper protective duties wool-growing is 

 made moderately profitable in New England, 

 the profits of Texas wool-growers would not 

 be proportionally increased and the whole 

 country thereby prosper together. In the 

 years which are gone, I used sometimes to 

 hear it threatened that New England, being 

 extremely pestiferous, must be left out in the 

 cold, but this is the first practical recommend- 

 ation looking to that result, which has claimed 

 the attention of Congress and the American 

 people. Although the whole thing is too su- 

 premely ridiculous to be thought of without 

 coleric ebullitions from one's inner man, yet, 

 for the moment, let us examine these brave 

 words aliont "skilled labor and large capital." 



I confess that my perceptions are so obtuse 

 that I am not al)le to see that it requires much 

 more skill to tend a loom or spindle, than it 

 docs to carry along in order all the multifari- 

 ous interests v,hich center about the farm. 

 "Large capital," too, forsooth ! Didn't any- 

 body ever stop to think, suppose, of the mil- 

 lions of farmers scattered over this country, 

 owning from forty, to, perhaps, four thousand 

 acres each, varying in price from fifteen to one 

 hundred dollars per acre ; its vast amount of 

 teams and tools required to carry on all this 



business — little perhaps to each indi\idual, 

 but enormous in the aggregate. Tlicn, too, 

 our flocks of American JNlerinos and English 

 nuitton l>reeds, our herds of Durhams, of De- 

 vons, and of vVlderneys, to say nothing of the 

 va^t value of otlicr kinds of stock ; and after 

 looking tliis all o\er, will not ])Cople 1 egln to 

 think this interest al.'-o requires "much ? killed 

 lal)or and large capital," as well as o'hers? 

 We all know that the amount of capital cm- 

 ployed in farming is immeasurably supeiior to 

 that employed in any other avocation. 



All we ask is equal protection with other in- 

 dustries, or falling in that, if we mui-t liave 

 free trade in wool, let us alvo have fi cc trade 

 in cloths, so that in homely but emphatic lan- 

 guage, all pariies may understand that "sauce 

 for the goose is sauce for the gander." 



Cornish, N. H.,Jan.l, 1867. e. r. s. 



For the New Enr/land Farmer. 



NOXIOUS AIvTIMALS, INCLUDING IN- 

 SECTS.— NO. II. 

 THE RAT. 



The whole rat family, including mice, can 

 be excluded from cellars and granaries, if the 

 same are properly constructed ; and no new 

 ones should be built without being double 

 proof against these vermin. Whether barns 

 have been, or can be made secure in this re- 

 spect, without too much inconvenience and ex- 

 pense, I do not know. If there is a happy 

 man who has all his stores secure from depre- 

 dations and defilement, let him tell us how the 

 thing is done. In the meantime, before we 

 can get our cellars and buildings in a safe con- 

 dition, we will shoot, trap, poison and scare 

 the rascals, to the utmost of our power and in- 

 genuity. Most families eiuploy one or more 

 cats to aid in the extermination of rats and 

 mice ; but often, from want of neatness, cats 

 are nearly as ol)jectionable as the little animals 

 they are expected to destroy, but do not. Rat 

 flesh is not a favorite repast with Pussy, and 

 she is not generally inclined to hunt the Nor- 

 way very vigorously. We have discarded cats, 

 partly on account of their offensive habits, 

 partly because they have killed for us more 

 chickens and birds than rats, and finally be- 

 cause a few good traps, well attended, will 

 catch more mice than the best of cat-mousers. 

 The best mouse trap is that very common one 

 made of a disk of wood, with half a dozen 

 holes in the periphery, in each of which is a 

 wire-spring garrote. 



Rats are exceedingly wary of traps : but by 

 baiting them with meal in some partially dark 

 nook, contiguous to a safe retreat, they will 

 come out to feed in the day time, and by tak- 

 ing a concealed position with a shot gun, they 

 can be laid out one or more at a time. And 

 notwithstanding the reputed caution of Mr. 

 Norway, the terrific explosion of the gun, the 

 smell of burning gunpowder, and the sprinkled 

 blood of the dead, the survivors will continue 



