78 



NEW ENGLAND FAKIVIER. 



Feb- 



State are directing attention, more than ever, 

 to horses, neat stock and the dairy. It seems 

 to us that more flattering opportunities were 

 never offered to those wishing to engage in 

 agricultural pursuits. Opportunities, not only 

 for making money, but for that distinction in 

 the public mind which all desire, when it can 

 be gained by being useful to the world. 



Sheep culture is by no means abandoned in 

 the State. Large numbers of INIerinos are 

 etill kept, while the long-wools are introduced, 

 and found profitable. The amount of poultry 

 may be trebled, and a compensating demand 

 found for it all. Where the cereal grains are 

 eo extensively cultivated, poultry can be 

 cheaply raised. It is compact in form, easily 

 dressed and marketed, and readily sells at 

 paying prices. The forests nearly or quite 

 Bupply the people with sugar, which is one of 

 two or three of the leading articles of cost 

 consumed in the family. 



With this view of the matter we are inclined 

 to think one of the writers of the State may be 

 correct in saying, — "that when we take into 

 consideration the number of acres of improved 

 land, its appraised value, number of inhabi- 

 tants employed in agriculture, and amount of 

 production, we far surpass any other other 

 State in the American Union." 



Another consideration of vital importance is, 

 (hat. all this vast production lies almost at the 

 threshold of the doors of the purchaser. The 

 means of transportation are so constant, rapid 

 and cheap, that the articles produced are worth 

 almost as much where they grow, as they are in 

 the markets where they are consumed. 



The opportunities, hov/cver, for pecuniary 

 gain, in this favored spot, are not its principal 

 allurements. Its crowning glories are in good 

 laws, wisely administered; in the means of 

 education afforded by schools, but chiefly in 

 intelligent mothers ; in the industry and liberal 

 economy of the people, and in the ample op- 

 portunities for the moral and religious training 

 of all classes, which is to preserve (he institu- 

 4ions of our fathers, perpetuate our power as 

 a n.ition, and mak'i us an example worthy of 

 imitation by all the peoples of the earth. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 FARMING IN 1849 AND IN 1889. 



A great many people are prone to look on 

 only one side of a picture or of any object 

 that may be presented to them, though ablest 

 every thing is said to have two sides, 

 and we know that almost every body has two 

 eyes. Let us try to use both eyes for a f^iw 

 moments, and to examine both sides of our 

 present "bard times." 



During the late war, prices of farm produce 

 ran up excessively high, and farmers gathered 

 a richer harvest than ever before since our 

 national existence. This state of things has 

 raised the ideas of farmers. But now the 

 war is over, and the high prices it produced, 

 are no longer realized in full. Oar taxes 

 have been greatly increased and so has the 

 cost of the labor we hire. Where, then, it 

 may be asked, is the bright side of our condi- 

 tion ? Let us see if we can find it. 



We will compare 18i9 with 18C9. Twenty 

 years ago I paid about $20 tax ; I paid for a 

 hired man, six months, $60; I estimated his 

 board at $39 ; my New England Faraier 

 then cost me $2.50 a year — total for these 

 three items in 1849. $126.50. 



In 1869 I paid $50 taxes, for hired man 

 $150; cost of his board say $78, and the 

 Fakmer $2.50,— total in 1869, $280.50. 



Now I take the ruling prices at this market, 

 — and, by the way, we have a good one, — and 

 estimate the amount of each of the several ar- 

 ticles of produce named, required in 1819 and 

 in 1869 to pay my taxes, hired man and my 

 newspaper : — 



— One man in Walpole, N, H., has raised eight 

 acres of the best tobacco that was grown on the 

 Connecnicut river last year. A good deal of land 

 In that town will be devoted to the cultivation of 

 the weed next season. 



Thus I have paid my taxes and my hired 

 man in 1869, notwithstanding their much high- 

 er nominal cost, with a coujiderably smaller 

 amount tif produce, than I did in 1849. 



If I had sold potatoes to raise the money, 

 it would have taken 198 bushels less now than 

 in 1849, a gain sufiiicient to supply a large 

 family ; if I had sold corn, 17 bushels less ; if 

 hay, two tons ; if butter, 356 pounds ; if cows, 

 I should have saved the price of three and a 

 half, — a pretty good beginning for a dairy ; 

 and so of the other articles named. Our 

 farms, also are worth at least 25 p"r cent, 

 more than in 1849. 1 might compare the 

 present prices of horses now with those of 

 twenty years ago, but the foregoing is sulli- 

 cient. 



What farmer who compares the above fig- 

 ures will wish for the return of the old times, 

 with its low rate of taxation and of labor ? 

 If our taxes have increased our means for pay- 



