80 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



very easy matter to advise us farmers to keep 

 a large pile of this excellent fertilizer on hand ; 

 but they do not tell us where to get the hen 

 manure. 



I have raised over one hundred bushels of 

 good sound corn with these special fertilizers 

 applied in the hill the past season, and from 

 accounts kept, charging the whole cost ■ of the 

 manure, labor, interest, &c., I find it has cost 

 a fraction less than seventy cents a bushel. 



We make fine wool a specialty. Our great- 

 est desideratum is hay ; the next is wheat, 

 with which to bread the family, and I know of 

 no better way io obtain these than to raise 

 corn as I have named. After it is harvested, 

 plough the ground, and spread on from eight 

 to ten cords per acre of good manure from 

 the sheep hovels or barn cellar. In the 

 spring, as soon as the ground will admit, give 

 it a good harrowing or cultivating, and sow to 

 wheat and grass seed. 



Mr. John Johnson, — not the famous one 

 near Geneva, N. Y., but of this town — ^has 

 brought an old worn-out farm to a high state 

 of cultivation by a similar practice. He raises 

 on an average twenty-two bushels of wheat to 

 the acre, and keeps a large and thrifty stock 

 of cattle. Mr. W. H. Palmer, another neigh- 

 bor of mine, five years ago, bought an old, 

 worn-out farm that did not average half a ton 

 of hay to the acre. It will now average two 

 tons. His practice is similar to mine and Mr. 

 Johnson's. Other farmers are adopting the 

 same practice with good success. 



I should have said that my own phosphate 

 cost two cents and eight mills a pound, besides 

 the labor of making, and a narrow escape from 

 getting badly burned with the acid. I don't 

 think I shall use "Uncle John's" "superphos- 

 phate of brains" in making my superphosphate 

 hereafter, but buy it ready made, and I think 

 I have brains enough to know which to buy. 

 S. C. Pattee. 



Warner, N. H., Bee, 1869. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 COUNTRY HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE 



Much has been said and written about coun- 

 try homes for the clerks, mechanics and labor- 

 ers whose business is in the city. The question 

 has engaged the attention of noble minds and 

 able pens. In occupying your attention and 

 that of the public, I do it, let it be understood, 

 not because I claim to rank with the best and 

 wisest men of the day, but simply to detail a 

 little of my own experience in this matter of 

 a country home. INIy intention always is to 

 regulate my desires by reason and the circum- 

 stances in which I am placed, and to attempt 

 only that which I feel a degree of certainty I 

 can attain. By so doing 1 may attempt less 

 than others, and may attain less ; but I shall 

 have one or two advantages — my failures will 

 be fewer, my mortifications less. 



A couple of years ago my business brought 



me into Boston. Having a family of five boya 

 the question was, — What shall I do with my 

 family ? If I hire a tenement in the city — such 

 an one as I shall like to have, and in such a 

 neighborhood as I shall want to bring up a 

 family in — the rent will be equal to, if not 

 above my whole salary. To hire a tenement 

 in such a place in the city as my circumstances 

 would allow, I was satisfied would be no place 

 for me to bring up a family in. I wanted to 

 be with my family as much as possible ; and 

 the only alternative was such a place as last 

 described, or a place in the country. 



It did not take me long to make up my mind 

 that my home must be in the country ; but at 

 such a distance that I could reach it every 

 night at a small cost. After looking at a 

 number of places within the eleven miles cir- 

 cle of Boston, I finally fixed upon a place in 

 Needham. I must admit I was a little fright- 

 ened about locating in this town by the repu- 

 tation it had won. Every body with whom I 

 conversed said. Why ! you are not going to 

 live there in Poor Needham ! You may raise 

 white beans and pennyroyal, but not much else. 



Being somewhat wilful in my nature, and a 

 little independent in my'judgment, I made up 

 my mind, notwithstanding all that was said, 

 to locate in poor Needham. I found a place 

 there of about twelve acres of land on which 

 stands — not a palatial palace, not even a 

 French-roofed modern residence, — but a good 

 substantial farm-house, containing eleven rooms 

 besides attics. The sitting-room and parlor 

 are fifteen by sixteen feet, and two of the 

 bed-rooms are of the same size. There was 

 alsp a small barn and carriage house, with 

 sheds attached which belong generally to farm 

 houses. On the land there are about seventy 

 apple trees and about the same number of 

 young pear trees, many not in bearing yet. 



For this place I paid forty-five hundred dol- 

 lars. I bought a cow and a heifer fifteen 

 months old, for which I paid one hundred 

 dollars. I also purchased another parcel of 

 land of about eleven acres, for five hundred 

 dollars. This lot was part pasture and part 

 wood. On the first mentioned purchase there 

 is about five acres in sprouts. For fencing 

 the pasture I paid two hundred dollars. My 

 outlay for tools and other things would amount 

 to another hundred dollars. Making my 

 whole investment fifty-fofar hundred dollars ; 

 the interest on which at seven per cent.,, 

 would be three hundred and seventy-eight 

 dollars ; to which add eighty dollars, the price 

 of my season ticket for a year, would make 

 the whole four hundred fifty-eight dollars a 

 year. 



I suppose some will ask the question, why 

 buy so much land ? I had five boys, four with 

 me at home, who, besides going to school, 

 could do a great deal about the place. They 

 could milk the cows, plant and weed, as well 

 as a man, and would thereby acquire the 

 habit of doing something and taking care of 



