1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



81 



something, which would be a training for what- 

 ever station they may fill in after life. All 

 this is worth something, — how much, those who 

 have the training of boys can estimate as well 

 as myself. 



Well, then, altogether my rent was four 

 hundred and fifty-eight dollars a year. What 

 kind of a place could I get for this money in 

 Boston ? Then my family had the benefit of 

 country air and good schools ; if not quite as 

 good as Boston at present, we believe they are 

 fast improving. 



On the first of June, 1868, I entered upon 

 this place, with which I opened an account, 

 which was balanced on the first of June, 18G9. 

 By which balance I found the place debtor to 

 the ameunt of three dollars and sixty-one cents. 

 That is, I had sold fruit, butter, milk and 

 eggs for as much as I had paid out for labor, 

 and for meal, corn, and other things I had to 

 purchase for the farm, less three dollars and 

 sixty-one cents. 



Now, then, what did I have for my four 

 hundred and sixty-one dollars and sixty-one 

 cents? In the first place, I had a good large 

 house, pleasantly located, to live in. Those 

 acquainted with city rents can judge of the 

 situation and style of house this money would 

 have paid for in Boston. Besides the use of 

 the buildings, I have had all the apples, pears, 

 strawberries and other small fruits for my 

 family's use ; I had all the vegetables 1 wanted 

 for the whole year, with potatoes enough for 

 my next planting, which are worth more than 

 the debit balance ; I had all the eggs and 

 poultry I wanted for the year ; I had between 

 two and three hundred pounds of pork ; I had 

 all the butter and milk 1 wanted for my family 

 for the year; I had all the fire wood needed 

 for my kitchen stove ; and on the first of June, 

 1869, the expiration of the first year, I had 

 one cow, and instead of a heifer fifteen months 

 old, I bad a two-year-old heifer, giving me 

 eight quiirts of milk per day; also one calf 

 ten months old, and another, one month old. 



Sj much for a country home in poor Need- 

 bam. How I did it, and further details of my 

 experience in farming, I will leave for another 

 time. Trios. Wiiitakeu. 



Needliam, Mass., Dec. 1, 1869. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 FOREIQW AND NATIVE FARM HELP. 



In the New England Farmer of Novem- 

 ber lo, I observed an article by Mr. Jameson, 

 of Irasburg, Vt., entitled "Help and Stock 

 for the Farm." 



If I uddet stand Mr. Jameson right, he be- 

 lieves that Ameiican farmers' sons make supe- 

 rior farm hflp; — that tbey understand the na- 

 ture and wants of cattle, the comparative value 

 of hiiy, straw, aud roots to bo fed to them, the 

 treatment of the soil, &c ; that they are not 

 givfu to smoking, drinking, and profanity, 

 and that they are small eaters. The foreign- 



ers are represented as being unskilled laborers, 

 given to smoking, drinking and profanity, and 

 the idea is expressed that the happiness of the 

 family cannot be perfect while all their time is 

 taken up to minister to the wants of sucii rav- 

 enous boarders. 



Now, sir, it seems to me that Mr. J. makes 

 a gross misrepresentation of the two classes of 

 help of which he writes. Let us look at them 

 for a moment. 



I admit that the American farmer's son, 

 raised upon his father's farm, will make a 

 skilful workman ; at least, he has a chance 

 to be so. Still I do deny that foreigners, 

 generally speaking, are unskilled workmen. 

 Why, sir, what makes the American farmer's 

 son a skilled workman, but the fact that he has 

 been accustomed to work on his father's farm ? 

 And why should not the foreigner be consid- 

 ered a skilled workman who has been laised 

 under a superior system of farming ? It is a 

 fact beyond dispute, that the system of farm- 

 ing in Europe is considerable ahead of the 

 system of farming in New England. Farmers 

 in Europe can pay from ten to twenty dollars 

 a year in rent for every acre of land they oc- 

 cupy, and make money at that. Could they 

 do so unless they managed their business sys- 

 tematically, and had a good knowledge of every 

 detail of farming ? And why should not men 

 trained up under such a system be considered 

 skilful workmen, as well as those who have 

 grown up on farms in New England? Let 

 Mr. Jameson cross the line into Canada, and 

 he will find a system of farming at least equal, 

 if not superior, to that of New England. In 

 Canada they raise good stock and good crops. 

 Who are they that own tiiese farms and raise 

 these crops, these cattle and sheep in Canada? 

 Why, sir, they are mostly foreigners ; and not 

 a few of them are the Irish and French of 

 which Mr. J. complains. 



Four years ago last spring, I commenced 

 farming. I had never owned a farm before ; 

 having spent the greater part of my life in the 

 city. Well, the farm was badly run down 

 when I got it, and that, too, by the sons of 

 American farmers. The first year I did not 

 cut hay enough on the place to winter two 

 cows. Last winti;r I had hay enough on the 

 place to winter nine head. I think that is 

 not very bad, do you, Mr. Jameson, for a for- 

 eigner, and a Scotchman, at that! 



Why sir, what has made this nation — in 

 which we live and of which we are proud — 

 a first-class power amongst the nations of 

 the earth ? 1 claim that foreign skill and for- 

 eign labor have had very much to do with it. 



Another objection of Mr. J. to foreigners is 

 smoking. I admit that a great many foreign- 

 ers use tobacco, but do not many American 

 farmers' sons do the same, and some of their 

 wives and daughters? If smoking, chewing 

 and snufling tobacco is condemned in the for- 

 eigner, why not in the native ? 



Another objection of Mr. J. to foreigners is 



