1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEiffiR. 



129 



from the time the seed is sown in the beds 

 until it is sold. I have sometimes thought we 

 did not need a telegraph to enable us to know 

 ■what was being done among the tobacco grow- 

 ers, for a sale can't be made without its being 

 known, inbtan'.er, f>r miles around. Talk 

 about women circulating village gossip ! Why, 

 they are not to be named the same day with 

 our tobacco growers. They scent the ap- 

 proach of a buyer from afar ; and I have some- 

 times thought that they could smell Old Sam 

 as far or further than they could hear him 

 swear. Agawam. 



North Hatfield, Mass., 1870. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 SHAIiIi "WE RAISE ALL OUR CORN? 



Something over one hundred years ago, men 

 were moving up the Merrimac, Contoocook 

 and Connecticut rivers into New Hampshire, 

 attracted by the fertile soil along their banks, 

 the food their waters supplied, and the high- 

 ways they furnished ere the country was crossed 

 by roads. Then, almost the only occupation 

 of the new settlers was farming. If corn was 

 consumed it had to be raised for two reasons : 

 first, the difficulty of procuring it from older 

 settled States, from want of transportation ; 

 and secondly, from want of means to pay 

 for it, had it bee i easy of access. 



Such arguments as were advanced at the 

 farmers' convention at Manchester last month 

 would have been appropriate then, when every 

 man was a producer, when there were no man- 

 ufactories save the saw mill that cut only tim- 

 ber to meet the limited demand of a scat- 

 tered people ; grist mills, to grind the little 

 grain consumed ; blacksmith shops, where were 

 made the only tools used upon the farm, or by 

 the weaver, the tailor, and the shoemaker, 

 who wrought in almost every kitchen. Then 

 it might have been well to urge the raising of 

 all the grain consumed, because it was possi- 

 ble to do so. 



But now o«r rivers are used as highways only 

 to carry the remnant of the forests to the mills 

 below us. They have ceased to supply us with 

 fish, and we are becoming a manufacturing 

 people, — consumers, instead of producers. 

 We are but one door from Massachusetts, the 

 workshop of the nation. 



Could the wise men of New Hampshire see 

 no difference between the condition of the 

 people of our State now and one hundred 

 years ago ? Could they see no difference be- 

 tween this time and that prior to the period 

 when the canals and railroads brought the 

 grain fields to our doors ? Could they see no 

 difference between those pioneers and the peo- 

 ple of our manufacturing towns and cities, 

 the products of whose labor is scattered over 

 the world, bringing from the furthest corners 



are the most powerful ? Were they not aware 

 that there is no better index of the prosperity 

 of a people, of their wealth, their refinement, 

 and the relation they sustain to the outside 

 world, than their markets ? 



What do we want of corn ? One of the en- 

 thusiasts for corn-growing in New Hampshire 

 said he could realize two dollars per bushel for 

 his corn by feeding it to hogs. If that was 

 true he would have shown wisdom in purchas- 

 ing a large amount of corn and transmuting it 

 into pork ; for there has been a good margin 

 between the market price of corn and two dol- 

 lars a bushel. By so doing, an untold amount 

 of manure might have been obtained with 

 which to increase his own crops. 



The West wants to sell us corn ; Massachu- 

 setts wants poultry, and wants it well corned 

 before it is killed. May we not take the corn 

 the West is crowding upon us and make it into 

 choice turkeys and chickens, that our city 

 friends will have ? There is not enough poul- 

 try raised in New England to supply its mar- 

 kets. There is room enough, and boys and 

 girls and women enough in New Hampshire to 

 raise it, and the prices paid for choice poultry 

 will prove remunerative, though turkey ban- 

 tams may not pay for raiting. Shall we buy 

 the corn to raise it? thus furnishing employ- 

 ment to a class of our people needing it, and 

 producing something to restore the wasting 

 fertility of our soil. 



If it will pay to feed com to hogs, is it not 

 for the interest of Eastern farmers to feed as 

 much Western corn to them as possible, mak- 

 ing employment for its people and manure for 

 its soil ? There is a constantly increasing de- 

 mand for milk and cream and butter. It will 

 pay to feed cows for milk and beef; milking 

 them until they are fat. Shall we buy corn 

 for that purpose, thus making a rich manure 

 and a profitable business ? Or, because there 

 is not corn enough raised here, shall we milk 

 poor cows that produce poor milk, and then 

 fatten them for beef at a cost that ivill not pay ? 

 Good beef and good milk are made without 

 corn, but not without hay or a substitute. 



There is no more profitable crop than good 

 grass. We cannot go to the far West for our 

 hay ; while the West will supply us with corn 

 at prices which will allow us a margin for 

 profit when fed for poultry or pork, or milk, 

 or beef. Why, then, should we. not buy 

 Western corn and raise forage crops, such as 

 hay, &c., and put our manure upon such fields 

 as will pay for top dressing ; plough and ma- 

 nure such lands as will produce good corn ; 

 sowing the corn broadcast, with grass seed, 

 for it will grow as well with corn as with 

 grain ? 



No one doubts the capacity of New Hamp- 

 shire to grow corn or wheat. Cloth can be 

 made in an old-fashioned hand- loom; but be- 



their treasures — the means to purchase foot cause cloth can be made in such a loom, shall 

 and clothing and the luxuries of re6nement? we insist upon having all our clothing made in 

 Did they not know that the best fed people that way ? When New Hampshire men urge 



