182 



NEW ENGLAND FAKTklER. 



Maech 



are imported, nine are commonly rated at one 

 pound. But to test the matter at our own market, 

 we have just put our correspondent's inquiry to a 

 Fancuil Hall dealer in Maine eggs. He at once 

 said that he believed that nine to the pound was 

 the rule for common hen's eggs; but, he added, 

 we will try it. Putting nine eggs into the scales 

 from a tubful in his store, which he said he con- 

 sidered of more than average size, but tailing 

 what he considered a fair average, they weighed 

 one pound and two ounces ; adding large ones 

 enough to make a dozen, the weight was one pound 

 and a half,— equal to eight to a pound. Then 

 taking nine of the smaller ones that lay on top of 

 the tub their weight v/as one pound. From which 

 he concluded that the old rule of nine to the pound 

 for "common eggs" was about correct. We sec- 

 ond the motion of our correspondent that eggs be 

 sold by the pound, as an approximation to justice 

 and fair dealing. We say "an approximation," 

 because we believe there is as great diflference in 

 the quality of eggs as m their size and weight; 

 that a pound of eggs from a well fed hen is about 

 as much better than a pound from one half 

 starved, as a pound of beef from a stalled ox is 

 better than a pound from a scaliawag. How shall 

 we fix this, Mr. Rail Road ? 



■WHEAT GROWING IN MAINE. 



Nine farmers in the towns of Newport, Skowhe- 

 gan and Madison report through their Farmers' 

 Clubs an average yield of 32 bushels wheat to the 

 acre— the smallest crop being 23^, the largest 44 

 bushels per acre. 



These few farmers are among the successful 

 wheat growers of Maine, who are scattered all 

 over the State, and these crops are incontrovert- 

 ible proof that the yield of Maine is about double 

 that of many States in the West, whose average 

 range from 12 to 13 bushels p> r acre, as appears 

 by ibe Department report. Farms and labor are 

 as cheap in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire 

 as in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. With the ex- 

 penses for freight, insurance, &c., which must in 

 many cases, be equal to the home value of a barrel 

 of flour in the remote sections of the West, why 

 may not the New England farmer compete suc- 

 cessfully with the Western wheat grower ? The 

 extra manure required to get a large crop of 

 wheat makes the land permanently better for the 

 next crop. I am informed that some of the 

 tobacco lands in the region of Northampton, Mass., 

 have yielded fifty bubhels of wheat per acre, the 

 result of previous high manuring. Tobacco re- 

 quires incessant labor and picks the farmer's 

 pocket almost daily. Wheat is the cheapest crop 

 raided on the farm. 



The example of these farmers will not be lost, we 

 hope, upon their neighbors, who have equal ad- 

 vantages with them. Henky 1'oor. 



New York, Jan., 1870. 



ENGLISH TUllNIPS. 



About the only good crop I have raised the past 

 season has been that of English turnips. Th^ 

 yield was so satisfactory, that the plan I pursued 

 may be interesting to your readers. 



A liberal dressing of manure was first spread 

 and ploughed in. The principal crops planted 

 were Indian corn, sweet corn and potatoes. The 

 tielas were faithfully hoed in dry weather, and 



kept entirely free from weeds. In sowing the tur- 

 nip seed I crossed the field both ways. As the 

 ground was rich and shaded by the growing crops, 

 the seed came up in abundance. We now passed 

 through the rows, on hot days, and struck down 

 with hoes, enough of the turnips to have them of 

 the right thickness. This was no small job. I had 

 never seen it done betore ; but it paid. I had few 

 little turnips, and an immense crop— nine hun- 

 dred bushels— of large ones. We began to gather 

 them early in the fall, feeding the tops to the cat- 

 tle. The tops were large, and rank, and palatable ; 

 and were invariably eaten up clean. I never al- 

 lowed them to heat in piles, but gathered a few 

 loads of turnips each day, so as to have the tops 

 fresh and crisp. Many of the turnips weighed 

 fifteen pounds, and were a foot in diameter. I 

 sold one, for a quarter of a dollar for a show win- 

 dow, and should have been willing to sell more at 

 the same price. 



I am feeding the turnips this winter to oxen, 

 cows and young stock, twice a day. I turn them 

 upon the floor, five bushels at a time, and cut them 

 up and feed them into the cribs with a large char- 

 coal shovel, which will take up about a half a 

 bushel at once. 



The cattle are so greedy for their share that 

 they almost tear the barn down, while it is being 

 prepared. I sell some milk, which is not effected 

 unfavorably by the turnips fed to the cows. 



Concoid, Mass., Jan., 1870. W. D. Brown. 



GOOD PIGS. 



I have fatted three pigs the past season that 

 have done so well that I will give you a brief 

 statement of them, though I have never before 

 written anything about my large vegetables or ani- 

 mals. The pigs were dropped Mareh 20, and I got 

 them when six weeks old. They were fed on the 

 waste of the kitchen, and the residue of the milk 

 of four small cows. In the early part of the sea- 

 son I gave them meal and shorts, — half and half, — 

 and during the latter part, the portion of meal was 

 doubled. The largest at the start, a barrow, I 

 called No. 1; the next in size, abanow, No. 2; 

 and the other, a sow. No. 3. About the first of 

 November, No. 2, then the heaviest, was slaugh- 

 tered, weighing 295 pounds dressed. The other 

 two were killed December 3d ; No. 1 weighing 333, 

 and No. 2, the sow, 364 pounds. 



Elias E. Poeter. 



Danvers, Mass., Dec. 31, 1869. 



CORN GROWING IN NEW ENGLAND. 



Having been raised on a farm in Massachusetts, 

 and having resided in several other New England 

 States, and travelled leisurely thousands of miles 

 in the free States before I became a Western pio- 

 neer, some thirty-five years ago, my means of in- 

 formation have been more than ordinarily good to 

 learn how farmers cultivate their crops. 



Being fully satisfied that no cereal grown in 

 Noith America south of 45° north latitude, yields 

 so much aliment per acre, for man or beast, as 

 Indian corn, and that none is more profitable to 

 the land owners, — provided they adopt the very 

 best methods of production, and skiliuUy appro- 

 priate the products of their corn fields. 



My experience and observation have taught me 

 that several mistakes in growing corn at the East 

 have been transmitted from one generation to an- 

 other, through successive ages, and have become 

 so firmly rooted in the minds of Eastern corn 

 growers, that, for a writer to treat them as gross 

 errors, will doubtless be regarded by many of 

 those growers, as good evidence that the writer 

 must be a very unsafe guide, or that his mind or 

 memory must be shattered. 



I will mention at this time but two things, which 



