376 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aua. 



in Massachusetts or New Hampshire makes 

 more money in the year from a tract of not 

 naturally fertile land, with the disadvantage 

 of a severe climate, than the Kentuckian did 

 on a greater number of acres of land as pro- 

 ductive as any in the world, the result must 

 not be attributed to any superior shrewdness, 

 better judgment or greater skill, upon the part 

 of the Northern man, but simply to the fact 

 that he never allows anything to go to waste, 

 no spot to remain idle, no opportunity to save 

 or improve the place, to go unimproved. His 

 stock are housed in winter and their manure 

 all saved to go on the "poor points ;" the 

 feeding is carefully done so that nothing is 

 lost, and yet, we doubt, whether, on the whole, 

 any person enjoys life more fully than this 

 provident, industrious man. We have emi- 

 nent authority for the assertion that "compar- 

 isons are odious" and we have referred to this 

 difference in systems in order to point the 

 moral, that economy, watchfulness, and atten- 

 tion to small matters, will bring profitable re- 

 suits to our people as well as to those in other 

 sectiona. 



We are entering upon a new era in the 

 South, and we are hopeful that a few years 

 hence will witness a more rapid progress in 

 agriculture, and a greater degree of prosper- 

 ity for our people, than has ever been before. 

 The cultivation will be more thorough, and 

 our people will learn to utilize many things 

 that were thought to be too insignificant for 

 notice in the slow-plodding, unenterprising 

 ante-bellum days — and then we will see the 

 beginning of our growth in wealth, importance 

 and power as a State. — Farmers' Home Jour- 

 nal, Lexington, Ky. 



Remaeks. — In copying the foregoing sensi- 

 ble remarks from one of our best agricultural 

 exchanges, we cannot avoid the expression of 

 a fear that, while the Southern people are 

 adopting those principles of economy and in- 

 dustry which laid the foundation of the pros- 

 perity of New England, the people of the 

 North are, in turn, falling into those habits of 

 carelessness as to incurring debts and expend- 

 ing monfey, that dread of being considered 

 penurious, and that dislike of labor, which 

 resulted so disastrously at the South. 



MUIiCHINQ BEABINO FRUIT TREES. 



There is no doubt now by our most intelli- 

 gent horticulturists about the practical advan- 

 tages to h ' gained by mulching the surface of 

 the orchard and fruit garden. This, should be 

 more generally practiced in fruit-producing 

 distric s, for it is the least expensive and most 

 effective method of protecting the fruit trees 

 against the bad results often following the fre- 

 quent and sudden changes of temperature 



during the summer and fall months, when the 

 surface of the ground is left exposed to the 

 direct rays of the sun. Again, when the 

 mulch is put two or three inches in thickness, 

 the surface soil is constantly moist and loose, 

 even when no rain falls for a term of several 

 weeks, and the trees or fruit receive no check 

 for want of moisture and food under such cir- 

 cumstances. 



My method is to cultivate the spaces be- 

 tween the rows of trees in the orchard, using 

 a small one-horse plough and cultivator, run- 

 ning not more than two inches deep, during 

 the early part of the season. From the 1st to 

 the 15th of July I have put on a heavy coat- 

 ing of salt hay, covering the surface as far as 

 the branches extend. After this there is no 

 more trouble with weeds and grass. There 

 may a few scattered ones start up, but they 

 are easily destroyed. 



Every fruit-grower knows that two or three 

 weeks before the time of gathering the main 

 crop of fruit, fine specimens are constantly 

 falling off or blown off by strong winds. 

 When the ground is mulched the majority of 

 such specimens are not bruised or injured for 

 sale. This saving alone I consider pays me 

 for the trouble of mulching the orchard. 



There is only one serious drawback to the 

 application of a mulch, that is the danger of 

 the hay or straw getting on fire when rendered 

 dry by continual warm weather. — P. T. Quinn, 

 in N. Y. Tribune. 



For the Xeio England Farmer, 



HOW TO MAKE THE MOST MONEY 

 FROM THE FARM. 



The following is an abridgment of an address given by 

 M. J. Harvey, Esq., at the March meeting of the 

 Eppirg, N. H,, Farmers' Club, as introductory to the 

 discussion of the question "How to make the most 

 Money from the Farm." 



Before attempting to answer the question 

 which comes before the club this evening, per- 

 haps I ought, in the first place, to attempt to 

 prove that any money at all can be made from 

 the farm. If we take men's actions as evi- 

 dence of their opinions, must we not meet the 

 stern and inevitable fact that "no money can 

 be made by farming?" To prove that suchis 

 the opinion of nine-tenths of the farmers of 

 this town, do we need any better evidence 

 than is furnished by the course pursued by 

 their sons, a large proportion of whom leave the 

 paternal acres, and go to the villages or cities 

 for a clerkship or a trade ? Would they do 

 this if their fathers thought an equal amount 

 of money could be made on the farm ? 



Leaving this question for some future de- 

 bate, I will, before proceeding to answer the 

 question how to make the most money from 

 the farm, mention a few ways in which not to 

 do it. 



I have seen so-called farmers pitch out their 

 manure in heaps against the side of their barn, 



