1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARAIER. 



83 



BPECIAXTIEB IN PAKMINO. | 



The business of agriculture should be an 

 industry and not a speculation. Ihe insane 

 pursuit of specialties has long been a curse to 

 American agriculture. A whole community 

 runs wild upon hops, when selling at 50 cents 

 per pound, and in two years they are scarcely 

 worth the price of picking, and extravagance 

 begotten of high expectations is forthwith 

 followed by bankruptcy. Wheat brings $2 

 per bushel, and whole States become wheat 

 fields, while every other interest languishes, 

 until the bread crop becomes so abundant as 

 to be fed to swine in,preference to shipment 

 for human food. The sheep, with wool at $1 

 per pound, holds high place in popular esteem, 

 but is kicked from the pasture by every Ran- 

 dolph of the farm at the first indication of a 

 heavy decline in the value of its fleece. In 

 your section cotton, a great boon to your 

 agriculture as a constituent in your aggregate 

 of production, may become an unmitigated 

 evil if left to usurp the place of all other crops. 

 The crop of last year produced $100,000,000, 

 more than 50 per cent larger than ten years 

 ago. Three millions of bales may command a 

 profit of $40 per bale, while 5,000,000 may 

 not bring a dollar above their cost. But 

 present profit is not the main consideration. 

 The increase in value and enlargement of the 

 productive capacity of the soil, by a judicious 

 rotation, including the restorative influences 

 of green cropping and cattle feeding, is an in- 

 crease of capital, a source of large annual in- 

 come, and an addition to the inheritance of 

 one's children. It not only insures a profit 

 from cotten culture, but enables the planter to 

 pocket the entire proceeds of its sale, other 

 products feeding man and beast. — Hon. II. 

 Capron, at Georgia Fair. 



DOMESTIC HABITS. 



It has been truly said that many a man has 

 owed his success or failnre in business as 

 much to the management of bis wife, as to his 

 own individual action. Although domestic 

 occupations do not hold the high rank to 

 which they are justly entitled, yet there is rea- 

 son to believe that the sentiment which has so 

 long prevailed is undergoing a radical change, 

 and that females see more and more the neces- 

 sity of possessing the ability to overlook and 

 bystematically direct the expenditure of that 

 part of their husband's income which comes 

 more directly under their immediate inpec- 

 tion : and truly we should consider them the 

 more praiseworthy and deserving our esteem, 

 whatever their circumstances in life, who 

 best peiform the duties which their situation 

 requires. We btlieve that at the present 

 time the instances are more common than at any 

 time bince the early settlement of our country 

 where ladies in the higher classes of society 

 consider it no disparagement to be familiarly 



acquainted with all the internal concerns of 

 their families. Yet to the shame of many 

 mothers be it said, that they suffer their 

 daughters to grow up without any practical 

 knowledge of housekeeping, and utterly un- 

 prepared to fill any situation in life with use- 

 fulness and dignity. They are all instructed 

 in music and drawing, and all the ornamental, 

 but not in the useful arts of life ; and the re- 

 sult will continue to be as ever it has been in 

 such cases where there is no security for the 

 possession of wealth, that many a woman 

 reared in luxury will by some reverse of for- 

 tune be compelled to exchange her home of 

 ease and luxury for one of privation and care, 

 and compelled to perform the lowest drudgery 

 in order to obtain a small pittance with which 

 to eke out a miserable existence. 



AQBICUIiTimAL ITEMS. 



— The Michigan Farmer says, wo know of an 

 English gardener who would never allow any rub- 

 bish to be burnt, but had it thrown into heaps to 

 rot. It is astonishing, if left to time, how quickly 

 that agent will perform the work of decaying trash. 



— It is said that California, that land of wonders, 

 is peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of cotton, 

 that the soil and climate are remarkably suited to 

 it, that the country is free from the chief difficul- 

 ties and embarrassments that often make it a fail- 

 ure elsewhere ; the season is uniform, and there 

 are no worms, no inopportune rains, and no early 

 frosts. 



—The Kansas Agricultural College is now fairly 

 under way, with thirty-four under graduates and 

 138 in the scientific and preparatory departments. 

 Its endowment comes from the 90,000 acres of land 

 located under the Congressional act of July, 1862. 

 About one-half of this land has already been sold, 

 creating a fund of nearly $180,000, which will this 

 year yield an income of $16,000. 



— For the improvement of pastures the Ohio 

 Farmer recommends that they be divided, one- 

 half stocked with sheep, and the other half with 

 cows, and alternate changes made every spring ; 

 or by an entire change from cows to sheep and 

 from sheep to cows every few years, always re- 

 taining a cow or two for family use. The two, 

 however, never to run together. 



—The Michigan Farmer says, if you build a 

 square crib of poles notched, log-house fashion, 

 say eight feet square, or larger or smaller, as you 

 like it, and throw into it all sorts of trash— a little 

 muck, leaves, bits of everything from the house, 

 the sweepings, &c., and have it so that the kitchen 

 slops and soap suds may be conveyed upon it by a 

 wooden conductor, which a boy may make, you 

 will, in the course of a year, have accumulated 

 some ten dollars worth of manure — perhaps more 



and have things tidier about the house and yard, 



and will continue the practice for profit and com- 

 fort. 



