180 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Apkil 



next milkinp, or would it be better for the pans to 

 rfiiiaiti in tlie water until lit to skim ? To wliat 

 (kptli won 111 it <1() to set the milk, if it were to stand 

 in the water until ready to skim ? In short, what 

 a* the best and most econoniieal way of doing it ? 

 I care nothing about theoretical advice, but would 

 like that, founded upon experience or observation. 

 Would like to hear from Mr. O. S. Bliss. 



CuAS. E. Jones. 

 Waitsjield, Vt., Jan. 30, 1S71. 



tobacco sales. — INJURY TO A BUILDING. 



The small lots of toliaeeo are gradually passing 

 into the hands of speculators at tlieir own prices. 

 Mr. J. Osborn has sold during the week past, at 

 twenty-tivc, fifteen and five ; Mr. Goddard a lot of 

 frost bitten, at five cents; Mr. L. Button at twenty- 

 five and five ; Justus 11. Coolcy sold his toliacco for 

 thirty cents through. It was a very good lot. A 

 number of sales have lieen made in the other par- 

 ish — Feeding Hills — prices ranging from five to 

 thirty-hvc cents. Some New York parties are en 

 rapport with experts this way, and 1 presume an- 

 other week or two will move some good lots. 



We had a real gale last Friday night and Satur- 

 day- morning. It moved the tobacco shed of the 

 Parson Brothers some six feet off its foundation, 

 breaking the posts and girts badly. It still stands, 

 and if it can weather the winds of whiter may be 

 repaired without Ijcing taken down. It was a good 

 building, some I'iO feet long, 25 wide and 18 liigh, 

 and nearly new. L. Allen. 



Agawam, Mass., Feb. 13, 1871. 



BUTTERFLIES. 



How are butterflies killed where they are wanted 

 to be kept in their natural state, and where can the 

 Taxidermist's Manual be obtained, price, &c. ? 



E. N. S 



Remarks. — Catch the butterfly in a net prepared 

 for the purpose. Place him under a tumbler, un- 

 cork a vial of ether and place it at its head. A 

 sniff or two will destroy life and not change its 

 delicate coloi-s. So says a niece at our side, who 

 has practiced considerably in that line. We can- 

 not answer the other part of your question. 



CURE FOR BARN ITCH. 



I have found coal ashes liberally sprinkled cm 

 the cjittle and al)out the stall and floor, a remedy 

 for this tronltiesome disease. L. Woodbury. 



Lancaster, Mass., 16'71. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 DEPOPULATION OP BURAL TO^WNS 

 IN NEW ENGLAND. 



The census is confirming what was only too 

 apparent to even tlie casual observer, that the 

 population of many purely agricultural towns 

 IS decreasing. In every part of these six 

 States there are towns which poll fewer votes 

 than they did ten and twenty years ago, and 

 school districts which cannot muster as many 

 children as formerly. Instances are found 

 where the cellars and foundations over which 

 once stood the liomes of prosperous families, 

 outnumln'T the present dwellings of its inhab- 

 itants. Tlie numljer of farms is decreasing, — 

 the larger ones absorbing the smaller ; culti- 

 vated fields are being turned into pastures or 

 given up to wood, and ere long wild animals 



will return to their former haunts amid the 

 hills and valleys of our dear old New Eng- 

 land. 



The census further shows, in the sum total 

 for the diii'erent States, that New Hainpslure 

 has experienced a material loss, being now 

 about where it was twenty years ago. Maine 

 and Vermont have scarcely held their own 

 during the last decade, while Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island and Connectictit have fallen 

 from their former rate of increase. And yet 

 the past ten years have been a period of un- 

 paralleled success to our manufacturing, mer- 

 cantile and railroad intei-est ; agricultural pro- 

 ducts never sold better, and no class of citizens 

 have had extra inducements for migrating. 

 It is a good time, upon the whole, to observe 

 the tendency of population. 



We find that in three States all the gain in 

 the villages and cities does not counterbalance 

 the losses of the rural districts. The decrease 

 among the tillers of the soil does not arise 

 then from a change of emjdoyment, but from 

 a direct migration out of their native States, 

 and from the fact that they do not multiply as 

 formerly. 



This backward tendency of our population 

 very naturally suggests important considera- 

 tions. Can New England allbrd to thus lose 

 its citizens, or to suffer a depreciation in 

 any branch of industry ? Will the increasing 

 wealth of her manufacturers, merchants, bank- 

 ers and brokers make good the loss in agricul- 

 ture ? The earnings of farm laborers average 

 some $300 to $500 per annum ; and farmers 

 having lOO acres in fair condition, can add to 

 : the products of their State $1000 to $loOO 

 ' each. Cultivated land when given up to pas- 

 I ture and woods, at once depreciates in value 

 twenty-five to seventy-five per cent. ; and all 

 the severe labor that was expended in bringing 

 these acres into tillage is lost, to say nothing 

 of the cost of erecting buildings and fences. 



Every industrious man helps increase the 

 wealth of his State ; and when one such mi- 

 grates, and a farm is abandoned, there is an 

 appreciable loss. The figures which represent 

 it may seem small compared to the grand 

 total, and railroads and labor-saving imple- 

 ments may in a measure compensate for the 

 decrease or scarcity of men, still it is not too 

 insignificant to be noticed. When the young 

 and robust are leaving by hundreds and thou- 

 sands every year, as in New Hampshire, the 

 n^sults will" tell upon the prosperity of a State. 

 The effects may not be seen in the rapidly 

 growing manufacturing village or city, but in 

 the small rural town they are seen and felt. 



By the removal of any considei-able number 

 of tax payers, the maintcmance of roads and 

 bridges, schools, churches and charitable in- 

 stitutions falls more heavily on the remainder. 

 It is better for a farming comnuniity to have 

 the country thickly settled, even at the risk of 

 a sharper competition in the produce markets. 

 ! A steady decrease in population is the most 



