1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



227 



and leave all the blessed institutions of New 

 England, to endure the roughness, hardship, 

 and privation of a new western home. 



Another good plan to be adopted by farm- 

 ers to prevent the migration of farm laborers, 

 is to give them constant employment, not only 

 nearlij, but quite throughout the year. 



A few days since, in conversation with one 

 of the most tlourishing farmers in this vicinity, 

 N. S. T.'s article was referred to, and he ex- 

 pressed himself as follows: "He has stated a 

 a great deal of truth, and his ideas are very 

 good. No one can deny that our rural dis- 

 tricts are being fast depopulated, and this is 

 done by migration, and something must be 

 done to arrest it." 



In reply to my (juestion as to his opinion of 

 the policy of hiring a few months only in a 

 year, he said : "I think it a poor plan. I have 

 always hired my help by the year, and those 

 who hire only six or eight months, not only 

 have to pay a much greater per cent, than I 

 do for having their work done, but this course 

 tends to reduce the number of laborers, and 

 raise the scale of wages." 



I also asked him what he thought of the 

 course pursued by many farmers of withdraw- 

 ing capital from their business. He replied : 

 "I know it is the course taken by many, but I 

 think it very poor policy ; for it not only hin- 

 ders them from making impi'ovements which 

 they otherwise would, but also prevents them 

 from keeping tli'jir land in a proper state of 

 fertility, — the soil becomes exhausted, and their 

 farms decrease in value." 



The opinions of such men, thus candidly 

 and honestly stated, are not to be disregarded. 

 Every farmer who can possibh- do it, should 

 give his help steady employment. In this 

 manner a better class of laborers can be se- 

 cured, for this class want steady em])loyment 

 at a fair price, and will not consent to the ar- 

 rangement which has prevailed to so great an 

 extent in New England, of farmers giving 

 work to a large number of men during the 

 summer months, and letting them "shirk for 

 themselves" in the winter. A married man 

 cannot do this, and the smartest and most ca- 

 pable single men will not, but will seek work 

 where they can have constant employment. 



I had thought of offering some suggestions 

 on the dilFerent ways of giving employment to 

 farm hands during the winter months, also 

 comparing the actual profit per acre of Eastern 

 and Western farming, but as I have already 

 too much prolonged this article, I will reserve 

 these as subjects for a future article, or per- 

 haps more properly for the pen of some expe- 

 rienced ancl more able writer. 



C. C. Fuller. 



South Gardner, Mass., March 13, 1871. 



— A Passumpsic correspondent of the St. Johns- 

 bury, Vt., Titiies says those of our farmers who 

 tapped in season, have made a good amount of ma- 

 ple sugar. J. P. Foster has made a pound to a tree. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 IMPORTANCE OF GOOD SEED, 



CAREFUL PLANTING AND SUBSEQUENT CARE OF 

 CROPS. 



All who cultivate the soil are interested in 

 the matters referred to in the heading to this 

 article. However orthodox may be the belief 

 of most farmers on these subjects, it does not 

 save many of them from sad derelictions of 

 duty, if we form our opinions from what we 

 too often see of their practice. With them 

 seed for planting is not as a general rule se- 

 lected from the earliest maturing and most 

 perfect plants. These are laid under contri- 

 bution either for the table or the market, 

 while the later and less perfect are depended 

 on for seed, or the seed dealer resorted to for 

 supplies, which too often disappoint the ex- 

 pectations of a crop from them. It is difficult 

 to conceive how it can be otherwise than dis- 

 appointing. It is a well established fact that 

 the earliest maturing plants will furnish seed 

 that in turn will produce earlier plants than 

 those that under the same circumstances re- 

 quired longer time to mature. But seed deal- 

 ers cannot always, if they would, make a very 

 careful selection of such plants for seed and 

 reject all the rest, or sell their product at less 

 cost to the purchaser. Both early and late, 

 bad and good, are gathered together, and an 

 average quality is put on the market. And 

 sometimes worse than that is done, for I have 

 been victimized with old onion seed, greatly 

 to the debit of profit and loss account. 



Good seed, however, cannot be relied upon 

 to produce good crops unless it is carefully 

 planted. It is often true that the seed is con- 

 demned, when the whole fault lay in the mis- 

 erable manner in whicli it was planted. I 

 once planted a field of beets that well illus- 

 trated this point. The drills were all marked 

 out previously to commencing to drop the 

 seed. About seven-eighths of it was dropped 

 by hand before night and not covered. Dur- 

 ing the night and succeeding day it rained 

 hard. On examining the portion dropped 

 previous to the storm, I found that the seed 

 appeared to be well covered with earth by the 

 rain. As I was going from home, I told my 

 men to plant the balance of the field when 

 sufliciently dry. Without waiting till the land 

 was dry enough they put in the seed. Con- 

 trary to my expectation, they succeeded in 

 dropping the seed without re-marking the 

 drills. The seed was almost on a level with 

 the surface of the soil ar.d was covered with 

 'very moist earth. It came up badly, and the 

 plot worked badly all the season, while the 

 other portion of the field, on which the seed 

 was covered by the washing of the rain worked 

 well, and yielded a crop at the rate of fifteen 

 hundred bushels per acre. 



Another case of loss by improper planting 



occurred the past season. A field of about 



I twenty-five acres was furrowed out for corn 



