526 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVEER. 



Sept. 



their affections linger, and they find repose 

 from the cares and turmoil of a busy world. 

 I had not time to go over their farms. Mr. 

 Main has l:.'iiO apple trees in one orchard. 

 The soil is a sandy loam, which he dresses 

 with large (juantities of sea weed and muck. 

 He has erected a fine barn, has a good garden, 

 and is annually making permanent improve- 

 ments. 



Mr. "\VI^'CIIESTEU we found makinij; a fine 

 avenue to his buildings. He is greatly imjiroving 

 the soil by the use of fish heads and nmck, 

 and is showing to neighboring farmers what 

 an acre is capable of producing when under 

 high culture. Our time was too short to 

 allow us to go over the farms of either of 

 these gentlemen, but long enough to be very 

 pleasantly received and entertained by them. 



BEET SUGAR AT THE WEST. 



Some six or eight years ago some New York 

 gentlemen visited Europe to leam the process of 

 making sugar from beets and to obtain the neces- 

 sary machinery and skilled labor to conduct the 

 business on a large scale at Chatsworth, III. Some 

 2300 acres of choice prairie Land was purcliased 

 and preparations were made which promised to l)e 

 very successful. In 1866 it was said that the com- 

 pany alone raised beets enough to have produced 

 450,000 pounds of refined sugar. But for reasons 

 with which we are not familiar, the enterprise has 

 proved unsuccessful, although, it was claimed that 

 experiments proved the beets raised in Illinois 

 were as rich in saccharine matter as those of 

 Europe. 



We learn by the Madison, "Wis., Farmer that the 

 Chatsworth factory is to Ije removed to Freeport, 

 Wis., where the soil is believed to be well adapted 

 to this crop, and where there is an abundance of 

 good water, direct railroad communication, &c. 

 The Western Farmer says : — 



AVork is now in active progress, although it is 

 not expected the buildings and machinery will be 

 ready for operation l)cfore the talloflS72. The 

 citizens of Frci port gave a Itonus of .f'3000 to se- 

 cure the location of the Factory within one mile of 

 the city liniils. ilr. Ilosentiel made arrangeniciits 

 with the former company, or rather with Mr. 

 Bunn the chief owner, by which he is to furnish 

 land for and erect buildings to the value of $10,000, 

 Mr. litmn furnishing the machinery, valued at an 

 equal ariiount. 



The location chosen i» on Mr. Roscntiel's fine 

 fami, near the Uliuois Central Railroad — a side 

 track being now laid. There Mill lie three main 

 buildings besides the olfice and other small struc- 

 tures. The largest one will be 191 by 68 feet, and 

 26 feet high — two stories; the second will lie 12(; 

 by 30 feet, and same height; the third 129 liy ;3() 

 feet, and one story high. Under half of the large 

 building is u cellar. The foundations are of \cvy 

 good stone, quarried on the farm; the main Imild- 

 iugs Avill be of brick. Nine steam engines will be 

 used. The water, except for drinkiug, &:c., will be 



drawn from a creek through a seven inch pipe, 54 

 rods long. 



It is intended to work 50 tons of beets per day, 

 when at full work. From 600 to 800 acres are ex- 

 pected to be devoted to beets. Mr. Kosentiel will 

 devote 150 or more acres of his ovn farm to this 

 crop. He is entirely confident of success, and this 

 confidence seems to be shared in bj* Mr. Bunn. 



An experiment involving what was then thought 

 to l)e a large capital was made in Oakland Count}-, 

 Mich., about 1837, which proved a failure. And 

 in 1838-39 the Northampton Beet-sugar Company 

 of Massachusetts, was formed, and received a 

 silver medal from the Charitable ISIechanics Asso- 

 ciation, and a premium of one hundred dollars 

 from the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion 

 of Agriculture, for specimens of beet-sugar ex- 

 hibited by David Lee Child. And we presume 

 that other unsuccessful attempts have been made 

 to manufacture sugar from beets in this country. 

 But we understand there is a factory in Sauk 

 County, Wis., managed by Germans, that has been 

 reasonably successful from the beginning ; and we 

 are not by any means disposed to despair of the 

 final success of this branch of industry on Ameri- 

 can soil. 



For the Xnr Krujlund Farmer, 

 HOBBIES.— CUBING GRASS. 



I suppose I shall make myself liable to be 

 called ah old fogy for the remarks I am about 

 to make ; but, nevertheless, I feel disposed to 

 have my say, at the risk of being called one. 



The most prominent hobby, justnow, among 

 farmers is that pf n(/'/«^hay, as the drying of 

 it is an inadmissible term. For as long a time 

 as my memory runneth backward, and that is 

 almost half a century, the tlieory and practice 

 among most farmers has been to use salt, more 

 or less, according to tlie ideas of the one using 

 it. 1 always used it but sparingly, as I never 

 felt satisfied that it really was of nuich use in 

 preserving hay. If it was not properly (h-ied 

 in the field, 1 put on salt because I thought 

 that it might keep down the lieat and also pre- 

 vent the dust that is so apt to rise from imper- 

 fectly cured hay. 



]>ut the use of salt on hay soon got to be a 

 hobby. Grass could be cut, just wilted, put 

 in the mow, a good lot of salt a])plied, and all 

 was right. I never tried that way, because I 

 always found that the hay that did not gener- 

 ate heat enough to melt the salt came out the 

 sweetest and best. 



liy and by, somebody foimd out that salt 

 was not good for cattle, and lime was the next 

 hobby ; but this had but a short rim. 



Now the theory is, cut grass after tlie dew 

 is oil", just wilt it, cart it in, put nothing on it, 

 shut up your barn so as to excliule all the air, 

 or at least as much as possible, and though 

 you may have a foot in depth all over the mow 

 that will be rotten, yet the rest of it will be 

 so much better, that it will make up for all the 

 loss. 



