1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



665 



traders have in the past often followed hard times 

 for the fanner, — possibly as a natural result. At 

 any rate, I am not sure that all the youns farmers, 

 or old ones either, who are nowfieciiig to cities and 

 villayes to escape these hard times will find them- 

 selves entirely safe in their new avocations, or that 

 all will be able to live there as much more pleas- 

 antly and make money as much more rapidly as 

 they expect to do. Jakvis Phatt. 



Reading, Vt., Oct., 20, 1871. 



MY CROP OF CORN 



Is now in the stook in the field, and is, I think, a 

 little the best I ever raised. According to my rule 

 for estimating the yield of corn, which you know 

 is rather severe on l)rag crops, I estimate that I 

 have raised from eighty to ninety bushels per acre, 

 with twenty five loads of manure to the acre. 

 When husked I will send you a specimen which I 

 thinli cannot be excelled in New England. 



JoAB Hapgood. 

 Shrewsbury, Mass., Oct. 21, 1871. 



SIDE-HILL or swivel PLOX'GHS. 



I was interested in the remarks and inquiries of 

 your corresjjondent "Jones" in the Farmer of 

 Sept. 2, on the subject of "Ploughs." I have used 

 one of Hoi brook's No. 4 reversible ploughs three 

 years and I find the same trouble with it that he 

 experiences with the Lebanon plough. The team 

 in drawing, twists it over upon the niouldl)oard so 

 that when the ground is dry it is almost impossi- 

 ble to keep the plough where it ought to be. 



Gideon Spencer. 



Vergennes, Vt., Oct. 16,1871. 



Remarks. — The manuf\icturcrs of landside 

 ploughs have found it necessary to furnish some 

 kind of clevis machinery by which the line of 

 draught may be changed to suit the different cir- 

 cumstances in which the plough is used. If such a 

 clevis were applied to the swivel plough it must be 

 changed as often as the mouldboard is reversed, 

 which would be excecdinsly troublesome. Hence 

 the same object is usually secured by a change in 

 the length of eveners for horses, or of the yoke for 

 oxen. The largest sizes of ploughs require a long- 

 er evener or ox yoke than the smaller ones. With 

 Holbrook's No. 4, the distance between the bows 

 should not be less than from 24 to 28 inches, for 

 oxen ; and the evener, for horses, at least four feet. 

 The hitch of the team should be of sufficient length 

 to bear a little on the wheel. The team ought to 

 walk square; if "Old Broad" on the off side keeps 

 his end of the yoke ahead, the plough will take a 

 little less land. 



J^or the Neio Enqland Farmer. 

 ECONOMY NECESSABY TO THRIFT. 



The address of General B. F. Butler before 

 the Norfolk Farmer's Club, of which I saw an 

 extract in the Farmer, contains much that is 

 of the greatest importance to the fanners of 

 all our New England States, who, dissatisfied 

 with their present lot, are contemplating a 

 move to the West or some other locality that 

 they hope will enable them to better their con- 

 dition in life. 



He shows quite conclusively that much of 



the unthrift among us is owing to the absence 

 of that rigid economy that was so conspicuous 

 in our ancestors, or rather to our reckless ex- 

 travagance in all directions. A'^ery few will be 

 disposed to deny his statements, or to contro- 

 vert his conclusions, however much inclined to 

 apologize for the present condition of things. 



The advice to farmers to teach their chil- 

 dren frugality, sobriety, thrift and economy, 

 is certainly very timely, to say the least. I 

 have, through your columns, given expression 

 to the same sentiments, and cannot but be 

 gr tified at finding them enforced on such an 

 occasion by such an advocate. 



Letters that occasionally come to me from 

 the West give me an insight of the modes of 

 life of the writers, — their farming, misfortunes 

 and fears, and I am more inclined, as time 

 passes on and new light dawns, to commiser- 

 ate their lot than to bewail our own, at the 

 East. 



I know two young men (brothers) in Kan- 

 sas who were tenderly reared here and whose 

 every want was anticipated on the old farm. 

 The oltlest of the two was in Kansas two years 

 before being joined by his brother, three years 

 since. They have lived in a little slianty of 

 one room, where they cook, sleep and receive 

 their company.* These young men are within 

 five miles of the capital of the State and have 

 good society within reach. Others I know 

 who are living in the same manner in the same 

 State, but are isolated from near neighbors and 

 society. They do their own cooking, washing, 

 mending, &c. 



Now, how many young men with us can be 

 found willing to subject themselves to the same 

 mode of life here, in order to make a business 

 start? I fancy they are few. They appear to 

 be enchanted with such modes of life when 

 seen at a distance, but revolt from them if 

 proposed for their adoption here. Why is 

 this so ? Chiefly, I suppose, because they 

 fear it would place them outside of the social 

 circle they desire to move in, and they are 

 probably correct in their conclusions. In all 

 new settlements it is expected that every one 

 will adapt himself to the surrounding?, and con- 

 fine his expenses within the limit of his means. 

 He is not regarded as being mean or penuri- 

 ous if he does live in a log house of but one 

 room, cook his own food, wash and mend his 

 own clothes. 



With us, public opinion, or fashion, or both 

 combined, have become so tyrannical that but 

 fww have the manliness to face and defy them, 

 even when the conviction is strong upon them 

 that they ought to do so in order to avoid 

 moral obliquity or financial disaster. 



It is unquestionably true that we are hedged 

 around with such adense atmosphere of ex- 

 travagance that we dare not assert ourselves, 

 lest we incur the stigma of being regarded as 

 mean. Rather than incur this stigma there is 

 no doubt that thousands are driven from their 

 New England homes to other parts of our 



