58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[FEBIU7AKY, 
try, which is a good deal like a man swallowing 
his own stomach. Toil see this state of things 
makes rather a dull look for the old parish, and 
worries the minister, and it works out in his 
sermons on Thanksgivings, and Fasts, and 
sometimes on Sundays. Some grumble about 
political preaching, and secular preaching, 
etc., but for my part, if a man has got any 
thing to say to make folks better, I never 
could see why it wan't jest as well to say it on 
Sunday as any other time. But the grumbling 
don't trouble Sir. Spooner much. He is inde- 
pendent as a wood-chopper, and knows he can 
get his bread and take care of himself, if the 
Hookertown people turn him out of the pulpit 
to-morrow, which the}' have no nolion of doing. 
He speaks right square out, and nobody has any 
more doubt as to which side of a question he is 
on, than they have about sunrise. 
Well, you see this food question is what the 
philosophers call a poser. If bread and meat 
are all the while getting dearer, and labor is 
growing cheaper, and that is the settled tenden- 
cy of society, you seethe time is coming when 
labor won't buy bread, and somebody must per- 
ish. That is the way things are working now, 
and wise men should be looking for a remedy. 
Mr. Spooner showed this very clearly. It has 
been the tendency in Europe for a great many 
years — England hasn't raised her own bread- 
stuffs for more than 30 years. The great mass 
of her people arc gathered in cities, aud large 
manufacturing towns, and there is not land 
enough left to raise a full supply of food for her 
population, even with their improved husbandry. 
She has to bring large quantities of wheat and 
other grains from the ports of the Mediterra- 
nean, and from across the Atlantic, to make up 
the deficiency. Now, if there should be short 
crops in these countries and in America, or if 
she should be at war with enemies strong 
enough to blockade her ports, nothing could 
prevent great distress and starvation. 
The same social disease is beginning to work 
in this country. The price of food has more 
than doubled within a very few years, not only 
in cities but in the farming districts. Flour in 
Hookertown has been selling this fall at $15 a 
barrel ; butter at 45 cents, and beefsteak at 30 
cents per lb., and these things are just about a 
fair sample of everything else. Eight years ago 
these things could have been bought for less 
than half the money. This shows that mouths 
have multiplied faster than food. There are 
more consumers than producers. Farm labor 
in the same time lias increased in value, but it 
has not kept pace witli the increased price of 
food. "Wheat has gone up from §1 to $3.50 a 
bushel — labor from five Yankee shillings to nine, 
which is an increase of more than one-half, and 
the labor is not near so good. The native born 
hired man of a generation ago, who worked for 
$12 a month and board, the year round, has 
pretty much disappeared, and we have in his 
stead the unskilled immigrant. This shows that 
labor is not comparatively as well rewarded. 
His day's work will not buy him as many com- 
forts as it did 20 years ago. This shows that 
something is " rotten in Denmark," for the con- 
dition of the laboring class, and not that of the 
rich, is the measure of the prosperity of a coun- 
try'. It is a bad state of society where only a 
few are growing rich, and the many are just get- 
ting a living or suffering for the comforts of life. 
Then, Mr. Spooner said, the Societies in the 
cities for the aid of children, were another indi- 
cation of the same evil. Thousands are left 
every year in circumstances of extreme want, 
and there is no efficient remedy for their case 
but to find homes for them in the country, where 
they can help themselves. Thousands are sent 
off every year through these Societies, and a 
little is thus done to restore the disturbed bal- 
ance of society. 
The pith of the discourse was, that Hooker- 
town was the center of the Universe, that farm- 
ing was the best business, that those who were 
engaged in it should be content with such things 
as they had, and be thankful for them. He had 
some sly thrusts at clam-shell bonnets, silks, 
satins, and ribbons, fast men, and fast women, 
and the general extravagance of the times. 
These I suppose, were meant as sauce for the 
Thanksgiving turkey, and to help digestion. 
"Well, Squire, what are you gwine to do 
about it. Food is getting higher every year, 
and labor don't keep up with it. The rich are 
growing richer, and the poor poorer. What are 
you gwine to do about it?" asked Seth Twiggs, 
as he knocked out the ashes of his third pipe 
and loaded again. 
" Well," said I, " I am not going to whine 
about it. Of all remedies for a great public evil 
that of whining is the poorest. I have faith to 
believe that there is some way of deliverance 
from this and all other social evils. The high 
price of food is not going to last forever among 
this great people, with territory enough to raise 
breadstuff's for the world, were it only ha! f tilled. 
" All that Mr. Spooner says is as true as preach- 
ing. Things are a little unsettled just now, but 
they will come right after awhile. I have no- 
ticed that there is a tendency in Christian soci- 
ety to correct its own evils. Sometimes we 
have an outbreak of burglaries, bank robberies, 
and shop-lifting, and it seems as if society was 
going to ruin. But when the people get waked 
up, and a few of the thieves are convicted aud 
sent to State's Prison, the times improve won- 
derfully. People are not going to live in miser- 
able tenement houses, and suffer all the miser- 
ies of city poverty without learning something. 
Native born Americans certainly are not. I 
have noticed that many go to the city, do not 
succeed there, and come back again wiser, if 
not better men. They find that their genius 
does not lie in the direction of trade, but they 
have a decided tact for making corn and pota- 
toes grow. They support their families com- 
fortably, and on the whole, are no worse for 
their city experience. Then I have noticed 
again, that a good many who succeed in the city, 
acquire a competence, and before they are 
spoiled, retire to the country to lead an indus- 
trious rural life. They become large producers 
of breadstuff's, and supply the city markets with 
fat cattle, sheep and swine. They rejoice in 
their well tilled farms, and in their flocks and 
herds. Then again, I have noticed that some of 
our very best small farmers and gardeners are 
city bred people, tradesmen, or mechanics, who 
from failure of health or disgust with the city, 
come into the country, near good markets, to 
support their families from the soil. They have 
thrifty habits, some capital, and succeed admir- 
ablyby making themostof a little land. Thous- 
ands in these ways are changed from consumers 
into producers, every year. If multitudes flock 
to the city, multitudes come back to the country. 
"And then there is a growing tendency among 
our city people to scatter themselves in the 
neighboring towns. A large part of the men 
who do business iu New York, live out from 
five to fifty miles in the country. Some have 
small homesteads, but they are all to some ex- 
tent cultivators, and draw a part of their sup- 
port from the soil. And this tendency is on the 
increase, and, will grow with the increased facil- 
ities for travel that every large city is making 
for itself. This will not only help to unburden 
the city, but will add to the production of the 
country, and help to make food cheaper." 
" I shouldn't wonder if we had New Yorkers 
living in Hookertown, yet," said Seth. 
" Stranger things have happened," said I. 
" I shall beat'em on cabbage tho', if the smart- 
est of 'em come," said Seth, with an extra puff. 
" It takes Dutchmen for cabbage. You should 
not brag !" I continued. 
" Then there is another thing in connection 
with this food question, which I have thought 
of a good deal. No man has begun to conceive 
of the great change which our improved farm- 
ing tools are destined to make in the productive- 
ness of human labor. A man is multiplied ten 
fold. We should have had a famine during the 
war, if it had not been for them, and food would 
have been a great deal dearer than it now is. 
The horse reaper and mower mean cheaper 
grain, and cheaper meats of every kind, that 
consume hay and grain. Every year is adding 
to these improved tools, and extending the fields 
of their \isefuluess. They come very slowly into 
use, but they are certainly coming ; and they 
can not fail to do two things ; to make farming 
pay better, and to cheapen the price of food. A 
vast deal of brain power is lavished upon these 
inventions, and it will have its reward in reliev- 
ing the sweat of the brow. 
"And then when steam gets into the field, as it 
must, upon the prairies at least, what may we 
not expect in the way of cheap Johnnycakes 
and bacon?" 
"May I be there to see," exclaimed Seth, ris- 
ing to go. " That is what other folks will do 
about it ; — but what do you mean to do about 
it, Squire Bunker ?" 
"Do?' said I. "Why, I'll stick to the old 
farm, set my neighbors a good example, and die 
iu the furrow. And if that ain't enough, I'll 
blow my trumpet in the Agriculturist, and set 
all the people from Maine to Texas, thinking 
on the food question." 
" Good !" said Seth, as he went out, " That 
paper is the best tool yet out, to make bread 
cheap. It believes in brain manure." 
Hookertown, Conn., i Yonrs to command. 
Dec. Sth. f Timotht Bunker, Esq. 
The Best Style of Family or Dairy Cows, 
and How Obtained. 
We have before us an article from a gentle- 
man who has a rather large herd of milch cows, 
the surplus of which he advertises and puts 
upon the market and finds ready sale for at re- 
munerative prices. It is natural that he should 
advocate such cows as he breeds, or at least 
breed such as he advocates, if he is a fair-mind- 
ed man, and such we know him to be. The 
subject he proposes cannot but be discussed 
with profit, and we hope those who may dis- 
agree with him will respond. He writes : 
" The subject that probably interests more of 
the readers of the Agriculturist than almost any 
other is, 'What is the most desirable kind of 
cows for family use or dairy purposes? In other 
words, what breed will produce the most value 
iu milk, butter, and cheese, on agiven amount 
of feed?' I will give you my experience for 
what it is worth. I have tried nearly all the 
various breeds, Alderneys, Ayrshires, Short 
Horns, Madagascars and natives, and I became 
satisfied, some six years ago, that 'Alderneys' 
gave the richest milk and produced the best but- 
ter, but thought 'thorough breds' too delicate 
