642 
THE RUBAI HEW-VORKER. 
®trm 
NEW ENGLAND FARMS. 
Decrease of fanning; an exceptionally good 
farming district; pastures only deteriora- 
t ing: shiftlcss farming the e.rcept ion ; pre s- 
ent farmers less economical than their fore¬ 
fathers', more expensive food, dress, house 
furnishing, and luxuries; boys leaving the 
farms-, foreigners make profit on farms 
abandoned by natives-, more intoxicants 
used ; lack of success attributable to the 
“three L’s.” 
We hear much of the unproductiveness of 
New England farms, and that they are rapid¬ 
ly being abandoned for the more fertile 
regions of the West It is true that in many 
cases farms from which the owners’ grand¬ 
fathers acquired wealth and from which their 
fathers derived a satisfactory income, are by 
them looked upon as unable to produce suffic¬ 
ient to give them a living, to say nothing of 
accumulating wealth. Let us look at this 
matter fairly and see where lies the truth. 
I write from my native village of, say, 200 
people, m one of the host, townships in Hartford 
Co., Connecticut, containing about 25 square 
miles and 1,400 people, and one would travel 
far before finding a better one. It has a diversi¬ 
ty of soil embracing gravel, clay and sand; but 
it is mostly a good loam in which is found to a 
greater or less extent one or the other of 
these. It is true that on one extreme there is 
a narrow strip of hilly country full of rocks 
and stones and fit for nothing but pasturage, 
And on the other the sand is too much 
in excess; but between these lies as good 
farming couutry as one could desire, well 
watered by numerous little streams that 
have their beauty as well as use. The 
general surface of the township is rolling, 
making the landscape beautiful, and hand¬ 
somer trees grow nowhere, In short, I know 
of few farm lands anywhere more de¬ 
sirable, and, as a whole, they are more pro¬ 
ductive than they were 50 years ago. I will 
except the pastures that, as a rule, have been 
allowed to deteriorate. In the olden time 
more sheep were kept, and it is generally ad¬ 
mitted that pastures, especially such as 
naturally grow to bushes and briars, are im¬ 
proved by feeding sheep thereou. Again, 
there is less stock raised and cattle fattened. 
When this was done and animals were kept 
out all the time, their dropping* were a source 
of fertilization. Now, most stock is yarded at 
uigbt. and the manure is applied to the tilled 
portions of the farm, improving them while 
the pastures are neglected. 
It is true there are some slovenly farmers 
whose farms show that for years their only 
object has been to get without giving; who 
have taken from the laud all it would pro¬ 
duce returning nothing to it, disregarding the 
injunction, “Thou shalt not steal.” Their 
farms, have, of course, grown poorer, but the 
Others are producing more in quantity of 
every kind of crop, and the price obtained for 
what is sold is larger thau formerly, while the 
purchasing power of every dollar received is 
greater. 
If these are facts—and I think they will be so 
admitted by every candid observer—why is it 
that New England farms are to day so much 
out. of favor, or why are their owners so un¬ 
satisfied with results? Simply this;—the pres¬ 
ent generation of farmers are not content to 
live as their forefathers did. It is not that 
they have less money but their desires are 
greater and they spend more. They eat their 
cake and then complain because they have it 
not. On the farmers’ tables to-day are many 
dishes their ancestors never heard of or only 
in connection with the wealthiest. In the store 
here are perhaps a hundred different articles 
for sale that were not known, or if so, were not 
thought necessary when 1 was a clerk there 50 
yea is ago. The barrels of salted beef and pork 
and the half barrels of salted shad, with 
plenty of potatoes and apples, furnished most 
of the farmers 1 food in winter. In spring and 
summer an occasional lamb or fowl, with var¬ 
ious vegetables, gave heal by variety. But 
little wheat Hour was used, rye and Indian 
meals being in general use for ltread stuff’s. In 
short, so far as possible the table was supplied 
from the product* of the farm. In the words 
of an old song my mother used to sing, the 
farmer, 
"Ate his owa bam, bis mutton and lamb, 
He sheared bis own fleece and he wore It.” 
In the olden time the same horse and wagon 
were used to goto mill, to market and to meet¬ 
ing. I well remember the first covered car¬ 
riages of any description that were in the 
township. Now they are numbered by scores, 
and the boys are not content unless they have 
a moderately fast horse for their own use. 
Expensive dress is another reason why far¬ 
mers do not grow rich. What it now costs to 
clothe one daughter would in times past have 
sufficed for the wholo family. But now, a lit¬ 
tle hetter thau the neighbors is the rule, and 
fashions must be followed. The same applies 
to the furnishing of houses, Whan I was a 
a lad there was not a piano in the whole town, 
ship; now, from where I write five can be 
beard and as many more can be found at a 
little distance. All these things cost money, 
and it comes from the farms. If the farmers 
and their families would live in the same way 
that pioneers in Kansas or Nebraska, Dakota 
or Colorado do. who doubts they could save 
money? I do not object to these luxuries; let 
those have them who can. Indeed, “it is a 
bad sign when a man is content with the bare 
necessities of life, aspiring to nothing higher”; 
but it is not fair to take them from the farm 
and give no credit. May we not say that their 
indulgence in luxuries is one of the reasons 
for the impeeuuiosity of New Eugland far¬ 
mers. 
Some will say oue of the farmer’s draw¬ 
backs is that he has to pay too much for hired 
help, lu many cases the boys so soon as they 
are old enough to be of use on the farm aban¬ 
don it to take the risks of trade anil com¬ 
merce, expecting a life of greater case and an 
independent fortune in a few years, ouly in 
most cases to be disappointed. It is written 
“in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread.” 
There is no doubt man is naturally a lazy- 
being and that this trait leads the boys, con 
trary to sense and reason, to leave their 
fathers to pay Cor labor they could, by staying 
at home, perform themselves and be the bet¬ 
ter for it. This is shown iu many eases 
around us where industrious and frugal for¬ 
eigners have bought farms from discouraged 
Yankees, put their children at work so soon as 
they were able and made and saved money. 
Intoxicating liquors have done their share 
here as everywhere to deplete the farmer’s 
purse. Not a mile from here lives a man who 
once asked his wife to look iu his throat and 
tell what she saw. Looking she said she saw 
nothing. “That is strange,”said he—“a whole 
farm has gone down there.” The farmers iu 
this community are not given to intemperance, 
but still much is spent for drink that could be 
put to better use. 
It is too often believed that every man is 
born a farmer. On the contrary, there are 
many who do not know how to induce mother 
earth to give generously of her bounty aud 
because they do not raise good crops they try 
to lay the blame elsewhere thau ou themselves 
where it belongs. Such men should be help¬ 
ers, guided by the superior wisdom of others 
and not attempt to do that for which they are 
not fitted. Then there would be fewer poor 
farmers. It would seem then that New Eug¬ 
land farms are as good as they ever were, and 
as a rule better, and that the average farmer’s 
lack of success is attributed to the three L’s— 
luxury, laziness and liquor, l. a. r. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Iowa. 
Des Moines, Polk Co., Sept. 10.—Our 
State fair is over, and was a success. The ex¬ 
hibits in every department were the greatest 
ever shown is this State. The entries of tine 
stock were surprisingly large and gool. On 
visiting the Agricultural Department and 
seeing the display of vegetables, grain, grass¬ 
es and root crops, one would hardly realize 
that our soil has not been wet through the 
subsoil for 15 mouths. Our weather was fine 
during tho fair week, with several days of 
light showers, enough to cool the air aud set¬ 
tle the dust. Tho attendance at the fair was 
hardly' what we expected or up to what it lias 
been in former years. The hard times owing 
to two consecutive years of drought, kept a 
greut many away. The gate receipts were 
nearly $40,(XK), and the society seems to be sat¬ 
isfied with the result. I saw very little drunk¬ 
enness, which speaks well for our Prohibition 
Law. f. s. w. 
Nebraska. 
Fairfield, Clay Co.—We had no rain to 
wet the ground from April, 1886 to Aug 26, 
1887. The ground froze dry last fall: result, 
mauy dead trees and vines aud nearly all 
fruit blighted. Nearly all grape-vines are 
dead. I lost 121 out of 200 eight-year-old Con¬ 
cords. J. R. 
Curtis, Frontier Co., Sept. 17.—This part 
of the country did not become settled until 
1885. Corn has been good the past three yea rs. 
Wheat, this your, ubout one-half crop. Oats 
ditto. Rye about three-fourths of a crop; 
buckwheat, a full crop; potatoes, one-third of 
a crop; root crops good; garden vegetables did 
well. Wild hay half a crop. Pastures rather 
short, but a very large range. K. k. w. 
I'eiinayl > nnln. 
Auburn, Susq. Co., Sept. 15.—With the ex¬ 
ception of a short drought in May, wo have 
had an abundance of rain. Pastures are 
fresh and green. Corn will make a heavy 
yield of first quality. Oats a very poor crop 
—sown too late. Buckwheat, with a large 
acreage, will not lie half a crop. A big growth 
of straw but poorly filled; plenty of pieces not 
worth harvesting. Potatoes poor and there¬ 
fore high. They are sellling in Wilkesbarre 
for from 80 can s to >1.00 per bushel. The 
crops of peaches and pears exceed anything 
known iu years, Apples a fair crop. Cher¬ 
ries were an entire failure, and strawberries a 
light yield. Grapes have rotted badly. Gar¬ 
den vegetables, cabbage excepted, may berat¬ 
ed as fair. Store sheep are scarce with an ac¬ 
tive demand. Nearly all the lambs were con¬ 
tracted iu early June at, prices ranging from 
>3 to >4. Beef low ami slow of sale. Light 
hogs bring 4’ J cents. Fresh cows command 
big prices. o. w. b. 
Misleading Agricultural Experiment¬ 
al Station Report; Same Varieties of 
Oats Under Different Names.— Bulletin 
No. 26 of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment 
Station at Columbus, < deals with oats. The 
object of the tests, as Prof. W. R. Lazenby, 
the Director,, states, is to determine the com- 
parativo productiveness of the newer and some 
of the best old varieties. Twenty-eight kinds 
(?) are reported upon. This involves an im¬ 
mense amount of labor, and yet we do not see 
that the report is worth oue cent. In fact it 
is worse than useless, because it must mislead 
those farmers who read and ure influenced by 
it. The R. N.-Y has made it a part of its 
business, as our readers are aware, to tiy all 
the old and new kinds of oats so that com¬ 
parisons may be made for the farmer’s guid¬ 
ance in making his selections. We have found 
(and the New York Agricultural Experiment 
Station has in most cases Corroborated our 
conclusions) that the following so-called vari¬ 
eties of oats are the same, viz.; Welcome, 
Badger Queen, Barley, Clydesdale, Race 
Horse, White Belgian, White Canadian; they 
are all the White Australian, which, ns wo 
have before said is not itself the proper name, 
but that under which they were first raised 
here, in so far as we know. 
The Ohio report iu question states, omitting 
fractions, as follows: 
Yield per 
Weight 
Date of 
acre. 
pounds 
maturity 
per besh. 
Welcome 
46 
37 
July 8 
i( it 
Badger Queen 
51 
38 
Barley 
33 
35 
«• u 
Clydesdale 
41 
36 
a it 
Race Horse 
30 
36 
ii u 
White Belgian 
24 
32 
U it 
White Canadian 
28 
31 
“ 13 
Henderson’s Clydes 
. 
dale 
68 
38 
“ 8 
Here we have the same kind of oats, under 
different names, yielding all the way from 23 
bushels to 68 bushels to the acre, and varying 
in weight from 81 to 88 pounds to the bushel. 
The progressive farmer would naturally pre¬ 
fer Henderson’S Clydesdale or Badger Queen, 
and would send miles and be willing to pay a 
higher price for such seed than he would for 
Race Horse or White Belgian which, in fact, 
he would not sow at all if he could procure 
the others. And yet they are all the same. 
So in the same report White Russian yields 41 
bushels to the acre, while Yankee Prolific 
yields 5< bushels to the acre. These two 
names stand for the same oats. The Rural 
respectfully suggests to the Ohio Agricultural 
Experiment Station that such misleading re¬ 
ports had far better be suppressed. 
Best Length to Cut Corn-fodder.— 
Professor Shelton, of tho Kansas State Col¬ 
lege, has made some very interesting aud use¬ 
ful experiments to determine whether it is 
better to cut coru-fodder into very short or 
longer pieces. A number of the cows were 
fed for one week upon corn-fodder reduced to 
one-fourth-inch lengths; the week following 
the same animals used the same corn-fodder 
cut into inch lengths; and the week following 
they wore furnished fodder cut into two-inch 
lengths. Care was taken that each animal 
received just about what previous experience 
had shown it would “eat up clean.” The 
cows were fed night and morning, as usual; 
hut before feeding the next day, tho residue 
in tho mangers was carefully weighed. Tho 
resultof these trials is shown iu the tabular 
formas follows; 
Lengths of cut Feed, W'aste, cent ot 
rodder. lbs. Ilw. waste. 
One-fourth inch . 480 255 53 
One inch.440 15!) 36 
Two inches.480 115 24 
Not much comment neod be made upon this 
statement; it shows plainly enough that the 
finely-cut fodder was much less attractive 
©6T 1 
aud palatable to the animals than that cut 
into coarser lengths; and the uneaten portion, 
the “waste,” was greatly increased by this 
excessive reduction. The reason for all this 
seems to Prof. Shelton plaiu enough. As or¬ 
dinarily prepared, the blades of tho corn plant 
are the only part having nutritive value. 
The stalk portion aud tho husks are, for the 
most part, indigestible, tasteless woody filler. 
When fodder is cut into very short longihs, 
these dissimilar parts are inextricably inter¬ 
mixed; the animal is unable to separate them: 
and, in rejecting the worthless portion, is 
forced to discard much that is valuable; 
hence the greatly-increased “waste” wheu the 
shorter lengths were used. The additional ad¬ 
vantage in the use of the longer lengths in the 
great saving of power required to cut a given 
weight of fodder is a very considerable item 
not likely to lie lost sight of. 
Diversified Btock-keefing.— As with 
farm crops so with farm animals, so the Breed¬ 
ers’ Gazette believes, the greatest advantage 
will be found in maintaining several kinds in¬ 
stead of giving the principal attention to a 
single one. The present low prices of cattle 
have not been acoouqiatiled by the slightest 
disturbance in the value of good horses; sheep 
have experienced less decline than cattle, and 
hogs have even been higher in price. It does 
not often, if over, occur that all of them are 
low in price at the same time. So that iu pe¬ 
riods of depression the farmer who keeps all 
descriptions of stock is very largely protected 
from the efforts of the “drop.” And then, 
not having his “eggs all in oue basket,” he 
cau sell off such stock as commands the favor 
of the market and make room for such as will 
not pay to sell at the moment, but are likely 
of a favorable “ turn” iu the near future. 
Against Dorset Sheep.— And now, says 
Henry Stewart, one of our best sheep authori¬ 
ties, in the N. Y. Times, with all the depres¬ 
sion that has fallen upon the sheep-rearing in¬ 
dustry, we are threatened with a large import 
of a kind of sheep which will be most useless 
in our climate. The horned Dorset sheep is 
now the favorite, and some agricultural 
journals are vociferously boosting them into 
notoriety. These sheep are reared and kept in 
the county of Dorset, in England, one of the 
southern tier bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, 
having a mild, moist climate where snow is 
rarely seen. They breed twice in the year 
and are kept for tho production of lambs for 
the London market, less than 100 miles dis¬ 
tant, The second crop of lambs appears in 
November and me ready for sale with the 
green peas and mint, (for sauce), which are 
lit for market in February. It is clear that 
while these sheep might he kept (n parts of the 
Southern States, they would he entirely out of 
place in the North, where the cold would in¬ 
terfere with the rearing of the lambs. What¬ 
ever good may be said about them in regard 
to their prolificacy, they should be avoided 
by American fanners as being too small in 
size, having too small a fleece nnd being too 
delicate and tender for the rough, cold winds 
of our rude ami inhospitable winters. 
Feeding Pigs for Early Market.—To 
grow pigs from six weeks old, and tit them 
for market in less than seven months Profes¬ 
sor Stewart advises, in the Albany Cultivator, 
that they should bo feu the first five months 
with the special object of growing their mus¬ 
cles aud bones aud producing a frame on which 
a good weight can bo put in the last two 
months. Rye, oats, wheat bran aud perhaps 
some low grade Hour may lie fed, if the Hour 
costs less, but shelled corn should have no 
place in the ration for feeding young pigs. 
When the frame is grown, then corn meal is 
the best to put on the fat. If the rye and oats 
are worth the same price per weight, then 
grind in equal weight together. When corn 
meal is fed during the special fattening stage, 
it would lie better to mix on equal bulk of 
bran with it. The bran will prevent the meal 
from having its usual constipating effect and 
keep them healthier. 
For Beef and Milk, Both.— T. C. Jones 
states, iu the same excellent journal, that it is 
idle toargue that it is impossible to breed cat¬ 
tle that will pay at tho pail as well as at the 
shambles. For more than a hundred years, 
indeed ever since intelligent attention has 
been bestowed upon the live stuck industry in 
Great Britain us well as in this country, in all 
localities where the soil is adapted to mixed 
husbandry, these two properties have been 
steadily’ kept in view by intelligent, furiuers 
iu selecting and rearing their cattle, liecause it 
has been found t hat a breed possessing but one 
of these properties could not. be reared with a 
profit. 
Hut Treks for the Highway. —Suppose, 
says a writer in the Orchard and Garden, that 
the people of the older States when laying out 
their highways through the country and 
