1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
211 
remaining is to pay for the cost of publication 
and distribution. It was also decided to hold 
a show of Jersey stock in connection with the 
Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. 
My attention is called by a correspondent to 
the “ Basket ” item in the Agriculturist for May, 
entitled “Jersey and Alderney,” which he 
thinks calculated to mislead. He asks whether 
there are any Alderneys in this country, and 
whether they can be entered in the Jersey 
“ Herd Book.” There are four principal islands 
in the Channel group—Jersey, Guernsey, Al¬ 
derney, and Sark. Jersey, the largest, is about 
the size of Staten Island, in New York har¬ 
bor; Guernsey is less than half the size of 
Jersey; Alderney is only about one sixth the 
size of Jersey (about 2,500 acres); and Sark is 
(in arable land) considerably smaller than Al¬ 
derney. These are usually called, not the 
Alderney Islands, but the Channel Islands. 
They have two distinct breeds of cattle—Jersey 
and Guernsey. Sark has a mixture of the two, 
and Alderney is stocked with animals origin¬ 
ally from Jersey, but with the admixture of 
some Guernsey blood. It is not usually con¬ 
sidered a distinct breed, and is not accepted as 
a pure race in the other islands. Alderney 
cows are apparently degenerated Jerseys, or 
rather Jerseys which have not been improved 
as they have been in the larger island. I know 
of but one Alderney cow in America (“ Lottie,” 
belonging to Mr. Wm. F. Botts, of Philadel¬ 
phia), and she has every appearance of a Jer¬ 
sey, though she has been refused admission in 
the “Herd Register” of the American Jersey 
Cattle Club. The name “ Alderney ” was 
given to Channel Islands cattle because the 
early importations into England were from 
that island, where there are many English 
residents, and it has probably been retained by 
mere force of habit. Its retention in this 
countrywas perhaps due in part to the con¬ 
fusion that might follow between Jersey and 
New Jersey. What we call Alderneys are al¬ 
most exclusively Jerseys. There are a few 
Guernsey cattle in the United States, but not 
enough to constitute a prominent class. They 
are large, rich milkers, and good farmer’s 
cows, but they lack the characteristic beauty 
of the Jerseys, and are on this account less 
attractive, even to ordinary farmers, who like 
handsome animals as well as any other class 
in the community. 
During the past month I have been “ neigh¬ 
boring ” among some farmer friends in Massa¬ 
chusetts, and have had some light thrown 
upon the question as to whether faming is a 
good business in New England. 
Mr. Edward Burnett, of Southborough, is a 
young man who, during his college vacations, 
and even as a boy before he entered college, 
indulged his agricultural tastes by hiring him¬ 
self out as a farm hand, and learning the 
business from the bottom. Mr. Bowditch, of 
Framingham, tells me that he used to pay 
him during haying and harvest $40 per month 
and board, and considered him the best hand 
he ever had. During this occasional appren¬ 
ticeship, he boarded with the farm hands, and 
was in all respects on the same footing with 
them, so that he became a thorough-going, 
practical farmer. When he left college, he 
took the management of his father’s farm, 
which was well improved, and when he mar¬ 
ried he bought the farm (200 acres) on mort¬ 
gage, and went at it like a man to work his 
way out. From present indications he will 
not be very long in demonstrating his success. 
Of course he has material advantages in hav¬ 
ing fallen heir to many improvements, made 
without especial reference to their cost, and 
which a farmer beginning at the bottom of 
the ladder would not have—some which, al¬ 
though valuable, are hardly worth what they 
would cost to make anew. On the other 
hand, he has as good a farm to lose money on 
as could well be found, if he would only de¬ 
velop its resources in this respect; and nine 
men out of ten, not used to farming, taking it 
with a good capital, would swamp their for¬ 
tunes in very few years; for a good farm, with 
the appliances for fancy farming, responds 
very promptly to the influence of neglect and 
bad management. It will be fertile in disas¬ 
ter or in success exactly according to the skill 
with which it is managed. Mr. Burnett may 
be safely depended upon to steer his craft in 
the right direction, and to demonstrate the 
possibilities of agriculture in New England, 
which seems to me to offer a better opening to 
an enterprising man than does that of any 
other section of the country. 
All that New England seems to lack is a 
fertile soils-its fertility has waned, and the 
brood which fed upon it in its “ virgin ” days 
has gone West, and further West, leaving in 
their whole track a worn-out soil and a pros¬ 
perous and well-peopled land. They have 
earned to the country more than they have 
cost it, and I am not disposed to give them 
anything but praise. But it remains for us, 
who benefit by their pioneering, to restore the 
productiveness of their fields, and to follow 
their simpler destructive farming with a sys¬ 
tem that has been made possible only by the 
general prosperity they have initiated. The 
farm that we have to cultivate is less rich 
than they found it, but it is in the midst, of a 
wealthy and thriving population, and this is 
an advantage that can hardly be overrated. 
If we work as though our farm were in West¬ 
ern Iowa, we shall probably fail—and deserve 
to fail—for our poor laud can not compete 
with the Western farm, under the same sys¬ 
tem. But if we realize the fact that we have, 
within easy reach, a market that is eager for 
the best and freshest products of a sort that 
will not bear long transportation, and that we 
are surrounded with towns and villages from 
which we can get an abundant supply of ma¬ 
nure, we shall see that our circumstances are 
worth more to us than our acres, and shall in¬ 
troduce into our operations an element of suc¬ 
cess that is impossible to those who are more 
remote. 
The most hopeful thing about Mr. Burnett’s 
case is that he has realized this condition, and 
works to meet it. His cows are pure Jerseys 
(and good ones) and he has a ready market in 
Boston (by contract with a large hotel) for all 
his butter at 75 cents per pound. Then again, 
he makes a large item of the swine, which feed 
on his skimmed milk (and on corn-meal), and 
of similarly fed pork, which he contracts to 
take from butter-making farmers in his neigh¬ 
borhood. He dogs not go into Faneuil market 
and sell for the going price for the best quality, 
but advertises that he makes a specialty of 
family pork, fed on milk and corn alone, and 
put up with the greatest care; that he will de¬ 
liver at private houses in Boston, free of cost, 
lard, bacon, jowls, shoulders, hams, and sau¬ 
sage-meat at 20 cents per pound. In this way 
he gets 10 cents per pound for the cost of rais¬ 
ing and dressing his pork, which pays, and 
another 10 cents per pound for preparing for 
market in the best manner, and this pays enor¬ 
mously. Another item of his business is the 
sale of family cows. These he buys from 
farmers far and near, on his own reliable judg¬ 
ment, at fair farm prices, and is able to sell at 
a good advance to persons who have confidence 
in him and in his knowledge of cattle, but who 
have neither the time nor the experience to se¬ 
lect for themselves. 
His whole system is based on advertising, 
reputation, and the demand for strictly first- 
class supplies for families who can afford to 
pay extra prices, and who know the value of 
extra quality; and this is the best basis he 
could possibly have—the only one which takes 
his circumstances as they actually exist, and 
makes the most of them. If there is any bet¬ 
ter definition of good farming than this one of 
making the most of all existing conditions, I have 
not found it out. 
I imagine the comment being made, as it al¬ 
ways is made, that if everybody did as Mr. 
Burnett does, there would be no extra quality 
and no extra prices. Exactly! But everybody 
won’t. It is only the very, very few who will 
ever try to do the best that can be done, and 
such examples as the one now given will al¬ 
ways be rare. It is given not as praise to a 
friend, but as an incentive to the few enter¬ 
prising men who are well located, here and 
there, in the Eastern states, and who really 
“ mean business ” when they undertake an im¬ 
proved style of farming—men who are destined 
to be valuable examples of success in farming, 
and to revolutionize the agriculture of their 
neighborhoods, and who are to be followed by 
others who will be as far in advance of them 
as they are of the average standard of to-day. 
It is not safe to advise any young man to 
adopt farming as the business of his life, but 
to those who have decided on this, it is surely 
safe to advise an emulation of the example of 
Edward Burnett, beginning, as he did, with the 
hard work of the farm, hand in hand with the 
other hired men, and learning the details of all 
kinds of work by downright hard work, until, 
like him, they cau beat many a born farmer in 
the harvest-field, and many a born dairy-woman 
in the butter-room. 
I hope I shall be forgiven if I temper my 
commendation with a little criticism, which I 
do publicly (as I have to himself in private), 
and warn eager youngsters against the error of 
being “ boss and all hands.” It is too much to 
ask of any merely human mind and body to 
work like a slave from morning until night in 
hard field work, and at the same time to man¬ 
age the business and carry on the correspond¬ 
ence of such an establishment as I have de¬ 
scribed. It is very important that the head of 
such a farm should be able to do any sort of 
work in-doors or out of doors, and to know 
how to get it done by others; but the large 
capital invested, and the important outside in¬ 
terests on which success so largely depends, 
are not fairly treated when they get only the 
guidance of a work-weary brain. The one 
part of the work which can not be hired done 
is the part to which the owner’s first care and 
best and freshest efforts should be given. If 
you are your own foreman, you must be al¬ 
ways to the fore, and exhaust your can;:,city in 
manual labor. It is better to have a good 
hired leader, and put a shoulder (physical or 
mental) to the wheel whenever and wherever it 
is most needed at the moment. Labor is one 
agent you have to employ, but business man- 
