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For the New England Farmer.
A VIEW OF LABOR.

Wilmington, 1855.

SILAS BROWN.

For the New England Farmer. REMEDY FOR CURCULIO---APPLE

TREES.

admonition is rather to be considered as the prescribed means of self-preservation, than as a curse on him for disobedience. Labor and health are so MR. EDITOR:-Manual labor or work is dreaded dependent upon each other, that we may as reasonby some, and despised by others, and very few have ably consider health a curse as to consider labor a a natural love for it. The love of labor is acquired curse. And to wind up: an idle man, whether by habit and perseverance, in a great measure. God rich or poor, is an excrescence deriving its nutrimade man dependent upon his own efforts to feed ment from the industry of the working classes of and clothe himself; he has hands, and intellect to the community, and merits the curse for his lazidirect his hands, and God has shown no partiality ness and breaking the fourth commandment as in the formation of any class of individuals as an much as Adam did for his disobedience. exemption from labor, or promised prosperity to spring from habits of idleness. Among savages and other improvident people, starvation, as a punishment, is the inevitable consequence of their indolence and disregard to the faculty of foresight. Farmers and mechanics have frequently failed for want of self-respect. Instead of herding together, as the manner of some is, in low drinking houses, to degrade themselves, if they would spend their leisure hours in using means to inform, enlarge and elevate their minds, by reading the productions of good, well-informed authors, or meeting together to lecture each other on the subjects of their respective sequence of that insect. This season, having made callings they would soon find that instead of being lard, and applying it to the body and limbs of the an ointment by mixing snlphur with yellow snuff in degraded by labor, that degradation had sprung from another cause. Ignorance and vicious habits will de-allow the trees at this time to give promise of an trees, I have so far checked their operations as to preciate a man's self-respect and often lessen his abundant crop. self-esteem. The farmer who is supplying the world with the staff of life, ought to consider his position from his apple trees. I think him premature in his Mr. Wyman appears to despair of good results as high, and his occupation as respectable, as the conclusions; there are, probably, a number of reaquack that supplies the world with his nostrums, sons why he has not a good crop; his trees may be impregnated with the seeds of death, or the mountebank that gets rich by his impositions practised up in that condition, and I have noticed the same in making wood too fast to bear fruit. I have some other orchards, which have afterwards yielded abun

on a credulous multitude.

MR. EDITOR:-I noticed in the Farmer of June 30, a communication from John P. Wyman, upon the ravages of the curculio, and have since been looking for some person to point out a remedy. I have for years been unable to obtain plums in con

It is the man that makes his calling respectable, dantly. Mr. W. speaks of a fine blossom this year; and not the calling the man,-an infamous characit was so with many of my young trees which have ter will disgrace any profession. Labor has a moral influence connected with it; there is less dissim-now less than a dozen apples each, and yet I canulation and temptation to dishonesty among far- not attribute it to the insects entirely, as trees of mers and other laboring classes, than exists among loaded to excess with the choicest fruit. This result the same age, and in the same orchard, are now politicians and the learned professions. The man would surprise me, had I not for years been acthat labors ought to consider himself a man, and use the means to be a respectable man, and that will elevate his business to respectability; let him qualify himself to fill his station, be it what it may, by gaining the requisite knowledge required to make him master of his art, whether farmer or me chanic, then he will have confidence enough in himself to have a mind of his own, and not feel degraded at seeing the displays of officious coxcombs that make pretensions to superiority.

quainted with the character and habits of these different kinds of fruit. If Mr. W. would make an from which his sprung, have been in the habit of investigation, he would probably find that the trees that his trees being a part of the original tree, will producing their main crop in the even years, and ultimately develop the characteristics of the parent. If Mr. W. will take the trouble to call on me, I will show him some trees, burdened with choice fruit, than which none better can be found in the After all the arguments and examples to the country, which have been in the habit of bearing contrary, a good moral character is an essential in- abundantly in the odd years only, resting from their gredient in the formation of a man. A rogue, himgreat exertion through the even years. self being judge, esteems an honest man more than Mr. W. need not despair since such fruit may be one of his own feather. What man whose charac-introduced into his orchard. ter for knavery is established, can abide long in a CHARLES EASTMAN. place? He is like the troubled sea, and has to live by shifting his place and changing his name, and wants eyes behind to see who is in pursuit; once a rogue, always suspected. No man under the sun, GOOD HORSE PROVENDER.—The best provender who knows right from wrong, or has any regard that we ever gave to a horse was a mixture of twofor his own good, who will not enjoy himself better, thirds oat meal and one-third corn meal. The oat and wear a more comfortable conscience by work- meal had been thought by some physiological cheming either by hands or head than spending his time ists to contain much muscle, or flesh-forming matter, in idle dissipation. That the impression gained and the corn meal to contain much fat-forming macredence, or prevailed among mankind, that labor terial, and therefore, when combined together, we was the curse of God for Adam's disobedience, is get both principles combined. Our experience with preposterous; when he said to Adam, "in the sweat this feed corroborates the above theory.

South Hadley, Aug. 24, 1855.

of thy brow thou shalt eat bread," the prediction or A writer over the signature of W. W. B., in the

But

Rural New-Yorker of the 21st, recommends a mix- These gardeners are not content with one or ture of oats and rye for horses. We think his plan two crops, the same season, but force the soil to of raising the two together, pretty good, and we therefore copy it. yield three; beginning, perhaps, with early peas, "I had," says he, "a conversation with a man late- then potatoes, and closing with cabbages, celery, or ly, who was an experienced farmer, having farmed some plant not easily affected by the frost. both in this State (N. Y.) and Ohio, and his manner two crops is common on nearly all the land they of raising horse feed was this:-I take about 2 cultivate. Where we saw sweet corn just getting bushels of oats, and mix with them one bushel of large enough to boil, some other crop had been rye, and sow this amount to the acre. The rye will support the oats in case of a heavy growth, and cultivated, harvested, and sent to market. Half an vent lodging. In this manner I have raised sixty, acre in celery had yielded a good crop of onions seventy, and even eighty bushels per acre." The this season, and so of many other things. The soil soil must have been very strong to do that, but the itself is fine, porous and warm, so that when highly mixture is about in the right proportion.

pre

manured, seed germinates quickly, and the young plants grow rapidly. But in order to accomplish

A MORNING IN A MARKET GARDEN. all this, large quantities of manure are necessary, The large farmer, who raises broad fields of and these they procure from the stables where the wheat, corn, potatoes and oats, and pastures and omnibus horses are kept in Roxbury.

milks or fats herds of cattle, might find lessons of Ovisiting the house, we discovered something pleasure and profit by an occasional visit to some of of the secret of Mr. Rand's success in gardening, the market gardens in the vicinity of Boston. Un-in a well-selected library. He has not been entireless he has already done so, he little conceives what ly satisfied with the experience of himself or his a different kind of business the cultivation of those father, who cultivated the same grounds many gardens is, compared with the ordinary modes of years before him, but has sought information from farming, and what an amount of product they are the experiences of others in our own country, and forced to yield. Such a visit would afford him many in the best foreign works which treat of his busiexcellent suggestions as to his own modes of cul-ness. In this way he avails himself of the improveture, and would enable him to supply his table with ments which science suggests, and the knowledge the choicest fruits and vegetables, and to produce gained by others in similar pursuits. the latter in great abundance, at a cheap rate, for the stock of his own farm.

We found both gratification and profit in our visit, and have no doubt our farmer friends may do the same by spending a morning in some one of the

We were invited last week to look at the gardens and grounds of ISAAC P. RAND, Esq., of Rox-numerous market gardens in the vicinity of Boston. bury. Mr. Rand is one of the firm of Rand & Darling, Quincy Market, who deal largely in all For the New England Farmer. sorts of vegetables. Their sales of sweet potatoes this year, at the rate already attained, will be nearINQUIRIES ABOUT HORSES. ly thirty thousand bushels! the collecting, packing MR. EDITOR:-I am a constant reader of your and shipping of which requires the time of one or like to be about horses. Having seen an article in monthly. I have always worked on a farm, and

two men for several months at the South.

your weekly, entitled, "A Short Chapter on HorsThe grounds Mr. R. cultivates at Roxbury were es," I am induced to make a few inquiries respectoriginally of the roughest and most forbidding char- ing them. And first, allow me to ask if I should acter; covered with ledges and boulders of that pe- be likely to get a good colt from a mare that is very culiar character called pudding stone, and mingled ries her mouth a little open if her head is checked stout built, but a rather clumsy traveller, and carwith them, briars and bushes of every description. up, but shut if she is allowed to carry it as she The large rocks have been used in one of the most pleases, which is very low? She is a first-rate work beautifully constructed as well as substantial stone horse. The stallion is a noble animal, rather more walls we have seen, and hundreds of tons of the small- than medium height (the mare being short-legged,) er ones in the ditches that underlie every part of the with a fine head and neck, is deep through the shoulders, full breast, and is altogether a very fine garden. All this, however, did not clear the grounds, figure. as there is scarcely a square foot now but is covered I am fond of riding horse-back. Will you please with the flint-like pebbles broken from the masses inform me of the best method of training a horse of pudding stone, or with its softer and decaying to the saddle? Is it a good plan to "bit" horses? parts. The hoe must ring at every stroke, and the Can a long-gaited horse be made to stop short, by checking the head higher, or in any other way. plow grumble as it goes like a young volcano beAugust, 1855. AN INQUIRER. neath the feet. And yet this land, with all these difficulties to contend with, is annually covered with REMARKS.-Proper answers to all these questhe most luxuriant and perfect crops, and is a strik-ries would be of service to many persons, and we ing illustration of what skill and industry may ac- hope some one well acquainted with the subject will complish. reply to them through the Farmer.

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Premiums will be paid in silver plate or money,

Single Draft Horses, 1st premium....

do.

2d premium.....

do.

31 premium..

.$50

.25

..Diploma.

On Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 23d, a trial of speed at the option of successful competitors, who must will be held, open to all horses that have never become members of the society; and the beautiful trotted for money. Exhibitors to drive, and to be Diploma of the society will be presented to every persons who have never driven for money.

Exhibitor to whom a Premium is awarded.

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1st premium.....

2d premium...

.$200 .100

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On Friday forenoon, Oct. 26th, a grand trial of

Diploma. speed, free for all trotting horses and all drivers.

One year old and under two, 1st premium........

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2d premium..
3d premium....

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1st premium...
2d premium..

CLASS III.-SHEEP.

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.$25
.10

2d premium...
3d premium........Diploma.

Three years old and upwards, 1st premium.......... .$100

do.
do.

......50

2d premium...
3d premium.......Diploma.

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.$300

..100

Premiums range from $25 to $10, and 36 of them are offered, and 10 Diplomas.

CLASS IV.-SWINE.

Twenty-six premiums are offered, varying from $25 to $10.

DISCRETIONARY PREMIUMS.

One thousand dollars have been set apart by the Executive Committee, to be awarded in discretionary premiums, should objects of special interest, not provided for in any of the classes, be presented.

For the New England Farmer. SHORT PASTURES.

On all sides we hear complaints that feed is short. The milkman says his cows are falling off. The butter man says that his cows do not give their usual measure;-that he must cut off a pound from each of his customers. What shall be the remedy for all this? I prepared for this in the spring. I planted corn in May and June, that I might have it to cut up in August and September, ready to be distributed to the cows every night on their return from pastures. But, says the careful calculator, "of what use is it to distribute green corn to cows? It will not increase their milk. I have tried it again and again, and am satisfied of this." Can this be so? It is so averred by sensible men. I have often heard it, and could name them. Why it is that an article of food so palatable and nutritious as green corn is supposed to be, will not produce milk, it is not easy to understand. That this kind of feed will continue the animals in good condition, $50 and improve their butter products, is clear beyond doubt. In proof of this I beg leave to quote a paragraph from an address by TIMOTHY PICKERING to the Agricultural Society, February, 1828, of which he had just been made President.

.$50
.25

...15

.$75

..50

..25

.25

.15

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man."

"It has appeared to me that the one point, and very deficient in another. Size has sort called sweet corn (having a white, shrivelled nothing to do with profit; it was not what an animal grain when ripe) yields stalks of richer juice than made, so much as what it cost making. The Linthe common yellow corn. It is also more disposed colnshire farmers are second to no men in the imto multiply suckers,-an additional recommenda- provement of waste lands; the Wolds, Lincoln tion of it, when planted to be cut in its green state, Heath, and the Fens, for instance: the lower parts for horses and cattle, and especially for milch cows; are now drained by steam engines. And the breed and its time of planting may be regulated so as to of sheep which they have is the most profitable for furnish a supply of food, just when the common pas- their county. SAMUEL ARNSBY.-Mark Lane Extures usually fail. I am inclined to doubt whether press, London. any other green food will afford butter of equal ex

cellence."

In September, 1828, in his last address to the society, Col. P. says, "The great value of Indian

MR. MECHI'S MODEL FARM.

We find the following notice of Mr. Mechi's farm

corn stalks, in their green state, for feeding cattle, at Tiptree Hall, England, in the New York Tribune, milch cows, especially, I have formerly mentioned. furnished by its correspondent, “M. T. H.” Mr. To have this fodder in its green and most juicy Mechi was not bred a farmer, but a tradesman, in state, it should be planted at different times; so

that the latest planted should attain its proper

London.

growth by the middle of September, and continue Once every year, just at the close of the London till the frost comes, at the close of the month, or season, when every one in town is sighing for a early in October." Thus we see his first and his breath of country air, just before the commencement last lessons of instruction to the farmers of his of the harvest, when the green wheat, fully grown, county, recognized green corn fodder as a valuable is just beginning to get the first tinge of gold upon feed for milch cows. its ears-once a year, when the days are hottest in

I frankly admit these quotations do not prove the town and brightest in the country, Mr. Mechi that cows when fed on green corn will give more has an "Agricultural Gathering" at Tiptree Hall. To milk for being thus fed-but they come so near es- this gathering are invited all the notabilities of the tablishing the fact, that I think it will be taken for granted, until the contrary is clearly shown, by authority more reliable than that of Col. Pickering. August 25, 1855. AGRICOLA.

CROSSING SHEEP.

day-Ministers of the Crown and Ministers of the Gospel, Poets and Plenipotentiaries, Peers and Commoners, Lawyers and Literati, Citizens and Country-folk, Tradesmen and Farmers, imitators and admirers, all turn out to see "Mechi's Model Farm." To these, collected at his hospitable Hall, Mr. Mechi proceeds to show his improvements. He walks For upwards of fifty years I have seen a great them over his fields and through his stock-yarddeal of crossing the different kinds of sheep-Lei- he expatiates upon his difficulties and explains his cesters with Leicesters, Leicesters with Cotswolds, improvements he discourses on his crops, exhiLeicesters with South-Downs, and Leicesters with bits his machine, lectures learnedly on his manures, many other kinds of sheep. I have always found shows how he distributes them, and when the party the Bake-well or Leicester sheep to improve every have acquired sufficient information and astounding kind they have been put to, by giving them the appetites, he concludes the day by setting them down Bakewell barrel form, small bone, and to feed at to a banquet such as a Londoner alone knows how early maturity. The first cross in most animals has to manage.

been proved the best; the next cross generally pro- Now that politics are no longer mixed up with duces size and weight, except you put a gigantic Mechi's model processes, and now that all parties animal to the first cross: when I say gigantic, I do will consent to hear and think of Tiptree farm withnot mean an animal made a giant with fat flesh, out prejudice, I shall have a chance of being listened with the head and ears of a dwarf upon him-I to, if I tell you quite the truth concerning it, and mean a giant in frame when in a lean state, with lead you to regard it as it is, and not as you would bone in proportion, aye, and a head and ears in pro- see it through the spectacles of faction. As a place portion to his body—a long, thin head, and not a of country resort, then, I am bound to say in the gigantic broad one. Giants do not produce dwarfs, first place that Tiptree Hall is one of the least neither do dwarfs produce giants, any more than pleasing I ever chanced to visit. England is probulldogs produce greyhounds. It has been proved verbial for its pleasant places. Who, in your back that a gigantic ram has been produced from a dwarf woods, however improved may be his material conewe; at the same time, it was proved that a giant dition, will not sigh at the fond remembrance of ram lay in the adjoining field, which very easily the village home in which he grew-of the white accounted for the giant being produced from a church spire that pointed up to heaven so fondly dwarf. It has always been said that like produces from the clustered elms of the old manor-house, like, and a fine bone denotes a feeding propensity, scenes of many a farm-house and Christmas revel, and a long face and ears, with a Roman nose, of the clear, bright, never-failing stream that ripdenotes a large breed. The breeders of Lincoln- pled past his cottage door, the village green on shire sheep say that neither the Cots-wolds nor the which he fought his earliest battles, the lane so Downs mix well with their heavy-wooled sheep, calm, so tranquil in the evening shadows, where he but a dip of the Leicester does wonders. So says courted the first fair object of his love, the bank the far-famed Mr. Kirkham, of Hagnaby. Mr. where grew the earliest and brightest primroses, Bakewell always said that extremes were bad, and the bean-field that exhaled its thousand odors to that the middle-sized animals answer the best for the dewy evening, the cultivated farm, the busy profits. But, above all things, said Mr. B., let an mill, the meadow where the land-rail craked, the animal's make be in proportion-not very large in pile from which he caught that first glimpse of the

wide, wide world, that taught him there was some- The answer is simple. By deep drainage and liquid thing beyond his lowly lot, and that tempted him, manures, regardless of expense. Mr. Mechi's knowlperchance unwisely, to desert it: Alas! alas! edge of chemistry taught him that the worst soil But Tiptree Hall is unconscious of all this. Situ- might become better, by allowing their pores to be ated on an elevated, bleak and barren heath, with- fermented by the sweet rains of heaven. Every clod out a tree within a mile of it larger than a laurel, it in the hard clay at Tiptree was choked by stagnant boasts not a single rural beauty, such as we regard water. He drew it off by deep drainage. Then rural beauty in this country. Mr. Mechi has made the plow let in life and light upon heaps of earth a great effort to compensate for this by artificial which had never felt the influence of either. Still, gardening; but though everything has been done though the land was broken up-though from a that a cultivated taste and a lavish expenditure hard, cold clod of clay, it had been converted into a could effect, yet the result, as a whole, is eminent- dry wold-still, it was poor and needy. Mr. Mechi's ly unsatisfactory. Terraces and embankments have next application to it was, accordingly, intended to been thrown up to relieve the flat monotony of give it strength and heat. By means of pipes carthe landscape-a bog has been converted into a se- ried all over the estate, liquid manure was laid on ries of little lakes-walks of every possible variety freely wherever it seemed to be required, and the have been wound around plantations-tender shrubs ground soon showed how much it was strengthened have been planted and effectually reared on spots and how much it was disposed to give a grateful where nature never intended that a shrub should and hearty acknowledgment of the favor conferred grow-flower beds have been laid out with all the upon it.

man.

elaboration of which the Italian style of gardening In by-gone times it used to be a great joke with is susceptible-color has been properly introduced the farmers to ask Mr. Mechi where was his "balwhere nothing was to be seen but drab-colored ance sheet?" You may grow a crop upon one of heather-but still the result is unsatisfactory. The your own razors, was the argument, but what will place, in fact, as a retreat, has no capabilities. Na- it cost you? For many years, while the price of ture has pre-determined that there shall be about wheat was low, Mr. Mechi was compelled to acit none of the specialities of an English farm, and knowledge that he had invested more in the soil Nature has yet, in this respect, been too strong for than the soil returned him. But things have now changed, and Mr. Mechi retorts the joke upon the But what of Tiptree as a "model farm?" Is it farmers. "It is not," says he, "the man who farms what it professes to be? Is it what Sir Robert Peel with the least expense, who makes the most money. described it? Is it an example which the farmers When prices were low, and labor was low, I investof the world may advantageously consult and im- ed large sums of money in the land; now that prices itate? Now, as to this point I must frankly say are high, I invest no longer, but I reap the benefit that my notions are poised so very equally in my of my investment at low prices. My fields produce mental scales, that I am unable to give a distinct or more than yours; my returns are, consequently, Batisfactory reply. I have seen better things in greater than yours. And it is the result of investfarming than Tiptree Hall, many better things; but ment in improvements at periods when improvewhile I declare this, I must also acknowledge that ments can be made at low rates of wages.' Such I never saw so remarkable an example of what in- are the arguments of Mr. Mechi. They are, to a dustry and enterprise may accomplish under the great extent, of world-wide application, and I doubt most unfavorable circumstances. Certainly no one not you have many on your side of the Atlantic, who but a man accustomed to get sharp edges from the will know how to apply them profitably.

For the New England Farmer. MURIATE OF LIME AS A TOPDRESSING.

collision of steel and stone, ever would have thought of trying to cultivate such a place at all. One would fancy that Mr. Mechi had taken up an idea from his shop that you could get a good crop out of stones as well as a keen edge. You should have heard his own account of what Tiptree farm was when he came there! "Vainly," said he, "did I try by solid manures to render this vile, plastic clay, a muriate of lime upon a lawn of about half an acre. MR. EDITOR-I tried an experiment with the useful pasture. It was like bird-lime in Winter, The land was laid down and sown with herd's-grass and like cast-iron in Summer. Poor, indigenous and red-top last year without any manure. This spring and drab-colored grasses, choked and eradicated the I gave one-half the lot a top-dressing composed of finer kinds I had sown, and the animals wandered three barrels of muriate of lime mixed with six about, hollow and dissatisfied. Now, fine and fatten-cart-loads of meadow mud. The effect astonished ing grasses clothe the fields with perpetual verdure, the land keeps three times as many animals, and theme, and at the time of cutting the grass, I called a number of my neighbors to see the effect of the close and shaven pasture indicates their affection for it." And this description of Mr. Mechi's pasture is top-dressing, and all who saw it decided that there was full double the quantity of grass upon that a fine description of his whole farm. Where the drab-colored grasses were alone seen ten years ago, the soil was of the same description, and laid down part which was manured, over that which was not; crops of the finest wheat, barley and oats now clothe the wold, and greet the sunshine as it merrily glances from the heavens. Every one admits that there can be no finer crops. They are grown from very small quantities of well selected seeds; but these small quantities, under Mr. Mechi's system, seem to be more productive than large quantities any where else.

How, then, have these results been produced?

side by side.

Some of my neighbors have tried this article
upon their meadow land, and with a like result. I
consider it a very valuable manure, especially for
posted for next season.
grass lands, and am now having a large pile com-

Yours very truly,
Lexington, Aug. 20, 1855.

D. WOOD.

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