X Persons receiving this report hy mouil cure requested to return the postage. T. S. GOLD, Secretary, West Cornwall, Conn. ^tat^ 0f ^onnttiitxxt SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY OP THE %'mmttmi mud af Ji^mlimt^, 1883-84. \min\ bg d0rdcr of the legislature. HARTFORD, CONK: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., Pkestters. 1884. LIBRARY STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. ^^Z^,Z^J^ 1883-84. GARDEN His Excellency THOMAS M. WALLER, ex officio. APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR AND SENATE. ALBERT DAY, Brooklyn, .... J. P. BARSTOW, .... Norwich, .... J. W. ALSOP, Middletown, S. B. WEST, Columbia, .... TERM EXPIUES. . . 1885. ELECTED BY THE AGRICULTURAL Hartford County, New Haven County, New London County, Fairfield County, Windham County, Litchfield County, Middlesex County, Tolland County, J. S. KiKKHAM, Levi E. Coe, James A. Bill, E, R. Whittlesey, Alex. Warner, J. LeRoy Buck, J. M. Hubbard, E. H. Hyde, SOCIETIES. Newington, Meriden, Lyme, Danbury, Pomfret, New Milford, Middletown, Stafford, ELECTED BY THE BOARD. T. S. Gold, West Cornwall, Secretary. OFFICIAL LIST. Governor Thomas M. Waller, President. .J. P. Baestow, T. S. Gold, Nathan Hart, Prof. S. I. Smith, Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Prof. S. W. Johnson, P. M. Augur, Norwich, West Cornwall, West Cornwall, New Haven, New Haven, New Haven, Middlefield, Vice-President. Secretary. Treasurer. Entomologist. Botanist. Chemist. Pomologist. E. H. Hyde, T. S. Gold, J. W. Alsop, Commissioners on Diseases of Domestic Animals. 1885. 1884. 1884. 1884. 1885. 1885. 1884. 1884. 1884. 1885. 1885. James A. Bill, J. M. Hubbard, Auditors. Alex. Warner, To the General Assembly of Connecticut : In accordance with the provisions of the Act creating a State Board of Agriculture, I have the honor to present the Report for 1883-84. T. S. GOLD, Secretary. West Cornwall, January 9, 1884. REPORT, The Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture was held at Room No. 50, Capitol, Hartford, Wednesday, January 10, 1883, at 10 a. m., Vice-President, J. P. Barstow cliainnan. The report of the Treasurer was read and accepted. Messrs. Alsop, Day, and West were appointed a committee' on credentials, and reported E. H. Hyde as member elect for Tolland County, J. M. Hul.bard for Middlesex County, J. A. Bill for New London County. No certificate was presented of the reported election of a successor to Mr. Webb from New Haven County, and on motion of E. H. Hyde, the Secretary was directed to corres- pond with the New Haven County Agricultural Society to obtain certificate of member from that County. Messrs. Alsop and Hubbard were appointed a committee to wait on Governor Waller and invite his attendance. The committee reported that Governor Waller had not arrived in the city. Officers were then chosen as follows, the Governor being ex officio President : Gov. Thomas M. Waller, President. J. P. Barstow, Norwich, Vice-President. T. S. Gold, West Cornwall, Secretary. The report of the Treasurer was then read, referred to the auditors, and on their approval- it was accepted. N. Hart, West Cornwall, Treasurer. Prof. S. W. Johnson, New Haven, Chemist. Dr. E. H. Jenkins, New Haven, Botanist. Prof. S. I. Smith, New Haven, Entomologist. P. M. Augur. Middlefield, Pomologist. 8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Commissioners on Diseases of Domestic Animals, E. H. Hyde, T. S. Gold, J. W. Alsop. Auditors, J. M. Hubbard, J. A. Bill, Alex. Warner. E. H. Hyde, Trustee Storrs Agricultural School 1 year, T. S. Gold, Member of Board of Control of Experiment Station for 3 years from July, 1883. Messrs. Gold and West were appointed a committee to arrange time, place, and subject for winter meeting. On motion of Mr. Day, Resolved^ That the Vice-President and Secretary arrange for visiting Fairs by Delegates. Resolved^ That the Cattle Commissioners be authorized to employ such veterinary assistance as may be necessary. Resolved^ That an appropriation of fifty dollars be paid to P. M. Augur, Pomologist. James R. Bill presented to the Board, from the editor, J. Buckingham, volumes 1 and 2 of the Devon Herd Book. On motion of E. H. Hyde, the Secretary was directed to return the thanks of the Board to Mr. J. Buckingham for his valuable present. The Board then adjourned sine die. T. S. GOLD, Secretary. West Cornwall, Jan. 11, 1883. A special meeting of the Board was held at the Scovill House, Waterbury, December 18, 1883, at 8 p. m. Hon. Albert Day, chairman. The Secretary reported the death of the Treasurer, Mr. Nathan Hart. On motion of Mr. Kirkham, the Secretary was directed to prepare appropriate resolutions to the memory of the late Treasurer. On motion of Mr. Bill, Resohed, That the sum of one hundred dollars be paid to the widow of the late Treasurer. Resolved, That the sum of twenty-five dollars be paid to the Treasurer of the Board, beginning at the annual meeting in January. 1884.] seceetary's report. 9 Resolved^ That tbe Secretary be Treasurer pro tern, till the annual meeting. The following resolutions reported by the Secretary were passed by the Board. Resolved^ That in the death of Mr. Hart, the Board recognize their serious loss in being deprived of the services of a faithful and efficient officer. Resolved^ That we desire to present to the family of the deceased this testimonial of our esteem, and the high consideration in -which his ser- vices have been held by us, as an expression of our sympathy with them. Resolved^ That the Secretary be directed to furnish a copy of these resolutions to the family of the deceased, and that they be entered on the Records. The meeting then adjourned to the call of the Secretary. At a special meeting of the Board held at Waterbury, December 21st, at 2 p. m., Resolved^ That the annual meeting be held in Hartford, the second Wednesday of the session of the General Assembly. Adjourned sine die. T. S. GOLD, Secretary. WINTER MEETING. The Annual Farmers' Convention, under the auspices of the Board, was held at Waterbury, December 19, 20, and 21, 1883. The attendance, even on the first day, notwithstanding the inclement weather which prevailed, was quite large, and increased at each session, and a very gratifying degree of attention and interest was manifested in all the proceedings. The opening meeting was called to order in the City Hall at eleven o'clock on Wednesday, December 19th, by Mr. J. P. Barstovv^ of Norwich, Vice-President of the Board, who said : Gentlemen: — The hour having arrived at which this meet- ing was called, the opening prayer will be offered by the Rev. Dr. Anderson, of Waterbury. Prayer. God, who hast created all things, and dost uphold all things by tlie word of thy power, we come before thee with rever- ence, with thanksgivings, desiring to recognize thy presence, and to bow before thee as humble suppliants. We recognize thy pi-csence in the world around us, in tlie revolving seasons, in tlie laws by which all things are governed. While paying homage to those laws, we would think of thee, who art behind them, and to whom they are the expression of thy purpose, of thy goodness, of thy loving kindness. May they be to us the expression of the divine goodness, of the divine wisdom, and may we reverence thee in all the experiences of our lives. We pray, God, that we may yield ourselves to thy guidance, and in all the affairs of life may we learn to ask what wilt thou have r.s to do ? We thank thee for the chang- ing seasons, for summer and winter, for sunshine and storm. We thank thee for the -fruits of the earth, for we know that 1884. J WINTER MEETING. 11 all these things come of thy great plan, which embraces us all. We recognize thy goodness, we lo(jk up to thee as our faiher, and we pray, God, that thy fatherly love may be continually recognized by us, and that we may learn to live as thy children. We pray, heavenly Father, that thy blessing may be upon the Board of Agriculture of this State, and that thou wilt be in ihe midst of Ihis Convention which they have called together, so that every word that is spoken may be spoken in the right spirit ; that we may have wisdom, that we may have the spirit of peace ; that we may have the spirit of the learner, desiring to know more and more of those great laws by which all things are governed, and desiring to bless the society in which thou hast placed us. While we prize these gifts of the earth, may we consider that the thing to be prized above all is human life, human society, human progress, and grant that we may so cooperate as to secure the progress of this Commonwealth, and especially progress in the farm life of this Commonwealth ; so that the old foundations may remain unmoved ; so that the people of the country as well as the cities may flourish like the grass of the earth ; so that if there be " a handful of corn in the earth on the tops of the mountains, the fruit thereof may shake like Lebanon." Our heavenly Father, wilt thou bless all those to whom are intrusted the interests of this organization ; be with them in all that they do ; fill their hearts with thy love and peace ; and may this Convention be a blessing to this city, to those friends who have come together, to our Commonwealth, and to this land which we love. Hear us, God ; forgive all our sins, and accept us as thy children, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. 12 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., OPENING ADDRESS. By J. P. Barstow. Gentlemen of the Connecticut Farmers Institute: — I had hoped we should have His Excellency Governor "Waller here to open this Institute, as I know he would have spoken words to you that would have given you much pleasure to listen to, but I hope he will be here at some of our meetings, that we may hear his eloquent voice. Gentlemen, we meet in this thriving manufacturing city to con- sider the interests of Agriculture, and it is appropriate that we do meet here, for Agriculture and Manufactures must go hand in hand. Each is dependent upon the other, as without the products of the farm the manufacturer could not live, and without the manu- facturer and mechanic the farmer could not sell his products. So each is dependent upon the other; the great law of dependence runs through all the affairs of this life. "What can elevate or in any way benefit the farmer, will also benefit all other avocations. These farmers' meetings have been the means of great good in the past, and I doubt not this will be quite as profitable as any of its predecessors, as we have those to speak to us who will tell us much that will be profitable to hear, and we hope in the discussions that follow the lectures we shall have a free expression of opinion from all who can add to the interest of the meeting. When we consider that agriculture is not only the corner-stone, but the whole broadside of the country's financial foundation, when we estimate the army of men engaged in tilling the soil, and the millions of money its products represent, surely it is entitled to the aid of both the National and State Governments. The men who are trying to elevate to a higher standard the farming interests of this country, are doing a good work, and should be hailed as the benefactors of their race. Let us have a free interchange of ideas. Let each one, if he has a better way of conducting his farming operation than others, make it known, so by thus comparing experiences we shall make this meeting a source of mutual benefit. Connecticut farmers cannot expect to compete with the "West in raising wheat, corn, and beef for the world, but they can raise that 1884.] WINTER MEETING. 13 which will return them a fair compensation for their labor, if they will only learn what they can best cultivate, and by intelligently improving their farms, be quite as independent as their western brethren, and enjoy the pleasures of a New England home. I suppose that it is one great object of these meetings to learn how to do this successfully. Let us all try to do all in our power to help the agricultural interests of Connecticut. When we think of the wonderful progress and development of agricultural and mechanic arts the past fifty years, we can hardly realize that as much may be done in the years to come. There is one great problem to be solved, that will be as wide- spread in its beneficial results, as anything of the past, and one that must be solved if we are to become a great and populous nation, and that is, the utilizing of the sewerage of our cities and all populous communities. When some one discovers an inexpensive and thorough way for taking back to the soil all the vast waste of fertilizers now pollut- ing all our streams, not only destroying all animal life in them, bat spreading disease and death to all who inhabit their shores, who- ever does this will supply the great need of this age, — and it must be done soon, or disease and death will depopulate faster than we can increase. I hope this subject will receive the consideration its importance demands. It is a vital question, and must be met, and I do not doubt but a way will be found to remedy the evil. Its importance cannot be over-estimated. The experiment at Pullman, near Chicago, is reported to be a great success. The results of using the sewerage as a fertilizer paying a good dividend on the cost of carrying it to the land. It has always been our good fortune, that each great need of our country has found an inventor standing ready to meet it, and I doubt not this will. Congratulating the Institute on the auspicious opening, I will not detain you longer. Mr. P. M. Augur, our Pomologist, will now address you, giving his ideas as to the proper manner of growing peaches, under the title of " Peach Experiences." 14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., PEACH EXPERIENCES. By p. M. Augur. "While different climes have their delicious fruits which are eagerly sought for and abundantly used, none surpass and few equal in beauty, fragrance, and luscious iflavor the choice peach. In its original type; as in the case of the wild pear of Europe, it had little to attract a refined taste, biit like the pear, the peach and its fruit were coraparatively hardy and free from disease. Through the modifying effect of ages of cultivation and selec- tion the present century opened with many choice varieties. It also opened with a dire disease which, from the peculiar effect upon the leaf, was called the yellows; not a scientific name but a de- scriptive one; and yet not a very definite one. Probably not one in a thousand of our octogenarians know the time when this disease has not affected the peach in some parts of the country. And yet we find many even now that say there is no such disease; happy for our country were their assertions true. However, if the disease exists and works ruin to the amount of millions annually it is folly to ignore it, or to fail to investigate it. My earliest memories include the peach, so abundant as to be fed to hogs, the idea so often dwelt upon by. elderly people. 1 also recall the ideal peach of childhood — and the fact that distance lends enchantment furnishes a key to the fanciful exaggeration of peaches of the olden time. An old friend, years ago, called on me in peach time. He told of his boyhood peaches, but said he, "we can't raise peaches now." After a little we sauntered through our back yard where a tree of Plale's Early was loaded with a specially fine crop; the old gentle- man walked around the tree twice, looking at it from all sides and said, " Phineas, I am astonished; I never expected to see such a sight again." " Did you ever see it surpassed? " said I. " Never," said he honestly. And never after that did I hear him boast of old time poaches. And yet we have this year had an orchard of some two hundred trees on an eastern hill slope that had hardly a tree less fully and beautifully loaded than that. But to take up experience. In boyhood I delighted to get very choice buds and bud young seedling peaches, and when they gave their first fruit what delight and satisfaction. For a boy or girl 1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES. 15 who achieves success with fruits or flowers, tliere is an ecstacy of delight amply repaying all the cost either of time or money. In all, since the period of early manhood I have planted ten orchards of peaches. My first orchard had the elements of a grand success, and it was a success, but by no means a great one, for the reason that I had numerous varieties, whereas, I should have had only the best suc- cession, §uch as Mountain Rose, Oldmixon Free, Stump the World, Crawford's Early and Crawford's Late, in which case I should have realized one hundred per cent, more profit than I actually did. My second orchard followed close on the first and was similar in results. My third orchard was a grand and complete failure. With a wiser choice of varieties, better trees, planted on my best land, highly manured, I secured an enormous growth, succulent, full of crude sap, and not stopping growth till hard frosts. The following severe winter effected entire ruin. Branches were killed back, bark turned brown and the orchard looked as if a devastating fire had run through it. The only redeeming feature about it was that the apple trees planted between peach have made a fine successful orchard. My fourth orchard was small, a family orchard, just for ourselves and friends, planted on poor land, manured moderately. It was a quarter acre, the land worth three dollars, planted with fifty trees worth five dollars, manure eight dollars, and the whole investment did not exceed sixteen dollars. It was cultivated three years and then mulched with coarse hay enough to smother weeds and grass. This orchard was successful in all respects; it gave good fruit continuously for several successive years and paid a large percent- age on the investment. My fifth orchard was a new experiment: it was an orchard of seedlings from select seed, every alternate row being pear trees. The trees were vigorous, reasonably healthy, and produced several very heavy crops, but with one exception the fruit was only fair to good, one however of the Melocoton type was very good. The fruit mainly sold for fifty to seventy cents a basket, while the Stump the World ripening about the same time, were worth one., dollar and twenty-five to one dollar and fifty cents, or more than double on the average. My sixth orchard closely followed the last described with seed 16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., more select, planted as follows: In a field planted to corn, every fourth hill in every fourth row instead of corn was planted with peach seed, leaving as they grew the best in each place. The Snow peach, the Anderson Melocoton, the Hale's Melocoton, the Yellow Spanish Melocoton, all came as true to seed as so many beans, but the yellows struck the orchard and those seedlings have all passed away, while a row of Mountain Rose transplanted in the same orchard at the same time is still standing and has borne this year very fine peaches. This experiment materially dampened my ardor for seedling orchards. A wild Tennessee seedling, budded with healthy Oldmixon buds, has the advantage of an equal degree of health, great productiveness, and is so well known in market as always to be salable at good prices. My seventh orchard was planted to blackberries. William Parry and J. H. Hale visited my orchard, and Mr. Parry said it equaled any peach orchard he had ever seen, in appearance. But with the first crop the orchard failed utterly, and I learned that blackberries and peaches are not compatible on the same ground. Our eighth and ninth orchards are now in their prime. They missed a crop last year, on account of the peculiar extremes of heat and cold in the winter of 1882-3; this year of 1883 has yielded us about eleven hundred baskets of choice peaches, with good promise for the future. Our ninth orchard of two hundred trees has this year yielded a full crop of beautiful perfect peaches without an exception of a single tree. Our observations and experience leads us to the following con- clusions: That failures in peach growing are to a great extent preventable. That we should plant only trees of the best health. That we should adopt a sensible and uniform course of clean culture, stopping at midsummer each year. That we should prune and shorten back so as to secure a renewal of strong young wood each year. That we should fertilize so as to meet the fruit demands, and prevent exhaustion, increasing the amount with the age of the tree. ^ That we should take no crops from the land after the trees com- mence bearing, and allow no tree to over-bear. I desire to allude to the Yellows again, and ask what are we to do about it ? It matters little to peach growers whether it b e 1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES. 17 caused by fungi-bacteria, peach aphis, or whatsoever other cause, so long as we fail to manage and control it. Like the potato fun- gus it often first shows itself in a single spot, ofttimes a single branch of a mature tree, and in due time the entire orchard is involved in ruin. But shall we abandon growing the peach ? By no means. While the pear blight, the yellows in the peach, cranberry worm, and curculio, are to be regarded as calamities, yet there are com- pensations in the better prices of the perfect fruit. Therefore wisdom dictates to avoid, to compass, to overcome the difficulties,. and secure the consequent reward. Our conclusions are these: 1st. Avoid any diseased or contaminated stock in propagation, either by seed or bud, as promptly as you would avoid the virus of scarlet fever or small pox. 2d. Seek an orchard location apart from all these contaminat- ing influences. 3d. Fertilize by either well fined stable manures, or special mineral fertilizers, in which sulphate of ammonia supplies nitrogen, high grade rallriate the potash — with a good superphosphate. 4th. Lest the land should contain acidity prejudicial to healthy growth apply twenty bushels of lime, more or less, per acre, in direct proportion to the humus in the soil, to sweeten and fine the soil. Finally, secure uniform growth and uniform fruitage by judi- cious, systematic management, never allowing an excessive late autumn growth, or a breaking crop of fruit, or the intrusion of the peach borer. Here let me call your attention to a tree which I bought many years ago from the nursery of Mr. Alfred Whiting of West Hart- ford. Here is a section of it, a Crawford's Late peach tree, twenty- one years old — old enough to vote. It was on the farm of my father-in-law, in Guilford. I procured the tree for him at the time I purchased some for myself, and when I saw the log at his wood pile, after a great many years of fruitage, I said to him, " How old do you suppose that tree is ? " He said, " Well, it may be a dozen years old." We are apt to forget how fast time flies. l' sawed off a section of the trunk, and upon counting the rings, I found it to be twenty-one years 18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., pld. It is a beautiful illustration of steady, uniform growth. That tree gave many crops of choice fruit. It was not a seedling. And, by-the-way, the Crawford's Late has a uniform habit of bear- ing, where it is properly treated, that makes it very desirable on that account. There was, as you see, a fault in the management of that tree. There was a branch that grew too near the ground, it received some injury, and had to be sawed off, and that side of the tree is considerably affected. I have no doubt that materially shortened the life of the tree. The other side is entirely sound, and up to ten years of age, the annual growth was very uniform, and from that up to twenty, or until nearly the last of its life, there was a steady, uniform growth, and, as a rule, uniform fruitage. If we could always be sure of as good results as that tree gave, it would be very encouraging to plant the peach. A few words in regard to varieties: The early varieties of peaches, while quite beautiful, are less profitable than medium and later ones. The Early York is fairly superseded by the Mountain Rose, which is just as good, more free • at the stone, and more productive. The Oldmixon Free is a grand peach in every respect; so is the Stump the World. Crawford's Early is a fine peach; beautiful, large, productive, excellent, is quite apt to overbear, and fail in consequence. The Richmond and Foster are much of the same type. Crav/ford's Late may almost be called the king of peaches for our latitude. It brings high prices, and has a good habit of bearing about right in good sea- sons. The Steadley, Salway, and Smock, are too late to be sure of ripening in our climate, though we have found they may be picked while hard, and if well grown they ripen up better than might be expected. When we find our Salways likely to be frozen it is better to pick even while hard, and keep in close boxes in a moderate temperature till they mellow than to risk freezing. Again, if very late varieties are planted give a southern expos- ure, as you would the Catawba grape, for, on a northern slope, when we have cool nights, the ripening process goes on very slowly indeed, temperature having much to do with tardy or rapid ripen- ing. No fruit responds so quickly to either good or bad management as the peach; hence the importance of giving just the right man- agement, and to neither overdo nor neglect. 1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES. 19 Mr. Gold. I would ask Mr. Augur to be a little more explicit in describing the location of his last peach orchard. Mr. Augur. I will do so. Our eighth orchard, which con- tains about 1,800 trees, is on the summit of one of the high- est hills in the State, except some of the hills in Litchfield County. Perhaps I would make an exception of Cream Hill and some others, but we are three miles from the Connecti- cut River, and 625 feet above the river. From the location of that orchard, we see the cupola of the State House in Hartford ; we see Mt. Tom and Mt. Holyoke in Massachu- setts ; we have the full blast of the air from the Adirondacks. The orchard has a northern exposure, a portion of it a little to the northwest and another portion a little to the northeast. But our reason for planting on this high land was to escape the late frosts in spring and the early frosts in autumn, and also to secure a more uniform temperature winters — in such as this, — when we have warm weather in December or January. The last orchard which we planted, which is a year younger than the last mentioned, is on a hill not quite as high, which has an eastern slope. There we have about 225 trees. That land is better. The other orchard is on land worth about $34 an acre. It cost us that ; in some parts of the State it would not have cost more than $10 an acre. In fact, I have seen land which has been bought for planting peach trees, and which probably will be planted next spring, at |10 an acre, which is really better than ours ; but as we are nearer to the markets, the land is proportionally higher. But it is not remarkably good land. It is land that, on the whole, is a lit- tle below the average, and still we find it answers a very nice purpose for peaches. The land upon which the other orchard is situated is worth, I presume, a hundred dollars an acre. I would not by any means object to pretty good land for peaches, if it lay right. I am having a little more of that feeling than I did. I don't believe we can raise fruit, or any- thing else, out of nothing. If the land is naturally poor we make it good enough to produce what we want. Mr. D. K. Croffut of Derby. I would like to know if Mr. 20 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Augur ever examined the roots of his trees, to see if there was any trouble about them ? Mr. Augur. Not particularly. I did suggest to a gentle- man who went with me to the Hudson taking a glass and making an examination to see if the peach aphis had any- thing to do with it. I feel pretty sure that we have not been troubled in that way ; but I have not examined otherwise than with the naked eye. Mr. E. E. Dayton. Mr. Augur says his peach orchard is on one of the highest hills of the State, 625 feet above the river. I have a peach orchard that is 1,440 feet above tide water. I would like to ask him if he thinks that is high enough for a peach orchard ? Mr. Augur. I should say that would do. I will give in. Mr. Croffut. Mr. Augur referred to the time when peaches were grown so largely in this State tiiat they were fed to the pigs. I have picked up a great many bushels and fed them to the pigs. I set out an orchard of a few trees Avhen I was quite a young man, as people generally do at that time, and they grew very nicely indeed. At last they were attacked by what we call the yellows, I suppose ; the leaves began to curl up. I knew there must be some cause. I went to work and dug around the roots of the trees, and the next day, when I examined between the trunk of the tree and the fork of the root, I discovered a gum exuding. On making a close examination, I found that in that gum there was a worm, and he was a pretty lively one, too, for that situation. It was perhaps three-eights or half an inch long; a little white, wiry looking worm. I discovered that these worms worked into the bark and partly girdled the trees. I continued to watch, and 1 found that when a tree was completely girdled by these worms, it was used up. I then took a composition of lime, red lead, and potash and put it around the tree, in order to eat this gum and destroy it, and those trees did very well for sev- eral years, and grew, some of them, to be at least six inches through, until they got to be too old to be of any use and passed away. Since that time, I have been differently situa- 1S84.] PEACH EXPERIENCES. 21 ted, so that I have not gone into peach culture very exten- sively. I think the time is coming when, if we can get hold of the right thing, we sliall raise peaches in this State as well as they are raised in other sections of the country. I think if some gentleman will examine this matter, and discover something that will destroy these insects, and keep them from girdling the trees, it will be of great service. Mr. Augur. The gentleman has described the work of the peach-borer, which is very common, to which, perhaps, I did not sufficiently allude ; I was thinking of another matter. The borer works just at the surface of the ground, and when we find the gum exuding from the tree, we always know that the borers are there. It is the custom in Delaware, I think, universally, for people who have peach orchards to go through their orchards once or twice a year — better twice — and exam- ine every tree, and, if they find a tree affected by the borers, they make sure that they are exterminated. It will not do to trust to any wash to exterminate them. When the borer is actually entrenched under the bark we must make very thor- ough work of it ; but if there are no borers in the tree in May, we may take a wash made of lime and soap, say, for instance, a pail of whitewash may have a little soap mixed with it, and apply it to the trunk of the tree, a foot or more from the ground, or from just below the ground, removing the earth a little, if you choose, and, during the season, that will protect the tree from the moth which lays the eggs of the borer. We can always keep clear of them if we only do our duty and are sufficiently vigilant ; but I have no doubt that one-third of the peach trees throughout the State fail from that cause. Mr. A. C. Blot of Watertown. What is your experience in regard to heading back peach trees ? Which is the best season ? Last year I cut back fifteen, in an orchard which I have, that I have given three different styles of culture to, and I believe that I might as well have pulled them all up. I headed them in between the 20th and last of September. Mr, Augur. That is too early. There is a gentleman in 22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Ayer, Mass., Mr. Fletcher, who has published a treatise recommending that method. It is not safe. We tried that a little one year and we found it provoked a second growth. It is too early. The peach is pretty active in its growth at that time, and a vigorous shortening in of the tree as early as that is dangerous. We think it is better not to do it until the trees have stopped growing, or, better yet, perhaps, to wait until after they have shed their leaves, and then, in the early part of November, they may be shortened back with safety. Question. Is it not better to wait until they are in bloom ? Mr. Augur. There is one advantage in waiting until they begin to show their bloom, and that is, that if a portion of the peach buds are killed during the winter, you will very nat- urally cut back less in order to save the crop. Otherwise, it will not make any particular difference, I think. Mr. Crofput. I wish you would try corrosive sublimate around the base of your trees. It wants something pretty savage there. I have tried it on some trees, and it has bene- fited them very much, with no apparent injury. Mr. Augur. We did, at one time, put into our wash a very little London purple, and saw no harm from it ; neither did we see any good. The soap and lime answers the pur- pose, and this addition of anything more would be simply like putting two cartridges in a gun, where one will answer just as well. Prof. Penhallow, of Houghton Farm Experi- ment Station, has been studying the subject of the yellows in the peach, and has prepared a formula for diseased peach trees, as follows : For one acre, 100 to 160 trees bearing age, kieserite 25 pounds, muriate potash 150 pounds, dissolved bone black, 450 pounds ; a total of 625 pounds, or four to six pounds of mixture to each tree. I would add 100 pounds sulphate of ammonia, as it certainly changes plants from a yellowish look to a dark green very quickly, and while a large amount of nitrogen is not needed a little is excellent. Mr. J. H. Hale. We have used this wash of which Mr. Augur speaks, with the addition of carbolic acid. We washed 1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES. 23 a few trees, leaving out the carbolic acid, and the borers were in 25 per cent, of those trees this year ; but where the car- bolic acid was added to the soft soap and lime, there was not a borer in one tree out of a hundred, and we have 6,000 trees. It seems to me the carbolic acid is essential. Mr. Yan Deusen. We set out a peach orchard seven years ago, but something that we could not prevent has hindered the trees from bearing up to our expectations. Nevertheless, we have felt well paid. I was thinking of it while sitting here, and looking back over the past seven years, I calculated that we had sold from one acre and a quarter, besides supply- ing a family of eighty people (it is free plunder), $2,000 worth of peaches. The land on which the trees were set is a sort of ledge ; underneath is red rock, and it faces the west and southwest. It is not rich land, by any means. One year we had corn on it, — the year before the trees were set out, — with oats afterwards. The corn was not very good, also the oats. It is just such land as 1 would select to-day were I to set out a peach orchard. Some of those present may have heard me say, that if a horse had had too many oats, and was likely to run away, and I had to hold him too hard, I would take away his oats. Now, if we set out trees on land which we call rather poor, we can give it something to ferti- lize it, but if it is too rich, we cannot hold in the horse. I would rather stimulate the land than have it too rich, and attempt to hold in the horse. A portion of our orchard is on rich garden ground, and the trees there have not turned out as well as the others that are on poorer soil. I would say that any land which will grow good corn, where you can make a growth of about fifteen inches every year, is suitable for a peach orchard. Put on Bradley's fertilizer, or any other of these commercial fertilizers that you think well of. I - have used that. I put on this acre and a quarter, a ton of Bradley's fertilizer when I set out the trees. I raised a hun- dred dollars worth of something — I think it was early pota- toes — the first year after setting out, and the next year I raised a hundred dollars worth of cucumbers. After that, it 24 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., became so shady that we raised only a partial crop of squashes. But about the fourth year, the trees should bear well, and the land will not bear much else but peaches. With all the ailments and drawbacks that we encounter in the peach cul- ture, there is nothing to-day that I consider so quick and sure of paying a profit. If you can get two or three good crops from your trees, they will pay three or four times the expense. And let us all hail the day when we shall again have peaches so abundant that we can afford to feed them to the pigs. (Applause.) One very important feature in the cultivation of the peach is the thinning of the fruit. This year our orchard set extremely full. Unfortunately for the orchard I had left and gone to another Shaker family. I urged the necessity of thinning the peaches. They said, " Those trees are strong ; they have been headed in, and they have made large and strong branches, and they will bear a heavy weight of fruit." It is true, the branches are large. I could hang my whole weight on them, and I weigh pretty near 200 pounds. There was not a branch of those trees broken this season. But that is not the whole of it. If you do not thin your peaches, where they set very thick, the fruit will be small, and the crop will draw too heavily on the vitality of the tree, and every one that we take off that we do not need is a relief to the tree. Year before last we did not get more than a hundred bushels from this orchard, but the price we got for them paid us quite well for the acre and a quarter. I sold some of them for $S a bushel, and the whole product averaged 14 a bushel. I think that paid very well for an acre and a quarter of corn land. One of our Springfield men told me that when he was a boy, he went to his uncle's on a visit, and his uncle told him to go into the orchard and get as many peaches as he wanted, but to bring the peach-stones back with l^im. " I didn't know," he said, "but he wanted to plant them, and after- wards I thought he wanted to see how many I ate." He said he took in fifty-two peach-stones. I said, " Do you mean to 1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES. 25 say you ate fifty-two peaches as large as I have growing out here ?" I asked hiiTi to step out to the orchard, and he said, " Yes, they were as big as" those." Said 1, " If you can eat fifty-two peaches as large as those, I don't know what you can't eat." Said he, " I can eat those just the same." When the peaches were ripe I took six of them and carried them to this man. One of them weighed nine ounces, and they all averaged half a pound apiece. While I was talking to this same man, a restaurant keeper came along, and he said, " Richard, what are you going to do with those peaches ? " Said I, " I have brought them up to see if a man can eat fifty of them." " What are you going to do with them if he don't eat them ?" Said 1, " I will give them to some good friend ? " " Don't do that," said he, " I will give you a dollar for them." I let him have them, and he carried them to his restaurant. I thought I would like to know what his object was in buying them at that price ; so I asked him one day, and he said, "To make money. I wanted them to show in the Boston & Albany depot," "Well," I said, "you didn't make much." He said, " I made a little. I got twenty cents apiece for them." This I say to show the importance of thinning the peach, and almost all our other fruit. We make a less draft upon the strength of the tree, and get more in value. When I tell you that I counted the peaches in a bushel of those that I sold for $8, and it took only 140 to make a bushel, I tell you the truth. Now, it takes 200 good Bartlett pears to make a bushel ; 140 of those peaches made a bushel, and they were worth growing. "Go and do likewise." (Applause.) Mr. Sedgwick. In relation to the profits of peach grow- ing : a week before Thanksgiving, I met a peach grower in New York from Marlboro', on the Hudson River, who told me that he had brought down that morning from his place ten baskets of peaches, for which he was paid ilOO — 110 a basket. This same gentleman, who is one of the most suc- cessful fruit growers in that section, has for some time tried the formula which Mr. Augur has mentioned, which Prof. Pen- hallow has recommended for the yellows. He is acquainted 26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., with Prof. Penhallow, has been at his place, and seen his experiments. He says that in his orcftards, since he has applied the formula, he has not a case of the yellows, and has never had a more vigorous and thrifty growth of trees in his experience of several years in peach growing. He says it is undoubtedly a good thing. Mr. Rogers of New Jersey. In relation to the experiments of Prof. Penhallow, I should say that last spring, wlien I vis- ited the New Jersey Experimental Station, I was there informed that two or three thousand trees had been grown under his directions, with every evidence of great success, and that they were going to follow up the cultivation of peaches with the use of other chemicals, other forms of pot- ash, for the purpose of seeing how they would affect the yel- lows, and after a short time I heard that they were meeting with great success in their efforts, but it was too early as yet to make a report upon the action of the various chemicals. Mr. Norton. I understand that the Messrs. Hoyt, of New Canaan, recommend the practice of heading in peach trees in October, with the view, among other things, of hardening up the remaining wood, so as to stand the coming winter better. I would ask Mr. Augur if there is anything wrong in that idea ? Mr. AuGFR. I do not believe it will do that, sir, for this reason. I think the leaf is needed as long as it remains green. Our sugar-maple, as long as the leaf holds green, is making sugar for the next season, and the peach leaf, so long- as its activity continues, is elaborating the sap of the tree for the next year. Mr. Fletcher in his treatise recommends cut- ting off, or shortening back, in order to throw the strength of the tree into the remaining buds. Well, I found that the great trouble with me was, that it started the buds into active growth. The (dextrine, in the case of the peach, the sugar in the maple, all those compounds that are wanted, are being finished up. The tree is finishing up the operations of the year. I believe every leaf on the tree is needed to do that work, so long as it is in active force. When the leaves .fall, 1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES, 27 then I think we can shorten back. It is the returning sap, not the crude sap, but the returning sap, that comes from the leaf, which we are cutting off; so that I think, just as far as we cut off the growing branches, while they are maturing the sap for the next year, just so far we are injuring the tree. It seems so to me. Mr. Dayton. I see that Mr. Hoyt is in the room. I will ask him if they practice cutting back at that time ? Mr. Hoyt. A gentleman near Ayer, Mass., one of the best and most successful growers of the peach, recommends cutting back in the fall, so that the wood will harden up and make the buds stronger and more vigorous. His experience has been that trees cut back at that time endure the winter better in that northern region. He has written a work which it is worth while for any one to read. He is a man who has had a great deal of experience, and has studied the subject of peach culture as much, probably, as any man in New Eng- land. Mr. Augur is well acquainted with him. Mr. Augur. I would say, in answer to that, that we cut back three rows of trees in our orchard in September, at the time Mr. Fletcher recommends, and we found that a good many of them started a second growth, and some of the wood died two or three inches back of where it was cut. It did not injure the tree very greatly, but we were not pleased with the result. Mr. Croffut. Respecting this cutting back, I will give a little experience I have had with other fruit, the chestnut, for instance, which may help solve this case. I had a chestnut tree which bore very small chestnuts, I left it until the next spring, and then I cut off a good-sized branch, and I never saw nicer, larger chestnuts in my life than that tree bore that fall. If a tree is allowed to mature in the proper manner during the fall, and then in the spring some of those buds are taken off, you will find it, according to ray experi- ence, just the thing. Mr. J. H. Hale. We have some 6,000 peach trees growing for the fruit, and we have had to study this question of culture 28 BOARD OF ACxRicuLTURE. [Jan., and pruning considerable, and have experimented with prun- ing and shortening in from the 1st of September or until the time they bloom in the spring, and we are fully convinced, as Mr. Augur says, that it is not safe to prune peach trees until after the leaves are off. Oftentimes, if a tree is pruned almost any time in September, it will start a second growth. If pruned later, perhaps some time in October, if it does not start a second growth, the wood is apt to die back from two to six inches from where it was cut off, and of course, when you cut off just where you wanted to shorten it, you get just so much less, I do not think it is safe to recommend prun- ing peach trees until after the leaves are off. I think Mr. Van Dusen struck the key-note of successful peach culture when he said, " Plant on poor land." If we plant on rich land, the tree, he says, like the horse fed witli too many oats, will grow and get away from us ; but if we plant it on poor land, we can make the tree just what we "p^ant. We know a great deal more about fertilizers to-day than we did a few years ago, and are learning every day. I think we can make a peach tree almost anything we want. We can keep it well in hand if we have it on rather poor soil. We have grown ours well on chemical fertilizers. While we have not followed out the experiments of Prof. Penhallow, we have always depended on bone and potash for our main stock of plant food. On one plot of about 200 trees, we have not used potash, as an experiment, to see what the result would be. A good percentage of those 200 trees, which are four years' old, show traces of the yellows, while of the other five thousand and seven or eight hundred, there is only one tree that shows any trace of the yellows whatever, and those have all been liberally treated with muriate of potash. This past year we sold in Hartford (and Hartford is not a market that is willing to pay for the very finest fruit) forty dozen peaches for $1.75 a dozen at wholesale, and a number of them retailed at twenty-five cents apiece. This was in July. Mr. HoYT. I would like to ask what fertilizers you use for your peaches ? 1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES. 29 Mr. Hale. We use Bradley's superphosphate. We have only used one load of horse manure for seven years. We depend wholly on Bradley's fertilizer. One word in regard to heading in. To avoid all danger, we head our trees in after the -0th of March, after the very cold weather is over. When I was a little boy, like all other boys, I used to stub my toe and cut my fingers, and I noticed that in the fall of the year mv finger aclied worse when it was cut than it did in warm weather. Therefore, I thought it was not a good plan to cut my finger in the fall, nor to cut my peach trees, because they would feel it more in cold weather. Prune them any time after the 20th of March, before the sap starts. But by all means, if you are going to have an orchard, be sure and head it in when it has made a growth of more than sixteen inches. I live on alluvial hills, over 400 feet above tide water. I never trim any kind of a tree in the fall. If I trim a pear tree in the fall, the limbs will surely die back, and that is a hardy tree. If I trim it in the spring, it does not hurt it any. It is just so with peach trees. I would recommend, in our climate, at any rate, the trimming of trees in the spring, by all means. Question. How much would you head back a vigorous peach tree ? Mr. Augur. I think that depends a little upon the tree itself. If a tree has been headed in repeatedly, I think there is such a thing as overdoing it, making it too compact. It seems to me that the right way is not only to shorten back, but to thin out, so as to leave the tree reasonaljly open. Where the tree is in good shape, and about what we want, our practice has been to cut back those branches which extended out farthest, those which are most rampant in growth, not cutting off every individual twig, but pruning as you see they want it. If we cut off everything, we make too bushy a tree ; that is my idea of it. I have seen trees that had been so headed back that they looked like a sheared hemlock — all a mass of green. 30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Question. Would you recommend cutting out branches inside ? Mr. Augur. Yes, sir. * Question. Mr. Augur says, " Cease cultivation about the middle of summer." I suppose a majority of growers, in cultivating a peach orchard, would be apt to plant potatoes. We cannot very well avoid cultivation of the ground when we dig potatoes. Mr. Augur. Yes ; that is one thing to be deprecated. As you say, the digging of potatoes does cultivate the ground a good deal, — mellows it up. In planting potatoes in our peach orchards, I would advise the planting of the Early Rose, or some very early ripening potato. Do not dig over the ground the last of August or 1st of September ; dig in July or early in Ausust. Tliere is one matter with which I have had a little experi- ence this year, and perhaps it may be interesting to you. A few years ago I was in Waterbury, and Mr. Johnson, one of the citizens here, told me they could not raise peaches in Waterbury ; tlie climate was not adapted to them. In riding to the Fair Ground, I passed a beautiful peach tree, that was loaded with handsome fruit. I was so much interested that I called at the house to ask the lady about it, and remarked that Mr. Johnson had told me they could not raise peaches in Waterbury. " Well," said she, " we can't." " Why ? V " The boys steal them." We had a little difficulty of that sort ; we had to watch our orchards during the ripening season ; and we found that it was a very convenient tiling to have a little alarm, because, when friends visited us in the night, we liked to know it. Here is an article that was invented by a gentleman in Middletown, of which we had the first one that was made, — the model, in fact. It is on a swivel, and can be loaded with powder or powder and shot, and invariably, an intruder, in striking this line, which is invisible, will draw the muzzle right towards himself, and it operates so that if a person catches his toe, it gives the alarm. One Sunday morning, we had one of these set in our orchard, 1884.] ADDRESS OP WELCOME. 31 and my son, who was about a quarter of a mile distant, heard it go off. We went right up to the orchard, and saw no one there ; but the neighbors said they saw a man running as long as they could see him. Rev. Dr. Anderson. Mr. Chairman and G-entlemen : It seems to me that such a Convention as this ought to receive some sort of welcome from the citizens of Waterbury ; at any rate, a welcome expressed in words. I wish I had thought of it before I came here, so that I might have selected my words with a little more care, because it seems to me that the occasion is one that calls for careful as well as warm- hearted expression. There have been Waterbury gentlemen here this morning, — most of them have now disappeared, — who could have extended to you a welcome more properly than I can, but I want to say a word or two to those friends who are gathered here, expressive of my own interest in the matters which you are to discuss and have been discussing, and to say that I believe my interest is shared by a great many of the citizens of Waterbury, notwithstanding they have not yet come into your Convention. I have had for several years past a farm of two and a half acres on the seashore. That farm has contained an orchard of about twenty-four peach trees, which, notwithstanding the poorness of the soil (laughter), has dwindled to two or three, and which has never yet furnished a peach fit to eat ; an orchard of several pear trees, of which three remain, which are like the fig tree that we read of in the Scriptures, cov- ered with abundance of leaves, but with no fruit. For the rest, I have indulged in the cultivation of shrubs and flowers and grass. But it is curious what kind of education a piece of ground like that gives to a man. It is curious what prob- lems it starts. I have had to discuss in my own mind a good many problems which I suppose are before your minds from day to day. First, how to contend with inclement weather, — cold in winter and winds in summer ; for we are on the sea- shore, as I said. Secondly, how to enrich a very poor and porous soil. Thirdly, how to cultivate, and particularly how 32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., to prune, the shrubs and plants which are in my care. Fourthly, how to carry on the contest with weeds. And, fifthly, how to carry on the contest with innumerable insect pests. It seems to me that, on my two and a half acres, I am called upon to solve about all the problems which concern you, judging from what I have heard iiere and what I have read in regard to agricultural matters. And I must say, that the very attempt at a practical solution of these great ques- tions have given me a growing and a real interest in horticul- ture, in agriculture, and in this whole class of questions which interest the agricultural world to-day ; and I suppose that no man who has not been through some such experience, could sit here to-day and listen with anything like the inter- est with which a man listens who has touched upon this great subject on the edges, as I have done during the past eight or ten years. But, my friends, it seems to me that, apart from any spe- cial interest of this kind in agriculture, horticulture, and the like, the citizens of Waterbury ought to be glad to have an Agricultural Convention meet in the midst of them. As you know, we are one of the most enterprising and prosperous of the little cities of New England. We are extremely busy, and that is, perhaps, the reason why there are not more of our citizens here this morning. We go by machinery here ; every man has to listen to a gong, and has to arrange his life- work with reference to that engine, doing its work day after day and year after year, which you will appreciate in your homes. We send to you clocks, we send to you pins, and we send to you watches, and we are going to send more and more of them. They are things of utility rather than ornament which are made in Waterbury and in such cities, and which are sent out into the rural districts of Connecticut, of New Eng- land at large, of the Great West, and into lands beyond the sea. We are so busy, ray friends, that we are apt to think that the whole world is a manufacturing world, and are apt to lose sight of the foundation upon which you and I must alike build. We are apt to forget that the producer is the man 1884.] ADDRESS OP WELCOME. 33 who stands back of all this, and that, with all our prosperity, our capital, and our skill, we should be as nothing whatever, were it not for these men in the fields and in the woods whom you represent to-day. We are dependent in our grandest results upon the work which the men of Ncat England, the men of the Far West, the men of the great wheat-growing region, of the grain-growing region, as well as the men who do a similar work in the fruit orchards and gardens of New England, New York, and New Jersey, are doing ; and it seems to me if we were wise in our little cities, we should open our hearts to the men of agriculture, and should say to them "Godspeed!" when they come among us to discuss these important subjects. But there is another phase of it. The Waterbury of to-day is in strange contrast with the Waterbury of the year 1800, and that is true of a great many New England towns. We are now a manufacturing city ; we were then a rural district- Many of the manufacturing cities and villages in the Nauga- tuck Valley and in other valleys of Connecticut were, in the beginning of this century, simply rural districts. I do not know of any more interesting, and I do not know of any more important transformation which has taken place on any piece of territory of the size of Connecticut, than that which has taken place in this State during the present century, — the change from an agricultural to a manufacturing condi- tion. You know on how large a scale that transformation has been going on in Connecticut, in Massachusetts, and, to a certain extent, in other States of New England ; going on, also, in other parts of the world, and here in Connecticut, I suppose, more than in any other part of the world in the same length of time. Well, obviously, it has put the agricul- tural communities of Connecticut at a disadvantage, to a cer- tain extent, just as it has put the religious parishes of Connecticut at a disadvantage. These hillside parishes are not what they were once, in comparison with the city par- ishes, although they may treasure up and hand down to future generations qualities which are worth just as much 34 BOARD OP AGEICULTUEE. [Jan., to-day as they were then. And the same is true of our agri- cultural interests ; they are not what they were once in corn- par son with the hum and stir of city life ; but they are important, nevertheless, and they require all the more care, all the more thought, and all the more applied science, because of this transformation which has taken place. If it is more difficult to secure a living from the rocky fields and hillsides of Connecticut than it used to be, it is because the standard is different. You want to have just as good a living as we do ; your daughters want to be as well dressed as ours, and your sons want to be as well educated. And it is highly important, it seems to me, that you agriculturists of Connect- icut learn to apply the science, the experience, the knowledge of all kinds wliich can be gathered from the Literary and scientific world, in order to bring up the level of your home life, your social life, and your religious life, to tlie highest level, if possible, which is reached in our most favored cities. Now, as I said before, it has seemed to me that nothing better could be desired for securing such results than a Con- vention of this kind. I have been peculiarly interested in the combination of common sense and scientific knowledge which I have heard in the remarks that have been made to-day. I can see how science is coming to mean something else than talk. I can see how you are applying it at the very roots of your trees. It is not science running wild ; it is science controlled by experience, by good judgment ; by judi- cious utterance. The benefit of these annual conventions will be felt in their good effects in your homes ; and we shall feel it in our turnips, — for it seems that Waterbury rejoices in turnips ; and we sliall feel the good effects of your moral influence, also, in raising up boys who do not steal peaches. (Applause.) Adjourned to 2 o'clock. 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 35 AFTERNOON SESSION. The meeting was called to order at 2 o'clock, Mr. Barstow ill the chair. THE FARMER'S SMALL-FRUIT GARDEN. BY J. H. HALE. A little four-year-old darling in our family, when afflicted with some slight pain or ache, used often to amuse us, when asl?:ed what the trouble was, by saying "I feel bad, but I don't feel lady Now I mean small-fruit garden, not small fruit-garden, for as a rule farmers' fruit-gardens, or orchards rather, are usually large enough, giving an abundant supply of the larger fruits, such as the common varieties of apples and pears, but are deficient in the small fruits; and it is my purpose here to speak in behalf of these choicest of God's gifts to man, possessing as they do the following advantages over the large fruits : They are more easily propagated, hence are less expensive to start with; bear much sooner after planting. Many of them ripen at a time when there are no other fresh fruits to be had, and as a rule may be depended on to produce a crop every year. Tliey are not only delicious luxuries, but substantial and healthful articles of food. While the plants of strawberries, raspberries,' blackberries, currants, gooseberries, and grapes, either in bloom or in fruit, are often very beautiful, many of them may be trained in forms that will greatly enhance their beauty while not in the least injuring their fruiting qualities. Raspberries or blackberries thickly planted and closely pruned can be made to do good service as a trusty hedge, and no better highway or division fence can be had than a four-strand barbed- wire fence covered with grapevines. We intend to do this about our whole farm within the next year or two. Complaint is often made through the agricultural press that farmers as a rule have less fresh fruits than city people. And to a certain extent this is true ; it is not, however, as many seem to suppose, that the farmer sells all his fruit for the sake of the money it will bring, but from the fact that being busy from one week's end to the other with the general affairs of the farm and often being at his wits' end to make both ends meet, having to be 36 BOARD or AGRICULTURE. [Jan., farm superintendent, day-laborer, marketman, cow-boy, and all- hands. The poet's dream of fresh berries and cream to be eaten under the vine-clad veranda, does not often come to the overworked and tired farmer. And while his home may be barren of the choice varieties of small fruits well and judiciously cultivated, it is not that he would deprive the loved ones dependent on him of these choice luxuries, but rather from the fact that he has always thought it impossible for any but the most experienced, to cultivate them with any hope of success. And as soon as he becomes acquainted with the better varieties and learns how easily they can be grown, when by proper cultivation a bushel of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, or grapes can be grown almost as cheaply as a bushel of potatoes, the farmer's small-fruit garden will become as much a fixture as the kitchen garden. Small fruits have been grown for centuries, but it is within the last thirty years that special attention has been given to their culture and the producing of new and improved varieties; and since the introduction of Wilson's Albany strawberry, Doolittle's improved black-cap, Philadelphia raspberry, Lawton blackberry, and Concord grape, these and their seedlings, combined with a number of chance seedlings, have given us a hardy and productive race of small fruits that may be grown on almost any soil and cultivated by the most inexperienced, and yet give fair return for money and labor expended; while with a little extra care and attention enormous crops may be obtained. And as the plants may be had at any nursery at such low prices, any one owning a spare rod of ground has no excuse for denying his family these delicious and nutritious fruits. It is not necessary for me to go back two or three hundred years and trace the history of small-fruit culture down to the present time, but rather begin at once to show you as best I can how and what to do to obtain the most and best fruit at the least expense. Being neither a chemist nor botanist I could not, if I would, explain to you the chemical effects of the different fertilizers used upon the roots, wood, leaves, and general structure. My observations at previous meetings of this Board have taught me that our Connecticut farmers want plain practical statements and experience that will show them how the thing is done in the fewest possible words, and this I will endeavor to do as briefly and plainly as possible, not that I can hope to make all points clear 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 37 or show you the best way to do everything in the small- fruit garden, but simply open the way and give you such hints as will help you to work out your own small-fruit salvation, for work it out you surely must. Their importance as an article of diet is at last beginning to be appreciated, and the sooner we all understand it the better, that every dollar expended on the fruit-garden will save at least two dollars in butchers' and doctors' bills. Three times a day the whole year round, our tables could and should be siipplied with these refreshing and health-giving fruits of our own growing. How much better for the boys and girls at school to have a dish of fresh berries, a cluster of grapes, or a cup of raspberry jam, and good nutritious bread and butter for their dinner, than to have the mother slave herself to death from day to day in prepar- ing some health-destroying compound of grease and. spices in the shape of loaf-cake, doughnuts, or mince pie, to tempt the appetite and destroy the stomach, as well as a lot of good flour, eggs, and butter, that might be used to give health and strength rather than destroy it. I note with pleasure in my travels about, that fruit- growers and such farmers as have plenty of fruit very seldom have pastry of any kind upon their tables, its place being supplied by fruit, either fresh or canned; and since the improved methods of canning that have been adopted in the past four years, it is possible to have fruit at any season of the year, approaching in flavor that fresh from the vines — red raspberries retaining their flavor the best of all. The taste for fresh fruit is growing fast, and while many of our farmers know that they ought to supply it to their famiKes, they still fight shy of planting, and say they can buy what berries they want cheaper than they can grow them ; yet they will not buy one- hundredth part of what their families would use if it could be had for the picking. My own family is not a large one, yet we man- age to dispose of from six to ten quarts of strawberries, raspber- ries, currants, and blackberries, per day through June, July, and August, and the next three months we worry along on peaches, pears, and the product of 116 grape vines. Another excuse for not planting is, that they have not suitable soil. Now, as a matter of fact, any soil that will produce the ordinary farm crops can be made to produce small fruits in perfection if liberally manured and well cultivated — the more liberal the culture the better will be 38 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. • [Jan., the crop. And in the preparation for planting, I would recom- mend the use of a subsoil plow, whenever the nature of the soil will admit of its use, for in my own experience I have always noticed a marked improvement in the growth of plants wherever it has been used, affecting as it does a more perfect drainage in a wet soil or season, and allowing the plants to root much deeper, and thus be able to withstand drouth should it occur. One-fourth of an acre is little enough ground to devote to the small-fruit gar- den, say ten rods of strawberries, eight of raspberries, five of blackberries, four of currants, one of gooseberries, and twelve of grapes. This will give say ten quarts of fresh berries per day for nearly three months, besides a surplus for canning, and the grapes would supply ten to fifteen pounds a day for at least three months more. Strawberries. — Strawberries being the first fresh fruit of the season, are usually eaten rather more freely, hence should have more space devoted to their culture than any of the others, unless it is the grape. So many strawberries have been grown in the past under a careless, slipshod method, or rather no method at all, that the mistake is made in supposing that profitable crops can be thus grown, hence a failure is often made by planting on land that has not been well prepared. To start with, the land should be well plowed, subsoiled, and harrowed, two or three, yes, a dozen times over, if need be to make it soft and mellow, so that the plants may get a good start from tlie very first. Well-rotted sta- ble manure is usually at hand on most farms, and if applied lib- erally will give good returns. But from a somewhat careful study of the manure question in the cultivation of large fields of straw- berries for market, I think a better crop of fruit can usually be had from the use of commercial manures, having but a small amount of nitrogen, and the fruit be of better texture and flavor than when stable manure or nitrogenous commercial fertilizers are used. I may not be able to explain it to the satisfaction of the scientific gentlemen here present, but the strawberry is a gross feeder, and whenever well-rotted manure or fertilizer containing a large amount of readily available plant food, of a nitrogenous character, such as blood and bone, Peruvian guano or fish sci'aps, is used, it will take it up greedily, and a very rank foliage growth is the result the first year, and the plant seems to make its 1884.] THE farmer's small-fp/jit garden. 39 plans for an enormous crop the next season; but somehow it never quite keeps its promise, making a much greater show of foliage than fi-uit, and what fruit there is, is watery and insipid in flavor, and will keep but a short time after being picked. While, on the other hand, 1 have found that a manure of raw ground bone and wood ashes, or muriate of potash, encourages a much less rapid plant growth early the first season, but that it is steady and even the whole season through, and by fall we have a fine stand of well developed, but not rank, foliaged plants that will always at fru t- ing season the next year give a heavy crop of firmer, brighter col- ored, and better flavored berries than can be grown on the same soil by the aid of manure containing a large percentage of nitro- gen. Whatever manure is used, it should be applied broadcast after plowing, and harrowed in thoroughly, not by going over once or twice, but a dozen times, or till the whole field is as mel- low as the best of our old onion gardens. While the strawberry may be planted with fair prospects of suc- cess any month in the year that the ground is free from frost, the best time is early in the spring, while the plants are in a dormant con- dition. For a small family garden, they are often planted in beds, with plants fifteen to eighteen inches apart. However, as they can be grown more cheaply by the aid of horse cultivation, they should be planted in rows sufficiently far apart to admit of it. In fact, I often wonder why it is that all garden vegetables are. not so planted, instead of, as at present, in small beds or narrow rows, where all of the labor of cultivation must be done by hand in the most expensive way. We are improving greatly in all of our methods of culture and in the implements used, yet it is safe to say that the right instru- ment to cultivate berries with, to the best advantage, is yet to be invented. Many that are effectual in destroying weeds are also very destructive to the roots of the plants. Rows, three and one-half to four feet apart, and plants ten to twelve inches, with all runners cut, will, in my opinion, give the most and best fruit at the least expense, although it must be admitted that many of our most successful growers still practice growing them in thick matted rows one and one-half to two feet wide. The great bugbear of narrow row or hill culture is cutting the runners; but this is a mere nothing to the labor of picking out the weeds from a matted row during the last three growing months of the season. And 40 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., while strawberries can be grown more cheaply in the narrow rows, the fruit will be larger and of better quality, and in case of drouth will suffer less than in matted rows. By the selection of varieties and the soil on which to plant them the strawberry season may be prolonged to six weeks or more, if the earlier varieties are planted on warm early soil, or that having a southern exposure, and the later ones on the heavier moist soil, or that with a northern or western exposure. If you already have a taste for fruit culture, and have a fair start with the family gar- den, in making a selection of varieties choose first in regard to eating qualities, placing productiveness second; but to a beginner I would recommend planting first those most hardy and pro- ductive, regardless of quality, and when you and your family get well filled with these will be time enough to plant the better sorts. Pistillate or imperfect flowering varieties are as a rule the most productive, and can be made to produce even more than they gen- erally do, if care is taken to plant them sufficiently close to perfect fl.owering sorts, that an abundance of pollen may be supplied to every blossom and every berry be perfectly developed. While in most plantations there are usually five to eight rows of pistillates to every one of perfect flowering, I have noticed that the very best results were obtained by planting them in adjoining rows, or not more than five to six feet away. Being continually asked what is the best perfect flowering variety to plant with this or that pistillate, I have been compelled to study the matter to some extent, and while it may be too fine a point to discuss here, experiments made some years ago convinced me that the size, form, color, texture, and flavor of the pistillate strawberry is greatly affected by the perfect flowering sort that furnishes the pollen to fertilize its blossoms. Take the Crescent, a pistillate sort you are all acquainted with, fertilized by the small, sour, but firm Wilson, and most of them will be small and sour, yet much firmer than the Crescent when fer- tilized by such varieties as Pioneer or Charles Downing. I have never seen a coxcomb-shaped Crescent in my life, except when grown with the President Lincoln, a variety that has a majority of misshapen berries. Usually poor in flavor, the Crescent is passably good when grown with the Charles Downing. Ever since its first introduction, Mr. Olcott has furnished uniformly the best-flavored 1884.] THE farmee's small-fruit garden. 41 Crescents that have'come to the Hartford market, and if I mistake not, the most of them have always been fertilized by the Downing. There is room for further experiments in this direction, but enough is already known to show me, that to get the best-flavored Crescents we must fertilize them with the best-flavored variety we can get, and the same rule applies to all other pistillate varieties. If planting is done in spring, all blossoms should be cut off as fast as they appear, and no fruiting be allowed the first season, as it so exhausts the plants as to greatly enfeeble their growth, and in many cases kill them entirely, especially should dry weather follow the fruiting season. As soon as plants become well estab- Kshed, commence running the cultivator between the rows, and continue it once in, a week or ten days all through the season. Hoeing around the plants as often as necessary to keep the soil loose and free from weeds, if the ground is not too stony, and a sharp keen-edged hoe is used, most of the runners can be cut with that as fast as they appear, leaving little to be done with shears or knife; but when this is necessary, it can be done very rapidly, as most of the runners start out from one side of the plant and can all be gathered up by the hand when one good clip of knife or shears will do the business; and the whole held can be gone over very rapidly at little expense. At the approach of winter, as soon as the ground is frozen, cover the whole field with a mulch of some sort, salt-marsh hay, pine needles, or tobacco stems are the best materials, although straw, coarse stable-manure, cornstalks, or forest leaves may be used to good advantage. Whatever is used, care should be taken not to get it too thick directly over the plants, one and a half to two inches being sufficient, as much more would be likely to smother them, especially if the winter follows with a great amount of snow. Do no,t remove any of this in the spring, as the plants can easily grow up through it, and it is of great assistance in retaining moisture during the fruiting season as well as keeping the fruit clean. After fruiting, if the strawberry patch is alone by itself, so that there is no danger of injuring other plants, mow off the top and loosen up the mulch, and set fire to it some day when there is wind enough to cause it to burn quickly without injury to the crown of the plant, which will soon after throw up a new growth, when cultivation should begin and continue through the season. In this way narrow rows may be continued in bearing 42 BOAED OF AGEICULTUEE. [Jan., for several years quite successfully. If the matted row system is followed it is easier to renew by setting out new beds each spring and plowing under the old ones directly after fruiting. • Raspberries. — Following strawberries, or rather coming with the last picking of them, are the raspberries, red, black, yellow, and purple. Good crops may be grown on any soil, but the best is a deep moist loam. October is the best time to plant, but it can be done successfully any time in the fall, or very early in the spring, and green sucker plants of the red varieties may be transplanted much the same as cabbage or tomato any time during May, June, or July, amd if shaded for a few days, will make a fine growth and produce a crop the next season. Some years ago, when good plants of the Cuthbert were scarce, we put out one-half acre of these green plants in June, and the next year sold $360 worth of fruit. Soil properly prepared for strawberries will be in good condition for raspberries ; open furrows with a light plow in rows five to eight feet apart, the distance depending somewhat on the varieties to be planted and the system of culture to be fol- lowed. If to be grown in hedges, mark out rows seven to eight feet apart and drop plants two feet apart in the rows, in soil that is not too rough and stony. They may be set quickly and well by taking the top of the plant in one hand, holding it in the fui-row so that the roots will be about as deep as they had originally been grown, then with the feet crowd in the earth, from each side of the furrow, and tread it down firmly about the roots. In this way one man can plant three hundred or four hundred plants in an hour. After all are planted cut off the top level with the ground, and fill irf the furrow with a plow. If planting is done early in the fall they will get well rooted before winter, and will be ready to make a very early grov/th the following spring; late fall planting should be protected through the winter by a shovelfull of coarse manure, or a mound of earth over each plant. Spring plantings should be made early, as the young sprouts that come from the roots start as soon as the frost begins to come out, and are liable to get broken in handling. If planting has been done in the fall, and tops cut close to ground, the first spring cultivation can be best and most cheaply done with a common drag tooth-harrow going over the whole field. This will kill all young weeds just started, and so loosen up the ground over 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 43 the plants, that the spring growth can easily break through and at once get a good start, and so show the rows plainly, to be followed by the horse and cultivator a week or two later, and this should be kept up early and often, until the 1st of September, when all cul- tivation should cease, that the growth of plants may be checked, ' and the wood ripen up well before the hard frosts come, which would be likely to kill many of the plants if cultivation was con- tinued late in the season, for while we have a number of almost hardy varieties, we have none that are entirely so, and must manage their cultivation so as to ripen the wood as early in the season as possible. With a fair start in the spring, the plants will make a growth of from four to six feet the first season if allowed to do so, but it is best to pinch off the tops when two and a half or three feet high, which they should be -by the middle of July. This will cause them to send out lateral shoots, so that nearly double the crop can be obtained. Many of these laterals, reaching a foot or more in length early in summer, may be pinched off, causing them in turn to throw out laterals, so that by fall we have a strong stocky bush capable of withstanding the winter winds, and carrying its crop of fruit the next season without the use of stakes or trellis of any sort. After the first year canes will make a much stronger growth and should be pinched when not more than eighteen inches high. The two or three topmost laterals growing nearly upright will be three feet or more in height by July, and by pinching these off an enormous amount of fruiting wood may be obtained. For hill culture three, or at the most four, canes are sufficient. Hedge- rows should not be more than a foot wide at the ground, with canes eight to ten inches apart. By close pruning, and the spread- ing of the laterals, we will have a solid, compact hedge, two and one-half to three feet wide at the top, and if rows can be arranged running north and south, plants will be less likely to winter kill than they would in hills or in rows running east or west, the solid, compact hedge, with three or four feet of open space be- tween the rows, furnishing a sort of race-way for the currents of cold air. Some cultivation should be given early in the season each year before the plants are in bloom ; but it should be shallow, so as not to break the roots. In fact, after the first season, there should be no deep plowing or cultivating between them at any 44 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., time, especially among those that are propagated by a division of the roots, for the more they are broken the more abundant will be the suckers, and except what few are wanted for making new plantations, or for fruiting canes directly in the row, these are use- less as weeds, and should be treated as such as soon as they appear above ground. Cutting them off just at the surface will soon* destroy them. Most cultivators advise cutting out and removing all old wood directly after fruiting, to marke room for the new canes; but as it soon dies, it does not take any nourishment f i-om them, and being hard and dry it furnishes an excellent support for the young, green wood until such time as it is fully ripened and matured, and able to sustain itself. We very rarely remove any of the old wood from our raspberry plantation, not disturbing it at all till the fol- lowing spring, when it is dry and brittle, and is trodden down and broken up and left around the plants by the men as they pass along pruning and thinning out the bearing canes. After fruiting, cultivate same as first year up to about the first of September, and with such cultivation give an annual dressing of manure of some sort. The black-cap varieties may be kept in full fruiting from four to six years, and the red varieties twice as long. Blackberries. — Blackberries require much the same general care and culture as raspberries, except, perhaps, it is not neces- sary to manure quite so liberally to get good crops, and they can often be grown successfully on soil that is too light and dry for raspberries. The earlier varieties will ripen here by the middle or last of July, with the late raspberries, while the later sorts, espe- cially if on heavy, moist soil, will continue in fruiting through August, and often into September. Currants. — Currants, for the best results, require a deep, rich, rather moist soil, yet can be grown on any, even on land that is very dry and sandy, they can be grown to perfection if heavily mulched during the siimtner. Four feet apart each way, or in rows five feet apart, and plants three to three and one-half feet in the row, is about the right distance. Early in the fall, or as soon as the leaves drop, is the best time to plant; or it may be done successfully at any time before the ground freezes, or, again, very early in the spring. But, like raspberries and blackben'ies, while 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 45 spring plantings will usually live and grow well, the fall set plants will make a much better growth the first season. However, it is better to plant this coming spring than to put it off till next fall. Prune closely at time of planting, and each year following thin out all crowding branches and shorten in the new growth one-half, and they may be continued in bearing for years if manured annually. Gooseberries. — Gooseberries should be treated much the same as currants, and if they can be planted where they will be par- tially shaded during the middle of the day, they will be much less likely to mildew. Grapes. — Grapes are so easily grown, that plant a vine almost anywhere you will, you can depend upon abundant annual crops after the third year, if clean culture and close pruning are strictly attended to. Trained to a single stake six feet high, or to a trellis not over five feet, and the vine not allowed to spread more than the same distance each way, allows of all the room any vine wants to produce the best results. Many systems of pruning and train- ing are pictured out in the books; but any that results in close annual pruning will give an abundance of fruit at small cost. Enclosing the cluster in small bags made of manilla paper as soon as the berries begin to form, is strongly to be recommended, for after some years' trial it is found to prevent rotting and to greatly increase the size and beauty of the fruit, while not injuring the flavor in the least. In mentioning the different small fruits, the distances at which they should be planted are recommended with the supposition that each are to be grown alone, or at least independent of any of the others. But where land is plenty, and there is enough uncul- tivated on most farms, I would recommend that not less than one- half acre be devoted to the small-fruit garden, planting all together and at greater distances, which will be of great advantage in case of drouth. The best plan that I know of would be to mark off the field in straight rows six feet apart each way, which is none too far for raspberries, blackberries, and grapes, while currants and gooseberries will bear enough larger and finer fruit if given such an amount of room. And by planting four or five strawberry plants in each hill, and allowing them to form a large matted hill one and one -half to two feet across, an amount of fruit may be 46 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., obtained that will astonish any one who has not tested the matted hill system. By planting six feet apart we would get about six hundred hills on one half acre; say fifty each, early and medium, and one hundred late ripening strawbei'ries; fifty early and twenty- five late black-caps; twenty-five early and fifty late red raspberries; twenty-five yellow raspberries; twenty-five early and fifty late blackberries; thirty red, fifteen white, and five black currants; fifteen gooseberries; and eighty-five grape vines of early, medium, and late ripening varieties. A field planted in this way could be cultivated at one-half the cost of that of one in rows, where it would be impossible to use the horse and cultivator as freely as this would admit of; for in the fruit garden, as in all of our farm operations, our aim should be to produce the best crops at the least expense of hand labor; the horse and cultivator being made use of whenever possible. Enemies. — There are a number of enemies more or less destruct- ive in the small-fruit garden; none, hov/ever, that I know need be feared to any extent here in Connecticut, if simple precautions are taken to prevent in season. The common white grub is often quite destructive to the roots of strawberry plants; but as it is seldom found except in land that has recently been in sod, it is best to plant on land that has been cultivated for some years previously; but if grubs are known to be in the ground, they can be prevented from doing any harm by sprinkling a little flour of sulphur in and around the roots at time of planting. The rust or leaf blight, so destructive to many strawberry plan- tations in recent years, seems to affect some varieties much more than others, and to a certain extent can be prevented by planting only those varieties the least liable to its attacks. It usually shows itself first during warm, wet weather, the last of May or early part of June; first a few brownish red spots, not much larger than the head of a pin, are seen, but these soon spread rapidly over the whole leaf, and often in a week or ten days three-fourths of all the foliage will be brown and dry, about ruining the whole crop of fruit. Following the lead of friend Olcott, I have found that a very light dusting of lime will entirely prevent this, if taken in time; knowing just the weather that will breed this fungus, keep a stock of lime on hand and you will be able to prevent it to a great extent. 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 47 The raspberry cane borer, and the blackberry rust, have thus far clone very little damage in this part of the country. When- ever they appear it is best to cut out the canes and burn them, and thus prevent spreading. The green currant worm, both on currant and gooseberry bushes, is easily destroyed by dusting with white hellebore or air-slacked lime. Mildew on the grape is held in check to a great extent by the use of sulphur blown on with a bellows. Varieties. — In selecting varieties to plant there are now so many good ones to choose from that little fear need be had of get- ting any that will not give good ' results ; but as the best cost no more than the poorest, it is well to use some care in the selection. Choose varieties that are known to do well in your own immediate locality, rather than highly praised novelties. The following list comprises, so far as I know, the best of the old and new varieties that are well adapted to the family garden. Some few of the new ones of course are not fully tested, yet having fruited them all on our own grounds by the side of many of the standard sorts, I am convinced that the ones named are well worthy of trial. And from the older varieties I have left off many that are quite valua- ble yet lacking in some essential quantities found in the newer sorts. Crescent Seedling, Miner's Prolific, Kentucky and Sharp- less, of the older ones, and Manchester, Mt. Vernon, Piper, Mrs, Garfield, Daniel Boone, and James Vick of the new varieties of Strawberries, Souhegan for early and Gregg for late black caps, 'Hansen for early and Cuthbert for late red, and Caroline for yellow make up the raspberry list. Early Harvest and Snyder for blackberries. Red Dutch, Fay's Prolific, and Victoria for red; White Grape for white and Lee's Prohfic for black, give a grand. list of currants. Downing and Smith's improved for Gooseberries. Early Victor, Worden, Concord, and Herbert for black; Brighton, Delaware, Jefferson, and Vergennes for red, and Lady, and Pock- lington for white grapes, will give a succession of fresh fruits from June till mid winter. Thus far I have said very little as to the uses of the different species of small fruits, and while I have no doubt that it would only be doing the proper thing to spend some little time in explain- ing the many different ways in which they may be served, either in their fresh or preserved state, I think we can safely trust it to 48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail., the Yankee ingenuity of our ladies to find some way to use all tlie fruits we will be likely to supply them. I can think of nothing better to close this paper with than the following from Leisure Hours for Feb., 1884. "Home without a mother is a familiar phrase, as is also home without a baby, but a home without a fruit garden seems, to us, to be no home at all." Mr. Blot. I would like to ask Mr. Hale what time he has found to be the best season for pruning grape-vines ? Mr. Hale. Ours are usually pruned in November. Mr. Blot. Does it make any difference what time you prune them, between November and March ? Mr. Hale. We have a lady in our family about seventy- eight years old who takes care of those 116 grape-vines. She could tell you a great deal more about it than I can. We furnish the vines and set them out and she takes the entire charge of them. Mr. Blot. She is not here ; I am interested in grapes and want to know whether it makes any difference what time they are pruned. Mr. Hale. Mr. Williams of New Jersey can answer that question a great deal better than I can. Mr. Blot. We would like to hear from Mr. Williams, then. Mr. Williams. I think it makes no difference if the wood is thoroughly matured. It used to be the received opinion that the vines should be pruned in the spring, but I think fall pruning is about right. I have just finished mine — about a week ago. Mr. Van Deusen. Mr. Hale spoke about close pruning. I would like to know what he calls " close pruning ? " Whether to one bud, two buds, or more ? Mr. Hale. Keep it down to the stake, not over six feet high. That is not supposed to be very close. Mr. Van Deusen. Suppose it to be on a trellis, fan-shaped, and spread out, do you prune to one or two buds ? Mr. Hale. She usually prunes to two buds, where we get the best grapes. 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 49 Mr. Van Deusen. Such a vine would bear about how many ? Mr. Hale. From one four-year-old vine of the Early Victor variety, we picked this year about seventeen pounds. Mr. Van Deusen. We have some forty vines. A year ago we had a grape-vine on the side of our house where they picked two bushels of Concord grapes. We have an arbor about 330 feet long. I stood one day looking at that vine on the side of the house, and I said, " There are more grapes on the side of the house than there are on 660 feet of arbor." I took it into my head to see if there could not be something done. I had trimmed to two buds heretofore and rubbed off the first one, leaving only one that fruited. This vine is ten years old and it has borne every year since it was three years old. This year I have no doubt it Jiad six bushels ; the year before I think they told me it bore ten bushels. I think that when you cut a vine down to one bud or two buds it is a great shock to the system. A grape-vine, and especially a Con- cord vine which is a very rapid grower, should have plenty of room, and if you set your vines further apart, you would get better grapes and more of them, and we should not have to pay the nursery man so much for vines. (Laughter and applause.) Mr. Blot. I would like to ask Mr. Hale if, in this climate, we do not have a stronger vine and better fruit if we trim the Concord to six or seven feet ? Mr. Hale. The best fruit I have seen grown here has been grown on a stalk not more than five or six feet high. Mr. Blot. In Europe, along the Rhine, and through France and Germany, they cut the vines down to four feet ; but does not the Concord require a little higher trellis than 9ther grapes in this country ? Mr. Hale. It is a little freer grower than others. I should not think you would get any better fruit. Mr. Hinman. I would like to inquire if the Rogers No. 4 does not want more wood than the Concord — a great deal? 4 50 • BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. I have no luck at all in trimming that. If I let the vines run by themselves, they give me good crops ; but whenever I have pruned, it has been at a loss of fruit. I was through Mr. Dickerman's vineyard this fall, and he told me that he had found precisely the same result. He said he was obliged to let some vines take care of themselves ; they had a little of the wild Indian in them, and it was necessary to allow them to take to brush occasionally, in order to produce good fruit. Mr. Hale. The only Rogers No. 4 we have runs over the broadside of the house, and bears well. It goes without any pruning whatever. Mr. Gold. When in California this past summer, I noticed, on some of the best fruit farms, that the foreign grapes were trimmed to a single stump, two or three feet high, and bore their fruit close to the ground. On those same farms American grapes were also cultivated, on trellises, and a pretty liberal growth of vine allowed. They said they did not admit of the same short pruning as the foreign grapes ; that their system was entirely different with regard to the Isabella, Catawba, Concord, and others, than with the foreign varieties that they were growing upon those same fruit farms. Mr. Blot. That is the information I would like to get. I know of foreign fruit farms where they raise grapes, and they cut some of them as low as two feet and a half. That is the Chasselas ; and they hold themselves, without any support. But in this climate, is it not better to let them grow seven or eight feet ? Would we not have more and better grapes, and would not the vines last longer, and be more thrifty? Mr. Gold. Our New Jersey friends ought to answer this question for us. Mr. Blot. I have seen grape-vines trimmed here by for- eigners, who had just come over from the old country, and they trimmed them down to four or five feet, and invariably the fruit has been poor. I would like to know from some one who has had more experience than I have had, if our Ameri can grapes do not require a little longer trimming ? 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 51 Mr. Jesse P. Rogers, of New Jersey. I believe one of the great points in trimming grapes is to get very fine fruit — large, heavy clusters. To do that, with most vines, short trimming is required ; say, of the Concord, from four to six feet. Rogers' Hybrid has been spoken of here. Almost all of the Rogers' Hybrids, the Diana, and several others of that style of grape, need very long arms — twenty, thirty, or forty feet; and, with arms of that length, as a general rule, the grapes are a great deal better. No arbitrary rule can be laid down for trimming grape-vines; but they must be trimmed according to the nature of the vine itself. But I should think that a vine not trimmed at all would run all over creation, and get away from us. The very gentleman who said, tliis morning, that he would keep oats from his horses if they ran away from liim, now says :. " Trim your grapes very long." I am sure his horse would get away from him there. Mr. Fenn. I have made a practice of taking the laterals, such as I wanted to fruit next season, and cutting away the old wood, retaining the new, and from those branches which put out, I have obtained not only the 'best fruit, but the largest, and finest bunches. I have a Diana vine, which Iset out more for shade than anything else. I would not under- take to say how many grapes that vine has borne ; but I know it has borne a great many. It is in a locality where the grapes do not ripen very well ; they do not get sun enough, and some seasons I get a poor crop ; but a majority of the seasons they ripen well. A great many claim that I am severe in cutting; but I always cut away the old wood, retain- ing the new, and I have the best results from that system of pruning. I only give it as my experience. I don't know whether it is best for others to follow it or not. Mr. Blot. I have always done that way myself. I had a three-year-old grape-vine this year that gave me thirty pounds of grapes. What I want to know is, as between cutting to four or five feet, as they do in Europe, and seven or eight feet — which would be the most profitable ? Mr. Augur. I have listened with very much interest to 52 BOAED OF AGEICULTUEE. [Jan., the paper which we have had this afternoon, and I think it is to be very highly commended ; and especially, I would say, Mr. Hale's selection of varieties is capital. This matter of pruning grapes has been alluded to, and it is a matter of very great importance ; I think more than almost anything else, except the cultivation. The Concord grape has been spoken of ; and that is the grape of the coun- try. Probably nine-tenths of all the grapes that go to the New York market are Concords. I wish they were better ; but they are fairly good, and the people are satisfied with them. The question is — How to raise the Concord grape, and how to prune it ? I was pleased with the remark of our friend, Mr. Rogers, of New Jersey, in regard to different varieties requiring different management. I think that is eminently so. Indeed, I know it is so. What is necessary for the Concord will not do at all for the Delaware. In regard to the Concord, I spent most of last week up the Hudson, visiting the vineyards there, and enjoyed it exceed- ingly. I saw a great many extensive vineyards. They have a way of raising the Concord grape there which is perhaps a little peculiar to their locality, but they are very successful. I saw vineyards there from which over ninety tons had been shipped. Their method is what is known as the Kniffen sys- tem, and it consists of posts, with a trellis of two wires, one three feet from the ground and the other about six or six and a half. The vine is trained so as to form, you might call it, a double T. There are two arms that run on the first wire and two on the upper wire. The vines are planted about eight or nine feet apart, and occasionally a man plants them as far apart as ten feet, — but I think that is the exception, — and, as Mr. Fenn has very well remarked, they manage to raise their fruit on young wood.» This is a peculiarity, and they feel that it is a necessity ; and I find that old arms and short spurs are what they detest. But, on the other hand, they calculate to get a new arm on a wire, each way, each year, and limit the fruit production to those new arms. If any one should happen to be at the railroad station in 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 63 Marlboro' or Newburgh, in the shipping season, he would be simply astonished. He will find twenty tons, and more, going to New York in a single night. Well, as I remarked, they use the Kniffen system exclu- sively for growing the Concord. I think all of them adopt that. On the other hand, for the Delaware, they adopt an entirely different plan. Mr. Holmes, at Little Hope, near Newburgh, who has probably the best Delaware vineyard on the Hudson, — at all events, the best I have seen, — cuts away everything to within six inches of the ground, except one new cane, and that up six feet high. The laterals of that new cane are trained off each way, perhaps two feet and a half. He sold his Delaware grapes this year, in New York, at from eighteen to twenty-five cents a pound, wholesale, where the Concords were bringing from two and a half to three cents. But he only raised about half the amount per vine that he got from his Concords. He calculated to get from his Concord vines about twenty pounds of choice fruit to a vine, and from his Delawares about ten pounds. But they were won- derfully choice, and, as I remarked before, for a considerable portion of his Delaware grapes he got twenty-five cents a pound. He feels greatly encouraged in raising Delaware grapes at that price. The yield from some of their best vineyards on the Hudson river has been reported as being six tons to the acre, on land upon sopae of which you would hardly venture to plant corn. I found that Mr. Holmes's (and several others have imitated him) had but one arm, about six feet long, and that is trained up vertically. Mr. Blot. What time do they pinch back the laterals ? Mr. Augur. That is done in summer, after the fruit is set. Mr. Blot. For the Delawares, as well as the others ? Mr. Augur. Yes. Mr. Blot. How far do they allow the laterals to grow before they pinch them ? 54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Mr. Augur. I was not there in the fruit season ; the fruit was all gathered. I only saw the naked vines ; but I should, judge, from two and a half to three feet each way from the main stem. We all understand that the fruit is produced on the present season's wood, and from each of those eyes on this vertical stem there is a branch which has from three to four clusters, and where the wood is tolerably short-jointed there are a good many branches and a good many clusters ; those are thinned out and the wood shortened back a little, accord- ing to the growth. Mr. Wheeler. I would like to ask Mr. Augur or Mr. Hale if the practice of girdling vines during the fruiting season is recommended now, as it was some few years since ? Mr. Augur. I believe it is a practice that is very generally condemned. It is occasionally done in order to secure larger fruit ; but, in a great many of the horticultural societies, it is against the rule to accept fruit from girdled vines. Question. I would like to ask if they take a new cane for the next year ? Mr. Augur. They do, invariably, from near the ground. Mr. Williams. Tlie locality that my friend speaks about is noted throughout the land as being one of the finest grape- grdiwing regions in this country. It is a paradise, compara- tively speaking. They know nothing of mildew or rot, the two great difficulties with which we Jerseymen have to con- tend. The climate in this respect has a great deal to do with the success of grape culture. What the climate is here in Connecticut I cannot say, and it would be unwise and pre- sumptuous for me to advise you how to prune your vines. Perhaps the idea that this gentleman on my left has advanced may have something to do with it. It is a question whether we do not get better crops if we give our grape-vines light and ' air than we do if we adopt the system which Mr. Augur has described as practiced on the Hudson. I have long been of the impression that mildew is largely developed and fostered where the air is* confined near the ground. I have always 1884.] THE farmer's small-fruit garden. 55 found mildew near the surface on my vines. Of course, if we trim our vines any considerable distance from the ground, we will get less radiation from the surface ; but if we can avoid mildew, that will be an important element in the raising of good crops. Mr. Blot. That was the reason I asked the question. Through Burgundy, the middle and south of France, Italy, the Ehenish provinces, and Germany, there is comparatively no dew at the time the grape commences to turn ; but in this climate we generally have very heavy dews at that season. It is my impression that dew has something to do with mildew, and, by trimming our grape-vines up higher, I think we should avoid the effect of mildew, to some extent at least. Mr. Williams. That is the advantage of California. They can pick their grapes from the vines and throw them upon the ground, and remove them when they please. Apropos of this subject, I had a letter from a friend in Burlington county, N. J., who practiced the European method of short pruning, who has always been successful in taking the prizes at the exhibitions. I don't think we can do it. This last season has been the worst that I have ever experienced in my life, for grape-growing. So that it will not do to lay down general rules. We have had heavy dews and we have had very cold nights — the thermometer down to 50 or 56 every night. Mr. Augur. I would like to ask Mr. Williams, from New Jersey, if he has noticed any difference in regard to the rot and mildew between those vines which were partially shel- tered and those which stood in the open ground. Mr. Williams. My vines are all in the same condition, as near as maybe. I have adopted the Kniffen system of prun- ing, because it is the simplest I have known of, and I cannot say that I have found any difference with the rot. I think it has appeared more on the lower arms, as a general thing, than on the others. I know that when I was a boy I could grow Isabella grapes as good as anybody ever wished to put in his mouth, but I have not been able to do it of late years. 56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Question. Will the gentleman give us the method by which Isabella grapes can be grown to perfection ? Mr. Williams. I cannot tell you how to do it. I know I used to do it. In fact, they grew themselves. We put them on a trellis and let them run. We merely pruned them to one or two buds, and we could get as fine clusters of Isabellas and as fine berries as you can get from Rogers' Hybrids; but we cannot do it now. Question. Will the gentleman explain whether pruning has ever been a success with any of the Scuppernong varie- ties of grapes ? Mr. Williams. I should not expect to grow the Isabella, or any of that class, if I did not prune pretty severely, because any grape-vine that will produce fruit will kill itself by over- bearing if you do not prune it. The great trouble is, that we expect the vines to do too much. You might as well expect a five or ten-year-old child to do the work of an adult. Up the Hudson, the section Mr. Augur speaks about, the best growers estimate on fifteen pounds per vine. If they can get fifteen pounds from a vine they are satisfied. Mr. Augur. Speaking of the Isabella grape, we have one vine of the Isabella which is on an arbor between the main part of the house and the L, and I think we have not missed a crop of well-ripened fruit for the last eight or ten years. This fall we have enjoyed them exceedingly. But this vine is partially sheltered. We avoid cold currents, and perhaps dew, to some extent, and we always expect a well-ripened crop from that vine. Mr. . I have no theory, but I have a bit of experience that may be useful. I have a Diana vine which was set out twenty years ago, and it soon covered the side of the house, embracing about 1,800 square feet. I have not failed of a crop but one year, and that was when I took it down and trimmed it. I have had from four to six bushels of well- formed clusters every year. Mr. . My experience has been directly the reverse of 1884.] THE paemer's small-fruit garden. 67 that of the gentleman from New Jersey. Wherever I have trimmed an Isabella vine, I have not got so good fruit. I have seen it, in the southern country, from forty to sixty feet high, and I do not believe the Scuppernong grape can be pruned to any advantage. Mr. . I will tell you my experience. I have culti- vated one vine for nearly twenty years. It is protected on the southeast. I let it grow until it gets as big round as a quarter, or a little larger. Then, when a sucker comes up from the bottom, and gets about the size of my thumb, I cut up the old stock and let it run. I have not failed for twenty years in getting a crop of nice, large, splendid Isabellas. I wiH guarantee that any man who will try that method will succeed. I have had them* entirely ripe the thirteenth of September. Mr. RoDGERS. I think that the difficulty is this : that if vines are not summer pruned, as a general thing, the fruit- eye will not form a vigorous growth, and, if the vine is trimmed, the eyes will not develop and produce fruit, and a great deal of the crop is lost in that way. Mr. Blot. I would like to know of those gentlemen who do not prune grape-vines how many they can set out to the acre, and how far apart they would set 'them? Mr. Rale. One will cover an acre, I guess, if you give it a chance. Mr. Blot. There is such a thing as cultivating grapes on an outbuilding and around the house, but my question relates to profitable field-culture. Mr. H. L. Jeffries, of Washington Depot. I would like to inquire of Mr. Hale and Mr. Augur if they have noticed, dur- ing the past season, a louse, very much like the green aphis, at work on the under side of the grape-leaves, and also a hole punctured in the green wood, about a foot from where the shoot starts ? After several of those holes have been punc- tured the stem dies. I have been called on by quite a num- 58 BOAED OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., ber in New Milford and Kent to look at vines that were troubled in that way this fall. My attention was not called to it early enough so that I could find any insect that troubled the vine ; but I have seen whole vineyards of Rogers' Hyb- rids, some Isabellas, and even some wild vines in the woods, troubled with this insect. If any gentleman has had any experience in this matter I should like to hear it. Mr. Hale. I have not known of it. Mr. Augur. It has not troubled me. I would like to ask what time in the season it showed itself ? Mr. Jeffries. My attention was called to it just as the leaves were falling, this fall. The way I came to go and examine the vines, a gentleman asked me if I would go and see what was the matter with his vine ; it looked as if it were being eaten up. The leaves had very much the appear- ance as if they had been dipped in hot water. If this plague gets well started, it will not take a great while for it to spread all over the State. I will take pains to send specimens of the wood and the insect to any entomologist who will exam- ine it. I have the insect, whatever it is, in a bottle, and shall keep it during the winter, and let it hatch out next spring, to see what it is. Mr. Augur. I have a branch that Mr. Jeffries handed me that is affected in that way ; but it is something that I am not familiar with. I have not experienced that difficulty myself. I should suppose that some insecticide would be a remedy, if you knew just when to apply it. The Chairman. If there is no more to be said on this sub- ject of fruit-culture, we have some gentlemen here who would like to discuss the subject of bees. We would be glad to hear from Mr. Jeffries. Mr. Jeffries. I am not going to say a great deal in regard to handling bees, but there are a few plagues that affect them as well as other things. My attention was called particu- larly to an insect that infests hives this summer by a letter from Mrs. Squires, of Reading, Conn. She wrote to me to 1884.] BEES. 59 make inquiries in regard to a species of red mite, very much like the small hen-louse, and informed me that within three miles of her there was an apiary of twenty colonies that had been very profitable, which was destroyed by that mite last winter. She noticed them herself this spring, and- they appar- ently disappeared about the middle of June. On the 20th of October they again made their appearance, and to such an extent that some ten days before she wrote to me the hives were literally covered with them, as thick as ever the inside of a hen-house was covered with hen-lice. She sent speci- mens of these insects to Prof. Sherlock, of Lansing, Mich., and after a pretty thorough examination he sent word that he should advise the use of fresh meat, or something similar, that would entice any carnivorous insect from acting upon the bees. After he had tried several experiments himself, he wrote to her again, and advertised in the publications relating to bees for information on the subject. I find that this insect is causing trouble in two or three other places, and threatens to sweep away, in part at any rate, the hoiiey-gatherers from this State. We have not only that pest to trouble us, but we have a disease called " foul brood." This is a disease of the imper- fect form of bees — what is called by entomologists the pupa — while it is in its chrysalis state. Should that sweep through this State, as there is a fair prospect that it will, not only our friend Mr. Hale, but all who are engaged in the business of raising small fruits, will have to suffer. Our honey-bee is the strongest fertilizer that I know of, and I guess nobody else watches them more closely than I do. There is no other insect that works on the raspberry-blossom as thoroughly as does the honey-bee. You will find that the honey-bee is the main fertilizer of the raspberry-bloom. After hearing from Mrs. Squires on this subject, I wrote to Mr. Gold to know if he would make a call on the bee-keepers of the State to investigate the trouble. The parasite can be carried from apiary to apiary by bees visiting the flowers and coming in contact with each other. Twenty of these small 60 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., insects can lie on the thorax or central part of the honey-bee. There is only a space about as large as a very small pea for them to cluster on. They are not noticed by the naked eye, and, being of the louse family, will deposit their eggs on the hairs of the body. They are traveling through several parts of the State, and I have found, by talking with gentlemen this afternoon, that there is evidence of their presence a short distance below us here in the Naugatuck valley. It will take but a short time, with the distance that beeis travel on the wing, to carry these parasites through the State, and the rapidity with which they breed will in a short time scatter them through all the apiaries. There are quite a number of people in this State who are making a business of apiculture, and it stands to reason that they should make some move to find out to what extent these parasites are now working. That was the reason why I called on Mr. Gold to see if there could not be a discussion at this meeting in regard to the parasites and foul brood. I brought some of the specimens with me, and a sample of foul brood, and if anybody is inter- ested in the subject, or wants any information on it, I will try to answer what questions I can, and will give them what information I can ; and I would like to have those who are possessed of any information to give me some in return. Mr. Gold. Let us hear something about foul brood. Explain the points in connection with that. Mr. Jeffries. There are two kinds of foul brood with which I am acquainted. One of them is a malignant type. That type can be carried from apiary to apiary by the honey- bee. It is a fungoid growth on the bee. When the egg is laid it hatches into larvae in three days ; it is from five to seven days a grub, and then is sealed over and remains in a chrysalis state from eight to about fourteen days, according to the weather, somewhat. While it is in that chrysalis state it decays and can be noticed readily by a very offensive smell. Disinfectants like carbolic acid and soda are used for it. The extent to which malignant foul brood is detrimental to bees was shown in the State of Michigan a year ago by five thousand hives being 1884.J BEES. 61 destroyed by it in one season. The other type, before it gets free from the chrysalis state, begins to turn yellow. When they get their full growth in the grub state, before capping, they will look plump, like any ordinary larvjB, and then they will turn a yellowish brown, and finally dry up. It takes about seventy-two hours from the time the first evidence is shown of the second type of foul brood before it becomes developed. Both of them are claimed. by entomologists to be the results of fungus. Question. I would like to inquire what the indications are of the presence of foul brood ? Mr. Ji^FFRiES. In the first stages, you will detect it by there being a few cells in the comb that are capped over. On picking them open they will be found to contain the bee in its most perfect form, but it is a viscid, rotten mass. It holds its shape, but, at the same time, it is putrified, and the scent from it is very disagreeable. You could not pass within ten feet of the hive without smelling it. It leaves the cell in a dirty-looking state. I dare not carry the malignant type with me, because it is something that scatters easily. Question. Can you give any reason why the bees do not clear that out themselves ? Mr. Jeffries. They cannot ; the cells are capped over, and they know that there is not a perfect bee there. But they never have been known to clean it out. If you uncapped the cells with a knife and put the comb back again, they would not remove the putrified corpse, but would desert the hive. Question. Are we to understand that this is a recent development ? Mr. Jeffries. It is something that has been known ever since the year 1796, but it is spreading, through carelessness, I think, through several parts of the State. Mr. Augur. Do I understand that it is worse now than it has been for a period of years ? Mr, Jeffries. It is worse than I have been able to find out that it has ever been previously. In Woodbury, it has 62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., destroyed over one hundred stocks, within three or four years, in one neigliborhood. Mr. Augur. Can you suggest any sanitary conditions by which it can be avoided ? Mr. Jeffries. No ; I cannot. The original cause of its appearing is not known. The scientists are now at work upon it to find out, if possible, where it first shows itself. Question. Can yoii tell whether bees work by moonlight or not ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir ; they do during the bass-wood season. I will relate an instance that will answer the ques- tion exactly. In 1876, I was at Mr. Stone's, in Woodbury, when he came up from the river about half-past seven o'clock at night, and he said there was a swarm of bees in a bass- wood tree down by the river. I doubted it, and went doAvn there to look for myself, and found they were at work very busily. I then went to where I had two hives on a knoll, and I found the bees were going back and forth quite rapidly. Since then quite a number have noticed the same thing, so we know that, during the bass-wood season, they will work, where those trees are close by, by moonlight. Question. How far was this bass-wood tree from the hives ? Mr. Jeffries. The farthest hive that I know of might have been an eighth of a mile distant. Question. How far do you think a bee goes in the day- time from his own hive ? Mr. Jeffries. The only way that I can answer that ques- tion is by saying that, in 1873, I had a hive of Italians in Woodbury, and there not being any other Italians nearer than Bridgeport or Meriden, they were found over in Roxbury Centre, which was some six and a half miles from where I had the hives standing. Question. Do you think that the Italian bee will go further from the hive than the common bee ? 1884.] BEES. 63 Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir ; I cannot positively prove that, because I have no way of tracing the black bee. We can take the Italians into a locality where there is nothing but the black bee, but we cannot take black bees into a locality where there are only Italians. Question. Does Mr. Jeffries recommend crossing the Italian with the common bee ? Mr. Jeffries. No, sir ; I do not. Question. Would you prefer the Italian over the common bee ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir. Question. Why ? Mr. Jeffries. Because I am convinced, from what I have seen of them since 1872, that they are far stronger honey gatherers and more gentle to handle. They are more prolific and stronger of flight. On an average, three good, strong Italian hives will give as large a yield as five hives of the ordi nary bee. That is about where they have stood in a great many trials. Question. Is the result of a cross between the Italian and the native more good natured than the Italian itself ? Mr. Jeffries. No, sir ; they are more vicious, as a rule. Question. Are they more vicious than the common bee ? Mr. Jeffries. YeSy sir. Question. Can you tell, in one word, how to prevent the moth miller — that is the greatest foe that we experience ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes ; keep good, strong stocks, use a moveable comb hive, and what harm the moth miller does you will never know. Question. Can you get an Italian stock of bees by putting Italians into a hive of common bees ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir ; every time. Question. How long will it take ? Mr. Jeffries. About forty-five days in the height of the honey season. 64 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail., Question. The next brood will be perfect Italians ? Mr. Jeffries. If the queen is pure, and purely mated. Mr. Van Hoosear of Wilton. Would Mr. Jeffries put his bees in a cellar in winter to keep them ? Mr. Jeffries. In regard to putting stocks in a cellar to winter, if I had a cellar properly situated, and from fifty to one hundred and fifty or more stocks, I should winter them in the cellar; otherwise, I should not. Unless there are stocks enough to maintain a degree of heat from forty-two to forty-eight, it is more detrimental to put them in a cellar than to keep them out; that is, as far as I have known of its being tried. Keeping them in the cellar during the winter does not have much to do with it, but when you bring them out in the spring they are apt to die off very quick. Question. I would like to ask Mr. Jeffries if he ever knew a hive buried during the winter in the ground? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir; I have. There are a great many hives buried, and they are buried very successfully, too. If there are two or three benches, I consider that is one of the best ways you can keep them, and the safest way, for two reasons. The great enemy that bees have during the winter time is man himself. They are in a partially dormant state, and when they have once clustered and got into their own quarters, they want a severe letting alone until they come out of themselves. To disturb a hive of bees in winter, when they are once clustered, is as sure death to them as taking a good dose of arsenic is to a man. Mr. Van Hoosear. Would you ever bank a hive with snow? Mr. Jeffries. I have banked hives with snow very success- fully, but how much banking is necessary is not positively known. I have seen them four feet under the snow, where they have wintered safely ; I could not ask them to winter any better. But to go and stamp the snow around the hive for the sake of getting it there, I should say would jar the bees so much that it would do more harm than the snow 1884.] BEES. 65 would do good ; the one would counteract the good effect of the other. Question. Can that degree of heat which you speak of be maintained outside of a cellar ? Mr. Jeffries. Not without a house. Whenever packed out of doors, the main object is to keep them as cool as possi- ble, keep them quiet, and prevent their consuming more honey than is in stock; and that same packing that keeps them cool and quiet during the winter time, when they warm up' in the spring, prevents their feeling the changes of weather which keeps them at such an even temperature tliat brooding is carried on steadily. Where they commence to breed pretty freely and there comes a cool spell to such an extent as to cause them to contract their cluster, there are two thinos lost ; one is the loss of the extra amount of honey consumed, and the other is the loss of the young bees that should replace the old ones. It takes one old bee to raise one young one early in the season. Question. What is the general age of bees ? Mr. Jeffries. During the height of the honey season, the age of the workers is from forty to forty-five days. When they are not gathering honey, they live from five to six months. A young working bee that is hatched in September, October, or November, will live through until March and April, perhaps into May, according to the winter; but one that is hatched the middle of June will not live to exceed forty-five days ; at least, I cannot find that they live longer than that. Mr. Van Hoosear. Will you tell us about how many queens are hatched in a hive at a single breeding ? Mr. Jeffries. The number of queens hatched in a hive is according to the age of the cells when started. If the eggs are all laid in one day', and there should be fifty eggs laid in queen's cells, and they hatch simultaneously, we should find that number of queens in the hive ; but, invariably, the queen 5 66 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., that hatches first will destroy the rest, unless the stock is strong. • Question, Does the queen ever feed herself, or is she fed by the workers ? Mr. Jeffries. Both ways. Sometimes she feeds herself, and sometimes they feed her. During the height of the honey season, when they are gathering honey freely and she is laying rapidly, any bee that happens to come in with a lot of honey and passes her will offer ber food. I have noticed that by watching them in a hive with but one comb and glass on both sides. Question. When you send a queen through the mail, why do you put workers with her ? Is it to feed her ? Mr. Jeffries. More for company than anything else. A queen alone does not carry well. Question. About how many do you ship with her ? Mr. Jeffries. The distance that the queen is to be trans- ported makes a difference in the number of workers that should be shipped with her. If she was not going more than a mile or two, I should put her into the same cage I was going to introduce into the hive ; but if I was going to 'send her five hundred miles, I should put from a dozen to twenty-five or thirty workers with her, according to the season of the year. Early in the spring and late in the fall she would need more than she would in the height of the summer season. Question. How many eggs does a bee lay, usually, for one brood ? Mr. Jeffries. They are continually laying from the time they begin in the spring until they shut off in the fall. Question. Can you give an estimate of the aggregate * number ? Mr. Jeffries. I cannot give you an estimate without figuring, because the number varies considerably. Experience this summer has proved that they will lay twenty-four hundred eggs in twenty-four hours. The way we verify that is by 1884.] BEES. 67 putting a new piece of comb into the center of the brood- comb, taking it out after a certain length of time, and meas- uring a given number of cells that have eggs in them. Mr. Bill. If a working bee lives but the short period of time of which the speaker has told us, I would like to make the inquiry where he "shuffles off his mortal coil," whether in the field gathering honey or around the hive ? Mr. Jeffries. I never have been able to find out yet, and I doubt if anybody else has decidedly found out, that bees stay in the hive to die, unless it is in the winter time. I have noticed a great many bees that appeared as though they were troubled with some disease, or were going to die, that would crawl out of the hive to the ground, perhaps but a few feet from the hive, and there die. A great many bees that come out in the morning never get home ; and not only in the morning, but all through the day. If a bee dies in the hive he is immediately carried out. Question. I would like to ask the gentleman if he ever finds a stock that is dead in the spring, with plenty of honey in the hive, and if he can give any cause for it ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir. One reason assigned for a stock of bees dying out during the winter, leaving a hive full of honey, is that the stock is weak in the fall, and another is that they become queenless. When a stock of bees casts a swarm, the old queen leaves that hive, and, after leaving the hive, there are no queens for the hive except in the embryo state. These chew their way out of the cells after the old stock leaves, and when they are from three to five, or perhaps eight days old, they fly out of the hive to seek mates. That mating time is a critical period with the old stock. If the queen is caught by a bird or insect or fails to arrive safely at her own hive, that swarm is queenless, unless the apiarist replaces the queen or furnishes the means to raise another. A stock in a box hive in that condition will very often con- tinue to work as though they had a queen, and, there being no queen to replace the old bees with young ooes, and the old 68 . BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., bees not being worn out by raising a brood, they will, perhaps, continue until late in the fall, and the next thing the bee- keeper knows, he finds in the spring that his hive is without bees, but with plenty of honey. Question. Is the queen a bee that very often goes out from the hive? Mr. Jeffries. A queen goes out ©n two occasions from the hive ; once for the purpose of mating, and after that for the purpose of leading a swarm. Under no other circumstances are queen bees, as a rule, known to leave the hive, except when they are taken out. Mr. Van Hoosear. What do people mean when they say "the king bee?" Do they mean they do not know anything about it ? Mr. Jeffries. That is it, exactly. They show that they are ignorant of what they are talking about. There were works written years and years ago in which the chief one of the hive was spoken of as "the king bee;" but Francis Huber, in 1796, gave to the world a positive elucidation of the fact that the chief bee in a hive was a female, consequently, a queen. But she is not a queen, so far as any royal power is concerned. Question. When a colony leaves their home with more than one queen, what is the cause and the result ? Mr. Jeffries. If a stock of bees issues with more than one queen, it is from one of two causes. First, if the stock contains an old queen in the spring, and they feel disposed to supersede her and raise another one, they are going to " make assurance doubly sure" by trying to raise several. If three or four, more or less, of those hatch at the same time, the bees, if the stock is very strong, will protect those young queens, and, not being disposed to have more than one, or not allowing more than one to stay in the hive, they will attempt to swarm, and very often all the queens there are in the hive will issue with that swarm ; consequently, when they are hived, they haVe a fight, and one remains. Then the result 1884.] BEES. 69 is either queenlessness in the original stock, or more than one in the swarm that issues. Dr. BowEN. Tlie gentleman has spoken of a hive being deprived of its queen ; is there not such a thing as taking a cell intended for a common bee, nourishing the larva, and having it grow into a queen ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir, the bees will do that. In order to obtain that result, you take a stock of bees that has the larvffi in all stages, from one day up to capping, and deprive them of their queen, in the space of two or three hours, they will go to work and enlarge the cells of grubs that would otherwise be workers or imperfect females, and by nourishing those larvae and feeding them with a richer pabulum, they will produce a queen. The difference between the queen and the worker is, that in the queen the ovarian organs are developed and in the worker they are suppressed. Dr. BowEN. Is a queen bee hatched as soon as the others ? Mr. Jeffries. Exactly the same. From fifteen days and eighteen hours from the time the egg is laid up to sixteen days and a half. That is the longest time that we can find. It makes no difference whether you take a grub that would be a worker or whether you take an egg laid purposely for a queen, in a queen's cell. Mr. Van Hoosear. Can you tell us why honey will not run out of a cell that is not full ? Mr. Jeffries. Because of atmospheric pressure. That is the only answer that I can give you. When a cell is filled with honey by the bee, it is not filled perpendicularly full, as it is where you cut the capping off. They fill the cell with an oblique dip, by pressing over the back of it, and when they cap it, they commence to cap it on the lower side, capping until they reach nearly the upper edge of the cell. The way the expert in handling honey determines whether a box of honey was put up by the Italian or by the common black bee (and he does not have to be a very great expert, either, to be able to tell) is by the way the capping is put on. The black 70 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., bee does not put the cap directly on top of the honey, while the Italians will fill the cell as full as they can get it. Question. Is there any covering put on that honey as the bee passes along ? Mr. Jeffries. Nothing but wax as it falls from the bee as it comes from the mouth of the cell. We cannot find any other covering by looking at it closely with a strong magnify- ing glass. Mr. Crofput. Do you think if bees are well cared for there is food enough in Connecticut to support any number of them ? Mr. Jeffries. As near as I can find out, there are between fifty and seventy-five thousand stocks in the State of Con- necticut to-day. In places where we have been showing people how to change from the old-fashioned box hive to the movable hive plan, I find that they are just about trebling, and in some cases increasing four times, the number of stocks that were originally in the locality. Those stocks, under the improved care, and by saving the best, seem to give four times the amount of honey that they did before in the box hives. I think that the number of stocks that there are in the State can be increased six or eight times, and, with proper care, make a very good paying investment. Where they are prop- ly taken care of, T believe that the people are satisfied that they pay as well as anything else they can do. I know two or three men, within a few miles of where we now are, who have obtained from four to six hundred dollars this year as the result of taking care of twenty or thirty stocks in movable comb hives. You may think that everybody can do that. I do not think so, because you have got to understand bees in order to take advantage of them, and if you don't take ad- vantage of them, you will not get the benefit. It is a math- ematical problem in regard to handling them clear through, because you have got to increase your stocks in the spring at such time as to have the strongest of your working force in the harvest, or as one of our best bee keepers says : " You must manage to have your bowl right side up when it rains 1884.] BEES. 71 porridge." If you allow them to increase without regard to when your honey harvest is coming, you will not have workers enough to take the whole of it. It will be just like mowing your hay field before a shower or cutting down all your hay at once. Unless you have help enough to get it all up, you will lose part of your crop. Our honey crop lasts but about six weeks, and by having our stocks in proper strength in time, it can be gathered very profitably. Mr. Van Hoosear. Do bees secrete or extract honey ? Mr. Jeffries. They extract it from the flower. Mr. Van Hoosear. Is it perfect honey then ? Mr. Jeffries. No, sir, it is evaporated afterwards. You can take almost any of our prolific honey plants and obtain the liquid from the blossom. Last year, our sumach was so full of honey, that I could turn a blossom over on a sheet of white paper and it would be covered with the dilute honey in its crude form. That would need evaporating about three- fourths. The honey from flowers does not need so much evaporation. Mr. Augur. I would like to ask Mr. Jeffries if he will name in their order some of the best honey-producing plants ? Mr. Jeffries. Our best honey-producing plant, early in the spring, is the yellow willow. It has a spike of flowers about as long as your finger and about as large round. The first blossom the bees work on is that of the skunk cabbage, and, after that, the others that follow are not of much account other than to start the early breeding. But the first plant that yields honey in abundance is the yellow willow. Then come our fruit blossoms, and, when the hard maple blossoms, that is another. Soft maple is a good honey tree, but it gen- erally blossoms in a season when the bees cannot get the advantage of it ; they cannot get the honey that it secretes, and for that reason it does not amount to a great deal. After the fruit blossoms are gone, and the blossoms from the trees, there is a little scarcity until we get the white clover blossoms and the blossoms of small fruits. After the small fruits and 72 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail., white clover, we have basswood and whitewood. After bass- wood, or as it is winding up, come sumach, and our boxing season is over. That brings us to about the 15th of August, as a rule. In the fall, we have the golden-rod, the asters, and a species of Spanish needle, as it is known to the bee keepers, which grows in the swamps and gives a great deal of honey, and so do heartsease and smart-weed. Question. I would like to ask a question in regard to the willow : Whether it is the staminate or pistilate plant that, bees feed upon ? Mr. Jeffries. Both of them ; because from one they gather the wax which is absolutely necessary for the brood-comb, and from the other they gather only honey. The yellow willow has the most honey in it. Question. My question had reference to what is sometimes called " pussy willow." Mr. Jeffries. The pussy willow does not amount to much ; it is the yellow willow. The pussy willow has a reddish flower. The early pussy willow gives us no good results at all. Mr. Van Hoosear. Can the common bee work on the red clover and get any honey from it ? Mr. Jeffries. Not much. Mr. Van Hoosear. Can the Italian ? Mr. Jeffries. They do. The Italian bee works the red clover quite persistently. Mr. HoYT. Are you able to detect any difference in the fragrance of honey gathered from buckwheat — I have often heard it said that it is not as good as other honey ? Mr. Jeffries. Of course I can ; where honey is gathered entirely from a buckwheat field, you can taste it as strongly as you can taste the flower when you take it up in your hand. Mr. Day. At what season of the year do you get the best kind of honey ? Mr. Jeffries. If I answer that question, I shall have to answer it with reference to the kind of honey which I like 1884.] BEES. 73 best. I suppose that the golden-rod gives the finest flavored honey. Question. Is there any artificial food that can be fed to bees profitably to be converted into honey ? Mr. Jeffries, No, sir ; it cannot be done. You may feed them anything you have a mind to, and it is just exactly as you fed it to them when you take it from the comb. Bees change nothing that they take into the honey sack at all. Sugar and water fed to them and stored in the comb remains sugar and water after they have put it there. It is a good plan to sow a little salt around the hive ; they will work on it some. I never could notice that there was any honey taste to sugar and water, and I never have seen anybody else who could, although it has been fed to bees for the sake of finding out if the bees, when they stored it in the comb, gave it the taste of honey to a person who did not know what it was. Question. Do bees work on locust trees ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir ; it is one of the best honey trees. The flowering locust they do not work much on ; the black locust is the one they work' on most. If a person has a stock of bees it will pay him to plant a black locust tree, and when it gets to be about eight or ten inches through cut it down for posts and use it in the fence, and let the stump sprout. You will get honey enough out of the black locust to pay for the occupation of your soil. The blossom of the one I mean is rather pinkish, and the honey is in the lower part of the flower to such an extent that you can see it plainly with the naked eye. Mr. . Perhaps I can describe the locust so that the assembly will know what I mean. It bears a long cluster of blossoms, and each blossom is like a pea-blossom, somewhat. The leaves are divided into a gr^eat number of segments. It is classed as a timber tree, and, as Mr. Jeffries says, when it is cut down it makes first-ratfe posts and lasts forever. Mr. Jeffries. There is a little yellow in all of the locust blossoms. 74 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. [Jail., Question. Does the bee bite the grape or other fruit ? Mr. Jeffries. I answered that question last winter at Rockville. I can satisfy any reasonable man, by an exami- nation of the mouth of a bee, through a powerful microscope, that it is impossible for a bee to bite through the skin of the grape or any other fruit. After the skin has been punc- tured they will suck the fruit dry of its saccharine substance, but they cannot puncture it. Question. Does the king bird do much injury to bees ? Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir ; it is very disastrous round an apiary. Question. Whether the queen bee ever stings ? Mr. Jeffries. The queen bee stings her own sisters, but does not sting people. I have never known of but one instance where a queen bee stung the person who handled her. Prof. J. W. Clark of the Amherst Agricultural College was called upon to speak on the subject of fruit. Prof. Clark. 1 was not here this morning when the paper was read, and do not know what was said, and if there is any- thing you want to ask me about, I think it will be best for you to ask questions. Question. I would like to know if there is any hope of peach-trees being cured of the yellows ? Prof. Clark. I think the yellows may be a disease and may not ; I don't think there is anything known certainly about it. The trouble seems to be that the circulation of the sap in the tree is clogged ; that is, it does not circulate as freely as it should, and in that way the cells of the wood become clogged, and what is wanted is to clear the cell and let the sap circulate freely again. That Prof. Goessmann has done by fertilizing the tree ; that is, by giving it muriate of potash, bone, and phosphates, and then heading the tree back severely. I have seen a tree, the leaves of which were not more than an inch and a half long, very narrow, yellow, and all rolled up, so that you would think the tree could not live, 1884.] FRUIT. 75 so improved by fertilizing it and then cutting back, that the leaves were six inches long, an inch and a half wide, and as dark-green as you ever saw on a peach-tree. By cutting the tree back you leave only a few buds to start, those start vigor- ously, the circulation goes on freely, and the tree becomes healthy. The experiment so far has been successful, but I do not think it has gone far enough to enable us to say that you can take any tree which shows signs of yellows and save it. Mr. . A dozen years ago I commenced the cultiva- tion of peach-trees, and I have had more or less peaches every year. Until this last season I had a pretty good supply ; but the season was very dry, and I saw certain signs which indicated a return of the yellows ; that is, little diseased shoots came out of the tree, close down to the root and grew a few inches with a diseased, pale look. It is the same appear- ance that we had years ago, when it was so difficult to raise peaches in this State. The question has been started in one of our agricultural papers whether there is any hope of saving our peach-trees, and some person who has had experience suggested that the best remedy was the axe. Prof. Clark. In regard to the growing of peaches, I think it depends as much on freedom from borers as anything else. That is something that I think the peach grower has to con- tend with more than with what you call the "yellows." I think a good many say that the yellows have injured their trees, when the real trouble was the borer. I think that more young trees die inside of three or four years from the time of planting on account of the borer than from any other cause. I had charge of the nursery at the College, and wanted to sell a man some peach trees. He said no ; he wasn't going to set them out, because the yellows were killing his trees. I asked him if he had looked for the borer. He said " yes." " Did you find him ?" " No." I went out and looked at his trees, and from the first one I took out eight or ten borers. So he went through his whole orchard and found a great many borers. The year after the trees grew well and looked healthy. We have found that the borers bother us more 76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., than anything else. We have cut eight or ten trees that looked as if they had the yellows, because we thought it was better to remove them rather than run any risk. Question. What quantity of muriate of potash do you use ? Prof. Clark. We put on about a pound of muriate of pot- ash and two pounds of ground bone, and the next spring we put on as much more — from a pound to two pounds of muri- ate of potash to a tree. Question. Do you scatter that around broadcast ? Prof. Clark. Yes, sir ; simply putting your fertilizer Hip close to the body of the tree does not amount to anything. Throw it out as far as the limbs go, so that it will cover the whole ground. The roots will find it, except right up close to the trunk. I think growing trees in grass is a poor plan. I don't think grass and fruit trees grow well together. Mr. Rogers. In regard to the amount of bone-black to be applied, it is put down in the Massachusetts State Report at 150 pounds per acre ; at the Houghton Experiment Farm, it is put down at 450 pounds, which is the true quantity ? Prof. Clark. The more you put on, of course, the better. You want to give the tree plenty of food to start it vigorously, so that the food will be at hand and it can get all it needs. Give a good, liberal dressing. I don't suppose you will weigh it out ; you can vary a pound one way or the other, and it will not matter much ; but give the tree a good supply of food and it will look after it itself. If you do not head the tree back I think you will not get so good a result as you will by heading back, because when you do not head back you have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of buds to start ; whereas, if you cut off four-fifths you have only one-fifth left, and they have all the roots to grow from and will make a vigorous growth, when, if you do not head the tree back, it makes only a very slow growth. Mr. Hale. Is it not cheaper to prevent them by the use of a wash than to dig them out ? Prof. Clark. I doubt it. The insect will lay its egg in 1884.] FRUIT. 77 all parts of the tree. I have dug out grubs in the branches of a tree that were some distance from the ground. They do not do the damage there that they do when they are in the trunk near the ground. When they are in the trunk they injure the whole tree. Mr. Hale. We wash the whole of our trees ; put the swab in the crotches of the tree as well as over the branches and trunk. Prof. Clark. Either way would do, just as you think advisable. Question. What time in the year do you dig them out ? Prof. Clark. We dig them out in August and September. The insect begins to lay about June. You can begin the last of July or first of August. You will find them anywhere from a sixteenth of an inch long up to an inch and a quarter or more. I know I dug out of one tree over thirty very small ones ; they were not as large round as a pin, and not more than an eighth of an inch long. They had simply got through the outside skin of the bark. Mr. HoYT. Have you ever heard of the use of brimstone to renew the vigor of peach-trees ? I met a gentleman a short time ago who used to bore a half or three-quarter inch augur hole into the heart of his peach-trees and fill the hole with brimstone. Prof. Clark. I think that would be about the same as hanging old iron or anything else up in the limbs. I think you want to go below and fight the insect at the roots. Question. Do these borers generally work at the surface of the earth, around the bottom of the tree ? Prof. Clark. The borers generally work near the surface ; the egg is laid in the body of the tree, generally within a foot of the ground or lower. Then the borers usually work down. I have dug down three inches below the surface and found the borers there. Question. Would you cut back peach-trees now ? Prof. Clark. Yes, sir ; if you cut back your trees now 78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., you would not want to cut off many large limbs without giv- ing them a wash ; that is, something to keep the air out. They may be trimmed any time from the time they drop their leaves until spring. Question. What wash do you use ? Prof. Clark. I use principally metallic paint. It is an iron paint and is very cheap — about five cents a pound. Mr. Williams. If the wash prevents the moth laying her eggs near the surface of the ground, will she not lay them elsewhere just as well ? Prof. Clark. I think the moth will lay her egg in one place just as readily as another. Of course, when they get under the bark it is soft, and they have got to go through the bark above the ground, because the eggs are a little above the ground. Mr. Williams. My impression is that they are more apt to enter the bark at the ground, where it is soft, than above. Prof. Clark. I think that two-thirds of the thirty I dug out were eight inches from the ground. They seldom run up ; more often run in a slanting direction downward, but some will run straight down. Question. What cultivation do you give the ground where you set out your trees ? Prof. Clark. We plant the ground with corn, potatoes, squashes, or anything to keep it under cultivation ; that is, to keep the soil stirred. I should not want to sow it with grain. Question. Don't you think it is advantageous to have the land rich ? Prof. Clark. No, sir; not very rich, because if you have the land very rich it will induce a rank growth of wood, which will not ripen. For instance, the fall of 1880, I think it was, was a damp fall. Our first frost came the 5th of October, and the trees were growing. That frost was a freeze, the thermometer went down to 20. It killed the young peach trees, and apples, pears, quinces, and plums quite to the 1884.] FRUIT. 79 ground. You want to make jour growth slow and have it firm and well-ripened. Then your tree will stand a good degree of cold, when if the wood is soft and full of sap, it will winter-kill. Do your cultivation the first of the season, and let it go the last. One difficulty in heading back trees in the summer is that if you head them back very severely, it will start a fresh growth, and the wood will be soft. I think heading a tree back checks the growth and tends to develop fruit buds ; but if you head it back too severely, it will induce a new growth, and you will get the opposite of what you are after. Mr. Ayer. When starting an orchard is it safe to plant peach stones ? Prof. Clark. Yes, sir. I think that if anyone will plant peach stones and will see to the trees and bud them, he will get better trees than he will to set them. That is what we planted. We have set our orchards all over with apples, and in between we have planted peaches. Where we planted nine Imndred apples, we planted three peach stones for every apple tree. The stones were not very good, and all of them did not grow, but we are going to finish it this spring, when we think we shall have good seed. I think if anyone who knows how to bud will adopt this method and see to the trees (they will require a little better care), he will get fruit just as soon as he will if he sets out trees, and the roots will run deeper in the soil than where they are cut back in trans- planting. I do not think the dry weather will affect such trees as much as it does where they have been reset, for the deep-feeding roots simply give moisture. Question. How much wood ashes would it. take to equal a pound of muriate of potash ? Prof. Clark. A bushel of wood ashes does not contain over four pounds of potash; probably only about two or three pounds. It will be cheaper to buy muriate of potash than to buy ashes, although in ashes you would get some other things besides potash. 80 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE, [Jan., Question. In case a peach tree is covered with fruit, and it comes on dry, as it did in^some portions of our State, this year, what is the best thing to do ? Prof. Clark. If you keep the surface of the soil stirred the trees will not be affected by drought as much as they would otherwise, because the breaking up of the surface acts the same as a mulch. Just stir up the surface, digging down but an inch or two, and it will form a mulch and stop the moisture from evaporating as quickly as it does when the soil is left untouched. Question. Would you do that at any particular hour ? Prof. Clark. The moisture evaporates most rapidly in the middle of the day, when the sun shines. Question. What kinds would you set ? Prof. Clark. I should set Crawford's Early. I put that first. Next, the Old Mixon. You do not get as much per basket for it, but it is a more vigorous tree than the Craw- ford's Late, or the Crawford's Early, either, and it produces more fruit. I think the Crawford's Early is more profitable than the Late because it is a better bearer. Although the Crawford's Late is a little larger, it is sour, it is not of as good flavor, and the time for peaches begins to go by when the Crawford's Late comes in. I should set the Crawford's Early, the Old Mixon, and perhaps the Crawford's Late. ? 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WOETHLESS. 81 EVENING SESSION. The meeting re-assembled at seven o'clock. Mr. Barstow presided, and introduced as the lecturer, Mr. J. M. Hubbard. "CONCERNING THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS." By J. M. Hubbard. The ideal utterance upon an occasion of this kind should be practical and instructive. Some one who has the ability and the opportunity to master in whole or in part some subject of interest to us, and who has made good use of both, should tell us what he has found out, and how the knowledge he has acquired may be of use to us. It is because I am not able to do this tliat I come before you with some embarrassment. But I take refuge in the thought that suggestion as well as instruction has a value, and the man responsible for my appearance before you at this time and with this theme i^new that it would be all that I could offer. If, therefore, you fail to receive benefit from what I shall have to say, the responsibility for your disappointment must be partly his. The subject which I bring to your attention "upon this occasion has none of the attractions of novelty. Whatever of interest it excites, or benefit it brings, must be drawn from other soui'ces. With worthless things, or things which seem worthless, we are all familiar, and there come to most of us times and seasons when they seem far too familiar with us. There isn't any strife for their possession, nor contest over their ownership. Like the poor, we have them always with us. Indeed, it seems sometimes as if we were shut in, imprisoned almost, by them; as if they limited sharply our achievements and acquisitions and formed an unwel- come escort, attending us everywhere, and by their constant presence keeping away the things of worth which are .the objects of our ardent desires. The farmer may think — I know of one farmer who has sometimes so thought — that he has more than his share of this most unwelcome escort. The farms are few, if, indeed, there are any, which do not contain plats of worthless land. The sandy plain, the rocky ledge, or the saturated bog — how often the farmer thinks, if I could but sink out of sight that worthless tract, how gladly I would do it. And if he turn for consolation to 6 82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., the contemplation of his best acres, he- will be pretty apt to find their value discounted by the presence of worthless material. Of his most valuable productions he finds that the value is limited to a portion, and sometimes a small portion, while the large remain- der is, or seems, worthless. Meantime, growths which possess no value whatever, strive with a vigilance which never ceases and a perseverance which never wearies, to rob his crops of the fertility lodged in his soil, and of the kindly influences of the sunshine and the rain. The implements he uses, through wear and exposure, are constantly and rapidly losing value and becoming worthless. And as to his living machines, for such may all his domestic animals be considered, for them time is doing the same work that wear and exposure do for the others. After maturity, time runs away with value very rapidly, and the old horse, ox, or cow is always traveling towards the point of apparent worthlessness. I said the farmer might think his case exceptional in the extent to which worthless things surround him, and crowd in upon him, and obstruct his path, and cause him trouble and worry; but I have to confess to an underlying conviction that if he so thinks, he is, after all, mistaken, and that the truth is rather that all vocations are beset with the same or similar difficulties, and all lives are attended with the same unwelcome presences. We must remember that we see distinctly and realize vividly the difficulties in our own paths, and the trouble in our own lives, while the obstacles which lie in the way of our neighbor, and the troubles with which he has to do battle, make but slight impression upon us. 1 presume there are those who regard the farmer's life as a peaceful idyl, free from care, and with only so much of labor in it as is needful for exercise and good digestion. They picture his situation much as Milton did that of our first parents in the garden of Eden, with little to do but to reach out their hands and gather the bounty which lavish nature, with a hint or two in the way of preparation and seeding and culture, makes ready for their use. We smile at such a picture, but we are liable to fall into a similar error in Judging of work with which we are wholly unfamiliar, and lives of which we see only the outside. It may be that our estimates of the ease with which success is won in other vocations, are in some cases wide of the mark. So while my subject has its application to the farmer's business, and is pertinent in a farmers' meeting, its application and perti- 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WOETHLESS. 83 nency are by no means thus limited. It takes hold of considera- tions which are of interest to the farmer, not so much because he is a farmer as because he is a man. And I think it well, even in a farmers' meeting, to remember that our interests are not limited to or by, our business, but that we have a share in everything which affects the welfare of humanity. Whatever difficulties we contend with, whatever troubles assail us, find their counterparts and com. rades in other lives — yes, I think, in every other life. Farmers as well as others — others as well as farmers, hold in their hands material possessions with value fleeting or flown, and besides these we all have such a long list of immaterial property that belongs in the same category. Our plans which promised so much, our hopes that we rated so high, our purposes which assuredly had good material in them; how many, many of them all, must go at length into the seemingly worthless class. The plans, fair as they seemed, wouldn't work. Some obstacle there was — some difficulty which we did not anticipate, and found no way to overcome, and it left our plan worthless, and all our expenditure upon it of time and thought and labor was lost. Our hopes, too, how valuable they seemed to us. A prince's ransom could not have purchased them. They gilded for us all the future, and filled the atmosphere of our thought with rosy light. How could it be that they should turn out worthless ? But that is just what they did, or seemed to do. We never realized what they promised us. They never ren- dered the service we expected of them. Where, then, shall we place them but in the worthless class ? Our purposes were closely allied to our plans, and they shared the same fate. Occasionally a plan succeeded, occasionally a purpose was fulfilled, but of the long, long procession that went the other way, what shall we say ? Were they worthless ? At least they seemed so. Well, if they were worthless, what use to spend time or thought upon them ? Isn't it better to dismiss them from our minds, and give our attention wholly to the things which are obviously valua- ble ? If we could do this it might be wise, but we cannot. The two qualities of worth and worthlessness are so associated and the things which they distinguish so intermingled that we cannot limit our study and our scrutiny to either class. We must give attention to both. The constant efllort to separate them, and the wide uncer- tainty as to where to place so many things compels this. You cannot even sort a potato crop, without giving attention to the little 84 BOAED OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., ones as well as tlie big ones. It requires some scrutiny to determine that a thing seems worthless. If a deeper study should reveal the fact that this worthlessness was only seeming, the time and atten- tion expended upon it might be well repaid. Or, failing in this, our study may disclose to us a philosophy which shall reconcile us to the existence of things for which we are unable to find use or value, and this may be our compensation. We cannot ignore these things, and we need to study them in order to learn how to feel toward them, what to think of them, what to do with them. Quite early in the course of this study one will be apt to make the discovery that worthlessness is not an inherent quality. No thing can be named of which I would dare to say that it is always and everywhere worthless. I do not think any two persons would agree entirely upon a list of things which seemed worthless. One would be sure to include things to which the other would assign some value. A slight difference in circum- stances might lead to this difference in judgment. I know a man who is annoyed by a worthless sand bank in the immediate vicinity of his dwelling. His neighbor, living two miles away, would gladly pay one hundred dollars for that sand bank. It is worthless, not because of what it is, but because of where it is. Two other persons might dijffer in their judgment of an article towards which they stood in precisely the same relation, by reason of difference in themselves, and the same person might, at different times, give opposing judgments concerning the same thing, all outward condi- tions remaining the same, because of change of feeling or increase of knowledge within himself. These assertions need neither illus- tration nor proof. I confidently appeal to the consciousness and observation of every one of you for the evidence to sustain them. They show that worthlessness, instead of being an inherent quality, is ever the child of circumstances. It is very often a creature of time or place. A thing is, or seems, v/orthless because it is in the wrong place, or because the time for it to be valuable lies either in the past or future. This quality may attach to an article because it is in the possession of the wrong person. Our own limitations are perhaps the most fruitful cause of the worthlessness of things We are ignorant of values, and it is therefore to us as if they did not exist. If we only knew enough, there might be nothing in the wide world but would have a value for us. I think that there is scarcely anything of which we can say even that it seems worth- 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS. 85 less until we have fixed its place in locality, in time, and in relation to human knowledge and human need. Worthlessness is a thing of degree as well as a creature of cir- cumstance. Our ordinary thought may not recognize this fact, yet some underlying consciousness of it would seem to be shown by the structure of the word we use to express it. Our thought may be that the thing is worth nothing, but what we say is that it is worth- less ; that is, worth not so much. It is as if we had a zero mark like that upon our thermometers, and all degrees below that mark must be distinguished by the minus sign. But as the heat of the low degree is just as truly heat as that of the high degree, may it not also be true that the worth of the worthless thing is as genuine as any ? If this be true — and I am going forward for a space, any way, in the presumption that it is — the real subject of our study s "worth." Value, much or little; worth, more or less; what is its nature, and upon what does it depend? How is it produced, and how destroyed? Why is it so apt to elude our grasp? How can we capture it, and how retain it after it is captured? It is easy to ask these questions, but you do not need me to tell you that it is not easy to answer them. Indeed, you know as well as I that any full and complete answer to them is impossible. If we can even approach an understanding of them, and get a partial answer to them, our study of them will be well repaid. One response, in the nature of an answer to these questions, comes from commerce. The test and measure of value it fur- nishes is the market. Anything is worth what it will bring in the market, and if it will bring nothing there, it is worth nothing. This response helps some, but it does not satisfy. Commerce renders an immense service to humanity, but its powers are con- fined within narrow bounds, and limited by sharply-drawn lines. "Within those lines it has proved one of the most efficient agents of civilization. It has created the markets of the world, mighty res- ervoirs, into which each producer pours his surplus production of one thing, or class of things, and from which he draws as he is able, of many things to satisfy his varied wants. It is hardly pos- sible to over estimate the broadening of life which has come to us through the operations of commerce. But there are some things which commerce cannot do for us, and while we recognize the importance of its function and service, we must not expect of it that service which it is not qualified to 86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., render. As a gatherer and distributor, its work has been enor- mous in extent, and generally beneficent in character. But, in the determination of value its work is very imperfect. Markets can only measure the value of what goes to market, and that is only each producer's surplus. That portion which he can use for him- self he need ask no market to fix the worth of. In the case of some classes of producers this is but trifling in amount; but the farmer — the New England farmer especially — is generally so cir- cumstanced that be can use largely of his own productions. Need he go to market to learn the worth of luscious fruits, and fresh, crisp vegetables from his own orchard and garden, or flesh-food, and milk products from his own flocks and herds? I tell you nay. These things have for him a value in no way related to that which might be placed upon them in the market. Indeed, to some of them, the touch of commerce is a defiling touch. Their highest value is for him, and him alone, who produces them. I have on other occasions emphasized this feature of the farmer's life, and it is worthy of emphasis. Some of her choicest bounties, some of her richest treasures, nature reserves for him, and him alone, who will come near to her and take them, with no interven- tion, from her hand. Of the value which the market fixes for the things which go there to be tested and appraised, it may be said further that it bears but a loose and vague relation to real value. This is what is done in the market. Two men meet, each of whom has of some one thing a surplus above what he can use, and for which he desires to procure in exchange as much as possible of something he can use. Their agreement of exchange, the ever- fluctuating balance of their desires and necessities, is what fixes market value. It is well enough in its place, but it is not that test and measure of value for which we are seeking. The true founda- tion of worth is use or service. "Whatever we can use, whatever serves us, is worth something to us. Of these two words I like " service " the best. It is the broader term, and takes in elements of worth which could hardly be included in the word "use." Use implies co-operation on our own part, but service may be rendered, not only without our co-operation, but without our consciousness, even. Indeed, service, and that of exceeding value, may be ren- dered us in opposition to our desires and efforts. We do not always know when, or by whom, or by what we are served, and 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS. • 87 yet it must be true that all real service is valuable, and that which renders it is worth something. I think we shall find this measure of value a very comprehen- sive one. It is not only good for those things which may or may not go to market, but it will also measure those intangible treasures which we have agreed to include within the scope of our inquiry. If we ask, What is health worth, or relief from pain, or escape from danger, or deliverance from fear, or sympathy in trouble, or the society of friends, this measure will give us the answer for which we should turn in vain to the reports of any market. They are worth the value of the service they render, but it is only indi- rectly that money, which measures market values, has any power to command them, and it is utterly incompetent to indicate' their value. It may be said further, as in the line of accurate defini- tion, that the real value of a thing is in its capacity to render ser- vice rather than in the service actually received from it. The service received is controlled by limitations that belong to our- selves. "We may be unconsciously served, and served even against our will, but we can never be served beyond the limits of our capacity to receive and appropriate service. Food, beyond what a man can eat and digest, has for him only the commercial value. Clothing, except for comfort and adornment, belongs in the same category. So much of each as he needs, and only that, he gets the real value of. If he have no appreciation of the beauti- ful ; all the wealth of nature and art in this direction can have no value to him. Limitations of value such as these, partial in regard to some things, total as to others, plainly attach to the person rather than the thing. It may be said further in the same line, that the value which is based on service is not of necessity conditional upon, or limited by, ownership. A rich man's money may create and maintain a beautiful garden, -where everything combines to* please the eye and satisfy that hunger for beauty of form and color, the germ of which must, it would seem, be the common property of humanity; but the rich man's money, thus expended, may render a larger service, and so be actually worth more to his poorer neighbor than to himself. It should, I think, be a great source of satisfaction to those who hunger for beauty, but have not the means to purchase largely of beautiful things, that so much of this element is abroad 88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., in the world, and that so far as the simple enjoyment of it is con- cerned, whatever one's eye can command and his soul can appro- priate is his. In taking it he robs no one, but simply comes into possession of his own. Wealth of thought, like wealth of beauty, is his who can appro- priate it rather than his who can purchase it. Nor does that fully express the truth of the matter. These things cannot be acquired by purchase. One may buy the casket which contains them, the mould in which they were formed; but, to possess the Jeweled treasure itself, he must earn it, he must conquer it, he must deserve it. A man may buy a book which contains an overflowing fountain of wisdom and of wit — which fairly bubbles over with mirth' and sympathy and right feeling; but does he thereby pos- sess these treasures? Not at all. He must acquire them, if they are to be his, by a different procedure, and it may be that he can- not acquire them at all. In the light of these considerations, what should be our feehng and thought, and what our action relative to those things which seem worthless? The emphasis, if you please, is upon the word "seem," for this discussion is to go forward upon my part on the assumption that there is nothing absolutely worthless ; nothing but what may be of use in some way; nothing but what is capable of service if we could but learn when and how. If we cannot prove this, we may adopt it as the scientists do some of their theories, as a working hypothesis, to the truth of which many things point, and the fallacy of which, if it be fallacious, will best be shown by assuming its truth and seeing whether or no the things we know to be true will fit it. Now, it is very possible that every person in this audience has in mind something that seems to them worthless. It may be that no two of you are thinking of the same thing. I do not care for that. It is enough that for whatever is in your thought you can find no use; from it you can command no service. Our inquiry must be directed to find out, if we can, the reason and the remedy for its seeming worthlessness. We will not admit that it is incapa- ble of use or service, for to do that would be to block the wheels of investigation, and to stifle the spirit of inquiry. One very common reason why a thing cannot be of service is because it is not in the right place. Take, for illustration, a beef animal. Place him upon some remote portion of the South Amer- 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS. 89 ican plains. His hide is worth a trifling sum, but that is the only- portion of him which has any value. Bring him where facilities for transportation are a little better, and his tallow is worth some- thing. Another remove puts value upon some of the choicest por- tions of the carcass, and so by successive removals you extend the range of values, until you find the place where flesh, and blood, and bone, and horn, and hair, and hoof, and even intestinal contents, have all a value. Throughout all this course, extending use runs evenly harnessed with increasing value. It is because these por- tions can be carried where they all find use that they become of value. Illustrations upon this point might be multiplied a thou- sand fold, but we neither have need of them nor space for them. Our one illustration suggests the remedy for worthlessness aris- ing from this cause. It lies in a perfected system of transporta- tion. Either the serviceable things must be carried to the persons who need them, or the persons themselves must be transported to the locality where the things they need are to be found. We call one movement "transportation," the other "migration." Both are finding, in this busy age of ours, an astonishing development. Though accompanied by much of incidental suffering and waste, both are, in the main, grandly beneficent. They bring need and its supply together. They furnish the opportunity for service to the things formed for service. They supply the lack of service to those whose lives for want of it were narrowed and darkened and shortened. It may be that you will not readily perceive just how to apply this remedy to the case that troubles you. I cannot prom- ise that you can so apply it, and yet you may be able to do it. Problems of this kind are now occupying men's minds as never before, and some most astonishing results have been attained. The surplus grass upon the Kansas prairies, worthless a short time ago, is now carried a thousand miles into the mountains to feed the miners' mules. It is a movement which gives the Kansas farmer an additional source of income, the miner cheaper and more plentiful food for his beasts of burden, and the railroad com- pany employment for both labor and capital in the business of transportation. It is beneficent in every direction. Now, considering what has been accomplished, in recent years, in the extension and improvement of the means of transportation, it is absurd to suppose that the movement is to be stopped just at the present point. No doubt but it is to go on. Things are to be 90 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jail., carried for us; they are to be brought to us ; we are to be taken to them, far more expeditiously, safely, and cheaply than at present. And the thing whose worthlessness annoys and afflicts you may yet be brought or sent where it may render its service and find its value. When we speak of a system of transportation our thought is apt to range over a wide extent of territory. We think of a state, or nation, or a continent. We see long lines of railway with their swiftly moving trains. We see canals, and rivers, and broader waters, with all the varied transports which float upon their bosom. It requires some effort to bring our thought down even to the common neighborhood roads in this connection. It will per- haps excite a smile if I speak of a system of transportation within the limits of the farm. Yet, this is what every farm should have, and to some extent must have. That this system be a good one, well devised, and well maintained, and liberally used, is of more consequence to the individual farmer than all the railroad problems outside the farm. The farmer as well as the railroad engineer needs to study questions of lay-out, and grade, and road-bed, of rolling stock, and motive power. Rapid movement, easy move- ment, along its lines of transportation, is as essential to the suc- cessful prosecution of the business of a farm as it is to the com- merce of a nation. That class of things which seem worthless or . worth but little, because out of place, is numerously repi'esented upon the farm. Three out of four of them do not need to be carried beyond its boundaries to find their place and use. Many times this is impracticable, because of the wretched system of farm transportation, framed without thought and maintained with- out care, which is a good deal more common than it should be. Surely in regard to all things worthless because misplaced, the general nature of the remedy is obvious, and our age is rapidly working out the complex problem of its application. We shall not see its complete triumph, but it is given us to see that it is coming, and to have some share in its fruits. A thing may seem worthless because misplaced in point of time. Our point of time is the present, and the thing we hold may belong to the past or the future. If it belongs to the near and clearly anticipated future, we easily reconcile ourselves to the situation, and even rejoice in it. If you can see clearly that the city lot you hold is going to double its value in five years, you are well content 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS. 91 to hold it, even though you can make no present use of it. And on the farm the thrifty young orchard which represents a consid- erable investment, and for the fruit of which you must wait ten years, is pi-ecious to your thought. If it promises well you are satisfied. Even in case of the forest growth, where a much longer period must elapse before its worth can be realized, you are con- tent. The fact is, we live very largely in the future, and if its promises are distinct, even though distant, they satisfy us. .But we contemplate with very different feelings those things whose time of use and worth lies behind us. There is no going backwai'd for us, and the thought, If I had only had this thing last year it would have been of so much service to me, is very dif- ferent from the thought with which we look forward to the future use of things. There is, however, one class of things in regard to which we ought to reconcile ourselves to the loss of value through the lapse of time. I refer to those which have accomplished the service they were fitted to render. The farm gives us many examples of this class. Whatever has life grows old, and that which is subject to use, wears out. The enfeebled old horse, the moss-grown and decaying fruit tree, the worn-out mowing machine, once valuable, but from which all value has passed away; what should be our thought, and what our action toward these? Our thought must be one of respect for the good work done, the service rendered, and the value transmuted into other forms. Our action may not violate this respectful thought. And I hold it to be no such viola- tion, as to machine or animal frame, which has accomplished its work, to remand its substance back to the great store of unwrought material whence aU works of skill and strength, as well as all forms of life have come, and to which they must all, soon or late, return. The old mowing machine is properly no longer a machine; it is simply a quantity of material. Its iron may go again into the furnace and be recast into other forms for other uses. Its wood may cook our food or warm our bodies, and after that its ashes may fertilize our fields. "We feel differently in the presence of the higher forms of animal life, and may hesitate to cut that life short. Yet the time is sure to come when the kindest feeling and the wisest thought unite in saying, that for these worn-out ser- vants of ours a painless death is better than the life that remains to them. 92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., While the farm furnishes many instances o£ this class of worth- less things, the farm beyond any other place, gives opportunity to utilize raw material of this sort. No work-shop in the world can compare with soil in its power to work up all forms of material. Nothing that will burn or decay is worthless upon the farm. Our New England soil is like a factory with abundant power, and plenty of willing workers, asking at our hands the material to work up into articles of value for our use. These workers help themselves as far as they can. They tear the solid rock to pieces and wrench from the inert material all that their povv^er will ena- ble them to get. They gather from the atmosphere all that their outstretched hands can grasp. But it is not enough for them, and anything which has once before been made up is in the best possi- ble shape for them to use, and is very welcome. Pity, isn't it, that anything of this kind should be withheld, when they are so willing and able to use it ? That class of things which owe their seeming worthlessness to our own ignorance must be a large one. "We can form some idea of it from the things whose uses have been discovered within a brief period. The elastic gum of a tropical tree formed, not long since, a sort of toy, handy to erase a pencil mark with, but of value so slight that its loss would hardly have been felt at all. Imagine if you can the consequences if now rubber goods were stricken out of existence. It would occasion a catastrophe of large proportions in trade and manufacturing, and bring a sense of privation to well nigh every household in the civilized world. The varied uses of electricity recently discovered, and by no means fully known as yet, have changed its position in the thought of men, from a mere curiosity, to one of the most efficient agents whose services are at our command. The discovery of new uses for things akeady in some degree serviceable, is in the same line of worth-giving, and points the direction in which we must look for a remedy in many cases of apparent worthlessness. We must extend the field of our knowledge. It must cover more ground and be more thoroughly cultivated. The function of the human element in the world is to discover and develop value in things. And this is work which may give employment to the noblest powers. To study the nature of things, and learn their uses and the service which they can render, and then so to adjust surrounding conditions that the beneficent action may take 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WOETHLESS. 93 place ; this is a work whicti ought to satisfy the best aspirations of our natures. You may think that this work, important and attract- ive as it is, must be confined to that favored few, who, with special mental equipment for the task, and ample means for its prosecu- tion, are able to devote all their time and energy to it. No doubt this class will be the leaders of the movement, but all men may be their partners and co-workers. The first thing to be done, and the thing of most importance, is to acquire knowledge, to collect facts, and there are few men whose equipment for ser- vice is so deficient, and whose opportunities for work of this kind are so limited, that they cannot help eifectively. Sometimes the fact that a man is shut up to one opportunity is a great advantage to him. If he can do but one thing, that thing may at least be done thoroughly, and one thing thoroughly done is better than many things half done. Let any farmer undertake to learn all that his eyes can tell him of the nature and action of the things which come under his observation as he goes about his daily labors, and if he succeeds, he will have information of value for the most learned scientist he may meet. We need to cultivate habits of close and accurate observation. These alone would solve for us many mysteries, disclose to us many hidden values, and make us partners in labor and in reward, with those whose work is making its mark upon human life in lings that can never be effaced. Every one may not be able to determine the real value of the facts he has discovered, or to build a system of philosophy upon them, but there is no better way to acquire that ability than to come into familiar relations with the facts themselves. The order of work is this : First discover and gain possession of the facts, then weigh and measure them, then build with them. Every one may help in the first task, and then, and not till then, must it be determined who of them shall go forward and perform the others. "We must not, however, be too sanguine in our expectations of immediate pecuniary advantage from this work. It may some- times seem to us, and it may be true, that others derive more advantage from our work than do ourselves. We can make no monopoly of our acquisitions. At best, we can but share them with every comer ; and after we have done our best, there will still remain many things, and perhaps the very things which most annoy and perplex us, which we cannot use or understand. 94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Concerning these things, I know of nothing better than to exer- cise faith and patience. And to aid us in this somewhat difficult exercise, I offer a few suggestions of a general nature, with which this paper will close. One of these has been already alluded to. We desire gratification, and the best service is sometimes any- thing but gratifying. Service has reference to our needs rather than to our desires. The sharp rebuke of a friend may be the most valuable service he can render us, but it will cut hke a knife, and it' may be a long time before we can appreciate its service, or see its worth. Keeping ever in mind the idea of service as the test of worth, we may come to see that the failures and disappointments of life do not prove the worthlessness of the hopes and purposes that never reached fruition. It may be that they rendered us a better service than if they had been fully realized. One who should see a large building in process of construction, if unfamiliar with the work, might think the scaffolding a very important part of the structure, and look with dismay to see it torn down. The scaffold- ing does play an important part in the building of the house, but the house once finished, the scaffolding is a deformity, to be re- moved. Our characters, into which all service received and all worth acquired, are finally gathered, are built as houses are, and much that is of service while the building is going up, is cast aside as worthless when the structure is finished. And the higher we build with house or life the more of scaffold we need. Doubtless we often fail to perceive the distinction between that which is temporary in its use, and that which is permanent. No man can cherish a pure hope without being served thereby. It may fade away until he sees clearly that it can never be real- ized, but if he has drawn from it strength and patience, and elevation and insight, how shall he say that it has been worth- less ? So, too, of our purposes and plans. They may, or may not be realized, but their worth or worthlessness does not depend wholly upon that. A life is made noble by a noble purpose. A life is made broad by an ample plan. Plan may fail and purpose be defeated, but if thoy have done good service in building character, it matters little what their fate may be. Hopes, feelings, thoughts, plans, pur- poses, — all these creatures of the mind begin to work for us the moment they are born, and if good in themselves no matter how short-lived they may be, they cannot be without value. It is well 1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS. 95 to bestow a thought upon the difference between what may be called latent value, which turns upon capacity for service, and real- ized value, which depends upon service actually performed. It is not enough to know that a thing can serve us, we must actually enforce that service. That product which is intended for market must be sold, and that designed for use must be used, if they are to be worth anything to us. And with many things the period of service is so brief that we must act promptly if we would secure it. "Delays are dangerous," the proverb says. In practice, I believe very much of value is lost through delay. Where one man sells his product prematurely, ten men delay too long. And we many times lose the value of things by neglecting to use them at the right time. Something like this is true also of what we are, as well as of what we possess. "What are we worth, is a question of importance to each one of us. We must point to the service we actually ren- der for an answer. Dormant power, and facilities unemployed will count for nothing, and none of us has any capital of this nature that he can afford to have uncounted. I think, and so thinking prefer to say it outright, that the full value of things can be realized, only when a rehgious element enters into life and work. I do not mean adhesion to any particular creed, or observ- ance of any particular routine of religious exercise, but rather a recognition of the obligations of life and an honest effort to dis- charge them. Religion means right relations everywhere. Look- ing inward, it manifests itself in self knowledge and self-mastery. Looking abroad, it works out in recognition of all rights, and per- formance of all duties. Looking upward, it flowers and fruits in glad obedience to the Good Power which formed us and fixed our place, and ordered all our surroundings. Looking forward, it finds courage to face the mystery in front, with faith and hope, drawn from trust in an all-controlling power which works in love, and sees the end from the beginning. To one thus furnished, and thus qualified, all values come. The title deeds to large estates may not be his. Stocks and bonds he may not possess, but he has a hold upon the real use and service of things, which can be acquired in no other way. He has begun at the right point to remove the unbarmony and correct the mal- adjustment which are the main sources of worthlessness. The one thing of most inherent worth, in all the universe, is 96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., man. When once his value is developed by bringing him into right adjustment, the rest will follow freely and easily. If I give any advice in this connection it must be that every one begins the great work of overcoming and eradicating worthlessness with him- self. This part of the work no one else can do, and this, after all, is the principal part. Now I have to confess that these last few pages seem a good deal like preaching. Ought I to apologize for introducing them in this place ? I don't like apologies very well anyway, and prefer, on the whole, to let them remain just as they are, a part of what I offer for you to consider, and to accept or reject as may seem to you wisest and best. THIRD DAY. The Convention met at 10.30 a.m., Vice-President Barstow in the chair. The Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, we have at Meri- den an Industrial School for Boys, and at that Institution is a model farm, made so by its model superintendent. I have the pleasure of introducing to you this morning, Mr. L. P. Chamberlain of Meriden, its Superintendent, who will ad- dress us on Farm Labor. FARM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. By L. P. Chamberlain of Meriden. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: That was a very kind suggestion of your secretary which came to me one day in October last, by which this paper upon Farm Labor in New England has been prepared, and though, in the selection of one to discuss so large a subject, he may seem to you to have for once discounted his own discretion, in one respect, at least, he has acted in accord with that wisdom for which he long ago became proverbial. The suggestion came to me full fledged, for it included the topic, broad enough to employ the best thought and pen at his command, but in its essential features, simple enough to be intelligently understood by us all, and so practical that it touches the personal interest of every one who tills the soil, whether he is an employer of others' labor or sows and reaps his own fields. 1884.] PAEM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 97 It not only relates to muscle as a force upon the farm, and a prime factor in its cultivation, but it includes also the force which precedes this, and counts the work of the brain of equal import- ance. It treats also of some of the problems, new and old, with which the farmer has to contend, and attempts their solution, and of the principles which underlie both theory and practice in agri- culture. And not only this. It lies at the basis of all men's interests who dwell in these New England homes, because upon the success or failure of our work depends, to a great extent, the reward of labor. Toil binds men together in a common brother- hood, for from the beginning of human history till now the com- mon lot of man has been that of a laborer. Mankind as a whole toil in obedience to that great law which we call necessity; or to state the same fact in terms which I think more honorable to man and more just to his Creator, labor has been made one of the prime conditions of human happiness. Idleness is a foe to humanity in every stage of its existence, and in every condition. Ease is a crown to be won by toil, and he who refuses to labor has no riglit to call himself a man; so I shall assume that, since labor of some kind is indispensable to human enjoyment, it is therefore honorable, and that somewhere there is a work for every man to do. Fortunately under our form of civili- zation every one is free to choose his own occupation, subject to the single condition that it shall contribute to the welfare of soci- ety. In all this latitude of choice he may easily find that employ- ment which is best adapted to his capacity and his taste, and no man may undertake to interfere with his choice. Nor has any one a right to disparage the service which he performs, if it be such as society is in need of, no matter whether it be by the pen, the sword, or the plow, in the coal-mine, the manufactory, the counting-house, or the pulpit, at the anvil, or the bar. Muscle and brain are of equal importance in the affairs of men, and the work they do should be equally honorable. But, tell me, are they ? Has not public opinion placed the one under its ban, and exalted the other to the chief seats in its synagogue ? Is fidelity as sure of recognition in the garb of the coal-heaver, or the hod-carrier, as when attired in broadcloth ? To ask such questions is to sug- gest their true answers. Agriculture has been in the long past one of those employments 7 98 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail., which, though it supplies to the world the greater part of the food on which its life depends, and absorbs the thought and muscle of the majority of men, has yet been regarded as menial, and almost degrading. Men have turned away from it, in choosing their life- work, with a feeling of commiseration for all those who could be satisfied with such drudgery. But on the other hand where in the wide range of human labor is the occupation which so stimu- lates thought and investigation, drives men to study the relation of cause to effect, and suggests so constantly the presence and power of natural forces and laws, as that of agriculture ? It arouses and sharpens all the mental and physical faculties, and urnishes ample room for their highest development. It is also imperious in its demands upon the hand and brain, and puts a prce upon success which only the diligent, the devoted, and the persevering can pay. It is a science, and to-day employs inuch of the best thought of the world, and to all who seek to know its laws, and to explore its hidden processes, it presents the broadest fields, and discloses the profound est depths. It is, too, an art. Genius and skill nowhere else find such opportunities for their full employment as when they direct the culture of the soil. Every farmer in New England should be an enthusiast, for he holds the right of sovereignty over a part of this solid earth, and is commissioned to make it bud and bring forth fruit, not thirty or sixty, but a hundred fold. He is a co-worker with nature in her most charming and most wonderful I'ealm, and if he has ears to hear may learn from her own lips the secrets of her economy. Chemistry has already unlocked for him many of the mysterious and hidden truths of a generation ago, and wins from this field her grandest triumphs. And yet that within half a century there has been a growing distaste for the cultivation of the soil, and a steady depreciation in the quality of New England farm labor, cannot be denied. There are some here to-day who remember the time, running back from the opening of the war through a quarter of a century, at least, when these hills and valleys were cultivated by those who were to the manor born, and who thought it no dishonor to enter the service of others for wages. Who left the family hive, reluct- antly it may be; as fledglings are sometimes pushed from their nests, when their service was no longer needed there, or would command fair wages elsewhere; whose arms were strong and i 1884.] FAEM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 99 whose hearts were brave, and whose chief piirpose it was to render to their employers a full equivalent for tllat which they were to receive. Heroes, in that they shirked no duty imposed upon them, and were faithful in every trust. They were content to labor from sun to sun, and never dreamed of our modern day's work of ten hours, and with muscle tough and trained to long endurance, could swing the scythe, the axe, or the flail with wonderful dexterity, and for their term of service identified themselves with their employers' interests with conscientious fidelity, thus adding new dignity to that labor which their fathers had made honorable, and left to them as their chief inheritance. That was the heroic age of muscle. Farm implements were few and rude, a single plow or harrow, and these such as would be denied storage room in our day, being required to do the work of our more complete and varied implements, each designed for some special use. And the rough work of these imperfect aids in farming were supplemented by hand labor to an extent quite impracticable now. Many of us can remember the annual tussle with the half turned turf of the potato and corn field, or with the newly seeded fields of clover so lodged and tangled as to have almost defied the mowing machine itself. But this golden age of farm labor was suddenly terminated by the war. The young men of New England left their plows in their furrows, and sprang to the defence of the nation's life with the same devotion to duty which I have called heroic. Then began a marked decadence in farm labor, and a new era in New England agriculture. The demands of war were imperative, and recognized no claim upon the service of those who were able to perform its duties, but its own. The tide of human life poured forth from every city, town, neighborhood, and almost every family, to return only with decimated ranks to the various employments which they had left. Such a loss of labor could only result in a universal adoption of new methods by which human force could be made more efficient or dispensed with. And to the supply of this new demand human ingenuity addressed itself with surprising readiness and success. And in no department of labor was there a more complete revolution in methods than in that of agriculture. The ingenuity of man knows no limitations, excepting perhaps his necessities, and new forces and new applications of old ones quickly came to the farmer's rescue. Labor-savang machinery and 100 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., improved implements of every sort found a market waiting for them, and almost before the iron had cooled were in use every- where. Muscle as the prime factor of success in farming began to lose its supremacy and brain became the leading force, so that intelligence, more than physical strength, is now the chief require- ment upon the farm. There is no danger, however, that the hand will not be needed, as before, though it is being relieved of much of its severest labor. The danger lies in just the opposite direction. There is, I think, a growing tendency to depend too much upon the improved machinery upon the farm as a complete substitute for hand labor. Divorce muscle and brain, and we must pay the penalty of con- troverting a great law of nature which binds the two together. Both our own labor and that which we employ should be gener- ously supplemented with improved farm implements, but there is a limit to the profitable employment of labor-saving machinery. I have seen men riding over their fields who could much better afford to walk, for the simple reason that their luxurious farm carriages were too expensive for their means. I do not forget that the quality of farm labor has depreciated to such an extent as to make such extravagances somewhat more excusable, for it is as marked as the diminution of skilled laborers. The farm labor market is now mainly supplied from foreign lands. This class of laborers are generally unskilled, and yet we have no recourse but to employ them and do the best we can with such labor. In very many instances their inefficiency is owing wholly to our different methods, but to teach them to do our work in our way is often dis- couragingly difficult. This, then, is the dilemma in which the New England farmer finds himself. With unskilled labor alone available to him, and even this demanding a high rate of wages, with the rich and boundless West as his competitor in all markets, and with a soil now so worn as to require almost ruinous expenditures for fertiliz- ing material, he is to manage so as to make both ends meet. The result is, he is on the alert to try almost anything which holds out a fair promise of relief from such a case, whether it be tobacco, or beet sugar, or (if it were not for the presence here of some for whose opinions upon most subjects I entertain the most profound respect, I would say) ensilage. The problem before him is not an 188-1.] FAEM^LABOE IX NEW ENGLAND. 101 easy one, but that it is capable of solution, I believe so fully that it is my firm conviction. ^ It must not be supposed that, with all our improved methods and our skillfully adapted implements, farming, at least in New- England, can ever become a holiday affair. That "He who by the plow would thrive, himself must either hold or drive," is a truism I am not afraid anyone here will deny. "What the labor which he employs lacks in skill and eflBciency he must make up by a more intelligent application of that labor. He is not to adopt new methods, or to discard old ones, simply because they are new or old. He must avail himself of all possible helps, and be as willing to be taught as he is to teach. And among these helps let me sug- gest that the experience of others is one of the most valuable and most easily obtained. There has been in the past too little frater- nity among farmers for the general good, but now, by means of the various agricultural publications, one of the very best of which is published in our own State, whose columns are devoted to the discussion of every important topic that relates to farming, by those who are, by common consent, qualified to instruct others out of their own practice, by the local farmers' clubs, organized for the special purpose of telling each others' experience in the common affaii's of the farm, by the annual exhibits of the products of well directed cultivation, at our State, county, and town fairs, and by these annual meetings under the auspices of our Boards of Agri- culture, where the most practical subjects are treated in the most practicable way by experts in each department, with now and then a notable exception, in every New England State, he may learn much that will help to avoid mistakes and to achieve success. Let me mention, also, that new and perhaps most important help of all, as it is now directed, in our own State, by one whose conclusions have come to be regarded as almost oracular, and who has in his profession few if any peers — the Experiment Station. Here is where all combinations called fertilizers mav be tested as by a touchstone, and their true value determined; thus guarding the farmer against imposition and fraud. This has already done much to rid the market of spurious compounds, and watches with vigilant eye over the farmers" interests. Many of you will remem- ber how suddenly a fraudulent mixture — labeled •• Special Fertil- izer," and made in New Haven. I think — disappeared from the market after Professor Johnson's analysis of it revealed the fact 102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., that there was only ninety cents of value in a ton, which had been selling at fifty dollars. I venture the prediction that the Connecti- cut Experiment Station will soon become to us what the German Experiment Station is to Germany, the desideratum in all our purchases of fertilizers and feed. But all these are only helps, and we must still depend much upon ourselves for the successful management of our farms. Let me not be misunderstood in my use of the term " success," for it has a broader significance in agriculture than the mere converting of labor and the elements of the soil into cash. There is a true and a false success, and sometimes the one is mistaken for the other. He who denies himself and his family the fullest enjoy- ment of the comforts, and, so far as a prudent use of his means will allow, of the luxuries of New England farm life, that he may amass wealth in bonds and stocks, may be, after all, the veriest spendthrift; for he has wasted time, and labor, and home delights to gain the poorest and raeanest reward of human ambition. I count no man truly successful who has nothing better than bags of gold to show for his life of toil. He wins true success who makes human happiness spring up about him like the grass in his meadows, and converts his labor and skill into education for his children, refinement for his home, and joy for all about him, and has still a surplus capital for future days of need. And no ideal which falls below this is worthy of the New England farmer. He may and must emulate the sturdy but healthful economy of our fathers, which decreed that there must be no expenditures beyond the real necessities of the household, and asked for credit only when some sure source of equal income was distinctly in view. He must plan his farming with a keen eye to profit, both in his outlay of labor and material and in his selection of crops to be grown. He must act independently, not rejecting this because it is old, or adopting that because it is new. There is a good deal of conservatism in agriculture that is blind and unreasoning, and there is also a radicalism which runs mto all sorts of extravagance, both in theory and practice. I confess to very little veneration for anything simply because it is hoary, but I believe that in agriculture we may well take counsel of the past in many things. With respect to methods of culture, we cannot afford to adopt the old ones, but with reference to means to be employed we cannot afford to discard them as a whole. Let me 1884.] FARM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 103 instance one or two of tlie ways in wMch we can succeed best by following the good old way. There is, or there seems to me to be, a prevalent error in respect to the production of material for fertilizing our farms. It is only a few years since the introduction of commercial manures, and many of us can remember the time when gypsum and lime were about the only manures used upon the farm which it did not pro- duce. Since that time many different fertilizers have been put in the market, and now there are so many that are superior to all others that an enumeration of them all would fill a volume as large as the old family Bible. These all find a ready market, and hardly a farmer can be found who does not use them. That many of them are of great value to us there can be no question, and they are, I believe, essential to our highest success. But that they can profitably supersede our home-made manures I do not believe. The readiness with which they can be obtained, and the facility with v/hich they can be applied, have led very many into their use as a substitute for the compost heap, which is becoming quite unfashionable. The question of labor in handling the heavy, bulky farm fertilizers has been decided against them, and the more convenient article has, on this merit mainly, come into common use. Now, the mistake is not in their use, but in the neglect of the supply which every farm can easily and profitably be made to produce. I submit that it is false economy to expend large sums of hard-earned money in this way, when an equally valuable article may be obtained at a much less cost, and even without feeling the expense at all. It has been said, and so often repeated, that "time is money," that it may seem like presumption to assert that on the farm this is not always true, but there are "odd spells" of time upon most farms which are not easily converted into cash, but may be utilized in shutting this floodgate of expense by making even the refuse of the farm a source of fertility and profit. The excuse for not doing this is, often, want of time: but if it is the true reason, then there is not sufficient labor employed. It is a poor policy which seeks to employ the least possible amount of labor to keep the farm running. Labor is, or should be made, the farmer's capital, and a stingy investment is sure to result in small dividends, or, more likely, in none at all. Let me suggest another serious error, as I think, into which many have fallen in their desire to employ only the minimum 104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., amount of labor. It has been their practice for many years to depend upon the West for some of their supplies, especially for their corn, beef, and to some extent for their pork, and this upon the theory that they could not compete successfully in their pro- duction. In this, labor has been made a scapegoat, and sent forth with, not the sins, but the mistakes of our farming community. That it is the better policy for the majority to produce aU that is needed for home consumption of such crops as are adapted to our soil and climate, 1 am convinced, though I know there is a wide difference upon this question in the opinions of intelligent and practical men. Take, for instance, tobacco, as a special crop, to be exchanged for such as are needful, but which, it is claimed, cannot be grown at a profit. Time and material and skill have been lavished upon it; but what has been the average result of all this expenditure, but to impoverish both the pocket and the farm? Or, if it is objected to this, that tobacco is not a safe crop, and therefore not a fair one to represent the theory of special farming, let us take the potato, which is perhaps one of the most reliable, so far as climatic influences can affect it. And what would the result have been if any considerable proportion of the farmers of Connecticut had for this year depended upon it for their income ? At the present low prices how would they have been able to exchange their surplus so as to leave a balance at the end of the year on the credit side ? The fact is, no crop that can be grown with fair success when the conditions are favorable, is safe as a specialty, for the reason that the exceptional years are too fre- quent, when from apparent or hidden causes the producer realizes little or no profit. So, then, it seems to me fair to repeat the propo' sition that the average farmer should practice mixed farming, and by this I mean that he should produce a full supply for his own necessities of such crops as are adapted to his soil, wisely select- ing for the market those which in a series of years, have been proven to be most reliable and profitable. I well remember a remark once made by a skillful farmer with, whose practices I had opportunity to become quite familiar. When expostulated with for planting a small part of the field with beans instead of corn, "My son, if you raise your own beans you have them," thus clos- ing the argument, and stating in a nut-shell the true New England policy. But not only with respect to these matters which I have con- 1884.] FARM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 105 sidered, but in the entire farm economy, the question of labor comes in to dictate our theories and direct our practices. Why- then the laborer himself should receive so little true consideration from those who employ him upon the farm, I am at a loss to explain. It would seem, in numerous instances, as though he was from the beginning to the end of his service nothing more than a free slave, a drudge, to be fed and lodged, and worked to the limit of his ability. As though the idea that he could or would appre- ciate kindness, and requite it with more willing and efficient ser- vice, was only an impracticable theory, at least for those who would employ his labor at a profit. I have known farmers who would subject themselves to any amount of discomfort, rather than have those in their employ enjoy an hour of leisure, who always planned an amount of labor wholly disproportioned to the num- ber of men employed, and thought it shrewd management. But the wisdom of such a policy was absolute folly, and resulted in loss instead of their fancied gain. There ought to be between the employer and the employed the most cordial sympathy, and the most complete community of interests, and there must be in order that the largest profit may result from the relation. Fortunately there are many employers who understand this, and treat those in their employ with true con- sideia-tion, sometimes from the motive which is spanned by dollars and cents perhaps, but often from genuine impulses of sympathy with those who are by necessity their servants. I hope you will pardon me for introducing, just here, a bit of my own experience, for as a hired man I became intimately acquainted with represent- atives of both classes which I have described, though I wish to speak of only one, and would gladly forget the other. It was my good fortune once to be employed by a farmer who was, to my mind, an ideal employer, agriculturist, and gentleman. He carried on a large business and by his skillful management won the admiration of his employees, and by his kind regard for their com- fort won their devotion. His keen judgment of men's labor enabled him to adjust the matter of labor and help with great accuracy, so that everything moved on from spring to autumn with systematic regularity and finish, such as I have never seen else- where. And the service required for this was almost as much a pleasure as a task. There was no grumbling about overwork, though now and then there was occasion for all hands to crowd 106 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., into one day the labor of two, for rainy days were often days of absolute leisure. I remember we were told one morning in April, "Well, boys, as it rains too much to work out of doors, I think we will sow a little plaster," and though it rained steadily and fast several tons of plaster were sown in the forenoon, while nothing was required in the afternoon, and both the service and the leisure were enjoyed. Now if such treatment of farm help, and such a skillful adjustment of it to the needs of the farm, could become the rule rather than the exception, there would be less aversion to farming as an occupation. Let the example which I have given be copied by the farming community, and farm labor would soon become attractive, and farming at least more profitable. 1 readily see that some of you may think me too censorious in my treatment of this subject, but I hope all such will allow me to mention one more defect in our system of farming, which seems to me more radical and universal than any of which I have spoken. It is our want of thoroughness in cultivating these New England hills and valleys, which, at the best, are difBcult to coax into that fn;itfulness which makes farming a profitable business. The blame for this is oftenest laid at labor's door, but really the trouble lies in a mistaken policy, which, instead of concentrating our labor and material upon an area that is wisely adapted to both, broad- casts them over so wide an acreage that thoroughness is out o| the question. Now, it is true upon the farm as everywhere else, that what should be done at all should be done well. No more land should be cultivated than can be made to yield a full crop, what- ever it may be. Here is a specialty which all may safely adopt. There are many farmers in Connecticut, to-day, who own so much territory that they can give only a small fraction of it any care at all, and who would be enriched if they ^ould give up their titles to a large portion, though the consideration be a very small one. I verily believe there is no poverty so harrassing as that which: overtakes him who, by the possession of more land than he can occupy, is made land-poor. Fortunately, the number of such unwieldy farms is decreasing. The census of 1850 shows that the number of farms in Connecticut was 22,445, while in 1870, using the same authority, the number was 25,508. The average size of these farms at these two periods shows that the increase in number was due mainly to the division of the larger ones, and while I can- not quote, definite figures for 1880, I am sure that the work of 1884.] FARM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 107 disintegration has been even more rapid during the last decade. This is hopeful, for it asserts the fact that the .unprofitable ambition to own large farms is giving place to a true and more intelligent ambition to test the productive capacity of smaller ones. In conversation with one of the most successful gardeners whom I know, not long ago, I asked him how many acres he cultivated. He answered, about fifteen, and, as I said to him, that is enough for one man to care for, his reply, as significant as unique, was, "My dear sir, you can raise more upon fifteen acres than you will upon twenty-five." He understood the secret of success. Quite a number of years ago, there appeared from the pen of one of Connecticut's most charming authors, himself an amateur in farm- ing, a little book, entitled, "Ten Acres Enough," and though, like Noah's dove, it found no resting place in the convictions of the farming community, it still was the herald of a better, because more thorough, system of culture for these half starved fields of ours, and, no doubt, awakened inquiry upon this vital subject. I know a mechanic in a city of New England, who, having lost his health, thought he might regain it by outside employment, and purchased two and a half acres of land in a rich farming district, just outside the city, for that purpose. It was a rough and unpromising little farm at first, but, having erected some cheap buildings, purchased a team, and hired a man, he went to work with a will. His capital was small and his first outlay soon exhausted it, but he invested his own labor and that of others until the rocks and bushes were removed and the soil ready to return dollar for dollar in wisely-selected products. In a short time he was free from debt, and after paying expenses, was able to count his profits in large sums, so that his neighbors who owned large and well-appointed farms admitted the fact that his profits exceeded theirs. Imagine, if you can, the time when a system as thorough and intelligent as his has become the rule, rather than the exception, all over New England. And why not, instead of thus taxing our imagination to sketch such a millennium, begin to realize it at once ? Instead of forty bushels of corn per acre, which is about the usual amount grown, we should double the average; and instead of one hundred bushels of potatoes as an average, there might be two or three hundred grown. The cash prize offered by the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, a few years ago, for the best acre of potatoes, was awarded 108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., to a man who reported a yield of more than five hundred bushels, of marketable quality. A farmers' club, not long ago, applied to me for some improved varieties of corn, as a wealthy gentleman had offered a large cash premium for the best acre grown by any member of the club. I sent them half a dozen varieties from which to select, and the trial began. There were several competitors, and the result was a surprise to all. The minimum peld reported to the committee of award was ninety bushels, while the maximum was one hundred and seventeen and a half bushels, and the next below, one hundred and thirteen and a half bushels. But better than the profit and satisfaction which resulted from this new departure, was the influence of such an example upon that entire farming community, which will never again be satisfied with their former methods. I am so fully convinced of the importance of a more thorough system of cultivation upon nearly all our farms, that I am inclined to believe it is to become the chief agency in lifting New England agriculture to a higher plane, both of honor and profit. Mr. President, I have spoken of a few, and only a few, of the topics which have presented themselves to my mind while consider- ing the broad and vital subject of farm labor in New England, and trying to treat it in a practical and common-sense way. Perhaps I have already said enough, but there is one phase of farm labor on which I will venture to add a few words. I mean farming as an art. The word art, I am aware, is not often associated with farming, but it is surely worth inquiry whether farming may not and ought not to be made an art, and whether the farmer ought not to work in the spirit of an artist. "We are perhaps apt to think that art is reserved for only merely ornamental and iesthetic purposes. But if this be so, has the farmer no need of the soft- ening, cultivating influences which art can give ? If any one is disposed to doubt the propriety of connecting the idea of farming with the idea of art, let me remind him that Max Muller, the great philologist, has derived the very word art, from the Latin word which means to plow. He says: "As plowing was not only one of the earliest kinds of labor, but also one of the most primi- tive arts, I have no doubt that the Latin word ars, and our own word art meant, originally, the art of all arts, first taught by the goddess of all wisdom, the art of cultivating the land." The farmer, then, has an original right to regard his occupation 1884] FARM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 109 as an art, and, if it be an art, it deserves the treatment of an art. By this, I mean that the farmer and the farm laborer is bound, if he honors and respects his occupation, to conduct all its operations with a due regard to the great artistic rules of proportion, har- mony, and finish. Shakespeare says, "There is an art which doth mend nature,'' and this is the art which I would commend to far- mers and farm laborers. It applies to all farm labor, the lowest as well as the highest, to the building of a stone wall, the setting of a wooden fence, the running of a boundary line,- the digging of a ditch, the planting of an orchard, — in a word, to all the items of labor which make up the work-day life of a farmer. It costs no more to do all these things well, with proper regard to symmetry and correct design, than to do them hap-hazard, in the slovenly, careless manner we so often see. And while it costs no more, it adds directly to the value, the money value, of a farm, if all these things are done artistically. But I will not put this duty on the sole ground of pecuniary advantage. I would have the farm laborer work in the spirit of an artist, because the eye and heart of man were made to delight in the fitness and harmony of all outward objects. The simplest farm labor, that most primitive art of plowing, as we all know, may be done so as teach all our own youth valuable lessons in the duty of doing all things in the best possible manner. The lot and life of that farmer who has felt no sense of taste in farming is needlessly hard and uninteresting. No man need be so rude and untaught as not to take pleasure in a smooth and well laid field of grain or grass, in a trim, well-kept yard or garden, in preference to the shabby, neglected, forlorn fields and enclosures which pre- sent no sign of cultivation in the great art of agriculture. But the life of the farmer is not wholly in the field. The sense of art, of which I now speak, wiU find expression in the home of his family, and hired laborers, and in the buildings which shelter his stock and his crops. Here art will concern itself to secure health, comfort, and entertainment for man and beast. Here art and true economy go hand in hand. The ''stitch in time" that " saves nine " is the dictate of art as well as economy. How much of sheer waste to the farmer comes every year from the want of that taste which is offended at the sight of a fallen fence- post, an unhinged gate, or a loose clapboard. To be artistic is to be truly economical. The cultivation of such a sense of art not 110 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., only dignifies and exalts labor; it leads to all the forms of cultiva- tion in household ways of living, and in literary tastes and enjoy- ments. The newness of our country, the struggles with nature which are incident to the life of new countries, have doubtless kept our farmers hitherto from giving due attention to this phase of farm labor, but I think the time is come when American far- mers, New England farmers, Connecticut farmers, can no longer use this excuse for unkempt, untidy, wasteful, careless, and inar- tistic modes of farming. I am told that the best farming countries of Europe present a great contrast in all these particulars to the greater portion of our own. Travelers tell us of the enchanting views which burst upon them as they descended into Italy from Switzerland or France. One who has recently witnessed the scenes which he so graphically describes says: "The vast fertile plains of Lombardy lie at the foot of the Alps like one vast, well-kept, well-ordered garden — not one foot of waste land — the wide fields of wheat intersected at regular distances by rows of mulberry trees, which in turn are connected by grape-vines, the whole forming a scene, not only of matchless beauty, but presenting a specimen of skillful husbandry and the closest economy of agriculture, such as almost no other land can equal, where art and utility join hands, and where beauty of landscape vies with richness and value of production." And all this is the work of a peasantry, the like of which America nowhere presents. The farm laborers of New England, Heaven be praised, are not peasants, but proprietors, tilling, in a majority of cases, their own acres. Surely it is, then, our duty to maintain in the highest degree, not only all the great virtues of industry, honesty, frugality, and temperance, but to adorn and beautify our work and our lives by the art which lightens labor, adds to our wealth, and hfts our lives to higher and more spiritual regions of thought and action. The Chairman. If any gentleman has any question he would like to ask, Mr. Chamberlain would be very happy to answer it. Question. I would like to ask if the report which the gentleman has given us of the crop of potatoes is the highest yield he has seen stated ? 1884.] QUESTIONS. Ill Mr. Chamberlain. No, sir. I have simply instanced that as one case. I have seen instances of higher production reported since that time. I have seen as high as 700 bushels reported. There is one point which I would like to bring before you in regard to this trial, and it bears directly upon this question of labor. In conversation with this gentleman, who lives in a town adjoining the city of Worcester, I asked him his method of cultivation, and in describing it he said : "Those potatoes were hoed only once;" and he gave me a little advice upon that point. He says : " It is not only a saving of labor to hoe but once, but it is by all means the best method to secure a large crop of marketable potatoes." He says the ground needs constant stirring and cultivation with horse-power ; that you need not expend any more hand- labor than is required to simply hoe the potatoes once. He says, if you hoe more than once, you are causing every plant to form a new set of roots every time you hoe it, and the result is, you get a large quantity of small potatoes at harvest- time. Mr. Jennings. "What was the method of cultivation of the corn that yielded 117 bushels per acre ? Mr. Chamberlain. I am very sorry that I cannot state the method of cultivation in detail. I have it at home and intended to bring it with me, thinking it might be of service here. I will state it as near as I can. The variety of corn was the White Vermont, as it is known with us in Meriden. It is a kind of corn that has been recently re-introduced here, having been originally produced in Connecticut. The method of cultivation was about this : The autumn previous, the land, which was turf, was turned over and sown with buckwheat. In the spring, there was put upon this acre of ground twenty horse-loads of stable-manure. The ground was then cross- plowed, and ten loads of composted night-soil spread upon the surface, which was all the manure that was used upon the acre. I would say here that the same treatment was given three acres in the field. At the time of the award, the committee were asked by the grower to measure oif from one end of the 112 BOARD OP AGEICULTURE. [Jan., field an acre, and they did so. The requirement of the test was this : On the first day of January, 70 pounds of ears were to make a bushel of shelled corn. This was the basis of the award which gave the grower 1171 bushels. I myself shelled 70 pounds of ears, which gave me a bushel and four quarts of corn. Now, if you will take a pencil, you will see in a moment that the actual product of that acre was 13 li bush- els. This bushel that I shelled I took from the crib, and it was no more than an average bushel. Mr. Jennings. I am a good deal interested in this ques- tion of corn. You will see on the table, on the other side of the hall, a variety of corn called the Chester County Mam- moth, and, according to the best measurement we have been able to make, it yields 117i bushels of shelled corn per acre. That has been produced this past season, and with no refer- ence whatever to a premium, with common cultivation, as corn is cultivated by the best cultivators in that part of the State from which I come, the town of Westport. There are other varieties of corn on the table, and some yield nearly as high as that; but that is the highest. There are some varie- ties there that I think are marked between 80 and 90 bushels to the acre, and it is raised, as I remarked, under the com- mon method of cultivation, with, of course, a good deal of manure. I cannot give the details, but this corn that I speak of as yielding 117i bushels to the acre was manured heavily with stable-manure, turned over in the spring (perhaps a week before planting time), the land marked out in rows four feet apart each way, and then a small portion of phosphate put in each hill, and a little sprinkled around, say three or four inches from where the corn was planted ; then the seed was covered, and received flat cultivation all through the season. Mr. ScoviLLE. At what stage did the cultivation of those potatoes cease ? Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Warren told me that, previous to hoeing, he probably cultivated his potatoes four times with an ordinary cultivator. When the potatoes were about ten 1884.] QUESTIONS. 113 inches high, he hoed them, which enabled him to make quite a hill about the potato ; then they were left. There were very few weeds to trouble him after the hoeing, and what few there were" he said were easily eradicated by hand. Mr. Wetherell. What would be the difference whether the soil was stirred with a hoe or a cultivator ? You say he hoed but once, to prevent small potatoes, and yet kept on stir- ring the soil with the cultivator. What would be the dif- ference ? Mr. Chambeelain. In level culture, it would be about the same. These potatoes were grown upon the system of hill culture. Mr. Wheeler. I would like to ask Mr. Chamberlain if hoeing once even was essential to the production of a good crop, or if hilling up the ground around the plant at all was necessary to produce a good yield of potatoes ? Mr. Chamberlain. I would not insist upon it. I am not experienced in the plan of level culture of potatoes. I have not any fault to find with it, or any criticism to make upon it. I think very much depends upon the character of the soil which you cultivate. I do not think, as a rule, that it will answer for me to -adopt a practice simply because another man has adopted it, but I must judge for myself what my soil is and what it requires in fertilizing and in cultivation ; and it seems to me that my soil is better adapted to hill culture ; whereas, in some other soils, I have no doubt that level cul- ture is the best. Mr. Sedgwick. In this connection I would like to say that I saw this fall, in Monmouth county, N. J., a field of forty acres of potatoes that never had a hoe put into it. A new variety of potato was planted, and a square rod in the center of the acre was measured off and the potatoes dug, and the yield of that rod was at the rate of 720 bushels per acre. The potatoes took the first premium at the New Jersey State Agricultural Society's exhibition. 114 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Mr. West. Is it not an exception to the rule that hired men are made drudges ? Mr. Chamberlain. I think perhaps my description of the treatment which hired men receive is a little strong for the average farmer, and yet 1 think it is true, in the majority of cases, that there is not that effort to identify the farm laborer and hired man with the interests of his employer that there ought to be, and which might profitably be made. I think there is more or less of the feeling that they are not members of the family, and that they are not to be treated as such. If they are absent from the farm a day, or even an hour (in some instances), it is taken out of their wages. Now, I think that is very poor polic I think there should be everything done to bring about an identity of interest between the farmer and the men whom he employs. 1 think it will be responded to, in a great majority of cases. Of course, there are excep- tions ; but I think that simply as a matter, not of humanity, but of profit, this should be done in all cases. I have felt the force of the other course in my own experience, and very keenly too. I could not feel that interest in my employer's work that I could in the case which I have instanced, because it was not possible for me to do so. Mr. West. I have had a great deal of experience with hired help ; I have had good help and poor help. I make my help a part of my family, but I have had men who took no interest whatever in my work. I think the gentlemen will agree with me that they have to work harder than any help that they hire, and, when the day is done, the hired man feels that, his time is his own. In my experience, I have had but very few conscientious hired men. Good hired help in the section where I am, is an exception. Mr. Wetherell. With regard to labor on the farm, I think one of the difficulties, and one of the most serious, is the nmnber of hours that men hired on a farm have to labor as compared with the hours which mechanics work. I have heard a good many young men say that they would not engage to work on a farm, where they would be obliged to 1884.] QUESTIONS. 115 work twelve or fifteen hours a day, if they could find any- thing else to do. On the other hand, the farmer says he does not want any ten-hour help about his premises. A farmer on one of the best farms in Worcester county said to me, " It is exceedingly difficult for us to get labor on our farms such as we want." I think I may allude to one point that the lec- turer made. He asks us, " Why does this want of sympathy exist between farmers and farm laborers ? " He told us at the outset (which I think is true), that a large proportion, at least, of farm laborers, is made up of foreigners, unskilled laborers, and some of them speaking so that the farmer him- self can hardly understand a word that they say, "But," said this farmer of Worcester county, "we are obliged to hire such laborers, in the market offering themselves to serve as can find employment nowhere else. When they have tried in all the factories and all the shops everywhere else where the ten-hour system prevails, and they can get nothing to do, as a dernier resort^ they come and hire out to the farmer." Perhaps in a few weeks or months after the farmer has hired him, there is an opening for him to go wliere he desired to go in the first place ; he leaves the farm the first opportunity he has, and hence, this farmer said, "we have to take our help from those who can get nothing else to do, and just as soon as they can, they will leave us." .1 think there is a good deal of truth in that remark. I am of the opinion that the ten-hour system is at the bottom of this whole diffi- culty which we meet on our farms. But you know we cannot introduce the ten-hour system upon the farm. We cannot milk our cows twice inside of ten hours to advantage. We have other work that we cannot do to advantage in that time. How this difiiculty is to be overcome I do not undertake to say, but that it exists, I know. I think every farmer here has realized it ; if he has not, he will. Then with regard to the feeling existing between the laborer and the employer. I have had experience similar to that of the lecturer. I was brought up on a farm by a well- to-do farmer, and when the boys got big enough, so that they 116 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., were not all wanted on the farm, some of us went out to work. I was the oldest boy, and of course my services were worth more than that of the younger ones, and it was my lot to labor with other farmers who wanted to hire help, and I remember two distinct instances in my experience. There were two men, both of them large farmers, who had the rep- utation of being very hard men to work for. In both of those instances I found them the best places where I ever worked while I worked out on a farm. One of them was the most particular man about his work that I ever saw. He would not have a man mow in his field unless he could mow to suit him. He would put him in the bush pasture to cut bushes, before he would have him mow in his hay field, because, as he said, he would " poison the grass." This man displeased a great many men who worked for him. The other man was said to be a very hard driver of his help. I found no more difficulty in the latter case than the former. I found them to be excellent men and as sociable as any man could desire in the position I occupied. I had no fault to find with either of those men. There is one other point to which I wish to refer, to which the speaker alluded, and that is the subject of growing tobacco. I suppose there are tobacco growers in this town. I might perhaps differ from our friend's statement in regard to that matter. I believe it is the farmer's duty and priv- ilege to find out what crops he can grow on his farm where- by he can realize the best returns in money, as every farmer must have a money crop to pay his bills, or something that he can depend upon as a specialty in farming. I agree that mixed farming, to a certain extent, is desirable, but I say with regard to tobacco, that if a man finds that he can raise on a piece of land a crop that will sell for two or three, or five or six times as much as any other crop that he can raise on the same land, I should think it a very strange thing, if he is a smart man, if he does not raise tobacco. It is said that tobacco exhausts the land. I have heard that so many times that I want to refer to it. I neither chew it nor smoke 1884.] QUESTIONS. 117 it, so I am not speaking in that connection, but simply refer to it as an economical question. Wlien it is said that tobacco exhausts the land, the south is quoted to substantiate that statement. 1 have taken some pains to investigate this mat- ter, and I know what I am saying, and I say that the farmers in Massachusetts who have grown tobacco for many years, have not found that it exhausts their land. One man in Hadley, told me that since he had grown tobacco as a staple crop on his farm he had been able to keep nearly double the number of neat stock that he did before he raised tobacco. Mr. Chamberlain. Will the gentleman allow me a moment. He certainly misunderstood me if he understood me to say that tobacco was an exhaustive crop upon the land on which it is grown. I did not intend to state that. The impression I meant to convey was that the farmer was apt to devote his attention exclusively to the tobacco crop, to the neglect of other portions of the farm. I do not believe that the tobacco crop ordinarily exhausts more of the elements of growth than the corn crop. Mr. Wetherell. What I was coming to was this, that the farmer who grows tobacco can grow better crops of any other kind that he produces than those farmers about him who do not pursue this method of cultivation. Mr. Webb. Will the gentleman answer one question ? How much experience has he had in raising tobacco, and is he talking from experience ? Mr. Wetherell. I have had no experience in raising tobacco. (Laughter.) I will ask the gentleman the ques- tion: If he should tell me that a sewer was a muddy hole, what would he think of me if I should ask him if he had ever crawled through one to know it ? (Laughter and ap- plause.) If a man does not know anything except from his own experience, his knowledge must be very limited. (Ap- plause. Now, you understand clearly, I am not a tobacco grower. My farmer attempted it in one instance and it was an utter failure, for the reason that the frost destroyed the 118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., crop, and for no other reason ; but he did not dare take the risk again. But, as I was remarking, I think the gentleman will not deny that he said it exhausted the pocket. Mr. Chamberlain. I said it exhausted the pocket. I would not be understood as saying it exhausted the farm itself. Mr. Webb. And he is right. Mr. Wetherell. I should expect that from the gentle- man who endorses it. I want to say in answer to that, that I do not know of any business in which a man was ever engaged, whether mercantile or farming, where the pocket has not been, at times, exhausted. Tobacco is not the only crop that does it. I think that is a false issue. Therefore I believe in leaving the farmer alone to select that crop which he thinks best for his farm. I think a farmer who selects that crop because it is best, if he uses the same economy in growing that crop, that he would if carrying on other branches of farming, will be successful. I do not know how it is in your State, but I have known a good many men, who, finding the growing of tobacco an exceedingly profitable business, bought horses and carriages, and indulged in all sorts of extravagances, and failed because of that, not because tobacco raising was unprofitable ; tobacco was simply the incident that led to it. I was employed by a gentlemen a few years ago to go through the Connecticut valley in Massachusetts to ascertain the best and most successful methods of growing this crop. I visited the best and most experienced farmers in that section, and I prepared a manual that was published on that subject ; I will relate one fact in connection with that matter, and that will end what I have to say now. The manual was considered a success. Well, at a meeting at Northampton of the Hampshire and Hampden Agricultural Society, one of the Northampton farmers took occasion to say, wanting to hit some of the agricultural writers whom he saw at the reporter's table, that agricultural writers wrote a great deal that they did not know anything about. I replied to this gentleman by saying, " You have just remarked that such and 1884.] . QUESTIONS. 119 such a book was the best manual you ever saw on the subject of tobacco growing. That manual, sir, was written by one of the agricultural editors whom you have just been denouncing as men who write on what they do not know anything about." The result was, the gentleman came to me, took me by the hand, took me away from the hotel where I was stopping, and took me home with him. He thought that was a good retort on me for what I had said with reference to him. I will only say, in conclusion, that I think the lecture was an exceedingly able one ; it was full of points that can be dis- cussed here. I have alluded to two subjects, and would like to allude to others if I had not already occupied so much time. I hope that if a man has not had any experience, his mouth will not be necessarily shut ; because, if a man can relate only his own experience, we shall get tired of personal experi- ence pretty soon. Mr. Webb. I will not go far out of my way to go through a mud hole, but I have traveled in one journey eight thou- sand miles without going across a bridge, and of course have crossed some mud holes. The thought never suggested itself to my mind to crawl through a sewer, but I have had some experience in raising tobacco for several years. I do not con- demn the raising of tobacco if the farmer finds it profitable. I think that the only way for a farmer to raise it and to raise it profitably is to make it a specialty, and not own too much land. The suggestion I would make to my friend is, if he wants to know how it is himself, to buy 200 acres and raise this curse, tobacco, and it will not take but a few years for him to find out all about it. After I had been raising tobacco for several years, there came a high wind and blew my tobacco-house down, and I have had thanksgiving ever since, for the reason that the tobacco crop, unless the farmer will draw manure from other sources except from the farm, will invariably exhaust the other products of the farm. If he has a large farm, it will take him too long to get around in rota- tion to keep it up in a proper condition. A man who has but three or four acres can make a specialty of it, and can make 120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., money by raising tobacco, and use all his manure for it, with the exception of the small quantity which may be necessary around the house. Under such circumstances, it will do very well for a man to raise tobacco, but a man who has a large farm cannot do it unless he neglects a large portion of his land, or obtains manure from other sources than the farm. Mr. HoTT. I would like to inquire of Mr. Chamberlain or any other gentleman if he has had any experience in culti- vating corn or potatoes with a smoothing harrow after plant- ing ? Mr. Chamberlain. I have had no experience with that, although we have a smoothing harrow. I know there are gen- tlemen here who are well qualified to answer that question, for, in conversation with them last evening, they told me that was their method. Mr. . I cultivate my potatoes and corn both with a smoothing harrow. I cultivated last year my potatoes when they were up four or five inches high with a smoothing har- row, and with advantage. But let me say one thing. I cut my potatoes, and plant but one eye in a place, so that there are not four or five eyes together to send up sprouts, and if the smoothing harrow strikes a sprout it does not do much damage. Mr. Wetherell. Then that method does break them off sometimes ? Mr. . It will break off some. Mr. HoYT. I cultivated my corn this year twice in that way, it was not affected by the drought, and I had a good crop. Mr. Hyde. I have had no experience in raising tobacco, but most of us have had some experience in raising potatoes. I want simply to say, that the best crops of potatoes that I have ever obtained have been raised by plowing greensward about three furrows, then manuring in the hill, dropping my potatoes, and turning a furrow again upon the potatoes. This turns all the manure underneath. I then never have occa- 1884.] QUESTIONS. 121 sion to hoe or cultivate but once, and I have never found it inconvenient or destructive to the crop. The weeds that remain will be very few, if any. I have raised as high as 600 bushels of potatoes to the acre in this way, without any ferti- lizers. I plant my potatoes in drills rather than in hills, because we turn over the furrow. The labor question has been spoken of. That is a problem, and I hardly know how it can be settled. Farm help is not, as every gentleman knows, what it was twenty years ago. It is constantly changing, and our work is now mostly done by foreign laborers. The question of making this class of labor- ers a part of our familie is a difficult problem to solve. Whom does the farmer employ for his help to-day ? Is it the class of men whom he would employ twenty years ago — men whom he wants to take into his family ? Why, it has been said, and I think very justly, the farm laborer is often a for- eigner, perfectly ignorant of the business which we entrust to him, and probably of the domestic relations. It is a very grave question whether a man wants to hug one of them to his bosom as a companion. The Chairman. I have some figures which I would like to give to this meeting at this time, showing what can be done by thorough cultivation. Learning some three weeks ago that a gentleman in New London had been very successful in raising celery, I wrote him asking him to send me the figures so that I could use them at this meeting. He had not time to give me the figures back of year before last, but he has done the same thing for some six or seven years. In 1882, he raised on an acre and a quarter of land 150 bushels of pota- toes, which he sold for $112.50, and 5,000 bunches of celery, which he sold for f 1,800, making $1,912.50. He paid out for labor $50, and for fertilizers $70, making $120 ; leaving for his own labor $1,792.50. In 1883, he raised 200 bushels of potatoes, which he sold for 70 cents a bushel, making $140, and 60,000 celery plants, which he put up in bunches, making 12,000 bunches, and sold at 18 cents a bunch, which he sold for $2,160, making $2,300 as the result of the products from 122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., that acre and a quarter of land. He laid out the same sum for labor and fertilizers, leaving him this year as pay for his own labor |2,170. Mr. Hyde, I move that this little body of agriculturists all unite in raising celery ! The Chairman. I did not refer to this to show that every- body should go into the business of raising celery, but merely to show what thorough cultivation will do on a small piece of ground. Mr. Hyde. Pardon me; I understood it precisely. Mr. Chamberlain. I would like to make a single state- ment with regard to the production of the two acres and a half of which I spoke by the mechanic in the city of Worces- ter. One of those acres was devoted to the cultivation of strawberries. The variety chosen was the Jucunda. This was a few years ago, and the product of that acre was 1,800 quarts. This shows what can be done with a little land as well as the figures which the Chairman has just read. Now I want to ask every farmer here if there is not, aside from the profit of such cultivation, a satisfaction in achieving such results that it is well worth while we should all enjoy ? Are these results such as are easily attainable by us ? I tell you nay, but every man can double or treble the product of his farm in this way, and this is a step which we must take if we would bring up the agriculture of New England to the position which belongs to it by right. (Applause.) Mr. Scoville. I would like to ask the gentleman if every farmer should appropriate two acres, or even one acre, to the production of such enormous crops as he has stated, where he would find a market for them ? Waterbury is not a very large market. Mr. Chamberlain. I think Mr. Scoville has made one very good argument against special farming, which I do not advo- cate. Mr. Fenn. The speaker commenced to give in detail the method of culture of the crop of corn which had produced 1884.] QUESTIONS. 123 117| bushels to the acre; he did not finish it. Being inter- ested in corn culture, and desiring to obtain the best results for the labor expended, I wish he would finish it. I should like to know whether the method adopted was hill cultivation or flat cultivation, or how it was done. Mr. Chamberlain. The method of cultivation in that respect I should think was about an average between the two extremes of level culture and ordinary hill culture. The soil was a strong black loam, and I think that perhaps the grower adopted a very wise method in the treatment of his own crop; not that it will apply to all cases. I think you will see by the statement which I have already made that this corn crop was not excessively fertilized; twenty loads of barn-yard manure being used and plowed under, and ten loads of composted night soil being used upon the surface — no fertilizer in the hill. I remember that in his statement he said this, " I culti- vated this corn a number of times and hoed it only twice." Beyond this I do not know that I can make any further ex- planation. Question. How was it planted ? Mr. Chamberlain. It was planted three feet and a half each way. He left four stalks in a hill. This, of course, was in competition, and he adopted one little plan that was not made public. In order to secure every hill, he went over this field one night with a, solution of faris green in order to pre- vent the cutting of any of this corn by the worm. I presume that his competitors had no knowledge of this, and did not try the same experiment. Mr. Fenn. My reason for asking the question was this : Many of those present will remember that Dr. Sturtevant has advanced the theory of root-pruning. The old-fashioned method was to plow deep and make a large, square hill at the last hoeing, which was, in effect, a system of root-pruning. That system I used to follow, the same as my forefathers, but for the last three or four years I have adopted flat cultivation, and little or no hilling, and I have had better results ; and 124 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., for the past two years my corn has stood the droughts (which we all know have been very severe) very much better than with hill cultivation. Mr. Augur. There is one point in regard to this labor question, which has been so happily handled this morning, to which I would like to refer, and which, perhaps, has not been fully developed ; that is, the hours of labor on the farm. In my earlier years, I was accustomed to extended hours of labor, almost from sun to sun, but more recently we have fallen back on the system of ten hours, and when we hear the whistles of the factories in the neighborhood, we by com- mon consent stop. The question is, whether it is not better for farmers generally to adopt systematic hours of labor, and when we do labor, have our men work continuously, and feel that it must be continuous, well-directed labor ? I really believe, that on the whole, it will lead farmers to be more systematic, to have their plans better laid, and that we shall accomplish quite as much, and perhaps with more satisfaction to our help and to ourselves. Question. Can you quit work at six o'clock in haying time, every day ? Mr. Augur. Of course, there may be some times when it is impossible. Question. Do you keep up the ten hours in winter ? Mr. Augur. In winter, we should hardly make that. Mr. Wetherell. I would like to ask Mr. Augur a ques tion : Suppose a man has a dairy of forty or fifty cows, can he milk them twice inside of ten hours ? Mr. Augur. I will admit that there would be a difficulty there. Question. I wished merely to ask the question if, at this season of the year, when the days are short, he kept his men at work until the whistle sounded? Mr. Augur. I suppose not, but I think we can approach nearly the system of regular hours by beginning work earlier than farmers sometimes do, and continuing it later. i 1884.] QUESTIONS. 125 Mr. Hyde. I should be very glad, as a farmer, to secure men from whom I could get ten hours of work every day throughout the year. I fail to get eight in the winter. I find the men who go to the mill go two hours before I get my men started even to do the chores and the milking ; and it is so at night. Our hours of labor in the factories are longer, perhaps, than they are in some districts. Our mills have been successful, and they are running twelve hours. I should like to see the farmer who is going to get up at four o'clock, get his breakfast, and be out at his work by six o'clock, and have but thirty minutes from, that time until he comes back to the house at seven o'clock at night. Mr. Sedgwick. I would suggest to the last speaker, that if we paid our hired help as well as the manufacturers pay them, we could get as good a class of help. In a nut-shell, the whole thing is this : We cannot get good men to work for us on our farms, or we do not get good men to work for us, because we do not pay them as much as they can earn else- where. If you will pay a man just as much as he can get in a hot and stifling factory, he would be glad to work for you on the farm. There is no difficulty about it ; it is only a question of wages. That being so, is it not more profitable for the farmer to pay his men as much as the men are paid who work in the factories, and have his work done in a sys- tematic way — so many hours a day ? I know that when I work on the farm, I can get as tired in ten hours as I want to get; and I can do as much work in ten hours, steady work, as I ought to be expected to do in fifteen or sixteen hours ; and if my men will give me ten, good, square hours as a day's work — as they will do if I pay them as much as they can get elsewhere, it is enough for any man to do. I am aware of the fact, that in harvest time and haying time, we may have to make longer days, but if we pay our men by the month, so that they will get good wages, or, if you like, pay them by the hour for extra work, and they will be glad to stay and help you. We hire by the day in harvest time ; why not, when you have to make a long day, pay according to the 126 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., number of hours ? I have done it, and it worked well. Pay your man well for every hour he works, and he will be glad to stay until nine o'clock, if necessary. Give him twenty cents an hour, and if it is a rainy morning when he comes on, tell him to wait till the shower passes by. If you don't want his services, when a shower comes on in the afternoon, take out your watch and put down his time. Pay him twenty or twenty-five cents an hour, and he will be glad to do it. One other point. What do you want to board your men in your family for? A hired man can board himself cheaper than you can do it, and you have all the trouble and annoy- ance of having a sweaty, perspiring man at your table, when you don't want him. If you have company, you can't have such a man as that at the table with them, and you feel sort of disagreeable about it. If he is not one of the kind of men you want around all the time, you can pay him eight or ten dollars a month more, and he can board himself, as I say, cheaper than you can board him. I think that can be demon- strated without any trouble. Mr. Wetherell. I want to ask one question with regard to the laborer boarding himself. Take the isolated farms of New England, with only one hired man, perhaps half a mile or a mile from any other house, where are such laborers going to board, or how is a bachelor going to board himself ? Mr. Sedgwick. I admit that there are circumstances which may alter the rule, but for the ordinary farmer who employs three or four men, it is cheaper by far to have tenement- houses, and let his men live in those tenement-houses. Mr. Wetherell. Such are not ordinary farmers. Mr. Sedgwick. I think a majority of the farmers in these towns are men who hire from two to three men in the course of the year, and a good many of them have tenement-houses on their farms ; if not they ought to have. Mr. Webb. This question is a very important one. It is one which has given me a great deal of trouble. I have traveled a great many miles a good many times, and 1884.] QUESTIONS. . 127 taken more risks in going about the purlieus of New York and around Castle Garden to hunt up men, than I ever can among the Indians. Therefore, I feel a deep interest in this question. It is suggested that we pay our men two dollars a day. We may do it a short time in the haying season, but we are speaking of general farm labor. If we agree to pay too high wages, how are we going to pay them ? Where is the money coming from ? I go to the store with a load of potatoes, and say, "Do you want any potatoes to-day?" " Yes." " What are you paying ? " " Sixty cents," or " fifty cents a bushel," whatever it may be. "Well, I can't do any better ; you can have them." " I want to buy some sugar and coffee; how much do you ask for your sugar and coffee ?" He tells me, and I have to pay whatever he asks. We are working for our masters. You cannot put it in any other shape, when you come down to it, for we cannot put a price upon our goods, nor can we make the price of the goods we have to buy. Therefore we must do the best we can, and each individual must be governed by his own circumstances, and by his own business. How is the dairyman, who has a large amount of milk to deliver every day, which involves a great many chores, and a great deal of work, going to make his hours of labor the same as those of the farmer who pays no attention to the dairy? Therefore, the only way for us to do is to do the best we can, and let each and every individual study out the best way to treat his hired help, and get the best help he can. And I guess about as good a rule as you can find would be to " do as you would be done -by." (Applause.) Mr. Hyde. I have a single remark to make in regard to the criticism of my friend over on the right (Mr., Sedgwick), that if we paid higher prices we could obtain better men. That is true. But my friend, also on the right TMr. Webb), asks who is to pay them ? It is just as pertinent inside the house as it is out. If we will pay men and pay women enough, we can get such help as we want. I had the pleasure of receiving a little order from the better-half of this gentle- 128 • BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., man, and I sent that little order to a manufacturer of ours, who is employing help who make from 11.00 to $1.75 a day. They are a nice lot of girls. Any gentleman or lady here would be very glad to get such help inside their house to do the work. But where is the farmer who could pay $1.00 or $1.75 a day for domestic help? The best operatives in our mills get from $1.25 to $2.50 a day right along. What class of help are you going to hire from them ? Any of them seek shelter in the mills, heated with steam, rather than take out- of-door exercise. Mr. Gold. What does this mill help have, at the end of a week or month to show, after they have paid their board and expenses ? Mr. Hyde. Many of the girls and women who work in the mills will have from $12 to $20 at the end of the month. Mr. Sedgwick. Mr. Webb struck the key-note in this thing. The question of farm wages here in New England is really determined by the law of supply and demand. He says he goes to market and says, " What will you give for potatoes? " " Fifty cents a bushel." " I will take it." He takes it because he cannot get any more. The man looking for work comes to the farmer and says, " What will you give me a month ? "I will give you $18.00 a month and board." " I can't take it; I can go right down to Waterbury and earn my $1.75 and $2.00 a day. I can do better ; I will go to Waterbury," That is what is draining our farms of the best men we have. It is because the manufacturer can afford to pay more than we can ; and until the farmer can step up and pay as much as the manufacturer, he has got to liave a poorer class of help. Mr, Bill. This matter of help had better be left to us farm- ers to make just such arrangements as we can. One year, a number of my men, who were living in my houses, and in small places around me, who were dependent on their daily labor for the maintenance of their families, said to me : " In future, we shall work in no other way than upon the ten-hour 1884.] QUESTIONS. 129 system." I submitted to it that year, and they came up in the morning, pulled out their old Bungtown watches, and sat around on the logs until they were ready to go to work. They ran my farm that year, but I made up my mind that it was the last time they would ever run it, and it was. (Ap- plause.) I said to them, open and above board, during that season, that I should never submit to the ten-hour or the eight- hour system upon my farm again. They said to me the next spring, when they found I had got new help, that they were all going to change their politics, and they were going to change their religion. I cared not for that ; I run my own farm. I said to the men whom I hired, " What do you want for six, eight, or twelve months, beginning at a reasonable time in the morning, and leaving off at a reasonable time at night? " They told me ; I hired them, and from that day to this I have run my own farm. There has been no hour time upon it. If I had a quantity of hay down in the mowing season that it was necessary to secure, I never heard a grum- ble from those men. If I worked them beyond the time that farm laborers should be worked, I always paid them. If they did not work more than an hour beyond the usual time, they always got their pay for it, and I have never had any trouble in keeping from six to thirty-five men right through the season, jus't according to the requirements of my business. They leave me to regulate the work, and I try to regulate it for the interest of the farm and the interest of the farm- laborer. (Applause.) Mr. Gold. When the question comes up with regard to ten hours upon the farm, comparing it with ten hours in the ■factory, and the farmer says he cannot get time enough in ten hours, let us bear in mind the varied character of farm labor; that it enables a man to bear the strain during a certain por- tion of the year, of more than ten hours a day. It is varied in its character. It carries him into the field. There is an open-air excitement about it. He is not in that worn-out physical condition of men pent up in shops, and he can stand fairly more hours of work than those men. The farmer does 9 130 BOARD OF AGRICULTtlRE. [Jan., not show that he has been exhausted by this extraordinary labor that you call upon him to perform in the harvest season, and the average time of labor upon the farm during the year is not greater than the average in the shop ; and men who are fairly treated in the inclement season of the year, and in bad weather, with regard to short hours and getting things all snug before night, never complain, according to my experi- ence, when, in the harvest field, in the busy season, more is expected of them. Mr. Sedgwick. Most of your work is done in summer time, and you hire your men for four, six, or eight months. Taking the year through, I admit that there are no more hours of labor upon the farm than in the factory ; but taking the average time in which the farm labor has to be done, how will it compare then ? Mr. Gold. They receive more wages, if they are hired for the busy season of the year. Mr. ScoviLLE. Times are very much altered in regard to labor. I did not raise roots years ago, because I could not afford to hire men to do it. Now, since we have got mowing machines, there is nothing for the men to do in the morning. My men have an abundance of time to attend to it, having little to do in the hayfield until ten o'clock, and some- times not until noon. I have been in the habit of paying more than the manufacturers could. I pay my men seventy- five cents a day, for the year, and board, which is equivalent to fifty cents a day. That is $1.25 a day. Adjourned to two o'clock. 1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 131 AFTERNOON SESSION. The meeting was called to order at two o'clock by Mr. Barstow, who said : This afternoon we are to have a lecturer who has had large experience in city and country life, who can tell us much that it will be useful for us to know. I have the pleasure of intro- ducing to you Dr. Bowen. THE HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. By Dr. G. A. Bowen. At the very top of one of the heavy undulating hills that abound in the northeastern portion of the State, is my little farm. From near the door of the house the observer can behold a land- scape almost startling in its beauty. Cultivated farms, with their neat white dwellings embowered with trees, stretch away on either side. A heavy wooded slope, miles in length, forms a dark back- ground to the Senexet meadows which lie below, through which winds a silvery stream expanding into a beautiful lake, which mirrors upon its surface the sky and surrounding objects. Should another observer on Round Hill at the north, look down the valley, his eye would behold the same landscape, its sand dunes and meadows, its wooded slopes, the winding river, and picturesque lake ; so would another observer located on my friend Bartholo- mew's hill in Pomfrefc, and looking upwards from the south • but should the three come together to compare what they had seen, their descriptions would vary so greatly as to cause one to think that they had viewed totally different scenery, but the only differ- ence would be in the stand-point of the observer. These series of winter meetings have long been held, at which I have heard the lawyer define the legal points of farming as a call- ing, the business man has given his views as seen through his mercantile eyes, and various scholars have presented the scientific aspect of its numerous details. Now, by invitation of the secretary of this Board, I will present the views that I take of it, judging it from my particular stand-point of observation, which is a medical one, and I know that it will differ as greatly from much that has been presented, as would the descriptions of those who might view the landscape that I have described. 132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail., Physiology and hygiene teach us that perfect health, robust and vigorous, can only be obtained, and maintained, through the instrumentality of nourishing foods, pure air, bright sunlight, and long periods of undisturbed and refreshing sleep, together with suitable mental and physical exercise, living in accordance with nature, and not with the dictates of fashion, for an artificial existence. "Where and in what avocation can these conditions be so completely carried out as upon the farm? for here is raised the major portion of the foods that support human race, and the production of them compels the tiller of the soil to pass the work- ing hours of the day in the pure air and invigorating sunshine, exercising his muscles by carrying out the dictates of a previously exercised mind.* The work of the farm compels no labor during the hours of the night, hence sleep, "nature's sweet restorer," need not be interfered with. The farm, then, possessing all the requisites for health, should give us the strongest, soundest, and most vigorous and long-lived class in the community; and, judging by conditions, by a priori reasoning, the farmer should be a model of manly health, and beauty, tall, and sinewy by reason of air, food, and exercise, deep-chested, and full-blooded. His frame should be an illustration of physical perfection, disclaiming all knowledge of disease, and his face a fitting crown therefor, made perfect by thoughtful and intelligent observation, study, and reasoning. To this class should the artist look for his example of a Hercules, or an Adonis, and not to the prize ring and circus. To repeat,- the conditions for this physical perfection, the means that lead to it, are in greater perfection on the farm than in the office, store, or work shop. But, we ask the question, is the dweller on the farm the most healthy of the race? Alas, no. The doctor's gig and tired horse are too often seen at the farm-house door. The patent-medicine man makes his regular rounds, and the agricultural journals have every available space occupied with advertisements of a multitude of nostrums, showing that there is a demand for them, while a glance at the farmer's face tells the story of his sufferings from disease. I entertain the belief that the conditions of health or illness are mainly within the control of every individual, if he has the knowledge necessary to so govern it, excepting some few heredi- tary taints for which he may thank some ignorant ancestor. But even these he can greatly modify, and that farm life should give a 1884.] HEALTH OF THE PARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 133 greater freedom from ills than any other business or calling, but that the farmer is not as free from disease as the possibilities of his life will allow of. This controlling of disease is particularly- practicable here in Connecticut. The soil is generally well drained, and the climate, though fitful and severe in its changes, is on the whole salubrious, and there are no obstacles beyond his reach to which he must submit, as there are in some sections of our own land and abroad, excepting the one instance of malaria, which has appeared in some localities, but happily that is now on the decline. Neither are there any special diseases to which farmers are liable by reason of their calling, as are shoe-makers, painters, chemical manufactures, hatters, etc., who constantly run the risk of receiving lead, mercurial, arsenical, or other poisonings, but the manner of their living does induce a long list of diseases possible and common to all who disregard nature's laws, which, in retaliation, inflicts upon them diseases which it should be a disgi'ace for any one to have who controls his time, his premises, and the composition of his diet, as does the farmer. I do not propose to trouble you with a long list of hygienic laws, neither to descant upon the origin of disease, imless it may be to discredit the argument by which 1 have been often met when speaking of man's power in restraining ailments. That it came hand in hand into the world with death when Esq. Adam and his wife ate the Baldwin apple in Eden's orchard, and that con- sequently mankind must be ill at times as a punishment for that sin, and hence the physician a necessary evil, to this I will only say that theology, which is a theory of man, does not agree with physiology, which is a fact of God, I have a higher idea of God's beneficent nature than J,o think that he delights to inflict the tortures of bilious colic or rheumatism on a fairly good man, or an angel of a woman, simply because of that little pomological incident. I prefer to believe that the afflicted persons took a bite at the apple themselves when presented by the serpent of lust or pleasure. Let us go to the matter at once, and take up the objectionable features of the farm. And now put aside for awhile your views of a farmer's life, and look upon it with me and from my stand- point. We shall find that the average fai-m-house is far from perfect in its sanitary conditions. Living as I do in a house con- structed more than a century ago, has caused me to notice and 134 BOAED OP AGRICULTDEE. [Jan., change many glaring defects, and perhaps for this reason I may have observed others more closely. And these are the principal faults that I have found to influence the health of the occupant. First, viewing it from the exterior, we notice the entire absence of shade, or its superabundance. No home is quite complete without the aid of trees and shrubbery, which serve to cool the fervid heats of summer, and screen as well from the wintry blasts, besides lending a cheerful cosiness to the place, which makes it truly a home. But how often are all of these purposes changed by a want of thought regarding their positions. They are frequently placed so as to completely shade the house, rendering its air damp and unwholesome from the mould and decay silently going on, which as silently but as surely extends to the minds and bodies of the inmates; for in a decaying house there will be decay- ing bodies, and in such how can there be any thing, so to speak, but mouldy and decaying minds? Put trees near the house, but not so near but that the sun will shine upon it sometime during the day, giving it the benefit of its chemistry. Let its light in through the windows, and not obstruct it by shrubs. They are for ornamenting your grounds, and not for burying the dwelling in seclusion and gloom. Besides their appearance is greatly enhanced by standing by themselves, or artistically grouped in positions away from the house, and not immediately under the eaves. If it is desired that a bare wall should be covered, or a doorway porch made shady and attractive, vines can be used to far better advantage. The sun can penetrate their light foliage enough to dry it, and their numerous rootlets, by which they cling to their support, will absorb moisture rather than harbor it, giving the full object desired by shade — a cool, dry atmosphere. "We may also notice that a desire for convenience — having things handy as it is termed — has in many instances been made an excuse for laziness, or shows gross ignorance on the part of the owner — and one is fully as reprehensible as the other — in the grouping and arrangement of the out-buildings. The barn with its cattle-yard, the pig-pen and poultry-house, the privy and the well — all seem to be striving to show the most sociability for the kitchen door, filling the air with ill odors, and the soil with filth and fever germs, to be carried into the well with every permeat- ing rain. In this day of general reading it is scarcely necessary for me to call attention to the fact that typhoid fever in the 1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 135 country can, in nine cases out of ten, be traced to tlie use of im- pure well water, made so by the proximity of sink-drains, cess- pools, privy- vaults, or tbe leachings of manure-heaps. Boards of Health all over the land are calling attention to these facts, medi- cal journals are filled with such instances, while every physician can recall the memory of hearths made sad and desolate by disease, which he knows entered in at this unnoticed door. Mind you, farmers, I do not tell you that your wells are all contami- nated, for I know that nothing will raise one's resentment quicker than to be told that their premises are unclean, but I would advise you to have an eye to them all the same when you get home, and if you can then view them from the stand-point that we are now occupying, sweep them away as you would a murderer or seducer who was trying to rob you of the fair members of your family : for pure water is as necessary to good health as morality is to godliness. In speaking of the out-buildings let me call attention to the quite general fault on New England farms, at least those outside of the immediate precincts of villages, and if I use the English language without clothing my ideas in obscure and general terms, know that it is because I desire to be plainly understood. I allude to the situation so frequently selected for the privy, oftentimes in the corner of the yard or garden, in full view of passers-by on the highway, and the "men-folks" at the barn, thus completely pro- hibiting its use by every modest-minded person, who necessarily waits for the mantle of darkness to screen them as they pass thither, and thus by postponement laying the foundation for an habitual state of constipation, which in its turn undermines the digestive organs, and brings permanent ill health. For obvious reasons this is different in towns and cities; therefore this diseased condition, which is so fearfully prevalent in the women of the country, is scarcely known by their sisters in the city. For charity's sake, for decency's sake, let this state of things no longer exist. The interior of the farm house as a general thing has about as many objections, when considered as aids to disease as the exterior. New England houses, as a rule, I have found to be well ventilated, excepting perhaps certain portions. This is not due so much, however, to the ingenuity of the builder, as it is to the force of the wind, which will not be kept out. A principal exception is 136 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., regarding the cellar, and oh, farmer, if you are not guilty of the other omissions that I have pointed out, I am afraid that you are here, for it does seem to me that the accumulations of the produce of the farm that are stored therein must make miniature Wash- ington markets of them all, and you know that the odors of that have gone reeking towards heaven for years past. Cellars as a rule are not well drained, and are consequently damp, are all more or less dark, thus precluding cleanliness, giv- ing rise to the very conditions best adapted to the propagation of disease germs. If one will have a cellar under the house, have it thoroughly drained, and its walls and floors cemented; with an outside drain around the house to prevent the saturation of the soil, it may in that way be kept dry. The cellar should be partly above ground to allow of windows to admit of air and light. To one who contemplates building a new house, I should say have no cellar at all, but drain the spot selected, which should be, if possi- ble, on a rise of land. Sink the trenches for the foundation, throwing the earth to the interior; carry the foundation well up; ventilate the space between the ground and the floor, and arrange the store room in some convenient extension or ell of the build- ing, where, with double walls and windows, as much warmth can be secured as in a cellar, and a saving of fifty per cent, of the construction bill, to say nothing of the ease of storing productions in such a place. The most important room in a house is not, as the first thought might suggest, the parlor, the kitchen, or the sitting-room, where the leisure time of the family is spent, but it is the room occupied for sleeping, where at least one-third of the twenty-four hours should be passed in the non-resistant condition of sleep, the time the system is most prone to receive disease; for we know that when awake every function is on the alert against it and labors to throw it off.- A healthy sleeping-room is an airy one, where sun- light can be admitted during the day, lending its healthful influen- ces in purifying its walls and furniture, which become contaminated by the breath and exhalations of the occupants. It should be a room free from noxious exhalations from the ground, and that can be well ventilated with pure external air. For these reasons it should be located on an upper floor of the house, where the necessities are more easily realized. This is a teaching of sanitary science that is much more honored in the breach than in the ob- 1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 137 servance It is safe to say that two-thirds of the Connecticut farmers, when they retire to-night, will do so to a room on the ground floor, on the north side of the house, and immediately over the cellar. One window is closely screened, the bed placed against it, precluding its use, the other opens upon an almost grassless corner of ground, made rank and noisome by the shade of an apple or other tree, intensified by the addition of a rampant growing grape-vine, making in summer a capital place for the boys to dig their bait when they go fishing, and in winter a reser- voir for ice cold air, conducive to pneumonia and rheumatism. Why not use the best and most cheerful room in the house, in- stead of stealing away to such a place resembling the penance cell of the criminal. The best room in the house is not too good for the farmer. He owns it, and by his day of toil has earned a further right to its comforts and benefits; and I firmly believe that he would not only feel happier, brighter, and stronger for it, but also that his "doctor's bill" at the end of the year would be far smaller. There are but few farm-houses constructed so as to be heated by a furnace, which is perhaps as well, for the stove dealer has not yet given us one adapted to general use, that will supply a health- ful atmosphere. A cheap air-tight stove is too frequently de- pended upon to warm the sitting-room; it has thfe advantage of warming the room quickly, but at the expense of every particle of moisture that the room contains, similar in this respect to the furnace. The long winter evening is passed in this baked and drying atmosphere till the brain feels dead and inert as a conse- quence. The inventor of the air-tight stove has a colossal sin to ansv/er for. There is a large variety of stoves that will give a cosy, attractive appearance to a room, and at the same time fill it with a moist, agreeable heat, more akin to the air of summer, and why the air-tight, with its baneful properties, should have become so popular, is more than I can understand. Allow me here to say that warming an upper room with the heated and vitiated air of the room below it by means of a register, is a false economy; better bring the stove pipe through the ceiling, and into a drum which will utilize the heat which otherwise escapes into the chim- ney, and which will give a temperature sufiicient for all purposes for which such an upper room is used. These healthful arrangements for the lighting, heating, and 138 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., drainage of the house should never be objected to on the score of expense, as I have repeatedly heard them. No argument from me is necessary to show that vigorous health is of more importance than dollars and cents. But really these sanitary measures are far less expensive than the old way of living. The saving of the items of expense of one illness alone would be enough to re-ar- range the whole place for a complete sanitarium. All that is required is a little thoughtful consideration, a little brain-work, all of which is within the power of him who successfully tills Con- necticut soil. Thus we see that we can plan for the better arrangement and healthfulness of the home. Will not the same discriminating thought show that there are weaknesses in the list of the farmer's food supply, and its method of preparation ? Is his diet a perfect one for the labor required of him ? and is the boasted New Eng- land cooking the best method of rendering available the nutritive properties of that food ? Without attempting to show the scien- tific classification of food, and all its details, which is an exten- sive study in itself, we will pass at once to the character of the food supply of the farm, and we find that nowhere else is there such a variety presented for the selection of any one man, or class of men. The beef, veal, mutton, lamb, pork, poultry, and egg supply of the whole country is produced of course upon the farm ; it belongs to the farmer, and he can make his selection from it before it leaves him. So also with regard to grains, and vegeta- bles which render the city markets so attractive. The long list of meats, vegetables, and fruits, and the products of the dairy that are shown by some farms is simply astonishing. Lists that will show a complete food, possessing all necessary elements required by the demands of the system. In addition to the articles men- tioned, some of the more modern farms can show their carp and trout ponds, still further augmenting the list. So then we see that the farmer can have the best food of the land. Does he make use of it for his table ? No, he sells it. I know that he must have cash to meet his obligations, and that it must come from the products of the farm, which is business-Hke and right. But would it not be well to divide things a little, instead of selling all the meat products except pork, would it not be better to dis- pose of a portion of that, and retain some of the others, thus giv- ing a variety to the diet ? The cash returns for an average of J 1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 139 years would be the same, and the satisfaction and welfare of the family greater. But some one says, my farm does not show such an array as has been enumerated, so I am counted out. But can it not be made to produce more of a variety than it does ? A little systematic planning here will tell. Sell less hay, or better yet, none at all ; put in more cattle and sheep, and consume it at home, thus maintaining the fertility of the land, the plethora of the pocket, and having the satisfaction of "a good square meal " at regular intervals. Cannot the garden also be made to yield more of a variety and support ? Perhaps I had better not speak of a farmer's garden. You will accuse me of being too personal. I have noticed that some farmers appear reticent on the subject of their garden, which has led me sometimes to think that they did not have any. The farmer does not eat vegetables enough; potatoes are the only ones that he habitually indulges in; if he raises others he markets them, and confines himself to the unvary- ing round of pork, potatoes, bread and pastry. Comparing the farmer's table with that of European countries we must admit that he lives even far better than they do ; but comparing New England cooking with that of many other coun- tries, and sections of our own not necessarily agricultural, we can see wherein the housewife could practice better economy, present a greater variety of food more suitable to the wants of the system, and served in a manner more agreeable to the palate. The French and German housewives could teach their Yankee sisters many culinary arts and devices that would improve the healthfulness of the prevalent methods. Cannot the latter be taught that pork to garnish or season a dish is suflBcient, and not so portion it as to make it one of the leading articles of the meal ? That the frying of all articles of food, either meats, vegetables, or pastries in lard, not only spoils them, but supplies to the system an inordinate quantity of one element which will arouse in it an abnormal action to expel it ? And that fruits are much more wholesome eaten naturally with their appetizing acids, than when presented swathed in a tough or soggy crust of pastry, the acids neutralized or changed by sweetening and heat ? And finally, why will she present her family with pie for breakfast, pie for dinner, pie for supper, and pie between meals whenever any of them are hungry ? The ever- lasting diet of pie has become a leading charactei;istic of this people, so that the Yankee away from home can be detected by 140 BOAED OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Ms devotion to it, as is the German by Ms to beer. The endless variety of pies that an ordinarily endowed farmer's wife can make is a matter of wonderment to one foreign to the section, while the list of a really talented pie maker would compare favorably in numbers, I believe, with the stars of heaven. The mysteries of the New England pie would severely puzzle the united talents of a New York detective, the chemists of our experiment station, and the best investigating lawyers of the star-route trial. The com- bination of lard, sugar, and spice is enough to ruin the digestion of a more than ordinarily active ostrich; therefore, it is no sur- prise to us to find that it has this effect upon our farmer, and that he is frequently found to be a confirmed dyspeptic, showing it in his form, his face, and most of all in his disposition. One of the chief drawbacks to healthfulness on the farm, far greater than the environment or dietetic arrangement, is the unceasing and laborious toil to which the occupant subjects him- self; labor that is too heavy for human muscles to be employed in, and devoting to it so many hours of the day that it effectually deprives him of all recreation and amusement, up early in the morning, laboring for an hour or perhaps two before he partakes of food, treating in this respect his brute beasts better than him- self. The breakfast is eaten in haste, washed down with hot coffee, and the rush of work commences again. The bright hours of the morning have no beauty for him for he has no time for their enjoyment. A short halt at noon enables him to catch a hasty dinner, and while the team more leisurely enjoy theirs he performs the midday chores, putting the muscles of his limbs in active motion before those of the stomach can grasp their load. The weary hours of the afternoon pass slowly away, but still the toil is not over, chores again demand attention, and it is far into the evening before the day's work is done. Is the sleep that follows such a day of toil a restful one ? It is heavy and lethargic, and brings no elasticity back to the muscles or buoyancy to the mind. I know full well the strain and tension that human muscles are capable of, their endurance is wonderful, and with proper food and suitable intervals of rest and relaxation with quiet sleep, it can be kept up for long periods of time, and the subject of it improve in health and strength, usually accomplishing more in the end than he who devotes himself to incessant toil. But prolonged muscu- lar labor will wear oiit the body, which is like a machine; it must 1884.] HEALTH OP THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 141 stop for repairs, for cleaning and oiling. A maclaine properly run will last for years, and so will the human body, but the engineer will tell us that if a machine is run at the highest rate of power that it is capable of, it will go to pieces almost at once. We can easily see now why the farmer is so often a confirmed dyspeptic; food received by a tired body cannot digest, it becomes an irritant, and the various organs of the body rebel, and the same treatment long continued makes in time a chronic rebellion — like a Spanish republic. We soon find that the system is failing, because not properly nourished. It cannot act on the defensive against disease; the door is open and it is sure to come in some form, breaking the man down both physically and mentally. Insanity is one of the frequent results of this course of life. You have something more than my word for it, for statistics of insane asylums, life insurance companies, and like associations show it the country over. Think of it, insanity produced upon the farm, the place of all others supposed to be and capable of being the most conducive to good mental health. Yes, it is even so. Let me quote from an authority* appearing in the last report of the Board of Health of this State, who says: "As a prolific source of insanity, and results injurious to health and constitution, next to alcoholic intemperance comes ' intemper- ance of work; ' that intense, unremitting application which leads to mental and physical strain, directly conducing to insanity or systematic defects which may appear in succeeding generations." And again the same authority says: j " There is much corporeal overwork, particularly in the agricul- tural districts. Severe and constant manual labor leaves little time for cultivating the cheerful and better sentiments, or that education which contributes power and stability to mind and character. Years of constant drudgery combined, as is quite commonly the case, with innutritions food, improperly selected or poorly cooked, are so destructive of vital economy that exciting causes, harmless under other circumstances, are sufficient in these to derange the mind. The frequency with which insanity breaks out in farmers' families best illustrates this." Now Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am the last person in this State to raise my voice against labor. I recognize the dignity and *"IIow can we escape insanity," by Chas. W. Page, M. D. of Hartford Retreat. Page 192. t Page 196. 142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., importance of it both in theory and in my daily life. But I do protest against this prostitution of his vital forces by the farnier to so low an object as the mere accomplishment of work ; it is both unnecessary and unreasonable, and beneath tbe manhood of one who is created in the image of God. It is not the health of the farmer alone that claims our attention to-day, but also that of his family. First the farmer's wife, what is her status as regards health? She does not take as high a stand as her husband does; facts carry out what the natural supposition would be. Her labor is as incessant and of a far more vexatious character, is performed within- doors, free from the exhilarating effects of air and sunshine, and she receives less stimulus from her surroundings; add to this the bearing and rear- ing of children, and labors that she is obliged to perform when the functions of her system require rest, and one can readily see that it must rank lower. It has always been an enigma to me why any woman would marry a farmer. You may in turn express surprise why they will a physician, but they do both, inscrutable as it may seem. I have known the farmer to select his wife as he would a mate for his horse, for the amount of labor that she can perform, freely questioning with his neighbors if she were able to keep her whiffletree even with his, as they drew the burden of labor, tender regard and love having a subordinate place. Think what the farmer's wife does for him when he brings her to his dwelling and she commences the fulfillment of her duties. From that time on she does for hira and the hired men, the cooking, the washing and mending, makes many of her husband's garments and all of her own, and those of the children as they successively appear, attends to the dairy, and on some few fai-ms feeds the pigs and poultry, and lugs in wood and water for the household purposes. Is it any surprise that nature soon exhausts herself and the woman dies? Did you ever think how many among your own acquaintances are .living with their second or third wife? Compare it with the converse and you will be surprised at the different results. What killed the woman? The certificate of her death filed with the town clerk will give the scientific name of the disease that was the immediate cause, and at the funeral the minister doubtless said that it was one of the mysterious dispensations of Providence. But I tell you that back of it was the toil of years,* cheered with I 1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 143 but few comforting words and sympathies ; broken down before her time that the mortgage might be paid, or the little fund in the bank increased. Where was the comfort of her life? Did she go anywhere ? Did she see friends ? Did she have books and opportunities to read them ? "Washer mental capacity increased, and her life made progressive and better fitted for an eternal here- after, by the years that she spent as that man's wife? Forbid that it should ever be repeated, and yet it is to-day, at this very hour, thoughtlessly, perhaps, in many instances, but nevertheless as effectually. Life's early dreams and hopes, the accomplishments learned in maidenhood, even ambition itself is swallowed up by the mighty maelstrom of work that ruins their health, inflicts keen suffering, and finally demands life itself — work that should have been, much of it, performed by men. There is a ray of comfort here in the fact that the American farmer is far ahead of the European in his ideas of woman's work, for there, in addition to her household and family cares, she is expected to labor much in the fields, take the entire charge of the herds and flocks, even to the shearing of the sheep. But there she is better fitted for it, for her brain is smaller and her muscles larger. The time is soon coming, I trust, when woman's work on our farms will be lightened. The churn and the cheese press will be banished from the house as the spinning wheel has been, and thus a heavy burden lifted. I see no reason why so much of the farm work should be brought into the dwelling, as is now the case; it is as unreasonable as it would be for the blacksmith to bring his work into the family circle. There is a bright picture in the children of the farm. They are the robust and vigorous little specimens that one would wish to see. Strong and well developed, possessed of inquiring minds and happy dispositions, with good digestive powers, assimilating their food well, and consequently laying the foundation for future men- tal and physical strength, presenting in the sum total quite a con- trast to the children reared within the limits of the cities. This is just what we should expect from the premises that we have assumed for free exercise within the limits of their strength, per- formed in the open air and sunshine. The food largely composed of milk and fruit, and the long periods devoted to sleep, are just the conditions for perfect health. The city-reared child shows more refinement in form, features, and manners, but that of 144 BOARD OF A&RICULTURE. [Jan., course comes from its different associations. That the plptysique and nerve power of the country child is greater is proved by the death-rate, which, is so much larger in towns than in the open country. I have often been surprised at the contrast of the physique of the two children in my journeys to and from the cities. The young people of the country are larger in frame and muscle than those of the city, but at this period of life the city- reared have gained in nerve power, and the energy and endurance that comes therefrom, while the country -reared seldom gain much beyond the age of sixteen years. This I attribute almost wholly to the difference of food, a trifle to the mental training they receive, and somewhat to the fact that they represent the survival of the fittest, the deficient ones having died in childhood. It was this nerve power that enabled the city-reared soldiers to eclipse in courage, hardihood, and vigor, those reared in the country, as was repeatedly witnessed during the late war. There are two advantages that town residents have over the dwellers on the farm. Fu'st, the ease with which personal cleanli- ness is attained, the introduction of hot and cold water to all parts of the house, and the general bath-room, presenting mighty factors that the farm cannot; and on this I need not enlarge, for you must all recognize its importance. And second, in the stimulus and animation that comes from contact with fellowbeings, which gives more keenness and vigor of mind, and life to the individual, qualities that are always appreciated by the physician. I do not mean the strain that comes from the turmoil of business, for that is overwork of the mind — worse than overwork of the body — ^but the social inter-communion that can only be had where there is an aggregation of numbers. The amusements that are offered have a tonic effect upon the mind as powerful as that of iron upon the body. They not only amuse, but they are educational, and all that tends towards that end tends towards a better condition for health. As a class, in city or country, our own land or abroad, the educated ranks are the mo^t free from disease — a fact that speaks volumes. The isolation of farm life prevents a deal of this neighborly interchange, this polishing of the elbows, as it is termed. Amuse- ments are of rare occurrence, and the meeting of neighborhoods infrequent, and thus a habit of non-sociability is formed, which is apt to degenerate by degrees into a condition of melancholy with 1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 145 all its unpleasant effects, not only on the subjects, but on their associates as well. We see but little of intemperance on the farm — not nearly as much as in former years; hence the farmer does not in his illness have to contend against its baneful influences, and from wounds and surgical operations he promptly recovers. Cider- drinking, which many do not class with intemperance, has been an unmiti- gated nuisance and a curse to the whole of New England; but now that apples are considered to be worth, at the lowest estimate, twenty cents a bushel to feed to stock, the temptation to make the surplus fruit into cider is much less. The excuse for making it for vinegar no longer exists, 'for a blear-eyed, suspicious-looking individual, having a little manufactory in a side-street in the city, will make more so-called pure cider vinegar in one night than a large farm can produce in a year, and can sell at double the profit. Therefore we think that dollars and cents will help to solve the temperance question as much as the reformer. '• Whisky vinegar " has certainly been the means of improving healthfulness on our farms, if it has taken away a source of revenue. In a careful survey we find that the farmer and his family are afflicted only with ills common to all humanity, and not special to the calling. As it is at present even, the farm is the most health- ful place for living, but not nearly as much so as it can and should be made. Did you expect to hear from me complicated formulas and remedies for these diseases ? I know of but four, simple, efficacious, and within the reach of all, and, moreover, specifics for most complaints. They are as stated at the commencement of this paper: pure air, proper food, suitable exercise, and rest. Should you need to go beyond them for aid, do not try to be your own physician, and dose yourself with unknown nostrums, and remedies advertised to cure all diseases. Neither accept in that capacity your neighbor across the road, or the woman whose only recommendation is her industry in gathering stores of roots and herbs during the summer, and now seeks a use for them. Go to one who is qualified by nature, education, and experience; if he is a skillful physician he will guide you to health again with but little medicine, but with much of that which is harder for many to take, good advice. He will tell you of nature's laws, and show you wherein you have violated them; go back to them, and follow 10 146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., them, study them well, and you will agree with me that she is the best physician. I have made but brief mention of the various causes for illness that are recognized as pertaining to our subject. The planning of grounds and buildings, ventilation of rooms, the selection of food considered from a scientific standpoint, the art of cooking it, the physiological effects of labor, growth, and development, the pre- vention of disease, etc., etc. ; are each subjects for volumes, rather than a short dissertation of this character, which can only be con- sidered as an incentive to practical self-examination and reflection, and not as a finished treatise. From earlv associations which have become dearer with mature years, I have learned to appreciate the blessings of farm life. I would gladly see them increased, as I believe they can be, till the farm will be looked upon as a complete sanitarium, and the farmer and his family as examples of that physical perfection which alone can baffle disease. Question. Is there a cellar under the bouse in which you live? Dr. BowEN. Yes, sir ; built there more than a hundred years ago. I would gladly fill it up if I could. Mr. ScoviLLE. Will you tell us of the advantages of open fire places? Dr. BowEN. They are excellent methods of heating a room early in the fall, or in the spring ; they are excellent for ventilation ; but I do not regard them as giving complete heat, nor uniform heat. They are very pleasant to look at. I keep three open in my own house yet, but as for heating, they certainly do not meet the requirements of the case. I think there are other forms of heating apparatus that, upon the whole, are better. Mr. . I do not want to advertise any stove dealer, but I would like to know what description of stove will give a sum- mer heat and not dry the atmosphere in the room. I would like to buy such a stove, if I can find one. I use a common gas burner, and always put a tea-kettle upon the back of it dur- ing the evening, and night, and that furnishes considerable 1884.] QUESTIONS. 147 moisture in the room. There are plants in the room, and I think it is an advantage to them. Dr. BowEN. There are a number of stoves that give good lieat, and that are cosy and attractive in appearance. If you use coal, tliere are numbers of 'those that are exceedingly attractive, and almost as pleasant as the old-fashioned fire- place. Have you ever noticed liow pleasant it is to go into a room where plants are growing? It is the moist atmosphere from which the oxygen is not entirely burned out, that ren- ders them so attractive, and makes them so luxuriant. Whenever plants will grow luxuriantly in winter, there you will find a pleasant atmosphere to breathe. You will notice that the atmosphere of the kitchen is almost always more pleasant than that of the sitting room. That is because theie is water on tiie stove : the kettles are boiling almost continu- ally, which renders the air soft and mild. Question. Tell us about grates in a sitting room. Dr. Bowen. They are something like the old-fashioned fire- place — after the same pattern ; perform the same office. Question. Are plants growing in a room conducive to health, or otherwise? Dr. BowEN. There is a general opinion, that as soon as a person becomes ill, you must take out every plant that is growing in the room — banish it as you would the disease itself, if you could. I have often wondered a little that this should be so. When you consider that in summer our win- dows are open, the air is laden with the perfume of flowers, leaves are all budding and performing their functions, — we never move away from the climate and go north when the leaves appear, — I do not see why we should banish plants from the sick room. Any plant, however, which has a heavy perfume is perhaps objectionable ; but there is no objection to a growing plant ; on the contrary, I should say that it would be a benefit. If you consider that the office of the leaves of plants is to absorb carbonic acid gas, which is exhaled from the lungs, you will see that a plant is rather a purifier than otherwise. (Applause. ) 148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Question. Is it hurtful to eat just before retiring? Dr. BowEN. Yes, sir, and no, sir. (Laughter.) That depends a great deal upon the patient, if you will allow me to use the word. I have very often recommended persons to take a light repast before retiring, the idea being to give the stomach a little excitement to start its peristaltic action ; get the nerves started, so to speak, in that direction, and thus relieve the brain. I think, as a general thing, it is better for an ordinarily healthy person to retire on an empty stomach. Question. Would you prescribe food to excite peristaltic action ? Dr. BowEN. I don't know how it can be brought about in any other way. There must be food there to start it. Question. Is not peristaltic action going on in the intes- tines constantly, in a state of health ? Dr. BowEN. To a certain, limited degree. It is greatly increased soon after the stomach receives its burden. Question. Does it not take from two to four hours for digestion to take place in the stomach ? Dr. BowEN. As soon as the stomach receives its load, there commences a grasping of it, and very soon peristaltic action commences, which is communicated to the intestines almost at once. It is for this reason (you will excuse me for speaking so plainly), tliat the call of nature should be attended to soon after breakfast. It is more prone to take place at that time. Mr. Hubbard. I wish simply to direct attention to the question of ventilation of cellars, for, as a matter of fact, we have to use them, more or less. I hardly think many of us, even if we should happen to build a new house, would follow the advice of the speaker, and dispense entirely with a cellar. It is a fixed institution, I think, in the New England farm- house. What I wished to ask was, if it was not entirely practical so to ventilate those cellars, and care for them, that they should not be sources of disease? I live in an old house myself, which has a chimney stack in the center, starting 1884.] QUESTIONS. 149 from the ground ; it is quite a walk to go around it. In the cellar there are two fireplaces, with flues extending into the chimney. Originally, there were seven fireplaces in the dif- ferent stories of the house, communicating with that one chimney-stack ; a number of them are closed up now, but the two in the cellar remain open, and my impression is, that those fire-places so ventilate that cellar that it is not a source of disease. My opinion is, if you should build a new house, and have the chimney start from the cellar, with an open fire- place there, connected by a flue with the chimney, it would afford such perfect means of ventilation that the cellar could be kept pure, sweet, and clean, and would not be a source of disease to the family above it. Dr. BowEN. Beyond a doubt, any cellar could be made so perfect in all its sanitary arrangements by proper ventilation, either externally, or by means of a chimney, as to prevent the evil of which I have spoken. It matters not which method is adopted, but perhaps ventilation by reasons of the chimney would be as easily carried out as external ventilation. But there will be certain exhalations from the vegetables that are stored in the cellar, and from the ferment that is going on in your cider and vine'gar barrels. In this dark place, there are accumulations of filth without your being aware of it, a few vegetables are left at the close of the season which have escaped your observation, and in various ways tliere comes a taint in the air which I have perceived, and doubtless Mr. Hubbard has, very often, of which it is very hard to get rid. Mr. Hubbard. Still, I think this open flue carries it off very thoroughly. • Dr. Bo WEN. I have never visited your house, and do not know how that is. It is hard work to get rid of it in mine. I think if a man was going to build a new house, and he would construct a store room in some hill, where he could back his team up and load or unload, as the case might be, he could make that as warm as a cellar, and his produce would be much more easily handled ; he could shut it away from his living rooms entirely, and I think his health and 150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., that of his family would be better for it. I am sure it would not cost half so much as it would to dig out and stone up a cellar. Mr. B. L. Johnson of Newtown. I understood the doctor to say that he thought people living in cities and villages had an advantage over the farmer's family in conveniences for cleanliness, in the way of bath-rooms, hot and cold water, and the like. I should beg to disagree with him there. I think there is not a farmer in Connecticut who cannot obtain all those conveniences in his own home about as well as they are had in the cities, either by bringing water into his house from a spring that he may find properly located, or, if he can- not find that, by taking the water from the roof of his house into a tank on the second floor, or in the attic, and by means of pipes convey the water to different parts of his house — I speak from experience. A few years ago, I over- hauled my house, and I asked my wife which she would rather have, a parlor well-furnished or conveniences for bath- ing, etc., for I had not the money to spare to furnish both. She said she would rather have the water. Dr. BowEN. A very sensible woman, sir. (Applause.) Mr. Johnson. I think she is, I thought so before I mar- ried her. (Laughter and applause.) I looked about in the vicinity, and on a neighboring farm I found a spring that was so located that I could take the water into the second story of my house. The spring was sixty rods away from me. I bought the spring of the farmer, paying him thirty dollars for it, and he gave me a deed of it, the same as he would of any piece of property, f laid my pipe and brought the water to the house. We started the water running on Thanksgiving Day, 1874, and there has not been a moment, from that hour to this, when that half-inch pipe has not run full of water, and we have a tank on the second floor that is always full. Pipes from that tank run to the kitchen stove, where we have a boiler, and the hot water goes to the sink. We have a bath- room, so that when I come in from hoeing corn, plowing for rye, or any other dirty work, instead of going to a pond, a 1884.] QUESTIONS. 151 quarter of a mile away, as I used to do, or taking a wash-tub into an out-house, I go into the bath-room and have all the conveniences and comforts for a good bath. Of course these things cannot be done without some expense, but 1 consider it the best investment I ever made. It tost me about -$600. I would not have that bath-room taken out of the house to- day for three thousand dollars. (Applause.) Now, there is not a farmer here who cannot do that thing ; and, if there is any one here who has not the ready money to use in that way, my advice to him is (perhaps it is not worth much) if he cannot raise the money in any other way, and does not feel that he can run in debt for it, to look over his farm and see what piece of ground he can best spare from it, find a pur- chaser and sell it, and use the money to bring water into his house, and see how much comfort it will add to his own life, and how much it will help the wife in her work ; but, as a matter of economy, there will come times when you can see that it will pay. You can sometimes dispense with the ser- vices of a hired girl in the house if you have these conveni- ences — I know that from experience. My wife, with the assistance of a little girl of fourteen, has done our family work through the summer. We have a family of from six to eight and ten through the year, and she has done all the ordinary housework of the family, my boys and myself helping about the washing Monday mornings with the washing machine — which I consider very proper. Having water so convenient, she has been able to do her own work, and do it with a great deal more comfort than she could if she had a hired girl and was without these conveniences. If you cannot find a spring in or near your farm have a tank put on the second floor or in the attic, and have the conductors on your roof arranged so that the water can be carried to that tank, and then you can have a bath-room of your own, with hot and cold water, just as you find in the Scovill House, or any other well regu- lated house in the country. Mr. Rogers. I think that very few farmers give atten- tion enough to the matter of small fruits in relation to health. 152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., I come from a part of the country in which small fruits are abundant. Mr. Hale, in his paper yesterday, said that one- quarter of an acre was sufficient for a farmer's fruit garden. If you have a very large family you will find, very soon, that half an acre will not furnish you fruit enough. It is said by the doctor that malaria prevails in some portions of Connecti- cut. Now, the acid of fruits is one of the preventives of malaria. I think that if fruits were more eaten, and the acids of fruits, there would be less sickness. As I came up from Bridgeport to this place, I was struck with the absence of fruit gardens, and knowing, from experience in my own family, that our doctor's bills are very much less when we have fruit — I think the eating of fruit is conducive to health. A great many are apt to think that there may be less acid in some fruit because it is sweet or because sugar is used on it ; but the fact is, that all fruits contain more acid than many real- ize. For instance, the currant is said to be a very acid fruit ; the blackberry, in reality, contains more acid than the currant. And so sugar does not do away with the acid, it simply dis- guises the flavor. The doctor also said that many men married their second and third wives. Well, if you had larger fruit gardens, you, probably, would not have to have but the one wife ! (Laugh- ter and applause.) My wife will not cook a pie or the least pastry in the summer. She has fresh fruit enough on the table three times a day. In my own family, we use from six- teen to twenty quarts of strawberries a day, and my children, five and six years old, will eat from three to five pounds of grapes every day during the grape season, and the healthiest period of their lives is when they take the most fruit. So, if you do not wish to have second and third wives, and do want healthy children and reduced doctor's bills, plant more small fruits. (Applause.) Mr. Blot. It takes a great deal of time and labor to cul- tivate fruit. It is very well for the man who means to devote his time and money to the raising of fruit, but every farmer can raise vegetables. We know that all the Arctic expedi- 1884.] QUESTIONS. 153 tions that have been sent out of late years have been saved from scurvy by vegetables, and it is easier and cheaper to raise vegetables than fruit. Tlie great trouble with farmers is not that they do not raise fruit enough, for they can find plenty of wild fruit, but I think if they would raise a greater variety of vegetables, they would profit by it more than by raising a greater variety or a greater quantity of fruit. Something has been said about eating in the evening. Far- mers, in the Eastern States especially, eat as if they were natives of Kamschatka or the northern part of Siberia. If you were to tell them to take a tallow candle for supper they would laugh at you. What else do they do ? They eat pie- crust made of a mixture of grease and a little flour ; the less flour the better they like it. If they were to take fruit and vegetables, and good, wholesome bread and butter, or meat, they would consider that very heavy and hearty food. It is a great deal easier to digest a beefsteak, well-cooked, than it is a piece of pie-crust. That the doctor will admit, I have no doubt. I was not brought up on a farm, but I have been a farmer seven years. I take my breakfast in summer at half- past five or six o'clock, dinner at twelve, supper at seven, and tea at midnight. (Laughter and applause.) Mr. Webb. I should not think the gentleman would have any time to take anything else ! Mr. Augur. I would like to ask Dr. Bowen whether he considers it allowable to have water, which is used for drink- ing purposes, brought in lead pipes, and, if not, what he would advise ? Dr. Bowen. I suppose there is no objection to bringing water in lead pipes if there is a continuous flow of water. But if the pipe is partially emptied at times, or wholly emp- tied, so that the interior of the pipe becomes oxidized, then you will get lead poison. Block-tin pipes, I suppose, are bet- ter. Mr. '■ — . I would like your opinion in regard to the privies which are now located in all our public houses ; w^iether they do not cause a great deal of malaria ? 154 BOARD OF ACxEICULTURE. [Jan., Dr. BowEN. They cause a great deal of disease from sewer gas, as it is termed. It is a thing against which the city phy- sician has to contend more than any other one source of dis- ease, probably. All our hotels are subject to the same condi- tions. Mr. Wetherell. Is that a necessity, or 'is it owing to the ' want of good plumbing and care ? Dr. BowEN. Generally it is owing to the want of sanitary plumbing. Mr. Norton. I would like to say a word in regard to lead pipes, with which I have had some experience. I was gone from here for ten years, living at the west, and before I had been here a year, after my return, I was attacked with dread- ful distress in the pit of my stomach. The doctors did not seem to know what it was, but I had those spells every little while for two years, until my hands were paralyzed, so that I could not hold a cup to my lips or cut up my own food. I had been drinking water from a lead pipe, and I attributed my trouble to that. I have given up the use of it entirely, and driven a well for my water. Mr. . Will you allow a practical plumber to say a few words on that subject ? I have worked at the business for twelve years, and have had considerable experience. I have worked at both city and country plumbing, and have given the subject a good deal of attention and thought. I have never known or heard of a case of lead poisoning occur- ring in a city. I find that some of the healthiest cities in the world, that have the lowest rate of mortality, are sup- plied entirely by lead pipes, and the water is used for cooking and drinking purposes. Those cases that occur in the coun- try are almost invariably cases where the water was con- ducted from springs, and the pipe had been disused for some time before the lead poisoning occurred. Lead pipe will cer- tainly oxidize, and, after the pipe has been disused for some time, this oxidation dries on the inside, and when the water comes* through again, it is liable to carry along some pieces 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 155 of it, which occasion lead poisoning. I never knew a case to occur under any other circumstances. Mr. Johnson. The matter to which Mr. Augur alludes is a very important one. I will say that we should be very care- ful not to use water which has remained undisturbed in a tank ; that is, where the flow is stopped in the pipe. There is a constant flow of water from the spring, to which I have referred, to my house, and a pipe from the tank takes the overflow to my J)arn-yard and waters my stock. There is sufficient overflow from my tank every day in the year to water fifty or seventy-five head of cattle. Mr. Webb. I wish thd question box might be opened. QUESTION BOX. Question. Can the raising of sheep be again made profit- able by farmers clubbing together, whose farms join, and em- ploying a sheep-tender or shepherd, with a shepherd's dog? In such case it would not make much difference if the fences were poor, or if there were not any, as the sheep would be led or driven about by the tender. A pen or shelter for the sheep at night, and a cabin beside it for the tender and his dog, would be needed. In Scotland, a shepherd will easily take care of five hundred sheep. Is it not possible that in this way many of our worn-out farms in Connecticut can be restored ? Mr. Webb. I would like to say one word. That question has been discussed, I believe, at every meeting for several years past, and the only way I can suggest or think of, is to shut up the tramps and kill the. dogs. I believe then we can keep sheep. Mr. Crofutt. I do not agree with our friend at all. I believe there is a way by which our sheep can be protected. Our lands are well calculated for sheep, and here they are spread out before us in Connecticut. What is the trouble ? Dogs ! Why not stop them ? Some say, " kill them." No, don't kill them. I have a dog that I would not want to 156 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., spare ; a little Scotch Skye, that picks up the paper and brings it home to my breakfast table. There are a good many more like him. What is to be done then ? I can look back sixty years, when sheep were kept in the woods, and they would run all summer, and in the fall they were brought in and put under shelter. Why cannot the same thing be done now just as well as then ? Oh, the dogs 1 What is to be done ? I qan tell you. Dogs now are allowed to run at large. They are taxed ; they are property, — which is per- fectly right. I have no more right to kill my neighbor's dog than I have to kill his horse, if I understand the matter right. Those dogs must be cared fqr in some way or other. Make a law, then, that those dogs shall be broken. I have broken a good many dogs. I will tell you how I did it. Take a dog six months old ; let him go into a field, and he will always chase the first thing that he sees run. If he attacks a sheep, whip him severely. I never saw one that molested a sheep a second time. Mr. ScoviLLE. The plan of breaking dogs did not work with me. I have kept a flock of sheep for sixty years, and never had more than one or two killed during that time. A year ago I put a young dog into a stable about ten feet square, and put in three large bucks and they went at him and pounded him until he wasn't anything but jelly ; I thought they were going to kill him, and I flung him out into a field where there was a flock of sheep, and the first thing he did was to put for them ! (Laughter.) Mr. Bill. I want to say a word in favor of sheep culture. I believe that mixed farming pays the Connecticut farmer to- day better than special farmmg. In my opinion, it is best for the farmer to keep stock, to keep sheep, to keep anything and everything upon his farm that he may think will pay. To-day, or this year, perhaps raising lambs and selling them will pay better than anything else. Next year, it may be that raising Devons will pay better than anything else. The way in which I have managed since I have been carrying on 1884.] QUESTION BOX- . 157 my farm has been to keep a little of everything. In that way I manage to hit it somewhere ; and that is my advice to you. Now, sir, in relation to farmers clubbing together and keeping a shepherd to watch their flocks, it will not pay in this stirring section of New England ; but it will pay the farmer to fence his out pastures and pasture them with sheep. That will bring back our old pastures to the condition in which they were when I and many others of these gentlemen present were boys. To-day, those pastures have run up to brush in many sections of our State ; they are running down ; the tax that is paid is small for such land, but if farmers would rise early in the morning, if they have no other time, and fence their land, and keep sheep, they would find it would pay, and it would materially enhance the value of those pastures. They would be worth a hundred per cent, more and produce that amount beyond what they are now producing. Then with regard to the dog. I come here as an advocate for the dog as well as the sheep. A few years ago, when the legislature passed the law that is now on the Statute book in relation to dogs, I remember a question put to me by our secretary when we were before that committee, while I was testifying. He asked me if I was there in the interest of dogs or of sheep. I told him I was there in the interest of both. I keep my shepherd dogs and they pay me as well, comparatively as my sheep. Only day before yesterday I gathered my sheep from the hills in separate flocks, and worked from early morn- ing up to the time I left for this convention with my shepherd dogs, and I did more than half a dozen men could have done. I set them to gathering the sheep together to bring them home, and it only required myself with them to gather them in. Now, we have a law to-day to. protect our farmers who are raising sheep, by which the towns are compelled to pay every dollar of damage that is done by dogs. And who pays this money into the treasury ? We pay it ourselves. I pay it on my dogs. If I have any damage done to my sheep by dogs, I do not go to the owner and say, " You must give 158 BOAED OP AGRICULTURE, [Jan., me 25 or 50 per cent, of the damage done ; " I go to the town, and get every cent of it from this fund that we have created throughout the State for this purpose. [Applause.] Now, I say that there is not a man in this room who cannot go into sheep culture and make it pay, and every cent of damage he sustains by dogs will be handed back to him ; there is no loss. You build up your land, you make it profitable, and it is the best business you can go into separately on your land or in connection with other farm interests and stock raising. [Applause.] Mr. John Webster. I am a keeper of a few sheep. 1 am probably not as conversant with the culture of sheep as my • friend Mr. Bill, but this season there have been dogs among my sheep three different times. Last June I had five killed. One of them was a full-blooded Cotswold buck, and the others were ewes. Subsequently to that, dogs got among my sheep again and broke the leg of one of them ; they did not do a great deal of damage that time ; but lately, they got among them again, killed two and maimed some four or five others. I claim that if we farmers could go into the culture of sheep, it is the most profitable animal we have in Connecticut. I am not so friendly to dogs as Mr. Bill. You get a flock of full- blooded sheep that you admire and think a good deal of, dogs get among them and chase them about and perhaps kill some of them ; suppose those that survive are not injured at all, are they as valuable as they were before they had this excite- ment? I tell you, gentlemen, no. Suppose I go to the treas-- urer of the town in which I live and carry my bill for that Cotswold buck that I owned — you could not buy one to-day for twenty dollars. They do not feel disposed to pay twenty dollars for a sheep. They will say many times, " we will go to raising sheep if. we can get twenty dollars a piece for them." I am perfectly disgusted with our legislation on the subject of dogs. If we could go into the raising of sheep, the State of Connecticut would be worth thousands of dollars more than it is. I was up in Vermont last June, and looking out of the car windows, I saw the hills alive with sheep ; som 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 159 of them were so steep, that it seemed to me if the sheep should make a misstep they would roll down ; no cow could get a living there. Sheep can live in the State of Connecticut. We have a great deal of pasture land which is not worth a row of pins for cows or cattle, but sheep will live there and flourish. I wish we could have in our legislature representa- tive farmers who would take more interest in sheep, and let the dogs go to Tophet. Mr, Bill. My friend Webster speaks of sheep being wor- ried. The present law not only covers cases where sheep are killed or maimed, but also provides for the payment of dam- ages where they are worried ; so we are secure in that direc- tion. We can recover from the Treasurer of the town fo]» worrying. Mr. . Why cannot we have a law that will com- pel every one who owns a dog to keep him upon his own premises, the same as any stock ? It seems to me that would be a reasonable kind of law. Mr. Gold. The beauty of the question-box is, that if you are not interested in one question, perhaps you will be in the next. What is the cause of water-core in apples ? Is there any known preventive ? Several Voices. No. Question. What is the best thoroughbred breed of cows for the dairy farmer to keep ? Mr. Wetherell. If for butter I should say the Jersey ; if for cheese, I should say the Shorthorn, or the Ayrshire. Mr. Scoville. For profit on the farm and to raise nice cattle and sell them, I should say the Devon. Mr. . For the last twenty-five years, I have owned from six to twenty-six cows, and I find just as good cows among Devons as any other breed. Question. Which is the best stock for a dairy farmer to keep, thoroughbred or crossbred cows ? Mr. Scoville. If I wanted to obtain the greatest quan- tity of milk, I would take the crossbred. 160 * BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan*, Mr. Wetherell. When they ask from $300 to $500 for a Jersey, if you have profit in your eye, I think you better stick to the crossbred. Question. What is the best method of reclaiming a bog meadow ? Several Voices. Ditch it. Mr, Hubbard. There is not, of course, any definite or explicit answer to be given to that question. It may take a man several years to study out the best way, but I do not think there is a bog meadow in the State of Connecticut that ought to be let alone. You may not see at once, you may not see in a year, you may not see in four or five years, just 'what to do, but the fact is this, that these bog meadows con- tain elements of fertility that have washed down from the hills, gathered there, and been preserved there by being satu- rated with water for generations, centuries — no one knows how long. There is a great deal of fertility stored up in bog meadows, and they ought not to be passed over without con- sideration. If a man has a bog meadow on his farm, let him go to work and study it until he finds out what is best for it, and then go to work and do it. Mr. Wetherell. The shortest way is to take the water from it, without any reflection, and when you have got the water out of it, plow it and raise a crop of oats or potatoes, and then seed it down to herds-grass and get your crop. I have tried it, and the first crop of potatoes after draining the swamp paid me for all the labor that it cost to drain it. Mr. Hyde. I would suggest sending our boys down to the Storrs School to study this subject. Mr. ScoviLLE. I have six acres of bog meadow, and my plan has been to dig the ditches about thirty feet apart, three feet deep, eighteen inches at the top and sixteen at the bot- tom, and lay two round stones, the size of a small loaf of bread, and cover it with stone — I would rather have round stone than flat — and then pack around it, filling it with earth from my hill land within eight inches of the top. I have got i 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 161 miles of such ditches on my place, I get two tons to the acre, and from my best hill meadows I get less than a ton. In one case, I ridged a piece in the old fashioned way of rais- ing corn, pulled out the bogs, and planted with corn the very first year ; when the corn came up it looked well, but the first time we undertook to hoe it, we could hardly break the soil. I told my hired man that he might have half the corn that grew there for half a month's work. In June there came slight rains, the field was nothing but muck, but I got a large crop of corn. In the fall, as soon as the crop was off, 1 smoothed off the ridges and sowed it to oats and grass ; the oats came up as high as that chair and fell down flat, so I got hardly any ; but the grass seed took very well, and that piece produced over three tons to' the acre. Mr. Bill. I don't believe I can tell this company what it is best for them to do if they have got bog meadows, but I can tell them what is best to do with them if they have got f 30,000 — make cranberry meadows of them. Mr. West. My idea of a bog meadow is something that is saturated with water. I have in mind a piece of swamp or bog meadow near me that was drained by open ditches, which was worthless for agricultural purposes up to that time, but? which now produces large crops. Two years ago the owner raised large quantities of squashes upon that piece of ground, while upon upland his' crop of squashes was an utter lailure. Last season, a portion of it was planted with onions and other crops, with good results. Mr, Hale. Three years ago, we commenced on a small portion (perhaps an eighth of an acre) of a piece of land that we had drained and made so dry that it was almost useless for purposes of cultivation, and carted on sand from a hill only a few rods away and dumped it a little in a place ; in the spring, we plowed it in, and the benefit was so manifest that first year that, last season, we laid tiles all through those open ditches, and filled them up with sand, and put sand all over the field. We spent all our leisure time, last winter, II 162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., on about a quarter of an acre of land, and put on nearly four thousand one-horse cart loads of sand. The draining of the lot, putting on the sand, and everything, has cost us between four and five hundred dollars ; but the land is worth to us, and will pay us interest on, more than a thousand dollars. It is the most valuable piece of land we own for growing crops of any l^ind. We have had several crops on it this season, in small patches, but, of course, its special value to us is in the plant business, for it grows a mass of fibrous roots on our plants, which are really very valuable. I say, if you are going to drain a swamp, don't get it too dry, but if you do, put on sand, which will make it damp. D. B. HoTCHKiss, of Prospect. David M. Hotchkiss had, about fifty years ago, three acres of peat swamp which lay adjacent to a gravel knoll, and lay so that it could be drained. It was ditched by one ditch laterally and three the other way, about, I should say, eighty feet apart. The ditches were about three feet deep, three feet broad on top and sixteen inches at the bottom — broad enough for a man to stand in and shovel. The soil was so soft that you could stick a rake tail down its full length in any part of it. This land lay •nearly level, and after the ditching was done, they went on with a bog cutter which cuts the bog, most of them, and the balance were cut by hand. The bogs were gathered into piles and, after drying, burned. The surface of the ground was plowed, ashes spread on, and then a crop of oats raised. The next year a crop of potatoes was raised, and then the field was sowed with herds-grass. The land before ditching was worth, perhaps, fifteen dollars an acre. It paid in six years the whole cost of ditching and labor, besides interest. That land for thirty years was in good condition. Now it has gone back, because the neighbor below us did not want us to dig into his land deep enough to drain it. Question. What is the best kind of grass seed to sow on a reclaimed bog meadow ? Mr. Scoville. Timothy, red-top, and orchard grass. 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 163 Question. What is the best method of irrigating or lessening the effects of drought? Mr. Hale. Thorough cultivation. Mr. Ayer. My friend Mr. Bill talks about his losses in cranberry culture. Go with me across the Connecticut river to the towns of Saybrook and Essex, and you will find people who will tell another story in regard to cranberries. Some of them have made good profits, and will make them year by year. So has our friend from Bristol, Mr. Norton. So I do not think that because the locality of our friend Bill is so marked a failure in cranberries, every locality "would fail. Mr. Bill. I did not suppose that this convention would hear from me again tonight; I hoped that I might have something to say to-morrow, but when my friend there, who came from the town of Saybrook, just opposite from where I reside, but who has gone into the northern part of the State, and who knows no more about the town of Saybrook that he was born in, or about the way the cranberry was cultivated, than the man in the moon, undertakes to talk about cranber- ries, I want to say that there is not a man there who has got back a dollar of what he has invested. The only cranberry bog in that town is D. C. Stevenson's. He has got $30,000 invested, but he does not get $30.00 worth of cranberries a year from that bog. When he talks of cranberries down about the mouth of the Connecticut river, I will say that I know more about that than he does ; I have put my money into it, and he has not. You go into the town of Essex ; there was a cranberry bog west of the village that at one time paid a dividend, but to-day it is nothing but an open common. I would not reach down upon this floor and pick up a crushed peanut and give it to the owners for that bog, or take it as a gift. I have been delegated here by a higher power than this convention to stand up in the presence of the farmers of the State of Connecticut and say to them, " Never be fools like myself and put your money into worthless bogs expecting ever to get back a dollar of it again in cranberry culture ! " I have heard about that little bog of Mr. Norton's 164 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., up in his vicinity. I have understood that it did pay a divi- dend, but it did not pay but one. Dikes are not put around the mouth of the river, as Solon Robinson said they could be, and the bogs utilized, and every acre made to pay the interest on $1,000 or $1,500 a year. It is a great mistake. We read of tliese things in the papers and take them in ; we think they are so ; but I tell you it is all moonshine. I don't care where you invest your money, you can put it into any other kind of property, and although it may not be worth a dollar, it will be worth as much as a cranberry bog. Mr. Ayer. My friend was talking in the same line that I was. Perhaps I was not understood. When we talk about draining marshes next to salt water, as his were, I say it is impossible. I sayD. C. Stevenson failed for the same reason there in Essex, next to the river ; but when we talk about land back from the river, where there is a proper chance, as Mr. Norton has, if anybody says that cranberries cannot be raised there at a profit, I know to the contrary. My friend Bill is right, and so am I. Question. How about ensilage. Mr. Wetherell. The secretary of the Vermont Dairy men's Association came to Boston a few days ago, after attending the meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agri- culture at Lowell, and inquired of the leading butter dealers in Boston, who sell the best commodity of that kind that is sold in that market, and every one of those butter-dealers told him they did not want any ensilage butter ; they had tried it, and they did not wish to have any more brought into their stores. I wish to add, simply, that some of the condensed milk factories, as I understand, refuse to use milk for con- densing purposes that is made from cows that are fed on ensilage. The preparation of ensilage is nothing new. It was known to the ancients, as it is known to us. If they found it a good thing, how is it that it dropped out of use until recently ? I .do not believe that ensilage, for making butter or dairy products, is at all to be desired. Mr. Russell, of Orange. I have a silo that I filled, and I 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 165 am feeding from it now. There is no odor from the ensilage that is objectionable. .My stock are eating well, and are doing well upon it. I think I could convince any one of that fact if they should see them. Mr. Chamberlain. This question of ensilage is a very important one. There are gentlemen all over this State who have invested large sums in building silos and in growing material to put in them. I am not an advocate of ensilage ; I cannot speak from experience ; I believe, however, that it is easily demonstrable that it is not the best way of producing animal food. I think it can be shown by figures (which do not lie, it is said) that the same amount of material for food may be obtained by allowing this corn to mature. Ordinarily, especially for a crop of corn for ensilage, the land is prepared as well as is necessary for a matured crop of corn, and I think I could demonstrate at any time, with a little time to pre- pare figures, that it is not a profitable investment ; and yet there are gentlemen here who would disagree with me entirely. I wish that this question of ensilage might have a fair dis- cussion in this convention.. Facts are facts, with regard to ensilage as with regard to everything else. Men have carried their stock througli the winter season with apparent success upon ensilage, and notwithstanding the extravagant state- ments that have been made by some pioneers in this sort ol work, I believe there is something in it. Other men's opinions are better on the subject than mine. If they will give their experience, I, for one, should very much like to listen to them. Mr. Augur. I have had no experience whatever with ensilage, but very recently I heard Dr. A. M. Shew, of the Connecticut General Hospital for the Insane, make this state- ment in regard to their siloa and the way in which they filled them. If I mistake not, they 'put in some twelve or fourteen hundred tons — for their silos are very large, and they have a large stock of cattle. He said they had two steam-engines running at the same time cutting the corn. It was filled in very rapidly, and the silo was closed and weighted very per- fectly, so that when the ensilage was cut there was no dis- 166 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., agreeable odor whatever. It was very like opening a can of fresh fruit. In regard to the effect on tlie cows, he said that after feeding their cows with ensilage for three weeks they found, by actual weight, that the quantity of milk had in- creased forty per cent. (Applause.) Mr. Skilton. I remember reading some account of the analysis of ensilage by Professor Johnson, and he remarked that his analysis of a certain amount of ensilage and the same amount of dried corn showed that there was as much good feed to be obtained from the dried corn as from the ensilage- It was his opinion that there, was no benefit in this ensilage ; that farmers might as well dry the corn and feed it dry. That is my opinion also. Mr. Rundel, Superintendent of the Industrial School. The gentleman who last spoke is right in one respect. I do not think we gain by any change in the nutritive qualities of ensilage, but we do gain in this respect, — that it is a hard matter to cure a heavy crop of corn fodder well, but we can put it into a silo and be sure of saving it all. My experience has been that ensilage makes good feed and produces good butter. Mr. Myrick. Mr. G. M. Washburn, of Lancaster, Mass., who has had nearly forty-five years experience, makes the point, that putting green corn or green clover into a silo, when it was wet, is the cause of a great deal of the foul odor in ensilage, and Mr. Hoyt (whose ensilage smelled so badly) stated to me before he went away, that his clover was put in on a wet day. Mr. Steele, of the Philadelphia " Press." It may be worth while to state, as against the remarks of the gentleman from Boston with reference to. the opinion of Boston butter dealers, that some of the butter which sells in the New York market at the highest price, alongside the Darlington butter, is made from the milk of a herd of Jerseys that is fed exclu- sively on ensilage, with a little grain, of course, but no hay whatever. And, more than that, they have been fed on ensil- age during the summer as well as the winter. 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 167 Mb. . I heard the question of ensilage discussed at the meeting two years ago. It is well known that large quantities of sowed corn are raised in Litchfield county. It is very difficult to cure that and have it come out in good con- dition, it is apt to be mouldy. But it can, if put into a silo and cured properly, be made good feed for stock. I have fed some of it this winter, and my cattle are doing well on4t, and the milk I get from the cows is sweet and good. Dr. Foote. I would like to ask if any gentlemen in this room who has a silo has found any trouble with his butter ? Before building my silo, I went around and examined various silos, and I found that, universally, those who had silos liked the result which they obtained from feeding the ensilage. The difficulty all comes from those who give hearsay state- ments. I was told by a friend connected with the New York press that Mr. Miles had lost two horses from feeding ensilage. I saw Mr. Miles and asked him about it, and he said, " It is true I lost two horses, but they had not eaten a particle of ensilage. I was feeding it to my other horses, with my other stock, and they all did well upon it. I took a pair of horses and drove them very rapidly, left them standing out in the cold, they took cold and died. They had never eaten any ensilage." Mr. Scoville. I would like to inquire why fodder is any more nutritious after being put into a silo ? What is it that adds to its fattening qualities, or to its value in any way as food for stock ? It goes through the process of fermentation in the animal just as well without the silo as with it. The breath of the animal will show that. Gentlemen speak about its being very difficult to cure sowed corn. It is the easiest thing in the world. Drive a stake into the ground every third row, put your corn around it, tie it there, and it will stand perfectly straight, and will be just as bright next March, except a little on the outside, as it is when you put it up there. I know it to be so. I have raised enough in one year to keep twenty-five head of cattle 168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., clear through to April. I think that is less trouble than it is to make ensilage. Mr. RuNDEL. You get no additional nutritive quality, but your cattle will eat stalks and everything where it is ensilaged. I have not teen able to cure any wliere it matured so that my cattle would eat everything. Mr. Bill. Will it pay ? That is the point that should come before this meeting. Look at the first investment in building a silo ; then look at the great expense of cutting up that corn, or clover, or whatever you cut up to pack in that silo. Look at the machinery which you are obliged to have after you have built your silo. It costs a great deal to trans- port that material. Now take the other side of the question. In the fall of the year, when your corn has become ripe and ready to cut up, what does it cost the farmer to put his men at work to shock that corn ? It remains in those shocks a reasonable length of time, and the weather cures it ready for husking, and the stalks to be deposited in the stacks. My stock are subsisting to-day more than one-half upon that corn- fodder. Now take the meal that will come from the corn from each one of those bundles of stalks, feed that to your animals, and how sleek and fat they will come out in the spring! And how much more profitable it must be, taking the expense into account, to cut that corn up, give them the well-cured stalks, and the poor hay that is cut on those bogs in cranberry meadows ! How much better it will be for the stock, h(Tw much cheaper for the farmer, and in how much better sliape would liis stock come out in the spring ! Mr. Myrick. In confirmation of Mr. Bill's remarks, and in reply to our friend who inquired if there was any one who had had experience with ensilage who was dissatisfied with it, I would state that there is in this paper Q'-The New England ITomestead^^') a short article giving an unfavorable view of ensilage ; the first one, I think the record will show, that we have received. With the Chairman's permission, I will read it. The article was written by Frederick Conant, of Middle- sex County, Mass. : 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 1G9 " I have filled a silo twice with corn and rowen, but do not propose to fill it again. The rowen I consider good, but the corn I consider not as good as meadow hay, and I stand ready to risk any money that cattle fed on corn ensilage alone will grow poor and dry up on it. I fed it to dry cows with two quarts of bran one month, and then gave them five quarts. They lost flesh, never looked plump, and went without drink- ing for days at a time. Folks come to my barn now (I am a cattle trader) and make the remark that my cattle look better than they used to, and I know it without being told. I built a double silo, costing me about $700 in time and money. I consider it about so much money thrown away. Talk about its making a farm richer ! It will make the land poorer, for the reason that it makes poor manure, and if 100 tons of ensilage are raised it takes all of that manure and more to raise the next 100 tons. Farmers in this town have not aver- aged 15 tons of ensilage corn per acre. It takes the best of land and the highest of manuring to raise 25 tons. Those who don't believe it had better try it. A small silo that would give the cattle one feed a day would be good — just about as good as the same amount of apple pomace, and I think no better, if the pomace is sweet. It is all heavy, hard work putting the corn in the silo and getting it out, costing me nearly 11.50 per ton for the getting in. I have' sold cows the past two winters that gave after leaving me from one to four quarts more milk, which I suppose is a credit to me, but rather expensive. One cattle trader told me last winter that I had lost more than ;#200 on the sale of my cattle by feeding ensilage, as my cattle never were full and plump. I think there are but four silos in this town — two of them are empty, never again to be filled. It is my candid opinion that in less than 15 years silos in this country will be no more. There are a few men who have made money by getting the farmers to build and selling them cutters for -$75 or -flOO apiece, and. corn seed for $3 to 11 per bushel. They have made their last dollar out of me, and I am still able to pay my debts, but feel mighty sore to be fooled so. I have said nothing about the 170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., manner of building silos, for if a man is silly enough to build, let him do it as he thinks best." Mr. ScoviLLE. We put twenty-five hills of corn in a stack. Those stacks yield a bushel of ears of corn. When we come to husk it, it makes three good bundles. Now, if you should feed, as Mr. Bill has said, one of these bundles of stalks to each animal, and then divide the bushel of corn among three, your oxen would be too fat to work, and your cows would be far too fat to give milk. Mr. RuNDEL. I asked a gentleman who resides in one of the largest milk-producing sections of our State in regard to silos, and he said that while he thought they were good things, those who bought milk had refused to take it if it came from those who fed ensilage ; consequently, he said, they had no more use around there for silos. It seems to me that the question resolves itself largely into this : If they do not want our butter, if they do not want our milk, that is produced from ensilage, what is the use of it for us ? It resolves itself right into the question proposed by Mr. Bill, " Does it pay ? " You may talk about it, and around it, but it will come right back to that question — Does it pay ? If we have a good market for our butter and milk, if people will buy them and give a good price for them, then it may be all right. But if they do not want our butter or milk made from ensilage, then we have no occasion to fill our silos. Mr. Sedgwick. In conversation with Maj. Alvord *of Houghton Farm, this last spring, he told me that they had tried a series of experiments at that place in relation to ensi- lage. They took ten cows, all of them giving about the same quantity of milk, and fed five of them on ensilage, and five on good meadow hay — giving the cows that had ensilage all they would eat. The milk was carefully weighed and tested, and the product churned separately. It was found that while the ensilage increased the product of milk, the longer it was fed, there was a decrease of fatty matter in the milk, until there came a time when the cream from that milk would not make butter. He says that the experiment which they made 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 171 satisfied them that ensilage alone was not a profitable food, although, to be fed in conjunction with something else, it might be. What is there in ensilage to make it a valuable food ? If you look at the analysis of it, you will see that it is worth less than brewers' grains, and the Board of Health have prohib- ited the sale of milk made from brewers' grains. We know that it has the same alcoholic smell and taste. And when the question of labor, the value of land, and the cost of handling this mass of stuff, are taken into consideration, I think it may well be doubted whether it is a paying thing. Mr. J, Beonson of Ohio. I have listened to the discussion this afternoon with a great deal of satisfaction. I am not a resident of this State, but I am a native of this town. I have fed sowed corn for thirty or forty years, and I never have heard any one say that the milk that came from sowed corn was not good ; on the contrary, it was considered the best milk that was ever sold to any factory ; and I certainly think, from my own experience, that cattle fed on sowed corn will thrive and look better in the spring than if fed upon any other feed that you can give them. I use a horse-power and cutter, and cut up my sowed corn and corn-fodder fine. In an hour, I can cut a ton of stalks, and cut them not over half an inch long. Sift on a little wlieat bran, and your cattle will thrive, and when you let them out, they will kick up their heels and do well. C. H. Cables of Thomaston. We cure our sowed corn by cutting it and allowing it to lie on the ground a week or more. If it is a dry time, and we have no rain, we bind it up in large bundles, larger than ordinary rye-straw bundles, and stack it in stacks of from thirty to fifty bundles, binding it in the center and on top, and allow it to stand until we want it. In the winter, we haul it on a sled to the barn as we need it, and the inside is apparently as good as when it was cut. We never have any mouldy corn. Some parties have said that stalks make very poor milk. So they do, if fed alone, but if we give our cows a quart of meal a day, we 172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., find they will give more milk, and give a good quality of milk. Among other things, we have fed cabbage to our cows, and "we have found that we can make more milk on cabbage than anything else we have ever fed. It does not flavor the milk, but we are pretty careful not to feed any decayed leaves. I will not say that we can make good butter on cabbage, but we can make good-tasting milk, and have not heard any com- plaint from our customers. We cut our corn by the use of a Jersey bull, who works nicely in summer or in winter. We use him in a horse- power. Mr. Bill. I remember when this matter of ensilage was first started. It was like fire, and it seemed to me it was going to sweep the land, — and it has partially, — before we could get a reaction. I saw into it the first time that it came up in the meeting, and battled it. I believed it was my duty to do it. I regarded it as another cranberry operation, or morus multicaulis operation, or sorghum operation. I see that only a portion of the farmers of Connecticut have gone into it, and expended $300, 1500, or $800, and it may deter others from doing it, until they investigate the case further. It has been an interesting subject to bring before the meeting, and information has come out that will be beneficial to the farmers of the State. Question. What is the proper treatment of an animal that has a weeping eye, or a film growing over the eye? What will remove the film? Dr. BowEN. It is quite a general practice to blow a little powdered burnt alum into the eye. A better practice, and one not quite so harsh, is to sponge the eye with a solution of borax — about four grains to an ounce of water. Before one attempts any remedy, he had better investigate the cause of the film, and ascertain whether it comes from a wound that the animal has received, or from some injurious feeding. It is very apt to come from the latter cause. I think farmers are apt to overlook that very important consideration in the 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 173 health of their animals. They do not look sufficiently to the feed. We see it more often in dogs that are getting too high feed. I have seen a film over their eyes to such an extent that they would be almost totally blind ; and yet, by a little simple starvation, they brightened up in a few days. The same tiling may occur in our cattle. Question. What would you do if an animal got some- thing in its eye ? Dr. BowEN. You will have to look very carefully into it. Mr. . I had a horse, some three years ago, one of whose eyes would be closed for a day or two and would weep. I bathed it with lukewarm water, that was the only thing I could think of, and the best thing that I could do. I sup- posed something had got into it. It got well, apparently, but in about a month it came on again, I consulted a veterinary surgeon about it, and he said it was ophthalmia. He gave me a lotion of sugar of lead and sulphate of zinc, I suppose, and I used this lotion whenever the trouble came on. The horse is now blind. I know of several horses that are apparently going through the same difficulty. I would like to know what will cure in such cases. Mr. GiLMAN, of New Hartford. I had a horse one of whose eyes became blind. I called in a veterinaiy surgeon, who recommended blistering. I applied the blisters, and the horse has been perfectly sound for two years. I blistered six or seven times, the thin film came off, and the eye dis- charged. The same man told me that before two years the horse would be perfectly blind, but there is no appearance of it. The blisters were applied in the hollow right by the side of the eye. The Secretary read an invitation from Booth & Co. to visit their works at nine o'clock to-morrow morning, which the Convention very cordially accepted. Adjourned to evening. 174 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., EVENING SESSION. The evening meeting was called to order at seven and a-half o'clock, by Mr. Barstow. Mr. Gold. Col. Wilder, the venerable President of the American Pomological Society, at the last meeting of that society, presented in his address the importance of a revised system of nomenclature of American fruits. The confusion that has arisen, and the discredit that some varieties labor under from the absurd names by which they are designated is such that he thought it worth while to make it a particular point in his address, and that subject was taken up by the convention. Committees were appointed, and resolutions prepared, which were adopted by that convention, recom- mending a uniform style of nomenclature, and the rejection of synonyms. They recommended rules for the exhibition of fruit before that association, and exhibitions generally. In answer to that appeal from Col. Wilder, that Association has published a circular containing those recommendations, and an extract from that address, copies of which h&,ve been sent to associations like ours and kindred societies throughout the country, with a request that we would take such action as we deem expedient towards endorsing that movement. It is desirable that we should take some action in accord- ance with the request of this honorable Society, and in support of its venerable president on this subject, and I here present the circular. AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. At the recent meeting of the American Pomological Society held in Philadelphia, Mr. J. B. Rogers of New Jersey, made the following motion, which was unamimously adopted: "That the Secretary of this Society be instructed, at an early day, to send copies of our rules and the portion of the President's address referring to the names of fruits, to all kindred societies in America." W. J. Beal, Secretary, Marshall P. Wilder, President, Lansing, Mich. Boston, Mass. 1884.] AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 175 The rules adopted, and the portion of the President's address referred to in the vote, are as follows: Rules of the American Pomological Society. Section I. Naming and Describing New Fruits. Rule 1. — The originator or introducer (in the order named) has the prior right to bestow a name upon a new or unnamed fruit. Rule 2. — The Society reserves the right, in case of long, inappropriate, or otherwise objectionable names, to shorten, modify, or wholly change tlie same, when they shall occur in its discussions or reports ; and also to recommend such changes for general adoption. Rule 8. — The names of fruits should, preferably, express, as far as practicable by a single word, the characteristics of the variety, the name of the originator, or the place of its origin. Under no ordinary circum- stances should more than a single word be employed. Rule 4. — Should the question of priority arise between diflFerent names for the same variety of fruit, other circumstances being equal, the name first publicly bestowed will be given precedence. Rule 5. — To entitle a new fruit to the award or commendation of the Society, it must possess (at least for the locality for which it is recom- mended) some valuable or desirable quality or combination of qualities, in a higher degree than any previously known variety of its class and season. Rule 6. — A variety of fruit, having been once exhibited, examined, and reported upon, as a new fruit, by a committee of the Society, will not, thereafter, be recognized as such, so far as subsequent reports are concerned. Section II. Competitive Exhibits of Fruits. Rule 1. — A plate of fruit must contain six specimens, no more, no less, except in the case of single varieties, not included in collections. Rule 2. — To insure examination by the proper committees, all fruits must be correctly and distinctly labeled, and placed upon the tables during the first day of the exhibition. Rule 3. — The duplication of varieties in a collection will not be permitted. Rule 4. — In all cases of fruits intended to be examined and reported by committees, the name of the exhibitor, together with a complete list of the varieties exhibited by him, must be deli'^gered to the Secretary of the Society on or before the first day of the exhibition. Rule 5.— The exhibitor will receive from the Secretary an entry card, which must be placed with the exhibit, when arranged for exhibition, for the guidance of committees. 176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Rule 6. — All articles placed upon the tables for exhibition must remain in charge of the Society till the close of the exhibition, to be removed sooner only upon express permission of the person or persons in charge. Rule 7. — Fruits or other articles intended for testing, or to be given away to visitors, spectators, or others, will be assigned a separate hall, room, or tent, in which they may be dispensed at the pleasure of the exhibitor, who will not, however, be ijermitted to sell and deliver articles therein, nor to call attention to them in a boisterous or dis- orderly manner. Section III. Committee on Nomenclature. Rule 1. — It shall be the duty of the President, at the first session of the Society, on the first day of an exhibition of fruits, to appoint a committee of five expert pomologists, whose duty it shall be to supervise the nomenclature of the fruits on exhibition, and in case of error to correct the same. Rule 2. — In making the necessary corrections they shall, for the con- venience of examining and awarding committees, do the same at as early a period as practicable, and in making such corrections they shall use cards readily distinguishable from those used as labels by exhibitors appending a mark of doubtfulness in case of uncertainty. Section IV. Examining and Awarding Committees. Rule 1.— In estimating the comparative values of collections of fruits, committees are instructed to base such estimates strictly upon the varieties in such collection which shall have been correctly named by the exhibitor, prior to action thereon by the committee on nomenclature. Rule 3. — In instituting such comparison of values, committees are instructed to consider: 1st, the values of the varieties for the purposes to which they may be adapted; 2d, the color, size, and evenness of the specimens; 3d, their freedom from the marks of insects and other blemishes; 4th, the apparent carefulness in handling, and the taste displayed in the arrangement of the exhibit. T. T. Lyon, South Haven, Mich. ^ John A. Warder, North Bend, Ohio. | J. J. Thomas, Union Springs, N. Y. J> Committee. C. M. Hovey, Cambridge, Mass. P. J. Berckmans, Augusta, Ga. Extract ^rom the President's Address. In former addresses, I have spoken to you of the importance of the establishment of short, plain, and proper rules, to govern the nomenclature and description of pur fruits, and of our duty in 1884.] AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 177 regard to it; and I desire once more to enforce these opinions on a subject which I deem of imperative importance. Our Society has been foremost in the field of reform in this work, but there is much yet to be done. We should have a system of rules con- sistent with our science, regulated by common sense, and which shall avoid ostentatious, indecorous, inappropriate, and superfluous names. Such a code your Committee have in hand, and I com- mend its adoption. Let us have no more Generals, Colonels, or Captains attached to the names of our fruits; no more Presidents, Governors, or titled dignitaries; no more Monarchs, Kings, .or Princes; no more Mammoths, Giants, or Tom Thumbs; no more Nonesuches, Seek-no-furthers, Ne plus ultras, Hog-pens, Sheep- noses, Big Bobs, Iron Clads, Legal Tenders, Sucker States, or Stump the World. Let us have no more long, unpronounceable, irrelevant, high-flown, bombastic names to our fruits, and, if possible, let us dispense with the now confused terms of Belle, Beurre, Calebasse, Doyenne, Pearmain, Pippin, Seedling, Beauty, Favorite, and other like useless and improper titles to our fruits. The cases are very few where a single word will not form a better name for a fruit than two or more. Thus shall we establish a standard worthy of imitation by other nations, and I suggest that we ask the co-operation of all pomological and horticultural societies, in this and foreign countries, in carrying out this important reform. As the first great national Pomological Society in origin, the representative of the most extensive and promising territory for fruit culture, of which we have any knowledge, it became our duty to lead in this good work. Let us continue it, and give to the world a system of nomenclature for our fruits which shall be worthy of the Society and the country, — a system pure and plain in its diction, pertinent and proper in its application, and which shall be an example, not only for fruits, but for other products of the earth, and save our Society and the nation from the disgrace of unmeaning, pretentious, and nonsensical names, to the most perfect, useful, and beautiful productions of the soil the world has ever known. Mr. Rogers. A committee was appointed by the American Pomological Society, at their meeting at Philadelphia, to re- vise their rules concerning the nomenclature of the fruits. 12 178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., After discussion, the rules proposed by that committee were adopted. Those rules give the society the right to revise and change the names in their catalogue, where they are improper, and provide for naming fruits and the rules for the exhibi- tions of the American Pomological Society, in order to see if sister societies, agricultural societies, State fairs, and County fairs will adopt the same rules ; the intention being, if possi- ble, to assist judges and exhibitors in giving the right names to fruits. As an illustration, the new white grape just intro- duced to the public by Mr. Moore, called the " Francis B. Hayes," is under that rule, styled the "Hayes Grape ;" the synonym, "Francis B. Hayes ;" the intent being to shorten names where too long. I think if any one in this room has ever been called to the unpleasant duty of a judge at a flower or fruit exhibition, he will appreciate the need of some such regulations. Take, for instance, some of our apples which have forty, fifty, and sixty names, and some of them purely local. The intent of the rules with regard to exhibitions is three-fold. First, to have the fruit exhibited under the right name ; secondly, to educate the exhibitor in the right name ; and thirdly, that persons wishiug to use the name may know that the name is rightly placed upon the fruit. With these few remarks, I will leave the matter to the Convention. I hope that Mr. Augur, the Secretary of the Board, and other gentlemen here, will give their views con- cerning the matter. Mr. Wetherell. Being a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, as well as of the American Pomologi- cal Society, I was conversing with Col. Wilder on this subject only a few days ago. He said he hoped it would come up at this Convention, and hoped that action would be taken thereon. I will simply add to what has been said, that on the first Monday of December, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society adopted these rules. I understand that the Michigan Pomological Society has done the same, and I think Col. Wilder told me of several other societies that had also adopted them. The movement seems to be one in the right direction, 1884.] AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 179 and I hope the pomologists here will cooperate as far as they can, Mr. Hyde. I fully accord with what has been said with regard to the difficulties encountered at the exhibitions of our societies and agricultural fairs in having so many different names applied to one kind of fruit, and I trust that this Con- vention will endorse the rules which have been suggested by the Pomological Society. Mr. Augur. I was present at the meeting of the Ameri- can Pomological Society where these rules were very thor- oughly discussed, and it was unanimously felt that they were wise. There are a great many names that are long, contain- ing two or three words, which are difficult to write, and it makes trouble for nurserymen, and the whole matter would be greatly simplified by adopting these rules. I think the pomologists throughout the country were of one opinion, that it was a wise thing to do. We here could not do a better thing than to endorse what President Wilder, Mr. Lyon of Michigan, and the leading pomologists of the country so strongly urge. I should very heartily favor a resolution endorsing the action of the American Pomological Society. Mr. Hyde. I move that this Convention approve the sug- gestion of Colonel Wilder, the President of the American Pomological Society, in his address at Philadelphia, and that the rules of the American Pomological Society upon the sub- ject of nomenclature, and the exhibition of fruits be approved by the Convention and commended to all the Pomological and Horticltural exhibitions in this State. This motion was adopted unanimously. The Chairman. The lecture this evening is on the Educa- tional Influences of the Farm, and I am very happy to intro- duce to you Prof. W. H. Brewer of New Haven, who will now address us on that subject. (Applause.) 180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OP THE FARM. BY WM. H. BREWER, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE IN YALE COLLEGE. The hope of a nation is in its youth, and therefore the most important business of a nation is the education of the young. This is particularly so in a republic like ours, where not only the wealth and prosperity of the country, but the stability and very existence of the government is in the hands of the masses of the people, rather than in the care of a special ruling class. In the growth of this nation, the four chief factors in the pro- duction of its greatness have been, respectively; first, the race or stock of its early founders ;^second, their sentiments and tradi- tions regarding religion, morality, and education; — third, our sys- tem of land tenure with its facility of acquisition and transfer and simplicity of title, which makes it as possible for any one to own real estate as to own personal property; — and, fourth, the social, political, and intellectual status of the farmers. The last of these four factors has not been the least. My belief is that without it, the progress of this country would have been but little better than has been that of Mexico, the Central Ameri- can countries, or those of South America. Throughout all our previous history, by far the most of our capital has been invested in farming, the most of our labor has been expended on farms, the most of our population has lived on farms, and a great majority of our more eminent men have spent their childhood and youth, wholly or in part on farms, getting there an essential part of their education. It is not too much to say that up to the present time, the men educated in childhood or youth on farms have had the leading part in making this nation what it is, in shaping its political destinies, giving it its intellectual stand, and in developing its material wealth. During the whole Colonial period, and during the first century of the republic, the great majority of statesmen in our legislative halls, came from farms, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were written by a farmer, who, when he had finished his official work for the nation, returned to his farm where he spent his declining years, where he died and is 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FAEM. 181 buried. "Washington too, went from his farm to lead the armies of the struggling colonies, he was recalled from his farm to be our President, and set the example of retiring, not to a pensioned palace, but back to his own farm where he lived and died, and where his bones rest. I once took much pains and labor to look up the history of the childhood of all the presidents of this republic. Of a few I could get no information, but at least fifteen out of the twenty-one presi- dents of the United States have either been farmers (or planters) themselves, or the sons of such, ten of this fifteen were the sons of farmers on small farms, and four of them, indeed, I might say five, were on new or " pioneer " farms in their boyhood, actually help- ing in the arduous and toilsome work of subduing the wilderness. In all that relates to the intellectual, political, and social condi- tion of farmers, the history of this country has been exceptionable; nowhere else has actual farm-work been so respectable. This is not the place to enter into the causes which brought so large a proportion of our population on farms, and made farming more respectable than in other countries; the fact will not be dis- puted, and I have elsewhere* discussed the causes. But a profound change in our population, both as to stock and occupation, has lately been going on very rapidly. Immigra- tion is diluting the nations' blood, the industries are rapidly chang- ing, and the numerical proportions of people living in the country, and in the cities are also rapidly changing. The applications of science and the fertility of invention have revo- lutionized the industrial arts and changed the methods of com- merce and trade, wealth is produced much faster than ever before and is being invested in other directions than in land and agricul- ture. War does not destroy so much, nor pestilence waste so much, so the world is rapidly growing richer. Along with this, cities and villages are growing in population much more rapidly than the agricultural towns, and a relatively smaller and smaller proportion of the population is being occupied on farms. I need not here discuss the why and wherefore of all this; it is a great social movement wider than our own land, it extends to all countries with a civilization like ours, and it is inevitable that it must go on. It is a part of the progress of the age. Until lately, pestilences and the difficulties of transporting food pre- * Tenth Census.of the U. S., Vol. Ill, Agriculture, Cereal Report, p. 134 (514). 182 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., vented the rapid growth, of cities and limited their size. Now, sanitary science makes it possible to check pestilence, and steam transportation makes it possible to carry food half way round the earth. Famines are always local, and formerly each nation, indeed each section, lived more independently of others than now. Tele- graphs and steam have made distant countries neighbors, and all the world kin in a way our fathers little dreamed of, and a fi'uitful year in America may prevent a famine in Europe; while war, that other great curse, is becoming less and less a destroyer. So, cities and towns will continue to grow, and will breed a larger and larger proportion of our population; they have their own special facilities for the education of youth, which facilities have been enormously increased and improved within our time, and the relative import- ance to the nation of town and country population is rapidly chang- ing, both in a political and social sense. Heretofore the vast majority of our youth, I may say very nearly all, had at least some cormtry education, and by far the largest class, as a class, had some experience on a farm. Hereafter that may not and probably will not be true. It is no longer true in New England, and the educational influences of the farm have thei'efore a new importance, to both those who are interested in. agriculture and who are interested in education. But then, anything relating to the education of youth is ever fresh and ever new, because it ever has to do with a new genera- tion of men and women. The subject of my lecture is not a new one to me. I was bom and reared on a farm; all the associations of my childhood and all the traditions of my ancestors for several generations related to the farm; so I speak from experience in that direction. 1 am now a teacher, and have spent more than twenty-seven years teach- ing; first in academies, then in colleges, which have had among their pupils both country and city youth ; so I can speak from experi- ence derived from that source of observation. As an American citizen, interested in the history of our beloved country, I have studied the influences which have shaped its progress and which have moulded the lives of our most eminent men ; so this part of the subject has long been a subject of study. As Professor of Agriculture for many years, the influence of farm life on the intellectual status of the people has naturally and necessarily come within the province of my professional study. Lastly, but by no 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 183 means the least item, as the father of a family of children now growing up in a city, the subject comes very closely home to me. Whence come the men now most prominent in the affairs of state, or in the business of the country, or in the realm of litera- ture and science ? What has been their education ?. This is a never-finished subject of discussion, and when any man comes prominently in front of his fellow men for any quahty that makes men great, questions as to the influences which moulded his early life are immediately asked. The newspapers tell us about him; teachers and writers tell us what schools he attended. Prominent men die and their biographies are written, or at least, a sketch of their lives is given in the current newspapers, so there is an abundant literature from which to draw our conclusions. Moreover, numerous special investigations have been made, as to the origin of the leading men in particular cities or in special vocations. I need not repeat statistics here, because all point to the fact I have already asserted, that thus far the great majority of our most successful men have come from the farms, or had at least a part of their education there. The successful business men of our large cities, successful engineers, statesmen, professional men, have come largely from farms. As a student of science, I have long noticed that a large proportion of our more eminent scientific men- had a country experience in their childhood. Here a religious paper compiles statistics of successful men in one city; there a secular paper gives notes of the successful men of another city, and all point to the same fact. Now, all this seems to me only the natural result of the laws- of education. The more'we study the facts, the more strikin'g they appear, and the more vividly we see why they are; the facts are but the result of natural laws pertaining to the development and growth of the race. I have stated elsewhere and in another connection the underly- ing facts, but I may repeat some of them, in substance at least, for our use in this special connection. The progressive element in a country like ours, and indeed in any country, is in that portion of its population which is neither very poor nor very rich. This is the social stratum in which orig- inates the most of that quality of mind by which mankind has made its greatest achievements, all that kind of intellectual power which manifests itself in literature, art, discovery, invention, in 184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., business sagacity and social reform ; and our agricultural system has been eminently adapted to breed and develop tbis class. For the conservation of political institutions and the creation and preservation of material wealth, it is best that as large a proportion of the whole population as is possible own real estate, particularly their own homes, and this our system of land tenure and land" ownership encourages. For peace and the suppression of warlike impulses, as well as for thrift, it is best that as large a proportion of the population as is possible be at work for them- selves rather than for hire, and for this our system of farming furnishes the opportunity. It is also best for the race that as large a proportion of the population as is possible have facilities in their vocation for the education and rearing of families in virtue, intelligence, industry, and thrift. For such education, no other industrial occupation is so emin- ently adapted as farming, as this vocation is carried on in the most of this country. In no other vocation is there exercise for so great a variety of faculty and so varied exercise for the judgment as on a farm growing a variety of crops, producing domestic animals, and using the latest machinery and labor-saving devices. Here the child has a greater variety of object-teaching than can possibly occur in any other common form of home life. Here there is so much he must see that interests him — crops grow, animals are reared, so many natural laws and natural phenomena are related to the daily work; the seasons have more significance than merely heat and cold, and the weather more than merely pleasant skies or gloomy days. In no other vocation can the child be so trained to habits of industry without detriment to his health or intelligence, no other place so well adapted to sound education for intelligent citizenship. The great advance in human knowledge during the past hun- dred years has been in the direction of the natural and physical sciences, and the utilization of this scientific knowledge has led to the wonderful growth of the industrial arts and all kinds of manufactures, and is the real source of the recent enormous increase in the material wealth of the world. Because of the beneficent applications of science, human wants are better sup- plied, human life lengthened, comforts increased, and happiness promoted. 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FAEM. 185 Now, this great advance in knowledge, this revolution in meth- ods by which ends are gained, has been largely brought about by the use of what is sometimes called the "laboratory method" in education; or, as others are pleased to call the simpler phases of the same thing, " object teaching." To illustrate what 1 mean: no instruction in the science of chemistry reaches its full value with- out a laboratory for practice, where the student must do as well as think while he is trying to unravel the mysteries of nature. Actual experiment has been an essential factor in solving the problems of nature. Before the use of the telescope and instru- ments for accurate measurement, astronomy remained merely astrology, and was the handmaid of superstition. Then, too, chemistry was but alchemy, and experiment was more in the direc- tion of magic than a search for truth. Physics remained where the old Greeks left it, a collection of so-called philosophical deduc- tions, until the experiments of Galileo began a new era in that science. Medicine and the healing art were mostly empyricism and quackery. Modern science has bettered all this, science based on experiment as well as observation, where doing as well as thinking is an essential part in the method of education. Experi- ment, suggested and directed by intelligence ; experiment,' often laboriously performed. In this way science has grown, and with it all its beneficent works, increasing man's comforts, aiding his arts, lengthening his life ; robbing pestilence and famine of most of their terrors; adding to the wealth of the world; and spreading civilization and Christianity. Hence we have chemical labora- tories, physical laboratories, biological laboratories, physiological laboratories, botanical laboratories, etc., where youth can be taught and knowledge advanced, experiment and study going on to- gether, reading along with observation, doing something while we are thinking of the why. This is "the laboratory method," now such a feature in modern education, so rapidly growing, and main- tained at such enormous expense. The world is just seeing that this is the great modern idea in education. But this is only a phase of what every farmer's boy enjoys. This in a sense has been the regular way in which the American farmer's boy has been educated. The farm is a stupendous laboratory. Here the learner is brought in contact with the things as well as the words of the world; he sees the prpcesses and phenomena of nature, and the 186 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. [Jan., vocation is a continuous succession of experiments directed to some end. The child on the farm learns how to work, how to do, how to question nature by experiment, how to adapt means to ends, how to plan work in order to reach desired results. Before the farmer's child has learned his A B C he has begun to experi- ment with nature in directions the city child reaches only in later years, if indeed he ever does; and these actual experiments go along with opportunities for observation such as the ordinary city child rarely has, and usually never has. I was grown to manhood, yes, older than that, before it even occurred to me that many children in our great cities became large enough and old enough to be found in the schools who had never seen the sun rise, nor set; who had never seen the moon except when high in the sky, had never seen it creep up from the distant horizon, large and bright and round; indeed, whose only idea of the horizon was the houses that shut out the view from every side. Children in the schools that did not know that potatoes grow in the ground and apples on trees, that butter was made from milk and milk came from cows, and so on through that curious list of facts which have been brought out by investigation in late years as to the actual knowledge possessed by young chil- dren in the great city schools. My attention was turned to this some years ago, and I picked up some most suggestive information, but I never made any systematic investigation; in fact, I never had a chance to. But that has lately been done with great ingenuity and labor, and with most instructive i-esults. To those of you who may be interested in this part of our subject, I commend an article by Prof. G. Stanley Hall, on -'The Contents of Children's Minds" (^Princeton Revieiv, May, 1883, p. 249). However interest- ing this subject may be in this connection, I have not time to follow it further, suflBce it to say, that it is the opinion of scientists that many of the fancies and sentiments which go with us through life are the composite impressions stamped on the bram in very early childhood, shaping our thoughts and influencing our beliefs and doings all through adult life. In this, country life and country scenes play a part greater than has heretofore been thought of. It is found by teachers in city schools, that with the children of cities, a few days in the country often has an eduational value beyond a term in the best of schools. Even as a basis for a literary career, it i$ an experience, if not 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 187 essential to success, is nearly so. I question if a gx-eat poet or vivid writer could develop entirely in a great city, and without some country experience, no matter how great his native genius. I know of none who has not had some country experience in child- hood. Many, like Burns and Whittier, were born and reared upon the farm. Others have either been in small towns, or so situated that they had abundant country experience. Thoreau was born on a farm, his parents soon after moved into a village, but it is said of him, that he drove his mother's cows to pasture, and hke Emer- son, he did it barefooted. Longfellow, and Holmes, and Bryant, and Irving, and Cooper, and the host of our best known writers, either spent a part of their childhood on farms, or where they had abundant opportunity for observation and experience in country life. I have already said that at least fifteen of our presidents have been farmers, or the sons of farmers, and had spent all or a part of their childhood on farms. Of the childhood of some of the remaining six, 1 have no information whatever. But all of them of which I have any data respecting their childhood, if not actually on farms, were amid rural surroundings ; some lived in small towns, with farms almost to their very doors; others were the sons of country professional men (as is the present president), and thus they had the advantage of a country education in childhood. The same fact holds good of most of our most eminent states- men who have not become presidents. To enumerate them would be to make a long list. Daniel Webster, the son of a small farmer, spending his childhood days on a little farm, and the nights of his boyhood studying by the fii'elight, seems to us a wonderful picture; it would be vastly more wonderful to picture him as the son of a man living on a small salary, or with moderate wages as a workman, in a great city, the boy by day in some crowded city school, and his evenings in- the street attracted by the lights and the sights of the city. No! great men do not come in that way, and this is not a mere accident, it has its foundations deep down in the laws which govern the development of human intellect. It has long been noticed that the greatest business men in our cities come from the farms, or get a part at least of their early education there. The two names now most often seen in the news- papers because of the great wealth associated with them, are of men who originated on farms, and small ones at that. 188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., That so many prominent and successful business men begin their career as farmers, is often remarked, and is a well recognized fact. It seems to me but natural, and to be the legitimate result of the early farm education, and it also seems to me natural that so large a proportion of the town and city -bred should never accumulate much property. Did you ever reflect on the great difference between the experi- ence of country and city children in all that educates them in forethought and preparing for the future? in self-sacrifice to-day for some future good? — I question if you have, so let us contrast the early education of the child on the farm and the one in a city, in this matter. The child on the farm sees the business of the father go on from day to day, as he of the city does not. He sees what it is, and why it is; it is very varied in character, and much of it of a kind that awakens his interest, and at a very early age he begins to take part in it, and becomes, as it were, a member of the firm. He feeds the chickens, and feels big to see them come at his call; he drives the cows; he watches the bars when grain or hay is being hauled, and so on; he has a sense of responsibility in the manage- ment of affairs, and he feels that the success of the establishment depends in part upon him; his own importance is correspondingly magnified, and along with it his sense of worth. He is not a nuis- ance, and made to feel it by his adult companions who wish he could be abolished along with other nuisances, — no, — he is a person of importance, a member of the firm, and helps run the business. As the chickens come at his call, or the cattle flee before his shout, as perhaps he brandishes a great whip when he drives them, he feels in his heart some of the satisfaction of command, like the centurion of old, "I say to this one go and he goeth, and to another come and he cometh, and to my servant, do this and he doeth it." He has an importance and a-use and place in his home that the city child has not. The city boy is made to feel that he is at the bottom of the little social kingdom of the household, sub- ject to all the grades above it. The country child is not; the do- mestic animals are below him, and serve and obey and fear him. But more than this; all, or very nearly all the work of the farm he sees going on or takes part in, is for future and unseen results rather than for immediate and obvious ones. Every step is 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 189 education in forethought, in making some provision for the future. The ground is plowed, that it may be sown to grain, but even this is not an end ; the seed is sown for a crop to be harvested long months ahead. It is a provision for a future want. The crop is care- fully tended, not for to-day's dinner, nor to-night's supper, but for a distant harvest. The wood is cut and hauled, no matter if the weather be warm and fair, it is needed for the winters storms some months ahead. Even harvest is not the end ; the grain must still be threshed. Potatoes are dug and stored for future use; secured with toil to-day, housed, where, perhaps in the way, and all submit- ted to as a provision for a future want. There is even much look- ing ahead still further. Fields are cleared of stone, fences made, drains dug, sheds built whose use is to be for long years to come. He sees animals anxiously reared which will require years of care before they have value for use. Orchards are set out which will not bear fruit for years; and so on through all the varied work of the farm, scarcely anything is for to-day, all the operations are for the future. All th.e toil, and exposure, and care, are for results that are not immediate and sure; they must be waited for, and even then are uncertain. Moreover, for much of this, it not only requires preparation long before for a successful result, but it also requires anxious and often laborious care continually during the interval; one continual looking ahead and providing for the future. Perhaps the most prominent feature in this experience of the child is that this care and forethought is essential to success in all the details of the business, the farmer must toil to-day for a dis- tant result, work now to supply a distant want not yet felt, present self-sacrifice for some future good, the actual value of which can- not be predicted until realized. Nearly everything we enjoy he has seen thus provided for long before. The green corn at to-day's dinner, he knows where it comes from; he may remember that he was kept home from school a day to drop the seed in the spring, long ago to him. The butter on winter's buckwheat cakes, he saw it churned and laid down in the fall, he remembers when the hogs were killed and the pork salted down, when the apples were put in the cellar, and so on of much that is used. Operations indoors, and out, are all an educa- tion in prudent forethought, work to-day to provide for the future, 190 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Jan., to-day's wants supplied from labor long ago performed. He learned '• to labor and to wait," long before the poet said it. Now, contrast all this with the experience of" the children in city families. What do they see or know of the business of their fathers, except in the most general way? They see absolutely none of the forethought required in the business, nor of the pro- visions for the future wants of the household. The table is supphed by men who come daily, or at least, weekly. Milk is daily left at the door, while the child is yet in bed; the butcher and grocer come for "orders," and the day's meal is duly deposited in the kitchen. So far as the child sees, it comes daily without any serious forethought; to him it comes without either labor or previous care. He sees absolutely no provision for this loBg ahead; his father is at work at something else; the food comes to the door, and so far as he sees, it comes as easily and as certainly as the manna which fell from heaven. The city cellar is no storehouse, filled months before by the toil of the family; what stores may be there are brought by some one else in a wagon and it is put into the cellar when father is away at the store, office, or shop. He is quite a large child before he knows the source or origin of the most common and essential things on the table, perhaps he gets his first idea of these in some short visit to the country. He gives no thought to the matter because there is nothing to suggest the origin or source ; it makes no difference to him, and is no more strange that the sausages like the fish should be caught in the river or sea, or are made, in either case some one brings them to him ready made. The city child knows absolutely nothing of the toil through which all these necessities come, he sees nothing of the self-sacrifice by which these blessings have been bought. He hears often enough that everything is dear, but this falls on callous ears because he sees so much forbidden fruit which is denied him, he hardly knows why. That the daily meal should come is to him as much a matter of course as if it came miraculously, like manna; he sees no more forethought required than if he were fed by the ravens. He sees nothing fail for lack of labor long months before. When he is stinted it is merely because his father or mother says they cannot afford it, a very unsatisfactory reason to him. Is it any wonder 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 191 that he so often grows up without the instincts of economy and thrift? Then too, if he gets money, all the surrounding temptations are forspending it for present and immediate gratification; no waiting for larger harvest by and by. The very toys in the shop windows are regulated by the season. Skates and sleds are everywhere in sight in, winter when the temptation is to buy them. As a boy I saved eggs in the spring, and bought a nice sled in the summer for the next winter's coasting; it seemed the only natural way. In the city the sled would have been out of sight and out of mind, and some other temptation for immediate use been displayed in the enticing shop window. Again, the incentives to saving and thrift are entirely unlike in the two homes. The farmer's boy's first property is usually something of com- paratively small value to begin with, but which grows and increases with his care, and he sees it grow. It may be some crop he plants and sees spring up and mature. More often it is some young ani- mal which he sees increase under his care. If a calf, he watches its growing strength and size; the young, budding horns have a strange interest to him; he sees the beast waxing greater and more valuable under his eyes, and each evidence of growth is an incen- tive to renewed care and attention ; and with its growth there is a personal interest in the possession, stronger than mere property interest. How is it with the city child? He puts his pennies into a so-called " bank " where they accumulate, but do not grow. He must not even see the growing pile in the little tight boxj because the temptations to spend are so many and so strong. He may shake the box and hear them rattle; that is all. So he keeps them — until Christmas. If he puts the money in a savings bank, he is told that the interest accumulates, but he does not see it groiu ; he merely knows it, as an intellectual conception; there is no personal interest in it other than that of mere property, and it requires much outside encouragement, and perhaps restraint, to pre- vent him from withdrawing it and spending it for some of the luxuries that tempt on every side. The country boy has a very different feeling towards his growing calf, or colt, or lamb. He does not want to sell it. It is endeared to him more than as mere property possession, he sees it still growing under his care, and is 192 BOAED OP AGEICULTURE. [Jan., loth to part with it. There can be no such personal interest in any savings hank account as in the calf or colt the child cares for and feeds and sees grow. I cannot follow this contrast further, but 1 have by no means exhausted this line of thought, each of you can call to mind other phases, and the more you study it, the more marked it seems, and the more you will see that the natural tendencies of a farm educa- tion is towards thrift, is to self-sacrifice to-day for a reward in the future. Again, there is the education in habits of industry, which has been incidentally alluded to several times before. Success in life depends upon overcoming difficulties rather than in the avoidance of them, on industry rather than on genius, and the education of the farm is towards habits of industry. Even the small child can do something useful on the farm, not work made for him to keep him out of mischief, but something that needs to be done. And the most of this is not like the routine work in factories and shops ■ — it is varied, interesting, useful, and healthful. In no other voca- tion can the child be so trained to habits of industry without detri- ment to his health and intelligence. This very work educates his sense of worth and importance, it educates him in accepting respon- sibilities, he learns early that the mere pursuit of pleasure is not the great aim of life, but that each person has responsibilities laid upon him and duties to perform. In contrast with this, what can a city child find to do ? I speak feelingly on this point — with house on a populous street, neighbors close on every side, a yard but a few feet wide, the only other range is the street, — what is there useful that our children can do ? They cannot share with us our labors; there is no such round of useful, light, healthful labor they can do ; what things we find for them to do are few aijd so painfully evident that the work has been contrived to make them do something, that its educational value is lost. Then, too, there is so much to distract; boys all around to entice away. There is so little that the child can do to help along the home work, he feels that he is in the way, that he is an expense, he is noisy, he is not wanted about — indeed, in these times, the country seems the only place where children are really wanted. There is no demand for children in the city; there is in the country. Only a few days ago I picked up a paper containing a long report of the operations of the Children's Aid Society of New York. I need quote but a 1884.1 THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 193 * single line, -'over 60,000 homeless children have been placed in good homes in the country " — good homes in. the country — could you find such " good homes " in the cities for 60,000 homeless and often vagrant children ? No, unfortunately, the '' good homes'' in the city mostly, don't want any more children, they find it too hard to train up in industry and virtue those they already have. I speak with some experience and authority on this matter. I have spent part of this very week in the work of getting ready the temporary home for neglected children being provided for this county, under the recent law; I have before had to do with the dependent classes. In this State hundreds of poor, and vicious, and neglected- children from cities have already been taken by small farmers in the country and reared to useful men and women; we don't expect to keep many of the neglected and pauper children in our new home ; there is a demand for them, and that demand, luckily, is all in the country. I see farmers all the time taking children from the "poor-house" to bring up; very poor stock. They would not take as a gift a young cow or horse of such poor stock and low breeding. This naturally leads us to the moral side of the question. The report I quoted, of the 60,000 homeless children sent into country homes, follows with the statement that " the fruits [of this work] are seen in the diminished number of petty thieves, child vagrants, and youthful criminals," etc. This is not the merely removing of city temptations to vice. We cannot make a saint of a sinner by merely removing the obvious temptations, the work is deeper than that. These children were placed where they had something use. f ul to do, as well as good to learn ; industry and education in thrift are the first elements in moral education. We have all heard who finds mischief for idle hands to do. Working in the shops and manufactories of great cities does not serve the same end. The routine life of such places is not so healthful either morally, intel- lectually, or physically. And this brings us to the matter of health. How to check the child-mortality of large cities has been one of the great problems of civilization. As President of the Board of Health of a great city, I am continually brought face to face with this. I cannot follow up this subject here, but the country child has exemption from a host of physical dangers which beset the city child, and the education in matters pertaining to health are correspondingly unlike. This is an old question, and goes along with that of 13 194 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., morals and of patriotism. An eminent authority has said: "The strength of the great armies of the world has never been made up of the inhabitants of large cities; in fact, except in a few rare instances, city people will not even defend their own homes when besieged by hostile forces; with them selfishness becomes stronger than patriotism." And this opens up a new line of country education. It is here that patriotism is strongest, because a country home is so much more than a city house, and there is more loving self-sacrifice in the family relations. When we hear of some wealthy man doing great deeds of charity and benevolence we may assume that he is country bred. When we hear of a Cornell funding an university, • or a Sheffield endowing a great school, we almost know that their boyhood must have been spent in the country. City-bred men rarely do such things. The immense sums contributed to charity, to the forming and endowment^ of schools and colleges, to the cause of missions, and the spread of Christianity and civilization, has been because so large a proportion of our population has had some farm education, and because our farmers have not been peasants. This last item is a most important one in this connection. We have no peasant class to till the land, at least in the northern States. What "might have been," had a peasant class been established in the colonies,- we can imagine from the condition of Mexico, where the peasant system of the old world was intro- duced, and where, consequently, we find the middle ages still perpetuated on the farms, middle-age tools, and middle-age intel- ligence. Because of this, too, our republic is politically what it is. We were not the only people who established a republic in the last part of the last century, France started one about the same time that we got our new constitution in running order. We know that it was a miserable failure. This is usually attributed to being founded on an unsound religions basis; but it was, too, on an unsound land and agricultural basis. The people must be fed from the soil, and the tillers of the soil of France were peasants at the bottom of the social scale, and at the bottom of the intellectual life of the people. No wonder the republic failed there. I am dis- cussing the educational influences of the American farm, under the American farmer, not that of other lands where the fields are tilled by a socially inferior class. The relation of this to the 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 195 permanency of our institutions is too obvious to need expansion here. Again, the infinite variety in the methods and details of farm woi-k educates the individuality of the child, and calls out and trains a greater variety of talent than any other one vocation can. The methods of the farm may be so varied, and yet successful, that there is a constant training of the judgment. In manufactures and trade, the larger establishments have great advantages over the smaller, a,nd eventually crush them out. Not so in farming. Here all the principles of production are very different, and in no other vocation is the large and small operator on so nearly the same level. In mixed farming, the small operator has certain advantages ; the large operator cannot crush him out. As a mat- ter of fact, wherever the laws permit free and cheap transfers of land, the tendency is towards smaller and smaller farms. Not only is this true in this country, it is so everywhere. Where we see small farms diminishing in number and the ownership of agri- cultural land increasing in average amount, it is where laws inter- fere with the free and cheap sale and transfer of lands, or else^ where land has a social or political value, in addition to its agricul- tural value. So, in this country, it is the small or moderately-sized farm, where mixed farming is carried on, that has the highest educa- tional value. Farming on this scale (and, indeed, on any other) does not hold out the highest inducement to those whose ambition is for great wealth. Men do not become millionaires by farming, or so rarely that you could count all such in this country on the fin- gers of your haad — and it might be a mutilated hand at that. But it is a good vocation, one of independence ; and if the farmer rarely gets very rich, on the other' hand, he rarely becomes very poor ; he may not gain a million, but you never hear of his failing and not paying his hundred cents on the dollar, unless he goes into some other business than farming. Now, a word more on the intellectual phases of farm education. As a teacher, I have long marked the differences between city and country boys in the higher studies. The conditions of city child- hood are those of excitement and distraction. The city boy is often sharp, quick ; he has a social polish the country lad often lacks, but he is usually not so diligent nor persistent. Coun- try boys are greater readers; they have formed reading habits in 196 BOAED OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., the quiet of country homes; they have more knowledge of that which relates to nature; are keener observers of nature, and take more kindly to the study of the sciences. The boy of the country does not live in excitement, particu- larly the excitement of ''a crowds He learns to enjoy the quiet pleasures of home. He is more alone, and learns to find sources of entertainment in himself. He is not so dependent on others. With the city boy, without " the crowd " and noise, the world is tame. "The crowd," "we boys," the dependence on others for pleasure, is a most marked feature. In winter his sled and his skates are useless unless as an element in " the crowd " or with other boys. No torture like that of being quiet or alone. Now, we know what must be the necessary and inevitable effect of all this. Study is an affair of the individual, not of the crowd. The very "crowd" stimulates to idleness, incites to acts of mis- chief, drives study from the head and love of home from the heart. The country boy may sit down and read undisturbed for the evening with the other members of the family. The city boy, if he tries, has scarcely got his book in hand before he hears a well- known signal from the street, from " the other boys." It may not ]:)e noticed by the parents from the other noises of the street, but to him it is a loud call to "come out with us." Is it any wonder that the book loses much of its interest, and that the education of the street more than supplements that of home? Consequently, the country boy, as a student, is as a rule more diligent, more studious; has a certain kind of persistence often lacking in the city boy; is greener in his ways, but has more gejaeral knowledge, because he is a greater reader. I have known a boy old enough to think himself a young man and sufficiently schooled to be in college who confessed that never in his hfe had he read a book before he entered college. Then, too. the sports of childhood in country and city are suffi- ciently unhke to be an important element in education. The boy of the city is earlier and ahead of him in the country. The country boy learns to fly kites after he has learned to make them. He of the city buys his kites when much younger, and gets throuo-h with that sport before he learns to make one; and so of a host of things; and he calls the country boy "green" who enjoys sports at an age when he has passed that sport by. The city boy 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 197 is ever discounting the future, to his disadvantage. He is attempt- ing things before he is capacitated for their best enjoyment, or fitted for their best influence. Again, the ample space and room of the country for the sports of childhood, as contrasted with the city streets, affects the grow- ing mind in a great variety of ways. There is one that has inter- ested me much, which I have never seen alluded to, but which I have thought much of. I will merely hint it briefly. The child is the undeveloped man, and there is an element of savagery in him, certain of the savage instincts of the race that come out strongly. The country boy has ways of gratifying these in a healthy way, and grows out of them intellectually and morally better. He traps and hunts the small game of the farm. With the dog he digs out the woodchucks, or hunts the squirrels, and traps the rabbits, etc., and in a thousand and one ways grati- fies that instinct which is left as a legacy from our savage ances- try. The boy of the city has the same instinct, and it is more liable to lead him into the direction of rowdyism, drinking, and violence for its gratification. We all know that there is a period in the boy's life when there is a fascination about rowdy- ism, about acts of violence towards society, and in violent pleas- ures, which it is hard to be patient with in our riper years. In the city it more often results in deeds of violence, breaking windows, unhanging gates, night disturbances, etc., etc. With the country boy this instinct is worked off in a more harmless way, in ways that are less liable to be a bhght and regret in his after life and which at the same time were as really the gratifying of the old savage instinct which gives such a pleasure to hunting, fishing, and roaming free over the fields and through the forests. Every successful system of education must take into account these savage instincts of child- hood and youth, bear with them, have patience with them, and try to direct them into those channels where they do the least harm to the man. Many good people think that the chief reason why the country is better, morally, to bring up children in (and particularly way- ward children) than the city, is because that there are fewer tempt-, ations. This view has but a small basis of truth. It is true that many of the temptations of the city are absent from the country; but every place has its own temptations, and the country has many which the city has not. No; this theory is a relic of that o}d 198 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., monkish idea that the way to make a saint of a sinner is to remove him from temptation and shut him up in a monastery, where the allurements and sins of the world cannot reach liim. Great men are not made in that way. The formation of charac- ter is a positive, not a negative process; it is what the country child does, the industry he learns and the strength he acquires and develops that makes him; it is not what he avoids and shuns, but what he meets and overcomes, that gives him his strength for the battle of life. He conquers in great' things in later life, because he had the practice on lesser things in his childhood and youth. But I must hasten on. I have said that a great change is going on, and that hereafter a relatively smaller and smaller proportion of our youth will have any experience on farms. All over Chris- tendom this is going on; the city and town populations are increasing, railroads, steam, modern methods of travel, trade and manufacture, and modern sanitary administration in cities, make possible what before was impossible. Here in Connecticut, at the last census, only 7.2 per cent, of the population belongs to the class of "persons engaged in agriculture," and in Massachusetts only 3.6 per cent. Within the memory of persons still alive agri- culture was in both of these States the leading industry. But this same change is going on in other countries. Even in old England in 1 85 1 the ''agricultural class " constituted 11.2 per cent, of the total population; in 1861, 9.6 per cent.; in 1871, 6.9 per cent.; in 1881, but 4.9 per cent. Similar facts have been reported of France and Germany ; and our recent census shows how rapidly the change is going on with us. In New England a. change of sentiment towards agriculture is going on along with this change in relative numbers engaged, and with a larger class agriculture is not held to be quite so respectable as some other vocations. Several causes have con- duced to this. One is, that in a part of New England, notably in Massachusetts, many have always held this, as a part of the tradi- tions of the old world. Travelers have noticed more than once the difference of sentiment in this matter in. Massachusetts, and in the States west of the Hudson River. Another reason is, that agriculture is not the leading business that it is farther west. Another, and perhaps more powerful than either, is the large recent foreign immigration of people who bring 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 199 with them the Old World sentiments that the man who tills the soil is socially and intellectually below the man in trade. We have many foreigners in our newspaper offices, and we see more flings at the farmers here than we do in the western States. Of this very meeting I have seen notices of the "bucolic" gathering in one of our city papers, and the " bucolic mind " is a not infrequent subject of patronizing comment in papers whose editors and writers came from other lands. Even in the great New York dailies we see indications the same way, and within the last two years I have noticed in the paper " founded by Horace Greeley," editorials that would never have appeared in his life time. It is but fair to say, however, that they do not go into the weekly edition, which goes so widely among farmers. Even the New England Journal of Education has, within a few months, had its say about the " narrow country farmers " who are powerful in the Legislature, but who " represent the least progressive element in society." All of this has an essential' interest in this connection. W ith the increase of wealth in cities there is an increase of snobs, and a tendency to class the farmers of this country with the peasant class of the Old World. Each of these things has an influence in the problem of education, and makes it the more important that the old-time value of the farm as a place for the training of youths be maintained. The various forces at work, the effects of recent immigration, the snobbishness of the newly-made-rich, the relatively decreasing numbers of farmers, are all modifying those influences which heretofore have wrought such glorious results for our nation. City populations are relatively increasing, but in the cities origi- nate and flourish the more dangerous social theories which now begin to alarm so many people. Socialism in all its worst forms has its great development in cities, where great numbers of men work together for wages. It is curious to see how in all these so-called labor movements and labor theories by so-called "working men," the tiller of the soil is left out as a worker. In this matter the farmer is in a curious position. To the snob he is a plodding, narrow, ignorant drudge; to the socialist and city trades-union-men he is an aristocrat and land-holder, one of the oppressors of the race because he owns land, and land ought to be free, like air and water. 200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., I know of no better cure for these wild views as to land than to set a man to work on it. Land is not like air and water, as some would have us believe ; it has value only as man's labor gives it value. There is an abundance of cheap land yet on the earth. Land, of itself, is worth little or nothing ; only as work is done on it has it any agricultural value, and only as it has work done on it, or near it, has it any value at all, other than as a free hunting ground for savages ; and there is no better way for the people to learn this fact in political economy than for them to have some experience in working on the land. Of late, the subject of city schools has attracted much attention. In the cities there have been great advances, and we see great buildings and graded schools, and the feelings of many are that for purposes of the education of youth, they are vastly superior to the smaller country schools. / douht this in toto. There is a gain in some things, but there is an enormous loss in others. The teacher in the city school has vastly less personal influence ; he or she is not Mr. A, or Miss B, it is the teacher in Number 6, or the teacher of Number 9; and the child loses its individuality even more than the teacher. Moreover, the parent is often shut out from any aid to his children; he can neither direct their studies nor aid them in them; he can merely have a sympathy with the methods. I trudged a mile to a country school in my childhood. It lacked the appliances of the modern great city schools; we had a few maps and a small library, but I had the aid of my parents in my studies. My own children go to a great city school thUt boasts of several hundreds of pupils. (I speak feelingly on this matter.) I am allowed no voice in what they shall study, nor when they shall study it; I am not even allowed to aid them in their studies out of school hours. To me the doctrine seems monstrous, and as a teacher, as well as a parent, I deplore the results and ejects every day. I went to a country school such as it is fashionable now to make fun of, but it is a subject of daily sorrow and regret, that my own children, in a great city school, have not the educational advantages that I had in that smaller country school. I am not overpainting this matter. I know what I am talking about, and weigh my words well in this special matter before speaking them. I have given this subject much thought for the past few years, as some of you personally know, but the great organization, which 1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUEXCES OF THE FARM. 201 has more than ten thousand children under its rule, which sup- ports between two hundred and fifty and three hundred employees, and expends a quarter of a million dollars annually, is too strong an interest to give up any power it has. This new city education is becoming more imperious year by year, and tries more and more to rule the country schools, or at least to govern their methods. I have no sympathy with this. Have you noticed the change wrought in the school books within the last thirty years ? Once the few books we had were satu- rated with country life and country ways. How many of us remem- ber the stories and works of Peter Parley, who lived near this very spot ! Do you remember the pictures in the schoool books of those days? They, were of country life. Now all is changed; even the pictures, if they are of the country at all, are of the visit of some city child in fine clothes to the ruder country. This changed way of looking at life, from the country to the city standpoint, is affecting society in a multitude of ways. A popular writer has recently shown the relation between this and modern strikes in the trades, but time utterly forbids following up the many suggestions that come up. The subject has been so long in my mind, and there is so much that I want to say, that I have overrun my hour. But I still feel that the hope of the country lies largely in its farm population, just as the ownership of real estate in the country is the most conservative material influence we have ; so I also feel that farm education will continue to be the great moral influence to keep the nation in sound ways, and ^'■level-headed,'''' as business men say. The farmer's home is an influence too vast to be any more than alluded to in closing. We Hve in the favored zone, where we have true homes and firesides. This is the zone of highest civilization, because it is the zone of firesides. A high civilization has never developed in the tropics; it could not. It needs a home and a winter's fire for quiet and thought, and to cement the family. A half civilization grew in Egypt, and India, and Mexico, but it stopped short of a high level ; it needs a fireside and hearth to ripen civilization, and nowhere else do we find the typical home better exemplified than on an American farm. So, in conclusion, I will say that, while I think that a relatively smaller and smaller portion of our population will have the advan- 202 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Jan., « tages directly of an education on a farm, yet I believe that in the future, as in the past, this education of the farm will be the salt to preserve our national character and our national institutions. Mr. Gold.. I find a question in the Question Box which is very pertinent to the case in hand, and fortunately is not dif- ficult to answer. " How can the farmers of Connecticut help to build up the Storrs Agricultural School ?" The Chairman. I would like to have Mr. Hubbard speak upon that for a few moments. Mr. Hubbard. I respond to the call of the Chairman, not because I think I have anything new or particularly valuable to present. Everyone must know, I think, liow such an insti- tution as that is to be helped. I wish that I could say some- thing to impress the farmers of Connecticut, as they are pres- ent here before me, with something of my own feeling of the importance of that institution. I believe that it does afford an opportunity for the farmers to honor their own vocation, and one which they ought to improve. It gives them an opportu- nity to give to their sons whom they may select, and who may for themselves elect to follow their vocation, something equiva- lent to the opportunity that they give to their other sons who may choose to go into some other vocation. Suppose a farmer has three or four sons. One of them may choose to adopt a professional life. I desire to say for myself that I do not entirely agree with much that I hear in regard to the importance of interesting children in and keeping them upon the farm. All the children that grow up on a farm ought not to remain upon it. A family of half a dozen boys brought up on a farm must scatter. From the necessity of things, from the necessity of their own natures, each one of them must select the vocation which suits him best, in which he thinks he can do best, and. it is rarely that all of a large family of boys are properly fitted for one vocation. No farmer would want his boy to go into the legal profes- sion or the ministerial profession without preparation for it. He would send him to school, to college, and after he had got 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 203 through his studies at school and college, he would send him to some professional school, so that when he entered the pro- fession which he had chosen, he would be prepared to take as good a position as any other young man in it. If he has another son who elects to remain upon the farm, he should stand on the same footing ; he should be fitted for the voca- tion he has chosen, and he should have the advantages of a thorough practical education given to him. That is just the place which this Storrs Agricultural School is designed to fill, and it is just that place which it does fill. I only want to say a few words to the farmers here to arouse them, if I can, to a realization of that fact. If you have any doubt of it, go and investigate for yourselves ; examine the school itself. You will be welcomed there, nothing will be hidden from you, and we shall be glad to show you the results that have been already attained. No one has visited that institution with the purpose of making an honest inquiry who has not come away impressed with its importance. "What we want from the farms is the bright, active boys ; boys of bright minds and rural tastes. In making the selection of the boys to remain on the farm, it should not be on the line of lack of intelli- gence, by any means, because the farmer should be as intelli- gent as any one, but the selection should run on the line of a taste for rural affairs, a taste for rural life, for the influences and interests and capabilities of rural life. You see the indi- cations of that very early in life, and that boy should have, as I said before, all the advantages that would be given to one who should select a professional career. I might go on and elaborate this thought considerably, but what the farmers can do, in very brief terms, is this : In the first place, inform themselves fully in regard to this insti- tution ; and, in the second place, use it to honor their own profession and to give the boys who are to succeed them on the farm an equal chance with those who go into any other vocation. (Applause.) The Chairman. Mr. Terrell of Middlefield, visited the school last winter and can give us some of the impressions that he received from his visit. 204 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Mr. Terrell. I do not feel competent to say very much upon this subject. It is true I visited the school last winter, and I will say I was greatly pleased with what it is doing, with the use made of its facilities, with the interest that the boys there manifested in the school ; and I am glad to say that I am told that some of the boys who graduated at the end of the two years' term that is provided for them, express a desire to return and learn something more. Tlieir enthusi- asm, their interest in farming and in all rural occupations has been stimulated a good deal. This is encouraging. It ought to incite the farmers of this State, I tliink, to patronize that school. As Mr. Hubbard said, the first thing is for farmers to inform themselves of the objects of the school, what it is doing, what it can do, and is likely to do, and to become acquainted with the teachers and with the facilities of the school for imparting instruction, and for doing the work which it was etablished to do. That can best be done, I think, by men going there and examining for themselves. It is an experiment station to instruct the young men, not only in the oi'dinary course of farm work, but to instruct them in the more intelligent use of the means of drawing wealtli from the soil. We have come to that stage in agri- culture in this State, an(J in this country, where we have got to use more fertilizers than we can manufacture on our farms. The experiments made there in the use of fertilizers make an impression upon them, and seed is planted in their minds that is destined to grow in the future. It must grow in the minds of the youth that are ambitious and enthusiastic, and many of the youth of our farmers have enthusiasm and ambi- tion. This is, I believe, the place to stir up this enthusiasm, to impart information, to stimulate them to inquiry ; and that is part of the work there — to stimulate their minds to investi- gation, to inform themselves early in their lives how to begin operations, how to study the best methods, and how to apply them, the study of books, and the study of sciences, is all used in connection with the efforts made to practically demon- strate the results. Now, while this is being done, the farm 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 205 is being improved. Experiments are made on lands that are run out; methods are adopted, work is done, results accom- plished, and these boys see them. And while they are doing it, the scientific side of agriculture is shown them. Now, if we farmers will investigate that more, and learn more what the object of it is, I think it will be a benefit to us, to our children, and to the State. I merely wish to urge upon the farmers of this State to investigate this school and see if it is not a place where they can put such of their sons who have selected, or who feel as if they would select farming as their occupation in life. I believe the more you examine into this matter the more you will feel that this is an institution that is to be a credit to the State and a benefit to your children, and the more you will feel disposed to patronize it. Prof. Brewer. I will only say a word. I want to endorse what the preceding speakers have said, and just add a word to emphasize it. As our population grows denser, as railroads throw New England, in sharper and sharper compe- tition with the West, the farmer here must bring to his aid all the knowledge he can get, from whatever source. Now, it has been pretty well proved, I think, that a college is not the best place for the education of farm'ers, although some farm- ers are educated there. The young men drift away, or are apt to, from rural tastes. That has been the experience. There is a place for an agricultural school. It is the place for the large number of men and boys who wish to learn something of the principles which are to be used in their future vocation of agriculture. But there is something a little more than that. I do not know but there are some city men here whose boys would not be harmed by going there. I do not know that it is by any means certain that you are going to keep all the boys on the farm after they have been there. When some agricultural schools were started in the- West, the boys that had worked on the farms went to the new schools; they learned what they did not know before, and when they went out, they did not all go upon farms. 206 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., People said, " Well, it is a failure." Not a bit of it! If a bright man sees a boy who has been to an agricultural school and says, "I want to get a boy that knows something," it is nothing against the school, I assure you. If he has been there and learned something, and got habits that he did not have before that make him a desirable man in any vocation, it is nothing against the school. I sliould like to see that school well patronized, well supported. I am interested in its welfare. I have no doubt that it will be of very great benefit to this State in promoting its intellectual and material prosperity. The Chairman. I will say that our Secretary, Mr. Gold, has two young men at work for him who graduated from this school, last fall. I would like to hear from him whether they are any better for having been there two years. Mr. Gold. I can say that they are very satisfactory helpers upon the farm. How much better they are in comparison with other young men that I have who have been more con- tinuously upon the farm, I am not prepared to say. But one point I wish to enlarge upon a little, which Prof. Brewer just touched, and that is, that the education of this so-called agricultural school is not wasted by the State of Connecticut, or any other State that furnishes such facilities, because all the boys who may be educated there do not remain upon the farm. This practical knowledge of the principles of agricul- ture is as much needed by our professional men, by our lawyers, our clergymen, and our doctors, and our manufac- turers, also — I was going to say as much needed by them as by the farmers themselves, and, really, it does amount very much to that, in all the business relations of life. These simple principles and the practice of agriculture, which Prof. Brewer has shown us comes so naturally to the boy through his training on the farm, are exemplified, enlarged, and built up as best it can be done during the two years of semi-profes- sional study which we give the boys there on the farm of the institution ; and if it is good for them to be brought up for the business of life on a farm, it is good for them, also, in 1884.] QUESTION BOX. 207 many cases, to fit themselves for the business of a professional life, to spend two years in the discipline and drill, in learning how to learn things from nature, in the Storrs Agricultural School. [Applause.] Mr. Hubbard. I want to say one word more in regard to this matter. I want farmers to remember that this school was established for their benefit. They have boys enough to fill it, and they are not to be crowded out by anybody. Mr. Augur Our friend, Mr. Hubbard, has suggested the idea that farmers' boys probably will not all remain on the farm, and that those who have rural tastes should be selected and sent to the agricultural school. Well, I have sometimes noticed, and I suppose you all have who have visited the sea- shore, a wave sometimes coming away up on the shore, and then there is a revulsion back again. The thought occurred to me that there are city boys, and probably there is a differ- ence in tastes among city boys as well as country boys, and while some country boys will necessarily drift into the city, the question is whether some city boys may not very naturally revert back to the country. "It is a poor rule that will not work both ways," and I think there will be no possible objection to a good, smart city boy going to the Mansfield school. Mr. HiNMAN. It is very rarely that I have occasion to differ from my friend Hubbard, but I want to enter my pro- test against the idea that the Storrs School is a school for farmers' boys alone. It is for the State of Connecticut. I should be sorry to have it understood that that school was only for the benefit of farmers; that it is something estab- lished for their particular gratification and benefit, as a sop given to them to make them satisfied that everything is going on well in this State. I do not think the General Assembly had any such idea in providing it. I think that certainly no such idea should go abroad. I am confident that Mr. Hub- bard, on second thought, will agree with me in that matter. The Chairman. It has been said that the tendency of agri- cultural schools has been to lead the boys away from the 208 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., farm. We have one young man who is attending our school for the second year, who says that he disliked the farm very much, but his father was anxious for him to go there and get an education, and now he says that what he has learned there has made him well satisfied with the farm, and he wishes to make farming his life work. Mr. Johnson. If 1 understand the question which the Sec- retary read, it is about this — " How can the farmers of Con- necticut best encourage the Storrs Agricultural School ? " It seems to me that there are two ways in which it can be done. One way has been spoken of by our friend Mr. Hubbard and others. That is, for the farmers, the mechanics, and the merchants, if they will, to send their boys to the school. That is one very important thing. Another way is for the people in the State to take what pains they can to inform themselves in regard to the practical working of the school by visiting it at their convenience. We represent a good many different towns here to-night. Let each one, if he happens to hear the person who represents his town in our next Legislature ask any question about the ^torrs School, suggest to that mem- ber, tliat if the subject of an appropriation for the Storrs School should come up in the Legislature, to by all means encourage every reasonable appropriation that is asked for. I do not understand that the school is self-supporting. There is a farm there, a farm superintendent, a corps of teachers, and a good board of managers ; but they need fuel for the engine in the way of proper appropriations from our State, and I hope that our State Legislature will be liberal and ready to make all necessary appropriations which the board of man- agers of the institution may ask for. It certainly will be a safe investment. The argument, that all the graduates of that institution will not go back to the farm, is just as unsound as it would be in regard to our State Normal School. We do not think that, because there is a possibility that some of the teachers who graduate from that school will not continue to. teach all their lives, it is not worth while to encourage the School. We know that many who graduate from there will 1884.] ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR WALLER. 209 soon leave the profession of teaching, but it is a good institu tion nevertheless, and all who graduate from that school will make better business men, or better wives and mothers, than if they had not had the advantages of the State Normal School. So the boys who attend the Storrs School, if they should, after graduating there, for any reason, choose not to continue in the business of farming, they will make better men in whatever occupation they may choose for themselves by reason of the education that they have received there. By all means let us encourage the Storrs Agricultural School. Adjourned to Friday, at 10.30. THIRD DAY. The meeting was called to order at 10.30, His Excellency Governor Waller, President of the Board, ex-officio, in the chair. ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR WALLER. r Crentlemen of the Convention : As ex-officio President of this Convention, it is my duty, I am told, to preside at this meeting, and I shall undertake to perform that duty to the best of my agricultural ability. It is certainly a very great pleasure to have the opportunity to introduce, as the first lecturer on this occasion, Mr. Cheever, the editor of the JVew England Farmer^ of Boston ; a gentle- man who, I am sure, is known by reputation to all the agri- culturists of New England. Before doing that, I take the opportunity of expressing my respects for the Convention and for the element which com- poses it. I know, of course, but very little about agricultural subjects. I suppose if I were to make frank confession it would astonish you to see how very little I do know ; but I am satisfied, from the education I have received during the year by pleasant association with the men connected with the dif- ferent agricultural departments of the State, that all the aid the Commonwealth has given to your enterprises has been 14 210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., given with judiciousness and given with a fair prospect and promise of profit in the future. There can be no question to the thoughtful mind that the competition with the cheap lands in the west, now confront- ing the agriculturists of New England, compels the farmers in the eastern sections to devote their time €ind intelligence to a line of occupation that requires peculiar knowledge and skill to successfully follow ; and with this view, and to maintain this policy, Connecticut has wisely given bounties to agricul- tural societies, established an experiment station, I think the first in the country, and supported by annual appropriations a school for the education of farmers. All of these things, it is pleasant to contemplate, work together for tlie same end — to cultivate the intellect as well as the land of Connecticut. I am sure it must be as pleasant an occupation to obtain a sub- sistence and a comfortable living out of intelligent, skillful labor, as it is to take it from the fields in larger States where there is nothing required but to sow the seed with careless- ness, and in the fall to reap the crop simply with labor. And besides that, all this culture and education that are given to the agricultural element of Connecticut and New England show themselves not only in the farm labor, but in the farm- house ; in the faces of the women, in the intelligence and cul- ture of the young ladies ; of every pleasant way that goes to make New England farm life comfortable and charming. I will not delay you another moment from the pleasure which you are to receive from the lecture of the gentleman whose name I have had the honor to mention. (Applause.) VAEIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. BY A. W. CHEEVER. Every successful business man does, and every farmer should, as often at least as once a year, look over his books, take an account of stock, and make out some sort of a balance sheet, in order that he may, as far as possible, be able to know the exact condition of his financial affairs ; for a man who is struggling as men must struggle who succeed in this world, ought to -know which way he is moving, or if he indeed is moving at all. 1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OP FAEMING. 211 A State board of agriculture is but an organization of men asso- ciated together for the purpose of doing certain kinds of work, and such organizations, as well as individuals, may very properly take a little time as often as once a year to look over the records, and so far as may be, learn the general condition of the affairs over which they are supposed to have an interest or control. The topic assigned by your secretaiy for this hour, it has seemed to me, suggests the taking of a general view of the present condi- tion and future prospects of the New England farmer. But as the best part of these winter meetings sometimes is the discussions which follow the reading of papers, it will not be my aim to exhaust the subject, but to suggest thought, to encourage investi- gation, and to present my view of the situation, with its balance sheet, subject, however, to personal revision by- each and all. It is sometimes claimed that what farmers most stand in need of is not opinions but facts, but I fear that a sufficient number of facts, classified and arranged, are yet wanting in many depart- ments of agriculture, to raise us to that high level where opinions will become wholly worthless. So the first opinion I shall give you is, that farming in New Eng- land to-day is a much better business than many of us have come to believe. Riding recently in the cars with a gentleman whose business has brought him more or less into acquaintanceship with nearly every State and Territory in the Union, he expressed it as his belief that New England is, and always must be, the poorest section of the whole country for carrying on agricultural operations. He would like a farm if he could afford to own one, but if he were going to purchase he would surely make his selection at the West or South, where the land will produce crops simply by putting the seed in the ground. Now, if the mere sowing of seed upon virgin soil and gathering and selling the harvest without making the first effort towards leaving that soil as fertile as we found it is agriculture, then I admit that New England is no place for farming, nor for farmers, and the sooner we go West or South, or take up some other form of industry, the better it will be for us. Many, far too many, if judged by their works, have no higher ideas concerning the occupation of the farmer than this, and it is from taking such a view that so large a portion of this country has 212 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., been overrun and despoiled of its fertility, as a drove of village children often overrun and strip a huckleberry pasture of its fruit, running and racing hither and thither to find the thickest spots and the largest berries, and not even having a thought to preserve the bushes, which, if broken down to be stripped in the shade, must most effectually prevent the growth of another crop the fol- lowing year. When I look through the back country towns of New England and see the land formerly cultivated, and laboriously fenced with its heavy stone walls, but now growing up to birches and white pines ; when I see vacant farm buildings put into the hands of real estate brokers for sale ; when 1 see the young men and young women who were born and reared on these deserted farms wearily wending their way westward, first to New York, then to Ohio, next to the prairies of Indiana and Illinois, then further on across the Mississippi to the rich plains and valleys of the more distant states and territories, at each halt tarrying only to sow, reap, and skin the soil till it will pay for sowing and skinning no longer, I am not surprised that visitors from older countries ask : " Where are your good farms, and where your good farming ? " As I understand the meaning of the term Agriculture, it is some- thing more than the mere scattering of seed's and the harvesting of crops. A good farmer will no more think of letting his land be- come exhausted of its fertility than would a good engineer think of using up all his steam and then letting his fire go out because it requires an effort and an expense to keep fuel on his grate ; no more than would a good manufacturer think of using up all his stock of raw material and then closing his factory. Good farming everywhere means good husbandry, and good husbandry means thrift and economy in the use of raw material, but here in the United States we have been using up our raw material in the shape of the natural fertility of the soil. Robbery is an unpleasant term to apply to our American agri- culture, but it is a term that is far from inappropriate, as the history of our tobacco fields, cotton plantations, wheat farms, and even our forests, but too plainly attests. Like the youthful pick- ers of huckleberries, we have been scampering and scrambling over this great country in search of the best picking, and while stripping the earth of its spontaneous products, and enjoying its 1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. 213 fruits in the cool shade, have "been almost criminally negligent of the duties we owe to posterity. And yet I would not look wholly upon the dark side of the picture. Nature erects no fences for the purpose of keeping men forever on the same spot where they were born. On the contrary, Nature's methods rather invite exploration and the occupation by her children of new territory, whether these children be weeds, fruits, animals, or man; and it is in violation of no natural law that each seeks for the most desirable location within his knowl- edge or power of attainment. It is true, I was once inclined to criticise the method by which this country has been peopled and its resources developed. I thought I would have had the land along the Atlantic coast, which was first settled by our forefathers, all made perfect in its way, like the new town of Pullman — the swamps all drained, the rocks all crushed, or buried, or put where they would have been of the most use, and every acre and every rod run by a' "garden of Eden " model — every acre being as good as the best, clear to the border-line of civilization ; which line should have been pushed back only so fast and so far as an increasing population of good citizens might require. You must see that this would have been very nice, to have had every acre of land, every rod of public road, and every grove of trees, between the coast line and the most distant back lot, as per- fect in its way as are the public grounds and streets around your State capitol at Hartford. I would have had, too, every man tem- perate, healthy, industrious, and self-supporting. I would have had no fences bordering the highway, maintained at public expense for the convenience of the few; for I would have had every ani- mal-owner take care of his own, and I would have provided for no army of soldiers, nor any policemen, except a few to guard the line along the frontier to keep Indians and woodchucks from our homes and gardens. But I have come to suspect later that the power which brought this world and all the beings upon it into existence can be trusted to manage its development after nature's own methods, and taking this view I am forced to admit that every step in the world's progress has been taken in conformity to law, and that every apparent obstacle or loss has its use, and that every influence has been in the line of public good. 214 BOAED OP AGRICULTUEE. [Jan., I think you will agree with me that it is usually the young teachers, the young ministers, and perhaps the young newspaper- men who are the most enthusiastic and the most hopeful regard- ing their ability to quickly educate and reform the world. Older men have learned that great results are only attained after great and long-continued effort. So, on coming together at these winter meetings, if we some- times discover a great diversity of opinion concerning the best farm methods, and find it not always easy to convince our associ- ates that they are wrong and we right, or if, after the week's dis- cussion, we are each able to carry away but a single new idea of value, we should not be discouraged. COMPULSORY FARMING. A very large proportion of the men who are now at the head of our New England farms have become farmers by a sort of fate or chance, rather than from personal choice. Circumstances over which they have apparently had but little control have influenced them. In many cases, the strong desires of the old father or mother to have the homestead continue in the family name has exerted a controlling influence over the action of the son; for the old-world love of paternal acres has not all been exterminated from the blood of the new world's people. A part ownership in an inherited farm has tempted many to try their hand at the busi- ness who have little real love for it and less of that training neces- sary to the highest success in any business. Some of the least enterprising farmers in the country are found among this class. They are generally kind-hearted, accommodating neighbors, and useful citizens. They have been kind to their parents in their old age, and are working as well as they know how for the comfort and benefit of their wives and children ; but, having neither love for nor much skill in their business, the comforts are not always as abundant as might be desired. Many among this class would have made excellent mechanics had they been early encouraged and trained in that direction, and it seems a pity that good mechan- ics should have been thus spoiled to make such indifferent farmers. I suspect that a very large proportion of the grumbling and depreciatory expressions concerning farming in general, and New England farming in particular, have emanated from this class of farmers who were made farmers against their will or against their 1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. 215 choice; for a man engaged in a business for which he has no love, whatever that business may be, will rarely speak well of it when discussing its pros and its cons. But the farmer who occupies the lowest position among the several classes of earth-tillers is the really SHIFTLESS FARMER, he who would be too lazy to earn his own living in any business SO long as wife, or children, or creditors can be induced to support him. The shiftless farmer takes no pride in his farm, and very little interest in its management. He plants little, because he wants little to take care of. He makes little effort at killing weeds, because he has found out that his land is "natural" to weeds, and if he kills all there are to-day another crop will come right up in their places. He keeps but a small dairy, because he has no good accommodations for taking care of the milk; and besides, he knows that dairy farming doesn't pay. He wouldn't keep hens, only those he has kept have stolen their nests, and being too lazy to hunt for the eggs, the old hens sit, and so the stock is annually kept from running out. He never plants trees, because he knows he will never live to see them bear fruit; it takes so long for a tree to grow. He does not put out the small fruits because he prefers more hearty food, and if his wife or children want berries they can pick them in the pasture or woods. He doesn't keep a good carriage, because he doesn't care to ride much, and besides, he has no time. His best company is some neighbor of congenial tastes and aspirations who, in hoeing or ^haying time, comes and sits on the fence with him and discusses bad weather and worse politics, and when, after an hour or two, the neighbor shows signs of departing, he is asked " What's your hurry ? " The shiftless fanner never has money to lend, nor much to spend, but he contrives to live, often to an advanced age; and although he may have little to show of the luxuries of life outside of a period of prolonged leisure, he gets, I really believe, more of the ordinary comforts than the same amount of labor and energy would bring him in any other business; for his crops, though not large, are growing while he is eating and sleeping; but if the mechanic stops work his pay stops too. 216 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE. [Jan., THE INTEMPERATE FARMER, he who spends his substance for intoxicating drinks need not be more than mentioned in this connection, for he can never succeed, whatever vocation he may choose. BOOK-FARMERS. Some years ago much was said and written about a class of soil- tillers styled ''book-farmers," the term being frequently used in a spirit of derision. The book-farmer came into existence at that period in New England's history, when the natural fertility of the soil began to show indications of exhaustion. Previous to that time the art of farming had consisted in scratching the surface just enough to enable the seed to germinate and to keep weeds from smothering the crop. The demand for agricultural products was confined chiefly to the farmer's own wants, and there was little in- ducement on the part of the farmers to raise agriculture to a very high level as a business. But when the soil began to show signs of failure, a few of the better educated men of the country, par- ticularly those whose business or reading had given them some ■ knowledge of what was being done in other parts of the world, began to look into agriculture from the stand -point of the educated men who had lived before them. So books treating upon farm matters were purchased and read, and some of the readers, though without much practical experience in the routine of farm tillage, attempted either by speech or example to teach a better way of conducting farm operations. At that time books treating upon agriculture were chiefly written in the old country, and some of the rules laid down as guides to the farmer were but poorly adapted , to our soil and climate, and so reading men without any practical farm experience to fall back upon in forming judgment were not unlikely to be led astray, and also to mislead those who might be induced to follow their advice. So " book-farming " came into disgrace for a time, but only for a very limited time. The con- stantly diminishing fertility of the soil made a most imperative demand for a better knowledge of the laws of plant and animal growth than the routine farmer of those days was able to com- mand. " Book-farming," as the term was formerly used, is one that the present generation of farm boys rarely hear. And there was another 1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. 217 cause for the too general antipathy against book-learning. By not a small class in those severely Puritanic days, all learning was held to be unfavorable to personal piety. Persons are now living whose parents argued against bringing books into the house be- cause as they said they had observed that much reading had a tendency to prevent young persons from "experiencing religion," something in their minds far more to be deplored than the pro- foundest ignorance. The book-farmer has been succeeded by the FANCY FARMER, usually a man who has acquired a competence in trade or manufac- tures, but retaining a degree of love for the art that feeds all, either retires from business or settles down on a farm for the amusement he may be able to get out of it, or else he divides his time between business and farming, making the latter a study from a business man's stand-point. With plenty of money to invest he aims to jump at one bound from the low level of the ordinary farmer to that of the model farmer. He purchases the best stock from foreign lands, and experiments with the most approved implements; he introduces new varieties of grains, vegetables, fruits, and even flowers; his business calling him abroad he studies the improved methods of other nations, and takes note of the weak points in our domestic systems, and, possessing true patriotism as well as business abihty, he naturally strives to inculcate his new ideas into the minds of friends and associates. To the so-called, fancy farmer, we are indebted in large degree for the farmers' club, the agricultural society and the cattle show, the agricultural college, the experiment station, and, indirectly, for the dissemination of all our new breeds of domestic animals, and the endless variety of valuable labor saving implements of tillage now deemed so indispensable in all the more advanced systems of modern agriculture. The fancy farmer has made many mistakes but they have been made chiefly at his own expense. Those who claim to be practical farmers have much to thank the fancy farmer for and very little to charge against him. SCIENTIFIC FARMING is comparatively a modern term variously applied by different per- sons to styles of farming supposed to be a little better than their 218 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., own, but often deemed unattainable except by those who can com- bine learning with wealth. The term " scientific " rather scares common farmers as though there were some deep mystery involved in it, but if we would remember that the sole office of science is to unfold and explain things, to deal with causes and effects, and that science is only " classified knowledge," or as some one has expressed it, " the sum of known truths pertaining to different sub- jects," we need to have no hesitation about grasping all the agri- cultural science possible. That farmer who has learned enough about the habits of the insects which attack his grains and his fruits so that he can forestall them in their mischief, is to that extent a scientific farmer. If he understands enough about the laws of health to be able to keep his animals thrifty, or to treat them properly in sickness, he is still more a scientific farmer. If lie understands the theory of plant growth, how the roots get their food from the soil, and knows how to economically enrich that soil so that it shall continue productive, that knowledge is scientific knowledge. If too, he can clearly explain the exact connection between the " signs " in the almanac, and the weaning of pigs, or the precise relation the position of the moon has to the planting of beans on the earth, I think no one will dispute his claim to be classed among the scientific. Scientific farming is only another name for intelligent farming, and no one at this late day will have a single word to utter against intelligence as a necessity in profitable farming. We have heard much said of late about SPECIAL FARMING, as opposed to general or mixed farming. Special farming accepts the modern ideas concerning the division of labor. He who does one kind of work only all his life may be expected to acquire a degree of skill in that one direction that would be unattainable in one who attempts to do a dozen or fifty kinds. Special farming has its advantages. Our best stock breeders, butter-makers, fruit- growers, vegetable -gardeners, poultry and bee-keepers, are men who each give their best thoughts and efforts to some one of these branches, all of which are but divisions of agriculture, and may be carried on by the same person, but to just that extent, which one becomes thoroughly master of either branch may he expect 1884,] VARIOUS VIEWS OF FAEMING. 219 superior results, and as it would be next to impossible for any one man to know as much about ten different trades as each often might know about some one, it is doubtless the part of wisdom to lean towards some specialty or a division of labor in agriculture as well as in manufactures and trade. It will not, however, be advisable to confine one's self exclusively to a single crop, for a style of farming that is somewhat diversified, is far more secure against loss from unfavorable seasons and variable marljets. I know a specialist who gives his attention to three crops — pears, grapes, and cucumbers, the latter being grown under glass in win- ter, giving employment at a time when his trees and vines need little or no attention. A too common mistake of farmers is to start out in some branch of agriculture without sufficiently preparing for the end. A grass farmer sets out a large field of strawberries or plants, a wide area of early peas for market, without making a proper effort to secure pickers, and when harvest-time arrives he finds that either berries, peas, or hay must bring him a loss for want of more hands than he can command. Such men are continually changing from one thing to another, and rarely stick long enough to any one kind of business to half learn it, or to acquire even a fair degree of suc- cess. There is one kind of MIXED FARMING which I am in favor of, always. I refer to that carried on by mechanics and mill-operatives during the morning and evening before and after mill hours, and also during any forced vacations on account of dull times, or other causes. I would like, too, to see a good many who are classed as farmers, but who can find little to do in winter but to sit by the chimney- corner consuming in idleness all the increase from their summer's work, find some sort of mechanical work to do in winter, by which they could at least earn their daily bread. A good many farm- ers do find winter work to do in boot-shops, bonnet-shops, furniture- shops, jewelry factories, lumber-mills, and in cutting and hauling wood and lumber and storing ice. Dairy farmers, too, find plenty of work without leaving the farm, if they keep a winter dairy; but idleness in winter is the cause of big leaks on a great many New England farms. 220 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., The question, however, of special or mixed farming is one that will be decided by each, somewhat according to his own ambition for accumulation. A specialist in the extreme may sacrifice the best part of a generous farm life in the pursuit of his specialty, be it hens, hogs, hops, or tobacco, and may hardly be able to talk or think of anything outside of the specialty he is pursuing. How- ever much wealth may contribute towards one's success, the high- est success is not to be measured by money alone. The farmer who lives for his farm is in danger of living an unprofitable life. He is in danger of becoming one of those whom Thoreau alluded to when he said: "I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men, the former are so much the freer. I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. They have got to live a man's life pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul I have met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and wood-lot." If that is the condition of a man who lives for his farm, what must be the condition of the wives and children of such farmers? It is from such homes that the largest draft is being continually made for keeping up the supply of young men and young women in our villages and cities. Now, if carrying on a farm means carrying it as a burden upon one's shoulders, then the sooner we all quit and move to the city the better it may be for us. But I am not yet quite ready to believe it a part of the plan of creation to make man secondary to the land he tills. And so, while I am in favor of giving special attention to one or more branches as leading industries on the farm, and to pushing them to a profitable degree, I am also in favor of making the farm, which usually must be the farmer's home, just as good and just as pleasant a home as it is possible to make it. We should endeavor to make our homes such homes as thousands of mechan- ics and business men are daily dreaming about and hoping for, and such a home calls for a good deal of mixed farming. It can not be asking too much of a farmer to ask him to have a good 1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. 221 garden, filled with a generous assortment of such fruits and vege- tables as the several members of his family are fond of. It will require less skill and business ability to grow early peas, early let- tuce, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, asparagus, grapes, apples, pears, plums, and the other fruits and vegetables found in a good garden, in sufficient quantit}' for family use, than to grow a single one of these good things in such perfection as to be able to excel everybody else, and so make one's own price in the mar- ket, as a specialist must do if he makes his specialty a great suc- cess. Every farmer should have a good garden, whatever his principal crops may be. My criticism on that class of farmers often styled WELL-TO-DO FARMERS, is, that in their eagerness to increase the sum of their possessions they too often overlook some of the prime objects in living. They "plant more corn that they may sell more hogs, to get more money, to buy more land, to raise more corn, to keep more hogs, to buy more land," and so on. A great many, too, have put their surplus gains into the village savings banks, when they should have been expended for home comforts, fruit trees and shrubs, better carriages, better furniture, greater conveniences for the kitchen, running water at the sink and at the stables, ice in an ice- house, stoves in the chambers for the comfort of children, guests, and hired help, more books and magazines of a refining and ele- vating tendency, and a hundred other things that wives and chil- dren have asked for, but without getting. New England farmers who hurry off to the savings bank with every spare dollar should remember that their dollars are largely loaned to parties who use them for building up the cities and large towns; thus giving these increased power over the country from which those dollars have been drawn; or it is sent directly West, to aid the pioneer farmers and railroad stockholders in increasing that competition of which many of us here so bitterly complain. Let the well-to-do farmer, then, who has a little surplus to invest from his annual savings, consider well whether he had better entrust it to strangers to be used in building up cities and improv- ing distant lands, or whether he shall invest it in his own farm, and in his own neighborhood for making better roads, building more 222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., comfortable dwellings, school-houses, lyceum halls, and for public libraries, and thus making the difference between city and country life less unfavorable to the latter. Had a reasonable proportion of the wealth that has been accu- mulated from the cultivation of New England soils, during the past two hundred years, been re-invested in New England soils and New England homes, instead of being sent away, New Eng- land might to day have been a garden, from Long Island Sound to the Canada line. Had New England farmers expended their surplus upon their own land, 1 should have had no occasion now to" allude to that large and most pitiable of all the agricultural classes — the heavily MORTGAGED PARMER. For, a man who is struggling at fearful odds in the vain attempt to make farming pleasant and profitable without maintaining a due proportion between land and working capital is indeed him- self mortgaged. He is like the wild animal of the woods that has allowed himself to be drawn into the hunter's snare. He is a slave and a prisoner while bearing the name of freeman. Mr. Russell, secretary of our Massachusetts Board of Agricul- ture, when I asked him the other day what I should say to the Connecticut farmers, said: ''Tell them that the greatest fallacy of the age is the belief, entertained by so many people everywhere in America, that farming is a business which can be successfully carried on without capital." If it is a mistake that well-to-do farmers make in not investing more of their surplus savings in their own farms and homes for the purpose of making their farms more profitable and their homes more homehke, it is a still greater mistake for one with limited means to invest it all in land and have nothing left with which to stock it and work it. On one of the days I had set apart for writing this paper my eyes fell upon a letter from the wife of a large farmer in one of our best New England States. She has been married ten years, — was formerly a teacher. The farm is her husband's old home, his birth-place; but it is heavily mortgaged. It is so large that a half dozen men are required for doing the work, and more in the busiest seasons. The cultivated fields are some of them so far from the buildings that to haul four loads of manure from the 1884.] VAEIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. 223 stable and spread it requires nearly a whole day for man and team. The help are all boarded in the house. Two barrels of flour are kneaded into bread dough every four weeks; a peck of beans, all carefully picked over by hand, is just enough for a baking. The barns are large, and are annually crowded with hay, and the grain bins are equally full. There is a dairy, and there are little children growing up to be loved and educated, and the strength of this mother's hands has been divided between the duties of the nursery, the kitchen, the dairy, and the parlor, some- times with assistance, often without. Butter and cheese have been made by the ton, but thus far nearly every dollar gathered from the annual sales from the farm, above what has been required for paying help and clothing the family, has gone, not to diminish the debt, but to pay the interest on the mortgage which covers it. That discouraged wife and mother believes that all this trouble comes to them from having too large a farm. I believe the diffi- culty is largely due to paying high rates of interest on land that is not worked up to its highest capacity. It is possible that the farm is too large for the man. It is surely too large for the manure, for I never knew manure to be spread very bountifully where the stable and field were a mile apart. There are too many acres plowed, planted, and mowed over for filling those hay-mows and grain bins, and too much time is spent in traveling, at from one dollar to two dollars per day. The men are too far apart to be kept sufficiently under the eye of the master. But this woman writes me, " My husband and his old father love every inch of this old homestead farm, and it would be a hard wrench to let a single rod of it pass into other hands." Was Thoreau very far wrong when he said, " I am wont to think that men are not so much the keeper of herds as herds are the keepers of men, the former are so much the freer " ? And was Mr. Russell wrong when he said that the greatest fallacy about New England farming is the idea that it can be profitably carried on without capital ? I recently visited a farmer in my own county, who owns two large farms, but who gets nearly all his profit from four acres set to cranberry vines, and which cost him at least $500 per acre for preparation before picking a single berry. The original value of the land was not over $10 per acre. I visited another, who, a year ago, applied fertilizer for potatoes 224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., at the rate of a ton and a lialf per acre, and by comparing the yield with that of other fields manured a little more sparingly, he found that all the profit of the crop came from the last half ton applied. This year he put on two tons per acre. Another farmer in my State has the past summer expended some two thousand dollars in wells, pumps, wind-mills, and steam- engines for watering his cultivated fields, and has made money by it. Now, do not understand me as advocating the indiscriminate use of large quantities of dearly purchased fertilizer, nor the erec- tion of steam pumps upon all our farms for guarding against drought; but you may understand that I am utterly opposed to paying interest and taxes on idle and unproductive lands. But it seems to me that this is what three-quarters of our farmers are doing on three-quarters of their land. A man wanting to borrow a hundred dollars, and who could use only that amount profitably in his business, would never be so foolish as to borrow a thousand dollars and give his note for it, letting the nine hundred lie idle in his pocket; and yet that is about what many farmers are doing who run in debt for large farms, of which not more than one acre in ten is made full use of. My own farm, some years ago, contained fifty acres of tillage and pasture land, and kept about seven animals, including a horse and a pair of steers. It required two men and a boy to do the work among the rocks and stumps, and the profits were exceed- ingly small. After a while one-half the area was given over to forest growth, the only crop that such land can profitably be devoted to with present values. The remaining twenty-five acres was so improved by clearing and draining, that it soon carried double the stock the fifty acres had previously supported. Still later greater improve- ments were made, particularly by heavier manuring and double cropping, and the stock was again doubled, the twenty-five acres supporting four times the number that could be kept on the fifty acres by the old system, while the net profits were many times doubled, and. by the introduction of labor-saving implements and horse power in place of hand labor, the number of hands employed remained about the same as when the fifty acres were cultivated. By the early management, the hired man, who received ten dollars a month and his board, was enabled to lay up more from his wages at the end of the season than could his employer from the profits 1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OP FARMING. 225 on the labor of both and the income on the capital all put together. By the later methods, the working capital employed amounted to three-fourths the entire value of the real estate, including farm buildings. The gross income from each acre annually exceeded the market value of the land itself, and the net income, after pay- ing all expenses, left a liberal salary to the owners, and twice the rate of interest, in addition, that the best savings banks pay. These statements are based on farm accounts that have been care- fully kept and balanced annually for nearly fifty years. I could point j'^ou to other farms where equal or even better profits have been reahzed. I could name a small farm, managed chiefly by members of a small family, from which more value has been sold within the past three years, above the cost of hired labor, than the amount it would take to buy the farm, were it in market, with all its buildings, including the owner's residence, whicli is really no part of a farm, and should never be carried in a farm account, more than should the private residences of stock- holders in banking corporations be carried in the banking accoun*:. One reason v/hy farming everywhere is credited with such small rates of profit is because farmers fail to keep correct accounts, and oftener to keep any at all. They spend all they make, and then because there is nothing left, claim they have made nothing. New England has thousands of farms stocked with animals and farm implements, which would not bring, in market, exclusive of the dwelling-house, over two thousand dollars, for land, stock, and tools, the interest on which, at present ruling rates for property well secured, would not exceed one hundred dollars. JSTow what kind of a living would an annuity of one hundred dollars afford a man ? It costs more than that to support the poor in our alms- houses; and yet, on a capital of two thousand dollars or less, in a New England farm, whole families obtain good livings, keep the principal secure, educate the children, ride to church, and have their own way about things generally, more than is possible among any other classes using the same amount of capital in their business. And yet the majority of these small farms, — or rather low-priced farms, for many of them contain from fifty to one hun- dred acres each, — are not half worked ; no, not a quarter. And here we would ask. Does any one know of a farm anywhere, that is worked up to its full capacity ? Has any one yet foimd the limit to the profitable working of a single farm acre ? I once 15 226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., began sucli an experinnent, but failed to complete it. I sowed an orchard to winter rye in autumn. Early in May of the following year a heavy crop of fodder was cut and fed green. Then the land was plowed and manured, and sowed to oats. These were as heavy as could stand; and the crop was in bloom and fit to cut early in July, Again the ground was turned over, again manured, and sown with barley. The barley also made a full crop, and was cut about the middle of September, and in season to be out of the way of picking a fine yield of winter apples. I had then the whole of October and November in which to start the round again by sowing rye, but as I failed to do so I suppose I must admit that my farm was a little too large. I told you in the outset, that in my opinion, farming in New England is a much better business than many have been inclined to believe. Except in the single product of milk, sold direct from the stable, we seem to have less competition among ourselves than is found in any other business that is unguarded by combinations for mutual protection. We have the best markets in the world almost at our very doors; and it has been shown, over and over again, that an acre of good well-tilled land here, will produce as bountifully as will an acre of good land at the West, or anywhere else, while the crop, when grown, will sell for a good deal more money. The average yield of wheat in all the States of the Union is less than fourteen bushels per acre. In the thirty principal wheat- growing States and Territories it is but thirteen bushels; yet your own State of Connecticut stands only second on the list with her nineteen bushels per acre, while the other New England States raise on the average from fifteen to sixteen bushels. I have myself grown thirty-nine bushels of the choicest wheat per acre, weighing up to the standard of sixty pounds per bushel, and as Professor Brewer has already told you, the waste product, in the form of straw from such a crop, is worth more in the nearest vil- lage than the western farmer can get for his whole crop, including both straw and grain. I know it may be said that the western farmer has richer land and larger fields; but we have plenty of room for larger fields here, and our best farmers are clearing away their fences, and are fitting their land and adapting it to the same kind of tools the prairie farmers are using; and we have the facil 1884.] VAEIOUS VIEWS OF FARMING. 227 ities, if we will only use them, for making our lands as rich as the richest. It is true that the eastern farmer has been closely pushed by his western competitor, but, from various causes, that competition is becoming less severe, and we are slowly learning to adapt our- selves to the changed conditions brought about by the skinning process, which has passed over this country like a great devastating wave. The gradual loss of fertility in the western soil, the grow- ing borne markets there, and the improved methods of farming here, are every year placing the farmers of the two sections more nearly upon the same level. American farmers, and I believe Americans generally, have been called a race of grumblers, except when making or listening to Fourth of July orations; but it must be remembered that grum- bling in 'a free country is only the first step towards setting wrong things right. Our progress as a thoroughly self-supporting and self-governing people may at times seem slow, but when we bear in mind the crude condition of the mass of material there was and still is in this country, both human and earthy, and that in making this great experiment the world had given us no model to work from; when we look about over our hill-sides and compare even our poorer homes with the homes of the average laborer in almost any other part of the world ; and again when we find the leading men of other nations, as well as those from other portions of our own country, coming to New England for patterns by which to improve the condition of their own people, and to reform their own methods of government and of education, — when we bear in mind all this, 1 say, if we can only be sure that our progress, though slow, is real and in the right direction, we may congrat- ulate ourselves that the gain is not ours alone, but that an influence is being exerted that is reaching out towards the farthest corners of the earth ; and that instead of the little paradise of a garden and republic which our Puritan fathers in their imagination and exclusiveness might have seen developing on the shores of this New World, the farmers of New England and their descendants are rearing a structure which must hasten the time when every honest and industrious worker can, if he chooses, own a house and land, and own himself, and this not only in New England and in America, but wherever the names New England and America are known. 228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., Mr. Chamberlain. As the speaker has just alluded to his succession of crops upon the piece of land which he attempted to bring up to its full capacity of production, I would like to ask him what is the comparative value of the crops that he cultivated there ? I would like to know the comparative value of the rye — whether he used it in a dry state or a green state — and also of the other crops which followed that rye. It is a very important question with us what we shall cultivate for fodder, and if the gentleman will inform us of his valuation of Hungarian grass and millet, if he has had any experience or personal knowledge in regard to that matter, I should be very happy to hear it. Mr. Cheever. In reply 1 will say that my land is rather light, and much of it is not well adapted to grass. It does not bear two or three crops of grass a year without any fertilizer. I can raise crops of much greater value, as well as very much larger in quantity, by devoting the land to rye, oats, barley, millet, and corn, to be grown as forage crops, to be cut and fed green, than I can by devoting my land to grass. Comparing a ton of the best English hay with a ton of any- thing else, I think the advantage will be in favor of the hay; but a ton or a little more to the acre is all the best farmers average over their farms, while by growing two crops a year, one of rye and the other of corn, or one of rye and the other of oats, and growing the second year any of the large, I'ank- growing crops, a farmer can certainly get much more value than from grass alone. Rye has come to be grown by milk farmers and by dairy farmers to a large extent, much more than a few years since, and whoever tries it once I think tries it twice. Sometimes the mistake is made of allowing it to stand too long, it gets too tough, and cattle do not like it. For an early crop it is valuable ; it grows when nothing else will grow, and occupies the land at a time when it would otherwise be idle. The growing of barley is also increasing with us consid- erably. Sown in midsummer or any time during warm weather, it makes a late crop that stands the frost and affords good feed when your corn fodder and millet will be killed by 1884.] QUESTIONS. 229 freezing. I have cut barley when the ground was frozen and it was good feed. There are little things to learn in growing these crops and feeding them as in everything else. I have done some injury to milk on one or two occasions by chang- ing too suddenly from one kind of feed to rank green barley, cut in cloudy weather, and I have found a rank taste in the milk. But that is nothing seriously against such crops. The change should be made gradually from one feed to another. Mr. Webb. Is rye as a soiling crop for cows apt to give a bad taste to the milk ? Mr. Cheever. No, not if properly fed. Mr. Webb. I have tried it several times and it never failed to give a bad taste to the milk. Mr. Cheever. I begin to cut my rye very early in the spring, before it shows any heads, and feed it lightly. It will not do to turn cows from hay out into rank June grass immediately, and expect to get as good milk as if they had been brought to that feed gradually ; and the same is true with respect to any other green feed. Mr. Chamberlain. We want to get all the benefit of the gentleman's experience that we possibly can on these subjects, and I would like to ask him at what point in the maturity of these various crops he thinks they are the most valuable ? Mr. Cheever. Chemistry and practice may seem to con- flict a little, but we must feed crops when cattle will eat them. Chemists tell us that grass is worth the most when it is in full bloom or a little past. Rye in full bloom will not be eaten greedily by cattle the first time it is offered to them ; but when cut before it blooms, while it is still so tender that you can chew it yourself and swallow it without choking, it will be eaten readily. I would say that it should never stand until it comes into bloom. I have put a great many tons of it into the barn, and I never intend that the blossom shall show before it is cut, and only very rarely is that the case. I do not know why the same rule does not hold for all the forage crops. Barley and oats I think should be cut before they are 230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., in full bloom, because they will be so much more tender and will be eaten with so much better relish ; yet I do not believe in feeding wholly upon them, especially immediately after changing from other feed. Question. Should you apply the same rule to grass ? Mr. Cheever. I suppose the questioner has read the dis- cussion on this subject as to when grass is worth the most. Every farmer knows that his cattle like hay best that is cut early enough to be tender, a little before it is in full bloom ; but hay is the most expensive food that I can grow on my farm for stock. Question. I would like to know if you make winter fod- der of these green crops that you raise ? Mr. Cheever. I always aim to have enough and some more than will be wanted in summer, and then cure the surplus, cutting it at the right time. There is a little advantage in letting it get in full bloom when it is to be cut for winter use. It dries quicker and cures faster. Mr. Myrick. Would you let rye blossom in full ? Mr. Cheever. I would never let rye blossom at all, neither for curing nor green feeding. My own practice is to cut it before it comes in bloom. If I should have some that una- voidably stood too late on account of the weather, I would feed it to horses or cattle, instead of cows that I was urging for milk. Question. Do you apply the same rule to the cutting of corn ? Mr. Cheever. No, sir. Question. I would like to inquire of Mr. Cheever if he has ever tried sowing rye upon a pasture ? Mr. Cheever. I never have. I have only five acres of pasture, which has never had anything done to it since the farm was originally divided. It is simply used as play ground and exercise ground for cattle ; they get what they can. My pastures are rocky, and I cannot afford to plow them. Rye 1884.] QUESTIONS. 231 is sown for pasture with more or less success, but I do not believe much in pasturing on poor land. Question. Does this system of raising two or three crops a year exhaust the soil ? Mr. Cheever. I should say not. Whether the soil is exhausted more by growing a crop of seed than by growing a crop all ready to form seed, with all the material in the stalk, I suppose chemists must answer. Question. Has Mr. Cheever had any experience with mil- let and Hungarian grass ? Mr. Cheever. Large experience. Question. How will they grow as compared with rye ? Mr. Cheever. Rye has considerable value because it will grow when nothing else will,- in late fall and early spring. Millet will not grow then ; it grows only in hot weather. My rule has been to sow rye early ; then sow oats that come early, then spring barley and spring wheat ; and, after the weather comes warm, put in millet, and corn a little later, so that I know it will mature, and then put in barley. Millet is excellent food. My cows seemed to want me to think it wasn't worth anything, — advised me not to raise any more ; I thought it wasn't worth much the first year. Cows, like human beings, do not like new food. Many of us did not like tomatoes when we first tried them, but we may be exces- sively fond of them now. I have found, in later years, that millet was fully equal to the best English hay. In feeding forage crops, I feed whatever I happen to have all summer long. Question. Have you had any experience with lucerne ? Mr. Cheever. Very little, and very unsatisfactory. I have sown a patch of lucerne, or alfalfa, which is a kind of clover which does well in certain soils, but I think we are too far north. It does well in some climates, but I cannot recom- mend it from my experience. Mr. Gold. The first question I took from the question box was the one which has just been asked of Mr. Cheever 232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., with regard to alfalfa : " Has any one in Connecticut had experience with alfalfa, and with what result ? " Prof. Brewer. I would like to say a word about that. I have made a good many inquiries and I cannot find that it has ever been grown successfully in any cold country. Many years ago, when I was on the geological survey, I sent com- munications to Australia, Syria, the Mediterranean, Egypt, and northern Africa, inquiring in regard to the best forage plant in hot climates, and the answer came back from many places, "lucerne," or alfalfa, which is the Spanish name for lucerne. I cannot find that it has been grown successfully in any country that has cold winters. It is not as good as clover. Now and then you will find a j)lace where it will last a few years, but it goes out. Mr. Augur. I tried a very little at one time, but it was not a success. Prof. Brewer. I ought to say that alfalfa^ under the name of lucerne, has been tried over and over in New England, for more than 150 years. You may find any number of accounts of its being introduced from the old world, particularly from Germany. Here in New England, in Colonial times, before the days of agricultural papers and agricultural societies, by means of which men come together and compare notes with each other, one would try it here, another would try it there, but they all failed, for the reason that it is a plant that belongs to a warmer climate, or, at least, a climate with warmer winters than ours. In the third Essay on Husbandry, by Jared Eliot, 1749, p. 69, he tells about trying lucerne and sainfoin as forage plants on his farm (at Killingworth, near Clinton). Ho says " they will flourish a while, but others have found as well as I that it will not bear the Rigours of our Climate." He says that he has procured seed from England, and from Philadel- phia. Question. Is not potash most economically supplied to the soil by using a high grade of muriate of potash ? Are not 1884.] QUESTIONS. 233 phosphates most economically supplied to the soil by using pure ground, raw bone ? Is it not economy for farmers to buy the ingredients and mix their own fertilizers ? Mr. Cables. Last winter we bought a piece of land about two miles and a half from home. It had been kept in grass for twenty years, perhaps, the grass mowed and sold, and, in the fall, the land pastured. When we bought it, it grew only weeds and low moss, and looked as though it was very sterile. The question with me was, " Can I buy barn-yard manure and fertilize this land ? As it is now, it is no use to me or any one else." I made up my mind that, as it was on the top of a high hill, it was no use for me to entertain the idea of carting barn-yard manure there, and to get posted in regard to what I should use, I bought "Harris on Fertilizers," and read up during the winter. He gave me an index to buy fertilizers by, and it has worked very satisfactorily this sum- mer. The index was this : Buy the fertilizer you can buy the cheapest. He says : " Figure nitrogen at 17i cents a pound ; figure phosphoric acid at 12^ cents ; figure potash at four cents. Send to the different dealers in fertilizers and get their guaranteed analyses, and upon that basis figure them up, and if you can get them at these figures (that is, if the fertilizer does not figure above that, or perhaps five dollars more a ton), you can safely buy it; but you can buy the chemicals and put the fertilizers together yourself cheaper than you can afford to pay more than five dollars profit for putting it together." He says, " I have the impression that you can buy Peruvian guano more economically than any other fertilizer, and know from personal use, that Peruvian guano is more easily assimilated by plants than any other fer- tilizer." He started me on that idea, and I wrote to the Mapes Formula and Peruvian Guano Company of New York, and asised them to send me their circular giving the guaran- teed analysis of all their fertilizers, and of Peruvian guano. They sent me a circular and also a letter. In the letter they gave me an analysis of Peruvian guano, but said, " We do not guarantee this analysis." But as I understood it was an 234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., analysis made by the New York State chemist, it was very satisfactory to me. I looked up the matter and after figuring upon this basis, I found that Peruvian guano was worth some 170 a ton. Their corn manure figured $51 a ton and they asked $60. Their potato fertilizer, as near as I remember, figured about $33 or $84 a ton and they asked $50 for it. Some of their fertilizers ran above and some below. The value of none of the fertilizers that were figured in the list ran much above the cost, while Peruvian guano ran very much above. I wrote to six other firms, and four gave guaranteed analyses ; the other two sent me no gu