manufacturer, employ hired capital in his business, and increase his profits thereby.

Yet, after all, does farming in Essex County pay? It is useless to preach the ennobling influence of the farm upon the human character, the independence of the farmer, or to cite the examples of Cincinnatus, Washington, Jefferson, Webster, and others to stimulate our young men, unless it can be shown that farming in this county pays; for no enterprising New England boy will be contented in a business that does not pay.

I need only to refer to the returns of the income tax to find instances where men by farming alone, have in this county returned annual incomes amounting to from three to five thousand dollars, enough to buy a good farm, with fair buildings. I could name an Essex County farm, of fifty acres, valued at ten thousand dollars, the gross products of which were enough in one year to pay for it. It was an unusual occurrence, but such was the fact for that year. Drive in any direction through the length or breadth of the county, and notice the comfortable homes, the thrifty appearance of the farms, and the contented looks of the occupants. Is the money market tight? they know it not; is gold up or down? it affects them not at all. Do the banks refuse to discount? they care not, so long as they have one of their own in the barn yard, or cellar, that never refuses. men lie awake nights, tossing upon restless pillows, wondering wherewith the note, falling due on the morrow, shall be paid? the farmer is not of them. While ninetysix of every hundred who enter mercantile pursuits become bankrupt, the farmer scarce ever does. I have yet to learn of the second instance. It is true there are many causes of discouragement to the farmer, some of

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which are as yet, in the present stage of agricultural knowledge, entirely beyond his control, while others, by careful watchfulness, may be easily guarded against.

The canker worm, which has already been spoken of, the borer and caterpillar are the worst enemies of the orchard. The borer can easily be found by his chips, and probed to death with a wire, or limber twig peeled and pointed. The caterpillar's nests are readily seen when the trees first put out their leaves; the nests at that time are small, and a whole colony can be destroyed by a single pinch with the thumb and finger, provided you call upon them at proper hours. Until eight o'clock in the morning, and from twelve to two in the afternoon they are all at home; other parts of every pleasant day they are out foraging, and no man has any excuse for allowing his trees to be eaten by them. The small black fly is very destructive to young cabbage and cucumber plants, frequently destroying the whole crop in a single day. Air-slacked lime or ashes sifted on, are perfect remedies. The striped squash bug and a maggot are very destructive to the squash crop air-slacked lime or ground plaster is easily applied, inexpensive, and an entire protection against the bug. By planting five seeds in a hill, there will usually be plants enough for the maggot, and two or three plants, besides, to grow, which are sufficient. To insure the seeds coming up readily, they should be stuck in the prepared hill, one inch deep, with the pointed end down; this will save them two days of severe labor in turning over to come up; a labor which in some cases is so difficult as to prevent their coming up at all.

Then we have the onion maggot, an enemy more difficult to deal with, very destructive to the crop in most

parts of the country; whole fields are frequently swept away by this pest, and the farmer's hopes with them. By closely watching their habits, it will be found that the onion maggots are the offspring of a small brown fly, that, when startled, will fly about six feet and alight. This fly deposites, either upon the young onion or upon a small lump of earth, from six to twenty eggs, which, within a few days hatch; the very small maggots then appear and immediately go down the young plant to the bottom where the roots branch off from its centre. Here the worm makes an easy entrance to the very heart of the onion, followed by others of different ages, until one plant contains twenty or more. There they are completely screened from view and all harm, while they eat out the life and substance of one onion, and then pass on to the next. This is their usual habit; sometimes they eat directly through the side of the plant, though not often. They pass through two or three generations during the summer, but the last in the fall, instead of turning to flies, remain in the pupa state during the winter, and all affected onions containing them should be destroyed.

Having learned so much concerning their habits, the question arises, how can our crops be protected? Gas lime and other offensive smelling substances have been tried in vain, for the mother fly seems to delight in them. For many years my attention has been directed to this subject, and I believe I have discovered a remedy. It is the common practice to cover onion seed one inch deep, and they will germinate better at that depth than any other; nearly all will germinate at two inches, while none will grow if covered three inches deep. I have found that by sowing the seed fan inch and a half or two

inches deep, the young maggots fail to reach the bottom. of the onion, where they expect to make an entrance;. and so few attempt it at the side of the plant, that the crop is but little affected. I have tried this method for several years with success; it is important, also, to sow early, and to have the surface of the land highly manured, to give the crop an early and rapid growth in order that the plants may the sooner be too large to be affected by the few maggots that do succeed in making an entrance at the side.

The onion blight and smut, also the potato rot, are at times very destructive to those crops, turning the most promising fields, within a few days, to scenes of desolation. All, in my opinion, are caused by parasite plants of different varieties, growing upon and consuming the vitality of the onion and potato plants, and in the latter so poisoning the plant as to cause the tuber rapidly to decay. The onion smut, which has more of the character of a fungus plant, so impregnates the land with its spore, as to render it unsafe to plant onions for several years on land thus affected. The parasite that produces the onion white blight does not reproduce itself by seeding the land, but comes upon the crop at the period of its most vigorous growth, in a dry time, showing its effects perhaps in a small spot at first, but in case the dry atmosphere continues, rapidly spreading over the whole field. Two or three days give sufficient time to stop entirely all future growth of the crop, unless a change in the weather occurs unfavorable to the growth of this parasite. There is another kind of parasite equally destructive, that causes the black blight on the onion crop, similar to that which affects the potato, and requiring the same state of the weather to produce it that is necessary

to produce the potato rot. The parasite that causes the potato rot delights in a warm, close, humid atmosphere that frequently follows a rain. When a field of potatoes, planted either early or late, is in its most vigorous growth, just before the tubers begin to ripen, if such a condition of the weather then occurs, this parasite will be produced. The more dense the growth of vines the more liable to an attack, and it will commence in that part of the field where the growth is most vigorous, and will rapidly spread over the whole, unless a change in the weather takes place. Some varieties of potatoes are more susceptible to it than others. If the tops are cut close to the ground, when first attacked, the potatoes may be saved; otherwise, in a few days, they become more or less diseased, and decay rapidly follows, in which case it is better to leave the potatoes in the ground until those affected are entirely decayed. A portion of the crop may thus be saved, for if dug before that time the whole will be lost.

It will be seen from what has been said, that if you plant the rows wide apart, or alternate with some other crop, in order to have the vines more open, they will be less liable to an attack.

Many theories have been advanced, from time to time, as to the cause and prevention of these serious hinderances to the farmer's success; but none as yet have proved satisfactory. Every one, however, knows that under certain conditions mould, which is a vegetable growth, will certainly appear; that on a bank of earth and stable manure, prepared in a certain way, under suitable circumstances, mushrooms will surely grow. A pot of earth placed in mid-winter under the drip of a green house, will in a short time produce a very beauti