FARMING MADE ATTRACTIVE.

BY JUSTIN E. BURBANK.

In considering the topic, How to Make Farming Attractive, our attention is called, not to the agriculture of other countries, or to the broad prairies of the western portion of our own widely extended domain, but to the narrower limits of our own state.

The prosperity of this branch of industry is of great importance in its relation to all that concerns the vital interest of that political division where we have our home, where we have, the most of us, had our nurture, where our affections and hopes centre, and where we expect to live out our lives and lay our bodies to rest.

The many obvious advantages of agricultural pursuits do not create in the natives of our soil that strong attachment to it, as a life-long pursuit, which is sometimes seen in other climes. The youth inquires how he can most quickly and advantageously desert the occupation of his ancestors, and embark in some other calling. His steps naturally tend towards the city, flourishing in the abundance of its resources and the enterprise of its inhabitants. And all this in spite of the fact that agriculture is carried on in the open air, with all the advantages of breathing a pure atmosphere and of constantly beholding the varied and charming aspect of the skies above, as well as the scenery rejoicing in its own beauty, which so often makes up the landscape spread before him. The leisure that the farmer frequently enjoys is considered of no account, and the pleasures of home and fireside, with the affection and repose which receive their nurture there, are thrown into the scale as weights of too small value to have any effect in determining the balance.

The result of this low estimate, placed upon the cultivation of

the soil, is seen in the homestead abandoned, the cultivated field becoming pasture land, the pasturage lapsing to wood-land, and the general decay of the enterprise and public spirit of a community that was once full of the vigor of prosperity. The result is not only a numerical loss to the population, but the growth of a spirit of discontent and discouragement among those who still remain to keep alive the ancestral fires, and preserve a reverence for the burial-places where slumber former generaations.

Farming is still a leading pursuit among our people, though not, as in the infancy of our existence as a body politic, almost the sole means of acquiring a livelihood. We welcome to prosperity in the midst of us every other honorable avocation, but regret to see any falling off in the occupation of our early inhabitants. It is from the earth that all value must come, and a large part of it through the medium of agriculture. The majority of our people are still dependent on this most honorable calling for the possession of all the property they will ever enjoy through the labor of their hands, or by inheritance from those who have toiled before them, and into whose labors they have entered. The importance and interest of the theme I have chosen become at once obvious to a consideration even very slight. Neither we nor our children ought to despise a pursuit that is so prominent on account of its necessary connection with the general prosperity of the state that gave us birth, and that we cherish with filial affection.

We may affirm, without the least fear of successful contradiction, that one of the chief reasons why men forsake the farm for some other business lies in the conviction that there is more profit somewhere else. The temptation of gain has a potent influence with everybody. When men conclude that there is little to be gained by tilling land, the very next question they ask is, How can we escape from this pursuit, and engage in some other that will be more remunerative? While some

more fortunate farmers secure a competence, and even an abundance of that which all men desire, many are every year on the verge of actual loss, and some have an appalling balance against them at the season's close. It will be a Herculean task to make agriculture attractive to this unfortunate class. The attractive

force is all in an opposite direction. We may say, at the outset, that farming, to be attractive, must be made in some degree profitable. The gaunt wolf of famine must be driven from the door, and some small resources must remain to be expended in the gratification of taste, or no pursuit can long remain pleasant, or even tolerable, to those engaged in it.

Farmers in New Hampshire, if they would secure the first condition of an attractive pursuit, must practice economy in carrying it on. A reckless and expensive style of management will be sure to wreck their fond hopes, and inevitable disgust will be the certain result. In some parts of the United States, a farmer with an almost princely estate of virgin soil might scorn the idea of a calculating, miserly scrutiny of all his modes of accumulating and spending his income as the years go by. But many among us are obliged to take this very repulsive course, or, like the Arab, "silently fold their tents and steal away." The owner of a large and productive farm in our state may find room for liberal expenditures and costly modes of culture; but the small proprietor must away with all this, or the sheriff will away with the most of his scanty possessions, and he come to the conclusion that, however poets may have sung the praises of a rural life, it is far from possessing attractions for him.

Economy must be manifest in the selection of the ground he will cultivate. That on which he bestows the labor of his hands, which consumes the sweat of his brow, should be the choice spots of his whole estate. Let the poorer parts go to the production of wood or pasturage. But let him seek out carefully all the uncommonly good bits of soil, where is found a rich loam, or an unusual depth of fertile earth, or where the cultivation may be accomplished with the most ease, taking into account, of course, the situation as to distance from his buildings, and ease of access. No economy will pay better than this.

Economy may be shown in the use he makes of the timber that grows on his land. After reserving all he needs for woodland, and all the maples he can use for the manufacture of sugar, let him consider what most profitable use he can make of the remainder. If he can turn it into money for the fire-wood or the lumber it produces, let the woodman's axe ring sharply among

the ancestral groves till all are laid low, unless there should be reserved some clumps of shapely trees to please the eye or furnish a grateful shade.

The farmer must next inquire how to save the most in the arrangement and material of his fences. If he already has a well built stone wall, wherever he needs any division. his work in the matter of fences is done mainly for all time. If he is less fortunate, and cannot supply the want, then comes the opportunity for economical and wise planning in reference to the enclosures he will establish on his land. He will not be obliged, it is to be hoped, to fence along the highway that runs through or by the side of his real estate. If possible, let him have his pasturage and his arable land lie each by itself, and then he will generally be able to dispense with intervening lines that divide each portion, thus saving much expense of labor and material No economical farmer will construct a fence without carefu consideration of the cost and durability of the material he is to use for this purpose. We hope he will never hesitate to abandon the old-fashioned brush fence, which is so wasteful in the matter of material and labor required to keep it in any serviceable condition. Wire, or rails, or boards, or anything else imaginable, is better for the purpose of an enduring, labor-saving fence, though it be through a thick forest.

If

A wise man will not scorn to show a spirit of calculating economy in reference to the teams he employs on his farm. his crop of hay and grain be at all restricted, the keeping of an unnecessary horse or yoke of oxen may become a serious hindrance to his prosperity by using the sustenance he needs for the support of a dairy, or for the growth of stock to be sold for cash or its equivalent, and thus make his business remunerative and encouraging. The useless team may sap all the profits of which he is able to assure himself from his toilsome occupation. The rule he should adopt ought to be, just as little spent for a team as will suffice to accomplish the absolutely necessary labor on his farm and the indispensable travel for his family.

An essential part of economy in farm management will be found in the careful saving and appropriate use of manures that must be applied in order to fertilize every kind of soil that has been subjected to the draught of continuous production. No

land can always give and never receive.

Manure to the soil is

the food upon which its annual productive power subsists, and upon which it depends, as the health and strength of an animal depend upon the nutriment it absorbs. The farmer needs especially to care for his stable manure by protecting it from loss through exposure to the weather. Wind and snow and rain sometimes sweep away much of the fertilizing power upon which the farmer depends; the coarser portions are left behind with the principal bulk, but what there is has largely parted with its virtue, and so the ever-laboring soil is robbed of its necessary support. Liquid manure that might be absorbed by some other substance is allowed to run to waste. Commercial fertilizers, which might often be employed with profit, are often neglected, as if there were no such thing in existence, or as if there were an all-sufficient supply of every requisite manure for all the different crops under cultivation, during the entire year, without going beyond the limits of the stable or the farm. Economy in using manures will not generally mean the most profuse application of them to the end of producing an abundant crop. With anything that approaches an available soil, accompanied by a culture that involves a fair proportion of the needed care on the part of the farmer, the generous use of chemical manures, the best the market affords, will commonly prove a good investment. It involves little increase of labor, and sometimes increases the per cent. of income upon that labor, which must be bestowed even without it. The question for the farmer to ask is, What is the amount of manure which I can use without a loss? A pecuniary loss in the cultivation of a given surface in any year is presumably, though not always, a dead loss, for the subsequent year or years may transfer the balance to the side of profit instead of loss. The wisdom of the farmer will appear in the use he makes of the manure he possesses, and in the purchase of that which he may profitably use; and this will largely determine the question of profitable farming, in a state that needs as many fertilizers as New Hampshire.

Finally, and most important of all, the farmer must show the most exacting economy in the use of his physical strength. It was given him to use, but not to use up. It ought to be his lifelong possession. Some men have much more than others, but