REPORTS FROM TOWNS. One of the special features of the office work which has been done is indicated by a circular issued early in November, to the several towns, and is more especially shown by the responses which have been made. At the date named a series of questions was sent out addressed "to the selectmen, town clerk, or any wideawake farmer" in every town, and to every post-office in the state, accompanied by a prepaid envelope and blanks for a reply. At first but few towns, not more than ten per cent., made a response. During the winter, the number was considerably increased, but there was still a great deficiency. Accordingly, immediately after the March meeting, a second copy was sent with a note of explanation and a special request to the selectmen of such towns as had not given attention to the original call. To-day, the Secretary has returns from over one hundred towns, being nearly one-half of the number in the state. This result is quite as good as we should naturally expect. It is a fair index, we are confident, of the interest in the cause throughout the state. The first response came from the town of Dorchester and was signed by Ira B. Norris; the second from John O. Wiggin, of Stratham, both dated November 14, 1870. The returns have been examined and placed on file for future reference. Meagre though many of them are, they give us an impression of the towns reported, and show that there are in some localities the right class of men in official positions. It These cannot all be published in full, as a matter of course. is not desirable that they should be. The Secretary has caused them to be arranged so as to give some idea of the leading interests in the towns reported. Dry though they may be in detail and possessing great similarity, they will find in most towns some men who will be more interested in them than in reports of discussions, or papers on practical or scientific farming. In order to give the several questions proposed, and the manner in which some of our best and most intelligent farmers responded to them, we present in their proper places the reports of a few towns in full. The circular inviting replies was as follows: NEW HAMPSHIRE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. MANCHESTER, N. H., Nov. 1st, 1870. DEAR SIR:—At a recent meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, the Secretary was authorized to issue a circular to such men as he has reason to believe are interested in the agricultural prosperity of the state, soliciting such a statement of facts as may be suggested by the following propositions: 1. Give the names of some of the agricultural men in your town, with the specialties to which they give attention. 2. Report the harvest of the various crops, compared with ordinary years, naming each crop specially. 3. What are the chief sources of income to farmers and other classes in your town? 4. Have you a farmers' club in the town or neighborhood? If so, report names of officers. If not, will you take steps to organize one, consulting, if you wish, the member of the board in your county, in regard to it? 5. Give the names of such insects as are injurious to vegetation in your section, and state what means are used to destroy them or prevent their depredations. 6. What commercial manures are used in your vicinity? How are they applied, and with what advantages? 7. What new or improved implements for farming have been introduced within a period of twenty years, and what advantages have resulted therefrom? 8. Are any kinds of blood-stock found among your farmers? If so, what owners and what breeds can you name? Also, inform us as to the advance in the price of horses, neat stock, &c., within twenty years. Give the names and residences of the owners of stock horses. 9. Is the product of corn, potatoes, and other farm products greater or less per acre, than it was ten years ago? If either, how much? 10. Do your farmers attend the state and county fairs, and other fairs and make exhibition of stock or farm products? If not, why? 11. Do the farmers in your section take agricultural papers, read agricultural books, and study to improve their methods of cultivation ? 12. Do your farmers keep accounts, make experiments and profit from the results? The secretary has proposed these questions in the name of the board, in order to call out information in regard to the agricultural interest of the state, with a view to incorporate any valuable results he may obtain, in the report to be printed and circulated according to the requirements of the law. It is earnestly hoped that town officers, enterprising farmers, merchants, or mechanics, into whose hands those circulars may fall, will take pains to make early and full replies. Where there is sufficient blank space following the question, the answer may be there written; in other cases, let the replies be given on a separate sheet, and it will be better to give answers to all questions in that way. An envelope, addressed and stamped, is sent out with each circular for a return without expense to the writer. Returns should be made by the first of January, or as soon as possible after that date. Yours truly, JAMES O. ADAMS, Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. ROCKINGHAM COUNTY. One of the most valuable returns in the county, which we give, is that from CHESTER. 1. Although there are none of our farmers who give the whole of their time to any special crop, still there are some who give prominence enough to particular crops to show what may be attained by those who will devote their time to the best manner of raising special crops. Mr. James Bell makes a specialty of producing milk for sale, and is also a large producer of hay and apples; Mr. Charles Wilcomb, apples, corn, hay, grain and vegetables; Mr. John Robinson, apples; Walter H. Noyes, apples, corn, vegetables and hay; Wm. S. Crawford, hay and corn; Thomas J. Melvin, hay and corn; S. S. Chamberlain, small fruits and vegetables; Wm. Tenney and son, apples, hay, potatoes and corn; Lewis Kimball, corn and hay; Lucien Kent, corn and small fruit; John H. Smith, corn and hay; S. F. Learnard, corn, hay, apples and small fruits. There are about one hundred farmers in the town, many of them as large producers as those I have mentioned. 2. We have had a season of extreme heat and drought, being favorable to some crops and unfavorable to others. Hay was less than an average, the drought of the preceding summer and an open winter having injured the roots; corn was about an average in quantity but of better quality than usual, pieces on light land or poorly cultivated suffering from drought; barley was above an average; oats, not an average; rye is not raised except on burnt land and was, I believe, very good; wheat is but little raised, and less sown this year than usual; potatoes were much below an average; vegetables, less than an average; small fruits were abundant, and apples more plenty than in any year in the last decade; I should think double an average crop. 3. To farmers the main sources of income are the products of the dairy, eggs, apples, hay, potatoes, wood and timber; but few raise corn enough for home use. To mechanics, shoemaking, carpentering, blacksmithing, woodchopping, saw-mills, hoop-poles, and the manufacture of water-pails and mackerel-barrels. 4. We have a farmers' club with the title, Chester Agricultural Society; the following are the names of officers for the present year: President, Hon. Thomas J. Melvin; Vice President, James R. Gordon; Secretary, Reuben H. Mitchell; Treasurer, Walter H. Noyes; Executive Committee, Wm. P. W. Whittemore, Lucien Kent, Edwin Haselton, Charles H. Knowles, Wm. Tenney, George S. Smith and Moses Webster. 5. The principal enemy the fruit grower has to contend with is the canker-worm. The most efficient preventive has been the use of coal tar around the body of the tree. The curculio is also very destructive. We know of but one preventive, to tar the trees, and but few take this trouble. The borer also causes the destruction of a good many trees. A sharp wire is the best exterminator. Keeping the ground clear of grass and weeds around the tree will prevent them from laying their eggs, to a great extent. The cutworm is very troublesome to all farmers, annually destroying a considerable part of their crops. Our only remedy is, dig them out and crush them. Within a few years the cabbage-worm or caterpillar has become quite troublesome, and a large white grub is very destructive to grass. 6. Commercial manures are not extensively used here, most of our farmers thinking it does not pay. Superphosphate of lime is the favorite. Its main use is to hasten the growth of corn and other crops, and in cold land it is thought that it more than pays in the increased productiveness and earliness of crops. On land that is well drained, highly manured, and well cultivated they do not consider it pays. It is applied by mixing with the earth in the hill. Guano and bone meal are also used. Plaster is considerably used on pasture land; for planting potatoes it is put in the hill; the potatoes are considered better, and not so liable to rot, although not yielding so large crops as on highly manured land. 7. The mowing-machine is the most valuable invention that the farmer has received, as it enables him to employ less help. He can finish his haying in better season and is not obliged to cut his grass unless the weather is favorable; he will clear his mowingfields of rocks, bushes and other obstructions that he would not otherwise do. There has also been considerable improvement in plows, horse-rakes, cultivators and other tools, enabling the farmer to do a large share of his work with horses that was formerly done by hand. 8. There are but few full-blooded cattle in the town, but a large number crossed with natives and other breeds. Mr. Wm. Tenney has kept a Jersey bull, which has left his mark upon most of the young stock in his vicinity; Mr. Charles Wilcomb also has a herd of Jerseys; Mr. S. S. Chamberlain has Ayrshires crossed with Jerseys; Mr. William S. Crawford, Devons; Mr. N. S. Morse, grade Ayrshires, and many others that have blood stock. There are no stock horses in town. I believe horses are much higher than formerly, cattle some higher, but I cannot give the per cent. 9. The product of corn is about the same as ten years ago, as more attention is paid to this crop than formerly, but I think the aggregate production of the town is less than formerly; it cannot well be otherwise, considering the animal and vegetable products sold to distant markets, and no return made with the exception of grain for stock, and much land that was formerly cultivated is now allowed to grow to wood. The most noticeable failure is in pastures, many that formerly produced well being nearly worthless. 10. Most of our farmers attend the state and other fairs in the vicinity, but few make exhibitions except at our town fairs which are well attended, and pains are taken by nearly all to have something worth showing. 11. I think agricultural papers and books are liberally subscribed for, but a large part of farmers are content to follow the same methods of cultivation they were taught, and generally reject new methods without a trial, being averse to make experiments. 12. But few farmers keep farm accounts or could tell what was the cost of producing a bushel of corn, a barrel of apples, or a hundred pounds of pork. The manufacturer or merchant who would do business on the same principle would meet with utter ruin. But farmers are content to sow and reap, with scarcely a thought of whether it will pay or not, and if by some means they find out |