Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1880-09-30
NEW ENGLAND Blythe BACKDOoR.
te9rAs,Lookel Into by a Southerner
Correspondence of the Baltimore Sun.
LEBANON, Conn, Aug. %, $780,

q In autAHon TO numerous agrlcultural Socle-
ties, Connecticut.has State board of agricnl-
ture, consisting of four members appointed by
the Governor and eight elected by the agricul-
tural socities. The Governor is ex efficio
president of the board There is also an ag.
ricultural experiment station at New Haven,
to which the State appropriates annually the
| sum Of 80, 600, half as much going to the board
of agriculture most it of being devoted to
salaries, the secretary getting 500 a year, his
travelling and other expenses, amounting in all,
last year; to 81, 1853 3d. Attached to the ex-
pertinent station are chemist, botanist, an
entomplogist and pomologist. Three MEM
bers OF the board form permanent commits
sion on the diseases of domestic animals. The
objects and uses of the experiment station and
the privileges which it offers to the citizens OF
Connecticut are s'concisely set forth in the an
nouncement, which is to be found ON page 3d..
but that page is left out of the bound volume
before me- However, the name sufficiently de-
fines its functions. RI - II "a '.hss -i'
Many are disposed to grunnble about the
| money annually appropriated to the board and
| the experiment station, so much SO that gentle
men to9whomI expressed the great pleasure I
derived from reading the last 03th) annual re-
port of the secretary seemed much gratfied.
The board devotes the whole time of each
yearly session to the discussion of one particu-
lar subject. Last year it was food next year
it will be agricultural education, and either
| the reporter of the, proceedings is master of
his art or else the farmers who talk must be
the most levelheaded men going, for so much
good sense, SO pointedly put, as in this same
report, I,scarcely ever read. Little as / know
| about agriculture and little interest as | feel
in it, this book fascinated me. Intelligent
tanners OF the South would largely profit by its
perusal. Let me copy few of the many
70 mi, 7 h,,k, ooSf1
went through7th book: yif e. ore. .f'.W 60.
In 1857 the value of the land in 63 of the
most exclusively Agricultural towns In this
State was in round numbers nineteen millions
OF dollars. Twenty years later the same lands
were assessed at but fifteen and, One-half mill
T lions of dollars. In other towns, manufactur-
ling villages and cities, the value of land has
increased but it IS safe to allow for an equal
amount of depreciation in,,tile value OF land
for agricultural purposes in the remaining 104
towns. This would give us a total loss in 90
years of seven millions of dollars or about
$3.50, 900 annually X. r. *'"* - =
know of farms, from which men who are now
living hauled corn and oats 25 miles to New
Haven with oxen, for export, that to-day
hardly grow grain enough to keep the teams
that drew their crops off without being stimu-
lated by special fertilizes. Ia those days it
didn't take $50. SO worth of phosophate-to grow
$40 worth of corn. "-R. s. HiaanaG7a, of o.
ford, -, ..''.a ". 80 -'.-' '- W.
Il think of town where there is not ham,
mer or spindle of manufacturers an absolutely
agricultural town, where at least three-quar-
tiers of the men who own land have mortgages.
On their farms. They have no bank
stock, no manufacturing stock, nor anything
of that description. The fertiliZing
qualities of the soil 60 into the rivers.
1t is a matter of very grave importance to the
people of this State whether its hill-town shall
be depopuated and devastated almost by this
process of carrying away all the fertilizing
qualities of the soil."-- Goo. Andresos 4
what is to come upon us9 Butter was
selling at ST.. Albans the beginning of this
year at 81 cents a pound; cheese in Utica A
cents a pound *a* AS was walking
on-loads OF wool that was raised in England
We are sending corn to grow wool in England l
and sending to- England to buy that wool
Why, in the name of common sense, cannot
Connecticut farmers grow as good wool as is
ever grown in England or Ireland ? They
can grow it better il they will. Mr.. Whita,
ker, Of Mass --..
''It is ife.long study for any one to know
how to make aud keep No. 1 gilt-edged but
teri. s. GoGd.t. III IT, ~-n
"Will butter keep without salt? / have
manufactured and dealt in it for % years. and
don't think twill keep any length of time
unless it is prepared as the Germans preparet,
which is by cooking - ** x 1t is a dis
grace to the farmers of Connecticut that your
estFhotels are supplied with butter made in
Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota."-Mr. Hart
7g.''..T Those of>us who have been getting 60, 70,
80 or IS cents a pound for our butter cannot
stand these men who are Coming ia and are
willing to make 200 pounds aday, if there is
any call for it., at 80 cents pound. Mir.
Chee0ef. ii Ya5;rnT D. af';~ "tI.-% -
los The happiest paper is by Mr.. J. B. Olcott,
on Home Supplies of Food !" 'Our farm
upon government. - ** iBetwixt Eastern
schools and Western railways and Indian
subsidies the natural strength of the land is
being pushed tremendously. We
take little thought of the morrow, and live SO
much from hand -te-mouth in Connecticut
= We have plenty of young people, but
they dare not marry, because each one knows
how bard it would be to pay the others board!
We have plenty OF woodland, but it is cheaper
to bring a stick of timber from Michigan than
to hew from our own hills. g The
absence of steep is the present disgrace of
Connecticut agriculture, and their coming to
stay is the crucial test of good farming. Let
bright farm boys say the word, and by the
help of good mutton Connecticut may regain
possession of her meat markets. But the sue
cessful shepherd must have a fine taste him.
self, and grow mutton for its favor adF II
l forbear. These citations afford pleasure
reading for those who hate Yankees SO much.
that they forget that theirown welfare is bound
up in the same bundle. Whether or no, We
are partners ina large concern, the success or
+ failure OF which we must share. Moreover,
farmers talking to farmers will croak. 1t Is a
good sign, When yoH! see,a set of men look
ing at q sore-back horse you knowit is not for
the fun OF the thing; they are putting their
heads together to find cure Nor is that
cure so far off as we ,reputed Yankee qhaters
would fain have it. By odds, the most valu-
able address in the volume before me is that
of Professor Peter Collier, of the Agricultural
Department, at. w ashington, on "Sugar- Pro- /
ducing Plants. Listen to what he says, for
tits of more importanceto the Middle than to
the Eastern or the Northern States. He tells
US that since the discovery of gold In Califor-
MIA, in 184S, we have imported an amount of
sugar which hastaken for its payment the en-
tire product Of all our gold and silveEimines of
the West, eighteen hundred millions of dol
lars we are paying tribute to other coun-
ries-an enormous tribute-at a rate greater
than the aggregate gold production of the
world, which was estimated last year at $780,
100000. 'sAnd yet, say, we are now throw
ing away ten !, times that SUM every year. 4"
As we cannot eat gold and silver it1Ronld be
difficult TO applyit to- better use than buy
those, products; that we caan0t ourselves SO
cheaply produce. Attend now to what be
does say, for, it Isl of vital interest to every
orn-groWer in the South: Is tea'1sJlIH sis
''If we should give up one and a-half per
cent of cur corn land to the cultivation of sor-
ghum we might product $109, 000, GOO worth
of sugar That is, we can produce from one
tenth of the ground crop forty per cent.
more valuable than'the produce of'the whole,
and the universal testimony is that it costs no
more to raise accrop of sorghum than it does to
raise crop Of corn" This may well stagger
man who has not looked into the subject,
| but the Professor continues: 81 was exanin-