Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-09-25
AGRICULTURE IN EyG1,.yn
III specimens Of Farming-Smoothue
~ beauty of the FfeidsLadv.nc.J
eds Employed-Wheat Fields ne.
mK-The sheep Industry.

1-Ahe Sheep Industry.
England as seen by an American Banker,
rs the Title of one OF the most readable val.
uH'es which has appeared this season. In the
course OF his pedestrian tours in England
.ne author observed the modes and peculiar
i'ies OF the farmers of the country, and. in
all agreeable manner, has noted down hi,
observations. We reproduce some selections
from his writings, believing that the marc,
ne takes up will be interesting to the general
reader no less than to the farmer. W. ouo,e
the exact language of the writer for The
most part
Il have never seen anywhere such 6na
specimens of farming. Everyone is summed
10 know that EnglaBd's wheat-6elds are Ill
garden-beds. her moving fields like nm
trimmed lawns, her pastures-where I saw
such hhe specimens Of cattle grazirg up II
.helf eyes IN grass-better than the averags
nat-iahas IN the best part Of New England.
put 'here are few. however, who know now
exclusive ana overlapping the farming in
terest Is to-day IN fertile England.
1 nave many times heard very intelligent
hngiishmen say that England would soon
starVe to death if it were not for the United
States; and, in advance, | had had no
doubt that such was the fact Ash rambled
up and down the farming districts of Eng
land, heard one cry of distress going nm
rom all the farmers. and that was the cry
that America was tearing all her produce
markets to pieces. And when, in the great
dock warehouses of Liverpool and London,
1 saw mountains of wheat, corn, oats. ham,
outer, cheese, etc., that had been pitched
OUT OF the holds of the western ships, | felt
.llat the SOLID facts, corroboratlng the food
theorles have named, were right before NE.
put leading authority has stated that Eng.
land pays away forty million pounds annu-
ally for foreign produce, which she might. if she
paiu proper attention to farming at home,
herself raise
The cultivation of wheat now reaches even
to the extreme north of Scotland. Ireland
never did raise much wheat or largelyconsume
wheat; and found her at the present time
everywhere narrowing her burrows, and
widening her grazing-felds. thereby reduc-
ing her demand for land workers, and go ad-
dlng to the terrible embarrassment of the
labor situation in Ireland. But England
proper Is great wheat garden still, Though
the area OF even her wheat-fields is decreas-
ing. while her grazing grounds are growing
in extent
We deem England the Workshop of the
world; yet, after all, her best hold to-day is
agriculture, and her best hold always has
been agriculture. At the period of the revo.
luton of 1889, she was raising annually
fourteen million bushels of wheat. In 1872
the United Kingdom raised hundred mil
lions.
Travelling through the agricultural districts
of England in May, had the chance to see
her broad and beautiful fields of young wheat
and such perfection of cultivation | have
never elsewhere seen. Costly lands, an
abundance of fertilizers. plenty of labor, and
an immense demand for every product of the
farm at the very gate of the farm are reasons
enough for making the most of every foot of
England's farming lands And if to-day she
is turning wheat lands into grass lands and
hay lands, it is not because her wheat is not
in pressing demand at high prices, but be-
cause the hay and grass products-n the
form of beef, butter, etc will pay her even
better.
1t is an interesting fact that England raises
annually just about rs many bushels of wheat
as she imports from the United States, name
ly, hundred millions. But England raises
greater number of bushels of wheat per acre
than any other land on the globe. Her aver
age, during the last nineteen years has been
twenty three bushels per &C e, while ours has
been eleven and half.
had little idea previous to nv walks and
talks in England of the enormous extent to
which machinery of the finest and most mod
ern type, is used upon the farms and gardens,
in the farm-houses and farm-yards of the
United Kingdom.
A mere list of the names of the leading
articles in this line with which | became
familiar will be better than an attempt at
detailed description of them, since their sim
pie titles will give quite an idea of what the
farmers of England have adopted as aids to
hand work in field and tarm-yard. There are
steam-engines, stationary, traction and con-
pound in movement, thus making an immense
saving in fuel; huge steam road rollers of the
best pattern, and in use everywhere; plougbs
on the wire-rnpe system, by which a series of
ploughs are attached and moved on single
wire-rope; threshing machines of an endless
variety; locomotives for common roads: bone
mills, and mills for grinding and cutting all
the things that farmer is likely to wish to
grind or cut, from turDips to wheat; reaping
machines; straw-trussing machines; garden
ploughs for use in contracted spaces; drain
ing ploughs; thatch or STRENGTHENING ma
water drills, manure drills and sheaf bind
ers
But might as well give up the attempt to
catalogue England's farm and garden ma.
chinery. | saw enough Of it to convince me
that the English farmers are fully up with the
times in their machinery as well as their
methods. The smoothness and beauty of
their farm fields astonished and delighted me.
Their ploughed lands are made as level and
as free from all stones as the finest gardens
are with us. And. in planting, the English
farmers so put in the rows and hills that the
fields seem as regularly laid out as the squares
on checker-board. Some of the farms are
very large, and many of them are carried on
with scientific and business skill and preci-
sion. English farm work is carried on in a
heavy but extremely thorough manner The
English farmers plough is heavier than ours
his farm wagon stouter: all his farm mple.
ments made more substantially than ours and
expected to last longer. And, of necessity,
he uses more force in his work than we do
larger horses, and more of them to the
plough, the wagon, the roller; and m IRE sto ut
men and fewer boys are managing the ma
chimes on his farming fields.
Having been, from youth accustomed to
method of farming in New Englsnd that is.
upon the whole, of a character just the opRo-
site of that have in mind when using the
words compact farming the style Of cult
waiting the soil which came under nv obser-
walton in England seemed. in comparison. to