than drive it elsewhere by a policy, which, though having the appearance of shrewdness at first sight, will surely prove most suicidal to all our interests in the future.

Entire exemption from taxation, for the first ten years of their existence, of newly constructed manufactories upon our waterfalls, would make them all centers of busy industry, which after the expiration of that time would be efficient aids to us in sharing our burdens of taxation. Every means must be resorted to to build up the interests of all classes and industries, and our people one and all must put forth their united and most earnest exertions to make our beautiful state wealthier, nobler and better.

FARMING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The Secretary, early in the progress of this report, invited the veteran farmer of Warner, Levi Bartlett, Esq., to contribute to these pages a statement embodying the result of his observation regarding successful farming in our state. Mr. Bartlett replied that he had just engaged to furnish such a paper for the Department of Agriculture at Washington. It seemed probable the facts might be used both by the Board of Agriculture and by the Commissioners of Agriculture. By favor of J. R. Dodge, Esq., Statistician in the Department at Washington, proof sheets were furnished the Secretary from which the following statements are *taken:

MR. BARTLETT'S STATEMENT.

A large majority of farmers here succeed in their business so far as to obtain a good living and pecuniary independence, and some accumulate very respectable fortunes. These facts are demonstrated by the numerous well finished and furnished houses, barns, and out-buildings for storing grain, carriages, farming implements, etc., to be seen in almost every town; and these facts bespeak a thrift and enterprise not even dreamed of by the most sanguine half a century ago.

On the other hand, in many of the long-settled towns in the hilly, rocky portions of the state, the population has gradually decreased during the past twenty years, as the late census returns plainly show; and in most of these towns there are numbers of once good farms that have been abandoned, the buildings have been removed, and the once productive fields turned out to pasturage, and will ultimately be covered with a forest growth, the seedlings of which spring up in these worn out soils; still, there are in all these towns good farms, and farmers who annually find

"there is money in their business," even in the business of legitimate farming alone.

The spirit of emigration is an inherent principle in the "genus homo;" discontent among the farmers of the fertile soils of Illinois is as prevalent as it is among the same class residing on the granite hills of New Hampshire. To report fully "examples of profitable farming in New England" would require volumes; but for the information of the cultivators of the soil in different sections of our widely extended country, I will give a few "illustrative examples in this section of New England.

During the past few weeks I have made excursions in several counties of this state, and noted down some facts connected with the farm practices in different sections, and on individual farms. We have no great staple crop like the wheat and corn of the West, or the cotton, sugar and rice of the South.

Our soil, climate and social condition compel us to pursue a mixed husbandry, to grow a variety of farm products, and these are varied according to the locality in which the farmer resides, and the requirements of the markets, and whether these are near or distant from his farm.

Some weeks since I made a visit to the town of Littleton, one hundred and twelve miles north of Concord, well up in the White Mountain region. While there I spent two days in four of those "northern towns," and visited a large number of farmers, and found them in the occupancy of good farms, farm buildings, and everything betokening thrift and enterprise. I think the drought was not so severe there the past season as in the more southern portions of the state, as the crops generally were good; corn, on many of the farms, yielding fifty to sixty bushels, shelled, per acre. The hay and grain crops were in similar proportions. This section of the state is noted for its large yields of potatoes. Immense quantities are annually worked up for the starch they contain. On one farm visited, there were over five hundred bushels grown on two acres. These, at the starch mills, command thirty-five cents per bushel, thus giving a return of $175 for the product of the two acres. I was told that much larger yields were harvested on some farms. The variety generally grown for starch is known as the "California potato." It is not a good table potato, but is preferred by the starch manufacturers. This is a good hay and grass-producing section, and large quantities of Timothy grass. seed are raised, and the high price at which it has been sold for

the past few years makes it a profitable farm product. Much more might be said of the prosperous condition of that section of our state; of its fine horses, herds and flocks; of its railroad facilities for transporting to market its wood, lumber, bark, charcoal, and numerous other products, all of which largely contribute to the increasing wealth of that part of the "Old Granite State."

More recently I visited Hanover, the town in which the New Hampshire Agricultural College is located, and spent a day in driving around among the farmers of that ancient town, the settlement of which commenced over one hundred years ago. There are large numbers of fine and productive farms. Much of the land consists of a finely comminuted and somewhat clayey soil, free from rocks, and easily cultivated. All of the farm crops cultivated in that section make good returns, especially wheat, both spring and autumn sown. From five or six of these farmers I obtained statements of the average yield per acre for a series of years. There were better crops in some seasons than in others. The lowest yield in any one season was twenty bushels. The largest, ninety-eight and one-half bushels on two acres of land. This was in 1860, a favorable season for the wheat crop in this section. Some of the records are of the crops for eleven years in succession on the same farms.

Mr. C. C. Foster the past season raised twenty-five bushels of winter wheat on one acre. The seed was obtained from the Department of Agriculture. Mr. Foster has forgotten the name. It very closely resembles the "White Touzelle winter wheat," imported from Marseilles, France, by the Department. The land planted with corn is heavily manured and followed by grass-seeds. As far as I can learn, there are but few, if any, sections of the country where larger average yields of wheat are grown than in the town of Hanover. A portion of the farmers in the town of Fairmount, Onondaga county, New York, obtain about the same average.

I will now give the farm practices of three of the most prominent farmers of Merrimack county, who have made farming profitable, but who differ somewhat in their practice and in the disposal of their products.

In 1856 Colonel David M. Clough, of Canterbury, purchased the farm he now occupies for the sum of $4,400. It contained about four hundred acres, two hundred of which were intervale, lying on the eastern bank of the Merrimack river, opposite the