316 [Senate 



the farm — -although I have still continued to sell some hay. It may 

 be remarked, however, that even under the disadvantages of this 

 practice, I have by the aid of an improved system of cultivation, been 

 able fully to maintain, and even to some extent, to improve the fer- 

 tility of the soil. I must nevertheless enter my protest against the 

 practice, as vsrholly indefensible, except perhaps on strong and rich 

 soils, naturally adapted to grass for a short period, or to a very limi- 

 ted extentj and then only on the plea of necessity. 



Having alluded to my system of cultivation or farm management, 

 it will perhaps, be proper to make some exposition of its general cha- 

 racter. This I do with the greater willingness, because I apprehend 

 it embraces some principles relating to the science or the economy of 

 agriculture which are not now so generally applied in practice, as they 

 should be. In almost every other calling, whether of mechanical or 

 professional life, the advantages of system appear to be well under- 

 stood; while in that of farming, its advantages appear to be little 

 known, and still less regarded. This fact had elicited my attention 

 previously to the time when I engaged in my present occupation. 

 From several years' experience in another kind of business, in which 

 this simple principle was very extensively and most satisfactorily 

 carried out in practice, as well as from general observation and re- 

 flection, I had become so thoroughly convinced of its general utility, 

 that I could not well conceive why it should not be equally as ser- 

 viceable to the farmer as to the mechanic or the professional man. 

 When, therefore, I passed by the farmer's fields whose meadows had 

 not been plowed for a quarter of a century, and whose pastures were 

 overgrown with moss and mulleins; whose once fertile wheat fields 

 had become sterile rye fields, or been given up to buckwheat or this- 

 tles, or whose corn and potatoe crops had gained the " title" of the 

 fields respectively on which they grew, " by possession;" when I saw 

 his barn-yard manure drenching in the summer rains, its soluble pro- 

 perties washing away into the road, and its volatile passing off into 

 the atmosphere; or when I saw his stock in the spring roving over 

 his fields and poaching up his meadows, in search of a scanty morsel 

 which the barn and granary did not then afford, 1 could but say to 

 myself, " Here is a man who has no system." 



Again, when I passed by the habitation of one whose fields beto- 

 kened some approach to system in his plans — but whofor want of 

 method in their execution was a})t to be behind hand in his work, or 

 to neglect some portions of it altogether; whose crops were half de- 

 stroyed by his cattle, because the fences were not " put up" in the 

 spring; whose mowers spent half their time at the grindstone be- 

 cause the stones were not picked off the meadow early in the season; 

 whose fire-wood was to be got up by piecemeal amid the hurry of 

 farm work, because it was not done in winter; or whose sons were 

 kept out of school, because his work was so behind hand that he 

 could not spare them; I could but say to myself, " This man knows 

 not how much he loses for want of a little method." 



I scarcely need say that from such lessons, I derived some useful 

 hints, which, when I came to take upon myself the occupation of farm- 



