CHANGES IN FABMTNG. 355 



farming, it a rather loose, unmethodical* way, some as other folks 

 do. So far as I have noticed, in this State and in other States, 

 fanning is rather a haphazard, scrambling business. A man plants 

 a few potatoes, sows some barley, plants some corn, and if he has 

 any land fit tries a little wheat ; keeps about as many cows as he 

 can starve through the winter, and when he comes to pay his 

 taxes and his help, finds he is minus. A great many people get 

 on, or don't get ou in that way. I want to relate a little of my 

 experience this present season. I live in the neighborhood where 

 sweet corn is canned. I have kept a pretty close account of the 

 profit of raising sweet corn for this purpose. I planted this sea- 

 son, four acres of sweet corn. I used all the manure I had and 

 got some sixty dollars' worth of the Cumberland Superphosphate 

 to help it out. I have just closed up the operation. The capacity 

 for canning was not equal to the amount of corn r.aised, and hence 

 we lost considerable. It got too ripe to can well, but I have 

 received, to say nothing about the fodder, which is very valuable 

 to keep cows upon, three hundred and seventy-five dollars for the 

 corn raised on four acres. It costs no more to cultivate and grow 

 sweet corn than it does the common yellow corn. It costs no more 

 to break off the ears and haul them to market than it does to cut 

 up and husk it and crib it. It is a great mistake to spread manure 

 over so large a piece of ground as many farmers do. A small 

 piece of land well manured will return a much larger profit than a 

 large piece with insufficient manure. I know of a small piece of 

 good land on which, by proper cultivation and use of sufficient 

 manure, three thousand cans of corn were raised this year. That 

 will be one hundred and twenty dollars. 



In raising this sweet corn I kept an account, and know what it 

 cost for the seed, for the manure, for the labor, and I find a very 

 good profit. If we could all cultivate sweet corn and have it 

 taken care of at the proper time and get the customary price for 

 it, we could all grow rich. I have a considerably large farm. I 

 am old and cannot do an hour's work a day, and don't pretend to. 

 I hire two young men, and with the exception of ten days in 

 cutting hay and perhaps a week in harvesting grain, I have not 

 hired a day's work, except that of those two young men. I have 

 raised this year one hundred and twenty bushels of barley ; seven 

 hundred of oats ; cut about thirty tons of hay. We all know that 

 the grasshoppers destroyed our mowing land last year, and I was 



