FARMS. 137 



that even the Baldwin will pay him rather poorly, under such a 

 course of treatment, or rather, no treatment at all. 



26. I do decidedly. If half the money invested in young 

 trees was devoted to a judicious renovation of the old trees on 

 our farms, I know from experience, it would bring double the 

 money into the pockets of the owners. I have tried both ways, 

 having sst out two apple orchards within seven years, one of 

 ninety-eight and the other of one hundred and forty-nine trees. 

 They have grown well and are thrifty, but I do not receive one- 

 half the dollars from their fruit, that I do from the same amount 

 expended in trimming up and grafting old and unsightly trees, 

 that were formerly an eye-sore to the passer-by, and which 

 now, almost yearly, hang bending under a load of fruit. I 

 would say to every man having old and sickly-looking trees, 

 trim and graft, graft all. Some may die ! What then ? Cut 

 them down for firewood, but never cut down an apple tree that 

 has been growing, perhaps fifty or one hundred years, till, 

 according to Scripture, you have dug about it and pruned it,., 

 not only last year, but this year also. 



27. I do. I use Marsh's, ruled and marked for each day 

 in the year. This space, a dozen lines each day, perhaps, affords 

 me room enough to keep my farm journal, and also note any 

 remarkable events that I wish to remember. In this, also, L 

 formerly kept a debtor and creditor account with every crop 

 raised, but finding it inconvenient to foot up the charges, they 

 sometimes extending over a niimber of months, as in a hoed 

 crop for instance, which would have to be continued from sjiring 

 to fall, I have lately opened what I call a " farm book," in which 

 I devote a page, or less as it requires, to each field planted,, 

 charging the land with manure, labor, and every thing in fact 

 that I sell from the land, and on the other hand giving it credit 

 for all I take off. 1 shall continue to follow this course from 

 one breaking up, through the hoed and grain and grass crop to 

 another, and can then tell at a glance, how I stand in regard to 

 each piece of land and the crop. The labor is not great ; a few 

 minutes each evening completes both books for the day, and I 

 make it just as regular a business to attend to it nightly, while 

 the day's work is fresh in my mind, as I do to wind up my watch, 

 before I go to bed. I believe, if our farmers would generally 

 adopt this, or a similar course, they would be benefited, and also > 



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