76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



With the negative which rises in response to these ques- 

 tions, we are perhaps told that all these things are not prac- 

 ticable if possible. It is true that there are certain conditions 

 and elements which are beyond our control ; the soil, the 

 climate, sunshine or shade, heat and cold, dryness or moist- 

 ure cannot be much affected by our efforts ; l)ut under that 

 gracious guarantee that seed-time and harvest shall not fail, 

 do we strive to attain, as much as in us lies to attain, a high 

 degree of exactness or perfection in our profession of farm- 

 ing. 



Granted that our climate is cold ; that our land does not 

 spontaneously produce the food that nurtures nor the gar- 

 ments that cover us ; that our soil, naturally unfertile, is worn 

 and exhausted ; that our houses and barns, inany of them, are 

 old, cold and comfortless ; and that our means for repairs and 

 improvements are limited. With all these odds against us 

 do we yet accomplish all we might to improve ourselves and 

 our condition ? Do we not find at the very outset a leading 

 cause of hindrance to successful farming in our want of edu- 

 cation, of method and system in managing the farm so as to 

 know the cost and profit of each crop, beast, and branch of 

 production, and of every permanent improvement made? 

 There is generally among farmers an entire lack of accuracy 

 in the details of their business, which of course renders any 

 statement of experiments or results uncertain. 



For instance, in an attempt to estimate the cost and value 

 of his corn crop, a farmer, calling a piece of land two acres 

 (it may be one and three-quarters or two and one-eighth), 

 hauls upon it so many loads of manure, not knowing whether 

 his cart holds twenty-five or thirty bushels ; this he ploughs or 

 harrows in, and plants a proper amount of corn, about three 

 and a half feet each way ; he cultivates and hoes as usual, but 

 not keeping any memoranda is unable to say exactly how 

 much labor was bestowed on the piece, having forgotten at 

 the end of the season whether his men worked whole days or 

 only parts at that time. 



When the crop is nearly ready to harvest, with a neighbor 

 he measures off a square rod, as nearly as they can, for an 

 average ; the corn is picked, shelled and laid on the garret 

 floor for a week, till he calls it dry (though from that time 



