THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



237 



HIGH FARMING WITH PROFIT. 



BY ALEXANDER SIMPSON, TEAWIG, BEATJLY. 



[Premium— The Gold Medal.'] 



In presenting the report contained in the following 

 pages, the writer is not prepared to say that its con- 

 tents elucidate (in the words of the Society's " Premium 

 List ") " the best mode ;" ho is satisfied with offering 

 a report describing a " mode of managing a farm, 

 affoiding an example of high farming combined with 

 profit." 



To entitle a report on this subject to consideration 

 and confidence, I believe that what is required is not 

 an estimate o^ probable returns from supposed expen- 

 diture (these^ when tested by experience, almost 

 always prove fallacious), but a bona fide return of the 

 expenditure and receipts of a farm in working order. 

 This I give in a form which I conceive will be intelli- 

 gible to the reader least conversant with book-keeping, 

 while I believe it will be received by those versed in 

 figures as a fair business statement of the accounts of a 

 tenant-farmer. As such, indeed, I confidently present 

 it. Not unacquainted with business prior to engaging 

 in ray present occupation, I keep regular accounts as 

 a matter essential to farming as to every other business ; 

 and the profit-and-loss account is simply a transcript 

 of my own books, with the exception of one entry 

 which I have, for reasons fully explained, amended. 



The accounts given are those for the crops of 1856 

 and 1857. Situated as my farm is, on the north- 

 eastern coast of Scotland, I shared fully in the disas- 

 ters attending the harvests of those years — which will 

 long live in the memory of Scotch farmers. Much 

 corn was totally lost by the opening up on the fields of 

 the drenched stooks, more was deteriorated to a large 

 degree by discolouration and sprouting ; while the har- 

 vest work being protracted, was necessarily expensive. 

 The potato disease was also very destructive in its efl^ects 

 during both years. An exposition of the results of 

 these two years is, I feel, putting profitable farming to 

 a most severe test — a test which, perhaps, in general it 

 could not stand, and which, in my own case, it does 

 stand only from my following a more diversified sys- 

 tem of cropping than that afibrded by the standard 

 four or five-course shift. 



The total acreage on which I report is 313 ; of these, 

 four are occupied by houses and buildings, and ten by 

 banks and belts of plantation not capable of cultivation, 

 and of little or no value for pasturage, leaving 299 

 acres of arable land, which were cropped as follows in 

 the years 1850 and 1857 :— 



1856. 



Acres. 



Wheat 69 



Barley 39 



Oats 32 



Total cereals 140 



Beans .. .. .. .. 



Potatoes 24 



Ditto for cottars, &c. . . . . 3 



1857. 



Acres. 

 82 

 12 



50 



144 



5 

 27 



Maugold . . 



Turuips 



Turnipa sown for seeding 



Turnipseed.. 



Fallow af(er turnipseed 



Tares for cutting .. 



Grass in rotation . . 



Grass in permanent calf. 



End ridges, and uncropped 



299 299 



The expenditure and returns for tho crops of these 

 years are given in the following account current : — 



Crops 1856 and 1857. 



Dr. Farm. 



1856. 

 June 1. To valuation of Hve stock, vie., 



Horses .. .. £262 



Cattle .. .. 352 10 



Sheep .. .. 134 15 



Pigs .. .. 36 



£785 5 



To cattle-feeding stuffs pur- 

 chased 



To general farm expenditure 

 for two crops under the fol- 

 lowing beads, viz. : 

 Kental 



Eates and assurances 

 Yearly servants' wages . . 

 Ditto provisions . . 



Labour by outworkers 

 Seeds of all descriptions . . 

 Manures . . 

 Bran, &c., for horses* 

 Tradesmen and charges . . 

 Implements purchased 

 Improvements, and lime . . 



345 13 9 

 97 13 8 



To 2-llth3 of expense of improvements of 



thrashing-mill in 1856 .. 

 To crop 1858— Rental and charges on 14 



acres turnipseed, harvested July, 1858, 



proceeds to crop 1857 .. 



3,326 13 11 

 9 12 3 



35 



£4,599 18 7 



To balance, being profit on the investment, 



including interest on capital .. .. 548 16 2 



£5,148 14 9 



* This head does not include home-grown corn used for 

 horses. Bran is used to a large extent as food for the working 

 horses. The lighter oats go for feeds when at full work, and 

 tail barley and wheat for boiled messes. On these, and the 

 grass, tares, and hay used, it would be difficult to set a value; 

 indeed, practically, it would be ditiicult to give an exact ac- 

 count of the quantities consumed : and as they are used up in 

 working the farm, an account of them would only be useful to 

 show the gross produce, but would not in any way affect the 

 balance-sheet. 



S 



