538 GENTLEMAN FARMING — THE OTHER SIDE 



a familv supply, six per cont. nnd upwards; l)nt thoy yield more than tliis, in tlie 

 licaltliy actinti on tlic minds of all around liini, in the ciieerrulness of the entire 

 nicna^re, and the ])hysical liealtii of all the estal)lishnient. 



This is a pleasiu!^ picture — it is one not always presented — wc niif^ht say not 

 often — but it is nevertheless within the reach of the rich if they will take the same 

 pains as our host has done to make himself acquainted with the necessary details, 

 the system and the routine of farming, cropping, «fcc. One of Mr. L.'s prominent 

 nnixims is, never to put a dollar on the farm without a near or almost certain 

 prospect that it is not thrown away. lie deprecates the neighborhood of the 

 merely rich who come from cities or elsewhere to farm, Ijccausc their expense is 

 too often devoted to producing show and effects for other people's eyes, rather than 

 an example for those less able to afford a large expenditure. With us, he looks 

 farivard ; he sees that with the acquisition of wealth comes extravagance too 

 generally, and he naturally asks, where is all this to end? In an hundred years 

 from now, if so much land is taken from the producing to the non-producing class 

 of farms, where is our food to come from ? Already, it is asserted from liigh 

 authority, that even the former great agricultural State of Ohio is beginning io 

 import its food, so many persons are turning their attention to manufacturing, so 

 many are employed on railroads and their appurtenances, such numbers have 

 become rich by the rise of property, and from want of a proper taste for rural 

 life have become consumers instead of producers; and in addition land is so badly 

 tilled and so soon exhausted, that there are serious fears entertained by thoughtful 

 people that America, "inexhaustible," great America, is in a fair way of some 

 time, and at no distant time, taking a century as a short period of history, of not 

 supporting her most rapidly increasing cities — her most wonderfully increasing 

 pojjulation. 



Mr. Liirman farms four hundred of his six hundred acres, entirely with free 

 labor, as more profitable than slaves, in the field. His routine of cropping, on 

 the old Pennsylvania plan, is as follows: — 



The farm is in five fields, varying from 80 to 100 acres. He breaks uj) the 

 pasture field in the fall and plants it with corn the next spring. The ensuing 

 spring it is ploughed up, and one-half is seeded with barley, and one-half with 

 oats. 



When these crops are off, it is ploughed deeply with three-horse ploughs for 

 wheat, which is seeded from the 20th of September to the 5th of October, when 

 300 lbs. to the acre of the best Peruvian guano has been put on. 



The ensuing spring, say in March, red clover is sown on the wheat; the first 

 crop of clover hay thus comes the fourth year after commencing the system. The 

 second crop of clover is cut for seed if the season is favorable ; if not it is pastured, 

 occasionally by droves of cattle going eastward, the owners of which all know Mr. 

 L.'s superior fields; the pasture is greatly benefited by droppings, and a revenue 

 also obtained. 



The fifth year the field is permitted to rest in pasture. The consequence of 

 this system is that we always have 



One field in corn, 

 " " " oats and barley, 



" " wheat, 

 " " " clover and timothy, 

 " " " pasture. 



So that every fifth year the land returns to the same crop ; the advantage of this 

 system is, that by giving two spring ploughings for the corn and oats and barley 



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