226 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



Utterly amazed at the order, the fellow dropped the reins 

 upon his horse's neck, turned round, and stared Mr. B. 

 in the face as if to discover whether he was in sober 

 earnestness, and answered him with an inquiring "Sir?" 

 Mr. B. repeated the order, and the overseer replied: 

 "Why, Mr. Burgwin, do you expect to raise a crop upon 

 that field? If you do, I can assure you that I wore that 

 land out ten years ago." 



"I know it," said Mr. B. ; "but I don't intend you shall 

 wear out m?/ land; and if you think you cannot conduct 

 my business just as I think best, I will try to get some 

 one that will do it ; for I would not allow you to manage 

 the place according to your notions, if you would give me 

 five thousand dollars a-year." 



"Well, sir, if you order it, I suppose I can clear up and 

 plow the land ; and, if you insist upon it, will turn you up 

 a bed of brick clay, ten inches deep ; but let me tell you, 

 sir, 7J0U ivill never 7nake enough to pay for the salt your 

 ho7'ses eat while doing it." 



Well, the "old field" was plowed up, and manured as 

 well as the scanty supply would afford, and planted with 

 corn. The first crop was twelve bushels to the acre, 

 the second, thirteen bushels, the third, six bushels of 

 wheat; it was then dressed with a good coat of stable 

 manure and forty bushels of lime to the acre, and sowed 

 with wheat, in October, '48, which, if it had not been for 

 that destructive frost in April, '49, would undoubtedly 

 have averaged twenty, and probably twenty-five, bushels 

 to the acre, and still carry a most excellent crop of clover, 

 which, after receiving a bushel of plaster to the acre in 

 May, if it does not "pay for the salt the horses eat," it 

 will pay for a considerable quantity that the herd of cat- 

 tle will require while feeding upon it. Cattle so fed are 

 under charge of a herdsman, and at night are yarded in 

 temporary pens upon the most barren knolls or galled 

 hill-sides ; which puts them in a condition, in their turn, 

 to produce rich crops of corn, wheat, and clover. 



The order of rotation is, — commence with a field at 



