SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 309 



If you please, reader, we will go out where the boys 

 are plowing. That land, to my certain knowledge, has 

 been plowed for forty years, and never yet felt the share 

 six inches below the surface, because the owner feared 

 to turn up the "poor yaller dirt" and spoil the land. It 

 is to be sown with rye this fall, and preparatory thereto, 

 that fine crop of mullens is now being turned in. It can- 

 not be manured, because there is only enough manure 

 made upon the place to about half manure the few acres 

 of corn, that must be planted each year. 



Do you ask why the owner does not purchase guano, 

 to give this poor old field a start, and enable him to raise 

 a crop of straw and grass, so that he would be able after- 

 wards to furnish its own manure? It is easily answered. 

 He never heard of the article; and besides, if he had 

 and should use it, that would subject him to the ridicule 

 of the whole neighborhood. So he will sow three pecks 

 of rye and gather nine, or, perchance, twelve pecks to the 

 acre. 



Next year, after the rye is harvested, the hogs, geese, 

 and sheep will be turned in to gather up every scattered 

 grain and nip off every shoot and green weed, and the 

 spring after, it will be plowed once, just as deep as at 

 present, and planted with corn, with about half a shovel 

 full of dirt, dignified with the name of manure, to each 

 hill. After the corn is gathered, the field will be again 

 pastured, and the spring following, it will be sown in 

 oats, and the crop will be such a one as any reasonable 

 man might expect from just such a course. 



The next season, the field will lie fallow, as it has this 

 year, and will produce a similar crop of mullens, and 

 five-finger vines. 



That "pastur," just over the fence, was once cultivated 

 in just the same manner as the above. It is resting now. 

 See what a luxuriant crop of white birches. They are 

 very ornamental to the landscape. It is true, the grass is 

 not quite so plenty and sweet, but then you see the shade 

 is perfect. That is a very nice little brook that meanders 



