SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 327 



profitable than sowing wheat, as upon land so highly 

 manured, it makes too much straw, which falls down, 

 and the profitable yield of grain is apt to fail. 



Mr. W. has enriched a poor, worn-out farm by the use 

 of night soil, which he procures from Wilmington in 

 large four-ox wagons, at one dollar a load, he finding 

 team and wagon ; or as they are called, "barges." These 

 are tilted and emptied into a cistern upon a side hill, 

 where the contents are diluted and drawn off by a gate 

 and sluice into carts, and spread upon fresh-flowed 

 ground. His stock, crops, and profits, I have given in 

 detail at page 146 of the current volume.^ 



Bought the farm, 100 acres, about a dozen years since, 

 at $50 an acre. It is now worth $100 to $120. Hires 

 one man by the year and one for eight months, and occa- 

 sionally by the day. Usual wages $10 a month, and 50 

 cents a day. Keeps two horses and works by exchange 

 with his father, equivalent to three yoke of oxen. Keeps 

 one good cow and one hog. Crops last year, 22 acres 

 corn, 18 this year ; wheat 20 acres each year, but intends 

 to quit sowing wheat; oats 21/2 acres last year and less 

 this; mowing, 38 acres — hay sold in bulk. Intends to 

 subsoil-plow the whole place. Limed once, 50 to 100 

 bushels unslacked, to the acre. Cost, 12 to 14 cents a 

 bushel, and two to three miles' hauling. Prefers ashes 

 to lime; they cost 12 cents a bushel, as gathered from 

 houses, or 8 cents for leached. Of course, this system of 

 farming can only be carried on in the vicinity of large 

 towns, or where an equivalent of manure can be returned 

 to the land for crops carried off. 



Drilled Turnips. — No one can have an idea of the in- 



' Robinson listed the sales as follows: Hay, $716.35; corn, $557.13; 

 wheat, $254; oats, $10; straw, $18.50, making a total of $1,555.98. 

 Produce used at home was itemized as: 7 tons hay, market value, 

 $84; 120 bushels corn, $66; 63 bushels wheat, $63; 50 bushels oats, 

 $15; 40 bushels potatoes, $25; 20 bushels buckwheat, $14; apples 

 and sundries, $25 ; summer feed for stock, $60, making a total of 

 $352. The average annual expense of manuring and working the 

 farm was put at $500. American Agriculturist (May, 1850). 



