SPADE HUSBANDRY. 123 



expression be allowable, and enriched by the admission of the 

 air, by which all portions of it are thus visited, and gain from 

 the atmosphere the elements of vegetation which it furnishes. 

 Of the value of this circumstance no intelligent agriculturist can 

 entertain a doubt. There is another advantage attending the 

 spading of land. The tendency of drawing a plough through 

 the land is to render the ground more hard at the bottom of the 

 furrow, where the shoe or bottom of the plough presses upon it, 

 and to make it consequently more impervious to the roots of the 

 plant than it would otherwise be ; this is of course avoided in 

 the spading of land. The subsoiling of land is deemed of com-\ 

 paratively little use, unless connected with a system of thorough / 

 drainage ; and this drainage would seem to be of equal import 

 tance upon land cultivated with a spade. 



In Flanders, it is said that the cultivation by the spade pre 

 vails to a great extent, and is eminently successful. In the 

 United States, where land is abundant and labor comparatively 

 scarce, it would be idle to recommend to any great extent 

 cultivation by the spade. Yet it would be curious to see what 

 might be done in this way on a small scale. One of the most 

 productive farms for its extent in New England, within my 

 knowledge, if farm it may be called, consists of seven acres, 

 from which the farmer or cultivator sells annually to the amount / 

 of twenty-five hundred dollars, or five hundred pounds sterling. / 

 The industrious and frugal owner sustains his family in comfort 

 and independence from this source only, and is actually growing 

 rich. He resides within a few miles of a good market, and by \ 

 his skill and industry he sometimes obtains five different crops in 1 

 a season on the same land. The great question of the size of 

 farms will come into discussion as I proceed ; but I cannot now 

 enter upon it. Such examples of what may be called cottage 

 economy, are not without instruction to those who hold and 

 manage large possessions. In France, the farms are greatly sub 

 divided, and the holdings are very small. It is estimated by a 

 statistical writer, whose authority is respected, that, among 

 1,243,200 of small proprietors in France, their possessions do 

 not average over five acres apiece. Political economists strongly 

 object to such small divisions of land, as unfavorable to the 

 production of wealth, and not likely to lead to those improved 



