SPADE HUSBANDRY. 129 



. S. d. 



24 tons of potatoes, at 50 s. per ton, 60 



80 bushels of wheat, at 7s. per bushel, 28 



2 tons of straw, at 50 s. per ton, 500 



93 



Deduct from this, manual wages, at 4 6s. 



Ij d. per acre, 17 4 6 



Seed potatoes for two acres, 25 bags of 



180 Ibs., at 4s., 500 



4 bushels of seed wheat, at 7s. 6 d., . . 1 10 



23 14 6 



Leaves him, subject to rent and parochial payments, 69 56 



&quot; This farmer than gives strong and unanswerable evidence in \ 

 favor of the fork or spade husbandry. He adds that he has pur- \ 

 sued this system of cultivation during the period of the last 

 twenty-four years, with the exception of the first three years, \ 

 when his neighbors ploughed his land for him for nothing ; that \ 

 they are willing to do the same now, at any time, but he prefers 

 going to the expense of digging it, to having it ploughed for I 

 nothing&quot; * 



This is certainly an instructive example, and shows what may 

 be done by very limited and small means. We have, in the 

 United States, beyond a question, a large number of farmers, 

 who, if they would cultivate, to the utmost of its capacity, a 

 small extent of land, in the most thorough manner, would find 

 themselves comparatively independent ; whereas, now, without\ 

 capital, spending their deficient labor over a large surface, and 1 

 doing nothing thoroughly, they lead a life of vexation, toil, and / 

 disappointment, without any compensating result. 



To these examples I add the subjoined experience of a Scotch 

 farmer, who received a premium from the Agricultural Society for 

 his skill and success. 



&quot;In 1831, I determined to ascertain the difference of the 

 expense and produce, between trenching land with the spade, 

 and summer-fallowing with the plough in the usual way. I 



* These two instances are quoted by that able and industrious agricultural 

 writer, Cuthbert W. Johnson, F. R. S., in Journal of Agriculture for January, 

 1844. 



