SPADE HUSBANDRY. 559 



This is an extraordinary amount, and yet I have no doubt it 

 may be realized. 



I am not about to enter into a comparison of spade husbandry 

 with that carried on by the plough and the help of brute labor ; 

 but there are many cases in which, owing to the superabun 

 dance, and consequent cheapness of human labor, it may present 

 a fortunate alternative. It is stated to require the labor of a 

 man sixteen days to dig an acre, and thirty-two days to trench 

 it, which would be going two spits deep. Labor in Flanders is 

 about ten pence, or twenty cents a day, without feed, which 

 would render it much less expensive than ploughing. 



In cultivating land with brute labor, it is to be remembered 

 that on few small farms can a team be kept constantly at labor ; 

 but the expense of the keep goes on whether the team labors or 

 not. The cultivation by a spade is much more thorough than 

 by a plough ; much less seed is required, and much better crops 

 are produced. A bushel and a quarter of wheat to an acre is 

 ample, because every seed is carefully covered, and thus secured 

 from the birds, and buried only at such a depth that it rises 

 easily. The cultivation is much cleaner from weeds, and the 

 manure is more thoroughly intermixed with the soil. The land 

 is made friable, and the deep cultivation gives the roots of the 

 plant ample opportunity to expand themselves. The beneficial j 

 effects of a good trenching will continue for five or six years. / 

 How far it may be expedient to adopt it on any large scale, must 

 depend on a variety of obvious circumstances, which in different 

 situations must greatly vary. The expense of keeping such 

 teams of horses as are kept in England, and in many parts of the 

 Continent, I speak particularly as to their consumption of food, 

 to say nothing of their equipments and deterioration in value, 

 is enormous. It seems the great drawback in England to a^ 

 farmer s prosperity. What might be accomplished where a su 

 perabundance of human labor exists, w r hat should be done with 

 a starving population around you, anxious to be employed, and 

 willing to work, are for the consideration of those who find 

 themselves placed in these painful circumstances. Such is the 

 sad condition of many parts of the European continent. The 

 example of a Flemish farmer supporting himself, and wife, and 

 three children, keeping a cow, and fatting a hog, upon the prod 

 uce of two and a half acres of land, and selling, for various 



