AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 309 



ble to get one ton of hay, so badly had the land 

 been run down. Yet he increased the product of 

 hay to two and one-half tons, and the whole money 

 value of the two acres to 133 per annum. Let 

 only six or ten acres be farmed with equal skill, and 

 any one can cypher up how far the yield will count 

 in the keeping of a family. 



The further one looks into this branch of the sub 

 ject, the more apparent does it become that success 

 depends not on the quantity of land, but on the 

 management. Some years since a little treatise was 

 published in London, by Mr. John Sillett, setting 

 forth the results obtained by cultivation of two 

 acres with the spade and fork. The author being 

 broken down in health by long confinement to busi 

 ness in London, purchased two acres of land, for 

 which he paid $1.180. He undertook farming in 

 total ignorance of the art ; yet, he supported him 

 self, wife, and child, entirely from the products of 

 his little tract. After twelve years experience he 

 speaks with confidence of the possibility of a man s 

 getting a living from two acres. He states the 

 requisites to be a fair start with a good piece of 

 land, sufficient means to commence with, skill, per 

 severance, a willingness to labor, and a reasonable 

 degree of economy. 



This success on two acres was secured by reject 

 ing the plough and depending on the spade and fork, 

 the latter being subsequently used as the preferable 

 tool. His land had been many years in pasture, 

 but he produced wheat, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, 

 and mangolds. Of course he owned a cow, which 



