16 STATE OF AGRICULTURE. 



diversity of opinion, and mode of management, prevail as in 

 Britain, with greater difficulty of becoming Acquainted with 

 them. The following particulars relate to the neighbourhood 

 of New York. 



Grass crops are mown for hay five or six years in succes 

 sion, without being top-dressed or manured in any way the 

 aftermath, which is seldom abundant, being depastured. Five 

 pounds of red clover, and half a peck of timothy seeds (Phi- 

 leum pratense), are sown on an acre ; and also, occasionally, 

 small quantities of herd-grass and redtop, two kinds of poea. 

 I believe the red clover lives longer than it commonly does in 

 the cultivated fields of Britain, having seen many plants after 

 five successive crops of hay. The grass, on being ploughed, 

 is followed in the first year by Indian corn without manure, 

 by potatoes with manure in the second year, and, if early, 

 they are followed with buck-wheat ; barley is taken in the 

 third year, and in the fourth, oats accompanied with grass- 

 seeds. Potatoes are grown in drills as in Britain, and some 

 times in hills three or four feet distant, formed by the surface 

 being marked into squares by the plough. A whole potato, 

 or three cuttings, are placed above the manure, and both 

 covered over with earth by the spade. Disease in the potato 

 was said to be unknown. The fruit crop is often injured by 

 spring frosts, and wheat by mildew. Swede turnip is sown in 

 August, and stored before winter. Geese are plucked three 

 times a-year live goose feathers being a general article of 

 commerce. 



Farm labourers, or helps, get from ten to twelve dollars a- 

 month, with bed and board, including washing, and a deduc 

 tion is made for sickness or voluntary absence. A married 

 man is allowed from ninety-five to one hundred and twenty 

 dollars a-year, instead of board ; and pays from twenty to 

 twenty-five dollars for house and garden rent. The hours of 

 labour are from sunrise to sundown, without a specified time 

 for meals, to which they are commonly summoned by sound of 

 horn. Hired men do not consider themselves bound for any 

 length of time, and occasionally absent themselves for a day 

 or two without giving notice of their intention. Hired spade 

 men get seventy -five cents, or three-quarters of a dollar per 

 day, without board, all the year round. 



