THE PRACnCAL FAKMER. 249 



fiub-soil plow, the cultivator, and many other imple- 

 ments of improved construction. He is wrong in 

 cultivating with the plow and hoe, those crops which 

 could be better or more cheaply managed with the 

 cultivator or horse-hoe. He is wrong in many things 

 more, as we shall see if we examine all of his yearly 

 routine of work. He is right in a few things ; and 

 but a few, as he himself would admit, had he that 

 knowledge of his business which he could obtain in 

 the leisure hours of a single winter. Still he thinks 

 himself a jpractical farmer. In twenty years, we 

 shall have fewer such, for our young men liave the 

 mental capacity and mental energy necessary to raise 

 them to the highest point of j^ractical education, and 

 to that point they are gradually but surely rising. 

 We have far fewer now than twenty years ago. 



Let us now place this same farm in the hands of 

 an educated and understanding cultivator ; and at 

 the end of five years, look at it again : 



He has sold one half of it, and cultivates but fifty 

 acres. The money for Avhich the other fifty were 

 sold has been used in the improvement of the farm. 

 The land has all been under-drained, and shows the 

 many improvements consequent on such treatment. 

 The stones and small rocks have been removed, leav- 

 ing the surface of the soil smooth, and allowing the 

 use of the sub-soil plow, which, with the under-drains, 

 lias more than doubled the productive power of the 

 farm. Sufficient labor i& employed to cultivate with 

 improved tools, extensive root crops, and they invari- 

 ably give a large yield. The grass land produces a 



