No. 12. 



Large and Small Farms. 



381 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Large and Small Farms. 



Sir, — I wish my brother farmers would 

 think very seriously on the advantages to be 

 derived from the system of cultivating no 

 more land than can be well manured. The 

 desire for more land has been the ruin of 

 thousands, who would at this time be well 

 to do, if their friei^ds had deprived them of 

 one half the number of acres which they at 

 that time possessed ; while the extra labour 

 and anxiety consequent upon a business so 

 spread abroad, ar^ all that many have ever 

 gained, and all that they had a right to ex- 

 pect to obtain. And it would appear to be a 

 fatality to which persons of this sort are 

 subject, or they would surely be able to see 

 the nose in the middle <>f thdr face — for one is 

 not more plain than the other. If ten acres 

 of land can be made to yield as much as one 

 hundred, merely by concentrating upon it 

 the means of improvement, the labour and 

 care necessary for the cultivation of the 

 one hundred acres, the result must be profit 

 of mind, body, and substance, absolutely 

 astonishing ! Now only, for a moment, cal- 

 culate the difference in labour, in hauling 

 the dung over one hundred acres instead of 

 ten, and after that, the spreading it abroad ! 

 then come ten times the ploughing, harrow- 

 ing, sowing, with ten times the quantity of 

 seed, hoe-harrowing, mowing or reaping, and 

 binding and raking, over one hundred acres 

 instead of ten, and extra carrying of crops : 

 and after all this, ten times the rent to pay — 

 I declare it appears a species of insanity, 

 this desire for more land. 



I have lately seen a farm where all these 

 evils are embodied — of excellent natural 

 fertility, the fields large, and lying on an 

 easy declivity, with every facility for per- 

 manent improvement, marl of the richest 

 quality in the middle of the estate, and within 

 three feet of the surface — Now, if the owner 

 of this fine farm of about two hundred acres, 

 would confine his labours to ten acres of the 

 land adjoining his house, and give all the 

 i«st to the stock upon the farm, only mowing 

 the weeds, to prevent them from seeding his 

 and his neighbours' land, I believe he would 

 then make a profit, while at present he must 

 make a loss. 



I was told yesterday of a farmer who 

 cultivated one acre of land, which adjoined 

 a field of thirty acres — both were planted 

 with rye ; and at harvest a bet was made 

 that the yield of the one acre was equal to 

 that of the thirty acres ; this was, however, 

 lost, for the crop of the thirty acres measured 

 exactly three quarters of a bushel more than 

 that of the one acre.- these fields I have seen 

 this day ; and I have also seen another field, 



where the owner offered to dispose of the 

 crop of rye for a dollar an acre, but could 

 get no purchaser at that price ! 



Now, is it not much bettor to double the 

 crop than to double the number of acres 1 

 but I have land lying before me which would 

 yield five hundred per cent, more than it now 

 does, by extra management. 



An old Farmer. 



The earth delights in variety, and it is 

 most prudent, therefore, to indulge her, chang- 

 ing the course, and intermixing green with 

 grain crops; the main point being, to grow 

 winter provision adequate to the support of 

 such a stock of cattle as, with their dung, 

 will keep the farm in constant good heart. 



With many persons there is a prejudice 

 against green crops for cattle : they believe 

 that nothing will pay but corn or grain crops. 

 On walking with one of these, and admiring 

 his fine crop of beets, he said, " 'tis all very 

 well, but beets pay no rent, remember." 

 But let him make a calculation of the profit 

 in cattle-feeding and manure, and compare 

 the condition of the land with the same, after 

 a grain crop — it is by taking things for 

 granted that men keep themselves hood- 

 winked. 



Poor and exhausted lands may be recover- 

 ed by a course of green and root crops, 

 equally well as by being laid down to grass ; 

 and these would pay far better than light 

 crops of corn or grain to those farmers who 

 know how to expend them upon their own 

 premises, and those who do not, stand much 

 in need of information. Lands which will 

 not grow grain enough to pay for harvesting, 

 miorht soon be reclaimed by these means, and 

 lefrin fine tilth and condition. 



With respect to the proper quantity of 

 seed to be sown, it may perhaps be safely 

 laid down as a rule, that seed must be in- 

 creased in proportion to the poverty of the 

 soil, from which cause so many kernels al- 

 ways perish for want of nourishment : nor 

 is it to be expected that those which vegetate 

 will ever tiller or spread, as do those on a 

 rich soil, by which the crop is much thick- 

 ened. 



Agriculture feeds us, to a great extent it 

 clothes us, and without it we could not have 

 manufactures, and we should not have com- 

 merce ; these all stand together, but they 

 stand together like pillars — the largest in the 

 centre— and that largest is Agriculture. — 

 Tfebster. 



