FARMERS' REGISTER— MR. CRAVENS FARMING. 



227 



8;h. I have genenill}' saved my grain withthc 

 craiie, where not loo hoav}-, but sliould prelerreap- 

 i.ig all heiivy v/h.^at with the s'ckle, it being much 

 tho neatest way to save all grain ol' this descrip- 

 tion. 



9th. For several years I made- not more than 

 eiglit. bushels of wheat to the acre; my crop of 

 1827, maile nineteen husltels to the acr«, and oi'the 

 present year, 1828, the average has been but about 

 Iburieen bushels |)er acre; although, the prospect 

 until within a very lew days betbre harvest, was 

 better than it had ever been before, but the crop 

 was shortened by the hot and damp weather, and 

 rust consiHjuent thereon. I am unable to say what 

 the increase of the corn crop of 1827 may have 

 been, tor my cro)) Wivsso nuu-h injured by the cut 

 worm, that it did not yield half a. crop, and incnn- 

 .';equence of the drought of the present year, 1828, 

 I do not make half a crop. 



10th. For the last two years I have worked 18 

 hatids on this larni, viz: eleven men, six women, 

 and one boy, with the additionof three waterinen, 

 (from harvest imtil we have tides ti)r running the 

 boats, say, two monllis generally.) I never em- 

 ploy any day laborers exce])t in harvest, some few 

 small chaps to assist in gathering wheat, whose 

 wages do not amount in any year to more tiian 

 thirty dollars. 



1 Ith. I work tvs^elve horses and ten steers. Of 

 the former, two are used as carriage horses, Avhen 

 occasion recpiires. All the horses except one have 

 been raised by myself, and so have the oxen. I 

 have no mules, and have never had any, and can 

 therefore say nothing of their comparative value 

 with horses and oxen. The horse answers for some 

 purposes, for which the ox does not so well; yet I 

 am at a loss to decide which animal is the most 

 v;iJuab!e. The horse certainly costs much the most, 

 either bv purchasing or raising him; his keeping 

 and feeding are also much more expensive. I 

 think every liarmer ought to raise all the horses and 

 oXen he uses. I never feed my horses on corn 

 unground; their principal tbod, is chopped rye and 

 corn, and ship-stuti", mixed witli cut oats or rye 

 straw. During the winter seasons, when my 

 horses are not at constant work, they are led with 

 but little else than clover hay, on which alone, 

 they will keep in good condition, if the hay be of 

 good (luality and cut betbre it gets too old. My 

 oxen are t<jd with very little grain, even when at 

 work; if they are plentifully fed with good hay or 

 fodder, it i? generally sufficient; but, when neces- 

 sary to o;ive any thing else, I have conmionly used 

 theoflal fi-om the mill, say, wheat bran mixed up 

 with the chafT from wheat, which is a very valua- 

 ble article used in thatway. 



13th. I decidedly prefer the old bar-share plough, 

 with the cast iron mould-board to any other ever 

 used b}' me, both for the superior manner of its 

 perlbrmance, and for its strength and durability; 

 also, for the great ease, with which its Avork is 

 performed, both for man and horse. 



14th. I generally have from sixty to seventy 

 head of horned cattle on this farm; say, from 

 twenty to twenty-five milch cows, ten work-steers, 

 the balance, young cattle to keep up the stock. 

 INIy stock of milch cows is larger than necessary 

 tor the use of the farm; but I have established a 

 icU-ge dair}', from which I market the surplus but 



my presentstock of milch cows, I have much more 

 than they all can destroy during the sunmier sea- 

 son. 



1.5th. I raise on this tiirm ftbout sixty head of 

 hogs for pork, annually; which, with the surplus 

 sent from the mill, amounts to about one hundred 

 head, which I haves'iaughtered annnaily, tor sev- 

 eral years past. I think every tarmfr ought to 

 raise at lease as much pork as is necessary for -the 

 consumption of his farm. I have no particular 

 mode of feeding them; but krep them under good 

 shelter during the winter, and give them as much 

 com as will keep them in a thriving state, until I 

 can get the grain thrashed out of one of the fields; 

 I then endeavor to have them shifted fi-om field to 

 field, until they glean the whole, by which tini« 

 they are frequently good pork: my plan is never 

 to sufler thcni to fall away alter this, but to feed 

 them with something until the corn gets hard 

 enough to complete the fattening, which I always 

 endeavor to have done by the time the weather is 

 cold enoughto have them kdled. I have eighty 

 head of sheep on this farm — my mode of feeding 

 tliem is very simple: indeed, some winters I feed 

 them not at all. If they can run on an old clover 

 field, they will winter very well, except when 

 there is snow on the ground, at which time I give 

 them nice blade fodder, with an ear of corn a piece 

 per day. I also endeavor to sow a lot of rye for- 

 ward, so as to turn the ewes upon it, when they 

 begin tola., i). which is the best food they can 

 have. 



16th. I have rdways penned my cattle, summer 

 and Avinter, and have manured more land in thi^j 

 way than any other, and -with less labor; taking 

 cafe always to keep the pen well littered with straw 

 or leaves from the woods, both betbre they are put 

 in, and afterwards, when necessary. 



17th. This question is answered in my com- 

 munication to the judges. 



18th. This question I consider fully answered 

 also in my communication, 



19th. This (luestion being only answered in 

 part, I will state that the (]ua'ntity per annum is 

 variant from fitly thousand poimds or less up to 

 one hundred and fifty thousand, which I have 

 saved this season. This quantity was cut from 

 about fifty acres of land, which is three thousand 

 pounds to the acre. My plan of curing is very 

 simple and easy; I cut the clover and let it lie in 

 the swath one day: as soon as the dew is a little 

 ofi the next morning, I rake it up in waiurows, and 

 let it lie in this situation until evening, when, if 

 the day i^ a good one, it is sufficiently cured to put 

 up in small shocks, in which situation it remains 

 two days longer, when, I commence stacking or 

 housing, as the case may be. I always haid as 

 much to the stables as "will be sufficient for my 

 work horses and oxen. I have of late years put it 

 up in large ricks, of fifty thousand pounds, which 

 I have in some of my ricks this season, thached 

 with long r>'e straw so as to preserve it as com- 

 pletely as if it were in a house or bam. Indeed, it 

 is much easier to put it up in this way, than to put 

 it away in the house. The mode is, simply, to 

 make a foundation of rails, straw, or any thing else 

 that willl keep it from the ground, and go on to 

 stack it on ten or eleven feet high without paying 

 anv oilier attention than to keep the middle a lit- 



ter; and besides, the milk is a most valuable arti- tie rounding, and to incline a little out, so as to give 

 cle with a large family of young negroes, and with , the stack or rick a little bulge to prevent the lauis 



