756 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



mode of avoiding it. From the master down to 

 tlie meanest utensil, the best capacity for lijifilling 

 the contemplated ends, is invariably the best 

 economy ; and the same reasonin^r which demon- 

 strates the bad economy of a shattered loom, will 

 demonstrate the bad economy of a shattered con- 

 stitution, or an imperfect state of body. The cot- 

 tagers who inflict upon themselves and their (ami- 

 lies the discomforts of cold houses, bad bedding 

 and insufficient clothing, to acquire wealth, de- 

 stroy the vigor both of ihe mind and body, necessa- 

 ry lor obtaining the contemplated end, at which of 

 course, they can never arrive. The farmer who 

 starves his slaves is a still greater sufferer. He 

 loses the profits produced by health, strength and 

 alacrity ; and sulfers the losses caused by disease, 

 short life, weakness and dejection. A portion, or 

 the whole of the profit arising from their increase 

 is also lost. Moreover, he is exposed to various 

 injuries from the vices inspired by severe priva- 

 tions, and rejects the best sponsor for his happi- 

 ness, as well as prosperity, by banishing the so- 

 lace of labor. In like manner, the more perfiict, the 

 more profitable are working animals and imple- 

 ments, and every saving by which the capacity of 

 either to fulfil their destiny in the best manner is di- 

 minished, terminates with certainty in some por- 

 tion of loss, and not unfi-equenlly in extravagant 

 waste. Even the object of manuring is vastly 

 affected by the plight of those animals by which it 

 is aided. 



A pinching miserly system of agriculture, may 

 indeed keep a larnier out of a prison, but it will 

 never lodge him in a palace. Great profit de- 

 pends on great improvemenis of the soil, and great 

 improvements can never be made by penurious 

 eflorts. The discrimination between uselul and 

 productive, and useless and barren expenses, con- 

 tains the agricultural secret lor acquiring happi- 

 ness and wealth. A good farmer will sow the 

 first with an open hand, and eradicate every 

 seed of the other. 



Liberality constitutes the economy of agriculture, 

 and perhaps it is the solitary human occijpaiion, to 

 which the adage, " the more we give, the more 

 we shall receive," can be justly applied. Libe- 

 rality to the earth in manuring and culture is the 

 fountain of its boimty to us. Liberality to slaves 

 and working animals is tiie fountain of their pro- 

 fit. Jjiberality to domestic brutes is the fountain 

 of manure. By raising in proper modes a suffi- 

 ciency of meat for our laborers, we bestow a 

 strength upon their bodies, and a (erliliiy upon the 

 ground, either of which will recompense us for 

 the expense of the meat, and the other will be a 

 profit. The good work of a'strong team, causes 

 a profit beyond the bad work of a weak one, after 

 deducting the additional expense of feeding it; 

 audit saves moreover half the labor of a driver, 

 sunk in following a bad one. Liberality in warm 

 houses produces health, strength and comfort ; 

 preserves the lives of a multitude of domestic 

 animals ; causes all animals to thrive on less food; 

 and secures from damage all kinds of crops. And 

 liberality in the utensils of husbandry, saves labor 

 1o a vast extL-nl, by providing the proper tools for 

 doing the work both well and expeditiously. 



Foresight is another item in the economy of ag- 

 riculture. It consists in preparing work for all 

 weather, and doing all work in proper weather, 

 and ul proper time?'. The climate of the United 



Stales makes the first easy, and the second lesa 

 difficult than in m.ost countries. Ruinous viola- 

 tions of this important rule are yet /ietjuent from 

 temper and impatience. Nothing is more com- 

 mon than a persistence in ploughing, making hay, 

 cutting wheat, and other works, when a email 

 delay might have escaped a great loss; and the 

 labor employed to destroy, would have been em- 

 ployed to save. Crops of all kinds are often plant- 

 ed or sown at improper periods or uns'easonably, 

 in relation to the state of the weather, to their 

 detriment or destruction, from the want of an ar- 

 rangement of the work on a I'arm, calculated for 

 doing every species of it precisely at the periods, 

 and in the seasons, most likely to enhance its 

 profit. 



A third item in the economy of agriculture is not 

 to kill time b\' doing the same thing twice over. 

 However laboriously at work, we are doing no- 

 thing during one of the operations, and frequently 

 worse than nothing, on account of the double 

 detriment of tools, teams and clothing. Ther 

 losses to fiirmers occasioned by this error, are 

 prodigious under every delective system of agri- 

 culture, and under ours are enormously enhanced 

 by the habit of sharing in the crop with an annual 

 overseer. Shifts and contrivances innumerable 

 are resorted to, for saving present lime, by bad 

 and perishable work, at an enormous loss of future 

 time, until at length the several fragments of time 

 thus destroyed, visibly appear spread over a farm, 

 in the form of ruined houses, fiances, orchards and 

 soil ; demonstrating that every advantage of such 

 shifts is the parent of many disadvantages, and 

 that a habit of finishing every species of work in 

 the best mode, is the best economy. 



The high importance of this article of agricul- 

 tural economy demands an illustration. Let us 

 suppose that dead wood fencing will consume ten 

 per centum of a farmer's time, which supposition 

 devotes about thirty-six days in the year to that 

 object. It would cost him five whole years in fifty. 

 If his farm afforded stone, and his force could in 

 one whole year make his enclosures of that lasting 

 material, he would save four whole years by this 

 more perfect operation ; exclusive of the benefits 

 gained by a longer lile, or transmitted to his pos- 

 terity, if his larm did not furnish stone, as live 

 (ences can be made with infinitely less labor than 

 stone, his saving of time would be greater by Rais- 

 ing them, but the donation to posterity less from 

 their more perishable nature. It seems tome that 

 the time necessary to rear and repair live fences, 

 is less than one tenth of that consumed by those 

 of dead wood. By doing this arucle of work in a 

 mode thus surpassing the present miserable fen- 

 cing shifts in use, our farmers vvouid gain the 

 enormous profit of four years and an half in fifty, 

 and an entire country, that of nine years in each 

 hundred. Time constitutes profit or loss in agri- 

 culture, and many other employments. Such an 

 enormous loss is iiself sufficient to bankrupt the 

 soil of a fine country. Transformed into an equi- 

 valent gain, the difference of eighteen per centum 

 to the same country might retrieve it. The case 

 simply consists of the difference between paying^ 

 and receiving enormous usury, for the sake of 

 growing rich. 



I have selected a few items merely to attract the 

 reader's attention to the economy of agricultnre, 

 that his own sagacity may pursue the subject be- 



