151 



. The expense of cultivating an acre of Indian corn is put 

 down at $25 ; of wheat, at $10 ; of oats, at $5 ; of barley, at 

 $8 ; of potatoes, at $20 ; of ruta baga, at |20. 



The expense of man's labor by the year, board included, is 

 estimated at $225 ; per month, at $18 50; per day, at $1. 

 The price of board is estimated at $1 50 weekly. 



The value of tillage and mowing land is rated at $50 per 

 acre ; of pasture, at $20 ; of land in hard wood fit to be cut, 

 $15. 



The average yield of a merino sheep or Saxon merino is 

 three pounds ; of a cow in butter, 100 lbs. The weight of a 

 hog fatted at IS months old is 350 lbs. 



The item of labor, in this account, makes a large figure. I 

 am not aware of the particular causes, which render the charge 

 so heavy. It will be obvious to every candid mind that, for 

 many of these accounts, we must claim an indulgent judgment. 

 Few farmers keep any accounts whatever. Those who do keep 

 them, and are very competent to instruct the community, suffer 

 their modesty or diffidence to overbalance the claims of the 

 public good, which might be essentially served by the exhibi- 

 tion of faithful and exact accounts. In some cases, even in 

 New England, farmers are not capable of keeping any orderly 

 accounts ; and to attempt to arrange their miscellaneous memo- 

 randa is like trying to find your way in a dark night through a 

 dense forest where there is no path and there are no blazed trees. 

 Even a lanthorn, in such cases, is of little value. By mere 

 chance you may get through ; but you are most likely to be 

 " brought up standing " or to be sloughed. I mean no disre- 

 spect to the farmers, whose improvement as a class of men I 

 desire above that of every other. But I want the opportunity 

 to say that this is the fault of our public schools, where the 

 systematic keeping of accounts is seldom taught, but where 

 book-keeping both by double and single entry, for females as 

 well as males, should be an established and indispensable branch 

 of education. It would prove of rather more practical import- 

 ance than to be able to work embroidery and paint artificial 

 flowers ; to understand the geography of the moon and learn 



