264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



years a^, and purchased the farm he now occupies, on the 

 easterly shore of Seneca Lake, a short distance from Geneva. 



With the pertinacity of his nation, he stayed just where he 

 settled, through ill fortune and prosperity, wisely concluding 

 that, by always bettering his farm, he would better himself, 

 and make more money in the long run than he could by shift- 

 ing uneasily from place to place in search of sudden wealth. 

 He was poor enough at the commencement ; but what did that 

 matter to a frugal, industrious man, willing to live within his 

 means, and work hard to increase them. 



His farm, the first purchase, was one hundred and twelve 

 acres of land, well situated, but said to be the poorest in the 

 county. He knew better than that, however, for although the 

 previous tenant had all but starved upon it, and the neighbors 

 told him sucli would be his fate, he had seen poorer land 

 forced to yield large crops in the old country, and so he con- 

 cluded to try the chances for life or death. The soil was heavy, 

 gravelly clay, with a tenacious clay subsoil, a perfectly tight 

 reservoir for water, cold, hard-baked, and cropped down to 

 about the last gasp. The magician commenced his work. He 

 found in the barnyard a great pile of manure, the accumula- 

 tion of years, well rotted. This he put on as much land as 

 possible, at the rate of twenty-five loads to the acre, ploughed it 

 ill deeply, sowed his grain, cleaned out the weeds as well as he 

 could, and the land on which he was to starve gave him forty 

 bushels to the acre. The result, as usual, was attributed to 

 luck, and anything but the real cause. To turn over such deep 

 furrows was sheer folly, and such heavy dressings of manure 

 would not fail to destroy the seed. But it didn't ; and let our 

 farmers remember that it never will, and if they wish to get rich 

 let them cut out this article, read it often, and follow the 

 example of our Scotch friend. 



This system of deep ploughing and heavy manuring, wrought 

 its result in due time. Mr. Johnston, after seventeen years of 

 hard work, at last found himself ready to incur a new debt, 

 and to commence laying tile drains. Of the benefits to be 

 derived from draining, he had long been aware ; for he recol- 

 lected that when he was only ten years old, his grandfather, a 

 thrifty farmer in Scotland, seeing the good effects of some stone 

 drains laid down upon his place, had said, " Verily the whole 



