FARM REGISTERS. 



247 



FARM REGISTERS.... HOW KEPT, AND USE OF. 



W E do not design to write an essay on the 

 obligation and usefulness of keeping Farm Re- 

 gisters ; the thing is too apparent to require 

 argument or elucidation, and if the true secret 

 could be known, the explanation of the reasons 

 of those who omit to keep such Registers and 

 to note their daily transactions, would be 

 found to be the result of ignorance or indo- 

 lence ; and it is not easy to say \vhich is the 

 more disgraceful of the two. Surely it would 

 be easy to call up the manager or head laborer 

 at night, and from his account make a brief en- 

 try of the work that had been done — the articles 

 sold and bought, and the prices obtained and 

 paid. 



A merchant on the smallest scale, keeps bis 

 books as indispensable to enable him to judge 

 whether he is going backward or going ahead 

 in his business ; while, as ys'e fear, rVeiy large 

 proportion of the Farmers and Planters in the 

 United States keep no sort of books whatever, 

 whereas, it ought to constitute, in the judgment 

 and esteem of every man of good sense, not on- 

 ly a high point of duty, but one of his recrea- 

 tions — for the want of ^vhich, men take to 

 snoozing or drinking, or electioneering, or card- 

 playing. Where there is a son in the family old 

 enough, (and if not a son, the daughter,) he 

 should be trained to keeping the Fami Register. 



One establishment on which this thing is 

 done with unfailing punctuality and exactness, 

 is the " Indian Hill" Premium Farm of Massa- 

 chusetts, and we are not without a violent sus- 

 picion, that it wa.s a view of the Farm Register 

 and accounts, which contributed to the distinction 

 awarded to the proprietor, as much as practical 

 excellence or extraordinary productiveness in 

 the management of the Farm. 



It would give us pleasure to present a view 

 of that truly curiou.'?, antique and venerable man- 

 sion and grounds, together with the accounts of 

 management and products, so w^ell and fully 

 published from time to time in that useful Jour- 

 nal, the X. E . Farmer. But our present purpose 

 is to give an extract from the farm book of Mr. 

 Harold of Long Island ; \vho. while he takes 

 the lead in all ^vork on his fann, keeps an exact 

 Register, as -well of Thei-raometrical and Ba- 

 rometrical as of practical observations and opera- 

 tions everj' day. The notes vs'hich follow, are 

 selected not for any thing j)articularly striking 

 they contain, but merely to .show the manner of 

 doing the tiling. For, after all, we have obsers'ed 

 f-109) 



that no explanation is so good as this sort of de- 

 monstration. It is here seen that in all time to 

 come he can turn back and see how the force on 

 his farm was occupied any day in tlie year, and 

 what course of manuring and cultivation any and 

 evei-y part of his farm has undergone. We give 

 it only as an example — a leaf from a book ! 



Copy ofFARM JouRN'AL kept by John HAROtD, 



Pouter's Meadoto, Hempstead, Long Island, 



1844 .• 



April 24. Marked out com ground ; planted 

 Mercer potatoes round do. ; commenced plant- 

 iag com ; heard the Whip-po-wil the first time 

 this .spring. 



2,5th. Burned butts of posts, and commenced 

 setting picket fence ; planting com ; fine day. 



26th. Finished planting corn ; planted white 

 dumpling beans ; stuck and hoed peas in gar- 

 den ; painted roof of wagon-house ; making 

 picket fence. 



27t]i. Carted 12 two-horse wagon loads ma- 

 nure from yard ; finished picket fence ; planted 

 beans. 



29th. Pulled up mullen from grass ground ; 

 potatoes coming up in garden, (planted 28tlx 

 March ;) white\\-ashed fences. 



30th. Done up carpenter's jobs; planted po- 

 tatoes, sugar corn, squash and pumpkin seeds ; 

 planted out lettuce ; sowed Cantelope melon 

 seeds in frame ; barometer down. 



May 1. Painted wagon ; white-washed chick- 

 en house ; rain most of the day. 



2. Hoed up potatoes; planted out egg plants ; 

 turned manure ; added 10 lbs. Sulphate of Am- 

 monia. 



December 31. Remarks and condition of lots. 



Lot 1. Orchard. — Orchard grass and clover 

 cut for soiling and hay, part for garden purposes. 

 Peach trees stand well in bearing, much improv- 

 ed by washing with soft soap, and tarring 

 about the roots and digging in swamp muck ; 

 small trees dug round to keep grass away ; na- 

 tive sort of peas succeed best. 



Lot 2. Timothy and clover put do\vn with 

 wheat and rye ; on rye part not so well taken, I 

 presume from the rve standing too thick, and 

 falling down ; fed off in the fall. 



Lot 3. Timothy and clover second time of 

 mowing the part mentioned last year as poor 

 and full of weeds ; much improved by a dress- 

 ing of guano and silicate of soda ; mowed near- 

 ly as much again as last year. 



Lot 4. Same as before, dressed in the same 

 way. 



Lot. .5. Part of this lot has been mowed four 

 j'ears; dre.ssed it with guano and silicate of so- 

 da ; mowed better than any time before ; part 

 oat, a good crop \veighing 40 lbs. per bushel. 



Lot 6. Part new mo\ving ground from wheat, 

 part pumpkin patch; 1^ acres com. 8 rowed 

 white flint, from which was hu.sked 2.52 piled 

 up bushels of eans, from manure made .see April 

 2d, \vhich was coarse cow-yard manure mixed 

 with sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of soda, lime 



