A BREAKFAST-TABLE CONVERSATION. 309 



exclusively with harrow and cultivator. These implements, by the by, have 

 become so common that, like old, familiar friends, we rarely reflect on their 

 hibor-saving and excellent qualities. Let those who would calculate them turn 

 to the table in the Monthly Journal of Agricultukk, page 177 of the current 

 volume. His manure is all composted, and carried into the lields, but not 

 spread or used before the land is turned up with the plow. It is there put in 

 heaps, where it is turned two or three times, and soon ferments and becomes 

 mellow. His compost is made in the barn-yard only when intended for use 

 near at hand. After the land is plowed for its crops, the manure is spread 

 broadcast, 20 to 25 loads of half-cord — that is, 4 feet long, 4 feet deep, and 4 

 feet wide, to the load — equal in fertilizing power, probably, to 100 loads of 

 ordinary coarse manure, from barn-yards where cattle are fed entirely on straw 

 and "shucks," and the manure exposed to all weathers. Slic/c a pin there, 

 good reader I 



laZr' Again : He then "cultivates" or harrows the land two or three times, 

 before planting, mitil the land is in fine tilth and the manure thoroughly inter- 

 mixed ! Then he "lays it ofl"" with a labor-saving marker, that will mark 

 three rows at a lime. This marker " any smart man will make in two hours 

 with cultivator teeth." He wishes never to disturb the underlying sod, which 

 is going on rotting, and as it rots affording nourishment to the crops above it. 

 Twice going over with the cultivator each way, making four times, he finds suffi- 

 cient for corn. But the reader will do well to bear in mind the ends in view, 

 the staples — as he goes along, to wit : Hogs and Cows to be fed through the 

 summer — the former being always "kept up," except when sometimes turned 

 into the pea-field. Oats and barley arc sown sometimes separately, but fre- 

 quently as a mixed crop. Sometimes peas — a " Juvie pea " resembling, but 

 smaller than the Marrowfat. Sometimes the hogs are turned into the pea-field. 



Instead of peas in Kentucky they sow fields of rye for hogs, which are turned 

 in when, perhaps, not dead-ripe ; and the grain Avhich finds its way and is left 

 iu the ground, inakes fine fall pasture for mules and cattle. This we have sup- 

 posed might be done with profit on the southern Atlaatic board. But the peas 

 are most usually cut and fed to the hogs in the pen. When barley and oats are 

 sowed together, which are found to do well, or either separately, the measure is 

 three bushels of seed to the acre, and with them, or rather on them, clover and 

 timothy. Of these grains (barley and oats), mixed or alone, his usual crop is 

 40 bushels to the acre, which he considers a good fair crop, though he frequently 

 gets 50 and 60 — sometimes 50 of barley, but esteems 30 to 35 to be a fair yield. 

 These grains are ground together, and mixed with vegetables ; so are all sorts 

 of grain — corn, rye, buckwheat; and all are the better for being cooked, espe- 

 cially when used with vegetables, which generally consist of pumpkins and po- 

 tatoes — usually the latter, though these have been difficult to raise the last four 

 or five years. 



He sometimes feeds his hogs on apples, but does not value them highly. He 

 depends much on cutting clover for his hogs ; yet you shall hear many who have 

 abundance of clover wonder what men can do for want of food, other than grain, 

 for hogs that are kept up in summer time. 



Mr. Hall killed last year 75 hogs, that weighed 15,000 pounds, and got 

 for them 5\ cents per pound. He keeps an average number of about 22 cows 

 through the year, and sells about two tons of butter, 2,000 pounds to the ton, at 

 an average of 20 cents a pound. He has ibis year sent about 1,000 pigs to the 



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