122 ON FARMS. 



Stint on a poor soil as soon as the roots attain a sufficient length 

 to pass the frontier of the hill in which they are planted. 



Of the crops the present season, we cannot speak so definite- 

 ly as we should wish, not having completed the harvesting ; 

 but of the potato crop we have nothing to boast, as they were 

 generally of a small size, and upon the whole the crop was a 

 light one, yet very sound, as we had not a bushel of unsound 

 potatoes from the eight acres planted. The corn, considering 

 the season, was fair ; it was very sound, though not so well 

 tipped as it is some seasons. From one acre measured, we 

 have taken at the rate of one hundred and thirty bushels of 

 ears, and the corn of a good quality. The crops of peas, cab- 

 bages, carrots, &c., are good, though not being harvested, we 

 cannot give the particulars. The corn sown broadcast proved 

 a very cheap feed for stock, besides having the effect of leav- 

 ing the ground upon which it was sown in a very mellow state 

 for after cultivation, a part of which, together with a portion 

 of the potato ground, has been sown with winter wheat, and 

 which now looks very promising. 



Our manner of cultivating corn being somewhat different 

 from that usually practised in this vicinity, I will give you a 

 brief description of. The manure having been ploughed in, as 

 before alluded to, the corn was planted with Batchelder's Corn 

 Planter, in rows three feet apart by two and a half feet in the 

 hill. One man with a horse, and a boy to drive, will readily 

 plant six acres in a day, and leave it in a state for hoeing pref- 

 erable to that planted in the usual way, as it leaves the ground 

 and hill better adapted to a flat cultivation. After the corn 

 was well up, the horse cultivator was put into it, and with one 

 man to hold and drive, was passed through it once a week un- 

 til the corn roots had extended to the distance of six or eight 

 inches from the hill, after which a slight passing over with the 

 hoe proved sufficient. 



Six men have generally been employed upon the farm, 

 though a large portion of labor has been done otherwise than 

 upon the crops, all of which has been charged separately, leav- 

 ing the farm accounts for the ploughing, manuring, planting 

 and cultivation of the crops, and the larger part of the harvest- 



