1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



73 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SYSTEM TN FARM MANAGEMENT. 



Messrs. Editors : — Ordei- is a necessary ele- 

 ment in the success of every man, but with no 

 class is its strict observance more requisite than 

 with the farmer. The profits of farming, like 

 other business, depend almost entirely upon the 

 system that is pursued, and the order maintained. 

 No business will ordinarily prosper under bad 

 management. If a merchant persist, for any 

 length of time, in a poor system of management, 

 he is almost sure of a failure. If a mechanic 

 pursues the business of his trade without taking 

 the care necessary to perform every thing in a 

 systematic manner, success will never crown his 

 efforts, and in fact, in whatever business a man 

 may be engaged, unless he is governed by some 

 system in the labor he performs, he may as well 

 conclude that his business will not be a paying 

 one, however prosperous it might be under good 

 management. But as I have said before, with no 

 class of persons is the strict observance of sys- 

 tem more requisite than with the farmer. If he 

 be an idle and shiftless man, or if he does every 

 thing in a wrong time and in an improper man- 

 ner, if he allows his buildings to go without the re- 

 pairs necessary, and decay for want of a few dol- 

 lars expended by way of repairs, if his walls are 

 left to tumble down and his fences are neglected 

 until his cattle easily gain access to and destroy 

 his crops, or if he suffers the weeds to overrun 

 his farm, and in this allows his soils to be ex- 

 hausted without himself receiving any remuner- 

 tion for the same, or if he pursues the skinning 

 system, and suffers his farm to deteriorate, he 

 will undoubtedly have to complain that farming 

 is a dull and profitless business. But if he has 

 a system about all his labor, seeing that it is 

 done when required, and in an unexceptionable 

 manner, you will find him undoubtedly an intel- 

 ligent, su^'-cssful, prosperous and happy man. 



A sysii iiiatic farmer will look through all the 

 operations of the year from the beginning ; his 

 calculations are made before hand ; hence he can 

 take advantage of the labor to be performed ; he 

 can tell you how much labor it will be necessary 

 for him to expend in order to raise and secure a 

 crop, and the probable advantages to be derived 

 from raising the same. 



No systematic farmer will allow his manure to 

 be wasted by allowing his cattle to roam about the 

 street, and leave the very main-spring of the farm 

 to waste its strength without receiving any benefit 

 from it, — but on the contrary, he will conduct 

 his business with direct reference to the manure- 

 making advantages connected therewith, and his 

 compost heap will compose a prominent place 

 among his farming operations. 



Lebanon, Ct., 1858. H. G. Palmer. 



cemeteries, and grounds for country residences. 

 They also make surveys and maps of farms, 

 house-lots and land in any form. They have had 

 large experience in underdraining, including lay- 

 ing out and constructing. Drafting of all de- 

 scriptions they do with great accuracy and facili- 

 ty, and also prepare plans for the Patemt Office. 



Civil I^-GiNEERiNG, by Messrs. Siiedd& Ed- 

 son, Iron Buildings 42 Court Street, Boston. — 

 These gentlemen are well qualified to discharge 

 the various duties of their profession, and are 

 prompt in their execution. They are ready to at- 

 tend to the laying out and to superintend the 

 construction of railroads, common roads, bridges, 

 v/harves, &c., or to the de«igmng and laying out 



HEADWOBK IN FARMING. 



It is surprising how much muscular labor is 

 wasted every year, which might be saved, or bet- 

 ter directed. This is true of all kinds of busi- 

 ness, and not the least in farming. For instance : 

 how many farmers toil on, year after year, with 

 scanty or imperfect implements of husbandry. 

 The modern improvements, which save much la- 

 bor and do the work cheaper and better, they will 

 have nothing to do with. Improved varieties of 

 seed, they hold to be, almost without exception, 

 humbugs. Draining and subsoil plowing are 

 ranked in the same catalogue : they are labor 

 lost ; but manuring cold, wet lands, and plowing 

 them late in summer a few inches deep, and 

 gathering scanty ci-ops — this is not labor lost! 

 Rotation of crops, and manuring lands with ref- 

 erence to the grains or roots to be grown on 

 them, they consider something like book-farm- 

 ing — a very dangerous thing ! 



We never could see why farmers should not 

 think for themselves, and bo able to give a satis- 

 factory reason for every process they undertake. 

 We never could see why they should not en- 

 deavor to improve in all farming operations, to 

 learn the very best way of doing everything, and 

 then do it so. It is told of a certain backwood's 

 farmer, who had not yet found time to clear the 

 stumps from his fields, that his boys complained 

 bitterly of their troubles in plowing and harrow- 

 ing — the old-fashioned "drag" especially troubled 

 them by its frequent overturnings v/hile plunging 

 among the stumps, and needing to be set right 

 side up at every few rods. "Boys !" said the en- 

 raged farmer, one day, "take that harrow over to 

 the blacksmith, and tell him to m.ake all the teeth 

 twice their present length, and sharp at both 

 ends, and we'll see what that'll do !" The thing 

 was done : the teeth now pointed both ways, like 

 those of a revolving rake. "Gee up. Bill; now 

 go along." "But, father, it has upset again, as 

 bad as before." "Never mind, boy ; go right 

 ahead ; it will work well either side up. See, 

 now, what comes from a little thinking !" And 

 sure enough, it did work, and the field was har- 

 rowed in spite of the stumps. We might have 

 selected a more dignified example of the use of 

 head-work, but this homely story will answer our 

 purpose. 



In the matter of rotation of crops, there is need 

 of forethought and management. Some farmers 

 neglect to manure largely, because of its expen- 

 siveness ; they would like to underdrain more 

 extensively, and to subsoil plow their lands, if 

 these things did not cost more time, labor and 

 money than they think they can spare. But it 

 costs no more to follow a good system of rotation 

 of crops, than it does to carry on a farm without 

 any such plan. Yet such a system may bring the 

 farmer three-fold greater and better crops. Nor 



