404 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



oats will tiller out very much at the root, under 

 the stimulating effects of the guano, so that from 

 one grain, or seed oat, there may be four, six, 

 eight or ten stalks, bearing each a good head of 

 grain, while at the same time the surface of the 

 ground is open, so that the young grass can get 

 a good foothold and grow well. I have been 

 much interested this season in observing a field 

 of thinly sowed oats of my own, and in point- 

 ing out to other persons how remarkably the 

 grain is branching out from the root. I have 

 counted from eight to twelve stalks growing from 

 one seed oat. The young grass, also, is coming 

 along among the oats just to suit me, and gives 

 promise of making a good mowing-field. 



A friend called my attention to-day to two lit- 

 tle patches of grass in his recently seeded lawn, 

 n which he sowed guano about ten days ago, 

 omitting the guano on the rest of the plot. The 

 effect of the guano is very marked, the grass be- 

 ing much thicker and greener on these patches 

 than in other places. 



I have several other little matters to tell you 

 about some time, but this epistle will do for now. 

 If one could write out these details as well as he 

 can observe and think about them of a fine day 

 in the field, there might be something done. But 

 the mind will not always wait for the slow oper- 

 ations of the pen, and thus some of the best ob- 

 servations are often lost in writing. 



Brattleboro', June 29, 1859^ 



DOING TOO MUCH W^ORK. 



Our ffirmers are accustomed to doing a great 

 deal of work, — we think, in many cases, too much, 

 but have not so regular a habit of doing it well. 

 Whether the greater profit is to be found in ac- 

 complishing a large amount of work indifferent- 

 ly, or of doing less, and in a better manner, is 

 the question for each one to settle for himself, 

 — for it is the projit we are seeking, not quantity 

 or quality, only as profit is concerned. Any per- 

 son may decide this question with the slightest 

 arithmetical aid, by ascertaining the precise cost 

 of raising sixty bushels of corn on a single acre, 

 and then of raising the same amount on two acres 

 of the same kind of land. If the corn on the 

 one acre costs fifty cents a bushel, he will find 

 that on the two acres it will cost him seventy- 

 five cents a bushel at least, — making a loss of 

 one-third in producing an equal amount of prod- 

 uce for the market ! It will require skilful man- 

 agement in selling to make up such a loss as this. 



This is what we mean in saying that we think 

 a great many farmers do too much work. They 

 are anxious to cultivate quite a number of acres, 

 hoping all the time that from such a breadth of 

 land under cultivation they must reap a large 

 reward. But lioping is one thing, and a critical 

 calculation, based upon well-known facts, is 

 another. They must go back to the illustration 

 of the two corn-fields. 



In New England, we believe there is scarcely 



more than one season out of twenty, in which we 

 cannot obtain with certainty, so far as climate 

 concerned, any of the common crops of our farms, 

 if we but manage the lands according to the light 

 which has now dawned upon every department of 

 farm labor. The experience of thousands of wise 

 men is spread before every person who can read, 

 so that the profit of the same amount of labor 

 ought to be twenty or thirty per cent, more than 

 it was twenty or thirty years ago. 



We are acquainted with farms of twenty acres 

 where the annual income is not less than $4,000 

 to $6,000, — and with farms of 100 acres, where 

 the annual cash income is scarcely twice as many 

 dollars as the number of acres ! A man on a 

 large farm can raise just as much corn or wheat 

 per acre as a man on a small farm. He ought 

 not to feel obliged to cultivate land merely be- 

 cause he owns it. Herein lies the error. Like 

 the boy with the oranges, he attempts to grasp 

 too much, and loses profit on the whole. Slight 

 manuring and poor cultivation, on an extensive 

 breadth of land, is like the management of the 

 merchant who builds a large store, and fills it 

 with rods of shelves upon which he places only 

 a few goods. He must remain there and super- 

 intend it, and at the call of every customer travel 

 four times as far as he ought to, in handing down 

 the goods wanted, — so that his own superintend- 

 ence and the interest on the capital united in the 

 store and goods exhaust all the income, and he 

 grows poorer and poorer as each year rolls away. 

 While the farmer practices this kind of economy, 

 he laughs at the poor merchant or manufacturer 

 who is daily exhausting his means by it. The 

 phrase has passed into a proverb, "that we under- 

 take too much for our means," and still there are 

 few who do not err in this respect. We forget 

 the actual cost of travel, plowing, harrowing, 

 seeding, cultivating, hoeing and harvesting twice 

 as much land as is necessary for a given crop, 

 and pursue a course which five minutes' investi- 

 gation will show us is fatal to our profits. 



COAL ASHES AS A MAWUEB. 



But few experiments have been va%de by Amer- 

 ican farmers, says a writer, to test the fertilizing 

 properties of coal ashes. While we are import- 

 ing guano and other manures from foreign lands 

 in enormous quantities, and at great expense, it 

 may be well to employ substances nearer home, 

 which are now neglected and cast aside as worth- 

 less. Thousands of tons of ashes might be ob- 

 tained in cities, where coal is extensively em- 

 ployed for fuel, which, when applied to the soil, 

 would doubtless greatly augment its productive 

 powers. It is stated in "Faulkner's Farmers' 

 Manual," an English publication on manures, 

 that coal ashes contain sulphate of lime, wit*" 

 some potash and soda, all of which are known, 

 when separately applied, to produce a good effect 



