188 



The Model Farm of Ohio. 



Vol. X. 



race of Hottentots, possessing, as you ad- 

 vance fiirther, innumerable flocks of cattle, 

 where the land becomes fine and fertile. 



About 800 miles .of the sea-coast, Morrell 

 says, running north-west and south-east, al- 

 most every mile of which was examined by 

 him, presents a range of sandy deserts, upon 

 an average nearly forty miles in breadth. 

 During ten months of the year here, there 

 is scarcely a drop of rain, and for the other 

 two months very little falls. The atmos- 

 phere is pure, warm and dry, to such a de- 

 gree, that a quarter of fresh beef, weighing 

 two hundred weight, hanging in the rigging, 

 will become perfectly dry, without being 

 tainted in the slightest degree, even to the 

 bone. 



Thus, to all appearances, there are iden- 

 tical agencies existing- on the coast of Peru 

 and Africa, where guano is found of such 

 superior quality and in such wonderful abun- 

 dance. 



For the deposition and accumulation, then, 

 of guano, in any particular locality, it is es- 

 sential that there should be a sea-coast on 

 which there are numerous isolated rocky 

 situations, where sea-fowl may collect unmo- 

 lested to hatch their young, and seas in the 

 vicinitysupplying abundance of food; warmth 

 of climate, little or no rain, and a perpetu- 

 ally dry atmosphere. Under a terrestial and 

 atmospherical combination of this sort. Dr. 

 M. Hamilton calculates that a million ofl 

 birds will produce fifteen tons of guano daily,! 

 from their droppings, subject to no further! 

 loss from evaporation. No mean quantity 

 would thus in a very few years be accumu 

 lated in favourable situations, and many 

 such, it is reasonable to suppose, are to be 

 found in both hemispheres. 



We can foresee that the stimulus given 

 by the success which has already attended 

 the voyages for African guano, and the idea 

 that the supplies will soon be exhausted, 

 both on the coast of Peru and Africa, must 

 naturally lead to the exploration of new re- 

 gions, for an article apparently every year 

 growing more and more in request. It will, 

 however, only be by looking to those topo- 

 graphical bearings referred to, that any one 

 can expect to make fresh discoveries of de- 

 posits of this substance to an extent which 

 will make ther» an object of commercial en- 

 terprise, or of a quality which will realize 

 the hopes of the farmer. — Dr. Jackson on 

 Guano. 



The Model Farm of Ohio. 



The model farm of this State contains 

 100 acres, 75 of which are well cleared, 

 and the whole under fiance: 60 acres are 



embraced in one enclosure, and this includes 

 all the arable and meadow land upon the 

 farm. The buildings are all of stone, neat, 

 durable and commodious. The dwelling is 

 not large, but capacious enough for the use of 

 the family and a room and a bed or two for 

 in occasional friend. The kitchen and sta- 

 bles are supplied with water from the same 

 spring. No stock but hogs and sheep are 

 permitted to graze. The cattle and horses 

 are constantly kept in their stalls, and are 

 always in good order. The cows are at all 

 times fat enough for the butchers, and the 

 growing stock at two years old, attain the 

 weight of ordinary steers at four. During 

 the summer they are soiled with green food, 

 consequently twenty acres in grass is sufn- 

 cient to keep four horses and ten cows with 

 their offspring, until the young stock are 

 ready for the market at three or four years 

 old, when they average him ^30 per head. 

 Of these he makes it a point to sell ten head 

 a year. For his stock he raises about one 

 acre of roots, sugar beets, mangel wurtzel, 

 and turnips each year, which yield him on 

 an average about 1500 bushels. Of corn, 

 he cultivates five acres a year, which by 

 proper cultnr;e and judicious rotation, yields 

 him .500 bushels. Five acres in wheat give 

 yearly 150 bushels. Five acres of oats, 300 

 bushels. 



He has an orchard of eight acres, in which 

 ho has 200 apple trees, 25 pear, 25 plum, 

 100 poach, and 50 cherry trees. This is di- 

 vided into four compartments of two acres 

 each. Two of tiiese he ploughs up every 

 year, and in the spring plants them in Jeru- 

 salem artichokes. Here he keeps his hogs. 

 In the two that are not ploughed, he has a 

 clover and orchard grass ley, in which the 

 swine feed from the middle of May to the 

 first of August, when they are let into one 

 of the artichoke yards and range at will 

 into the two grass yards, and this till winter, 

 when they are passed into the second arti- 

 choke yard, where they are kept till the 

 grass has sufliciently advanced in one of the 

 fields to turn them into' that. Thus upon 

 grass, roots and fruit, the swine are kept so 

 thrifty, that a few bushels of grain are suffi- 

 cient to make them ready for the butcher. 

 In this v/ay he manages to kill thirty hogs 

 a year, which will average 400 lbs. each. 

 He gives them beet wintering. 



His sheep range principally in the woods, 

 with a small pasture of five acres. He keeps 

 75 head, which yield him 300 pounds of wool 

 a year. 



As this farmer has raised a large famih', 

 and raised them all well, having given each 

 child a good practical education, I was curi- 

 ous to look into his affairs, and as he keeps 



