2M 



James Gowen on Improved Farming. 



Vol. X. 



US'! This was a travelling out of his way, 

 one should suppose, for little purpose; it 

 shows, if other proof was wanting-, the deep 

 seated prejudice against " book farming," as 

 it is called, in common with too many of the 

 farmers of the present day, who set their 

 face against all experiment, enterprise, or 

 improvement, in the business of husbandry, 

 and who are ever ready to pull down and 

 level all to their own grade ; and here was 

 an opportunity, by giving a one-sided view 

 of my management, to turn my practice 

 into ridicule, and to frighten or deter every 

 one from advancing on the manly and gene- 

 rous path of enterprise and emulation, by 

 holding up in terrorem, the " single item of 

 more than one thousand dollars for manitnl 

 labour, to toork a farm of one hundred 

 acres!'''' Now I dare say that this expendi- 

 ture of over one thousand dollars per annum 

 for labour alone, on my farm, has furnished 

 many a knowing wink, and many a horse 

 laugh at my expense, or served as the pre- 

 lude to many a drowsy yawn to many, as 

 they sat toasting their shins by the fire, 

 thinking of nothing, except "one thousand 

 dollars for labour alone! Prodigious! a Penn- 

 sylvania farmer to expend one thousand dol- 

 lars for wages in one year !" If H. S. took 

 leave to descant on my practice by way of 

 illustrating its results, why did he not ex 

 hibit the other, the creditor side of the ac- 

 count, which he could have found in the 

 same report that furnished him with the 

 dreadful item of expense ? Why did he not 

 state what I produced, consumed and sold, 

 with the improved state of my land, which 

 is an item as fully entitled to credit as the 

 cash I received for sales of produce, or the 

 meat, meal, milk and butter consumed by 

 my family. If a merchant has a ship need- 

 ing repairs to make her sea-worthy, will he 

 not charge the repairs to the ship, and is she 

 not worth more, by so many hundred or thou- 

 sand dollars as these repairs cost, than she was 

 before they were made] Certainly she is. 

 And why should not a farmer be allowed 

 credit for the improved soil, substantial fenc- 

 ing, suitable buildings, &c., &c., which cost 

 him time and money] 



Referring your readers to the June No., 

 1845, for my Report to the Committee on 

 Farms, I sliall for their further satisfaction, 

 and to give the science of agriculture some- 

 thing like fair play, set down the results of 

 last season's operations on this farm of 100 

 acres, assuming the j^early wages at one 

 thousand dollars. 



I raised not less than one hundred and 

 twenty tons of hay — say at eighteen dollars 



per ton, is $2,160 00 



400 bushels wheat, at 81 00 400 00 



300 do. rye, 80 240 00 



100 do. oats, 40 40 00 



1000 do. corn, 60 600 00 



500 do. potatoes, 75 375 00 



900 do. carrots, 40 360 00 



600 do. ruta-baga, 25 150 00 



600 do. sutrar pars. 40 240 CO 



1500 do. turnips, 12| 187 50 



15 hogs slaughtered, weighing 



45 C. at $5 per C. 225 00 



Cattle, calves and pigs, sold, 347 00 

 Actual net sales of milk &. butter, 



over 1,400 00 



$6,724 50 

 independent of milk and butter, meat and 

 vegetables, poultry and fruit for family con- 

 sumption. While producing thi.«, I main- 

 tained upon the farm upwards of fifty head 

 of cattle, seven horses, and some thirty head 

 of swine, and the only outlay incurred for 

 feed during the year 1845, was about three 

 hundred dollars for ship stuff or middlings, 

 which was principally fed to the horses with 

 finely cut timothy hay; and part made into 

 slop for the swine. The horses had no other 

 feed — they get neither corn nor oats, and 

 the hogs when fattening, had little else but 

 imperfect ears of corn, a little slop, and oc- 

 casionally small potatoes cooked for them. 



Now can H. S. or any of his brother farm- 

 ers of the old and easy going school, make 

 a better exhibit in proportion to their outlay 

 and the number of acres they hold] If they 

 can, I should be pleased to see it, and to be 

 permitted an opportunity of examining into 

 their practice, the condition of their land, 

 the character of their stock, &c. While I 

 here invite him to visit Mount Airy, and 

 judge for himself The stock now consists 

 of 51 head of cows, heifers and calves, prin- 

 cipally thorough-bred Durharns: — 5 brood 

 sows and 20 shoats, to be fed for next win- 

 ter's slaughtering. 



It was only to-day, Mr. Editor, that I ob- 

 served the article of H. S. in your last No., 

 and have hastened to reply to it, to turn 

 aside the injury it appeared to me it was 

 calculated to produce, if permitted to go un- 

 reproved. I disclaim all personal motive in 

 the matter — if I make much or little by farm- 

 ing, that is my own affair; hut that a sound 

 practice should be subverted or set aside, is 

 of consequence to the country and to the 

 spirit of agricultural improvement that is 

 now beginning to dawn upon it. 

 Respectfully, 



James Gowen. 



Mount Airy, March 6th, 1846. 



