116 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



crops, and when the surphis water is carried off, 

 the drains will stop discharging. The fact that 

 most drains discharge throughout the year is an 

 evidence of their value. 



Stagnant water having no other means of es- 

 cape from the soil, will be partially carried off by 

 evaporation ; this process causes the land to be 

 very cold, sometimes making a difference of from 

 10 tc 15 degrees. If a certain amount of water 

 is evaporated, a certain amount of heat must, of 

 course, be used up in evaporating it. It is found, 

 I believe, that 10 degrees of heat are required to 

 evaporate 1 pound of water from 100 pounds of 

 soil, and that heat might, but for the water, have 

 been used in raising the temperature of the soil. 

 Water also prevents the summer rain, which has 

 passed through the heated atmosphere and the 

 heated surface of the earth, from passing down 

 deep into the soil, carrying the warmth it has 

 gained above to the roots of the plants, which 

 would be much benefited by it ; it also prevents 

 air from coming to the roots by stopping ujj the 

 pores. 



Warm land is early land, and it is often that a 

 piece which has been drained can be planted a 

 month earlier than the same piece before drain- 

 ing. 



Some crops may be grown to moderate advan- 

 tage on cold lands, but there are others which 

 cannot be grown on such land with any profit ; 

 if, therefore, we wish to increase the variety of 

 produce, we must drain the land. If land is sat- 

 urated up to within a few inches of the surface, 

 then much of the water that falls upon it during 

 a heavy shower, finding no chance of passing 

 down through the soil, will run off upon the sur 

 face, carrying many valuable properties, and from 

 year to year impoverishing the land. Drainage 

 should be so thoroughly done as to allow no 

 surface-washing unless the land stands very steep 

 or the rainfall is very heavy. 



Boston, May, 1858. J. Herbert Shedd, 



THE! FAKMEB'S MOTTO. 



Gen. Bierce closes an Agricultural Address, 

 at Twinsburgh, Ohio, Sept. I7th, 1857, as fol- 

 lows : — "Let the farmer's motto be, then, 'good 

 farms, good stock, good seed, and good cultiva 

 tion.' Make farming a science, in which your 

 heads as well as your hands are employed ; let 

 there be system and reason in all your operations ; 

 .study to make your farms beautiful, and your 

 lands lovely ; entice, by kindness, the birds to 

 visit, and cheer your dwellings >vith their music ; 

 I would not associate with the man or boy, that 

 would wantonly kill the birds that cheerfully sing 

 :>.round our dwellings and our farms ; he is fitted 

 for treason and murder. Who does not, with 

 the freshness of early morning, call up the mem- 

 ory of the garden of his infancy and childhood ? 

 the robin's nest in the old cherry tree, and the 

 nest of young chipping birds in the currant bush- 

 es ? the flowers planted by his mother, and nur- 

 tured by his sisters ? In all our wanderings, the 

 memory of childhood's birds and flowers are as- 

 sociated Avith our mother and sisters, and our 

 early home. As you would have your children 

 intelligent and happy, and their memory in after 

 life, of early home, pleasant or repulsive, so make 

 your farms, a'ld your children's home." 



For the New England Farmer. 

 IS FARMING PROFITABLE? 

 BY "WILSON FLAGG. 



What is the meaning of this question, and 

 what is the signification attached to the word 

 profitable ? Is it intended to be applied to those 

 occupations only that lead to riches ; or ought it 

 to be applied to every honest and healthful em- 

 ployment that affords to the intelligent and in- 

 dustrious a good livelihood, and may lead to com- 

 petency ? It is plain that the question respect- 

 ing the profitableness of farming cannot be an- 

 swered, until we have fixed upon the definite 

 meaning of the term, and an intelligible limit to 

 its signification. Some men would refuse to call 

 any business profitable, by which they could not 

 double their capital as often as once in two or 

 three years ; others of equal intelligence believe 

 themselves to be very profitably employed, as 

 long as their income affords them a sure and com- 

 fortable support. The experience of mankind 

 has determined that six per cent, a year is a rea- 

 sonable profit on capital, because by investing in 

 any kind of stocks that afford a greater rate of 

 interest than six per cent., the safety of the capi- 

 tal is endangered. This is a law of trade which 

 might be explained by a process of reasoning too 

 lengthy to be introduced in this connection. We 

 will at present deal simply with the fact that al- 

 most all property which is perfectly secure yields 

 but a low rate of interest. 



It seems reasonable, therefore, that in order to 

 determine the profitableness of farming, we should 

 consider whether the farm and farm stock will 

 yield six per cent, of their rateable value. After 

 adding this interest to the sum which the owner 

 of the farm — if he be a farmer — can earn upon it 

 by his own hands, we might compare its profita- 

 bleness with other safe kinds of business. Esti- 

 mating the farmer's own time as worth two dol- 

 lars a day, leaving out holidays, it may be called 

 $600 a year. If his farm, his buildings and stock 

 be valued at $7000, the interest of this sum in 

 six per cent, stock would be $420. The farm, 

 therefore, with his own labor upon it, ought to 

 yield him about $1000 a year, or its equivalent, 

 to be considered profitable, on a moderate, but 

 just and liberal calculation. The question is not 

 strictly whether it yields so much money, but 

 whether it enables him to live as well as the ma- 

 jority of men in other business whose income is 

 but $1000 per annum. 



There is a great deal of difficult and tangled 

 reckoning to be used, before a farmer can arrive 

 at the exact amount of his own profits. A mer- 

 chant's clerk who receives $1000 a }ear, may 

 easily make an exact estimate of his profits and 

 expenses, provided he lives upon his salary alone. 

 His profits are the amount of his salary. His 

 expenses may be easily recorded in an account- 

 book. W e will suppose one of many cases. Our 

 merchant's clerk lives in the suburbs, about ten 

 miles from his ofliice. His travelling expenses 

 of all kinds may be set down at $150 ; his house- 

 rent, $150 ; butcher's bill, $125 ; grocer's and 

 baker's bill, $200; shoes and clothing, $175; 

 help, $75 ; miscellaneous expenses, $125. 



Our farmer, knowing the salary of the mer- 

 chant's clerk, who is his neighbor, believes him 

 to be in a more enviable situation than himself. 



