1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



•365 



A TENANT FABMER. 



A few days since one of the Editors of the 

 Farmer had the pleasure of receiving a call 

 from some relatives whom he had not met for 

 forty-faur years. The strange work which this 

 lapse of time had made with boys and girls who 

 were once playmates, is a matter in which the public 

 has no interest. But as our friends are farmers 

 who, commencing with hired land, have paid for a 

 large farm from the profits of farming, we claim 

 that a brief sketch of their agricultural history 

 may be considered as public property, and believe 

 it will be interesting to our readers, and particu- 

 larly to that portion of them who are now young, 

 and are balancing the probabilities of being able 

 to pay for a gooa farm by farming. We will, 

 therefore, at the outset, introduce our friends as 

 Mr. and Mrs. John Balis of Benson, Rutland 

 country, Vt. 



On their marriage, the estate of the husband and 

 the dowry of the n ife, consisted of two pairs of 

 willing hands, habits of industry, and "great ex- 

 pectations" of success, — rather an old fashioned, 

 but after all not a bad "setting out." Having 

 caught his bird, but not having a cage of his own, 

 Mr. Balis found shelter in his father's house, and 

 entered into partnership with him in the manage- 

 ment of his farm of 1.50 acres in the town of Hub- 

 bardston, Vt., adjoining that of his present resi- 

 dence. Here he remained until twenty-nine yeai-s 

 of age. 



On a mutual division of the increased stock and 

 land, Mr. Balis' portion was appraised at about 

 151600. But as yet he had no house, — the build- 

 ings all belonging to the old homestead, which was 

 retained by his father. For a year or two, there- 

 fore, he lived in a hired house, and carried on 

 some land on shares, in addition to the manage- 

 ment of his own lot. Eventually, however, he pur- 

 chased additional land with buildings, and was no 

 longer a tenant. 



He turned his attention early to raising sheep as 

 a leading feature of his farm management, though 

 he has been quite successful in wheat-growing. 

 From the avails of his crops he wa's enabled to buy 

 more land. One of the most lucky of his pur- 

 chases, he informed us, was a lot of wild land for 

 $1350, from which he sold, in one year, wood and 

 wheat to the amount of IgloOO, over and above all 

 expenses of labor, &c. But such "good strikes" 

 were not often made. Mainly by small gains and 

 small savings, he now finds himself, with his two 

 sons, in possession of fourteen hundred acres of 

 land, in a tolerably compact form, in the rich 

 valley of Lake Champlain, on which there are in 

 all six dwelling houses, twelve large and several 

 small barns, with sheds or lean-tos sufficient for 

 1200 sheep, and stabling for thirty horses and cat- 

 tle; with which amount of stock he entered the 

 past winter. During the season he has, however, 

 lost some two hundred sheep — a very unusual mor- 

 tality for him. His sheep are grade merinos, and 



average from four and a half to five pounds a 

 fleece. 



His sheep sheds or lean-tos are built the whole 

 length of the barn to which they are attached, and 

 connect with the cellar under the barn, in which 

 the sheep are fed, and where they find a warm 

 place in cold weather. 



He now mows over about 400 acres, which aver- 

 age about one ton per acre, and we understood him 

 to say that he has this year full fifty tons more than 

 his stock required. 



From three to six acres are sown to wheat each 

 year. This year he has sown six bushels of wheat, 

 and as usual, on land on which corn grew the pre- 

 vious j'ear. It now promises a good crop. Last 

 spring he sowed six bushels and harvested one 

 hundred bushels. The year before, he sowed three 

 and a half bushels and harvested seventy-five. 

 Three years ago he sowed his wheat on low, flat 

 land, and in consequence of unusually wet weather 

 the crop was a failure. The ground was well pre- 

 pared and with a favorable season, he anticipated a 

 good crop. Have your ground in good order, he 

 says, and sow as early as possible, say from the 

 20th of April to the 10th of May, on good rich soil, 

 and you need not fail once in ten years in raising 

 all the wheat needed in the family. 



He raises from six to ten acres of corn a year, 

 which yield from fifty to seventy-five bushels of 

 shelled corn per acre. He applies about fifty loads 

 of manure, and that leaves the land in fine condi- 

 tion for wheat. 



Of potatoes, he plants from four to eight acres, 

 usually on sward land; arid generally has about 

 fifteen acres in oats. 



For corn, he generally ploughs the manure in, 

 and plants two years, and "stocks down" with 

 wheat or oats. Mows from two to four years, and 

 obtains good crops of grain and grass. For pota- 

 toes he takes sward land ; sometimes, but not as 

 a general thing, growing two crops, then manures 

 well, sows oats and seeds down. 



Such land as he does not wish to rlo°?li tip, he 

 top dresses, preferring to do »his immediately after 

 haying when possible, as the fall rains dissolve the 

 manure and start up the grass ; thus making a good 

 crop more sure the next season, than if it were ap- 

 plied in tie spring. If applied veiy early in the 

 spring, say in March, and if the season is not too 

 dry. it does well ; but if the season is diy it has 

 less etFtct. He uses no manure except that made 

 on the farm. 



He has built some 1200 to 1500 rods of cedar 

 rail fence, the material for which was drawn ten 

 miles, and some 400 to 500 rods of pine stump 

 fence, dug from his own land. 



Mr. Balis informed us that in ordinary seasons, 

 and with ordinary health and ordinary expenses, 

 he could support his family without much en- 

 croachment on the sales of his wool, which must 

 certainly be regarded as pretty good evidence that 

 there is profit in farming in Lake Champlain Val- j 

 ley, if no where else in New England. « 



