No. 1. 



Levelling. — Profits of Farming. 



33 



TAKING LEVELS FOR DRAINING. 



A, the spirit level; B, a staff erected at the end of the intended drain ; C, the mark of the 

 real level ; D, another mark as many inches below C, as it is to have fall in the drain. If 

 the level be lowered, so that the point of intersection, instead of being at C, be at D, the line 

 formed by the level vi^ill be represented by the doited line D E. The line H F, represents 

 the surface of the land. 



Now, if a staff the length of D H, with the additional depth of the drain at F added to 

 it, be removed to any situation between H and F, it will give the true slope it ought to have 

 at that particular point ; and the drain, with its regular fall, is represented by the dotted 

 line G F. 



Profits of FarmiDg. 



Much discussion and conversation have 

 been had upon this subject. We do not mean 

 to enter fully or much at large upon a subject 

 which requires to be examined in various as- 

 pects and relations, in order that an enlight- 

 ened and well-founded judgment may be 

 made up; and especially in order that we 

 may not lead to any false inferences of its 

 unprofitableness, nor encourage any fallacious 

 expectations as to any advantages, — we mean 

 pecuniary advantages, — to be derived from 

 it. The erroneous opinions and calculations 

 which have been formed in this matter, have 

 led to most painful results, to serious losses, 

 and to bitter and vexatious disappointments. 

 We know a gentleman who tried farming 

 on an extensive and experimental scale, 

 whose authority is often quoted as ascer- 

 taining that " in agriculture, two and two 

 do not always make four." We understand 

 it to be implied in this calculation, respecting 

 the profitable results of agriculture, or a fair 

 return for the expenditure of labour and the 

 investment of capital, as not so likely to be 

 verified as in other business pursuits of life. 

 We do not admit the axiom in any fair sense. 

 We do not believe that it does justice to ag- 

 riculture; and no small experience, and some 

 observation satisfy us, that circumstances 

 being equal, farming would furnish as fair a 

 compensation for labour, and as ample a divi- 

 dend upon the capital invested, as the com- 

 mon trades which men engage in, and even 

 the pursuit of mercantile and commercial life. 

 Of course we except all extraordinary cases 

 of good fortune, and all matters of gambling 

 and speculation. 



The returns of most crops strike one some- 



times with astonishment, and would, if taken 

 as a test, lead to most delusive expectations. 

 A grain of seed sometimes returns one hun- 

 dred fold ; and this being sown a second year, 

 would perhaps give ten thousand fold, and so 

 on in geometrical ratio. Twenty bushels of 

 potatoes planted, will frequently yield four 

 hundred bushels, that is twenty for one. A 

 bushel of wheat sown, often returns thirty 

 bushels. A peck of Indian-corn planted, will 

 often produce sixty bushels, that is two hun- 

 dred and forty for one. A pound of carrot- 

 seed or of ruta baga, which costs a dollar, will 

 produce six or nine hundred bushels of rootg 

 worth one hundred dollars. The proceeds in 

 this case seem enormous, and yet they are 

 constantly realized, and often, it must be ad- 

 mitted, at a comparatively small expense. 

 But no confident conclusions of the profits of 

 farming are to be drawn from such results as 

 these. So many circumstances of abatement 

 enter into the cost, that if these are the only 

 elements given in the case, the solution of 

 the problem would give the most egregiously 

 erroneous and deceptive results. 



We are not to look to agriculture for any 

 extraordinary or sudden gains, as, for exam- 

 ple, like drawing the capital prize in a lot- 

 tery where there are two blanks to a prize; 

 like some successful East India voyage, where 

 the sale of the cargo yields a net profit of one 

 hundred per cent. ; or like some sudden rise 

 in the stocks, or some monopolized article of 

 produce, where a shrewd calculation draws 

 its thousands or twenty thousands, into our 

 pockets. But that skill, experience, assidui- 

 ty, and industry will, in agriculture, yield a 

 fair, and, to a reasonable mind, an ample com- 

 pensation, there are too many and reiterated 

 proofs to admit even of a doubt. — H. Colman. 



