86 



Speculation. 



Vol. VI 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Specalation. 



Mr. Editor, — You must know that at 

 present I am out of business, but arrange- 

 ments are making, by which I shall be able 

 to return to that state which alone can give 

 satisfaction to a well-regulated mind— I mean 

 a state of active employment. Some tvyo 

 years ago, I occupied a sweet spot in a dis- 

 tant county, which I had reclaimed from the 

 waste, and by my own hands had made all 

 that I could imagine as pleasant to the eye 

 and grateful to the taste, and could not con- 

 ceive that I should ever be induced to part 

 with what had been the creation of my own 

 hands and the invention of my own head; 

 but one fatal morning I was prevailed upon, 

 by the offer of a certain sum, to dispose of 

 this Paradise, merely because the purchase- 

 money appeared large, not considering that 

 it was comparatively so only, for to the pur- 

 chaser, who was rich, it was small indeed for 

 80 much comfort, quiet and happiness. Suf- 

 fice it to say, I could not withstand the tempt- 

 ation, bat for a few thousand dollars bartered 

 away my mind's peace and my body's health; 

 so, bringing the wages of my folly into the 

 city, I determined to work that instead of my 

 land, which never deceived me, and accord- 

 ingly purchased with it Bank Stock and Ca- 

 nal Shares, which were at that time low, 

 foreseeing, as I thought, very clearly, that I 

 should soon be able by selling out on a rise, 

 to double my capital ; and then, it was only 

 to lay on my oars until a corresponding fall, 

 when, by purchasing with my increased 

 means, I was convinced that I must make 

 money as fast as I could count it, without the 

 labour of ploughing or the drudgery of sow- 

 ing or mowing; and instead of only one har- 

 vest a year, it would be easy to secure a 

 dozen in that time, by working my capital : 

 I therefore purchased in haste, and have ever 

 since repented at leisure, for I have never 

 yet had an opportunity to sell — not one har- 

 vest have I therefore made in two years, and 

 shall be compelled to come out minus, to a 

 fearful extent. 



Nevertheless, perhaps I ought not to count 

 it all loss ; I have had experience for my 

 money, although it has been dear bought; 

 and during this state of apathy and inanition, 

 I have at my leisure cast up many cool 

 thoughts, made numerous nice calculations, 

 and worked many long sums in this my 

 school of adversity; and if I do not derive 

 wisdom from the exorcise, it is my own fault. 

 I have therefore made up my mind, set the 

 brokers to sell out, and intend to make a vir- 

 tue of my necessity. And first, to show that 

 I am grown wise by experience, I will not 

 again purchase uncleared land, and have all 



the chopping and hauling and grubbing and 

 burning over again — no, I will seek out some 

 spot where its owner has done this for me, 

 and is desirous of leaving it, to commence 

 anew the labour of a horse! Here, I will 

 sit down and make the best of it, contenting 

 myself with half the number of acres I for- 

 merly occupied and thought too few, and try 

 to double my crops instead of my land, which 

 I seem now to believe is quite possible ; 

 making my animals to work for me, and take 

 the produce to market in the form of beefi 

 and mutton and pork — but not in butter; 

 making the most of my small means by adopt- 

 ing the soiling system — carrying my crops to 

 the cattle, and not them to the crops ; plough- 

 ing very sparingly, and chiefly confining my- 

 self to top-dressing, a system which seems to 

 be commanding much attention from farmers 

 generally, and from whence I have reason to 

 expect that much and lasting benefit will 

 arise, especially when practised upon mea- 

 dow-land by means of compost carefully pre- 

 pared for the purpose — a practice which is 

 but little known and too generally neglected 

 or despised. A friend has just informed me, 

 in answer to a question as to his experience 

 in top-dressing, that in South America — near 

 Rio — they are accustomed to renovate their 

 worn-out meadow and pasture-land by a sin- 

 gular mode of management, for instead of 

 ploughing them up and turning over the sod, 

 to be cultivated and cropped in the usual 

 manner, before returning to grass, by which 

 much expense is incurred and time and 

 labour lost, they skim-plough, by means of 

 two sharp coulters fixed one on each side of 

 the beam of the plough and welded to an iron 

 foot, kept sharp also; so that the land is cut 

 off at the sides and bottom — say about two 

 or three inches deep — and is then suffered to 

 fall back, without turning, upon the place 

 from whence it had been cut, after passing 

 over the share; the surface is then heavily 

 top-dressed, and the rains which fall, pene- 

 trate to the bottom of the loosened sods, car- 

 rying the dung in solution to the roots of the 

 grass, and causing a spring of fresh verdure, 

 quite astonishing to those who never before 

 witnessed the operation, incalculably more 

 advantageous than the plan of cutting up the 

 surface of worn-out meadow by means of the 

 sharpened teeth of the harrow, which is bo 

 often advised to be performed. 



Now, in the season of my prosperity, I be- 

 lieve if I had heard of such a plan, I should 

 have set it down as book-farming ; but the 

 time for thought and reflection which I have 

 experienced, and which I hope I have im- 

 proved, has convinced me that there is as 

 much scope for both in farming, as in any 

 other of what are called the arts and sci- 

 ences ; and I begin to feel as though it might 



