222 



Motto. 



Vol. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Motto. 



And can it be that " the productions of the 

 earth will always be in proportion to the cul- 

 ture bestowed upon itV This doctrine I 

 purpose to brin^ to the test of experience, for 

 It is my intention to take sixteen acres of land 

 only, near the city, which I shall divide in 

 the following manner and cultivate in the 

 way here stated, my object being to keep a 

 breeding stock of hogs of superlative quality, 

 and poultry of the very finest kinds. And, 

 first, I shall make four divisions of the land, 

 four acres in each, all surrounded by a single 

 boundary fence ; and on the first of these I 

 shall plant oats early in the spring after an 

 autumnal ploughing. The second portion 

 will be devoted to roots — potatoes, beets, tur- 

 nips of various sorts, ruta-bagas, cabbages, &-c. 

 The third, corn ; and the fourth, clover. So 

 my rotation of crops — of which we begin to 

 hear so much — will be, 1, oats — 2, roots — 

 3, corn — and 4, clover. On the oat-stubble I 

 contemplate sowing buckwheat so soon as the 

 crop is removed ; as also on that land devoted 

 to the growth of turnips and beets, before 

 they are sown, as there will be sufficient time 

 for that crop to ripen and be removed, before 

 the sowing of these commences. In this ro- 

 tation, it is to be observed, there will be very 

 little ploughing and working land, except for 

 the crops of corn and roots ; the clover-lay 

 will be ploughed in the autumn for oats the 

 next spring, to be sown and harrowed in with- 

 out a second ploughing; while for the clover 

 no ploughing will be requisite, as the seed will 

 be sown and harrowed in on the corn at the 

 last time of cleaning, with one ploughing only 

 for the buckwheat. So that the ploughing 

 for the year would be 18 acres only, viz. four 

 acres oats, four acres buckwheat on the re- 

 moval of that crop, two acres (a portion of the 

 land designed for turnips) for buckwheat, four 

 acres roots, and four acres corn. But by this 

 course of management, a crop of oats, two 

 crops of buckwheat, a crop of roots and cab- 

 bages, a crop of corn, and two mowings of 

 clover for hay or soiling, might be harvested 

 every year from sixteen acres of land. The 

 only two exhausting crops being oats and 

 corn, the land might by this rotation be kept 

 in perfect heart until the end of time, the ma- 

 nure being given to the corn, root and clover 

 crops, and never to the oats or buckwheat. 



And now for the expenditure of the crops 

 on sixteen acres of land. 



1st. The oats to be cut into chaff without 

 threshing, for the autumn and winter food of 

 two horses and a cow ; but if too much for 

 this purpose, a portion might be threshed and 

 the oats ground and mixed with corn and cob 

 meal, and cooked for iiogs. 



2d. The roots and cabbages will be cooked 

 for the hogs. 



3d. The corn will be ground with the cob 

 for hog-feed, boiled with the roots; the stalks 

 cut and boiled for horses and cow. 



4th. The clover cut green for soiling 

 horses, cow and hogs, or dried for hay. 



5th. The buckwheat for sale. I should 

 then have to purchase straw for the bedding 

 of my stock, which I shall have no objection 

 to do, charging it as so much money spent in 

 the purchase of manure for the dressing of 

 the land. 



And now, as I mean to do justice to my 

 land, ought it not to give me in return, say 

 200 bushels oats, 2000 bushels roots and cab- 

 bages, 600 bushels corn and cobs, 200 bush- 

 els buckwheat, and soiling for cattle, to the 

 amount of 12 tons of hay the two crops ? I 

 have said that my intention is to keep u 

 " crack" stock of breeding hogs and poultry, 

 and to cook their food ; but as there are two 

 ways of doing things — a right way and a 

 wrong — would some of your readers, who 

 have had experience in these matters, inform 

 me how I might accomplish my object to 

 profit ? 



I was never more interested than with a 

 passage extracted from the Quarterly Journal 

 of Agriculture, inserted at p. 391 of the Cabi- 

 net for July 1841, "on the management of 

 small farms ;" but there is one observation 

 worth all the rest ; it is said, '.' The new sys- 

 tem, keeping himself and family always busy 

 and paying them well for their labour, ena- 

 bles him to sell fifteen dollars' worth of pota- 

 toes a year in place of spending more than 

 double that sum in that article for the support 

 of his family, as he had been wont to do;" 

 and this springs from the new system of ro- 

 tation, the green-food and soiling system. 



It is my intention to keep a pair of horses, 

 as I contemplate carrying much manure on 

 to the land, and I mean that they shall be 

 strong and active. I have ever considered 

 it the height of folly for a man to keep a weak 

 team; a small addition to the cost at first 

 purchase would be the only consideration, 

 the after expense being the same, with the 

 means of doing double labour and keeping up 

 with the seasons. But as my family is small, 

 and as they have been accustomed of late 

 years to sojourn in the city, I shall keep but 

 one cow for the supply of milk and butter for 

 the family, calculating that the less of dairy- 

 work there is to do, the better it will be at- 

 tended to; but I am quite convinced that one 

 good cow, with such keep as I shall be able 

 to afford her, will give three times the pro- 

 duce of those half-starved creatures which 

 are so often found a disgrace to their owners. 

 Now, would our friends put these things 

 together, and say if it be not quite possible 



