320 



A Fallacy. 



Vol. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 A Fallacy. 



The popular idoa of modern times, and of 

 which our agricultural ptTiodicals are con- 

 Btantly reminding the farmer, is, to cultivate 

 no more ground than can be well manured. 

 Make your fields small, say they, that you 

 may accomplish this end. 



That cultivated grounds should be well 

 manured, at least in our older settlements, 

 perhaps no good husbandman will deny; but 

 while this is laid down as an axiom, it seems 

 to be assumed as nearly equally true, that it 

 cannot be done within the means of the farm, 

 unless the portion of it cultivated be exceed- 

 ingly circumscribed. That this assumption 

 is entiled to the credit to which it pretends, 

 the subscriber's experience has led him more 

 than to doubt. He tried its blandishing pro- 

 mises for a few years on a large farm, to his 

 disappointment; having soon found, after 

 working small fields, that the amount o*" his 

 manure was reduced in proportion to the size 

 of his tillage; and then it was difficult to get 

 back to a field of respectable size for the want 

 of manure enough to cover it. But he has 

 been more successful since, in practising upon 

 the converse theory, viz. extended cultivation 

 on a small farm. Five years since he confined 

 his operations to a small farm of little more 

 than fifty acres of arable and meadow; the 

 land was chiefly rough, and in a very mode- 

 rate state of productiveness — soil loamy, with 

 a good healthy clay subsoil. At present the 

 face of it is pleasing to the eye, and in point 

 of productiveness nearly double that of the 

 former period; only about thirty-five acres of 

 it have been cultivated in grain and artificial 

 grasses — the remainder in meadow, and lawn 

 about the dwelling. Of the cultivated por- 

 tion, the grasses are never suffered to lie 

 longer than three years, frequently but two, 

 and occasionally but one. The basis of this 

 improvement has been, moderate attention to 

 raising and applying manures, all within the 

 farm, excepting lime (magnesian) and one 

 experiment of ground bones. He manures 

 double the space usual among creditable farm- 

 ers, and last year, by the help of an extra sup- 

 ply of fifty loads obtained by soiling cattle 

 before harvest, was enabled to manure one- 

 fourth of the whole farm. If it be asked how 

 60 much manure is obtained, the answer is, 

 chiefly by using strat/) for no other purpose 

 than bedding for animals; feeding them on 

 hay and the better portions of corn-fodder; 

 winter-feeding a few cattle on meal and some 

 roots; hauling most of the manure in the 

 spring, and protecting the portion left for 

 autumn-use under cover, or thrown into shal- 

 low banks with earth over the top; by confin- 

 ing the cattle in their yard altogether, until I 



the 15th or 20lh of the 4th month ; afterward, 

 during a month, let out an hour or two every 

 day ; then, and not until that period, when the 

 grass is strong, and operating as feed rather 

 than physic, they go upon their permanent 

 pasture. 



It will be observed, that this practice has 

 resulted from a belief that the offal of crops 

 is an ample basis for the manure which they 

 require ; and that, if only tolerably well ma- 

 naged, is capable, not only of supplying the 

 annual exhaustion, but also of carrying on a 

 progressive improvement. Consequently, ex- 

 tended cultivation, provided there be a just 

 relation of the requisite number of animals for 

 manufacturing the offal into manure, is be- 

 lieved to be advantageous to improvement of 

 the soil, to the pocket of the husbandman, and 

 to the country — rather than a stinted cultiva- 

 tion, which provides manure only in propor- 

 tion to its limited extent, and looks to exten- 

 sive grazing, or a disproportion of meat to the 

 bread which is to accompany it. This just 

 relation of tillage and of stock is supposed to 

 be exactly that number of the latter which 

 can be kept without eating up the source of 

 manure-offal of the crops; and in summer 

 without pasturing very close, animal manure 

 being looked upon only as a small ingredient 

 to ferment the mass of vegetable matter — and 

 all the better for that object, when the beasta 

 are kept in good plight, which feeding on hay 

 instead of straw supposes — to say nothing of 

 the superior profit of cattle so kept, and the 

 humanity of it. 



Frequent tillage, if supplied with its rights 

 in manures, keeps the ground loose and lively 

 for the largest product of grasses, supplying 

 exactly what is wanted, in an abundant hay- 

 crop for winter: and for pasturage has the 

 utmost value, when combined with a portion 

 of perennial or green-grass meadow, where 

 the cattle can roam from one to the other at 

 their pleasure. 



The foregoing is contributed as matter for 

 reflection, and not controversy. What is here 

 considered a fallacy, viz. that a small portion 

 of a farm cultivated, can be better manured 

 from means within the farm than a larger 

 portion so cultivated, being a moot point, facts 

 on both sides is but fair play for the question. 

 He who concentrates the manure derived 

 from large fields upon an acre or a few acres, 

 and thereby succeeds in producing an enor- 

 mous crop, docs, indeed, illustrate the kind- 

 ness of our common mother in yielding a re- 

 turn proportionable to the food bestowed ; but 

 let him remember, that his capital or this 

 liberal supply of food, was obtained by rob- 

 bery, and by no means infers, that space is 

 all useless. 



J. Jenkins. 



West Whiteland, 4th mo. 9th, 1842. 



