324 



Hours of Farm-Work. 



Vol. VI. 



thus raised and expended in England, and 

 immediately, on the crop beinfj cleared, the 

 land is manured and sown with turnips for 

 •winter food ; an excellent plan, certainly, and 

 likely to do much for the quality of a root 

 which, with us, has often proved of little 

 value, from its watery and meagre consist- 

 ence. Indeed, I have heard of an experiment 

 on soilings with corn which appears quite ex- 

 travagant, for it is said, an acre of land sown 

 in three divisions and at intervals often days 

 each, kept 18 milk cows for three months! — 

 the land being re-sown with corn so soon as 

 cleared, a good allowance of dung being given 

 at the time ; the food proving most excellent 

 for the production of the sweetest milk, and 

 the animals keeping in superior condition. 

 Can any of your readers inform us more par- 

 ticularly concerning this universal crop? 

 ]\Ir. Jenkins has been in Europe ; perhaps he 

 could also inform us of the value of the tare 

 for the purpose of cattle-soiling ; if it could be 

 made to succeed in this country, it would, by 

 every account, furnish an admirable change 

 in the diet of stalled animals; an important 

 consideration, and one on which much of the 

 success of such an undertaking would seem 

 to depend. If, as is said, no plant begins to 

 draw its sustenance from the earth until its 

 blossoming commences — the blossoms not 

 being furnished with returning sap-vessels (a 

 doctrine as old as Tull), the soiling system 

 might be pursued without exhaustion of the 

 land — a circumstance of the greatest moment. 



J. Godson. 



May 3, 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Hours of Farm-Work, 



If an Englishman, an emigrant of one 

 year's standing, could be permitted to give an 

 opinion on a subject which all his life long 

 has engrossed his attention, namely, the cul- 

 tivation of the earth, he would say, nothing 

 that he has witnessed in this country strikes 

 him as more remarkable than the many hours 

 which the labourers in husbandry, with their 

 teams, continue their operations through the 

 day, in a climate confessedly unsuitalile to 

 the full developement of the European con- 

 stitution, and under circumstances peculiarly 

 unfriendly to that degree of stimulus so ne- 

 cessary for the prosecution of an employment 

 that requires the concentration of all their 

 powers, oftentimes confined to one particular 

 object, and admitting of no variation or 

 change. He would observe, the custom in 

 that part of England from whence he hails, 

 is, to get early to work, and continue until 

 one o'clock; return at that hour to dinner, 

 and devote the remainder of the day to other 

 services not less necessary, but which are apt 

 to be delayed, and even to rsmain undone, if 



the whole of the day is spent in the labours 

 of the field — what these services are, may 

 easily be learnt, by an inspection of the con- 

 dition of many of the homesteads in the 

 country. Besides which, there is the work 

 of draining — which ougiit to form a sort of 

 "ne plus ultra" with every occupier of his 

 own land in almost any situation ; with road- 

 making, &c., furnishing a perfect change — 

 as good as a rest — of occupation for both men 

 and cattle. What is here said does not, of 

 course, apply to seed-time or harvest; at 

 these seasons, all hours are made to bend to 

 the exigencies of the occasion, and much is 

 sometimes performed during those of the 

 night: it is the general and uniform late 

 hours which are here kept on a farm, that 

 the writer conceives must often be found 

 extremely wearisome, by their long-extended 

 duration. 



But let it not be thought that these re- 

 marks are made invidiously, or in a spirit of 

 cavil and unkindness — no one ever crossed 

 the Atlantic with warmer feelings, or more 

 grateful acknowledgments of the uniform and 

 generous treatment which it has been his for- 

 tune to experience in this "land of his adop- 

 tion ;" and he is quite prepared to fear, that 

 if any of his own countrymen were to endea- 

 vour to adopt such a mode of management as 

 is here proposed, in this country, they would 

 fail in the attempt; for he has before his eyes 

 many instances of ill success that have at- 

 tended the introduction of European man- 

 agement into foreign countries, occasioned by 

 a variety of causes which would be, indeed, 

 " too numerous to mention." No, the extent 

 of his desires is, to see an agriculturist of this 

 country, of acknowledged property and stand- 

 ing in society, take up the plan and carry it 

 out, and ascertain by experience, whether the 

 thing be practicable. But, to do it justice, 

 he must commence the year at Michaelmas 

 — the real Netv- Year of the farmer — and 

 finish up all his ploughing for winter fallows 

 and spring-sowing of oats, with sod-ploughing 

 for corn, &c., by Christmas; and after that, 

 until the opening of spring, the work of pre- 

 paration must be going on as briskly as any 

 of the summer work ; one very important 

 item being, the periodical removal of the 

 dung from the winter straw-yard to the field 

 where it is to be expended, there to be turned 

 up with muck, bank-earth, lime, &c., and be 

 fermented and pulverized and amalgamized 

 by the time it is needed for carrying abroad 

 — a business which, in many places, requires 

 the labour of weeks, at that busy season of 

 the year, when hours are of more account 

 than days of winter — in short, the winter 

 season upon a well-regulated farm is the most 

 important part of the year — a strange idea 

 this to many, no doubt. 



