20 



Book Farming. 



Vol. v.. 



high and forward crops are almost always 

 found to be at this season — ready and willing 

 to start with the first mild weather in the 

 spring, but not gross and tender, so as to feel 

 the effects of a change of climate, which 

 would be found sufficient to prostrate thou- 

 sands of acres of those crops, which have 

 hitherto been the admiration of the whole 

 country. 



The straw of such crops will have strength 

 sufficient to support the head, which will 

 be much larger and longer than that raised 

 from fallow, dung, and lime, which always 

 go to produce large quantities of leafy straw, 

 rather than grain. 



Wheat crops, that are sown very early on 

 dunged fallows, make too much progress be- 

 fore winter : not so when sown early on lay 

 land that has been manured on the spring 

 clover, after one ploughing, if that has been 

 given carefully, with a deep and narrow fur- 

 row, and laid well over ; the sowing on such 

 land may take place i;ery early, without fear 

 of the crop becoming what is called, in some 

 places, winter ■proud, or being affected in the 

 spring with the root-rot, by being lifted by 

 the frosts. But how any one should expect 

 to raise good and clean crops of wheat after 

 oats, and fallowed, dunged and limed for, is 

 assuredly the most astonishing thing in the 

 world ! that it is sometimes done, speaks 

 volumes in favour of a country which, with 

 such crying treatment, will still work such 

 wonders. Vxr. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Book Farming. 



Sir, — On a visit to a young and neighbour- 

 ing farmer, one who has left " the busy town 

 for the peaceful country" as he says, and who 

 reads the agricultural works of the day in 

 his own defence, I saw many things about his 

 house and premises which even I — an old 

 farmer, with perhaps a pretty strong spice of 

 prejudice, especially against book-farming — 

 at once could perceive were improvements 

 upon the old plans adopted by my grandfather. 

 I had called upon him to offer my services by 

 way of advice, but I vow that before I entered 

 the house, I was sensible that I had come to 

 the wrong place for that business — so I made 

 what is called a virtue of necessity, and held 

 my tongue. Why, Mr. Editor, before I left 

 him, I found that he was the oldest in point 

 of knowledge, and only wanted a little prac- 

 tice to render him by far a better manager 

 than myself— I guess he talked like a book, 

 and had chapter and verse at his fingers' ends 

 for every thing he did, and something better 

 than that too, for he had the modesty to listen, 

 while I described some of our old-fashioned 

 modes of management, which, however, he 



would demolish, although very quietly, in 

 about half a minute, by turning to his books,, 

 in which, I declare, he seemed to have the 

 power to find just what he looked after ; and 

 the truth of his notions was, I am compelled 

 to say, as plain as A, B, C. There is one 

 thing, however, in which I think he is wrong ; 

 he says we do not, according to his calcula- 

 tion, plough deep enough — now, I think, if 

 any thing, we plough too deep, and so I told 

 him, but he only answered he was young,, 

 and was desirous of getting information by 

 buying it, and was making experiments which 

 would convince him of the truth or falsehood 

 of the theory ; and then he asked me if I had 

 ever given the thing a fair trial? which I 

 was bound to say I had not : and there, Mr, 

 Editor, these youngsters have the advantage 

 over us — for nothing will satisfy them but 

 rooting to the bottom of things ; and it was 

 in vain for me to say, as I did repeatedly, " he 

 may be sure that I was right in my notions 

 on that subject, and he would find it so." 



His dairy cows, which he had bought but 

 the last year, were all of the proper age and 

 in full milk, for he told me, as often as he was 

 convinced that he had a bad milker, he sold 

 her right away and bought another, for, added 

 he, " my books tell me there is more than a 

 hundred per cent, difference between a good 

 and a bad milker, for while a good milker 

 gives a profit, a bad milker gives a loss^ 

 This was physic to me, for I knew that one- 

 half my dairy cows were too old or too young, 

 and the other half far from good — so I said 

 nothing. 



But there was one thing in which he 

 shamed me, and that was, the way in which 

 he had changed the situation of his cattle 

 yard, so as to prevent the drainage of the 

 dung from passing over the high road and 

 down the ditch, as had been the case for the 

 last age or two, and this he had done so easily 

 too, for, by digging up the bottom of the old 

 yard two or three feet in depth in the centre, 

 he had cast it hollow, and obtained by these 

 means many hundred loads of the richest 

 mould, exactly in the place where it was re- 

 quired, and all without the cost and labour of 

 carting, to act as a sponge to soak up the 

 drainage of the yard during the winter ; and 

 now I found him turning it up with his long 

 manure, a heap, I had almost said, as large as 

 a little barn ! this was killing two birds with 

 one stone, you see, and I wondered how the 

 idea could have entered his head — for I am 

 sure it had never entered mine — but he took 

 down a book where there was a picture of a 

 cattle yard as natural as life, and pointed out 

 the advantages of the alteration, and made a 

 calculation of the saving it would be to him 

 in the course of the year, in the article 

 of manure, that quite astonished me; and 



