46 



Draining. — Farms in England. — Agriculture. 



Vol. V. 



its pomp, its servility ; then g-o back to your 

 gilded prison house, and to pleasures, which 

 an uncorrupted and refined taste, accustomed 

 to drink in the free air of heaven, and to ap- 

 preciate its freshness, its purity, and its sa- 

 lubrity, will find no occasion to covet or 

 envy. The man who by his cultivation and 

 good husbandry presents such a picture to the 

 passer-by, shall not he be called a benefactor 

 to the community ? Has he not done much 

 to improve and bless society by his example '! 

 Has he not built a monument to his own ho- 

 nour, more eloquent than the marble ? 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Draining. 



Mk. Editor, — If you will suggest, or eli- 

 cit from your numerous and experienced cor- 

 respondents, and embrace the same in an 

 early number, a good plan for improving and 

 bringing into profit, neglected, springy bot- 

 tom, or meadow lands (covered with rushes, 

 white moss, &c.), that will not admit plough' 

 ing, on account of occasional overflowing, 

 but having sufficient declension to drain the 

 water, you will confer a favour on a new 



Patron. 



Farms in England. 



Nine-tenths of the cultivated lands in 

 Great Britain are leased to tenants, who pay 

 from two to five pounds sterling per acre, an- 

 nual rent. Now, admitting taxes, and labour 

 and other expenses to be no higher here than 

 there, it will at once be seen that our com- 

 mon cultivation will no where do much more 

 than pay the price of rent; but by superior 

 productiveness, occasioned by superior culti- 

 vation, the British farmer is not only enabled 

 to pay rents and taxes ; finding every thing 

 for husbandry, and all articles put upon the 

 ground, and all utensils by which the ground 

 is worked ; but he obtains also, wealth from 

 the pursuit of his calling. 



Mr, Curwen stated the produce of an Eng- 

 lish farm of 894 acres, in the year 1811, to 

 be £8,578— equal to $38,000. On this ground 

 were carried, in that year, the almost incre- 

 dible quantity of 13,746 one-horse cart-loads 

 of manure, and in the next year, 10,250 more ! 

 Suppose the rent of this farm to be twelve 

 dollars an acre, the expense of manure and 

 its application twelve dollars more, and the 

 interest on outlay, taxes, and additional labour 

 of cultivation, &c., twelve dollars more ; still 

 there will be left, as profit, ten dollars an 

 acre ; leaving a clear gain of about ten thou- 

 sand dollars to the tenant. 



A hay-farm, near London, of 160 acres, 

 was rented for twelve dollars an acre, or 1920 

 dollars a year : the tenant commenced with 



a great outlay for manure — an outlay which 

 would here be considered at least equal to the 

 value oS the land before it was manured ; a 

 large outlay for farming implements, and for 

 accommodations and wages for labourers; 

 and yet he has been constantly accumulating 

 riches from this farm, after paying all ex- 

 penses. — Monthly Visitor. 



Agriculture. 



If agriculture were the universal em- 

 ployment of mankind, and every one found 

 his support from the labour of his hands, we 

 should hear no more of treachery or violence : 

 peace, tranquillity, and contentment of mind 

 and heart, would establish their residence 

 upon earth. I have never yet met with the 

 person with whom I would willingly change 

 situations; nor have I ever, to the present 

 hour, felt any want, or the slightest inclina- 

 tion to covet the possession of what belonged 

 to another. — Kliyogg. 



Large manufactories afford subsistence to 

 many who have no land to cultivate ; and to 

 others whom natural infirmities or the effects 

 of disease render incapable of the toils of hus- 

 bandry, they might be considered in the light 

 of hospitals, and are invaluable resources to 

 the sick and decrepid ; but when we receive 

 into them the healthy and robust, we open a 

 door to idleness, and are accessory to the de- 

 struction of the well-being of our country. 



TILLAGE. 



' 'Tis folly in the extreme to till 

 Extensive fields and till them ill. 

 The farmer pleased, may boast aloud 

 His bushels sown, his acres ploughed. 

 And pleased, indulge the cheering hope 

 That time will bring a plenteous crop; 

 Shrewd common sense sits laughing by, — 

 For when maturing seasons smile, 

 Thin sheaves shall disappoint his toil. 

 Advised, this empty pride expel ; 

 Till little, and that little well. 

 Of taxing, fencing, toil, no more 

 Your ground requires, when rich than poor; 

 And more one fertile acre yields, 

 Than the huge breadth of barren fields." 



' Neat be your farms; 'ti.'! long confessed 

 The neatest farmer is the best. 

 Each bog and marsh, industrious drain. 

 Nor let vile balks deform the plain ; 

 No bushes on your headland grow, 

 For briars a sloven's culture show. 

 Neat be your barns, your houses neat, 

 Your doors be clean, your court-yards sweet; 

 No moss the sheltering roof enshroud, 

 Nor wooden panes the window cloud, 

 No filthy kennels foully flow. 

 Nor weeds with rankling poison grow; 

 But shades expand, and fruit trees bloom, 

 And flowering shrubs exhale perfume; 

 With pales your garden circle round ; 

 Defend, enrich, and clean the ground, 

 Prize high the pleasing, useful rood, 

 Aad fill with vegetables good." 



