No. 2. 



Weeds. — Economy in a Family. 



59 



estate, in company with a great number of 

 foreigners of distinction, wiio always visit 

 him at that season, one of them discovered 

 growing in a field of barley, a single weed, 

 some distance from the path in which they 

 were riding! when, immediately, a young 

 man, who accompanied them — and who was 

 %'■■ living with the bailiff to learn the art of agri- 

 culture — darted after it, and plucked it out 

 with the greatest rage imaginable ! 



In this country, but few experiments have 

 been made to show the difference of product 

 between clean and foul fields, but several are 

 recorded in Sinclair's Code of Agriculture, 

 some of which we shall give, to call the atten- 

 tion of farmers to this point, and prove that 

 the labour expended in clearing fields or 

 crops from weeds is far from being lost, as 

 many would seem, from their negligence in 

 this matter, to suppose. 



1st, Wheat. Seven acres of light gravelly 

 land were fallowed and sown broad-cast; one 

 acre was measured oft^ and not a weed was 

 pulled out of it ; the other six acres were 

 carefully weeded. The unweeded acre yielded 

 18 bushels, the six weeded, 22|- bushels per 

 acre, which is one-fourth in favour of weed- 

 ing. 



2d, Barley. A six acre field was sown 

 with barley, in fine tilth and well manured. 

 The weeding cost $12 per acre ; the produce 

 of an unvkfeeded acre was 13 bushels ; of that 

 %vhich had been weeded, 28 bushels ; differ- 

 ence in favour of weeding, 15 bushels per 

 acre, besides the land being so much cleaner 

 for succeeding crops. 



3d, Oats. Six acres were sown with oats ; 

 one acre unweeded produced 17 bushels ; an- 

 other six acres, manured and weeded, pro- 

 duced 37 bushels per acre — ten bushels of the 

 increased produce may be fairly attributed to 

 the weeding, the other ten to the manure. 



Now, it is admitted that the labour and 

 expense of weeding a crop are considerable, 

 but if the difference be such as is here stated, 

 and there is no reason to doubt it, as it is 

 abundantly corroborated by other experiments, 

 than it should be more generally and promptly 

 attended to than it is, for if our farmers could 

 raise four and a half bushels of "wheat, fifteen 

 of barley, or ten of oats additional, to their 

 usual crop per acre, the effect would at once 

 be felt in every department of labour through- 

 out the country. No one can travel through 

 our country before harvest time, without be- 

 ing convinced that millions of acres might 

 have their products increased in as great a 

 r.atio as above, by entire freedom from weeds. 

 Many farmers would be gratified, could they 

 have their lands made free of taxes, but ex- 

 perience shows, that to have them, weed- 

 free, would be of far greater importance to 

 them." 



Economy in a Family. 



There is nothing which goes so far to- 

 wards placing people beyond the reach of 

 poverty, as economy in the arrangement of 

 their domestic affairs. It is as much impos- 

 sible to get across the x'\tlantic, with half a 

 dozen butts started, or as many bolt-holes in 

 the bottom, as to conduct the concerns of a 

 family without economy. — It matters not 

 whether a man furnish little or much for his 

 family ; if there is a continual leakage in the 

 parlour, it runs away, he knows not how, and 

 that demon, Waste, cries more, like the horse- 

 leech's daughter, until he that provides has 

 no more to give. It is the husband's duty to 

 bring into the house, and it is the duty of the 

 wife to see that nothing goes wrongly out of 

 it ; not the least article, however unimport- 

 ant in itself; for it establishes a precedent ; 

 nor under any pretence, for it opens the door 

 for ruin to stalk in. A man gets a wife to 

 look after his affairs, and assist him in his 

 journey through life. The husband's inte- 

 rest should be the wife's care, and her greatest 

 amliition should carry her no farther than his 

 welfare and happiness, together with that of 

 her 'children. This should he her sole aim, and 

 the theatre of exploits in the bosom of her 

 family, where she may do as much towards 

 making a fortune as he possibly can do in the 

 counting-room or work-shop. It is not mo- 

 ney earned that makes a man wealthy; it is 

 what is saved from his earnings. A good 

 and prudent husband makes a deposite of the 

 fruits of his labour with his best friend — and 

 if that friend be not true to him, what has 

 he to hope 1 if he does not place confidence 

 in the friend of his bosom, where is he to 

 place it 1 A wife acts not for herself only, 

 but she is the agent of many she loves, and 

 she is bound to act for their good, and not for 

 her own gratification. Her husband's good 

 is the end at which she should aim — his ap- 

 probation is her reward. Self-gratification in 

 dress, or indulgence in appetite, or more com- 

 pany than his purse can well entertain, are 

 equally pernicious. The first adds vanity to 

 extravagance — the second fastens a doctor's 

 bill to a long butcher's account, and the lat- 

 ter brings intemperance, the worst of all 

 evils, in its train. — Am. Farmer. 



"When we understand better the import- 

 ance of concentrating labour instead of scat- 

 tering it ; when we shall come to estimate 

 duly the superior profit of 'a little farm well 

 tilled,' over a great farm half cultivated and 

 half manured, overrun with weeds, and 

 scourged with exhausting crops, we shall 

 then fill our barns, and double the winter food 

 for our cattle and sheep, by the products of 

 our vjaste lands.'''' 



