No. 2. 



The Farmer. — Ploughing. 



71 



other. Not only do different S3'stems prevail 

 in different countries, but in different pro- 

 vinces of the same country ; in some, they 

 are dictated by peculiarity of soil or climate, 

 while in others they have arisen out of local 

 habit, or they spring from improvements that 

 have not been generally disseminated; and 

 even in the rudest districts there may be 

 some which merit attention. Now, it is 

 quite evident, both that some of these sys- 

 tems must be preferable to others, and that 

 no man can determine which is best, without 

 being acquainted with all ; nor can any 

 farmer be said to be completely master of his 

 business until he has attained that knowledge ; 

 and how can he better or more readily obtain 

 it, than when those different systems and im- 

 provements are presented to him in the pages 

 of an agricultural journal ? It is not sufli- 

 cient that he already gets what he considers 

 a fair return for his capital and industry, if 

 by other modes of culture he could obtain 

 more; and if he neglects them, he injures 

 himself, his family, and the public : he may 

 be satisfied with the present yield of his 

 crops, taking his neighbours as a standard, 

 but if, by any other method not more expen- 

 sive, he can grow five bushels more to the 

 acre, it is certainly his interest and duty to 

 adopt it." — Western Farmer. 



The Farmer. 



" There is no class of men, if times are 

 but tolerably good, that enjoy themselves so 

 highly as farmers. Their concerns are not 

 huddlad into a corner, as those of the town- 

 trades are, for in town, the man who turns 

 thousands of pounds per week, is hemmed in 

 closely by buildings, and cuts no figure at all : 

 a narrow shop, a contracted warehouse, with- 

 out a yard of room besides to turn round in 

 on any hand ; without a yard, a stable, or 

 outhouse of any description ; perhaps hoisted 

 aloft up three or four dirty pairs of stairs, is 

 all the room that the wealthy tradesman can 

 often bless himself with, and there, day after 

 day, month afte- month, and year after year, 

 he is to be found, like a rat in a hole in the 

 wall, or a toad in the heart of a stone, or of 

 an oak tree ! Spring and summer and au- 

 tumn go round ; sunshine and flowers spread 

 over the world ; the sweetest breezes blow ; 

 the softest waters murmur along the vales, 

 but they are all lost to him ; he is the doleful 

 prisoner of mammon, and so he lives and 

 dies! 



Now, the farmer would not take the wealth 

 of the world on such terms ; his concerns, 

 however small, spread themselves out in a 

 pleasant amplitude both to his eye and heart; 

 his house stands in its own stately solitude ; 

 his offices and out-houses stand round exten- 



sively, without any stubborn and limited con- 

 tractions ; his acres stretch over hill and vale, 

 and he lives amidst the purest air and most 

 delicious quiet. Often as I see these healthy, 

 hardy, full-grown sons of toi,l going out of 

 town, I envy them the freshness and repose 

 of the spots to which they are retiring. Am- 

 ple, old-fashioned kitchens, with chimney- 

 corners of true-projecting, beamed-and-seated 

 construction, still remaining ; blazing fires in 

 winter, shining on rows of suspended hams 

 and flitches "of bacon; guns, supported on 

 hooks above, dogs, basking on the hearth be- 

 low; cool, shady parlours in summer with 

 open windows, and odours from garden and 

 shrubbery blowing in; gardens wet with 

 purest dew, and humming at noontide with 

 bees; and the green fields and verduroustrees, 

 or deep woodlands lying all around ; where a 

 hundred rejoicing voices of birds and other 

 creatures are heard, and winds blowing to and 

 fro, full of life and health and enjoyment — 

 oh ! how enviable do such places seem to the 

 fretted spirits of towns, who are compelled, 

 not only to bear their burden of cares, but to 

 enter daily into the public strife against sel- 

 fish, evil, and ever-spreading corruption !" — 

 Bowitt. 



Ploughing. 



The difference in the amount of products 

 between land that has been thoroughly tilled, 

 and that which has only undergone an apo- 

 logy for tillage, must have at times arrested 

 the attention of the most careless farmer. 

 Land adequately manured, deeply and finely 

 ploughed, and properly seeded, can alone be 

 relied on as a source of profit to the culti- 

 vator ; yet how few are the farms around us, 

 where these desirable things are carried out 

 to their full and proper extent ! The earth 

 is barely skimmed in ploughing — what sail- 

 ors call a wide berth is given to stones and 

 stumps — the seed is put on unequally and 

 sparingly, and then the farmer affects to won- 

 der his crop is no better. We do not con- 

 duct our business as we know it might be 

 done; we undertake more than can be per- 

 formed well ; our manure is not applied to 

 the crops, and in these various ways nearly 

 one half our labour may be said to be lost. 



The garden is that part of the farm W'here 

 the effects of thorough ploughing and ma- 

 nuring are seen, in the increased product and 

 profit for labour bestowed ; though our gar- 

 dens are too often only the shadows of what 

 they might be, and should be, if cultivated 

 properly. The farmer ploughs his garden 

 deeper and finer than the rest of his premises, 

 and manures it better, scarcely seeming to 

 remember the field crops require the same 

 depth for the free expansion of their roots, 



