136 



Improved Systems of Agriculture. 



Vol. V. 



principle would not apply to the animal, as 

 well as the vegetable! By retarding the 

 growth of our young cattle, they might pos- 

 sibly become hardened, and capable of endur- 

 ing our winters with less protection! I 

 merely give the hint, those who choose may 

 follow it. 



Your correspondent Jabcz Jenkins has, in 

 my humble opinion, come nearer the mark 

 than most writers, when he says, " while the 

 farmer's wits are thus set to work, endea- 

 vouring to counteract these evils, (incident 

 to the crops) would it not be well for all to 

 reflect that the finger of Providence may be 

 in itr' 



I have, however, extended this communi- 

 cation to a greater length than I intended : I 

 v/ill, tlierefore, close for the present. 

 With much respect, yours, &c. 



Tycho Braiie. 



For tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 



ADDRESSED TO A MEMBER OF THE PHIL. AGR. SOCIETY. 



Improved Systems of Agriculture. 



The art of making two blades of grass to 

 grow where but one grew before, and two 

 ears of corn in the place of one, is the great 

 secret in agriculture, and the true source of 

 individual and national wealth. 



Under this impression, I have, for some 

 years, amusingly and profitably devoted a 

 portion of my time to the science and practice 

 of agriculture ; and, believing that we arc a 

 set of imitative beings, profiting by the e.xpe- 

 rience of other.?, I think it right to give the 

 result of my experience, hoping that it may 

 stimulate to a spirit of rivalry and industry 

 amongst us ; for I do believe, that there is no 

 branch of our industry that is so neglected as 

 agriculture, and that more than twice the 

 present average of produce may be obtained 

 per acre, by a good and improved system of 

 culture. Thus, by neglect and inattention, 

 and being content to follow in the footsteps 

 of our predecessors, more than the amount of 

 the present nett proceeds of agriculture is 

 lost to the community ; indeed, it would seem 

 as though we had been standing still, gazing 

 on the rapid march of internal improvement 

 promoted by steam, and forgetting the one 

 thing most needful. 



I For tlie purpose of showing what may be 

 produced from land by a different mode of 

 management, I will give you the result of 

 farming a few acres the present season. 

 Twelve or fifteen years since, I purchased 

 some land about our town that had for many 

 years lain as a common, having been farmed 

 down and abandoned : the soil was a sandy 

 loam. I commenced by clover, dressing with 

 plaster and a portion of lime; keeping but 

 little stock in the summer, but sufficient in 



the winter to convert all my hay, straw, and 

 coarse grain into manure, by the spring; 

 then, butchering and selling off all but a few 

 milk cows reserved for my family ; purchas- 

 ing again in the fall, for winter feeding; and 

 I believe that the advance on my stock has 

 about paid me for my hay and grain, leaving 

 a large quantity of e.xcellent manure for my 

 labour. 



I have not mown more than one crop of 

 grass in a season, always reserving the second 

 crop for fall pasture, or to remain to form a 

 coat of manure, to be ploughed under for 

 wheat or corn, and I have never made use of 

 any stable manure that I did not raise from 

 my own feeding. In this way my lands have 

 annually improved in quality, and my crops 

 in quantity, having taken forty-two bushels 

 of clean wheat per acre loith one ploughing, 

 and, in one instance, ninety bushels of shelled, 

 or one hundred and eighty bushels of ears of 

 corn per acre. At one mowing, the present 

 season, from three acres three quarters and 

 twenty-two perches of land, I took in and 

 sold sixteen tons and three hundred weight 

 of excellent dry hay ;* my whole sale of hay 

 for the year being one hundred tons, leaving 

 twenty-eight acres of grass to be ploughed 

 under for wheat, which I dressed with fifteen 

 hundred bushels of lime, and one hundred 

 and twenty-five four horse cart-loads of ma- 

 nure, finishing the sowing on the 2d inst. 



Tv;enty years ago, these lands, although 

 then under cultivation, did not produce ten 

 tons of hay, and no grass to plough under ! 

 From one field of fifteen acres I took, the 

 present season, fifty large two-horse loads of 

 oats. J calculate by loads, as the crop was 

 so lodged as to prevent us from binding into 

 sheaves. My crop of Indian-corn has been 

 fine. From one small lot, measuring an acre 

 and a half and twelve rods, I harvested two 

 hundred and thirty bushels of ears, heaped 

 measure ; three thousand three hundred and 

 fifty pumpkins, besides small ones, and seven 

 tons of fodder. I have been particular as to 

 measure, count, and weight, that I might be 

 able to speak correctly. My whole crop of 

 pumpkins will exceed twenty thousand, and, 

 1 believe, my corn is none the worse ; these 

 I therefore consider clear gain. I now feed 

 them to the stock, both cattle and swine, 

 throwing two or tliree hundred a day on a 

 clover sod, and cutting them with a spade. 

 Thus my fall pasture is saved to keep the 

 roots of the grass warm this winter, and my 

 cattle and hogs — say about one hundred 

 head — thrive finely. 



I am improving my stock — Durham cattle, 

 Bakewell sheep, and the large grazier breed 

 of hogs, and hope, in a few years, to exhibit 

 some good stock of each kind. 



* From the fields, before stacking. 



