No. 7. 



Booh Farming. 



213 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Book Farming. 



Sm, — A writer in your late numbers has 

 given us an account of two very pleasant 

 visits which he, as " One of the Old School," 

 has paid to a young and interesting neigh- 

 bour, " one who has left the noisy town for 

 the quiet country" — no doubt for the best of 

 reasons — and has worked thereout, it must 

 be admitted, a very pretty moral for the ap- 

 plication of the members of the establishment 

 to which he belongs. I am much pleased 

 with the humour and good feeling which are 

 there displayed, but I too, Mr. Editor, am one 

 of the old ones, and as I can enjoy a joke as 

 well as most folks, I think it might be per- 

 mitted me to record a little of my experience 

 on " t'other side of the hedge," premising, 

 however, that what I shall say will be the 

 truth, and nothing but — indeed I am no hand 

 at fabricating stories. 



You must know, then, that I also have a 

 young friend and neighbour who, having been 

 unfortunate as a dry-goods merchant in Phi- 

 ladelphia, saved just money enough from the 

 wreck of his property to stock a small farm 

 in my immediate vicinity, where, if he is not 

 earning his bread by the sweat of his brow, 

 't is strange to me. And although I shall not 

 "extenuate" in what I am about to say, I am 

 sure I have no wish to " set down aught in 

 malice," for he is an excellent young man 

 and a kind-hearted neighbour, and will do 

 well enough by and by — but indeed he needs 

 a little more tutoring; and, as experience 

 keeps the best school, he is likely to obtain 

 it — not, however, without paying for it ; for 

 •' there is no royal road to Agriculture, any 

 more than to Geometry," as has elsewhere 

 been said — easy as it appears to those who 

 turn to it as a last resource, or as a profession 

 for the lame and the lazy. 



My friend's farm is very much out of con- 

 dition, having been sadly overworked by a late 

 tenant, who was, unfortunately, too good a 

 manager — his object being to get all for no- 

 thing ; and finding it necessary to turn the 

 tables, if he ever intended again to have a ta- 

 ble to sit down to, preferred going to the west, 

 and spreading one in the wilderness. The 

 weeds therefore had taken possession, before 

 my young friend, and it will be a task, I cal- 

 culate, for him to dispossess these pre-emp- 

 tioners, who bid defiance to him and all his 

 works. I shall not forget the day, when he 

 and his elegant young wife and sweet pi- 

 geons'-pair of children, first came and took 

 possession of the " Eglantine Farm," as his 

 partner chose to call it ! It was a wretched 

 day, very early in the spring, with the rain 

 and sleet making a clear breach through the 

 house by the broken windows and unhinged 



doors, and no preparation for himself, or pro- 

 vision for his cattle. I assure you it was 

 anything but a picture of the " Farmer's life 

 and duties," so beautifully set forth in the 

 number of the Cabinet for December; indeed, 

 my heart ached for them, and I called and 

 told them so — which was, I can now see, a 

 very indelicate thing, and is, no doubt, Uie 

 cause of the coolness which has subsisted be- 

 tween us ever since, but my conscience tells 

 me I meant no harm ; I have therefore been 

 compelled to look on in silence, and should 

 have continued to do so, had not your " Old 

 School" correspondent's pleasantly-written 

 tales determined me to try my hand a little 

 at the same thing. 



Well, then, my neighbour's fields may all 

 be known by the fine weeds which have taken 

 possession; and, judging by their frowning 

 aspect as they look on you from over the 

 fences, they mean to keep it too. And lest 

 it should be suspected that he was non com. 

 in his new business, he was determined to 

 employ no one who, by his superior know- 

 ledge, was likely to bring his capability into 

 question ; he therefore hired a couple of boys, 

 and on he went, " the world all before him," 

 and plenty of room " where to choose :" and 

 as the time of corn planting arrived, I was 

 amused to find him doubling the number of 

 hills per acre — having discovered by the rule 

 of three, that if 1200 iiills would produce 45 

 bushels per acre, 2400 hills would, of course, 

 yield 90 bushels, according to the mode of 

 calculation practised in the counting-house ; 

 and this was so plain, that the only wonder 

 with him was, that it had remained for him 

 to enjoy the credit of having first made the 

 discovery ! And he was surprised too, on 

 ploughing up his land, to find it quite clean 

 — not a weed to be seen, for he had buried 

 them all — and wondered how it could have 

 been supposed that the farm was overgrown 

 with them ; he therefore calculated, that he 

 should be exempt from future summer cul- 

 ture, " for where could weeds come from ?" 



As soon as the grass had started in the 

 meadows, he made haste to purchase a lot of 

 cattle to feed it, thinking that beef would 

 answer his purpose better than butter, as his 

 wife, he justly conceited, would make a mess 

 of that : he therefore watched for the first 

 drove which passed, and got the owner to se- 

 lect for him ten (full twice the number that 

 he had food for) of those best suited to his 

 purpose ; cheerfully paying the price that he 

 asked, as he could clearly see, they would be 

 worth more than the cost price when they 

 were fat, and, at all events, that must be a 

 safe speculation. Now, it need not be added, 

 that the owner of the cattle thought this a 

 capital opportunity to get off his culls, and as 

 he was a man who had been accustomed to 



