Na 12. The Use of Flmcers. — Management of Small Farms. 



301 



The Use of Flowers. 



God might have made the earth bring forth 



Enougli for greut and small ; 

 The nak tree and the cedar tree, 



Without a flower at all. 

 He might have made enough, enough 



For every want of ours, 

 For luxury, medicine and toil. 



And yet have made no flowers. 



The ore within the mountain mine 



Requireth none to grow, 

 Nor does it need the lotus flowers 



To make the rivers flow. 

 The clouds might give abundant rain. 



The nightly dews might fall, 

 And the lierb that keepelh life in man. 



Might yet have drunk them all. 



Then wherefore, wherefore, were they made 



All dyed with rainbow )ight ; 

 All fashioned with supremest grace, 



Up-springing day and night ! 

 Springing in valleys green and low, 



And on the mountains high. 

 And in the silent wilderness, 



Where no one passes by 1 



Our outward life requires them not, 



Tlien wherefore had they birth? 

 To minister delight to man 1 



To beautify the earlli I 

 To comfort man — to whisi>er hope 



Whene'er his face is dim, 

 For whoso careth for the flowers. 



Will care much more for him ? 



Savan. Repub. 



Management of Small Farms. 



Many small farms in the county of Ar- 

 magh, Ireland, which would not produce suf- 

 ficient food for the support of their wretched 

 tenants, have been made astonishingly pro- 

 ductive by the new system of rotation, the 

 green-food and soiling system, which might 

 be adopted by the poorest individual on the 

 most inconsiderable plot of ground. As a 

 proof that it improves ihe land, whilst at the 

 same time it increases the stock, we instance, 

 first, the farm occupied by John Hogg, of the 

 townland of Dunegaw ; it consists of ten acres 

 of a light gravelly soil, scarcely nine inches 

 deep, which is in consequence easily worn 

 out. The occupier was formerly unable to 

 pay £4 sterling a year for the whole lot, and 

 he was always in arrear with his landlord 

 and in debt to his neighbours, striving in vain 

 to exist on a miserable pittance. The feed- 

 ing for his cow occupied three acres of his 

 land, and the produce of the remainder was 

 80 scanty and of so bad a quality, that the 

 butter produced by the cow, and even the 

 refuse milk, had oftentimes to be sold to 

 make up the deficiency ; and thus the poor 

 man with his family made but a most preca- 

 rious livelihood, housed in a wretched hovel, 

 scarcely fit for a human being to enter ! He 

 has now adopted the green-food and soiling 

 system, and the change is wonderful, al- 

 though three years only have passed since 

 he cammenced it. He says, he was in such 

 wretched circumstances that he waa on the 



point of emigration, but having got encou- 

 ragement from Mr. Blacker, (the person who 

 first introduced the new system,) he had fol- 

 lowed his advice, and his farm was now under 

 the four-course rotation : he has now two cows 

 and a horse, a cart and a plough ; owes no 

 rent, althougii he was before always in ar- 

 rear; has bought some land, and is in the 

 way of doing well ; the new system keeping 

 himself and family always bust/, and paying 

 them well for their labour : he was formerly 

 obliged to pay as much as £7 a year for po- 

 tatoes for his family, and he now has j£3 

 worth to sell, owing to the manure frotn his 

 green crops, 



Michael Clarke, near Hamilstown, tenants 

 a farm of three acres, upon which he has in- 

 troduced the green-crop and soiling system, 

 and has worked wonders. He says: "When 

 Mr. Blacker first came to my house, I had 

 fallen into arrears; distress of mind and ill 

 health, which this brought on me, had driven 

 me to a state of dependency, and I did not 

 care what became of me — I was in despair, 

 and my family in misery around me. He 

 told me he would help me, if I would do as 

 he directed me, and assured me the place 

 would be worth having, if it got justice. I 

 did not believe what he said, but as he was 

 so kind, I promised I would take heart again, 

 and do as he should direct: accordingly, Mr. 

 Bruce came and pointed out what was to be 

 done ; I got up my spirits, and my health got 

 better: Mr. Blacker lent me a cow, when I 

 got clover to feed her. The first year I was 

 able to pay nothing, but he saw I was doing 

 my best, and he did not press me; the next 

 year I paid a year and a half's rent, the one 

 after I paid a year and a half, and the year 

 following I paid two years' rent, and now I 

 expect to pay all ofi" and have my cow and 

 my pig to myself! I have a new loom be- 

 sides; all my ditches are filled and levelled, 

 and the whole farm (three acres!) is in good 

 heart. My health is better, and 1 am in the 

 way of doing well ; I have meat for inyself, 

 meat for my cow, and meat for my family, all 

 provided for the next twelve months, and it 

 is long, indeed, since I was able to say that 

 before! I thank God and his Honour (Mr. 

 Blacker) for all these comforts, and I have 

 nothing more to say." 



By this plan, a farm of fifty acres is made 

 to produce far more than one of one hundred, 

 and there cannot be a doubt but that the 

 green-crop and soiling system would enable 

 Ireland to support three times her present 

 number of inhabitants. — Quar. Jour. Ag. 



There is one way, and but one way to 

 make our agriculture what it should be, an|l 

 that is, to employ more capital in it. 



