No. 12. 



Profits of Farming' 



363 



The roads usually wind round throug-h the 

 farms, bounded on each side, generally, by 

 neatly trimmed hedges, with trees occasion- 

 ally interspersed, presenting every tew rods 

 new views and interesting scenery, that are 

 truly delightful. The roads are made with 

 the greatest care, generally macadamized, 

 and entirely smootli. They are much nar- 

 rower than with us, usually through the 

 country, only wide enough for carriages to 

 pass. The custom in England is, tor each 

 team to turn to the left, instead of the right, 

 as with us. Its advantages are apparent, 

 as the driver setting on tlie right, has in 

 view the vehicle which is approaching, and 

 can more readily ascertain how far he can 

 drive with safety. In making their roads 

 great care is taken to avoid hills, they judg- 

 ing, I suppose, that it is not ordinarily much 

 further to go round a hill tlian to go over 

 it. Foot paths are usually made with 

 care on one or both sides of the road. No 

 danger is to be apprehended from swine, or 

 other animals, as they are not permitted the 

 enjoyment of that license, which seems to 

 be their birthright in our free country. I 

 have never witnessed them running at large 

 in city or country, not even in sweet Ireland. 



The cottages which you pass, are gene- 

 rally neat in their outward appearance, very 

 frequently covered with climbing vines, and 

 flowers usually in abundance in the small 

 yard in front, and often in pots at the win- 

 dows. The cottages are low, the roof fre- 

 quently not as high as the top of the coach, 

 and a full view of the interior is enjoyed, as 

 they are situated close to the road. Every 

 few miles villages are passed through, — but 

 the term village, as descriptive of our Ame- 

 rican villages, gives but a faint impression 

 of an English one. Instead of spacious 

 streets, with pointed houses of two or more 

 stories, we find, as the road winds around 

 through the narrow streets, small cottages 

 and shops crowded together close to the 

 street, frequently with thatched roofs, with 

 brick or stone floors. A house or two, occu- 

 pied perhaps by the rector or physician, are 

 eomewhat more aristocratic in their appear- 

 ance. Many of the buildings are white- 

 washed, and covered with vmes, and pre- 

 sent, upon the whole, an interesting appear- 

 ance, but little of the comfort of one of our 

 villages. They appear as ancient, many of 

 them, as their country, and I presume little 

 change has been made in them for centuries. 



England truly is the land of flowers. They 

 are to be found everywhere. The markets 

 are filled with them. You meet them in 

 the streets carried about by females and 

 children for sale, and everybody, from the 

 poorest up to her majesty, have a bouquet ofi 



flowers in the button hole or about the per- 

 son. In the omnibus coach, railroad cars, 

 on the steamer, on change, in the store — in 

 fact, everywhere, they are to be met with. 

 'Tis delightful thus to witness their taste for 

 flowers. It adds much to the pleasure of 

 every one, and when it can be obtained at 

 so cheap a rate, it is certainly desirable to 

 cultivate a taste for them. 



The loads which a team can draw over 

 their roads are nearly twice as heavy as 

 could be drawn over ours with the same 

 power. It will require time and care to 

 bring our roads into such a state as to re- 

 semble roads here. It would be well, I 

 think, to begin to approximate to the like 

 condition. Had the labour which has been 

 so unskilfully expended on our roads for the 

 last twenty years, been laid out in macadam- 

 izing them, we should, on all our principally 

 travelled roads, have had them as good as 

 the roads are here. It is hoped that im- 

 provement, in this respect will not much 

 longer be delayed. — Cultivator. 



Profits of Farming. 



J. G. Chadsey, of VVickford, R. I., states 

 to the officers of the Rhode Island Society 

 for the encouragement of Domestic Indus- 

 try, that several years ago he purchased 

 thirty-five acres of poor land, for which, it 

 being near the village, he paid the large 

 sum of three thousand and fifty dollars. Only 

 twenty-five acres of it are "tiliageable, in- 

 cluding three acresof meadow not ploughed. 

 The remainder is made up of hills and lioles, 

 marsh, and beach, with a small strip of wood 

 land." The arable land is described as un- 

 even, with a gravelly soil, much encumbered 

 with small stones. It had been much worn 

 down by repeated croppings without manure. 

 He let it on shares, but got such poor re- 

 turns, that he was sick of his purchase. 

 Finding that he could neither sell nor rent 

 it, he came to the conclusion to try farming 

 himself, though he had "</one nothing at il 

 for nearhj forty years f but as a "substitute 

 for experience," he says he took an '^agri- 

 cultural paper.''^ He began cultivating it 

 himself in 1840. lie divided the tillage 

 land into six fields, "from three to four acres 

 each, a new one to be taken up every year, 

 and after taking ofl^ three crops, let it 1 e 

 three years in grass." About two were ap- 

 propriated to root crops and garden vegeta- 

 bles, which are ploughed every year. 



His success has been such, that land, 

 which seven years ago, would not rent for 

 four per cent., now pays twenty per cent., 

 after deducting all expenses. He makes 



