226 Keeping a Horfie — Horse Rake — Tilling — Stvamp Lands. Vol. III. 



of knowled^'e which is likely to be servicea- 

 ble to them when they come to be men. — 

 Their fathers and mothers, especially the lat- 

 ter, are made very happy ; their cottages have 

 been filled with g^ood vegetables all the sum- 

 mer, at no expense to the father's strength or 

 mother's care; for the boys, whilst they will 

 work hard to procure the rent, are very willing 

 to let their parents have the produce. This 

 they sometimes pay the poor boys for, and 

 sometimes not : whichever they do amounts to 

 the same thing. If the boys sell their vege- 

 tables to their mother, the money is laid out 

 in clothing, so that saves the father's purse. 

 If four acres of land could be procured for 

 every forty boys, (which is about the number 

 for 1200 inhabitants,) we should have the 

 whole country smiling with health, activity, 

 and content." C. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Cost of keeping an Idle Horse* 



In the December number of the Cabinet 

 an inquiry is made in regard to the expense 

 of keeping a horse, which has not been an- 

 swered in your last number; I therefore take 

 the liberty of informing your correspondent 

 that sixty dollars is about the cost of keep- 

 ing a horse in a very common way for 

 one year. Every person, therefore, who 

 keeps a useless horse one year loses the 

 interest of one thousand dollars for that time. 

 As regards an idle man, which is noticed at 

 the heading of the inquiry, I should rate him 

 at about one hundred dollars more, say one 

 hundred and sixty; and the influence of his 

 bad example might be put down safely at 

 $140, which would make $300 per annum, 

 or the interest of $.5,000, a sum that would 

 purchase a pretty decent little farm, that 

 would confer comfort and independence on a 

 whole family of industrious persons. H. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Horse Hay Rake. 



"Can any good come out of Nazaretli ?" 



It is well to preserve the history of im- 

 provements and inventions which are impor- 

 tant to agriculturists, and as the horse hay 

 rake is one of the most valuable implements 

 introduced among farmers in modern times, it 

 may be well to pre.^erve the history of its in- 

 vention, and introduction into Pennsylvania. 

 It is said, it was invented by a black man, 

 who lived on Hempstead Plain, Long Island. 

 He died about the year 1821. Ii was fir.et in- 

 troduced into Pennsylvania by Michael New- 

 bold, of Philadelphia county about the year 

 18r2. His first rake was destroyed by a ma- 

 licious person, who feared its innovating ef- 

 fects on the price of labor. The horse rake 



is now becoming universal, and has found its 

 way into Scotland, where it is spoken of in 

 the h 'ghost terms of approbation. It saves 

 full one half the expense incident to hay 

 making. 



It is not a little remarkable that one of the 

 descendants of Africa, should have invented 

 a machine that saves the United States of 

 America one half the expense of making hay. 



Tilling the Earth. 



In tilling the earth, some people go upon 

 the same principle that regulates their busi- 

 ness intercourse with men. They mu.st be 

 sure to get the advantage of the trade ; and 

 if this cannot be secured without, they must 

 cheat and deceive the person with whom they 

 deal. And they think to practice the same 

 artifice upon old mother Earth. You will see 

 them on their grounds in (he spring as sly as 

 dogs, apparently calculating that Earth has 

 forgotten tiie exhausting crops that were 

 taken from her the last year — perhaps they 

 will give a sprinkling of manure, and throw 

 it on so as to make the Earth think there is 

 a noble lot of it. Well, they go to work. — 

 But the Earth won't be cheated. She will 

 reward every man according to his works, and 

 tell the truth in the autumn. You cannot 

 get the advantage of her, as you can with hu- 

 man customers. Treat her w ell, and she will 

 reward your expenditures and toil ; but at- 

 tempt to cheat her, and she will make you 

 sorry for it when harvest comes. 



Swamp L.ands. 



As a general rule we may safely assume 

 that our low lands are our best lands. Not 

 the best for corn, or potatoes, or rye, or oat.o, 

 barley. We have high and dry lands 

 enough for all these ; but there is still another 

 harvest more valuable than either of ihrm. — 

 For grass, these low lands arc preferable to 

 any other, and grass is our most profitable 

 crop. We are not telling what should be most 

 profitable,but what is. We would not dis- 

 pense with the raising of grain, but if New 

 England must buy, why buy grain in prefer- 

 ence to hay, or any production of grass.— ; 

 Grass and hay have long been — they now are-j 

 — and they long must be the most profitable-! ti 

 harvests. And our low lands are our bei?t lands 

 for grass ; yet wc suffer more of tlipse to lie 

 wholly unimproved than any other species? 

 Why is this 1 We fear to meddle with them. 

 They are miry; the plough cannot be used^ 

 for the ox is not able here to assist us. Hand- 

 iioeing is tedious — paring and burning the 

 surface is attended with difficulty. Draining 

 must be attended to and a host of troubles 



