340 Comparative value of Hay, Vegetables, and Corn. Vol. III. 



tao-e, whose neat and beautiful arrangements 

 cannot be surpassed, tiie clotliino-, llio bedduijL' 

 and the carpetinnr were all the product of their 

 own fields and flocks. I shall not soon forget the 

 unpretending and hearty hospitality of these 

 enviable dwellings. I have slept many a time 

 under a silken canopy, and tnidden many a 

 carpet as soit as the pride of eastern luxury 

 could make it; but never with any thing like 

 the sentiment of honest pride and indepen- 

 dence with which I saw here. The floors spread 

 with carpets made from their own flocks, 

 which for fineness and beauty the foot of a 

 princes need not disdain ; and on a cold night 

 elept in woollen sheets from their own looms 

 as soft as the shawls of Cashmere; and wiped 

 my face with towels spun with their own 

 ha'nds from their own flax, of a whiteness as 

 transparent and delicate as the drifted snow. 

 In such beautiful examples of domestic man- 

 agement, rt is delightful to see with how lim- 

 ited means the best comforts and luxuries of 

 life may be purchased. Nor were these in- 

 stances few. The county of Berksliire abounds 

 with examples of this domestic comfort and 

 independence. Much to be regretted will be 

 the change, which has already invaded many 

 parts of the state, when, under the pretence 

 of superior cheapness, these household fabrics 

 shall give place to tlie more shovv-y but flimsy 

 products of foreign industry; and the healthy 

 exercise of domestic labor and household cares 

 shall be deemed degrading in our wives and 

 daughters; and exchanged for the idleness 

 and'^frivolities of pride and luxury. | 



I agree entirely in the sentiment above ex- 

 pressed, that every farmer should, as far as 

 possible, supply the wants of his family 

 from his own farm. He should supply him- 

 self with bread, meat, vegetables, milk, but- 

 ter, cheese and clothing, so far as his farm can 

 be made to do it. He can almost always do 

 it at a less expense than he can purchase 

 these supplies. The labor requisite for this 

 purpose may often be given at times when it 

 would not otherwise be occupied ; and by 

 hands for which there migiit otherwise be no 

 employment. The sentiment of self-respect 

 and self-dependence, inspired by such a course, 

 is a great gain. The satisfaction of eating 

 bread raised by one's own labor is not 

 email ; and various and important moral influ- 

 ences, which I shall not now discuss, render 

 it altogether desirable ; though in some cases 

 the same amount of labor consumed in their 

 production, if applied in olher ways, would 

 purchase a larger amount of the same supplies. 

 Though the supply of our own great wants 

 from our own farms might seem, liovvevor, in 

 Bonie cases to be a pecuniary loss, it is always 

 in the end a moral gain, with which the pe- 

 cuniary loss is not to be put in competition. — 

 Colman's Survey. 



Comparative value of Hay, Vegctaljles* 

 aud Corn* 



I wish briefly to draw the attention of farm- 

 ers to the value of hay, compared with other 

 crops, tor the feeding of stock. An acre of 

 hay yields one ton and a half of vegetable 

 food. An acre of carrots or Swedish turneps, 

 will yield from ten to twenty tons ; say fitleen 

 tons, which is by no means an exaggerated 

 estimate. It has been ascertained by ex- 

 periment, that three working horses, fifteen 

 and a half hands high, consumed at the rate 

 of two hundred and twenty-four pounds of 

 hay per week, or five tons one thousand and 

 forty-eight pounds of hay per year, besides 

 twelve gallons of oats each per week, or sev- 

 enty eight bushels by the year. An unworked 

 horse consumed at the rate of four and one- 

 quarter tons of hay in the year. The pro- 

 duce, therefore, of nearly six acres of land is 

 necessary to support a working horse by the 

 year : but half an acre of carrots, at six hun- 

 dred bushels to the acre, with the addition of 

 cliopped straw, while the season for their use 

 lasts, will do it as well if not better. These 

 things do not admit of doubt. They have 

 been subjects of exact trial. 



It is believed that the value of a bushel of 

 Indian corn in straw and meal will keep a 

 healthy horse in gocxl condition for work a 

 week. An acre of Indian corn which yields 

 sixty bushels, will be amplefor the support of 

 a horse through the year. Let the farmer, 

 then, considef whether it be better to main- 

 tain his horse upon the produce of half an 

 acre of carrots, which can be cultivated at an 

 expense not greatly exceeding the expense 

 of half an acre of potatoes, or upon half an 

 acre of ruta baga, which can be raised at a 

 less expense than potatoes, or upon the grain 

 produce of an acre of Indian corn, or on the 

 other hand, upi^n the produce of six acres of 

 his best land in hay and grain; for six acres 

 I will hardly do more than to yield nearly six 

 I tons of hay and seventy-eight bushels of oats, 

 'The same economy might be as successfully 

 I introduced into the feeding of our neat cat- 

 tle and sheep. 



These liicts deserve the particular attention 

 of the farmers who are desirous of improving 

 their pecuniary condition. It is obvious how 

 much would be gained by the cultivation 

 which is here suggested ; how much more 

 .'^lock would be raised ; how much the dairy 

 produce might be increased ; and how much 

 the means of enriching the land, and improv- 

 ing the cultivation, would be constantly ex- 

 I tending and accumulating. But when we 

 I find on^a farm of two hundred acres, tliat the 

 i farmer cultivates only two acres of potatoes, 

 lone acre of ruta baga, and perhaps a quarter 

 I of an acre of carrots, we call this "getting 

 ' along," in the common phrase ; but we codv 



