150 



Small Farms. 



Vol. VII. 



ture, until he might require it, during which, 

 it would bring him no return, as •• land pays 

 no proht." he wisely determined to sell the 

 greater portion, and lend the purchase mo- 

 ney at 6 per cent interest, to that portion of 

 the land which he should reserve, lie there- 

 fore disposed of 300 acres for nearly the sum 

 which he paid for the whole : devoted hi 

 energies to the 160 acres remaining, which 

 now form a snug farm surrounding his house, 

 of almost unexampled beauty and richness, 

 the capital invested, enabling him to do all 

 that he might wish in the way of improving 

 his land, &c, to the utmost : so that if he 

 be desirous of obtaining improved machine- 

 ry, an increased quantity of manure or as- 

 sistance in the way of extra culture, he has 

 the means of procuring it at his finger's end. 

 The consequence is, he feels himself above 

 his work ; his labours are performed in season, 

 and his mind, relieved from anxiety, is easy. 

 and his temper pleasant ; a state of things 

 plainly discernible amongst the members of 

 his family, within doors and without. His 

 servants are respectful and obliging in their 

 manners, and serve him with year, — but it is 

 with fear to offend. But when I think of his 

 fire-side comforts, I feel more than I can 

 express, tor you must know that I am a 

 bachelor of many years' standing, and have 

 never known, in reality, the true mean- 

 ing of a state, for which the French lan- 

 guage has no term by which to express it, 

 namely, fire-side comfort. Xor does it 

 appear to me, that a fire-side in town can 

 ever be comparable to one in the countrv. 

 where so much of the happiness of a family 

 depends on the individuals composing the ma- 

 gic circle, — but this is a tender subject, and I 

 confess my inability to handle it. Suffice it to 

 say, if there be a paradise on earth, my friend 

 has found it: and in the society of as "fair and 

 lovely a helpmate as need be wished for the 

 solace of man, may he long live and enjoy it. 

 The land is divided into eieht fields of 

 twenty acres each : the road leading to the 

 house, separating them into four fields on 

 the right, and four fields on the left ; and 

 into each of these and over almost the whole, 

 he has a view from his sitting room window, 

 the house standing on an eminence, with 

 trees at the back, but none immediatelv in 

 front : a verandah, the whole length of the 

 house, forming a shade far preferable to that 

 afforded by trees. These eight fields give 

 the opportunity of adopting a rotation of 

 crops, and a mode of management so simple 

 and easy of accomplishment, that his labours 

 seem to be reduced one half; while the cus- 

 tom which he has adopted, of hiring extra 

 help at hay-time and harvest, as well as on 

 other pressing occasions, leaves him so much 



leisure, that he has time for observation and 

 reflection and the cultivation of the mind, 

 which enables him to take advantage of the 

 seasons, and to look forward and around 

 with wonderful effect. His grand secret of 

 management, as he terms it, is to be ever 

 carrying some kind of dressing on his fields, 

 to enable him to double his crops, now that 

 he has reduced the number of his acres: to 

 this end, he is always on the alert to turn 

 every thing into manure; the burning of 

 weeds and hassocks, with any rough brush, 

 and the corn-stubs of his twenty acres, af- 

 fording the means of dressing his compost- 

 heaps with ashes to a very great amount and 

 at trifling cost ; while a muck-hole at the 

 extremity of the estate is a never failing 

 mine, from whence, in the shape of hundreds 

 of loads of vegetable deposit, he is coining old 

 gold : every field having its compost-heap in 

 different degrees of preparation, ready to so 

 abroad at the time appointed; having rigidly 

 adopted the plan of never carrying on the 

 fields the manure from the cattle yard, but 

 using it as an ingredient of primary import- 

 ance in the formation of his compost-heaps, 

 which are repeatedly turned over and tho- 

 roughly pulverized before thev are spread; 

 lime forming a great proportion, after fer- 

 mentation in the manure, &c, has nearly 

 past, and a proper degree of decomposition 

 has taken place, but not until then ; the lime 

 for this purpose having been slacked long be- 

 fore, and become mild or effete. And these 

 dressings are given to those crops intended 

 for cattle, as well as to corn, (but never to 

 other grain crops,) in the greatest profusion, 

 without fear for the result. Forty acres, or 

 two fields of 20 acres each, are kept in per- 

 manent grass, to be brought under culture 

 at the end of 6 or 8 years; a like proportion 

 of the arable portion being laid down the 

 year before these are broken up; — these 

 meadows in the mean time being drest as 

 often and as heavily as possible during their 

 time of rest, by which he is enabled to take 

 two crops of hay, or three cuttings for soil- 

 ing, every summer. But I must stop, for I 

 have customers coming in. and my dream of 

 happiness must be suspended for the present. 

 Should what I have written be found worthy 

 your acceptance, I may one day resume the 

 subject, for agriculture is indeed "a science 

 that can never cloy." Your subscriber, S. T. 

 Market Street, Philadelphia, Xov. 9, 1S42. 



WOUHBS AND BRUISES ON HORSES. Take 



one quarter of a pound of saltpetre, half a 

 pint of vinegar, half a pint of spirits of tur- 

 pentine ; put them together in a bottle, and 

 shake up before using. Apply it to the 

 wound with a feather, three times a day. 



