No. 10. 



Extraordinary Farm Produce. — Woodlands. 



311 



Extraordinary Farm Produce. 



A valued friend in London, has forwarded to us the 

 British Farmer's Magazine, for "Jan. 1843." We take 

 from it the following article, which it credits to the 

 Northern Whig.— Ed. 



Notwithstanding all that has been said 

 and written on agriculture in Ireland, and 

 besides the many instances of successful 

 pract'ce in many parts of the country, com- 

 paratively little is yet known of the real 

 fertility of the soil, and the great capabili- 

 ties of this hitherto neglected part of the 

 empire. The people know not the produc- 

 tive powers of their land ; for in few in- 

 stances has a farm been brought, by judi- 

 cious cultivation, to the highest point of its 

 production. Perhaps the most successful 

 example of the capabilities of land, under 

 proper management, in Ireland, and of the 

 immense crops which can be raised, may be 

 seen on the National Model Farm, under 

 the Board of Education, at Glasnevin, near 

 Dublin. This farm, strictly conducted on 

 the improved system of green cropping and 

 house feeding, contains 52 statute acres, and 

 there are kept on it, during the year, 22 

 head of cattle and three horses. It supplies, 

 on an average, ninety persons during the 

 year, with farm produce, such as milk, but- 

 ter, potatoes, and vegetables of various kinds; 

 and furnishes the farming establishment with 

 pork, besides a number of private families 

 with the above articles. A considerable 

 quantity of vegetables are carried to market, 

 and all kinds of grain, which is abundant. 

 There is at present a crop of oats upon the 

 farm, the produce of 14^ British acres. It 

 is secured in eight stacks, and is estimated 

 by the best judges to be equal to the aver- 

 age produce of 50 acres. It stood perfectly 

 close upon the ground, average 6 to 7*> feet 

 in height, the head and ear corresponding ; 

 the other crops, potatoes, turnips, Italian 

 rye-grass, &c, of like quality. The man- 

 ager conducts the farm on his own account; 

 pays £257 7s. 8d. per annum, of rent, be- 

 sides other expenses, amounting in all, to 

 upwards of £400 per year; and we are in- 

 formed, and believe, that he realizes a very 

 handsome annual sum from it besides. He 

 labours and manages it almost exclusively 

 by a number of boys, agricultural pupils, 

 and teachers, who are there in training in 

 the science and practice of agriculture. As 

 a test of what land is capable of producing, 

 when brought to its highest point, there are 

 few examples so appropriate as we have in 

 this particular instance ; there are, perhaps, 

 more crops raised, more cattle kept and fed, 

 more human beinjrs supplied with the com- 

 mon necessaries of life, more manure accu- 



mulated, more employment given, and, in 

 fact, more money made, on this spot of land, 

 than on any other farm of the same extent, 

 (conducted on a proper scientific rotation of 

 grain and green crop) in any part of the 

 empire, or the world. Did the average land 

 of Ireland produce only one half of the 

 value, according to quantity that is on this 

 model farm, we should hear no more of corn 

 laws, tariffs, or want of employment amongst 

 the people. — Northern Whig. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Woodlands. 



Previous to the discovery of the inex- 

 haustible mines of coal in the eastern sec- 

 tion of Pennsylvania, or before the means 

 for transporting produce to our markets with 

 so much facility and cheapness, were em- 

 ployed, it seemed prudent to preserve large 

 bodies of woodland, to support the immense 

 drains caused by the demand for fuel ; and 

 had no substitute been found, the result 

 would have justified such a policy. But no 

 such inducement now exists, as the abun- 

 dant supply of coal supersedes in a great 

 measure, the use of wood for fuel; the price 

 therefore, of wood, will not probably ad- 

 vance to any great extent. 



The objections to keeping a larger supply 

 of wood than may be necessary for home 

 consumption, increase as we recede from 

 market; where the expense of transporta- 

 tion bears a greater proportion to the amount 

 of sale. Where there is a prospect of towns 

 springing up in the neighbourhood, these 

 objections become modified ; yet it is a ques- 

 tion whether the proceeds from tillage would 

 not yield a greater profit than the uncertain 

 one of a future demand. It is certain that 

 many farmers in Chester and Delaware 

 counties, would have been greatly bene- 

 fited, had they destroyed large portions of 

 their woods, without any profit and at con- 

 siderable expense, twenty years ago, and 

 brought the land into cultivation, instead of 

 retaining it in an unproductive state to the 

 present time. And it is probable the same 

 remark may be made fifty years hence with 

 equal truth. The influence of custom and 

 preconceived impressions is so strono-, that 

 even imaginary self-interest will blindly 

 dictate an adherence to former views of the 

 subject, while doubts of the utility of change 

 will operate to their preservation. It is true, 

 there is a gradual diminution taking- place, 

 but it will take a long term of years to 

 eradicate the superabundance of wood now 

 on hand. It is not designed to enter into a 

 minute calculation, to compare the benefits 

 to be derived from the one course of pro- 



