24 



ECONOMY. 



we can afford pork for a little more than half the pres- 

 ent market price, but we most begin in season in the 

 fall. We must not keep our hogs till late in winter: 

 we must commence fattening as soon as summer and 

 fall vegetables are fit to be plucked, and we should 

 quit before these vegetables are frozen and spoiled. 



Our soils in the old and long-settled parts of the 

 country are not what they were : the first crops were 

 luxuriant, and the land then needed no dressing. We 

 have now cropped our plain and easily tilled lands till 

 they have become in a great degree barren ; while our 

 rougher soils, that the plough was more afraid of, are 

 still comparatively rich : they have not been exhausted. 



To prove that much of the soil of our plains is 

 naturally as good as that of rough and rocky lands, we 

 will only take you by the hand and show you a first 

 crop after clearing, on such plain lands. You. see as 

 large a growth here as on any soil, and the prirjcipal 

 reason why many of these plains appear so barren is, 

 they were too inviting to the plough. We have tilled 

 till they are wholly exhausted of vegetable matter. 

 New matter must be supplied ; and, if we are not able to 

 supply it, we cannot afford to pay taxes for the lands. 

 We will sell a portion, and, with the capital thence 

 arising, we will make the remainder produce more than 

 the whole did. This we call the commencement of 

 economy. If you are rich, you ought not to be troubled 

 with the care of hundreds of acres ; if poor, you may 

 be pestered to hire the capital, to pay the interest, or 

 to pay rent. You cannot place two hundred acres so 

 near your barns as you can place fifty. On the large 

 farm you have much farther to cart your manure, much 

 farther to bring home your produce. Your cows must 

 be driven twice a day much farther, and if your hired 

 '^ help " can come home as quick to dinner, they sel-. 

 dom return so quick to the distant field, as to that near 

 the house. 



