CORRESPONDENCE. 169 



and then I have but very little manure for my grass- 

 lands, the most profitable lands that I possess. Can 

 you tell me how I can manage to make the whole 

 farm profitable ? I cannot buy manure ; there is none 

 here for sale. Yours respectfully, D. H. 



Meclfteld, Maij 20, 1839. 



We advise our Medfield correspondent not to till too 

 much land in a season. If all the manure is applied 

 yearly to exhausting crops, there is not much prospect 

 of rendering the farm richer. 



It seems to us ridiculous to make one acre of land 

 rich a foot in depth, and suffer most of the farm to go 

 without dressing. It is also wrong to spend the months 

 of April, May, and June in tending numerous acres for 

 small crops. There is some limit to making manures 

 on any farm ; though no doubt most farmers may 

 double its quantity and value by proper attention and 

 labor. Now, instead of tilUng ten acres in a year — 

 as most farmers do who have fifty acres of tillage-land 

 — we would not till more than five : then nearly half 

 the months of May and June may be employed in en- 

 riching the farm for future use. Half the months of 

 May and June ! What a chance for making improve- 

 ment ! Had we Mr. H's farm, we would sow three or 

 four acres in buckwheat, and reap sixty bushels the 

 present season for fattening pork or beef It would 

 take five days to do this well. If there was much 

 sorrel on the ground, we should like to plough before 

 the seed was ripe. The buckwheat may be sown about 

 the 20th of June, one bushel to the acre ; sow also 

 with it one bushel of winter rye : mow the buckwheat 

 about September 1st, and thresh it out immediately 

 before it gathers moisture, and we have food' to com- 

 mence the fatting of our pork early. Next year, on 

 the 20th of June, the rye will be two ieeX high : roll 

 it down flat, and with a plough — a real plough, that 

 will turn the sod and cover all up — bury this rye, and 

 15* 



