CORRESPONDENCE. 183 



nips will keep about ten times as mneh stock as an 

 acre in grass, and we are urged on this basis to calcu- 

 late our profits ! 



Is there not some delusion here ? Ten times the 

 profit of my grass-land would be one hundred and 

 twenty dollars profit from a single acre. If it is meant 

 that so much net profit can be realized, it is not true. 

 If the meaning is, that by laying out enough we may 

 make one acre produce ten times what it would in 

 grass, this may be true, but we must always count the 

 cost. The expense of manuring, and of cultivating, 

 and of harvesting, and storing one acre of turnips, is 

 not to be compared with the expense of haying one 

 acre of grass-land. 



But I have set my acre of grass at only one ton. 

 With a little expense, we often get two. It will not 

 be extravagant to set the crop, on good land, at two 

 tons. Twenty-four dollars will pay the interest of four 

 hundred dollars : if your roots will do ten times as 

 much, they will give a net income of two hundred and 

 forty dollars per acre. Good turnip land, at this rate, 

 should be set high : not less than two thousand dollars 

 the acre ! 



Such calculations as these are injurious to the farm- 

 ing interest. They are deceptive. 



I have forty acres of highland mowing and tv\relve 

 acres of coarse meadow: I find it very difficult to go 

 over these acres fast enough ; that is, some acres lie ten 

 years in grass, and they yield but a small crop. I use 

 most of my manure on my corn and potato land, 

 having about four acres to hoe in a year, and four of 

 course to seed down each year. If I go over the 

 whole in rotation, I am ten years in my progress 

 throui^h or around. I understand you are taking a 

 shorter cut, and get through sooner. I should like to 

 liave you a little more particular in describing your 

 process of renovating grass-lands that are bound out 

 and do not give half a crop. Truly yours, L — d. 



Sherburne^ June 21, 1839. 



