40 BOARD OF AGllICULTURE. 



on about seven and a half acres of land. I do not think that 

 five hundred bushels of corn would have been of so much ser- 

 vice to me in feeding my dairy herd and young stock, even 

 including the fodder which the corn would have produced. 



Be not induced to devote too much of your best laud to fruit 

 trees. Fruit is an uncertain crop, and you have all seen the 

 old orchard which enriched the father standing in the way of 

 the sons, who cannot bear to cut down the trees which were 

 landmarks to their childhood. Plant a few trees and cultivate 

 them well with bones and lime and ashes, if you want fruit ; 

 with barnyard manure and muck, if you want leaves, roots 

 and branches. 



Whatever crop you raise, do it well ; and expect to have no 

 idle days from the 1st day of January to the last of December. 

 And be sure to farm in such a manner that when you have 

 used whatever of your crops are necessary for the production 

 of manure to enrich your farm, you will have a surplus of 

 marketable produce to sell. And after your farm is pur- 

 chased and well stocked, let the additional capital invested in 

 it be well directed labor in making fertilizers and applying 

 them, and not in patent manures or fancy crops. Tiie life of a 

 man is too long to allow of his stimulating his lands with guano 

 and phosphates untij they are exhausted beyond redemption, 

 and his purse is usually too. short. The life of a man is too 

 short to allow of his devoting an acre of land throughout one 

 whole season to a crop which has only a speculator's recommen- 

 dation and a fancy value. 



And above all, keep so far as possible an accurate farm 

 account, and journal of daily events, as the master of a ship 

 keeps his log. 



As an additional stimulus to good farming, I would recom- 

 mend the entry of farms for premium, with the various agricul- 

 tural societies. I have often expressed my high estimate of the 

 value of the knowledge recorded by careful farmers, and col- 

 lected by agricultural societies in their reports ; and I know of 

 nothing more useful than well drawn statements of the general 

 management of the farm. Some of the most interesting agri- 

 cultural papers on record are the reviews of farming in the 

 various shires in England, drawn up by some competent person, 

 under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society. They 



