96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Question. Would it pay to plow our laud ouce in three 

 or four years, if we had plenty of dressing to apply to it, or 

 would it be better to let it lie, and top-dress it ? 



Mr. Daniels. I think it would be better to let it lie, and 

 top-dress it. If you can feed the plant so as to continue its 

 life and growth for a number of years, you can do it cheaper 

 than to plow and reseed. Once get your grass land properly 

 seeded, and you can maintain it for ten years, and perhaps 

 fifteen, by cultivating and feeding the plant. 



I was glad to hear what Mr. Dodge said about operating a 

 farm. We have just 72 acres of tillable land on our farm. 

 The farm is in three portions, one with the buildings, another 

 half a mile away, and a third a mile and a half away. That 

 third portion is too far away to till, so that we are actually 

 reduced to about 35 acres of tillable land ; and we are carrying 

 a herd of about one hundred head of cattle on the farm, and 

 producing all the roughage except what little the cattle get in 

 the pasture. We used to have one field that was in corn con- 

 tinuously for sixteen years. The land got so hard that when 

 it was plowed it would break up in lumps like stone or brick ; 

 and the crop would never reach its full growth, because there 

 was not enough humus in the soil to carry it out. Our system 

 of crop rotation has changed all that. We probably get a 

 third better yield per acre of corn than under the old system. 

 We have not the whole farm working yet, but we are working 

 into it. We keep five Italian men, and your humble servant, 

 who is supposed to be a Yankee, is there all the time, and my 

 brother is there a part of the time. He has two boys, ten and 

 twelve years old ; and I have one, ten 3^ears old. They help 

 a great deal in the summer, as they can mow and rake the hay 

 as well as a man. I should say that we had seven men at work 

 on the farm, and count the boys as good as half a man each. 

 We carry about sixty milking cows and about thirty young 

 stock. We wholesale our milk in the city, four miles away, 

 delivering twice a day in the summer and once a day in win- 

 ter. Our herd tM'elvc years ago was a purchased herd, and 

 averaged 5,280 pounds of milk per cow. We have since begun 

 to raise our own stock, raising almost all of it in the last four 

 or five years, and the herd has come up to 6,000 pounds per 



