O N F A R M S . 83 



I formerly planted from seven to ten acres each year, but I have 

 found it more profitable to raise hay than corn or potatoes : this 

 last June from thirty cwt. hay delivered in the barn, I received in 

 my grain bins forty bushels of good yellow flat corn : the hay cost 

 me in labor and all fair charges twelve dollars ; to raise the corn 

 would have cost me twenty-five dollars at least. 



By recurring to my journal,* (for I have long kept a sort of diary 

 in which I have noted the employments of each day, the time of 

 planting, hoeing and harvesting, the amount of crops, the cost of 

 animals, current receipts and expenditures, Sfc.,) I find that since 

 the 1st of April I have expended for labor two-hundred and five dol- 

 lars, and one third of this has been in making walls, ditches and 

 permanent improvements. I have kept two pair oT oxen, one horse 

 and ten cows, one pair of oxen Avhich two years ago cost me fifty 

 dollars, I have sold to the butcher for one hundred and five dollars; 

 four cows which cost forty-three, I have sold for seventy-eight dol- 

 lars, and I have received in exchange of cows thirty dollars. I have 

 kept no account of the milk and butter used and sold, which has 

 been less than the usual quantity. I have four fat swine worth sev- 

 enty-five dollars, which one year ago cost six dollars; their manure 

 paid for all the grain they have consumed. I have raised one hun- 

 dred and fifty-eight bushels corn, ninety-five bushels of oats, thirty 

 bushels of rye and one hundred and twenty bushels of potatoes ; of 

 carrots, turnips and beets about two hundred and fifty bushels, and 

 of other vegetables and fruits an abundance. Some years I have 

 had three or four hundred bushels of good apples, this year not 

 more than thirty. I have cut thirty-one tons of English hay which 

 was made and secured with fifty-five days labor ; I used a horse 

 rake which paid for itself in one week ; my crop was diminished by 

 the drought from one-fourth to one-third. My meadow hay was a 

 fine crop and got in good order ; I have sold twelve loads of mead- 

 ow hay and straw, and have by estimation fodder enough, corn fod- 

 der included, to keep my stock and some twelve or fifteen tons to 

 spare. I have carried to market twelve cords of wood, always tak- 

 ing a return load of manure. I purchase anually about forty-five 

 dollars worth of manure, which I never use without composting. I 



* The advantages of keeping a journal to a farmer are many. By turning 

 to the pages of past years he will be reminded of work which should be done 

 in its season ; he will see where he has erred and jjrofit from his experience ; 

 he will know where his money, sometimes difficult to account for, goes. 



