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support a working horse by ilie year ; but half an acre of carrots, at 

 six hundred bushels to the acre, vvitli tlie addition of chopped straw, 

 while the season for tlieir use lasts, will do it as well, if not better. 

 These things do not admit of doubt. They have been subjects of 

 exact trial. 



It is believed that the value of a bushel of Indian corn in straw 

 and meal, will keep a healthy horse in good condition for work a 

 week. An acre of Indian corn which yields sixty bushels, will be 

 ample for the support of a horse througli the year. Let the farmer, 

 then, consider whether it be better to maintain his horse upon the 

 produce of half an acre of carrots, which can be cultivated at an 

 expense not greatly exceeding the- expense of half an acre of pota- 

 toes, or upon half an acre of ruia baga, which can be raised at a less 

 expense than potatoes, or upon the grain produce of an acre of In- 

 dian corn, or on the other liand, upon the produce of six acres of 

 his best land in hay and grain ; for six acres will hardly do more than 

 to yield nearly six tons of hay and seventy-eight bushels of oats. 

 The same economy might be as successfully introduced into the feed- 

 ing of our neat cattle and sheep. 



These facts deserve the particular attention of the farmers who 

 are desirous of improving their pecuniary condition. It is obvious 

 how much would be gained by the cultivation which is here suggest- 

 ed ; how much more stock would be raised ; how much the dairy- 

 produce might be increased ; and how much the means of enriching 

 the land, and improving the cultivation, would be constantly extend- 

 ing and accumulating. But when we find on a farm of two hundred 

 acres, that the farmer cultivates only two acres of potatoes, one acre of 

 ruta baga, and perhaps a quarter of an acre of carrots, we call this 

 " getting along," in the common phrase ; but we can liardly dignify 

 it with the name of farming. I am aware that labor of a proper kind 

 is in n>any cases difficult to be procured, and with our habits, as dif- 

 ficult to be managed. Farming, likewise, can in few situations be 

 successfully managed, unless the farmer has capital to employ, equal 

 at least to one year's manure and one year's crops. A large por- 

 tion of our farmers, also, from the nature of their habits and style of 

 living, are so prosperous and independent, that they have no occa- 

 sion to extend their cultivation beyond what it now is, in order to 

 meet their wants ; and to incur all the trouble, vexation, and risk of 



