ol 



the other cares and labors (leraanded of a farmer's wife ? If I 

 decide to have a dairy farm, I must contrive so that it will not 

 crowd too hard on the ordinary business of the kitchen. In order 

 to accomplish this, I determined to fit myself for the business. 

 This work, inclu(lin<j; temperinjj; the cream, churning, washing, salt- 

 ing and working the butter, and preparing it for market, takes 

 not less than a half day of my time each week, and is a much 

 better arrangement than to hire a girl and board her principally 

 to do that work. Besides, I believe butter making must eventu- 

 ally be done by men more than at present in all large dairies. 

 It is too hard Avork for women, and ought to be done by men, 

 and in some kind of a wholesale way, something as cheese making 

 is now carried on. Then, and not till then, will the butter of the 

 country be of a uniformly high character. 



One great source of profit the butter manufacturer has, is in 

 the skimmed milk. My custom has been to keep enough swine 

 during the summer to use up all the milk, after it has been thick- 

 ened by the addition of meal and mill feed or shorts. The result 

 has been that my pork has been made at a cost of about one half 

 what it would bring in market. This year, owing to the unusual 

 difference between corn and pork, it will cost less than half. 



In the winter, by going to a village about six miles distant, 

 twice in the week, where most of my farm products are sold, I 

 am able to dispose of my sweet skimmed milk at much more than 

 it is worth for feeding swine. 



As I buy all ray grain, I endeavor to do so at such times and 

 in such quantities as will be most advantageous. I believe it is 

 as necessary for farmers to make their purchases at the right 

 time, as for merchants, and to do so is a legitimate part of their 

 business. 



Potatoes are, at present, my only hoed crop. I plow as much 

 sward land in the fall as I expect to be able to manure well in 

 the following spring, first clearing the surface of rocks, by blast- 

 ing or sinking. Have learned that sinking is often cheaper and 

 better than blasting, where the land is loam or gravel, and the 

 rocks not over three or four feet across, and mostly under ground. 

 A man will often sink a rock in two hours, that would require two 

 men and a team that length of time to remove wich drills and 

 powder. As soon as the potatoes are harvested, I draw on ano- 

 ther coat of manure, and plow or work it in with a cultivator, then 

 smooth off and sow grass seed if it is early in September. If later, 

 leave it till spring, when, after once more working it over with 

 cultivator, I sow grass seed only, as early as the ground will per- 

 mit. In either case, I have taken two heavy crops of hay the 

 first year. Sowed a piece this spring the fourth day of April, 

 mowed the first crop the fifth of July, the second the last week of 



