No. 151.] 85 



two bushels of seed wheat, which he had soaked in brine and then 

 rolled in lime and plaster, mixed half and half. He gave this field 

 last year, after the potatoes were off, a slight sprinkling of city street 

 manure. 



We examined a lot of nine and an half acres of potatoes in fine 

 cultivation; we saw- no weeds in the field, but all the walls were de- 

 corated with the dried ones taken from the field, and " hung there, 

 on the outer tvall /" These walls have cost Mr. Mills four dollars 

 a rod in their construction. Mr. M. used ten bushels of potatoes cut 

 up small for planting this field. We saw a fine field of Lucerne. 

 Mr. M. has lettuce, single heads of which weighed about three 

 pounds. He employs from twenty to twenty-five hands, a dozen 

 horses, and four yokes of working oxen; one pair of which, at the 

 command of one of Mr. Mills's sons, sank side by side upon their 

 knees, and so remained until ordered to rise. Active, strong, and 

 docile, it would require some training of a pair of men to perform 

 their movements as well as- these noble cattle. W'e thought of the 

 old Roman maxim, much " cattle, much wheat," and of the weighty 

 arguments in favor of the ox, alive and dead. 



Mr. Mills has three teams of mules, which are as large as horses, 

 and well trained. One of them was driven by a son of Mr. M., in 

 harness, in a sulkey: and his spirited action, and handsome form at 

 a little distance, would have passed him off for a smart horse if his 

 lorg ears, and Spanish lady little feet had not undeceived us. These 

 fine qualities of the mule, when we consider his great hardihood, 

 and long life, most powerfully recommend him to the farmer, who 

 when he has made such walls as these, ought to have such mules 

 to till his fields for forty years. 



Mr. M. gives his cows Indian meal, oil cake, cut hay, &c. In 

 the winter, brewers' grain and no swill. Your committee were high- 

 ly gratified with this visit — having now seen a farm, walled to last 

 ■for an hundred years, full of cattle, and much wheat, managed by 

 an intelligent, industrious, and happy father, and his lively, healthy 

 sons, whose home was full of all good things; vigilantly superintend- 

 ed by the mother, who is strong and active, and has borne eleven 

 children. Such farmers as these will make any land rich, and will 

 never, like their oxen, bow the knee to human beings. 

 Respectfully submitted, 



' J. S. SKINNER, Chairman 

 Henry Meigs, Secretarf. 

 Mic-York, July 3d, 1846. 



