NEW ENCLAND FARMER. 



29 



tio;i to nil makers oi" pati^nrcJ asricultural iiii- 

 I'lrments. This is to calculate well before they 

 t\\ their ])nces, whether they could not make 

 t;rvitoi' profits by selhnsj at lower rates. 1 

 kiunv a maker of cast-iron ploug'hs, tor instance, 

 who, allhoMcrh he has considerably reduced his 

 p; ; es, still receives at least twenty cents per 

 pi vi.ul tor th'm, as I have ascertained by actual 

 w :?hiii£;', when common castings, the monopo- 

 ly of which is not secured by patent, sell from 

 ^\\ to ei^ht cents! This dilTerence, I think, 

 / IV well be called an exorbitant exaction ; and 

 my certain knowledge it has prevented mam 

 ii: i-s from using, notwithstanding they highly 

 liove lb' ra. Now, although I ivould be one 

 uie last men in the world to withhold liberal 

 I I luiragement from new inventions, yet I must 

 . tliat some ot the authors of them appear to 

 I iuire other restraints than those which their 

 iiwii consciences and our patent law afford. — 

 Tiiat any very useful discovery should enrich 

 the man who makes it, 1 think all quite fair ; 

 liin his riches should result rather from the ex- 

 ili^ive right of selling his invention, . and the 

 I'i iihicts thereof, than from his extravagant 

 jHolils on the articles which he vends beyond 

 what they would command if he bad no mouo- 



pnly."* 



Extracts from an Address delivered before the 

 Pliiladelphia Society for promoting Agriculture, 

 at its annual meeting on the loth Jan. 1822. 



'• It was stated two years ago by one of the 

 Vice-Presidents of this Society, that the average 

 cri-p of wheat in Lancaster count3> which is 

 considered the richest in the state, did not pro- 

 bably exeecd fifteen bushels per acre. Now 

 llie average of all France is more than eighteen 

 bushels — the average of all England twenty-four 

 — and in some counties, as in Middlesex and the 

 Luthians, forty. With regard to rents, it is not 

 t asy to speak with accuracy. If we except the 

 alluvial meadows near this city, which rent for 

 nine or ton dollars per acre, 1 should not esti- 

 mate the avenige rent of cleared land with im- 

 provements within the district just mentioned, 

 at more than two or three dollars. In Italy, in 

 England, and in Scotland, lands not particularly 

 favored by vicinity to markets, lent for from 

 Sixteen to twenty dollars, and in the neighbor- 

 hood of large cities, from thirty to forty dollars. 

 The causes of this inferioritj' may be discov- 

 ered in two characteristics of our farming — a 

 disjiroportionale capital, and an inefficient cul- 

 tivation. The first is a striking deficiency. 

 Agriculture, though a very common, ii not, I 

 think, a favorite pursuit in Pennsylvania. It 

 attracts few from the other classes, and its ranks 

 are rather thinned by desertion than recruited 

 by volunteers. The enterprising shun it for its 

 iiiictivily ; the gay from its loneliness; the pru- 

 '■ !!t from its unproductiveness; so that altho" 

 J I eat proportion of the wealth of the state is 

 •I in land, an exceedingly small capital is 

 '>ted to farming. We too often exhaust our 

 ■ ns in clearing or purchasing a farm, leaving 

 ;ctly any resources for stocking and culli- 

 \aiing it. Now an English farmer, with a cer- 

 tain capital, rents a farm, as a manufacturer 

 rents a house, and devotes his capital to extract 

 .Irom it the greatest possible produce. Accord- 

 ingly his proceedings seem almost incredioie to 

 the possessors of large American farms. It has 



* "ree Americau Faruicr. May 3, 1822.- 



becoiTi!^ a settled maxim of English husbandry, 

 that before occupying good arable land, a capi- 

 tal of from thirty to forty dollars per acre is 

 necessary. On an estate of three hundred acres, 

 therefore, a farmer begins by exp"nding in ]ire- 

 parations nine thousand dollars ; and his annual 

 disbursements in labor, manure and other arti- 

 cles, are about five thousand dollars a }'car. 

 His operations are all on a proportionate scale. 

 To contract to pay a rent of liventy or thirty 

 thousand dollars ; to expend in a single year on 

 lime alone, eleven thousand dollars; to pa^- two 

 thousand dollars a year for rape cake to manure 

 lurni|)s ; to make a compost heap costing four 

 thousand dollars ; sucii are the combinations of 

 wealth and skill to produce good husbandry. 

 These we cannot, and we need not imitate. 

 But they may teach ns that we should measure 

 our enterjirises by our means ; and that an ill 

 managed farm can tio more be profitable than 

 an empty factor)'. Men praise the bounty of 

 nature. It is much safer to rely on her Justice, 

 which rarely fails to reward our care and avenge 

 our neglect. Our farms, then, though small, are 

 generally too large for our capitals ; that is we 

 work badly too much ground, instead of culti- 

 vating well a little. It is wonderlul, indeed, 

 bow profusely a small spot of ground will re- 

 ward good husbandrj-. There are in Itai}' hun- 

 dreds and thousands of people, living on t'arms 

 of I'roni four to ten acres, and paying to the 

 owner one third or one half the produce. The 

 whole straw for the Leghorn bonnets, by the 

 exportation of which in a single year five hun- 

 dred thousand dollars were gained, would grow 

 on two acres. There are in Switzerland some 

 hill sides, formed into terraces, which have sold 

 for two thousand dollars an acre ; and in fortu- 

 nate spots for gardening, as near London, a sin- 

 gle acre will yield a clear profit of from eight 

 to nine hundred dollars a year. These exam- 

 ples may perhaps explain, hcrw without the 

 great capitals of England, and without diminish- 

 ing our tarras, we may gradually render them 

 richer and more productive by judicious cul- 

 ture."' 



BARN Y.\RDS AKD STERC0R.4R1ES OR MANURE HEAPS. 



The following humorous exposition of the 

 faults of some farmers, as respects the economy 

 of their barn yards and stercoraries, is extracted 

 lYom an Address to the Ma.ssachusetts Agricultu- 

 ral Society, by the Hon. Josiah Quincy. 



" As we proceed to the farm we will stop 

 one moment at the barn yard. We shall say 

 nothing about the arrahgements of the barn. 

 They must include comfort, convenience, pro- 

 tection, for his stock, his haj', and his fodder, 

 or they are little or nothing. ' We go thither 

 tor the purpose only of looking at what the 

 learned call the stercorary, but which farmers 

 know by the name of the manure heap. What 

 is its state ? How is it located ? Sometimes we 

 see the barn yard on the top of a hill, with two 

 or three fine rocks in the centre ; so that what- 

 ever is carried or left there, is sure of being 

 chicHy exhaled by the sun, or washed away by 

 the rain. Sometimes it is to be seen in the 

 hollow of some valley, into which all the hills 

 and neiochboring buildings precipitate their wa- 

 ters. Of consequence ali its contents are drown- 

 ed or water soaked, or what is worse, there 

 having been no care about the bottom of the 

 lecoptacie, its wealth goes off in the under 

 strata, to enrich possibly the antipodes. 



" Now all this is to the last degree wastet'ul, 

 absur<l and impoverishing. Too much cannot 

 be said to expose the loss and injury which the 

 farmer thus sustains. Let the farmer want what- 

 ever else he pleases — but let no man call him- 

 self a farmer, who sutlers himself to v/ant a re- 

 ceptacle for his mrmure, water-tight at the bol- 

 tom, and covered over at the top, so that below 

 nothing shall be lost by drainage ; and above, 

 nothing shall be carried away by evaporation. 

 Let not the size of his manure heap be any ob- 

 jection. If it be great, he looses the more, and 

 can afford the expense better. If it be small, 

 this is the best way to make it become greater. 

 Besides, what is wanted? An excavation, two or 

 three feet deep, well clayed, paved and '• dish- 

 ing," as it is called, of an area from six to thirty 

 feet square, according to the quantity of the 

 manure ; over head a roof made of rough boards 

 and refuse lumber if he pleases."' 



CURE FOR THE BITE OF THE RATTLESNAKE OR OTHER 

 VE.VOMOUS ANI.MAL. 



We have had the pleasure of a conversation 

 with Dr. .Joseph Moore, of Gibsonport, Miss. 

 who informs us that, during eighteen years res- 

 idence in that climate, there have come under 

 his particular care thirteen cases of the bite of 

 the rattlesnake and moccasin, (the latter of 

 ivhich is more venomous than the rattlesnake) 

 and that he has found the following a certain 

 and immediate cure. The remedy was intro- 

 duced into Europe from Asia, by Sir William 

 Jones, and has the confidence of the medical 

 faculty, wherever it has been applied. 



Give to a grown person a teaspoonful of the 

 volatile spirit of sal ammoniac, or what is com- 

 monly called spirits of hartshorn, in half a wine 

 glass of water, every half hour, until the symp- 

 toms disappear, binding at the same time a linen 

 clotii, of three or four thicknesses, wet with the 

 spirits, unmixed with water, to the wound ; the 

 cloth to be wetted in the spirits every five mi- 

 nutes. 



If the wound has been given some hours be- 

 fore the application can be applied, it should 

 be scarified freely round the bite with a sharp 

 knife or lancet, before the wet cloth is laid on. 



The most severe and obstinate cases have 

 been known to yield to this remedy in a tew 

 hours. 



Very great care ought to he taken that the 

 spirits of hartshorn should be kept tightly cork- 

 ed ; for, if exposed to the air, it soon looses its 

 efficacy. — Village Record. 



EFFECTUAL CURE FOR THE CHOLERA MORBUS. 



Take four ounces of chipped log wood, and 

 one ounce of cinnamon, put them in three pints 

 of water, and boil them down to a pint and a 

 half; then strain it and add a pint of brandy, 

 and tour ounces of loaf sugar ; then simmer it 

 over a slow fire for a short time, and then put 

 it up for use. For a grown person take a table 

 spoonl'ul, and a child a tea spoonful. • Our in- 

 former, a respectable gentleman from L'pper 

 Marion Township, Pennsylvania, states that it 

 has been used in his family, also by several of 

 his neighbors, and in every instance it has been 

 found to give almost immediate relief. 



Philadelphia Union. 



A correspondent informs us that if land is in- 

 fested with white weed, it will be effectually 

 destroyed in two years by jiasturing sheep onii. 



