AOl.. XVII. TUt. 84. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL, 



189 



made about the house, and has had nothing else, 

 except while she had a litter of pigs upon her. 

 She run in the pasture three or four months in the 

 summer. The whole expense of keeping her in- 

 cluding taxes, interest, &c., has not exceeded 25 

 dollars to the present time, and the first litter of 

 pigs she brought, all died. The second litter of 

 nine, were sold in August, at 82 00 each, $18 00 



The 3a litter of nine— (2 died) 7 sold in 

 February, 1838, at $3 21 00 



The 4th litter of eleven, sold in August, 

 18.38, at !f2 22 00 



The sow is now worth 30 00 



The interest on the money received for 

 pigs, would be about 3 00 



$!»4 00 

 Deduct for cost and keeping of sow, &c. 25 00 



Profit, $G9 00 



It should also be observed, that the last lilter 

 of pigs might have been sold for .$3 each, but as 

 that is a very high price and I was fortunate in 

 losing none of them, I let my neighbors have 

 them at two. 



This, Mr Editor, I think is a fair statement of 

 the fiicts, and the expense of keeping is as highly 

 rated as it should be, for I do not think that five 

 dollars worth of food has been given her, except 

 swill from the house, that would have been other- 

 wise thrown away. 



Now Mr Editor, should not every family keep 

 one pig at least, to eat up the otTal that is so fre- 

 quently thrown out of doors, especially by persons 

 who reside in villages and large towns.' 



The only way to relieve hard times, is by pro- 

 duction or by economising what is already pro- 

 duced. M. M. 



Bangor, Dec. 1836. 



(From the Plymouth Memorial.) 



WHEAT. 



Mr Printer, — Your readers will recollect read- 

 ing in your paper some time last spring, sundry 

 articles in which the question was fully discussed, 

 « Is it best for tlie farmers of Massachusetts to sow 

 wheat or plant Indian corn ?" Not being satisfied 

 with theory, I resolved to test the question by prac- 

 tice ; and fiilling in with a friend of mine, who 

 seemed to be a little louched with thie wheat fever, 

 I agreed with him that he should faithfully try an 

 experiment by cultivating wheat, and I would as 

 faithfully try my luck with Indian corn. The ob- 

 ject of troubling you now, is to give the result of 

 both experiments to the public, and let each reader 

 make such comment as shall best suit himself. 



On the 5th of May last I commenced ploughing 

 an eight acre field, in addition to my usual plough- 

 ing, that the experiment miglit not interfere witli 

 the rest of my farming. I paid cash for all the 

 labor, and gave the current price for my laborers' 

 services. The field had not been ploughed for 

 fifteen years, had never been manured, nor used for 

 I uny other purpose than raising corn and rye once 

 i in eight or ten years, and for pasture when not cul- 

 I tivated. I put no manure on it and planted it in 

 the usual way, making the rows of corn run both 

 ways, about four feet apart, and putting four ker- 

 ' nels in a hill. The worms and birds troubled it 

 I some and I planted the missing hill with beans, 

 ' and the result follows : 



-To ploughing eight acres. 



Furrowing, 



Planting, 



Seed corn, 



Scare crows. 



Cultivating both w%3. 



Hoeing, 



Cultivaitng 2d time, 



Hoeing 2d time, 



Hoeing in rye, 



Cutting stalks. 



Harvesting corn, 

 Do. stalks, 

 Do. pumpkins, 

 Do. beans, 



$24,00 

 1,50 

 8,00 

 1,25 

 1,00 

 3,00 



18,00 

 3,00 



10,00 



20,00 

 8,00 



40,00 

 2,00 

 1,00 



.*141,00 

 Deduct half last hoeing as belonging to 



rye crop, 10,00 



Cr. — By 250 bushels sound corn, 

 25 do small corn, 

 800 pumpkins, 



4 tons stalks. 

 Husks and huts, 



Beans, 



»;250,00 

 12,.50 

 2.5,00 

 40,00 

 30,00 

 2,50 



$131,00 



$360,00 

 Deduct expenses, 131,00 



Profits, $229,00 



My friend selected an acre of meadow ground, 

 which had been planted the year before, and he 

 manured it heavy with good manure from his stable 

 and pig pen, and the whole expense of ploughing, 

 sowing, seed, and manuring, calling tlie manure one 

 dollar a load, was $53,00. 



This wheat was the best of any in town ; he 

 harvested, and measured it witli care, and found he 

 had thirteen and a half bushels. 



As wheat has no established price in this place, 

 each one must cypher out the profits for himself. 



Perhaps I ought to remark that the season has 

 been favorable for Indian corn, and unfavorable for 

 wheat; but I shall continue my corn experiments 

 from year to year, and hope the sowers of wheat 

 will do the same, and give publicity to the results 



it is desirable that every farmer should know 



what his neighboring farmers are about. Real im- 

 provements should be seized upon and put in prac- 

 tice; but we ouglit to beware of theories until they 

 have been well tested by experiment. The loss 

 of a whole crop to a farmer is a serious matter, 

 therefore if any crop be doubtful he should plant 

 but a part of his field with it. Such as are not 

 able to lose should scatter their chances. My pre- 

 sent impression is, that upon sandy land, no crop 

 is so certain, upon an average of many years, as 

 Indian corn. If I find myself mistaken I will tell 

 the public of it. SYLVANUS BOURNS. 



Indian jVeck Farm, ATov. 16, 1838. 



THINGS A FARMER SHOULD NOT DO. 



1. A farmer should never undertake to cultivate 

 more land than he can do thoroughly ; half-tilled 

 land is growing poorer; well tilled land is con- 

 stantly improving. 



2. A farmer should never keep more cattle, 

 horses, sheep or hogs, than he can keep in good 

 order ; an animal in high order the first of Decem- 

 ber, is already half wintered. 



3. A farmer should never depend on his neigh- 

 bor, for what he can by care and good management 

 produce on his own farm ; he should never beg 

 fruit while he can plant trees, or borrow tools 

 when he can make or buy ; a high authority has 

 said, the borrower is a servant to the lender. 



4. The farmer should never be so immersed in 

 political matters as to forget to sow his wheat, dig 

 his potatoes and bank up his collar; nor should he 

 be so inattentive to them as to be ignorant of those 

 great questions of national and state policy which 

 will always agitate, more or less, a free people. 



5. A farmer should shun the doors of a bank as 

 he would the approach of the plague or cholera ; 

 banks are for traders and men of speculation, and 

 theirs is a business with wliich farmers have little 

 to do. 



6. A farmer should never be ashamed of his call- 

 ing ; we know that no man can be entirely inde- 

 pendent, yet tlie farmer sliould remember, that if 

 any one is said to possess that enviable distinction, 

 he is the man. 



7. No farmer should allow the reproach of neg- 

 lecting education to lie against himself or family, 

 if knowledge is power, the beginning of it should 

 be early and deeply laid in tlie district school. 



8. A farmer should never use ardent spirits as a 

 drink; if, while undergoing severe fatigue and the 

 hard labor of the summer he would enjoy robust 

 healtli, let liim be temperate in all things. 



9. A farmer never should refuse a fair price for any- 

 thing lie wants to sell ; we have known a man who 

 had several hundred bushels of wheat to dispose of, 

 refuse 8s. because he wanted 8. 6d. and after keep- 

 ing his wheat six months, was glad to get 6s. 6d. 

 for it. 



W- A farmer should never allow his wood house 

 to be emptied of wood during the summer season ; 

 if be does, when winter comes, in addition to cold 

 fingers, he must expect to encounter the chilling 

 looks of his wife, and perhaps bo compelled, in a 

 series of lectures, to learn that the man who burns 

 green wood has not mastered the A B C of domes- 

 tic economy. 



1 1. A farmer should never allow a window to be 

 filled with red cloaks, tattered coats, and old hats ; 

 if he does he will most assuredly acquire the repu- 

 tation of a man who tarries long at the whiskey, 

 leaving his wife and children to starve at home. — 

 Com. School Jlssist. 



Cure for the Sting of a Wasp or Bee. — 

 A Liverpool paper states as follows ; " A few days 

 ago happening to be in the country, we witness- 

 ed the efficacy of the remedy of a sting of a wasp 

 mentioned in one of our late papers. 



A little boy was stung severely and was in great 

 torture, until an onion was applied to the part af- 

 fected, when the cure was instantaneous. This 

 important and simple remedy cannot be too gene- 

 rally known, and we pledge ourselves to the fact 

 above stated." 



Endeavor to be first in thy calling, whatever it 

 be ; neither let any one go before thee in well 

 doing ; nevertheless do not envy the merits of an- 

 other, but improve thine own talent. 



Before you give way to anger, try to find a rea- 

 son for not being angry. 



