1860. 



NEW EXGLAiST) FARMER. 



333 



For tlie New England Farmer. 



IS FABMING PKOPITABLE ? 



What is the most Profitable Crop to Raise in this State ?— Rota- 

 tion of Croi>3. 



Mr, Brown : — For 28 years I have been ex- 

 perimenting in order to systematize agriculture, 

 so as to produce a desirable result, with a reduc- 

 tion of labor and expense. How well I have suc- 

 ceeded, you can best judge by looking at a page 

 of my experience. Perhaps I may give some clue 

 to an answer to the question at the head of this 

 article. First, I will take a course of crops for 

 one acre of land for 7 years : 



Laxd. De. 



Manure $40,00 



Plowing? and harrowing 3,50 



Compost, ashes, &c., for hills 3,00 



Planting and clearing 5,00 



Harvesting crop 5,00 



Harrowing and sowing rj^e before March 20th 1,50 



i J bushels rye, at $1 per bushel 1,25 



2d year, in March, 10 1'ls. western clover, $1, 1 pck. herds 



grass seed, $1, J bush. U. T., 50c, sowing 25c 2,75 



Harvesting rye... .7 5,00 



2 bush, plaster, sowed 3d year, in March 1,00 



Getting hay 5 years, 2 crops clover 17,00 



$S5,00 



r^AVD. CE. 



Corn crop $65,00 



. Bye and straw 30,00 



8 tons of hay, at $15 per ton 120,00 



After feed 7,50 



$222,50 

 Deduct expense 85,00 



Years, 



.7\$137,50 



For use of land per year $19,64 



Corn may now be planted with manure as be- 

 fore, or potatoes, as follows : 



Lasd, Db. 



Plowing and harrowing $3,50 



Compost, ashes, &c., for hills 3,00 



8 bush, moderate sized potatoes, at COc per bush 4,80 



Planting and cleaning , 7,00 



Harvesting 5,00 



Cultivating, harrowing and sowing rye > 2,00 



l^bash. rye 1,25 



30 bush, ashes and sowing , . . .6,00 



Grass seed as before 2,75 



Harvesting and threshing rye 5,00 



2 bush, plaster sowed as before 1,00 



Getting hay 4 years 14,00 



$55,30 

 Lasd. Ce. 



Potatoes $60,00 



Bye and straw. 30,00 



5i tons hay, at $15 per ton... 82,50 



After feed , 6,00 



$178,50 

 Deduct expenses 55,30 



Years 6^$123,20 



^$123 



For the use of land per year $20,53 



Now I am prepared to return to the corn crop 

 with barn manure as before. 



In this statement I have taken the lowest mar- 

 ket price for hay, and have not taken the largest 

 crop which I have raised, I have not, I think, 

 but in two instances, used 840 worth of manure, 

 frequently S30, and sometimes not more than $20 

 per acre. You can see, however, that the manure 

 might be raised to $.54, and not make but $2 a 

 year difference in the income, even though the 

 crop should be no larger than I have stated. In 

 the second course, the ashes might be (doubled) 60 

 bushels, and make but 81 a year difference in the 

 profit. I have received .$60 for an acre of rye and 



straw, and more than $70 for the straw standing 

 in the field, for braiding for bonnets, I have al- 

 so raised double the quantity of potatoes per acre 

 and sold for a much higher price per bushel. I 

 have stated results which I think the great major- 

 ity of farmers in this State may reasonably ex- 

 pect, if they will become familiar with, and carry 

 into practice, the course which I have here des- 

 cribed. I say familiar with, because the hands 

 must be quick to perform, as well as the head 

 clear to direct. 



I will also state that when this course is fol- 

 lowed and the work properly done, the land will 

 be increasing in productiveness, instead of dete- 

 riorating. It may be thought that the same al- 

 lowance for planting and clearing the crops is 

 quite too small, but if a healthy active man can- 

 not do it for that, he has something yet to learn 

 in practical agriculture, I have allowed §1 per 

 day for work, except getting the hay and rye, and 

 farmers probably will differ as to the expense of 

 harvesting these crops, according to their advan- 

 tages for doing the work, 



I will remark, in conclusion, that we can see 

 the inconsistency of charging all the manure to 

 the hoed crops, or even all the plowing and clean- 

 ing, as they require but little more labor than 

 would be necessary to fit the land for roseeding 

 for grass, I think a rotation of crops is the most 

 profitable, S. M. Stanley, 



West Attleboro\ Mass., March 21, 1860. 



"HOKSE-POWEK" AS A MEASUKE OF 

 FOKCE. 



The phrase or term "horse-power" is continual- 

 ly occurring Avhenever there is occasion to speak or 

 write of the force of steam engines. It is met 

 with almost daily in the reading of newspapers, 

 and of books or periodicals relating to science and 

 art. Is there one reader in ten who understands 

 what is meant by this term, or who attaches any 

 accurate idea of the amount of power intended to 

 this oft-recurring phraseology ? We very much 

 doubt it, and think, therefore, that a brief expla- 

 nation of this term, gleaned from Encyclopedias 

 and scientific works, may be both interesting and 

 useful to the generality of ordinary readers. The 

 term "horse-power," then, is used as the unit of 

 force in the description of steam engines. Instead 

 of saying that an engine has a power of lifting or 

 propelling so many pounds, it is said to be of so 

 much "horse-power." The power exerted by a 

 horse, is taken to be equal to the pull or lift of 

 33,000 pounds, at the rate of one foot per minute, 

 as this has been found to be about the mean of a 

 good many observations and experiments. It has 

 been found, for example, that a pair of horses will 

 draw a plow along with an average ])ull of 300 

 pounds, as shown by a dynameter, like common 

 spring steelyards, at an average rate of 2^, miles 

 per hour, or 220 feet per minute. Now, this is the 

 same as if those 300 pounds were pulled over a 

 pulley, or lifted that height in that time ; and 300 

 pounds lifted 220 feet per minute, is just the 

 same as 66,000 pounds, lifted one foot "high per 

 minute- The half of this performance of a pair 

 of horses gives us 33,000 pounds, as the force of 

 a single horse, and with this meaning it is used 

 by engineers. — Country Gentleman. 



