544 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



plan of doing business makes the manure ready to be cast into 

 lieaps as soon as the frost is out of the ground, where it will rot in 

 time to be put on meadows or wheat in the tail. Using machines 

 as we did last fall, we now have immense stacks of poor stained 

 straw in the yards that cannot be rotted in time for next fall's 

 manuring. 



When the country was new we had land to clear and lumber 

 to make in the winter. This has gone by; and what can we find 

 for the men we must have in the summer to do in the winter, if 

 we hire these immense ten horse power machines to come, and in 

 a w^eek do what these men can do, cheaper and quite as well, in 

 the course of the winter ? In countries where the grain cannot 

 be housed, of course it must be thrashed at once; but where it can 

 be housed, unless there is a strong prospect of a great fall in prices, 

 as was the case last season, the farmer will find it to his profit to 

 keep this winter work for his men that he cannot do without in 

 the summer, and by doing this he can raise a few sheep, calves 

 and a colt or two without losing money on them. 



The large ten horse thrashing machine is moving out of this 

 State, and Emery's, or some other little affair, and the flail are 

 taking its place. Economy we must study in every branch of 

 farming, or go behind; and here in Onondaga we find that grain 

 raising does best when combined with some stock-raising. And 

 as our great outlay is for labor, we must study and find out the 

 most economical plan of employing men. We have on our farm 

 five families, living in houses built for them. In the summer we 

 require the services of all the male members large and strong 

 enough to be useful. In the winter these men must be employed, 

 or their summer wages must be very high to support them in 

 idleness in the winter. Thrashing is the only employment the 

 farm can give them, and in this view, thrashing, in fact, costs 

 but little; for the money paid to these men during the winter 

 enables us to employ them in the summer at reasonable prices. 

 The result, to them, is constant employment; to us, economy in 

 the first cost of thrashing, and great collateral advantages- 

 Among them, facility of converting part of the straw into manure, 

 keeping the remainder in a fit condition to be sold, wintering 



