Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 359 



fertilizing crops shall occupy a certain area of the whole tillage every 

 year. For example, I made a study of the system of Robert Leeds, 

 a well known and able farmer, on 1,160 acres, 1,000 under active tillage 

 in rotation, and 160 in pasture and permanent meadow. He divides 

 and rotates as follows : 250 acres in roots, 250 acres in wheat, 250 

 acres in barley and oats, 250 acres in clover and timothy. If cither 

 of the crops goes beyond the quarter part, it is roots. Last year, he 

 had 300 acres in beets, ruta-bagas and turnips. I saw him taking 

 thirty-five large cart-loads of red beets from each acre. There must have 

 been thirty tons, 900 bushels, and the growth was alike all over those 

 300 acres. These 9,000 tons of roots were all eaten on the place. 

 His stock is 2,000 sheep, 150 fed cattle, besides pigs, calves and 

 horses. His sheep are all large and grow thy, fine animals — he finds 

 no profit in any others — mostly Southdowns. His fed cattle were 

 all Dnrhams, and looked like the choice pens at a Kentucky cattle 

 show. He calculates to add from thirty to eighty dollars to the value 

 of a steer in eight or nine months. His sales are 200 to 250 bullocks 

 and about 500 sheep annually. There I saw the admirable system 

 of box-feeding, which I wish our»fariners could be induced to adopt. 

 These boxes are 10x10, I judge, and quite high, made substantially 

 of inch or inch and a quarter stuff. The bullock goes in and stays 

 there till he is ready for the knife. They are sheltered and well 

 ventilated, ample to allow him to turn around, and lie or stand as he 

 pleases. The water and feed boxes are movable, up and down. In 

 a month after going in they may need to come up a foot to clear the 

 bedding. One box has oil meal, another cut roots, another hay, and 

 the fourth water. He can help himself at any time, and such gene- 

 rous bedding of clean straw is thrown to him that he eats some 

 of it, and the rest he tramples and converts with his droppings 

 into the best of manure. When he comes out, fat, he leaves say ten 

 cubic yards of this compost below him. The richness of this manure 

 may be judged from the fact that Mr. Leeds buys 300 tons of oil 

 cake annually. The grand secret of British farm success is heavy 

 stocking and high feeding. In no other way can they stand up to 

 rents that would appall one of us. If an English renter like Mr. 

 Leeds were to manage an American farm of the average cost per 

 acre as he does the one I visited, he would make the land pay its first 

 cost in two years, and perhaps in one. The lowest rental I heard 

 mentioned was about eight dollars an acre a year, and the highest 

 about thirty dollars. They all calculate to pay out as much for work 

 as the rent amounts to. Thus, on a great number of places, fifteen 



