249 



For the Southern Planter. 

 ECONOMY OF FARM LABOR. 



There is no subject of greater importance to 

 the farmer than the judicious application of his 

 farm labor, and there is none that receives so 

 little of his attention. False economy often in- 

 duces men to use an old worn-out tool when, for 

 want of a good one, they lose more every hour 

 than would pay for two. A wood-cutter with 

 an old stumpy axe labors hard all day and is 

 dispirited because he has nothing to show for 

 his labor; he is scolded probably for what is en- 

 tirely the fault of the tool: with a good tool he 

 is active and cheerful, because he feels that his 

 day's work will speak for itself. Some men use 

 wooden pitchforks for hay ; the time lost in 

 hunting for a proper stick and in cutting it, 

 would often secure as much hay as would pay 

 for two steel ones ; and then to see a man make 

 five or six ineffectual efforts to stick the fork into 

 a pile of hay, and at last take up about one-third 

 of what he might with a good one, and having 

 one-half of that falling back into his face, is 

 enough to disgust any body in the world who 

 loves to see work done as it ought to be. It is 

 the same thing with dung forks. Give an or- 

 dinary hand a good steel fork and he will load 

 a cart in less time than the best hand will with 

 an inferior one — but to observe the indifference 

 of our farmers to such things is to me, who have 

 been used to different things, a matter of asto- 

 nish men I 



RAKING UP HAY. 



As I observed in your paper once before, one 

 man with a horse rake is as good as four and 1 

 believe six with the ordinary hand implements. 

 Pine beards for compost should be collected 

 whilst the ground is wet ; then a portion of 

 earth is taken up with them, which keeps them 

 compact, and a cart carries in the same bulk 

 double the weight. The size of the manure 

 heap depends upon the facility with which it is 

 accumulated ; what we obtain easily we use 

 bountifully. As to the 



APPLICATION OF MANURE. 



Suppose a farmer has twenty head of cattle ; 

 he pens them in his farm-yard and hauls in 

 trash to litter it with. In this Way he may 

 make eight hundred loads of manure, which it 

 will take him eighty days, at ten loads a day, 

 to haul out upon his fields. Of this probably 

 five hundred were litter, which it has taken him 

 fifty days to haul in. Here is one hundred and 

 thirty days employed in hauling. Suppose, in- 

 stead of this, he pens his cattle upon his ground 

 previously broken up, on a quarter acre at a 

 time, and hauls the five hundred loads of litter 

 directly to these pens of ploughed land, is it not 

 evident that he gets the same amount of manure 

 with fifty days hauling, instead of one hundred 

 Vol. IV.— 32 



and thirty? If this process is followed, and 

 lime added where the soil is deficient in it, the 

 loss from evaporation and washing is less than 

 by any other means that I know of, and cer- 

 tainly the saving in labor is very great. 



HOURS AND WEATHER FOR WORK. 



It is bad economy to rouse your hands, as 

 some do, by starlight, keep them at vvork for 

 several hours on an empty stomach, make them 

 guzzle down their meals, and off again to work 

 as long as they can see, and then depend upon 

 their feeding in the dark. Some think a little 

 rain wont hurt, and drive on through a drizzle ; 

 the body hot from work and the skin cool from 

 rain, induces cold, and lays the foundation often- 

 times of the very worst diseases. The loss of 

 time, and sometimes of life, from such causes, 

 together with the doctor's bill, doubles the amount 

 of gain that can ever accrue from such means. 



The following is my plan of 



WORKING CORN. 



Lay off the corn rows deep with a two-horse 

 plough ; plant in the bottom with the usual co- 

 vering ; then when high enough to work, put in 

 the cultivator so that the right hand tooth will 

 split the edge of the furrow on each side, and 

 the corn will be wed, and hilled a little, and the 

 ground left light and fine, without hoeing. Now 

 be not deceived here ; deep planting is not deep 

 covering. Plant deep down, but cover light, and 

 when well rooted below, work as above directed, 

 and your corn will bear working close to the 

 stalk, and will, in my opinion, when the dry 

 weather comes, bear working at least ten days 

 longer. 



I could enumerate many other points afford- 

 ing a fair scope for the exercise of economy in 

 labor, but it is probable that he who will not 

 take the hint from what has been alreadj- said, 

 'would hardly be profited by a more detailed 

 view of the subject. I will close this communi- 

 cation by a single other remark upon tools in 

 general, and one of my own in particular. It 

 may be asked, shall we throw away our old 

 tools and buj r new ones 1 I answer, if your 

 good fork is worn too short for a strong man to 

 make a good day's work, give it to a boy, or 

 keep it for work that, may injure a new one ; 

 but never expect a full day's work from a good 

 hand with an inferior tool. 



I would mention an implement of my own 

 invention for cutting down and picking up corn ; 

 it is the circular part of an old reap hook, with 

 a shank bent to it, which is a little turned and 

 driven into a short handle : with it when ground 

 keen, a man can cut with the right hand and 

 heap with the left as fast as one can cut and 

 another heap in the Ordinary way. 



My aim in this communication is to encou- 

 rage those who are without means to be then 1 



