332 
Management of a Suburban Farm. 
deep cultivation and a plentiful supply of manure, the land, which 
was naturally poor, has improved under such treatment. I find 
also that I can make this manure cheaper on my own premises, 
taking into consideration all the attendant expenses, than I can 
purchase it. Indeed, on this latter point I believe that farmers 
very generally deceive themselves. Partly owing to prohibitions 
in their leases to sell straw, and partly from a habit of looking 
at the size of their dung-heap, instead of calculating its quality, 
they have been content with spreading ten cart loads per acre 
of dirty litter from a fold-yard, and calling it a dressing ; whereas, 
if they were allowed to sell a part of it, and were to cut up a 
good portion for cattle food, mixed with bought cake or meal 
and chopped roots, they would still find that enough remained, 
if used economically, and under cover from rain, to absorb the 
excreta of three times as much stock as they now keep loose in a 
straw-yard. The same number of cart-loads per acre would then 
double the amount of the crops produced, and even at present 
prices leave a very handsome balance to the farmer. While 
meat and wool are dear and offal corn so cheap, I believe that 
manure can be made for nothing ; deep cultivation, therefore, 
with thorough manuring and great attention to cleanliness, will 
enable any man to follow my rotation with the same result. As 
roads improve and railway stations multiply, every farm is be- 
coming comparatively more suburban — that is, nearer to the 
dearest market for sale of bulky produce, and to the cheapest for 
the purchase of feeding-stuffs or manures. With this encourage- 
ment, let the agriculturist deepen his soil gradual^, using an 
admixture of the subsoil to freshen the top-soil ; he will then 
find his crops annually increasing, and his land less dependent 
on a wet or dry season. When he realises, as I have attempted 
to show he may do, a net increase of 30s. to 40s. per acre, he 
will not grudge his landlord an extra rent. Should he succeed 
in so doing, he will be ready to thank me for publishing my 
experience. Should he fail on the first trial, as I did, let him 
not despair nor charge the drought or the blight with having 
caused his ill-success ; but, putting his faith in the bounteous 
gifts of Nature, let him redouble his efforts after clean, deep 
cultivation, with high manuring, and he will assuredly not lose 
his reward. 
