1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
329 
A Pleasant Announcement. 
All our readers will be gratified to learn that 
Edward Eggleston has joined our editorial 
corps, and that hereafter his entire time and 
talent will be exclusively devoted to the pub- 
lications issued by Orange Judd <Sj Co. His 
attention will be given mainly to Hearth and 
Home, for the editorial work of which he has 
peculiar natural qualifications, and the benefit 
of much previous experience, as editor of the 
Little Corporal, the National Sunday-School 
TeacJiei; etc., and also for some time past as 
Superintending Editor of the New York Inde- 
pendent. The multitudes who have enjoyed 
his pleasant, instructive, and widely popular 
contributions to Scribner's Monthly, and •tlier 
magazines and periodicals, will be glad to know 
that lie has found a congenial home, where he 
can concentrate all his energies, and they will 
gladly follow him to this his new field of labor. 
We are glad to announce further, that Joseph 
H. Richards, long known to the newspaper 
world as publisher — for several years Inst past 
as Business Manager of the New York Evening 
Post — has joined the publishing force of 
Orange JnDD & Co., where his aid will doubt- 
less be especially valuable. 
A Working Capital of $200 per Acre. 
— * — 
The suggestion made on another page that 
$200 per acre might be used with profit, will bear 
explanation. It is susceptible of demonstration 
that even this large sum may, on a small farm, 
if not on a large one, be used to advantage. 
Let us take, as an example, a fair farm of 
fifty acres, in the condition in which hundreds 
of small places now exist — good, but not re- 
markable, with tolerable buildings, a good but 
rather wet soil in fair condition, fences good, 
and live-stock neithe'r good nor bad (just mid- 
dling, as the live-stock on such a farm usually 
is). The farm is worth, with its improvements, 
$6,000 ; stock and implements, including six 
cows, 9nc yoke of oxen, and a pair of horses, 
not less than than $1,500. Here is a capital of 
$7,500, on which taxes, interest, insurance, re- 
pairs, and renewals can not be covered by less 
than $600 a year. Add to this, for the farmer's 
own services, $600 more. Here is an outlay of 
$1,200. The income of the place may be set 
down as follows, which is an average case : 
Milkfi'om six ordinary cows, 12,000 quarts, @ 554c . $660 
Potatoes and other vegetables 500 
Hay 400 
Gram 200 
Pork 100 
Poultry and eggs 100 
Supplies for family (from the farm) 300 
House rent 140 
Total income $2,400 
Dednct: interest and services as above. .$1,200 
Hired man (wages and board) 500 
Seeds, store bills, blacksmith, harness- 
maker, etc., etc 300 2.6*0 
Profit • $400 
or $8 per acre. 
This is a very fair showing of much of the 
''good farming" on Eastern farms. Now, let 
us see what might be done on the same land, 
with a cash capital of $10,000 ($200 per acre). 
In the first place, the land that needs 
draining may be drained for (say forty acres at 
$70 per acre) $2,800. The buildings may be 
enlarged and made convenient for work for 
$1,500. The six ordinary cows can be sold off 
for $300, and twelve first-class ones can be 
bought for $1,200— making a difference of 
Five hundred pounds of good superphosphate 
per acre, or its equivalent in other manure, can 
be applied to the whole of the available land 
(say forty-five acres) for $600. New implements, 
including a steam-engine, cutting machine, etc., 
will cost $1,500. Placing fences so as to make 
the fields more convenient, the removal of old 
headlands, etc., may cost $400; and it wiH pay 
to spend $300 in subsoil plowing, etc. 
Wc have now made a permanent investment 
of $8,000 of our capital, where its value will 
depend very largely on the manner in which it 
is used ; and for its successful management we 
must be very careful in the handling of the 
$2,000 remaining. Of this sum, $1,000 had bet- 
ter be put in the bank against a time of need. 
With this outfit, and a good business man to 
manage it, let us see what we may accomplish. 
The income of the place may be thus stated : 
Milk from twelve extra goad cows, 30,000 quarts, 
@5'/ 2 c $1,!)S0 
Potatoes and other vegetables sold 1,500 
Grain sold 500 
Pork 500 
Poultry and eggs 200 
Supplies for family from farm 300 
House rent 140 
Interest on cash for use 80 
Total income $5,200 
Beduct: Interest and services as above. .$1,200 
Interest on $10,000 700 
Hired man and boy 750 
Extra man in summer 250 
SeedB, store bills, etc 500 3,4»0 
Profit $1,800 
or $36 per acre. 
Nor is this the whole story. It is hardly the 
half of it. In the first instance, what with 
the sale of hay and the keeping of a small 
stock of cattle and swine, the farm is sure to 
run down, so that in a few years its balance 
will show on the wrong 
side of the account, and 
its owner will emigrate or 
go into trade, la the latter : 3|JBp-- / 
instance, where we have Ip^Hl 1 ^ 
understated the early possi- ' 
bilities, the future improve- 
ment of the farm may be set 
down as absolutely secure. 
Every year the number of F - 
cows may be increased, and 
the product of the land will grow larger every 
year. It is not too much to saj' that at the end 
of ten years the borrowed capital may all be 
paid off, and the yearly profit per acre may be 
doubled. 
With $100 per acre, more than one half as 
much may be accomplished as with $200, and 
perhaps more in proportion with $50; but, 
whatever the amount, and whatever the farm, 
let it be distinctly understood that the man him- 
self is the true measure of his success. An 
idler, a dolt, or a novice attempting to carry 
out our suggestions, would run through his 
capital and swamp his w-hole farm — " as sure 
as eggs is eggs." 
Country Roads and Bridges. 
BY W. J. CHAMBERLAIN. HUDSON. O. 
es, have their ends resting on oak plank, a a, 
each about 15 feet long by 15 inches wide. The 
ends of the logs are hewn down so as to rest 
firmly on the planks. The stringers, c, e, etc., 
four in number, rest on the logs in the ordinary 
manner, then the planks, and then the wheel"- 
guards, e, e. Then holes are bored, and long 
Ve-iuch bolts,/,/, are passed from wheel-guard 
to foundation plank, through the hearts of the 
logs, about six iuches fjmi their ends, and short 
bolts, g, g, are put through stringers, planks, 
and wheel-g«ards. Still shorter ones, not seen 
in the figure, bolt the middle stringers to the 
planks. The long bolts have a nut on each end, 
for convenience, instead of a nut on one and a 
head on the other. If there were a head on the 
lower end, the bolt must be driven up from be- 
neath in building the bridge, which would be 
very difficult. If there were one at the top, the 
bolts would have to be drawn out to renew the 
planks, which would be almost impossible after 
they had rusted in for ten years. 
Abridge so built will last twenty years by 
renewing the planks once. The abutments can 
never be pressed in, for the long bolts hokllheni 
in pfcice. No freshet can wash away the bridge, 
unless it sweeps away the whole thing at once. 
If sandstone can be obtained within five miles, 
at a dollar a perch, it will not cost much more 
on the spot than oak logs, and make more dur- 
able abutments ; but in this case the whole bot- 
tom of the bridge shomld be covered with plank 
running lengthwise of the road and extending 
under the stone-work; and the bridge should 
be bolted as when built with logs. 
A bridge built of the size and in the manner 
described, with log abutments, will cost from 
4 . i. 
1.— CHEAP AND SUBSTANTIAL BRIDGE. 
$25 to $30; built with store abutments and 
full plank bottom, from $35 t i $45. 
The best small sluice is made by spiking firm- 
ly together four 2-inch planks, as represented 
in figure 2. The sides should be 4 inches nar- 
rower than the top and bottom, and the latter 
should be spiked on to the former. Then we 
have a box, square inside. It can not cam in, 
and never will choke up, and will last as long as 
oak fence-posts, and is really cheaper than the 
old-fashioned sluice made with two logs and a 
plank. Sewer-pipes are expensive, and are apt 
In an article published in July, there were 
given the location and the proper angle for 
bridges and sluices. I now propose to give some 
of the best methods of constructing them. 
Where white oak or other durable timber is 
plenty and sandstone is not, the cheapest and 
best bridge is made as represented in figure 1. 
Suppose we want a bridge 2 by 10 feet inside 
measure. Such a bridge will discbarge 56,000 
barrels per hour, or over a million in a da}'. 
The oak logs, b b, figure 1, 14 feet by 30 inch- 
Fig. 2.— SMALL SLUICE. 
to tip and heave, and then clog ; or to become 
exposed and broken by heavy wagons. 
The July article spoke at some length of Rule 
1st. The present article must speak more brief- 
ly of the remaining ones. 
liule 2<f. — Don't let the water have its oxen way. 
Not many miles from, my house is a hill half 
a mile long, and some 200 feet high. Last 
spring the water from one gutter near the top 
worked its way into the middle of the road, and 
followed a rut to the bottom of the hill. In six 
