1861.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Q09 
being hard and dry, the stalks will not get wet 
or soiled, and will be nibbled pretty close and 
clean. In thawing weather, feed out hay or 
straw in racks, where it will not he wasted. 
A still closer economy will cut up the stalks 
fine with a straw cutter and feed them out with 
meal, steamed and mixed together. A small 
farmer may do this, and cut the stalks with his 
own hands. But he who keeps much stock, will 
have to use horse-power for cutting, otherwise 
his patience will soon give out. 
■--—•—»»»-—»«■- 
Tim Bunker on Buying 1 a Farm. 
Me. Editor :—Deacon Smith has just been in 
to talk over the matter of buying a farm for his 
son David. You see, I have lots of neighbors 
that come to’ me regularly for advice, since I 
took to writing for the papers. I expect I have 
about as much business of this kind on my hands 
as if I had advertised, “Timothy Bunker, Esq., 
Consulting Agriculturist.” How that card 
would look in the papers! If a neighbor wants to 
buy a horse, I am expected to tell him whether 
he is sound, just as if I could read his in’ards 
like a hook. If another wants to sow wheat, he 
seems to think it won’t grow, until I have told 
what lot to sow it on. I declare I believe some 
of them think water wont run in a tile, unless I 
have squinted along the bore and told them just 
how much fall they must have to the 100 feet. 
You see, the farming business has not caved 
in yet, notwithstanding the hard times. A good 
many of the factories have stopped, and some 
mechanics that have been doing pretty well, are 
now idle. Nobody now wants to buy a fine 
carriage, or to build a splendid house. People 
who have money do not like to spend it for ar¬ 
ticles of luxury, and people who have got their 
living by making these things, have been thrown 
out of employment. But the oldest of all em¬ 
ployments is yet a thriving business, though the 
profits are not quite equal to what they have 
been. We must have breastworks for the war, 
and when the war is over, there will still be a 
demand for the fortifications inside. We buy 
and sell farms out here, and expect to for some 
time to come. I rather think farming will be 
the best business going for some years ahead. 
As a people, we have been living altogether too 
fast, for the last twenty years. The change in 
the style of living would make the bones of our 
fathers rattle in their graves. We have got to 
come back to a more simple mode of life, and 
spend less on our stomachs, and a good deal less 
on our backs, especially our women. Only to 
think of a thousand dollar shawl on one woman 
—a whole farm with its fifty acres of soil on the 
shoulders of one individual ? They do say the 
like of it might be seen in your City less than a 
year ago. I rather guess some of them fast 
men with their fast women are wishing they 
had some of their scattered coin back again in 
their tills. Why, my mother, bless her memory, 
never spent a thousand dollars for dress in her 
whole life, and she lived to be eighty. Now 
there is reason in all things, as she used to say, 
and we have got to be a good deal more reason¬ 
able in our family expenses, or slump through. 
This war will bring all our people to their bear¬ 
ings, and make us spend our money for some¬ 
thing worth having—for a principle, and not 
for pudding and pomatum. There will be some 
satisfaction in knowing that we have maintain¬ 
ed the liberties and the blessed institutions hand¬ 
ed down from our fathers, at any cost. I have 
given my boy to this cause, and if I have to give 
my firm, I think I shall grow rich by the oper¬ 
ation. What is property worth to Tim Bunker 
when his country is lost ? I have thought a 
good deal about this war, especially since John 
enlisted, and I have made up my mind that it 
will have a great many advantages as well as 
evils. It will stop this fast living and extrava¬ 
gance, and bring back a great many to the sim¬ 
ple habits, and sterling virtues of our fathers. 
It is better to make sacrifices for a noble cause, 
than to make money. 
A good many, like Deacon Smith’s son David, 
are beginning to see a comfortable, honest, hap¬ 
py life on a farm, who would otherwise have 
been tempted to try their fortunes in the City, 
and gone to ruin like the thousands before them. 
I have thought a good many would be looking 
toward the farm this Fall, and the substance of 
my talk with the Deacon, might be useful. 
I lay it down as a principle, that a man ought 
to own at least half the capital he means to 
invest in farming. If a man has nothing but la¬ 
bor to dispose of, he should sell his labor to the 
best advantage, until he accumulates sufficient 
capital to set him up in business. Not one man 
in a hundred will succeed, who runs in debt for 
his farm and stock. There must be several 
hundred dollars of interest money to pay every 
year, and this will be a heavy load to carry, 
with all the other expenses. But if he have 
money enough to buy a hundred acres of land, 
he may safely run in debt for the tools and stock. 
We must have some floating capital always on 
hand, to take advantage of the times, and buy 
cheap when we can. If a man wants more stock, 
it is better to buy it when stock is low, than 
when it is very high. Some times a little extra 
manure will help out a crop wonderfully, and 
fifty dollars spent in guano, or bone dust, will 
bring back a hundred in less than six months. 
It is very important to have the fifty dollars 
where you can lay your hand on it. 
Then a man ought to consider his own habits 
and tastes, in the location of his farm. This is 
especially important to men who have lived in 
the City, and enjoyed its advantages. Society 
is much more a necessity to them than to a 
man who has always lived in the country. He 
will feel uneasy without the daily mail, and a 
little of the stir to which he has been accustom¬ 
ed. He should by all means locate near a vil¬ 
lage, or on the line of some railroad. The farm, 
good as it is, will not be a substitute for every 
thing he has been accustomed to. And if a 
man have been bred to this business, he should 
consider what particular department of husband¬ 
ry he likes best. A man bred to the routine of 
a grain farm, would probably do better with 
this, than with a stock farm. It is less import¬ 
ant that a grain farm should be near a village, 
or City, than a farm where a mixed husbandry 
prevails, and where a near market is essential. 
A man with a genius for trade, should locate 
near a good market, and raise every thing that 
sells well, both animal and vegetable products. 
If one has a fancy for stock, cheap land and a 
wide range of pasturage are essential to success. 
A valuable horse or yoke of cattle may as well 
be marketed a hundred miles off, as sold upon 
the farm. Most of the horses and beef cattle 
sold in your city are raised from a thousand to 
fifteen hundred miles away. Land worth a hun¬ 
dred dollars and upward an acre, as many of 
the farms are near cities, can not be devoted 
profitably to pastures. They are worth more 
for something else. 
It is always well to remember, in making a 
purchase of so much importance, that farms, as 
well as men, have a good or bad reputation, that 
is generally deserved. Some farms are so fertile, 
so well proportioned, or so convenient to mark¬ 
et, that they have always kept their owners in 
thriving circumstances. Trace their history 
clear back to the first settlement of the country, 
and you will find every owner what the world 
calls a lucky fellow. Other farms have the 
name of always keeping their owners poor. 
Sometimes they are in an unhealthy district, and 
much sickness has made large doctor’s bills. 
Now unless you know just what the secret of 
an unlucky farm is, and can remedy it, avoid 
such a spot as you would the poor-house. You 
can not afford to try many experiments in a 
matter of so much importance. Is it a swamp 
that needs draining? You may safely venture, 
for there is wealth as well as health in knocking 
the bottom out of it. But as a rule, it is better 
to buy a farm that has a good reputation. If it 
has made others prosperous, with better hus¬ 
bandry it may make you rich. 
Yours to command, 
Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Hookertown , Sept. !th, 1861. 
---—- 
Pulverize the Soil. 
Jethro Tull was not infallible, but he said 
many good and true things. Here is one of his 
paragraphs: 
“ The finer land is made by tillage, the richer 
will it become, and the more plants it will main¬ 
tain. It has been observed that when part of a 
ground has been better tilled than the rest, and 
the whole ground constantly managed alike af¬ 
terward, for six or seven years successively, this 
part that was but once better tilled, always pro¬ 
duced a better crop than the rest, and the differ¬ 
ence remained very visible every harvest.” 
Very well said, but must be taken with some 
abatement. What is true of one soil, is not of 
all. For instance: strong, clay land, rich in all 
the elements of vegetable growth, but which aro 
locked up in compact masses of earth, will be 
greatly benefited by thorough pulverization. 
Begin in the Spring with a system of under¬ 
draining, to take off the surplus water beneath; 
follow up with a heavy plow and the harrow, 
keep the cultivator and the hoe bright all Sum¬ 
mer, and the fertility of the land will be largely 
augmented. And this process may be continued 
for several years with like good results. Thor¬ 
ough tillage renders avi’Htible certain unassimi¬ 
lated elements in the earth, and brings the soil 
into the most favorable state for absorbing valu¬ 
able gases from the atmosphere. 
But hardly the same results can be expected 
on light soils. They contain comparatively few 
of those elements of plant-structure which are 
found in rich clays, and they do not need pul¬ 
verizing to render them pervious to light and 
air. Of course, if the basis of fertility is not 
there, no mere mechanical working can bring it 
in. Yet, by good tillage and rotation of crops, 
the frequent turning under of clover, and re¬ 
turning to the land all the manure made on the 
farm, any soil can be made productive. 
A Good Law Disregarded. 
It is a law of New-York State, that the Over¬ 
seers of the Highway, in each town, shall “ cause 
the noxious weeds ou each side of the highway 
within their respective districts, to be cut down 
or destroyed, twice in each year, once before the 
first day of July, and again before the first day 
of September; and the requisite labor shall be 
considered highway work.” 
And this law has a penalty, too. Neglect of 
