242 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
stores as clerks, get into a law office, follow 
off a circus, or go to California. If the pa¬ 
ternal farm were not large enough to be 
partitioned off for their occupation, they 
bought adjoining farms with the savings of 
their industry, or sought homes in the new 
lands of the west. In all conditions of life, 
we think, the people of those slower days 
enjoyed a far greater degree of contentment, 
and tranquil happiness, than now. Fashion¬ 
able evening parties, extending far into the 
morning, as they now have them, were not 
known. Social parties and gatherings they 
had, however, in sufficient number. Thfe 
afternoons and early evenings were devoted 
to them, from which they departed at early 
bed-time ; and the nextj morning, instead of 
headaches far into the day, found them as 
blithe as larks at the peep of sun, and ready 
for their daily duties. Females either rode 
on horseback, or drove themselves out, in 
their neighborhood calls or visits, in their 
comfortable chairs, without the aid of serv¬ 
ant or footman. A tasty calico, a white 
muslin, or a gingham dress, became their 
comely forms with perfect grace for any oc¬ 
casion ; and the storekeepers’ bills for ex¬ 
travagant silks were seldom or never pre¬ 
sented, to exhaust the purses of their hus¬ 
bands or fathers. Farms were seldom mort¬ 
gaged, and neighbors’ notes less frequently 
endorsed than now, for the purpose of in¬ 
vestment in doubtful speculations. Credits 
were not so frequent, nor so much extended, 
and those which were contracted, more 
punctually paid, and the word of men in pe¬ 
cuniary engagements were more rigidly re¬ 
garded. They had no railroads to speed 
them on like lightning, past friends and rela- 
atives which they would have traveled a 
hundred miles to spend *a week with, but 
whom now they have not time to stop an 
hour and see. Stealing of rponey—now 
called defalcation —belonging to their employ¬ 
ers, and the robbery of trust funds—now 
called embezzlement —were scarcely known; 
and when detected, were summarily pun¬ 
ished, and the culprit disgraced in society, 
instead of permitting him to retire in wealth 
and the enjoyment of a grand house, and as 
he passes along the streets in his gorgeous 
chariot, drive over the victims of his crime. 
If a man committed murder, he was forth¬ 
with tried, and afterwards hung for it—out 
of doors, too, where the world could know 
that justice had been done. 
How things are now , and how much better 
they are, each and every reader of our lucu¬ 
brations can answer for himself. 
Lambing in November. —On Tuesday last, 
six ewes of the Dorsetshire breed, belong¬ 
ing to Mr. Cruickshank Gloves, presented 
their owner with a couple of lambs each; 
and, what is no less extraordinary, 40 other 
ewes of the same stock are expected to 
lamb this week ! These lambs will, there¬ 
fore, be ready for the butchery by Christ¬ 
mas. It is something unusual in this quar¬ 
ter to see a flock of ewes suckling their 
lambs in the begining of winter ; and but for 
the enterprize of Mr. Cruickshank in taking 
the initiative in the introduction of this 
famed breed of sheep, we would not have 
had the novelty to record. We trust the 
success of the speculation will be such as to 
induce this eminent stock-breeder to add 
even further to the benefits which in this re¬ 
spect he has already conferred upon the 
country. [Elgin Courier. 
For the American Agriculturist . 
CENT PER CENT. 
Messrs. Editors: We often hear of the 
great profits made by Wall-street specula¬ 
tors, and as I have been into a little profita¬ 
ble speculation in farming during the past 
year, allow me to communicate some of the 
details to others, that they may go and do 
likewise. 
A year ago a friend asked me to invest 
two dollars in the American Agriculturist. 
I asked him if he thought it would pay, to 
which he replied that if I would keep an ac¬ 
count of expenses and profits he would guar¬ 
antee me against loss. Well here are some 
of the particulars: 
During the winter the paper advised us to 
raise all the spring crops possible, as there 
was a prospect of high prices. The article 
set me to thinking, and I put in 7k acres 
more of spring wheat than I should other¬ 
wise have done. I followed the hints given 
in the number of March 22. That, crop 
yielded me $46 50 clear profit. 
March 15th an article advised me to try 
sugar beets. This led me to cultivate an 
acre, following the directions laid down, and 
I have 280 bushels, costing, all told, nine cts. 
per bushel, and worth now at least 20 cents— 
a clear profit of $30 80. 
Reading an article in the paper of April 
5th, on “ Home-made Supherphosphate,” I 
sent as you may remember for an extra num¬ 
ber of Nov. 3,1853, containing directions for 
making it. Gathering up some bones about 
my farm I procured 135 lbs. of sulphuric acid 
and made up a preparation which cost me, 
labor included, $7 30. I applied this to one 
half of a field of corn, and the result was 32 
bushels more of corn than was produced on 
the other half of the field. This at 80 cents 
per bushel gives me a clear profit of $16 70. 
May 17th, in answer to the question, “ will 
there be a great drouth the coming summer I” 
you urged your readers to prepare for such 
an emergency, by sowing corn for fod¬ 
der. I had never seen this done, but acting 
upon the suggestions I sowed 3k acres of 
corn in drills. The cultivation cost me less 
than $20, and when the dry weather came on 
that crop luas worth to my stock not less than 
one hundred dollars —a certain profit of at 
least $80. My $2 have thus, in four particu¬ 
lars alone, returned me an absolute profit of 
not less than $174 00. Can Wall-street 
beat this '? But I have not enumerated many 
other items of profit derived from various ar¬ 
ticles treating of the garden, of stock, of 
summer crops, and especially from your 
Editor’s Farm Notes. I hope you will give 
us a large number of these chapters next 
year, for I like to learn just how others are 
carrying on their farm operations. The few 
chapters already given have made known to 
me the mames and practices of half a dozen 
fellow farmers, who now seem like neigh¬ 
bors or familiar acquaintances. Indeed I 
went ten miles just to visit one of the far¬ 
mers you described and formed a pleasant 
new acquaintance and learned much that is 
of interest and profit to me. Please come 
our way next season. 
Let me add something more. My wife 
and children look for your paper with far 
more interest than they do for Harper’s maga¬ 
zine. I hope you will make no change in 
its character. It is just such a magazine as 
we farmers want. As a slight token of my 
gratitude for what the American Agriculturist 
has done for me, I send you $8, for the pa¬ 
per for myself, and four of my relatives, re¬ 
siding in the towns named below. You will J 
also receive a club of ten new subscribers 
from one of my neighbors. I send thus earlv. 
that I may not lose a single number. I would 
not be without your paper next near if it 
cost me $100. I will keep an account, and 
a year hence send you the result of my 
profits or losses from reading it, I have no 
losses to report this year. 
A NEW-JERSEY FARMER 
Middlesex Co, N. J. Dec. 15, 1854. 
We thank our friend for the above items. 
From other sources we have encouraging let¬ 
ters of like character. We shall greatly ex¬ 
tend our “Farm Notes” the coming year, and 
do our part to make farmers more acquainted 
with each other. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
REPORTS OF FARM EXPERIMENTS. 
varieties of wheat, manuring, etc. 
I wish to report through your invaluable 
journal the way I manured a certain piece 
of land and the result obtained. The soil ie 
mostly composed of red sand, and dry with 
the exception of a small corner, which is 
flat and of a more compact nature. The rest 
has a gradual descent. Previous to the spring 
of 1852, it was in grass for several succes¬ 
sive years, and producing only about half of 
a ton of hay per acre. In the spring of 1852 
I turned over the sod to about the depth of 
six or eight inches. I sowed it with oats, 
and only obtained an indifferent crop. In the 
fall of 1852, I hauled decomposed manure on 
part of it, hut did not get it spread. In the 
spring of 1853, I finished the remainder with 
unrotted stable manure, applying it at the rate 
of fifty (twenty-five bushel) loads to the acre. 
The land was plowed but once to about the 
depth of ten or eleven inches. The result 
was a good crop of potatoes, though they 
rotted very badly, but much worse when the 
unrotted manure was applied. 
Last spring, on the thirteenth day of May, 
I plowed part of it to the depth of ten or 
eleven inches, and sowed it with black sea 
wheat on the seventeenth of the same month 
The result was a poor crop of straw and the 
grain about half destroyed with the wheat 
midge. The remainder I plowed the thirti¬ 
eth day of May, about eight or ten inches 
deep ; part I sowed with black sea wheat, 
part with red bald wheat, part with bald bar¬ 
ley, and the remainder with peas ; (the barley 
and peas were on the old manure). The re¬ 
sult was a very fair crop of wheat straw, 
some spots stout and some middling, produc¬ 
ing as much again straw to the acre as the 
first piece. The black sea was exempt from 
the wheat midge, and the red bald nearly so. 
The latter ripened a few days earlier than 
the other. The bailey furnished only a mid¬ 
dling crop of straw, but well filled. The 
peas a good crop. The above was sown on 
the last day of May. 
I must not omit that, when sowing the bar¬ 
ley, I missed a small spot, and another bit, 
on the wet corner of the field, I sowed too 
thin. On the tenth day of June, I sowed 
both these spots. The result was that both 
of them grew fully three times as much straw 
as the other adjoining, and ripened almost as 
soon as the other. I can not account for the f 
difference of the two pieces of wheat, except 
that the former was plowed a little deeper 
and sown somewhat earlier. As respects 
the two small pieces of barley growing so 
much stouter than the rest, I think the rea 
son was that the land got nicely warmed, be¬ 
ing stirred with the harrow, so as to admit of 
the air to circulate through the warm soil. 
If you will give me your opinion on the above 
you will oblige a tiller of the soil. M. $. 
Lower Coverdale, December 4, 1854. 
There are fifty-three Sundays in 1854. 
