418 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
itles for these ducks; they arrive at the feeding 
grounds in November, or earlier, and are allowed 
to remain undisturbed long enough for the influ¬ 
ence of the food to be manifested. They are pow¬ 
erful divers, and obtain their food from the bottom, 
the roots and buds at the base of the plant, being 
the portions they eat; they may often be seen cov¬ 
ering acres of their feeding grounds, and from their 
great abundance one would suppose that they could 
be captured very readily, while in reality it requires 
much skill and stratagem to get a shot at them. 
There are several methods of hunting from boats 
and from the shore. Boats and floats disguised in 
various ways are used, and batteries and screens 
are built upon the shore behind which the hunters 
conceal themselves ; favorable localities for hunt¬ 
ing are rented at high rates. The various methods 
of shooting were very abundantly illustrated in the 
American Agriculturist for Oct., 1868. In some cases 
those who make hunting a business, employ as 
many as 20 men, and send to market 15 to 20 barrels 
of ducks, including a large share of Canvas-Backs, 
weekly ; formerly enormous swivel-guns were used 
by which hundreds of birds were killed at a single 
discharge, but this destructive slaughter is now 
prevented by law. Pairs of Canvas-Backs some¬ 
times weigh as much as 12 lbs., but this is unusu¬ 
ally large ; they sell in the New York market at $2 
to $1 a pair, according to the season and supply, 
but are rarely less than the lower price ; consider¬ 
able numbers are shipped by steamer to England, 
where they find a ready sale at high prices. Sev¬ 
eral other ducks feed upon the Valisneria; the 
Red-head, which belongs to the same genus, has a 
broader and shorter bill, and a pure chestnut-col¬ 
ored head; when from the same feeding grounds, it 
is regarded as nearly equal to the Canvas-Back, and 
sells at a high price. The Bald-pate or American 
Widgeon, which has the top of its head white, 
feeds with the Canvas-Back, but not being so good 
a diver, it manages to steal the Valisneria from that 
bird, as it brings it up from the bottom, and by the 
residents in the localities where both birds abound, 
its flesh is preferred to that of the Canvas-Back. 
- t i -- 
Walks and Talks on the Farm,—Ho. 148. 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
Farming prospects have a far more cheerful look 
to me now than they had in the spring. Crops and 
prices turned out better than I expected. It is true, 
my wheat stubbles have a sorry look. It is bad 
enough to lose a crop, but the loss of the crop and 
the money one expected to get for it does not end 
the matter. A poor crop of wheat results in a luxuri¬ 
ant growth of weeds, and foul land for years to 
come. My barley turned out better than I antici¬ 
pated, and brought a good price. And the clover 
has taken better than on the wheat. 
The corn fodder is a grand crop, and the land is 
as clean as a garden. Potatoes were never so good, 
and corn is far better than the average. My sheep 
never did so well, and combing wool is affected by 
the dull times far less than fine and medium wool; 
and such will be the case for years to come. My 
pigs, too, are doing well, and the present and pro¬ 
spective high price of pork gives these animals an 
additional interest. They pay me much better 
than any other stock. And such, I think, would 
be the case, even if I sold none for breeders and 
disposed of the whole of them for pork. But of 
course we have to take the value of the manure into 
consideration. If it was not for the manure, we 
should not be able to compete with the west in the 
production of pork. 
My Northern Spy apple orchard is giving a good 
account of itself. Many of the trees are so loaded 
that the branches nearly touch the ground, and we 
have had to prop them. The North era Spy is an 
upright-growing tree and makes a close head, 
and I have been taking great pains to thin out 
the center and to encourage a more spreading 
growth. Now that the trees are coming into full 
bearing, I find that this was not so essential as I 
supposed. The branches arc long and slender, and 
bend like willows under their heavy load of large 
fruit. The idea of “letting in the sun ” by prun¬ 
ing out the center is not well founded. The main 
thing is to make the land rich. How this can best 
be done depends on circumstances. As I have fre¬ 
quently said, my main orchard is in grass, but I 
have a few trees that are in a dwarf pear orchard, 
where the land is cultivated and nothing grown 
under the trees. Then, in my garden, I have a row 
of some six or eight Northern Spy trees, where the 
land is cultivated and vegetables and fruits grown. 
In other words, I have (1st) an orchard kept in 
grass ; (2nd) a few trees growing in cultivated land 
kept fallow, and (3rd) a few trees in the garden, 
where the land is cultivated and planted with vege¬ 
tables. All the trees were set out at the same time, 
about 18 years ago. The trees in the garden pro¬ 
duce nothing of any value. They bear very little 
fruit, and what they do bear is knotty, ill-shaped, 
specked and wormy. I do not attribute the whole 
of this effect to the present mode of treatment, but 
in part, at least, to the fact that for eight or nine 
years after the trees were set out the land was in 
grass and weeds. The trees were set out on the 
west side of the garden, near the fence, and this 
strip of laud, for a rod or so wide, was entirely 
abandoned to weeds and grass. It was a convenient 
place for all the stones, sticks and rubbish of the 
garden. As might be expected, the trees made a 
poor growth, and they have not yet recovered from 
this early neglect. I propose now to keep the land 
fallow and manure it, and see if better treatment 
will produce better results. 
The trees in the pear orchard are not manured. 
They are kept in bare fallow, the land being plow¬ 
ed and cultivated several times every year, to keep 
down the weeds. Between these trees and the 
trees in the main orchard there is merely a rail- 
fence. It is, in fact, all one orchard. The only 
difference is that part is in bare fallow without ma¬ 
nure, and the other is in grass, top-dressed with 
manure and pastured with sheep. I cannot, at 
present, decide positively which is the better, so 
far as the trees and fruit are concerned. I think 
there are some indications in favor of the manure 
and grass treatment. It seems to me the fruit is a 
little higher colored in the grass orchard. And I 
have an idea that the grass and manure treatment 
will in the end prove to be the best. Two years 
ago this orchard produced about 100 barrels of 
choice fruit per acre, and apples being a poor crop 
generally, I got $3.25 per barrel. Last year I had 
a fair crop, but the general crop being large, I got 
little for the fruit. This year apples are generally 
a failure, and I suppose choice fruit will command 
high prices. 
I can sincerely say that I am very far from con¬ 
sidering piyself a good farmer. But I have great 
faith in good farming. And I feel sure that there 
is no country in the world where good farming, as 
compared with poor farming, is more profitable 
than in the United States. Our general agriculture 
is not of a high standard. There is very little cul¬ 
ture about it. We plow and sow—and reap what 
nature gives us. Sometimes the seasons are favor¬ 
able and we have good crops. But such crops 
rarely prove of much benefit to the farmer. They 
are good for the railroads and all interested in the 
carrying trade. I do not see any remedy for this 
state of things, except in better farming. 
Better farming would not necessarily give us 
more wheat and corn for exportation, taking one 
year with another. But it would give us a steadier 
supply. We should not have corn at 25 cents a 
bushel in a favorable season, and 75 cents in an un¬ 
favorable one, for the simple reason that better 
farming requires us to consume more of our corn 
at home on the farm. Better farming would ena¬ 
ble us to keep the millions of dollars which we now 
send out of the country for wool, barley, and gar¬ 
den and vegetable seeds. We could export more 
pork, bacon, hams, and lard. And it looks now as 
though we should be able to export live cattle and 
sheep to Great Britain. At any rate we could eat 
less pork and more beef and mutton at home. Our 
bacon and pork, as it improves in quality, will be 
in great demand at higher prices. It is clear to my 
mind that if we raised better crops and fed out 
more of our produce on the farm, it would be a 
great national blessing. But it is not necessary to 
discuss this point. We have to look at things as 
they are. What you and I want to know is how to 
make more money by farming. It is hardly worth 
while asking what would be the effect if everybody 
farmed in the best manner. As individual farmers- 
we are competing with each other, and selling in a 
common market. Our aim must be to lessen the 
cost of production and to raise such articles as will 
command the best prices. 
We can lower the cost of production by raising 
larger crops per acre, or by keeping such animals 
as give more milk and grow more rapidly in pro¬ 
portion to the food consumed. Prices depend on 
supply and demand. In feeding animals we can 
make close estimates as to the cost of our products, 
but in raising crops, the influence of the season, of 
mildew and frost, of rain and drouth and'insects* 
must never be forgotten. Nothing we can do will 
ever make us independent of the weather. But it 
is certainly true, as a rule, that the good farmer 
suffers less from adverse seasons, insects, etc., than 
the farmer whose land is undrained, poor and 
weedy. During Mr. Lawes’ twenty years’ experi¬ 
ments on barley, the least yield on the plot without 
manure was 15 bushels per acre. The same year 
the adjoining plot, dressed with barnyard manure, 
produced 48 bushels per acre. The largest yield of 
the unmanured plot during the twenty years was 
41 bushels per acre, while the plot adjoining, with 
barnyard manure, produced 65 bushels. In the 
favorable season we have on this continuously un- 
manured plot 44 bushels per acre, and in the unfa¬ 
vorable season 15 bushels, the average of the 20 
crops on the unmanured plot being 25 bushels per 
acre. In the unfavorable season we have 15 bush¬ 
els without manure and over 48 bushels with ma¬ 
nure. In the favorable season we have 44 bushels 
without manure, and 65 bushels with manure. 
Now, in talking to a man like the Deacon, we are 
pretty sure to hear of some great crop that was 
raised with little labor and less manure. If such a 
man had raised such a crop as the above, he would 
say, “ I had a piece of land that had had no manure 
for some years, that I sowed to barley, and got 44 
bushels per acre and 2,520 lbs. of straw.”—He 
would forget to tell that the very same field, with 
precisely the same treatment, only yielded 15 bush¬ 
els on another occasion. He would keep on year 
after year hoping to get 44 bushels again, overlook¬ 
ing the fact that when lye had a- large crop others 
had a large crop also, and the price was very low. 
Such an unusually favorable season in this country 
with our large area would send barley down to 50 
cents a bushel, while an unfavorable season would 
be likely to send it up to $1.50 to $2.00. Assuming- 
such to be the case, let us look how the matter 
would stand: 
NO MANURE. 
Bad Season— 15bushels@$1.50..$22 50. 
Good Season .-—44 “ @ 50c. 22 00. 
MANURED. 
Bad Season .—18 bushels @$1.50.$72 00. 
Good Season— 65 “ @ 50c.. 32 50. 
Bad seasons, like bad things generally, are more 
plentiful than the good. What we call good sea¬ 
sons are the exception; bad seasons are the rule. 
After deducting the seed, the interest on the land, 
and the expense of plowing, harrowing, rolling, 
drilling, and reaping, it will make a vast difference 
in the profits, whether we get in a bad season 15 
bushels or 48 bushels per acre. 
In this country there is even a greater difference 
between good and poor farming in a bad season 
than the figures taken from Mr. Lawes would indi¬ 
cate, for this reason: His unmanured land is as 
clean as he can make it, while in a poor season, our 
poorly farmed land would be pretty certain to be 
infested with weeds, and these would reduce our 
yield to such an extent that the crop might be 
hardly worth harvesting 
Looking at the matter in this light, I hope to be 
excused for again and again urging the importance 
of better farming. I have not much patience with 
those who say it will not pay. If you farm at all 
