THE CULTiVATOR 
a»rjn 
117 
HIRING HELP. 
Messes. Editoes —How common is the saying among 
a class of our farmers, “ Oh, I can't affora to hire.” The 
truth of the remark we are frequently, though reluctantly 
forced to admit. This class you will generally find to be 
an honest, well meaning, hard working set of men, who 
deserve a better reward f r their toils than they get; not- 
withstamling they are the very ones, I dare assert, who 
annually scrape over doisble the number of acres they 
ought, of land already exhausted by the unskillful hus- 
banilry of their fathers, and perhaps grandfathers before 
them. (Tins tenacity to old habits, which have no other 
recommendation but their antiquity, has been, and is yet 
a serious hindrance to the improvement of our agricul¬ 
ture.) Their broken down fences afford poor protection 
to the scant}' crops which they have extorted fi’om the 
earth. Their ill fed cattle, exposed to the peltings of 
winter storms, are suffered to roam at large about the 
farm or highway in search of food and shelter, leaving 
their manure, of so much value to the farmer, exposed 
to bleaching winds and rains, or where it cannot be 
available by them. This is indeed a lamentable state of 
things, blit no more deplorable than true; and you will 
generally find the other arrangements of the farm cor¬ 
responding. But to our text. We do not pretend to say 
hiring help would better their condition or remedy ex¬ 
isting evils, for they most assuredly cannot afford to hire 
help under this state of things. It would be preposterous 
to hire men to do hat which will not half pay. The 
success of employing extra labor does not depend so 
much upon the amount of labor employed, as upon the 
proper application of that labor. Labor is capital; ca¬ 
pital is money. Thus money, capital and labor, are the 
same; and it is evident the more money is profitably in¬ 
vested in any business, the greater the income to the ca¬ 
pitalist. This fact being established, proves the ground 
we have taken tenable; namely, that farmers can alFonl 
to hire help. Look at the iron manufacturer, or the pro¬ 
prietors of any of the manufacturing establishments in 
our country; with the labor of bis own hands alone, he 
can barely obtain support for himself and family. His 
prosperity mainly depends upon properly directing the 
operations, not only of his own hamls, but of others. 
Now the question arises how shall the farmer make 
a proper investment of such capital. Recent surveys, and 
more particularly agricultural periodicals, throw much 
light on this point. Read and adopt, for the skinning, 
the system of manures and rotation. Husband your ma¬ 
nure as carefully as your money; make your hogs work; 
tuin 0.11 refuse Sira w itiiii vcg-eiable rubbish to some ac¬ 
count, and you will not fail of success. In conclusion, 
lei me say, that if you conduct your farming operations 
in such a manner that you cannot afford to hire help to 
put every acre under good cultivation, you cannot afford 
to work yourself; yon had better sell your acres and 
*■ hire oat,” for if wages are too much to hire, the “day 
laborer” has an advantage over you; choose his occu¬ 
pation at once. Bridgeport, Conn., 1843. H. S. 
SEEDING GRA.SS LANDS, &c. 
Messes. Editors —In a former communication to you, 
I stated mv opinion that the raising of wheat by us Long 
Islanders, was only incurring a large expense in the out¬ 
set which could never be repaid by the crop itself; there¬ 
fore, last year, in spite of the remonstrances and ridicule 
of my brother farmers, I determined on laying down a 
field to Timothy alone; and believing that it was the 
wheat and not the grass that was the great exhauster of 
the soil, I argued that it was useless to put the same 
quantify of manure on the lot that is found to be neces¬ 
sary for wheat. I therefore put only about two-thirds 
the amount to the acre, and sowed it thickly in the month 
of October; and at the present time, (taking into consi¬ 
deration that my seed should hav'e been put in two months 
earlier, and that we have had extremely dry weather for 
nearly a montli,) my grass is looking finely, and I have 
every prospect of a goo.I, though a late yield of hay, the 
present year; and I think the fact of one-third of the 
manure being saved by this process, and of b°ing ena- 
bleil to cut a crop of hay the first season nearly or quite 
equal in value to a common crop of wheat, should cause 
the experiment to be fully tried. 
The year before last our fields were covered with that 
pest “ Johnswort,” and I went to the trouble in one in¬ 
stance, of cutting the weed down before the seed had ri¬ 
pened, raking them together, burning them, and then 
plowing the lot early in the fall; but it was labor thrown 
away; for the next season from some (to me,) unaccount¬ 
able cause, the weed'entirely disappeared from this sec¬ 
tion of country. 
Apropos of seeding down to grass. How would it an¬ 
swer to manure as I propose above, in the spring, and 
seed itdiwn with barley, timothy and clover? Would 
it cause the barley to lodge, and would the timothy be 
likely to do well planted at that season? In the vicinity 
of my house is a very steep hill-side, covered the last 
spring chiefly with dog-wood, which I had cut down 
land drawn down the hill by hand; thus having the same 
■eSkct on the crumbly soil as a fine or bush harrov/. This 
hi'K, without other preparation, I seeded with timothy, 
■and this year it has the luxuriant appearance of a new 
■meadow, bidding fair to yield good pas'ure, where be¬ 
fore nought but weeds or coarse grass grew.* 
iCas you tell what manure is the best for me to apply 
do a poKsr sandy gravelly hill field, to enable it to pro- 
tduce g'CKsJ grass, and resist the efTect of the summer sun? 
&oam 1 in abundance, but the field is so sidling 
that some more portable amelioration of the soil is re¬ 
quired.f 
I speak from experience of its good effects as a manure, 
in recommending' those having oiiporlunities oi obtain¬ 
ing sawilust, to fill up all holes in their pig pen and cow 
yard, and covering the bottoms of both with it, for it 
certainly makes a strong, portable and retentive manure. 
It will retain much of the more valuable parts of the 
manure that would otherwise be mostly lost. 
I see in your paper, frequent mention of, and answers 
to inquirers, on the various kinds of straw cutters, but 
the great objection to them is that the price is too high 
to authorize owners of small farms to purchase them. 
Can you inform me of any whose size an*, price corres¬ 
ponds with the labor required of them, on small farms of 
from 30 to 60 acres? J A. W. L. 
Hempstead Harbor, L, I., May 19, 1843. 
* We have long been in the habit of seeding lands to 
grass, in the manner respecting which our frieml inquires, 
with the exception that we prefer spring wheat or oats, 
to barle)', to sow with the seeils. 'I'he reason is, barley 
covers the ground more fully than the other grains, and 
as the young grass necessarily springs up and grows in 
the shade, if a hot sun and dry weather follows the cut¬ 
ting of the barley, it is frequently destructive to the grass. 
From this cause we have sometimes failed with grass 
seeds, when sown wi<h barley, but rarely, if ever, with 
oats or spring wheat. 
f It is evident no light portable manure, will correct 
the sandy light soil, of which our correspondent com¬ 
plains. It requires more firmness, and additional power 
of retaining moisture. This is best given by the adili- 
tion of clay in some form, and a clay marl would be the 
best of all. Loam would be useful, but its efl'ect, or its 
durability, much less than that of clay or marl. 
JWe know of no straw cutler which combines the 
strength and facilily of execution which this implement 
should possess, which can be afforded at less prices than 
those at which the improved straw cutters are sold. On 
a farm of not more than 30 or 40 acres, a straw cutter on 
the old plan of a guillotine blade and lever, wouUl, when 
well made, answer every purpose, and would not cost 
more than from three to five dollars. The expense of 
this implement, as of all odiers, must depend on its per¬ 
fection; and a straw cutter calculated to make chaff for a 
hundred head of cattle, must be expec’ed to cost more 
than one required only to do the work for a dozen head. 
CRESCENT BUTTON.—(Fig. 55.) 
A CHE.VP SUBSTITUTE FOR WINDOW SPRINGS. 
Messrs. Editors —Having adopied a very simple fast¬ 
ening for window sashes, I of¬ 
fer a description for your valua¬ 
ble paper, as it may benefit some 
of your readers, and save them 
the exjiense of spring fastenings. 
It is a button in the form of a 
crescent, about 2^ inches long, 
and attached to the sash on the 
left hand side, by a wood screw. 
It should turn easy on the screw, 
so that it may move by its own 
weight. When the sash is down, 
j, the iqipcr end drops into a notch 
in the casing, anil fastens it 
down. To raise the sash, place 
the thumb of the left hand on 
the lower end of the button, 
which will withdraw the other 
end from the notch, and allow 
the sash to be raised; and to 
fasten it up to any required dis¬ 
tance, press the lower end into 
the notch in thecasing made for 
that pur|) 0 se, and allow the 
weight of the sash to bear on 
the button before withdrawing 
pressure. To let down the sash, merely raise it so as to 
remove the weight from the biuton, when it will leave 
the notch, and allow the sash to be let down with one 
hand. The button may be made of any kind of firm 
wood, or of brass. F. 
Salubrity, S. C., 1843. 
BEST SYSTEM OF FARMING. 
the land is poor, the manure piles are poor also, and he 
finds that he can till it out of (he soil faster than he can 
return it to the soil. How is such a man to gel a S'art 
up hill? He has to look to the farm for his lii ing, pay¬ 
ing off his hamls, &c., and loo olien at the end of (he 
year he finds himself in laiher a light fix, and exiierien- 
ces no little ddficul y in making, as Iriend Uobinson sa}s, 
both ends meet, 'ihere are many of us who would be 
glad to siart right, if we only knew orcoulii be (old how, 
anil not be left to guess and sui niise for ourselves. IVly 
soil is clay loam resting on red or yellow clay, ami s:a- 
ble manure and .ashes will bring good crojis. Lime ap¬ 
pears to be of liiile benefit, or 1 Uid not apply it right. I 
jmt it on in ihe fall, and turned it in the next }ear for 
corn. Kent CO ., Btl., ms . J. G. Chambers. 
We hope some of our corresponden'.s acquainied with 
the best mode of treating such soils as that iiescribed by 
Mr. Chambers, will respond to his inquiry, and lay down 
not only the best mode of rotation on sueb soils, but ilie 
best course of restoring them to fertility when exhaiis ed 
by improper treatment. We once heard a young man 
complaining to an old and ex|)erienced one, whose suc¬ 
cess in farming gave a value to his opinions, that lie was 
unable to manure his land sufficiently to produce good 
crops. “ Then manure less,” was the reply cf (he vete¬ 
ran; “ if you have only manure enough for five or len 
acres, apply it to five or ten acres, and not spread it over 
twenty or fifty. A soil properly constituted, if once made 
rich, and then well irealed, is made rich foreicr. IMy 
farm was an exhausted one like yours, but I made it an 
invariable rule to cultivate no more than I could place 
in the best possible condition as 1 went along. If it was 
only five acres, well; if twenty acres, so much the bet¬ 
ter. Remember when your land is once rich, under a 
good rotation of crops, but little manuring will be re¬ 
quired to keep it so, or indeed eonstanlly improving.” 
This, at the time, we thought sound ducirine, and many 
years observation has confirmed th.s opinion, tmr fr.end, 
if he has peat, muck, or even turf at his disposal, may 
treble his manures by composting his stable manurrs, 
ashes, &c. with such matters, in the n anner adopted by 
the best farmers. We should think from the description 
of the soil, that lime, or rather a sondi; marl, would ope¬ 
rate favorably in its amelioration; but this is a manure 
from which immediate effects can rarely be expected. 
'I'he way for the young farmer to “s art right,” may 
be expressed in two words,—industry ; economy. Indus¬ 
trious in labor, industrious in the employment of time, 
industrious in the accumulation of knowledge, Ihe farm¬ 
er and the mechanic must be, or he has no right to expect 
success. Living a life of industry, does not imply a life 
of servitude. To suppose this would be as unjust as to 
imagine that a life of action must of necessity be a Tfe 
of misery. Industiy implies health, usefulness, a capa¬ 
city for happiness, and the power of attaining it. Eco¬ 
nomy is not less essential than industry to the man who 
would start right. It is not enough to earn money; the 
proper mode of disposing of it should be well considered. 
The great error of farmers, (and they are not alone in 
this matter,) is a jironeness to run into debt. More men 
have been rained in the United Slates, by having such 
good credits, than by any, or by all other causes. One 
half the articles that are now purchased on credit,would 
never be imrchased at all, if the cash down was demand¬ 
ed. When men purchase on credit, they are apt to con¬ 
sult their imagination or inclination; when they pur¬ 
chase for cash, they consult utility and necessity; and 
this alone will reduce the length and amount of their 
bills amazingly. But the man who is anxious to start 
anti progress right, will be extremely cautious how he 
adopts or practices any system, which under Ihe name 
of econprny, prompts him to cut off the fountains of in¬ 
telligence, and dry up his sources of knowledge. He 
knows that improvement is the order of the day; that 
the age is one of progress; and that he who does not 
keep pace with the movement must be crushed. Such 
being the case, whatever may be his pursuit, he reads, 
reflects, compares, and would consider that as fatal par¬ 
simony, which cuts of the means of performing all these 
things imderstandingly. 
Messes. Editors— T wish to make some inquiries of 
you and of your numerous correspondents, and also to 
state some facts, for it is upon these only that we can re¬ 
ly for improvement in our agriculture. 
I have noticed that the correspondents of your excel¬ 
lent paper have recommended to us inexperienced farm¬ 
ers to adopt a better system, and rotation of crops, but 
have unfortunately failed to inform us what that best sys¬ 
tem and course of rotation was; and that is precisely 
what we should most desire fo know. If you, or any of 
them, would slate what is the system and course of crop¬ 
ping best adapted to soils rich enough to produce wheat, 
corn, oafs, and roots of all kinds, or what would be still 
better, the system necessary to make our poor soils rich 
enough for such a course of cropping, a real benefit would 
be conferred on the community. 
It is often the case, in this section of country at least, 
that a young man comes of age and receives from his fa¬ 
ther 100 acres of land, more or less, and he settles upon 
it, thinking lo make a support for himself and family. 
Blit he finds the land worn out, and the crop hardly pay¬ 
ing for the labor. He is industrious, and collects and 
uses all the manure possible; but all are aware that where 
EFFECT OF CHANGE OF CLIMATE ON CATTLE. 
Messrs. Editors —I, as well as many of my neigh¬ 
bors, should be pleased to hear from you respecting the 
effect of change of climate on cattle, and the proper 
treatment required. For ins'ance, we have the (Eng¬ 
lish) Durhams, &c., brought from Kentucky, Ohio, &c., 
and it is a rare chance that we can get them to live 
through the first season. Wm. Ceive. 
Fort Adrms, Miss., 1843. 
As the ox is found in all latitudes and climates, from 
the equator to the 60th degree of latitude, or even high¬ 
er, we are unable to see why any l arie'y of this animal 
should not succeed as well in Mississippi, as elsewhere. 
With the ox, more is depending on the food he receives, 
than on climate; and if our friends in the south will pro¬ 
vide suitable pastures of clover and the other cnltivafeil 
grasses, with roofs, turneps, carrots, or beets, for use oc¬ 
casionally, or during the winter months, we think the 
Short Horns will succeed as well there as e)swhere, or 
as well as any other variety of cattle. There is not 
more difference in the climate of Ken'neky and Missis¬ 
sippi, than between that of the Scotch Higlamis and So¬ 
mersetshire in England, and yet annually, thousands of 
cattle are driven from the north to be fattened in the 
warmer climate of the south. Attention to the kind and 
supply of food, will doubtless obviate the necessity of 
recourse to any other mode of treatment to ins^te success. 
