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of justice ; but is it not wise to remember 
that if agriculture is less remunerated than 
other occupations, It is not solely on account 
of the cupidity of corporat ions, and is it not 
worth while to inquire how far the farmers 
themselves are at fault, and how far the rem¬ 
edy is within their own reach ? 
If two men, cultivating adjoining and 
equal areas of ground, with soils alike and 
other conditions similar, present a marked 
difference in the result of their labors, one 
getting invariably larger products and better 
prices than the other, we should not think 
of charging the losses of the slovenly farmer 
to the rapacity of the railroads, but would 
naturally conclude that the difference is in 
eac h—less, when I used them ; the rick sheet, 
with apparatus, is, of course, in proportion 
to size —£20 ($ 100 ) for one large enough to 
cover a stack containing 30 loads. They can 
be removed from a rick and put up ready to 
build another under in an hour. While the 
hay is being put ou, the cloth is rolled round 
and hoisted out of the way by the pulley, 
and in the evening, or should a shower be 
coming, it can be let down and put in place 
in five minutes. 
In the spring, the fields are all bush-har¬ 
rowed and rolled and the portion covered 
with manure (about a third) has a good deal 
of extra harrowing ; a frame of wood is 
made, and white thorn bushes cut out of the 
CINCINNATI INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION 
BUILDINGS, 1873. 
SELLING HAY 
- \ city, and are five in 
" - number, including the 
^ V Art Hall, which is con- 
nected with the rest by 
T- a bridge across Rim 
i -. streel, sin»\v u at the left 
v furnish t,<> exhibitors 
EE nearly eight acres of 
“ space, the It over Hall 
alone comprising over 
: -an acre of every variety 
- ; of machinery in motion, 
m The Exposition is divi- 
, |w ded into sixteen dopai’t- 
jglfcnfc Pi. ments, and each of the 
great halls is tilled with 
the myriad products of 
* American industrial en- 
“vlI e terprise, displayed in 
£-5 h ft i U B l , the m o s 1 attractive 
forms and with endless 
L ft ~ J llsU y termed a popular 
school of art and indus¬ 
try, teaching by object 
3 _ lessons of the most viv¬ 
id and attractive de¬ 
scription. 
The great popularity of this Exposition is 
partly due to the central location of the city 
of Cincinnati, but mainly to the liberal 
Character of its management, which is in 
the hands of the three commercial associa¬ 
tions of the city. There being no stockhold¬ 
ing interest, all its revenues are directly ex¬ 
pended in increasing its popular attractions, 
while the liigh character and impartiality of 
its awards has made them eagerly sought 
after by exhibitors from every part of the 
Union. The national character of the Expo¬ 
sition is indicated by the half-fare arrange¬ 
ments which last year extended over 15,000 
miles of railway, or nearly one-third the en¬ 
tire mileage of the United States; and by 
the attendance of over 000,000 visitors. A 
large increase is expected this year, under 
the newly adapted system of school excur¬ 
sions at reduced rates of admission. 
fences are fastened in the frame, and the Lice 
of the meadows or upland is brought to a 
lawu-like appearance. Where there is water 
carriage, and railroads run through or close 
by, manure is had that way, especially as 
the distance increases and the freight is low 
—a cent per ton per mile being the charge. 
I think, as the wealth of the great cities of 
the United States increases, and horses Cor 
pleasure and other purposes multiply, hay 
will become a dear article ; and as the timo¬ 
thy and other temporary grasses require re¬ 
seeding and the soil cultivating by plowing, 
and thus losing time and weakening the soil 
if not h'ghly manured, it will answer well ou 
good, deep soils to endeavor to establish rich 
old greensward similar to tne English mead¬ 
ows ; and though old seeded hard hay is 
chosen now, the hay from a great, variety of 
grasses when cm’ed and brought to the Amer¬ 
ican markets with the bright color and deli¬ 
cious smell of the beautiful herbage in well 
managed old grass land, will be sought for 
by good horsemen. 
The best conditioned horses in England are 
the racers ; and next the fox-hunting steeds 
of gentlemen and livery stablemen who let 
out hunters ; and all of these horses are fed 
on the meadow hay, with oats and a few 
beans. It fattens cattle without grain—Lei¬ 
cestershire grass to wit! 
A Working Farmer. 
grass, because he was one ot the host nay 
farmers around London, always loading 
back with the beat stable manure to be had. 
As I have mentioned this farmer, I may as 
well go on to describe his system, which will 
be n fair sample of all the good farmer’s 
management too, and what all the others 
ought to be. This 000 acres was similar to 
the greater part of grass land iu England, 
never being plowed and nobody living re¬ 
membering it to have been desecrated by 
having the fine old sod of native grasses 
broken. The roads are so very good and 
easy for the distance named, around London, 
that wagons are not used, very well built 
strong carts being universally preferred, the 
fore and hind ladders fixed on, making them 
capable of bringing to the stocks from the 
field all the hay as fast as made. 
When hauled to market, the hay is trussed 
in 56 lb. trusses, being the English Ej cwt„ 
and custom from time immemorial makes 
36 trusses (IS cwt.) a load ; and the hay farm¬ 
ers will only take this quantity with two, and 
sometimes tliree, powerful horses, although 
they could throe-fold the weight, because it 
is the back load which keeps up the land so 
that the crop will average two tons per acre 
and bear continual annual mowing twice 
many years. The hay is trussed by men who 
get so skilled in using the cutting knife and 
in tying it up with bands twisted by hand, 
that it is seldom one out of a load will vary 
more than two or three pounds. When not 
sold to go into stables, every farmer has some 
particular salesman who disposes of it, re¬ 
ceiving a commission of half a crown per load, 
and pays cash himself, or is responsible for 
the money. But hay averages, taking sev- 
their business. In one case, there is little or 
no thought or enterprise, and a total lack of 
system and of method. In the other, the 
labor of the hand is guided by a fertile brain, 
and the business of the farm is reduced to a 
system. 
Clearly, then, if husbandry is to be made 
profitable, it must bo done (just as in the case 
of any other business) by adopting the beat 
methods. If we expect, as farmers, to make 
our vocation lucrative, we must make it more 
systematic in its processes. If all other in¬ 
dustries are carried on with more attention 
to rules, methods and principles than the 
cultivation of the soil, how can we be sur¬ 
prised if they outstrip the latter in prosper¬ 
ity i Conrad Wilson. 
Sloateburg, Rockland Co., N. Y. 
ABOUT MANURES 
HOW ILLINOIS FARMS ARE MORTGAGED 
W. W. Livingston asks “ Are the fol¬ 
lowing articles, if properly used, as good as 
stable manure, viz.: liquid saltpeter, salt, 
guano, bone-dust or ground bone?” No, 
they are uot, as a rule, as good ; but in spe¬ 
cial cases and for special purposes, they may 
produce results quite as satisfactory as stable 
manure. For instance, if the soil is naturally 
fertile, guano may be used as a stimulus to 
an early and quick growth. Bone-dust, some 
think better than guano. It is certainly 
more lasting in its effects. Some soils con¬ 
tain all the salt needed ; where this is the case, 
salt is of no consequence. Whatever fur¬ 
nishes nitrogen to plants is always valuable, 
hence, saltpeter can hardly be applied amiss. 
But we should not be willing to depend upon 
any one of the fertilizers above-named, nor 
all of them, as a substitute for good stable 
manure, if we could get it ; and yet all, if 
properly applied, may be used as a substi¬ 
tute. 
A special correspondent of the New York 
Tribune, writing from Springfield, 111., says : 
In a former letter 1 mentioned the fact that 
in some parts of the State a large proportion 
of the farms were mortgaged to Eastern 
capitalists. Since that time 1 have obtained 
some more definite, information as to the 
terms on which these deeds of trust are giv¬ 
en und the money borrowed. In a certain 
town of not more than 10,000 or 15,000 people, 
there is an unpretending banking house that 
is engagod largely in this business of lending 
money for Eastern people. The loan depart¬ 
ment is separate from the bank proper, and 
is managed by one of the partners. If a far¬ 
mer desires to borrow money on his land, 
and goes to the bank for that purpose, he is 
I referred to the loan office, where he is in¬ 
formed that, in the first place, he will be re¬ 
quired to furnish an abstract of his title. 
This the loan office, which has abstracts 
of all the titles in the county, will give 
him for the customary price —$15. The 
farmer then agrees to pay ten per cent, in¬ 
terest for the money, with exchange on New 
York, and an additional percentage for nego¬ 
tiating the loan. His property is then ap¬ 
praised, without improvements, and he can 
borrow from one-third to one-half its ap- 
‘ >. In the deed which he gives 
| he agees to pay the interest semi-annually, 
to pay the taxes promptly, and sometimes 
SYSTEMATIC FARMING 
The great object in farming, as in every 
other pursuit, is to make the business pay. 
If this end is uot gained, there is certainly 
something wrong. If the men who feed the 
nation are inadequately remunerated, the 
evil is too great to be trifled with, and the 
first, duty of the farmer is to trace out the 
causes. Until he does this, he is simply grop¬ 
ing in the dark ; no man can remedy an evil 
until he understands it. 
In solving the question. Why husbandry is 
underpaid t we are apt to jump to a hasty 
conclusion; especially when several causes 
operate together to produce this result, we 
are prone to fix the mind on one of them and 
lose sight of the others. When we hear iu 
every direction of the injustice and extortion 
of the railroad companies, we are impelled 
to denounce so great a wrong, and in the 
ardor of our resentment, wo too easily forget 
that there are also other causes for the evil 
in question, w bleb are even more important 
to farmers, because more within our own 
control. Undoubtedly, monopolies and mid¬ 
dle-men are great evils which, if rightly re¬ 
sisted, will in the end yield to the demands 
NORTHERN vs. SOUTHERN IDEAS 
A Correspondent ‘of the Rural New- 
Yorker, Atlanta, Ga., writes “ I like your 
paper very muol'i, and if the farmers in this 
part of the country would take it, they 
would be much benefited by it. They are a 
little slow to take up Northern ideas ; they 
cannot get over the notion that deep plowing praised value, 
makes poor land. Onions, here, in the win- | 
rn 
m 
m 11 
uin 
