THE RURAL HEW-¥ORKER 
DEC. 43 
article; but the flavor is all right and the 
aroma perfect. 
“ The plants require deep tillage and rich, 
moist ground, and from seed-planting until 
the plants are large enough to begin to yield a 
crop, will take four or five years. Then, with 
proper care aud treatment, I can see no reason 
why they would not last for many years. To 
pick off the young leaves is about the same as 
picking berries, only the former are lighter in 
weight; but theu comes the steaming, manip¬ 
ulation and care in preparation, which pro¬ 
duce a fine article, of pleasant, rich flavor, 
which, no doubt, would bring at least double 
the price of any of the imported tea, for its 
purity and freshness. 
•'ll will make its way slowly, bat. I think, 
surely, as one ol the staple articles of culture 
in this pan of the South, and the time will 
come when its cultivation will be one of the 
important industries of this section.” 
(Topics. 
HISTORY OF A POOR FARM.-No. 21. 
Employment of Capital in Farming. 
Mr old neighbor never tires of grumbling 
about the recklessness of modern farming, and 
is especially severe upon Ur. Jones aud myself 
for turning William's head, as he says. Wil¬ 
liam has recently purchased 200 loads of ma¬ 
nure from a neighbor at a dollar a load and 
borrowed the money from the hank on his 
note, to pay for it. The old gentleman thinks 
the man who sold the manure has far the best 
of the bargain. William is a model grandson. 
He humors tue old gentleman’s ideas in a very 
respectful mauuer, and in this instauce has 
agreed to give one-third of the increase of the 
crop to his grandfather for the use of 10 acres, 
upon which he intends to put the 200 loads of 
manure. 
*• Rut he is paying out $200 for 10 acres,” 
6aid the old geutlemun complainingly, to Mr. 
Martin. 
“Well, what of it?” replied Mr. Martin. 
“Suppose he is : he will put 20 loads of the best, 
kind of manure on the land, aud he will put 
sweet corn in it. That manure is a year old. 
The man he bought it from keeps a mill, and 
feeds the mill waste, bran and sweepings to his 
cows and pigs, aud has only eight acres of 
laud which is as rich as a garden, so that he 
does not want it himself. The manure is of the 
richest kind, aud is worth twice what William 
gare for it, 1 should say. How is it, Fred. 
Avhat ought that manure to be worth in cash?” 
“The manure is well rotted and fine, and in 
the best condition: it has been gathered since 
last winter, and has been trodden and turned 
over by more than 20 hogs since then. I never 
saw better manure than that, my fattier is now 
hauling home. Perhaps there never was any 
like it aua'jzed ; so that it will be fair to take 
Dr. Voelcker’s estimate for its value : one ton 
would contain 11^-pounds of nitrogen worth 
25 cents a pound, or $2 87A ; 10 pounds of pot¬ 
ash worth 00 cents, and six pounds of phos¬ 
phoric acid worth 00 cents; in all, $4.07£ per 
ton. Father ■will draw two tons of this in a 
load in his rack market wagon, which is tne 
way he bought it, so that each load will be 
worth over $8. 
“I was once asked $15 for such a load of 
manure, which was hauled from a Philadelphia 
horse-car stable, when living iu that neighbor¬ 
hood a few years ago,” 1 remarked, “ aud the 
owner was not at ail anxious to sell it even at 
that price.” 
“ Manure is worth less or more, according to 
the use you put it to,” remarked Dr. Jones, 
“If you use it to grow market truck which 
sells for $400 or $500, or even more an acre, it 
is worth much more to you than if you top- 
dressed a pasture with it and grazed cows for 
milk at two cents a quart. Money must be 
judiciously spent for fertilizers, or it may be 
very easily thrown away; but if we could buy 
good ifianure for 50 cents a tou, or even four 
times that price, it will pay, A neighbor of 
in me put $80 worth of manure on 1J acre of 
early potatoes, and sold 150 barrels at $3 a 
barrel. lie had at least half the value of the 
manure returned a second time iu a crop of 
1 etc cabbage. It is tbe use made of it, in which 
its value lies.” 
“Precisely,” remarked Mr. Martin, “and 
William will make $100 an acre from his sweet 
corn if he has hut a moderate crop and only 
moderate prices, aud a lot of fodder for his 
cows, und he can get a second crop from the 
Add, besides. Don't you think he can do 
that ?” asked Mr. Martin of the old gentleman. 
“He ought to do that,” he replied, “and I 
know if he had not the manure the field would 
have no crop worth speaking of, for the clover 
has run out. But to borrow the money first 
is Luo risky.” 
“ The old gentleman has some 4-per-ccnt. 
bonds salted away, and thinks it a very safe 
investment; but the $20 an acre spent by his 
grandson will pay more ihan 100 per cent, in¬ 
terest, and perhaps twice and three times as 
much ; and yet he cannot 6ee it," I remarked, 
aside to Dr. Jones. 
“ That is the usual way with farmers,” re¬ 
plied tbe Doctor, “ few of them can be made 
to see that the safest and most profitable in¬ 
vestment is tbe improvement of their own 
farms; and that the employment of capital is 
the only way to make their farms pay. But 
capital can ouly be profitably employed by 
those who have business skill to use it. Solo¬ 
mon said that * wisdom is a defence and money 
is a defence, but the excellency of knowledge 
is that wisdom giveth life (let us say profit, in¬ 
stead) to those who have it.’ He also said 
‘money answereth all things,’ and if there is 
one place in which it answers a belter purpose 
than in another, it is on the farm. The His¬ 
tory of this Poor Farm is altogether one of 
the wise uses of capital, for I think capital has 
been used wisely here. There is no show, or 
fuss; and our old friend even, I thiuk, cannot 
point to anything in which the money spent 
has not been used judiciously aud economi¬ 
cally.” 
“Dr. Jones is pleased to he complimentary, 
more so than 1 deserve, and lean point out my¬ 
self some things which I am not satisfied with." 
“ Let us have them,” said Mr. Marlia, “an 
honest confession is a good thing.” 
“ Well, I don't agree with Solomon altogeth¬ 
er, because money won't answer iu place of 
brains. Money may be thrown away very 
easily', if one does not watch its expenditure 
very closely. The laet is, I have not been 
liberal enough iu my expenditures; in soqie in¬ 
stances, 1 have quite failed to get iny money 
back again. In others, I have employed labor 
without watching the men closely enough, and 
the work done has been lost iu great part. 1 
can point you to one item alone:—tbe woods’ 
pasture was all cleared and the brush piled, 
but as I was not with the men to direct them, 
the brush was heaped right under the best of 
the shady Beeches, so that to have burned it 
there would have destroyed them. When this 
woik Ehouidhave been done and the ground 
cleared for sowing to grass, the beets needed 
weeding and cultivating, and the man hud to 
be taken for that; the w r oods’ pasture grew up 
with brush once more and the work lias to be 
all doue over again: that is a loss of from 
$50 to $60. 
“ That was your mistake and none of Solo¬ 
mon’s, ’ remarked Dr. Jones. “If you had 
beeu wise enough to have employed a second 
man and spent six dollars for a week's labor, 
the work would have been finished, the pas¬ 
ture would have been ready' for use iu the fall 
and the Joss prevented. The proverb is Jrue ; 
your wisdom and the money would have beeu 
a defense against loss und injury, but you see 
ymu failed to employ either.” 
“Well, go on with your confession," said 
Mr. Martin. 
“ Last year,” I continued, “I used GOO pounds 
per acre of artificial fertilizers on whatever 
crops I put them ou, corn, beets, rye aud 
potatoes; and it paid me to do it. This year 1 
used 300 pounds per acre, aud it did not pay.” 
“Just so,” remarked Mr. Martin. “1 think 
I said as much at the time. It is as thuugh 
you fed your horse well last year, and he was 
fat, worked well, aud was healthy. This y ear 
you put him on half rations, aud he has been 
poor, hide-bound, weak, aud sick, half the 
time. So you half-starved the laud and you 
find it doesn’t pay.” 
“ I took our old friend's advice, you see ; he 
thought I was extravugaut aud wasteful, and 
did not believe in using artificial manures so 
recklessly, as he thought; and I was desirous 
of try ing it. Consequently, I have, as usual, 
paid for my experience, and we all have the 
benefit of it." 
“The season has beeu a bad one, very dry 
and hot, aud you plowed the corn too deep; 
that spoiled the crop,” replied my okl neigh¬ 
bor. 
“That is true,” replied Dr. Jones. “You 
will alway s find that it is the crop that is not 
well fertilized that fails in critical seasons. 
Make tbe soil rich, and your crop strikes its 
roots deep and can resist unfavorable weather. 
A poor crop goes down at once; a strong, 
healthy one staudB up in spite of dry weather. 
It is the 6ame universally. The weak aud 
poorly-nourished people are the first to suc¬ 
cumb to disease of any kind. A robust child 
goes through the measles aud all the infantile 
complaints without being sick, and is playing 
about while the weak oue needs the most 
careful treatment or even dies speedily, in 
spite of it. So that, after all, it was tbe fault 
of tbe half-fertilizing, and not the season, that 
spoiled the corn. My corn did uot suffer, as 
you saw for yourself, nor did Mr. Mania’s." 
“The credit for that belougs, not to me, 
but to Mary and Fred,” said Mr. Martin “ he 
advised her to have all the manure in tbe yard 
put on that field, and she would have it aud 
gave me no peace until it wus doue, and we 
had a fine crop of corn, in spite of the dry 
weather. 1 thiuk Dr. Jones is right.” 
“ 1 am sure of it" I replied, “ and as tbe bad 
boy said ‘I will never do so again.’ Capital is 
the life blood of agriculture, j ust as it is of any 
other Industry, and the more of it that we can 
use to good advantage, the more profitable 
will be the business of agriculture. William 
is on the right track, aud bis small beginning 
will prove it to him and I think to his grand¬ 
father, too. Suppose a man who had a fac¬ 
tory should put half his money in government 
bonds or a mortgage, and, instead of buying coal 
to keep all his machinery going, buy only half 
enough; and half enough cotton and wool to 
work up into cloth; or suppose a store-keeper 
should loan out his money to hia competitor 
across the street,aud keep half hia shelves empty 
and turn away half his customers ; we should 
say they were poor business-men. But we see 
farmers do the same thiDg year after year, or 
if they have uot money to lend, they are afraid 
to borrow a few hundred dollars to expend in 
stock or manure, to make their land rich and 
productive; and yet they will buy a piece of 
land which they cannot use. aud give a mort¬ 
gage on it for half the cost of it. A farm is 
a factory; aud nine out of ten farms are half- 
worked or less, and their owners not only 
lose interest aud pay taxes on their idle land, 
but they fail to make the profit which they 
might do by making use of it- The owner 
of 100 acres of land cannot afford to be his 
own laborer, lie should be au employer of 
labor. Four men could very well be em¬ 
ployed on 100 acres of land rightly cultivated. 
The owuer must have money aud skill—* wis¬ 
dom aud money’—to employ and direct the 
laborers who have not the skill to direct them¬ 
selves, and for every dollar paid to them for 
wages, the farm ought to produce five. Euglish 
agriculture has been carried ou in this manner 
for years and has supported laborers, tenant 
farmeis and land-owners.” 
“ That has come to an end now,” said the 
old gentleman. 
“ No,” I replied, “ 1 don’t believe that. Don’t 
let us make a graud mistake aud build up false 
hopes upon it, or wo may come to grief. Eng¬ 
lish agriculture is suffering from a succession 
of bad seasons, which have caused the farmers 
heavy losses in some cases ; but, nevertheless, 
the laborers have been paid and tbe owners 
have had their rents. It lias beeu there as it 
is here :—there are farmers who have not lost 
money, although they have had five or six bad 
crops successively, and ibeve are those who 
have bad their farms in good order and well 
cultivated ; the poor farmers only have fared 
I he worst. A system of agriculture which can 
keep alive under such unfavorable circum¬ 
stances, will revive with the first favorable 
season. Their system is one in which as much 
capital as possible is used; every possible im¬ 
provement by which stock can be kept and 
fed, aud manure made, is adopted ; the aver¬ 
age working capital of the English fanner is 
$40 to $50 an acre, and the owner's capital, iu 
laud and buildings, is $500 per aero. The 
former returns, in an average season, 12 per 
cent., after paying all the expenses of the farm 
and the farmer’s family; and the latter yields 
3 per cent. Fancy an American farmer using 
$5,000 ou 100 acres, in the purchase of stock, 
tools and fertilizers, and in paying wages! 
What a difference we might seeiu the yields of 
our crops and the condition of society, when 
four meu were employed ou every 100 acres ! 
What a volume of business would be set on 
foot 1 What a home Market we should have, 
and what a hive of industry would be exhib¬ 
ited !” 
“And to return to our starting point,” said 
Mr. Martin, “ the basis of the whole is the use 
of manure, of which we must make what we 
can, and buy what we cannot make.” 
“ What would you say to this?” asked Fred. 
“I cut this out of an agricultural paper, the 
other day, aud it is the opinion of a farmer, 
who writes : ‘ We tillers of the soil can’t work 
just for manure; we must realize money, or 
‘up we go.’” 
“Well, what would you say about it your¬ 
self ? You know, Fred, what we are working 
for hero is manure, and we thiuk manure is 
money ; or, at least, the only money we get is 
through its use,” I rejoined. 
“Certainly," replied Fred. “I think this 
farmer does not see clearly. If a man wants 
to make money out of his land, the first thing 
he needs is manure. If ho has money to spend 
ou his laud, manure is what he looks for first; 
as he cannot buy it very often, he must make 
it, and the only way to begiu to do this is to 
get stock—cows, sheep, beeves, or what-not— 
and buy feed, and manage so that he gets the 
money back from them, and has the mannre 
for bi 3 profit: thou, if he useB tbe manure, 
well, he turns that into money, and I do uot 
know any way in which money can be made 
from a farm, unless the farmer works ‘just 
for manure.' If he doesn’t do this, ‘up he goes,’ 
and no mistake." 
“That is what Fred has been saying to me 
for months,” remarked his father. “It was 
he who advised me to buy the miller's mauure 
pile, uud I think it will be a good investment. 
I have borrowed the $200 for nine months, at 
6 per cent, interest; the iutcrest will be $9. 
If I cannot make $209 extra out of the 10-aere 
field uext year, from those 200 loads ot manure, 
1 know I can get half of it, and half the uext 
season j but 1 feel sure I can double It tbe first 
year. I have done as well as that from manure 
made ou the farm, but with our stock we can¬ 
not make enough : and I cannot see but that 
it will pay me to buy manure at one dollar a 
load, as for you to feed cows and buy cotton¬ 
seed meal aud bran to make it.” 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this heading is 
not so much to deal with “ humbugs” as with 
the many unconscious errors that creep into 
the methods of daily country routine life.— 
Eds.] 
IT IS NOT SOUR LAND BUT POOR LAND 
WHICH PRODUCES SORREL. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Men of science sometimes tell us queer 
things, and one is that sorrel is an tffort of 
nature to get rid of the acid in the soil, and as 
a remedy for the acid condition of the soil, and 
to get rid of the sorrel they recommend tbe 
free use of lime to sweeten the ground, thus by 
removing the cause, to cure the evil. 
The truth is, sorrel delights iu light and dry 
land. The sandy plains iu this county are just 
suited to it; when the laud gets so run out that 
nothing else will grow, the sorrel will eoverthe 
ground. The seeds are in the ground, ready, 
as soon as a seediug of grass seed fails or any 
crop, to spring up aud clothe tbe otherwise 
barren fields with their useless burden. When 
the soil has heart enough to produce other 
crops, the sorrel is kept iu the background 
growing feebly, or not at all, waiting for its 
turn, which it is not slow to improve, either in 
patches or all over a field just as the case may 
be. There are no earlier, or warmer, or 
sweeter lands in Saratoga county than those 
where sorrel is most at home aud most abund¬ 
ant. Vegetable substance in the shape of soil, 
is what they lack, aud when this is supplied iu 
the form of barn-yard manure, graiu or grass 
can be produced and sorrel disappears. Run 
a lot out, however good It may be, and the 
sorrel comes in. It seems to be latent iu the 
soil ready to grow when its time comes, and its 
time will come on the best of sandy, or even 
loamy lands, ir they are allowed to run down. 
Now. let us look at the lime theory in the 
light of these facts. The office of lime mixed 
with soil is to dissolve vegetable matter and 
thereby stimulate growth, or to increase the 
decomposition of organic matter, and thereby 
add to the fertility of the laDd to which it is 
applied. It is a question whether tbe land has, 
of itself, any direct raanurial property, and if 
it has, it is very small; at least its effects are 
very limited as positive plant food. IIow 
much land would a load of lime sweeten ? On 
our sandy fields the sorrel would grow just as 
freely by a heap of it as anywhere else. If 
this theory of changing the state of the soil 
from sour to sweet, is correct, asour-apple tree 
could be made to produce sweet fruit by a 
plentiful use of lime; for, according to this 
sort of science, it must be au acid euudition 
of the soil, which causes sour apples to be pro¬ 
duced. Trees aud plants bear fruit after their 
kiud, or they do not bear at all, and exhausted 
lauds, or empty lauds, bear sorrel, because it is 
a plant of a low or weak order, nearly as low as 
lichen, and comes in where others will not. 
^|tr| lusknkg. 
COUPLING SHEEP. 
FORREST K. MORELAND. 
It is during this month that the farmers in 
this section attend to the important duty of 
coupling sheep. All 6heep-ownerB do not at¬ 
tend to this matter at precisely the same time. 
Oue farmer may bo a breeder of thoroughbred 
sheep of some popular variety, aud, wishing 
to raise early lambs for the local shows, must 
necessarily turn the ram with the ewes at a 
much earlier season than if tbis were not liis 
object. A sheep-breeder who has this for his 
object will, if he has suitable accommodations 
for young lambs, try and have his lambs come 
iu January, or perhaps in February. This is 
always considerable trouble, aud nothiug but 
a strong desire to excel will ever induce a 
farmer to have lambs come iu midwinter. A 
farmer going largely into Bheep, aud wishing 
to grow early lambs for the high prices which 
good early lambs always command, tv ill also 
have his lambs come as early as he can attend 
to them. But, aside from these two objects, 
viz., growing early lambs for show purposes 
and for early sale to the butchers, it is not 
considered profitable to have the lambs come 
when there is any dauger of loss from the in¬ 
clemency of the weather. The loss from this 
source too often overbalances any profit that 
might arise from having early lambs to sell. 
The greatest profit from sheep-breeding In this 
section is found to result from saviug as much 
labor as possible, and also avoiding, if possi¬ 
ble, all chance* of loaa. The first of la a 
