1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
135 
2s. 6<7. for the seed, and the additional trouble 
of sowing and harrowing in the seed. 
Mr. Kimball, of Buxhall, gives the following 
as his experience upon a clay loam: “ The mus¬ 
tard being sown after peas, and plowed in for 
wheat, the difference in the crop was visible to 
the eye at a considerable distance from the 
field. At harvest, the wheat where the mustard 
had been plowed in was six inches higher, and 
ripened ten days sooner than wheat on adjoin¬ 
ing lands where no mustard had been sown, but 
otherwise treated in a similar manner.” 
This is a remarkable case. Winter wheat in 
England iasown much later than with us, and 
there was time after a crop of pea3 had been 
harvested to grow a crop of mustard to turn 
under for the wheat. In Maryland,Virginia, and 
further South, the same thing might be done in 
this countiy. In fact, I am inclined to think 
mustard and rape will prove more generally 
useful in the Southern States than with us. The 
Charleston phosphates when treated with sul¬ 
phuric acid would make a manure well adapted 
for these crops, and when the mustard and rape 
are consumed on the land or plowed under, a 
considerable amount of available plant-food 
would be provided for cotton, corn, wheat, or 
whatever crop it is thought best to raise. Super¬ 
phosphate has seldom any direct effect on 
wheat, but will greatly stimulate the growth of 
mustard, rape, and turnips, and the manure left 
from the consumption of these crops is pre¬ 
cisely what wheat and other cereals need. 
One of my neighbors has just sold twenty 
acres of his farm to a German for over $200 per 
acre. The laud is on a cross-road, seven miles 
from the center of the city, and has been so 
much neglected that it will cost at least fifty 
dollars an acre and two years’ time to get it 
clean and in good condition. The farmer who 
sold this land does not make three per cent on 
$100 an acre from his farm, and if the German 
can make it pay at $250 per acre it will be an¬ 
other illustration of what industry, thrift, and 
enterprise can accomplish. It seems to me, 
however, that such a man would have done bet¬ 
ter to have gone West. He certainly would if he 
intends to raise ordinary farm crops. But these 
thrifty Germans seem to have a knack of pay¬ 
ing for land, and bid fair to become the princi¬ 
pal land-owners in the older portions of the 
country. Their great forts is saving. I have a 
German neighbor, a well-to-do farmer, who al¬ 
ways has money in the bank. But if he owes 
you anything, he never thinks of giving you a 
check—not he. He knows a trick worth two 
of that. He sells something from the farm. 
After he has done his day’s work, in the even¬ 
ing, he picks up a few apples, or potatoes, or 
squashes, or a few heads of cabbage, a basket of 
eggs, and a little butter or lard, or perhaps a 
bushel or two of nice hand-picked beans. These 
he puts in a spring-wagon, and the next morn¬ 
ing before I am up he is half-way to the city, 
and by the time I am through breakfast he is 
back with the money. It is far easier to give a 
check on the bank. But that man would run 
in debt for a hundred-acre farm at $150 an acre 
and pay for it. I couldn’t. I can raise as good 
crops as he does—perhaps better—and the re¬ 
ceipts from my farm per acre are larger than 
his, but he and his family do all their own work, 
aud when one of his bright, active boys wants 
to get married, there is money m the bank to 
make the first payment on a small farm and 
give him a start in life. 
He is withal a capital farmer, keeps his land 
clean, and works it thoroughly. He is a good 
neighbor—not inclined to borrow, and willing to 
lend; and if he does borrow anything for a few 
hours he returns it promptly. He is as cheerful as 
the day, minds his own business, and is always 
beforehand with his work. He keeps a good 
span of rather gay young horses that he bred him¬ 
self, and which are always well groomed and 
full of spirit; a nice carriage that is always 
clean, and a good harness that is in perfect re¬ 
pair and well oiled aud blackened, and he drives 
to church every Sunday in a style that many a 
German baron might envy. That man com¬ 
menced life with nothing but good health, good 
habits, a pair of good hands, and a good head, 
with indomitable energy and perseverance. 
There are thousands of such cases, and in view 
of them it seems unnecessary to ask the ques¬ 
tion, “Docs farming pay?” 
The only question that such farmers as you 
and I, who depend a good deal on hired help, 
need ask is, “ Can we compete with such men as 
this German aud his family ? ” If we can get 
our men to do as much work for the same pay 
as he gets, less the interest on his capital, we 
can. If not, no. Our profit or loss depends 
a good deal on the kind of men we hire, and on 
our ability to plan work and to see that it is ex¬ 
ecuted without loss of time and labor. Wheth¬ 
er we had better take hold with our own hands 
depends a good deal on the character of the 
work and on the number of men employed. A 
farmer who knows how to do all kinds of farm- 
work, aud knows what a good day’s work is, if 
he has a large farm to manage will seldom find 
it profitable to take a team and plow all day or 
follow the harrows. He will do better to attend 
to the little details of the work and keep an eye 
on everything that is going on. He should be 
able to detect the weak spot and lend a hand 
there. For instance, if you are drawing manure 
with three teams, there will be one wagon at 
the heap with a man besides the driver to fill, 
another wagon unloading in the field, and one 
going back and forth. The rapidity of the 
whole work will be determined at one point, 
just as the strength of a whole chain is deter¬ 
mined by the weakest link. If you see that the 
empty wagon gets to the heap before the other 
is loaded, take hold and help to fill a load, and 
put a little spirit in the men. If, on the other 
hand, the load is ready before the wagon re¬ 
turns, the weak spot is in the field. Take hold and 
help to pull off a load or two. In drawing hay 
or grain with three wagons, I have doubled the 
speed of the whole force by getting on to the 
wagon and helping to unload. We unloaded 
in half the time, and yet the next wagon-load 
was there in time for us. Sometimes it will be 
the pitcher that can not keep up—then help 
him. You will accomplish far more by looking 
out for the weak spots than by doing steady 
work. If a man has a hard row to hoe, none 
of the others will help him. They will keep up 
with him, or if they should by any mischance 
go ahead, will wait for him at the end. That 
row is the weak spot. Take hold and help. 
Aud so with every operation on the farm. We 
must study how to economize labor. 
Railroad men are studying how to lessen the 
“ dead-weight ” on their roads—in other words, 
how they can reduce the weight of their cars in 
proportion to the load they have to carry. Amer¬ 
ican plows, harness, wagons, and implements, 
and machines generally, are the lightest in the 
world. So much we have accomplished. Still 
there is too much “dead-weight” on the farm. 
Look at that man weighing 160 pounds carry- 
| ing a pail of water, He has to moye 160 pounds 
of dead weight to carry 25 pounds of water, or, 
seeing that he has to go empty one way, he 
moves 320 pounds of dead-weight to carry 25 
pounds. A sensible man who has much water 
to carry would either put in a pipe and save the 
labor of carrying, or he would get pails hold¬ 
ing forty pounds and carry a pail in each hand. 
I have never before been able to carry my 
stock through the winter on so little hay, and 
never had them do better. The season was so 
favorable for curing corn-stalks that they are 
eaten greedily by the eows and sheep. My corn 
was on low land, and knowing that if we 
should have a heavy rain it would be a difficult 
matter to harvest it, I cut it early and drew it 
in as soon as it was thoroughly cured, without 
stopping to husk it. We tied it in bundles and 
stowed it away in the barn and sheds. We did 
not get through husking the whole of it until 
the middle of February. The ears were damp, 
but soon dried out in the corn-house, and the 
stalks were never so good. 
It may be, as some say, that corn-stalks are 
not injured by being left out in the field until 
wanted in the winter. But I do not believe it. 
They may be better than stalks left out during 
weeks of rainy weather in the fall, and then 
drawn in just before winter, and put in the barn 
with mud and snow attached to them. But if cut 
early and drawn in when well cured, with not a 
drop of external moisture on them, it is clear to 
my mind that they must be sweeter and more 
nutritious than when exposed to our heavy fall 
rains. Hereafter I mean to raise more corn, and 
take pains in curing and preserving the stalks. 
I have sold some timothy hay this winter, and 
propose to do so whenever the price suits. But 
some of my neighbors, who do not hesitate to 
sell their own hay, think I ought not to do so, 
because I “ write for the papers” ! It ought to 
satisfy them to know that I bring back 30 cwt. 
of bran for every ton of hay I sell. My rule is 
to sell nothing but wheat, barley, beans, pota¬ 
toes, clover-seed, apples, wool, mutton, beef, 
pork, and butter. Everything else is consumed 
on the farm—corn, peas, oats, mustard, rape, 
mangolds, clover, straw, stalks, etc. Let us 
make a rough estimate of how much is sold and 
how much retained on a hundred-acre farm, 
leaving out the potatoes, beans, and live-stock. 
We have say: 
Sold. 
15 acres wheat, @ 40 bus. per acre... 18 tons. 
5 11 barley, @50 “ “ . (i “ 
15 “ clover seed, @ 4 bus. per acre. l%ton. 
Total sold.25% tons- 
Retained on the farm. 
15 acres corn, @ 80 bus. per acre. 33J4 tons. 
Corn stalks from do. 40 “ 
5 acres barley straw. 8 “ 
10 “ oats and peas equal, 80 bus. oats. 12% “ 
Straw from do. 20 “ 
15 acres wheat-straw. 25 “ 
15 clover hay. 25 “ 
Clover seed straw. 10 “ 
15 acres pasture and meadow equal 40 tons hay 40 “ 
5 acres mustard, equal 10 tons hay. 10 “ 
5 “ rape “ “ 10 “ 
5 “ mangolds, 25 tons per acre, equal to 3 
tons dry. 15 “ 
Loaves from do. 3 “ 
Total retained on the farm.252% tons. 
It would take a good many years to exhaust 
any ordinary soil by such a course of cropping. 
Except perhaps the sandy knolls, I think there is 
not an acre on my farm that would be exhaust¬ 
ed in ten thousand years, and Its some portions 
of the low alluvial soil will grow crops without 
manure, there will be an opportunity to give the 
poor, sandy knolls more than their share of 
plant-food. In this way, notwithstanding the 
