THE CULTIVATOR. 
237 
and gain.-*’ He has sometimes rented his lands, reserv¬ 
ing the right to direct as to their management—giving 
to the tenant, as the custom is, one third of the crops— 
the tenant performing all the hand-labor, and the land¬ 
lord furnishing the necessary implements, teams, seed, 
&c. and paying the taxes. At other times he has man¬ 
aged his farms himself, hiring all the labor. On com¬ 
paring profits, he found he made from $150 to $200 a 
year more, under his own management, than when the 
land was rented. We have no doubt that similar results 
would generally follow, under good management, and we 
would recommend the example to some farmers within 
our knowledge, who under the idea that they cannot 
make their lands profitable in their own hands, or with 
a view to “save trouble,” resort to a system of renting, 
by which, in a few years, their farms correspond to Sol¬ 
omon’s description of the garden of the slothful. 
There is considerable Indian corn raised in the vicini¬ 
ty of Kinderhook, and in general the present crop looks 
well. We noticed some farmers practice very thick 
planting. In some fields the rows were only three feet 
apart, the hills eighteen inches apart in the rows, and 
four stalks to the hill. We do not hesitate to say this is 
too thick. Dr. Beekman’s crop was planted at wider 
distances in the row, (by six or eight inches,) with not 
more than three stalks to the hill. The prospect is fair 
for a good yield—in fact he generally gets from fifty to 
seventy bushels to the acre. 
The wheat crop in this neighborhood is generally very 
poor. It was much winter-killed, and has suffered some 
from rust, and much from the worm, or maggot in the 
head, and some from the Hessian-fly. Rye is good. . 
The farmers of Kinderhook are generally forehanded, 
and some of them evince as good management as is to be 
met with anywhere. Money is made here by farming— 
many instances were mentioned to us where men who 
had begun the world by “ hiring out by the day,” had, 
in the course of twenty or twenty-five years, accumula¬ 
ted property to the amount of forty to sixty thousand 
dollars, wholly by farming. 
Relative profits of free and slave labor.— Dr. 
Beekman related the following history in illustration of 
this point. During the period in which slavery was tol¬ 
erated in this state, a gentleman owned a farm at Kinder¬ 
hook consisting of 750 acres, in the cultivation of which 
he employed ten slaves. The products of the farm were 
always insufficient to support the family and carry on the 
farm, and had it not been for the business of blaeksmith- 
ing, which was carried on by the owner of the farm, (but 
with a set of hands kept expressly for the purpose,) he 
could not have made a living. When the gentleman 
died, the farm was divided into three parts, among the 
heirs. In the mean time slavery, in this state, was abol¬ 
ished. The farms were carried on by hired labor; 
the owners raised larger families than their father did— 
educated them better—lived better—-and each, from one 
third of the original farm, accumulated a handsome fortune. 
APPLICATION OF MANURES. 
The value and necessity of manures to successful farm¬ 
ing, is now generally admitted, but there is still much 
that is faulty in the modes of applying them: and while 
it is acknowledged that there is still much to learn re¬ 
specting their operation, there are a few principles that 
experience teaches are worthy of more notice than has 
yet been given them. 
One of these is that in the same soil, some varieties of 
the cultivated plants require more manure for their 
growth and perfection than others. Every farmer is 
aware of this; he knows that corn requires more manure 
than peas or beans; and thatsome of the tap-rooted quick 
growing plants, will, with a small allowance of manure 
at the outset, give good crops on soils where the grasses, 
or wheat and barley, would be a failure. Few, however, 
have inquired into the reason of these facts, or allowed 
them to have their proper influence in the application of 
their manures. The causes of this difference in the re¬ 
quiring of manure, are several; one of them is then- 
adaptation to drawing nourishment from the air, instead 
of depending solely on the soil for it. Quick growing- 
plants with broad leaves, and few roots, or those single 
and deep penetrating, possess this power in a remarkable 
degree. Only examine the root of the common pea for 
instance, and compare it with that of corn or wheat, and 
this difference will be manifest at once. The root of corn 
spreads in every direction; it clearly requires a large and 
rich pasture; its double sets of roots seem provided at 
once for support and nourishment, and it is remarkable 
that the last throwing forth of the roots, like those from 
the vines of some of the cucurbit®, takes place precisely 
at the time when large supplies of nutriment are required 
for the formation of the fruit. The root of the pea on 
the contrary is very much smaller in proportion to the 
bulk of the plant; it does not spread like those of com 
and wheat, but it penetrates to a considerable depth, and 
seems more adapted to provide the moisture than the nu¬ 
triment of the plant. 
Another cause why plants do not require equal supplies 
of manure, is to be found in the fact of their not all con 
suming the same time in arriving at perfection. As a 
general rule, it may be said that the longer a plant is in 
the soil before it matures its seeds, the more the soil is 
exhausted. Of this, winter wheat is a well known in¬ 
stance as compared with summer wheat: but perhaps a 
still better example is that to which allusion has alrea¬ 
dy been made, that of corn and peas. The last requires 
not more than two-thirds the time of the former for ma¬ 
turity, and the exhaustion of the soil by it, cannot be com¬ 
pared with the former. Buckwheat too, is of remarkably 
rapid growth, and hence it has been selected as one of the 
best plants known for the process of green manuring. 
Used in this way, it evidently returns to the soil more 
than it takes from it, fertilizing, instead of impoverishing, 
and leaving a much larger supply of organic matter for 
the use of the future crop, than existed previously. 
A cause not remotely allied to the one just considered, 
is found in the well known result, that where the seeds 
are to be matured on the soil, more manure is required, 
or in other words, the exhaustion of the soil is greater, 
than where such maturity, or the formation of seeds does 
not take place. Thus while a crop of turneps or beets 
exhausts the soil comparatively little, these same plants 
when transplanted for seed are of the most exhausting 
kind, as every grower of seeds knows; and the same may 
be said of most of those roots that do not mature theii 
seeds the first year. Clover is also a well known exam¬ 
ple of this. If clover is cut before it is mature, the roots 
seem scarcely checked in their vigor, new shoots are ra¬ 
pidly thrown out, and the exhaustion which has taken 
place is evidently of the slightest kind. On the contrary 
if clover is allowed to mature its seed, the effect which 
the process has on the exhaustion of both the soil and the 
plant, is of the most striking kind; so great indeed that 
an attempt at two crops of seed from the same plant is 
rarely if ever known, and a course of other crops and re¬ 
seeding usually follows, where clover seed is grown. 
From these considerations, which we are not able at 
this time to pursue farther, it would seem that the appli¬ 
cation of equal quantities of manure to all crops is a use¬ 
less expenditure. That we should ascertain those upon 
which manure produces the best effect when applied, and 
not let the mere convenience of the application, deter¬ 
mine its use. It is true there are few cultivated soils on 
which manure is not advantageous, but there are some 
crops to which large applications of strong or unfermen¬ 
ted manures would be fatal. Thus corn will be the bet¬ 
ter for a quantity that would destroy wheat; and the pea 
requires less than the potatoe, as a direct application. 
There are some plants that require the stimulating or for¬ 
cing, that characterizes the action of fresh manures; 
while that action to others, would be an injury instead 
of a benefit. Of this, the vigorous and productive com 
grown in or around old yards, or deposits of manure, and 
the lodged, rusted, shrunken wheat of similar places, is a 
conclusive and instructive example. We are convinced 
that the best application of manures is a subject which 
has received too little attention from our farmers; and 
while he is to be commended who applies all the ma¬ 
nure within his reach, more profitable results would be 
realized by many, were they to be applied more in con¬ 
sonance with the laws which govern the growth and nu¬ 
trition of the several plants cultivated. 
