14r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
of furniture. There is a servant’s room in the 
attic, besides storage space and a tank to sup¬ 
ply the boilers in the kitchen. A bath-room 
can be added by a slight change in the small 
bedroom, dispensing with the closets. 
The main building is shingled ou the second 
story, and covered with narrow horizontal 
weather-boards below, while the extension has 
vertical weather-boards under the eaves, as 
shown in figure 1, on the preceding page. 
It is needless to repeat the mode of construc¬ 
tion uniformly used in this class of buildings. 
The cost of this cottage built in the best man¬ 
ner, is estimated at $5,000, depending, of 
course, on the locality and the quality of 
finish employed, and the specifications will 
necessarily be drawn up to suit the means and 
requirements of each individual. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm.—No. 121. 
The wheat in this section looked remarkably 
well last fall, and is gone into winter quarters 
in a most promising condition. The wheat 
crop last season throughout Western New 
York was the poorest we have had for several 
years. My own crop did not average over ten 
bushels per acre. 
“Does it not dishearten you?” asks the 
Deacon, whose crop was not over five bushels 
per acre. 
“ No,” 1 replied; “ it is rather an encouraging 
fact than otherwise, for the simple reason that 
we farmers have to compete with each other. 
The stories that are often told about this or 
that farmer who scratched over a piece of land, 
sowed the seed, and harvested a big crop of 
wheat have a pernicious effect. They encour¬ 
age a sort of gambling spirit among farmers. 
We speculate on the seasons. We ignore sci¬ 
ence, experience, and observation. We hope 
for good crops without using the means neces¬ 
sary to secure them. It is a great evil.” 
“ But I don’t see,” remarks the Deacon, 
“ how a poor crop can afford you any en¬ 
couragement.” 
“I will tell you, Deacon, where the point 
comes in. You have always con¬ 
tended that what is generally called 
‘improved farming’ will not pay, 
that it requires too much labor; and 
you call attention to the fact that 
Mr. So-and-So raised a large crop by 
merely plowing his land and sowing 
the seed without manure. Now, of 
course, if this was a fair representa¬ 
tion of the facts of the case, those 
of us who are endeavoring to cul¬ 
tivate our land more thoroughly are 
throwing away our time and money. 
We contend that there is a good and 
sufficient reason for these occasional 
big crops, and that they afford no 
evidence against the general agri¬ 
cultural law that good crops can 
only be produced by good farming.” 
Last year Ellwanger& Barry had 22 acres of 
choice white wheat that produced 43 bushels 
per acre. Meeting Mr. Ellwanger one day I 
asked : “ What is there about that great wheat 
crop you raised last harvest ? ” 
“ Nothing but good culture,” he replied. 
“ Th land has been in nursery trees, 
and had been plowed deep and well 
cultivated. That is all there is about 
it. Farmers do not half work their 
laud. That crop of wheat paid bet¬ 
ter these times than nursery stock.” 
That farmers do not half work 
their land is essentially true. We 
plow too much land, and do not 
work it enough to kill the weeds 
and put it in the best condition for 
the crop. I think farmers are begin¬ 
ning to appreciate this fact. When 
one farmer raises 45 bushels of bar¬ 
ley per acre and his neighbor only 
15 bushels per acre; when the for¬ 
mer readily brings $1.50 per bushel 
of 48 lbs., and the latter can be used 
only as food for chickens or the 
pigs, and is dear at 50 cents per bushel, he 
is a dull man who can not see that it pays to 
farm well if it pays to farm at all. 
“ You seem to forget,” says the Deacon, 
“that we are greatly dependent on the season. 
You appear to think that if we drain our land 
and make it clean and rich we are sure of good 
crops. But you ought to know better. Your 
Peachblow potatoes that looked so promising 
last summer proved to be a poor crop.” 
No one realizes our dependence on the wea¬ 
ther more than I do. All I contend is that the 
better we farm the less likely we are to have 
our crops injured by drouth, insects, etc. I 
should have had a good crop of Peachblow 
potatoes if it had not been for a severe frost 
that completely killed the tops early in 
October. 
“You will never raise good potatoes,” re¬ 
marks the Judge, “ until you give up your plan 
of planting in drills. I always plant mine in 
hills 3| feet apart, just as I do corn, and I have 
never had a poor crop. This year I raised 125 
bushels of good Peacliblows from 96 square 
rods, or at the rate of 208 bushels per acre. 
They had no manure except a handful of 
ashes, plaster, and hen-dung scattered on the 
hill.” 
The Judge is one of the best farmers in the 
neighborhood, and is particularly successful in 
raising good potatoes and getting good prices 
for them. He has customers in the city who 
take all he raises. I sold my potatoes this fall 
at 50 cents a bushel. He got 60 cents. I had 
three acres of Peachblows that produced about 
100 bushels per acre ; but there were only 75 
bushels per acre of merchantable potatoes. It 
cost me about $10 per acre to dig them. I pre¬ 
sume it cost the Judge about the same. The 
cost and profits of the two crops would be 
about as follows: 
Expenses per acre: 
W.&T. 
Judge. 
Plowing, harrowing, rolling, marking, 
planting, and covering. 
Seed. 
$ S.00 
5.00 
7.00 
10.00 
$ 8.00 
5.00 
10.00 
10.00 
Hoeing, cultivating, etc. 
Digging.7.. 
Receipts per acre; 
75 bushels, 50c. 
30.00 
37 50 
3.12 
33.00 
25 “ '©l2>rc. 
200 bushels, @ (10c. 
S *• 12Ho. 
40.62 
120.00 
1.00 
Profit per acre. 
121.00 
$10.62 
$98.00 
The, Judge seemed delighted with the above 
table. He has been complaining about high 
wages and low prices until he thought there 
was no longer any profit in farming. The 
Deacon recollected that his crop was no better 
than mine, and said nothing for some time. 
The Judge remarked: “You have charged 
nothing for my ‘ guano.’ That has more to do 
with it than you seem to think.” 
“Well, if we call that $8 per acre there is 
still a profit of $90 per acre.” 
“ It did not cost half that,” replied the Judge; 
“ I prepared it myself in the winter when I had 
nothing else to do.” 
“I hope,” said the Deacon, “you will own 
up for once that your plan of planting is a 
poor one.” 
“ You planted in hills, Deacon,” I replied, 
“ and had no better crop than mine. And be¬ 
sides, I had in the same field with the Peach- 
blows several rows of Early Rose, which were 
a good crop; and also several rows of Late 
Rose, which turned out wonderfully, both in 
quality and quantity. There was certainly 
over 200 bushels per acre. And yet they were 
planted in drills, and were treated precisely 
the same as the Peachblows. I suppose they 
had reached maturity before the frost came, 
while the Peachblows would have kept on 
growing for a month. The truth is that the 
Judge’s potatoes were injured but little by the 
frost, owing to the sheltered position of the 
land. And I think this has far more to do with 
it than the manner of planting.” 
“ J. B.,” of Decorah, Iowa, writes that win¬ 
ter set in a month earlier than usual. The crop 
of corn was very poor. Hogs are numerous, 
and there is not corn enough to fatten them. 
Corn sells at from 35c. to 45c. a bushel. Hogs 
3c. per pound live weight, or 3|c. to 4c. dressed. 
Butter sold for 10c. a pound in summer, but 
since the drouth has advanced to 25c. per pound, 
and many farmers have to buj r . “ I was in 
town last Saturday,” he writes, “ trying to sell 
chickens, and all I could get offered was 10c. 
apiece, no matter how fat they were. I said, 
No; I will eat what I can, and the rest I will 
