THE CULTIVATOR. 
155 
whole acre, and a small quantity was left. The time occupied in 
sowing was about a day and a half. I sowed them a few days earli¬ 
er than last year, viz. on the 16th of June; as they appeared last 
year to be in full vigor at the time of pulling. I gathered them the 
first week in November, and from the acre sown with the Albany 
seed, measured 450 bushels of very fine smooth turnips. Nearly 
one-fourth of the ground sown was inclining to clay, and in some 
places produced no turnips; thus furnishing another proof of the 
correctness of Judge Buel’s remark, that clay ground is unsuited for 
a turnip crop. Owing to an unusual pressure of farming business, 
my turnips were hoed but once, which was at the time of thinning 
—the first week in August. My account with ruta baga for the 
year 1834, will stand as follows : 
Ploughing twice, and ridging,. $3 00 
Seed,..... 75 
Six days, work, thinning and hoeing,. 4 50 
$ 8 25 
The tops will pay for the use of the land and the gathering.— 
Four hundred and fifty bushels of turnips, at twenty cents per 
bushel, would be $90 leaving a profit of something like eighty dol¬ 
lars. 
There is an impression among some people, that capital employed 
in farming is but poorly invested. It may in some cases be so, but 
such is not the result necessarily. The land on which my turnips 
were this year raised, was part of a small field of four acres, which 
had been a meadow for several years, but the grass becoming thin 
and poor, it was, after the mowing in 1830, turned carefully over, 
dragged on the furrow with a light drag, and sown with wheat. Af¬ 
ter the wheat was taken off, a quantity of manure was, in the fall 
of 1831, put on the stubble, and the whole ploughed in. In the 
spring of 1832, it was again ploughed and sown with barley. The 
barley stubble was ploughed in and the field again sown with wheat. 
In the spring of the present year, the wheat stubble was turned in, 
and the piece rolled down smooth, and three acres planted with corn. 
As the ground had been carefully levelled, the corn was planted in 
rows two feet and a half apart, and the hills eighteen inches from 
each other in the rows; at the first hoeing three stalks were left in 
a hill. It was hoed twice, the principal part done with a cultivator, 
and the corn was hilled as little as possible. At gathering it was 
estimated to yield from 65 to 70 bushels an acre; and one acre was 
sowed with the turnips. The avails of this four acres for the four 
years will be as follows :— 
1st crop,.100 bushels wheat, 8s $100 00 
2d .120. barley, 4s 60 00 
3d . 90 ...... wheat, 8 s............ 90 00 
195. corn, 4s. 97 50 
450 .turnips 20 cts . 90 00 
$437 50 
No account of the expense of culture was kept except for the last 
two years, and as it will be seen at a glance that it was performed 
in the simplest manner possible, on comparing it with recorded 
results, I am confident that thirty per cent would be a liberal 
allowance for seed, labor, &c. leaving a profit on the four acres for 
the four years of about three hundred dollars. 
It has been frequently remarked that small farms were more pro¬ 
fitable than large farms. This is no doubt in most cases true; and 
it is easily accounted for by the fact that on well cultivated small 
farms, much more capital is employed on the land in the shape of 
labor, manure, &c. than upon large farms. A small farm bears the 
same relation to a large farm in this respect, that the garden of the 
small farm does to the remainder. Where the soil is naturally equal¬ 
ly good throughout the whole farm, let it be small or large, it might be 
made as productive and profitable as the garden, were the same ca¬ 
pital employed upon it. In farming, as in most other kinds of busi¬ 
ness, it is idle to expect something for nothing; the returns in nine 
cases out of ten will be in proportion to the labor bestowed. 
Otisco, December 5, 1834. WILLIS GAYLORD. 
EXTRACT FROM THE VALEDICTORY OF MR. LEGARE TO THE PATRONS 
OF THE SOUTHERN AGRICULTURIST. 
The subject of the Rotation of Crops and Manures —should com¬ 
mand your serious attention. Without referring to the mooted 
point of what is the cause, or entering in the least into the discus¬ 
sion, it is sufficient for us to know, that any vegetable grown long 
on the same soil deteriorates, even when the ground is annually ma¬ 
nured, unless the manure used possesses the peculiar nutriment fit¬ 
ted for it, and so true is this admitted to be, that it is acted on even 
by the market gardeners, near London, where rents are enormous, 
and manures made free use of. It is stated, moreover, on high au¬ 
thority, that it is a practice with them to lay down a part of their 
grounds in grasses, finding that the rotation of garden vegetables is 
not sufficient, and that by pursuing this course, their profits are in¬ 
creased. 
If then it be so necessary, where manures are used to such an 
extent, as would astonish us in this country, how much more neces¬ 
sary must it be where so little is used, and where the supply is so 
limited 1 Rotation of crops, is in some measure, a substitute for ma¬ 
nuring, and it is well known, that after plants of a certain class, have 
exhausted the soil of all nutriment which will support them, other 
plants will grow most luxuriantly on it, and be for sometime very 
productive. These, in turn, exhaust the soil of their peculiar food, 
and have to yield their places to others. And such is the course 
pointed out by nature throughout the vegetable world, whether it 
be in the forest or in prairie, the cultivated or uncultivated lands. 
But a rotation of crops can seldom, if ever, be substituted for ma¬ 
nuring, and should never be considered in that light, for although 
each plant may have a certain specific food, without which it cannot 
thrive, and which it may obtain by a change of soil, and which is not 
necessary for the healthy growth of other plants, which are to suc¬ 
ceed, yet there are certain elementary constituents necessary for all 
plants, and which are required by all and consumed by all, and which 
can only be supplied by the annual decay of the vegetables which 
grow on the soil, or by manures. Where the operation is left to 
nature, the first takes place, but when man interferes, the second 
must be resorted to. The object, however, of manuring should not 
be merely to keep the soil at its pristine fertility, but to improve and 
make it more productive. To effect this, care should be taken that 
a greater quantity is added to a field than is taken from it. Nor 
should it be a matter of indifference what manure is carried into 
particular fields, for while some manures would be exceedingly be¬ 
neficial in one field, they might be inoperative or the very reverse 
in another. Nor is it always necessary that the manure should con¬ 
tain either vegetable or animal substances. To a stiff clay soil, the 
addition of pure sand very often proves highly beneficial, and clayey 
is the proper corrective of a light soil. Wood ashes, lime and marl, 
are most excellent manures when properly applied. But of all ma¬ 
nures, that which is obtained from the stable and farm-yard, is the 
most beneficial, and consequently most to be prized. The greatest 
attention, therefore, should be paid to the collecting and augmenting 
of it. We need not here enter more fully into this branch of our 
subject. Our readers need only to refer to the back volumes of this 
journal for all information necessary. The subject is undergoing in¬ 
vestigation daily, and as these investigations shall bring to light 
new discoveries, they will be given in the succeeding numbers of this 
work. 
The next subject we call your attention to, is the care of your 
Live Stock. It is all important to a planter, that he should have an 
ample supply of manure ; with it he goes onto realize a fortune, and 
without it, he will at best, but remain stationary. How many plant¬ 
ers have been ruined, and how many are there, who scarce make 
their income and expenditures meet; in many cases this is more 
owing to a neglect of collecting and applying manures, than any 
other cause. Content with what the natural fertility of the soil 
yields, the productions of their fields become less in each succeed¬ 
ing year, and instead of supplying the waste which takes place, by 
the application of manures, they, in many cases, emigrate to the 
“far West,” leaving all the comforts of civilization, and tearing 
asunder all the tender ties of early life. Others are content to drag 
on thus, provided they can but live; when it would require but little 
exertion on their part, to place them in comfortable, if not affluent 
circumstances. 
A proper attention to the stock of the plantation, (for all have 
more or less,) would go far to relieve the embarrassments of the 
planter, in this respect. Let his horses and cattle, his sheep and 
hogs, be properly attended to; let them be taken care of, during 
winter, and have their pens well littered, and he will be amply re¬ 
paid by the quantity of manure he will have in the spring, to enrich 
those spots which are poorest. But even apart from the additional 
quantity of manure which would be made by proper attention, the 
many comforts yielded by a well kept stock of cattle, sheep and hogs 
