THE CULTIVATOR. 
Plans fer the Year, 
A person who first visits one of our best manufac¬ 
tories, is struck with the perfect order and system 
that prevail in every part of the establishment. Eve¬ 
ry man is busy, and every one knows his place; 
every part of the machinery is perfectly adapted 
to its intended purpose,—slow and powerful in one 
part, and light and rapid in another; the power 
applied to move the whole is just' sufficient for all 
its multifarious operations, and none is wasted; the 
rough ma^rial is carefully worked up In such a way 
•that nothing is lost:; and skillful calculations are made 
of all the expenditures as compared with the future 
profits, and the whole carefully recorded by skillful 
clerks, in such a manner that those transactions that 
contribute most to profit, or those which occasion loss, 
.are quickly detected. 
Is it so with the farmer % Boes he so arrange his 
business that every hired man is occupied, knowing at 
any moment what work is assigned him, and so that 
none are idle at one time, and again overwhelmed 
■with accumulated work at another? Is the team pow¬ 
er perfectly adapted to the amount of tillage in view, 
with steady labor., and without over-driving ? Is the 
system of business such that the farm forces may be 
evenly distributed through the season? And, above 
all, has the careful and keen-sighted farmer ascertain¬ 
ed by accurate accounts and by weighing and measur¬ 
ing, which of his operations are paying him best, tak¬ 
ing the cost of the rough material, the expense of work¬ 
ing it over, and its ultimate aVails, all together into 
the estimate? 
The farmer’s rough material,-—the land and the ma¬ 
nure applied to enrich it,—-is too often left out of his 
calculations. He counts only the amount of money 
received at the end-of the year, and the cost of labor, 
but nothing more. A system of cropping is pursued 
that appears to be profitable, because it returns money; 
but if it is really impoverishing land, the owner is re¬ 
ally selling off his farm piece-meal, and it is as great 
an error to call such a course profitable, as it would be 
to sell off a ten-acre slice each year, and throw the 
avails promiscuously into the sales of crops. Hay, it is 
better to reduce the farm ip size, than to reduce* it in 
quality, for the reason that a small and fertile farm 
yields more nett profit, than the -same produce from a 
larger estate .cultivated at greater cost Manufactur¬ 
ers are very careful of the rough material—let no 
farmer be less so, because, unlike them, he is not com¬ 
pelled to buy his supply every year; for a bale of raw 
cotton or a ton of wool, is worth as much when left by 
inheritance as when paid .for each day in cash. An 
interesting proof of the deceptiveness -of present profit 
was furnished by an experiment performed some years 
ago in England with two distinct plans -of rotation,-— 
one, with the wheat crop occurring frequently, and 
constituting a more exhausting course; and the other 
more beneficial to the soil, but affording less return in 
cash. At first the-close-cropping course appeared de¬ 
cidedly the most remunerative; but in the course of i 
years the other course had go improved the land, that 
the minor or secondary., crops themselves proved as 
profitable as the wheat crop had formerly been, which 
now far exceeded them, and thus rendered the enrich¬ 
ing course the best, even throwing out of view its influ¬ 
ence on the soil. 
An even distribution of labor is of much importance, 
and not unfrequently entirely overlooked. Hands 
hired for the season commonly come to understand the 
routine of work much better than day-hands, and they 
work more cheaply. A farmer sows half his fields 
with wheat, with the hope of realizing a fine sum of 
money; but after the wheat is sown, his men have but 
little to do that is profitable until the next harvest, 
when he may be compelled to pay double or even triple 
wages, all of which trim dCwn the profits, to say no¬ 
thing about the ‘‘rough material.” The appropriation 
of land to the production of some particular product 
exclusively, has been beautifully advocated by theo¬ 
rists, but in long practice it will not be found to com¬ 
pare with mixed husbandry, that is, with the judicious 
rotation of crops, combined with raising full herds of 
domestic animals for the production of manure. In 
other words, raise plenty of animals, to enrich the 
crops, which are to feed the animals again. This ac¬ 
tion and reaction is the very best way to create a plen¬ 
tiful surplus for sale, and at the same time preserve or 
iancrese the fertility of the farm. 
There is no error more common than the imperfect 
execution of certain operations, when the farmer finds 
himself behindhand, with a deficiency of hands. This 
error is the cause of the luxuriant growth of mulleins 
and thistles so often seen in pastures; and of the heavy 
coating of weeds which overpower young root-crops, 
and choke the free growth of com and potatoes. 
These often consume all the nett profits of the crop, 
and a defective plan thus compels the farmer to labor 
for nothing. We have known a crop of oats so dimin¬ 
ished by a few days delay in sowing in spring, and a 
large field of wheat by a similar delay in autumn, as 
barely to pay for seed and labor, which otherwise 
might have yielded a heavy return. 
There is no remedy for these evils but a careful and 
accurate plan of operations at the commencement of 
the year. The course of cropping should be distinctly 
marked out beforehand, and the number of aSres de¬ 
termined for the oats, barley, corn, potatoes, carrots, 
wheat, corn-fodder, and so forth; the amount of labor 
for each of these may be nearly estimated, and the 
time in the season when each should be fully comple¬ 
ted; and then, making.allowance for interruptions, ac¬ 
cidents, and rainy weather, the requisite force may he 
timely secured, and the whole machinery move on 
with regularity and without any derangement. All 
these plans must be fully recorded in a book kept for 
the purpose—if the memory is depended on, confusion 
and failure will he the certain result. If possible, the 
year’s plans should be so completely digested, that the 
operations of every week may be distinctly laid clown 
on a page allotted for each; the necessary variation of 
