Calamities Changed to Blessings. 
Every intelligent and thrifty farmer has doubtless 
had occasion to observe the heavy losses of the skin¬ 
ning system. The man who gets twenty bushels of 
corn per acre off a ten acre lot, is compelled to plow 
the whole of this surface for 200 bushels; while he 
who obtains fifty bushels per acre has only four acres 
to cultivate for a like amount. And it usually happens 
that triple the labor is required to keep a single acre 
of the badly cultivated land clear of grass and weeds, 
as an acre in the finest tillage. If the ten-acre man 
bax-ely gets enough to pay for cultivation, the four-acre 
man may realize a profit of about one hundred percent. 
The same mode of estimate will apply to every thing 
else. If a poor cow yields milk and butter only enough 
to pay for her keeping, a good one yielding a double 
amount, affords a clear profit of all this surplus. Land- 
pike and Racer hogs, may consume three dollars worth 
of corn to make a dollar’s worth of pork; Berkshires 
and Suffolks may yield two dollars worth of pork to 
every dollar’s worth of corn fed skillfully. All these 
examples show that the most profitable farming is that 
which brings land into the finest condition, and which 
secures the most productive animals on a given amount 
of food. The increased value of the -principal —that 
is of the land itself, by the most improving practice, 
should also be taken into the account. 
Yet notwithstanding all this, a great multitude of- 
farmers continue to pursue the most profitless of the 
two modes,—either from a want of energy or a want 
of knowledge. They barely make a living in many 
instances, and remind us of the man who said, “ It 
takes me and my hired man, both working hard all the 
year, to raise enough to pay my hired man.” Now, 
when in addition to this close struggle for a living, such 
calamities as the Hessian fly, the wheat midge, extra¬ 
ordinary drouths, Ac., make their appearance, the case 
appears to be desperate ; and yet we are not sure that 
the fly and midge, and the danger of drouth, may not 
become indirectly great improvers of our husbandry, 
and in this way prove -substantial blessings to superfi¬ 
cial farmers. “It’s an ill wind dat blows no whar,” 
said Shelby’s black Sam; and possibly these calamities 
may yet compel some to be good farmers against their 
will. 
In the eastern part of Long Island, the Hessian fly 
proved many years ago a great benefit to that region 
of country. The land was so constantly tilled, and so 
little attention was given to making' manures, and to 
other modes of enriching, that on an average not more 
than five or six bushels of wheat were raised per acre. 
But this, small as it was, would pay the labor and ex¬ 
pense. The Hessian fly put an end to this kind of hus¬ 
bandry, for no other way was found to prevent its de¬ 
predations but highly manuring the land; the fly 
usually attacking the weakest plants, the vigor impart¬ 
ed by the manure saved the crop. Great attention was 
subsequently given to the manufacture of manure, and 
in many places the amount made was increased ten 
fold. The cackling of geese once saved the city of 
Rome ; and in this instance, the buzzing of a minute 
insect placed thousands of dollars in the .pockets of 
farmers. 
We are much mistaken if the wheat midge or weevil 
does not do us Some substantial good. Crops of wheat, 
which have been put in early, and in the best manner, 
in land not injured by previous mismanagement, have 
been but slightly-affected. An energetic farmer of our 
acquaintance prepared his land last year, by first turn¬ 
ing over deeply a good clover sod—then giving this a 
good coat of compost manure—then harrowing the in¬ 
verted sod and compost into complete intermixture and 
pulverization—then turning the whole under with a 
gang-plow just deep enough for the roots of the young 
wheat, which was put in with a drill in the best man¬ 
ner. The whole of this was accomplished by the first 
day of autumn. Other crops on the same farm, after 
corn, were also well put in, but necessarily some weeks 
later, and in less favorable soil. Now mark the result. 
The first-named crop yielded the present season of 
drouth and insects, no less than thirty bushels of the 
finest wheat per acre—the other was only ten bushels 
per acre. Other crops in the same neighborhood, sown 
after com with only ordinary care and tillage, pro¬ 
duced but five bushels per acre. In one instance, when 
two fields were sown side by side, on similar land, at 
the same time, but with one of them thoroughly tilled 
with an especial view to the destruction of “ June 
grass,” the latter yielded nineteen bushels per acre, 
the former only ten. Examples may be multiplied to 
any degree, showing the great profits of the best modes 
of tillage for security against these depredators. 
The present year of extraordinary drouth has fur¬ 
nished some interesting lessons on the difference be¬ 
tween the effects of good and bad management. The 
potato crop, for example, has varied five hundred per 
cent with the treatment it has met with. When it has 
been planted early, in a soil, not made rich hastily 
with fresh, badly mixed manure, but by previous high 
tillage, with an addition of well pulverized compost, 
we have succeeded in raising large and fine roots. Late 
planted, and on poor soil, the crop has in many instan¬ 
ces been insufficient to pay the digging. The Irishman 
who dug our crop, said he was quite as well rewarded 
for his labor by taking one bushel in ten, as in taking 
the whole of his own scanty product. The oat crop is 
another which has exhibited in a striking light, the 
advantages of being up to the time. Crops which 
were sown closely after the disappearance of frost, 
have afforded a fair return ; while some which we have 
had occasion to notice that were put in but two or three 
weeks later, reminded us of such as were fit only to 
cut with scissors and rake with a pocket-comb—they 
could not, in fact, be craddled. 
But we need not multiply instances. If the essen¬ 
tial requisites of good tillage are attended to, such as 
heavy clover sod, muck and sod compost, and early 
sowing for wheat; high manuring, thorough intermix¬ 
ture, and clean tillage for corn; fertility, sufficient 
depth, and early planting for potatoes; and thorough 
underdraining, subsoiling or trench plowing, to prevent 
wetness at one time, and loss from drouth at another, 
with such other requisites as good management always 
points out; if these all should have place in the prac¬ 
tice of our farmers, we should hear much less com¬ 
plaint of the ravages of depredators and the calami¬ 
ties of seasons. 
