TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
New Series. ALBANY, JUNE, 1852. 
Mechi’s High Farming. 
One of the most interesting papers on agriculture which 
we have read for a long time, is I. J. Mechi’s account 
of the operations of his farm, a pampnlet of 44 pages, 
recently published in London. This distinguished agri¬ 
culturist, as most of our readers know, has attracted a 
great deal of public attention by the lavish expenditures 
he has bestowed in improving and enriching his land, to 
which he has thus imparted a degree of fertility, far 
In advance of that attained by ordinary British farming, 
his object being to reach that degree of high culture 
given to the best kitchen gardens. To enable the reader 
at once to judge of the extent of his enriching process, 
it may be stated that he paid in a single year for oil-cake 
and grain, to be consumed as food for stock for the in¬ 
crease of manure, a sum little short of eight thoasand 
dollars , his whole farm consisting of only 170 acres, of 
which 125 is his own land. The same year he bought 
stock for the same purpose, to an amount of more than 
three thousand dollars, and nearly seven hundred dollars 
worth of guano, phosphate of lime and chalk. A great 
deal of curiosity has been excited to know the footings 
of his balance sheet, at the end of the year—that is, 
whether he is losing or gaining by this bold and untried 
system. He has satisfied this curiosity in the pamphlet 
before us. 
His wheat crop of 72 acres, (including one field injured 
by blight) yielded an average of 36 bushels of marketable 
wheat per acre; twenty-seven and a half acres of pota¬ 
toes, “ only half a crop, having been injured by drouth,” 
afforded but 145 bushels per acre; ruta bagas produced 
18 tons, and mangold wurzels 32 tons per acre. Ten 
thousand dollars worth of meat and live stock were sold, 
the results of his system for manuring, although not pay¬ 
ing cost independently of the manure afforded. On the 
whole,taking into consideration the rapidly improving pro¬ 
cess the farm is undergoing, he regards the results as high¬ 
ly favorable,much more so than by ordinary cultivation. 
Leaving entirely out of the calculation the expendi¬ 
tures in the purchase of stock and food solely for the 
manufacture of manure, and the proceeds of the sales of 
meat and stock, his expenditures including rent, taxes, 
labor, purchased manures, interest, wear and tear, &c., 
are £1,064; his crops amount to £1,135, leaving a balance 
of £71 in his favor, although his root crops are not given 
at market but at consuming prices. For example, his 
mangold wurzels are placed at 6,<?. per ton, while he 
could have sold them at 9s. 6 d. per ton, but in that case I 
Vol. IX.— No. 6. 
he would lose the manure made from their consumption. 
It is to be remembered also, that farming in England is 
at present quite a retrograde or down-hill business. Five 
thousand dollars product of a farm of 170 acres, with 
potates at 25 cents, wheat at $1.25 per bushel, and roots 
at $1.50 per ton, as these were sold, would be remarka¬ 
ble farming in this country. 
His accounts show that there was £10 worth of meat 
made, and £5 worth of grain produced, that is, over 
seventy dollars, for every acre on the farm. His neigh¬ 
bor assured him that he would sooner occupy such land 
at 40^. rent per acre, than to hold his own free of rent. 
Yet he affirms that when he first occupied the land, the 
roots grown were scarcely larger than apples, while now 
“ plenty of them weigh seventeen pounds each.” 
Some interesting facts are furnished, showing the per¬ 
manency of the improvements. He first began with 
“artificial manures,” (guano, &c.) which operated 
powerfully while the land was yet poor, but experience 
soon taught him that they were more costly than manure 
produced by feeding stock. The former acted imme¬ 
diately and were quickly expended; the latter were 
greatly superior in durability. Speaking of the reten¬ 
tive tendency of clay soils, he remarks, “ So striking is 
this retentive tendency, that I have been able to distin¬ 
guish for five years, that portion of one of my fields which 
then received good manure, although the whole has been 
since farmed and manured alike. I could name similar 
instances, showing the difference for twelve years, but 
the most forcible evidence of good cultivation and ma¬ 
nure was the following:—Walking, before harvest, with 
a friend in his wheat-field, I was struck with the marked 
superiority of one corner, and asked for an explanation. 
“Oh!” said he, “this portion was once a cottage gar¬ 
den.” “ How long ago?” “ Why,” said he, “ I have 
known the field fifty years, and it was ten years before 
that time.” 
“ Some idea,” he adds, “of the permanently improved 
condition of the clayey portion of my land may be formed 
when I tell you, that the yellow sub-soil would formerly 
be found in a four-inch plowing, but now a good digging 
in the furrows will fail to reveal it; and even at lower 
depths the pale bird-lime-like appearance is changed to 
a mellow and darker colored friability.” So much for 
drainage, cultivation, and manure! 
“ It may be said that the land may be made too rich; 
but the experience of our gardeners must teach us that 
there is no fear of such a result for strong-growing grain 
and root crops; and we can guard against over-luxuriance 
