126 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
want of cash, may contrive to get through where one of less acuteness 
would fail.” 
In order that the readers of the Cultivator may form an idea of the capi¬ 
tal deemed necessary in Britain to manage a farm with spirit and profit, 
we well give an abstract from Prof. Low’s estimate. It is made for a farm 
of BOO acres, and embraces all the expenses that would be required by an 
in-going tenant, or a person beginning farming operations, for eighteen 
months, till he is certain of being able to realize capital from the sale of 
the products of the farm. The estimate is also predicated upon a five 
years’ rotation, during which each and every department of the farm is 
successively in fallow and fallow crops, grain, grass and pasture. As a 
detail of these crops for a year will afford our readers a tolerable idea of 
Scotch farming, and of their system of rotation, we copy it entire: 
« 1st. 100 acres in corn, namely, oats. 
*« 2d. 100 acres in fallow, fallow crops and tares, viz: 
60 acres in turnips. 
30 acres in summer fallow. 
5 acres in potatoes. 
5 acres in tares. 
100 acres. 
“ 3d. 100 acres in corn, with which are sown clover and rye grass 
seeds, namely: 
60 acres in barley after turnips. 
40 acres in wheat, after summer fallow', potatoes and tares. 
100 acres. 
“ 4th. 100 acres in young grass, namely: 
28 acres for hay and green forage. 
72 acres for pasture. 
100 acres. 
«< 6th. 100 acres in grass in its second year for pasture. 
“ Under this system of management the crops will succeed to each 
other in the order mentioned; and the farm will in every year be in five 
divisions, namely: 100 acres in oats; 100 in fallow, turnips, potatoes and 
tares; 100 in wheat and barley; 100 in young grass; and 100 in grass in 
its second year.” 
Two things are observable in this course: no field is subject to tillage 
more than three years in succession; and no field remains in grass or pas¬ 
ture more than two years in succession. 
To begin to manage such a farm, under such a rotation, requires a ca¬ 
pital, according to our author, of £3,841 11 6, exclusive of rent, to be 
expended as follows: 
1 Implements,. £473 7 4 
2 Live stock,. 1,423 15 0 
3 Seeds,. 273 IS 0 
4 Manures. 516 10 0 
5 Labor, &c. 628 17 6 
6 Maintenance of horses,. 243 9 11 
7 Burdens, (as taxes, &c.). 31 15 9 
£3,491 11 6 
To this sum should be added the expense of fur¬ 
nishing a dwelling-house. £200 
Family expenses for 1£ years,. 150 
- 350 0 0 
£3,841 11 6 
Deduct stock and produce which may be sold dur¬ 
ing the l£ years,.... 995 17 9 
Nett capital required,. .£2,845 13 9 
Or at the rate of £5 13 10 per acre, equal to $24.42. 
« A want of the necessary funds,” says Low, “ is often more injurious to 
a farmer, than even an obligation to pay a high rent. With an inadequate 
capital, he is impeded at every step. He cannot render justice to his 
farm; he must often bring his goods prematurely to market to supply his 
wants, and he will pay largely for the credit which he is compelled to seek. 
The farmer who has ready money at his command has, like every other 
trader, a great advantage over one who is forced to seek credit, and will 
be enabled to make a profit of many transactions on which the other would 
sustain a loss.” 
We find in the last Farmers' Cabinet, a notable instance recorded, of 
the profitable application of capital, in improving worn-out land, very ap¬ 
posite to our subject. The writer is one of the Society of Friends, and 
resides near Wilmington, in the state of Delaware. The experiment 
and outlay were made upon a worn-out field, which had yielded only 
“ seven bushels of corn to the acre,” and the whole amount of verdure 
which grew upon the field when it came into the possession of the writer, 
“ appeared insufficient for half a dozen sheep the summer season.” The 
following is an exhibit of the expenditure and products for three years, as 
copied from the Farm Ledger: 
1835. Field JYo. 3. Dr. 
1st. 1 mo. 
500 bushels lime, at 20 cts.$100 00 
150 cart loads manure, at 
$1.25 per load,. 187 50 
200 bushels of bone dust, at 
30 cents per bushel,. 60 00 
100 bushels of ground oys¬ 
ter shells,. 15 00 
75 cart-loads of manure, at 
$1.25,. 93 75 
Clover and timothy seed,.. 12 00 
15 bu. seed wheat,. 22 50 
Cost of ten acres of land,.. 480 00 
$970 75 
“ The interest account against the field,” says the writer, “ is not car¬ 
ried out, but the second crop, now growing, will considerably more than 
balance it, leaving the field to stand against the labor of cultivating three 
crops, and taking them to market. It well be seen that the profits of this 
operation have all grown out of the manure.” 
The principles of improved farming, which the preceding facts and es¬ 
timates are intended to illustrate and inculcate, are, 
1. That capital is requisite in the spirited and profitable management of 
a farm; and that it ought not to be diverted to its enlargement, or to ex¬ 
traneous matters, until the cultivated part is brought to its most produc¬ 
tive bearing. 
2. That farm stock is necessary, not only as a source of profit on ac¬ 
count of the meat, milk and wool which they yield, with comparatively 
little labor,—but as a source of fertility to the soil which no good farmer 
can or will dispense with. And, 
3. That alternation of crops, as grain, grass, roots and pasture, form the 
true basis of good husbandry. 
1835. Per contra. Cr. 
300 bu. corn, at 80cts. .. .$240 00 
175 bu. potatoes, at 30 cts. 52 50 
1836. 
96£ bu. wheat, at $2,_ 193 00 
10 loads of corn fodder,... 15 00 
9 loads of wheat, straw, ... 18 00 
3 months pasture for 8 cat¬ 
tle, .... 24 25 
1837. 
31 h tons hay, at $14. 437 50 
$980 25 
LIVE FENCES, 
Are annually becoming more and more a matter of interest to the Ame¬ 
rican public, particularly to the farmers of the Prairie West;, where there is 
already a scarcity of timber land. Our fencing timber is rapidly diminish¬ 
ing, and but a small portion of our country is furnished with stone for 
fencing purposes. Live fences, therefore, must be sooner or later resort¬ 
ed to, as a matter of necessity, and they may be resorted to, we are per¬ 
suaded, as matter of ultimate economy, in districts where fencing timber 
and stones are scarce or dear. Caleb Kirk, of Delaware, to whom we 
have before adverted as the writer of some excellent essays upon hedges, 
states in one of his essays, that an Englishman, located in his neighbor¬ 
hood, was in the habit of contracting to plant and take care of thorn hedge 
till it became an efficient barrier to cattle, receiving his pay as the 
work progressed, at one dollar the rod. In a period of twenty years, 
therefore, the live fence would cost much less than the dead fence, with 
the advantage to the former superadded, that at the end of the twenty 
years, the live fence would be complete, and in order, while the dead 
fence would be required to be rebuilt with a new outlay. We are satis¬ 
fied, from our own experience and observation, that we have abundant 
materials, in the indigenous growth of our country, for live fences, and 
that we can, after we have profited more from experience,—and the soon¬ 
er we acquire this the better,—advantageously employ them in growing 
live fences. The greatest bar to our progress in the business is, want of 
patience , and a just perception of our ultimate interest. If we could grow 
live fences as readily as we can construct dead ones, there would be no 
hesitation in resorting to them, however expensive. But the idea of de¬ 
voting six or seven years to bringing them to perfection, perhaps longer 
than our natural lease of life, deters many from planting hedges, as it 
does fruit and ornamental trees. The object of the parent is almost inva¬ 
riably, not only to provide the means of promoting his own comfort, but 
to lay up an inheritance for his children, and this, he should consider, i3 
as effectually done by enhancing the value of the acres, which are to con¬ 
stitute the patrimony, by good and permanent live fences, orchards of good 
fruit, and rural embellishments, as by bank bills or wild lands in the far 
west. Live fences not only serve to enclose lands, but afford a highly 
beneficial shelter to farm crops, and, if kept in order, add greatly to the 
beauty of the landscape. 
In the few remarks we are about to offer on this subject, we shall direct 
the reader’s attention, 
1. To the material to be employed, 
2. To the procuring the plants, 
3. To the preparation of the ground and planting; and, 
4. To the management of the hedge. 
The material to be employed.— The best material, we be¬ 
lieve, is the thorn ( Cratwgus) most indigenous in the district where it is 
to be used—because such species must be best adapted to the climate and 
soil. The American thorn is generally of stouter growth than the Euro¬ 
pean, which in the old continent is used for hedges, at least with us, and 
