Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1825-06-02

i am sorry there IS so much need
of the admonitions | am about to give.
Depend on it, you do not 'acofs ii
right or you would make your farms
and stock twice as valuable as they
now are. Many Of you farm too
much.-You would find it much more
profitable to farm twenty acres WELL
Than forty by halves. The last sea-
son, l made my ground produce at
The rate of one hundred bushels of
Indian corn to the acre. Is this not
much better than a common crop OF
thirty or forty bushels? You will Ger
tainly say it is, and with the same
breath ask how | manage 10 make it
produce SO plentifully? My land be
ing much infested with ground mice,
Or moles, and overrun with grubs and
other vermiD. l put on, early in the
month of March, about seven bushels
of salt to the acre, which thoroughly
destroys all kinds of vermin, being
an excellent strong manure, and
~ploughed and worked the ground O.
yer and over until it became CON-.
pletely mellow; | then had every corn
hole filled with hog manure, (Which
had been previously soaked in warm
water) l bad scattereda pint of lime
over every bill, and then covered the
whole WITH a little mellow earth. In
about a week the corn began to come
up pientifully, after which l nursed il
with the plough and hoe, every other
week for eight weeks, at which time
it was as high as my head, and not
a spire Oft was destroyed either by
the frost, grub or birds. BY other
things | manurcd and nursed equally
well, and l have been amply paid
for all my extra care and trouble, as
l raised more than twice as much per
acre as any OF my neighbars, and did
j. in much less time. / mean / got all
my harvesting done two or three
weeks before many others.-This is
accomplished in a great measure BY
redeeming time; rising between three
and four o'clock in the morning; then
if the day be very sultry and hot, / lie
by from twelve to three and rest. |
then feel refreshed and able TO work
until quite dark.-This / call "vorE
ing 1T right" whereas, should | lay
in bed until the sun be up aud shame
me, haunt the tavern at night, drink
too much whiskey, but half manure,
half plough, half plant, half nurse,
half harvest, and do every thing by
halves, l surely should not "oork it
right" nor get half a crop.
shall! now conclude by giving you,
for further confederation, a lew excel
lent observations from a wiser head.
perhaps than my own, which l shall
endeaveur TO improve for myself, and
hope that every brother farner will
DO SO likewise.
Il often say to myself, what a pity
it is u farmers do not pOrk ii right.
When | see "a man turn his cattle
into the road to ron at large, and waste
their manure durirga winters day, l
say this man does net arorE 1t aaght.
Ten loads of good manure, at least,
is lost in q season by this ~slovenly prac-
tlce-and all for what? For nothing,
indeed, but TO ruin his farm.
So, when l see cattle late in the
fall or early in the spring, rambling
i'll a meadow or moving field, pound,
ing the soil and breaking the grass
roots, l say to myself; this man does
not lpork 1T right.
So, when | see a barn yard with a
drane to it, l say the owner does not
work it right, for how easy it is to
make a yard hollow, or lowest in the
middle, to receive the moisture and all
the wash of the sides, which will thus
be kept dry for the cattle. The wash
and moisture of the yard mixed with
any kind Of earth, o putrid straw,
is excellent manure; yet how much do
our farmers lose by neglecting these
things; in faei they do not acork it
sight.
When l see a farmer, often going
to the retailers store, with a bottle or
jug, or lounging about a tavern, or
wrangling about politics, or quarrcll
ing with, and defaming his neighbors'
good name, / am certain such a man
does not qUork 1t right.
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