Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-08-22

why, shall not get the value Of the seed back
that's too bad
Oats. Now, that's thrice bad of you'll You
know that you have had six grain cropsin sue
cession from the land on which | am sown,
with not spadefnl Of manure Of any kind for
the last six years. Why, even the weeds
have been starved out, and you have put in
practice the lazy farmers receipt for Kidding
| his land of weeds making it so poor that
they will not erow" Now that's practical
! farming without theory.
C1fabb But what shall | do for want of
the straw, which depended upon as fodder
for my cattle during next winter.
Oats Is that all your dependence for the
next winter Why your cattle viii be ready
to eat yo,ti and You will have to practice the
Other part Of the receipt, ''to prevent cattle
from diving of starvation--klll them" But
rive you fair warning; neither they nor you
must expect any thing from me; if can hold
my own twill be as much as / shall do.
5. Glover Grabb Why you look heal
thy and well, but how is it thatyou have made
| so little progress in height! There's f:ssner
Sykes clover as high as my knees, and will
lie soon fit for the scythe! but am unfortunate
in every thing!
/ Ciover That's true word, although spo-
ken in jest. Why you seem to forget that as
soon as had made little progress IN growth,
you turned all your starving cattle, horses, and
sheep, which not only eat up the branches bat
the root!
Grabb Ali that was compelled to keep
them from starving; but you had all the bene-
| fit of their manure while they were feeding on
you.
Cloper You call that manure? why it was
the greatest part nothing but worms and bots
and the little good that remained was soon
carried off by the grasshoppers and bugs, which
were about as much in want OF 1t as |! My
fear is that the hot weather, which seems
now to be setting in, will scortch the land, 50
unprotected by foliage, and scanty crop which
is left, before it is high enough for the scythe
and then what do you think your horses
will say to you? If you had done what Far
mer Sykes did, you would have deserved his
| success; YOU must remember, how, that IN
stead of feeding off his young crop, he top
dressed it with compost of lime and earth
and dung, which had been carefully prepared
in water and well pulverized; by which, not
only his present crop is doubly benefited, but
it is also preparatory to an autumn sowing OF
wheat on the Law. Now put this and that to-
eether. and calculate the result. First, two
tai aftermath for his dairy, and if wheat is
sown by the 29th of September, yield of for
| ty bushels per acre might be expected at next
wears harvest; and this is not all, for after the
wheat is carried, the land will be turned and
! the clover stubble, perfectly rotted, will form
an excellent seed bed for buck-wheat, with the
expectation of heavy crop. Now will leave
you to calculate the value Of my second crop,
| remember you have already had the first cut
ting, and severe cutting it was,) and OF course
you do not expect much at the third; while
seven bushels OF wheat per acre, next
harvest will be quite as much as you have any
right to expect; and common justice Will not
allow YOU TO SOW bucBwheat after
| Crab Why you are one OF Jobs COM
forters.
Clover But l cannot see that You have any
claim to the character of Job-tor In all this,
Job sinned not, remember.
| 6, PoTAroEs. G,ubb. Well, | don't know
| how it is, but while others are digging new po-
tatoes, it does not appear that shall ever have
any to dig! think may as well leave you
to your fate, for you'll certainly never be worth
1 the labor of cleaning.
Potatoes Now you cannot be ignorant of
the fact. that for two months after the crops OF
others were up you were only talking Of plant
inc yours. all the while the weeds We're grow
ing. on what YOU called your fallow, until
some of them were as high as your head, and
full of seed; we were then tumbled in all to
oether. and have ever since been struggling
for the mastery; but you have now sealed our
I fate, and must take the consequences. Twas
fortunate for you, was it not2 that your father
lived before you, for he acoold find 1t difficult
to lire after you.
/ 7. The Cows IN PASTURE. Crab. Well,
YOU have more grass than you can eat, how
ever YOU cannot grumble--that's one comfort.
Cons. Grass, do you call it?
Gaabb. Yes do; and what do you call
it,
Cows. Why, we were just saying that it
would puzzle Philadelphia lawyer to say
what it was; but Judging by the smell as we'll
as the taste, it might be called garlic, without
offending against the statute Of truth. s
Grabb Well you are all alike! Did mt
let you feed off the crop Of clover, almost be
fore it was out of the ground?
Colss. That's fact Indeed we We're at
last obliged to dig for it, and you will feel the
effects next winter, or we are no conjurers.
Crab All had need to be conjurer to
know how to satisfy you all; but what have
you done with the sheep
/ Coos. What, those large bodied,
long wooded animals for which you
gave in exchange your small breed,
which, even they, could only Just keep
body and soul together, by picking the
short heritage of the pasture' Oh! we
have done nothing with them, but they
have at last been able to do something
for themselves, for finding it impossible
to subsist on such commons, and that
they were growing less every day,
they sought for hole in the fence, and
by waiting until they were reduced SO
much in size as to be able to creep
through, they at length passed into
your wheat, with the intention of re-
turning after they had filed themselves,
but this they could not do then, and it
L II 4 Al barya