Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-04-13
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FRIDAY, APRIL ID. 1855.

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1855.
How To IMPROVE FARM-It would, we
think, be safe to say, that eight out of ten of
the farmers of America would be benefited,
if one-half of their farms could be, TODAY.
taken from them, and they be compelled to
expend all their labor, manure, and money,
on the moiety remaining.
Our lands are seldom thoroughly plowed,
whether we regard depth of filth, or pulver-
ization. They are Zone may say alaoays] in
sufficiently or improperly MANFRED. The
quantity of manure to be applied to the
amount of land under the pillow, in the stead
of tilling no more than could be sufficiently
MANFRED. and otherwise properly cared for
Then, work pre- sing, the manure lies, spread
and speeding away, for days, oftentimes, be-
fore it is plowed under. Then the crops are
sold, not when the market price is at its
height, but just as soon as the farmer can get
the money for them.
These things should not be. A farmer re-
quires capital, as does the manufactures or
merchant, that he may judicously invest it in
his business; in labor or manure or i'll live
stock and farm implements in repairing what
is broken, and rectifying what is wrong; in
seeding at the right time and generally, in
doing all things at the proper moment, and in
the proper manner. Two acres well cultivat-
cd aud well cared for, will produce more net
profit than ten that have been poorly TILED
and poorly tended.
We all agree upon the resultant benefit of
deep plowing yet few farmers plow deep
Six inches is poorly generous average for the
depth of New England furrow. We all
agree that it is wise to house, or otherwise
protect our deposits of manure: but do we do
it? We differ little in our appreciation of the
81 e u. L L. 4
bitches. In this way we could go through
with a table Of contents of 1.-THE whole duty
of man on farm !" and show, that while
many are wise in word, few are wise in deed.
We are Of the breed of the unduiful son,
who said, 81 go, but budged not an inch.
Amy one of these reasons is sufficient to &C.
count for the comparatively poor return which
farmers obtain for their labor, care, and dill.
gence in the tillage of the soil.
The agriculture of Rhode Island may be
fairly taken as the average standard of New
England whether we speak of the knowl-
edge and skill brought to bear upon it, or of
the per acre products of the land under TIL
lage. For, while it is confessedly inferior to
the best, it is far from being the worst
In 1850, the Agricultural Society Of Rhode
Island induced the United States Assistant
Marshals, for consideration, to collect for
omitted in the Census Tables. BY these re-
turns, it appeared that the average product,
per acre, of various crops, was as follows:-
OF Indian corn, 80 IL bushels; rye, II ga
bushels; onions, 400 bushels carrots, 400
bushels.
Any farmer is capable of calculating for
himself the cost of growing an acre of each
of these crops, and he may pronounce, for
me, whether agriculture in Rhode Island paid
its way. If, then, the average OF the crops,
as above, paid little, if anything, more than
the cost of production, and the yield of that
State is fair average sample (and why is it
~ of the yield of New England, we may
safely set it down as settled that if farming
sush an immense per centum per annum, as
to cause a rush from the other professions.
The agricultural statistics of this State
(Which, as we have remarked is the only one
whose agricultural statistics are complete and
reliable) show that the largest yield OF carrots
in the State, in the year lS50-a bad year for
root crops, by the way, because of the drouth
-was one thousand bushels to the acre while
the average yield was four hundred bushels,
and the least amount to seventy-fve bushels,
all told. Of onions, the lars est crop was Dix
hundred bushels the average four hundred,
and the smallest, one hundred bushels to the
acre, Of Indian corn, the largest yield per
acre, was ore hundred bushels and the least,
six. Of rye, the largest crop grown to an
acre, was forty bushels; and the smallest was
what think ye Just three bushels
Now, though we can easily see that it will
well pay to gather these maximum crops, if
economically produced, we can scarcely be-
lieve, that they more than make the two ends
of the year meet, who raise but the average:
while how the wolf is kept from the door of
the house Of those who persist in getting such
crops as six bushels of corn, or three bushels
of rye, passes our comprehension. Three
bushels Of rye! Six bushels Of corn Why,
they will scarcely suffice to feed mice, that
"most do congregate in the granaries of
such thriftless farmers.
We are, of course, aware that all soils are
not to grow one hundred bushels of corn to
the acre, and other crops in proportion. But
they are very poor specimens Of land that will
not, with good tillage, yield more than the
averages above stated. Indeed, 50 far is it, in
most instances, from being the fault of the
land, that feel safe IN asserting, that, on an
exchange Of farms, the three bushel farmer
would, in a majority of cases, bring the land
whereon was raised the forty bushels Of rye,
dozen to the Average, in about tho same time
that the forty bushel farmer would require to
raise his bad bargain atp tn The Geerage.- Prac-
teal Farmer.