Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-02-25
farmers department.
Make a Map of the Farm

Few of our farms are in a finished state
Most of them al e more in the raw state than m
ture left them, and have 10 he recovered from tht
consequences of the bad manage ment of their
former occupants. They are yet chaotic, and
It will take more than six days of labor, TO
round them into form, to separate land from
water, and to turn the waste into fruitful field.
They are to be made as much as the house
that has only its framework reared, or the
ship that stands on the stocks, with implanted
ribs and beams. Many are waking up this un-
finished state of their farms, and have already
begun certain improvements, and have plan
ned certain others, which bide their time.
But the Improvement of particular field is
too often undertaken without any reference to
the rest of the farm, and great deal of labor
Is needlessly expended. We have seen one
field drained, and its water carried off on to
the adjacent field only to make it more wet
and valueless than ever. The only way in
which farm improvements may be manage d
with economy, is to regard the farm as whole,
and TO make every Improvement with refer
ence to system which shall embrace the
whole A house to suit the occupant, can be
built much cheaper at the outset, than to
modify the plan and make successive additions,
In SO many successive years. The architect
finds plan indispensable to do his work. The
whole work is projected from cellar TO garnet,
the size of every room and its estimated cost
put down. The ship builder does not touch n
stick of timber, until he has his model compile
ted and the length and size of every timber in
the vessel estimated
The farm, as it ought to be. is simply ma
chine for the production of crops, as the slip
is machine for navigating the water 1t has
20 be made out of the materials which nature
furnishes, oil reeuiring more or less modifca-
ton, to adapt them to the purposes of produc-
ton. 1t is manifest, then, that the first step
of the farmer to improvement, is to form a
clear idea of what he wants in farm He is
the owner of, say three hundred acres of land.
embracing the usual variety Of forest, swamp,
pasture and tillage. Some of it is light sandy
land, some heavy clay, and another portion is
so rocky that it has never been plowed. The
forest of fifty acres. he wishes to retain for fuel
and timber. so that that may he regarded as
fixture. He has determined upon rotation
OF crops embracing six years course. He
therefore needs but six large fields to carry on
his course of cropping. Deducting ten acres
for his farm buildings, lawn, garden, orchard
&c, he has 240 to be cnt up into six lots Of
forty acres each. This is his plan. FL s farm,
as it lies now, is divided into twenty lots, or
more, has rocks to be removed, brush pastures
to be cleared up, and swamps to drain. This
cannot all be done in one year, but in six
years, he can do it, and make it pay So he
draws his map of the farm as it is, and deter
mines to begin his Improvements upon the low
er side, where there is good outlet for all the
water that he wishes to drain off, He finds
npoP this side of the farm, four or FIVE fills
TO be thrown into one i; and swale of three
acres with a hard clay subsol, that must be
furnished with tile and several gravelly knobs
that need coating OF clay
With map before him, the farmer can
project all these improvements, as he sits by
the Winter fire. He can calculate very accu-
rately how many rods Of new fence will need
to be made, how many rods of ditch must he
dug, and how many tiles he must order, and
about what will he the cost of the operation
lie can tell, within fraction, how many loads
of clay or muck he will need upon the gravel
hills, to cover them an inch thick. His whole
pathway of improvement will be clear and iu-
minous, and he will not become discouraged,
and leave thing half DONE like man who is
feeling his way in the dark The assurance
that he is on the path of Improvement is worth
everything to the farmer There is no good
reason why he should not pursue his purposes
with as much cheerfuness, and confidence of
success, as the house or the shipbuder. Let
him map his farm, and go forward into the ex-
ecution of plan, resolutely, and patiently, and
in due time. he will have machine for pro-
ducing crops, admirably adapted to his wants,
and to bis market.-American AgricaIturist