Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-02-23
Agricultural Items.

coc, FARMING IN A NuTsHELL.--
The Ear famed Blackwell, of Dishley, Lei
oe ter. E gland, the founder of the Leices-
ter sheep, and the man who lived CEN
tury before lis day, used to tell an anec-
dote with exceeding high glee OF farmer
of the olden school and golden tunes
This farmer who owned and occupied one
thousand acres of clay land, but poor In
MONT of mo iev, had three daughters look
inc their father very haro in the face for
rnonev. He went to Bakewell to know
what to do fer them. Blackwell told him
to keep his money and give each daughter
some land, and make it known that he
would do so. and be would very soon les
sen his family at home. He then made II
known that he would give his eldest daugn-
ter two hundred and fifty acres OF land:
It need hardly be added that the lady had
forthwith plenty Of beaux to choose from,
the fathers house was haunted with
Young men, and she soon was married,
and the father gave her the portion ne naa
promised, but no money; ana ne louho
by little more speed and better manage
ment the produce Of his farm increased.
Three wears after he made it known that
he would give bis second daughter two
hundred and fifty acres of land, which
drew shoals Of beaux, and she soon got
married and her father gave her her por-
ton. He then set to work, and began to
grub his furze and fern, and plowed up
some of his poor furze land-nay, and
where the furze covered in some cases
nearly half the land. After giving half Of
his land away to two of his daughters, he
found the produce of his farm increased,
because his newly broken up lands brought
HIM excessive crops. AT the same time
he farmed the whole of his farm better, for
he employed four times the labor upon 1t /;
had no more dead fallows the third year ;
instead OF which he grew two green crops
in one year, and ate them upon the land
A garden, Blackwell told him, never re-
uuired dead fallow. He no more folded
from poor grass close to better the con-
dition of poor ploughed one. But the
great advantage was that he had got the
same money to manage five hundred acres
as he had to manage one thousand acres.
Three years after the second marriage he
made it known that he would give his
third and last daughter two hundred and
fifty acres of land. She soon had a beau
in readiness, and three or four more within
call, and she was married within week.
She thought it never too soon to do well.
and the father portioned her off with land
He then began to ask himself few
questions, how he was to make as much
off two hundred and fifty acres of land as
ne had done off one thousand acres. He
found necessity the mother of invention
He then paid off the bailiff, who weighed
twenty stone he found that he had been
helping the men TO manage the master,
instead of helping the master to manage
the men. He then rose with the lark in
the long days and went to bed with the
lamb. He got much more work done for
his money, for, instead of saying to the
men, eco and do it," he said, Come
my boys, let us 60 and do it," He found
a great difference between "come" and
4" 60" He made his servants, laborers
and horses move faster, he broke them
from their snail's pace; he found the eye
of the master quickened the pace of the
servent, He grubbed UP every bit Of
furze on the farm, and converted a great
deal of corn into meal. He preserved the
black water, the essence of the manure,
and conveyed it upon the land. He cut
down all of his high hedges, Strengthened
his zigzag fences, cut his serpentine water
course straight and gained much land by
so doing; made dams and sluices, and
irrigated all the land he could.
Some Of his hedges and borders were
covered with bushes from ten to fourteen
yards in width, and some of his closes
were no wider than streets and then he
grubbed up the hedges and borders, and
threw several little closes into one. He
found that instead Of growing white thorn
hedges and haws to teed foreign migratory
birds in winter, he ought to grow food for
man.
81 sold him long horned bulls" said
Blackwell, "and told him the value O
labor, and what ought to be performed by
certain number of men, worked oxen Oh
horses within a giving time. 1 laugh
him to SOW less, and plough deeper anc
better, and that there were limits ans
measures to all things but above all, the
husbandman ought to be stronger than The
farm. / taught him how to make no
land colder, and cold land hotter; Ugh
land stiff, and stiff land ghter. | advis
ed him to breed no inferior cattle, O
horses, but the best of every kind, as thu
best consumed no more food than the worst
Size has nothing to do With profit. 1t i
not what an animal makes so much, a
what it costs making
The farmer became a new man in BIZ
old age, and died rich, by adopting Bake
wells improved management. Exchange