Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-03-08
agricultural.
Good Farming in a Nutshell.

The far famed Blackwell OF Dashley, Lei
cesrer ENGLAND. the founder Of the Leicester
sheen, and the man who lived century be-
fore his dav, used to tell an anecdOte with
exceeding high glee of a farmer OF the olden
school and golden times. This farmer who
owned and occupied one thousand scres of
CLAW land, but poor in point of money, had
three daughters looking their father very
hard in the face for money. lie went TO
RakewelI to know what to do Tor them.
Blackwell told bim TO keep his money and
give each daughter some land, and make It
known that he would do so, and he would
very soon lessen his family at home. lie
then made it known that he would give his
eldest daughter two hundred and fifty acres
of land. 1t 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 he had prom
ised. but no money and he found by little
more speed and better management the pro-
duce Of his farm increased. Three years after
he made it known that he would give his
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
portion He then set to work, and began TO
grub his furze and fern, and plOwed up some
Of bis poor f1rze land-nay, and where the
furze covered in some cases nearly half the
land. After giving half of h is land away to
two or his daughters, he found the produce
Of his farm increased, because his newly
broken up lands brought him excessive crops.
Al the same time he farmed the whole OF his
farm better, for he employed four times the
labor upon it; 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-
duired dead fallOw. He no more folded
from Toor grass close to better the condition
of a poor plOwed one. But the great advan-
tage 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 1t known
that he would give his third and last daughter
two hundred and fifty acres of land. She
soon had beau in readiness, and three or
four more within call, and she was married
within week She thought II never too
soon to do well, and the father portioned her
off with land.
He then began to ask himself a few ques
tiOns, how he was to make much of two
hundred and fifty acres of land as he 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, . Go and do it, ne said, = Come
my boys, let 90 and do it He found
great difference between " come y and - 90.
He made his servants, laborers and horses
move faster, he broke them from their snaiI's
pace he found the eye of the master quick
ened the pace of the servant. He grubbed up
every bit Of furze on the farm, and converted
n 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 sluces, and irrigated all the
lan1 he could.
Some of his hedges and borders were Gov
cred 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
feed foreign migratory birds in winter, he
ought to grow food for man.
= sold him long horned bulls said
Bakewell, . and told him the value of labor,
and what ought to be performed by certain
number of men, worked oxen or horses within
a given time. | taught him to SOW less, and
plow deeper and better, and that were the
limits and measures TO all things but above
ALL the husbandman ought to be stronger
than the farm. | taught him how to make
hot land colder, and cold land hotter light
land stiff, and stiff land lighter. l advised
him to breed no inferior cattle, or horses,
but the best of every kind, as the best con
sumed no more food than the worst. Size
has nothing to do with profit. 1t is not what
animal makes so much, as what it costs
making"
The famer became new man in his old /
age, and died rich, by adopting Bakewell's
improved anagement.-Erchanqe