The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1877-11-24
what is to be sent-not charity. The
refined woman cannot accept charity
there is no need of the word, blot it
out and write love, gentlest love.
IGNORANCE IN FARMING.

A late number of the Country Gent2e-
man says: Zone of the greatest draw
backs to successful farming is the pres
enCe of the unknown quantity-ignor-
anCe of the exact condition of things,
in value, weight and measure, concern
ing our products. We often produce at
loss. An account with each crop
would decide the matter. If after few
trials we find it costs more to produce
it than the crop would sell for, its cul-
tlvation would be abandoned. Many
continue to produce from year to year
at loss, simply from the want of little
cultivation. The unknown quantity in
weight and measure subjects us to great
loss in buying and selling. A stack of
hay came to my notice recently the
seller estimated it would weigh a ton and
a half :; the buyer preferred to buy by
weight; itweighed 1850 pounds-quite
adherence in favor of the buyer. There
is no doubt a great deal of hay changes
hands every year on a basis no nearer
the truth than this. Loss enough is
soon made in this way to put up and
maintain hay scale even in a small
neighborhood. The same thing is true
in regard to live stock. Dealers can
judge much more accurately than farm
ers, and are much less liable to be cheat
ed. Farmers are much more liable to fail
in buying than in selling. If we pay
too much in buying it makes it uphill
business all the way through This is
one cause why many fail to make any,
thing in feeding and handling stock
From considerable experience in weigh
ing stock for others | have found that
the greater part fall short in weight from
the estimate of their owners-some come
very far short. Not more than per
cent. exceed the estimates. Horses es-
tlmated at I 100 pounds generally weigh
about 900. Loads of hay called ton
often weigh only I 200 to 1900 pounds.
Those who estimate the number of tons
by the number of loads are often very
much deceived, and in selling think that
they have been cheated because the scales
fail to show as much as they expected.
Weighing will remedy this. The pound
avoirdupois is known quantity. After
aScertaining the exact number we are in
a condition to go forward without max
ing mistakes in our calculations. An
other unknown quantity is in failure
to know the number of acres under cul-
tivation. A farm which was taken up
when the country was new, and since
occupied by five successive generations
of the same family, has 'twenty-acre
lot On the death of a member of the
family the 'twenty-acre4ot' was sold and
contained but fourteen acres by actual
Here were five genera
tions of heroic workers deceived in the
of work actually done all the
while supposing they were cultivating
six acres more than they really we're
If the yield cameup to what the increas-
ed acreage should produce it did not
matter so much. l once bought salt
marsh said to contain six acres thesur-
veyor made less than four acres, much
to the disgust of the seller and to the
1etriment of the reputation of a number
Of persons who had gained local noto-
riety for big days work done thereon.
Fabulous big day swork' often owe their
existence more to some errors in CalCul-
ltion than to the amount of work really
1Opa },