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was singularly successful. Her products obtained a high reputation, and all that she could make was readily disposed of. The business was profitable, as was shown by her making repeated payments toward freeing her farm from debt. When the great army demand for blackberry syrup sprung up in 1861, she supplied vast quantities at high prices. This demand increased yearly as the war continued, but she enlarged her supply, obtaining higher prices each year, until, in 1864, after seven years of energetic devotion to her farm, she paid off the last dollar of the debt by which it had been encumbered. This woman now owns an unhampered homestead, and is carrying on a highly profitable business, made up of items which the majority of cultivators consider of no commercial value. Having the sagacity to discover their availability, and the skill and energy to develope it, she has had an abundant reward.

There are numerous cases of American women who have been, and who still are equally successful in the management of farms. In England, the devotion of women to agricultural pursuits is even more general and thorough than with us. Mr. Holcomb, in his address before the Maryland State Agricultural Society, relates the following incident as showing the thorough knowledge possessed by some English women on these subjects.

"I cannot but relate a casual interview I chanced to have with an English lady in going up in the train from London to York. Her husband had bought a book at the

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stand as we were about starting, and remarked to her that it was one of her favorite American authors-Hawthorne. I casually observed that I was pleased to see that young American authors found admirers with English ladies, when the conversation turned on books and authors. But I said to myself pretty soon, this is a literary lady-probably her husband is an editor or reviewer, and she uses the scissors for him; at all events, I must retreat from this discussion about authors, modern poets, and poetry. What should a farmer know critically of such things? If I were only in those fields, if the conversation could be made to turn upon crops, or cattle, then I should feel quite at home.'

"I finally pointed out a field of wheat, and remarked that it was very fine. The lady, carefully observing it, said, 'Sir, I think it is too thin-a common fault this season-as the seeding was late. Those drills,' she added, turning to her husband for his confirmation, 'cannot be more than ten inches apart, and you see the ground is not completely covered-twelve, and even fifteen inches, is now preferred for the width of drills, and two bushels of seed to the acre will then entirely cover the ground, on good land, so you can hardly distinguish the drills.'

"If the goddess Ceres had appeared with her sheaf or cornucopia, I could not have been more taken by surprise. A lady descanting on the width of wheat drills, and the quantity of seed! I will try her again-this may be a chance shot, and remarked in reference to a field of ploughed ground we were passing, that it broke up in great lumps, and could hardly be put in good tilth. We have much clay land like this,' she replied, and formerly it was difficult to cultivate it in a tillage crop, but since the introduction of Crosskill's clod crusher, it will make the most beautiful tilth in these lands, which are now regarded as our best lands for wheat.'

"Conversation turned on cattle-she spoke of the best breeds of cows for the pail, the Ayrshires and the Devons— told me where the best cheese was made-Cheshire; the best butter-Ireland; where the milk-maids were to be found-Wales. 'Oh,' said I, 'I was mistaken. This charming, intelligent woman, acting so natural and unaffected; dressed so neatly and so very plainly, must be a farmer's wife, and what a help-mate he has in her! She is not an extravagant wife, either-not an ornament about her-yes, a single bracelet clasps a fair, rounded arm— that's all.'

"The train stopped at York. No sooner had my travelling companions stepped upon the platform than they were surrounded by half a dozen servants, men and maids, the men in full livery. It turned out to be Sir John and Lady H. This gentleman was one of the largest landed proprietors in Berkshire, aud his lady the daughter of a nobleman, a peeress in her own right; but her title added nothing to her, she was a nobleman without it."

It is not the size of a farm that in all cases determines the question of success. Whether large or small ones are the more desirable, is referred to elsewhere. Great things have been accomplished on the former, but results comparatively marvellous have been achieved upon the latter, sometimes with very inadequate means. No farm is to be despised because it happens to be a very small one. An acre of land possesses capabilities which few can be made to understand until they see them fully developed. It is not exclusively from the land that profit comes, but from the judicious application of labor upon it.

An admirable specimen of farming on a small scale is presented in the management of Mr. Nathan G. Morgan, of Union Springs, New York. That gentleman formerly possessed 300 acres, which he subsequently reduced to 160, and afterward, in consequence of protracted illness in his family, he removed to another place containing only 11 acres. He has remarked that even this is too large. Yet from this little spot he has sold $300 worth of farm products in a single year, besides retaining enough for the use of his family. He performs all the labor with his own hands. He is especially successful in raising pork, and finds this the most profitable branch of farming, much more so than raising wheat. He long since gave up raising cattle, as being far less productive. He has raised 130 bushels of shelled corn per acre, but the average is about 80. By his skill in the art of pork-making, he realizes a dollar per bushel for corn when the pork is five cents per pound in market. He makes an acre of ground maintain a horse during the whole year, by soiling, feeding corn, &c. He thinks, nevertheless, that a large farm may be made as profitable as a small one, if equally well managed; but he considers the temptation, in nearly all cases, is to do the work too superficially.

Coming down to what has actually been done on a two-acre farm, we obtain some approximate idea of the real capabilities of well managed land. A writer in the New England Farmer says, that nine years previous he came into possession of a two-acre farm, from the whole of which it was barely possi

ble to get one ton of hay, so badly had the land been run down. Yet he increased the product of hay to two and one-half tons, and the whole money value of the two acres to $133 per annum. Let only six or ten acres be farmed with equal skill, and any one can cypher up how far the yield will count in the keeping of a family.

The further one looks into this branch of the subject, the more apparent does it become that success depends not on the quantity of land, but on the management. Some years since a little treatise was published in London, by Mr. John Sillett, setting forth the results obtained by cultivation of two acres with the spade and fork. The author being broken down in health by long confinement to business in London, purchased two acres of land, for which he paid $1,180. He undertook farming in total ignorance of the art; yet, he supported himself, wife, and child, entirely from the products of his little tract. After twelve years experience he speaks with confidence of the possibility of a man's getting a living from two acres. He states the requisites to be a fair start with a good piece of land, sufficient means to commence with, skill, perseverance, a willingness to labor, and a reasonable degree of economy.

This success on two acres was secured by rejecting the plough and depending on the spade and fork, the latter being subsequently used as the preferable tool. His land had been many years in pasture, but he produced wheat, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and mangolds. Of course he owned a cow, which

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