97 15. OF DEALING WITH THE DETAILS OF FARMING. "Oh! is there not some patriot To teach the lab'ring hands the sweets of toil? THOMSON. The principal object held in view while making the preceding observations, was the preparation of the mind of the young person, desirous of becoming a farmer, into such a state as to enable him, when he enters a farm as a pupil, to anticipate and overcome what might appear to him great difficulties of practice, which, with an unprepared mind, he could not know existed at all, far less know how to overcome, but on being informed that he must encounter them at the very outset of his career, he might use the means pointed out to him for meeting and overcoming them. These difficulties have their origin in the pupil seeing the operations of the farm, of whatever nature, performed for the first time, in the most perfect manner, and always with a view to accomplishment at some future period. The only mode of overcoming such difficulties, and thereby satisfying his mind, is for the pupil to ascertain by inquiry the purport of every operation he sees performing; and though he may feel that he does not quite comprehend that purport, even when informed of it, still the information will warn him of its approaching consummation, and he will not, therefore, at any time thereafter be taken by surprise, when the event actually arrives. If I shew the pupil the importance of making inquiry regarding the purport of every operation he sees performing, I see no better mode of rendering all farming operations intelligible to his mind. In order to urge him to become familiar with the purport of every thing he sees going on around him, I have endeavoured to point out the numerous evils attendant on farmers, landowners, and emigrants neglecting to become thoroughly acquainted with practical husbandry, before attempting to exercise their functions in their new vocations. And, in order that the young person desirous of becoming a farmer may have no excuse for not becoming well acquainted with farming, I have shewn him where, and the manner how, he can best become acquainted with it,—and these are best attained, under present circumstances, by his becoming an inmate for a time in a farmhouse with an intelligent farmer. Believing that the foregoing observations, if perused with a willing mind, are competent to give such a bias to his mind, as to enable the pupil, when he enters a farm, to appreciate G the importance of his profession, and thereby create an ardent desire for its attainment, I shall now proceed to describe the details of every operation as it occurs in its due course on the farm. The description of these details, which are multifarious and somewhat intricate, will compose by far the most voluminous portion of this work, and will constitute the most valuable and interesting part of it to the pupil. In the descriptions, it is my intention to go very minutely into details, that no circumstance may be omitted in regard to any of the operations, which may have the appearance of presenting a single one to the notice of the pupil in an imperfect form. This resolution may invest the descriptions with a degree of prolixity which may perhaps prove tiresome to the general reader, but, on that very account, it should the more readily give rise to a firm determination in the pupil to follow the particulars of every operation into their most minute ramifications; and this because he cannot be too intimately acquainted with the nature of every piece of work, or too much informed of the various modifications which every operation has frequently to undergo, in consequence of change in the weather, or the length of time in which it is permitted by the season to perform it. Descriptions so minute will answer the purpose of detailed instructions to the pupil, and should he follow them with a moderate degree of application through one series of operations, he will obtain such an insight into the nature of field labour, as will ever after enable him easily to recognise a similar series when it is begun to be put into execution. Unless, however, he bestow considerable attention on all the details of the descriptions, he will be apt to let pass what may appear to him an unimportant particular, but which may be the very keystone of the whole operation to which they relate. With a tolerable memory on the part of the pupil, I feel pretty sure that an attentive perusal of the descriptions will enable him to identify any piece of work he afterwards sees performing in the field. This achievement is as much as any book can be expected to accomplish. In describing the details of farming, it is necessary to adhere to a determinate method; and the method that appears to me most instructive to the pupil, is to follow the usual routine of operations pursued on a farm. It will be requisite, in following that routine implicitly, to describe every operation from the beginning; for it must be impressed on the mind of the pupil, that farm operations are not conducted at random, but on a tried and approved system, which commences with preparatory labours and then carries them on with a determinate object in view throughout the seasons, until they terminate at the end of the agricultural year. The preparatory operations commence immediately after harvest, whenever that may happen, and it will be earlier or later in the year according as the season is early or late; and as the harvest is the consummation of the labours of the year and terminates the autumnal season, so the preparatory operations begin with the winter season. Thus the winter season takes the precedence in the arrangements of farming, and doing so, that should be the best reason for the pupil commencing his career as an agriculturist in winter. In that season he will have the advantage of witnessing every preparation as it is made for realizing the future crops,-an advantage which he cannot enjoy if he enter on his pupilage at any other season, but it is a great advantage, inasmuch as every piece of work is much better understood when viewed from its commencement, than when seen for the first time in a state of progression. Having offered these preliminary remarks respecting the condition of the agricultural pupil when about to commence learning his profession, I shall now proceed to conduct him through the whole details of farming, as they usually occur on a farm devoted to the practice of the mixed, or in other words of the most perfect system of husbandry known; whilst, at the same time, he shall be made acquainted with what constitute differences from it in the corresponding operations of the other modes of farming, and which are imposed by the peculiarities of the localities in which they are practised. These details I shall narrate in the order in which they are performed, and for that purpose will begin with those of Winter,-the season which commences the agricultural year, for the reason assigned in the paragraph immediately preceding this one. 100 WINTER. "All nature feels the renovating force And gathers vigour for the coming year." THOMSON. The subjects which court attention in Winter are of the most interesting description to the farmer. Finding little inducement to spend much time in the fields at this torpid season of the year, he directs his attention to the more animated portions of farm-work conducted in the steading, where almost the whole stock of animals are collected, and where the preparation of the grain for market affords pleasant employment for work-people within doors. The progress of live-stock to maturity is always a prominent object of the farmer's solicitude, but especially in winter, when the stock are comfortably housed in the farmstead, plentifully supplied with wholesome food, and so arranged in various classes according to age and sex, as to be easily inspected at any time. The labours of the field in winter are confined to a few great operations. These are ploughing the soil in preparation of future crops, and supplying food to the live-stock. The ploughing partly consists of turning over the ground which had borne a part of the grain crops, and the method of ploughing this stubble land—so called because it bears the straw that was left uncut of the previous crop-is determined by the nature of the soil. That portion of the stubble land is first ploughed which is intended to be first brought into requisition for a crop in spring, and the rest is ploughed in the same succession that the different crops succeed each other in the ensuing seasons. The whole soil thus ploughed in the early part of winter in each field (where the farm is subdivided with fences), or in each division (where there are no fences), is then neatly and completely provided with channels, cut with the spade in suitable places, for the purpose of permitting the water that may fall from the heavens to run quickly off into the ditches, and thereby to maintain the soil in as dry a state as is practicable until spring. Towards the latter part of winter the newest grass land, or lea, as grass land is generally termed, intended to bear a crop in spring, is then ploughed; the oldest grass land being earlier ploughed, that its toughness may have time to be meliorated by spring by exposure to the atmosphere.-When the soil is naturally damp underneath, winter is the season selected for removing the damp by draining. It is questioned by some farmers whether the winter is the best season for draining, as the usually rainy and otherwise unsettled state of the weather then renders the carriage of the materials for draining very laborious. On the other hand, it is maintained by other farmers that, as the quantity of water to be drained from the soil determines both the number and size of the drains, these are thus best ascertained in winter; and as the fields are then most free of crop, they are in the most convenient state to be drained. Truth may perhaps be found to acquiesce in neither of these reasons, but rather in the opinion that draining may be successfully pursued at all seasons.-Where fields are uninclosed, and intended to be fenced with the thorn-hedge, winter is the season for performing the operation of planting it. Hard frost, a fall of snow, or heavy rain, may put a stop to the work for a time, but in all other states of the weather it may proceed in perfect safety.When meadows for irrigation exist on any farm, winter is the season for beginning the irrigation with water, that the grass may be ready to mow in the early part of the ensuing summer. It is a fact well worth keeping in remembrance in favour of winter irrigation, that irrigation in winter produces wholesome, and in summer unwholesome, herbage for stock. On the other hand, summer, not winter, is the proper season for forming water-meadows.-Almost the entire live-stock of an arable farm is dependent on the hand of man for food in winter. It is this circumstance, which, bringing the stock into the immediate presence of their owner, creates a stronger interest in their welfare then than at any other season. The farmer then sees them classed together in the farmstead according to their age and sex, and delights to contemplate the comparative progress of individuals or classes amongst them towards maturity. He makes it a point to see them provided at all times with a comfortable bed or lair, and a sufficient supply of clean food at appointed hours in their respective apartments. The feeding of stock is so important a branch of farm business in winter, that it regulates the time for prosecuting several other operations. It determines the quantity of turnips that should be carried from the field for the cattle in a given time, and causes the farmer to consider whether it would not be prudent to take advantage of the first few dry fresh days to store up a quantity of them, to be in |