ss land. This
affords the most hopeful chance of getting good returns the first year.
But no time is to be lost. Sow 500 lbs. of Peruvian guano per acre on
all the grass land and on the clover, with 200 lbs. of gypsum in
addition on the latter. If this is sown early enough, so that the spring
rains dissolve it and wash it into the soil, great crops of grass may be
expected.

"But will it pay?" My friend in New York is a very energetic and
successful business man, and he has a real love for farming, and I have
no sort of doubt that, taking the New York business and the farm
together, they will afford a very handsome profit. Furthermore, I have
no doubt that if, after he has drained it, he would cover the whole farm
with 500 lbs. of Peruvian guano per acre, or its equivalent, it would
pay him better than any other agricultural operation he is likely to
engage in. By the time it was on the land the cost would amount to about
$20 per acre. If he sells no more grass or hay from the farm than he
would sell if he did not use the guano, this $20 may very properly be
added to the permanent capital invested in the farm. And in this aspect
of the case, I have no hesitation in saying it will pay a high rate of
interest. His bill for labor will be as much in one case as in the
other; and if he uses the guano he will probably double his crops. His
grass lands will carry twenty cows instead of ten, and if he raises the
corn-fodder and roots, he can probably keep thirty cows better than he
could otherwise keep a dozen; and, having to keep a herdsman in either
case, the cost of labor will not be much increased. "But you think it
will not pay?" It will probably not pay _him_. I do not think _his_
business would pay me if I lived on my farm, and went to New York only
once or twice a week. If there is one business above all others that
requires constant attention, it is farming--and especially
stock-farming. But my friend is right in saying that he cannot afford to
wait to enrich his land by clover and summer-fallowing. His land costs
too much; he has a large barn and everything requisite to keep a large
stock of cattle and sheep. The interest on farm and buildings, and the
money expended in labor, would run on while the dormant matter in the
soil was slowly becoming available under the influence of good tillage.
The large barn must be filled at once, and the only way to do this is to
apply manure with an unsparing hand. If he lived on the