THE following account of how a small farm and truck patch of twenty acres was managed upon Long Island, is taken from a paper read by J. W. De Lee Ree, president of the Farmers' Club at Farmingdale, N. Y. The design of it is to show how a living is made on small farms of twenty to thirty acres, near New York, and that larger farms than this prove to be less profitable than those smaller :

When practicable, such a farm is divided into seven parts, six of which are three-acre lots for tillage, and the seventh is occupied with the buildings, poultry yard, kitchen garden, and an orchard of about one hundred and fifty apple, and pear trees. Other fruit trees, such as cherry, are planted by the road side, and so answer the triple purpose of ornament, shade, and fruit. Grass being the great desideratum, a good farmer does not rest satisfied until he makes his fields yield at the rate of two tons to the acre the first year, without much shrinkage for the next two years. With this view rotation is, practiced, and usually a six-year course, in the following order: The first year corn is planted on sod ground, with manure in the hill; the second roots, sufficiently manured to be followed by wheat the third, and by grass the three succeeding. Half the eighteen acres is thus kept in grass, three being broken up each spring, and three seeded down each fall. But, if one acre is planted with (say Early Rose) potatoes, they can be harvested in season to sow the same by the first of August in turnips, yielding four hundred to six hundred bushels.

If the farm contains twenty-three acres, another lot and another year is added, corn being planted two years in succession; if twenty-six acres, grass seed is sown when the corn receives its last dressing the second year; the field is grazed one year, then roots, wheat and grass follow. On a twenty-acre'farm, tilled as above described, the crops, well cared for, will average about as follows: Three acres of corn, 55 bushels per acre, at 90 cents per bushel, $148.50; three acres of potatoes (or an equivalent in roots), 200 hundred bushels per acre, at 65 cents per bushel, $390; three acres of wheat, 25 bushels per acre, at $1.75 per bushel, $131.25; nine acres of grass, 1 2/3 tons per acre, at $20 per ton, $300; profit on 200 hens kept for eggs, $1.50 each, $300; on two cows, $75 each, $150; on orchard, $2 per tree, $300 - total $1,719.75. Outgoes: for board of team, at $1 per day, $365; for manure purchased, $200; interest on farm and buildings, valued at $3,000, and stock and tools, valued at $1,000, at 7 Per cent. $280; taxes $20 - total $865. This deducted from $1,719.75 leaves a net profit of $854.75. Add to this the profits from the garden, the bees, the pigs, etc., and it will give a clear income of about $18 per week the year round.

That is, the judicious and industrious cultivator of a twenty-acre farm receives a salary equal to that of a first-class mechanic, besides the advantages of outdoor instead of indoor labor, of great variety instead of monotonous uniformity in his work, and especially of being his own master, which, to a person of independent, self-reliant spirit, is of no small account. It may be thought that, all the hay being reckoned at market value, the profit on the cows is put too high, but the straw and corn fodder (or their avails), and what turnips can be raised after a crop of early potatoes, will afford abundant feed for two cows through the winter. There is no cheaper way to keep cows in first-rate order than to raise turnips enough to feed one bushel per day to each through the winter. On some small farms as many as five cows are kept. In that case less hay is cut, and what is is chiefly fed out. Consequently more manure is made and less bought. But the more cows the more work in the house, and as the usual aim is to get along without outside help, the sources from which profits are sought on the farm are often regulated by the state of the family in respect to the relative amount of outdoor and indoor help it affords.

The fact is not overlooked that all small farms do not yield a profit equal to the above estimate; while some are made to exceed it, others are made only to yield a bare subsistence. But in the latter case the failure can always be traced either to a soil of poorer than average quality, or to a lack of intelligence and aptitude for acquiring it, or a lack of sound judgment, or of industry, or some similar cause.