2S4 [Senate 



SIZE OF FARMS— EXTERMINATION OF WEEDS— APPLI- 

 CATION OF CAPITAL. 



BY HENRY H. HOPKINS, AUBURN. 



With respect to the agricultural changes requisite to advance the 

 prosperity our county, I propose three general topics. - 



The first should be a reduction of the size of our farms. This is 

 no small item, affecting both the interest of the owner and his neigh- 

 bor. An immoderately large farm, (and there are many in this vi- 

 cinity,) is a wearisome vexation to its proprietor; he is constantly 

 harassed and perplexed with the thousand directions to which his at- 

 tention is called; his eye must be over all, and unless he be almost 

 omniscient and omnipresent, many of the " irons he has in the fire" 

 will be " burned." He is obliged to have more hired labor than is 

 profitable under the present depressed state of the country. The im- 

 provements on a large farm are merely nominal, and it is impossible 

 many should be made. 



He is the slave of slaves, rises early, toils late; yet all this with- 

 out any profitable returns. 



The second, and in my view, the most important item is the ne- 

 cessity of an united and persevering effort to subdue the Canada 

 thistle. 



To the eradication of this pest of the farmer, scores of plans have 

 been given and adopted, but all have failed of their object. Some 

 may doubt this, but if it be not true, why do we observe this ten- 

 fold increase, within a few years past, which even the most casual 

 observer cannot deny. 



I would not be understood to say, or even hint, that many of the 

 plans given for the destruction of this weed are not good ones. Far 

 from it. But I do say, that without an united effort, none of those 

 plans will be permanently effectual. What is the use of one man's 

 destroying his thistles, when his neighbor's fields are left to grow 

 white with them ? The first wind that blows is just as sure to flood 

 his fields with thistle blows, as that night follow^s day, though their 

 farms be miles apart. 



That blossom which the wandering school boy endeavors to catch 

 is bound for some congenial soil, where it alights, and following the 

 common law of nature, springs up and in its turn sends forth blos- 

 soms to decorate another man's fields. 



Our cool northwest breezes occur in the very season for the car- 

 riage of these blows, and it is found they increase faster in this di- 

 rection than in any other. Lands just cleared of the native forests 

 are in the best state for the introduction of this seed, and from this 

 circumstance many suppose they spring up spontaneously. 



Now from these facts, I appeal to the common sense of every 

 farmer, if it be possible to subdue this weed without this united ef- 

 fort. 



