No. 63.J 291 



perpetuity of their personal and domestic comforts. Indeed the sub- 

 ject is of vital importance to the state and nation, and claims the 

 grave consideration of senators and legislators. Knowledge and vir- 

 tue are the main pillars of our political fabric. Therefore it is of 

 prime importance that every facility for the attainment of useful 

 knowledge be granted to the farmers, constituting as they do, far the 

 most numerous portion of our population. What means can be 

 adopted for imbuing our agricultural community with a more ardent 

 thirst for such knowledge? And they being aroused to some proper 

 sense of its importance, and prepared to do their part, in what way 

 shall their efforts be encouraged^ These are interrogations that de- 

 serve general and most profound consideration. 



There are certain self-evident principles in relation to agriculture, 

 requiring but moderate capacity for their comprehension j but which 

 are often defeated by avarice or inattention. 



1st. No more should be undertaken than can well be perform- 

 ed. This would generally lessen the toil, and in proportion to the 

 toil, render the product greater in amount and better in quality. 



2d. The best and soundest seed should in all cases be selected. 

 That which has been bruised by the flail or otherwise injured, should 

 be carefully rejected. 



3d. Young animals, esi)ecially those under the age of six months, 

 should be well fed; this will stay their appetite throughout their life. 

 The apparent extra expense of high feeding in the beginning, will 

 be amply repaid by the comparative cheapness of future feeding. 

 The animal will look better, be really so, and will, if offered for sale, 

 bring a better price. 



4th. Pay proper attention to rotation of crops. Formerly a man 

 cleared his land oi broke up a pasture, and continued to crop the 

 soil until it would not pay for cultivation, when it was laid aside as 

 oldjieldj and another part of the farm subjected to the same process. 

 Now the whole farm is fitted for crops, and the roots, grains, mea- 

 dows and pastures, succeed each over the whole. The crops are in 

 this way vastly increased and diversified, the soil of the whole im- 

 proved and rendered more fertile, and that declension which must 

 follow continued cropping wholly arrested. Science has done this, 

 by proving that what is poison to one plant may be changed into food 

 for another, by change of crop. 



Attention to these simple rules, involving no additional expense, and 

 requiring no other than ordinary talent, will greatly advance the 

 early efforts of the farmer. 



The liberal rewards offered by the agricultural associations have 

 brought forth the skill and inventive genius of our mechanics, which 

 has furnished many valuable, new, and great improvements to the 

 old and clumsy implements of husbandry. 



Farmers should judiciously patronise these improvements, particu- 

 larly the improved plow. 



Horticulture is but a department of agriculture; the principles 

 which govern the one, are in most instances applicable to the other. 



