EDlTOirS TAIILE. 



power from rivers, brooks, anJ pond?, to a Iieiglit whence it is carried by gravitation Ihrougl; 

 iiutiilic and gutta-porcha pipes to every puiut where it is needed. Mr. JIeciii, Ihe ex-Loudon 

 niercliant, who retired from trade willi a competency to earn another by scicntifie farming, takes 

 the K-ad in this ap|>lieatiiiii, and liis estimates of tlic increased prodnctiveness of lands l»y reason of 

 iriigation and the profits thus secured would seem wild to any audience, unfamiliar with the sub- 

 ject. I may state, however, that he iixes the expense of conveying his manures in a liquid form from 

 his j-ard to every portion of his estate as equivalent to one penny sterling, or two cents per cart 

 load — lliat is to say, the fertilizing properties which were contained in a tun of muck or com[:o6t 

 are now conveyed to the soil tliat requires them at the cost of one penny. That loading, teaming, 

 uidoading, and spi-eading in the old way must have cost far more than this, j-ou can not doubt ; 

 and beside, the fertilizing liquid, being entirely free from seeds or weedy germs of any kind, and 

 in a condition to be readily and totally absorbed by plants, must be woith twice as i.juch as 

 if ajiplied in the old way. Now consider that this load of manure has been conveyed through 

 and applied with many tuns of water, just when the soil is most thirsty, and the plants most 

 needy, and you can readily judge that the tun of manure dissolved in water and applied through 

 irrigating pipes at the cost of a penny, must be worth at least thrice as much as the same tun 

 applied in the crude, solid state, at a cost not less than thrice that sum. But I must not dwell 

 on details. You have the general idea, and can follow it out at your leisure into all its neces- 

 sary results. 



" Tlie Proportion of Means to Ends. — And here let me retrace my steps to illustrate a point in 

 Industrial Economy which I have already incidentally touched, but have not illustrated as its 

 importance deserves, and as the prevailing misconceptions render necessary. I refer to The Pro- 

 portion of Means to Ends, which the artisan must always bear in mind, but which the farmer 

 seems too often to forget. No artificer presumes that the labor and material required for a fine 

 table will suffice for a piano forte, nor that a steam engine can be constructed as cheaply as a 

 churn. But the fsirmer, seeing trees and plants grow around liim with weed-like facility and 

 tenacity, often indolently imagines that any tree will grow so, and plants his rare and delicate 

 fruit trees, if he plant such at all, as if they were Oaks and Locusts. But Nature is inexorable 

 in luT requirement that the labor and care essential to the production of a choice fruit or plant 

 shall be jiroportionate to the value of the product. You may grow Pine on yellow sand, or 

 Hickory on blue clay ; but if you want choice pears or peaches you must devote much labor and 

 expense in preparing and enriching the ground wherein your trees are to be set. Too many 

 farmers, not heeding this law, or supposing that Nature may somehow be circumvented, obtain 

 worthless fruit, or none at all, and so abandon the cultiu'e in disgust and despair. 



There is not one Grape vine or fruit tree, excei)t of the coaisest and commonest kinds, where 

 there should be twenty, taking one State with another : and one consequence of this is an enor- 

 mous and perilous consumption of flesh as food, to an extent unknown in other countries. We 

 are nationally svirfeited with pork and tainted with scrofula, not because we are so fond of pork, 

 but because for an important portion of each year, the majority of our population can get little 

 beside. 'The foolishness of preaching' will never suffice to correct this aberration ; for men who 

 work must eat, though tlieir food be not the best; but give us an abundance of the choicest 

 fruits and vegetables, with farmers who know how to grow them, and truly educated housewives, 

 who delight in preparing and serving them, and we shall enjoj' health, elasticit}', and longevity 

 to an extent now unknown. A flesh diet is the dearest, the least palatable, and the least whole- 

 some, and all that is needed to wean men from it is the presentation of a better. To secure this, 

 we need only farmers who will feel a just pride in having the finest orchards and gardens; who 

 will surround, not merely their own dwellings, but those of their tenants and helpers also, with 

 choice trees ; and who will plant and keep planting until good fruit shall be so abundant that it 

 no longer an object to steal it." 



