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in their worst forms are many and severe, and most of them remain here: beeause 
they must. We hear from all sides the ‘ery, “The old way of farming will not pay.” 
We must resort to rotation of crops, we must underdrain, use commercial fertilizers, 
apply green manures, ete. The plans proposed by the scientists, and all the others 
advocated, take it for granted the farmer is in a condition to make the necessary out- 
lays; but here is the trouble; our farmers are too poor, too helpless, to adopt the proper 
system of farming. The question arises, then, how is he to be placed in a condition to 
do it? 
SELF-RESPECT IN AGRICULTURISTS. 
Many correspondents protest against degrading’ the character of 
agricultural exhibitions by offering the principal premiums to jockeys, 
and demand higher and more practical aims; and one expresses the 
disgust he feels at the want of self-respect exhibited by agriculturists 
in the following terms: 
York, Me.—The business has fallen into disrepute primarily because farmers con- 
sented to be patronized. When a man accepts a patron, and is guided by his counsels, 
he so far surrenders his equality and independence. Farmers have allowed jockeys to 
control agricultural societies ; selected ministers and judges to lecture upon practical 
farming; permitted theorists and charlatans to speak in their name throngh their press ; 
submitted to detraction and ridicule, sometimes cringingly. Men seeking notoriety, 
money, or office have crowded to the front, assumed the name while they scorned the 
burdens of the farmer, deceived some by bluster or sophistry, silenced others by de- 
nouncing them as old fogies. The public have mistaken the silence for acquiescence 
or ignorance, and inferred that farmers, as a class, have sadly degenerated. If the 
doctors should call a medical convention and give up the business to lawyers or farm- 
ers, we Should conclude that they thus acknowledged their incompetency. 
ENCOURAGING SIGNS. 
The evidences of poor farming are by no means new. An encouraging 
feature of these returns is the indication of an awakening in method-— 
ical and scientific agriculture. Incidental references to improvements 
are numerous and gratifying. The necessity of more attention to the 
subject of rotation of crops, of greater thoroughness in the preparation 
and cultivation of the soil, of judicious liberality in outlays for perma- 
nent improvement, of more attention to restorative farming by means 
of the consumption of products by live stock, is acknowledged in all 
quarters, and beginnings of such improvements are everywhere reported. 
Among these references are some showing that even tobacco-culture in 
Virginia, to which the soil-deterioration in that State has always been 
charged, can be continued with benefit to the soil. 
Fluvanna, Va.—I know many interesting cases in tobacco and wheat growing, among 
farmers whose lands were light and dry, and considered poor, who have regularly 
made good crops and improved their farms and their condition, while their neighbors, 
on good lands, were losing money. 
Forsyth, Ga.— With a few years’ cultivation, the land failed to produce as freely as 
at first, and farmers were accustomed to clear fresh land every few years, but more re- 
cently they are giving more attention to modes of culture, fertilizing and renovating 
old and worn lands; and by this and deep plowing, the farmer is learning that it is 
not so much the area worked, as the manner of preparation and cultivation, that re- 
munerates him for his labor. 
West Feliciana, La.—Six and a quarter acres of ground were highly manured with 
green cotton-seed and sowed to spring barley in 1871. In 1872 the eround was plowed 
and subsoiled in April, 200 pounds soluble Pacific guano per acre being applied in the 
drill, as deep as possible. Cotton planted May af: but did not come up till June 1, 
owing to drought. The usual cultivation was given, and the crop grew rapidly. About 
the 15th of August the caterpillar appeared, and by the 10th of September not a leaf 
could be seen, the stalks hanging with bolls in various stages of growth, at least one- 
half being under half grown. The yield was 3,600 pounds of lint-cotton, which sold 
for 20 cents. But for the caterpillar the yield would have been at least 4,800 pounds 
lint. 
