408 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



terests of the farmer are enhanced by this system, and the influence for 

 good of the Department widened. It has been observed that the farm- 

 ing operations of old Europe, conducted on scientific principles, as to the 

 needs of the soil, the quality of the seed, the methods of cultivation, 

 and the selection of means, have iirodnced results to which the gen- 

 eral farming of this newer country rarely attains. Mr. J. H. IMcChesney, 

 in his report on agricultural education in Europe, i^ublished in the an- 

 nual report of the Department for 1868, fairly remarks tliat "the lirst 

 and leading fact that arrests the attention of an American observer of 

 agricultural phenomena on visiting Europe is, that in many European 

 countries the annual yield i^er acre of all the laDd under cultivation is 

 greatly on the increase from year to year, while in the United States 

 the yield i^er acre is on the decrease. The question naturally arises. Is 

 this gradual deterioration of American soil proof that Americans are 

 poor farmers, or that our soil is naturally poor ? Our soil is the best in 

 the world, and i^ractically we are the most skillful in nearly all the me- 

 chanical appliauces required in farming. * * * * It was certainly 

 not good farming that permitted the soil of New Eugland, New York, 

 Pennsylvania, and Ohio to deteriorate from a yield of 30 bushels of 

 wheat per acre (and other crops in proportion) to less than 15 bushels ; 

 it was not good farming that permitted large portions of the Southern 

 States to become absolutely barren ; and it is not good farming that is 

 now permitting the unparalleled soil of our prairie States to grow less 

 and less productive from year to year." As showing the success attend- 

 ing the application of scientific i^rinciples in farming in Great Britain, 

 the case is cited of the Marquis of Tweeddale, who, when coming into 

 l)ossession of his estates, found the rental of his land worth only 10s. 

 ($2.50) an acre ; but through the helps resulting from scientific investi- 

 gations, the experience of experts, and the sparing of no enterprise in 

 the proper treatment of liis soil, raised his entire estate to a degree of 

 productiveness that commanded a yearly rental of £3.10s. ($17.50) per 

 acre. 



The present consideration of farmers should be the preservation of 

 their lands with relation to productiveness and the character of material 

 produced. If there has been degeneracy of seeds in quality or prolifi- 

 cacy, appliances for restoration must be resorted to, and a more careful 

 system of farming must be followed, a system based upon scientific in- 

 vestigation and gathered experience. 



If plant-growth is not supplied with its natural food, there is deteri- 

 oration ; if there is unmindfulness in seed-selection, there must follow 

 degeneracy. It is true that, on account of climatic influences and 

 through immethodical management, seeds deteriorate; that the product 

 of to-day may not be that to-morrow. But the means of change for the 

 better may be said to be patent. Concerning the cultivation of wheat 

 in the wheat-producing region of New York, Mr. Todd, in his American 

 Wheat- Culturist, says : 



In the county of Monroe, thirty or more years ago, raising wheat was attended with 

 remarkably good success. Indeed, wheat was the great staple with farmers for many 

 successive years. Many old fanners with whom I conversed pointed out to me whole 

 farms here and there, and many large fields, where the yield was seldom less than 40 

 bushels of most beautiful wheat per acre, and in many instances the yield would be 

 50 bushels. But at the present time, on the same soil, the yield is expressed by any 

 number from 8 to 30 bushels per acre. * » * * Thirty or forty years ago they had 

 all the advantages of a most excellent virgin soil, which was as well adapted to wheat 

 as any other crop, aud had there been proper care exercised with reference to keeping 

 the soil in a good state of fertility, by making and applying as much barn-yard manure 

 as was practicable, there never would have been such a decrease in the number of 

 bushels per acre as farmers now talk of. 



