SOLON ROBINSON, 1850 397 



would use the subsoil plow, also, and then I don't think 

 that the liine in corn cobs would hurt your land." 



"You may talk as much as you like, but I know it was 

 the lime in the cobs that killed my corn ; and lime will 

 kill any land in this climate ; and as for a subsoil plow, 

 I wouldn't let you bring one on my farm; and I don't 

 believe they were ever of any benefit to land in the 

 world." 



"What sort of plows do you use, my friend, and how 

 much team to a plow?" 



"Why, the common sort of plows in this country; and 

 I never want any plows on my land that one horse can't 

 pull. I've seen enough of your new-fangled Yankee plows 

 — I b'leive they're just poison to the land, I do; and as 

 for plaster and guano, that you talk so much about, I've 

 tried both and they a'n't worth a cent; no, nor lime 

 either." 



Now, I pray you to take notice that this wise man is 

 not only a farmer, but he is an overseer — one who hires 

 for high wages — lets himself and his knowledge and skill 

 to another ; sets himself up as a competent teacher of the 

 right mode of farming, manuring, and managing land; 

 and, as you see, understands "agricultural chemistry," 

 about upon a par with nine tenths of his class ; and yet 

 this man has charge of an estate that is probably worth 

 seventy or eighty thousand dollars. How can a country 

 improve when nearly all the agricultural operations are 

 conducted by just such bigoted ignoramuses as this man 

 — men that ridicule the idea of learning about farming in 

 a book. And not only that, but when such men as the 

 Messrs. Burgwyn's are conducting their enlightened op- 

 erations right before their eyes, and, by means of lime, 

 turning old broom-sedge fields into the most luxuriant 

 clover pastures, they not only ridicule them because the 

 first "crops don't pay cost," but contend that lime and 

 deep plowing will ruin any land. How can you teach a 

 man agricultural science, that contends that "lime in 

 corn cobs" killed his corn, and who never reads an agri- 

 cultural book or paper? S. R. 



