190 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



streams and ponds are dried up or shrunk to their 

 lowest dimensions; forests are often ravaged and 

 desolated by fires ; our pastures are dry and brown ; 

 while crops of Hay, Oats, Potatoes, Buckwheat, etc., 

 either have proved, or certainly must prove, a disap- 

 pointment to the hopes of the growers. I estimate 

 the average product for 1870 of the farms of New- 

 England, eastern New-York and New-Jersey, as not 

 more than two-thirds of a full harvest ; while the 

 earth remains at this moment so baked and incrusted 

 that several days' rain is needed to fit it for Fall 

 plowing and the sowing of Winter grain. 



Such seasons must not be regarded as extraordin- 

 ary. The Summer of 1854 was nearly or quite as dry 

 as this ; and I presume one or two such have inter- 

 vened since that time. The heat of 1870 is remarka- 

 ble for its persistence rather than its intensity. 

 Every Summer has its heated term ; that of 1870 

 has been longer in this region than any before it 

 that I can remember, though doubtless the recollec- 

 tion of others might supply its perfect counterpart. 

 Nearly every Summer has its drouth ; the present is 

 peculiar rather for its early commencement than 

 its extreme duration. As our country is more and 

 more denuded of its primitive forests, drouths longer 

 and severer even than this may naturally be expect- 

 ed. What our farmers have to do is, to prepare for 

 and provide against them. 



Such seasons are disastrous to those only who farm 

 as if none such were to be expected. Those who 



