20 INDIAN CORN. 



is it easy to assign any reason why this number should 

 not yet be reached before the period of the next gen- 

 eral census. We should then have three reading 

 farmers where we now have one, and the effect upon 

 agriculture which such an increase of intelligence 

 would everywhere produce it is scarcely possible to 

 overrate. 



It rests with you, brother farmers, to introduce 

 this new era of diffused intelligence, by doubling or 

 tripling, as you easily may, the circulation of the agri- 

 cultural press. Should you enter thoroughly into the 

 spirit of this subject, the purpose would be accom- 

 plished. You would thereby change the aspect and 

 condition of fields and farms all over the land, impart- 

 ing to every meadow a brighter green, and to the 

 fruits of autumn a deeper tinge of gold. You would 

 communicate ideas to ploughshares, convert the hoe 

 into a calculator, and endow the spade with thought. 



"What effect this would produce upon the future 

 grain crops of the country, it is not difficult to per- 

 ceive. Even without counting any increase from this 

 cause, the corn crop for 1870, as will be seen by the 

 estimate on another page, is likely to exceed a thou- 

 sand million dollars in value. The grain itself, accord- 

 ing to that estimate, will be sufficient to feed not only 

 our own people, but half the population of Europe 

 in addition, for more than twelve months; while 

 the money value of such annual crops would, in the 

 course of three years, suffice to extinguish our national 

 debt, and leave a balance in the treasury. 



It seems to me, Farmers of America, that such a 



