58 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



on other portions of the farm where it would secure fuller returns. 

 But if this field, by a proper system of improvement can be made 

 to pay a large profit, not only on the money expended in improve- 

 ment but on the original cost of the land, and also on the labor 

 employed in cultivation, why, to the dullest mind the argument in 

 favor of making the improvement will be very plain. That there 

 are such fields on a great majority of our hill farms, there can be 

 no doubt. When we find the new agriculture, of which Mr. Lewis 

 speaks, we shall find these lands improved by some system and the 

 gain to farmers who now own them will be very great. 



" C. H. Lewis. That is precisely what I am looking for. My 

 farm is mainly heavy soil that has cost a great deal of labor to 

 bring to its present condition where some profit can be derived by 

 cultivation. But developement is not completed. I suppose that 

 after all the years I have spent in trying to improve my farm it 

 may be worth $50 per acre. Now if it could be improved by Mr 

 Cole's plan, as I believe it might, it would bring better profits on 

 $500 per acre than it does now on $50. If this supposition be cor- 

 rect it would be wise economy to expend a large sum of money on 

 every acre to bring it to the highest state of production. I dare 

 say that $100 or $200 expended on an acre might, in the course of 

 eight or ten years, put into my pocket a great deal larger sum of 

 profit than I can have by cultivating the land as it now is, and the 

 gain after the original, cost is returned, would be all profit." 



The foregoing is only a portion of the discussion upon the occa- 

 sion, the members participating in it being its President, Mr. 

 Cann, its Secretary, Mr. Armstrong, Editor of the Husbandman and 

 others, several of the number being among the first farmers of the 

 Chemung Valley. Such was the tone, of the discussion throughout 

 as to cheer our heart and strengthen our determination to speak 

 out boldly, and tell what we had found out. This we began doing, 



