70 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



as the water passed into the drains underlying." * * * 



Mr. Green's article covers a full column and a half of The Tri- 

 bune, and is remarkably conservative in tone from first to last, 

 written by a manifestly level-headed and even-handed man, but 

 one nevertheless coming wholly unprepared for what he saw. 

 Himself an extensive gardener, fruit grower and nursery man at 

 Rochester, the Flower City, where gardens and gardening form a 

 distinguishing feature of business, and coming, as he did, out of 

 that far-famed delta of the Genesee, (which is ordinarily exempt 

 from frost, a fortnight earlier in Spring, and three or four weeks 

 later in Autumn than other sections of western New York) to find 

 at Wellsville near the source of the Genesee River, the climate of 

 Delaware and Maryland, not to say of the Virginias, growing fruits 

 and vegetables superior in flavor, and immeasurably prolific of yield. 

 Fair minded and just, his summing up as follows need not be won- 

 dered at. 



" The correspondent of The Tribune was asked 011 every hand, 

 " What do you think of this ' New Agriculture ? " I reply f rankly 

 that, while I consider that Mr. Cole claims too much, there appears 

 to be in it much that is novel and useful. Others who try similar 

 experiments in different soils and locations may not be able to ob- 

 tain such results. I do not doubt that an acre of ground can be 

 made to yield an increased harvest by the new method, but whether 

 it is a paying investment is another question, and would depend 

 upon circumstances. For high gardening, near large cities, where 

 the subsoil is tenacious, it would doubtless be profitable. For gen- 

 eral field culture of common farm crops, I should hesitate to recom- 

 mend it until I had investigated further, owing to the great ex- 

 pense to be incurred." 



That the editors of The Tribune were unprepared for even so fav- 



