THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 71 



orable a report as this, is evidenced by the following, appealing on 

 the editorial page of that paper at date of July 14th. 



" Those who have read that most suggestive of all American 

 books on agriculture, " "What I Know of Farming," will be inter- 

 ested in the account in another column which Mr. Charles A. Green, 

 the well-known horticulturist and nurseryman of Rochester, gives 

 of some novel experiments in irrigation by Mr. Cole, of Wellsville. 

 The foundation of the new agriculture is subterranean irrigation 

 by a system of drains, which being kept supplied with water, in 

 turn afford a permanent supply of moisture ready to be taken up 

 by the plant growth above as fast as it is needed. There are other 

 principles involved, but this is the main one, and Mr. Cole claims 

 that his system will produce ten tons of hay to the acre, or 300 

 bushels of strawberries, etc., and thus yield a profitable return on 

 the money expended. It will be noted that while Mr. Green does 

 not indorse these claims he thinks that the result of the experi- 

 ment at Wellsville are remarkable and worthy of attention." 



Eminent among editors who came on this day was Mr. R. S. 

 Lewis of the Progressive Satavian, published at Batavia, Genesee 

 County, N. Y., from whose report it would be impossible to make 

 extracts and do justice either to its author or to the public, and 

 therefore we copy nearly all of it. 



' Mr. Cole's farm consists of five acres of what was, four years 

 ago, and a part of which is now, a sterile hillside of clayey soil so 

 poor as to grudgingly yield sufficient substance to grow field daisies. 

 It is as steep as the steepest part of Burleigh hill Pavillion, the 

 Bethany hill just east of the Centre, or any other hill in Genesee 

 county of which we have any knowledge ; and as to its ever be- 

 coming profitably productive, we don't believe there is a foot of 

 land in all our county which was equally unpromising. Some 

 thirty years ago Mr. Cole conceived the idea that plant life might 



