184 WALL'S MANUAL 



the farmer, but to arouse him to a realization of his 

 position, and of his power to improve it. But let us 

 see where he is wrong. 



He is wrong in thinking his land does not need 

 draining. lie is wrong in being satisfied with one 

 and a half tons of hay to the acre, when he might 

 easily get two and a half. He is wrong in reaping 

 less than his father did, when he should get more. 

 He is wrong in ascribing to the weather, and similar 

 causes, what is due to the actual impoverishment of 

 his soil. He is wrong in not raising turnips, carrotp, 

 and other roots, which his winter stock so much 

 need, 'when they might be raised at a cost of less 

 than one-third of their value in food. He is wrong, 

 in considering worthless a deposit of muck, which is 

 a mine of wealth, when properly employed. He is 

 wrong, in the treatment of his manures, for he loses 

 more than one- half their value from evaporation, 

 fermentation and leaching. He is wrong, in not 

 adding to his tools the deep surface plow, the subsoil 

 plow, the cultivator, and many other implements of 

 improved construction. He is wrong, in cultivating 

 with plow and hand hoe those crops which could be 

 better and more cheaply managed with the cultivator 

 or horse-hoe. He is right in a few things ; and but 

 a few, as he himself would admit, had he that 

 knowledge of his business, which he could obtain in 

 the leisure hours of a single winter. Still he thinks 

 himself a practical farmer. 



In twenty years, we shall have fewer such, for our 

 young men have the mental capacity, and mental 

 energy, necessary to raise them to the highest point 

 of practical education, and to that point they arc 



