442 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



1. What is the name of this kind of soil ? 



2. What are the names of the principal parts of which this 

 soil is composed ? 



3. What is the name of the subsoil ? 



4. Is the soil retentive or not ? 



5. What kind of crop succeeds the best on this kind of 

 soil ? 



6. How large would you make the beds on such a soil ? 

 and why ? 



7. Is this heavy or light soil, cold or warm ? 



And the following among other questions as to management. 



1. A field of twenty acres is to be manured with eight loads 

 per acre, about the month of June : The field is 1000 paces 

 from the farm yard, all must be done in five days. The ma- 

 nure must be strewed in three days. 



How much labor of cattle and hands is required ? 



2. In a heavy soil there shall be made, in two days, a ditch 

 of three feet depth, three feet wide at the top, one foot at the 

 bottom, three hundred yards long ; how much does it cost per 

 yard, and how many hands must be set at work ? 



3. Make a weekly report in form, upon the income and ex- 

 penses, in grain and for seed, and amount of fodder consumed 

 by the cattle, on a farm where there are kept sixteen men, 

 twelve horses and eight oxen. 



The account from which I quote only a few of the questions 

 given, states that the answers as to the crops were satisfactory, 

 but that there was a great deficiency in the economy of farm- 

 ing, and an apparent want of judgment in the quantity of force 

 required for certain labors. But if iu these vital parts of farm- 

 ing there was any failure in the examination at Breslau, what, 

 I ask, is the probability of our getting from young men in 

 America an approximation to a thorough answer to most of the 

 questions ? Most of them have learned all they know from a 

 brief experience on a limited and partially improved farm. 

 However anxious they may be to be taught more, they have no 

 chance open for acquiring better knowledge, excepting at a 

 great cost to themselves or to their employers. The want that 

 is now felt, is that of experimental farms, where the art of 

 adapting means to attain ends with as little waste of any kind 



