520 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



than want of Means. I have no ability to sup- 

 ply this want, and pretend to none. The sug- 

 gestions I venture to make at all are offered 

 with extreme self-distrust, and are subject to the 

 con-ection of every practical farmer. Yet can 

 it be presumption in one who knows that one 

 hundred bushels of Corn or three tons of Hay 

 may be and often have been obtained from an 

 acre, yet sees that the average yield is not more 

 than one-fourth so much, to say that there is 

 grievous deficiency somewhere ? And when 1 

 have seen farms once fertile and productive ren- 

 dered sterile and worthless by shallow plowing, 

 no maturing, and shabby cultivation, until fields 

 which once bore good Wheat have been sowed 

 over and again with Rye until ' ryed out,' the 

 product falling to five or six bushels per acre, 

 and naturally the best meadows in the world 

 mowed and fall-fed, and spring-trampled, until 

 hardly enough grass could be obtained from a 

 swath to wipe the mower's scythe, it surely is 

 not presumption, comparing the.se with the op- 

 posite results of good farming, to say that this is 

 the result of wretched husbandry and should be 

 amended. 



If want of Knowledge has afforded it surely 

 can no longer afford a tolerable excuse for poor 

 farming. The Agricultural Clubs which have 

 been formed mainly in our cities may readily be 

 copied and improved upon in every rural School 

 District throughout the Countiy. There is no 

 observing farmer or farm-laborer, however illit- 

 erate, whose experience may not afford some 

 fact or hint of value to his brethren generally — 

 Let the farmers of any School District meet sta- 

 tedly once a week or month (in the winter once 

 a week cannot be too often) to compare obser- 

 vations, give the result of experiments, exchange 

 seeds and cuttings, and read choice extracts 

 from the best new works, and there cannot fail 

 to result a decided and obvious improvement in 

 the farms, the products and the fanners of that 

 District. The boys, allowed to come in as lis- 

 teners, will imbibe the spirit of the meeting, and 

 be imbued with a laudable pride in and liking 

 for their fathers' noble vocation. Many of them 

 will learn more that is of substantial use to them 

 in four years through such meeting.s, than they 

 would bj' spending that time in College, though 

 this also is desirable for some. They would 

 learn to observe the processes of Nature and In- 

 dustry going on around them, the value of Sci- 

 ence and Knowledge, and gradually acquire the 

 habit of expressing their ideas correctly, fluent- 

 ly and forcibly. They would learn to value 

 their homes and the privileges therewith con- 

 nected, and not pine to hurry away to Texas or 

 Lake Superior in quest of some excitement or 

 peril to relieve the tedium of common life. A 

 Farmers' Club in each School District, with all 

 thefamio.'s i)articipating in its advantages, would 

 (!WS) 



be worth more than a gold mine in each County 

 of the Union. 



From such a Club many incidental advanta- 

 ges of a pecuniary kind would naturally flow. 

 The farmers thus statedly assembling would 

 gradually fall into the habit of uniting in various 

 enterprises of mutual interest; they would com- 

 bine to purchase new implements or machinery 

 needed by all yet costing more than any one 

 could afford to expend for such a purpose. Thus 

 Mowing and Hai-vesting Machines, Stump Ex- 

 tractors, &c. with many others, would be brought 

 gradually into use where they otherwise might 

 not be. One or more intelligent members would 

 be deputed to attend the meetings and Fairs of 

 County and State Societies, to visit and examine 

 expensive new implements, &c. and report to 

 the next meeting. Very likely, in case they 

 were largely interested in any one branch of In- 

 dustry, they would depute one or two of their 

 number to go to market for the whole, as I ob- 

 serve by an advertisement that the Dairymen 

 of Herkimer County in this State maintain a reg- 

 ular Society, with President and other officers, 

 for the purpose of selling to the best advantage 

 their Butter and Cheese. The vein here strack 

 leads, who shall say whither ? Enough that it 

 well repays the labor of workiog, and may at 

 any time be abandoned. 



The farmer's life is shunned or loathed by 

 many because it seems one of mindless dnidgery. 

 It ought not to be so. If half our farmers would 

 study and reflect more, they might do less hard 

 labor and yet accomplish more in the course of 

 a year. Ten hours' work a day in summer and 

 eight in winter ought, with good management, 

 to give any man a good living. He who works 

 so hard that he cannot read or reflect after the la- 

 bors of the day are over because of fatigue, does 

 not plan v^'isely. Let no man shun work when 

 work should be done, but to delve, delve forever 

 is not the end of a man's life. The fanner's eve- 

 nings should be devoted to mental acquisition 

 and rational enjoyment. To sup and tumble in- 

 to bed is a hog's fashion, and highly injurious to 

 health. But let the farmer have about him the 

 choicest works on his own and au.xiliary voca- 

 tions ; let these form the subject of study and 

 conversation at least two evenings in the week, 

 while the newspaper, the newest volume and 

 the Oldest Volume also, have each their allotted 

 season. Two or three dollars contributed by 

 each family in a neighborhood or school district 

 would go a great way in the purchase of stand- 

 ard books at modern prices. — These are but 

 hints, which each reader will modify as his judg- 

 ment shall suggest. I plead only for the essen- 

 tial thing of making Home pleasant and its hours 

 of relaxation hours of instruction also. — But it is 

 high time I had brought these rambling sugges- 

 tions to a close. 



