362 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



great number of patents which have been granted 

 for portable field fences, shows conclusively that pub- 

 lic attention is turned to this important subject. 



In the operations of tillage, too, some improve- 

 ment is manifested. Sub soil plowing is becoming 

 more general. Cultivators and other implements for 

 pulverizing the soil are becoming yearly more popu- 

 lar, and the manufacturers of seed drills inform us 

 that their sales are large. Perhaps little improve- 

 ment has been made in the construction of plows, 

 but we are much mistaken if good plowing is not 

 more general. We plow narrower, neater and 

 straighter, and finish the dead furrows better. It 

 must be confessed, however, that our plowing in 

 these respects admits of very great improvement. 

 Our annual plowing matches have accomplished 

 much good, but still there is great need of good 

 plowmen. We can say little in favor of too many 

 of the harrows in general use. Some of them are 

 in a solid frame, and have a tendency to consolidate 

 rather than to pulverize the soil. There is a great 

 want of light harrows for covering the seed. Good 

 rollers are too seldom seen, and a clod-crusher, some- 

 what similar to that of Crosskill's, so general in 

 England, would prove of very great benefit on all 

 clayey farms. 



In the improvement of farm stock we are making 

 most commendable progress. Some of the best aui 



present year. The Pennsylvania Farm Journal and 

 the fFool Grower have been given up, but their pla- 

 ces are occupied by new and spirited papers in other 

 States. We exchange with thirty-three agricultural 

 papers published in the United States. We should 

 estmiate their aggregate circulation at a quarter of a 

 million. In no country in the world are the means 

 of disseminating agricultural and horticultural infor- 

 mation so abundant as in this country. We are not 

 disposed to underrate the influence of the Agricultu- 

 ral Press. It is doing much to promote good culti- 

 vation and rural improvement. As a general rule, 

 it is in the bands of honest, capable and intelligent 

 men, — men who feel a deep interest in rural affairs, 

 and labor zealously to promote the agricultural pros- 

 perity of the country. A few there may be who 

 publish papers for the promotion of other business 

 in which they are engaged ; some may publish them 

 for the purpose of foisting upon the public their 

 v/orthless artificial fertilizers, and others who make 

 loud pretensions to disinterested independence, insert 

 puffs and cuts of patent machines, implements, fences, 

 pens, pianos, &c., in their leading editorial columns, 

 at twenty-five cents a line. Still, we believe these 

 things will correct themselves. A printer, ignorant 

 alike of the science and the practice of agriculture, 



may start a paper; publish his own name as "con- 



ductor;" hire men to write his editorials; and by con- 



mals that money can purchase have been imported I stant pufftng, " Excelsior " mottos, flaming handbills, 

 during the present year, and much improved stock ! and piano premiums, may attain a large circulation 

 has been introduced into new localities. The influ- for his paper and an ephemeral reputation for bim^ 



ence of these thorough bred animals in improving 

 our common stock, cannot fail to be very beneficial. 

 Much good has been accomplished by the Agri- 

 cultural Department ot the Patent Office, and by 

 our Agricultural Societies, by the diffusion of valu- 

 able seeds — though perhaps they have been confined 

 too much to favorites or political friends. 



Agricultural exhibitions have been generally suc- 

 cessful. The tendency to convert them into horse 

 races has been checked; trials of implements and 

 machines have been more general, and the Societies 

 are using commendable efforts to elicit information 

 in regard to the cultivation of products receiving 

 premiums. We think, too, the selections of lecturers 

 to deliver the annual addresses, have been made with 

 some reference to their capabilities of imparting cor- 

 rect, practical information on matters connected 

 with the farmer's vocation. The able, interesting 

 and instructive address delivered before the Michigan 

 State Agricultural Society, by Sanford Howard, of 

 the Boston Cultivator, deserves special praise. Such 

 lecturers m.ay not draw as well as some popular ora- 

 tors, but much more good is accomplished. 



The sale of agricultural books is on the increase. 

 Few new books have been published during the 

 year, and too many of those previously before the 

 public were written for other climates and circum- 

 stances, and are not adapted to the wants of American 

 farmers. Still they are the best that can be obtain- 

 ed, and though they cannot be implicitly followed, 

 yet their perusal leads to thought, and we would not 

 willingly say a word which might curtail their dis- 

 semination. The publication of agricultural works 

 in this country is confined almost exclusively to A. 

 0. MooRE, of New York, and he deserves the 

 thanks of the farming community for the enterprise 

 with which he is prosecuting this important business. 

 Agricultural papers have been well sustained the 



self; but the farmers of this country are too intelli- 

 gent long to be deceived by borrowed plumage. 

 They are beginning to distinguish between their Teal 

 and pretentious friends, and few will be found willing 

 to follow in the footsteps of the so-called " leading 

 weekly." In this respect we are making progress 



While the means of diffusing agricultural facts are 

 so abundant, the means of developing them are la- 

 mentably deficient. There is not a single private or 

 public institution in this country devoted to experi- 

 mental investigations into the laws of vegetable 

 growth and animal nutrition. During the present 

 year we have published in the Genesee Farmer over 

 five hundred articles and essays from some of the 

 most intelligent and experienced farmers and fruit 

 growers in the United States and Canada. Able, in- 

 teresting, instructive and useful as these articles nn- 

 doubtedly are, it is nevertheless apparent that little 

 is doing in any section of the country to develop, 

 on anything like a regular, scientific basis, nev? 

 truths, in agriculture and horticulture. Entertaining 

 as we do, the highest respect for American farmers; 

 sincerely believing them to be, as a class, the most 

 enterprising and intelligent cultivators of the soil to 

 be found in the world, we must nevertheless admit 

 that the fact that the first Experimental Farm has yet 

 to be established on this continent, reflects no credit to 

 American agriculturists either at home or abroad^ 

 Something has been done in the States of New York 

 and Michigan towards establishing Agricultural Col- 

 leges, and much good may be expected from them; 

 but it must not be forgotten that Agricultural 

 Schools and Colleges are designed to teach truth al- 

 ready discovered, and not to develope new truths. 

 Our great want is not the means of disseminating 

 truths, but of discovering them. Without an Experi- 

 mental Farm, colleges will accomplish little. Knowl- 

 edge must be obtained before it can be taught. f 



