206 Compeiiiion of the East with the West. [April, 



system of farming is adapted to this country. And yet most of 

 our works on agriculture are either reprints or compilations of 

 British publications. I grant it is true in the main " that the 

 modes and rules of culture which are successful in one place will 

 be so in others, provided we adapt them to the varying conditions 

 of climate and situation,'''' but this adaptation seems to be the 

 trouble or difficulty we have to encounter, and hence the necessity 

 of a system of our own. 



But while our farmers are in the habit of reading the penny 

 news, instead of our agricultural papers and quarterly reviews, 

 which may cost them from one to three dollars per annum, and 

 are loosing as many hundreds by bad management there is but 

 little hope for improvement. 



Even England never woke up to this subject, until George the 

 III. turned farmer, and thereby made it fashionable in that country 

 (one of the few good acts of his life), " necessslty is the mother 

 of invention," and the time is not far distant when our farmers 

 will realize the application. What gave Bakewell his local im- 

 mortality and wealth, but his genius in producing an improved 

 breed of mutton sheep. Have our farmers less skill in this art? 



Let farmers consider that book-making in the present age, both 

 here and abroad, has become a trade of the printer. That au- 

 thors think much less than they lurite, and practice less than 

 either. Therefore it is that their works are of so little value to 

 the practical man. 



I think our scientific friends in this country are behind the age 

 in agriculture except so far as they borrow; for instance if we 

 we have ever had an analysis of the Indian corn or pumpkin, I 

 have not had the good fortune to see it. I would be happy to 

 know the same of the artichoke which is being introduced in the 

 west as a feed for sheep, but have not found either in the Euro- 

 pean tables. I find on experiment that the pumpkin is even 

 a better feed for sheep than the turnip, when ran through the 

 cutting machine, and every American farmer knows its utility in 

 fatting cattle, and that it may be grown abundantly in a field of 

 corn without injury to the crop. 



