VOL. XIV. NO. aa. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



17;J 



slieep, orijiiialiy aoiight mainly for their carcass, 

 but, having proved itself very hardy, wlien acclima- 

 ted, when crossed by other breeds, so as to acquire 

 a liner wool, it may become a standard stock among 

 us. Nor are we less favored in 



Sivine. We have all the breeds; among others 

 peculiarly our own, is what is called the Chester 

 county breed and the Berkshire breed, just coming 

 into great and deserved estimation among us. 

 Even the common breeds that run about, without 

 knowing their extraction, are often admirable. I 

 remember well that the Pennsylvania Quaker farm- 

 er, Jacob Brown, Conmiander-iu-chief of the Amer- 

 ican army during the last war, told me how much 

 he was struck with the beauty of tlio hogs which 

 he saw running about Philadelphia, and I have often 

 Imd occasion to admire tliem. 



Of all these various animals we have specimens 

 now before us which we may all examine, and, if 

 we desire it, obtain them at reasonable rates — and 

 no one can doubt the real economy to a farmer of 

 possessing these improved breeds. An inferior 

 animal takes as much trouble and as much food as 

 a good one, and tlicn the care and the expi'nse are 

 often thrown away upon cattle that will give neith- 

 er milk nor beef. How many stunted milk cows do 

 we see who may be said to go dry all the year 

 round — how many steers who, after emptying a 

 corn-crib, at last, in the spring, look like the crib 

 itself, all ribs without, and hollow inside. But cross- 

 ing and training create animals who turn at once 

 into milk or beef every thing we put into them — 

 who give plenty of milk if you want milk, plenty of 

 fat if you desire beef; and who coming earlier in- 

 to the dairy or the market, save a whole year's 

 expense of feeding. I hope, therefore, that we 

 may profit by the present opportunity of improving 

 our stock, and encourage the spirited breeders who 

 place the means of doing it in our power. 



Nor are the productions of Pennsylvania less 

 numerous than its animals. The great staples are 

 wlieat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, and iibove all, 

 Indian corn — a plant not estimated in Europe, bi.t 

 one of the most valuable presents which the new 

 world has made to the old — worth almost all others 

 in the extent of its yield and the variety of its use 

 — with a stalk ten or fifteen feet high, every inch 

 of which is useful in the barn yard, and a grain 

 which to men supplies a variety of healthful and 

 delicious dishes, and to cattle is the quickest fat- 

 tener, while it gives the last exquisite flavor to 

 their flesh. 



Having thus spoken of the advantages which 

 we Pennsylvania farmers enjoy, I proceed to the 

 leas agreeable, but more profitable inquiry, why 

 our farmers are not so productive as they ought to 

 be ; And I make the comparison between Pennysl- 

 vania and England, because I think England, on 

 the whole, the best farming country in Europe ; 

 our English friends must understand that, while 

 we amuse ourselves occasionally with some of their 

 peculiarities, we pay them the highest compliment 

 we can, by proposing them as the constant models 

 of our farming. Now, why is it that, with all the 

 natural advantages in our favor, the Ena-lish farm- 

 ers beat us ? I will toll you what I think of it. 



In the first place, we do not do justice to our 

 own profession. Farming is not liked, either 

 among the young people, because it is considered 

 a lonely exile from gaiety — or among the calcula- 

 ting, because it is thought unproductive. This last 

 is, I think a total misapprehension ; and as I regard 

 its correction essential to our success, I venture to 



say that farming ought to be more profitable in 

 Penn}slvania than in England. The common 

 notion is, that the high price of labor in Pennsyl- 

 vania makes fanning unproductive, and the opinion 

 is repeated without examination, till at last it is 

 generally believed. Now the productiveness of 

 farming, like the productiveness of every other oc- 

 cupation, depends on the expense of raising an ar- 

 ticle, and the price you can get for it when it is 

 raised. Tliese expenses are, the rent of the land, 

 the taxes, manure, the prices of laboring cattle, of 

 laboring implements, and of laboring men. 



The land which can be rented in America for two 

 or three dollars, could not be rented in England 

 under ten or twelve dollars an acre — so that al- 

 ready th'-' land itself costs three or four times as 

 much. When you have got possession of the land, 

 tlie tax-gatherer and the titheman soon make their 

 appearance, and take from the farmer fifty-three per 

 cent, on his rent. Here there are no tithes, and 

 the tax out of the immediate vicinity of the city im- 

 provements, would scarcely be one-tenth of the 

 English tax — so that, while on an English farm of 

 two hundred acres the rent and charges would be 

 about .$.3000 



The same rent and charges would be 700 



Making at once a difference of $2300 



Next, all inanurcs are cheaper in Pennsylvania 

 — cheaper in themselves, and rendered more cheap 

 by the facilities of transportation. 



Laboring horses are about one fourth cheaper in 

 Pennsylvania ; and, moreover, the work which two 

 horses do in England is generally here done by 

 one. Cows, too, are much cheaper here. 



Laboring implements are cheaper and better, the 

 wood being so much lower-priced and durable. Of 

 all these elements of work, there remain only labor- 

 ing men, who are cheaper in England ; they are 

 cheaper by about 30 or 35 per cent. ; but even say 

 that wages are 50 per cent, higher in Pennsylvania 

 than in England. But then although the nominal rate 

 of wages is higher, yet you actually get more work 

 done for the money. The climate gives you more 

 long working days than can be relied upon in the 

 climate of England, where onl-door work is neces- 

 sarily mucli suspended, and the American laborer 

 works better, for the very reason that he is bet- 

 ter paid. And the proof, which seems decisive, is, 

 that although money wages are higher here, piece- 

 work, contract work — whether to dig a canal or 

 reap a field — is done cheaper in America. And, 

 accordingly, one of our most intelligent Philadel- 

 phia county farmers, Mr Walker, an Englishman, 

 always declared that his farm-work was done 20 

 per cent, cheaper in Pennsylvania than in England. 

 But supposing it to be higher — labor is only one of 

 the elements — for we have seen that the rents are 

 three or four times as high — manures, implements, 

 cattle, all dearer — and far overbalancing any difl^e- 

 rence of wages, were it even real. 



Let us now see what are the prices obtained for 

 what is raised. Wheat is higher in England — 

 flesh markets are higher. But wheat forms only 

 one fourth of the crop ; and, on the other hand, the 

 great staple, wool, is dearer here ; potatoes are 

 twice or thrice as high here ; and, therefore, the 

 English compete with us in our own market; tur- 

 nips, cabbages, all vegetables generally dearer ; 

 so that, after all, taking the average, farm produce 

 is not higher or very little higher in England, 

 while all the materials of raising it are much high- 



er there ; so that, on the wliole, farming ought to 

 be as lucrative in Pennsylvania as in England. 



\\ ith regard to wages, it Hiay sound strangely, 

 yet I believe it to be true, that the real interest of 

 all farmers is, that wages should be high, and for 

 this reason. A laboring man is not a mere ma- 

 chine — a human poor-box — into whose mouth is 

 put a daily number of cents, never to re-appear, but 

 a living being, with wants and desires, which he 

 will not fail to gratify the moment he possesses the 

 means. If he can earn only a scanty pittance, just 

 enough to keep him alive, he starves on according- 

 ly — his food, bread and water, half-fed, half-clad, 

 a wholly untaught animal, with a useless mouthful 

 of carnivorous teeth ; but if wages increase, he in- 

 stantly employs them in comforts, in clothes for 

 himself and family, and as he ri.ses in the scale, 

 ventures on the taste of meat. He employs a tail- 

 or, a shoemaker, a hatter, a butcher, and these in 

 turn purchase the materials of their trade from the 

 farmer himself. The laborer becomes thus a cus- 

 tomer of himself, and the payer of other customers, 

 and the farmer receives back, with abundant inte- 

 rest, the difference which he advances in the first 

 instance between high wages and low wages. It 

 is for this reason that one of our shrewdest farmers 

 used to say. Yes, give our laborers good wages 

 and they will buy our beef. Thus, too, the boun- 

 ties of Providence go round a beneficent circle; 

 and, after making a laborer better fed, better taught, 

 in short, a better man, the farmer himself is richer 

 for the very benefits he dispenses. Depend upon 

 it, there is no surer sign of national prosperity 

 than high wages; and God grant that for many a 

 long year it may be the lot of our countrymen, who 

 subsist by the labor of their hands, to work well, 

 to be paid well, and to live well. 



And now we come to the real reason why our 

 crops do not equal those of England. It is, that 

 our farms are all too large — too large for the means 

 we employ in farming them. Agriculture is the 

 only pursuit 1 know, where the owner does not 

 employ his capital in his business. He rents or 

 buys a large farm, and then has nothing left to 

 stock it with. He might as well rent a large store 

 without goods enough to fill a single corner of it 

 In England, it is supposed necess;iry, before renting 

 land, that the tenant should have a working capi- 

 tal of thirty or forty dollars an acre, to employ. It 

 is calculated that, besides lime and other enriching 

 substances, the cost of the mere animal manures 

 applied to the soil of England amounts to 300 mil- 

 lions of dollars; being more than the value of the 

 whole of its foreign commerce. Yet the grateful 

 soil yields back with interest all that is lavished 

 upon it. And so it would do here, if we would on- 

 ly trust the earth with any portion of our capital. 

 But this we rarely do. A farmer who has made 

 any money spends it not in his business, but in 

 some other occupation. He buys more land when 

 he ought to buy more manure ; or he puts out his 

 money in some joint stock company, to convert 

 sunshine into moonshine ; or else he buys shares 

 in some gold mine or lead mine. Rely upon it, 

 our richest mine is the barn-yard, and that whatev- 

 er temptations stocks or shares may offer, the best 

 investment for a farmer is live stock and plough- 

 shares. 



(Concluded next week.) 



Firewood. — Be sure to have as much wood cut 

 and hauled into your yard this month, as v/il| last 

 you until the beginning of next winter. 



