370 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



thirty years. There is no more risk about sparks 

 catching on the roof than on a newly shingled roof. 

 Those who do not have lime near by, can use good 

 strong wood ashes, and these will answer a very 

 good purpose to the same end." 



The action of the lime is to cleanse the surface 

 of all impediments to the free and rapid passage of 

 the rain-water off. This enables the shingles to 

 dry, very soon, and consequently prevents rotting. 

 Moss-covered roofs will rot very rapidly. — Rural 

 Intelligencer. 



WHAT A POOR FARMER CANNOT 

 AFFORD. 



The following remarks are from an Address by 

 Horace Greeley, at the annual fair in Ere Coun- 

 ty, N. Y., last autumn. Mr. Greeley had a pretty 

 thorough agricultural training while a boy, so that 

 nearly all the processes of the art are familiar to 

 him. To this he has added a close and discrimi- 

 nating observation, and thus qualified himself to 

 write as good an agricultural addi-ess as we read 

 from any source. 



"The truth I am most anxious to impress, is that 

 no poor man can afford to be a poor farmer. When 

 I have recommended agricultural improvements, I 

 have often been told, 'this expensive farming will 

 do well enough for rich people, but we who are in 

 moderate circumstances can't afford it.' Now, it is 

 not ornamental farming that I recommend, but 

 profitable farming. It is true that the amount of 

 a man's capital must fix the limit of his business, in 

 agriculture as in everthing else. But however poor 

 you may be, you can afford to cultivate land well if 

 you can afford cultivate it at all. It may be out of 

 your power to keep a large farm under a high state 



owner is a heathen, a heretic, or an infidel — a Chris- 

 tian he cannot be, or he would not allow the heri- 

 tage which God gave him to dress and keep,to be de- 

 formed and profaned. And if you will allow me 

 to make an appHcation of the doctrine I preach, I 

 must be permitted to say that there is a great field 

 for missionary effort on the farms between here 

 (East Hamburg) and Bufi'alo. Nature has been 

 bountiful to you, but there is great need of better 

 cultivation. 



"Farmers cannot afford to grow a crop on a soil 

 that does not contain the natural elements that en- 

 ter into its compo^tion. When you burn a vege- 

 table, a large part of the bulk passes away during 

 the process of combustion into air. But there is 

 always a residue of mineral matter, consisting of 

 lime, potash, and other ingredients that entered in- 

 to its composition. Now, the plant drew these 

 materials out of the earth, and if you attempt to 

 grow that plant in soil that is deficient in these in- 

 gredients, you are driving an unsuccessful business. 

 Nature does not make vegetables out of nothing, 

 and you cannot expect to take crop after crop off 

 from a field that does not contain the elements of 

 which it is formed. If you wish to maintain the 

 fertiUty of your farms, you must constantly restore 

 to them the materials which are withdrawn in crop- 

 ping. No farmer can afford to sell his ashes. You 

 annually export from Western New York a large 

 amount of potash. Depend upon it there is no- 

 body in the world to whom this is worth so much 

 as to yourselves. You can't afford to sell it, but a 

 farmer can well afford to buy ashes at a higher 

 price than is paid by anybody that does not wish 

 to use them as fertilizers of the soil. Situated as 

 the farmers of this county are in the neighborhood 

 of a city that burns large quantities of wood for 

 fuel, you should make it a part of your system of 

 farming to secure all the ashes it produces. When 

 your teams go to town with loads of wood, it would 



of cultivation, but then you should sell a part of it. 



and cultivate a small one. If you are a poor man,' cost comparatively Uttle to bring back loads of ash- 



you cannot afford to raise small crops ; you cannot es and other fertiHzers that would improve the pro- 



afford to accept half a crop from land capable ofjductiveness of your farms. 



yielding a whole one. If you are a poor man you "No poor farmer can afford to keep fruit tree& 



cannot afford to fence two acres to secure the crop that do not bear good fruit. Good fruit is always 



that ought to grow on one ; you cannot afford to valuable, and should be raised by the farmer, not 



pay or lose the interest on the cost of a hundred only for market, but for large consumption in his 



acres of land to get the crops that will grow on fif- own family. As more enlightened views of diet 



ty. No man can afford to raise twenty bushels of, prevail, fruit is destined to supplant the expensive 



corn to an acre, not even if the land were given 

 him, for twenty bushels to the acre will not pay the 

 cost of the miserable cultivation that produces it. 



"No poor man can afford to cultivate his land in 

 such a manner as will cause it to deteriorate in val- 

 ue. Good farming improves the value of land, 

 and the farmer who manages his farm so as to get 

 the largest crop it is capable of yielding, increases 

 its value every year. 



"No farmer can afford to produce weeds. They 

 grow, to be sure, without cultivation; they spring 



quantities of animal feed that are consumed in this 

 country. This change will produce better healthy 

 greater vigor of body, activity of mind, and elastic- 

 ity of spirits, and I cannot doubt that the time will 

 come when farmers, instead of putting down the 

 large quantities of meat they do at present, will 

 give their attention in autumn to the preservation 

 of large quantities of excellent fruit, for consump- 

 tion as a regular article of diet, the early part of 

 the following summer. Fruit will not then appear 

 on the table as it does now, only as dessert after 



up spontaneously on all land, and especially rich dinner, but will come with every meal, and be 

 land, but though they cost no toil, a farmer cannot i reckoned a substantial aliment, 

 afibrd to raise them. The same elements that feed "No poor farmer can afibrd to work with poor 

 them, would, with proper cultivation, nourish a crop, implements, with implements that either do not do 

 and no farmer can afford to expend on weeds, the the work well, or that require an unnecessary ex- 



natural wealth which was bestowed by Providence 

 to fill his granaries. I am accustomed, my friends, 

 to estimate the Christianity of the localities through 

 which I pass, by the absence of weeds on and about 

 the farms. When I see a farm covered by a gigan- 



penditure of power. To illustrate this, it will be 

 necessary to ask your attention to the nature and 

 office of the mechanical operation requisite for the 

 production of good crops. It is essential to the 

 thrifty growth of a plant that the air should have 



tic growth of weeds, I take it for granted that the free access to every part of it, the roots as well as 



