18 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb. 1845 



how to keep for their own benefit more than a moi- 

 ety of what they do produce. 



For these people I feel a profound sympathy. Most 

 of them are alike distinguished for their honesty 

 and patient industry. They produce much, because 

 they are always at work ; they consume little, live 

 poor, and die poor, to enrich others. Among the 

 cultivators of the soil, these men read no agricultu- 

 ral papers. They think that they cannot afford to 

 pay fifty cents or a dollar a year for a plain record of 

 the practice and experience of the most successful 

 farmers in the United States and in Europe. But, 

 in sober truth, they are too poor to be able to do 

 without the aid of such information. 



It pains me when I reflect on the fact, that the 

 number of public paupers in this great and wealthy 

 state increases much faster than population. A la- 

 boring man must be pretty industrious to earn $300 

 a year, and quite economical in his family expenses 

 to retain a clear surplus of $50. At this rate, it 

 will absorb all the surplus earnings of 100 families 

 to make an annual gain of $5,000. If a man shall 

 acquire $100,000 in 20 years, as some have done in 

 this state, he will draw into his coffers a sum equal 

 to the entire surplus products of 100 laboring men. 

 If from the misfortune of sickness or of accident 

 any five or ten of these 100 families, that live from 

 hand to mouth are thrown out of employment for a 

 short period, they must go to the poor-house, and 

 become a tax on the whole community. In this 

 county (Erie) our annual poor-rates are but a frac- 

 tion less than $20,000. In the whole state, the 

 sum is nearly a million of dollars ! 



Intelligent reader, allow one who has thought 

 much on this deeply-interesting subject to ask, How 

 much better would it be for each one of these 100 

 families to have $1,000 well secured as the legitimate 

 product of their honest toil, rather than that ten of 

 them should be in the poor-house, and the other 90 

 paying $7,000 a year to one rich man for the use of 

 the $100,000 which their productive industry — not 

 ]iis — had called into existence ? 



If the humane and patriotic will aid in giving this 

 paper a wide and general circulation among the poor- 

 er class of farmers, the rich will take care of them- 

 selves, I should rejoice in the belief that I might 

 give some hints that would be worth a hundred times 

 more than the cost of the " Farmer." 



There will be a number of important experiments 

 in practical farming tried in Western New York the 

 coming season, the first account of which will be 

 published in this paper. 



The writer of this will spend the winter in Al- 

 bany. Should the friends of agricultural improve- 

 ment, or others ,wish to command his services in the 

 Legislature, their business will be attended to. 



Having freely given a great deal of time, first and 

 last, to render rural labor far more productive both to 

 the husbandman and to the community at large than 

 it now is, I claim the right to ask every friend to the 

 advancement of agriculture, and the elevation of 

 honest industry, to co-operate with me in sustaining 

 the "Genesee Farmer," and to carry it home to the 

 fire-side of thousands. Let us show the people 

 "downcast" that some things can be done in Wes- 

 tern New York quite as well, if not a little better, 

 than in any other part of the Union. D. LEE. 



Q;]/* It is but justice to the publishers and to myself 

 to say, that the January No. was made up without 

 any of my assistance ; except that this hastily-writ- 

 en article foun J a place in a small part of tho edition. 



INCREASE OF POPULATION. 



Few are aware how rapidly the human family are 

 augmenting their numbers, even in the largest cities 

 on the globe. It is stated, in a recent report to the 

 British government, " that in a little more than 12 

 years, 1,200 new streets have been added to Lon- 

 don." On these new streets, 48,000 houses have 

 been erected, most of them on a large scale. 



London is now about 40 miles in circumference, 

 and contains more than two millions of inhabitants. 

 This wonderful increase of population within the 

 last twelve years is attributable mainly to the nume- 

 rous railways which center in that great metropolis, 

 giving to it and carrying away again daily, it is said, 

 five times as many people as visited it fifteen 

 years ago. 



There never was a time when human beings were 

 multiplying so rapidly in Great Britain and Ireland 

 as is now taxing place in that kingdom. The aggre- 

 gate increase is the natural effect of improvements 

 in agriculture. These exceed the relative wants of 

 the additional millions of the people living on those 

 small islands, who import less and less grain per 

 head every year. 



Of course there is a limit to the production of hu- 

 man food, on the limited number of acres of arable 

 land ; but where the bounds are set, no one can tell. 

 At this time it is thought, that fifty millions living 

 on the two islands will consume all that can well be 

 grown at home. 



By improving our present system of agriculture 

 and horticulture, we can easily add 2,500,000 to the 

 population of New York within the next 25 years. 

 This will more than double the value of all the farm- 

 ing lands in the state. On the contrar}-, if we fail 

 to increase the productive value of our lands, emi- 

 gration will remove nearly all the increase of our 

 species to the more fertile regions of the boundless 

 West. 



Rails and Fences. — Now is the time to procure 

 rails, and prepare for making good fences next 

 season. Between Rochester and Albany, nothing 

 more discreditable to farmers is seen than the miser- 

 ably poor fences that meet the eye most of the way. 

 Wherever it is worth while to have any fence at all, 

 certainly it is much cheaper, in a long nm, to main- 

 tain a good than a poo?- one. Every sensible reader 

 knows, that very great improvement can be made 

 by fencing judiciously both large and small inclo- 

 sures. Rails are not always used to the best advan- 

 tage, after they have been made or purchased at no 

 small expense. In determining the size of fields in- 

 tended to be used alternately for growing grain, 

 meadow and pasture, much judgment should be call- 

 ed to the aid of the agriculturist. 



Farmers' Clubs. — We commend to the attention 

 of the reader the article under the above heading, 

 which will be found in this number. Immense good 

 may be gained by the meeting together of a dozen or 

 more practical farmers, young and old, to discuss ag- 

 ricultural topics, and devise ways and means to in- 

 crease the productiveness of rural industry. The 

 same land and labor that ten years ago gave ten 

 bushels of wheat, should now give fifteen bushels ; 

 and ten years from this, should give twenty-five 

 bushels. This is practicable. 



A vessel loaded with guano has lately arrived 

 at New York— the first cargo brought into that port. 



