26 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb. 1845 



DR. LEE'S ADDRESS BEFORE THE MON- 

 ROE COUNTY AG. SOCTETV, 



At their Annual Meeting, October, 1844. 



Mr. President, and Farmkks oy Monroe, — The 

 fact cannot have escaped j'our notice, that competi- 

 tion in growing breadstuffs, provisions, wool, and 

 other agricultural products, is fast becoming a mat- 

 ter of deep interest to those that must live, and hope 

 to prosper, by cultivating the earth. This growing 

 competition is quite unavoidable. The introduction 

 of labor-saving machinery into every branch of the 

 mechanic arts, throughout the whole civilized world, 

 is driving millions from factories and workshops into 

 rural pursuits, who, but for the invention of iron 

 mai, that eat no bread, nor meat, nor wear any clo- 

 thino-, had remained the good customers of the farm- 

 er, mstead of becoming his active rivals, if not ru- 

 inous competitors. Agriculture ie the great business 

 of civilized man ; but, like every other branch of hu- 

 man industry, it has its ups and downs, its sunshine 

 and its storms. It« sunshine is most enjoyed by 

 those that avail themselves of all substantial im- 

 provements in the art and the science of good hus- 

 bandry. These advantages give to the fortunate few, 

 who are wise enough to study and understand them, 

 a double capacity to supply the markets of the 

 world, by increasmg to that extent the productive 

 power of their bands and their fields. 



Think not that I have a hobby to ride in this mat- 

 ter. I fear bitter experience will soon, too soon, 

 demonstrate the truth of the remark, that it is xiti- 

 sdfe for the farmers of Western New York to des- 

 pise the improvements of the age, and the compe- 

 tition of the whole world beside. 



At the Agricultural School near Dublin, the pu- 

 pils have raised, this season, a large field of potatoes 

 averaging 750 bushels per acre. With a population 

 of ten millions living on a territory but little larger 

 than this State, and exporting more bushels of grain 

 than all the United State?, the fact has already been 

 established, that in spite of your protective duty of 

 ten cents a bushel, Irishmen can, and do, export po- 

 tatoes to Boston and New York, and sell them at a 

 little over a half cent a pound ! 



Farmers of Monroe ! I declare to you, without 

 the fear of contradiction, that out of the Free States 

 of this repubUc, and excepting the British provinces 

 adjoining us, agricultural labor is every where very 

 cheap, and likely to fall in price, with the increase of 

 our race, to the lowest point that will serve to keep 

 soul and body together. Europe, at this hour, has 

 two hundred and fifty millions of human beings, not 

 one out of five of whom has permission to eat, or 

 otherwise consume, the entire fruits of his own pro- 

 ductive industry. The market value of the labor of 

 two hundred millions of people is continually forced 

 down, by circumstances over whish they appear to 

 have no control. Nevertheless, their numhcrs are 

 rapidly increasing ; and the most desirable outlet is 

 to emigrate to this country, and settle on the fertile 

 lands of our vast public domain. Answer me this 

 plain question : 



If other men will work, feed, and clothe the hu- 

 man family cheaper than you can afford to, what 

 is to become of those who have oniy their labor to 

 Bell, and nobody will purchase it at a price compati- 

 ble with a full supply of the necessaries of life ? 



Profoundly impressed with the importance of this 

 truth, I desire that it may sink deeply into your 

 minds : It is the fact, that the discoveries and im- 

 provements of every year depreciate more and more 



the market value of the mere mechanical force of 

 human bone and miisclc. The same causes serve to 

 augment, in an equal ratio, the value of cultivated 

 intellect. 



It is in view of the competition of iron men and 

 iron women, moved with wonderful precision by 

 steam and water power — in view of the competition 

 of starving millions, working each for a peck of po- 

 tatoes a day — and above all, the fearful competition 

 of those that will soon produce two bushels of wheat, 

 and two pounds cf wool, as cheaply as you now do 

 one pound of either — ^that I urge upon your atten- 

 tion the scfBNCE of agriculture. " Science " is but 

 another name for knowledge ; and knowledge is in- 

 dispensable to the practical husbandman, as a matter 

 of self-defence. 



I have not the vanity to assume to be a teacher. 

 But since the worthy President of your Society has 

 honored me with an invitation to address you, and 

 having assumed the task, I will endeavor to show 

 something of the importance of science to the prac- 

 tical agriculturist. 



Nothing is more probable than the supposition 

 that some one of you has harvested and brought to 

 this market 100 bushels of wheat from five acres of 

 land. Let me assume that the \v'heat weighed 60 

 pounds to the bushel, or 6,000 pounds ; and that the 

 straw weighed twice as much as the grain — in all 

 18,000 pounds. 



As a simple, practical question, tell me how much 

 of these 18,000 pounds of matter came from the 

 soil ? Tell me how much came from the air ? 



Conceding that what your cultivated plants draw 

 from the ever -moving atmosphere, need not be re- 

 stored to the fields whence they were taken, can you 

 say as much of the alkalies and other minerals re- 

 moved with your crops, from the soil where tl ey 

 grew 1 Long experience answers this question in 

 the negative. 



I regard it as one of the greatest discoveries of 

 the age, that about 97 per cent, of the ingredients 

 which make up the whole substance of wheat, rye, 

 corn, barley, oata, peas, and beangs, exist in the air in 

 inexhaustible quantities. To transmute these aeri- 

 form bodies into the plants above-named, and into 

 grass and roots, at the smallest expense, is the ob- 

 ject of nearly all your hard work. 



If I were to burn in your presence 100 pounds of 

 wheat, including both straw and seed, you would 

 know of a certainty that this bread-bearing plant 

 might all be converted into air and vapor, except 

 something less than three pounds of ash, which 

 would remain. Now, who among you that loves 

 good breal, and would be glad to produce it as 

 cheaply as any one, will refuse to learn how Nature 

 changes all the vegetable matter thrown into the air 

 by combustion, fermentation, rotting, and the respi- 

 ration of all animals, back again into grain, grass, 

 and roots ? Believe me, Nature is quite as willing 

 to give you 40 bushels of wheat to the acre, and 

 from one bushel of seed, as she is 20, if you will 

 only sludif and ohey her uniform laws. 



A wheat plant is a living being ; and the number 

 which may be grown and brought to full maturity on 

 an acre depends on the quality and quantity of 

 food which you feed to them. It may not be profitable 

 to feed so high as to raise at the rate of 320 bushels 

 per acre, as one gentleman in England professes to 

 have done. But that you may grow 40 bushels on 

 an acre, at a less price per bushel than with any less 

 number, I have no doubt. 



