Vol. 6. 



GENESLE FARMER. 



83 



STATE CENSUS FOR 1845. 



The amendments made to the old law directing 

 the census to be taken once in ten years in this 

 State, will render the returns of agricultural statis- 

 tics full and highly interesting. Hitherto neither 

 the national nor state census has told us how many 

 cows are milked in New York, nor how many sheep 

 are clipped, nor how many acres are sown in wheat, 

 rye, oats, &c. The U. S. census gave the number 

 of bushels of grain, but not the acres cultivated. It 

 gave the aggregate pounds of butter, cheese, and 

 wool ; but not the number of cows milked, nor the 

 sheep cl'pped. 



The editor of this paper prepared several tables 

 embracing many facts pertaining to rural affairs, 

 which are a part of the law. The census is to be 

 taken by election districts ; and the marshalls are to 

 be appointed by the supervisor, town-clerk, and town 

 superintendent of common schools. They will re- 

 ceive Si. 50 per day for their services. It is to be 

 hoped that the censms 1o be taken this summer will 

 be more accurate than any which has preceded it 

 since the formation of our government. Every far- 

 mer should be careful to state the exact truth in an- 

 swer to all questions relating to agricultural statis- 

 tics. When all the facts are known, and fairly 

 brought before the legislature, there can be no diffi- 

 culty in placing the farming interest in the front 

 rank of legislative favor. 



Farmers must act together, and be ready at all 

 times to foster their own prosperity, and ward off 

 any evils that may threaten their interests. There 

 should be an active farmers* club in every town in 

 the State, for mutual instruction, and for the com- 

 mon improvement of all. We can better our con- 

 dition in the world by enlarging our professional 

 knowledge, improving our farms, our fruits, and our 

 domestic animals. We can study the laws of Na- 

 ture in the formation of fertile soils, in the produc- 

 tion of vegetables and animals ; and having learned 

 the requirements of these natural laws, we shall re- 

 alize the best gifts of heaven by complying with the 

 same. Knowledge, virtue, and human happiness are 

 progressive. God has given to the farmers of New 

 York the ability to command and enjoy these bless- 

 ings in an eminent degree. 



COLMAN'S EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE ; 

 PART III. 



The third number of this popular work has come to 

 hand during the present month. It is mainly devoted 

 to the important subject of Agricultural Schools, as 

 they are established and conducted in Great Britain. 



Mr, C. speaks in terms of high commendation of 

 most of these institutions. They are evidently doing 

 much to improve both the tillers of the soil, and fer- 

 tility of the earth on which <hey are established. 



The present number contains several analyses of 

 guano, with accounts of its use, &c. 



Mr. Colman is a very agreeable writer ; and we 

 like the author all the more because the sympathies 

 of the man are ever with the rights of humanity ; 

 and his leading object aims to abate human suffering, 

 and elevate our race. 



For sale by James H. Watts, agent in this city. 



MuFFi.NS. — Take 3 pints of flower, 1 pint of water 

 lukemarm, 1 tea cup full of baker's yeast, 1 great 

 spoonful of sugar, 1 tea spoonful of salt — make them 

 up in the morning for tea, or at night for breakfast, 

 and bako them in muffin rings. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURE. 



" The great truth that animal manures are nothina- 

 ebe than the ashes of the food produced from our 

 fields, consumed or burned in the bodies of men 

 and animali, has given the chief direction to all 

 modern improvements in agriculture." — Liebig. 



The above remarks deserve the profound consid- 

 eration of every practical farmer. After an animal 

 has attained his maturity, and adds nothing to his 

 weight in the course of a year, it is obvious that the 

 matter which escapes from the body must be the 

 same in quantity as that which enters it. A very 

 notable portion of the food of all warm-blooded ani- 

 mals passes out of the lungs in the form of air and 

 vapor during their ceaseless respiration night and 

 day, just as wood passes out of a chimney when 

 burnt in a fire-place. The combustion of grass, 

 hay, and grain in the system of the cow, horse, or 

 sheep is not so complete as that of fire applied to 

 the same substances in the open air. In the latter 

 case, nearly all the combustible ingredients — carbon 

 and hydrogen united with oxygen and nitrogen — are 

 expelled into the atmosphere. In animal combus- 

 tion, a larger portion of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 

 and nitrogen remain with the ashes contained in the 

 food taken into the stomach, and voided with the 

 solid and liquid excretions. 



The time will shortly come in this State when the 

 liquid and solid manure derived from" the combustion 

 of one ton of hay, or 100 bushels of grain, will be 

 wotth half as much to make another ton of hay, or 

 100 bushels of grain, as the original crops were 

 worth. 



That portion of cultivated plants which escapes 

 into the air through the lungs of man and his domes- 

 tic animals, growing plants can regain by their roots 

 and leaves, and thus reorganize into animal food. 

 But the case is different with the ashes or earthy 

 portion of all plants. If these minerals are taken 

 from the soil in crops, and not faithfully restored, by 

 replacing on our cultivated fields all the salts con- 

 tained in the excretions of the human family and of 

 domestic animals, the injury to our State and our 

 race will be large, almost beyond calculation. 



Nearly one-third of all the wheat grown on the 

 globe is raised by the Chinese. For thousands of 

 years this wonderful people have cultivated most 

 successfully this bread-forming plant. For a long 

 period their wheat-fields have been fertilized almost 

 exclusively with the ingredients of wheat derived 

 from its decomposition in the human system. In 

 other words, they manure their fields with night- 

 soil alone. 



In Belgium and Flanders, the liquid excretions of 

 all animals are diluted with twice or three times 

 their bulk of water, and are then spread over the 

 growing crops, or on to plowed ground, from a wa- 

 tering cart. 



Many years of experience have demonstrated the 

 fact, that the urine of a single cow for a year is 

 worth $9.50 to make into wheat to be sold at 70c. 

 a bushel. In Holland, cows are kept up the year 

 round in stables, mainly to save every particle of 

 their excretions. The manufacture of corn, wheat, 

 barley, oats, hay, potatoes, pork, beef, butter, cheese, 

 wool, and horse flesh, can be reduced to an exact 

 science. The laws of chemical affinity, of vegeta- 

 ble and animal vitality, are uniform and easy to be 

 understood, so far as successful agriculture is con- 

 cerned. One of these laws is, that no man nor veg- 

 etable can possibly make anything out of nothings 



