Vol. 0. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



89 



EDUCATE FARMERS— AVOID LITIGATION. 

 Siloam, JV. Y., May, 1845. 



Mr. Editor, — In casting my eye over the adver- 

 tisements, in the April number of the Farmer, they 

 rested upon these words, " Aurora Agricultural In- 

 stitute." The thought struck me that the time has 

 come : but in hastily running over the notice, I 

 found near the bottom — " Terms, $150 per year." 

 I involuntarily muttered to myself, "No provision 

 made yet for the poor farmer boy ! " 



I then asked myself, (as I do all others to whom 

 these presents shall come greeting,) if our law ma- 

 kers could cast their eyes, at a glance, upon the 

 many lofty foreheads and intelligent countenances 

 of the lads in this State whose parents are not able 

 to pay the $150 above quoted, and are thereby de- 

 prived of access to tnis storehouse of knowledge, 

 which I believe to be the most important in the 

 world as regards this life — would they not at once 

 act, and establish upon a firm basis an institution of 

 this kind, (yes, a dozen of them.) and upon a plat- 

 form that should admit, upon the principle of so 

 many hours labor to be performed by each pupil, the 

 dollarless lads that are to be found by thousands, and 

 who by this blessing would become as intelligent 

 and enterprizing as any in the State. Then, 

 thought I, what a change would appear by the next 

 generation on the face of the earth ! The sickly 

 golden-colored corn, that yields from 7 to 10 bushels 

 per acre would appear in a dark-green leaf, and a 

 yield in proportion. The rusty, smutty nine-bushel- 

 per-acre wheat would be seen in its natural straw- 

 colored dress, yielding to the husbandman who had 

 access to this nursery of sound knowledge his forty 

 or sixty fold; the half-fenced and half-tilled farms that 

 greet our vision as we travel through the country, 

 would by the next generation disappear, and the 

 farmer as well as the farm would be seen in so difTer- 

 ent a dress, we should conclude that we had, unob- 

 served, been set down in another world. 



But the objections that would be made by our 

 law-makers, or almost all of them, to appropriating 

 any funds to elevate the agriculturist, and to open 

 the eyes of this nation to their true interest, rushed 

 into my mind ; and as I could not put my finger up- 

 on thousands that had been appropriated on matters 

 of minor importance, and knowing my inability to 

 put my thoughts together so as to make myself un- 

 derstood or interesting, I laid down my pen, heartily 

 wishing that those who have the advantages of even 

 a common education felt on this subject as I feel, 

 and have felt for many years. But lo, when the 

 May number of the Farmer made its appearance, I 

 found that the farmers' friend, Dr. Lee, had been 

 digging away, in Albany, on the very matter on 

 which my thoughts had been so intensely fixed at 

 home, and that he has mentioned some of the many 

 thousands that have been dealt out in the manner 

 above alluded to. Permit me to put my finger on a 

 few of the Doctor's best sayings. Hear him while 

 legislating for half a million of farmers : 



" We owe them something more than a heartless 

 lip service"— "$120 a year is about all that can be 

 realized by the experienced farmer; but the lawyer 

 and the doctor must have 1,000" — "500,000 in this 

 State that live from hand to mouth. The direct tax 

 in this State, in 1844, was $4,243,100, and in a few 

 years will be $8,000,000, except we cease to manu- 

 facture paupers, criminals, and needless litigation." 



Let me mention a cure for all these evils, which 

 you already know — let agricultural books be intro- 



duced into our common schools forthwith — let some 

 of the hundred thousands of the people's money 

 that go for this and that be appropriated as above 

 hinted, and the pennyless lads be gathered into them 

 from all sections — let the lawyers stay at home and 

 the farmers make the laws. Then all will under- 

 stand the laws. Let meetings be called as soon as 

 long evenings return, and in every school district let 

 the peacemakers there plead as well as they can 

 against that miserable practice of lawing one ano- 

 ther. Let them plead for harmony, good-will, and a 

 forgiving spirit. Let the impropriety of resorting 

 to the glorious uncertainty of the law, when any 

 difficulty occurs between neighbors, be urged with 

 all the force and truth possible ; for if a difficulty 

 occurs between me and my neighbor, and we resort 

 to law, others give the decii^ion at last. Why not, 

 then, without any of this cost or loss of time, call 

 in a couple of neighbors if we can't think alike, and 

 abide by their decision. Why, the evils that over- 

 spread our country like a flood, growing out of need- 

 less litigation, are beyond calculation. Not only 

 the parties concerned are losers, but sometimes the 

 whole community are drawn in for witnesses and 

 jurors, and not unfrequently they take sides, some 

 for plaintiff and some for defendant, and sometimes 

 they get to sword's point, and the whole neighbor- 

 hood is in an uproar. Oh misery ! And who is 

 benefited ? Why the lawyer pockets the money, and 

 the plaintiff and defendant find their way home" with 

 empty purses, and their business horribly neglected. 



The community should have an eye upon the man 

 they intend shall serve them as justice of the peace, 

 and let that office be filled by a man who will see 

 the parties that apply for a precept face to face, 

 twice at least before giving a summons ; and if he 

 is not successful in stopping the difficulty, let him 

 invite a man to see the parties whom he knows to be 

 a peacemaker at heart. A short time since, 2 men 

 in the town of Stockbridge, (adjoining us on the 

 east,) were fleeced out of twelve hundred dollars 

 each, and they left the difficu.lty just where it was 

 when they began, and were glad to get off so well : 

 you know who received the benefit. 



Now, Mr. Editor, should not the things hinted at 

 in this home-spun letter be kept before the public 

 mind by every lover of peace ? But I must con- 

 clude, as my sheet is full. J. F. S. 



LIME AND BONE DUST. 



Mr. Isaac Lefurge, of Hastings, Westchester 

 county, broke up a lot of about three acres of a 

 sandy loam. The greater portion had not been 

 plowed for ten or twelve years, and was covered 

 with alder bushes and wiry grass. The remaining 

 portion had been used as a meadow for mowing. 

 The whole was cross-plowed and put in fine order 

 for rye. On one acre, tv.'cnty-threc bushels of bone 

 dust were applied, and on most of the remaining two 

 acres, including the meadow portion, one hundred 

 and fifty bushels of lime were spread. That where 

 the bone dust was applied, may be considered very 

 fine rye, averaging, May 20th, fully 4 feet high. 

 That on which the lime was applied seems to indi- 

 cate a total failure, not being more than six or eight 

 inches in height, except that on the meadow part, 

 which is somewhat better. 



In the middle of the limed part about half a bushel 

 of bone-dust was applied. The effect is equally 

 striking as the other part of the field. The lime 

 was the best of shell lime. 



