230 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Sept. 1845 



'I'hose of our readerr*, who have cleared the heav} 

 fore.-ta of Western New- York, Pennsylvania anc 

 Ohio need few witnesses to satisfy them of the great 

 value of Wood coal, and asues to make good cropt 

 of wheat and other grain. 



We hope to see tlie duty on Onondaga salt shortly 

 taken off, that it may be lartrely used with burn' 

 Imp tofeitilize the soil. This tax on salt yieldi- 

 a little over S-00,000 levenuo ; and is, of all taxes, 

 the most unequal in its operation on the farming in- 

 terest of the State. The Legislature might as well 

 impose a round tax on lime,gypsnm, eaw-logs and fire- 

 wood, as one on the salt that seasons our potatoes, 

 bread and meat. 



Salt shoul 1 always be ma.lo into a compost with 

 slaked lime in the proportion of one of the former to 

 two of the latter, mixed with a little muck or loam 

 and moisteued to favor the decomposition of the salt. 

 Remove the present duty on salt, and its soda car- 

 be ext- acted by the aid of lime, and profitably used 

 as a fertilizer in nearly or quite every town in the 

 State. 



We are sorry to see so little attention paid to sav- 

 ing the saline matter that escapes in the liquid and 

 Bolid excrotions of domestic animals, and of the hu- 

 man familv. These salts are derived from the daily 

 lood of animals and cultivated plants, without which 

 no plant nor animal could possibly live. What mad- 

 ness then, to wajre a war of extermination against 

 the very things that we must have to form our daily 

 food and clothing ! How many skin the land down 

 to the bone, waste their manure, and at last denounce 

 the barren soil, and emigrate to the West ? In com- 

 mon fairness however, we are bound to say that the 

 number of pood farmers is rapidly increasing in this 

 E ction. Closer observation, more reading and more 

 thinking are producing their legitimate fruits. 



THE STUDY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Why should not a person study the profession 

 which he is to follow through life ? Is the skilful 

 cult vat'on of the earth, a pursuit not sufficiently 

 honorable to be regarded as a profession ? or is agri- 

 culture of too small importance to be studied as ^ 

 science, a^* well as practiced as an art ? Why this 

 resolute, this protracted, this hitherto successful op- 

 position to the study of rural economy ? We can 

 nut comprehend it. 



Is there leally danger that the rising generation 

 will know too much about the nature and properties 

 of the things which must ever form all their annual 

 crops ? Are we apprehensive that, if they study and 

 understand the unerring laws of Nature, so far as 

 fiey relate to the improvement of the soil, and the 

 production of human food, we shall have an over sup- 

 ply of the necessaries and comforts of life 1 Perhaps 

 it is thought that nothing can be learned about the 

 things that unite to form the 20 bushels of "increase,'" 

 from^one of seed, that God gives to reward the well 

 directed toil of the husbandman. If this is the stum- 

 blinir block, let us see if we can not remove it out 

 of the way. 



A farmer sows one bushel of wheat, and harvests 

 twenty. From what source does he derive the nine- 

 teen, to say nothing of the straw that supports the 

 whole crop? Unless the whole increase is an entire 

 new creation of matter, of course it must all come 

 fi»m s mewhere. Now, it is obvious, that, it would 

 be of no consequence whatever, xchere this matter 

 came from, or xrkat it was composed of, provided 

 God gave an " increase'' precisely according to the 



imount of labor bestowed, irrespective of the ""oUy, 

 ignorance, or misapplication that might direct the 

 same. But all experience confirms the truth of the 

 remark that, Heaven does not so reward the kbor of 

 the farmer. The Author of our being interferes by 

 no special providence to save the erring chil Iren of 

 men from hunger, disease and death, provided they 

 violate the laws of Nature. If an innocent 

 • ;hild places its finger in a burning lamp, neither it9 

 nnocencp, nor its ignorance of the properties of 

 fire, will save it from the full injury and pain of a 

 burn. 



God has conferred upon talking man, not only a 

 sense of jist accountability to his Maker, and his 

 fellow man, but reasming faculties, mermrv, ani 

 other powers, which, when fully developed, will 

 understand all the natural laws that concern hia sub- 

 sistence and happiness. These moral and intellect- 

 ual faculties seem to be created to no puroose, un- 

 less they are awakened into life and usefulness, by 

 the physical and mentil wants of humanity. As a 

 stimulus to rural industry, our Maker has created 

 a necessity for man to " eat bread in the sweat of his 

 face." This necessity is, moreover, "themi^ther 

 of invention," and the parent of knowledge. Man's 

 necessities arising from hunger, cold and nakedness, 

 led him to the use of fire, and to make a thousand 

 discoveries in the arts. These necessities still exis^t 

 in full force. Undoubtedly the Creator could easily 

 have formed every acre of land, so that the most ig- 

 norant man alive, might plow and sow it, and reap 

 100 bushels of wheat on the same, year after year 

 for his whole life time, without impairing its fertili- 

 ty. But such abundance would have been an en- 

 during bounty on ignorance, if not on vice and crime, 

 Knowlkdqk is necessary to renovate any large tract 

 of country, which has been much injured by unwise 

 tillage ; and this knowledge can be best acquired by 

 uniting the study, with the practice of agriculture. 



The study of agricultural science, implies no more 

 nor less than the investigation of the laws of our 

 own being, as social, physical, moral and rational 

 creatures. It is only a question of time, when we 

 shall begin to learn ivhat it is that forms good bread, 

 milk, butter, cheese, potatoes, beans, peas, lean 

 meat, wool, and bone. We can not go on forever, 

 increasing hungry mouths to be iedt three times every 

 day, and wasting to the tune of untold millions, the 

 constituents of our daily food, and not pay for our 

 folly. 



Let us examine a few facts and figures on this sub- 

 ject. Most of the farming lands in France have been 

 cultivated some two or three thousand years. By 

 keeping an accurate account of the various substan- 

 ces applied to the soil, and removed therefrom in 

 crops, for a series of years, they could test with 

 considerable precision, how much of each ingredient 

 must be applied to the earth to secure a fair return 

 at harvest. We will give the mam facts of a five 

 year system of rotation, as practiced by M. Bous- 

 singault at Bechelbronn. 



Riitatioii : Mineral MattT : Pliosphori' acid : Pota'ii »nd Soda. 



1 year Potatoes ..11 3lbs 1 31bs, 581bs. 



2" Wheat, 50 24 15 



" " Straw, 3.58 11 34 



3 " Clover, 284 18 77 



4 " Wheat — Minerals included in those of the 2yr. 



5 "Oaf, 39 6 ■ 6 



" "Straw, 60 i|........ 17 



" "2dcropTurnipa,50 3 19 



Minwal Substance. 927 



76| 



225 



