No. 3. 



On the Adaptation of Farming to Circumstances. 



83 



cost of growing, and the price in market, 

 &c. And here is the point where our lead- 

 ing, or would be leading men in agriculture, 

 have missed the mark. I have already made 

 it sufficiently manifest that, because a man 

 owns a farm and cultivates it, is no reason 

 why he should raise every product which 

 will grow under his latitude. Better by far 

 would it be for him, if he would grow some 

 one product which would pay him. 



The character of the soil — its chemical 

 and mechanical properties, are important to 

 be known and understood, but the character 

 of the market is a matter of greater moment. 

 By the proper application of manures, and 

 good cultivation of the soil, a man utterly 

 unversed in the science of the thing, may 

 gather large crops and remunerating ones, 

 if he has an eye to the market he is to sell 

 in, otherwise he will find it a losing game. 

 It should be the object of leading men, to 

 show the practical farmer the true extent 

 and the proper bearing of his resources, be- 

 fore anything else. If, in the State of New 

 York, the same efforts had been made to 

 induce farmers to adapt their labour and 

 skill to the circumstances under which they 

 live, that have been made to induce them to 

 become scientific men, we should now pro- 

 bably see a large part of the State a gar- 

 den, compared with its existing barrenness. 

 There has been too much loose and indefi- 

 nite and unpointed direction to the business 

 of farming, for a few years past. Instead of 

 pointing out distinctly the direction in which 

 the labour of the farmer can be applied so 

 as to be most productive; instead of investi- 

 gating dispassionately the condition under 

 which the farmers in the different parts of 

 this widely-extended country are placed, all 

 efforts to improve his position and to advance 

 the art have been a sort of vague induce- 

 ment to him to try to increase and improve 

 himself in the production of those very arti- 

 cles in the production of which he has to 

 compete with new soils and cheap lands, 

 and every other disadvantage. It appears 

 to me that the first step to make our farmers 

 improve, should be to persuade them to give 

 up the growing of such articles, and enter 

 upon the cultivation of such as they have a 

 manifest and real advantage in. And what 

 are these articles'? 



In answering this question^ I might enu- 

 merate a long list of what may be called 

 perishable products of the soil, which I think 

 will exclude all our grains, and the growth 

 of wool, and in connection with them I would 

 also include the raising and fattening of ani- 

 mals for the butcher, and perhaps, collaterly 

 the growth of the mulberry and the raising 

 of silk worms. I say collaterally, because 



I think this business may be made profitable 

 to the farmer, as a secondary occupation for 

 his family during hours which they can rea- 

 dily spare for the care of worms, without in- 

 terfering with other avocations, and that in 

 at least some cases, it may be a valuable ad- 

 dition to the labour of the farm to fill up ac- 

 tually vacant time, when the farm is devoted 

 to such objects of culture as do not fill up 

 the whole time. Such will be preeminently 

 the case in the instance of farming under 

 the necessity of circumstances which I am 

 about to mention, and which it strikes me is 

 the species of farming adapted to the Hud- 

 son river valley, and the other great valleys 

 and thoroughfares of this eastern part of this 

 continent, which have ready — easy — and ra- 

 pid communication with the great markets 

 of the country, and especially with foreign 

 markets. But I am an Orange county man, 

 and I am looking now principally at the in- 

 terests of the river valley in which I live. 

 If my views appear to those farmers who 

 live in other sections as applicable to their 

 condition and circumstances, it is the easiest 

 thing in the world for them to apply the 

 suggestions, which I can assure them they 

 are fully welcome to, with the wish that 

 they may profit by them. 



I have spoken of regulating farming ac- 

 cording to the circumstances in which a 

 farmer is placed. In this I will not include 

 the character of his soil, for he may make 

 his soil what he pleases. Yet this might be, 

 and actually is a circumstance of consider- 

 able importance. But I shall have special 

 reference to the farmer's proximity to mar- 

 ket, including of course the value of his 

 land and the cost of producing. And these 

 circumstances alone should demand a serious 

 consideration in the mind of any man who 

 makes the Hudson river the means of trans- 

 porting his produce to the market in the city 

 of New York. It has been demonstrated, I 

 think, that he can not grow wheat and offer 

 any reasonable competition to the West. 

 He may live by raising it, and that he could 

 do if he had no market. But his object is 

 to sell and make money, and he should not 

 be content to do this at a disadvantage. 

 What then shall he growl 



I must divide my answer in order to suit 

 my circumstances. And in the first place a 

 large portion of the early vegetables which 

 are consumed in the city of New York are 

 brought from a great distance, compared 

 with many places on the river, where they 

 might be grown to advantage. There is 

 scarcely a little village, or landing place, 

 which has not its market vessels, running 

 a week or oftener, to market with the pro- 

 ducts of the neighbourhood. Whenever, 



