No. 10. 



Book Farming. — Diminution of Wheat Crop. 



323 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Book Farming. 



Mr. Editor, — It is an old sayinsr, which 

 has been lianded down from fatlier to son, 

 that "Books and learning never make far- 

 mers." We would ask those who have an 

 aversion to " book farming'," to read tlie re- 

 marks of Judge Buel, which no doubt are 

 familiar to most of your readers, and whicli 

 he made only a few weeks before his death. 

 "Bred to a mechanical business, I took up 

 agriculture more than twenty years ago, as 

 the future business of my life; witliout the 

 pretensions or conceits which we are all apt 

 to acquire in the long practice of business, I 

 began farming with a consciousness that I 

 had every thing to learn ; and that the eyes 

 of my neighbours would be quick to detect 

 faults in my practice. I at once sought to 

 acquire therefore, a knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of my business, and of the practice of 

 the most enlightened and successful farmers. 

 These 1 found in books and agricultural peri- 

 odicals, and by these I have been greatly 

 benefited. Although it does not become me 

 to herald my success, I will venture to say, 

 to encourage others, and particularly the 

 young, in the work of self-instruction and 

 improvement, that my lands, which are light 

 and sandy, and which cost in an uncultivated 

 state thirty dollars an acre, are now worth 

 two hundred dollars an acre for farming pur- 

 poses; or in other words, that the net pro- 

 fits of their culture exceed the interest of 

 two hundred dollars an acre." 



Let those who are opposed to educated 

 farmers, or in other words, those who think 

 persons designed to be farmers need have 

 hardly any education, seriously reflect before 

 they propagate such an opinion, upon the 

 injurious tendency of it. The avocation of 

 agriculturists is as ennobling, and beautiful, 

 and healthy as any of the various pursuits 

 of men. 



Learning has done wonders in the world ; it 

 has reclaimed barren wastes, where scarcely 

 a blade of grass has grown, and has covered 

 them witli abundant harvests; it has in many 

 places, literally made the wilderness and 

 solitary place glad, and the desert to bloom 

 and blossom as the rose; it would seem as 

 if it was making almost every thing subser- 

 vient to the will of man. 



Let the farmer then double his diligence 

 in the acquisition of knowledge pertaining 

 to his calling, and by his superior intelli- 

 gence secure to himself a vantage ground, 

 which neither low prices, nor the rise and 

 fall of stocks will be able to deprive him of. 

 In every part of his business, instead of go- 

 ing blindly on as his fathers may have done 



for generations before him, let him bring into 

 active service, the suggestions of an intelli- 

 gent and well informed mind, and he cannot 

 tail to derive advantages trom it, commensu- 

 rate with the skill employed. E. B. Jr. 

 Uniontown, Pa., April 13th, 1844. 



Diminution of the Wheat Crop. 



At a meeting of the New York Farmers* 

 Club, held on the 15th ult,, 



President Tallmadge called the at- 

 tention of the club to a subjoct of great 

 interest to our country. I beg your atten- 

 tion lor a minute or two, said he : it is our 

 wheat crop: its greatly diminished yield per 

 acre ! We wish to put this idea forward 1 

 There is a gradual deterioration in the crop 

 of this state ! We have serious cause to ap- 

 prehend that this falling oft' is both in quan- 

 tity per acre and in quality. Look back to 

 the crops of our soil when young and vigor- 

 ous ! You behold an average of thirty-six 

 bushels per acre. Some think that too high. 

 But it was greatly beyond our late yields. 

 My object is to draw attention to it, that we 

 may induce better culture ! Our counties 

 must have a better treatment of the wheat 

 fields ! I wish that rather than assertions on 

 this point, we shall cause full inquiries to be 

 made, and to arouse attention to so important 

 a matter. The average crop per acre of our 

 river counties is not over ten or twelve bush- 

 els, and of our state not more than thirteen 

 or perhaps fifteen. Agricultural chemistry 

 will demonstrate what is annually lost by 

 our unwise culture. A twentieth part of the 

 richness of our soil is annually lost by our 

 improper methods. This is injustice to our 

 soil ! Returning nothing to it. We are fol- 

 lowing the diminishing planter in Virginia, 

 and shall soon shrink to his seven bushels 

 per acre ! Our rising generation are migrat- 

 ing from the worn out fields to the new lands 

 of the West! I say to you — that we must 

 mend or migrate ! Every village, town, city, 

 manufactory, &c., can furnish the manure 

 with proper saving and knowledge, to pre- 

 serve lasting fertility in our fields. Their 

 dirt, offal, salts, ashes, &c., are all available 

 for that great and indespensable service. 

 The accumulated filth of our city, if it was 

 faithfully applied to vegetation, is abundant- 

 ly sufficient to enrich soil enough to feed our 

 whole population. There is an extensive 

 manufactory of potash at Lake Champlain, 

 and the ashes thrown into the lake in vast 

 quantities are sufficient if duly applied, to 

 revive the exhausted fertility of the adjacent 

 country. Such a transgression as this falls 

 immediately within point blank jurisdiction 

 of a Grand Jury ! 



