266 



ii^gri cult are. 



Vol. III. 



cipal agency had been exerted by the vege- 

 table matter or the mineral manure, and this 

 mode of reasoning is, I think, applicable to 

 the case before iis. 



In concluding, I cannot but confess that I 

 never before obtained such a large amount 

 of increase in a first crop after applying lime. 



This field was a kind soil, admirably adapt- 

 ed for the powerful action of this fertilizing 

 substance. A great proportion of the land in 

 this neighborhood is pretty much of the .same 

 description, and more or less susceptible, 

 therefore, of a rapid and decided improve- 

 ment. R. M. Black. 



March, 1?39. 



JWe. — The lime used was burnt by Choster county 

 farmers, and was delivered by them (fresh and unslack) 

 on my farm for 2.5 cents per bushel, a distance, by 

 land, of 9 nr 10 miles from the kilns. 



grliuylkill lime is bro'.ipht (by water about 40 miles) 

 ni: i laniled at Christiana villape, where it has been 

 sold and is still yet, I think, for 17 cents. I have 

 bought it for that price; the distance to haul it to my 

 farm being 7 miles. 



There are two farmers in this hundred, 

 Messrs. C. B. and A. E., v.'ho say that they 

 limed 40 acres land for corn last season ; one 

 of them used stone lime, the other shell, both 

 of them say that the overplus of corn fully 

 paid them for the lime in one crop. No ma- 

 nure was used by either of them on. the land 

 limed. 



We hope that Mr. Black will continue his 

 communication.^. 



For the I''arm6rs' Cabinet. 



Agriculture. 



There is a spirit abroad, and one too which 

 is daily increasing, upon that so long despised 

 and neglected subject, agriculture. De- 

 spised by those who are unacquainted with 

 the advantages arising from it, — neglected 

 and unimproved by the vast majority of those 

 already engaged in it, from the want of a 

 proper appreciation of the benefits which 

 would result to them from a more thorough 

 knowledge of their calling. Men are open- 

 ing their eyes, and are constrained to acknow- 

 ledge, that agriculture is a science; the ope- 

 rations of which are not to be entrusted to 

 manual labor alone ; but the mind is also to 

 be called into action ; that it is a field, than 

 which there is none wherein the acquisition 

 of a practical and scientific knowledge, and 

 a good judgment, can have wider scope for 

 their e.xertions. In .,thi.s, as in all other 

 sciences, there are but few divisions which 

 may be considered as having reached a de- 

 gree of perfection. There will continually 

 be new inventions and discoveries which will 

 tend to advance it. The agriculturists of 

 this country are far more favorably situated 

 than those of any other land. They possess 

 great advantoge.<!. There is no expensive 

 clergy to be unwillingly supported — taxes are 



light, and ready markets and fair prices are 

 'always to be found for the surplus produce of 

 their farms. But let us not be content with 

 merely receiving the favors which the hand 

 of an all-bountiful Providence showers upon 

 us. Let us show by our actions that we 

 rightly estimate them ; there is much needed 

 to be done yet; let us not be backward, as a 

 people, in the improvements of the age. Noth- 

 i ing w ill ten(J more towards the ad vancement of 

 this great community, as a body, than the dif- 

 fusion of usefiil knowledge to all its classes; 

 the successful carrying out of those systems 

 :of education, by which all may have the op- 

 portunity to drink at the fount of knowledge ; 

 !but this, although the great hope upon which 

 we may base our rise in the scale of mankind, 

 jvvill require time. There are also other 

 j means by which the interests of this great 

 subject may be fostered — by individual exer- 

 'tion — by soliciting the aid of legislative enact- 

 ments for their encouragement — by the for- 

 mation of agricultural societies, for " in union 

 [there is strength." But perhaps there is 

 [none more simple, or more efficacious at the 

 1 present time, than the disseminating the ex- 

 iperience and views of practical farmers 

 'through the medium of a well conducted agri- 

 I cultural paper. There are two kinds of in- 

 formation to be derived from publications of 

 i this character, which are equally important. I 

 mean that regarding successful experiments, 

 |and that of disappointments in attempting to 

 I prove theory. There is no way by which a 

 [farmer may benefit his coadjutors more, than 

 by experimenting and making known the re- 

 I suits of his trials. To be serviceable, these 

 j should be told in a plain manner, so as to be 

 easily understood. Now it is discernible, 

 that while we are oflen favored with accounts 

 !of successful experiments, large yields of 

 I crops, &.C., (and for which the authors are 

 j highly commendable,) few are disposed to ex- 

 jhibit the relations of misapplied labor. This 

 should not be . There appears to me no good 

 I reason why they should^ be withiield ; their 

 'narration niif; lit serve to deter the inexperi- 

 enced from entering untried fields, v, herein 

 there is naught to reap. Agricultural papers 

 jare not established and supported as mere 

 channels for pointing out the bright points of 

 a system which would inculcate in the mind 

 of a superficial reader false ideas of its capa- 

 bilities, but that the faults of it al.-^o m.'^y be 

 held up to view, and measures taken to re- 

 move the stumbling blocks which impede its 

 progress. Let not selfish motives actuate 

 our farmor.s, but let each be willing to con- 

 tribute his portion towards the work for the 

 benefit of all ; remember, upon the agricul- 

 tural divi.sion depends, in a great measure, 

 the prosperity of the whole country. 



C. B. 



