THE GENESEE FARMEE. 



805 



shade trees ; but not these alone. The dearth of 

 fruit, especially in tlie West, is still almost univer- 

 sal. Not one dwelling in ten is flanked and backed 

 by such a belt of Ai)ple, Peach, Pear, Cherry, 

 Quince and Plum trees as should thrive there. Of 

 Grapes, there is not a vine where there should be a 

 hundred. Even the hardy and easily started Cur- 

 rant bush is not half so abundant as it deserves to 

 to be. Most farmers would deem it a waste to 

 devote two square rods of each of their gardens to 

 the Strawberry ; Avhile the bare idea of cultivating 

 Raspberries or Blackberries strikes a large majority 

 of them as intensely ridiculous. Now there is no 

 dispute as to the folly of cultivating that which 

 abounds on every side and maj be obtained with- 

 out labor or care ; and I judge, from observations 

 on the fence side and corners of many fiirms, 

 that the cultivation of anything of the brier kind 

 on those farms would be a most superfluour under- 

 taking. Yet I do not the less insist that as a people 

 we have far too little fruit ; and that most of this 

 is of needlessly inferior quality ; that the grossness 

 of our food is the cause of many painful and dis- 

 abling diseases which a free and frequent use of 

 good fruit would prevent ; that, even regarded 

 solely in the light of profit, our farmers ought to 

 gi'ow more and better fruit, both for their own use 

 and for sale; and that noble orchards as well as 

 forests must in time diversify the bare landscape 

 even of the great' prairies, breaking the sweep of 

 their fiei'ce winds, and increasing the salubrity of 

 the atmosphere, and contributing in a thousand 

 ways to the physical enjoyment and spiritual eleva- 

 tion of Man. 



I leave untouched, for this occasion, the great 

 fields of Drainage, or the mechanical preparation of 

 the soil for tillage ; of Fertilizers, or its material, 

 essential improvement; and of Implements, or the 

 means of its economical cultivation ; for my hour 

 draws to a close, and even the few who suppose it 

 possible that I should advance some ideas worthy 

 of consideration are not willing to be hearers for- 

 ever. Let me simply add, with reference to these 

 departments of agricultural knowledge, that I be- 

 lieve we are on the verge of grand, far-reaching 

 transformations, that Genius and Science are des- 

 tined to revolutionize the production of Grain as 

 they have already, and but recently, that of Cloth ; 

 that the time is at hand when combined, organized 

 effort, guided by the ripest experience, the fullest 

 knowledge, will produce and send to market car- 

 goes of wbeat, corn, oats, &c., at a cost per bushel 

 and in a profusion with which individual energy, 

 cramped by costly division fences, stinted in capi- 

 tal, using inferior implements, plowing feebly and 

 shallowly at a snail's pace a foot in width, instead 

 of tearing up and pulverizing an acre or two per 

 hour to a depth of two or three feet, and using the 

 muscle of men and animals also in thrashing and 

 winnowing, will not be able successfully to com- 

 pete. Indeed, it were idle to presume that the 

 genius of Mechanical Intention — which has so re- 

 cently revolutionized Household Industry by the 

 invention of the Spinning-Jenny and the Power- 

 Loom, resistlessly taking away the whole business 

 of transmuting fibers into fabrics from the family 

 fireside to the spacious foctory — which is now rap- 

 idly eliecting a still furtlier transformation in sup- 

 planting the Needle by the Sewhig-Machiue— and 



which is soon to effect a like change in washing 

 and in the operations of the Dairy — will leave the 

 husbandmen sowing and tilling his fields as his 

 father and grandfather did before him. Already, 

 the implements required to till a farm advantage- 

 ously in number and cost overtax the ability of the 

 average farmer, and compel him to work at disad- 

 vantage against the owner of broad acres, of steam- 

 power, seed-drills, cultivators, reajjcrs, and thresh- 

 ing machines. This disparity is sure to increase, 

 lessening the relative power in agriculture of mere 

 human muscle, and rendering intellectual force and 

 training not merely an advantage but an absolute 

 necessity to all who do not sink to the lowest level 

 of abject drudgery. But to the instructed, intelli- 

 gent, wide-awake cultivator, no change which the 

 future has in store threatens evil or counsels dis- 

 couragement. For him, and such as he is, every 

 advance in the mastery of Nature by Man is a per- 

 sonal advantage and an assurance of that ultimate 

 triumph wherein, every atmospheric change being 

 foreseen and prepared for, every latent force of 

 Nature evolved and rendered usetul, the marvels 

 of chemistry shall become the familiar handmaids 

 of tillage, and every breeze that wanders idly 

 across a continent shall journey laden with boun- 

 ties and blessinc's for the Human Race." 



COST OF KAIL FENCES OUT WEST. 



Editors Genesee Farmer: — In your August 

 number I see " Young Farmer" estimates the cost 

 of making rail fence at the east at $3,41 per acre 

 in seven and a half acre fields; stating the cost of 

 black ash rails at $20 per thousand. Allow me 

 to differ a little with " Young Farmer." I get oak 

 rails made here, and taken from the stump at $5 

 per thousand, and they are better tlian ash, ihough 

 harder to make. As we have no high winds to 

 blow over fences, stakes are not a necessity. Rails 

 can be made here to fence 22 acres for $15.12; 

 cost of building with stakes and riders, $14.88; 

 amounting to $30, or only $1.36 per acre. Had 

 not •' Young Farmer" better move to "Wells Co., 

 Ind., where fencing is not so expensive an item? 



Wells Co., Iml, Sept. 1858. A TOUNG HOOSIEE. 



Remarks. — Has not our western correspondent 

 fallen into an error? "Young Farmer" estimates 

 the cost of black ash rails, considered the best 

 here, at $20 per thousand, as he buys them, while 

 "Young Hoosier" only estimates the cost of cut- 

 ting and splitting his own timber, — quite a differ- 

 ence, when, as with us, wood is worth four to six 

 dollars per cord, while in Indiana they consider aU 

 they get burned clear gain. 



Poison Wheat. — An Iowa paper contains a 

 notice of poison kernels in wheat, grown in that 

 State. " They may be known by their being 

 wholly or partly of a transparent red color. They 

 make no perceptible difi'erence in the color of the 

 flour, or appearance of the bread, but when eaten 

 produces retching and vomiting in either man or 

 animal." The crop in that State is too light to 

 have the flour reach eastern markets, unless it is 

 sent ofi" because it can not be used at home. 



