434 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



breeding, and those in which it has been most suc- 

 cessfully pursued, arc those of a hilly, mountain- 

 ous desci'ipcion, and where little or no aquatic 

 vegetation is produced. High lands, even if dry 

 and arid, are always favorable to this animal. 



AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN OHIO. 



It is with more than ordinary pleasure, that we 

 insert the letter below. First, because it is strong 

 evidence that the great want of the farmer — a 

 systematic education, or, knowledge systematized 

 — is beginning to be properly appreciated, and 

 that through such appreciation, means will be 

 derived to educate him as thoroughly for his pur- 

 suit as are the lawyer, physician or clergyman, 

 for theirs. Secondly, because it will show our 

 New England people what those in a sister State 

 are attempting, and they may thus catch the 

 spirit of their Western neighbors. And, tliirdly, 

 because by giving publicity to their plans we may, 

 in some degree, promote the noble work in which 

 they have engaged . 



The great Art of Agriculture demands more of 

 the heads, as well as the hands, of "Young Amer- 

 ica. " Too many young men forsake it for in-door 

 occupations, vastly moi-e appropriate for the other 

 sex. An advertisement in the morning paper, 

 of a large city, will bring five hundred applications 

 for a clerkship in a counting-room, in a single 

 week, while scarcely a dozen will answer the call 

 for a good gardener, or superintendent of a farm, 

 though the compensation of the latter shall be 

 much the largest. False notions of gentility have 

 put the best hat and boots on the clerk, — and 

 while he shines in his brbad-cloth, he too often 

 starves in his garret ! 



We do not ask that all shall be farmers, but 

 only that those who do engage in the profession 

 shall work understandingly — shall not labor 

 through life at cross purposes, by applying to 

 their acres what they already contain in excess, 

 and rob them unto sterility of that which they 

 cannot spare. And so of their plants and ani- 

 mals. 



Little hope have we of substantial progress and 

 improvement among ourselves, enslirouded by our 

 own ignorance and indifference — indifference worse 

 than ignorance itself — and the care and toil of 

 the fai'm. Ignorance begets ignorance, and in- 

 difference its like. If a more intimate knowledge 

 of the operations of nature in the springing, growth 

 and perfection of plants and animals, and a high- 

 er appreciation of the fitting and beautiful in all 

 the manifestations of Deity about Him, will not 

 give character and tone to the profession, and im- 

 bue the farmer with an intense love of the calling, 

 then, indeed, sliall we despair. But we liing all 

 fears to the v.'ind8 on that score. Educate the la- 

 borer so that he shall comprehend his work, and 

 the point is gained. He shall find a sort of fas- 



cination, even in hoeing potatoes, when he under- 

 stands how he increases the means of fertilization 

 in so doing; how many millions of mouths he opens 

 about his feet ready to catch the genial nourish- 

 ment ever ready to drop fatness into them from 

 the surrounding atmosphere. His educated mind 

 shall not prompt him to fling the old bono under 

 the wall as before, but he will hear the famishing 

 plant cry for some element essential to its growth, 

 and to appease it, he will bury the bone within 

 its reach in the mellow earth, and dream of seeing 

 its numerous roots encircling it in joyful embra- 

 ces ! 



The farmer delves in the dark, he deals in myste- 

 ries, he guesses at results, and hopes his crops will 

 be remunerative, because he "does the best he can." 

 He does not, as does the merchant, make arith- 

 metical calculations of loss and gain, and rely 

 upon them as approximating the actual results. 

 But why should he not know, as a general thing, 

 what the gain shall be, nearly, upon any given 

 amount of seed sown, or animal or plant reared? 

 Why merely for want of accurate knowledge of 

 the things wherewith he labors. He has little 

 system, and has studied and thought but Itttle, 

 not because he had no desire, but because the op- 

 portunity for investigation had not been placed 

 before him. If we thought it would not startle 

 the reader we should say that there ought not to 

 be much uncertainty as to the result of crops, 

 even in our changeable climate. If we could know 

 what kind of soil is best adapted to the growth of 

 wheat, what depths its roots would like to run, 

 when it ought to be sowed and when harvested, 

 does any one doubt that we should get a good 

 crop nine times out of ten ■? And so of all other 

 grains and grasses, and every other department of 

 the farm — the cattle, sheep, swine, horses, poul- 

 try, butter, cheese and roots. 



Do any believe that thisknowledge,so essential, 

 cannot be obtained? That the Creator has in- 

 volved the primitive employment of man — that 

 upon which he must depend for subsistence, and 

 which underlies and sustains all others — in 

 a labyrinth of difficulties and uncertainties so 

 complicated as to defy the powers of that mind 

 which He, too, gave ! No, no, it cannot be so. We 

 only lack the proper instrumentalities. Let these 

 be set at work, and light will soon shine upon the 

 darkness that surrounds us. But we will not 

 keep the reader longer from the letter. 



College Hill, Ohio, Aug. 3, 1854. 



To THE Editor : — It is contemplated to hold a 

 Mass Convention at this place, the site of Farmers' 

 College, and adjacent to Cincinnati, on 13th, 14th 

 and 15th of Sept. next. Measures have been tak- 

 en to secure attendance from all the "West," and 

 we are encouraged in the belief that, responsive to 

 our invitations, delegates from every section of 

 the Union will be present. 



It is proposed to continue the session of the 



