1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



435 



Convention for three days, as above indicated, in 

 order to aftord opportunity for the discussion of 

 various matters connected with the great topics 

 then to be considered, and on the tliird day to 

 have a mass attendance, and popular addresses 

 delivered by men whose abilities are known, and 

 whoso influence and efforts have been directed to 

 the furtherance of this important educational 

 movement. We accordingly address you, solicit- 

 ing your attendance with us on that occasion. 

 The trustees of Farmers' College, being now 

 about to conclude the contract for the purchase 

 of a Model Farm, adjacent to the institution, to 

 be employed by the Agricultural department, as 

 the experimental laboratory, fur the teaching of 

 Agricultural science, in its theory and practice, 

 it is proposed on the occasion of this Convention 

 to dedicate this Farm, with appropriate ceremo- 

 nies, to the uses of industrial education, in all the 

 diversified departments uf agriculture. We think 

 the occasion will be one of peculiar interest to the 

 scholar — it is already attracting no small measure 

 of public attention, and is eliciting univeral pub- 

 lic approval. 



Permit us then, tliough strangers personally, 

 yet not strangers to your reputation, to urge our 

 request inviting your attendance. 



Should it be found impracticable for you to fa- 

 vor us with your presence, permit us to ask at 

 your hand, such loritten expressions of your views 

 in reply to tliis, as your leisure may admit, and 

 allow us the pul)lic use thereof, on the occasion 

 referred to. To the end that you may be more 

 thoroughly apprised of the aim and scope of our 

 educational enterprise, and informed of our pres- 

 ent condition and future prospects, we have taken 

 the liberty of mailing to your address, a circular, 

 our last annual catalogue, and the Inaugural 

 Address of Prof. Allen, delivered at our last 

 Commencement. 



Hoping to hear from you favorably at your 

 earliest convenience, I subscribe myself, in behalf 

 of the Board. Most respectfully, »fcc. 



F. G. Cary. 



Having thus briefly, and very imperfectly ex- 

 pressed our convictions of the want of means 

 whereby the farmer may obtain a higher order of 

 education than is now common among us, we will 

 suggest a few of the subjects which are still 

 clothed in almost impenetrable darkness. 



It will not be necessary here, however, for us 

 to refer, minutely, to the long agitated questions 

 about the time and depth of plowing — the best 

 forms of plows — the time of sowing and harvesting 

 grain, grasses, flax, and other crops — the best 

 modes of increasing and applying manures — the 

 true process of raising the largest amount at the 

 least cost, of our great staple, Indian Corn ; — nor 

 to the numerous questions springing from the em- 

 ployment of concentrated fertilizers which still re- 

 main untried by the mass of our people, or ques- 

 tions relating to the various breeds of neat cattle, 

 horses, sheep, swine and poultry. These are so 

 prominently before the pul)lic mind, and are so 

 essential to the commonest success, that they will 

 not be overlooked by any system of investigation 

 at all worthy of the name. 



In passing to another class of subjects, wo find 

 that little or no knowledge is possessed upon them. 

 How few of those who have reared a horse or cow, 

 know anything of the physiology of either animal ! 

 In cases of sickness or accident, or in supplying 

 their daily amount of food, that science affords 

 them no more instruction than though it did not 

 exist, so far as their own investigations ha-se gone. 

 To them, also, the various soils are all common 

 dirt, — even their names, and the names of the 

 rocks which compose them, are among the hidden 

 things which are altogether past their finding out. 

 Meadows, and springy hills, are wrought upon by 

 one generation after another, in order to avoid 

 an excess of cold water and bring them to fertility, 

 but without advancing one step towards the object 

 desired, and what is worse, ever perpetuating the 

 bad example upon which they practice. The art 

 of draining to them, is as a "lost art," or as use- 

 ful as a problem in the Timbuctoo tongue. 



The same looseness and error which prevail in 

 regard to sowing seeds, if practiced by the mer- 

 chant in his affairs, would soon bring him to bank- 

 ruptcy and ruin. Beside the uncertainty as to 

 time and place of sowing, we do not give that pre- 

 cise quantity of seed and the position best calcu- 

 lated to produce the largest return. Thus enor- 

 mous quantities of seed, altogether, we believe, 

 beyond the common supposition, are annually 

 wasted in overseeding. On this point a real prac- 

 tical cultivator in England, Mr. Close, gives his 

 experience in the papers of the Bath Society. He 

 asserts that he saved full one thousand dollars each 

 year in seed, by drilling his grain upon 500 acres 

 of land and then horse-hoeing it, instead of sowing 

 it broadcast, as is our practice. After close and 

 long observation of both modes of sowing, and 

 great practical experience himself, it is his opinion 

 'that 8,000.000 bushels of wheat, 3,0»0,000 bush- 

 els of barley, 1,000,000 bushels of rye, 4,000,000 

 bushels of oats and 1,000,000 of peas and beans 

 are annually thrown away in England, in super- 

 fluous seed. Then it is ascertained that seed 

 drilled in and cultivated, produces about a fifth 

 more than when sown broadcast. This is a Iso aloss, 

 and is a far greater one than that sustained in the 

 seed itself. 



There is, also, a best way of planting, rearing 

 and shaping fruit trees, and of collecting and 

 packing the fruit : — yet the practice is almost as 

 diversified as the cultivators themselves. The con- 

 sequences of this is, constant change and uncer- 

 tainty on the whole matter, and of course, great 

 loss. But the cases already presented -are sufE- 

 cieiat for our present purpose. 



On all these the profession needs the results of 

 the most thorough and enlightened experiments 

 with steady and patient investigation. On the 

 sowing of seeds, for instance, it requires a field 

 of several acres, where the various grains shall be 



