244 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



would contend that there is no room to hope for material advancement in Agri- 

 culture. Let us look at these averages, and compare that of even the highest 

 in any county in the State — Monroe, 195 bushels of wheat — with what it has 

 been proved can be made ; and so of other crops. The average of the whole 

 State, it will be seen, is under 14 of wheat, 26 of oats, and 25 of Indian corn. — 

 Now it has been seen, in the last number of The Farmers' Library, in a letter 

 to the Editor from the efficient Secretary of the State Society, that Charles W. 

 Eels, of Oneida County, " without any extraordinary application of manure," 

 made 123| bushels of corn to the acre ; that Daniel Short, of Ontario, made 60 

 bushels of wheat to the acre, by weight ; and that W. C. Burrett made of oats 

 102 bushels to the acre, by weight. In England, the average produce of wheat 

 is 25 to the acre, instead of 17 in 1821, and less than 10 a century ago. And 

 how, reader, do you suppose it has been accomplished ? According to the most 

 distinguished men in the kingdom — tenant farmers as well as landlords — it has 

 been brouo^ht about by a more thorough knowledge of the principles on which 

 success in Agriculture, as in every other art in the world, depends I But do you 

 expect Congress to do anything for diffusing light upon the poor, humble business 

 which is made to prosper by a better knowledge of the component parts of the 

 soil, and of manures, and of plants— of geology, of physiology and entomology, 

 or any other art except gun and pistol and sword-ology ? Not they ! Our be- 

 neficent Government, established by " we the people" for the people's good, has 

 no power of action for the benefit of the hread-making art, or the art of making 

 suo-ar, or rice, or cotton. True, the Government has exercised the power to 

 analyze cotton— nol in its agricultural or any other relations, but to see whether 

 it might not take the place of that " villainous compound," gunpowder ! True, 

 they do exercise the power of establishing a bureau or university for the dissem- 

 ination of agricultural knowledge — but only in a sneaking, left-handed way. In 

 certain pigeon-holes of a subordinate Bureau of the State Department, labeled 

 Hoo-s— Sheep— Dairy— PotatoRot— Bees— Indigo— Broccoli— Bene Plant— Hemp 

 —Hay— Onions, &c. &c., scraps are collected, and letters filed, which once a 

 year are made up into books, to be given away by Members of Congress to fa- 

 vored constituents ; and this it is which takes the place of Washington's "Agri- 

 cultural Department," and passes at home, and unfortunately abroad, for our na- 

 tional patronage of the great art and busmess of American Agriculture — our na- 

 tional exposition of the condition and resources of the landed interest of this great 

 and growing country— such a Report as Lyford, of Baltimore, would cut out and 

 more lucidly make up in a month, from the exchange papers of any daily paper. 

 Why not, as they do swallow the principle, take hold of the subject at once, in 

 a manner worthy of its dignity, and its transcendent importance— paramount as 

 it is, and as it deserves to stand before all others ? Why not, while they are ex- 

 pending the public money for disseminating knowledge, (for if it be not for that, 

 for what is it 1) at once establish an institution like that at West Point, for rearing 

 up instructors, who shall, go forth, throughout the State, to spread far and wide a 

 knowledge of chemistry, geology, botany, physiology, and mechanical philoso- 

 phy, as connected with that art which forms the business of four-fifths of the 

 people, and which feeds all classes? 



1. Slatistics of Wheat, Rye and Oats. 



No. of acres of oats sown 1,026,915 



No. of bushels of oats harvested 26,323,051 



Average No. of bushels per acre ^ 26 



Acres of improved land in the State.. 11,737.276 



No. of acres of n-heat sown 1,013,665 



No. of acres of wheat harvested 998,233 



auantity of wheat raised bushels 13,391,770 



Average No. of bushels per acre 14 



No. of acres of rye sown 317,099 



No. of bushels of rye harvested 2,966,322 



(532) Average No. of bushels of rye per acre. 



