108 



GENESEE FARMER. 



May. 



J-enths of the farmers that have borrowed money 

 in any considerable sums and mortgaged their 

 (arms, have either lost them outright, or been 

 compelled to isell the cream of all that their la- 

 bor produced, and live on skim milk for years 

 before they could get out of debt. In no other 

 business is capital more useful than in agricul- 

 ture. But the money should belong to the man 

 that uses it — not to another, and drawing annual 

 or compound interest, at 7 per cent. Disbelieve 

 it who will, no human being can long endure this 

 drain on his productive energies, without some 

 aid from the unrewarded labor of others. In- 

 stead of wishing to allure millions of borrowed 

 money into rural operations from the John Ja- 

 cob Astors of large cities, secured by mortgages 

 on farms at half their value, we feel in duty 

 bound to caution our readers against the conse- 

 quences of this popular error. 



The whole real and personal property of this 

 great commonwealth is not far from one thou- 

 sand millions of dollars. Of this Mr. Astor 

 owns at least twenty millions ; or \he fiftieth part. 

 The most careful investigation shows the start- 

 ling fact that, 1000 men own more than one 

 half of all l!>e wealth, both real and personal, in 

 the State, wliilc the balance is concentrating in- 

 to {e\\ and fewer hands with fearful rapidity. — 

 Suppose that the cultivators of New York soil 

 wore foolish enough to borrow $100,000,000, 

 and mortgago all the unincumbered farms in the 

 State ; and the lenders of the money should re- 

 loan their annual interest on farming lands. In 

 10^ years the debt would be §200,000,000 ; in 

 •21 years it would be $400,000,000; in aii 

 years, $800,000,000! Can human beings in- 

 crease eight fold in 31 J years to work and earn 

 this money ? (!)an they possibly meet this rap- 

 idly accumulating tax on human muscle <ind intel- 

 lect? Examine this subject carefullv, and see 

 from what source the gain of $700,000,000 is to 

 be drawn. 



Suppose Mr. Astor should give a grandson 

 born in 1847, ten millions of dollars on condi- 

 tion that the principal and annual interest should 

 be loaned out on farms for 42 years. What 

 would be the value of this grandson's estate when 

 42 years of age 1 Not far from one hundred 

 and sixty millions of dollars ! How many farms 

 and farmers will Mr. Astor's estate, if skillfully 

 and legally managed, swallowed up in 50 years? 

 " Allure capital into agriculture by the mortgage 

 of farms ?" It is the madnes?-: of infatuation. — 

 How can the Ploughman rejoico at the "multi- 

 tude of mortgages on farms" ? Can a policy 

 which every wliere operates to make the f&w 

 exceedingly rich, and the ??ianf/ exceedingly poor, 

 be the best system for the prosperity and iiap[)i- 

 ncss of the whole? 



The Ploughman says : '' Some must ever be 

 in debt, otherwi.'e none could have money at in- 

 terest — none could live on an income." 



If one-tenth of the community may justly live 

 without work — eating their daily bread in the 

 sweat of other men's faces, not their own — may 

 not the other nine-tenths do likewise? Tell us 

 frankly, is the Creator of man a respecter of 

 persons ? If a rich man may rightfully compel 

 ten poor ones to feed and clothe him in idleness 

 — living on "income"' — may not ten poor men 

 as rightfully compel the man of wealth to support 

 them too without labor ? 



The Mark Lane Express says that the Irish 

 peasantry are forced to give five-sixths of all that 

 their labor and the eartli produce to landlords for 

 rent. Discouraged, brutalized, and famished by 

 this extortion, the money lenders, who thought 

 they had what the Ploughman regards " as the 

 best of security by mortgages on lands," now 

 find four millions of paupers hopelessly saddled 

 upon them, as an enduring tax on their encum- 

 bered estates. Well does the London Times re- 

 mark "there is no escape from the retributive 

 justice of Heaven." The four millions of pau- 

 pers in Ireland have as good a right to live in 

 idleness till they consume five-sixths of all the 

 property of the nation, as any Irish landlord has 

 to consume five-sixths of all that any poor fomily 

 may produce. If you yield to cppital the legal 

 right to give labor 90 cents and take a dollar back, 

 can you refuse labor the equal right to give cap- 

 itol 99 cents, and then legally demand a dollar 

 in payment ? 



Think of these things before you run into debt. 

 Create wealth by skilful industry, and keep it by 

 good economy. Be no man's servant, no man's 

 master. 



Potato Disease. 



Prof. Frksenius, now of Wisiaden, and long 

 distinguished at the Giessen University, (Ger- 

 many,) states in the "Nassau Agricultural Maga- 

 zine," that he succeeded in producing an acre of 

 sound potatoes last season by the use of mineral 

 manure, while those in the same field and neigh- 

 borhood, treated in the usual way with stable ma- 

 nure, all rotted. Fresenius found, (what we 

 first jjublished in this country some two years 

 ago, in our Report as public lecturer for the State 

 Agricultural Society,) that, ordinary stable ma- 

 nure lacks some of the essential mineral elements 

 which enter into the composition of healthy po- 

 tato plants. To remedy this, he says : " 1 would 

 therefore strongly recommend the following meth- 

 od for manuring potatoes to the, agiiculturisfs in 

 all parts of the world. Every acre [about two- 

 thirds of our acre] requires 100 lbs. of the fol- 

 lowing manure : Mix intimately 20 lbs. of wood 

 ashes, 1.5 lbs. calcined (burnt) bones well pow- 

 dered, 10 lbs. of gypsum, 15 lbs. of soda, and 40 

 lbs. air slaked lime." This manure may be pre- 

 pared by any one at a very trifling expense. It 

 should be applied as follows : 100 lbs. contain 

 3,200 half ounces, which is about the number of 



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