20 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 



What are our N. Y. Farmers Doing? 



Getting rich. If any man doubts it, let him 

 go into a shop and see a farmer open his well 

 stuffed pocket-book. If you are still incredulous, 

 go to the bank with a check ; there you will be 

 told by the teller, that the whole circulation of 

 the bank is in the farmers' pockets ; that the 

 wheat and barley checks have exhausted the till 

 to the last rag; and that you must await the ar- 

 rival of another package by the R. R. Express. 



Go into a village store to buy a buffalo skin, 

 and you will be told now, on this side of winter, 

 that only one or two skins are left from several 

 }>ales ; all, all sold to farmers and their sons. 



I was amused the other day in a neighbors' 

 shop at the sale of a muff to a farmer's daughter. 

 True to her self-denying education, she coveted 

 only a low priced muff; but her father said she 

 should have the finest and best, or none. The 

 girl protested that a sixteen dollar mutF was much 

 too fine for her ; but the lord of the soil was per- 

 emptory, and the poor girl, more frightened than 

 pleased at the dangerous stride she was taking 

 from the simple to the genteel, went off only 

 lialf pleased with her purchase. 



If it is asked, are farmers any more inclined 

 to learn the theory of their art — to study it as a 

 science, that furnishes facts, the knowledge of 

 which both saves labor and makes it more avail- 

 able ? — I reply, that there is daily evidence that 

 the crust of egotism is broken, and that the self- 

 sufficient part of our farmers begin to doubt their 

 own infalability. Many of them are thus early 

 subscribing for agricultural papers with avidity, 

 who but a lew years since looked upon what they 

 called " book farming" as an errant humbug. 



At our Union School in this village there are 

 already more than fifty sons and daughters of 

 farmers, generally boarding scholars. As we 

 daily see the same laughing girls pass along the 

 side walks, we are struck with the progressive 

 physical changes made by schooling and exam- 

 ple ; the rosy cheek of the country girl is soon 

 blended with the caVnation of the town : their 

 rambling gait and noisy tread is now subdued by 

 cliastened discipline and improved taste, into a 

 more graceful carriage. The farmers' boys now 

 enjoy advantages of school learning which their 

 father's knew not of. But the fathers who send 

 their sons and daughters to school have the sens- 

 ibility to see their own early privations, and the 

 generosity to fit their own children to enjoy high- 

 ej" privilages and a more advanced civilization. 



All these signs of the times proclaim the ad- 

 vent of a more honorable and respectable posi- 

 tion in society for the farmer. If I mistake not, 

 the day is coming when he will not leave his 

 i-eligion to iiis priest, his political interests to the 

 lawyer legislator, or refer to his grandfather as 

 his umpire in all his disputes on rural economy. 



Waterloo, N. Y., Dec, 1847. S. W. 



Dr. Underliill's Ttieory.- 



■Drainage, Stc. 



The theory of Dr. Underbill, in the Novem- 

 ber number of the Farmer, that the/oocZ of j)lants 

 in the earth rises by the attraction of the soil in 

 dry weather in the water thus raised from ielow 

 towards the dryer surface, is undoubtedly correct. 

 Though the theory has not before been published, 

 yet it has been taught in more than one place in 

 the country, as founded on facts, though not 

 known before to be adopted by others. We can 

 not account for the growth of vegetables, cultiva- 

 ted and uncultivated, in dry weather, and when 

 the moisture is so far exhausted from the surface, 

 without adopting that theory. This is doubtless 

 one of the economical principles in the adapta- 

 tion of the earth and soil and seasons to the veg- 

 etable kingdom. It is probably for this reason 

 in part that deep plowing proves advantageous, 

 in putting the deeper and harder earth in a situ- 

 ation to send up in this way its nutritious ele- 

 ments to the roots nearer the surface. 



It cannot but be true, however, that a portion 

 of manures, and of any soluble diet of plants, 

 should be carried off by the water that percolates 

 the earth and then is discharged by some outlet. 

 It is abundantly proved by the undei'-draijia^e of 

 moist soils, now so extensively practiced in many 

 parts of Europe. Portions of the drainage wa- 

 ter have been analyzed, and found to contain the 

 chief mineral elements that enter into the com- 

 position of vegetables, and are necessary to their 

 proper constitution. The color of the water that 

 runs off from the surface shows full well that the 

 soluble parts of manure are in part carried off 

 with it. The drainage from a barn-yard often 

 proclaims the same fact in the more abundant 

 crop of vegetables fertilized by it. 



On this theory, too, the deeper covering of 

 manure, effected by deep plowing, is rendered 

 obvious. Profitable results must follow to the 

 farmer. C. D. 



Model Farming in Ireland and Scotland. 



The annexed account of Agricultul Education 

 in Ireland and Scotland I do not recollect to have 

 seen in your valuable journal. At this time, 

 when so much is said on the subject of education 

 for farmers, it seems to me that it may prove in- 

 teresting and useful to the readers of the Farmer. 

 The examples here given show that lads from 12 

 to 15 years of age may receive instruction from 

 practical and scientific men, which will prepare 

 them for usefulness, and eventually result in 

 permanent advantage to the agricultural interest. 

 Improvements of this character would doubtless 

 be in accordance witli the teelings of the farm- 

 ers, and would not "shock them by rash inno- 

 vations," which would result from the employ- 

 ment of mere theorists, who in their studies may 

 talk learnedly and wisely, it may be — but M'ho, 



