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Vol. 9. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — MARCH, 1848. 



No. 3. 



THE GEIVESEE PAR5IER: 



Issued on the first of earh month, at Rochester. N. Y., by 

 D. D. T. MOORE, PROPRIETOR. 



DANIEL LEE & D. D. T. MOORE, Editors. 



p. BARRY, Conductor of Horticultural Department. 



FIFTY CENTS A YEAR: 

 Five copies for $2. and any larger number at the same rate' 

 if directed to individuals. Eight copies for $3, if only directed 

 to one person — and any larger numbei-, addressed in like man- 

 ner, at the same rate. All subscriptions payable in advance, 

 and to commence with the volume. JrJ- Back numbers sup- 

 plied to new subscribers. 



[ Editorial Correspondence of the Genesee Farmer. ] 



American Agriculture. 



We are in the receipt of all the agricultural 

 journals published in the United States; and it 

 gives us great pleasure to mark the ne^v and 

 able correspondents, and the increased editorial 

 ability and spirit which they display. 



We rejoice at this evidence, that the noble 

 work of advancing American Agriculture will 

 command, in the year 1848, the best service of 

 more talent, more science, more learning, and 

 more of invaluable practical research and e.xpe- 

 rience, than it ever did before. From the ener- 

 gy, skill,' and indomitable perseverance of so 

 much American Mind, we anticipate, at no very 

 distant day, vast and auspicious results. Com- 

 pared with the length and breadth of the field 

 now ready for the harvest, the laborers are in- 

 deed few. Better, however, than seed sown in 

 good ground, they will achieve improvements, 

 such as the world has never witnessed. 



We are a peculiar People ; and Providence 

 in its wisdom has given us a peculiar country. 

 Its very vastness, embracing almost every varie- 

 ty of climate, soil, and minerals — its immeasura- 

 ble capacity to feed, clothe, elevate and render 

 happy, civilized man, fill us at once with amaze- 

 ment at the grandeur of our prospective power, 

 and with fear and trembling at the greatness of 

 our present responsibility. To the Farming In- 

 terest of our country, its patriot sons ever look 

 for a stable, conservative influence to sustain its 

 dignity and honor, in the most trying emergen- 

 cies. Confined to the mixed and impulsive pop- 

 ulation of commercial cities and manufacturing 

 towns, the sovereignty of the people would be 

 lost in anarchy and end in despotism. But a 

 free and independent yeomanry, well versed in 

 the theory and practice of a representative gov- 

 ernment, and far outnumbering the whole urban 



population of the nation, will, for many ages to 

 come, control and shape the destiny of North 

 American institutions. Nor will the Agricultural 

 Press be wanting in power, for good or for evil. 



From our boyhood up we have watched the 

 signs of the times. Tliey have been pregnant 

 with mighty events. The period of quickning 

 has arrived, and the day of delivery is not far 

 distant. Agricultural education, imparting thor- 

 ough mental training, and sound scientific attain- 

 ments to the intellects of all that cultivate the 

 earth, are measures ne.\t in order in American 

 history. To this end agricultural reading must 

 be more varied, and rendered more attractive to 

 young and ardent minds. An effort should be 

 made to build up a rural literature of our own. 

 We are emphatically a reading people. Alas, 

 what of good can we say of our most popular 

 reading 1 A vile decoction, made by steeping a 

 single grain of virtue in a thousand grains of 

 vice and folly. This should not be, in a land of 

 moral and intelligent parents. All editors of 

 agricultural works, and their contributors, should 

 aim to interest as well as instruct popular mind. 

 Take the whole United States together, and npt 

 one farmer in thirty reads any agricultural pa- 

 per whatever. Give each but one journal, (and 

 thousands already take several.) and every pub- 

 lisher might increase his list of subscribers thirty 

 fold! There can not be far from four millions 

 of adult males engaged in agricultural pursuits 

 at this time, in the Union. How few of all 

 these see anything, or learn anything of the 

 recorded experience of the thousands in this 

 country and Europe, who write for the Press ! 

 That large class of farmers who never see an 

 agricultural book or paper in their lives, or if 

 they do, never study them, deserve more atten- 

 tion at our hands than they have yet received. 

 While considering their position in this progres- 

 sive age, and the poor advantages of their chil- 

 dren, we often wish to have a fortune that we 

 might appropriate its annual interest to the pub- 

 lication and gratuitous circulation of agricultural 

 tracts, for the perusal of the million. We ex- 

 pend hundreds of thousands to circulate political 

 tracts, and aid in putting down one party, and 

 setting up another. If Congress and each ad-- 

 ministration would give a tithe of the money 

 annually expended for party purposes, to aid in 

 diffusing a knowledge of agricultural sci&nce 

 among our whole rural population, it would add 

 immensely to the wealth and improvement of 

 the country. 



The soundness of the policy of imparting in- 

 struction to the popular mind may be regarded 



