66 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Mar. 



as settled. Il is an open question, however, in 

 what way all needful information in mattert. of 

 •science and learning shall be conveyed home to 

 the understanding of the whole community. — 



There are over three millions of farmers who j heretofore been entirely overlooked by writers 

 reatly need that knowledge of the laws of nature I on political economy, and which, from their self- 



Theory of Population. 



A RECENT English writer on this subject has 

 brought forward facts and reasonings that have 



which agricultural journals and hooks are capa 

 ble of imparting. But hitherto no effective 

 means have been used to accomplish the object, 

 At this time the Smithsonian Institution has ovei 

 •'§700,000 invested, the principal of whicli was 

 given "to diffuse useful knowledge among men.'' 

 If a portion of its large income should be expen- 

 ded in published cheap tracts on rural topics, to 

 be gratuitously circulated over the whole Union, 

 and especially where few or no agricultural pa- 

 pers are read, great good might unquestionably 

 be done. Considering how plenty paper, ink, 

 presses, and type-sette'rs are, surely all that can 

 read should not lack for any useful information 

 which the art of Printing can furnish. Let its 

 light shine in every log house in the land. 



There are millions in the United States who 

 have yet to acquire the habit of reading any thing 

 more than the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, or 

 something of the kind. There are more still, 

 who read — to no u.'^^eful purpose, except to amuse 

 themselves in an idle hour. The study of Agri- 

 culture and Horticulture in Common Schools, by 

 the most advanced pupils, would do much to cre- 

 ate a general taste for rural pursuits and improve- 

 ments. 



" As the twig is bent the tree 's inclined." — 

 All Common School Libraries should possess a 

 fair proportion of books on rural affairs, and ag- 

 ricultural science. The friends of the cause 

 .should look to this matter. Nor should they 

 forget to procure subscribers for agricultural 

 journals. Without the earnest co-operation of 

 its readers, there is not a periodical of the kind 

 in tjie country which could stand two years. — 

 Men are apt to think that " the little which I can 

 do is of no sort of con.sequence" — forgetting that 

 she great Mississippi is made up of little rills all 

 running together. The true course is for each 

 person to do all that he conveniently can to im- 

 prove agriculture and elevate the profession, 

 throughout the length and breadth of the Repub- 

 lic. We must all work harmoniously together. 



The spirit of improvement is beginning to 

 move in earnest at the South. Our friends at 

 the North must be up and doing, or their breth- 

 ren in this quarter of the Union will overtake 

 and pass them in the noble race ? Who shall 

 fmally win the honor of being the best farmers 

 in tbii'ty States? We brag on those of our much 

 loved Western New York. May the tillers of 

 her fertile soil never be forgetful of their duties, 

 r.heir nsany advantages, and ever distance all 

 competitors in the culture both of Mind and of 

 .^latter. 



Augusta, Ga., Feb., 1848. 



evident truthfulness, will forcibly strike every 

 thinking mind that he has arrived at the solu- 

 tion of those laws that govern the increase and 

 diminution of the human race. He assumes that 

 if any species, animal or vegetable, receives an 

 immoderate supply of nutriment, or becomes 

 plethoric, it does not produce itself but sparingly 

 if at all — that if very moderate aliment be ad- 

 ministered, they become prolific and re-produce 

 themselves. 



It is a familiar and well known fact, that over 

 stimulation, by an excess of manure, causes most 

 of the grains to fail in producing seed, and to cause 

 the single flowering plants to become double, by 

 a transformation of stamens into petals, in which 

 case they are always seedless. It is exceeding- 

 ly rare that you can find poor, healthy, and la- 

 borious parents without an excess of offspring; 

 indeed, "children, the poor man's blessing," has 

 become an adage. Look into the by-ways and 

 alleys of towns and cities, and into the mansions 

 of the wealthy and high livers, and the indica- 

 cations of this theory are palpable. 



On this assumption the decrease of the Peer- 

 age and Baronetage of England, is at once ac- 

 counted for. How often it occurs that the large 

 estates of the oldest familes become extinct in 

 the direct line, and some discarded offshoot, per- 

 haps once a poor emigrant to this country, suc- 

 ceeds to the honors and hoarded millions of an 

 ancient and time-honored name. 



The Quaker families in England are found to 

 be diminishing in numbers. They are almost 

 exclusively, from their peculiar tenets, that en- 

 force prudence, industry, and economy, either 

 wealth}- or above want — and consequently never 

 find it necessary to buflet the storms of poverty 

 and adversity, and from the necessity of inter- 

 marriage among themselves, increase the influ- 

 ence of non-productiveness. 



Look at poor, famished, starving Ireland, evi- 

 dently the most prolific country on the globe ; 

 their immense emmigration, disease, and starva- 

 tion, does not keep pace with the births. The 

 same reasoning applies to the blacks at the south ; 

 the whole navy of the United States could not 

 remove and colonize them as fast as they in- 

 crease. China is overstocked with population, 

 merely from the want of food, or from their ina- 

 bility to procure a rich and generous diet, or 

 even plenty of any kind. 



The whole animal creation is subject to the 

 same laws. Every farmer knows that a pamper- 

 ed, liigh fed and fat animal, which requires no 

 exercise to procure its daily food, is not in a fit 

 state to produce its kind ; in fact, it is barren. 



