50 



GENESEE FARMER. 



June. 



Wants of Western Farmers. 



Messrs. Editors: — Inclosed you will find 

 one dollar, wliich please credit to my account. 

 And I would say how much I am obliged to you 

 for sending me the " Farmer," being a stranger 

 and living a '-long way" from you. But we 

 will not remain so long, for steam and ligkhiing 

 are bringing us nearer to each other, while the 

 " Farmer" makes us better acquainted. I have 

 been waiting some time for several of my neigh- 

 bors who talked of sending for the current vol- 

 ume, but have not as yet handed me the " need- 

 ful." I think the prospect fair, however, of 

 sending you a number of subscribers from this 

 section before many weeks. Most of those who 

 know the value of an agricultural paper take the 

 " Prairie Farmer," which is probably worth 

 more to the western farmer, or farmers on the 

 prairie, than any eastern paper ; yet there are 

 many who were formerly acquainted with the 

 " Genesee Farmer," who mean to order it as 

 soon as their finances will permit. 1 took it my- 

 self for several years, and have several volumes 

 neatly bound in my library, together with the 

 "Cultivator." I also became a subscriber to 

 the " Prairie Farmer" while yet living in Kin- 

 derhook, and am convinced that all who at the 

 east wish to acquire a knowledge of farming and 

 other matters connected with the west, would 

 find it much to their advantage to go and do like- 

 wise. And now, I would prefer wearing my 

 old coat until the elbows " stuck out a feet," if it 

 were to secure to me the only means of paying 

 for my agricultural papers ; for I consider the 

 money laid out for them more profitable than 

 any other investment I could make. 



I have ever thought since I began the world 

 "on my own hook," that the farmer ought, and 

 in most cases might, be a man of general intelli- 

 gence would he employ the means within his 

 reach ; and for this purpose I commenced, at my 

 first setting out, taking one of each of the best 

 political, agricultural, medical, and religious pa- 

 pers 1 could find ; for every man ought to know 

 enough of politics to know when the country is 

 well governed — and of agriculture to make it 

 pleasant and {)rofitable — enough of medicine to 

 prevent disease, which, in many cases may easily 

 be done, for Dr. Rush says, " A knowledge of 

 preparing our medicine is as easily acquired as 

 that of preparing our food ;" — and certainly a 

 knowledge of the institutions of the Christian 

 religion is much more likely to make us good 

 citizens, than ignorance of the same. And how 

 are we to acquire this knowledge ? 1 answer, 

 by reading, observation and experience, or by 

 theory and practice. These ought and must go 

 together in order to make tlie perfect farmer. — 

 The question is frequently asked, " Why can 

 not a man become just as good a farmer without, 

 as with, an agricultural paper ? To which I 



would answer, in yankee style, by asking anoth- 

 er question, "How will a man acquire a knowl- 

 edge of the world soonest and cheapest, by study 

 or travel, by theory or practice ?" I answer, by 

 study or theory. Then as a general and I be- 

 lieve the most correct knowledge of the woild is 

 soonest and cheapest gained by reading history, 

 I biography, &c., so a general and I lielieve, too, 

 I the most correct knowledge of agriculture may 

 be gained by reading agricultural works. I say 

 I the most correct, because we have the counsel 

 and experience of hundreds to guide us, and a 

 man must be the veriest dotard, and unworthy 



I the name of farmer, who could not profit thereby. 



I I know it is argued with much plausibility, that 

 i agricultural papers are of little or no benefit to 



the farming community ; but you will always 

 I see such persons making use of all the improve- 

 i ments of the age, and it plainly shows them to be 



too penurious to pay for another's labor, and only 

 j wish to grow rich at their neighbor's expense. 



' When I began it was not my intention to say 

 : much on the merits or demerits of agricultural 

 'papers, but merely to state a few of the wants of 

 ! the western farmer, which in all new countries 

 I are many and various. And among them all 1 

 can think ol none of more consequence than la- 

 bor saving machines and stable markets. The 

 ' instability of our markets have heretofore been 

 I one of the greatest drawbacks on the energies of 

 I the farmer ; for he never knows until he gets 

 : there what it will be. We can never engage a 

 ! load of wheat or any other kind of produce, even 

 'one day beforehand ; ai least this is my own ex- 

 ' perience, and the testimony of hundreds who I 

 (have heard speak on the subject. And there 

 1 are many reasons for this state of things. I 

 I would not assert that our produce dealers are all 

 ! a set of shavers, for it is well known that the 

 I markets all over the country for some time past 

 I have been very fluctuating, and those inland, I 

 i believe, are always more so than those bordering 

 [ on tide water. The fact is, we have no curren- 

 i cy of our own, not a single bank in the State, 

 I and but few men of capital, and the consequence 

 j is, that those who have it take just such a slice 

 las their consciences will spread over. Those 

 'made of durable "homespun," with a due re- 

 i gard of doing to others as they would wish to be 

 done by, will take from 12 to 18 per cent, only; 

 those made of more elastic material will chalk 

 up to 25 or 50, while there are some who evi- 

 dently possess the genuine India rubber article, 

 and can easily stretch them to 75 and I have 

 heard of their reaching as high as the figures 

 87^, within the past year — and it would actually 

 seem that they grew tougher at every pull. The 

 farmers are generally in debt more or less for 

 their farms, and if they get 75 cents offered them 

 for wheat they take it without any grumbling, 

 well knowing from past experience that the next 

 bid will "advance a notch or two backwards j" 



