134 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



June j' 



;2lnstU£r3 to Inqukica. 



Messrs. Euitors ;— I am a reader of your paper, and find 

 many things in it to commend, and it would be strange if 

 tliere was notliing to condemn. I wish to see something on 

 the opposite side or against the State's founding an insiitu- 

 tion to make scientific farmers. iN'ow, if tliis could he accom- 

 plished so as every tax paying farmer could share equally, 

 it would be admirable ; but we have many institutions with 

 endowments by the State, which only benefits that class 

 which are well able to bear the expense without calling in 

 the aid of poor tax payers. In my opinion, it would be like 

 some advertisements we now and then read ; Mr. A. has 

 some fine bull calves to dispose of, worth from $100 to $3U0 ; 

 Mr. B. has bucks, say $.'iO, &c.; while his less noted neigh- 

 bor has equally as good stock, but no one to puff him ; there- 

 fore he must lake up with one quarter of the above price. 

 And again, the poor farmer would have (as now) to take up 

 with the worst land, such as light sand or hard clay, which 

 would cost the most to put in a state to produce ; so I come 

 to the conclusion not to tax him for the benefit of those that 

 can do without it. I make the above observations merely 

 to draw out your views on tlie subject. 



One or two more questions, and 1 close. You write for 

 the information of farmers : how many of your readers 

 understand the phrases you use in analysing soils ? Farmers 

 have been so lioaxed with Latin terms by Lawyers and 

 Doctors, that they think there is something behind the cur- 

 tain. What will our grandchildren think when looking into 

 a volume of the Genesee Farmer they see an advertisement 

 with bolus and bottles. W. T.—Alexmiiler, March, 185U. 



We thank our correspondent for speaking his mind 

 freely in the above note. He " wishes to see some- 

 thing said against the State's founding an institution 

 to make scientific fanners." This seems to be hardly 

 necessary ; for nearly thirty years have elapsed since 

 serious efforts were first made to e.stablish agricul- 

 tural schools in this State, and down to this hour no 

 legislature lias ever been convened in the capitol, 

 that was willing to give the first dollar to aid in so 

 great and important an undertaking. Why labor to 

 kill a thing which never had vitality ? The oppo- 

 nents of agricultural schools have it all their own 

 way, and ought to be satisfed. 



" W. T." seems to think that persons having choice 

 domestic animals for sale should not advertise the 

 public of the fact, although this information does no 

 more than' intimate to such as desire to purchase 

 " fine bull calves,'' where they can be found. Not 

 only must there be no schools for the improvement 

 of young farmers, but there should be no advertising 

 of anything w liich an agriculturist has to sell. 



Our correspondent asks : " How many of your 

 [our] readers understand the phrases used in analys- 

 ing soils V We answer, several thousands : and 

 what is most encouraging, the number is daily in- 

 creasing. The wild Indian who ran count ten, and 

 understands the value of each number from one up to 

 the first decimal, finds eleven, twelve, and thirteen, 

 just as incomprehensible terms as " W. T." doe.s 

 o.xygen, hydrogen, and carbon. There is not a par- 

 ticle of diflitreuco. Thirteen is a worse word for a 

 child to learn and fully comprehend, than the ntime 

 of any visible or ponderable substance treated of in 

 agricultural clicinistry. If a farmer knov\-s little or 

 nothing of chlorine, which forms 60 lbs. in 100 of 

 dry common suit, it is a good reason why his chil- 

 dren should be belter informed of the nature and 

 properties of salt, than their father. As every new 

 child born in a family must have a name different 

 from all other sons and daughters, to distinguish it, 

 80 every new subslance di.scovered in the progress 

 of the arts and sciences, must have some name to 

 designate and identify it. What better word will 



e.xpress our idea of sulphur, than sulphur ; or of 

 nitrogen, than an important element in nitre or salt- 

 petre ? There are less than twenty simples which 

 form every plant and every animal on the globe ; 

 and are twenty names too many for an intelligent 

 man or .woman to learn 1 



Instead of making the P'armer too scientific, and 

 too learned in the study of soils, we have erred, if at 

 all, in the other direction. We should have labored 

 more to convey to every reader a clearer idea of the 

 matter in the soil which forms wheat, corn, oats, 

 potatoes, and grass. It is Ihings, not theories, that 

 all cultivators should carefully investigate, and learn 

 the true import of those natural laws which an all- 

 wise Creator has appointed for the government of 

 animate and inanimate matter. Those that have 

 studied longest and closest, discover something of the 

 height and depth of their ignorance, and of the ines- 

 timable value of well developed reason in practical 

 agriculture. Not to discover that there is great room 

 for improvement, indicates a very limited view of the 

 possibilities in tillage, husbandry, and the education 

 of millions of children, who are so soon to fill our 

 places as the sovereign rulers of the State and 

 Republic. 



Messrs. Editors : — I wish that you or some of your cor- 

 respondents would give us the analysis of the soil and sub- 

 soil that has grown a pear tree to the age of forty or fifty 

 years, and done it in good, handsome style, with an abund- 

 ance of fnut and of magnificent grow ih. I have seen such 

 irees in this country, and I am sure that if I could remove 

 the earth where it grew, sub-soil ami all, into my garden, it 

 would there produce another tree as healthy and fruitful as 

 11 did in the other localion. 



Is it not reasonable to conclude that the pear tree, like all 

 other trees, grains, and vegetables, has some peculiar food 

 in the soil, that it cannot live without. When we redect 

 that it grows in Sweden, France, Spain, England, Ireland, 

 and in the State of Georgia, and in almost all the St;ites. we 

 must conclude that it is not badly aft'ected by heat or cold. 

 From my own observations and the observations of travelers, 

 I am confident that when we find out what peculiirity of 

 soil it wants, and how to prepare that soil, we are doing 

 more for the tree than we are to talk of frozen sap, high 

 training, low training, digging, no digging, and all such spec- 

 ulations put together. 



.\s the season fur transplanting has almost arrived, I wish 

 that you or some of your correspondents would furnish a 

 careful description of the soil, sub-soil, and every other cir- 

 cumstance in the soil, that has for the last forty or fifty years 

 supported a healthy, fruitful, fine growing pear tree, as above 

 desired. And if it does not cost over ten dollars to a iree. I 

 will prepare the ground for a few of the finest varieties this 

 spring. G. Wiborn.— ViWor, N. Y., March, 185U. 



The earthy substances drawn from the surface and 

 sub-soil, by a growing pear tree, are pretty well 

 known. They are such elements as the wood, leaves, 

 and fruit of the tree, yield on a critical analysis ; and 

 such as a peck of good unleached ashes and slaked 

 lime, in ecpial amount, will supply to the soil. If it 

 i.s poor in mold, some well rotted manure, chip dung, 

 or swamp muck, should be mi.ved with the lime and 

 ashes. The soil in which apple, pear, and peach 

 trees are to grow, should not bo made very rich with 

 stable manure, as it tends to proiluce an e.\ccss of 

 wood, and much of that not perfectly matured. — 

 Pounded bones are valuable to put into the earth 

 alioul the roots of pear trees. The best fruit tree 

 soils in the world abound in bone earth, or phosphate 

 of lime ; but all hard wood ashes also contain this 

 important fiTtili/.er. Mix ashes and lime thoroughly 

 w itii the soil around the tree, and beyond the extreme 

 ends of its roots. 



