1850. 



THE GENESEE PARMER. 



281 



IMPROVEMENT OF FARMERS AND FARMING. 



Messrs. Editors -. — Having by observation and read- 

 ing, (the Genesee Farmer most particularly,) noticed 

 the inany improvements which are constantly being 

 made in farms, farming, and the tools we do it with, 

 it seems to me that a man comes short of his duty, 

 if, by experience, or any other means, he has learned 

 anything by which he can benefit his neighbors, if 

 he withhold that information from them. When we 

 consider how much the we' fare and prosperity of our 

 country depends upon the fa rming class of community, 

 and the little attention that is generally paid to tliis 

 branch of business — when we consider that the pro- 

 duce of one acre of land may support a small family, 

 and how many families are falling in the rear with 

 the use of fifty, or even five hundred acres, by poor 

 management and bad calculation — it is time that we 

 had sometliing to wake us up to a sense of our inter- 

 est. And if we are annually squandering the use 

 of three or four hundred acres by our ignorance of 

 our business, let us either quit our business and try 

 something else, or begin farming as we would any 

 other trade — by first learning it. 



In my opinion there is not one farm out of fifty, 

 taking our country through, that is managed with 

 that degree of skill and economy that is manifested 

 in all other avocations in which we see our country- 

 men engaged. Now why this disregard for this 

 one branch of bnsiuess — this branch which furnishes 

 the very necessary articles of food and clothing for 

 the one thousand millions t It seems to arise from 

 the idea generally afloat, that any one is capable of 

 farming. Any one who can hold a plow, drive a 

 team, or lay up fence, is considered duly qualified to 

 manage a farm. Hence, how frequently we see 

 young men at the age of twenty or twenty-five years 

 commence this business, who never spent one year 

 in actual service on a farm in their lives ; conse- 

 quently they know but little of the nature of the soils 

 they are about to cultivate, whether they are best 

 adapted to the giowth of wheat or grass, whether 

 they have been completely exhausted by continual 

 cropping without the needful manure. He knows 

 nothing of the requisite qualities of a good team, good 

 cows, sheep, fcc — nothing of the kind of tools he 

 wants, nor of the timber of which they should be 

 composed, neither does he know the value of these 

 articles. 



Set a blacksmith at building a shop, or a doctor at 

 making boots, or a lawyer at telling the truth, and 

 you will see just about as much perfection in their 

 business, as is exhibited in the face of our country 

 by two-thirds of that c!assH)f people called farmers. 

 Farming is a business that requires more judgment, 

 more skill, and more experience, than almost any 

 other, by reason of its being so varied. Each suc- 

 cessive day brings with it a change of business. A 

 new leaf is turned over in the farmer's book every 

 morning. Many are the ways and means of per- 

 forming each part of this business, and after all 

 there is but one right way. Now where is the man 

 that has the right way of doing each and every part 

 that the year rolls before him 1 Nor is this all ; 

 the farmer is required to have at least five years of 

 futurity in his mi^d's eye, in order that each succes- 

 sion of crops may replenish his pocket, and at the 

 same time, work an improvement in his farm, for if 

 he allows his farm to run down, he himself is down. 

 Now number the men who have attained perfection 



in each and every part of this business, and yon 

 hav3 numbered the farmers. All the rest need 

 instruction. 



Now, then, would it b^ rovisable for all those who 

 are not adepts at this :o try something else, even if 

 it would be more rj'rhtable for the present ? I think 

 not ; for our places would not be supplied with others 

 who would do as well as we are doing : but I think 

 this would be the best plan — to do as well as wo can, 

 and learn to do better by attending the fairs and im- 

 proving by the lessons we are constantly receiving 

 of those who have the advairtage of us in age or 

 opportunities, and are generous enough to impart their 

 knowledge to their fellow creatures, through the press, 

 thereby rendering themselves useful citizens, and in- 

 teresting others in that which is for the good of all. 

 John Watson.— jEasi Java^ JV. Y^ 1840, 



A SMALL BRACKETED COTTAGE, 



In the last number we gave a plan of a very chenp 

 cottage (from Downisg's new work on Country 

 Houses,) which could be built hsre for about $300. 

 We now present our readers with another, and a very 

 pretty design, from the same source, the cost of which 

 will be from four to Jive hundred dollars, according 

 to the cost of material where it is built. We shall 

 continue to give plans for cottages and farm-houses, 

 many of which will be of more value to any pei'son 

 designing to build, than ten years' subscription of the 

 Farmer : 



This little cottage, with about the same Tmmber of 

 square feet as the one given in our last number, 

 is mose picturesque, from its irregular form. It 

 would, on this account, be selected by all those who 

 prefer irregular to regular symmetry. 



There isalsoa good deal more feeling shov.-n inthis 

 cottage than in the last. The features which ex- 

 press this are the bay window, the rustic trellises 

 covered with vines, and the bracketed vine-canopy 

 over the end window in the principal apartment. 



Now, every cottage may not display science or 

 knowledge, because science demancls architectural 

 education in its builder or designer, as well as. in 

 many cases, some additional expense. But feeling 

 may be evinced by every one pot^->>'-j=i nff it, and 

 there is no more striking or successful '.vuv of man- 

 ifesting it in a cottage, than by the employment 

 of permanent vines to embellish it. Something 

 of a love for the beautiful, in the inmates, is al- 

 ways suggested by a vine-covered cottage, because 

 mere utility would never lead any person to ])lant 

 flowering vines ; and much of positive beauty is al- 

 ways conferred upon simple cottage forms, by the 

 graceful growth of vines, thi'ough the rural and do- 

 mestic expression they give to the cottage. We say 

 domestic expression, because, as vines are never 

 planted by architects, masons, carpenters, or those 

 who build the cottage, but always by those who live 

 in it, and make it truly a home, and generally by the 

 mother or daughter, whose very planting of vines is 

 a labor of love offered up on the domestic altar, it fol- 

 lows, by the most direct and natural associations, that 

 vines on a rural cottage always express domesticity 

 and the presence of heart. 



The little rustic arbors or covered scats on the out- 

 side of the bay window, may be supposed to answer 

 in some measure in the pla«e of a veranda, and con- 

 vey at the first glance, an impression of refinement 



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