1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



35 



and gained 63 lbs. live weight ; the pork weighed, 

 after dressing, 267 lbs. The other ate 308 lbs. of 

 corn, and was found to have gained only 33 lbs. in 

 live weight ; his pork weighed 231 lbs. By sub- 

 tracting the pork weight from the live weight, the 

 amount of oft'al is ascertained, which in this experi- 

 ment proved a fraction less than one-fifth of the live 

 weight. If one-fifth be deducted from the amount 

 each pig gained, we then have the true gain in pork 

 produced, which was 6| lbs. for every 56 lbs. of corn. 

 The pigs were a cross between the Byefieid and 

 Berkshire — the best and most profitable breeds. The 

 corn the yellow dent or Cleveland, a variety held 

 here in great esteem." 



We confess the above statements, the truth of 

 which we have no reason to question, surprize us. 

 The pig fed on dry corn gave only a pound of pork 

 for 11^ lbs. of corn. Had this meat been made in 

 Georgia, where corn is now selling at two cents a 

 pound, or at $1.12 a bushel, it would have cost 23 

 cents a pound ! Allowing the manure to have been 

 one-fourth the price of the corn, (it is estimated at 

 two prices,) and still the pork cost 17 cents a pound. 

 The other pig did a little better on meal. His pork 

 cost 8 lbs. 5 oz. of meal per lb., which is too much 

 by half to have pork-making profitable. Mr. Henrt 

 Ellsworth, former Commissioner of Patents, pro- 

 duced pork at the rate of 100 lbs. of meat to 350 of 

 corn cooked ; but, about five to one is the relation 

 that grain bears to the meat. 



Eight thousand circular letters from the Patent 

 Office have been sent into every county and pari.sh 

 in the Union, besides being published in a number 

 of agricultural journals, containing the following 

 among other questions: " How many pounds of beef 

 will 1 00 lbs. of corn produce ? " Most of the answers 

 come from Ohio and Kentucky, and the quantity 

 stated ranges from 10 to 20 lbs. of beef for 100 of 

 corn ; tllfe average is about 16. If any reader of the 

 Farmer has any facts in regard to feeding sheep or 

 cattle, showing the yield of meat for a known quan- 

 tity of food, we should be happy to receive them for 

 publication. To produce food for man and food for 

 plants in the most economical way, are the points 

 aimed at. 



PROF. JOHNSTON ANET AMERICAN AG-RICULTURE. 



The readers of this journal saw in the last number, 

 what an Englishman, who has made the science and 

 art of agriculture his professional study for many 

 years, says and thinks of the farming operations of 

 this country. Although Professor J. has fallen into 

 errors that will add nothing to his reputation in the 

 United States, or among men any where who have 

 any knowledge of our government, a few of which 

 we signalized by italics ; yet there is too much truth 

 in his account of our bad husbandry and defective 

 tillage to be allogether agrecabhe to our self-esteem, 

 or creditable to a republic of independent cultivators 

 and owners of the soil. In representing "a// the 

 farmers of Maine as bankrupt," and the Legislature 

 of New York as printing a large edition of his lectures 

 and of the Transactions of the State Agricultural 

 Society "for gratuitous distribution throughout the 

 several Slates," he gives the people of England and 

 Scotland a very mistaken idea of both, and expo- 

 ses an inexcusable ignorance of our government and 

 people. The learned professor may yet make profi- 

 table additions to his large stock of knowledge. — 



Were we writing for a publication to circulate in 

 England, we would notice these errors more at length, 

 and thus disabuse the minds of our readers and give 

 them a correct knowledge of our country ; but as the 

 errors are so gross as to be apparent to all Ameri- 

 cans, it will be more profitable for us to notice that 

 portion of Prof. J.'s remarks in which we are more 

 directly interested. It is better for us to profit by 

 the facts, than complain at the blunders of our visitor. 

 When the Prof, says that the wheat-growers of 

 Great Britain have little to fear from American compe- 

 tition, he undoubtedly gives expression to an important 

 truth. Europe is full twenty years ahead of us in 

 agricultural science and schools, and the little king- 

 dom of Denmark sent, according to the official returns, 

 1,320,571 quarters of wheat to England, in 1849 — 

 equal to all that went there in flour and grain from 

 the New World. The cost of sending wheat from 

 Denmark to London is but eleven cents a bushel. 

 For many years the Emperor of Russia has had 4000 

 acres under cultivation as model and experimental 

 farms, and 40 college buildings filled with some 3000 

 students of agriculture. We learn from the Russian 

 minister at Washington, and other sources of infor- 

 mation, that the noblemen of the empire are taking 

 a deep interest in the advancement of this most im- 

 portant national interest. In this country, our nobil- 

 ity and sovereigns have successfully resisted for 30 

 years, all attempts to foster the study of rural economy 

 as a branch of knowledge as worthy of schools and 

 colleges as the study of dead languages, to learn the 

 dead mythology of dead heathens, who have slept 

 quietly in their graves for 20 centuries. Their idols 

 are worshipped with ten-fold more zeal and devotion 

 now than they were in the days of Socrates, or of 

 our Saviour. With all their literature, the Greeks 

 and Romans did not advance the art of husbandry 

 one hair's breadth in a thousand years ; nor can we 

 do any better so long as we neglect to investigate 

 and obey the natural laws which God has enacted to 

 govern the fruitfulness of the earth. Prof, Johnston 

 saw every where in this country unmistakable evi- 

 dence that its farmers had little reverence for the 

 divine principles of agriculture. So long as we per- 

 sist in rebellion against the obvious laws of Provi- 

 dence, and heedlessly waste the elements of bread, 

 and meat, and clothing, which we annually dig from 

 the soil, wise men will continue to reprove our folly, 

 and coming generations will certainly reproach us 

 for our stupidity. We can not create the first atom 

 demanded by nature to form a healthy potato, and 

 we know that in twenty-five years there will be fifty 

 millions of human mouths to be fed three times a day, 

 in the United States, and by the close of this century, 

 one hundred millions to be supplied with food and 

 clothing. How few realize truths like these ! The 

 ferry across the Atlantic is soon to be so cheap that 

 a million Europeans, from the now rapid increase of 

 the 260 millions on the continent anl British islands, 

 is the smallest number we are annually to receive to 

 populate this land of promise. Never was there a 

 time when science, enlarged statesmanship, and a 

 wise system of agriculture were so pressingly needed 

 in America. Had the policy recommended by Pres- 

 ident Washington to Congress been adopted, to 

 foster agriculture as the most important branch of 

 national industry, the country would this day be a 

 thousand millions richer in property, and vastly bet- 

 ter off in popular intelligence. To Washington as 

 a General, there is going up in the federal metropolis 



I 



