THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug. 



I 



I? 



lit 





fv 



assistance whatever ; we must create an Industrial 

 Congress by the union of existinj^ societies, to look 

 after the aijricultural and meclinnical interests of the 

 Empire. Let such as worsliip at the shrine of Politics, 

 Kave both the alter and its divinity all to themselves. 

 There is truly somediing- higher, something nobler, 

 and infinitely better, than the common spirit of poli- 

 tics ; a;id the time ai)proache.s when other honors than 

 those wf,.n by the slaughter of our fellow beings, or 

 as a skillfnJ political gladiator, will be esteemed by 

 cultivated, ciiristian people. To hasten the advent 

 of such an era by all the humanizing influences that 

 can be brought to bear against the ignorance, the 

 prejudices, and the intense selfishness of semi-savage 

 man, is an object for which all hopeful persons will 

 ever labor. 



What is now most needed, i$ a concert of action 

 among those that already believe in agricultural 

 societies, books, and schools. If we can devise some 

 plan by which all our efforts may be brought to one 

 focus, it will constitute a radiating point from which 

 the light of science and experience may be constantly 

 diffused, until the whole Union is fairly illuminated. 

 It has been calculated that at least 6000 American 

 citizens will visit London, to witness the royal show 

 in Hyde Park, and at an average expense of $600 to 

 each. At this estimate, which is probably much be- 

 low the truth, we have paid $3,000,000 to foster a 

 scheme gotten up to promote the manufacturing in- 

 terests of our rivals and competitors in Europe. A 

 national fair in our own country, designed to bring 

 the producers and consumers of all the States together 

 for mutual instruction and social intercourse, would 

 be invaluable ; and a national Society or Congress 

 could easily accomplish such an undertaking. Be- 

 tween the Atlantic and the Pacific we have a conti- 

 nent larger than Europe, ami instead of allowing its 

 cream to go to fatten the enemies of our institutions, 

 who sneer at the "prairie ground occupied by cousin 

 Jonathan" in the Crystal Palace, we ought to hus- 

 band all our resources to feed and clothe the ever 

 increasing millions that the Old World will cast upon 

 our shores during the next two centuries. In the 

 battle of life, they will come whether we will or no. 

 The Atlantic ocean is crossed in a week, and not 

 only Ireland and England are annexed on the east, 

 but China, with its countless myriads, is fairly at- 

 tached to the United States on the west, by the won- 

 derful power of steam. The Chinese are already 

 counted by hundreds and thousands in California ; 

 and every possible inducement is presented for them 

 to come in millions, to people the New World. An 

 Agricultural Congress is needed all the more by rea- 

 son of this double influx of foreigners, to keep the 

 good ship of state safe, and ever sailing in the right 

 direction. Ai! the commercial nations of Europe 

 have made war against the soil of North America 

 since its first colonisation, and unlesa somo means 

 can be provided to check the destruction of our cot- 

 ton, tobacco, wheat, and I'orn lands, filty years will 

 BUtfice to desolate all east of the Mississippi river. 

 The amount of fertilizing elements consumed in 

 forming a bag of cotton, a hogshead of tobacco, and 

 a barrel of flour, is too well unrlerstood for any one 

 to contend that the soil loses nothing in the opera- 

 tion. How best to replenish th« earth from which 

 crops have been taken, is the point to be investigated 

 with the utmost care. We have area enough to feed 

 and clothe half the present population o^' *h? gloue , 

 but if all the raw material lor making grain, grass, 



wool, flax, hemp, and cotton, is removed from all 

 clay and sand to the depth of two feet, how much 

 hotter than a dessert will be our old, impoverished, 

 deserted fields ? That there is now enough of the 

 elements of fertility in American soil, is the very 

 reason why we are so anxious to see these elements 

 every where husbanded with the greatest skill and 

 success. To wait till all the things near the surface 

 of the earth which can by any possibility form crops, 

 are consumed and wasted, before we begin to save 

 potash, soda, magnesia, phosphorus, and ammonia, 

 indicates a degree of folly greater than our patience 

 can bear without reproof. As no inconsiderable 

 share of the fruits of the earth are carried to cities 

 and villages for consumption, it is in these that the 

 greatest waste takes place. If a reform in this re- 

 spect could be effected by deodorizing and drying all 

 fecal matters, to be conveyed back to the soil whence 

 they were extracted, cities would be much healthier 

 and purer, and millions of acres saved from deteri- 

 oration. All existing agricultural societies should 

 take action on this subject, and seek the co-operation 

 of city governments. To be useful, agricultural 

 Oissociations must have an eye constantly on public 

 opinion, to bring it up to the full appreciation of ali 

 the wants of the most economical and self-susts ming 

 agriculture. At present, this country witnesses very 

 little of this kind of tillage and husbandry. Neither 

 the denizens of cities, who throw away the best of 

 fertilizers by the thousand tons, nor the cultivators 

 of poor lands in the interior, seem to care a straw 

 how much injury they together inflict on arated fields. 

 How rare it is that one meets with a man in town or 

 country, who has fully studied the inferences to be 

 drawn from the facts that nature never tills the land 

 to produce her harvests, and that of all the races of 

 animals that subsist on its products, man alone im- 

 poverishes it. In nature's broad domains, neither 

 beast, nor bird, nor insect, deteriorates the virgin 

 soil ; but when semi-civilized man comes with his 

 axe, his plow, his harrow, his hoe, and above all, 

 his insatiable avarice, then woe to the native forest, 

 woe to the fertile prairie, and woe to every element 

 of the earth's productiveness which can be coined 

 into the almighty dollar. Not that he wants to eat 

 the dollar, to wear the dollar, or that it will not be 

 as safe in the virg-in earth as in the vault of a bank — 

 that is not his idea ; he wants to show his neighbors 

 and friends that he can beat them all in digging gold 

 out of the soil with the plow ! Strange ambition, 

 when the chances are ten to one that the gold will 

 be spent, perhaps foolishly, and the real productive- 

 ness of the land greatly impaired just at the time 

 when, from an increase of mouths to be fed and backs 

 to be clad, it ought to yield double harvests. Instead 

 of wasting the elements of fertility, we ought to be 

 accumulating them by every means in our power. 

 Believing a national Congress of Agriculture not 

 unworthy of public consideration as one means of 

 increasing and diffusing rural knowledge, we have 

 ventured to recommend it. This republic being 

 much larger in territory than France, 600 delegates 

 are too many to sit as a central deliberative body. 

 As many as there are represetatives in the lower 

 house of Congress would be all sufficient : and per- 

 haps two from a State, like the Senate, would be 

 still better. We should rejoice to see a meeting of 

 delegates from all the State Agricultural Societies 

 in the Union, to promote tiie ndorious cause ; such a 

 body of sound practical men, Tairly representing the 



