





Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and IJseful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. XIL 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — NOVEMBER, 1851. 



NO. 11. 



THE AaRIOULTUilAL PRESS. 



** The Soil of the South," a spirited agricultural 

 journal recently started in Columbus, Georgia, says 

 that tlie " agricultural press has increased the value 

 of the landed property of the States at least one hun- 

 dred million dollars, to say nothing of the increased 

 comfort. and happiness of the rural population." To 

 some this statement will appear extravagant, but it 

 is unquestionably far below the truth. Society has 

 no wealth which is so uniformly under-estimated as 

 that of agricultural knowledge. Land and labor may 

 be never so abundant, 3'et, without knowledge, they 

 will forever remain comparatively worthless. Knowl- 

 edge so far transcends all other powers of production, 

 that no people has ever succeeded in creating wealth 

 by any means, who did not cultivate this field and 

 husband its invaluable treasures. The idea of im- 

 parting to five millions of farmers a thorough knowl- 

 edge of the principles of agriculture, as deduced from 

 tl^ie researches of modern science, is too vast for im- 

 mediate comprehension. Little by little it works its 

 way into the popular mind ; and the cheap agricul- 

 tural journals invented in our lime, are the honored 

 means of demonstrating the usefulness of the press 

 for the widest possible dissemination of thouglit, and 

 the results of practice in rural afiairs. The experi- 

 ments of thousands of cultivators, and the experience 

 of millions, instead of being confined to a few in each 

 neighborhood, become the common property and the 

 professional literature of the country. Experience 

 and experiments truthfully recorded in periodicals, 

 have not only a general and almost universal value, 

 but they will live, if really important, to bless all 

 coming generations in after time. In this view of 

 the subject, it is obvious that experiments in hus- 

 bandry, tillage, fruit and forest culture, are matters 

 of the highest public concernment ; but owing to our 

 lamentable ignorance of the manifold means of im- 

 provement within our reach, we make no earnest 

 public elFort to place experimental agriculture on an 

 enlightened and scientific basis. It is not our pur- 

 pose to depreciate the every day experience and inci- 

 dental experiments of common farmers. A knowl- 

 edge of these communicated through the agricultural 

 press, is highly desirable ; but something more than 

 tills source of information is due to the greatest in- 

 dustrial interest of the United States. The advance- 

 ment of American agriculture demands additional 

 ^ds for the development of new and useful facts. 

 We have carefully read most of the agricultural 



papers published in this country up to this time, and 

 not a few similar works imported from Great Britain 

 and the Continent.; and we speak advisedly when 

 we say that the amount of ?iejt>/ac^s brought to light 

 during the past year in the civilized world, are few, 

 and not a tenth part of what they might have been. 

 When the press has little that is useful to communi- 

 cate, it loses its consequence in the estimation of 

 practical farmers, and all progress for the time is 

 arrested. A steady, not a fitful advancement, con- 

 fers the greatest benefits on the whole farming inter- 

 est. To secure this advantage, the friends of im- 

 provement should write often for agricultural journals, 

 and endeavor to communicate as well as learn every 

 useful fact. Facts concisely and clearly stated, are 

 always interesting to sensible readers ; and a reason- 

 able amount of theories based on such facts, are also 

 acceptable. Under the most favorable auspices, the 

 numerous sciences and arts which constitute our 

 complex profession, require constant mental, and not 

 a little physical labor, if one would excel therein, 

 lie may talk and write fluently on rural topics, with 

 a very superficial knowledge of the principles of 

 agriculture ; but he is more likely to mislead than 

 instruct his readers and hearer.^, unless he has given 

 up his life to the critical investigation of th.e arts or 

 sciences of which he treats. The phenomena of veg- 

 etable and animal life, as modified by dilTeront soils, 

 climates, systems of culture, treatment, and manage- 

 ment, can not be reasonably comprehended, nor skill- 

 fully handled by agricultural writers, except so far as 

 they have been carefully studied. Before one can be 

 a wise instructor, either in agriculture, horticulture, 

 or any department of natural science, he must first 

 learn what he hopes to teach. And to learn well, 

 we all need a fair opportunity to investigate the nat- 

 ural laws relating to the origin, qualitj', and temper- 

 ature of soils, the growth of plants and animals, the 

 laws which regulate their health, and at ttia same 

 time learn the practice of tillage and husbandry by 

 daily experience on a well conducted farm. In short,^ 

 there is needed a perfect union of intellectural and 

 physical culture, a joint effort of mind and body, to 

 make a finished agriculturist. If we say nothing of 

 the development of the moral principle in man in this 

 connection, it is not because this element is over- 

 looked, or deemed of no account. Morality is a sub- 

 ject that does not legitimately pertain to'agricultural 

 production, nor to the physical sciences. The pro- 

 fession of agriculture has for its object the promotion 

 of the material interests of society ; and it eminently 



