r ) 82 THE GENESEE FAKMEE. U Hi 



a judicious system of agriculture is based goes far beyond this, and benefits not only his immediate 

 neighborhood, but the intelligent farmers of the whole world. I wish, for our own benefit and 

 national credit, that we had some institution set apart for discovering new principles in agriculture. 

 As I have before said, we have in this country better means in operation for diffusing agricultural 

 knowledge, than any other nation in the world ; and yet what does all this immense machinery 

 create in the way of knowledge? Our scores of agricultural papers, our State and County socities, 

 the empirical experiments of hundreds of farmers, carried on as they are at vast expense, positively 

 generate not one single principle of agricultm'al science that can be universally applied in general 

 practice. 



B. You are getting quite warm on the subject. Did I not know to the contrai-y, I should suppose 

 you underrated the value of our agricultural papers, societies, exhibitions, &e. I kuow you do not^ 

 for I have often heard you say that these papers and societies were of incalculable value to the 

 farmer. The papers give us the experience of others, and often contain suggestions for cultivating 

 crops and for performing all the multifarious labors of farm management to the best advantage, 

 such as we should never have thought of ourselves. Our exhibitions of farm products, the test of 

 skill in plowing, &c., stimulates us to exertion and renewed strife after improvement, which must 

 be productive of much good. 



A. That is all very true. The societies and papers ai'e good and indispensable as a superstructure; 

 but to accomplish their greatest good to agriculture, it is absolutely necessary that they rest on a 

 firm, well-demonstrated, experimental basis of science. At present we have the superstructure 

 without such a foundation. The baneful consequences to agricultural science are too apparent to 

 be disputed. "What paper or society has ever told us practical farmers the reason why plowing in 

 a crop of clover benefits the following wheat crop, while a crop of buckwheat does not. Scientific 

 experiments have demonstrated the reason; and now it is as clear as noonday. What we want is 

 similar experiments in our own country, on our commonly cultivated crops. 



B. You think, then, that we can derive no benefit from an intimate acquaintance with the vari- 

 ous modes of British husbandry, but that we must demonstrate principles for ourselves, and trust 

 to our own ingenuity for applying them to the art of agriculture. 



A. I will not exactly say that. I think 1 have learned considerable by my visit to Europe, 

 though I cannot point out the particular parts of tillage in which we might profit by English prac- 

 tice. Their system of under-draining is reduced to a science, and no one can personally examine 

 the different modes of draining there without deriving much valuable knowledge, such as would 

 cost him many years of dear bought experience to acquire here. 



B. I must have a little more conversation on the matter of draining next time we meet. I 

 intend, like yourself, to under-drain one of my fields this year, and shall be glad of any hints and 

 directions. 



A. It will give me great pleasure to assist you all I can. I believe nothing will so much improve 

 our national agriculture as under-draining, and I am pleased that so many are going into it Hith- 

 erto we have had to pay exhorbitant prices for draining tiles in this neighborhood, but I am told 

 that parties are now making ai-rangements for their manufacture in Rochester, and that we shall 

 obtain them at a much cheaper rate. 



B. Bye the bye, I have just been reading an account of the Smithfield Club Cattle Show. It 

 appears that the tenant farmers have carried off most of the prizes, beating the Earl Ducie, .Duke 

 of Richmond, and his Royal Highness Prince Albert, and other noble competitors. The fact is a 

 significant one. These amateurs breeders, that spare no expense in purchasing the best stock, and 

 do not care even if they loose considerable money in keeping it, have been beaten by common prac- 

 tical farmers who adopt the business as a means of making money. Time, care, judicious selection, 

 and personal attention in stock raising, must ever triumph over mere theorists and amateurs. 



A. The Karl Ducie and Duke of Richmond, however, arc by no means "mere theorists." I believe 

 there is not a better judge of cattle in Great Britain than Earl Ducie. 



B. So much the more credit then to the farmers who boat him. The weight of the piize sheep at 

 the last Smithfield show, as given in the papers, is hardly to be creditod. One in the "long-wooled'' 

 class, weighed, when dressed, 556 lbs., and had besides 49 lbs. rough fat. In the "cross breeds," 

 one gave 524 lbs. carcass and 57 lbs. rough fat, with a "hide" of 76 lbs. In the "short wools," the 

 heaviest carcass was 489 lbs. The first prize "Devon steer" yielded 948 lbs. beef, 145 lbs. rougli 



|v fat, and 08 lbs. of hide. a i 



