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ro THE GENESEE FAEMEK. ' ' 



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tures and meadows of this great commonwealth. We were indig-nan-t when the legisla- 

 ture of 1844 refused to ascertain the number of acres, respectively, in pastures and 

 meadows at the State census of 1845 ; as we were at the stupid Secretary of the Census 

 Board in Washington, when he thought that it was more important to give the pounds 

 of beeswax produced in Georgia and Alabama, than the number of acres planted in 

 cotton or corn. Two-penny lawyers, who have so long controlled the legislation of tliis 

 country, and administered its laws, have inflicted on the farming interest a great and 

 deplorable injury. Almost every thing in the line of state and national statistics, which 

 which goes to show the changes in American soil, whether for the worse or the better, 

 has been either neglected or concealed. In 1845, New York produced 2,897,062 

 pounds of flax ; in 1850 only 940,577 pounds. Here is a prodigious falling ofi' of two- 

 thirds of an important crop. The clip of wool in 1845 was 13,864,828 pounds; in 

 1850 it was only 10,071,301 pounds; showing a diminution of betwe'en thirty and 

 and forty per cent, in five years. The decrease in the number of hogs is quite as extra- 

 ordinary. In 1845 they numbered 1,584,344; in 1850 this number was reduced to 

 1,018,252 ; decrease in five years, 566,092. The number of sheep in 1845, in the State, 

 was 6,443,855; in 1850 the number was reduced to 3,453,241 ; decrease in five years, 

 2,990,614. 



Any failure in grass lands to yield a feir return, whether in pastures or meadows, 

 must tell at once against the cattle, sheep, horses, and swine, mainly dependent on such 

 lands for subsistence ; and we have shown from ofiicial and trust-worthy statistics, that 

 while nearly 700,000 more acres have been enclosed and improved, every kind of stock 

 kept in New York has largely diminished in quantity. We have often said, and still 

 believe, that about one-fourth of the eleven and a half million acres now under cultiva- 

 tion in New York, is being made moi'e productive, or at least not deteriorated ; while 

 eight and a half million acres are damaged to the extent of three dollars per acre per 

 annum by mismanagement. This involves an annual loss to fehe State of some tivcnty- 

 five 7nillion dollars. At jfi'esent prices of horse flesh, mules, beef, mutton, wool, butter, 

 and cheese, it is no difficult matter, by impoverishing land, to make an acre of pasture 

 or meadow yield three dollars worth of grass a year less than it might produce. Com- 

 paratively few farmers are willing to admit the fact that they do impair the natural 

 fruitfulness of their pastures, meadows and tilled land ; but when we take a considerable 

 district of such farmers together, and liberally concede that one-fourth of "their number 

 make adequate restitution to every field, the other three-fourths will be found to have 

 managed so badly as to be compelled to diminish the domestic animals kept in the 

 county. It may be said that instead of feeding so many sheep, cattle, horses, and swine 

 as they formerly did, the cultivators and owners of the soil in New York now have 

 between three and four millions of people to feed.. There is some force in this remark, 

 and the idea is suggested to raise the question, whether it is possible to support three or 

 four millions of large two legged animals, and return little of their manure to the 

 land whence their food is extracted, and not seriously impoverish the soil. New York 

 contains a large population in its numerous cities and villages ; and wo should like to 

 have every man see as we do, that these cities and villages are fast destroying the natural 

 fertility of the land that both feeds and clothes their inhabitants. The United States 

 census for 1840 and 1850, and other official returns made for purposes of State taxation, 

 prove that the pastures of Kentucky and Tennessee have suffered only a little less than 

 those of New York. Ohio and Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, are pursuing the same 

 exhausting jiractice, but the evidence is not quite so ripe as it is in the older States 

 named, fur statistical demonstration. There is a physical impossibility of extracting 

 unlimited quantities' of bone earth and potash in grass, to be wasted, and not ruin the 

 land. The last time we passed through the State of Ohio on the railroad from Sandusky 

 to Cincinnati, we saw many tons of hay purchased north of Springfield at three dollars 



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