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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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fully used to humbug the farming community. It may be asked: What is the proper 

 remedy ? We answer, not to abandon the use of city made manures, but to create a 

 public opinion in the country which will constrain all municipal authorities to save fer- 

 tilizing substances and concentrate them so that they can be put up in cheap bao-s like 

 guano, and distributed as far as any grain, flour, meat, or cotton is sent to market. In 

 short, the cultivators of the soil must make those that reside in cities and villages feed 

 the land that both feeds and clothes the denizens of cities and villages. Not to do this 

 i.s a violation of a law of Go.l, and an otfence which he will certainly punish. 



The subject of artificial manures is one of vast importance ; and it is just now in that 

 hazy twilight which enables any one who loves supremely the almighty dollar, to make 

 a fortune in a few years by vending marvellous remedies to rejuvenate the soil. So long 

 as the public supports quack doctors of every hue. Mormons, polygamy, spiritual rappers, 

 the exhibitors of " woolly horses," and whatever else is steeped in falsehood and impos- 

 ture, we have no right to complain of charlatans who sell twenty tons of their artificial 

 manure a day, at $50 per ton. True science, which has no secrets, scorns exaggeration, 

 and despises the tricks of trade, stands a poor chance where its counterfeit in everything 

 passes with the million as current coin. All that we can do is to inculcate sound prin- 

 ciples alike in agriculture and morals, expose quackery whether in high or low places, 

 and try to leave the world a little wiser than wo found it. It is to be deplored that 

 there is nothing so sacred in religion or spiritual truths, nor in the social or moral relations 

 of man to man, but it is prostituted to objects of mercenary gain, and so adulterated'with 

 errors and falsehoods, that one can hardly separate the pure from the impure, or what is 

 right from what is wrong. What possible reform will strike at the root of thjs evil ? 

 So long as mankind shall love to be cheated by imposters, the State of New York will 

 turn out the originators of new systems of religion, like that of Joseph Smith— new 

 "spiritual manifestations," like those of the Misses Fox — of new theories of " terra-cul- 

 ture," like that of Mr. Comstock — and of new superphosphates of lime, like that so 

 extravagantly commended by the Workivg Farmer. If these imposters are properly 

 noticed they rai^e the cry of persecuted saints, and gain sympathy and strength thereby; 

 and if not noticed at all, they carry all before them by the easy perversion of verbal and 

 written evidence, so that the community is taxed to support many of their victims in 

 insane hospitals, and still more as public paupers. If a way could be found out to pre- 

 vent imposition in general, and in the maufacture of artificial manure in particular, it 

 would do more to advance society in morality, knowledge, and wealth, than any discovery 

 which has been made since the fall of man. Closely and patiently have we studied the 

 hindrances to agricultural progress, and so far as we have been able to discover, false- 

 hood, in its thousand protean shades, is chief among them. Things are not what they 

 seem ; and as our relations to each other become more artificial, truth is surrounded by 

 more numerous throngs of vicious counterfeits. A true man will make an open fight 

 against these ; but his enemies, operating in secret, will be likely to destroy him. Using 

 money to make money by false pretences, they have the power to command temporary 

 success, and secure the greatest triumph to the greatest imposture. The food of plants 

 must be studied more than it now is, before frauds in artificial manure can be detected, 

 or prevented, by farmers. 



We repeat, artificial, or special fertilizers, should not be avoided, but their composition 

 should be carefully investigated, that the intrinsic value of their elements may be gener- 

 ally and thoroughly understood, both in town and country. Nothing is easier than to 

 deodorize, and evaporate to perfect dryness, every thing that is valuable for agricultural 

 purposes in cities ; and if this were done, it would render them far more healthy, and, 

 at the same time, furnish the most concentrated food of plants in vast quantities and at 

 a mere nominal price. Cities reeking with human excrements and foul sewers, never 

 fail to be afflicted with pestilence in its most malignant forms ; and yet there is not one 



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