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THE GENESEE FARMER. 209 



these auxiliary to a national organization for educational purposes, is, in brief, The Plan 

 marked out by us many years ago for calling into exifetence tens of thousands of agri- 

 cultural libraries and schools, superior in every respect to the common schools and 

 libraries of New York, which may flourish in every county in the United States. False 

 friends may retard this great work of educational improvement, which is designed to 

 embrace all industrial classes ; but in the end, it is sure to triumph in every (piarter of 

 the Union. When the people say they want a scientific education, then agricultural 

 journalism will take the highest rank among the learned professions ; and that the 

 people will, ultimatelj', so decide, is with us a matter of the most undoubting faith. No 

 second number of the Quarterly Journal of the United States Agricultural Society has 

 been published, after the lapse of ten months since the first was issued — not from a 

 lack of funds, but the want of that faith which is the parent of all new and important 

 enterprises. Works soon die where faith is not; and where they do not die immediately, 

 they become valueless. To create a popular taste for rural literature and sciences, we 

 must study to improve our agricultural journals, and foster the establishment of numer- 

 ous agricultural libraries. 



In this way the lights of the age will penetrate every log-cabin in the land, and add 

 four-fold to the knowledge, wealth, and happiness of the American people. For 

 less than fifty cents, including postage, ninety-nine hundrcths of our subscribers 

 receive twelve numbers, of the Genesee Farmo' in a year ; the last eight volumes bound, 

 form an addition to any library worth many times more than the cost of the work. 

 Probably not one-third of the adult owners of the soil read any agricultural journal 

 whatever. 



A general eftbrt should be made to place a copy of some good agricultural paper 

 in the hands of every farmer and gardener in the country. By so doing, public opinion 

 will soon create industrial libraries and seminaries of learning, where science and 

 physical labor will meet each other as friends and co-workers for the elevation of man- 

 kind. Starting from the point that an art is always something to be done, and a science 

 something to be known, the masses may constantly rise in knowledge and arts, in 

 virtue and happiness, by cultivating the inherent powers which God has given them. 





THE FARil AS A MANUFACTORY. 



NUMBER THREE. 



In the two former articles on this subject we stated that all soils capable of profitable 

 cultivation contained every one of the fourteen elements which compose all our agricul- 

 tural plants. The difference between a new fertile soil and a badly cultivated impover- 

 ished one is not attributable to the existence in the one, and to the absence in the other, 

 of any particular ingredient, but to the different 'proj^ortions in which the constituents 

 of plants exist in the two soils, and, more especially, to their state of combination, and 

 their availahility as food for plants. Thus, sandy soils do not contain so large a pro- 

 'portion of the constituents of plants as do clay soils ; yet, when first cultivated, the 

 former invariably yield larger crops than the latter, because Jhe .clay soil is more 

 compact, and the food of plants does not exist in that available condition as it is found 

 in porous, sandy soils. The average production of the farm depends, not on the quantity 

 of food lying latent in the soil, but on the amount of available food of plants and 

 animals kept in circulation on the farm. 



We also considered the effect of cultivation on the gaseous and organic matter of the 

 soil, arguing from the fact demonstrated by Mr. Lawes' experiments, that wheat, and 



