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TlIE GENESEE FARMER. 





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Much is said about diffusing knowledge in agriculture, and very little about increas- 

 ing it, by new additions from original researches. Old stories are told over a thousand 

 times, and that is called enlightening the farnaing community ! Who can point to one 

 acre of land that has been devoted to the development of new truths in tillage or hus- 

 bandry, for five or ten years, in this vast Republic ? In wheat-growing, what have the 

 few isolated experiments amounted to, as performed under the auspices of any agricul- 

 tural society ? Which among them all has encouraged the investigation of the facts as 

 to how much of the substance of the soil (its mold and minerals) is necessarily con- 

 sumed by tillage and the growth of the plants, in making twenty bushels of wheat? 

 What part of the crop, including straw and grain, do water and air really constitute? 

 What has ever been done in the United States to settle this important question ? The 

 matter that really forms perfect wheat plants all comes from the atmosphere or the soil. 

 From the latter, how much is wasted by the decomposition of organic substances whose 

 elements rise into the air like the exhalations from a dung lieap ? How much of dis- 

 solved mould and minerals passes deep into the earth, to appear again as found in 

 springs, swamps, and creeks? Nature never plows, nor harrows, nor hoes the ground 

 to produce her most luxuriant vegetables. Hence she never impoverishes the soil. Can 

 man say as much ? Tillage has yet to be investigated before wheat-growing can be at 

 all understood. We have no doubt that the cost of production, take twenty years 

 together, may be reduced one-half. . To supply the lacking ingredients at the minimum 

 cost, soils have need of far more critical analyses, not of a few grains, but of pounds, 

 skillfully leached for months, to ascertain what rains are capable of dissolving out of 

 them. Nature's admirable processes for the feeding of plants must be faithfully imita- 

 ted and studied. Agricultural science is a deep professio,n, or none at all. To make it 

 the appendix of other schools, is to injure not benefit this infant profession. It must 

 be built up on its own bottom, having a broad and solid foundation, or forever remain 

 a mere empirical art. Agriculture is not chemistry, nor geology, nor botany, nor 

 physiology. 



On the Comparative FATTE?nNG Properties of rojie of toe most important Exglish Breeds of 

 SiiEEP. — The united labors of many celebrated breeders have brought the sheep of Great Britain to 

 a high state of perfection, and although each particul.ar breed is supposed by its adrocates to possess 

 certain properties superior to other breeds, it is evident these opinions are not founded upon any 

 sound basis of facts. It is true, numerous experiments have been tried uj^ou the feeding properties 

 of the different breeds of sheep ; and these experiments have been recorded from time to time in the 

 various publications devoted to agriculture. It appeared, however, to the writer, that these experi- 

 ments were conducted upon far too small a scale, and were not carried out with sufficient attention 

 to insure accuracy. In conducting experiments upon animals, it is of the first importance tliat 

 individual peculiarities should be neutralized by numbera It is not unusual to find two sheep of 

 the same size and breed, fed upon the same food, under like circumstances, one of which shall 

 increa.lfc twice as fast as the other. By experimenting upon a eftfficient number of sheep, these 

 peculiarities are of no moment, and the averages may be safely taken as the truth. In the experi- 

 ments about to be recorded, 40 to 60 sheep of each breed were taken for experiment The duration 

 of the experiment was five to six months, and although for want of sufficient shed room the experi- 

 ments extended over three years, still great care was taken to select food of the same quality, and 

 to commence and end the experiment at the same periods of the year. 



It is not my intention to give more than a few of the most important results. It often happens 

 that the conclusions of many elaborate and laborious experiments can be summed u[) in a few words 

 or figures, and such is the case here. When we know how much food it requires to produce a giren 

 increase of weight and the value of such increase, we are in possession of all the practical knowl- 

 edge to enable an agriculturist to select that breed which shall fat the most profitably. I propose, 

 therefore, after having briefly alluded to the more prominent characters of the various breeds of 

 ' K sheep, and the mode of conducting the experiments, to select such results as I think may be useful, 



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