\A]\ 332 THE GENESEE FAEMEE. \\ -^ 



'IF 



port an excess of doctors, lawyers, priests, and merchants. Why, then, can they not 

 encourage the scientific development of the resources of American soil ? To the proper 

 investigation of these invaluable resources, there is not so much as one man in the whole 

 Republic who devotes his time and talents. Considering how vast is this landed interest, 

 is it not a fact as extraordinary as it is lamentable, that not a single person in our thirty- 

 one states and six territories should be employed to prove, by actual and reliable experi- 

 ments, the capabilities of the climates and arable lands of this continent 1 Without 

 reward, or the hope of reward, we gave months of labor, to say nothing of costly chemi- 

 cals consumed, to show the relation that clover bears to wheat, and both to the soils of 

 Western New York. These researches were incomplete, and we are anxious to resume 

 them. For our time we shall charge nothing ; but we are not rich enough to meet all 

 the incidental expenses of the experiments and analyses that ought to be made. An asso- 

 ciation of men who believe in the study of Nature's laws, which, being the laws of God, 

 form the basis of all progress and all true wisdom, can easily supply the small sum 

 needed to prosecute important agricultural researches to satisfactory results. To learn 

 how to interrogate Nature requires a great deal of preliminary study. Only a part of 

 the questions put to her by agTicultural chemists were properly propo-unded. They did 

 not fully comprehend the wants of practical farmers ; and they failed to give their labors 

 the right direction. Now is the time to profit by past errors and experience in scientific 

 researches, just as a skilful farmer profits in the latter years of his life by the errors and 

 experience which observation and his life have given him. We honor agriculture as a 

 most useful art; but we submit that art alone could never have shown as science has 

 done the intimate relation that subsists between a clover plant and a wheat plant. We 

 have now one hundred and nine acres in the District of Columbia dedicated to experi- 

 mental purposes, and hope to see science and practice united in all the States, in the 

 most successful manner. To achieve this glorious consummation, agricultural science 

 must receive far more encouragement from farmers than they have yet bestowed upon 

 it. Science needs cultivation from year to year, just as wheat and corn are cultivated, 

 to obtain a liberal harvest of useful knowledge. Neither wheat nor wisdom is grown 

 and enjoyed without labor. 



MAKING, SAVING, AND APPLICATION OF MANURES. 



The makiftg, saving, and application of raantires I have found to be tlie most difficult thing con- 

 nected with tillage husbandry. To obtain some information in relation to this and other matters, I 

 have ventured to trespass on your pastime. Yeai-s ago I was in the habit of reading the Cultivator, 

 edited by Judge Buel, of Albany. The Judge strongly advocated the following system with respect 

 to manures, as a general thing: They were to be hauled from the yard in a green state, and 

 applied to hoed crops on green sward, spread on the surface and plowed under. Bukl's .-irgurnent 

 was of this nature : That manure should never bo suffered to rot in the yard, or wherever it was 

 deposited, because the action of the sun and rain dianged portions of it into gas, which escaped 

 iuto the atmosphere, and was thereby lost to the plants which it should feed. He also directed to 

 plow the manure under for the same reason. This looked to me like a correct theory, and I put it 

 in practice. My soil is a sandy loam, with usually a pretty tough sod, and I found, after plowing 

 under my manure, that unless we had a very hot season, the crop planted over it did not receive 

 any, or little benefit from the manure. I changed my course. I plow my sod ground first, then 

 draw my manure out green, and spread it on the top and harrow it in as well as I can, leaving, 

 however, eonsiderablo on the surface, after the manner of your Essex correspondent in the July 

 number. The result has been, a better crop of corn or jwtatoes, and the succeeding sown crop 

 full as good. But I am not satisfied that this is correct, I always fear that I lose considerable 

 manure by evaporation, as I have found it imjwssible to harrow under the long parts of gre-en 

 manure. Doeo this evaporation question apply to top dressings for meadows f If you will give tui 



