^ 



36 THE GENESEE FARMER. 



all coming time. The natural fertility of soils and subsoils being the gift of our common 

 Creator, to impair said fertility for a narrow, mercenary purpose, is an offence against 

 the public safety, the highest interest of all, which ought to be punished with greater 

 severity than treason. What other interest can a nation have superior to the continued 

 fruitfulness of the land, which so obviously supports all its citizens ? 



Twenty millions of dollars can not, by any known j^rocess, make good the damage 

 done to the forming lands of New York in the year 1853, by its three million three 

 hundred thousand inhabitants. If this statement be true, and we invite the closest 

 criticism to show the error if there be one, what ought the writer, who was born and 

 reared in the State, to say of its agricultural progress ? 



Why should Monroe county, which raises more grain than any other in the United 

 States, diminish its sheep 61,655, or from 173,952 to 112,297, in five years? Why 

 should it diminish its swine 17,292 head in the same length of time f Why reduce its 

 number of milch kine 5,381 ? Why reduce its number of horses 3,235 ? These reduc- 

 tions were made from 1845 to 1850, while the acres of improved land in the county 

 were increased in the mean time 21,092^. 



These trustworthy statistics, and many more at our command, are pregnant with 

 meaning ; but there is not room in a single number of the Farmer to discuss them in 

 all their bearings. We always restrain our own reasonings, that more reliable facts 

 relating to agriculture may be condensed into this small paper than are found in any 

 other. Having the facts before them, most persons will draw the proper inferences 

 therefrom. 



AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK IN 1815. 



The whole number of acres of improved land in the State is 11,737,276 : of which 

 1,013,665 is devoted to the production of wheat; 1,026,915 to that of oats ; 595,135 

 to that of corn ; 255,762 to that of potatoes ; 317,099 to that of rye; 192,504 to that 

 of barley ; 117,379 to that of peas ; 16,232 to that of beans ; 255,496 to that of buck- 

 wheat; 15,322 to that of turnips ; and 46,089 to that of flax ; wheat and oats being 

 the great agricultural staples of the State : corn and rye holding the next place ; pota- 

 toes and buckwheat, in about equal proportion, the next ; and barley, peas, flax, beans, 

 and turnips, following in the order in which they are here named ; the least number of 

 acres being devoted to the culture of the turnip. 



The western and northern portions of the State are best adapted to the cultivation of 

 wheat, potatoes, oats, and rye ; while the southern and eastern portions seem most 

 favorable to corn, barley, peas, beans, turnips, and flax. The middle counties afford the 

 best encouragement to the raising of cattle. 



Of the 1,013,665 acres employed in the raising of wheat, the number harvested during 

 the year is reported at 958,234, yielding an aggregate of 13,391,770 bushels— exceeding 

 by 1,438,263 bushels the amount raised in 1840, and averaging a fraction under 14 

 bushels to the acre. In the county of Monroe, the average yield is 19-J- bushels ; in the 

 county of Kings, 19; in each of the counties of Orleans and Niagara, 18; in the 

 county of Clinton, 17^; in Genesee county, 16^; in each of the counties of Cayuga, 

 Ontario, Livingston, and Franklin, 16 ; and in each of the counties of Onondaga, Rich- 

 mond, Seneca, Warren, and Wyoming, 15. In two of the outer wards of Brooklyn, 

 the average yield was 24 bushels to the acre ; in the town of Wheatland, Monroe county, 

 22 bushels ; and in Sweden, same county, 21. 



From the 1,026,915 acres devoted to the production of oats, the aggregate number 

 ^ k of bushels harvested during the year is stated at 26,323,051 — exceeding by 5,594,318 . p 



