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THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



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England States. But swine culture, like sheep husbandry, has also declined ; so that 

 New York contained fewer hogs in 1850 than it did in 1845, by 566,092. The reason 

 why we can not keep so many hogs, nor so many sheep, nor cattle, nor dairy cows, nor 

 horses, now, as we did eight years ago, in the State of New York, although we have 

 1,000,000 acres more under improvement, is our bad si/stem of tillage and huahandry, by 

 which the land is sadly impoverished. I do not say that every farm in New York parts 

 with more of the elements of grass and grain than it can lose without deterioration; 

 for I hope that one-fifth, perhaps one-fourth, of the farmers in that large and populous 

 State, so cultivate their land as to increase rather than diminish its fruitfulness. Full 

 three-fourths, I am sorry to say, make no adequate restitution to their plowed fields, 

 meadows, and pastures, for the constituents of plants removed therefrom. "With a 

 higher price and surer sale for all the good horses they can rear ; with a million more 

 acres of improved land on which to keep them ; with fewer sheep by 3,000,000, and 

 fewer swine by 600,000 ; with fewer neat cattle by 200,000 ; and less land devoted to 

 the culture of potatoes, flax, and other crops ; is it not a significant and monitory fact, 

 that New York farmers have found it necessary to rear and keep fewer horses by 

 100,000 than they did eight years ago? 



These statistics are derived, primarily, from our whole rural population, and no one 

 questions their general accuracy. 



The agricultural statistics of Massachusetts are not less condemnatory of your treat- 

 ment of the soil. Allow me to appeal to your official records for additional evidence on 

 this point. Your State Board of Agriculture unanimously adopted the following, 

 resolution : 



Resolved, That the necessity for this improvement (agricultural education), is apparent from the 

 report of the valuation committee to the last legislature, by which it will be seen that, although 

 there have been added to .the lands under improvement since 18-iO, more than three hundred 

 thousand acres, and although the upland and other mowing Lu^ds have been increased more than 

 ninety thousand aci'es, or nearly iifieen per cent., yet the hay crops have been increased only about 

 three per cent., showing a relative depreciation of twelve per cent; and although the tillage lands 

 have been increased more than forty thousand acres in the same period, yet there has been no 

 i7icrease of grain crops, but an absolute falling off of more than six hundred thousand hnshels ; and 

 although the pasturage lands have been increased more than one luindred thousand acres, yet there 

 has been scarcely any augmentation of neat cattle, while in sheep tuere has been a reduction of 

 more than one hundred and sixty thousand, and in swine of more than seventeen thousand. 



I have long believed, and earnestly contended, that our present means and facilities 

 for acquiring a timely and thorough knowledge of the true principles of agricu^ure are 

 ineflicient — are nearly worthless, without additions thereto. Advantages of a more 

 instructive and practical character arp not only needed, but absolutely indispensable to 

 enable us to learn the rudiments of our profession. In producing a bushel of grain, or 

 one hundred pounds of hay, we take something from the soil. Our common sense and 

 long experience teach us this ; but have they ever taught us how much of the substance 

 of the earth is consumed in forming a bushel of corn, or wheat, or one hundred pounds 

 of hay ? So far as grass, grain, or root crops draw their aliment from water and the 

 atmosphere, no restitution to the land from which we remove agricultural plants is 

 necessary. This is an important fact, and leads at once to the inquiry, What elements 

 of fertility, and how much of each does a fair crop of corn or wheat take from an acre , 

 of ground ? Wliolly irrespective of all crops, does not tillage, the frequent stirring of 

 vegetable mold by the plow, harrow, cultivator, or hoe, operate to consume said mold, 

 and dissipate its atoms in the air, just as the frequent turning of a compost heap 

 diminishes its bulk, consumes its substance, and fills the atmosphere with oft'ensive 

 gases ? When the fertile prairies of Illinois are first broken up, and their virgin mold 

 rots in the sun, an increase of sickness marks the increase of malaria, or pestiferous 

 organic atoms in the atmosphere. While tillage may consume and discharge into the 

 air all the volatile constituents of our crops, whether they grow or not, who can say 



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