THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Z8 



ability as I possess, and will second any effort for the accomplisfiment 

 of the object. There is but one opinion witli the foity-lwo mem- 

 bers of tlie M;issacliusetts Board of Airriculrure in relation to the 

 necessity of action. We will work at home ;ind abroad — for our 

 State, aiid for a national institution ; nor will we give up the ship 

 until one such is established. Our Board meets a>j:ain on the first 

 Tuesday of February, when we are to have a full and open discus- 

 sion of the necessity of aid from the commonwealth. We have a 

 eerios of resolutions which will be presented, taking; slronjj ground, 

 and wliich will be the theme of debate. Our efforts are first to es- 

 tablish a State Department to consist of one memljer from each of 

 the County A.roioultural Societies, with the Governor and Lieut. 

 Governor ex-officio members, and tlie Board to choose its own Sec- 

 retary. Tliis bciiig cirried, we think we can see our way clear for 

 procuring aiil in future for a school or cdlege (the latter terra we 

 discarvl for fervr of frigiitening the timid). 



We are quite aniious to have you lecture liefore us this session; 

 and it is po.-^sible that we may get up a course, say of two or three, 

 wheu if practicable, we shall be glad to avail ourselves of your valu- 

 able service-;. I agree with you as to the propriety of immediate 

 action, " if the attendance be satisfactoiy," but I fear that it would 

 reiiuire months to secure a large meeting in W;\shington, whicli 

 should embrace full delegates from all parts of the country. How 

 would it answer to hold the convention in Philadelphia the same 

 week of the Poraological Congress, which i:; ordered for September 

 13th ? We should tlien by jiroper preparation and correspondence 

 be sure of a large number of delegates. I have no preference for 

 any coursa, if so be we can command the numbers we >vant to make 

 an impression. lam preparing a circul.ar in conformity with the in- 

 structions of our Board, and will give it as thorough and wide a 

 di'calation as possible. In the meantime I shail be glad to receive 

 ailvice from you ; and when we make a demonstration, let it be such 

 aa one as will not be forgotten — one that will not only act on Con- 

 gress, but react on our own States. 



I will preserve the slip of newspaper which you sent, and cause 

 it to be published here and send you a copy. I shall reserve your 

 remarks and submit them to the Board at a time when the hall is 

 full. No doubt exists iu my mind as to the success of the Tea plant 

 in scveial portions of the country. What we want is a better sub- 

 dii-ision of labor on the soil, and the introduction of new crops as 

 proHtaLile as any under cultivation. This can be done, and must be 

 ■line before fuming will become as profitable as most other pur- 

 [lurguils. I shall be glad to receive a letter from Mr. Calvkrt. Ex- 

 ■uae the ha,sto with which I write, and believe nie with great per- 

 .on.al respect, Yours truly, Marshall P. Wilder. 



Dr. Da.\iel Lite. 

 ' P. S. Since writing the above I think that it may be best to take 

 .he whole year to^prepare, so that all the Societies in the Union can 

 lend delegates to meet at the commencement of the next session 

 if Congress at Washington. We want five hundred delegates to 

 v.afce up the n.ation. But I would not wait one moment longer 

 liau shall be deemed exjsedient. Please put me down as a subscri- 

 lor for the Southern Ctdtivator. I ba\-e always had the Genesee 

 Farmer, and it is, without favor or affection, the best paper in the 

 ■Ajuntry. M. P. W. 



Did we not feel that the foregoing letter reflects the high- 

 'St honor on the distinguished writer, we should not pub- 

 ish it. We have an hundred such with which to vindicate 

 he truth of history, if the Executive Committee of the 

 United States AgTicultural Society do not malie the proper 

 'orrections in reference to tliis miscalled " first number" of 

 he Journal of the Society. It contiiins less than two-thirds 

 is much printed matter as the first one, being set in large 

 ypo and leaded. In the Journal for 1852 there are 51 lines 

 n a page and 64 letters in a line, on an average; in that 

 or 185;), there are 39 lines on a page and 47 letters in a 

 ine ; giving in the latter, 1,833 letters to the full page, and 

 ,264 in a full page of the former. These figures show a 

 aJling off of nearly one-half. "We confess our deep morti- 

 ication that a Society which we labored so long to establish 

 hould come so far short of doing the good we anticipated. 

 jooking steadily forw.ird to the cordial union of the sincere 

 riends of agriculture in all parts of the republic, we have 

 vritten several articles for every number of the Southern 

 Cultivator that has been published for more than six years. 

 There is no good reason why every county in the United 

 5tates shotild not have an Agricultural Society, and every So- 

 iety earnestly co-operate with all the others to promote a 

 ommon interest. Nothing but the intense selfishnpss of 

 narrow minds prevents this consummation. As our friend, 



the President of the National Society says, we are not dis- 

 posed " to give up the ship ;" what is wrong must be righted, 

 and public confidence secured for the promotion of one of 

 the best causes that ever enlisted the services of man. Ev- 

 ery county in the Union needs a good agricultiiral library ; 

 and County Societies and Farmers' Clubs have only to act in 

 concert, to obtain the best books in the world on rural to- 

 pics, and to cause many better ones to be written for the 

 instruction of the laboring millions. Now in the fecblo in- 

 fancy of agricultural literature and science, we must work 

 with patience and forbearance — planting good seed to bear 

 fruit, not perhaps in otir day, but when the planters shall "be 

 no more. 



The Philosophy of Advertising. — No class of busi- 

 ness men can use the press more beneficially for themselves 

 and the public than farmers and mechanics, prorided they 

 study and understand the philosophy of advertising. We 

 will illustrate the truth of this statement by calling atten- 

 tion to a few facts: A wool-grower not 100 miles from 

 Rochester, in whose word we place entire confidence, in- 

 formed us a few days since that his fiock of 400 sheep clip- 

 ped last ]May 2,045 pounds of cleanly washed wool, for 

 which he was offered 56 cents a pound. Now if we divide 

 the weight of the wool (2,045 Rs.) by 400 (the number of 

 fleeces), we have five pounds one ounce and over three- 

 fourths of an ounce (320-400ths of an ounce). Within a 

 small fraction, this flock of pt.re blooded Spanish Merino 

 sheep, kept and improved on the same farm some 25 years, 

 yield $2.85 worth of wool per head. This breeder of really 

 superior sheep has been in the habit of altering his ram 

 lambs and seUing them as fat wethers to butchers, at $3.75 

 or thereabouts, for mutton. Now, had this skillful hu.sband- 

 man informed the farming community of the facts in rela- 

 tion to the purity of the blood, size and other good quali- 

 ties of his rams and ewes, every one he can rear will sell at 

 from $10 to $20 a head when one year old ; giving him a 

 clear profit of $1000 a year on his sheep more than he now 

 obtains. By paying a few dollars to the proprietor of the 

 Genesee Farmer, he could have informed one hundred thou- 

 sand readers where a letter would reach him, and thus sel- 

 ler and buyer would be made acquainted witli each other. 

 We have just counted two columns of advertisements iu tlie 

 Journal of Commerce. In one column there are 85 ; and 

 in the other 164 advertisements. The paper contains 30 

 columns devoted exclusively to this kind of information. 

 The Journal of Commerce has not one-fourth the circula- 

 tion of the Genesee Farmer; but business men make for- 

 tunes by telling the public through its ample pages, what 

 they wish to purchase, and what they wish to sell. Does 

 any reader wish to buy a farm, for a dollar he can inform 

 tens of thousands of the fact in four or five lines of this 

 rural paper ; does another wish to sell one, for a dollar he 

 can put his property into the great market of the United 

 States. Every day we are asked to inform some one by 

 private letter where he can purchase Berkshire pigs, or 

 Suffolks ; stock of every kind, and machines for cutting 

 cornstalks, turnips, corn and cob grinders, and farm imple- 

 ments of aU descriptions, seeds of every name, agricultural 

 books and others — all going to prove the fact that those 

 who deal with farmers have yet to learn the philosophy of 



