96 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Agkxot in New York. — C. M. Saxtos, Agricultural Book Pub- 

 lisher, No. 152 Fulton street. New YorU, is agent for the GE^-ESEE 

 Farmer, and subscribers in that city who apply to him can have 

 their papers delivered regularly at their houses. 



Hints for the Season. — A friend in Danville, Pa., 



writes : 



" I am desirous of knowinj; whether the contents of the 

 vaults of privies will pay for tlie trouble of an application to 

 corn. If you think they will, what does the manure need ? 

 and what is the best way of applying it ? I have the 

 coming season a ])Oor piece of ground to plant in corn, 

 wliich needs sometliing to improve it, and guano costs too 

 much. Privy manure I believe I could obtain in any quan- 

 tity, for the hauling of about six mUes. 



Obed Everitt." 



"With wheat at two dollars a bushel, and corn and pota- 

 toes proportionably high, it is not strange that hundreds 

 address letters of inquiry to the Farmer similar to the 

 above, some of which we shall attempt to answer under 

 the heading of " Hints for the Season." 



We visited Pittsburgh last spring to see if cheap glass 

 vessels could not be made in which a little oil of vitriol 

 might be placed, to deodorize the fecal matters of privies. 

 They need something that is not weighty to fix all the 

 volatile oifensive elements, so that the manure may be 

 easily transported, as, guano, gypsum and common salt 

 now are. We found that glass milk-pans were sold at 

 twentv-five cents each ; but vessels large enough to serve 

 as small reservoirs of privy manure were likely to cost too 

 much for general use. Not a privy in Baltimore, we are 

 informed, and we know not one in Washington, is allowed 

 to have a vault, or any thing more than a box above ground, 

 the contents of which are often removed by city scaven- 

 gers. They have generally water-tight tanks on wagons, 

 into which tl\e boxes under the seats of privies are emptied 

 at night (from 12 to 3 in the morning), and the night-soil 

 is conveyed into the country for horticultural and agricul- 

 tural purposes. This is a dirty and shockingly oifensive 

 job, as conducted at the federal metropolis. 



To remove this serious obstacle, and bring night-soil into 

 general use, are objects of great importance. Charred 

 peat and common charcoal, j)ulverized, have been recom- 

 mended to dry and deodorize privy manure ; but even these 

 appear to cost too much for American agriculture. Dry 

 loam is cheaper, and answers a good purpose to mix with 

 fresh night-soU, where it is to be hauled only a short dis- 

 tance. In the present state of public intelligence and no- 

 tions on this subject, farmers find it difficult to avail them- 

 selves of this truly valuable food of plants. All cities and 

 villages should take the business of saving every fecal ele- 

 ment within their respective limits into tlieir own hands. 

 They can control the structure of all privies, and the dis- 

 position of every manural substance ; but the residents 

 of cities are not sufficiently civilized to abstain from poison- 

 ing themselves with their own filth. This is the real diffi- 

 QDlty that prevents farmers from getting a vast amount 

 of the richest manure at a mere nominal sum ; but it does 

 not prevent every family in the country saving night-soil 



on their own premises. For this purpose dry leached i 

 may be used, or dry swamp muck and gypsum. 



As March is the season for plowing with many of our 

 readers, we can not too earnestly impress upon them th« 

 the importance of f/et/j and fine tilth. Land thus culti- 

 vated draws largely on the atmosphere for its fertilizing 

 moisture and gases. We have many letters from practical 

 farmers on tillage, which will appear hereafter. 



" Lebanon, Ky., January, 1854. 

 Daniel Lee — Dear Sir: — I would feel much obliged 

 to you for a little information relative to Agricultural 

 Scliools in the East. Please inform me by letter, or through 

 the Farmer, where 1 may find an Agricultural School — 

 one in a thriving condition. 1 expected to see the adver- 

 tisement of some in your most valuable journal. 



Yours, truly, E. Young." 



The above letter, from a youth in Kentucky, is a fair 

 sample of scores that we have received seeking earnestly 

 for information in reference to " Agricultural Schools.' 

 As there is not one such institution in this great Republic; 

 we are painfully compelled either to pass over such letters 

 from our young friends without notice, or write them thai 

 in this Nation of Farmers there is not sufficient InteUigenc< 

 to found and support one school for the increase and diffu- 

 sion of agricultural knowledge. Thirty-two years agt 

 this winter, when Judge Buel introduced a bill into ou; 

 State Legislature to establish an Agricultural School ii 

 this the largest and wealthiest agricultural State in th< 

 Union, appropriating $100,000 to the object, we cherishec 

 the hope that the systematic study of rm-al sciences woulc 

 soon become popular with the American people. Thl 

 hope has never been realized. The age has proved to bi 

 contented with rural quackery in place of rural science 

 and our State and County Agricultural Societies, and mos 

 journals devoted to agriculture and horticulture, rarel; 

 aUude to our deplorable lack of close study of the law 

 of Nature most intimately connected vrith all farming 

 operations. We have no text books illusti-ative of com 

 parative anatomy and agricultural physiology, and none oi 

 agricultural chemistry, geology and meteorology, adapte( 

 to practical use in schools. This arises from our universa 

 neglect to cultivate agricultural knowledge. If a practica 

 individual wishes to pursue the critical investigation of ru 

 ral economy, he must work alone, at every disadvantage ] 

 without the smallest hope of compensation, while a thou- 

 sand envious spirits stand ready to deprive him of any credi 

 that may be due for a life of self-sacrificing devotion to i 

 great public interest. Men who are too lazy to study hav« 

 the power, and use it, to prevent the establishment oi 

 Agricultural Schools iu this country. Tliey tolerate cat- 

 tle shows, because to see fat animals requires no think- 

 ing. If these rural exhibitions imposed mental laboi 

 on all that attended them, they would liave but few spec- 

 tators. 



There exists in the United States but the germ of agri- 

 cultural science ; and whether the vitality of this gerir 

 sliall be destroyed by its enemies, or developed by its friends 

 in the next twenty years, is a matter of doubt wherein the 

 chances are about equal. AVe have ceased to look to the 

 United States Agricultural Society, or to that of New 



