108 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



of kiUins our soo^ because she lays e^s of gold, 

 that ^ve "may set all she has at once, the Gexesee 

 Fapjmee, which was the fet to condemn this suicidal 

 p:.UcT in the Empire State- will never cease to hold 

 it up' to public reprobation. 



In 1^4.5. the farmers of Erie county planted in 

 com 10.530 acres, and harvested of wheat 20.433 ^ 

 acres, with the vield per acre which we have akeady 

 Etated. Mr. ]\^ttengiix and others have demon- 

 strated that fair tillage and a plenty of manure are 

 alone needed in that county to bring the average of 

 wheat from twelve bushels per acre up to thirty-five 

 or fortv: and the average of com, from twenty-two 

 and a "half bushels up to seventy or eighty per acre. 

 The faraiers there do not lack either skill or radustiT 

 to grow 2-ood crops, provided they have within then- 

 reach th.i)^ essential constituents of grain which least 

 abound in cultivated land The city of Buffdo m 

 that countv contains between seventy and eighty 

 thousand ii^abitants: and it possesses every facility 

 for supplvin? abundant manure for ten thousand 

 acres to be planted in com this spring, and sown to 

 ■wheat next autumn. Well dressed with • night-soil 

 and the dun? of erain-fed city horses, the com and 

 wheat lands "of Erie would produce three times more 

 than thev now do : and the farmers who do so much to 

 enrich Buffalo, would in turn be made wealthy by 

 the doubhng and trebling of the market value of their 

 farms. Is it not time that the denizens of ciries. and 

 the owners and cultivators of the soil in their vi- 

 cinity, co-operate for the advancement of their mutual 

 interests in the production of com and wheat ? 



We should rejoice to meet the farmers of Erie 

 county, and talk this matter over face to face. ITie 

 agricultural capabilities of that county are large in- 

 deed. We have studied its Rocks, its Drift, and its 

 Alluvium, to find out what its soil has, and what it 

 has not. in sufficient quantity to yield large crops of 

 wheat and com. According to the official returns 

 which we had made nine years ago, the farmers of 

 Erie ^wed 1.580 ac^ in wheat more in 1545 than 

 thev did in 1644. In 1845 they reported 224,196 

 acres of improved land: in 1850 they returned 270,874: 

 increase in five yea^, 46,678 acres. Erie county still 

 contains a good deal of wild land, although the 

 above figur^ m'licate the interesting fact that from 

 1845 to 1850 nearly ten thousand acres of native 

 forest were felled and cleared every year within its 

 limits. The la?t United States census was very de- 

 fective, therefore we can not say hoV many acres 

 were harvested to obtain the 242.221 bushels of 

 wheat returned in that county. The crop of the 

 previous State ceasus v.-as 251,781 bushels; decrease, 

 9.560 bashels, notwithstanding there were 46,678 

 acr^ more under improvement in 1850 than in 1845. 

 Oar old friends in Erie county ought to wake up, 

 and study their wheat and com crops a little closer 

 than thev now do. 



ADDEESS 



Delivered before the Frasklis Covntt Agbicux.- 



TCBAL Society (,Mass.), Oct. 7, 1S53.* 



BY DAMEL LEE, M. D. 



Reasons why Coffee is xot well >L\de.— -Ist. Toe 

 berries are frequently too rapidly roasted, their proj^er 

 color being that of cinnamon. 2d. The coffee is 

 ground too fine. 3d. Not enough coffee is u-setl 

 it is us-uallv over-boiled, by which the bitter princi- 

 ple is extracted from the berries. 



Is studyins the soils it is important to bear in mind 

 that while" common stable manure is rarely worth over 

 a dollar a toa eood guano is worth fifty times that 

 sum for the same weight. There are thousands of 

 farmers who are now making three barrels of wheat, 

 or five of com. from one of manure : and when the 

 cream of the best soils shall become an article of 

 commerce, as I hope it soon will, you may look for a 

 revolution in New England agriculture. Yon can 

 hasten a material chancre for the better by encouragmg 

 careful and reliable eSperi™«^°t^ in the feeding of all 

 plants and animals grown in Massachusetts : or you 

 mav prevent such change by apposing the establish- 

 ment of an experimental farm in the State. Beyond 

 all question, tillage and husbandry embrace many ex- 

 perimental arts- and manv experimental sciences: and 

 I believe that it is just a^ easy in a long ran to draw 

 the food of annual crops from ten to twenty feet be- 

 low the surface of the ground, as from ten to twenty 

 inches. The earthv matter that enriches your creek 

 and river flats came from deep ravines, hill-side gul- 

 li^ and mountain gorges, and not mostly from the 

 surface of uplands. Clay washed from 100 feet be- 

 low the surface, and distributed as mud and sediment 

 over meadows and pastures, rarely fails to enrich them. 

 Witnesing the good effects of such deposits, I am 

 expectino- to rejuvenate a farm that was worn out by 

 tobacco-culture before the Revolution, mainly by 

 brin<ring the deep subsoil to the surface, and.deposit- 

 mc- "it 'in gentlv-fiowin? muddy water. On every 

 square yard of our land there falls about a ton of 

 water in twelve months. A few thousand t ons of wa- 

 ter falhn? on the tops of hills on one's farm are no 

 mean mechanical power for spreading the most fertile 

 substances which any farmer can command, over all 

 the ground below. 'Agricultural mechanics and en- 

 gin^rin? are m their infancy; and I confess to you 

 mv anxiety to see them cultivated in New England, 

 where I am confident they may add four-fold to the 

 I intrinsic and marketable value of your farmmg lands. 

 1 All the elements of fertility that make your best flats 

 i worth S200 or S300 an acre, exi=t in the atmosphere, 

 i in rain water, and in the earths of all uplands, hills 

 and mountains. These abound more or less in agn- 

 cultural salts, such as I have briefly referred to in 

 calling your attention to the most productive lands m 

 the Unioa While I doubt not you would find it 

 profitable to purchase guano, lime, gyp.-um. ashes and 

 bone-dust, to a certain extent, yet were I farming 

 hfre I should relv mainiv on irrigation, and elements 

 derived from the earth' below the soil, and from the 

 atmosphere. While endeavoring to accumulate the 

 essential elements of crops in the soil as a permanent 

 investment, capable of yiekliug a good interest, 1 

 should sell nothing but air off my farm m the shape 

 of choice butter, and the very little earthy matter in 

 the bones and flesh of fat pigs and steers. If I were 

 to bum an ounce or pound of pure batter before you, 

 no ashes or incombustible part would remam. As 



• Condnded from the December nnmber. 



