m 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



the lazy and tlic careless. Here, and here only, such 

 an one may mamtain life almost without labor. 

 ****** 



"I have been describing the country bordering on 

 the Amazon. Up the tributaries, midway between 

 their mouth and source, on each side are wide savan- 

 nahs, where feed herds of cattle, furnishing a trade 

 in hides ; and at the sources of the southern tributa- 

 ries are ranges of mountains, which yield immense 

 treasures of diamonds and other precious stones. 



" It is again (as in the case of the country at the 

 foot of the Andes) sad to think that, excluding the 

 savage tribes, who for any present purposes of good 

 may be ranked with the beasts that perish, this coun- 

 try has not more than one inhabitant for every ten 

 square miles of land ; that it is almost a wilderness ; 

 that being capable, as it is, of yielding support, com- 

 fort and luxury to many millions of civilized people 

 who have superfluous wants, it should be but the 

 dwelling place of the savage and the wild beast. 



" Such is the country whose destiny and the de- 

 velopment of whose resources is in the hands of Brazil. 

 It seems a pity that she should undertake the work 

 alone; she is not strong enough; she should do what 

 we are not too proud to do — stretch out her hands 

 to the world at large, and say, ' Come and help us to 

 subdue the wilderness ; here are homes, and broad 

 lands, and protection to all who choose to come.' 

 She should break up her steamboat monopoly, and 

 say to the se^-faring and commercial people of the 

 world, 'We are not a maritime people ; we have no 

 skill or practice in steam navigation ; come and do 

 our carrying, while we work the lands ; bring your 

 steamers laden with your manufactures, and take 

 from the banks of our rivers the rich productions of 

 our vast regions.' "With such a policy, and taking 

 means to preserve her nationality, for which she is 

 now abundantly strong, I have no hesitation in saying, 

 that I believe in fifty years Rio Janeiro, without 

 losing a tittle of her wealth and greatness, will be 

 but a village to Para, and Para will be what New 

 Orleans would long ago have been but for the activity 

 of New York and her own fatal climate, the greatest 

 city of the New World; Santarem will be St. Louis, 

 and Barra, Cincinnati. 



" The citizens of the United States are, of all for- 

 eign people, most interested in the free navigation of 

 the Amazon. We, as in comparison with other for- 

 eigners, would reap the lion's share of the advantages 

 to be derived from it. We would fear no competi- 

 tion. Our geographical position, the winds of Heaven, 

 and the currents of the ocean, are our potential aux- 

 iliaries. Thanks to Maury's investigations of the 

 winds and currents, we know that a chip flung into 

 the sea at the mouth of the Amazon wih float close 

 by Cape Hatteras. We know that ships sailing from 

 the mouth of the Amazon, for whatever port of the 

 world, are forced to go to our very doors by the SE. 

 and NE. trade winds ; that New York is the half- 

 way house between Para and Europe." 



According to the census returns of 1840, the 

 amount of tobacco raised in the United States was 

 219,163,319 fts.; of 1850, 199,752,646 lbs.; showing 

 a decrease in its culture of 19,410,673 ibs. 



FARM MANAGEMENT. 



There is an idea prevalent in the minds of many, 

 that to be a good farmer only requires the ability to 

 work hard and keep steadily at it. Such farmers are 

 like men on the tread-wheel — they move indeed, but 

 never get ahead. As an illustration of the qualifica- 

 tions necessary to make a good manager of a farm, 

 we give the following extract from the London Jig- 

 rkultural Gazette, and we hope those who think that 

 bones and sinews are the only essentials of produc- 

 tive farming will profit thereby: 



" AVe have lately tried to obtain the services of an 

 experienced and intelligent man for the management 

 of a large farm in one of the central counties of Eng- 

 land, and have been struck by the abundant confi- 

 dence of the several candidates for the office, and 

 their apparently easy estimate of the qualifications 

 needed. The farm contains probably a thousand 

 acres, of which al)out eight hundred are still an un- 

 enclosed dry heathy moor. The climate of the dis- 

 trict is sufficiently moist ; and its light sandy soil, 

 under good management, will grow turnips and bar- 

 ley readily enough. At present, however, the greater 

 portion of it is in a state of nature, and the crop it 

 bears is ling. 



" Now, just think of the many important questions 

 on which the advice of the farm-manager is needed. 

 He has first to frame a scheme of cultivation; and, 

 supposing the wliole farm brought under it, he has, 

 after calculating the kind and quantity of stock which 

 it will maintain, to determine the kind and quantity 

 of aeconmiodation required for it. Farm buildings 

 have to be erected. It is a matter of much difficulty 

 to decide upon their position in the case of a long 

 narrow farm of such extent. The mansion or farm- 

 house and some few builrlings are already built at one 

 end of this long strip, and, unfortunately, at the nar- 

 row end of it, for it widens out considerably at the 

 other. And whether or in what degree the new 

 buildings are to be a mere addition to the old — or if 

 they shall be erected in one or in two positions on 

 the wider end of the estate; and if so, how the several 

 portions of a complete farmery are to be distributed 

 among them — whether each shall be complete in 

 itself, containing stack-yard and root-store, granary 

 and straw-house, yards, stables, stalls and boxes (a 

 portable threshing machine being employed to travel 

 from one to the other, as litter is wanted at each); or 

 if each shall contain a portion only of a complete set 

 of buildings — the breeding stock for instance, and the 

 fixed threshing machinery, the granary and the rick 

 yards, and a portion of the stabling being placei 

 around or near the tenant's house ; while accommo- 

 dation for the young and fattening stock, ami foi 

 sheep, and for some of the horses of the farm, is pro- 

 vided at the other stations nearer where the manure 

 is wanted, and the labor too. All these questions 

 will be decided mainly upon the ad\'ice of an intelli- 

 gent farm-manager. 



" The decision here does not merely concern the 

 investment of a sum of £2,000 ($!10,000),}t influences 

 the annual expenses and returns of the farm for ever 

 after — placing the tenant in a groove, as it were^ 

 from which no escape will afterwards be possible; 



