^OL. XVI., Second Series. 



ROCHESTER, If. Y., MARCH, 1865. 



No. 8. 



THE GENESEE FARMER, 



JOURNAL OP 



lQRICULTU RE & HOR TIGULTUKE. 

 Volnme XVI, Second Series, 1855 



DANIELi L,EE AND W. D. ALUS, EDITORS. 



JOSEPH FROST, HORTICULTURAL EDITOR. 



ftCH NITJfBER CONTAINS 32 ROYAL OCTAVO PAGES, IN 



DOUBLE COLUJINS, AND TWELVE NUMBERS FORM 



A VOLUME OF 384 PAGES IN A YEAR. 



Term*. 



Mgle Copy, J0.50 



Te Copies, 2.00 



ght Copies, 3.00 



And at the same rate for any larger number. 



DANIEL, USE, 

 Publisher and Proprietor^ Rochester, N. Y, 



THE FEEDING OF CITIES. 



The city of New York contains some seven hun- 

 ed thousand inhabitants, and it is estimated that 

 •ey daily consume an average of half a pound of 

 «at each, or three hundred and fifty thousand pounds 

 day, the year round. The state of New York 

 ntains many cities beside its great commercial me- 

 jpolis, whose inhabitants live on the fruits of rural 

 lustry ; and the feeding of our growing population 

 villages and cities, ha already become a business 

 immense magnitude and importance. It is not at 

 probable, that any one will ever again see bread- 

 iflfe and provisions as cheap in this country, as they 

 ve been within the last ten years. Consumption 

 •esses too closely upon production, coupled with the 

 pidly increasing necessity of importing guano, or 

 her costly manure, for any lasting low prices of 

 aiu or meat. Our farming lands have parted with 

 much of their elements of crops, and our cities 

 ive wasted so many millions of tons of the raw ma- 

 rial of human food and raiment, ths.t cheapness 

 ■reafter, as compared with former prices, is out of 

 e question. It may take ten, twenty, or perhaps 

 irty years, for the denizens of cities, and the culti- 



vators of the soil, to learn the true state of the case. 

 Popular neglect, or ignorance, can not alter the facts 

 as to the constant and ever-increasing draft made 

 upon the soil to support an urban population. The 

 latter make no adequate restitution to the land that 

 both feeds and clothes them ; and for this reason, if 

 for no other, the market value of a bare subsistence 

 in all American cities, will steadily advance from one 

 decade to another. Farmers will not supply those 

 that dwell in towns using the word town in the En- 

 glish sense with food, without being paid well for all 

 the manure, lime, ashes, seed, and labor bestowed on 

 their annual crops. A few cultivators may blindly 

 sell all the elements of grain and provisions which 

 their farms contain within reach of the plow ; but so 

 large is the number of consumers at home and abroad, 

 that their folly will not, hereafter, greatly depreciate 

 the market price of agricultural staples. Of course, 

 we do not assume that the present uncommon prices 

 are to continue, but simply that they will never again 

 average for ten years together, as low as they have 

 done for the last three or four decades. 



How, then, can American cities be fed to the beat 

 advantage? Clearly, by combining tillage with stock 

 husbandry, and fruit-culture, in a way to maintain in- 

 tact all the natural resources of the soil, and augment 

 the fertility of such lands as need fertilization. The 

 most economical production of grain, vegetables, ap- 

 ples, and other fruit, as well as provisions, for city 

 consumption, requires great skill in the use of manure. 

 Agricultural plants have to be fed in some way not 

 less than all animals ; and how to feed them wisely 

 and properly, is a question antecedent to that of feed- 

 ing mankind in old communities. Unfortunately, the 

 people who live in cities prefer to keep their local 

 manure for breeding pestilence rather than prepare it 

 for the economical use of farmers in the country, so 

 that very little need be expected from that source. 



