74 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



raeu -who have few coinpeers in this or any other 

 country. These men, by precept and example, 

 have given direction to British agriculture. They 

 have iBtroduced many scientific improvements. 

 The?e improvements have been extensively and 

 successfully adopted by men who have no scientific 

 attainments. So that the high state of English 

 agriculture does not, necessarily, indicate a high 

 state of mental culture among the majority of Eng- 

 lish farmers. The inlluence of exatnj^h and the 

 force of circumstances, rather than general intelli- 

 gence, are the main reasons fur *.he great superior- 

 ity of British agriculture. 



English farmers, as a class, do not read as much 

 as American farmers. Tlie aggregate circulation 

 of all the English agricultural papers is not greater 

 than tJiat of the Genesee Farmer alone ; and in ad- 

 dition to the Genesee Farmer^ we have the Albany 

 Cultitator, the American Agriculturist, the Ohio 

 Cultivator, the American Farmer, the Southern 

 Planter, the Southern Cultivator, the Neio Eng- 

 land Farmer, the Valley Farmer, the Wiscondn 

 Farmer, tJie Farmers' Magazine, and many others, 

 all old, well-established, and extensively-circulated 

 journals, devoted exclusively to agricultural and 

 liorticultural subjects; to say notliing of the week- 

 ly agricultural papers, such as the Country Gentle- 

 man, the Homestead, the Boston Cultivator, the 

 Kew England Farmer, the Massachusetts Plough- 

 man, the Priral New- Yorl-er, the Maine Farmer, 

 the Prairie Farmer, the Ohio Farmer, the Michi- 

 gan Farmer, the Rxiral American, and several 

 others, all of which enjoy a liberal patronage. The 

 sale of agricultural books, too, is nmch greater here 

 than in England. 



We are aware that America, as yet, has produced 

 few ngricultural books of any great value ; but this, 

 80 far from indicating a lack of general intelligence 

 among the farmers, proves rather the great demand 

 for agricultural information. If poor books sell so 

 well, good books — containing the information 

 which farmers need — would sell better. 



That American formers are not as well educated 

 as is desirable, must be admitted. Still, as a class, 

 they will not suffer by comparison with those of 

 any other nation. We are not blarneying in say- 

 ing this. "We have a great respect fur American 

 farmers, as well as for those of Canada. They 

 have cleared the wilderness, and made the desert 

 blossom as a rose. They have done well, and de- 

 serve the credit. 



Mr. JonssTOK thinks tUe Amoriran farmers are 

 not intelligent and enterprising, because they have 

 exhausted their Imd by over-cropping. 



We think it is impossible for a fanner to exhaust 

 his soil — that is, take out of it all, or the whole of 

 any one, of the elements of plants which it con- 

 tains. If a farmer has a field which has been 

 heavily manured, and he sows it with grain for a 

 few years, he exhausts the manure, but he dues not 

 exhaust the soil. New land has been heavily ma- 

 nured by the annual fall of leaves, etc., for centu- 

 ries. By a scourging system of tillage, we exhatist 

 this coat of natural manure, but -we do not exhaust 

 the soil — we reduce it to a more normal condition. 

 Instead of censuring the farmers of a new country 

 for availing themselves of the elements of fertility 

 accumulated in the soil, vre think they acted well 

 and wisely in converting them into crops which 

 would command the ready cash. In some cases, as ■ 

 Mr. Johnston says, they may have wasted the ^ 

 money so obtained ; but as a rule it has been ex- r 

 pended in improving the country — in fencing the ,, 

 land, in building houses and barns, in digging 

 canals and constructing railroads Churches,; 

 school-houses, academies, and colleges, all repre- 

 sent money dug from the soil. An indolent, igno- 

 rant, unenterprising race of fanners would have 

 let this -wealth lie dormant in the soil. 



We can not but think it was well to avail our- 

 selves of the food of plants lying dormant in the 

 soil. We have now advantages for cultivating the 

 soil which the early settlers did not enjoy. The 

 soil is not as rich — the natural manure has been 

 perhaps exhausted, and we must now add manure 

 to the soil if we would grow as good croi» as for- 

 merly. Our agriculture is in a transition state. 

 Farmers may not readily adapt themselves to theii 

 altered circumstances. Their crops may have beet 

 sadly deficient for a few years; but they are now 

 beginning to farm better — to underdrain, keej y 

 more and better stock, make more and better n)a 

 n«re, — and in a few years, if we are not mucl 

 mistaken, we shall witness very great and genera 

 improvement. 



r.e 



h 



Lite and Dead Weight of Hogs. — E. Cokneu 

 of Ithaca, N. Y., furnishes the Country Gcntlcma'i 

 the live and dead weight of some large hogs, oblfc; 

 tained at a "hog killing festival" in Groton. Fou jj 

 hogs, weighing alive in tlie aggregate 3,100 lbs; -^j 

 weiglicd when dressed 2,043 lbs. In other words jj. 

 100 lbs. of live weight gave a fraction over 85 lbs ' 

 dressed. This is an unusually high proportion o .' 

 dressed to live weight. If the hogs had been lee 

 fat, the results would not liave been so high. Tli * 

 general estimate of good hogs is 80 lbs. carcass t \ 

 100 lbs. live weight, or a deduction of one-fifth- liiio 

 varying less or more, according to the age, bree* 1$ 

 and degree of fatness, of the hogs. Jliii 



