iJOS 



THE GENESEE FAKMER. 



LORD NAPIER ON AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



.J At the meeting of the United States Ag. Society 

 at Richmond, Va., the late English Ambassador 

 made a speech, from which we take the following : 



When I rise to address the great assembly which 

 has remembered my sovereign and my country, and 

 done mc tlie honor of recognizing my presence at 

 diis festival, I reflect with satisfaction that however 

 ignorant of the noble industry to wliich you are 

 devoted, and however incapable of justly appreci- 

 ating the etlbrts and services which you are ren- 

 dering in its cause, I may still rank myself, though 

 in a subordinate order, among the true sons and 

 votaries of the soil. I remember with pleasure 

 that my father was an unsuccessful farmer, though 

 •i successful writer on the art of farming. I belong 

 to a class whose interests and aftections are deeply 

 rooted in the land — a class whose active age is 

 much bestowed on the business of Parliament, or 

 negotiation, or civil government, or the profession 

 of arms, but whose thoughts in all the vicissitudes 

 of life and strife still repose upon fields and sports, 

 smd who ever dream of a late return to the hered- 

 itary home. Notwithstanding this foreign vagrancy 

 and diplomatic desertion, I remain a member of 

 the ni;^hland Society of Scotland ; and however 

 incredible it may appear to you, I am President of 

 the Pastoral Association of my native country for 

 the improvement of the breed of sheep. With 

 such instincts and associations you will believe that 

 1 do not feel altogether a stranger here, and that I 

 am deeply gratified by the hearty welcome that I 

 rind from the brotlierhood of agricultui-ists, in 

 which I claim to be an afliliated, though at present 

 an unfruitful member. 



The husbandry of America presents in its vast 

 extension and rapid progress a spectacle to which 

 no Englishman can remain indiflt'erent. History 

 offers no example of this swift, resistless, unceasing 

 encruacliment of skilled labor over the vacant and 

 tertile domain of the savage and the brute. It is 

 the first triumph of man, equipped with all the 

 accumulated powers of experience and invention, 

 .)ver nature in her largest limits and her most gra- 

 dou9 and bountiful conditions. In the agriculture 

 <>f the United States we see with exultation a 

 beneficent and spontaneous profession of industry, 

 of which the field is the American continent, and 



of which the implement is the Anglo-Saxon arm, 



******* 



"While recognizing all the importance of the land 

 and the agriculture of the UHited States to the 

 '4ocial welfare of the British empire, I cannot deny 

 nayself the pleasure of expressing to you the inter- 

 ttjt which, as a mere virtuoso in rural matters, I 

 have taken in the external aspect of American 

 husbandry. In gome respects the prospect is otYen 



'*-'lndeed tineatisfactory to the English eye. In the 

 new parts of the country the jirimitive graces of 

 the landscape are ruthlessly violated, while the 

 :irtificial trimness to which we are accustomed has 

 not liegun. We raoorn over the blackened and gir- 



,,dled giant of tlte forest, each of which would be the 

 /ylvan honor of an English homestead — our fastidi- 



*'nus taste complains that the furrcjw is not straight, 



-i-lhat the wheat is not clean, that the swamp is 

 not drained, that tlwj bward bribtles with obnosioue 

 stamp*; that there is a general absence of root 



or green crops, and we discover a great deficiency 

 of sheep. In the regions which have been longest 

 under the plough, the vital forces of the soil seem 

 to have been frequently overtaxed ; the more valu- 

 able cereals are abandoned, and here and there the 

 wilderness resumes its sway. It requires but little 

 reflection to show that these phenomena are tlie 

 natural and transitory concomitants of the first 

 epoch of tillage, which is hasty, pitiless and im- 

 poverishing. On the other hand, I remark that in 

 many portions of the Union there are extensive 

 tracts which would be considered opulent and well 

 ordered in any European kingdom. In the absence 

 of turnips, potatoes and mangel wurzel, the 

 English traveler is gratified by the spectacle of 

 Indian corn, tobacco and the vine, and further 

 south, by the cotton plant, the rice field and the 

 cane, all magnificent and lucrative productions, 

 unknown to British husbandry. There is also a 

 greater abundance of fruit trees ; the breed of 

 horses equals that of the mother country, except, I 

 think, for the purposes of heavy draft ; and the 

 various races of cattle replenished by importations 

 of the best blood of England, will be propagated 

 without degeneracy, and will be formidable rivals 

 to the parent stock. 



In a country where human labor is exorbitantly 

 expensive, the greatest ingenuity is exerted in the 

 improvement of tools and the invention of mechan- 

 ical aids and substitutes, and in this respect the 

 triumphs of American contrivances are not only 

 profitable at home, but are recognized and adopted 

 by foreign nations. Much, gentlemen, has been 

 accomplished, and the future will furnish still 

 higher results. If we regard the dissemination of 

 intelligence, the dilFusion of tastes for rural pur- 

 suits, the increased application of capital, the sci- 

 entific inspection of soils, the discriminating use ot 

 manures, the developement of the home market, 

 and the general establishment of competitiva exhi- 

 bitions, we may safely affirm that American agricul- 

 tural has entered upon a period which will not only 

 be reparative where the past was exhaustive, but 

 which will gradually carry the land in every quar- 

 ter to a high pitch of productiveness and beauty. 



FrsK V3. Coarse Wool Sheep. — Having been a 

 reader of the Farmer for the past ten years, I 

 have during that time noticed more or less discus- 

 sion with regard to the relative qualities of coarse 

 and fine wool sheep, some recommending one kind 

 and some another, as yielding the greatest profit to 

 the farmer. I have kept both kinds, and as far as 

 my experience goes am greatly in favor of the fine 

 wool, provided they are of the right kind. I kept 

 through the Avinter, one year ago, thirty-one sheep 

 of the French and Spanish cross; fifteen ewes, 

 (which reared me fourteen himbs,) thirteen lambs 

 and tliree bucks, which sheared me G lbs. and 11 oz. 

 per head, (on an average) of clean, washed wool. 

 That sold for 40 cts. per lb., while coarse wool sold 

 from 25 cts. to 30 cts. My sheep were provided 

 with (what I consider indispensable) good shelter, 

 racks under cover, and fed witli corn, oats, and 

 wheat bran, in equal parts, half bushel per day, 

 and watered regularly. Now, if any one can show 

 a greater profit from the same number of coarse 

 wool sheep, I hope they will give us their experi- 

 ence. — Z. B. S., Fairjicld^ Ohio. 



