276 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



THE INCHEASING NECESSITY FOR MAKING FARM- 

 ING A SCIENCE. 



No intelligent anrl ol)serving farmer, as he sees 

 each year hriiiging with it some new and deadly 

 enemy to liis crops, can avoid asking, " What shall 

 the end of these things be?" Every spring he 

 plows his ground in hope, scatters in the seed with 

 a liberal hand, watciies and tills with care, and is 

 doomed at last to disappointment by seeing the 

 devouring insects or other foes sweep over the fair 

 gi-ain, rendering it a chaffy waste. Forty years 

 ago, our ancestors had no trouble in raising an 

 abundant crop of wheat, aside from properly pre- 

 paring the soil, sowing, harrowing, reaping, gar- 

 nering, (fcc. Tiiey got in the seed in due time; and 

 after that tlieir thoughts were troubled by no fears 

 of frost, rust, or weevil; while we often sow in 

 fear, and reap emptiness. 



Tiie population of the world is increasing steadily 

 with the years; while if the capability of produc- 

 tion does not increase in the same ratio, we shall 

 evidently come to want. It is said that our vast 

 country, it skillfully tilled, is capable of supporting 

 500,000,000 of human beings; but it is plain that 

 it could not be done by the present system of till- 

 age. And yet, we may confidently believe that 

 this immense number will one day inhabit our 

 land; and if so, what shall they eat? In Belgium, 

 the most densely peopled country on the globe, 

 588 nersons occupy, and are fed from, one square 

 mi'- ; and yet it is well known that the soil of that 

 c .ntry is by no means the most fertile in Europe, 

 our country is naturally far richer. Still, even at 

 this eai'ly date, we see immense tracts in Virginia 

 deserted entirely, -nnd thrown open as commons, 

 on the plea that they are so poor that a "living 

 can not be made on them," though without doubt 

 they were once fertile and remunerative. Out on 

 such farming! Unhappily, this method of cultiva- 

 tion and its inevitable results are too common in 

 this " fast" age and country. Most of the European 

 States, so far behind us in other respects, and which 

 we so haughtily and often unjustly taunt, are vastly 

 our superiors in this particular. 



Again; the ever-increasing variety and number 

 of insect enemies which annually infest and destroy 

 the crops, imperatively demand new preventives — 

 new means of defense and preservation against 

 them. As the country is cleared up, and civiliza- 

 tion advances, the various grains and vegetables, 

 like the liuman bod}', are wasted by new and 

 fiercer enemies. Wheat, our great staple product 

 and one of the constituents of human existence, 

 lives a precarious life, and withers before the at- 

 tacks of puny, contemptible bugs. Corn, the 

 pioneer cereal of America, is cut down in the green 

 and vigorous youth of its short life by the unsight- 

 ly worm, and poor man is left with little hope and 

 less bread. What shull be done? Shall we still 

 continue to plow and sow and not reap, as did our 

 fathers? Plaiidy, we can not. 



Tiien the only thing to be done after there re- 

 mains no more land to be settled, (which must, 

 most assuredly, be the state of affairs at some 

 future day,) and the population is still increasing, 

 is to fiirm better. Land speculation mu.-t be abol- 

 ished, and men must be content to own no more 

 land than they can thor'uighly and profitably till. 

 And not only that, the principles of good farming 



must be more studied. In fact, farmers must no 

 longer work with the hands only, but with the 

 liead also. It must' no longer be spoken of con- 

 temptibly as "Farming," but as 'Geoponics." — 

 Agricultural Colleges must be founded and sup- 

 ported, in which farmeis' sons can be taught the 

 science of their art as thoroughly as lawyers are in 

 theirs. Europe supports 400 of these schools; the 

 United States but two. The effects are readily 

 seen in their respective systems of agriculture, and 

 the extent of their population. Much must be 

 allowed for the youth of our country; still, much 

 is needed. s. powers. 



Water/brd, Ohio, July, 1S59. 



^« I m 



OUR CREED. 



"We believe in small farms and thorough culti- 

 vation. 



We believe that soil loves to eat, as well as its 

 owner, and ought, therefore, to be manured. 



We believe in large crops which leave the land 

 better than they found it — making both the farmer 

 and the farm rich at once. 



We believe in going to the bottom of things, and, 

 therefore, in deep plowing, and enough of it. All 

 the better if with a subsoil plow. 



We believe that every farm should own a good 

 farmer. 



We believe that the best fertilizer of any soil, is 

 a spirit of industry, enterprise, and intelligence — 

 without this, lime ane gypsum, bones and green 

 manure, marl and guano will be of little use. 



We believe in good fences, good barns, good 

 farm-houses, good stock, good orchards, and child- 

 ren enough to gather the fruit. 



We believe in a clean kitchen, a neat wife in it, a 

 spinning-piano, a clean cupboard, a clean dairy, 

 and a clean conscience. 



We firmly disbelieve in farmers that will not im- 

 prove; in farms that grow poorer every year; in 

 starveling cattle ; in farmers' boys turning into 

 clerks and merchants; in farmers' daughters un- 

 willing to work, and in all farmers ashamed of their 

 vocation, or who drink whip;ky till honest people 

 are ashamed of them. — H. W. Beecher. 



A Popular Luxury in OniNA. — Two things 

 struck me in China: the universal smell of musk 

 in the kingdom of flowers, and enormous consump- 

 tion of melon-pips, which are what nuts and or- 

 anges are to you English, and what olives and 

 prunes are to us Gauls. The scarlet and yellow 

 melons are in some places only grown for the seed, 

 and are piled up by the side of the road for the use 

 of any traveler who will scoop out the seed for the 

 proprietor. On the rivers I have seen, and 

 so 1 dare say has Mr. Hue, wliole junks laden with 

 these seeds. In the loneliest j)lace you can procure 

 them, when all other food is scarce. The three 

 hundred milliuns of Chinese all eat them. When 

 friends meet to drink tea or rice wine, there is 

 always an accompaniment of melon seeds. They 

 are piled up on every dinner table. They are eaten 

 while traveling in tlie palanquin : they are picked 

 at while discussing bargains. Jf a workman has a 

 few sapecks, he does just what his child would do 

 — buys melon seeds. They are an amusement and 

 a food, as the cigarette is to the Spaniard, and the 

 betcl-uut to the Hindoo. — '■^ Kingdom of Flowers.^'' 



