THE FARMER'S POSITION. 73 



But in point of fact there is no part of all our national interests 

 to which congress has shown less favor than to the advancement 

 of agriculture and the arts of peace. A large proportion of 

 the lands in the older States are worn out and comparatively 

 unproductive. Our pastures, our meadows and tillage lands 

 do not produce, on an average, more than one-half of what 

 they are capable. What are the causes of this reduction in 

 the fertility of our soils, and what is the remedy ? 



There has been a general indifference to the true interests of 

 agriculture by those even who are making money at the expense 

 of their farms, and investing it in banks and railroads, instead of 

 in improvements on their lands. And then the western lands are 

 so cheap and so accessible, that our young men emigrate instead 

 of improving the old homestead, while most who do remain, 

 own too much land to till well, and instead of dividing with a 

 son, are inclined to buy out a neighbor who is willing to sell ; 

 and the result is, that the whole is sure to be miserably tilled. 

 Again, men sometimes get tired of farming because poor farm- 

 ing won't pay. They rent their farms, and ask so high a rent 

 that the tenant is under the necessity of skiiniing the farm to 

 pay his rent, and even then comes off with the skin of his teeth. 

 The want of capital properly expended on the farm in buildings 

 and fences, and in the purchase of fertilizers, is another cause 

 of the neglect of many of our farms. But perhaps the most 

 prominent of all, is the want of proper encouragement on the 

 part of farmers themselves to induce their sons to settle around 

 them and become thorough and systematic farmers. 



We have, however, many noble exceptions, and during the 

 last twenty years great advancement has been made towards a 

 better state of things ; and this leads me to remark that the 

 first and surest mode to remedy the condition of things alluded 

 to above, is to diffuse a more thorough knowledge of the science 

 and improved practices of agriculture. 



In all other professions, when men are poorly qualified or 

 unskilful, we condemn them and call them quacks, unfit to be 

 patronized. There are more quacks in farming than in all the 

 other professions put together, since too many are unwilling to 

 change the old methods of farming. They are groping, as it 

 were, in the dark, without an effort to advance to a higher stand- 



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