THE FARMER'S CONFLICT. 79 



which the wisest calculations must be made, and the most skil- 

 ful selection of animals, if we hope for any reward. It would 

 be impossible to reap any profit from the misshapen animals of 

 the last century, fed in barns when hay and grain command the 

 present market value, or on pastures whose herbage has been re- 

 duced in quantity and perhaps in quality by long feeding. It 

 has been found necessary, therefore, to create animals adapted 

 to the rapid production of beef in order that a pound of meat 

 might be obtained with the lowest possible consumption of food. 

 Modern skill has accomplished this, and it has also provided us 

 with an animal for our dairies, capable of furnishing large re- 

 turns in milk for the amount of food consumed, and capable 

 also of providing for herself easily and rapidly on a short pas- 

 ture. 



The demands of the markets have materially changed within 

 the lifetime of many now before me. Within a few miles of 

 our cities and large towns, the market-garden is the chief source 

 of profit to the farmer, and in supplying this he is obhged to 

 adopt a system of rapid husbandry unknown in this State not 

 many years ago. Early potato crops, vegetables grown under 

 glass, and the early products of the garden, forced into almost 

 premature existence, now take the place once occupied by corn, 

 and grain, and hay, in the list of what the farmer sells. In or- 

 der to meet this requirement of the market he must exercise a 

 kind of skill wholly unnecessary in the production of the staples 

 of trade. 



The raising of fruit, too, was once as simple as the planting of 

 a forest-tree. In order to obtain an abundant supply it was only 

 necessary to plant trees — and wait with patience a few years. 

 The apple was at times a drug in the market ; peaches were al- 

 lowed to decay on the ground where they fell from the overladen 

 trees ; plums were easily raised in abundance ; all with but lit- 

 tle care and at little cost. But now the earth is encumbered with 

 " barren trees, decayed and dead ; " the curculio destroys the 

 plum ; the yellows extirpate the peach ; the caterpillar, and 

 canker-worm, and burrowing maggot, and cere-worm blight the 

 apple in every stage of its growth, and ingenuity and science 

 are exhausting themselves in endeavoring to ascertain the surest 

 and most economical way of destroying the pests. 



It is the careful and economical application of fertilizers and 



