PROFESSOR J. J. MAPES'S ADDRESS. 605 



amount. Should the farmer who raises thirty-three bushels 

 per acre have an opportunity of meeting him who raises the 

 hundred bushels, this difference could not long exist; and fairs 

 are the means by which farmers may instruct and consult each 

 other. 



We find land at Harsymus, near New York, rented to mar- 

 ket gardeners at $75 per acre per annum, and still these gar- 

 deners find it profitable. Land of equal quality may readily 

 be met with in the vicinity of Worcester, which, at an expense 

 beyond its present value not exceeding $20 per acre, could be 

 similarly corrected, and still such improvement is not appealed 

 to. Visit the fairs, gentlemen, where you may meet these 

 Harsymus gardeners, and profit by their example. 



In some parts of the country I have visited fairs where 

 almost every vegetable exhibited was a hybrid and not true to 

 its kind. All this might be corrected if farmers would visit 

 distant fairs where such hybridations do not exist and procure 

 their seeds. This should be the duty of every agricultural 

 society. Small quantities of pure seed may be so readily pro- 

 cured and at so little expense that they should be introduced 

 into every neighborhood. All kinds of fruit may be improved 

 and put in cultivation by the exchange of scions, grafts and 

 cuttings at fairs, and those wiio have fruits of superior quality 

 should be invited to bring with them and distribute for the use 

 of others the means of perpetuating them. 



New implements may be seen at fairs. Labor-saving ma- 

 chines may be there found and purchased. Addresses are heard 

 from those of accredited knowledge, and indeed it would be 

 difficult to find a farmer who has ever visited a fair without 

 returning home with a determination in some way to improve 

 the culture of his farm. A crying evil among our farmers is their 

 fondness- to enter into mercantile projects as soon as they have 

 spare profits to so invest. I have known many a farmer who 

 loaned out his capital at six per cent, who could have used it 

 on his own farm at a profit of twelve per cent. Too often the 

 more active minded sons of farmers are sent into the cities to 

 become merchants, or as students of the learned professions^ 

 while the supposed drone of the family is kept at home to con- 

 tinue the working of the farm on antiquated principles, and he 

 very often in after life has to receive back his beggared brethren 



