1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



819 



cause of these neglectful and wasteful habits? In 

 our opinion the cause will be found, when we go 

 to the root of the matter, in the want of a deep, 

 influential conviction that it will pay to be greatly 

 more careful about manure, that is, to an under- 

 estimate of the value of manure. To a want of a 

 correct and influential estimate of this kind may 

 be attributed much or most of that carelessness, 

 Avastefulness and ill-management generally, which 

 so commonly prevail in the department of making, 

 preserving and applying manures ; and to the 

 same Mant, as its remote or ultimate cause, must 

 be ascribed the immense amount of loss to individ- 

 uals and the country at large which comes from 

 poor crops, and which is the direct result of the 

 wastefulness and mismanagement as to manures 

 which have just been alluded to. 



We place this consideration as the first of our 

 suggestions having the improvement of American 

 farmers and the promotion of their interests in this 

 department as tlieir object, because it cannot be 

 expected that ihev will seriously and earnestly set 

 themselves to work to correct evils or prevent 

 losses and low profits, unless they are convinced 

 of their reality and magnitude. Without feeling 

 convinced that they are accomplishing much less 

 in the way of making their business profitable 

 than they might do by a change in their estimate 

 of the value of manures, and in their mode of 

 managing them, they can hardly be expected to 

 re-examine and re-consider their views, or to make 

 the changes needed to secure better results and 

 larger profits. 



Let us endeavor then to determine whether or 

 no there is a general under-estimatc of the value 

 of manures among us, and whether or no our con- 

 sequent neglect and waste of them do not produce 

 poor crops and low profits. What little is known 

 as to the agriculture of China and Japan has some 

 bearing upon these questions, and especially the 

 two facts, (1) that a dense po]ndation is subsisted 

 mainly or wholly upon the products of their own 

 soil, and (2) that they employ every particle of cx- 

 crementitious matter which we so generally allow 

 to go untouched, unftsed and utterly to waste. 

 The probability seems great that the ability to sub- 

 sist so dense a population as that of either of these 

 two countries from their own soil, is dependent 

 chiefly upon their known carefulness in saving all 

 kinds of fertilizing substances. 



Next, the contrast in the average amount of 

 crops per acre in Great Britain and this country is 

 a fact which throws some light upon the matter 

 under investigation. Take the wheat crop for an 

 example, and it will be found by statistical returns 

 that while the average crop in Great Britain is 28 

 bushels per acre, the average in this country does 

 not exceed 14 bushels, while in some States it is 

 below even this inconsiderable amount. Ohio has 

 usually been considered a peculiarly fertile State, 

 and yet by the statistics of that State which we find 

 in the Coniitri/ (Jentleman of July JJOth, the aver- 

 age per acre of the wheat crop in 18G2, was less 

 than 14^ bushels. 



The contrast is quite similar in other crops com- 

 mon to the two countries. Now, why is there 

 such a contrast? Why do the crops in this coun- 

 try average only about half as much per acre as 

 do those of Great Britain ? It is mainly because 

 ■we do not feed our crops half as well, or do not 

 manure them half so liberally. If we were to sup- 



ply them with more manure, which is the food of 

 plants, what Mould hinder our average of crops from 

 risinf,' to an equality to theirs ? There are, let us be 

 thankful, some farmers in several of our States, 

 whose croj)s of wheat more frequently are above 

 than below 30 bushels ])er acre. If we would feed 

 our crops like these men, we might get similarly 

 remunerative returns. What those lose or tail to 

 realize who neglect to feed their crops may be cal- 

 culated from the data referred to, that is, from the 

 difference between 14 and 28 or 30 l)U8hels. 



The readers of this journal may jicrhaps recol- 

 lect that it contained some months ago an estimate 

 by Secretary C. L. Flint, of the loss in the State 

 of Massachusetts from wastefulness as to manure. 

 Mr. F. says that there are in this State more than 

 75,000 barns, and that about five cords of manure, 

 or Bcventeen loads of about 34 bushel each, would 

 be above rather than below the average of the ma- 

 nure for each barn. Supposing this to be worth 

 only $1 per load, the value of all the barn-yard 

 manure made in the State would be only $1,125,- 

 000. Good judges, however, think this amount of 

 manure might be easily doubled throughout the 

 State, by a reasonable degree of care and atten- 

 tion ; and if this be true, then the State annually 

 sufli'ers a loss of $,1,125,000 at least, by neglect in 

 this single department. The loss of each farmer, 

 taking the average, would of course be $17, or, in 

 other words, his profits might be increased to that 

 amount by a reasonable degre of care and atten- 

 tion in saving and using manure. 



These, and other similar facts and considera- 

 tions, which might be collected and adduced, show 

 conclusively that American farmers, as compared 

 with those of other countries, and with what they 

 themselves might be and do, are very negligent 

 and wasteful in the saving, making and a])plying 

 of manure , which is the food of crops, and that, 

 consequently, they obtain smaller returns and prof- 

 its from their crops than what they otherwise 

 might. And to what can this neglectfulness and 

 waste be ascribed with as much reasonable as to 

 an under-estimalion of manure, as the ultimate 

 cause ? 



In the correction of this jjrevailing under-esti- 

 mate of the value of manurial and fertilizing sub- 

 stances, is to be found the most sure and stable 

 foundation for the building up of such new views 

 and habits, and modes of management, as can 

 best secure the full development of the agricultu- 

 ral resources of individual farms and of the farms 

 of a State ; and thus the attainment by the many 

 of a ])ros])erity and self-satisfaction as yet known 

 only to a kw. More A.nox. 



THE FAKMERS' ORACLE. 



"We have received the third number of a paper 

 with the above title, dated "Spring Lake Villa, 

 Utah county, Utah, Tuesday, June IGth, 1S63." 

 J. E. Johnson editor and publisher. It is a small 

 quarto sheet, and, as its name imports, is mainly 

 devoted to agriculture. The number before us is 

 somewhat way wom and badly stained ; but wheth- 

 er it took a bath in its own Salt Lake, or was 

 obliged to ford the unbridged Rocky Mountain 

 streams, we do not know. 



The editer alludes to the disadvantages result- 

 ing from the want of a light, circulating medium, 



