1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



73 



This is not the case with produce raised in an in- 

 telligent manner, by careful, constant cultivation, 

 that will always give to the articles the nutrition 

 pf the soil, needed for the development of their 

 several juices and properties, to make them not 

 only palatable but healthful. 



Irrigation is one of the most serious mistakes 

 that are now prevalent among the tillers of the 

 soil in California, and this mistake arises from 

 sheer ignorance of the nature of the soil and cli- 

 mate, ard many injurious effects of irrigation, 

 both upon the soil and the products raised by ir- 

 rigation. 



Could those who believe in and now practice 

 the erroneous system of irrigation, but give a lit- 

 tle of their waste time to visiting their neighbor- 

 ing cultivators who are non -irrigators, or visit 

 other counties, where orchards and vineyards are 

 in the highest state of cultivation and prosperity 

 without irrigation, we should hope they might be 

 be led to correct their mistake. 



KNOWLEDGE — ITS BENEFITS TO THE 

 FARMER. 



The field of knowledge is infinite. Whether 

 it be of professional knowledge, or of that which 

 has no immediate application to the professional 

 or idustrial pursuits of man, it is so vast and va- 

 ried that no man is competent, and no life suffi- 

 cient, but for the attainment of a small portion 

 of it. So much as is attained by the most learned 

 is only as a sand on the shore, or a drop in the 

 ocean, compared to the whole field of knowledge. 



Mr. Preston, one of the most eminent lawyers 

 in England of our day, devoted himself, as the 

 lawyers of that country do, exclusively to the 

 Btudy and practice of one department of the law, 

 — that relating to real estate, or the branch of 

 law called by the lawyers the "real law." He was 

 the author of several treatises on that part of law, 

 considered the most accurate and learned among 

 those written in that department. Yet, after thir- 

 ty years' practice, and having won an enviable 

 reputation as a jurist by the publication of his 

 works, he said that he did not comprehend fully 

 the real law of England. 



The man is not living in Massachusetts, — he 

 has never lived there, — who has fully comprehend- 

 ed the whole volume of the knowledge that is 

 contained in a blade of grass, or in a small piece 

 of stone, or lump of earth. Yet are there many 

 among our farmers who consider a suggestion 

 that there are things in their art to be learned by 

 them, as entitled merely to derision. So it is 

 with other men in all the walks of life. Lawyers 

 who have not a tithe of the knowledge to which 

 Mr. Preston had attained in the "real law," would 

 not speak so humble of their knowledge as he 

 did, —nor would they think so disparagingly of it. 



The first step in the acquisition of knowledge 

 is to lay aside this delusive idea that there is 

 nothing to be learned — and in no art or pursuit is 



it so necessary as in agriculture ; for the reasons* 

 fast, that the area of knowledge and science in- 

 volved in that art is more extensive, varied and 

 vast than in any other, — and, second, that the 

 store of knowledge is of recent collection, and 

 that vast accessions have been made to it since 

 the birth of farmers now in life. Among these 

 are the structures of the various organs of plants, 

 their functions, the secretions, modes of germina- 

 tion, vegetation and annual increase and deca- 

 dence, the elements of which they are composed, 

 the fact that all these elements exist in the earth, 

 that they are absorbed by the plant for its suste- 

 nance, and that inorganic mineral matter is there- 

 by converted into organized vegetable substance, 

 — that such vegetable substance has life and is 

 subject, like the animals, to disease, and endowed 

 with the faculty of reproduction by a mode simi- 

 lar to the continuation of the animal races. 



THE AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



The Agricultural Department will soon issue 

 the report for the month of November, 1863. As 

 the interval between these reports has been too 

 short to allow correspondents to properly gather 

 the information desired, they will hereafter be is- 

 sued every two months only. This will also allow 

 mature consideration of the statistical informa- 

 tion embodied in the returns, and thus add still 

 further to their value. We have as yet seen only 

 a brief synopsis of the report, as follows : 



This report contains an article from the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture, stating the matters es- 

 sential to perfecting the plan of these reports. 

 These are, first, procuring a sufficient basis on 

 which estimates of the crops from year to year 

 can be made, and to determine the progress of the 

 other industrial pursuits. This basis must be a 

 well systematized census every fifth year. On 

 such a basis he is satisfied that correct estimates 

 can be made through the information of corres- 

 pondents in every country. Secondly, he asks 

 power to extend this correspondence, so as to em- 

 brace statistics appertaining to manufactures and 

 commerce, as well as to agriculture, on the ground 

 that these industrial pursuits are so intertwined 

 as to be inseparable. The value of agricultural 

 products depends on the home market created by 

 manufactures and commerce, and a knowledge of 

 these is essential to determining the demand for 

 these products. As the foreign market also ma- 

 terially influences this value, a knowledge of the 

 condition of the English crops, from time to time, 

 and of those countries which supply the markets 

 of Great Britain with breadstutls, is necessary, 

 and hence he asks to be placed in communication 

 with our Consuls, that through them this informa- 

 tion may be obtained. 



In connection with these subjects, the Commis- 

 sioner advocates the necessity of hereafter estab- 

 lishing a Bureau of Statistics, as a part of the 

 Agricultural Department, for the reason that, hav- 

 ing a regular monthly correspondence in every 

 county of the Union, it can command the services 

 of persons well trained in collecting statistics, 



