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TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



country to farm ' one acre more.' If it had been to farm one acre 

 less, and give more attention to what they did farm, more would 

 have been accomplished. The whole system of farming has been 

 upon this principle of planting more acres, and, as a necessary 

 consequence, our lands are becoming exhausted. Where one 

 farmer is improving his land, nine are practicing upon the plan 

 of gradually exhausting the soil. The consequence is, crops fail; 

 too much rain produces rust and mildew; vermin destroy the 

 weak and feeble plants, and a hard or soft winter is alike inju- 

 rious. By farming less land well, and manuring well, more can 

 be accomplished ; one grows as much wheat on ten acres as others 

 grow on twenty, and yet in defiance of practical experiments, 

 farmers persist in sowing many acres and reaping small crops. 

 A ride through the interior of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia 

 at this season of the year, would convince any one of the perni- 

 cious effects of this system of farming; and I have no doubt the 

 same remarks apply to western New- York and Michigan. 



Earlier in the season when the fields look green and luxuriant, 

 farmers flatter themselves that the late rains and a favorable 

 season w^ill make up for the deficiency of manure, but the ripen- 

 ing crops tells a diflerent tale. Wheat that should be turning 

 yellow remains green, the meadows are waving with sorrel and 

 blue-grass instead of timothy, and the corn is stunted, short and 

 yellow. They are perhaps members of the County Agricultural 

 Society, have sowed choice seed, have the most approved patent 

 plows, and plow in the most approved manner, but all won't 

 do. The crop is short; they never seem to suspect that they are 

 farming more land than they are able to manure well, and there- 

 fore practice upon the old system and grow indifferent crops. 

 When manure can be purchased this may not generally be the 

 case, but in the country at large it is too true. Then if by chance 

 a field yields a bountiful crop of wheat, instead of sowing it in 

 clover, as should be done, many farmers are induced to sow it in 

 wheat again, and the consequence is that they have a crop 

 inferior in quantity and quality, and the soil is left in an 

 exhausted condition to produce a poor crop of grass. 



But in no way is this grasping propensity more fully developed 

 by farmers than by the quantity of cattle they keep; more than 

 they are able to feed ; often twice as many, and they are conse- 

 quently always poor and hungry. Everything about the barn in 

 the shape of feed is eaten up by the 1st of May, and then they 

 are compelled to turn them out to pastm-e, whether the fields are 



