288 Transactions of the American Institute. 



wisdom to give back half the surface now cleared to forest, and con- 

 centrate all our pains and manures and seed on the remaining half. 



Fourth. The grand defect of all American farming is indifference 

 to the methods by which the manure pile may be increased. East of 

 the mountains we know that we ought to use more manure, yet 

 neglect the sources and the arts by which we are to make our lands 

 productive. West of the mountains a vast spread of soil, naturally 

 productive and cheap, has flattered the western farmer and cut the 

 sinews of his thrift. He has neglected manure, he has despised dung, 

 he has pitied the less fortunate who break their backs and tire their 

 arms forking over compost piles. Meantime the power of his soil has 

 fallen from thirty-five to thirty bushels of wheat, from thirty to 

 twenty -five, from twenty-five to twenty, from twenty to fifteen, in the 

 older States of the west, and the crop is still in the down grade, and 

 will go as low, as poor old Virginia, where five bushels to the acre is 

 a fair crop of wheat. Nothing will arrest this decline in the great 

 staple of bread but the saving of rich manure. We cannot make rich 

 manure without rich food. We cannot use rich, i. e., oily and con- 

 centrated food, to advantage except in stall-feeding cattle. Hence 

 the distinction between grain farm and stock farm ought to be 

 unknown. Every grain farm should fatten stock, and every stock 

 farm should produce large crops of grain. The best farmer is he who 

 gives society the greatest number of juicy steaks and roasts, and the 

 materials for the greatest number of wheaten loaves. Him I call the 

 best farmer ; he is more, he is the best man in society. The rest of 

 us — talkers, writers, traders — live by our wits ; we milk the cow ; we 

 suck the public pap ; we are fruges consumere nati. The creator of 

 food is father of all energies and values ; you may call him a mudsill, 

 but the whole fabric and superstructure of society, all pillars of state, 

 the platform, the pulpit, the singers' gallery, the impressiveness of 

 the facade, the streaming glories of the flagstaff, all rest upon that 

 mudsill. 



Fifth. We want a science of farming that is an American system. 

 The old world can teach us much, but all examples from England or 

 Erance or Germany need their constant qualifications. The Euro- 

 pean climate is much cooler and moister than ours, its winters are 

 milder, and a good square day's work can be bought for twenty-five 

 cents. In all our adaptations of continental example we are to remem- 

 ber that economy of labor and uncertainty in securing laborers are ele- 

 ments which every one of us must take into account. 



Sixth. Eour years in six our crops are shortened for lack of water 



