370 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMER. 



Dec. 



threshing and the substitution of cultivators in- 

 stead of the hand hoe, and b^ the vast saving in 

 the time required to market the product** of the 

 farm when it is done by railroad or steamboat, 

 instead of ! earning them a score or two miles over 

 heavy wagou roads, and spending perhaps a week 

 to do whfit a letter will to-day accomplish by ' re- 

 turn of m lil.' In the second p'ace, there are 

 many drawn away frcm ihe rural districts, who 

 vhtn there never belonged slrictly to the farming 

 populntioa of the country; the railroads and 

 other influences are constantly centralizing many 

 kinds of industry in the cities which were for- 

 merly carried on to ))Pt'er advantagis, or indoed 

 at every crossroad. The implements of the farm, 

 from the plow all t'ne way thfough the list, for- 

 merly were n ade ^ing y by scattered smiths and 

 mechsnios, instead of by the wholesale in huge 

 factories ; the clothing of the farmer, from his 

 hat to Lis boots, was more generally cut and put 

 toge'her, if not its very materi.ils manufactur d, 

 almost at his door, instead of comitig ready-made 

 from distant cities and towns; in fine, access to 

 the great marts has been rendered so easy that, 

 much of the trading even has 'ett the villager for 

 more centr.xi and iniportuii points. I.i all ihe-'-e 

 ways, the cHies have gained nt tLe expense of the 

 country — nat at 'he expense of the farm; wliile 

 the farmers have g lined b1'. the tirae in the more 

 general adaption of improved machinery ; in in- 

 creased consumption of tlitir products, and in 

 the power of obtaining be ter manufactures at 

 lower prces " 



Wheat and Corn in Ohio. — Mr. Secretary 

 Klippart of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture 

 has furnished a number of interesting documents 

 to the editors of tl:e Country Gentleman. In a 

 private letter accompanying them he gives a re- 

 turn in round numbers of tLe two great crops of 

 that State for 1860, based upon the State statis- 

 tics now partially tabulated, together with an 

 estimate of the production of the present season, 

 1861 — both which wc give below, in connec- 

 tion with the actual yield reported in 1858 and 

 1860: 



Returns of 185S. Returns of 1859. 



Wheat 17,655,483 bushs. ]3,349,aG7 bushs. 



Corn 50,863,582 " 68,730,846 " 



Estimate for 1800, 



Wheat 30,000,000 



Corn 90,000,000 



Estimate for 1861. 

 30,000,000 

 75,000,000 



The wheat crop of 1859 was eadly injured by 

 the disastrous fritt of June 4, the average yield 

 being but teven and one-tbiid bushels per acre 

 that year; ihe large-^t en p evt-r vep->)tcd was 

 that of 1850, of 31,500,000 busheb, or eighteen 

 bushels per acre. The avemge wheat crop of 

 the State f.jr the ten years prtceding 1860, was 

 twenty millions of bushels per year — exactly 

 20,016,400 — 80 ttiat the estimate above ^iven for 

 1860 and 1861. is fifty per cent, more than "an 

 average," provided a period of ten years is long 

 enough to fix the meaning of this uaccrtaia term- 



emanates quiTe frequently from among farmers 

 themselves. 'Farming,' they will tell you, 'does 

 not pay. It is a life of slavish toil — of unceas- 

 ing and ill rewarded exertion — of hazards in 

 profit and exposure of person — of few pleasures 

 and many paiiis.' Accordingly we find the chil- 

 dren of tnose who cxpre.-s such opinions, as soon 

 as the welcome >tge of manhood comes, branch- 

 ing off into any other pursuit rather than follow 

 that which their fathers have always taken pains 

 to render b'>th discouraging and repulsive to 

 them. Another class of the statements men- 

 tioneil, we constantly hear from would-be scien- 

 tific gentlemim — who may perhaps have patent 

 manures to sell, or letters of advice to give at a 

 reasonable fee — or soil analyses to make — very 

 cheap, and very valueless. They tell us that we 

 are rapidly exhausting our soils. That our wheat 

 crops formerly averaged twenty-five bushels per 

 acrs where they now average from eight to 

 twelve bushels. That the ruin of our soils and 

 ourselves is certainly impending, unless we adopt 

 iheir specifics, and come and sit at tlieir feet for 

 instruction. I would not even appear to decry 

 the services or the dignity of science — much less 

 to depreciate the importance of knowledge, or 

 discourage the more thorough education of our 

 young farmers; but let us be verj wary cf pre- 

 tenders, remembering always that quackery is no 

 stain upon the shield of true science, and that 

 even she herself cannot point out to us any 'royal 

 road ' to thorough faiming, which is not in ac- 

 cordance with the truths of our every day expe- 

 rience, or which shall relieve us from the neces- 

 nity of constant observation and the skillful 

 management of our affairs." 



And on the deterioration of our soils, he has 

 another drive p.t the patent manure men. 



" In speaking of the improvement or retro- 

 gression of our farming, of the deterioration or 

 non-deterioration of our soils — it is to be deeply 

 regretted that thpre should be so much ground as 

 there undoubtedly is, for the assertions alluded 

 to. There can be no dispute that many farms 

 have been worn down almost to the la-t degree 

 of apparent exhaustion, by mismanagement and 

 rapacity. At the same time, the ranks of good 

 farmers are filling by degrees ; and, to take the 

 whole of this Slate together, 1 am very much in 

 clined to discredit any statement which should 

 make out either its average or its aggregate pro- 

 duce per acre, at xny former period in its his- 

 tory, move than it is to day. I can find no sta- 

 tistics which justify such an assertion." 



A great truth plainly told. 



"And if our rural population has increased 

 less rapidly than that of our cities and towns, 

 and in here and there a case actually shown a 

 slight falling off — here egain there are two im- 

 portaut considerations which we must not over- 

 look : In the first place we can with difficulty 

 estimate the number of those whose absence from 

 farm labor is fully made up to us in various ways 

 — by the immense numbers of reapers and mow- 

 ers we now employ, by the use of machinery ia 



