1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
the apparent benefit was due largely to the 
material acting as a kind of mulch, rather than 
to its supplying plant-food to the grass. 
I doubt very much whether we can afford to 
make such a compost of earth with lime, ashes, 
or manure in this country. But I feel sure 
that those of us having rich clay land contain- 
ing, in an inert form, as much nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid as Dr. Voelcker found in the 
soil to be used in the earth-closet at Wakefield 
can well afford to stir it freely and expose it to 
the disintegrating and decomposing action of 
the atmosphere. 
An acre of dry soil sis inches deep weighs 
about one thousand tons; and consequently an 
acre of such soil as we are talking about would 
contain 6,200 lbs. of nitrogen and 3,600 lbs. of 
phosphoric acid. In other words, it contains 
to the depth of only six inches as much nitrogen 
as would be furnished by 775 tons of common 
barn-yard manure and as much phosphoric acid 
as 900 tons of manure. With such facts as 
these before us, am I to blame for urging far- 
mers to cultivate their land more thoroughly? 
I do not know that my land or the Deacon's is 
as rich as this English soil ; but at any rate I 
see no reason why such should not be the case. 
The late financial panic will ultimately do 
farmers no harm. I think it will do us good. 
I was in Wall street the morning after the an- 
nouncement that the Secretary of the Treasury 
would buy no more bonds. The last hope was 
gone. The officers of savings' banks who had 
rushed to New York to get the greenbacks for 
their bonds were obliged to go back without 
them. They knew that a run upon them would 
compel all the banks to suspend. 
" Fanners must be taught,' ' said a bank officer, 
" that when they lend us money we do not keep 
it idle in the bank, and that they can not get it 
all back again at a moment's notice." 
All of which is very true. But if a farmer 
owes a bank, he must pay promptly, panic or 
no panic. As a rule, a farmer had better in- 
vest his money in improving his farm. I have 
known a farmer who had money in the bank 
give his note for a mowing machine. He got 
6 per cent from the bank. By paying cash 
for the machine he could have got 10 or 15 per 
cent for his money. 
All financial men are now looking to the far- 
mers to help them out of their difficulties. It 
is an evidence of returning sense. It is pleasant 
to have the fact recognized that agriculture is 
the chief basis of our national wealth. I think, 
however, that many of our commercial and 
financial men take only a superficial view of 
the situation. They talk about there being six 
hundred millions dollars' worth of farm pro- 
duce to sell, and are looking to this for relief. 
Let it be so. It will keep things moving. But 
it should never be forgotten that the prosperity 
of a manufacturer or a farmer does not depend 
solely on the amount of his sales, but on the 
profit he makes. 
Are farmers making a living profit on the 
produce they raise and sell ? Business men 
would do well to ask themselves this question. 
It is worth while for the stockholders and 
bondholders of our railroads to look into this 
matter. They had better not kill the goose 
that lays the golden egg. 
But it is not for me to discuss financial and 
commercial questions. My business is to do 
all I can to make farming more profitable. The 
Deacon and I talk the matter over again and 
453 
again. He has very little faith in farming. He 
looks upon it as a sort of necessary evil. Far- 
mers do not fail. They have usually good 
health, good appetites, and good digestion, and 
as a rule manage to get plenty to eat. But that 
is about all. 
Now, when I get hold of an intelligent, active, 
industrious, enterprising young farmer I like 
to say to him that there is a far brighter side to 
this question. It is quite true that farmers, as 
a class, are not making much profit by raising 
crops. In fact there are a good many farmers 
who never seem to think about profit. All they 
think about is how much, they have to sell and 
what it will bring in. They do not calculate 
the cost of raising, harvesting, and marketing, 
and whether they are working at a loss or mak- 
ing a profit. 
Now, I like to say to a young farmer : It is 
little use for you and I to try to advance 
prices. We shall have to take what we can get. 
Fortunately, there are a good many men willing 
to try to make a living by buying and selling. 
There is competition enough, as a rule, to secure 
us, taking one year with another, all that our 
articles are worth. Our business is to raise the 
best article at the least cost. Take such a sim- 
ple crop as potatoes. I heard a farmer say the 
other day that no money count be made by 
raising potatoes at GO cents a bushel. It never 
seemed to occur to him that if he raised 200 
bushels per acre instead of 100 bushels that he 
could make more actual profit from one acre 
than from five. One of our Rochester nursery- 
men raised a crop of white wheat this year that 
yielded 40 bushels per acre, while the average 
of the county would not bo over 10 bushels 
per acre of red and white wheat together. The 
millers would pay 15 to 20 cents per bushel 
more for this choice white wlieat than for or- 
dinary red wheat, and this in itself is a good 
profit. The ordinary crop of red wheat of 10 
bushels per acre would be worth $16 ; while 
the 40-bushel crop of white wheat would sell 
for $75. If the crop of red wheat affords any 
profit, how much would the crop of white 
wheat afford ? Figure the interest and taxes 
on the land, the cost of plowing, harrow- 
ing, drilling, seed, reaping, harvesting, and 
thrashing. 
The truth is, we are getting pretty fair prices 
for our produce in this section. We are not 
making money simply because we are not 
farming as well as we should. I would not 
say this to outsiders, but among ourselves the 
fact should be frankly admitted and the remedy 
sought for. Some things are too low, but tak- 
ing all our crops together prices are high enough 
for the consumers to pay. Wheat brings a fair 
price ; barley is very high ; potatoes nearly up 
to the average ; apples are scarce and in de- 
mand at prices which check consumption ; 
corn is cheap but a good farmer rarely sells 
his corn ; hay is extravagantly dear, and so is 
straw. Pork is too low ; beef and mutton are 
cheap, though dear enough for the quality. 
Really good beef and mutton command a fair 
price. And yet we are complaining of hard 
times. Why ? Simply because we do not 
farm well enough to insure good crops. We 
raise produce enough, but our average crops 
are so low that they afford little or no profit. 
And so of our live stock. We do not pay suffi- 
cient attention to breeding choice animals. 
The markets are flooded with inferior meat, 
which costs the farmers far more than it is 
worth to the consumers. This is very plain 
talk, but I think it is true, nevertheless. 
A Dairy and Ice-House. 
The present is an era of improvement. Not 
only are we improving our methods of agricul- 
ture and dairy management, but the tastes of 
the agricultural population are rapidly becom- 
ing elevated and refined. The first symptom 
of a regeneration in this respect is to become 
dissatisfied with our present plans and sur- 
roundings. It is the dissatisfied man who is 
ever on the alert to improve his position. That 
farmers have learned to become dissatisfied 
with that which heretofore fulfilled all their 
hopes and desires is proved by the simple fact 
that many hundred thousands of them have 
seen it fit and necessary to institute measures 
for co-operation to elevate themselves mate- 
rially and mentally, and not only to raise the 
standard of intelligence amongst their class, 
but to secure the increased comfort and enjoy- 
ment which such a higher standard of intel- 
ligence will inevitably insist upon. How much 
of this is due to the efforts of the American 
Agriculturist in working for many years to 
bring about such an amelioration of the farm- 
er's condition and such an improvement in his 
status as a member of the most useful and 
most deserving class, of society we do not care 
now to say. These thoughts occur to us as wo 
consider the repeated, almost daily, applications 
to us for aid and advice in improving not only 
the methods of working, but of the surround- 
ings of the farmer. Old things are truly pass- 
ing away, and with him, indeed, all things aro 
becoming new. Not only is he striving after 
that excellence which now is the most profit- 
able, but he desires to remodel his farm build- 
ings in accordance therewith. He wants, for 
instance, a dwelling, a barn or a dairy house of 
the most improved construction. He also 
wants all the mechanical appliances, the wind- 
mill, the horse-power or the steam-engine, to 
relieve him of personal labor or to procure for 
him what no effort of his own muscles could 
procure. In addition he wants to surround 
himself with objects that are pleasing to the 
eye as well as profitable to the purse. Gardens, 
orchards, shade and ornamental trees, and 
buildings that are no eyesore to him are be- 
coming desirable. That he appreciates, and 
depreciates also, an eye-sore prove what a 
change is taking place. 
In the bundle of letters from correspondents 
which is always before us, we note several 
which refer to dairies and dairying. The vari- 
ous points referred to in these letters we pro- 
pose to touch upon as shortly as maybe. First, 
chiefly as to the dairy itself. The building is 
not unimportant by any means. A wooden 
dairy house is neither warm in winter nor cool 
in summer. The material, being venf perish- 
able and readily decaying, gives forth odors 
which are quickly absorbed by the milk and 
cream. Besides, almost all lumber has more 
or less odor peculiar to it, which it retains un- 
til the process of decay sets in, when mold 
and musty smells usurp its place. 
A well-built frame dairy set upon brick or 
stone foundations and well plastered inside and 
lime-washed outside may be kept in fairly, 
good condition ; but stone or brick with a slate 
roof is by far the best kind of building for a 
butter dairy. Second, as to the system of set- 
ting the milk. Both the deep can and the 
shallow pan systems have their advocates, and 
the opinion of our well-known associate of 
Ogden Farm is altogether in favor of the deep 
can system. But if any person is doubtful oi 
