1800.1 
AMERICAN AGEIOULT URL ST. 
a 99 
Doubtless, it is sometimes wise and necessary 
to farm with borrowed money, but it is olten a 
hazardous business. Better work on a little 
smaller scale, and use more management, than 
attempt a great deal at considerable risk. That 
spectre of debt will haunt the farmer day and 
night, and rob him of much of his peace. Unwise 
it certainly is for the farmer to buy more land 
than he needs, to pay for it more than it is worth, 
and to manage it with no skill at all. First, 
let him sit down and compute how many 
acres he actually needs, how he will work them, 
and how much they are sure to return in profits: 
then, let him think seriously of purchasing. Nor 
let him forget that he will want money also for 
implements, stock, seeds, hired help, etc., and 
some laid up against “a rainy day.” If these 
things are all taken into the account, he will be 
somewhat cautious in his investments in land. 
By all means, let nothing be done in a hasty 
and thoughtless manner, taking it for granted 
that, somehow or other, all will turn out well in 
the end. Success will not come by accident. * 
-• «--eMHV— - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Blinks from a Lantern.XXII. 
BY DIOGENES REDIVIVUS. 
HINTS FROM THE CENSUS. 
The census man has been round, 
and we are beginning to get 
glimpses of the change that is 
coming over the farming dis¬ 
tricts of the country. Whoever 
has made himself familiar with 
past census returns, has had occasion to notice 
that in many of the exclusively farming towns in 
the older States, there has been no substantial 
increase of population or wealth for the half cen¬ 
tury ending with 1850. To be sure, such towns 
are not very numerous in the New-England 
States, for there, almost every stream is dammed, 
and manufacturing villages or single establish¬ 
ments have sprung up in most of the towns, to 
diversify the industry of the people, and to re¬ 
tain them at the East. These manufactories 
have not only brought in foreigners from abroad, 
but have made good home markets and offered a 
large premium on agricultural industry. In all 
such towns there has been a substantial increase 
of wealth and population in years previous to 
1850 But in the towns where farming was the 
sole business, there was either no advance, or a 
considerable falling offi The land was all occu¬ 
pied, and had been for generations, and each suc¬ 
ceeding generation found it more difficult to get 
a living from the hard cropped acres. The 
blacksmith, the tanner, the shoemaker, and the 
carpenter found a scanty subsistence among 
them, but no trade not immediately dependent 
upon farmers for patronage, found a place in these 
districts. The old homesteads were handed 
down from father to son, where the fathers were 
not fortunate enough to sell out to a stranger, 
and move with the whole family to the West. 
The son who remained in the home of his 
fathers to take care of the old folks, and to 
inherit the paternal acres as the reward of his 
filial devotion, was looked upon as peculiarly un¬ 
fortunate. The lot of the older boys, who, with 
a good education, could go off to college, or to 
clerkships in the cities, or to speculation and 
idirmng in the far West, was greatly envied. 
They might make something of themselves, and 
acquire a fortune. But what could be expected 
of the poor fellow who had nothing but two hun¬ 
dred acres of worn out land to grub on for a liv¬ 
ing 1 He must expect to look poverty in the 
face as long as he lived, an expectation that was 
generally fulfilled. If at twenty one his taxes 
amounted to five dollars, he paid no more at sixty 
years of age. He had indeed a house and land 
in fee simple, but in other respects his condition 
was little better than that of the landless. He 
worked quite as hard, had as few luxuries, and 
saw even less of the world. 
These farming districts did not even meet the 
wants of their own home markets. The neigh¬ 
boring village, within an hour’s ride, imported 
butter, cheese, beef, pork, lard, hams, flour, and 
apples from the West in large quantities. These 
old States paid out many millions of dollars for 
these articles, that might much better have been 
produced within their own borders. All kinds of 
farm produce were high, far beyond the remu¬ 
nerative price, and yet not high enough to in¬ 
duce farmers’ sons to abide by the homestead, 
and make money by the slow and sure process 
of tilling the soil. There was no husbandry, in 
the proper sense of that word, in these districts. 
Every thing that would bring money, was sold 
from the land, and nothing was restored to it, to 
keep up its fertility. The natural resources of the 
farm were not used to repair the waste of con¬ 
tinual cropping. More than half of the manure 
of the stock was suffered to waste in the atmos¬ 
phere for want of absorbents and shelter. A 
few loads of loam from the headlands, or of wash 
from the hollows by the road side, were all the 
attempt made to increase the natural stock of 
fertilizers. The leaves were not gathered from 
the forest, and the vast deposits of vegetable 
wealth in the muck and peat beds were untouch¬ 
ed. They were regarded as poor, cold, sour stuff, 
that did the land more harm than good. 
The dawn of a better day had perhaps come 
previous to 1850, but it was not indicated in any 
of the statistics of the census. There was the 
same falling off in the population in the old agri¬ 
cultural districts, a decrease in many of the crops 
and in the number of stock, and a consequent de¬ 
crease in the value of farms. Thus in the single 
county of New-London, Ct., a county more fa¬ 
vored than many others with good home mark¬ 
ets, there was a decrease in 
llorses and mules of._823 Wheat, bushels.10,000 
Caltle.2,800 Rye, do. .. 8,000 
Sheep.32,000 Oats, do.33,000 
Swine. 4,500 Potatoes do.39,000 
Wool, lbs.59,000 
There was a slight increase only in the produc¬ 
tion of hay and corn. Other counties less favor¬ 
ably situated, would show a still larger falling off 
in their products. 
The last ten years have shown a very great in¬ 
crease in the number, and circulation of agricul¬ 
tural papers. Then, hardly one farmer in twen¬ 
ty read at all upon the science and practice of his 
business. Now, probably a fifth part of the farm¬ 
ers and small cultivators take some agricultural 
or horticultural paper, and a still larger number 
read more or less upon these topics, in the agri¬ 
cultural column of their religious or political pa¬ 
per. There is a demand for such reading, and 
the daily papers find it for their interest to cater 
for the tastes of cultivators. Fairs and horti¬ 
cultural shows are multiplied beyond all prece¬ 
dent in this country, and almost every county in 
the Northern States has its county agricultural 
society, and many of the cities and villages have 
their weekly or monthly display of fruits, flowers, 
and vegetables. It is no uncommon thing to see 
ten thousand people in attendance upon a county 
fair, and four or five times that number at a 
State or national fair. These influences have 
given an extraordinary impulse to farming, in 
all its branches. It is apparent to the most care¬ 
less observer, that we have entered upon a new 
era in husbandry. The most common indica¬ 
tion of a new start upon a farm, is a new barn, 
with a cellar, or with sheds attached, and large 
piles of muck in the yard, and long rows of it 
along the lines of ditches, in swamps, and low¬ 
lands. Many are beginning to lay tiles in their 
drains, and the results have almost uniformly 
given them new ideas of the productiveness of the 
soil. 
The present census, so far as we have got 
glimpses of the returns, shows the working of 
this agricultural reform. In many of these old 
parishes and towns, there is an increase in the 
population, for the first census in fifty years. 
They are no longer hide bound. They have be¬ 
gun to grow. In some of them we find not only 
a considerable increase in the numbers of the 
stock—but horses, cows, sheep and swine of 
much better quality. The value is ofien doubled. 
The price of farms has risen. Some farmers 
have discovered that land may be made to pay the 
interest on three hundred dollars an acre, and that 
money invested in well tilled land, is much more 
productive than bank stock. 
The genius of the universal Yankee nation is 
now turned very decidedly into agricultural chan¬ 
nels, and we look for new developments. Great 
as are the changes already witnessed, the future 
has still greater in store. The products of some 
farms have been quadrupled in the last ten years, 
by the application of skill and capital. What an 
increase in the wealth of the country if this skill 
could be made universal! The grand hint of the 
new census to the Eastern farmer, is, stay at 
home, and cultivate your present acres. It is not 
a new home or a new business that is wanted, but 
more skill and capital in the present business. 
With these, money can be made on the old home¬ 
stead, if made at all, 
— ----- - - 
Use the Fanning Mill Thoroughly. 
It will pay to clean grain thoroughly before of¬ 
fering it for sale. A careless or dishonest man 
has little reason to congratulate himself upon 
having sold a quantity of chaff, cockle seed, and 
other foul stuff, for the price of wheat. Dealers 
in grain have sharp eyes for anything that affects 
the market price, and they readily detect willful 
or careless neglect to properly clean the crop, 
and a reduction of from two to four or more cents 
per bushel is the consequence. It requires but a 
few pounds weight of refuse among grain to 
greatly damage its appearance. An amount 
which would bring fifty cents if sold at the price 
of wheat, will reduce the market value of twenty 
five bushels from four to five cents per bushel, 
thus entailing actual loss, instead of gain, as 
some, by their practice, seem to suppose. Grain 
merchants sometimes take advantage of the fact, 
that foreign matter in grain deteriorates the mar¬ 
ket value below the actual damage caused by its 
presence- They put large quantities of poorly 
cleaned grain through the fanning mill, take out 
one or two cents per bushel in the weight of foul 
seeds, etc., and are able to sell the improved 
grain at four or five cents advance per bushel, 
all of which might have been realized by the pro- 
ducer, in return for a few hours extra labor. 
Hemp in Minnesota. —During the past season, 
many farmers in Minnesota have undertaken the 
cultivation of hemp, with very promising results. 
Heretofore this crop has been mainly confined to 
Missouri, and Kentucky where it forms a staple. 
The demand exceeding the home grown supply, 
makes this a profitable article where it succeeds. 
