AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Designed to improve all Classes interested in Soil Culture 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN —Washington 
©ISAWGJE JUDD, A. Ifl., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
mmmmm m im* 
$1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
SINGLE NUMBERS 10 GENTS. 
VOL. XVIII—No, 8.] 
tgP'Ot'fice at J89 Water-st., (Near Fulton-st.) 
^Cautents, Ternm, &c., osi pagre 25G. 
[copy right secured.] 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, 
by Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
New-York. 
pip N. IJ.— Every Journal is invited freely to copy 
any and all desirable articles with credit, and no use or 
advantage will be taken of the Copy-Right, wherever 
each article or illustration is duly accredited to the 
American Agriculturist. ORANGE JUDD, Proprietor. 
American Agriculturist in ©erman. 
The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is published in 
Doth the English and German Languages. Both 
Editions are of Uniform size, and contain as 
nearly as possible the same Articles and Illustra¬ 
tions. The German Edition is furnished at the 
some rates as the English- 
August. 
*• Live for something, be not idle ; 
Look about th ee for employ; 
Sit not down to useless dreaming, 
Labor is the sweetest joy. 
Folded hands are ever weary. 
Selfish hearts are never gay : 
Life for thee hath many duties, 
Active be, then, while you may." 
It would be too much to say, that farmers are 
dlers, and living for nothing. Yet our calling 
nas its share of idlers, who have no noble object in 
life, to fire the imagination, and to call forth their 
best energies. These have no looking upward, 
in their daily employments, to something better 
than they now enjoy, no improvements contem¬ 
plated, no expectation of a better reward for their 
labors. There is no enthusiastic love of their 
calling, no magnifying of their office as tillers of 
the soil, no dropping of fatness from their foot¬ 
steps as they walk over the scene of their labors. 
Their business is felt to be a drudgery, a hard 
struggle for daily bread, and they are always look¬ 
ing away from home, and from farming, for the 
“ good time coming ” instead of inviting that 
time to come to them upon their own acres. 
They prefer the tavern, or the resort of loungers, 
to their own barns or fields, and waste more 
hours in idleness than would be sufficient to give 
them competence and contentment at home. 
Success in husbandry, as in every other pur¬ 
suit in life, depends much more upon the spirit of 
the man, than upon his circumstances. Fame and 
fortune are not won, in any pursuit, without a 
good deal of hard work, both of the head, and of 
the hands. If a farmer has the true grit in him, 
and understands his position, he can win fortune, 
a happy home for himself and children, in almost 
any part of our country. It is much easier to 
imagine that this can be done better elsewhere, 
than to plan how to do it in your present cir¬ 
cumstances ; but the probabilities are, that your 
present farm, with all its disadvantages, is the 
very battle field, on which you may conquer more 
NEW-YORK, AUGUST, 1859. [NEW series-No. isi. 
surely, and rapidly, than on any other spot in the 
world. We are getting out of patience with that 
class of farmers, who are always fuming and 
scolding about the hard times, when, in truth, the 
times are not half so hard upon them, as their 
own vices. With their present habits of self-in¬ 
dulgence, and idleness, they would be always 
slipshod, and short on pay day, if their farms were 
in Paradise. 
The man, who has not determined to win a 
competence, where he now is, is liable to live in 
a world of illusions. He imagines, that in the 
far west, in Kansas, or California, at Pike’s Peak, 
or some other tip-top of creation, there is better 
land, more gold, and more contentment than he 
now enjoys, with less sweat and trouble. So he 
is always dreaming of Eldorado, and never put¬ 
ting forth his best energies upon the land now oc¬ 
cupied, to make it do its best for him. This and 
that improvement is neglected, because he ex¬ 
pects next year to seek a new home in some 
better region. 
The man who would succeed must give up 
these air castles, and determine that he will win 
fortune, where he now is, unless Providence 
break up his plans, and drive him to a new field 
of toil. The farmer, as well as others, “ must 
stoop to conquer.” He must be willing to work 
hard, cheerfully, and patiently to wait a few years 
before he can realize his ideal of a good farm, 
well stocked, well tilled, and adorned with ap¬ 
propriate buildings. The policy of looking for 
immediate results must be given up for the sys¬ 
tem of permanent improvements and advantages— 
five—ten—twenty years ahead. 
Nothing is more destructive to the farm, and 
to the farmer’s interests, than to shape all his la¬ 
bors for the present season. In fact, hardly any 
farm work is appropriately done, that does not 
look ahead some years for its full returns. In 
this it is unlike most other mechanical employ¬ 
ments. The shoemaker makes his shoe or boot, 
receives his pay, and that is the end of his re¬ 
ward. But the farmer is constantly called upon 
to do things, that will be bringing him in returns, 
for a long series of years. The fruit tree, that 
he plants, will give him a marketable product, as 
long as he takes care of it. The heifer, that he 
carefully rears, will give him milk, butter, cheese, 
veal, and more heifers for ten years to come. 
The piece of land, that he drains, will give him 
double crops, as long as he keeps the outlets 
open. The load of muck, that he carts to his 
stable, will not only absorb ammonia and prevent 
waste there, but will carry a load of riches to the 
compost heap, and thence to the field, to return 
in increased crops of grass, grain and roots, for 
years to come. The well built barn, with cellar 
and sheds for making manure, is not only a shel¬ 
ter for hay and stock, for a single Winter, but a 
permanent shelter, and a manure factory, to give 
out its annual dividends for a generation to come. 
It is this characteristic feature of husbandry, 
that misleads so many in estimating its profita 
bleness, and constrains them prematurely to 
abandon it. The results of a year's labor, upon 
a well managed farm, do not return until the 
close of a rotation of crops, say in five or six 
years. If the farmer gets two thirds of his re¬ 
ward the first year, for his labor and capital, he 
ought to be satisfied. In some callings, a man 
will do a business, to the full amount of his capi¬ 
tal, every two months. But such a business, of 
course, has many risks, which do not pertain to 
husbandry. If our returns are slower, they are by 
far more certain, and, in the average, far larger 
than the rewards of any other business. The 
risks are reduced to the minimum, and no man 
with good sense, and industry, can well fail of a 
competence, by cultivating the soil in our country. 
This view of our calling ought to make us very 
cautious in exchanging it for another, where the 
profits accrue more rapidly, and are seemingly 
larger. It ought to make us more liberal in us¬ 
ing all the capital needed in our business. No 
occupation suffers so much for want of adequate 
capital, as our own. Millions upon millions of 
dollars of the hard earnings of farmers that are 
needed immediately to develop the resources of 
the soil, are invested in bank stock, in manufacto¬ 
ries, in railroads, in shipping, and in the bogus 
enterprises of ingenious swindlers. 
It is an impeachment of our own skill and en¬ 
terprise, to be sending these millions abroad for 
employment, when they are needed upon the 
farm. There are many farms in the older 
States that want from one to five hundred dollars 
this month, expended in labor to dig and cart 
muck, and the money so expended with ordinary 
good judgement in the management, would be 
certain to pay ten per cent, until the capital was 
refunded. ‘‘To the muck mines,” should be the 
watch word on every worn out farm this month, 
and the carts loaded with the sable ore, should be 
the sign at every barn-vard gate. To multitudes 
it would prove the one thing needful in their hus¬ 
bandry, and would mark a new era in their farm 
operations. 
The Franking Privilege. —The Philadelphia 
Bulletin speaks of seeing the following articles 
lying among the mail-bags at the post office as 
franked, matter, directed to a member of Congress 
at Washington : One wooden box about a foot 
square, labelled “Dr.-'s Universal Remedy.’’ 
One jointed fishing-rod, carefully done up in 
brown paper ; and one “ Old Dominion Coffee 
Pot.” These being rather inconvenient to send 
in the bags with letters, were permitted to go in 
separate parcels. They were for one of those 
who voted themselves a salary of $3000 a year, 
and mileage. To send a pound of valuable seeds 
to one of our subscribers, we prepay 90 cents, 
for short distances, and $3.20 to the Pacific Coast; 
and a strong effort was made at the last Congress 
to raise the charge to $1.60 per pound for tho 
shortest routes! Comment is unnecessary. 
