1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
43 
We Are Going to Gain. 
The year of our Lord 1915 will still, most likely, find 
people, as a rule, preferring to go from place to place on 
the surface of the earth rather than under water or in the 
air above. The weather service will either greatly im¬ 
prove, so as to be of some value to agriculture, or go out 
of existence in so far as prognosticating for the inland is 
concerned. Neither the weather prophets nor the weather 
service can for a long time yet foretell when it will be 
safe sailing in the air for any continued length of time. 
"In such prairie countries as some parts of Illinois, 
where the black mud in very wet weather now makes 
travel by teams on ordinary roads next to impossible, there 
will be numerous narrow-gauge railroads, with light 
tracks for light traffic by electric motors and air engines. 
These conveniences will add much to the pleasure and 
satisfaction in country homes now remote from modern 
railroads. 
Land will be better tilled, and there will be a growing 
tendency to better crops. There will be more system, and 
some fixed rotation of crops will prevail more universally, 
giving attention to the locality, soil, taste, etc. ; but I 
hardly expect that by that early date the chemist will be 
able to tell the farmer how to plan so that his crops may 
take and assimilate, in unlimited quantities, the free nitro¬ 
gen of the air, but those who survive will know more 
about this important subject. 
Farmers on the rich lands of the West will give more 
thought to fertilizers, and begin to wake up tp the value 
of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash, yet those of the 
Mississippi and St. Lawrence valleys will still be unable 
to plant and raise oysters in their fresh-water streams and 
ponds, nor will the frisky cod and salmon long thrive 
away from briny waters. 
In 1915, the farmers of the Northern States will be mak¬ 
ing most of their own sugar—not every small farmer on his 
own hook, but large neighborhoods in suitable localities 
will work together on a large scale. Rough hand labor 
will be less remunerative, to the laborer especially, unless 
accompanied by great skill and faithfulness. There will 
still be many poor, who will see hard times. 
There will be less opportunity for poor people to amass 
great wealth. There will be a more uniform practice of 
rigid economy by the thrifty classes. Margins on farm 
labor will become so slight that farmers will have begun 
to learn the importance of agreeing well enough to 
cooperate quite largely in buying and selling; still I hardly 
think they will all unite to regulate the supply and prices 
of farm products. Some one, but more likely, several 
farmers’ organizations, will continue to thrive and in 
State and Nation will wield an influence much more 
nearly in accordance with the interests and proportionate 
numbers of the agricultural classes than they now do. 
Culture and refinement among the masses will have be¬ 
come more prevalent; there will be less chewing and 
spitting in presence of others, and less profanity; still 
each back district will continue to have its old cur¬ 
mudgeons. There will be less drunkenness, especially in 
the country, though I am not so sure that this will be the 
rule in cities where lovers of all forms of vice and excess 
do congregate. 
Jockies will have contrived more plans and toggeries 
(though this seems now to be hardly possible) by which they 
can coax a well-bred and well-fed and perfectly trained 
horse to trot a mile a little faster than at present, say, in 
two minutes two and a half seconds. Horses for farm 
or road work will very generally average better and will be 
cheaper than they are to-day. It will be more universally 
and clearly understood by farmers that there is more dif¬ 
ference between individual animals of the same breed than 
between nice ones of several different breeds, and they will 
therefore nearly cease to talk about any one breed of cattle 
as best for beef, or best for milk or best for butter. 
The talk in regard to a general-purpose cow will nearly 
cease except in the back districts. 
Having bred Merino sheep till the skin of one will be 
large enough for snug coats for two, and pampered them 
by rich diet till their vitality will be far on the ebb, 
there will be a tendency to wabble back to first principles 
and look for stock that hold their heads higher and are 
able to jump a good fence. 
Unless previously prevented by large ^drains on his 
vitality, the hog will be so pampered by warm stables,and 
frequent grooming and possibly by blanketing, that when 
ready for market, in cross section he will be a circle com¬ 
plete,in longitudinal section,an oval with apex truncate and 
subacute with four short, slim stripes on the ventral side. 
He will, however, even then hardly be able to come up to 
some of the stock pictures we now see in advertising 
columns. 
Dogs will be better bred, more civil, and fewer ugly, un¬ 
congenial curs will run at large, but their chief diet will 
continue to be meat of some sort. 
When hens hatch ducks they will continue, as did their 
ancestors, to be worried when the little things take to 
the pond. In autumn, as now, the young fowls will con¬ 
tinue to trouble the farmer by taking to the tree tops for 
roosting purposes. 
Owing to the waste places being more completely util¬ 
ized there will be fewer wild plants, so that farmers will 
not consider it profitable to buy sugar to feed the indus¬ 
trious, busy bees, just for the sake of having the hives 
adorn the back yard. There will be little honey used, and 
more high-flavored syrup made from cane, beets and 
maples. There will be less confidence in the traditions of 
the fathers, less planting and butchering “ in the moon.” 
A knowledge of the sciences wages constant warfare on 
superstition. 
Young men in literary colleges will continue to make 
more noise and effort for a victory in baseball or football 
than for almost anything else. There will be a growing 
tendency to cherish and respect true agricultural colleges, 
and they will become the most prominent educational in¬ 
stitutions in the country. Reading and study and good 
observation will become more common. 
In 1915 the best farmers will be more discriminating in 
selecting the quality of their agricultural journals than 
in 1890 ; there will be a small number of excellent periodi¬ 
cals, and fewer cheap ones of a poor grade than at present. 
As vegetables and small as well as large fruits are 
massed, and each sort is raised in large quantities, there 
will continue to be new introductions of fungi and insects 
injurious to vegetation. New remedies will be found, but 
new troubles will take the place of those surmounted. 
The horticulturist will not always raise what he or his 
customers like best, but what all sorts of enemies will let 
him raise with the greatest success. The most prominent 
change in a horticultural way likely to occur in the next 
30 years among our people, is an increased interest in, and 
greater knowledge of our wild native plants of all sorts, 
especially those that are beautiful or peculiar. 
Michigan Agricultural College. [prof.] w. j. beal. 
A Market Gardener Has Faith. 
The past season has been a fairly prosperous one with us, 
so wife and I are spending a portion of our surplus in 
traveling and visiting friends. At present we are visiting 
at my old home which I left nearly 50 years ago. At that 
time father and mother were struggling along upon what 
was then a very poor farm. Father was one of the first 
men in the United States to commence a system of im¬ 
proved farming. Plows then were far from being what 
they are to-day. Harrows were still farther behind 
and cultivators were hardly in use. I had then seen but 
one mower, and that lay in a field by the roadside for 
years, entirely useless. Hay rakes were in use to a very 
limited extent; but were worthless as compared with 
those of to-day. Grain seeders were unknown. The favor¬ 
ite device for cutting grain was the cradle; but upon 
rough, hilly land the sickle was often used. Reapers and 
self-binders were as completely unknown then as in the 
days of Abraham and the Patriarchs. 
My father put down the first underdrain ever used in 
the United States. It was before 1830, I believe in 1828, but 
I cannot give the exact date. It was dug about three feet 
deep, and was about half filled with small stones thrown 
in loosely, and then filled up wit£ earth. It was a 
success from the first, and is still running as it has been 
for more than 60 years. If there is an older underdrain in 
the United States I would like to know of it and its owner. 
Market gardening as conducted to-day, was almost liter 
ally unknown 50 years ago. In fact, the business has been 
almost completely revolutionized within the last 25 years. 
I need not go into details farther than to say that if 25 
years ago I could have believed that I would be compelled 
to sell garden products for such prices as I have accepted 
for years past, I would never have planted my garden 
again, but have said to my wife and children Such 
prices will be absolutely ruinous, and we’ll get out of the 
business before a sheriff may insist on helping us out.” 
Still I have gone along systematizing my business more 
and more thoroughly with each succeeding year as time 
and experience have taught me, getting the best possible 
tools to work with, surface-draining, underdraining, and 
enriching my soil until I am able to sell at much lower 
prices than formerly, and although the profits are not 
large, and there is no danger of my becoming a millionaire, 
still I do not fear that the sheriff’s services will be needed 
when I retire from business. But what of the future ? 
It is a well-known fact that the farmers of the present 
day who still persist in the methods of 50 years ago, are 
making no money, and, in fact, I believe most of 
them are gradually going backward, financially. The 
inevitable result will be that they fnust of necessity 
either adopt a better system of farming, or else be driven 
out of the business. It seeems now as if in many things 
we had reached nearly or quite perfection in our farm and 
garden machinery; still it is unsafe to predict that there 
will be nothing better in the future. In my opinion, dur¬ 
ing the next 25 years, the greatest improvement will be in 
the great increase of farm crops per acre. It is well known 
to all intelligent men engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
that our ordinary wheat land is capable of producing from 
30 to 40 bushels per acre ; yet the average yield is less than 
14 bushels. The great corn districts are capable of pro¬ 
ducing 100 bushels of corn per acre, and yet the average 
yield of even the best of them, is not much over one-third 
of that amount. Good potato land is capable of pro 'uc- 
ing from 300 to 500 bushels per acre and yet the annual 
product is less than 100 bushels. All our farm crops run 
in about the same proportion; so that less than one-third 
of the land’s capacity for production is utilized. What a 
wonderful opening here for active, wide-awake, intel¬ 
ligent, industrious, and energetic young men 1 
It seems to me that if I were young again I would sooner 
devote my entire energies to some of the different branches 
of improved farming than to any other business now fol¬ 
lowed in our country. The farm will be no place for lazy 
persons. Dudes, idiots, political heelers, ignoramuses and 
indolent imbeciles of every kind had better shun it. In 
fact, the improvement is in many States already under 
way. This is particularly true of Wisconsin, where the 
farmers’ institutes, the experiment station, and the differ¬ 
ent agricultural societies are all doing splendid work, and 
are each year doing better work than ever before. It 
seems to me that there has never been so bright an out¬ 
look as that for the next 25 years for the agriculturist who 
will keep up with the times; and this, too, in spite of the 
acknowledged fact that the last two or three years have 
embraced a period of general depression during which very 
many even good farmers have been obliged to content 
themselves with very small profits. Then, let no good cult¬ 
ivator be discouraged ; but let all work on in the full be¬ 
lief that all will be well, and that too in the near future. 
Brown County, Wis. j. M. smith. 
Watchman, Tell Us .of the Future. 
The Dairy.— There has been no perceptible increase in 
the average yield of dairies in Northern New York during 
the last 30 years. A dairy yielding an average of 5,000 
pounds of milk to the cow has been and is the model dairy 
in this vicinity, but in 10 or 15 years’ time this state of 
affairs will be entirely changed. While those men who 
have for years been laboring to improve dairy breeds have 
been successful in advancing their own interests, they 
have also placed within the reach of the average 
dairyman the means whereby his dairy stock may be 
greatly improved. It is not only possible but altogether 
probable that in the near future the average yield per cow 
A NEBRASKA HAYMAKER’S OUTFIT. In the Field. Fig. 21. See page 45. 
