iiiillllimiuu^^. 
Vol. XXXIX. No. 52 
Whom No. 1613. 
Pbioe Fiyb Cents, 
82.00 Peb Yeab, 
[Entered according to Aot of Oongress. la the year 1880, by the Bnral New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
^attn ®0pirs. 
IMPROVEMENTS OF FARMERS. 
RICHARD GOODMAN. 
So much is said and done for the advance¬ 
ment of agriculture in its inorganic aspect, 
and also in the improvement of the va¬ 
rious breeds of domestic animals, that 
we are apt to overlook the status of the 
agriculturist himself through whom, wil¬ 
lingly or unwillingly, these advances and 
improvements have to be made. The posi¬ 
tion of the sons of the soil in every portion 
of the Old World since the Roman conquest, 
has been so ignoble that they have hardly 
been accorded any rights which the other 
classes were bound to respect, and it was only 
after the settlement of this country that the 
actual farm laborer was able to enter upon his 
own land, and the higher idea of property, of 
exclusive right and ownership was allowed to 
exalt bis conceptions. The early settlers,not¬ 
withstanding their severe privations and 
dangers, were happy in felling trees and clean¬ 
ing forests to build their houses and make 
their farms, for they were creating homes and 
property which would descend to their chil¬ 
dren. aud knew no other landlord than the 
government, whose reut, in the shape of taxes, 
was so light and neces-ary to the general wel¬ 
fare that it was cheerfully borne. Society was 
not composed here, as in the older-settled 
countries, of great and wealthy persons who 
possessed everything, and of a herd of people 
who possessed nothing. All were animated 
with the spirit of an industry unfettered and 
unrestrained, because each person worked for 
himsolf, aud the farmers were the ruling 
class, as they were the most numerous and 
the importance of Lheir avocation to the whole 
community was realized. 
As the country increased in population and 
wealth, commerce, manufactures and the 
arts and professions began to come to the 
front, and the farmer to retire to the back- 
giound. The high oflices of State, the repre¬ 
sentative and Senate chambers were no longer 
filled from the agricultural ranks, and it 
seemed as if the class whose work underlaid 
the whole fabric of the Republic, was to be 
relegated to the same position theirco-laborers 
in the Old World occupied. But, happily, that 
great ennobler, the common school, in con¬ 
junction with those higher seminaries called 
colleges, was accessible to farmers’ sons, and 
the latter were enabled to retain some of the 
advantages their fathers had gained, and in 
this more recent period schools especially 
fitted for their own instruction have been 
chartered by the General Government in con¬ 
nection with every State in the Union. Farm¬ 
ing as a business has become profitable in 
all its departments, and there is hope that the 
decadence of the farmer in bis social, educa¬ 
tional, political and monetary surroundings has 
ceased, and that he Is again to come to tbe 
front, breast to breast with the other promi¬ 
nent classes upon whom the prosperity of the 
country depends. 
After the five or six years of depression in all 
business interests, we have started again as a 
nation at an unexampled rate of speed on the 
road to affluence, we have resumed specie pay¬ 
ments, our exchequer is filled with gold poured 
in from abroad, everybody is happy aud hope¬ 
ful who can and does work, and yet few 
perceive how much of this enhanced situation 
is owing to the products of the soil and the 
labor of the farmers—how the gold we receive 
from England and the Continental nations is 
in payment for the wheat, corn, beef and other 
results of the toil of the six millions of men 
and their families who constitute the great 
substratum of the Republic. Few realize the 
Importance of the labors of these men and of 
the necessity of their being educated for their 
business so as to compete successfully with 
the cheap labor of the Old World, or else there 
would nolouger be the objections continually 
to I e fought down, even In enlightened Massa¬ 
chusetts and New England generally, to the 
maintenance of schools for their especial in¬ 
struction—measures which alone in Germany, 
France and Europe generally have enabled 
those governments to possess a body of soil 
cultivators who can scientifically and profit¬ 
ably furniBh food for their home consumption 
from their worn and Impoverished soils. 
The very Improvements themselves in agri¬ 
culture fostered, and in many cases, fathered 
by outside persons — with the introduction 
of new and valuable breeds of cattle have, in 
connection with agricultural journals and 
gatherings, greatly assisted in the growth of 
the farming community in Intelligence, wealth, 
better style of living and dress, moresociabilty 
and a wider horizon of ambition. No person 
of ordinary character can give his attention to 
themore systematic audscientific modesof cul¬ 
tivating the soil without ail increased interest 
in the pursuit of general knowledge connected 
with his calling. No owner and breeder of ex¬ 
pensive stock but mends his ways and substi¬ 
tutes neatness for disorder and dirt, regularity 
for irregularity, and has his mind enlarged be¬ 
cause the unwonted expendltnreof capital nec¬ 
essarily begets the impetus to make all the 
surroundings suitable to a profit therefrom, 
aud consequently the animals are treated ten¬ 
derly, kept cleanly, fed properly, and thus care 
and attention soon extend to the whole farm. 
It isn’t a great many years since my herd of 
Jerseys were received at Toknn Farm through 
a chorns of jeers cm route, and a shorter period 
Bince the success of my efforts in the State 
Board of Agriculture to prohibit the thirty-one 
county societies from bestowing premiums on 
grade bulls, seemed to threaten a dissolution of 
social farm life, and oue would think from the 
debates on the subject at the clubs and annual 
meetings of these societies that a great blow 
had been aimed at the agricultural prosperity 
of the Slate. But the introduction of Jerseys 
here and elsewhere has led to much greater 
care in the dairy, in the farm and in the stables 
than theretofore known, except in special in¬ 
stances. Butter-making has been lifted into a 
science, and the use of thoroughbred bulls now 
generally established, has enhanced the value 
of our ordinary dairy and working and beef 
cattle from one-third to one-half more than 
they would otherwise have been worth. 
Better than all this, the farmers themselves 
have grown in mental stature, realized the 
benefit of these and corresponding advances, 
and carried their families along with them; the 
discussions at our fanners’ clubs have ceased 
to belik those ol a camp-meeting, the venting 
of mere personal experiences, but deal with 
principles and c tibliahed facts. The neces¬ 
sary care given to the cattle aud the farm has 
extended in doors; the kitchen has ceased— 
though there are too many exceptions—to be 
the general drawing-room, pork is no longer 
king in the larder, pies have In some measure 
decreased, the girls’complexions have been im¬ 
proved with their manners and habits, and the 
boys have ceased, in many cases at least, to be 
gross in their ways and unconcerned about 
their calling. Scorn as we may the “ almighty 
dollar,” that reigns with no more supreme 
sway on this side of the Atlantic than the 
other, it is a great educator, and the man or 
woman who, by honest labor, is steadily earn¬ 
ing a support and a little over, is not only hap¬ 
py and contented, but alive to investments and 
increase of capital and its profitable use. We 
may laud the parsimony and think of the 
French peasants who, In the moment of peril 
to their country, rescued her by their savings, 
but the very qualities which brought about 
this result have kept them in gross Ignorance 
and poverty, and allowed their intelligence to 
be stunted and their condition to be not a whit 
better than that ol the serfs of the Middle Ages. 
Much better to Bpend reasonably a portion of 
their earnings, educate therewith their chil¬ 
dren, Improve their farms, make money out 
of money, as do our wide-awake farmers, and 
thus become not only intelligent cultivators 
but multiply the chances of their children to 
ascend in the social scale and stand on an 
equality with the best. 
Oar farmers have yet much to learn, but 
education of the proper sort is being forced 
upon them, and what with the facilities of 
book-learning at school, money making by 
new processes of grain culture and dairying, 
by exports of cattle, sheep and all grain pro¬ 
ducts aud other means constantly opening, 
it will be the coming farmer’s own fault If he 
is not in all respects on a par with his fellows 
of whatever trade. Farming has ceased to be 
a mere monkish employment for persons se¬ 
cluded from their fellows, but has become one 
of the open and constantly improving indus¬ 
tries, and he will succeed best in it who adds 
brains to his handiwork. 
- 
WINTER FARM WORK. 
It is not an easy matter to arrange for profit¬ 
able employment upon the farm during Win¬ 
ter beyond the immediate care of stock. The 
chief object will be to get everything out of 
the way, whicb will take tip time and interfere 
with the active labors when Spring opens. To 
do this everything should be pat in readiness 
for immediate nse. 
If muck is wanted or other absorbent, it is 
just as easy to dig it in Winter. A great part 
of the business of draining is also as well done 
while but partially freezing. If there be tim¬ 
ber to get out; if trees have fallen which 
Bhould be saved for fuel: if fencing material 
should be moved j if tools have to be repaired 
and painted; if a Bupply of fnel is to be gotten 
up ; if any portion of the buildings needs re¬ 
pairs; if there is manure to haul, then the 
farmer knows at once the advantage of having 
these tasks forwarded. 
In some instances swamps may be drained 
as readily In Winter, and if a sand bank be at 
hand, the clayey soils may receive a coating. 
If there is no ice-house there should be one 
made and filled. But to search for new or 
outside employments upon the farm daring 
theWinter months, and of a character that the 
farmer may be supposed to be conversant with 
the pursuit, is quite another thing. 
In earlier times the farmer got up and pre¬ 
pared a huge wood pile. He sawed, split and 
shaved Bhingles. He prepared a considerable 
quantity of flax fiber, and the wife spun and 
wove it. lie made his boots and shoes. He 
pared and dried apples and pumpkins. He 
made apple sauce. But nearly all of these em¬ 
ployments are gone. 
If thqre be cows and a supply of foods for 
dairy purposes, the most profitable season for 
butter and milk is in the Winter; also if he 
have food and can obtain sheep for fattening 
them, there is profit in so doing. The Winter 
should be the time of care of stock and mar¬ 
keting of crops already secured, and of recre¬ 
ation and recuperation, and repreparation for 
the active times of Spring and Summer. 
The farm is but a factory for producing a 
certain kind and quantity of produce, and the 
calculation, and the preparation of tools, and 
the procuring of fertilizers are largely Winter 
labor. 
-- 
APPLES FOR STOCK, 
I notice that there is considerable discus¬ 
sion as to the value of apples for feeding 
stock; some writers claiming that they are of 
considerable value, others that they are of 
very little. This subject is evidently not snf. 
ficieutly understood. When farmers are will¬ 
ing to draw apples several miles, and sell them 
at prices ranging from five, to twenty cents 
per bushel, for cider or evaporating, as they 
have done this season, they evidently consider 
them of no more value for feeding. Why 
should we not trust to “ common sense” upon 
Ais subject, and be governed by the instincts 
of our stock ? 
Oar animals eat apples greedily when they 
have the opportunity and is not this good 
evidence that apples are valuable for feeding ? 
The appetites of our cows, horses, and hogs 
have not become vitiated by the ubo of tobacco, 
whisky, or highly spiced food, consequently 
their tastes are to be relied upon to a consid¬ 
erable extent. 
My opinion is that apples are worth, at least 
twenty five cents per bushel for feeding, either, 
to cows, hogs or horses. Feed lightly at first, 
as should always be done when changing feed, 
and increase the quantity until you feed as 
much as will be eaten freely but still leaving 
the animal with a good relish for the next meal. 
I think that our best authorities are agreed 
that apples are valuable food for mankind, 
and it is only when our stock are under con¬ 
sideration that the “doctors disagree.” 
Why this difference? A celebrated English 
doctor says; “Apples, our most common 
fruit, are good food raw, baked, stewed or in 
a tart, or pudding. Of coarse, a large portion 
of an apple, as of all fruits, is water, but the 
nutritive portion is very pure, and has the 
be6t effect upon digestion.” Does any one 
donbt the correctness of the above statements? 
If not, why doubt the apple being just as val¬ 
uable, as food for stock? An occasional 
farmer has discovered that apples are valuable 
for feeding purposes. One of the largest dairy¬ 
men in an adioining county feeds them by the 
hundreds of bushels, having large orchards aud 
also buying largely of his less well informed 
neighbors. Another has ju6t set an orchard 
mostly of Tollman Sweet, for no other pur¬ 
pose than to raise apples for stock feeding. 
Plenty of such instances could be given, but 
are probably needless. When people gener¬ 
ally understand this subject, apples will be a 
more profitable crop than at present. * 
It is of little consequence for feeding whether 
apples are sweet or 60 ur, bnt the best varie¬ 
ties for mankind, are also the be6t for stock, 
while an apple of too poor a quality to be eaten 
should not be grown for feeding. Suppose an 
apple tobs mostly water, our stock need water, 
and can It not be given them as advantageously 
with their food as in any other way, especially 
in cold weather ? Nelson Ritter. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
- . - 
Ensilage. 
The question of green food in Winter, or a 
preservation of food in a more natural state is 
one in which the farming industry Is soon to 
have great interest. 
The health of humanitv is much enhanced by 
the preservation of green, juicy, succulent 
foods, and there is no question bat the condi¬ 
tion of all animals would bo improved by a 
preservation or production of a natural condi¬ 
tion of food for them so far as possible. 
The announcement that vegetables, fruits 
and meats may be preserved In a preparation 
of water for almost any length of time suggests 
the feasibility of the erection of tanks suffi¬ 
cient to cover cart-loads of apples and other 
green things kept at a temperature above freez¬ 
ing and the withdrawal and use as wanted. 
The preservation of beet tops in France is 
made practicable, and a few experiments in 
such preservation in this country show favor¬ 
able results. 
The question then arises how to increase the 
supply of fodder plants and roots and fruits 
and vegetables at the same time, and which 
shall be of a character to be thus preserved, 
aud also to complete the experiments with the 
systems of preservation. 
Few things but keep better in cellars or shut 
out from the air. and many articles keep bet¬ 
ter In moist cellars or in water. Every good 
farmer knows the benefit of an underground 
