1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
51 
equally good. The corn is now husked and crib¬ 
bed, and after fattening eleven hogs and an inde¬ 
finite number of poultry, there is left, as the pro¬ 
duct of the twenty acres, 1,450 bushels of shelled 
corn, which I have ascertained by the usual mode 
of multiplying the length, breadth and depth of 
the crib together, and that product by 44, and 
cutting off the right hand figure, which gives the 
bushels and fractional part of a bushel. In the 
measurement I made due allowance for shrinkage. 
Add to this 100 bushels, supposed to have been 
consumed by the hogs, horses and poultry, and an 
average of over 75 bushels to the acre is shown. 
I must add injustice to the land, that about two 
acres were badly injured by the crows. I have 
from forty to fifty tons of stalks, and some forty 
loads of pumpkins. 
I attribute this excess of yield over that of for¬ 
mer years, to the continual turning up of fresh 
surface to the sun and night dews, and in some 
measure to keeping the weeds down. My neigh¬ 
bor, with land equally good, cultivated his corn 
the old way, and while I had four horses with 
plows and cultivators at work, he had eight or 
nine men digging and hoeing, and but one plow. 
I think his crop did not average over 50 bushels to 
the acre, and I am sure his work cost more than 
mine. 
I am certain that from 20 to 25 per cent, can 
thus be added to the yield of corn on any land. 
There is no more profitable crop raised in this lat¬ 
itude, and none so carelessly cultivated. We 
plant it, scratch the ground a little with the plow, 
and a few boys follow with the hoe. This process 
twice repeated, and the work is done. Perhaps 
the soil has never been disturbed around half the 
hills by plow or hoe f and the result is, some 20 or 
30 bushels to the acre in one of the best corn dis¬ 
tricts in the State, when by proper culture the 
yield might be more than doubled. Geo. A. 
Shijfelot. Fox Hall, Kingston, N. Y. 
The Intellectual Position of Farmers. 
A recent communication from an intelligent 
farmer in Ohio, contains the following spirited re¬ 
marks on the odium which certain pedantic writers 
attach to the literary efforts of the c ‘ smellers of 
the soil 
“ Scholars and authors not unfrequently amuse 
themselves at the expense of the diligent, thought¬ 
ful farmer. A recent work, by Mr. Bayle St. 
John, has placed the world under obligation for a 
bright idea. Speaking of certain Egyptians, he 
says, 1 Like all agricultural races, their intellects 
are slow and somewhat obtuse. The smell of the 
earth has in no country a favorable effect on the 
Nichol, John ! Mow, ‘ doff the lion’s hide, and 
hang an ass’s skin on those conceited limbs,’ and 
you will stand forth in your natural form. To 
characterise such remarks, as flippant folly, would 
not be unjust or uncharitable. To those who 
have more leisure and ability , I leave the task of 
teaching the saintly gentleman in what estimate 
u the smellers of the earth” were held, in the 
palmiest days of Greece and Rome, and among 
all other people, in proportion to their advance¬ 
ment in virtue and enlightenment. 
George Renick, Sr. 
I do not propose to give an extended biography 
of the individual whose name heads this article, 
nor to narrate many of the incidents of his life. 
My only object is to speak of one or two of his 
prominent acts, which will suffice to show that a 
plain, unassuming, unambitious farmer, may con¬ 
fer great benefit on hiscountiy. There is nothing 
grandiloquent in a farmer’s life. On the contrary, 
how calm the inception, how gradual the expan¬ 
sion of the cultivotor’s designs! For him there is 
no sudden realization of hopes. In silent thought¬ 
fulness he prepares the ground—in his mind deep 
plowing and careful harrowing produce fruitful¬ 
ness. From the budding to the ripening of his 
mental growth, his mind goes straight onward to 
its conclusion. But on account of this slowness 
of development, this leaning on and learning from 
Nature, he has sometimes been called a dull plod¬ 
ding drudge. 
To the young husbandman just setting out in 
life. I might say, behold in George Renick your 
model. Learn from him that a fruitful intellect 
may dw’ell with modesty and merit. And if you 
would be riveted in attachment to the noblest and 
most ancient of avocations, be assured from his 
history, that content and plenty will ever be the 
reward of him who assiduously cultivates both the 
soil and the mind. Such a farmer is above and 
beyond the feverish itchings for fame and notori¬ 
ety. 
In the winter of 1804-5, before turnpikes and 
canals afforded an outlet for the vast grain sur¬ 
plus of the rich bottoms and plains of the West, 
the prospects of the farmer were gloomy and un¬ 
promising in the extreme. Hogs roamed at large, 
and fattened without the care or solicitude of their 
owners, on the superabundant waste of the forest. 
The small villages ^f the thinly settled country, 
could scarcely consume the beef which one good 
farm was able to supply. And if every log cabin 
in the country had been a distillery, and every 
man, ivoman and child, had drank their own home 
made whiskey like mother’s milk, they could not 
have consumed the products of their groaning corn- 
