360 
STATE AGRICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
ions of agricultural art. Science, in a high degree, can only 
be displayed by an individual in the study of one of these 
branches, and j^et this subject, agriculture, has been too often 
looked down upon as being only fit to be subordinated to 
every other profession and art in life—this agriculture, which 
feeds the millions, and actually sways the destiny of nations. 
It is altogether useless for the slovenly or negligent farmer 
to attempt the cultivation of root crops, since being of slow 
growth at first, produced from minute seeds, and requiring 
much labor, as compared with corn, wheat and other grain pro¬ 
ducing plants, he will be sure of failure. In fact, the so-called 
gardens or truck patches, of many otherwise good farmers, are 
a by-word and laughing stock to the passer-by, the home of 
every vile weed that will grow in the climate. 
There certainly is need of agricultural colleges in a country 
where more than one-half of the farmers are content to live 
for three-fourths of the year on bread and meat, with perhaps 
a scanty and precarious supply of vegetables, when one hun¬ 
dred dollars, expended in seed and labor upon a single acre, 
would produce more healthful and better sustenance than 
double the amount expended in pork and flour, and doctor’s bills, 
beside the enhanced pleasure in higher enjoyment of life, pro¬ 
duced by ,a table laden with various vegetable productions, 
important among which are tuberous and other root crops. 
It is absolutely essential to success in the economical culti¬ 
vation of these crops, that the land be in high condition, or it 
will be necessary to bring it so by deep plowing, heavy ma¬ 
nuring, and the cultivation of some hoed crop of easy culture 
as corn and potatoes. 
Attention is also necessary to the nature of the soil. If it 
is wot or tenacious it must be rendered dry and friable by 
drainage and manures, which will act mechanically as well as 
chemically, always bearing in mind that root crops except al¬ 
liaceous ones, as the onion family, do not like recent manuring, 
unless it be compost, since it causes them to grow forked and 
knobby. The time spent in properly preparing the land will 
be amply repaid in the perfection and quantity of the crop. 
