Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, IA [i.e. Ind.]) 1839-1854, 1845-10-08
A word with the Farmers.

There is seeming assumption in a man OF one
vocation trying to toll others how to do their own
business, which often dcters people from giving
| good and needed advice. An editor may fairly
claim exemption from this mistaken nodcsty
and We, having spent early years at work on
a farm, and rcgar dcd agriculture with deep in
tercst ever since, claim special right to speak
plainly to tho farming community Bear with
US, then, few moments, farming friends.
Taking hasty trip to Saratoga, some weeks
since, we wero struck with two or three aspects
of tho country. Ono the severe suffering
from drought on tho rich intervals Of tho Hudson
river, especially above Troy. There were hun
drcds Of acres of gently sloping land, devoted to
ga rdon and tago, burnt up by drought. as though
fire had run through it, and not yielding over
ono-third of a fair crop. ct right beside shat
parched intervaIc ran noble river sufficient to
drcnch tho whole daily without a sensible diminu-
ton of its watcrs who the plain was crossed
almost every mile by stream coming down
from tho hills to swell tho rivers c,.rron:. How
can it be that tho of these fertile acres sui
fer themselves to be Invested of half tho reward OF
their toll as often every other year for want
of irrigation! How easy it would be for science
or skill to provide for tho thorough moistcning Of
those intorvacs at pleasure, either by damng
tho streams as they issue from the hills and car
rying their waters along tho bases to be ditfuscd
over tho plain, drawing supplies. by means OF
wind-milis or steam, from tho Hudson itself!
But nothing of tho sort is done; tho earth Is left
10 parch and its vegetation to withcr. The more
loss in tho quantity Of product is but item; the
vegetables there cultivated would have comnan-
ded double tho price if FASTENED forward for car
ly consumption, while Saratoga and all tho inland
tow rs were full Of plcasuro-sceking travellers,
that they did whom ultimately fit for the table.
That they would have been far juicy and
palatabc also, IT abundantly supplied with water,
need not be urged.
nrrD yY1-rJINc ThaSo
be generally adopted in our country. We blind
ly follow our British ancestors in neglcctng the
former, without rejecting that sunshine is almost
rare in England as rain is hero. AS to deep
ploughng, all science, all practice, all authority,
recommend it, and yet threo-fourths of our far
mcrs persist in skimmlng their land over from
five to eight inches deep not half what is
quircd. We saw field after field Of corn which
will not yield ten bushels to the acre, (and poor
stuff at that which might have been put up to
twenty oy deep ploughing alone. Ofcourse, ono
year would exhibit all tho benefit of this Gull
ture, though even the first year, II a dry one.
would show its decided advantage; but let land
have time to get used to deep ploughng. and it
" ill tell you plainly how it rclishes that treat-
ment. And tho man who ploughs deep Is prot
~ apt TO put something else into tho soil well
as iron. He will have muck and peat from his
swamp-holes and noblo compost heap near his
barn.
We hear farmers complain, and most truly,
that they mako nothing by thoir business;
and this whilc they paying mortgage-interest
on twice as much land as they can cultivate well,
and letting half Oft so from year to year without
tllage. without fertilizing. and often growing up
to bushes and all manner of mischief Now the
wonder is not that such farmers do not thrive
the marvel is that they manage to exist. Let
any manufacturer. mechanic, merchant do his
business after this pattern, and no must full
there is no help for it.
But must conclude that bad farming has
become invetera,e among people! that our
farmers havo resolved. though they know better,
to hold twice as much land as they can till thor
oughly. and torment it till it ruins them. We
will not give i. up. Every farmer we soc ad-
nlits the cvil-says he and his neighbors run
over too much land, cultivate too slovenly. are
not sufficiently wide awake to the march of i'm
provement and lay out too much main strength
on what could be easier and better done by the
aid of skill aud science. All arc aware that
they must farm better brcak; for tho of
. improvement moves Oh. and tho only choice is to
= -, II, ~ Ia ,,,.