Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-06-11
III SrjCPglEsEF@E.
From the Monthly Journal Of agriculture
DeSullOry Hints 10 Farmersm"LabOrS
inc, &c"mcOncluded
BY HORACE GREELEY.

BY HORACE GREELEY.
Want of Means is often real but sometimes
an imaginary or avoidabe clog on the fauper's
energies. He who has little or nothing to do
with can only do the best he cam though even
he may find means by taking just the right
course Whoever clngs closely to the region
wherein he is best known and rgdIy maintains
character for integrity, industry and economy
need not long stand in need of any requisite
means But let him be careful not to involve
himself for any thing more than he actually does
need. Many farmer staggers through life I'M
der an outlay of SO 600 for farm when his la
Dor we'll bestowed on hafas much land would
have ensured as ample a product and saved him
500 year in interest Tor rent) and taxes
And now if our indebted farmers, who are wor-
rying along on hundred to two hundred and
fifty acres each of land, would Just let one half
or two-thrds of it 90, pay off their debts, re-
solve to be henceforth iorehanded by keeping
no more land beside small wood-Iot than they
can fertlllze thoroughly and work faithfully, no
intelligent person can doubt that immense bene-
fits would result to them and to ALL The anne
rlcultural population, giving extensive employ
ment for years to brickmakers, umbermen,
house-buders, cabine-makers and mechanics
generally. The distance between each farmer
and his merchant, blacksmith, shoemaker, &c
would be greatly reduced, and schools for his
children would be brought gradually nearer and
nearer his door. This process of relieving farms
L,, 4
yiding them, at the same time by superior cul-
ture trebng and quadrupng the aggregate
product, ought to be encouraged and accelerated.
The cutvator will never improve morgaged
or leased farm SO heartily as he will one that he
owns and may transmit to his children peradven-
ture Before we can have the harborer ofany nu-
isance like the Canada thistle or the producer
in good season of ten bushels of corn or half a
ton of hay to the acre indicted by our Grand Ju-
rcs as he should be we must have unencumbered
flrms, and the owners cultivating them. There
are able, enlightened men capable of managing
larger Estates efficiently but these are compar-
itively few.
But want of adequate knowledge is far more
general and crying evil among farmers than
want Of Means. | have no ability to supply
this want, and pretend to none The sugges-
tons venture to make at all are offered with
extreme selGdistrust, and are sub ect to the cor
recton of every practical farmer. Yet can it
be presumption in one who knows that one hun
dred bushels of Corn or three tons of Hay
may be and often have been obtained from an
acre, yet sees that the average yield is not more
than one-orth so much, to say that there is a
grievous deficiency somewhere! And when |
have seen farms once fertile and productive rem
dered sterile and worthless by shallow blowing,
no manuring, and shabby cultivation, until fields
which once bore good Wheat have been sowed
over and again with Rye until 'ryed out, the
product falling to five or six bushels per acre,
aud naturally the best meadows is the world
moved and falI-fed, and sprng-tramped, until
hardly enough grass could be obtained from a
swath to wipe the mowers scythe, it surely is
not presumption, comparing these with the OPP
posite results of good farming to say that this is
the result of wretched husbandry and should be
amended. ~.
If want of knowledge has afforded it surely
can no longer afford tolerable excuse for poor
farming The Agricultural Clubs which have
been formed mainly in our cities may readily be
copied and improved upon in every rural Schoo
District throughout the Country There is ne
observing farmer or farm-aborer however lt
crate, whose experience may not afford some
fact or hint of value to his brethren generally
Let the farmers of any School District meet sta
tedy once week or month Tin the winter once
week cannot be too often) to compare obser
gations, give the result of experiments, exchange
seeds and cuttings, and read choice extracts
from the best new works, and there cannot fal
to result decided and obvious improvement il
the farms, the products and the farmers of tina
District The boys, allowed to come in as lis
teners, will imbibe the spirit of the meeting, ant
be imbued with audabe pride in and likin!
for their fathers noble vocation. Many Of then
will learn more that is of substantial use to then
in four years through such meetings, than they
would by spending that time in College, though
this also is desirable for some. They wou
learn to observe the processes of Nature an
Industry going on around them, the value o
Science and knowledge and gradually acquir
the habit of expressing their ideas correctly, flu
emily and forcibly They would learn to valu,
their homes and the privileges Herewith con
nected, and not pine to hurry away to Texas o.
Lake Superior in quest Of some, excitement o
peril to relieve the tedium of common life !
Farmers Club in each School District with a
the farmers participating in its advantages, woul
he worth more than gold mine in each Count
Of the Union.
From such Club many incidental advant;
ges of pecbnlary kind would naturally flow
The farmers thus stately assembling woul