Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1847-08-13
Che =. farm.
From the Vt. Agriculturist.l
The Study of Agriculture.

We have all heard of Weathersfield onions
Some parts OF Essex CO., Mass, have become
famous for the production of the same article
The crop is made very profitable; and many
have accumulated respectable sums for farmers
solely by the cultivation of onions for few
years.
This results, we suppose, not from any pccu
liar advantages of the crop much from
skilful cultivation and management When one
devotes his attention to a single crop he stands
n chance to understand it from beginning TO
end--the preparation of the soil, the choice and
applcation of manure, the selection and sowing
of the seed, implements, cultivation, harvesting.
seliinr.-everv thing connected with the crop
til he pockets the avas. The subject is linz
tied. and he can master it. Well, the best man
agemcnt OF the onion crop requires as much
study and skill as half the trades at which boys
serve long apprenticeship in order to perfect
themselves.
When one has mastered the onion crop, how.
ever, he has advanced but very little way to-
wards a complete acquaintance with the busi-
ness of New England farmer. lie has a
dozen other crops, each of which require equal
study and skill. And this is one reason why we
see SO little really first rate cultivation. Farm
ers do not master the subjects that come before
,hcm-that is, the knowledge Of their crops,
from seed to sale--and hence their crops are
unskilfuy managed and of small profit. They
try to make up the deficiency by harder work,
and by more hours in the field. But in that
they are wrong. They spend hours enough in
the field and work hard enough. 1t is the mind
that needs to be taxed more the muscles less.
And our farmers. TO "a certain extent, know this
perfectly well. They are all familiar with the
fact that live Yankee with his wits about him,
is worth three stod Europeans who never really
understood single thing that they were doing.
1t is true that we must eat oar bread by the
sweat of the brow. But then it depends on the
use we make of other powers that God has Civ
on US besides our muscles, whether gallon o.
sweat shall give MS a hundred bushels of corr
or only twenty. 1t is as much the ordinance q
Heaven that man should observe, inquire, think
in order to get his daily Bread in order to sue
cess, as that he should work with his owl
hands.
The following remarks on this subject, from
the Gcncsee Farmer, are to the point
EXTRACT
Undoubtedly the Creator could easily have
formed every acre of land, SO that the most g
norant man alive might pillow and sow it, ant
reap one hundred bushels of wheat on the same
wear after year for his whole rfa'i'nn wthou
imparing its fertility. But such abundance
yould have been an enduring bounty on igno
rance. if not on vice and crime. knowledge
i. necessary to renovate any large tract of coun
try. which has been much injured by unwis'
tiilage and this knowledge can be best &C
qured by uniting the study with the practice o
agriculture
more nor less than the investigation of the law
of our own being, as social, physical, moral an
rational creatures. 1t is only question of Inn
when we shall begin to learn mhat is tina
forms GOOD bread, milk, butter, cheese, potatoes