The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1853-10-24
What the Sister Arts Teach as 10 Farming
An Address
SsvoaE TIE INDIANA STATE AoRtcULfcRAt socIsfr.
At its Annual Fair. Lafayette. la. Oct. -, la5os
HORACE GREELEY.
An ADDREs,

y
SsyoxE INDIANA AoRIcuLfcRAL socrEfr.
Atits Annual Fair. Lafayette. la, Oct. 10. Iass.
BYHORACE GREELEY. A
CONTINUE.
Let me next illustrate The importance and
advantages Of the careful Analysis Of Soils
f. A friend bought, one year ago, small
farm which had previously been under decent
or ordinary cultivation, but which, it appears
had been for many years mainly terrified
with Gypsum or Plaster OF Partisan excel
lent thing in its pla-e, and which had doubt
less done the land good service But the
new farmers brother g a thorough Chemist,
devoting much attention. to Agricultore;s and
he was invited to analyze the soil OF the
farm with view IL its prospective and eco
nomieal Improvement. Careful Analysis
showed signal deficiency OF Lime, bat
superabundance Of Supher an other insre-
dients of Plaster. OF course, Mt each sue
cessive application o. Plaster the plant took
| up tho Lime only, leaving all the reside to
lie inert IN the soil; and so the old farmer
had for years been feeding his soil, at the
rate Of twenty to thirty cents per bushei
with the requisite Lime bro' ght from dis
lance in the form Of Plaster, while there was
far better Lime burned all around him, and
for sale in abundance at six cents bushel!
T @ loss thus incurred may have averaged
fifty dollars per annum-all for want OF an
Analysis that might have cost ten to twenty
dollars. And there are tens OF thousands to-
day farming Just IS b.indly as did this old lar
mer.
Can there be any rational wonder that far.
mers seldom grow rich by such farm'ng!-
How is wise and judicious economy OF
means to be attained if Ignorance and waste
are to reap the rewards properly due only TO
intelligence and frugaIity! II were TO buy
paper and other materials used in my bush
ness as carelessly and blindIy as this old
farme Thought manures and fertilized his land,
could not continue TO print newspapers tor
a single year. Wiser more prudent, more in
telligent publishers, would undersell and sup
plant me, aud must fail and oe driven into
some vocation where ignorance. heedleness
and unihritt secure the rewards designed by
Providence for intelligence, industry and
economy.
| But let us pause at that word Industry.
"By Industry we thrive" is an old saw,
which is very wei! in it, place; but.the truth
contained in proverbs is So CURLY expressed
that it often rn:sleads more than it Directs
Industry is indeed essential TO thrift, and
farmers, like other men, often need to be re-
minded oft. When note one who is ever
wheimed with business" which calls him
away from home two or three days in each
week, and keeps him hanging about the 'av-
ern or store while bis boys are at play and
his potatoes crying for the hue, know with
er THAT farmer is tending. and can guess
about how long he will have any land 20 mis-
manage And think that, in the average,
farmers waste more hours than mechanics.
They have more Idle time necessarily
but quite commonly SO regarded-through
bad weather, severe c. Id, too much wet, &c.
than falls to the lot Of almost any other class
. and it 10 very easy to allure many ofthenl
away to shoot al other mems tnrkies when
they should be growing TODD for their own.
But while many waste precious hours, quite
a. much through heedleness and want oil
system as incidence, know another class
who slave themselves out Of comforts and out
OF thought by incessant, excessive drudgery
who are 80 absorbed in obtaining the
means of living that they never find time to
live-who dri c through the day so that
their bones ache and their minds are foggy
at night; and are SO overworked through the
week that they can neither worship God no.
enjoy the society of their families OH the Sab.
bath. These men will often tell you that they
have NO TIME TO REvD, which is just as rati.
onul a. FOR the captain Of a steamship to plead
la want of time to consult his compass and
chart or keepa reckoning Of his ships pro-
gress. No time to read do they not FIND
time to plant and sow, to reap and NOW, and
even to eat and sleep! Ifthey do, then they
may find time, If tnev will. to learn how to
apply their labor to the best advantage as
well as to qualify themselves by rest and re.
, freshment for working at all. venture the
assertion that there are twenty thousand far
mers in Indiana who would have been
weather. well as more useful, more res.
pected and happier men this day, il they had
distracted ten hours per week from labor du
ring I'll their adult life, and devoted those
hours to reading and though, in part with a
: view to improvement in their own vocation
but in part also looking to higher and nobler
. ends than even this. Some men waste the
, better part If their lives in dissipation and
idencss; but this does not excuse in others
7 the waste OF time equally precious in mere
animal effort to heap up goods and comforts
t which We must leave behind SO soon aud for
ever. l.a a4 sat
, Il read very few old books-I can hardly
;. find time to master the best new es; but
/: have no doubt that those who DO read the
very Oldest treatise on Agriculture which
have survived the ravages Of time, will FIND
Cato, or Seneca, or Columells, or whoever
may be the author in hand, talking to the
! farmers Of his day very much as our farmer,
. are now generally tal1e to, and intoxicating
! substantially The same thrnths: "Piow deep
!. Ger fertilize more thoroughly. cultivate less
4 "lnnd, and cultivate it better''-such, have
no doubt, has been the burden OF Agricul,ur
al edmonton and exhortation from the day,
Of Homer and Moses. II seems incredible to
= modern skepucism that millions of Hebrews