Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1833-1861, 1853-11-04

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" N''s'i ~ VIZ m6kScE I 'ssl sskssY' 'sf Oct 10 '''
FARxkas AND FnIksps: stand before
you ~ your Society's invitation, feeling
the full force OF the criticism which DO.
niles 10 one OF my habits and pursuits ca
paeity 10 Instruct farmers as TO their own
especial vocation. Shoemaker, stick
20 your lasttp 10 q sound though some-
times misapplled admonition, and there
isgrest strength In the natural presump-
ton that every man can see little larth-
er on bis own proper pathway than can
DC seen BY any one else. fully real
ixe and cheerfully admit that any one
Of you, who has devoted the last twen-
~ or thirty years to Agriculture, must
know very much more concerning Il than
1, who abandoned II at fifteen to mas
ter and pursue most exacting mechan-
'ical and intellectual vocation, and have
since been able to snatch but here and
there IN hour from q constant pressure
of imperative duties and oppressive cares
20 revive the memories Of my youth
among the busy seed-planters, or within
the sound OF the mower sharpening his
scythe. II were TO essay lecture on
the Complete Husbandman-to fix the
proper time for planting this or that
vegetable, and for harvesting this or that
grain, and so on-I might, Of course, be
corrected, on many points, by some Of
the youngest Of my auditors. Little as [
know Of farming, know too much OF Il
to attempt any such teaching. What I
shall endeavor, Is TO set forth some OF
the principles which underlie the whole
fabric Of Productive Art and Industry,
(my calling as well as yours, )and to show
their application, as correctly as | NAV,
10 the Farmers vocation as we'll as 9TH
ers. may err In this or that applica-
ton: but shall endeavor 10 base my in
culcations on principles so broad in their
scope, and so vindicated by centuries Of
successful experience In a great vari ETY.
OF pursuits, as to be justly entitled TO
place among the axioms Of Industrial
Science.
The first point, then, which shall
endeavor to illustrate, Is that OF Econo-
any OF Mcans-perhaps | should rather
say, Harmony OF Proportion--in the
management OF farms as OF everything
else. For when I say Economy, l mean
something as remote as possible from
Parsimony. Cheap lands, cheap build.
dngs, cheap labor, cheap stock, cheap
trees or gratis. are as far from economy
as anything well could be. by Econo-
any OF Means, imply such a disposition
or distribution OF means, be they scanty
or abundsnt, as shall ensure 10 the oper-
ator the largest atlninable return Tor his
labor and skill. For example-I print
newspapers Tor living, and am obliged,
by the extent Of some Of my editions, 10 /
ase presses costing twelve 10 sixteen |
thousand dollars each. There Is a real
economy In so doing, because Icould not
otherwise dispatch my papers 10 their
subscribers In acceptable season. But u |
any Journal printing one-third or one
tenth 50 many copies, were TO buy and
ase such presses, the policy would be
wasteiul and ruinous, although the edI-
flons would be thrown of with unwont-
ed celebrity and efficiency. The interest
On the capital needlessly locked up In
presses would probably absorb all th ,
prs6ts Of the business, u not more
Aadyet this Ii the identical blunder that
thousands OF farmers persist In. by hold
ing on 10 large farms, which cost thou
sands OF dollars, aud are very likely
mortgaged of otherwise encountered,
while able or willing only 10 apply |
thereto the labor, science, skill. and ma. |
nures which are requisite and proper for
farms one-fourth 80 large. Here Is enor-
nous waste--a loss OF interest on three.
fourths Of the capital invested In Iand-a
loss which may possibly be endured In
farming. but which could not fail TO prove
ruinous In almost any other business.
Every iermer seems aware OF the real |
Icy and magnitude Of the general error In
this respect, yet the great majority per-
sist In being wise for their neighbors
only, and not for themselves. And I ap- |
prehend the error with many originates
rather In want Of thought than lack Of
knewledge. They plod on In the path /
beaten out by their grandlathers, not re-
fieeting that course which might have
been advisable, or ut least excusable, /
when farm Of three hundred acres was
worth but thousand dollars In cash, has
been rendered utterly indefensible and
suicidal by a n adual advance In the
value Of that farm to five or perhaps ten
thousand dollars. He who can buy land
at ten shillings per acre may afford to
leave II untitled and unienced for years,
,until its timber or lis grass shall have
l.beeome decidedly valuable; yet when the
rAmber shall nave disappeared, the grass
I. become the watched for prey Of droves OF
,.other mems cattle, aud the land worth
y City dollars per acre, II Is hagrant and
i, ,eylpable waste 10 blunder on as though
y il were still worth but ten shillings.
l.once went 10 look at farm Of fifty
aces that thought Of buying for sum-
. meE home, some forty miles from the city
!. ok.New York. The owner had been
, born on Il, as believe had his father be-
fore him, but Il yielded only mesger
i. Subsistence for his family, aud he
OF selling and going West.
" ,swsntoyer Il with him late In June, pass
dag Ahrongh well-flled barn yard which
had not been disturbed that season. and
atepping thence into corn-fied of five
:. acreswith like field OF potatoes Just be-
< yendit. "Why ,neighbor! !"asked / in a..
: stoulshment, show could you leave all
: this manure so handy to your plowed
land, and plant ten acres without any!"
-"oS : was sick a good part of the Spring,
and 50 hurried that could not find time
ito haul Il out" "Why. suppose you
had planted but FIVE acres in all, and
.emptied your barn-yard on those five,
leaving the residue untouched, don't you
think you would have harvested larger
crop" Well, perhaps | should" was
the poor farmers response. IL seemed
never before TO have occurred to him
that he could let alone part OF his land.
Had he progressed so far, he might have
ventured thence to the conclusion that
1t is less expensive and more profitable
to raise iull crop on five acres than
half . crop on ten. ] am sorry to say
we have good many such farmers still
left At the East, though the advanced
prices Of land and the impoverished con-
.dition Of the soils they inherited, with
their sloveply modes Of cultivation, have
driven the greater share Of them to the
.rt~ A..