The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1853-11-03
THE PIONEER.
AGRICULTURAL
j AN ADDRESS
BY HORACE GREELY,


full force Of the criticism which denies to.
one of my habits and pursuits. the capacity
to instruct farmers as to their own espe-
cial yocation. Shoemaker, stick to your
lastP' tits sound though sometimes mis-
applied admonition, and there is great
strength in the natural presumption that
every man can SEGA little further on his
own proper pathway than can be seen by
any one else. fully realize and cheerful
ly admit that as one of you, who has de-
voted the last twenty or thirty years to
Agricultural, must know very much more
concerningit it than I,who abandoned it at
fifteen to master and pursue most exac-
ting mechanical and intellectual vocation,
and have since been able to snatch but
here and there An hour from constant
pressure of imperative duties and oppres-
sive cares to revive the memories of my
youth among the busy eed-planters, or
within sound of the mower sharpening his
scythe. IF were to easy lecture on
the Complete Husbandmsn--to fix the
proper time for planting this or that veg
etable, and for harvesting this or that grain
and SO on might, of course, be correct
ed, on many points, by some of the young
est Of my auditors Little as l know of
farming, l know too much of it to attempt
any such teaching. What | shall en-
deavor, is to set forth some of the princi-
Piles which underlie the whole fabric of
Productive Art and Industry, (my calling
as well as yours, and to show their appli-
cation, as l may, to the Farmers vocation
as well as others. l may err in this or
that application; but I shall endeavor to
base my inculcations on principles so
broad in their scope, and so vindicated by
centuries Of successful experience in a
great variety of pursuits, as to be justly
entitled to place among the axioms of In
dustrial Science.
The first point then, which shall en-
deavor to illustrate, is that of Economy
Of Means-perhsps l shonld rather say,
Harmony of Proportion-in the manage
ment of forms as of every thing else
For when say Economy, mean some
thing as remote as possible from Parsimo-
ny. Cheap lands, cheap buildings, cheap
labor, cheap stock, cheap trees or gratis,
are as far from economy as anything well
could be. By Economy of Means, i'm
ply such a disposition or distribution OF
means, be they scanty or abundant, as
shall ensure to the operator the largest at
tainable return for his labor and skill For
example: ! print newspapers for living,
and am obliged, by the extent of some of
my editions, to use presses costing twelve
to sixteen thousand dollars each. There
is real economy in SO doing, because l
could rot otherwise dispatch my papers to
their subscribers in acceptable season.
But if any journal printing one third or
One-tenth SO many copies, were to buy and
use such presses, the policy would be
wasteful and ruinous, although the editions
would be thrown off with unwonted celer-
ity and efficiency. The interest on the
capital needlessly locked up in presses
would probably absorb all the profits of the
business, if not more. And yet this is
the identical blunder that thousands OF
farmers persist in, by holding on to large
farms, which cost thousands of dollars,
and are very likely mortgaged or other
wise encountered, while able or willing on
. ly torap2ly thereto the labor, science, skill
and manures which are requisite and prop
erfor farms. one-fourth SO large. Here i.
enormous waste-a loss of interest OF
three-fourth Of the capital invested il
land--a loss which may possibly be en-
dured in farming, but which could not fai
to prove ruinous in almost any other bus
mess. @
Every farmer seems aware OF the real
ity and magnitude of general error in thi
respect, yet the great majority persist il
being wise for their neighbors only, AM
not for themselves. And Iapprehend tn
error with many originates rather in wan
of thought than lack of knowledge. The
plod on in the path beaten out by thei
graEdfathers, not rejecting that cours
which might have been advisable, or g
least excusable, when farm of three hun
dred acres was worth but thousand do
lars in cash, has been rendered utterly ir
defensible and suicidal by a gradual ad
vance in the value of that farm to FIVE c
perhaps ten thousand dollars. He VIII
can buy land at ten shillings per acr
may afford to leave it untitled and unfenc
ed for years, until its timber or its gras
shall have become decidedly valuable
but when that timber shall have disar
peared, the grass become the watched -fc
prey of droves of other mems cattle, an
the land worth fifty dollars per acre, it
fragrant and culpable waste to blunder q
as though it were still worth but ten shi
lings.
Ionce went to look at the farm of fif
acres that l thought of buying for sun