Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1854-01-27
Improvement in Farming.

While not few croakers amuse themselves with
sckly whining about agricultural progress-ever
planning that the farmer is nobody, and is doing
nothing to improve his lands and his prospccts--we
are glad to be of the number that take opposite
view of the matter and say 10 the improving, pro-
gressive farmer we'll done" Our views on this
subject will be thoroughly illustrated b. attentive
perusal of the following pertinent remarks copied
from that excellent periodical, "the Plough, the
Loom and the Anvil That Journal says:
Farmers injured race in more than one
respect They are sometimes called the mum pro-
fession those that have to get lawyers to make
all their speeches. and sometimes The stand-stl pro-
fession, or those who make little or no progress in
their art. These both caumnies. We have
elsewhere defended them against the first, and now
have word to say in reference to the second.
We deny that they are Of that dull and stupid
class, which have eyes but not and but hear
not They and hear too much to believe all that
is addressed them by their volunteer overseers and
self-Created supervisors and very unwilling 10
risk what they have earned by hard labor, on the
mere recommendation of those who claim per cent
age for their instructions. And this is right We
love the stad character of many of our rural dis
tricts who know of many of the modern ISms only
by report They guard safely what they gel, and
they get what they can by those means which they
consider reliable.
But have they not ma e great progress in their art?
Unquestionaby they have. And for our first witness
on this point, we will call that old plough that we
all remember in grandfather's clubhouse, if not
in fathers. and which is, to-day, exhibition
in the northeast gallery of the Crystal Palace. Yet
it stands mum" by the side of the modern plough
as it does in that gallery, and though it was the
property of no less than Roger Sherman OF
j Connecticut the defendant stands acquitted OF the
charge OF - no progress" Then call up the cult
vators and hoes and forks, the carts and wagons
the shelters and reapers the threshers and cleaners
of recent times; those of times gone by among
the things, most of them, not only that not but
neUer a0ere. 1t cannot be said of them even was
said of Troy, Trojafuit,- and again the defendant
stands acquitted.
Nor is this all. In the saving of and in the pre-
paration of barn-yard manure, there is great I'M
provement, enough 10 affect materially the value oil
| he crops. New manures, before unsued, otter
and generally turned 10 account. Composts pre-
pared Mineral manures purchased; the phos
pilates, the super phosphates and the improved su
per-phosphaes; the guanos of Peru and other coun
tries, all modern and recent. 1t is not long
since our farmers first heard the name of gypsum az
a manure. Eighty years ago bones were not used a:
manure, and the super -phosphates were unknown til
1870.
We are inclined to believe that more progress ha.
r been made in these matters than find in almos
any other trade. For we have begun 10 enumerate
the improvements of the greatest value. Improved
imp ements, means, important. But 1mpTOUe1
crops and improved stock of still greater impor
lance. And look at the varieties of pears and ap
pies, and other fruits on the tables at the shows
counties in the State Berkshire rivals Norfolk
and Western New York stands up unabashed before
either, while Iowa, and other States far west, are
already gaining ground upon the older sections o
country. In a southern tour, within few weeks
we were shewn some apples that were raised in ant
brought from Iowa. specimens, that could not b.
beaten by those the tables of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society.
The sales OF imported animals for the last few year,
: in every section of country, ample testimony a
to the improvement of hogs, sheep, and cattle.
Notwithstanding all this, of our ercessvel
scientific journals declares that no trade or calling
has made SO little progress.
But still further improvements are made in tn
construction of their buildings, and in the increases
comfort thereby secured. All such improvements
however, but incidental They grow out of
deep conviction that farmer is body, and ca
afford to have domestic enjoyment as we'll as others