The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1860-02-16
NO. %.

.-z254e=.-.zs..ss..
New York, by Orange Judd, which l can
most heartily recommend. 1t contains
about Mirty pages, the volume nearly 5oa.,,
hundre3 pages, always Of highly interes-
ting matter, For the small pittance of
one dollar per annum, it will come into
your hands and into your houses every
month, full Of seasonable and valuable IN
formation and instruction upon every sub
Ject relating to your business. If YOU
would take 1t one year, you would not be
without it; and your children,-for they
viii find in it their "department,7- will
be as much interested and instructed by
It's pages, and anticipate its monthly visits
as eagerly, as you. If [ could persuade
every farmer here who does not already do
so to take this, or some other GOOD agri-
cultural paper, I would feel that [ had
rendered valuable service to the good cause
in this county
II, There Is another great error, my
friends, which enters into our SYSTEM OF
farming, and, which, it must be acknowi-
edged, is committed along with others, hv
our best informed and intelligent farmers.
" e aim at too much. We farm too much
Our farms are too large. The result Is,
they are not half titled by our very best
farmers, tt@y are not half tIied
The acreage yield Of our best agricultu-
raj districts, it is well known, is little over
oHe-hait and IN some scarcely one fourth,
Of the capacity of a we'll TILED acre. Com
pared with the cultivation, and It's results,
Of an occasional small lot of ground here,
and Of entire farms, (lots, also, to be sure
compared with our farms) in some Euro
pean countries, that IS found to be true
We have got into the habit Of thinking
| that farm to be worthy the attention Of
any FARMER, must contain two, three, or
four hundred acres; and that he farms it
to little purpose unless he puts out annu-
ally, forty, fifty, seventy-1iye, or hun
| dred acres Of wheat and rye, and of other
crops in proportion. Whatever his limit
IS, he has his crop to put out,--his NUN
| pER OF ACRES lie skins the surface of
furrow less than six inches deep, per
haps, and 50 hurriedly, in order to get
/ over it, that if lis plow strikes a stone and
| is jOstled out, he has not time TO stop and
adjust it, so as to break up all the ground
| even to that depth, which he undertakes
| to cultivate. Many, indeed, do it better
! but this, 1t Is well known, is the practice
/ OF majority Of our farmers. HIy,-es-
! pecially when it Is remembered that the
roots of wheat, II they have the opportu-
nifty, viii penetrate the earth two feet, and
! Of common red clover three feet, and that
the moisture which few inches OF soil Is
/ capable Of rotaining will cyaporate and dry
out by the slightest drought aghy, even
if the soil itself were possessed OF every
! Il
wonder ut the low average OF our fields :?
The whole might doubtless be made 10
yield equal with any single acre or with
the same quantity Of land in Europe, or
anywhere else under ike treatment But,
to effect this result, Il soil Of sufficient
depth must be provided, by deep plough
ing and sUbsoiling, thorough stirring, and
the judicious application Of the necessary
fertilzing agents. THIS Is not practicable
,chea 50 mach IS attempted; nor, unfcrtu-
natciy, IS 1t readily thought necessary
Our farmers are not readily impressed
with the necessity, or even the economy,
OF cultivation involving, apparently, IN tho
first instance ct least, SO much labor and
expense upon a few acres comparatively.
when they have so much land to cultivate.
They do not readily appreciate the advau-
tage Of raising upon one acre what jhev
now raise upon three or four, ,oLe5 tht5.
haze the three or tcur acres, and when the
labor and cost of putting in thorough
state OF cultivation, and Of properly tilline
[ the one acre. seem TO be 50 considerable
But this labor and expense, It should be
remembered, would only be so much pro
p0rtionately greater in the first instance
2 Make and fertilize the soil the requisite