Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1866-12-21
American Agriculture.

Europe; 1T IS, doubtless, the largest corn
growing country in the world. 1t is main
ly upon its agriculture that the progress
Of the country depends; its manufactures
are comparatively unimportant, as from
three-fourths to seven-eighths of the pop
ulation are engaged in agricultural pur-
suits. Although we may learn good
deal on various subjects from our go-ahead
kinsmen in the art and practice of agri-
culture, the old country is in the position
of teacher. As might be expected in a
comparatively new country, the acricul-
ture, as rule, is rough, and far behind
that of England. That the farming should
not have the neat and finished appearance
which it presents in England and Scotland
is not to be wondered at when the dear
ness and scarcity of labor are considered,
and when it is remembered how large a
number of the cultivators of the soil were
not brought up to the business of farm
ing. A very large proportion of the farms
in the older States have been reclaimed
from the primeval forest; for hundreds
upon hundreds of miles the stumps of the
larger trees still remain in the fields, so
that the date of the settlement of the To-
cality can be calculated by the number Of
stumps remaining. In the rocky and
stony districts the stones still remain piled
in heaps, the plow and reaping machine
having to tread their way between these
stumps and heaps of stones.
The grass of America has nowhere the
splended, rice green of our English past
ures. Whether this arises from the cii-
mate, l have some doubt. | think want
of care in preparing the land, selection Of
seed, and subsequent stocking have some
thing to do with the miserable condition
and appearance of the American pastures.
If sheep are depastured on young perma-
nent grasses, a good pasture must not be
expected, even in our humid climate. AT
ter having travelled for weeks through this
old ,forest-land, with its blackened stumps
and zigzag rail-fences, Tor 'snake-fences, ,"
as they are called to get view of those
grand open prairie lands is relief scarce
ly to be described. In the wooded dis
tricts the toll of clearing and bringing the
land into cultivation is immense. On the
prairies the settler has no such labor; he
has simply to plow up the land and SOW
the seed. The prairie lands are of three
kinds flat, sometimes ike our fens, and
about as inviting to live in, without in
many parts a tree or shrub as far as the
eye can reach. Then there is the rolling
prairies-having slight undulating sur
face and some wood-far less monotonouf
than the fiat, but not, to those who have
an eye to beauty, SO inviting as the rolling
prairies. -. w ao
The system generally pursued in Amer.
lean farming is one of exhaustion. The
evils of this practice are beginning to be
felt in the older-settled States in the grad
uaIly and steadily diminishing yield.
There can be no doubt that the evils Of
such course will be much more generally
and seriously felt unless change of sys-
tenn be adopted. Rotation is little OBJ
served. Root crops, except potatoes are
rarely seen. Crop after crop of corn is
taken from the soil without anything in
the shape of fertilizers being returned.
The bones of the country are either thrown
away, or, when collected, are exported.
So also of the linseed and cotton cake
as there is very little native demand, they
are exported to Europe. The use of ma
nure and feeding stuffs is practiced by a
few, but they are quite the exception. An
old farmer on the banks of the Wabash,
in Indiana, told me he had grown grain
crops, generally Indian corn, for thirty-five
years in succession with scarcely dress
ing of manure, and that the last crop of
Indian corn had yielded no less than 80
bushels an acre. This land, as you may
suppose, is remarkably rich; but, as a
shrewd Quaker from Ohio, who joined us
about an hour AFTER remarked, such a
course was too common, but that it must
soon come to an end-that he had cleared
no less than 600 acres of land himself, had
brought up large family and settled them
in farms, and had found it most profitable
to keep plenty of stock, to observe proper
rotation, and to deal with the soil liberally.
The farms are mostly small-averagiDg
about 100 acres. In the Western country
they are larger, many being 500 to 1000
acres. One gentleman, Mr.. Sullivant, in
Illinois, who invited me to 90 and see him,
farms 10000 acres, and does it systemat-
ically and well. A large proportion of the
cultivators are what may be described as
working farmers-men of rough exterior,
but owing to the admirable public school
system, they are generally fairly educated.
The immense circulation of most of the
agricultural journals is a proof that they
are reading people. The larger and
more opulent farmers are very gentleman
ly and intelligent men; know well what is
going on in England thought, some