Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1867-10-23


mon fact that one man applies gypsum o
I plaster of paris to his crop and obtains al
extraordinary yield, another sees the crop
and learns that plaster has been used, ant
straightway applies plaster to his crops, bu
with no apparent beneficial result. H
lshOuld have observed the kind of soil, it
mechanical condition, and should have in
quired into the previous culture and rOta
ton of crops. Like causes always prOduct
like results under the same circumstances
but unlike causes under dissimilar eircum
stances cannot produce the same results.
Now, how shall the Ohio farmer become
an intelligent observer? You will al
admit that more progress has been made
in the past twenty-five years, than in the
preceding twenty-five. Within the las
twenty-five years County Agricultural So
cieties and the State Agricultural Society
have been called into existence. The County
Societies have brought agTiculturists to
/ gether, where they could compare with the
object before them, the products of the
several systems of management and pro.
eedUre. The superior product attracted
their attention, because it was physical
thing which they could see and feel; and
| therefore made a stronger and deeper i'm
/ preston on their minds, than if they had
received the account at second hand. Year
after year improved and new agricultural
/ implements were presented at these annual
/ exhibitions; the pTacticability of the adOp-
/ ton to attain the end for which they were
I constructed addressed itself to the eye. and
/ the Judgment, and gradually the seve1er
labors of the farm were transferred from
/ human bone and muscle to the iron and
wood of the agricultural machine. These
agricultural exhibitions at our State and
i
or attained an object in twenty-five wears,
that agricultural newspapers, or agricultur-
al books would not have accomplished in a
century because they have presented the
improvement, in no speculative manner in
no learned and technical essay, or elegant
discourse, but have simply presented the
improvement to the eve and through it ad-
dressed the understanding. The farmerin
Ohio is not a reading man, and what little
he does read, is either news of the day,
politics, or religion; and not one in one
hundred reads the curTant literature of ag-
ricUlture as a physician reads the literature
of his profession, or as the lawyer reads
that of his. There are in Ohio at least
400, 600 farmers, and but single agricultuT-
al paper which in its palmist day had less
than 10000 subscribers, or less than one
subscriber among every forty farmers. On
religious newspapers in the State. Among
these is the Cincinnati Gazette which has a
weekly circulation of nearly 80, 900, a daily
circulation of nearly half that amount and
a semi-weekly Of perhaps 10000; making
an aggregate of perhaps IS, 600 subscribers,
or an aggregate weekly circulation Of
220 600. Now if the Gazette were the only
political or newspaper in the State these
figures would not be surprising, but when
we remember that there are 229 more
newspapers in the State advocating the
same or similar topics, one must be stOlid
and stupid if he cannot indicate the
general tendency Of the reading commun-
ity. If one lawyer in fifty only kept him
self fully posted on the enactment of new
laws, the repeal or amendment of old ones,
and the decisions of the supreme court, and
the other fOrty-nine depended upon their
attendance at court to learn what was new
in the legal world how much confidence
should the public repOse in these fOrty-nine
as to their competency and ability to pTac-
tice successfully? Suppose one physician
only in fifty kept himself fully advised of
the progress and discoveries in medical
science, what would be the status of the
profession to-day? Simply this, they
would in fevers, prescribe calOmel and
jalap and forbid the patient to drink cold
RtlLCA 81 AOAi 10 Tic 4CN CL WHICH
system in this, our day would kill ten, to
where it would cure one. What if one
merchant only in fifty subscribed for a
Bank Note Detector, or Price Current, is
there any certainty that One-half the
money he received would not be either
counterfeit or worthless and his buying and
selling prices be governed by the merest
whims. No, in this day of steamships,
railroads, and telegraph, reading is indis-
pensable in the successful prosecution of
any branch of productive industry, COM
meTce or profession. But as I said before
these annual Agricultural Fairs have ac-
cOmplished that which books and news
papers could not accomplish in the same
space Of time, namely: they have awakened
a deep interest in agricultural matters, and
the reason is simply this,-farmers believe
that writers or bOOkmen know nothing of
agricultural affairs, and this belief is a Verv
serious impediment in the improvement Of
agriculture. They forget that there are
several classes Of persons in the world: one
class, the theoretical men like Iiebig |
Emil Wolf and StOckhardt, who under |
stand all about agriculture, but perhaps |
could not plOw a single fuTrOw properly to |
save their lives; the others are practical |
men, who can perform all agricultural |
operations, but cannot possibly explain |
why one grain of wheat will sprout and |
grow whilst the grain lying by its side will |
not grow. Or in other words, the one class
is like man who manufactures locOmO-
tives, but cannot run one on a railroad, and |
the other class is like the engineer who will |
run a locomotive sixty miles an hour, but |
cannot possibly build one. Now when the
farmer declares that the 6OOkman can
know nothing of agriculture, it is just as if
&,
knew nothing of n lOcOmOtive-nOtWith-
standing the latter built it.
There is a vast deal more known of ap-
riculture as q science, than there is prac-
Iced of it as an art or handicraft. TOim-
prove and develop our agricultural resour-
ees, we must bring these two classes of
men tOgetheT;-the scientific man must
take the practical man by the hand, as a /
fellow labOTer in the same cause, and the
practical man must learn to respect the
opinions of the scientific man, the same as
he respects the opinions of his LAWYER.
doctor, or preacher. There is no antagon-
ism between scientific and practical agri-
one is simplya demonstTator
Of the other; science suggests whilst prac-
tice performs, or practice discovers whilst
science explains and records it. But there /
is jealousy and a mistrust, which has L
been engendered bya misunderstanding. or
absolute Ignorance of the relative position |,
which each one occupies. How are these |,
two classes to be tremendously brought to-
gether? The annual Fairs present an op-
Dortunity, but in a very partial Manner
The practical farmer here sees at a glance 4
what some of the natural sciences can fur
nish, in the shape or form of scientific
principles wrought out and made manifest
in the various kinds of implements and
These machines and imple-
ments he can see and feet, and they mani