Litchfield enquirer., 1870-10-06

instead of being at the mercy of it's con- stant changes, and to greatly economizse their expenditures, and at the same time keep up the quality of the soil. There is nothing more necessary in agricultural pursuits than some exact system, regulated by the discretion and intelligence of the farmer guided by all the light that can be drawn from science and practice. We may stumble upon some good system by accident, or be driven to it by necessity, after painful experience, just as quack doctor occasionally does, after sacrificing several patients; whereas, an educated physician would have reached the same re- suit by pure reason, and without injury to his patient.
 When tobacco-raising first became prof itable in Connecticut, it nearly ruined the land, because the first principles of scien tifc farming were neglected, every thing being taken from the soil and nothing re- turned to it, whilst now, under the inn proved system of buying both stock and feed, the land is heavily manured every year, and gains instead of losing fertility, so that tobacco culture is preparing the ground for the succeeding crop, in the most complete manner. The cultivation of rye has destroyed, temporarily at least, thousands of acres-crop after crop being taking off without any compensation to the soil, and the honest, industrious, but igno- rant farmers, who broke their backs work ing from daylight to sundown, and often into moonlight, harvesting this grain-the product each year diminishing have saved time and labor, and doubled the pecuniary results, had little knowl- edge been mixed with their zeal.
 Specialties in farming, such as tobacco raising, stock raising, dairying, &c.,, are now engaging the attention of our agricul- tural community and with best results. s.- These avocations require more skill, more systematic, continued labor, more associa- tion of effort,-the farmers come more in competition with each other, and it will be soon discovered that he who brings to the employment the best intelligence will take the lead in profitable results. Take the one article of cheese, and see what vast conse- quences have ensued from system, knowl. edge and enterprise, being invested in the business. When we first began to export it, a great portion was unsaleable from the careless manner in which the milk was fur nished to the factories. the peculiar odor of the barn yard not attracting purchasers :; but by better system of feeding, careful milking. proper curing of the milk, we have crowded our English cheese on their own markets, and the reputation of Ameri- can cheese will rise to greater heights both at home and abroad. While doing this, it will at the same time become an educator, teaching the milk producers to cultivate their farms more thoroughly, instructing them in the necessity of having the best dairy stock, and feeding it we'll, and bring ing the products to the factory in the clean est condition. and with regularity. The same results will eventually follow with butter. At present there is more bad but ter made and eaten than of any other home product unless we except bread, and no better illustration can be had of the differ ence between scientific, systematic action, and haphazard work, than in bread making. In Europe, where the baker is public functionary, skilled in his business, one never sees poor bread. It is always light and we'll baked. Our public bakers in cities also make regularly good bread of it's kind, for it is essential to their profits that no batch should be spoiled. On the contrary, in private families bread is made, raised and baked by guess work, and one third of the time, at least, it comes on the table un- fit for the human stomach. Consequently the whole family get dyspeptic and cross. The father scolds, the mother spanks, and the children make mouths at each other for the rest of the day We shall have to make both bread and butter on the factory sys- tenn, and their is no reason to doubt that there will be equal if not greater success in butter making at last than in cheese. Raise the mass of Gutter to higher level, and it will command greater price and more profit with less labor, and science can prevent the loss in mid summer when the heat makes havoc with the private churns. Of late years private dairies near Philadel- phia, Boston and New York, mainly by Jersey cans, have sent butter regularly to those markets which commands price from 75 cents to dollar pound all through the year. In our luxurious coun- try the best article will bring high prices, and the market cannot be surfeited with it. What has been said of cheese making, also applies to the business of sending milk to market, which is making our farming and farms more productive.
 These improvements in farming show that we are making progress in the right di- rection, and arriving by painful efforts at tba ,,oeikion xvo should havo oecnnio6 vaarse