Litchfield enquirer., 1870-10-06

The tendency 10 accumulate large landed estates is on the increase among the very wealthy, and it is not too much to believe, that by A. D. 1900, there will be no farm lands worth having. to be purchased for less than one hundred dollars per acre, in our vast domain. A certain class of emigrants absorb the land in New England nearly as fast as the old proprietors leave it, and, doubtless, more intelligent class run continual race with our sons for the possession of the fairer portions of the new States. Soon, all this land will be brought to the same level in productive qualities, for We already sec that the virgin soil near the setting sun has lost in pro- lifcness, and the old system of loose till age will reduce it to the condition of the worst of our soils of the Eastern and Mid dle States. We, or our sons, will have to meet this state of things, and what we shall want will be educated agriculturists, capable of renovating the arid soil and re- storing it's productiveness. A minister, temporarily supplying the pulpit of cer tain vacant church i'll need of pastor, prayed for "a man from the Lord," in this fashion: "Send us not an old man in his
 dotage, nor young man in his gosling- hood, but man aciM aN Me modern insproue- naents." So we shall need on our farms the man with all the modern improvements in scientific farming, who can cope with his fellows in any country, and make farming not only profitable, but intelligent and pleasing.
 The problem of hew to get such men has been solved in Europe, and is being worked out in the United States with re. spectable rapidity. In 1914, there were only nine agricultural schools in existence in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe; now there are at least five hund- red. The result of systematic instruction in agriculture in those countries has been more satisfactory than the most sanguine could have anticipated. In Belgium, where farming is carried on with the utmost skill and precision, 8 square mile produces means of nourishment for 7,345 persons, probably three times as much as the same quantity of land produces under our meth cd of cultivation. Great Britain, in the commencement of the present century, produced grain for eleven millions, now, for at least seventeen millions! Estates in Great Britain, where nearly all the land is titled byfenant farmers, have boen raised by means of the application of scientific principles and the most advanced practices to the treatment of soils, from rental of $2 50 an acre to $l7.5O. In Germany, Aus tria, Prussia. &c., the same increase in productiveness has ensued upon the instruc- tion which is now almost universal in scientific farming, and these results tend to universal productions. Aus tria produces on one square mile 3,796 head of stock. Prussia 5,537, France 5,97O, and Great Britain HAY. The greater productiveness of the latter country in this respect is owing as we'll to the supe- rior cultivation of the soil as to the class of cattle (principally short horns) which are bred for the shambles During the past century; by close attention to the sub ject of breeding, and the kind of food en- ployed, and the mode of preparing it, and particularly the kind of food given to the stock when young, the time required to bring cattle to maturity, has been reduced one half, and the profits of the business increased proportionally.
 We are just emerging from the obscuri. rity of medieval practices in farming. But agriculture is beginning to be recognized as science, and the time has gone by when our journals call in vain for Govern ment and State aid in it's advancement, and when intelligent farmers plead in vain for assistance in the establishment of aeri- cultural schools. There are now about twenty agricultural colleges in the United States, and though, when compared with the five hundred or more purely literary institutions fourishing among us, we are reminded of little bread as compared with an !intolerable degree of sack, yet, they are the beginning of reformation which will lead to great and beneficial resulta
 All efforts of the learned and all the ex- periments of the scientific are unavailing, unless the people themselves are prepared to receive and profit by their teachings. Intelligence must be diffused among the masses by means of agricultural schools and colleges. Heretofore, our farmers clubs, agricultural fairs, with occasiona, addresses on the higher points, have been the only assistants to the enterprising farm CT, and they have done exceedingly great good. But want is now felt for more systematic teaching. The events SO rap- idly passing before our eyes in Europe. are convincing proofs that in any calling even that of slaughtering our felIows-ed. ucated intelligence has the superiority, and whatever the respective merits of the cbas-