, 1870-01-19

N Aua CoQAeIJ afG@ AAoAAooI4J "%"o'A@!~S4 p"
[ead gang of men IN days work after
rising every night at o'closk, and riding
With a loaded team ten miles, unloading
and loading, aud returning again before
breakfast. The way farmers make money
is not by going without sleep, or by the
work they do between midnight and sun-
rise. Such work would not only ruin them
physically, but mentally, and even render
them as dull at bargain as they would be
inefficient at work. We have plenty Of
good farmers who rise at sunrise, Bou,e an
hour before, or on certain occasions two
hou.s; bat the "up-alLnigbt-and-work-al1-
day" class are Iars and dead beats, one
and all. ......
Another fsru1er in Vermont resolved to
Improve the quality Of his land yearly, and
sti4r a numtAr nf yaaza sold out his farm
at handsome advance, and moved West.
We suppose he came West to get land that
did not need improving in fertility.
Whether the advance in the value Of the
land resulted from town springing up
near it, from railroad running through it,
from general increase Of population. OF
from the mere increase in the fertility Of
its soil, is not stated. In the thres FIRST
casas tha land would have sold for as much
barren as fertile.
In third case Professor had bought
single field, unaerdrained, subsoiled, and
otherwise improved it, and had paid the
whole cost of the operation from the first
year's crop. Whether the crop thus raised
was tobacco or hops,-in which case the
Professor, as panderer to vice, ought not
tohave been encouraged, OF paving stones.
which are not usually considered an agri-
cultural crop, though often great success
on tho lands Of Professors or Whist the
"cost" was which this years profit paid,
Mr.. Greeley does not say, and of course
docs not know. :.
In his second article, On "Good and Bad
Hua4,a,,arv M G-..1-s. -~l--A---Aty~ ~1--;t-
that, if farmer has no team to pull mp
green stumps with except spawned horse
or searling steer, he may let them lie and
rot. But he gnevea in spirit to see cattle
turned out to pasture when the profits
would be SO much greater If they we're tied
up and men sent out to gather their pas
ture for them. By singular discovery
MI. Greeley "knowa" that cattle nip and
tread under foot only the finest trees, such
Is sugar-msple, whose sap seems at this
point to be gratefully present IN the Greeley
mind, while they leave the hemlock, red
oak, and beach to gain maturity.
This preference for cutting fodder over
pastu1ing is evidently one whose wisdom
or folly depends solely on the ratio that ths
value Of labor bears to that Of land in any
locality. Il labor is 50 high and Land 80
cheap, as in Kansss and Nebraska, that ten
days labor are worth an acre Of land, obvi-
ousIy the farmer in such locality cannot
proftably afford the labor required to cut
fodder for his cattle in order to save his
lind the very slight injury they would CON-
nit in picking mp their own feed. II, On
the contrary, land is so dear and labor re1a-
lively 80 cheap that an acre Of land is worth
five hundred days OF labor. as it Is likely to
be within twenty or forty miles Of great
city, the farmer not only cannot afford to
posture his land, but he cannot even afford
to till it, except for those crops which COM
blne the greatest bulk vA1ue and perish.
ability, and, therefore, give him an advan.
tage over the more distant farmer sufficient
to Offset the counter advantage enjoyed by
the latter in the lower cost of his land.
This simple Law explains Why the farners
in Neb1aaka R1aze mo1s cattle than they
can shed, while those On the jersey p1nint
cut feed and raise Strawberries, Open t1
l Ia - - 1{x %n$
ment that 'The faireat aingle test Of good
farming is the increasing producsiveness d
the soil" II this were due, then thert
would never hsve been any good farming
IN the Southern and Western States
, nor anywhere in the Union e1oep
IN Massachusetts and Gonnecticnt,- =
, two States in which farming i
confesedly less profitable than almost any
; where else IN the Union, yet the only tv
wherein the average fertility Of the soil
increasing. =.
, The true test of good farming ia not th
, increase in my particular property OF ID
, farm, In it's fertility moro thkn In Its size
| or its quantity Of trees, fences, orchards
| ktock, or buildings; bul rather IN the il
, come the farmer derives from 1t, and b
own advance in wealth and social power b
> means of it 4 farm is only tool
, valuable for what the owner can make
) produce in food, shelter, clothing, educ
hcu, pleasures, and accumulated capital Il
. | himself and his family. Agood workma
will keep good tools; hut who would e.
, as generl proposition, that the prof
+ Of a workman a1e, necessarily, propoztiont
, to the sharpness Of his tools ? u 90,
, workman who expended his vhole labor
, Ikeep1ng his tools sharpened would ra1
i above ono who made tho sharpening Of b
: tools incidental to the main poin&-tl
n profits os hfs business. Just 30 Vi
d farming. Amidst ! dense population II
d that which Ellis tho area of fifty NIL
around New York, London, Pntis, or PeE
b the land il so dear relatively to labor that
"a is profitable to e1pend considerable p.
ss portion Of the capital invested in fs1ui
70 in improving the fertility Of the soil E
"a in new aud thin]y-peop1ed countries 1t p
y better to invest the same capital in mt
r land, in machinery, and in stock. E,
IL mode OF farming pays best in
L. own locality, and is, therefore, pr
ut tised there. Hence, In al densaly~pol
ii lated communities the fertility Of the s
is rising, though tbs profits Of the tiler
the soil rnAy be annually decreasing and
at condition de.erio1ating, and hence also
d ali populated countries the vir
de richness Of the soil is, as as rule, din
ita izhing, though its owners are advancing
er yealth and sociA power. Through
y, Franco. and Belgium, where the peas
IN fa11ners cau sra1ce affoea to eat one
, it week tho very meat they raise, vhefe t!
Lit have no surplus income to e1pend On
Of niture, pianos, OF the education Of Il
es, children, the lind is advancing In fextA
lhe But their farming il not better, nor,
rs themselves, 70 good ~ that Of tho g.