New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-05-24
PRICE FOUR CENTS.
THOUGHTS FOR FARMERS.
ADDRESS BY HORACE GRI, ELEY,
AT THE STATE AGRICULTURAL FtiR, HOUSTON,
TEXAS MAY % 1877


the earth spontaneously produces he sppropriates
without gratitude and consumes without forecast.
He reyels in abundance one week. to be pinched by
hunger the next. Only his want of In AK his
ignorance of its precludes his telling, and TINS
destroying the tree which, for generations, has fed
his tribe with its nourishing, palatable fruit He
delights in gorging himself the flesh of animals
put never feeds nor shelters them. Thus devouring
and devastating, never tllng producing, ho
requires square miles to subsist scansily preear:-
ously his tribe, where his civilized successor will
feed and clothe more persons generously on many
acres After poets and dreamers have done their
best to glorify him with
"The light that never was on sea o. land"
the savage is miserable creature entying less and
suffering more than the wolf or the leofard 70 which
q lawless, careless, predatory freedom is truly
natural and which is at homo with tle elements, as
he never was nor can be.
The savage builds no monumepll Ss-leaves bnt
scanty proofs that he ever existed save his bones
hundred Of his generations come and go, leaving the
earth and its living vesure essentially they found
it. But let civilized replace hinafor bare life
time and he leaves footprints that centuries viii not
efface Our Atlantic seaboard has hardly been known
to civilized for four generations; yet If these
were to be swept away tomorrow, and the wilder
ness untrodden by human foot were here to resume
its ancient sway, memorials OF these four gen.
erations would challenge attention and reward in
quiry two thousand years hence than we can now
discern of all the that peopled this Atlantic
slope prior to the voyages and discoveries OF Co
lumbus.
THE GROWTH OF AGRICULTURE.
The rgors of Winter and the experienced perils OF
starvation during its reign gradually impei the
savage to save and store the grains aud gnts of tho
seasons of plenty to subsst him through the dearth
which regularly follows: and he slowly learns topre
serve and tame the animals best calculated to serve
him by draft or as food. The grains which habitualy
grow and rpen on the fertile ntervales of streams
which annually overflow their banks ultimately
teach him to increase their quantity anil render their
reproduction more certain by cultivation To plant
the seed in the most promising localities and take
thechance of its reproducing its kind ten or twenty
fold is his FIRST essay; necessity impels and expert
ence gradually teaches more methodical and etf-
Gent cultivation. The loss of cattle by cold, by
storm, by hunger at length suggests the curing of
fodder for Winter use and the provision Of such
shelter as the climate may seem to require. The
supply of food being thus doubled and trebled,
population increases correspondingly; and thus Is
created a necessity for q still more thorough and
effective tillage of the soil. Thus pressed by want
OF justified apprehension Of it, Man slowly leans
to deepen his culture TO fertze his fields to diver
SHY his Implements and improve his methods. until
the labor of produces adequate sustenance for
many, and ever-enlarging conceptions wants, capa-
bilites achievements enjoyments, expand his INTEL
lect, refine his nature, and exalt his ASPIRATIONS
His increased power over Nature is the general meas
ure of his progress from the lowest barbarism up to
that perfect mental and moral stature which is SYM
boized by Copernicus, Calico, Shakespeare, Milton,
and Newton.
arts - based upon Natural Scie9ce, which is q
methodical exposition of Divine Law. The savage
is Natures thrall, whom she scorches, freezes,
starves, browns, her caprice may dictate. He
lives in constant dread of her frOsts, her tOnadoes
her lightnings. Science teaches his civilized success
sor to turn her widest eccentrcites to his own use
and profit. Her floods and gales say lis timber and
grind his grain in time, they will chop his trees
speed his pow and till his crops, as well Science
transforms and exalts him from the slave into the
master of the elements If he does not yet harness
the electric fluid to his plow, his boat, his wagon
and make it the most doce and useful of his ser
wants it is because he is still but little advanced
from barbarsm. Essentially, thd lightning gar
nered in Summer cloud should be las much al lis
command and as slbseryient to .hs needs az tho
water that refreshes his thirsty fields and starts his
hitherto hfeless wheels. ...--
THE MED AND PROFIT OF IRRIGATION:
Nowhere has human stolidity been more fOrcibly
demonstrated than in the average farmers bygone
dealings with water. This mobile, subtle, fhid,
which will voluntarily travel wherever yon win, if
You give il an inch of descent per mile, onght TO
have long since been absolutely and everywhere at
the beck and call of every cultivatGr. And yet,
have stood beside a cornfeld parched and whitening
from drouth, while mill-stream danced and
brawled right though its center, falling twenty feet
in hundred rods, yet moi5tening the roots OF no
plants but those of the two next its bed on
other side, while three days work of two
would have damned and diverted its waters so that
four five acres of the corn would have been I'M
rolled and set to growing again by their influence.
Whoever travels with open eyes may note a thou
sand such opportunities in almost any State-a
hundred OF more in nearly every County.
With Grass the facility and advantage Of lrriga-
tion are still more obvious. | visited last Summer
the region of the White Mountains-COos, the
northernmost county of New-Hampshre. That
district is cold mountainous, rugged, rocky. with o
strong granite soil which does not end itself easily
10 tillage but which is very natural TO And,
90 many are the horses required for the use of its
many Summer visitors, that Hay is always worth
600 pcr tnn and in Winters following dry Summers
aud Autumns like the last, considerably Ii il
a country of abundant springs and rihs, aud
dancing laughing streams which fall so rapidly
TO make Irrigation obvious and Profitable resort
I am quite sure that ten thousand acres of grass
land in that county might be amply irrigated by
dams and reservoirs and shallow bitches at an aver
are cost of 800 per acre, and with an average in
crease in their annual product of one tun of good
hay per acre. worth at least $40 II stands in the
field ready for the scythe OF the mower.
Here would be fifty per tcent. annual
ra.,r, tha and yalue il likely