Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-06-26
GbeUtrmont 4ganit.
BRATTLEBORO:

FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE %, 1874.

The Need for Wore Thorough CuIture.
1t Is agreed that great requstion will
he made this year, by the consuming class,
upon the producers. Not that people will
he expected t. eat more, or that there has
been any unusual increase in the number
of mouths which must be fed, but the mar
kct of the world, and the granaries and
cclors OF the farmers are unusually empty.
There has been great cleaning up of edi-
blc material Of almost every kind. The
unusual harrenness of the dairy markets.
which has given our dairymcn such high
figure during the winter and such Il good
price TO start with this spring, is only a
part of the general small supply of food
material. There is every reason why the
farmer should do everything in his power
during the season now opening 10 make
his acres yield him the very fullness of
their productive capacity. OF course he
should always do this to gain plenty for
himself and for the world, and there is
every reason TO believe that he may do it
with higher percentage of profit TO him
self than by the lower grades of culture,
which are too generally practiced. We
are convinced that more generous system
of cultivation must be employed, if our
farmers wish TO gain the best rewards for
their industry and the best returns from
invested capital. We are far behind the
farmers of the old country in adopting
We invest little OF nothing in the soil We
are too often content to worry it a little,
and then go and pick up what has sprung
from the torture. We skin one side of the
soil, and then turn it over and skin the
other side, without supplying anything to
replace the value we have removed. We
are too we'll contented TO take the interest
ON the old Investment, and are careless
about adding to the principal. Our farm
ers have not learned that product may be
doubled by better cultivation and more
generous treatment of the soil. They have
not learned that talent buried in the
ground, if buried Alright, will yield high
or rate of interest than the money changers
hold out TO US. And yet this lesson must
he learned. 1t will not do to study it in
books alone; it will not do to pour upon
the ground anything which anyone may
advertise as Il fertilizer. 1t may be done
scientifically; and by scientifically, we
mean intelligenlly, with knowledge gained
from experiment. But it must be done.
The tendency must be toward the increase
Of each acres yield, rather than to the in
creased number of acres. And we must
learn that profit is gained by investment.
There must he something put in before we
can draw out largely. The hydraulic APP
paratus will raise ship, but there must be
wafer put in, and so put in that the strength
of ii can be gained, before any result is OBJ
tanned. This is matter which should be
thought about and acted upon. The great
est mistake a farmer can make is to de-
eide that his methods are fixed, and that
he must take what comes instead of going
after what he desires. The culture of the
soil is progressive, and the man who en-
lists in ii should study how much more he
can get out of it each year, just as the mer-
chant studies how each day he can draw
more profit from that little box under his
counter. The more stock successful
merchant puts into his store the more prof
it lie takes from it, and not the same
amount in addition, but a growing pei cent
age upon the Investment Utica Herald.