Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-06-23
Science aud Agriculture.
THE AGmcrLrrnWl ESrEBnuNr TArioSs or
Tf.fsTVE


Farming Is a perpetual trying of expert
ments with soils, manure, and crops. with
cattle and cattle food, with milk butter and
cheese, with poWs, harrovs, and haryestors
with an almost endless list of things The
most successful tarmors-those who get tine
most out OF their land, their CATTLE their
crops, their fertilizers their implements, and
their labor-arc those who experiment Them
selves most iudustriously. most sl,iltuly,
and most mtelligeutlv, and who take the
fullest advantage of the experiments of
others. The best agriculture is that which,
in old countries, ON worn and intiactable
soils, has learned, by longcontinued and va
ried experiment, TO make the gain of farm
ing so sure, that capitalists as willingly loan
money to invest in farm Improvements as
they put it into bank or railroad stock.
To take away from our agriculture what 10
has learned by toilsomc and costly expert
ment would put it aud us all back into the
dark ages, for it would annihilate thousand
industries by cutting of supplies Of the raw
material they work up; it would stop our
railway trains, aud lay up our ships at the
docks for there would be No grain, no cotton,
40 fruits to transport. The country would
stagnate for want of knowledge how TO keep
its men and women employed the land
would grow up to weeds and woods for want
of implements to till it, and for want of
seeds to plant. A few winters would staryc
our cattle, few years would bring famine
to ourselves. The cities, which have their
roots in the country, would be paralyzcd u
every industry, in all their traffic, in all their
commerce The North would be depopulated
by starvation or emigration TO snowlcss and
frostless latitudes, and only few hunters in
winter, or herdsmen in summer, would break
the sohtudcs of a New England desolation.
Our wealth, our enterprise our iutelIi-
gence, and our very virtue depend, in large
degree, upon our agriculture; and our agri-
culture is the result of experience, and there
/ fore depends mainly upon experiment. Az
/ ricultural experiment, then, IL cannot he
/ denied, is an exceedingly weighty matter
/ But as agriculture has grown i'm the past
/ from small beginnings and 10y slow degrees UNI
] til it has subdued the forests and dried up The
morasses of nearly all Europe and much Of
/ North America, and has raised our savage
and pluuderiug German and Anglo-Saxon
ancestry b. such habit OF doing aud having,
that their posterty, by sheer Inheritance OF
character aud possessions, now comprise the
foremost nations of the world-so agricul
tme must 60 on to grow, winning more
acreage from forest and swamp, building
more railroads and steamships, more cities
and manufactures, and employing an ever
increasing force of men and women, horses
water-Wheels, and engines, to do its traffic
turn its useful raw products into more use
full fabrics and foods, or 10 supply its inces-
SAINT demand for more tools, machines aud
/ fertilizers.
Our soil is mine of infinitely more
riches than all the gold veins or pacers of
California and Colorado. Out Of it the far.
mer digs cur food and our clothes, and that
mainly sums up the wealth of most of u.s.
The riches Of the soil may be easily squand
cred, and much Of it now is, from mere liz.
norance, as good as thrown away ltmay be-
restored also. Unlike metallic ore, which
once dug out and skilfully smelted is forever
worthless the soil has productive power of
unlimited duration. The agencies that
made soil from the rock in the ages past are
perpetually at work making new soil from
the rock of to-day, as well as developing new
fertility in the ancient soil. Man, "by
searching, has found out various means tC
accelerate and intensity this restoration ant
elaboration of fertility and that peopl,
among whom the quest of better, cheaper
and more energetic means OF heightening
the productive power Of the soil, and Of best
]
been most successfully prosecuted, is the
people that will lead IN tho march OF civil
cation, and will impress its language, it,
manners, and its morals ON the world
Our agriculture has two very prominent
wants. The one is more universal acquaint
ance with the practice Of what has alread,
been learned and the other is the learning
of many things now unknown, which we fee
important to understandable settlement OF
much discussed questions that yex and BAT
iie us in laying our plans, aud embarrass oul
practlce-the discovery Of new facts that
shall enlarge and improve our systems of
farming Every farmer remembers that hi.
successes have been reached by a series OF
discoveries ON his part. lie can remember
when he followed this aud that practice
which he has come to see are defective aud
injurious, and therefore has abandoned
that he was once ignorant Of most useful
operations, resources, and methods, which
one by one, have been revealed to him, either
by conversation, reading, visiting some
neighbor, near or remote, or by reflection
and observation on his own premises.
Every New England farmer who main,
tains or increases the productiyeness of his
land under the changed circumstances of re-
cent years, has done il by using knowledge
which his iorefathers did not possess or did
not use, and no such farmer would willingly
part with the knowledge thus gained. lie
would not part with it because there is ad-
vantage in il, money in it. lie would not
part with it because it has been pleasure
TO acquire, and is pleasure to possess aud
TO communicate, and because he feels that
he himself has grown and ripened by the
gain of his knowledge. II has become a
part Of himself, and in its assimilation he
has become richer aud stronger, and is happy
in greater mastery over nature, as well as
in consciousness Of being abreast Of the
time aud its opportunities.
The successful farmer is also he who most
keenly feels the need Of more knowledge.
lie has had his eyes most widely opened To
the defects and sufiiciency of his farming
lie appreciates most keenly that, while the
least cost of a crop or of an animals keep
amounts TO a certain sum-whether corn
and COW be good or bad-the profit lies
mainly in every kernel Of grain or drop Of