Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1877-08-29
FARM AND PRESIDE.
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The Future Of Agriculture.

became agricultural. There can be lit
tie doubt that time was when the whole
human family was in very low order
of civilization-when the rudest weap-
ons were used in the chase and in war,
and when the tillage of the soil was on
ly practiced to an extent so limited as
to produce the simplest class Of yegeta-
bles. Fruit and wild plants, game and
fish, were the articles OF food, while the
skins Of animals formed the clothing. A
very great progress was made when
grass, flax and hemp were woven into
fabrics of the coarsest kind. when the
cereals were planted IN limited quaint
ties but even before this era, no doubt.
sheep-raislng and cattle-herding had be-
come the employment of various tribes
then existing under patriarchal forms Of
government. Pan, doubtless, preceded
Ceres, and prepared the way and forced
the NECESSITY Of tanning the grasses and
cultlTating The grain that was to supply
food for the increased population. in
districts where the human family in.
creased most rapidly. For many ages
farming, III a rude form. gave only food,
not riches. The laws Of trade were not
understood, were poorly provided for
exchanges were made in kind for lack O
currency or coined money; long Jour
neys Were seldom made; luxurie were
unknown. There were still, however.
the seeds Of progress implanted in the
human mind, and ready to receive Vi
tally and spring into active existence
whenever necessity required new inyen-
tons and discoveries.
Thus the world rolled onward until
lis population became too great for rude
farming TO supply food and luxumes in
sufficient quantities for mans desire
Necessity forced invention. and new in
Tentions improved agriculture. until now
we find ourselves, in the nineteenth cen
Jury, using system Of soil-tillage that
would appear little less than miraculous
to our progenitors Of a few thousand
years ago. We can trace through mans
history the history Of farming, and we
can to-day look at the broad cultivated
fields Of Europe and America as the
emblem Of mans present civilization
The question naturally arises, in taking
retrospective view of past farming.
what will agriculture be in the future?
We can only judge what is to come
by what now is, and by what has gone
before. In tracing the farm industry
from the remotest antiquity, we cannot
fail to observe a slow, gradual advance
ment, running exactly parallel with the
advancement Of the human mind pro-
crossing in the ages Of intellectual pre-
eminence. and becoming stationary
whenever the human mind became
cloulded with the priestcrafts and SUI
perstitions that have marked so many
periods in history.
It's rational then for us to conclude
that there is law Of progress that gov
erns in this industry, just as there are
natural laws that control every science
and each department in every art. Ag-
rlculture, then, has not arrived at the
goal Of its destination, but must 90 for
ward as science-foreyer improving
as man grows wiser and learns success
fully to bring to his aid the hidden forces
Of nature.
Chemistry, the handmade Of agricul-
ture, will work without ceasing for her
improvement, and todcvelop new truths
IN science that will cause the earth to
multiply possibly hundred or five hun
bred fold her present production which
viii enable her to support a correspond
lngIy increased population on her sur
face. This capacity, too, will doubtless
be increased almost beyond limit by
the superior preparations Of food and
clothing that will follow the advance
ment of the various departments Of sci
ence. We can easily conceive in our
mind's eye the time when horses will
be superseded by steam or electricity
and when the rich material now MANY
feet below the surface will be made to
giyeup It's richness Of food for the yeoe-
table groWths that may be planted upon
Its bosom. We can imagine, too. when
the currents Of the air will be forced TO
yield moisture, and the fertilizing ele-
ments that they gatherfrom the oceans
surface, when the same are needed to
reYivify or enlarge the crops. Steam
pIoWing, steam saving, steam cultivat.
ing and steam harvesting will create a
revolution at some time in the near fiji.
ture that will make our present most APP
proved system appear to the farmers OF
that day only like child's play.
The necessity for these things has not
yet arrived, nor will it probably come
before the increased growth of popula-
ton calls it into existence. For the
present, we must do the best we can
with the lights before US, and endeavor
to keep this industry on parallel with
all other sciences, in order that its
workmen shall honestly receive the re.
wards of their labor, and have time and
intellectual cultivation sufficient to push
forward this noble calling, through the
aids Of scientific experiments, as fast as
the demands of population and The in.
tellectual culture Of the race require.
EGGs.As FooD.-As flesh producer
one pound of eggs is equal to one pound
Of beef. A hen may be calculated tc
consume one bushel Of corn yearly, and
to lay twelve dozen or eighteen pounds