Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-04-18
Requisites Of a Good Farmer.

There Is no calling IN lie thaC really
requires a more varied knowledge than
agriculture; and when we think how
very short time ago the only requisite
that was regarded was simply knowl-
edge enough to do the mechanical work
of sowing and reaping, it is really a
wonder that our agriculture stands
where it does to-day; and when we
now look over the millions of cultivated
acres in this country, which bud and
blossom with the sweetness of the rose,
and behold the superior intelligence
which cultivate them, it is still more Of
a wonder that the stupidity of older
times should ever have existed. Still,
in the midst of all this progress and
the improvements which are now found
inevery Department. of agriculture, there
are those who will persist in shutting
their eyes to the utility of intelligence
on the farm, and still continue to plod
along as their fathers did. 1t is to
such that we desire to make the state
ment with which this article begins.
The farm is no place for q man who
does not know anything. Usually he
would prove as successful, and more
so, in almost any other calling,
A farmer should be educated in the
truest sense Of the term. Certainly no
one will deny that he should be familiar
with the sciences which especially per-
tain to the soil and the growth of
plants, and it viii not do to argue, as
some do, that experiment is better than
book knowledge, for what man learns
by experiment he knows is correct.
Science is the result Of experiment.
Books of science are the result of ex-
pertinent. Men have spent the time
necessary to teach US the needs Of plant
growth, the requirements Of the soil for
special purposes, and very much of
everything else necessary to make
farming a success; and if we now pro-
pose to go over the same ground that
they have, in order to reach the same
conclusions, we simply show a disposi-
ton to waste valuable time. If by
analysis of the soil we can ascertain
that it lacks those ingredients which
the chemist says is necessary for the
production of certain crop, it surely
would be folly to keep on experiment.
ing year after year, until bychance we
should happen to apply the element
which is lacking. There are fortunes
upon fortunes in the aggregate expend-
ed every year in this country for fertil-
izers which are almost worthless, as
applied, and wholly so with reference
to the production of the crop which
they are intended to help grow. They
do not contain the elements which the
soil lacks and the crop needs, and so
far as any real good resulting from
their application we might as well try
to fertilize the land with our breath.
Farming without q knowledge of the
science of farming, which includes
various sciences, is sicily game of
chance-it is the walk OF blind man
on strange ground. If such a man
should attempt to practice medicine he
would be called "qUack," and if to
practice law, a "shyster." The farm
er should be prominently a well-read
man. He should read the gist of all
that is freshly written on agriculture,
which he can find in any first-class ag-
ricultural journal. If what he reads Is
not sound, he can still profit by it by
permitting the truth to be more firmly
liked in his mind by contrast.
No one should attempt to conduct a
farm without being something of q
veterinarian. knowledge of veterina-
ouired on the farm, and the lack of it
is frequently not only very inconvenient.
but tits expensive. Regularly educated
surgeons areOften, and in the great ma
jority of instances, difficult to get at,
and many a sick animal must necessa-
rily die, or be beyond the possibility
of recovery, before the services of one
can be obtained. We sometimes see
expressed in the columns of our county
exchanges, the wish that the regular
physicians would include veterinary in
their practice, This would be of little
advantage. The doctors do not know
anything, or scarcely anything, with
reference to the diseases of animals.
Veterinary science il essentially sepa-
rate science. There are some principles
in common between the science of medi-
cine as applied to man and the brute,
but not enough to enable the family
physician to be good 4" horse doctor"
Far better would it be for the farmer
to qualify himself to treat ordinary
cases, at least. Aud now that our in
dustrial colleges have courses in veter-
mary science, it is not very difficultfor
our young men to acquire some knowl-
edge in this direction.
But beside being a chemist, botanist
and veterinarian, the farmer of all
men in the world should be a general
mechanic. He should know some
thing of al the common mechanical
arts, from that Of building house to
hopping 8 barrel Such knowledge
would prevent imposition when it was
necessary to employ a mechanic, butit
would save great deal of needless
expense, not only in the actual outlay
for many descriptions of repairs, but
in the destruction of implements, re-
sulting often from neglect to regard
the old adage, 4" 3 stitch in time saves
nine" 1t is often very incoHvenient
to go the blacksmith's, the wheel
Wr1ghts, or the harnessmaker's when
something breaks, and the neglect is
frequently the cause of the total de-
struction of the thing required.
In this brief outline, therefore, we
show that not only is the farm no place
Tor stupidity, but that the farmer should
really be universal genius, and such a
man will always be successful as farm
er.-W Western Rural
Death-Rate In Cities.