Year: 1860

l EDITOR DEs ARC CITIzEN-SIR At the last meeting of the Agricultural Society, in few remarks made by one of our honorable members, he occupied the ground that the farmer was not really benefited by such socie- ties, or that he reaps no pecuniary advantages, that all the benefits derived by him from Ag

 ricultural Societies are merely of social character. That we, for profess to be a far

 mer, are only benefited in so far as we enjoy the meeting together and the social intercourse with our neighbors, the merchant, mechanic and livery men, in word, the towns reap all the reward, they get all the cost, while we furnish all the material, get up all the show for the mere pleasure of showing social meet ing with our brother towns-men, and that therefore they should come up literally and aid in preparing the grounds and erecting the necessary buildings, Sc. Now so far as their aid is concerned, he is right; and E.have no donbt but they will fully come up with their part, for as class they are generally a keen shrewd calculating people that study and fully understand their interest, and the citizens of 1 the flourishing town of Des Arc are not whit behind the age. But sir, it seems to me that If such be the fact, if the immense amount of | labor, money and talent which have been ex- pended on the getting up of such societies | throughout the length and breadth of our land, has merely resulted in bringing together far mers, the feeders of the world, in the vicinity fof some city or village to enjoy few hours 1 or days of pleasure, while the merchant, the tradesmen, &c,, are Stripping them of their hardly earned cash, then indeed have the ef- forts of our ,wisest and most enterprising far mers been $otal failure, then indeed have we I again been most Wofully humbugged which | alas, has been too often the case on almost every and all other subjects. But sir, let us see whether such be the case, let us see wheth- CT the farmer as we'll as all other branches of industry may not tA benefited by them. Let the citizens of Prairieucounty, farmer, merchant, and mechanic. allAput their shoulder to the wheel for this and the ensuing year, and if we are ali not greatly benefited both pecuniarily, socially and intellectually, then will I for one feel disposed, to hunt up some other mode of doing good. Now, will freely admit that the mechanic gets the actual cash raised and laid out toward the fitting up of the grounds that the merchant and livery man get puy for the outfit feeding of stock, &c. But sir I look upon this as very insignificant part of the benefits that may be derived from our efforts if conducted in proper manner and with de- termination to develop the resources of our country and the qualities of our soil. It may h l,;, t,.b bo ' f hot it is in the power of every sensible man or woman to do something in this beautiful and important work; one may experiment, even though in small way, in preparing, planting and culture of our oak or ridge lands. Taking for instance sufficient amount of land to make foretest or near alike as possible, di- vide it in to four equal lots thoroughly sub- soil three fourths, manure lot No. with one kind of manure; No. ? with another; Mo-

 3 plant without any manure; No. pre- pare and plant in the usual manner, changing

 each lot with the labor of preparing and plant ing; cultivate all alike, and when the crop is

 ready to be gathered, call in two or three oi his neghbors, let them measure the crop giv- ing certificate of amount taken from each

 lot, let this be handed in to our annual meet : ing with written statement of the manner 7 prepared, with cost on each lot and manner ,, cultivated Another may ditch and prepare 2 portion of our slash lands in such manner a! 5 he may think best, giving written repor with result, Sc. There is hardly a farmer il , my knowledge who does not put labor enougf i on lands of this character, which does no

 yield and average of five bushels to the acre

 to ditch his whole farm in two years, and i :. asked why they put so much work on land tha yield nothing, they answer that by so doing i

 will dry out in few years. Thus worklnl

 for years to keep the land clean, until the soi

 from the more elevated lands around is washe'

 down and fills up the flat, or until some acci

 dental furrow is run by the unsuspectins

 ploughman that opens channel for the wate to drain off, A very large proportion of tn

 lands of our county are prairie, considered b

 many of our farmers as almost worthless, an

 other having better opinion of them, ma.

 try them in such manner as his policy ma

 dictate his report of success with culture

 The wintering of our stock is becoming sub . feet of vital importance to us all. He who b U U experiment demonstrates the most economica " mode of so doing will confer lasting benef

 III