Year: 1879

appropriate, to eXpound and improve, these
new and valuable results of practical farm
ing, and then to scatter them broadcast
and pour new fertility into sterile soils.


So clearly and palpably have the journals
of this class demonstrated their value that
it is often possible in passing through a ru-
raj district, to discover by no unmistakable
signs. the farms at which such papers are
taken and where they have found welcome
home, and it is easy to see that in the pres
ence of these sheets of useful knowledge,
the whole aspect of the farm is changed and
all the results improved. Manures and fer
| tiliZers are more efficient, as well as more
abundant the latest and best methods are
adopted. new impulse is given to vegeta-
ton, the very roots Of the crop strike deep
er and spread wider than before, and even
the meadows assume a brighter shade of
green and the cereal grains deeper tinge
OF gold. And finally, as a crowning evi-
dence of what is here claimed for the inf1n-
ence Of the press, along with this new vigor
of vegetation and more abundant yield we
also find a reduction of cost that is even
more important than all the rest.


1t wonld be easy to refer by name, if it
were not invidious, to score of such papers,
in either OF which a single number could be
pointed out which, for intrinsic value, is
worth to shrew farmer the subscription of
lifetime. Even single passages could be
referred to In various journals, in which the
facts comprised in few lines are worth
more to an intelligent, practical uan, than
a ton of guano on an acre of land, for the
acre of land is confined to one unehanging
spot and the ton Of guano admits of only
one application. But the great facts of ex-
perience in farming are not bounded by an
acre and do not expire in one application.
On the contrary, they are developed by use
and grow by repetition. They spread and
multiply from farm to farm and from year
to year, until a continent is made richer by
them and posterity halls them as a treasure


The timidity shown by some in applying
a sum so ridiculous as So or So to obtain the
priceless knowledge on which depend the
whole value and final profit of their busi-
ness is more than surprising. The trihiNE
sums often layished without a thought on
objects comparatively of no value, if ap-
piled to such a purpose as this would be suf-
ticent to supply variety of journals and
valuable books that would at once create a
new atmosphere of thought in the house,
and while thus rounding out the education
of the family, would also enlarge the yield
and the profits of harvests to come.


Does it not then, farmers, clearly devolve
on yon to encourage and sustain the gener-
Gus efforts of press that is everywhere
working in our interest and lighting up our
future with the experience of the past? /
know that many OF you so regard it. But
what shall we say to those who excuse
themselves by finding fault with the defects
of the press, and who allege that, amid so
many imperfections, they do not know what
paper to take?


10 all such, let me frankly say that this is
not reason, but simply an evasion. You
doDot expect perfection in anything human
then why exact it in the case Of farmers
papers IF you could find an ideal journal
absolutely faultless and perfect. it would be
cheap at $40 dollars year. while the pres
ent range of prices is from ST. to $3.50; and
it is safe TO- say that taking them as we now
find them, there is hardly one in the whole
number that is not worth many times its
cost, il rightly used.


1t wonld be easy TO show that If the sug.
gestipn OF MIR. Dodge were carried out by
doubling the total product of our farms, If
even one-half that increase were attained,
the result would be sufficient to support the