Year: 1871

culture. 1t will save the sheep interest.


| have done all l could during the de-
preston to persuade farmers not to sac
\ ritice their sheep, but rather to weed out
the poor ones and retain their best ewes,
take good care of them, and breed to the


best rams they could find. Those who


have done SO will now receive their re-
ward for their perseverance and common
sense. There is nothing more certain


than that great leading product like
wool, or wheat, corn, oats, pork, or beef,
cannot long remain below the cost of
production, And farmer cannot make
a greater mistake than to abandon wool
growing or wheat-growing, or beef or
pork growing, during period of tenn
porary depression, and of engaging in
something that for the moment happens
to be unusually well. Everybody will
now rush into wool-growing. Pork and
beef are low, and thousands of farmers
who have been endeavoring to improve
their stock of hogs or cattle will now
neglect or sacrifice them; whereas the


wise farmer will hold on to his stock and
continue to improve it, and by the time
the tide turns. as turn it must, he will be
ready to avail himself of the increased
demand for his products. A year ago
this spring bought potatoes to feed pigs
at ten cents bushel. This spring they


were worth 81 80, and yet we had bet
ryield than the year before. The price
was so low IN the spring of 1870 that
farmers planted far less than usual. Take
one year with another, that farmer makes
the most money who pursues the even
tenor of his way uninhuenced by the
fluctuations in the price of products. Ii
may be said that this is plodding work,
calling for little intelligence and no en-
terprise. But this is mistake There
are abundant opportunities for the exer-
else of skill, intelligence, patience, per-
severance, industry, enterprise and ev-
ything that makes man. A farmer
had far better occupy his thoughts and
his energies in determining the best meth
cd of enriching and preparing his land
for potatoes, and how to plant, cultivate,
dig, and market them, rather than in
worrying, unsatisfactory, and uncertain
speculations as to whether the crop will
or will not be largely grown and com
mand low or high price.


American farmers cannot be too often
reminded that what we should aim at is,
fewer crops, cleaner culture, and larger
yield per acre. We are great beef-eat-
ing people, and are taking kindly to good
mutton when it can be found. Already
large proportion of the beef con iumed
in the Atlantic cities is raised west of the
Mississippi. The price for the moment
happens to be low, but it will not remain
so long. The farmer who raises good
beef or mutton in New England, New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Hi
nois, Iowa, or any of the older settled
States, need not fear that the half wild
cattle Of Texas or elsewhere are going to
drive him to the wall. There is no sort
of danger. Unaided, nature cannot COM
pete with agriculture anv better than the
Indian can compete with the Anglo Sax
on. Our population is rapidly increas-
ing, and the demand for meat will con-
tinue to increase from year to year.


The causes which lead to an oyer-sup-
ply for a few months are only temporary.
The demand is unceasiDg, and he is a
wise farmer who looks ahead and quiet
ly and perseveringly improves his farm
aud his stock. He is certain of his re-
ward. Wool, mutton, beef, pork, cheese,
butter, milk, poultry, and all other an
imal products will be wanted more and
more as the condition Of the world i'm
proves. There are millions of people. |
= :
even in Europe, who seldom taste fresh |
meat An Irishman eats double the
meat and does double the work here that
he did at home. Even the Chinese in
this country eat meat as soon as they can |
earn mo2ey enough to buy it. The point
I want to get at is this: We have a large
country. Land is comparatively cheap,
and labor comparatively high. Crops
are great in extent but small in yield,
and many of our farms are getting more
weedy and less productive Now, what
we must aim at is to make them cleaner
and richer. We must devote less land |
to the production of wheat and other
grain that is sold, and more to the pro-
duction of such crops as are fed out to
animals on the farm.


We ali know that it is far better to
raise 300 bushels oe wheat from 10 acres
than to plough, seed aud reap twenty or
thirty acres to get the same amount
We obtain no more money for the crop
in the one case than the other, but the
profits are quadrupled The market is
e,1,,ka.I IL ri .. - /,