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Farmers Department

Farmers Department image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
May
Year
1848
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

1 sometimes fancy to myself, when I hear persons vvho live on the riel) and fertile prairies oftlie west, praise the luxuriance of iheir soil, and boast of the bouhtifui crops they yield vvith little labor, ihat they ought to be regarded somewhat as we now look upon thosc early settlers in the Mohawk valley, vvho, t is said, were in the habit of carting the manure made upon their lands to the river, and throwing it in, -for fear, tliat should it reniain, llieir lands would become rich. In their wisdom, snpposing these lands could never be exhausted, they continued to plovv the same fielcls, until at last" a change caine o'er the spirit of their dreams," and they found lo their cost, that the lands they supposed inexhaustibly fertile, had become slerile and unproductive ; and such I think will be the result of the present system of cultivation pursued by our western friends. - Chemistry shows us that by taking a succession of crops offfromthe same ground one year afier another, without any return to it, the inevitable eflect must be uïlimately, that it will lose ts fertilily. The lands of our county, especially the richer portions of it, have quite too coinmonly met wilh tliis usage. A few years since it was not unfrequently remarked by our farmers, that they formerly received good crops from particular porlionsof their lands, but that then they could not get crops from the same ground that would pay the trouble ofcultivation. Someihing, they saitl, must be wanting in the soil, but wliat they did not know. Chemistry has solved this problem, and it's now beginning to be understood by them, that their soil must be fed with proper food as well as iheir cattle ifthey would liave it productivo ; and that (roe economy consists in highlycultivating smaller quantities of land, by deep plowing and manuring, rather than running over a large quantily of land wilh slight tillnge. A little Cinn well tilleil. A large barn well filled. A little wife well willed, Give me, give me," This lesson is one farmers have been slow to learn. While it has been their practice in cultivaiing their gardens to resort to thorougli tillage, and as a consequence, they produce more from ihem ihai frotn any other equal portion of their land ; in the raising of field crops the hint thus given them his beei entirely neglected. It is supposed that the fruits and kitchen garden in the vicinity of the city of London, occupy 20,000 acres of land, and that the produce of this land is sold for over 87,000,000, while in the most lavored portions of farming lands in our own country, $500,000 would generally be considered a good product for the same quanlity of land. Knowledge and experience will in time correct the errors into which onr farmers have fallun in regard to cultivating their lands, and even now I think I see a bright prospect for the future, in the formation of agricultura! associations, in the circulation of agricultural ! papers, and other periodicals ; in the improvemem of the farm stock ; in the improved tülage and drainage of lands ; and abova all, in the increased attention given to the saving and use of manures. When these come to be well understood and practiced, we may confidently expect to see farms of 40 and 60 acres producing more, and returning a better and more certain profil to the farmer, than farms now do which contain many