The Elements of Agriculture

Let us look at his premises, and see how his affairs are managed. First, examine the land. Well, it is good fair land. Some of it is a little springy, but is not to be called wet. It will produce a ton and a half of hay to the acre—it used to produce two tons. There are some stones on the land, but not enough in his estimation to do harm. The plowed fields are pretty good; they will produce 35 bushels of corn, 13 bushels of wheat, or 30 bushels of oats per acre, when the season is not dry. His father used to get more; but, somehow, the weather is not so favorable as it was in old times. He has thought of raising root crops, but they take more labor than he can afford to hire. Over, in the back part of the land there is a muck-hole, which is the only piece of worthless land on the whole farm.

Now, let us look at the barns and barn-yards. The stables are pretty good. There are some wide cracks in the siding, but they help to ventilate, and make it healthier for the cattle. The manure is thrown out of the back windows, and is left in piles under the eaves on the sunny side of the barn. The rain and sun make it nicer to handle. The cattle have to go some distance for water; and this gives them exercise. All of the cattle are not kept in the stable; the fattening stock are kept in the various fields, where hay is fed out to them from the stack. The barn-yard is often occupied by cattle, and is covered with their manure, which lies there until it is carted on to the land. In the shed are the tools of the farm, consisting of carts, plows—not deep plows, this farmer thinks it best to have roots near the surface of the soil where they can have the benefit of the sun's heat,—a harrow, hoes, rakes, etc. These tools are all in good order; and, unlike those of his less prudent neighbor, they are protected from the weather.

The crops are cultivated with the plow, and hoe, as they have been since the land was cleared, and as they always will be until this man dies.

Here is the 'practical farmer' of the present day. Hard working, out of debt, and economical—of dollars and cents, if not of soil and manures. He is a better farmer than two thirds of the three millions of farmers in the country. He is one of the best farmers in his town—there are but few better in the county, not many in the State. He represents the better class of his profession.

With all this, he is, in matters relating to his business, an unreading, unthinking man. He knows nothing of the first principles of farming, and is successful by the indulgence of nature, not because he understands her, and is able to make the most of her assistance.

This is an unpleasant fact, but it is one which cannot be denied. We do not say this to disparage the farmer, but to arouse him to a realization of his position and of his power to improve it.

But let us see where he is wrong.

He is wrong in thinking that his land does not need draining. He is wrong in being satisfied with one and a half tons of hay to the acre when he might easily get two and a half. He is wrong in not removing as far as possible every stone that can interfere with the deep and thorough cultivation of his soil. He is wrong in reaping less than his father did, when he should get more. He is wrong in ascribing to the weather, and similar causes, what is due to the actual impoverishment of his soil. He is wrong in not raising turnips, carrots, and other roots, which his winter stock so much need, when they might be raised at a cost of less than one third of their value as food. He is wrong in considering worthless a deposit of muck, which is a mine of wealth if properly employed. He is wrong in ventilating his stables at the cost of heat. He is wrong in his treatment of his manures, for he loses more than one half of their value from evaporation, fermentation, and leaching. He is wrong in not having water at hand for his cattle—their exercise detracts from their accumulation of fat and their production of heat, and it exposes them to cold. He is wrong in not protecting his fattening stock from the cold of winter; for, under exposure to cold, the food, which would otherwise be used in the formation of fat, goes to the production of the animal heat necessary to counteract the chilling influence of the weather, p. 50. He is wrong in allowing his manure to lie unprotected in the barn-yard. He is wrong in not adding to his tools the deep surface plow, the subsoil plow, the cultivator, and many others of improved construction. He is wrong in cultivating with the plow and hoe, those crops which could be better or more cheaply managed with the cultivator or horse-hoe. He is wrong in many things more, as we shall see if we examine all of his yearly routine of work. He is right in a few things; and but a few, as he himself would admit, had he that knowledge of his business which he could obtain in the leisure hours of a single winter. Still, he thinks himself a practical farmer. In twenty years, we shall have fewer such, for our young men have the mental capacity and mental energy necessary to raise them to the highest point of practical education, and to that point they are gradually but surely rising.

Let us now place this same farm in the hands of an educated and understanding cultivator; and, at the end of five years, look at it again.

He has sold one half of it, and cultivates but fifty acres. The money for which the other fifty were sold has been used in the improvement of the farm. The land has all been under-drained, and shows the many improvements consequent on such treatment. The stones and small rocks have been removed, leaving the surface of the soil smooth, and allowing the use of the sub-soil plow, which with the under-drains have more than doubled the productive power of the farm. Sufficient labor is employed to cultivate with improved tools, extensive root crops, and they invariably give a large yield. The grass land produces a yearly average of 2½ tons of hay per acre. From 80 to 100 bushels of corn, 30 bushels of wheat, and 45 bushels of oats are the average of the crops reaped. The soil has been analyzed, and put in the best possible condition, while it is yearly supplied with manures containing every thing taken away in the abundant crops. The analysis is never lost sight of in the regulation of crops and the application of manures. The worthless muck bed was retained, and is made worth one dollar a load to the compost heap, especially as the land requires an increase of organic matter. A new barn has been built large enough to store all of the hay produced on the farm. It has stables, which are tight and warm, and are well ventilated above the cattle. The stock being thus protected from the loss of their heat, give more milk, and make more fat on a less amount of food than they did under the old system. Water is near at hand, and the animals are not obliged to over exercise. The manure is carefully composted, either under a shed constructed for the purpose with a tank and pump, or is thrown into the cellar below, where the hogs mix it with a large amount of muck, which has been carted in after being thoroughly decomposed by the lime and salt mixture.

They are thus protected against all loss, and are prepared for the immediate use of crops. No manures are allowed to lie in the barn-yard, but they are all early removed to the compost heap, where they are preserved by being mixed with carbonaceous matter. In the tool shed, we find deep surface-plows, sub-soil plows, cultivators, horse-hoes, seed-drills, and many other valuable improvements.

This farmer takes one or more agricultural papers, from which he learns many new methods of cultivation, while his knowledge of the reasons of various agricultural effects enables him to discard the injudicious suggestions of mere book farmers and uneducated dreamers.

Here are two specimens of farmers. Neither description is over-drawn. The first is much more careful in his operations than the majority of our rural population. The second is no better than many who may be found in America.

We appeal to the common sense of the reader of this work to know which of the two is the practical farmer—let him imitate either as his judgment shall dictate.

FINIS

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

Absorb—to soak in a liquid or a gas.

Abstract—to take from.

Acid—sour; a sour substance.

Agriculture—the art of cultivating the soil.

Alkali—the direct opposite of an acid, with which it has a tendency to unite.

Alumina—the base of clay.

Analysis—separating into its primary parts any compound substance.

Carbonate—a compound, consisting of carbonic acid and an alkali.

Caustic—burning.

Chloride—a compound containing chlorine.

Clevis—that part of a plow by which the drawing power is attached.

Decompose—to separate the constituents of a body from their combinations, forming new kinds of compounds.

Digestion—the decomposition of food in the stomach and intestines of animals (agricultural).

Dew—deposit of the insensible vapor of the atmosphere on cold bodies.

Excrement—the matter given out by the organs of plants and animals, being those parts of their food which they are unable to assimilate.

Fermentation—a kind of decomposition.

Gas—air—aeriform matter.

Gurneyism—see Mulching.

Ingredient—component part.

Inorganic—mineral, or earthy.

Mouldboard—that part of a surface plow which turns the sod.

Mulching—covering the soil with litter, leaves, or other refuse matter. See p. 247.

Neutralize—To overcome the characteristic properties of.

Organic Matter—that kind of matter which at times possesses an organized (or living) form, and at others exists as a gas in the atmosphere.

Oxide—a compound of oxygen with a metal.

Phosphate—a compound of phosphoric acid with an alkali.

Proximate—an organic compound, such as wood, starch, gum, etc.; a product of life.

Pungent—pricking.

Putrefaction—rotting.

Saturate—to fill the pores of any substance, as a sponge with water, or charcoal with ammonia.

Silicate—a compound of silica with an alkali.

Soluble—capable of being dissolved.

Solution—a liquid containing another substance dissolved in it.

Saturated Solution—one which contains as much of the foreign substance as it is capable of holding.

Spongioles—the mouths at the ends of roots.

Sulphate—a compound of sulphuric acid with an alkali.

Vapor—gas.

1

By saturated, we mean that it contains all that it is capable of holding.

2

Bromine, iodine, etc., are sometimes detected in particular plants, but need not occupy the attention of the farmer.

3

This classification is not strictly scientific, but it is one which the learner will find it well to adopt. These bodies are called neutrals because they have no decided alkaline or acid character.

4

In some soils the fluorides undoubtedly supply plants with soluble silicates, as fluoric acid has the power of dissolving silica. Thus, in Derbyshire (England), where the soil is supplied with fluoric acid, grain is said never to lodge.

5

Sourness.

6

There is reason to suppose that alumina is an essential constituent of many plants.

7

By proximate principle, we mean that combination of vegetable elements which is known as a vegetable product, such as wood, etc.

8

Muscle is lean meat, it gives to animals their strength and ability to perform labor.

9

This, of course, supposes that the soil is fertile in other respects.

10

This pectic acid gelatinizes food in the stomach, and thus renders it more digestible.

11

See Johnston's Elements, page 41.

12

Sifted through a fine cloth called a bolting cloth.

13

The spaces between the particles.

14

In very many instances the crevices and seams of rocks are permeated by roots, which, by decaying and thus inducing the growth of other roots, cause these crevices to become filled with organic matter. This, by the absorption of moisture, may expand with sufficient power to burst the rock.

15

Some rocks contain sulphur, phosphorus, etc., and these may, perhaps, be considered as organic matter.

16

These distinctions are not essential to be learned, but are often convenient.

17

Produce.

18

By absorbing and retaining, we mean taking up and holding.

19

Nitrates are compounds of nitric acid (which consists of nitrogen and oxygen), and alkaline substances. Thus nitrate of potash (saltpetre), is composed of nitric acid and potash: nitrate of soda (cubical nitre), of nitric acid and soda.

20

It is due to our country, as well as to Prof. Mapes and others, who long ago explained this absorptive power of clay and carbon, to say that the subject was perfectly understood and practically applied in America a number of years before Prof. Way published the discovery in England as original.

21

Silicate of potash.

22

This account of digestion is not, perhaps, strictly accurate in a physiological point of view, but it is sufficiently so to give an elementary understanding of the character of excrements as manures.

23

The excrements of animals contain more or less of sulphur, and sometimes small quantities of phosphorus.

24

It should be recollected that every bent straw may act as a syphon, and occasion much loss of liquid manure.

25

Leached ashes will not supply the place of these, as the leaching has deprived them of their potash.

26

The nitrogenous compound in the urine.

27

Comparatively.

28

Under some circumstances, nitric acid is formed, which is equally beneficial to vegetable growth.

29

See the glossary at the end of the book.

30

It is not necessary that this and the foregoing table should be learned by the scholar, but they will be found valuable for reference by the farmer.

31

Marl is earth containing lime, but its use is not to be recommended in this country, except where it can be obtained at little cost, as the expenses of carting the earth would often be more than the value of the lime.

32

See Working Farmer, vol. 2, p. 278.

33

Glycerine, etc.

34

It is probable that a composition of hydraulic cement and some soluble material will be invented, by which a continuous pipe may be laid in the bottoms of trenches, becoming porous as the soluble material is removed by water.

35

Field rollers should be made in sections, for ease of turning.

36

The beneficial effects of mulching is so great as to lead us to the conclusion that it has other means of action than those mentioned in this book. Future experiments may lead to more knowledge on this subject.

37

It is possible that the excrementitious matter thrown out by some plants may be sufficiently destructive to other kinds to exterminate them from the soil—thus, farmers in Maine say that a single crop of turnips will entirely rid the soil of witch grass. This is, undoubtedly, the effect of the excrementitious matter of the turnips. This subject is one of practical importance, and demands close investigation by farmers, which may lead to its being reduced to a system.

38

The improved horse-hoe is made and sold by Ruggles, Nourse & Mason, of Worcester, Mass., and Quincy Hall, Boston.

39

This machine is more fully noticed in the advertising pages.

40

See Author's card in the front of the book.