FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2659, 27 July 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Agriculture as a Profession. The following excellent article on agriculture is by James lv. Reeve, and appears in the May number of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Although it was written for, and is about America, it contains much that is equally applicable to New Zealand; and, if our farming friends will u read, mark, leavn, and inwardly digest" the principles it inculcates, we feel sure it will amply repay them for theii trouble. There are steadily accumulating conditions which will in the nea.i future make imperative the adoption in this country of closer and more enlightened methods of agriculture, than now generally obtain among our farmers. Cheap land and wide areas of virgin soil have been a constant temptation to superficial cultivation : and while wo were boasting of development, the facts show that we have been a nation of poor farmers upon lands comparatively new, and aided by all our American pluck and'enterprise, our splendid machinery, and our " knack'' of being foremost in every undertaking, we produce less than one-half as great a yield of wheat per acre as England. Looking at the grand total, we lead the world; at the result of individual effort, we are behind almost every land but India. Our population is increasing in a ratio never before known in the history of nations ; the productiveness of our arable,l'indd is deeieasing and the present generation will see the limit of the territorial expansion of our agriculture. When this limit is reached . we shall be confronted by two alternatives—either to let another and wiser nation feed us, or to so husband onr own resources that the emergency may bo met and overcome from within. In the presence of a like dilemma Great Britain in a quarter of a century increased the product of her lands in an amount equal to the sustenance of five million people. The rise in land valuos, with consequent increase of taxes and of interest upon invested capital, coupled with the decreased amount and value of the product, is now rendering it extremely difficult for farmers in the older sections to securo an adequate return from tho employment of thoir capital and labour. Tho statistical agent of the Agricultural Department reported tho average income of farmers in New York State for ISSG as being only three and one-half per cent, upon their capital invested ; and this without any allowance fur the value of their own time and labour. At that rate, the more land a farmer has, the worse he is off; and as methods of cultivation which will tend to better this condition are well nigh impossible, or at least impracticable, upon largo areas, and under tho existing management, wo find consequently a growing tendency toward t.ho subdivision of agricultural holdings. The ordinary occupations of the average farm are either grain-growing or stock-raising, , or the two in conjunction ; and since these are the pursuits that have been found specially unprofitable on the hiirh- , pricod lands, these branches of imrionl- , tural industry are being driven \\ est and , awayjfrom the populonscentras, and their products are conveyed to the consumers hundreds or thousands of miles away for a less cost than they could bo produced in , the immediate vicinity of their markets. The more valuable lands are thusleftforthe production of fruits, vegetables, milk, , etc., which necessitate a close market, i and which also bring such a return per aero as may bo expected lo allow a margin of profit. This profit, however, , cannot be attained by tho same methods . of work that the stock and grain farmer I pursues ; more minute attention must br given to every detail, and a system of cultivation adopted in direct contrast to the others. Whore one employs a mnxi- . mum of land with a maximum of labour, tho other will concentrate the greatest i amount of labour upon a limited area. While cheap lands in the west relievo us j from the immediate necessity of dei terminiug how we may profitably grow , the coarser products, the absorption of i the public domain will presently show us i that every effort must thenceforth be de- . voted to making the most of what wo ; have, and intelligent direction of every > branch of our agricultuto will be de- > manded by the exigencies of that time. ! Then we will commence to renovate our i exhausted lands, to conserve the forces of | the [soil, to intensify methods of [ cultivation, and above all, to accept j the proffered aid of science. The , general application of scientific knowr ledge and exact methods to the J business of agriculture will never gener- , ally prevail until we have, First, a class of [ men thoroughly educated in the theory t and practice of agriculture, who will [ carry into the processes of tho farm the 5 teachings of the school; or, second, men . who, being fitted by education and 5 training for business or professional life, > .yield to tho superior inducements of f agriculture, and take into that field their [ methodical and intelligent habits, and , supplementing these by readiu<r, study, . and practice, devote their talents to tho furtherance of its developments. In the production of the first of these tho work now being done by our agricultural " colleges is worthy of notice. Tho last annual report of tho United States Commissioner of Education gives a list of I forty-eight collojieH and universities now i in operation, and distributed through « nearly all ®f tho States and territories, f which were either organised in conson- ' ance with the Act of Congress of 1862, > or which, having their organisation prior I to that, were subsequently beneficiaries i under the Act, and mainly indebted to it 5 for their present existence and financial t support. This Act, differing from most I legislation in the fact that it was matcri- ) ally in advance of public sentiment, granted a large amount of tho public I lands to the respective States for the • purpose of " establishing colleges where ; tho leading objects should be, without J excluding other scientific and classical ■ studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and tho mechanic arts." Besides these endowed institu--1 tions there are in the United Strifes foity- [ two other " schools of science," in some of which agricultnro is a leading feature, i and in most of which especial attention is given to its relatod sciences, Difficulty

has been experienced in ascertaining the total number of students in these insti-

tutions pursuing a strictly agricultural cournc. In twenty-five of those of the class first voted are 2,072 out of a total of G,09l students. Probably the whole number engaged in the study of agriculture and its kindred branches will approximate five thousand. The methods of work and instruction at the different schools vary according to the policy deemed best by the controlling powers, but the general objcct aimed at is '• to give a thorough practical knowledge of agriculture, nnd at the same time liberally educate tho man." Classroom instruction embraces particularly those sciences which relalo to agriculture and the kindred acts, such as chemistry, horticulture, botany, zoology, physiology, and veterinary medicine and anatomy ; and in order to effect a symmetrical training these are supplemented by such studies as history, mathematics, book-keeping, political economy, logic, landscape-gardening, aud civil engineering, while the classics and abstruse sciences are usually elective. This is further supplemented by laboratory work, by out-of-door observation, aud in many cases by actual compulsory labour upon the farm or in the gardens, where the solutions to

knotty questions are "worked out" by tho aid of the hoe or the pruning knife. While in Germany, Prance, Great Britain, Belgium, and various small nationalities of Europe, the productiveness of tho soil has been steadily increasing during tho past half-century through improved methods of cultivation, which in the beginning were compelled by the increasing needs of a redundant population, a policy of negligence, resulting from the lack of a broad understanding of the situation, has

in this country been as steadily decreasing as the average yield per acre. In some of the older sections large areas have been abandoned because tho crop produced would no longer repay the cost of cultivation. In a large section of lowa, which is still a part of our "new and fertile West," the corn crop has declined in

twenty-five years from forty to twentytwo bushels per acre. In other States the farmers are shifting unmethodically from one crop to another, as this or tliat seems to hold out a promise of better returns. The restoration of these depleted lands has become a problum beyond the capacity of the ordinary farmer, who, by following old methods, has been instrumental in further depreciating them, when his work should havo been so intelligently directed that each season's operations would have enhanced their fertility. It

has been tersely Baid that the question before the farmer is "how to feed the land while the land feeds him." Greeley's

ad7ice has been too literally followed, because the present generation have found it a simpler matter to "go West" and take up new lands than t,« attempt the improvement of the old. When this alternative is no longer available tho highest intelligence will bo demanded

for successfully coping with these changed conditions, not only directly in the lino of supplying tho demand for increased production, but the broader culture that will lead to an understanding

of the situation and its shifting phases,

Our advancing civilisation is demanding a class of products that were foreign to the knowledge of a former time. The rapid accumulation of wealth, and the liberal habits of expenditure common to all classes in America, have resulted in an extensive market for the finest food supplies. This may bo particularly seen in the increase of fruit imports; tropical fruit-t which only a few years since were rarely seen except in the markets of th 6 larger cities are now commonly found throughout, the year in all the interior towns and villages. The larger markets now demand fresh fruits and vegetables at all seasons, and that this tendency is expansive is illustrated by the fact that recently I have seen Florida strawberries freely sold in small interior villages of the north as early as the Ist of March. The consumption of this class of products is rapidly increasing, and rarely is tho supply in excess of the demand. The larger profit usually results from the manufacture of tho most valuable goods. Tho art of tho goldsmith leads moro rapidly to the accumulation of wealth than docs the blacksmith's forge ; and as gain is a more or less prominent ohjeet in all pursuits, it, is we'll to note that tho cultivation of the soil offers no exception to this rule. A young man entering upon the study of any of the so-called liberal professions, knowing that some of the best years of his life must bo spent in accumulating tHo intellectual capital

necessary for its successful prosecution, naturally asks what prizes he may hope eventually to gain. It is not for the things of common attainment that his best efforts are put forth. I" there anything besides the ordinary farm and the three and one-half per cent, of tho New York statistician to tempt men into the profession of agriculture ? In answer to this question a recent publication of the agricultural department of Cornell University states that "no less than twentyseven of our graduates aro at the present time holding professorships or positions of similar grade in institutions of honourable rank." These are mainly occupying chairs of agriculture and the related branches. With ninety institutions now in existence embracing a present total of 974 instructors, and with the probability of the early organisation of other schools and departments, it is apparent that, there is considerable opportunity in this direction. The General Government, through its department of agriculture, and in scientific research in this and other countries, employes a considerable number of men whose especially requisite qualifications for the work demanded are exactly those which the course of instruction in the agricultural college tends to develop. More directly in the line of applied agriculture are the suparintendeney of the test gardens of the large seedsmen, chemists in the laboratories of fertiliser manufacturers, the superintendency of the public parks, the profession of landscape gardening and civil engineering ; and botany and horticulture are direct pathways to the foremost ranks of science. As to the possible pecuniary results that may be obtained by one who realises the possibilities of agricultural development, and beiugs to its aid exact scientific methods, it is difficult to speak authoritatively. Few men fully realise the possibilities of an acre of ground ; the bare statement that it contains 43,560 square feet conveys little meaning. It is not difficult to grow upon an individual foot of that surface a product of flowers, plants, vegetable, or small fruits that is worth five cents. This ratio applied to the entire acre would give a product to the value of 2178 dollars. This result has actually been accomplished, but I am afraid that ordinary cultivators will hardly deem the statement worthy of credence. Intensive methods are the outcome of thorough agricultural education ; it is this leavening influence that is mainly instrumental in efleeting the decrease in the average size of farms that is now so marked a feature of our agricultural statistics. Men have been liuding out that the last load of manure on an acre pays better thau the first; that the last turn of cultivators is the most beneficial of all, and that so long as there is room for the one, or need for the other on the first acre, it is folly to apply them to the second. During the past live years the gross return from the six leadiug grain crops of the United States has averaged less than nine dollars fifty cents per acre ; and as in many cases the greater return has been secured from the less valuable land, it may readily be seen that lands worth one hundred dollars or more per acre have not yielded a very liberal income. It must be borne in mind that from this meagre sum must be deducted taxes, cost of seed, labour and implements, support of working stock, and the value of the labour and superintendence of the owner, before the net income begins. It is the knowledge that such is a true representation of the average condition of our agriculture and scepticism as to the possibility of attaining more favourable results that deter

many who otherwise might be inclined to enter upon the pursuit. It is, therefore, pleasant to cite in contrast to the above some fauti showing what has been, and may be, accomplished by the application of intensive methods to small areas. A recent priz" offered by an Eastern Horticultural Society for the largest money product from a given area of small fruits was awarded to a strawberry grower, whose sales from two acres amounted to more than seventeen hundred dollars ; and Mr E. P. Roe, in " Play and profit in my Garden " has told us how he secured a gross return of slightly more than two thousand dollars from the same amount of land. In the report of the last annual meeting of the New Jersey Horticultural Society the following arc given as some of the yields obtained by its members, "although the season had been uniformly bad." Early cabbages produced 435d015. per acre; early tomatoes, 585d015. per acre ; asparagus, four acres returned OOOdoR ; seven acres, 1000 dols. ; four acres, 200dols. per acre ; and in some instances as high as 300dols. per

aero. Mr Peter Henderson toll us of a: asparasrus glower near Atlanta whos crop gave for three successive years a ne profit of 1500do]s. per aero; and, in Htancing departures from old method cites tlio ca-o of a farmer residin; near Rochester, " who half adozti years ago timidly rnado the at tempt of growing a half acre of hi: fifty-acre farm in vegetables for a villagt market. He further informed me thai the nett profit from the uabbage partler last yetr was 6,500i1015., or a little ovei 200dols. per acre, and that "it was not a very good year for cabbages at that.' For the encouragement of those not "tc the manner born," the same authority the following case as being within 'lis personal observation : —A eolbge>red man of 2S, failing in health from jffiee work, purchased a farm of GC icres at Northport, Long Island. The lecond year he tried a few acres in vege;ables and small fruits, which he found iale for in the village of Northport, at nost satisfactory prices. I was on his arm in the summer of 18S3, and I must ay that for a man who had got his mowledge almost wholly from books, his ■enture looked as if it would be a comitate success. In the dairy region of Southern Central New where the vriter's boyhood was passed, and where he chief agricultural attractions consists if a gently undulating landscapa, and ,ome most enticing trout streams, the general fanning community have found hemselves compelled to live "rather ilose to the bone." A rise or fall of a ialf-ceut. per quart iu the wholesale milk narket of New York city may be sufli :ient to turn the balauee from one side o the other of their profit and loss ccount. Yet among their number is a Mneeton alumnus, the record of whose vork I have recently seen, who, by the .pplication of agricultural science to the growing of crops, the manufacture of msilage and the feeding of stock, is mabled to pursue the "even tenor of his vay," which is to harvest an annual jrolit many times in excess of the iverage per cent, of his State. These ire some of the pecuniary results (and he instances could In indefinitely multijlieil) of high cultivation and intelligent vork, coupled with an understanding of he needs of the mirket.