FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2662, 3 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Agriculture as a Profession. (CONCUUJJED.) Now let us look iit a specific result of applied science, and its possible- effect upon the agriculture of tho future. The average yield of wheat in tho United States is about twelve bushels per aero. ]t ie commonly sown with a drill, whiuh deposits the seed in rows eight inches apart. Eight rows are commonly planted at each turn, and un average- of one and α-hulf bushels of seed is used per acre. One mau, with a team, will plant eight ncrea per day, and this being done in September, the field has no further attention until the reaper is put in. the following July to gather whatever harvest Providcucu has seen fit to send an a reward for the negligence of the husbandman. ProfeHsor Blount, of the Colorado Agricultural College, having just made an elaborate study of the habits and needs of the wheat plant, conducted a series of expeiiineuts iu its cultivation with the following results :—First he pUnted upon an exnot square acre aeven and one-half pounds of hand picked wheat in rows eighteen indies apart, and at harvest threshed out sixty-seven bushel-". Aifiiin, upon one-fourth of an acre ho planted thirty-two ounces of selected seed, and the product was eighteen bushels; and again, upon seventy-six square feet ho planted seventy-six kernels of extra fine seed, weighing 4 j grains, and the product was ten and u-hulf pounds, or nearly at the rate of one hundred bushels per acre. These results are more remarkable in the excessive yield from a given area than in regard to the yield from a given portion of seed. Agricultural discussion too often directs attention to a result without sufficiently analizing tho means by which it ia obtained. A pertinent feature of these experiments is the saving of an amount of seed which, averaged upon the eutire grain acreage, would add annually a vast sum to the wealth of the nation. If we should throw into the sea annually fifty million bushels of wheat and a proportionate amount of the other cereals, the world would cry out at our improvidence. Yet, if Professor Blount's conclusions are correct, and they are supported by much collateral evidence, we bury tlii3 amount in the ground, where it is not only thrown away, but where it actually decreases the resultant crop. The economic results that would follow if we should be able to increase our production even approximately to the above ratio are too far-reaching for the scope of this article. Our ability to feed an almost-limitless increase of population would be assured. It may be that overproduction would recoil upon ourselves, but we have already successfully encountered the lowest wheat markets of the globe, and as increased production would mean decreased cost, we might eventually be able to make good our boast of " feeding the world," With a population increasing at the rate of twenty-five per cent, with every decade, it is hardly probable that onr production (after the final occupation of all the public lands) will, at the best, more than keep pace with its needs, As before suggested, a most progressive development will be required if we even accomplish that. Farmers generally will say that the results secured by the above experiments are not attainable upon an} , extended scale; probably not, to the average farmer, because, having so much land to till, he must still sow his eight acres per day. It may occasionally occur to one of particular intelligence that it might be economy to produce his hundred bushels by the thorough cultivation of two anres rather than by superficially working upon eight. Such a one will find that exact and scientific methods arc practical as well. It would subsequently seem that the pursuit of agriculture can offer inducements to the student who would in turn become the teacher, to the business man who would exert his talents in it as a financial enterprise, to the s icntist who would combine a profitable avocation with the investigation of the laws of nature, and to the economist who from his own observations would add to the general knowledge of how best to conserve the forces of production. As a check to the congestion of the cities it is possible that a mote general understanding of the possibilities of an agricultural life might exert a salutary influence. Appeals to classes are generally fruitless ; but suggestions to individuals of opportunities for escape from tho disheartening competition that prevails in many avenues of industry might be of some avail. The proportion of our population engaged in the occupations of the soil is steadily decreasing; and while the smaller percentage required to supply food for the whole marks the advancement of the civilization of tho nation, this tendency furnishes the best opportunity for the remaining producers as the- demand constantly increases with the growth of the non-producing class. We have already remarked that the preseut tendency of our agricultural development is toward the highest cultivation of a small area ; and while this method offers the greatest probability for satisfactory pecuniary results it at the same time requires for its accomplishment a much smaller capital than does the ordinary farming. In the older States one hundred acres may be takon as the size of the average farm. (The last census reported it at ninetynine acres for both New York and Ohio.) The amount of 75-0 dollars might be stated as an average sum needed for the purchase and equipment of such a farm, and under ordinary methods it would at the most yield only a liberal sustenance to the owner, while a farm of ten acres, well improved and conveniently situated, perhaps just in the suburbs of a thriving town where an immediate market could be found for the most valuable products, will often not demand more than a third of this sum for purchase, equipment, and working capital, and under intelligent maiiagement.will not only afford a liberal support, but'should leave a good sum as yearly profit. While the conditions under which European agrie-ulturo is pursued are wholly different from those existing here, a recent report of Mr J. S. L'orter, United States Consul ut Cretfold, upon "tho condition of agriculture in Germauy,"partially illustrates this superiority of a small farm over the larger one, and ia

particularly applicable, as showing tlio ways in which science benefits the farmers. It must, however, bo borne in mind that the German farmer works under the disadvantages of high-priced lands and a heavy burden of taxation, and that the economic habits of the people, and especially of the working classes of the town, who are compelled to observe tlm utmost frugality in order to subsist upon their meagre wages, deprive him of the liberal market for the better class of products we have here. There is no possibility of his obtaining the large returns per acre that have been instanced above, except in especially favourable localities, ami even then only on a limited scale. Prussia is an overpopulated country, and the necessity of making the land produce to its utmost capacity, which is certain to be a future condition here is already present there. To quote the Consul's own words : How to produce much upon a small area is therefore the German farmers natural lesson. . . . Small farms, where cultivated with intelligence, are shown to have produced the best average results." A comparison is then made between two farms, situated side by side, one containing ten and tho other twenty acres. The owner of the ten-acre farm managed to secure from it a comfortable living- for himself and family. The owner of the twenty-aero farm, while working apparently much harder, and with double the investment in land, accomplished with less tidy and genteel accompaniments tho same result. His labour was spread over twenty acres, while the labour of his neighbour wax concentrated upon half that surface. The owner of the ten acres farmed with his head and his hands, while his neighbour followed the ways of his father, and worked with his hands only. Ho hud never investigated tho ingredients of tho soil he cultivated, nor the elements of tho fertilizers he spread upon it, aud had no faith in what he heard regarding the possibility of saving , 'tons of manure' by putting his land in such condition that it would draw from the air and tho clouds vital fertilizing elements, and hold them as nourishment for the next growing crop. 'It seems to mo,' ho said, ' that only a crazy man can seriously expect manure to come down from the skies on his land. My neighbour talks to mo about such things, and tells me that some crops draw from tho air more " stickstoff " (nitrogen) than othere, and in order to secure the full benefit of this "invisible manure" ho advises me to raise, upon the "rotation principle," certain crops here and others there, and to prepare tho soil in this way aud that. He says it is tho natural way, aud very ensy, and that if I give nature a fair chance she will help me and all that. But these school-house ways are to me very confusing. The old ways, which, I understand, are safest and best for me.'" This honest, industrious man, was a type of an almost limitless class of fanners, in America as well as in Germany. He followed ulosely in tho footsteps of his fathers, doing tho things they did, knowing the things they knew, and nothing more. He had, as they have, no faith in book-fanning," even when its results were made apparent before his eyes. The owner of the ten acre farm had bicn a teacher in an agricultural school, and from that hid brought his savings to the purchase of his little house, which was theu in an impoverished anil unproductive condition. His acquired knowledge had enabled him to bring it to a high htate of cultivation, so that from it ho could accomplish all that his neighbour did with opportunities apparently twice as great. The G-snnan Government, carefully fosters all industrial education. Their system of agricultural schools is Fo designed as to afford facilities for every class of students. In tho highest tho instruction is in connection with a full six years' university con we, and in the lowest grade short courses of gratuitous instruction are given for whoever will attend. The recent netiou of the Congress iu passing the so-called " Hatch Bill," appropriating the sum of lo,00!) dols. annually to each of the States for the purposes of agricultural experimentation, will doubtless result in tho near future in largely increasing our positive knowledge regarding thingsnowonly guossed at. This Bill is entitled "An Act to establish Agricultural experiment stations in connection with colleges established in tho several states under the provisions of an Act approved July 2, 1862, and of the acts supplementary thereto." Its design is not to afford additional instruction in the schools (except as this may be done by conducting experimental work directly under the eye of the student), but for the purposes of investigation and experiment, and for disseminating , the information, so obtained among the people The directions which this work may take are multifarious—such as studying the diseases of crops ; insect pests and their preventives ; the chemical and cultural needs of growing crops; the action af fertilizers; diseases of animals ; the propagation of new and desirable varieties of grains, fruits, and vegetables ; experiments with such as are indigenous to other lands, in order to determine if they may be profitably introduced here; the restoration of fertility to exhausted soils; methods of best counteracting tho effects of drought. And again in intensive methods of cultivation and tho growing of specially valuiblo products, In this connection an immense lield is before us in the growing of flowers for perfumers' uses. Wo now probably grow under glass more flowers for dooaralivu purposes than any other nation. Doubtless certain portious of our country are as well adapted to their out-of-door cultivation as France or Italv. Tho profits sometimes realized from such work are ununivm*, and if it could be made a branch of our agricultural industries would alono soon repay the cost of this last appropriation. Private enterprise has already made some effort in this direction, but the knowledge demanded covers

such a wMo range of conditions hikl processes that the experimental work will be too slow aud costly to greatly attack individuals. Should tho Government, through its experiment stations, show tho practicability of flower culture, and the manufacture of ossences, and by their work illustrate the methods and conditions essential to success, flower - farming would soon become an established feature of our agriculture. To show the importanco of this branch form a financial standpoint, I will use the figures given by Mr H. Mason, United States Consul at Marseilles, regarding perfumeflower culture in tho department of Var. He selects as a typical example a plantation of about twonty-tlirec acres, situated on the southern slope of the maritime foot-hills. The ground had been occupied by a growth of olive-trees, which yielded but a scanty return, aud in ISSI " the proprietress caused the olive-trees to be removed, and the ground prepared for flower culture, . . . In the auturr.ti of that year 45,000 tnfte of violets and 140,000 roots of the white jasmine were planted. The following spring the remainder of the ground was planted with roses, geraniums, tuberoses, and jonquils, and a laboratory erected for the manufacture of perfumes. The flower plants grew vigorously and strong, and in 18S6, the fourth year after planting, the flower farm at Seillans which had yielded previously a rental of Hsdols. a year, produced according to the statement of the proprietress, perfume valued at 43,154d015. and giving a net profit of 77U,75Gd015." In view of the fact that our leading markets now demand fruits and vegetables thronghout tho year, it is pertinent to cousider if these cannot be grown under glass to supply our Northern Home market during the winter at an expense less than that of packing and freighting for the south. It' this can be dono it will at once provide a fine field for trained gardeners and horticulturists. The neisr future will doubtless show tho practic.nl development of many othor branches of agriculture that as yet are hardly suggested. These illustrations are only in.tended to indicate the boundless opportunity that this profession offers for the cmployniuni; uf out bebfc taioni. '