PRELIMINARY.
We understand very well that every region must fashion its system of agriculture upon the nature of its soil, its climate, etc. The principles of agriculture may be alike in every zone, but the processes depend upon circumstances. It would be folly for a new country, without commerce, to imitate an old country with an active commerce; it would be folly, where land is cheap, abundant, and naturally fertile, to adopt the habits of those who are stinted in lands, who have a redundant population, and who find a market for even the weeds which are indigenous to the soil. The husbandry of Holland is suited to a wet soil, and of England to a humid atmosphere and a very even annual temperature. But our soil is subject to extreme wet in spring and dryness in summer, to severe cold and intense heat. A farm whose bottom-lands are reinvigorated by yearly inundations, may thrive under an exacting husbandry that would exhaust an upland farm in a few years. Modes of agriculture must be suited to circumstances. Nevertheless, the experiments and discoveries and practices of every land are worth our careful attention. We do not import clothes—but
we do cloth, to be made up to suit our own habits and wants.
The two extremes of husbandry are, the adoption of every novelty and every experiment indiscriminately, and the rejection of every new thing and every improvement, as indiscriminately. Wisdom consists in “proving all things and holding fast that which is good.” We do not advocate large outlays for expensive machines—for fancy cattle, for every new thing that turns up. But when, after full trial, it is ascertained what are the best farm horses, the best breed of cattle, the best milch cows, the most profitable breed of hogs and sheep, and the most skillful routine of cultivation, we think our farmers ought to profit by the knowledge. It is never a good economy to have poor things when you can just as well have the best. This, then, is
OUR CREED.
We believe in small farms and thorough cultivation.
We believe that soil loves to eat, as well as its owner, and ought, therefore, to be manured.
We believe in large crops which leave the land better than they found it—making both the farmer and the farm rich at once.
We believe in going to the bottom of things and, therefore, in deep plowing, and enough of it. All the better if with a sub-soil plow.