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 THE WEEKLY WITNESS ; THE FARMERS' PAPER. 
 
 THE 
 
 
 '^MONTREAL WITNESS" 
 
 IFI^/EIHl 
 
 AGRICULTURAL LECTURES 
 
 REV. W. F. CLARKE. 
 
 Jro. /. 
 
 THE 
 
 NOBILITY OF AGRICULTURE: 
 
 Delivered at the Ontario School of Agriculture, 
 Guelph, Monday, lAth October, 1878. 
 
 montreal : 
 
 John Dougall & Son. 
 
 1878. 
 
 ONLY $1.10 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE. 
 
 DO 
 
 Additional copies of this and subsequent Lectures by Mr . Claeke will be sent to any address 
 
 on receipt of a ONE CENT POSTAGE STAMP. In ordering state 
 
 hew many copies are wanted for DISTRIBUTION. 
 
FOB 18'3^@^ 
 
 We have to note little progress during the 
 pist J ear, as will appear from the following 
 figures:— Sept., 187P. '^fpt., 1877. 
 
 Daily Witness 14,580 15,000 
 
 "Weekly Witness.... 21^,300 23,500 
 
 NoETHEKN Mbssenges 46,400 47,500 
 
 L'AuEOEE 850 800 
 
 80,130 86,800 
 Better times are, however, dawning for the 
 country, and we look for growth in propor- 
 tion. We ask for the help of all lovers of 
 wholesome literature in bringing about such 
 growth. The Weekly Witness has now been 
 at work for thirty-two years, through good 
 1 eport and through evil report. The Daily 
 Witness has been in operation eighteen 
 years ; and the JSTobtheen Messbngeb thir- 
 teen years ; the Ausoee thirteen years, al- 
 though only one under the present publishers, 
 bhe New Dominion Monthly twelve years. 
 The advertising busineES has not grown with 
 rapid stricea as irt former years, and the year 
 has been one of necessary economy and qniet. 
 The year has been uneventful. The principal 
 matter of note in connection with the history of 
 our publications has been the receipt from the 
 Committee of the Witness Testimonial Fond 
 of a considerable sum of money towards the pur- 
 chase of our great eight-cylinder press, which is 
 being duly inscribed in memory of so important 
 and interesting an event. The most important 
 announcement we have to make for the oeming 
 season is to be found below. 
 
 WITNESS LECTURES ON AGKICXJL- 
 TXJKE. 
 
 The publishers of the Witness have of late 
 been strongly impressed with the idea that 
 Canada has reached that stage in her agricultu- 
 raldevelopment when the country is ripe for very 
 considerable improvements in her farming cus- 
 toms. Our best farmers have come to realize 
 that the culture which has served iu the X'ast will 
 not serve in the future. Agricultural science— 
 the application of mind to matter — is what is 
 needed. Agricultural colleges are abundant in 
 many parts of Europe, and in countries of which 
 we know almost nothing a large proportion of 
 the farmers have had thorough scientific train- 
 ing, and expensive works and journals are found 
 in nearly every farm-house. The next genera- 
 lion of Canadian farmers must be of this class. 
 
 Those who cannot attain to education will fall 
 behind in the race. The great majority may 
 easily be educated farmers if they choose. 
 There is already one agricultural college in each 
 province. If they were properly appreciated 
 there would be one in each county. 
 
 The publishers of the Witness have during 
 the past few weeks been made the recipients of a 
 munificent donation from the people of Canada, 
 and have conceived the plan oi mailing some re- 
 turn to the country by the establishment of a 
 winter course of 
 
 " witness" eeee leotuebs on agkicoltdke, 
 with the object of enlisting the zeal of in- 
 telligent farmers in the diffusion of agricul- 
 tural knowledge among their fellow-agricultur- 
 ists. To that end they are fortunate in having 
 secured the services of the most popular and 
 best known agricultioral writer and speaker in 
 Canada, 
 
 MK. W. r. CLARKE, OE LINDENBANK, GUELPH, 
 
 formerly editor of the Canada Farmer and of 
 the Ontario Farmer, who will lecture be- 
 ginning about October first, in such parts 
 of the country as may offer him the best 
 openings. We should be glad if it were pos- 
 sible to cover the whole country'with such a 
 course, but ss concentration is necessary to ef- 
 ficiency, he will probably work out from two or 
 three centres in Quebec and Ontario, trying to 
 leave behind him wherever he goes some perma- 
 nent result in the shape of organization for 
 mutual improvement among the farmers in the 
 various localities he may visit. AU who would 
 like to have such lectures delivered in their 
 neighborhoods are requested to write at once to 
 the undersigned, when the possibility of fulfilling 
 the request'Will bo immediately considered. 
 
 We would not have it thought that this plan 
 is intended to be a diversion of the generous gift 
 of the subscribers to the Testimonial Eund from 
 its original intent of establishing the Witness 
 enterprise, as we are in the hope that Mr. 
 Clarke's tour will not iu the long run prove a loss 
 to the Witness, but that on the contrary it will 
 do much to establish the paper as the farmer's 
 paper throughout the Dominion. 
 
 We shall expect our friends who invite the 
 visit of the Witness lecturer to make the neces- 
 sary local arrangements in the way of hall or 
 other public building, fire and lights, which we 
 are quite sure they wiU do very cheerfully. 
 John Douoall & Son, 
 Montreal. 
 
THE NOBILITY OP AGRICULTURE. 
 
 INAUGURAL WITNESS LECTURE BY REV. W. F. CLARKE, BEFORE THE ON- 
 TARIO COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, GUELPH. 
 
 OnMonday evening, October 14th, the first of 
 the series of lectures on" Agrioulfure," arrang- 
 ed through the enterprise of the publishers of 
 the Montreal Witness, was delivered at the On- 
 tario School of Agriculture, Guelphjby the Rev. 
 "W. F. Clarke. Besides the whole of the officers 
 and students of the school,there was a represen- 
 tation of the farmers of the neighborhood. From 
 beginning to end the lecture was listened to with 
 marked interest, and as the speaker made 
 happy hits at intervals he was loudly ap- 
 plauded. 
 
 Mr. Wm. Johnston, President, occupied the 
 chair, and in introducing the lecturer, stated 
 that it afforded him a great deal of pleasure in 
 having the inaugural address of the series 
 delivered at the College. His feelings in this 
 respect no doubt were shared by the other 
 officers of the institution. He believed that 
 the enterprise manifested by the publishers of 
 the newspaper, in giving to the farmers of 
 this country a series of free lectures on agricul- 
 ture, would oommead itself to the farming 
 community. There was no person more emi- 
 nently fitted to undertake the task of a lectur- 
 ing tour than the Rev. W. F. Clarke, whom 
 he now had pleasure in introducing to the 
 audience. 
 
 Mr. Clarke was received with applause. He 
 statedthatonhis ownbehalf as well as thatof the 
 Montreal Witness, whose enterprise originated 
 the series of lectures now to begin, he thanked 
 the President of the Ontario School of Agri- 
 culture for the courteous permission to deliver 
 his first lecture in the class-ioom of the insti- 
 tution. The speaker stated that it would en- 
 courage and help him not a little to go forth 
 with the sympathies and benedictions of the 
 officers and students of the School of Agricul- 
 ture. Their patronage would commend him 
 and his work to the farmers of Canada, and 
 pave the way for an appreciative reception in 
 every neighborhood which he might visit. It 
 was fitting on many accounts that the lectures 
 
 should begin here, and more especially because 
 this institution inspired the idea that led to 
 their being undertaken. A communication 
 addressed by the lecturer to the editor of the 
 Montreal Witness, which appeared ifi that 
 journal in July last, contains the germ of the 
 enterprise. The lecturer then read that por- 
 tion of the communication which referred 
 particularly to the subject under consideration. 
 It first pointed out the necessity of bringing 
 science to bear on field work with the view to 
 keeping up the fertility of their lands. That 
 Canada suffers incalculable loss from the ig- 
 norance of her farmers as to the properties of 
 the soil they work and the requirements of the 
 crops they would raise, it would be futile to 
 deny. A thorough course of agricultural study 
 at college 
 
 only'pabtially met the case. 
 This would provide for coming generations, 
 but what of the present ? What was wanted 
 was a remedy that would begin to tell on the 
 working force now in the field. If farmers 
 could be stirred up to read many excellent 
 periodicals and works on agriculture with 
 which the press at the present day teems, we 
 might hope to see the dawn of a better day. 
 With a liberal supply of agricultural period- 
 icals and books, there is no good reason why 
 every country home should not he in the win- 
 ter time a, miniature Agricultural College. 
 This was the time when improved plans of 
 husbandry might be laid for the coming spring. 
 There are one or two means that might be 
 tried to stir- the spirit of improvement. A 
 racy, popular lecture on the condition and 
 wants of our agriculture, delivered in every 
 school section, could not fail to do good. An- 
 other expedient for getting at the popular 
 mind has been resorted to with much success 
 in the United States. It was that of holding 
 agricultural conventions, at which various 
 topics are introduced by prepared papers or- 
 
The Nobility of Agriculture. 
 
 addresses, and discussed by the audience. Our 
 dairy associations are of this character, only 
 they are devoted to a specialty. A begummg 
 might be made by agricultural societies de- 
 voting a day to farm discussion instead of sim- 
 ply meeting to hear the annual report and 
 ileot officers. Short course agricultural col- 
 leges, on the same principle as the commercial 
 colleges, was another expedient. It would be 
 much better than nothing, notwithstanding 
 the fact that not much beyond putting the 
 mind on the right track could be done. The 
 speaker then went on to state that in pur- 
 suance of the views emmoiated in the fore- 
 going communication it would be his present 
 object to show the importance— the absolute 
 necessity — of 
 
 AN EABNEST CBTTBADE 
 
 in the direction of agricultural improvement. 
 Krst, from the state of things, industrially and 
 socially, not only in this country, but through- 
 out the civilized world at the present time. 
 Newspapers teem with accounts of skilled 
 mechanics out of work ; of destitution not only 
 among poor people but among those known as 
 the middle class. The condition of the old 
 country was depicted by the speaker. He 
 held it was not entirely the result cf commer- 
 cial despreseion. It existed before the present 
 siege of hard times commenced. It arises 
 partly from the natural increase of population 
 leading to a disproportionate multiplication of 
 consumers as compared with producers. That 
 the prevailing destitution is not wholly caused 
 by the stringency of the times is evident from 
 the fact that it cropped out pretty plainly 
 when times were better. There was a jostling 
 and crowding of professional gentlemen to 
 such an extent that even more than average 
 ability failed in many cases to achieve suc- 
 cess. Even superior ability notoriously goes 
 a begging nowadays. Everywhere there are 
 too many professional men, too many persons 
 whose aim is to live by their wits. To come 
 down to business walks of life, it is patent to 
 all that there is an overproduction of salesmen, 
 book-keepers and clerks. Much is heard of 
 the balance of power in Europe as influencing 
 diplomacy and dictating peace or war. There 
 is a balance of power in society at large and a 
 point at which production is insufficient to 
 meet consumption. There are too many hun- 
 gry mouths, and there is too little food to fill 
 them. There are too many naked backs and 
 not enough clothing to put on them. So on 
 through the entire circle of human wants. 
 What we call the necessaries of life obtain 
 ready sale. If a man has wheat, or fat cattle, 
 or wool, or dairy products, there is no trouble 
 in turning them into money and making them 
 a means of supplying income. It comes to this, 
 that agriculture is the only source of wealth, 
 and that more producers are wanted. "The 
 profit of the earth is for all ; even the king is 
 served by the fruit of the field." There are 
 illimitable stretches of fertile land awaiting 
 culture, and so long as this is the case there 
 is a remedy at hapd for destitution, wherever 
 
 found. Why is not the remedy taken hold of ? 
 Because human pride is mightier than human 
 necessity. There is a prejudice against that 
 occupation on which all men are dependent, 
 and on which the whole fabric of society rests. 
 It is looked upon as vulgar and ungenteel to 
 labor with the hands even in that calling to 
 which not ordinary people merely, but royalty 
 itself must look for daily bread. It is not 
 rational to expect an effectual cure for the 
 wide-spread evil under consideration unless 
 we go down to its roots and eradicate that. 
 As with fighting the Canada thistle, aU chop- 
 ing and hacking of the shoots andleaves only 
 tends to incjeaae the pest, while nothing but 
 the eradioa1»on of the roots amounts to a cure. 
 So with this pestiferous idea, which has spread 
 itself 
 
 MKE A NETWOEK: AI.L OVEE SOOtETT. 
 
 It must be beaten into that dull scholar, the 
 public, that all honest labor is respectable, 
 while it is the meanest of things to sponge foi 
 daUy bread and play the hypocrite for the sake 
 of maintaining a respectable appearance. If it 
 be true that the state of things now prevalent 
 all over the civilized world is largely due to a 
 disturbed equilibrium of the industrial forces, 
 as the result of which the consumers outnum- 
 ber the producers, and that the stringency of 
 the times is in reality an effort of the body 
 politic to restore the balance of power in the 
 social system, then it follows most conclusive- 
 ly that the only remedy is increase of produc- 
 tion. Dire necessity will force non-producers 
 to leave the towns and cities into which they 
 have crowded. They must seek " fresh fields 
 and pastures new" in the country. Since 
 they cannot buy food and clothing, they must 
 go to work and produce them. There is and 
 can be no other solution of the difficulty. 
 What is true of people who have been filling 
 situations with sbiaU salaries is equally true 
 of artisans andlaborers. Manufacture is over- 
 done, and there must be more production. All 
 the world over, labor-saving devices have mul- 
 tiplied to such an extent that an outlet is de- 
 manded for labor, both skilled and unskilled. 
 There is an over-abundance of it, for which 
 new scope is required. That new scope is in 
 reality the old scope, to which there must be a 
 vigorous and willing return. " Machinery will 
 never starve the farmer.'" Men may be driven 
 from mechanical pursuits, but they can al- 
 ways find room to work on the soil. On this 
 continent where there is ample opportunity to 
 obtain land, in small or large quantites, the 
 unemployed need never be at a loss for some- 
 thing to do that will put food into their mouths 
 and clothing on their backs. If they cannot 
 earn money with which to buy the necessaries 
 of life, they can do what will serve their turn 
 equally well, and that of society far better — 
 go to work and produce what they want. 
 
 HEEEIN LIES THE CUBE FOE THE TEOTTBLES 
 
 that afflict the industrial classes. It is pro- 
 duction that is wanted, the creation of more 
 wealth, to meet the world's need. The farmer 
 
The Nobility of Agricui.turf,. 
 
 5 
 
 is a sort of creator. Agriculture is the only 
 source of wealth. There must be a broader 
 basis made for the social superstructure. It is 
 top-heavy, and needs buttressing with the im- 
 plements of husbandry. Two acres of land 
 will support in comfort a Dutch or Belgian 
 family. John Chinaman is rich on a single 
 acre or less. In France every family has its 
 little homestead, and no business changes can 
 effect the prosperity of the great mass of the 
 working people. It is better to be a small 
 landholder than a pinched mechanic, or half- 
 idle laborer. In the suburbs of aU our towns 
 and cities there are great expanses of unoccu- 
 pied land which the owners would be glad to 
 let for the payment of taxes, or ^ell on long 
 time. Why on earth cannot people who have 
 nothing to do get hold of these waste places, 
 and make productive gardens of them p Able- 
 bodied men let the spade and hoe lie unused at 
 their feet, and go about moping and starving. 
 The fact is, nothing is so generous as the soil ; 
 nothing repays with such liberal profusion the 
 labor you bestow upon it. Ton give Mother 
 Earth of your scanty measure, and she flings 
 back to you from her bountiful stores a thou- 
 sand fold. The late Horace Greeley advised the 
 young men to "Go West." The speaker 
 didn't care whether you went west or east, 
 north or south, or stay where you are, but if 
 you are hard up and don't know what to do 
 for a living, 
 
 GET A BIT OF LAND, 
 
 work it well, and you will not toil for nothing. 
 If a little garden patch on the edge of your 
 town or city is too scrimpt-up a domain for 
 your ambition, push out into the country and 
 " bite bigger." Begin with spade husbandry. 
 By-and-bye you will be able to run a plough. 
 He should like to see a generation of little 
 farmers spring up out of the debris of these 
 hard times. With generous manuring and 
 high culture great crops may be harvested 
 from very limited acres. And this, be it re- 
 membered, is literally " making money." It 
 is going to the fountain-head, and tapping the 
 springs of wealth at their source. This is not 
 fictitious, but real and actual gain. There is 
 one moral taught by all this, from which 
 there is no getting away. It is, that those al- 
 ready located on farms and able to make a 
 living off them had better stay where they are. 
 With so many idle people in towns and cities — 
 idle not from choice but from necessity — idle 
 because they have absolutely nothing to do — 
 is it not downright insanity for hale and hear- 
 ty young fellows to abandon the farm ? In 
 the second place, he argued in favor of efforts 
 to educate our people agriculturally, from the 
 claims of farming as an occupation. Two 
 
 VEET OPPOSITE OPINIONS 
 
 are widely prevalent in regard to farming as 
 an occupation : the one that it is eminently 
 desirable, and the other that it is well-nigh 
 detestable. The high estimate of farming 
 just alluded to is formed extensively by people 
 pf education and culture, by professional men. 
 
 merchants, and those whose duties confine 
 them to the town or city. Here and there 
 you find a practical farmer who thinks thus 
 highly of his calling, though it must be con- 
 fessed that enthusiasm in regard to their vo- 
 cation is rarer among farmers than among 
 other classes of persons. Whatever may be 
 the cause, it is, to say the least, unfortunate 
 that farming should be in better repute among 
 those not engaged in it than among those who 
 are compelled, in too many cases, against their 
 will, to follow it as a business. What are the 
 grounds on which the favorable estimate of 
 farming is based ? Are they substantial or il- 
 lusory ? Let us investigate them somewhat. 
 Its admirers regard and speak of agriculture 
 as a healthful, independent and safe occupa- 
 tion ; preferable to the in-door confinement, 
 anxiety and uncertainty of commerce and the 
 professions ; bringing those who pursue it into 
 every day contact with nature, and with those 
 scenes of the external world which mankind 
 by common consent are wont to delight in. Is 
 not all this true ? And can as much be said in 
 so few words concerning any other human 
 occupation ? It will doubtless be urged in re- 
 ply that aU this is the bright side of the farm- 
 er's life, and that it is not without its draw- 
 backs and diificulties. Granted : but every 
 earthly condition that can be pictured has a 
 dark background, while it will be hard to find 
 another that has Unes of equal brightness in 
 the foreground. Admitting, for argument's 
 sake, that 
 
 THE HIGH BBTIMATE OE AGEIOTJLTDBE 
 
 is correct, how is it that so many farmers do 
 not have it P Firstly, because discontent with 
 our own lot and envy of that of others is 
 among the commonest besetments of human- 
 ity. Secondly, because farmers and their 
 families know but little of the real circum- 
 stances of town and city people, and are es- 
 pecially ignorant of the toils, worries, priva- 
 tions and hardships connected with business and 
 the professions. Thirdly, because the rural 
 population has not been educated up to an ap- 
 preciation of the beautiful in nature. This is 
 often his misfortune more than it is his fault. 
 His life has been one monotonous plod. He 
 has been too much of an earth-worm and a 
 drudge. What philosophers would call the 
 festhetical part of his nature is undeveloped. 
 " 'Tis pity, but pity 'tis, 'tis true." There are 
 not wanting signal exceptions to all this. 
 Many farmers, and their number is constantly 
 on the increase, appreciate their calling as 
 highly as any who look wistfully at it from 
 a distance, and would hardly change places 
 with a prince on his throne. There are 
 others who, in the absence of any gushing en- 
 thusiasm, see ample reason for contentment 
 with their lot. But it is time to glance at the 
 low estimate of farming as an occupation, to 
 which reference was made at the outset of this 
 lecture. On what grounds is that attempted 
 to be justified ? That it is a slavish life ; that 
 it is not genteel ; that it does not pay ; that its 
 associations are low, coarse and unrefined. 
 
The Nobility of Agriculture. 
 
 Let us examine these characterizations a little 
 in detail. No doubt farming is a laborious 
 employment, but so are aU others that are 
 "worth ;^rosecutiag. Many have no idea of 
 any toil except that of the muscle. But brain 
 ■work is far more fatiguing and exhausting. 
 Toil is a common lot of humanity, and its 
 happy lot, for the truest enjoyment is ever 
 found in constant useful, profitable employ- 
 ment. None of earth's prizes are to be won 
 by the avoidance of work. Labor, downright 
 labor, is the price of success in every pursuit. 
 And while the farmer's toil is wholesome, 
 sleep-inducing, invigorating, improved atipli- 
 ances are constantly being invented to take 
 the drudgery more and more out of it. This 
 cannot be said of business or professional pur- 
 suits. No horse-power machinery can be had 
 to supersede the hard thinking or the inces- 
 sant worrying of merchants, lawyers, doctors, 
 editors, and all those classes whose occupations 
 demand the constant exercise of brain power. 
 That 
 
 EAEMIITO IS NOT GENTEEL IS OONTEADICTED 
 
 by incontrovertible facts. In Great Britain 
 it is the most aristocratic of pursuits ; princes, 
 lords, first "commoners," and the cream of the 
 gentry are farmers. But it is alleged that 
 farming does not pay. "Wto aflirm this ? 
 Poor farmers who do not understand their 
 business, or push it with energy, men who 
 would not succeed in making money elsewhere 
 any better than they do on the farm ; and 
 covetous farmers, who are not satisfied with 
 the "slow and sure" gains of honest, persever- 
 ing industry, but are dazzled by deceitful 
 visions of fortunes made by lucky speculation. 
 Taking the average of those who follow 
 farming, it is more steadily remunerative that 
 any other calling. How seldom is a farmer's 
 name found in a list of insolvents ! In how 
 many deplorable instances have we beheld 
 farmers who were doing well, but ached to do 
 better, sell their farms, embark in business, 
 and in a very brief space become bankrupts ? 
 Slovenly, careless, unthrifty, brainless farm- 
 ing does not pay ; but the same characteris- 
 tics and habits that succeed elsewhere are 
 oven more certain to pay on the field of agri- 
 culture than on any other. Kural homes are 
 too often lackmg in beauty and attractiveness. 
 Some farmers, it must be owned, have a con- 
 tempt for these things, which they are fond of 
 displaying whenever opportunity offers. Pew 
 of them have anything like a library. It is 
 only here and there that a farmhouse has 
 beautiful and attractive surroundings. Too 
 many families in the country are willing to live 
 in the kitchen , keeping the best portion of the 
 dwelling shut up except on occasion of a wed- 
 ding or a funeral. But their occupation is not 
 responsible for this lack of inteUigenoe, polish- 
 ed manners, and good taste. There are no 
 manners and good taste. There is no class of 
 our people who have 
 
 eO MANY EESOtTEOBS WITHIN THEMSELVES 
 
 for making home pleasant and home life 
 
 delightful as farmers. In the third place the 
 speaker argued for a more widespread agricul- 
 tural eduction, because of the importance of 
 science in farming. The speaker held that 
 there was not much wonder that the untutor- 
 ed backwoodsman should have a prejudice 
 against science in fanning ; but that repre- 
 sentatives of the people in Parliamentassembled 
 should be afraid that oar young men would get 
 too much theory schooled into them, and be 
 thereby unfitted to make good farmers, may 
 surely be ranked as one of the wonders of the 
 age . Almost the only tangible obj ection raised 
 against the School of Agriculture by our re- 
 presentatives was that it gives too much theo- 
 retical instruction. It is high time this bub- 
 ble were pricked and the wind let out of it, 
 whether it be found sailing aloft along our con- 
 cession lines or floating around the heads of 
 legislators in parliamentary halls. Many 
 years ago it was quite the fashion in certain 
 quarters to decry theory in connection with 
 agriculture, but we supposed that day was 
 past for ever, until we were undeceived by the 
 waking up of our legislative Rip Van Winkles, 
 and their loud outcry against the danger that 
 menaced the country from this source. Now, 
 what is theory ? Is it not a statement of the 
 principles according to which any effect is pro- 
 duced ; in other words, a recognition of those 
 unchangeable laws by which the universe is 
 governed ' 
 
 THEOEY la A3 NEOESSAEY TO THE FAEMEB 
 
 who grows a bushel of wheat as it is to the 
 mechanic who builds the mill in which the 
 wheat is ground. The great mistake is that 
 of supposing theory and practice to be hostile 
 to each other, while the truth is theory should 
 guide practice, and practice conform itself to 
 theory. Generally speaking the farmer is a 
 mere manual laborer. He works according to 
 a few simple traditional rules. Certain modes 
 of culture have been f jund by experience to 
 bring about certain results. But he oantiot 
 explain the why and the wherefore of them. 
 He cannot show why it is and must be as ex- 
 perience has demonstrated. Hence he go:!S 
 about his work mechanically rather than in- 
 telligently, and finds it more of a task than a 
 pleasure. To know the reasons of things, to 
 be versed in the principles of agricult;are, 
 would convert drudgery into an enthusiastic 
 observation of Nature, and lend a charm to an 
 otherwise tedious occupation. It is not per- 
 haps to be wondered at that so few farmers are 
 versed in the theory of their business when it is 
 remembered that "it is only very lately that 
 agriculture could claim to have been reduced 
 to a system. It was only in the early part of 
 the present century that chemistry was first 
 applied to farming, and there are patriarchs 
 now living who have witnessed the birth of 
 agricultural chemistry as they have the dis- 
 covery of steam and the invention of railroads. 
 The farmer who would be up with the times 
 must be a book-farmer. He must farm by the 
 book. It is quite true that readinsr alone wiH 
 not make a man a good farmer, Ther« 
 
The Nobility of Agriculture. 
 
 IB A PRAOTIOAL PAST 
 
 which must be learnt on the farm itself. It 
 requires an exercise of judgment only to be 
 had by experience, to adapt principles to Tary- 
 ing oircumstdnoes of soil and climates. The 
 farmer's aim should be to raise the largept 
 possible crops at the least possible cost, espe- 
 cially shunning that cost which comes from in- 
 flictmg injury on the soil. What the soil con- 
 tains is ms stock-in-trade, and he must keep 
 that up or his business will soon go to the dogs. 
 In conclusion the lecturer plead for the use of 
 all available means to diSuse agricultural in- 
 formation in view of the characteristics and 
 warts of Canadian farming. While the general 
 rules that govern agriculture are the same all 
 the world over, every country has a husbandry 
 peculiar to itself. Its character becomes mould- 
 ed and fixed by the force of ciicumstances. 
 There is a certain adaptation about it, and in 
 the study of that adaptation the secret of 
 success is to be foimd. The 
 
 MOST CONSPICUOUS AND STEIKINO PEATDUE 
 
 of Canadian farming is the newness of the 
 country which forms its field of operation. In 
 many localities the " oldest inhabitant " re- 
 members when the first tree was felled and the 
 light of day let into the primeval wilderness. 
 Then the all-absorbing thought was to make 
 a clearing. There was wholesale tree slaughter. 
 Kelds and farm steadings were laid bare and 
 left unsheltered. The country was laid open 
 to the sweep of fierce winds. A lessened rain- 
 fall,' and our almost chronic summer droughts, 
 had been caused by a too indiscriminate des- 
 truction of the woods and forests. The ex- 
 posed condition of the country had rendered 
 the growth of fall wheat uncertain and unpro- 
 fitable in many districts. The eaxly settlers 
 found a soil of astonishing fertility. This 
 they cropped and cropped again, with the most 
 exhaustive products, neglecting to return to 
 the land by timely manuring, the wealth ab- 
 stracted by abundant harvests. Dire necessity 
 had something to do with this. With their 
 farms to pay for, their families to keep, their 
 stock, tools, and implements to buy, it was not 
 so surprising that they drew upon the virgin 
 soU to the utmost extent possible. But ignor- 
 ance, as well as necessity ,prompted their course 
 of procedure. A restoration of tree growths 
 was now loudly called for. The highways 
 needed to be avenued with trees, groves plant- 
 ed around f ana-steadings ; and the fields belted 
 with rows of evergreens. 
 
 EESTOBATION OF LOST EEETILITT 
 
 is another urgent want o^Canadian agriculture. 
 A system to which the late Baron Liebig 
 severely but correctly gave the name of " spo- 
 liation" has been pursued to well nigh its 
 uttermost limit. As a natural result of it, the 
 impression is widely prevalent that farming 
 does not pay ! Alas, for " our bleeding country " 
 if this be so. Agriculture must be the basis 
 
 of our national prosperity, if we are to have 
 any. Unless we can make farming pay the 
 country will drift into bankruptcy without 
 help or hope. The old system of improvident, 
 exhaustive tillage, that is ever drawing on the 
 resources of the soil, without paying anything 
 back win not pay. It is like drawing cheques 
 incessantly on a bank account without 
 making any cash deposits ; the result, 
 "no funds." Stock raising and cattle feeding 
 must be gone into more extensively. " No 
 stock, no manure ; no manure, no crops." The 
 opening which now presents for the shipment 
 of our fat cattle and sheep to Britain, and their 
 sale at paying prices there, is most opportune 
 in view of our agricultural condition. There 
 need be no fear of over-production, with such 
 a market accessible. In some districts where 
 a too exclusive course of grain growing was 
 formerly pursued, the farmers have taken tO' 
 root culture and stock raising with the best 
 results. In others grass growing and dairying 
 are working a welcome change for the better. 
 What is needed is that the whole country 
 should awake to the imperative necessity of 
 recuperating the soU. Bettor farming is loudly 
 demanded. If 
 
 THEEB IS TO BE BETTEE FAEMINO, 
 
 there must be better farmers. Those who till 
 the soil must become educated, not in a general 
 way alone, but in the specialties of their vocav 
 tion. Farming is a business, and men require 
 to be educated and qualified for it just as for 
 every other business. Even if a farmer's early 
 education has been but scant, there is abundant 
 help for him in the teeming issues of the press. 
 "Head and you will know" is an unfailing 
 talisman. Let him study and master the prin- 
 ciples of his noble calling ; let him emulate the 
 example of thS most successful tillers of the 
 soil ; let him farm with brains as well as mus- 
 cle, and he will achieve results of which he 
 little dreams at present. He will make two 
 blades of grass grow where only one grew be- 
 fore, and take rank among the benefactors of 
 his race. He will prove himself a true patriot, 
 and be held in grateful remembrance, when 
 thousands of blatant politicians are deservedly 
 forgotten. 
 
 At the conclusion of the address, of which 
 the above is a bare outline, it was moved by 
 Prof. Brown, seconded by Prof. Fanton, " That 
 a hearty vote of thanks be tendered to the lec- 
 turer, Rev. W. F. Clarke, for the able and in- 
 structive lecture just delivered; and through 
 him to the proprietors of the Montreal Witness 
 for thus giving us the opportunity of enjoyiug 
 a privilege rarely offered — listening to a lec- 
 ture upon agricultural subjects from one of 
 the ablest exponents of those subjects in 
 Canada." 
 
 President Johnston expressed his hearty 
 approval of the resolution before putting it to- 
 the meeting. It was carried amidst great ap- 
 plause. — Guelph Mercury. 
 
i '^ 
 
 
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THE WEEKLY WITNESS ; THE FARMERS' PAPER, 
 
 THE 
 
 "MONTREAL WITNESS" 
 AGRICULTURAL LECTURES 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. W. F. CLARKE. 
 
 Jro. ^. 
 
 ORGANIZATION AMONG FARMERS; 
 
 Delivered at Lachute, Argenteuil County, Quebec, on Monday 
 Evening, February Srd, 187 9, by the Rev. W. F. Clarke. 
 
 montreal : 
 
 John Dougall & Son. 
 
 1879. 
 
 ONLY $1.10 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE. 
 
 Additional copies of this and subsequent Lectures by Mr. Clabke will be sent to any address 
 
 on receipt of a ONE CENT POSTAGE STAMP. In ordering state 
 
 how many copies are wanted for DISTRIBUTION. 
 
J^poS^e^kiA jm- the "lYi^n^" 3^iMmiMon^ 
 
 We have to note little progress during the 
 past year, as will appear from the following 
 agures:— ggpt., isyg, Sept., 1877. 
 
 Daily Witness 14,580 15,000 
 
 Weekly WiTNBSS 26,300 23,500 
 
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 Better times are, however, dawning for the 
 country, and we look for growth in propor- 
 tdsn. We ask for the help of all lovers of 
 wholesome literature in bringing about such 
 growth. The Weekly Witness has now been 
 at work for thirty-two years, through good 
 report and through evil report. The Daily 
 Witness has been in operation eighteen 
 years ; and the Nobtheen Mebsenoee thir- 
 teen years ; the Aueoee thirteen years, al- 
 though only one under the present publishers. 
 The advertising business has not grown with 
 rapid strices as is former years, and the year 
 bas been one of necessary economy and qaiet. 
 rhe year has been uneventful. The principal 
 matter of note in connection with the history of 
 our publications has been the receipt from the 
 Committee of the Witness Testimonial Fund 
 Df a considerable sum of money towards the pur- 
 chase of our great eight-cylinder press which is 
 being duly inscribed in memory of so 'viu'^ortant 
 a,nd interesting an event. The most important 
 Announcement we have to make for the coming 
 ieason is to be found below. 
 
 WITNESS LECTURES ON AGRICUI^ 
 TUEE. 
 
 The publishers of the Witness have of late 
 been strongly impressed with the idea that 
 Canada has reached that stage in her agricultu- 
 ral development when the country is ripe for very 
 considerable improvements in her farming cus- 
 toms. Our best farmers have come to realize 
 that the culture which has served in the past will 
 not serve in the future. Agricultural science— 
 the application of mind to matter — is what is 
 needed. Agricultural colleges are abundant in 
 many parts of Europe, and in countries of which 
 we know almost nothing a large proportion of 
 the farmers have had thorough scientific train- 
 ing, and expensive works and journals are found 
 in nearly every farm-house. The next genera- 
 tion of Canadian farmers must be of this class. 
 
 Those who cannot attain to education will fall 
 behind in the race. The great majority may 
 easily be educated farmers if they choose. 
 There is already one agricultural college in each 
 province. If they were properly appreciated 
 there would be one in each county. 
 
 The publishers of the Witness have during 
 the past few weeks been made the recipients of a 
 munificent donation from the people of Canada, 
 and have conceived the plan of making some re- 
 turn to' the country by the establishment of a 
 winter course of 
 
 " witness" ekee leotceeb on aokicdltuee, 
 with the object of enlisting the zeal of in- 
 telligent farmers in the diffusion of agricul- 
 tural knowledge among their fellow-agricultur- !!; 
 ists. To that end they are fortunate in having 
 secured the services of the most popnlar and 
 best known agricultural writer and speaker in 
 Canada, 
 
 ME. W. E. OLABKE, Or LIHDBNBANK, OCBLPH, 
 formerly editor of the Canada Farmer and of 
 the Ontario Farmer, who will lecture be- 
 ginning about October first, in such parts 
 of the country as may oiler him the best 
 openings. We should be tjlad if it were pos- 
 sible to cover the whole country *with such a 
 course, but £s concentration is necessary to ef- 
 ficiency, he will probably work out from two or 
 three centres in Quebec and Ontario, trying to 
 leave behind him wherever he goes some perma- 
 nent result in the shape of organization for 
 mutual improvement among the farmers in the 
 various localities he may visit. All who would 
 like to have such lectures delivered in their 
 neighborhoods are requested to write at once to 
 the undersigned, when the possibility of fulfilling 
 the request-will be immediately considered. 
 
 We would not have it thought that this plan 
 is intended to be a diversion of the generous gift 
 of the subscribers to the Testimonial Pund from 
 its original intent of establishing the Witness 
 enterprise, as we are in the hope that Mr. 
 Clarke's tour will not in the long run prove a loss 
 tu the Witness, but that on the contrary it will 
 do much to establish the paper as the farmer's 
 paper throughout the Dominion. 
 
 We shall expect our friends who invite the 
 visit of the Witness lecturer to make the neces- 
 sary local arrangements in the way of hall or 
 ' other public building, fire and lights, which we 
 are quite sure they will do very cheerfully. 
 John Douoall & Son, 
 MontreaL 
 
ORGANIZATIONS AMONG FARMERS. 
 
 A WITNESS LECTURE DELIVERED AT LACHUTE, AKGENTEUIL COUNTY, 
 QUEBEC, ON MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3rd, 1879, BY THE REV. 
 W. F. CLARKE. 
 
 While all other classes of the community are 
 in the habit of banding together in organi- 
 zations of various kinds, farmers are strangely 
 ■prone to stand aloof from eaoh other, as though 
 they had no interests in common, and no need 
 of mutual vo-operation. Of late years there 
 has been a growing couviotion on the part of 
 intelligent agriculturists that this is an evil 
 demanding correction, and strenuous efforts 
 have been made to induce a, better 
 state of things. These efforts have been 
 attended vrith some success, but the great 
 mass of farmers has not yet been reached, 
 and, so far, only a small minority have been 
 induoed to organize. It must be confessed 
 that many look at this matter merely in the 
 light of self-interest, and even then, as the 
 saying is, they " stand in their own light," 
 for it is made a question of self-interest main- 
 ly in regard to dollars and cents. 
 
 " WHAT WILL BE THE MONKY OAIN OP BZLONCtllta 
 
 TO i faemee's oeoanization f" 
 is the sole enquiry made by that class, too 
 numerous both among farmers and others, who 
 estimate everything by the dollar standard. 
 Although it can readily be shown that it 
 " pays " in this meanest and lowest senne for 
 farmers to organize, it is impossible to repress 
 an indignant protest agaiaat this contemptible, 
 sordid way of looking at everything. Some of 
 the most precious acquisitions it is possible for 
 human beings to make are not purchasable 
 with money, and some of the noblest objects 
 that appeal to our ambition refuse to be rated 
 at a money valuation. It is often not merely 
 wise, but imperatively necessary, to embark in 
 undertakings that involve pecuniary outlay, 
 and can never be expected to bring a money 
 return. In discussing the subject of organi- 
 zation among farmers, I shall take but little 
 notice of the question of profit and loss in a 
 monetary point of view, dwelling mainly upon 
 considerations of another kind altogether, I 
 plead for organization among fanners, 
 
 As one means of counteracting 
 
 THB ISOLATION AND LONELINESS OF FABU LIFE. 
 
 It is often objected ta agricultural pursuits 
 that they involve, to a certain extent, seclusion 
 from society, and a species of rural exile. The 
 farmer is condemned to a monotonous round 
 of ideas and occupations. There is but little 
 to enliven the dull routine of daily work. This 
 is especially true of the pioneer in a new 
 country, who must necessarily spend a great 
 deal of his time alone. It is not very surpris- 
 ing that he should find this wearisome and 
 even painful, or that entering into the feelings 
 of the poet's lonely islander, he should be 
 ready to exclaim, 
 
 "O Solitude ! where are the charms 
 That sages have seen in th; face !" 
 
 In the United States Agricultural Report 
 for 1862, Dr. W. W. Hall calls attention to 
 the large proportion of the inmates of lunatic 
 asylums contributed by the farming com- 
 munity. He seems to consider it an established 
 fact that the farmer is " more liable to in- 
 sanity than the citizen," and in explanation 
 of it says : " This is because the mind will not 
 bear exclusive action on one subject. This is 
 the key to the so frequent cases of insanity 
 and suicide among farmers ; their subjects of 
 thought are too few ; their life is a ruinous 
 routine ; there is a sameness and a. tameneas 
 about it, — a paucity of. subjects for contem- 
 plation, most dangerous to mental integrity." 
 
 Dr. Hall adds, and his words are worthy of 
 being deeply pondered : " It is too much the 
 case with our farming population that they 
 have no breadth of view ; they cannot sustain 
 a conversation beyond a few comments on the 
 weather, the crops, the markets, and the 
 neighborhood nflws. And it is worthy of note 
 that their remarks on these subjects are uni- 
 formly of the complaining and unhopeful kind, 
 as if their occupation and their thoughts were 
 on the same low and depressing level. This is 
 
Organization Among Farmers. 
 
 because the mind is not used enough ; is not 
 waked up by a lively interest in a sufficient 
 variety^ of subj sots to promote a healthful tone. 
 The proper and the all-powerful remedy 
 against the sad effects of a plodding, routine 
 existence,is a higher standard of general intelli- 
 gence and a livelier attention to what is too 
 often derisively styled ' book-farming.' The 
 highest form of human health i$ found in those 
 who exercise the brain and the body in some- 
 thing Uke equal proportions." 
 
 That farm-life is more isolated, lonely and 
 monotonous than it need to be, will be mani- 
 fest on a little reflection. There is, to begin 
 with, the absurd custom of 
 
 BBi^TINQ FASM-BUXLIIIIiaB i. I/ONO DIBIAiraE 
 EAC£ FBOU TEE PUBLIC BOAD. 
 
 Referring to this point in one of my lectures, 
 I asked. Why do farmers generally build their 
 houses so far from the highway ? A sharp- 
 witted youngster present, thinking that the 
 question ought to be answered, exclaimed : 
 " To keep our hens from scratching in our 
 neighbors' gardens." The only serious reason 
 I can imagine for the custom under con- 
 bideration, is the convenience of having the 
 bmldings nearer to the centre and rear of the 
 farm ; but when it is remembered how much 
 oftener we have occasion to go to the public 
 road than we do to the rear of our lots, it will 
 be seen that this reason has not much force in 
 it. Life on the fajnu is rendered much more 
 lonesome by this practice. If farm-houses 
 were built as close to the highway as dwellings 
 are usually set in town and village streets, 
 friends and neighbors would often call for a 
 few minutes, who would not think of driving 
 a distance of a quarter or half a mile. Even 
 if they did not call in, they might stop for a 
 minute on the road and exchange greetings. 
 A nod of recognition would at any rate be 
 given and received. This would be something. 
 The sight of a new face even, is a pleasant 
 break in the monotony of a lonesome life. 
 Col. Geo. E. Waring, ii.,ia Scribner'a Monthly 
 not long since gave an account of the custom 
 of having farm villages in some parts of con- 
 tinental Europe, and urged the adoption of 
 this plan, so far as practicable, in the United 
 States, as an antidote to the loneliness of 
 country life. In some parts of this Province 
 of Quebec the farms are laid out long and 
 narrow, so that the houses of the habitants 
 present the appearance of a continuous village 
 street. There are, however, grave objections 
 to having farms laid out in long, narrow 
 strips. But, if nothing else can be done, we 
 can build our houses near enough to the high- 
 way to render calling easy and recognition 
 practicable, which would be, so far, an improve- 
 ment. 
 
 INFBEaTJBNOT OF MEETINGS IN THE OOUKTET. 
 
 The lack of occasions bringing fanners and 
 their families together in public meetings, is 
 another needless feature in the isolation of 
 country life. In towns and villages, there is 
 
 always something going on to bring the peo- 
 ple together in assemblies of various kinds. 
 In rural neighborhoods, there is but very Uttle 
 of this sort of thing. Even a lecture on agri- 
 culture is a phenomenon in most farming 
 districts. It is plain, therefore, that organi- 
 zation, with its attendant and frequently- 
 recurring meetings, would have a beneficial 
 tendency in counteracting to some extent the 
 isolation and loneliness of farm life. 
 
 2. Organization would promote 
 
 BOOIALITT AKD FBIENDLIKIIBB 
 
 among farmers. It is a well-known fact that 
 there is not much visiting indulged in by 
 farmers and their families. Exceptions to , 
 this remark may be found in certain localities, 
 but as a general rule, the agrieultural class 
 are unsocial. Want of time to " go-a-visit- 
 ing" is the usual plea, but it is so flimsy and 
 untenable as hardly to deserve a serious an- 
 swer. It is often urged by people who can 
 always find a whole day's time when the 
 circus comes round, and who show, in various 
 ways, that it is not so much a question of time 
 as of disposition. " I ain't no visitor," is a 
 remark often heard among country-folk, and 
 some appear to regard this as a sign of virtue 
 and a streak of goodness. But we have social 
 natures that ought not to be starved, and the 
 cultivation of a neighborly spirit is a public 
 and patriotic duty. " A man that hath friends 
 must show himself friendly." 
 
 In some parts of the country sociality among 
 farmers is hindered by a certain caste feeling, 
 which sometimes makes very ridiculous mani- 
 festations of itself. When I first went to live 
 in Gruelph, I was surprised to find that some of 
 the farmers in that neighborhood sported the 
 prefix " gentleman." There was " Gentle- 
 man Parker," " Gentleman Jackson," and I 
 don't know how many more. I soon discovered 
 that the rural population were divided into the 
 gentry and the common people. The dis- 
 tinction was very clearly drawn by a lady 
 whom I once heard disdainfully exclaim, 
 when she and her family were alluded to as 
 farmers : " We're not farmers, we are retired 
 gentlefolks." These "retired gentlefolks" 
 will Oily associate with their own class, and 
 occasionally this is divided into higher and 
 lower. In the Township of Adelaide, some 
 years ago, one of these 'retired gentlefolk" 
 was made a magistrate. His newly acquired 
 official dignity lifted him up considerably in 
 his own estimation, and after duly reflecting 
 as to how he should comport himself, he called 
 
 on his nearest neighbor and said : " Mr. , 
 
 Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to 
 put me on Her Majesty's Commission of the 
 Peace, and such being the case, it is quite im- 
 possible that our two families should associate 
 together on the same terms of equality as 
 heretofore !" Wherever this feeling prevails 
 it is a great barrier to social interchanges. Mr. 
 Spurgeou says : " In England a shilling will 
 not speak to a sixpence ; a sixpence will not 
 
Organization Among Farmers. 
 
 speak to a penny ; and a penny will not speak 
 to a half-penny." 
 
 I do not propose to discuss the question of 
 rank, but would say, in passing, that I heart- 
 ily endorse that sentiment of the poet Bums 
 in one of the noblest of his songs : — 
 
 "Tbe ratk is but tlie guinea stamp 
 The man's tie gowd for a' that," 
 
 It would not be easy to find a prouder or a 
 more honest claim to social distinction than 
 that which results from being 
 
 " A LOED or THE SOIL." 
 
 A lady in the Province of Quebec, in writing 
 a letter of grateful appreciation in regard to 
 this course of lectures, makes the following 
 remarks on this point : — 
 
 " Some time ago, in a conversation with a 
 gentleman, I enquired for the father of a 
 young clergyman I knew, saying " he must be 
 a gentleman." "No, he is a farmer," was the 
 reply. This cut me, and set me thinking. 
 WeU, Mr. Clarke, am I right in believing in 
 farmer princes and princesses? Where do 
 " merchant princes " take their pedigrees ? The 
 farmer's goes up to Abraham, even tOtTob and 
 his sons, who were richer gentlemen than a good 
 many so-called in our cities and country." 
 
 It must be admitted that many farmers, by 
 their ignorance, contempt of good manners, 
 and general boorishness, have destroyed their 
 claim to be regarded as gentlemen, but this is 
 not the fault of their calling. There is no 
 good reason why farmers and their families 
 should not be 
 
 " Graced with polished manners and good sense. " 
 Multitudes of them are, and their number 
 is constantly increasing. Organization among 
 farmers will promote this end. It is the 
 avowed design of one of the most influential 
 farmers' organizations on this continent, "to 
 develop a better and higher manhood and 
 womanhood among ourselves ; to enhance the 
 comforts and attractions of oxrr homes, and 
 strengthen our attachment to our pursuits ; to 
 foster mutual understanding and co-opera- 
 tion." 
 
 Wherever 
 
 PABMEES' CLUBS AND OBANQES 
 
 have been instituted, there has been a percep- 
 tible increase of sociality and friendliness. 
 From meeting for business, the transition is 
 natural and easy to meeting for social pur- 
 poses. Most Farmers' Clubs have a yearly fes- 
 tival, while many Granges have two in the 
 year. The JPrairie Farmer, in an article headed 
 "How to make our Granges and Farmers' 
 Clubs attractive," among other suggestions has 
 the following : — 
 
 " Meet at the houses of members, or other 
 place where the wives and children can go and 
 wish to go, and provide occupation of a pleas- 
 ant kind for them as well as yourselves. Have 
 croquet, music, dancing, and other innocent 
 amusements. Make your meetings socially 
 pleasant." 
 
 " Make it a point to have some kind of re- 
 freshment. Eating and drinking together 
 always promote good feeling and good fellow- 
 ship, and lend an additional attraction to the 
 gathering, which may be the turning one to 
 some minds, and certainly will drive no one 
 away. The cost is small, and the advantage 
 great." 
 
 The Northumberland and Durham Division 
 Grange at its recent meeting in Port Hope, 
 adopted a report on this subject strongly urg- 
 ing subordinate Granges to hare a summer 
 and winter festival, also urging the members 
 to get up social entertainments at their own 
 houses, which should include refreshments, 
 music, discussions, and recreations. Another 
 excellent suggestion in this report is that 
 farmers visit more, both for social purposes, 
 and in order to leam whai they can from an 
 inspection of one another's methods of farm 
 management. 
 
 3. Organization among farmers will be 
 highly useful in stimulating and guiding 
 
 AGEICULaUEAL TTVrPBO VEMENT . 
 
 This is the most important end to be secured 
 by organization. Suppose the farmers in a 
 given locality to be holding frequent meetings 
 at which there is the utmost freedom of dis- 
 cussion, all contributing their quota of infor- 
 mation, experience and opinion; it is plain 
 that a very valuable stock and store of know- 
 ledge will be collected, of which each wUl 
 have the full benefit. In every neighbor- 
 hood there are men who are specially success- 
 ful in some particular branch of husbandry, 
 and it cannot but be a great gain that their 
 methods should become common property. 
 The story even of mistakes and failures is of 
 use to others, and there is not a single farmer, 
 whether successful or unsuccessful, who may 
 not both receive and impart benefit by attend- 
 ing and taking part in meetings of the kind 
 now referred to. Every man knows some- 
 thing of which another is ignorant, and we 
 are always picking up items by reading, ob- 
 servation, travel, and in a variety of ways, 
 that are of value to others as well as to our- 
 selves. Beside the profit of it, there is also 
 the pleasure of sharing our store of knowledge 
 with others. The meal on your table may be 
 plain, possibly scant, but it yields an added 
 satisfaction when you share it with another 
 hungry person. 'The joy of impartatlon is 
 only second to the joy of acquisition. 
 Here and there one finds men have made 
 
 AGBICDLTUEAL DISCOVEEIES, 
 
 partly by accident, and partly owing to na- 
 tural shrewdness of intellect, who might have 
 been great benefactors to their fellows if they 
 had been in a position to give publicity to 
 what they have found out. But they had not 
 the education to become authors, or even 
 newspaper correspondents, perhaps ; and there 
 was no organization of farmers in their lo- 
 cality, having its periodical meetings, giv- 
 ing them opportunity to impart the results 
 
Organization Among Farmers. 
 
 of their experiments. Henoe they went on, 
 working away in the solitude of their own 
 farms, benefiting personally by their newly 
 found methods, but doing littU or no good 
 among their neighbors. It is astonishing how 
 little adjacent farmers know of one another's 
 way of managing. If one succeeds better 
 than the other it is his " luck," and so no en- 
 quiry is made for the secret of prosperity. 
 Now all the results of farming are regulated 
 by law ; " there's nae luck aboot the hoose ;" 
 it is all controlled by great, resistless, immuta- 
 ble principles. Hence when a farmer gets 
 along better than his neighbors it ought to 
 set them thinking, enquiring, investigating, 
 imitating. But no, it is his " good luck," 
 and their "bad luck." There the matter is 
 usually allowed to rest. A farmers' club or 
 Grange gives prosperous men a chance to 
 " rise and explain," and if they do not feel in- 
 wardly moved to do this, they can be put into 
 the -witness box and catechized, until the 
 secret of their success is wormed out of them, 
 and becomes 
 
 THE PEOPBETT OF ALL. 
 
 I have met with some remarkable cases in 
 the course of my lecture tour, illustrating the 
 truth of these observations, and I will here 
 cite one of the most notable among them. Not 
 far from Oshawa lives a well-to-do and high- 
 ly successful farmer, named Jesse Trull, a lead- 
 ing member of the farmers' club, also of the 
 Grange, for Oshawa can boast of having both 
 these organizations in active operation. I first 
 met Mr. Trull at the meeting of the Dominion 
 Grange in Toronto in December last. After 
 hearing my lecture then and there delivered, 
 he said to me, " Mr. Clarke, that clover talk 
 of yours is what the farmers want. Clover 
 has been the making of me. Tell them about 
 the clover in all your lectures." When in the 
 course of a month afterwards I visited and 
 lectured in Oshawa, I had a fuller opportunity 
 of learning 
 
 ME. tetjll's expeeibnob dt olovbeino. 
 
 It is a very interesting story, with a mighty 
 moral to it. In fact, " 'Tis a lesson we should 
 heed," and I hope we shall heed it, all of us. 
 About twelve years ago, Mr. Trull was pass- 
 ing along the road, when a neighbor called to 
 him from an adjacent field. He wanted to 
 consult him about sowing the field. Eight 
 aoi^es of it had been prepared for barley, and 
 there were two acres of clover sod ploughed 
 under, which he thought of sowing to peas, 
 according to the common practice. But the 
 two acres of cloverley looked so mellow and 
 nice that he felt strongly tempted to sow the 
 whole to barley, and it was on the question of 
 doing so or not, that Mr. Trull's opinion was 
 wanted. After inspecting the laud, Mr. Trull 
 remarked that the clover ground looked good 
 enough to grow anything, and advised sow- 
 ing the whole field of ten acres to barley, which 
 was done. AU through the growing season, 
 fke barley on the clover sod looked the most 
 
 vigorous and thrifty. The yield at harvest 
 was 54 bushels per acre ; far, though I did not 
 learn exactly how far, in advance of the rest 
 of the field. This set Mr. Trull thinking. 
 Why do not things farmers observe set them 
 thinking more . frequently f As he thought, 
 he determined to experiment with clover, and 
 the result was, he found out in effect all that 
 chemistry has to disclose concerning this won- 
 derful plant. He discovered that it is a grand 
 restorer of lost fertility to the soil ; that it 
 more than doubles the manurial resources of a 
 farm, and that its judicious use is the 
 
 SIJEE WAT TO PEOSPEBOUB AND PATINO HUS- 
 BAHDET. . 
 
 When he began to be a little " forehnaded," 
 he bought one hundred acres of land, whiohhe 
 paid for by means of olovering. He made it 
 his first business to get fifty acres into clover. 
 The second year he wit a crop of hay, and then 
 got a crop of seed, averaging rather more than 
 two bushels to the acre. Clover seed brought 
 over |8 per bushel that year, and his crop of it, 
 came to upwards of $1,000. Then hehadfiity 
 acres of land in splendid condition for spring 
 wheat, barley, or any other grain. -I am often 
 derided for laying such stress on clovering, as 
 though a species of monomania had got hold 
 of me but, geatlemen, brother farmers, I beg 
 of you try it; Try it as directed in these lec- 
 tures, and if it does not work like a charm, 
 please let the world know its failure through 
 the columns of the Witness. 
 
 But to return to Mr. TruU, I had the plea- 
 sure of visiting him at his own home, and 
 truly if we have any farmer princes in the 
 country, he is one of them. His house is a 
 beautiful brick villa, and the adjacent barns 
 are models of rural architecture. All the sur- 
 roundings bespeak the reign of competence, if 
 not of wealth. . The enviable proprietor sheuld 
 know the secret of his own success, and I have 
 already given you the key to it. But the 
 point I am seeking to make just now, is this, 
 that if twelve years ago, when Mr. TruU and 
 his neighbor had that bailey field under trial, 
 there had been a farmers' organization in their 
 locality, and this experiment had been made 
 public, watched in its course and noted as to 
 its result; and if, subsequently, Mr. Trull's 
 further trials with clover had been made known 
 at such meetings, there would have been a 
 kindling of interest, a quickening of thought, 
 a multiplying of experimenters, and a wide- 
 spread benefit to the agriculture of the entire 
 region. I could not wish a more forcible ex- 
 ample of the possible good that may come 
 out of 
 
 MUTUAL nrPEOVEMENT MEETIN08 AMONG 
 FAEMEE3. 
 
 This example may also serve as an illustra- 
 tion of the manner in which the interest and 
 usefulness of farmers' meetings are to be se- 
 cured. It is by each member doing his part 
 in the way of narrating his own farm experi- 
 ences, whether successful or unsuccessful. 
 The mistake is often made of rendering the 
 
Organization Among Farmers. 
 
 •duties of members unnecessarily formidable, 
 bj requiring the preparation of essays and 
 papers on given subjects. It is well enough 
 that those who are able to do so, prepare com- 
 positions ot this kind, but many who can 
 speak intelligently and to the point, iind 
 difficulty in commiting their ideas to writing. 
 The mechanical process of writing seems to 
 hamper mental action. It is better, therefore, 
 not to exact a task which is only performed 
 with difficulty. Instead of insisting on writ- 
 ten essays and elaborately prepared papers, 
 iet it be understood that free, off-hand, con- 
 versational speeches will be welcome^, and 
 not a little, of the difficulty connected with 
 •sustaining these meetings will disappear. 
 
 A lack of subjects fit for discussion at these 
 meetings is often felt. This is rather surpris- 
 ing,.for there would seem to be no end of 
 themes appropriate for such occasions. To 
 show how numerous these topics are, and for 
 -convenience of reference and choice, I subjoin 
 the following list of 
 
 TOPICS FOR ESSAYS, ADDRESSES AND DIS- 
 CUSSIONS : 
 
 The history of agviontture. 
 
 JB'arniiiig as au occapa,tiTn, 
 
 The best agrlcaltaral books. 
 
 Forests and climate 
 
 Agricultural meteorolosy. 
 
 Trees and the rain-fall. 
 
 Does the moon inflaence vegetation ? 
 
 Electricity and vegetablegrowth. 
 
 Origin of soils. 
 
 Braining land. 
 
 Tile draining. 
 ' ■ I'all ploughing. 
 . -Clover as a fertiiizor. 
 
 TTses of plaster of Paris 
 
 Management of baru-yard manure. 
 
 Artificial fertilizers. 
 ■ "The best plough for our soil. 
 
 "Which is the best harrow? 
 
 'Cultivators and gang-ploughs. 
 
 The beat mower and reaper. 
 
 The best wheat drill 
 
 The best wind-mill for farm purposes. 
 
 Arrangement of farm buildings. 
 
 The bestfaruihouse. 
 
 The best barn. 
 
 Boad-makiug. 
 
 The best fepce. 
 
 How to make a board fence. 
 
 Hedging. 
 
 Feuciug out or fencing, in 
 ' ■ Corn cultare. 
 
 Wheat-growing. 
 
 Eye for winter pasture and spring feed. 
 
 The oat crop. 
 
 Barley. 
 
 Trees in fields. 
 
 Sorghum. 
 
 Turnip-growing. 
 
 Beans as a field crop. 
 
 Pastures and meadows. 
 , Seeding down to grass and clover. 
 
 Best species of grasses for our climate. 
 
 Potato culture. 
 
 How to fight the potato bug. 
 
 Hoot crops. 
 -Cutting up corn 
 
 Straw and^corustalks. 
 
 Kust in wheat. 
 
 Hessian fiy. .> 
 
 Army worm. 
 
 Broom corn 
 
 How to plant au orchard. 
 
 Orchard culture. 
 " "When and how to prime. 
 
 .'Best varieties of apples. 
 
 Pear blight. 
 
 Strawberry-growing. 
 
 Small fruits for the family. 
 
 Ashes, leached andnnleached. 
 
 Swamp and pond muck. 
 
 Layiog out walks and grounds. 
 
 The soiling system. 
 
 Farmers' gardens. 
 
 Beat way lo mauas;e young stock. 
 
 The most desirable breeds of horses. 
 
 Mules for farm work. 
 
 Oxen for farm work. 
 
 Best i^reed of cattle for this region. 
 
 Cooperative dairying. 
 
 Fish culture. 
 
 Creameries. 
 
 Managemeot of pigs, 
 
 Bee-keepiag. 
 
 Hog cholera. 
 
 Grape-growing. 
 
 Management of poultry. 
 
 How to run a cheese-fae*"or7. 
 
 "Wool-growiug. 
 
 Large and small farms. 
 
 Capital needed to farm well. 
 
 Day labor or piece labor. 
 
 Botation of crops. 
 
 Farm management. 
 
 Farm aceoants. / 
 
 Direct trade with coosumer. 
 
 Transportation in its relation to agriculture. 
 
 The use and abuse of trade. 
 
 Taxation of farm property. 
 
 Tax exemption. 
 
 Mutual insarauce. 
 
 Farmers' loan societies and saviags banks. 
 
 Law and good manners on the road. 
 
 Amusements in the country. 
 
 Sociality among farmers. 
 
 Farmers and the Legislature. 
 
 Government aid to agriculture. 
 
 Agriculture and the schools. 
 
 Protective and revenue tariffs. . 
 
 How can we improve onr public school system ? 
 
 Oar municipal institutions. 
 
 With this list of one hundred topics, and 
 such other subjects aa will from time to time 
 suggest themselves to the officers and members 
 of clubs and granges, there should be no sort 
 of difficulty in having lively, instructive, and 
 entertaining meetings. Only let the member- 
 ship in general do its part, each one feeling a 
 personal responsibility for the efficient work- 
 ing of the institution, and there will be no 
 trouble about sustaining the meetings, and 
 rendering them greatly useful in advancing 
 the interests of agriculture. 
 
 4, I argue for organization among farm- 
 ers as 
 
 A TEAlNING-aCHOOL FOE PT7BLIC LIFE, 
 
 It id notorious that but few farmers make 
 their way into Parliament. As a class, they 
 are by no means represented in proportion to 
 their number or their Importance as members 
 of the body politic. It is a well-understood 
 principle of Parliamentary representation, 
 that, so far as possible, every class in the popu- 
 lation should be duly represented. If this 
 were carried out, we should have about one 
 hundred farmers in the Dominion Parliament. 
 The precise number of farmers actually in the 
 House I cannot state, but when one hundred 
 and thirty-six members had been gazetted, 
 there were nineteen farmers and forty- one 
 lawyers on the list. Probably the relative 
 proportions of these two classes will not differ 
 greatly from this list when the full number is 
 
Organization Among Farmers. 
 
 classified. The preponderance of lawyers is 
 always a marked feature in our legislatures. 
 If the legal fraternity were represented ac- 
 cording to their proportionate share numeri- 
 cally of the population, they would be entitled 
 to nearly one member of the Dominion House 
 of Commons, say a small-sized lawyer, like 
 Mr. Eykert of St. Catharines, or Speaker 
 Wells, of the Ontario Legislature. Now, 
 why this anomaly in the representation of 
 our people ? What is the reason we do n®t 
 have one hundred farmers, or a decent approxi- 
 mation to that number, in our Dominion Par- 
 liament f It is usually said in explanation of 
 this anomaly that farmers are not sufficiently 
 educated to go to Parliament. This, howererjis 
 a mistake, and a libel on the farming communi- 
 ty. But it must be confessed that farmers, 
 for the most part, do not hare the right kind 
 of education to fit them for Parliament. They 
 have but few opportunities for acquiring the 
 art of public speaking. An art it is, and only 
 to be gained by long practice and great per- 
 severance. It IS often said of poets that they 
 are bom, not made. The reverse of this is 
 true of orators. They are manufactured 
 articles, and it takes no small amount of labor 
 and polishing up to produce a 
 
 FINISHBn AKD BFFECrrVE PUBHO SPEAKEB. 
 
 Some of the mightiest orators that ever swayed 
 great assemblies made wretched failures in 
 their first attempts at public speaking. De- 
 mosthenes, the renowned Grecian orator; 
 Robert HaU, the eloquent Baptist divine ; and 
 Lord Beaconsfield, the present Prime Minis- 
 ter of England, are well-known examples of 
 public speakers who at first broke down, but 
 ultimately became distinguished masters of 
 the oratorical art. All who have attempted 
 " maiden speeches," as they are called, mow 
 what peculiar nervous embarrassments crowd 
 upon and overwhelm the would-be orator ; how 
 the well-marshalled ideas take flight, the eye- 
 sight becomes dim, and the speech falters, 
 until the poor victim of a misplaced self-confi- 
 dence sits down in utter confusion and dire 
 dismay. All this is only to be overcome by 
 dint of persevering practice, and farmers, 
 generally speaking, have but few opportuni- 
 ties for it. Meetings of the kind I have bion 
 describing are the very best training-schools 
 that can be had, and will not fail to draw out 
 and improve whatever speaking talent may be 
 possessed by any of the members. 
 But it wUl perhaps be asked, 
 
 WHY IS IT DESIRABLE THAT FAEMBES SHOITLD GO 
 TO PAELIAMENT ? 
 
 It ought to be a sufficient reply to this ques- 
 tion, that it is their undoubted right to be 
 there. This cannot be denied, and if they 
 choose to exercise, instead of waiving their 
 right, who shall forbid them P Nor must it 
 be forgotten that rights and duties correspond 
 with each other. Farmers, like all other mem- 
 bers of the community, owe a duty to their 
 country, as good and patriotic citizens, which 
 is not to be discharged by taking and keeping 
 
 a back seat ; leaving those who are no more en-' 
 titled or able, but only more forward and 
 willing to press their way to the front. There- 
 are some reasons why it is especially impor- 
 tant that the agricultural class should have an. 
 influential representation in Parliament. It- 
 is notorious that our public expenditure is- 
 oontinually becoming more lavish, and that 
 there is great need for applying the brake of 
 economy to the fast-flying train of govern- 
 mental appropriation. Each political party" 
 when out of office accuses the party in power 
 of wasting the people's money, and on the 
 principle that what everybody says must be 
 true, we are bound to believe testimony so- 
 unanimous. Now, farmers have been drilled 
 in the hard school of economy, for no man. 
 can succeed as a farmer who forms and in- 
 dulges expensive habits. If half the member- 
 ship of the House of Commons were farmers- 
 might we not expect that the finances of the 
 country would be managed more economical- 
 ly f If this will not check the progress of ex- 
 travagance we may give it up as a bad job. 
 
 Moreover, owing to the preponderance of 
 lawyers inParliament,our statutes have become- 
 so technical and complex that it is hardly 
 safe to transact any business of importance^ 
 without 
 
 EEOOTTESE TO LEdAL ABVtCB. 
 
 The laws have been framed by lawyers, iik 
 such a manner as to promote their own inter- 
 est. This is not at all surprising in view of 
 the selfish tendencies of human nature. But 
 there is surely no good reason why the bulk of 
 our laws should not be so simply phrased as 
 to be readily understood by people of ordinary 
 intelligence. Why should we be obliged to- 
 fee a lawyer to guide " a coach and four," 
 through the sinuosities and mazes of a statu- 
 tory labyrinth, when the labyrinth can be 
 dispensed with altogether ? A due representa- 
 tion of farmers might reasonably be expected 
 to bring about this kind of " law reform." 
 We should hear less about the codification of our 
 statutes, and more about their simplification. 
 There are also a variety of forms in which 
 legislation is needed for 
 
 THE PEOTEOTION AND EXPANSION OP THE FABU- 
 INO INTEEEST. 
 
 For many years past, the current of legislation 
 has been running against agriculture. Thfr 
 tendency has been more and more to fasten 
 the burden of taxation on the real estate of the 
 country, which means, primarily, our farming 
 lands. Our formidable list of tax exemptions 
 are,_ all of them, so many diecriminations- 
 against the farmer. Why should not a sleek, 
 fat, well-paid, if not over-paid official, contri- 
 bute his due share of the cost of the govern- 
 ment that pampers and protects him, as well 
 as the hard-working and frugal farmer P Why 
 should not moneyed men pay iaxes on their 
 mortgages, bonds, and bank stock ? When one- 
 half the members of the House of Commons- 
 belong to that "free and independent yeo- 
 manry" which is so flattered and cajoled at 
 
Organization Among Farmers. 
 
 eleotion times, and so thoroughly ignored at 
 all other times, there will be a mighty revolu- 
 tion in regard to these and kindred matters. 
 Sineourists will go to the right-about. Drones 
 will be driven from the public hive. Officials 
 will have to earn as well as draw their salaries. 
 The burdens of society will be equalized. 
 
 The best age of the ancient Roman common- 
 wealth will be reproduced. Each citizen will 
 live and labor for the entire State. The good 
 of all win be the aim of each, and we shall 
 behold the poet's beautiful description realized 
 again: 
 
 "iThe Romans weTo like brothers, 
 In the brave days of old." 
 
 There is 
 
 LEQISLAIIOir OF AN AQBICnLinjBAIi OHABACTEB 
 
 which the country needs, and will be 1 kely to 
 obtain when fanners have their due share of 
 parliamentary representation. Measures di- 
 rectly promotive of the farming interest will 
 be adopted. There wiU be drainage acts ; laws 
 for the regulation of farm leases ; our agricul- 
 tural departments will be made more than 
 mere bureaus; there will be rigorous means 
 used to diffuse agricultural information, to 
 distribute the best seeds, to multiply improved 
 breeds of stock, and in every possible way 
 develop the productive resources of the coun- 
 try. There is nothing selfish in the desire and 
 demand that agriculture should bo thus fos- 
 tered, for every other interest in the country 
 depends on the success of the farmer. It is 
 not legislating for a class merely when legis- 
 lative action is taken for the advancement of 
 agriculture. It is literally seeking " the great- 
 est good of the greatest number," for in pro- 
 portion to the prosperity of the farming interest, 
 will be that of every other throughout the 
 land. 
 
 In conclusion, it will naturally be expected 
 that I should not only speak of organization 
 in general, but coming down to particulars, 
 refer to 
 
 ACTUAILT BXIBTINO FAEMBES' OEGANIZATIONS. 
 
 Of these, there are, so far as I am aware, only 
 two, the Farmers' Club and the Grange. 
 The farmers' club is a time-honored, useful 
 institution, but, unfortunately, does not seem 
 to " take " among the class for whose benefit 
 it is intended. Tou can count on your fingers 
 all the farmers' clubs in the Dominion of 
 Canada. On the contrary, the Grange, though 
 of recent introduction, has gro wn very rapidly, 
 so that within less than five years it has come 
 to number upwards of 700. This of itself 
 wonll seem to indicate that it meets a felt 
 want on the part of the farming community. 
 
 THE OBANaS 
 
 nubodies all the features of the club, along 
 vtith others which are peculiar to itself. Chief 
 amcug the latter are the admission of ladies 
 to membership and of&ce, and the representa- 
 tion of the whole order once a year in the 
 Dominion -grange, which is to all intents and 
 purposes 
 
 A FABMEE e FABLIAUENT. 
 
 This body centres in itself all the numerical 
 and moral farce comprised in the 700 and 
 more subordinate Granges. The whole organ- 
 ization is spread out over the country like a 
 mighty net- work, by means of which its con- 
 centrated influence can be brought readily to 
 bear on any given point. Such a body is and 
 must be 
 
 A QEBAT POWBE IN THE LAND. 
 
 It is widely urged as a strong objection to 
 the Grange, that it embarks in commercial 
 enterprises which are outside its legitimate 
 sphere. Ofl this point there are, however, some 
 erroneous ideas entertained by the outside and 
 general public. It is thought by many that 
 store-keeping is the grand end and object of 
 the Grange ; its main and vital characteristic. 
 This is a great mistake. It is doubtful if 
 store-keeping waa at all contemplated by the 
 founders of the order. Many circumstances 
 appear to indicate that it was an after- thought. 
 The co-operative purchase of implements and 
 seed, also the co-operative sale of farm pro- 
 ducts, were the kind of business enterprises 
 meditated by the first Grangers, and these, 
 most assuredly, are not fairly open to objec- 
 tion. They lie quite within the scope of legi- 
 timate farming operations. 
 
 QEANOB BIOEB-KEEPINa 
 
 is, however, a different thing altogether, and 
 in regard to it the members of the order difier 
 greatly in opinion and practice. 
 
 It cannot be denied that individual farmers, 
 or a whole body of them, have the right to go 
 into mercantile business if they see fit to do so. 
 But the right is one thing, while the wisdom 
 of exercising it is another. There are a 
 large and increasing number of Grangers who 
 disapprove of the store-keeping feature, prin- 
 cipally upon the following grounds ; 
 
 1. It is an interference with the laws of 
 trade and with that principle of division of 
 labor on which society is based. We need 
 merchants as well as farmers. Farmers might 
 as well set up to be their own tailors, black- 
 smiths and shoe-makers, as their own store- 
 
 2. There is no need to embark in Grange 
 store-keeping for the sake of getting cheap 
 goods, because if the regular merchants are 
 dealt with on the cash system, they will fur- 
 nish articles about as cheaply as they can be got 
 from the wholesale dealer, with costs and 
 charges added. 
 
 3. Store-keeping interferes with the more 
 important business of the Grange. Each mem- 
 ber comes with basket on arm, and so much 
 time is consumed in dividing out and parcel- 
 ling up the tea, sugar, and sundries *' too 
 numerous to mention," that useful discussions 
 are out of the question, and instead of the occa- 
 sion being a Grange meeting, it becomes a mere 
 aifair of shopping. 
 
 4. These operations have led to much dis- 
 agreement among members of the order, creat- 
 
10 
 
 Organization Among Farmers. 
 
 ing jealousies and even animosities, difficult 
 if not impossible of removal. 
 
 5. Store-keeping has excited much prejudice 
 against the G-range, and led to no little ill-will 
 and hard-feeling as between farmers and mer- 
 chants — a state of things very greatly to be 
 deplored. 
 
 On such grounds as the above, many mem- 
 bers of the order ob j ect to Grange store-keeping, 
 and there is reason to believe 
 
 IT3 ABAHBONMENT IS ONLY A QUESTION OP TIME. 
 
 Meanwhile, it should be remembered that no 
 one comes under obligation to deal at a Grange 
 store by reason of joining the orders There is 
 perfect liberty of opinion and action allowed 
 on this point. For my own part, I became a 
 Granger with the distinct understanding that 
 I was opposed to the store-keeping feature, 
 and should use my utmost influence against it. 
 
 SEOEEST AND BITTJAL OP THE OEAJSaE. 
 
 <rhere are some who object to the Grange 
 as a secret order, while others dislike its forms 
 and ceremonies. On these points it may be 
 remarked that the secrets of the Grange are 
 simply for the purpose of readily identifiying 
 the members ; while the forms and ceremonies 
 
 are not only innocent, but significant and in- 
 structive. Each of them has a good and us^ul 
 meaning ; and the more the lessons of the ritual 
 are pondered, the deeper will be the impression 
 of their appropriateness and value. 
 
 I cannot but think the Grange has great 
 possibilities in it for benefiting the interests of 
 agriculture. What the future of the order will 
 be depends mainly on the course pursued by 
 the officers and members. If they eschew petty 
 ambitions and selfish money-making schemes, 
 laboring unitedly and heartily for the more 
 important objects contemplated by the order, 
 especially those calculated to secure a better 
 style of farming, untold good will be accom- 
 plished. If an opposite line of action be pur- 
 sued, the order will dwindle into insignificance, 
 and disiutegrate into the atoms of which it was 
 orierinally composed. 
 
 But whether Farmers' Club, Grange, or any 
 other form of organization be the best suited 
 for the purpose, it is quite certain that the 
 best interests of agriculture, and the highest 
 welfare of our country, demand association, 
 mutual consultation, and co-operation on the 
 part of farmers. " Union is strength" in this 
 as in every other department of human en- 
 deavor. 
 
f» 
 
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 HAVE TO-MORROW ? 
 
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 ^ and wiU be sent free to any address on receipt of a One Cent Stamp. This is a 3 
 
 < subject every one is interested in. Address at once, before the issue has been § 
 
 a> exhausted. H 
 
 jj The Witness Publications. | 
 
 W :oo= g 
 
 Montreal Daily Witness, price, post paid, $3.00 circulation 14,951 
 
 Montreal Weekly Witness, 1.10 " 26,300 
 
 L'Aurore (French, lUus.), - 1.00 " 850 
 
 Northern Messenger (lUus.), 30c. " 46,400 
 
 THE WITNESS CONTAINS AS MITCH AGEICULTTJRAL MATTER AS 
 A FARMER'S WEEKLY. 
 
THE WEEKLY WITNESS ; THE FARMERS' PAPER. 
 
 THE 
 
 "MONTREAL WITNESS" 
 AGRICULTURAL LECTURES 
 
 ■ BY 
 
 REV. W. F. CLARKE. 
 
 Jro. <r. 
 
 HOT\^ TO IT^RIVr. 
 
 Delivered by the Rev. W. F. Clarke before the Dominion 
 Grange, in Albert Hall, Toronto, Wed. Dec.lS, 1878. 
 
 montreal : 
 
 John Dougall & Son. 
 
 1878. 
 
 ONLY $1.10 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE. 
 
 Additional copies of this and subsequent Lectures ty Mr. Clakke will be sent to any address 
 
 on receipt of a ONE CENT POSTAGE STAMP. In ordering state 
 
 how many copies are wanted for DISTRIBUTION. 
 
fo/H' 'Ike 
 
 a 
 
 )} 
 
 We have to note little progress during the 
 past, year, as will appear from the 'following 
 Sgures:— gept., jgyg, g^^pt,^ 1877.' 
 
 Daily Witness 14,580 15,000 
 
 Weekly WiTNBSS 26,300 23,500 
 
 NoETHEEN Messbnoee 46,400 47,500 
 
 L'Atooeb 850 800 
 
 80,130 86,800 
 
 Better times are, however, dawning for the 
 country, and we look for growth in propor- 
 tion. We ask for the help of all lovers of 
 wholesome literature in bringing about such 
 growth. The Weekly Witness has now been 
 at work for thirty-two years, through good 
 report and through evil report. The Daily 
 Witness has been in operation eighteen 
 years ; and the Noetheen Messenoee thir- 
 teen years ; the Ai7eoee thirteen years, al- 
 though only one under the present publishers. 
 The advertising businees has not grown with 
 rapid strices as in former years, and the year 
 bas been one of necesBary economy and quiet. 
 The year has been uneventful. The principal 
 matter of note in connection with the history of 
 aur publications has been the receipt from the 
 Committee of the Witness Testimonial Fund 
 3f a considerable sum of money towards the pur- 
 Chase of our great eight-cylinder press, which is 
 being duly inscribed in memory of so important 
 and interesting an event. The most important 
 announcement we have to make for the coming 
 season is to be found below. 
 
 WITNESS LBCTUEES ON AGEICTTL- 
 TUKE. 
 
 The publishers of the Witness have of late 
 been strongly impressed with the idea that 
 Canada has reached that stage in her agricultu- 
 ral development when the country is ripe for very 
 considerable improvements in her farming cus- 
 toms. Our best farmers have come to realize 
 that the culture which has served iu the past will 
 not serve in the future. Agricultural science— 
 the application of mind to matter — is what is 
 needed. Agricultural colleges are abundant in 
 many parts of Europe, and in countries of which 
 we know almost nothing a large proportion of 
 the farmers have had thorough scientific train- 
 ing, and expensive works and journals are found 
 in nearly every farm-house. The next genera- 
 tion of Canadian farmers must be of this class, 
 
 Those who cannot attain to education will fall 
 behind in the race. The great majority may 
 easily be educated farmers if they choose. 
 There is already one agricultural college iu each 
 province. If they were properly appreciated 
 there would be one in each county. 
 
 The publishers of the Witness have during 
 the past few weeks been made the recipients of a 
 munificent donation from the people of Canada, 
 and have conceived the plan of making some re- 
 turn to the countiV by the establishment of a 
 winter course of 
 
 " witness" jkbe leotubes on aoeicultubi, 
 with the object of enlisting the zeal of in- 
 telligent farmers in the difiusion of agricul- 
 tural knowledge among their fellow-agricultur- 
 ists. To that end they are fortunate in having 
 secured the services of the most popular and 
 best known agricultural writer and speaker in 
 Canada, 
 
 ME. W, F. OLAEKE, OJ" LINDENBANK, QUELPH, 
 formerly editor of the Camada Farmer and of 
 the Ontario Farmer, who will lecture be- 
 ginning about October first, in such parts 
 of the country as may offer him the best 
 openings. We should be glad if it were pos- 
 sible to cover the whole country *with such a 
 course, but es concentration is necessary to ef- 
 ficiency, he will probably work out from two or 
 three centres in' Quebec and Ontario, trying to 
 leave behind him wherever he goes some perma- 
 nant result in the shape of organization for 
 mutual improvement among the farmers in the 
 various localities he may visit. AU who would 
 like to have such lectures delivered in their 
 neighborhoods are requested to write at once to 
 the undersigned, when the possibility of fulfilling 
 the request-will be immediately considered. 
 
 We would not have it thought that this plan 
 is intended to be a diversion of the generous gift 
 of the subscribers to the Testimonial iFund from 
 its original intent of establishing the Witness 
 enterprise, as we are in the hope that Mr, 
 Clarke's tour will not in the long run prove a loss 
 tu the Witness, but that on the contrary it wiU 
 do much to establish the paper as the farmer's 
 paper throughout the Dominion. 
 
 We shall expect our friends who invite the 
 visit of the Witness lecturer to make the neces- 
 sary local arrangements in the way of hall or 
 other public building, fire and lights, which we 
 are quite sure they will do very cheerfully. 
 John Docoall & Son, 
 Montreal. 
 
HOW TO FARM. 
 
 A WITNESS LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE DOMINIOISr GRANGE IN 
 ALBERT HALL, TORONTO, ON WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18, 1878, 
 BY THE REV. W. F. CLARKE. 
 
 Worthy Master and Fellow -Fatrona : 
 
 The Grange is an association of farmers, 
 haring as its primary object the promotion of 
 husbandry. Agricultural improvement is its 
 grand aim. The means to be used correspond 
 with the end sought to be realized. I quote 
 from our published " Declaration of Prin- 
 ciples " the following summary of these 
 means : — 
 
 To develop a t)etter and higher manhood and wO' 
 manhood among ourselves. 
 
 To enhance the comforts and attractions of our 
 homes, and strengthen our attachments to our pur- 
 snits. 
 
 To foster p-T tual understanding and co-operation. 
 
 To maintain inviolate our laws, and to emulate each 
 other to hasten the good time eoming. 
 
 To reduce our expenses, bdth individual and co- 
 operative. 
 
 To huy less and produce more, in order to make our 
 farms self-sustaining. 
 
 To diversify our crops, and crop no more than we 
 can cultivate. 
 
 To condense the weight of our exports, selling less 
 in the bushel, and more on hoof and in fleece. 
 
 To tystematize our work, and calculate intelligently 
 on probabilities. 
 
 To dIscoDutenanoe the credit system, the mortgage 
 system, the fashion systeoa, and every other system 
 tending to prodigality and bankruptcy. 
 
 The general public, and it must be confessed, 
 some Grangers themselves, have a far narrower 
 idea of the obj ect contemplated by this organ- 
 ization than that just indicated. I heard a 
 business man of this city remark yesterday, 
 " The Grange is a combination of farmers for 
 the purpose of buying cheap groceries." It 
 is quite true that some farmers have seen fit to 
 embark in co-operative store-keeping, but this 
 does not prove that such store-keeping is the 
 grand end and aim of the Grange. Farmers, 
 like other people, may, in the exercise of their 
 undoubted liberty, engage in any line^f busi- 
 ness they please. Moreover, no man has a 
 right to hinder or censure them, provided they 
 pay their just debts, as farmers are very much 
 in the Jxabit of doing, thereby getting a |good 
 
 example to their mercantile fellow -citizens 
 whose numerous failures, and compositions 
 with their creditors are a rude shock to the 
 notions of morality commonly entertained by 
 plain, honest country-folk. Why merchants 
 and others should exclaim so loudly when a 
 few farmers unite and set up a store, as 
 though some great crime had been perpetrated, 
 is a question that needs elucidation. Occasion- 
 ally business men launch out into farming. 
 One of the largest farm enterprises in Ontario, 
 has its headquarters in this very city of Toron- 
 to. There has been no hue and cry raised by 
 farmers because the Canada West Farm Stock' 
 Association has embarked in agriculture ; and 
 why should commercial men set up a howl of 
 indignation when a number of farmers form a 
 company and set up a store ? It used to be 
 accounted a good proverb that " Competition 
 is the life of trade," but now it seems as if the 
 proviso must be added, " unless farmers com- 
 pete," in which case the proverb reads the 
 other way, and " competition is the death of 
 trade." 
 
 In no respect has the attitude of the Grange 
 been more misunderstood and misrepresented 
 than in regard to this point, and therefore it 
 may be well to take this opportunity of defin- 
 ing our position clearly. We have organized 
 for purposes of mutual helpfulness and co- 
 operation. A Grange may, if it see fit, open 
 a store, establish a mill, start a factory, build 
 an elevator, or construct a railroad ; but no 
 member is obligated to buy at the Grange 
 store, to take his grist to the Grange mill, to 
 patronize the Grange factory, to use the 
 Grange elevator, or travel on the Grange rail- 
 way. "We're a band of brothers," but we 
 are also a band of freemen. Our motto is, "In 
 essentials, Unity in non-essentials. Liberty; 
 in all things, Charity,'' Grange storekeeping 
 is a non-essential, in which we have liberty ; 
 except when the right to engage in it is de. 
 nied. Then it becomes an essential, in which 
 
How TO Farm. 
 
 we are a unit. Some of us question the policy, 
 the wisdom of Grange storekeeping, — we 
 think it better to stick to our farming ; and 
 leave others to their merchandise. We are 
 quite willing that there should be a division 
 of labor, and are content to deal with the regu- 
 lar merchants while they treat us honorably, 
 as most of them do. We ask no G-range dis- 
 counts, but we do ask cash discounts, one of our 
 aims being, as already shown, to " discounte- 
 nance the credit system." Those of us who 
 do not favor G-range store-keeping are, to a 
 man, ready to contend for the rights of our 
 brethren who differ from us in this respect ; 
 and when a merchant, or body of merchants, 
 affects to treat them as presumptuous inter;. 
 lopere, or as poachers unlawfully trespassing 
 on their commercial preserves, we are prepared 
 to say, ' ' Stand off, gentlemen ; we are free to 
 trade, precisely as you are free to farm. £'air 
 play is a jewel, and we are determined to have 
 it." In fact, it may as well be stated in plain 
 English that we are in for a resolute defence 
 of the rights of farmers, — the right to be mer- 
 chants if they please, — aye, and even the 
 right to be members ef Parliament, if they 
 can. 
 
 But, to return to our starting-point. The 
 Grange, as I remarked at the outset, is an or- 
 ganization primarily intended for the advance- 
 ment of agriculture. Such being the case, it 
 is eminently proper that, on the present oc- 
 casion" you should be invited to a consideration 
 of the question : 
 
 HOW TO rABM. 
 
 I am not presumptuous enough to imagine 
 that I can embody f uE directions how to farm 
 in a single lecture. Ponderous volumes have 
 been written on this great subject, and yet the 
 half has not been told in relation to it. But I 
 have the vanity to think that a good general 
 idea concerning the proper way to farm can 
 be given within the compass of an address 
 neither tedious as to length nor difficult of 
 compiehension. 
 
 Farming rightly carried on is both 
 
 A BOIENOE ABD AN AET. 
 
 As a science, it consists of certain principles 
 which have been well established, by repeated 
 experiment, as part and parcel of the immu- 
 table order of nature. These principles are not 
 abstruse nor hard to master. Yet they are 
 but little understood. As an art, farming, so 
 far as it is properly conducted, is just the prac- 
 tical application of those principles. Bad 
 farming is a violation of them. Too many 
 farmers are mere manual laborers. They 
 work according to a few traditional rules, but 
 cannot explain the why and the wherefore of 
 them. Experience has proved certain courses 
 to be successful, and so they are pursued. But 
 why they bring a given result is a matter of 
 mystery. No man should be content thus to 
 work, like a mole in the dark. He should aim 
 to understand his business. He should make 
 himself familiar not only with its practical 
 
 operations, but with the scientific theories on 
 which they are based. This, in brief, is the 
 way to farm : combining a knowledge of prac- 
 tical principles along with a knowledge of 
 agricultural practice. Somehow, it has be- 
 come too much the fashion to decry 
 
 THEOEY IN rAEMINO. 
 
 One reason for this may be that so many 
 who have been well versed in the theory of 
 agriculture hav6 practically proved failures. 
 Gentlemen-farmers, with heads full of book 
 wisdom, have not succeeded in growing 
 good crops. They have started with the 
 proclaimed intention of doing wonders, and the 
 result has been an illustration of the well- 
 known fable of the mountain in labor, bring- 
 ing forth only a ridiculous mouse. This is 
 unfortunate, and the more so from the fact 
 that side by side with these learned agricul- 
 turists there have been plain, ignorant farm- 
 ers, who have got on well, raising fair crops 
 and making a comfortable living. Such con- 
 trasts bring book-farming into disrepute. Of 
 the two, the man who has only the theory, 
 and he who knows only the praotioal part of 
 a business, the latter will be the more likely 
 to succeed. But this does not prove that 
 theory is worthless. The practical man would 
 be the better of a knowledge of the principles 
 of his business, and the theorist would be all 
 right if he understood the practice. It is like 
 navigating a ship. A common sailor may be 
 able to steer, go aloft, reef sails, and man the 
 ropes, but know nothing whatever about the 
 science of navigation. Yet it is necessary for 
 some one to be capable of working a ship' sreckon- 
 ing and determining her course, or she may be 
 only ploughing her way through the waves to 
 destruction. So in farming. A man may be 
 able to plough, sow, harrow, and reap ; he 
 may be a first-rate hand at all agricultural 
 work, and yet be running his farm to ruin, 
 for want of acquaintance with the principles 
 of his business. 
 
 In proof of this, we have only to look at hun- 
 dreds of farms to which the epithets " worn- 
 out," "run-down," or "skinned," are com- 
 monly applied. 
 
 WHAT IS THE MATTEB ? 
 
 The ploughing may have been done in the 
 tnost workmanlike manner; straight, well- 
 turned furrows proclaiming the ploughman's 
 skill. All the other operations of the farm, it 
 may be, have been equally well done. But 
 there has been ignorance or disregard of one 
 of the fundamental principles of all good 
 farming; that which teaches the fact, for such 
 it is, that every crop grown in a field takes a 
 certain amount of plant material away from 
 the soil, which must be put back in some way, 
 or the tend will grow poorer. This taking out 
 without putting back ere long 'results in 
 
 son. EXHAUSTION. 
 
 The land looks unchanged. There is no 
 difference in its texture or apparent qualities ; 
 
How TO Farm. 
 
 ^ut it has been deprived of its productiveness. 
 How few seem to be aware that the soil is 
 •only the store-house of plant food ! Crops do 
 not feed on the soil, but on certain elements 
 which the soil contains. These may be taken 
 out of it by exhaustive cropping, or the sup- 
 ply may be kept up by a proper rotation of 
 ■crops and a sufficiently frequent manuring. 
 •Successive oroppings without manure will turn 
 ■the most fertile soil ever tilled by man into a 
 barren wilderness. Yet how many ignore this, 
 -and wonder what aUs their land that it wUl 
 not produce as it formerly did ! " Virgin soil," 
 ias we call it, is rich in plant food. Hence the 
 proverbial productiveness of new land. This 
 productiveness can only be kept up by rota- 
 iiions and manuring. How common the re- 
 .■mark " land that is rich enough,— ^it needs no 
 imanure !" Crop after crop is grown under 
 "this delusion, without due return of enrichment 
 to the soil, and at length the land fails to res- 
 pond to further demands. To use a homely 
 Americanism, it is "gin eout." This is the 
 ■condition of many of our older farms. They 
 would never have come into such a state had 
 •correct theory been joined to good farm prac- 
 tice. It is this lamentable ignorance of 
 
 IMPOETANT riBST PEINOIPLES 
 
 which has impoverished so much of the ori- 
 ginally rich prairie lands in the Western 
 States. The same deplorable process is going 
 on in all the newer sections of the American 
 ■continent. As Col. Q-eorge E. "Waring pithily 
 remarks, they are being subjected to "that 
 «ort of enterprise which reduces the yield of 
 wheat from SO to 12 bushels per acre," and 
 ■even less. 
 
 In the monthly report of the Xj) S. Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture for Oct., 1867, the editor, 
 in an article headed " Wheat Culture Kuin- 
 •ous," asks, " Is proof of impoverishinent 
 wanted?" and replies, " One witness only is 
 needed, — the soil itself. Pirst, thirty bushels 
 per acre is the boast of the farmer ; then the 
 yield drops to twenty-five ; to twenty ; to fif- 
 teen ; and, finally, to ten and eight. Minne- 
 sota claimed twenty-two bushels average, a 
 ie w years ago — some of her enthusiastic friends 
 made it twenty-seven, but she will scarcely 
 average this year twelve, and will never again 
 make twenty-two under her present system of 
 farming. To be sure, there are excuses. The 
 seasons do not suit as formerly ; blight or rust 
 comes, or the fly invades ; but all these things 
 are evidences of exhaustion, and prey upon the 
 soil in proportion to its deterioration 
 
 It is an old ■saying that " a knowledge of 
 the disease is half its cure," and the mischief 
 is, that too many farmers are in the dark as to 
 the reason why their land fails to produce the 
 crops it once did. They make a mystery about 
 the matter, when the explanation of it is plain 
 and simple. There is an idea current that old 
 land need not be expected to produce like new 
 land. It is thought that very soon after day- 
 light is let into a clearing the seasons change, 
 the climate becomes .bad, and the crops are to 
 
 be expected to get smaller. Such a thing as 
 keeping the soil up to 
 
 ITS OEiaiNAl. PEODTTOTIVENESS 
 
 would he considered visionary. The average 
 yield becomes smaller each year, and this is 
 regarded as one of the inevitables. New land 
 as it is cleared is treated in the same absurd 
 way. No means are taken, to keep up its fer- 
 tility, and consequently it goes down. If age 
 necessarily decreases the fertility of soil, how is 
 it that the old farms of Great Britain are so far 
 ahead of ours in productive capacity f There, 
 the average yield of wheat is twenty -eight 
 bushels to the acre, while from forty to fifty is 
 no uncommon crop. The land is not natural- 
 ly better than ours, nor are the seasons more 
 propitious ; it is the style of farming that 
 makes all the difference. Here, if land is 
 rented, it is let for a year or two at a time, 
 with no restrictions or stipulations . There, it is 
 leased for long terms, and the tenants are 
 bound to grow so many roots per annum ; to 
 keep up a certain rotation of crops ; to put on 
 a given quantity of manure, and to feed a 
 prescribed number of animak. In this con- 
 trast we have 
 
 A KEY TO THE -WHOLE MTSTEEY. 
 
 It has been well said that a lease for a single 
 year at a time, and the privilege of selling hay 
 without returning manure, will usually end in 
 impoverishment of the farmer, and of the farm 
 too. Let us briefly examine the case. Take a 
 hundred pounds of grass; dry it, and then 
 bum it. What do we find ? The moisture has 
 evaporated ; that is, so much water, derived 
 from the dampness of the air and soil, and the 
 rainfall, has turned to vapor. Besides the 
 moisture, certain gaseous elements of plan$- 
 food have gone off into the air, whence they 
 came, and where they are in readiness for future 
 service. There is a handful of ashes left, 
 which, when examined by chemical analysis, 
 are found to contain certain mineral sub- 
 stances. Each successive crop takes its pro- 
 portion of these mineral substances, until at 
 length scarce any of them are left. Then the 
 land fails to jiroduoe in a paying degree. The 
 soil performs the following functions ; it holds 
 the roots of plants, is a storehouse of food for 
 them, absorbs heat, air and moisture, and 
 contains the minerals to which reference has 
 been made, and which are essential to the pro- 
 duction of crops. Keep up the stock and store 
 of plant-food in the soil, and it will continue 
 fertile ; rob the soil of its supply of plant-food, 
 and its fertility will fail. Farming is some- 
 what like storekeeping. Let a merchant keep 
 selling until his shelves are bare, his drawers 
 and barrels empty, and his stock-in-trade ex- 
 hausted, and what is the result ? He must 
 either replenish, or put up the shutters. What 
 sort of enterprise would it be to sell out a shop- 
 ful of goods, and make no provision for re- 
 newal ? The business would come to a dead 
 stop. A merchant keeps up his stock of goods, 
 and lives by the profit on sales over and above 
 cost. Even so the farmer must keep up a stock 
 
How TO Farm. 
 
 of fertility in the soil, and live ty the profit 
 upon replenishment. Nature starts the farmer 
 with virgin soil, rich in the elements of plant- 
 growth, and it is for him to maintain the 
 supply. Suppose a man starts his son as a 
 store-keeper. The shop is full of goods. As 
 they are sold out, he must buy more, and live 
 on the profits. He must buy well, for goods 
 well bought are half sold. Let him buy; for 
 cash in the cheapest markets, and adapt his 
 goods to the wants of his customers, and he 
 cannot fail to get on, unless he makes bad 
 debts. And here is a point in which the farmer 
 has an advantage over the merchant. He need 
 run no risk from bad debts, fur all his pro- 
 ducts command cash. He has only to attend 
 to his stock-in-trade, namely, the resources of 
 the soil, and he is all right. These resources 
 must be maintained with due economy ; he 
 must make and save manure ; he must grow 
 crops of various kinds in succession, so as to 
 draw on different elements of productiveness ; 
 in short, he must farm scientifically and 
 manage well. So doing, he cannot fail to get 
 on. 
 
 THE VITAI. QTJESTION 
 
 therefore, comes to be, By what means and 
 methods are we to maintain the resources of 
 the soil ? If we get the true answer to this 
 question we shall know how to farm. Of course 
 the enquiry just made immediately suggests 
 
 That land ought to be periodically manured, 
 is now universally admitted. The felt neces- 
 sity for this is a good sign of progress. I can 
 remember an old farmer who actually moved 
 his bam because of the immense accumulation 
 of manure that, iu the course of years, had 
 completely blockaded it. The era of that 
 species of farming has gone by forever. But 
 along with a general appreciation of the value 
 and importance of manuring, there is a sort of 
 despair, in view of the insuf&cient supply of 
 the so-muoh-needed article. Agricultural 
 writers aia incessantly berating farmers for 
 not manuring enough. They are advised to 
 put well- rotted manure on their meadows ; to 
 top-dress their pastures, and to give a coating 
 of dung as a preparation for almost every crop 
 that is raised. But, "where, oh where" is all 
 this manure to come from p It cannot be made 
 on an ordinary farm, and even though it would 
 pay to do so, very few farmers have capital 
 enough to buy the requisite quantity. An ex- 
 periment was made in the United States in the 
 purchase of stock and feed with -^ view to 
 manufacturing manure enough to bring up a 
 poor farm. There was no lack of capital, but 
 in ten years the balance sheet showed a heavy 
 deficit. Some plan must be adopted by which 
 there oan be systematic, progressive improve- 
 ment, and yet profit enough made to secure 
 at least a livelihood. Many farmers are more 
 or lees in debt, some for an unpaid balance on 
 their land, others for implements, or store- 
 bills. They must realize money in a given 
 
 time, and to do it are obliged to grow crop* 
 that will sell readily. Grain and hay are al- 
 ways marketable, and these are sold off the 
 farm, to its increasing impoverishment. It 
 would be a great step in advance if roots 
 were grown in addition to grain and hay, and 
 these crops fed to live-stock. Fat cattle are 
 just as salable as grain and hay, and the 
 great advantage is that, on this method, the 
 produce of the land is given back to it in the 
 form of manure. This system of management 
 cannot be too strongly urged on all who have 
 poverty-stricken land, and indeed on those 
 whose farms are in tolerable condition. Wheth- 
 er as a means of restoring lost fertility, or as a 
 safeguard against impoverishment, there can. 
 be little doubt that 
 
 A MIXED HUSBANDBI, 
 
 comprising stock-feeding in due proportion uu 
 grain -growing, is the true policy. It is this- 
 which during the present century has wrought, 
 such a wonderful change in British agricul- 
 ture ; and to-day the best farming districts in 
 Canada are those in which stock-raising is a 
 prominent feature. Cattle and sheep should 
 be kept up to the utmost capacity of the land^ 
 for it needs no great sagacity to perceive that 
 the manure we use to keep up the resources of 
 the soil must be mainly, if not wholly, home- 
 made. 
 
 Next to the keeping of stock in order to lay 
 the foundation of the manure supply, it is im- 
 portant to use proper means to make the most 
 of the animal droppings that are obtained. 
 Too many of us are sadly remiss in this direc- 
 tion. Can it be that manure is a precious and 
 scarce commodity ? Who would thiiik so in 
 view of the reckless manner in which it is 
 wasted? It is vrith manure as with money. 
 There is Uttle use in making money unless we 
 take care of it when it is made. It needs only 
 wasteful expenditure to squander a fortune 
 in a very short time. So with manure. How 
 inconsistent it is with our perplexity and des- 
 pair about getting enough of it, that we do 
 not practise a more rigid economy with the 
 scant quantity we can manage to secure ! It 
 is a well-ascertained fact that manure exposed 
 to the sun and rain parts with a large per- 
 centage of the qualities which render it effica- 
 cious. It is not merely that there is 
 
 LOSS OP BtTLK. 
 
 Everybody who has observed the shrinkage 
 of a manure pile, knows very well that it be- 
 comes smaller the longer it stands ; but we flat- 
 ter ourselves that it gets more concentrated, 
 and that the essence of the heap is still there 
 in less compass. This would, no doubt, be 
 the case if it were protected from the action 
 of sun and rain. But in the exposed condition 
 in which it is usually kept, there is constant 
 waste going on. The heat of the sun extracts 
 the volatile gases, and they go off into the at- 
 mosphere, while every shower washes away 
 the rich fertilizing material in black streams 
 that are utterly wasted and lost. Actual ex- 
 
How TO Farm. 
 
 periments made by Lord Kinnaird some years 
 ago, proved that covered dung brought a crop 
 of potatoes from four to five tons per acre 
 larger than the same quantity of uncovered 
 dung, while there was a difference of from ten 
 to twelve bushels per acre in the yield of wheat. 
 The fact is that there is often but little virtue 
 left in the 
 
 BLEACHED AND WEATHER-BEATEN STUFF 
 
 we cart from the barnyard to the field. If we 
 are going to do the best we can with the slen- 
 der resources we have at command, we must 
 house our manure. To do this, it is not neces- 
 sary to go to a lavish expense in the way of 
 stone cellars and costly buildings. A hollow 
 receptacle scooped in the ground and a rough 
 shed over it will answer every practical pur- 
 pose. If the bottom of the place hollowed out 
 be well covered with coarse litter of some kind, 
 cr any material that will absorb the liquid 
 drainage, it will be " all there " when wanted 
 to put on the land. Beside the gain in the 
 strength of the manure, it is no small argu- 
 ment in favor of such apian of manure-saving 
 that it enables a farmer to keep his barnyard 
 neat and tidy, and promotes the comfort of 
 himself, his family, his work-people and his 
 stock. A mucky, miry barnyard is a constant 
 source of annoyance to those who have t© go 
 back and forth in it, while it is both unplea- 
 sant and unwholesome for animals to be up to 
 the hocks and even deeper in liquid filth. 
 StiU further, 
 
 CAEEFXJL COLLECTION OF ALL FEETILIZING 
 MATEEIAL 
 
 with which to augment the manure supply, is 
 a matter of no small importance. On almost 
 every farm there are low, moist places from 
 which swamp muck may be got. This, thrown 
 up in heaps at odd times during the summer, 
 will become dry and comparatively light. In 
 this state, it is well adapted to absorb liquid 
 manure. There is no better substance than 
 this for the bottom of a dung heap, or even for 
 spreading on stable floors and shed bottoms. 
 If there is a large quantity of muck on the 
 farm it will pay to compost it with manure. 
 Three loads of it mixed with one load of stable 
 dung will make a fertilizer equal to well-rotted 
 barnyard manure. In addition to this mode 
 of increasing the manure supply, there axe 
 others that should by no means be neglected. 
 The poultry droppings ; the pig-dung ; the 
 scrapings of the chip-yard ; rich turf from old 
 fence corners ; all the offal of the house ; in 
 short, whatever will decay, should be raked 
 and scraped together with miserly eagerness 
 to increase the stock and store of manure. 
 There is another thing that should by no 
 means be overlooked. It is 
 
 THE CONTENTS OF THE PEIVT. 
 
 These are usually left to accumulate and 
 form a nuisance offensive to the nose and 
 poisonous to the air. Any simple plan by 
 which dry earth can be mixed with human | 
 
 excrement abates this nuisance and provides 
 one of the most valuable of fertilizers in a. 
 form easily and pleasantly handled. It i^ 
 computed that the manure thus made by a. 
 farmer's family of average size, will well and 
 sufficiently fertilize at least an acre of landl 
 yearly. Is it not, then, worth a little trouble 
 at once to get rid of a nuisance and make ai- 
 valuable addition to the manure supply in the 
 manner suggested P 
 
 Let this matter be kept in view " all the 
 year round," — let continuous efforts be made 
 to save all the manure possible, and the des- 
 pair of getting enough will soon give way to' 
 a spirit of hopefulness. A pile continually 
 added to, will grow to " considerable bigness" 
 in the course of a twelvemonth. We are too 
 apt to despise the accumulation of littles ; but 
 it is after all, the surest, safest path to wealth. 
 Is it not possible, by dint of care and pains, to 
 make and save manure enough for ten acres 
 each year on a hundi'ed-aore farm ? If so, 
 that farm need not run down, provided there 
 be equally good management in other respects 
 to which I am about to refer. By adopting a. 
 proper system of crop rotation, and a wise use 
 of clovering, which is itself a manuring as well 
 as cropping of the land, the course of farnk 
 practice may be made to circle around a ten- 
 acre manure supply in a constant march of 
 improvement. What is needed is the adoption 
 of a right plan and the formation of a reso- 
 lute determination to carry it out. "Where 
 there's a will there's a, way." There is cer- 
 tainly a way of farming well, — both science and 
 experience point it out, and it rests with our 
 manhood to furnish the wUl. 
 
 EOTATION OF OEOPS, 
 
 is the second item m the recipe, " How to 
 Farm." This is that method by which plants, 
 dissimilar in their nature and requirements, 
 are made to succeed each other in the occu- 
 pancy of land. It is based on the principle, 
 now established beyond all room for doubt, 
 that all plants without exception exhaust the 
 soil, each in its own way, of the food neces- 
 sary to their growth. 
 
 What we call " virgin soil" is rich in all the 
 constituents of plant food ; that is to say, it is 
 capable of raising any crop the owner chooses 
 to grow, for which the climate is suited. A 
 judicious system of management should draw 
 gradually on the resources of the land by a 
 succession of croppings, and then, in due time, 
 the soil should be replenished. Unless this 
 course be followed, the land wUl get poor, and 
 neglect of this important rule of good farming 
 has done much to impoverish a great many 
 once productive Canadian farms. 
 
 To illustrate this in a simple manner. — Sup- 
 pose a field to be stored with enough plant 
 food to raise five good crops of wheat. It is 
 plain that when those five crops have been 
 produced, the laud will be sterile for wheat. 
 It is the same if we extend the term to ten, 
 twenty, fifty, or a thousand years. It is only 
 a question of time. There is a limit to the 
 
How TO Farm. 
 
 productiye capacity of the soil, and it is a bad 
 bufiness tor the farmer if he so farms as to 
 find out that limit by sad experience. Too 
 many have done this, and then, instead of re- 
 pairing the mischief, have sold out, betaken 
 themselves to some new region, and there 
 played the same foolish game over again. It 
 is a great mistake to suppose that land must 
 necessarily get poor, and incapable of yielding 
 as good crops as at first. The fact is thatj 
 under skilful management, it may not only bo 
 kept up to its original standard of productive- 
 ness, but made steadily to improve. One of 
 the best means of bringing about this result 
 is a judicious rotation. It is also one of the 
 best ways of restoring land that has been "run- 
 down." 
 
 Much has been written and published con- 
 cerning rotations, and to go fully into the sub- 
 ject would require a volume. It would also 
 necessitate the employment of scientific terms, 
 which would only confuse the generality of 
 people. If you will only accept as undoubted 
 the statements already made, there is ground 
 enough to get on, and lay out plans of improve- 
 ment. B very crop takes something out of the soil. 
 Any crop, grown too often, will rob the soil so 
 completely that it can be grown no longer. 
 But a system of rotation, or change of crop, 
 gives the land a chance to recruit. Crops 
 having diverse requirements are made to suc- 
 ceed each other. Somewhere in the rotation, 
 manure must come in to give back to the land 
 those elements of fertility which successive 
 crops have taken out of it. This is the whole 
 matter, as it were, in a nutshell. 
 
 Suppose we take a fertile bit of land and 
 commence tilling it. It matters but little, ex- 
 cept for convenience, what crop we begin with. 
 We are going to farm it so as to keep the soil 
 fertile. There are several 
 
 EXAHPLBS or KOTATIONB, 
 
 among which we may choose. There is the 
 famous " Norfolk rotation," as it is called — 
 that which prevails in the County of Norfolk, 
 England; it is; 1. Turnips. 2. Barley. 3. 
 Clover. 4. Wheat. This is a short rotation, 
 yet it is found that the land keeps up its pro- 
 ductiveness under it. Manure is put in with 
 the turnip crop. A longer course is, however, 
 preferable, giving as it does a greater variety 
 of crops and a longer interval between the 
 manurings. The following is a highly ap- 
 proved rotation in the United States : 1 . Po- 
 tatoes. 2. Corn. 3. Carrots, turnips, beets. 
 4. Rye. 5. Clover. 6. Grass. 7. Grass. 
 The Ogden Farm rotation is: 1. Corn. 2. 
 Roots. 3. Soiling crops. 4. Soiling crops 
 during the first half of the year, seeding down 
 to wheat or rye in autumn. 5. Wheat or rye 
 vrith clover and timothy. 6. Mowing ; a 
 single year's mowing to be followed by corn 
 again. 
 
 There is an almost endless variety of rota- 
 tions, and they may be determined by the 
 price of products ; the farmer's preference for 
 a particular system of husbandry ; lihe adap- 
 
 tations of the soil ; or many other considera- 
 tions. In some parts of the United States, 
 where " truck farming," asit is called, is pur- 
 sued, a long rotation like the following pre- 
 vaUs: — 1. Potatoes. 2. Beets. 3. Squashes, 
 or melons. 4. Carrots. 6. Wheat. 6. Pars- 
 nips. 7. Rye. 8. Turnips. 9. Buckwheat. 
 10. Corn. 11. Clover. 12. Grass. Here is 
 a variety, surely ; and there is the advantage 
 that, amid a multitude of crops, it is pretty 
 certain that some will do well. 
 
 I have supposed a case in which a begin- 
 ning is made with fertile land, and have indi- 
 cated briefly how that condition is to be 
 maintained. But alas ! most of us have to 
 deal with land already poor. Let us go about 
 it hopefully, however, for the most discour- 
 aging thing in the world is despair of im- 
 provement. Nor is there any ground for this. 
 Nature is grateful for attention, and will in- 
 fallibly respond to liberal treatment. Mother 
 Earth is the fabled " Lady Bountiful," and 
 she is the patroness of all improvers, however 
 small their beginnings and slow their ad- 
 vances. Most of us must begia in a small 
 way, and "make haste slowly." If we had 
 abundant capital we might hurry in the 
 manure freely, and expedite things. Bat the 
 fast method will not pay. " Slow and sure" 
 is the wiser motto. Where there is scant 
 capital, and very little manure, we must be 
 content to begin on a limited scale. It is ad- 
 visable to manure well what is undertaken, if 
 it be only an acre at a time. Eor the rest, 
 nature has provided an efEective recourse, 
 which is unfortunately a hidden secret to 
 multitudes. They are like Banyan's Pilgrim, 
 who lay sighing and groaning in the giant's 
 prison, unconscious of the fact that he had a 
 key in his bosom that would unlock all the 
 gates in Doubting Caftle. 
 
 CLOVEEINa 
 
 is the grand agricultural talisman, and with- 
 out giving prominence to it, any set of di- 
 rections how to farm would be glaringly in- 
 complete. Clover is really one crop in a good 
 rotation, but the part it plays is so important, 
 and the effects it produces are so magical, 
 that it may well be singled out and made to 
 stand " alone in its glory," as the most potent 
 preserver and restorer of soil fertility known 
 to scientific farming. A certain poet thus 
 characterizes the red clover : 
 Thou wondroDS trine-leaved plant, to which is given, 
 Hare qualities by special «;race of Heaven ! 
 Mainstay of thrifty husbandry ; thy seed 
 Brings wealth in nature's time of utmost need ; 
 Thy juicy herbage kine with zest consame ; 
 The fields are lovely with thy pinky bloom ; 
 Thy honeyed sweetness loads the summer's breath; 
 And thou art fragrant, goodne!)s-like, In death. 
 
 All this is true, without Uoense of poetry, or 
 allowance for exaggeration. To my mind, the 
 clover is the most wonderful plant the Lord 
 God made when He created the heavens and 
 the earth. It is a crop and a manure at one 
 and the same time. During its growth there 
 is a large accumulation of nitrogenous matter 
 
How TO FA'HM. 
 
 in the soil, espeoially at or near the surface. 
 The full-grown roots ploughed under furnish, 
 in their decay, a large store of fertilizing 
 material. Science fails to explain how it is, 
 but abundant evidence proves that a stocking 
 of clover is what learned agriculturists term 
 an ''amendment." It would be quite correct 
 to call it a revolution, for whereas a soil has 
 been running down, it no sooner becomes oc- 
 cupied with clover than the downhiU process 
 is arrested, and improvement sets in. It has 
 become an axiom in scientific agriculture, that 
 no soil is hopelessly barren that will grow 
 clover, and any intelligent, well-read farmer 
 who undertook the reclamation of a wornout 
 farm, ^ould make clover his main-stay. In 
 fact, it argues a deplorable amount of ignor- 
 ance and negligence that with such a resource 
 as clover, land should ever be suffered to be- 
 come impoverished. It is a profitable crop in 
 a rotation, and coming in its proper turn 
 would arrest the progress of exhaustion. 
 
 TO DBEIVE THE PXTLL BENEFIT EECM OLOVEEINO, 
 
 the following points must be carefully noted. 
 1. That it must be sown without admixture of 
 timothy or other grass seed, the object being 
 to get the soil thickly stocked vrith clover. 2. 
 That clover is a biennial plant, and benefits 
 the land most at the stage of complete ma- 
 turity. 3. That ripening its seed does not, as 
 in the case of other plants, exhaust the soil ; 
 on the contrary, by some strange and well- 
 nigh miraculous provision in nature, the de- 
 posit of nitrogenous matter goes on most quick- 
 ly and largely in the very act of ripening the 
 seed. 
 
 Many farmers abstain from Bowing clover 
 alone, from the idea that it makes inferior hay. 
 As usually treated, it certainly does; but right- 
 ly made it is the most nutritious of all forage 
 plants. It is usually cut too late, and after 
 being inown it is dried to powder. Cut in 
 early blossom, put at once into cock, and cured 
 instead of dried, it is the most delicious and 
 the richest herbage we can preserve for the 
 winter food of stock of all kiuds, not excepting 
 horses. The common belief that clover hay 
 gives horses "the heaves," or aggravates that 
 complaint where it already exists, is the result 
 of the unwise treatment by which it is con- 
 verted into a "dry-as-dust" burlesque upon 
 genuine, "A. 1" cloverhay. 
 
 ANOTHEE HINDEANOB 
 
 to the extensive growth of clover is the diffi- 
 culty of getting a "catch," asitis called. How 
 many farmers have poured into my ear the sad 
 tale of money wasted in the purchase of clover 
 seed that failed to grow ! An old farmer 
 , with whom I was walking to one of my 
 lectures, and conversing on the subject of 
 clover, exclaimed that he would willingly give 
 five dollars for a receipt that would secure the 
 seed taking "every time." I said. Here it ^is 
 for nothing in three words : 
 
 sow IT ALONE. 
 
 If, as the result of this coqrs^ pf lectures, 
 
 that brief prescription for securing a catch of 
 clover, can only be published through all the 
 country wide, and a trial of it secured, it will 
 add immensely to our national wealth. And 
 if the man who makes two blades of grass 
 grow where only one grew before, is a bene- 
 factor to his race, where shall the word be 
 found to characterize the man who makes a 
 thousand clover plants grow where none grew 
 before ! The imagination of the most sanguine 
 castle-builder in the air, might well give up 
 the task of picturing the honors and rewards 
 that must be in store for so great a philan- 
 thropist. 
 
 But, pleasantry aside, there can be little 
 doubt that sowing it alone will in nineteen 
 cases out of twenty secure a catch of clover. 
 It fails, because it can only make a weak, 
 spindling growth under the shadow of a grain 
 crop, and so it either succumbs to summer 
 drought or winter frost. Give it full posses- 
 sion of the soil ; sow it at the earliest possible 
 moment ; let it have the whole season to grow 
 in, and there is little danger of its proving a 
 disappointment. If it be said that by adopting 
 this plan a season is lost, I answer, that clover 
 will usually yield a light crop of hay or some 
 fall pasturage the same season it is sown ; but 
 even if the first season be lost, three returns can 
 be had the next : — 1, a crop of hay ; 2, a crop 
 of clover seed ; and 3, a good dressing of 
 manure. Surely such a three-fold return 
 ought to satisfy the most exacting tiller of the 
 soU who ever sought to get rich at farming ! 
 
 Here then is 
 
 A BTABTINa POINT 
 
 for an improving course of culture. Between 
 manure and clover, the crops will rotate on an 
 upgrade of constantly increasing yield, and 
 there will be steady improvement in the qual- 
 ity of the soil. It is hardly needful to say 
 that stock must be kept up to the fuU capa- 
 city of the land, in order that there may be a 
 supply of manure furnished from year to year. 
 Another important point is to quit selling any 
 farm products except those that can walk to 
 market. Let the crops be put into living 
 frames, and returned to the land in the shape 
 of manure. The new cattle trade with Bri- 
 tain affords a splendid opportunity for farm- 
 ers to turn over a new leaf, raise forage, feed 
 stock, make manure, and start on a rotation of 
 crops, in which clover shall play the most con- 
 spicuous part, and that vrill enrich them with- 
 out beggaring their farms. 
 
 If I were giving 
 
 A PEW BBIEF ADVICES 
 
 to stimulate a better kind of agricultural en- 
 terprise, they would be such as the follow- 
 ing ; If you have a " run-down " farm, quit 
 selling hay and grain off it. Feed stock, and 
 sell only such products as can walk to market. 
 Grow roots, putting on all the manure you 
 can rake, scrape, and make. Seed plentifully 
 ■ffith clover, and plough down two-year-old 
 
10 
 
 How TO Farm. 
 
 loots of thiB eniiohing plant. Baise iax a 
 time, lesB grain and more grass. Pursue this 
 course of tusbaudry for awhile, and welcome 
 as the signs of returning health to a weakly 
 invalid will be the tokens of increased fortuity. 
 The desert will rejoice and blossom. All 
 things will take on a new aspect. The very 
 climate will improve. The times will cease to 
 be "hard." Betterfarmlng wUl put new life into 
 business. This is the true " National Policy." 
 It will work wonders, throwing aU the nos- 
 trums of politicians far into the shade ! 
 
 Just at this point, it will very probably be 
 said, All this is very fine theory, but can you 
 give any 
 
 EXAMPLES OV SUOH FABMINO 
 
 as has been recommended ? I answer, Yes. 
 Let me cite some of thorn. There is a neigh- 
 bor of mine, whom I will denominate " John 
 Bull," for he is an Englishman, He is an 
 excellenjt farmer of the old school, very chary 
 about novelties, but a firm believer in the wise 
 adage, " No stock, no manure; no manure, no 
 crops." His farm consists of 140 acres, and 
 the arable part of it, 90 acres, is divided 
 into sis 15-aore fields. The remainder of the 
 iarm may be called a permanent pasture, com- 
 prising about fifteen acres of bush, culled and 
 grassy ; about the same quantity of cleared 
 swamp, that has never been broken up, and 
 the rest old sod. His crop rotation is : 1. 
 Turnips and rape ; 2. Wheat ; 3. Oats ; 4. 
 Barley ; and then two years in grass or clov- 
 er. Only wheat and live stock are sold off the 
 place. His farm carries an astonishing lot of 
 stock. At the time of a recent visit I paid to 
 him he had thirty-six head of neat cattle, five 
 horses, 120 sheep, thirty pigs, sixty-four tur 
 keys, fifty or sixty fowls, twenty ducks and 
 five geese— in all, 340 creatures. There were 
 twelve head of cattle put up to fat, thirteen 
 hogs nearly ready for the knife, twenty young 
 gobblers being fed for the Christmas market, 
 besides others of the poultry tribe. The only 
 item of bad management was his bam yard, 
 where the dung was lying in promiscuous 
 heaps, after the usual careless fashion. Yet 
 " John Bull's" farming pays. He is reticent 
 about his profits, makes " a poor mouth" now 
 and then, like most farmers, but the signs of 
 thrift and prosperity are too evident to be mis- 
 taken. He keeps a bank account, has money 
 at interest, Uves well, works hard, is a keen 
 buyer and seller, and feels mighty independ- 
 ent, as he has a right to do. His farm is in a. 
 high state of cultivation, much of it is under- 
 drained, and be the seasons good, bad or in- 
 diEEerent, he always has crops. [N.B. — Bad 
 farming hurts us far more than bad weather.] 
 He has been on the same place for more than 
 thirty years,and has never exhausted it. What 
 capital he had to start with I do not know, 
 but as he was a tenant-farmer in England be- 
 fore coming to this country he no doubt 
 brought some ready money with him. Per- 
 haps he has never been cramped as most farm- 
 ers are for want of capital ; but even so, Ms 
 
 example is highly encouraging and stimulat- 
 ing. My visit of inspection was quite inspir- 
 iting, and my chat with the old gentleman 
 brought out many instructive hints. One of 
 them especially is worth remembering. ' 'Any 
 farm," he said, " can be brought up that wUl 
 grow even a light crop of turnips or rape with- 
 out manure. Eaise green feed, hurdle sheep 
 on it, and you may sow grain next year." 
 One of the best sights on his place was a patch 
 of rape closely eaten down by sheep. Part of 
 it was ploughed, andthe remainder was thick- 
 ly dotted with rape stumps and sheep drop- 
 pings. I was so inquisitive and docUe that 
 "John Bull" was pleased to remark on my 
 leaving, " T believe you will make -a good 
 farmer yet." This was highly flattering, in 
 view of the low opinion he, in common with 
 many of his class, entertains, perhaps justly, 
 of agricultural editors. 
 
 42 BUSHELS OF WHEAT PEE ACBE. 
 
 In the course of my lecture tour, I met with 
 an instance full of encouragement, as pruving 
 what may be done by good culture. In the 
 neighborhood of Drummondville, Peter Wright 
 has 50 acres of rented land, adjacent to another 
 50, which he owns. Eight years ago, when 
 his tenancy began, this land was in a beggared 
 state. Mr. Wright was carrying on an ash- 
 ery, and spread leached ashes over the worn- 
 out place, at the rate of 12 loads per acre. He 
 has pursued a thorough system of husbandry, 
 and during the past season, harrested 585 bush- 
 els of wheat from fourteen acres. This is 
 within a trifle of 42 bushels per acre. The 
 preparation for this particular crop, was 200 
 lbs. of superphosphate, and one barrel of salt 
 per acre. This dressing cost about J4 per 
 acre. Ordinary manure was applied the pre- 
 vious year, I think, with a corn crop. Wm. 
 Parker of Stamford, had about the same wheat 
 yield, with similar treatment. The straw pro- 
 duct was large also. 
 
 THIS KIND OE EAEMma PATS, 
 
 and if we had more of it there would be fewer 
 complaints of small averages of grain. The 
 fact is that our diminished crops are mainly 
 due to poor farming. " Feed the land, and it 
 will feed you," is a sure axiom. There is no 
 worse agricultural policy than that which al- 
 lows land to become exhausted. It requires 
 as much labor to put in crops when the land 
 is poor as when it is rich. In the one case, 
 labor is only partially requited, while in the 
 other it is amply recompensed. 
 
 A EEILLIANT EXAMPLE. 
 
 I will cite yet another case, which is the 
 more interesting and apropos because the 
 gentleman I am about to refer to is a repre- 
 sentative member of this Dominion G-range. 
 I trust he wUl pardon the liberty I now take 
 in putting him into my picture gallery, and 
 exhibiting him before this audience. He is 
 but a young man yet, and has only recently 
 led to the hymeneal altar one of the fair god- 
 
How TO ParM. 
 
 11 
 
 desses of the Grange. The honey-moon is 
 hardly over, — let us hope it never will be. 
 That it may extend all through a long life of 
 conjugal happiness and agricultural success 
 is, I am sure, the sincere wish of aU their 
 brother and sister patrons, whether pre- 
 sent or absent. But leaving the delightful 
 subject of wedded bliss, for the more prosaic 
 and practical one at present under considera- 
 tion, I would say that the gentleman in 
 question is a most intelligent, enterprising and 
 successful farmer, whose career furnishes an 
 example I should like to see extensively fol- 
 lowed. ' He commenced farming without any 
 practical experience at the age of twenty-one, 
 on a rented place. His capital consisted of 
 but a few hundred dollars, which he sunk in 
 the course of three years owing to his inex- 
 perience and the impoverished coudicion of the 
 farm he had taken in hand. The next two 
 years he held his own and made a little. 
 Now came the turning-point. His lease was 
 out ; should he abandon f \rming or persevere ? 
 He resolved to "fight it out on that line," 
 having as he believed, bought and paid for the 
 experience that would ensure success. He 
 rented a farm in a good state of cultivation, 
 paying a stiff rent for it, and embarked in his 
 new venture with the determination to try 
 whether there was anything in agricultural 
 science. He acted on the principle of return- 
 ing to the soU in some shape whatever was 
 taken out of it. He kept stock to the utmost 
 capacity of the farm. He used leached ashes 
 freely. Best of all, he pinned his faith to 
 clover. This has been 
 
 HIS CHEET ANOHOB, 
 
 and right well has it served him. He seeds 
 down with every possible crop ; keeps the land 
 full of clover ; makes clover the preparation 
 for wheat, and grows bountiful crops. Mark 
 this, ye disheartened farmers, whose average 
 yield of wheat is low, and who think old land 
 cannot be made to produce like new. The 
 wheat yield on this farm, under the present 
 management, has never been less than 
 
 THiJblTt BUSHELS FEB ACBE. 
 
 It has reached thirty-five, thirty-eight, and 
 one year went as high as thirty-nine and a 
 half bushels per acre. This year the crop was 
 800 bushels. It was refreshing to hear this 
 man talk about farming. He is none of your 
 croakers. He considers farming the best and 
 safest business going. He makes all the 
 manure he can on his own premises; buys aU 
 the manure he can from abroad, keeps his 
 land rich ; and reaps abundant harvests. He 
 is as great an enthusiast on clover as I am, 
 and his enthusiasm is backed up by a long 
 and- successful experience. He could not 
 be induced to sow timothy. He laughs at 
 the idea of clover hay being unfit for horses, 
 for he feeds no other. But he knows how to 
 harvest it. Cut in early blossom, put in the 
 cock at once, eured with all the juice and 
 aroma in it, no wonder his live stock eat it 
 
 heartily. H^ feiows large quantities of 
 corn, which he outs as soon as he can find the 
 first glazed ear in the field. It is husked in 
 the field, and the stalks are hauled to the bam 
 and treated like hay. They are fed chiefly to 
 milch cows, and are found excellent for keep- 
 ing up the flow of milk. 
 
 Now here is a man who commenced virtual- 
 ly without capital, for he sunk his little means 
 during the first three years of his tenancy. 
 He has not only made a good living, but saved 
 money. I will not venture to guess what he 
 is worth, but he has the reputation of being 
 rich. Enough that, as already stated, he is 
 satisfied with his success, and speaks well of 
 his business. Nor has he made 
 
 A DETJDOE OF HIMSELF. 
 
 He keeps help enough to do work in its 
 proper season, and does much or little him- 
 self, as he sees fit. He drives the mower 
 in haying-time, and the reaper in harvest — a 
 good way of keeping a sharp oversight of all 
 that is going on. He is not an exacting em- 
 ployer or a cruel overseer among his men, but 
 believes that the master's eyes are worth more 
 than his hands. He also thinks that a farm 
 of 200 acres ought to support one set of brains. 
 His running expenses now average $200 per 
 month ; and this year's sales, notwithstanding 
 the low price of produce, will foot up $5,000. 
 Our friend enjoys farming ; feels a pride 
 in it; keeps a vigilant eye on everything, 
 and takes hold with his own hands, as in- 
 clination disposes him or necessity demands. 
 One such example as this is worth untold 
 millions to an agricultural country like 
 ours, and I take pleasure in holding it 
 up to the public gaze. It ought to stimu- 
 late energetic young men, put grumbling 
 farmers to the blush, and encourage us all to 
 do our best. But let it be remembered that 
 this man is a reader and a thinker, takes the 
 leading agricultural journals, is familiar irith 
 the standard books on farming, and keeps 
 up with the times in agricultural information. 
 In short, he iis 
 
 A " BOOK FAE&EEB." 
 
 It is the ambition of every true Granger to 
 be suoh a farmer. It is the grand aim of the 
 Grange to produce farmers of this class, and 
 plant them all over our broad Dominion, until 
 they "increase, and multiply, and replenish 
 the earth." In so doing, "we wage no 
 aggressive warfare against any other in- 
 terest whatever." On the contrary, we seek to 
 promote every other legitimate national and in- 
 dividual interest. Successful agriculture means 
 prosperity to every other lawful calling. We 
 therefore invite our brothers in every line of 
 business to j oin hands with us,and labor to make 
 " this Canada of ours" the most desirable land 
 beneath the sun ; — a land where peace shall 
 diffuse its myriad blessings ; where plenty 
 shall fill its liberal horn ; where education 
 snail create general intelligence, and Reli- 
 gion guide her votaries to the " better laud I" 
 
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 The Witness Publications. 
 
 :oo; 
 
 Montreiil Daily Witness, price, post paid, S3. 00 circulation 14,951 
 
 Montreal Weekly Witness, - 1.10 " 26,300 
 
 L'Aurore (French, Illiis.), • - 1.00 " 850 
 
 Northern Messenger (lUus.), - 30o. " 46,400 
 
 THE WITNESS CONTAINS AS MUCH AGRICULTURAL MATTER AS 
 A FARMER'S WEEKLY. 
 
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 ^ 
 
 Cash commissions and prizes are given for subscriptions, and the following offers g 
 
 o are also made : 
 
 ) g Any person sending us FOTJE. new subscribers to the Weekly Witness, at "• 
 
 \ Pi $1.10 each, will get an extra copy for one year. |> 
 
 ] S Any person sending us one new subscriber to the Weekly Witness will 2 
 
 j g receive a copy of the Northern Messenger FE.EE for one year. 
 
 i ►^ A special edition of the Northern Messenger, to be called the Northern g 
 
 i to Messenger and Sabbath-School Companion for Sabbath-schools preferring it g 
 
 W to the Messenger as it is at present, wiU be issued very shortly. It wiU pi 
 
 i H differ from the ordinary edition in having the third page, now occupied by G 
 
 <) Agricultural and Scientific matter, devoted to Sabbath-school matter. It will be 
 
 ■: rf under the direction of experienced Sabbath-school workers, and will contain hints ^ 
 
 concerning the management of schools, in addition to reading adapted peculiarly a 
 
 K to children. The price of the Messenger is 30 cents a year. The club rates are tri 
 
 H as follows : — g^ 
 
 fi 10 copies to one address - $ 2.50 a year. S 
 
 I g 25 " " " . 6.50 " H 
 
 ! S 50 " " " 11.50 " fe 
 
 i I 100 " " " 22.00 " S 
 
 j " All instructions necessary to begin this work will be sent on application to the S 
 
 j j^ publishers. The prize list may be found in any copy of the Weekly Witness. 
 
 EVERY LETTER OF ENQUIRY ANSWERED. a 
 
 t-i 
 
 S HOW A NEWSPAPER IS MADE. ^ 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 ^ A highly interesting account of the manufacture of a Daily Newspaper, H 
 
 Q reprinted from the New Dominion Monthly, has been issued by the Publishers, a 
 
 ^ and will be sent free to any address on receipt of a One Cent Stamp. This is a 3 
 
 < subject every one ia interested in. Address at once, before the issue has been a 
 
 m exhausted. H 
 
 I JOHN DOUGALL & SON, Montreal. o 
 
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