1852. What is the best way of using barnyard manure?" Answer. "Plough it under this fall for next spring's corn-crop." "Should it be left spread on the surface, or ploughed under directly?" Club equally divided. But in August of the next year "the majority favor hauling out manure on the sod now and leaving it spread to plow under in the spring for On this important question the majority in favor of leaving barnyard manure spread on the surface increased from year to year, so that in 1859, 16 out of 17 farmers present prefer surface manuring "

corn

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In 1853 the club is reported as equally divided in regard to putting in wheat with the drill, or sowing it broadcast. Though wheat drills were early introduced among us, it happened that some experiments made to test the two methods showed, or seemed to show, an advantage for that sown broadcast. Whereupon our farmers too hastily gave up the drill for several years. Since the guano attachment was added the practice of using the drill has been resumed, and seems likely to become general.

1853. Majority against rounding roads in our clay soil.

The sentiment on this point has since changed.

September, 1852, decided it would be economical to apply 250 pounds of guano and 9 or 10 bushels of bone per acre of wheat. In August, 1854, 5 bushels bone per acre preferred for wheat. In 1855, majority favor the larger dressing.

It is fairly presumable that the opinions of farmers in this particular locality are not a whit more vague and conflicting than those of the great agricultural class in other parts of the country. I am sure the readers of the interesting report of proceedings of the American Institute Farmers' Club, as published in the Tribune, must be struck with the frequent evidences there exhibited of amusing inconsistencies and fanciful doctrines. I think farmers are a good deal alike, and the speci mens above exhibited, with many similar ones that might be extracted from the proceedings of every farmers' club, may be regarded as a representative picture, showing that agriculture has its "uncertainties" as well as other professions. The important question is, what are the proper means of removing, or at least relieving, these uncertainties? The association which has been so often referred to gave the true answer to this question at an early period of its career. At a meeting held in October, 1846, the proposition was made and unanimously adopted that "cach member should make a certain experiment in agriculture, of such sort and on such a scale as may be convenient, to be agreed upon at the regular meeting held at his house, the results to be reported at the next ensuing meeting held there." It is very much to be regretted that so excellent a plan was not vigorously executed, but suffered to fall gradually into disuse. And this neglect must be regarded as the one great omission in the history of the club.

Some interesting experiments were made in compliance with this rule of the association, but as the present article is already drawing to a greater length than was designed, I shall not occupy more space with details of results necessarily inconclusive for want of confirmation by persistent repetition.

There remains, however, one experiment made by two members of the club, so closely connected with the purpose for which this article is especially written that I cannot pass it over. It is well known that the analysis of soils came into fashion a few years ago, and for a time excited great expectations of the benefit it would be to the farmer. These expectations have not as yet been fulfilled. The results from analysis thus far obtained are so imperfect as to create doubts of its value in the minds of even many scientific men. A single experiment was tried, as before mentioned, with impressive results. A quantity of earth was taken from an old sedge field, long thrown out from cultivation, and as sterile as they have them in old Montgomery, and analyzed (in the laboratory of B. Hallowell) at the same time with an equal quantity of the richest soil belonging to the county. The usual earthy constituents, clay, silex, &c., were found in nearly equal proportions in both; next lime was tested for, and now the experimenters expected to observe a great difference, but the well-known white precipitate fell in both vials in nearly the same sufficient amount. But

when we came to try for the phosphates, the proper test exhibited a full proportion. in the fertile soil, and none, or a mere trace, in the other. Of course the means of cure for the sterile soil was plain. Bone was applied, and the field has, for nearly 20 years, produced good crops of wheat, corn, clover, and timothy.

It appears to me a matter of positive certainty, whatever chemistry may have done or failed to do for agriculture in the past, that a wide field is open for it in the future. Great improvements are yet to be effected by its agency, but in order to realize them the chemist must become a practical farmer, and the farmer be an intelligent chemist. Were it only to teach the art of making experiments, the lessons of that science are invaluable, in fact, indispensable. And this remark brings me to the last, and, in my view, most important part of what I started out to say. Reflecting persons, who look attentively at the present condition of the country, must see that it is time something should be done to keep our young men from carrying their stout arms and (what is more important still) their lively minds into other pursuits. The drain that has long been going on, and never more rapidly than now, is most exhausting and fatal. In spite of allí that has been said and sung by naturalist and poet in praise of the country, our youth "still crowd the road impatient for the town." They leave the place where they are sorely needed, and go where they are not wanted. Why is this? and must it continue so? Various causes are at work which influence the youthful mind: the fatal "haste.to be rich," blinding their reason to the fact that good farming is now the surest road to solid wealth; the disgust for "hard work," driving them into scenes often found to be more painfully laborious than those the left; the desire for the vulgar excitement of a crowd overpowering the voices of nature that call them to a beauty, a wonder, an enjoyment more rational, pure and elevating than aught the tumult of cities can afford. To correct these false views of life, and of the higher purposes for which it was given, there needs

present application of direct antidotes. Above all things it is needed to make agricultural pursuits interesting to the young, so they will gladly take to them, and not stay in the country merely because they cannot get away. Now the one sure way to make anything interesting is to address directly the mind and heart. It is not enough to see that farming feeds the body; you must show that it possesses every attraction for the mind. But the intellect especially requires problems for its investigation, with some assurance of certain beneficial results. It requires, above all things, to be kept active. In no sphere in life

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this end be more surely attained than in solving the innumerable problems that throng the farmer on every side, by means of experiments devised with intelligence and pursued with perseverance. This appears to present the most interesting and fruitful field of action which the busy world now offers to busy

man.

IRRIGATION.

BY CHARLES D. POSTON, Arizona.

The attention of Congress was called to the subject of irrigation in Arizona several years ago, and $150,000 were granted for that purpose. Aided by that grant the first irrigating canal undertaken by our government is now progressing favorably under the direction of Colonel George W. Dent, superintendent of Indian affairs for that Territory. This measure was a necessity. In that country, without irrigation there can be no production, no life. With such a canal

the soil of the Colorado becomes wonderfully productive. The sun is very genial, and the valley being not more than 350 feet above the level of the sea, possesses an immunity from snows and frosts.

Nor is irrigation a new experiment. It existed in Egypt before the pyramids were reared; it was practiced in Asia before Confucius wrote; it was brought to great perfection by the Aztecs of America, when our ancestors in Europe were dressed in skins and furs and lived by the chase. It is scientific agriculture, and the only insurance against the uncertainties of a crop. With a proper sys tem of irrigation you will surely reap where you sow, yea, even twice or thrice a year. There is no reason, then, why the valley of the Colorado may not be made as productive as the valley of the Nile. In that climate it only needs the vivifying influence of water to make the productions of nature spring up like magic. The sediment of the Colorado will plaster the walls of a canal and make them impervious to water. Such is the beautiful provision of nature. On this river a lively commerce is springing up, and some half dozen steamboats already plough its turbid waters. It is navigable 500 miles from its mouth, and drains the Great American Basin. So the Indians will have a ready market for their surplus productions at their very doors, and the friendly waters of the Colorado will bear them untaxed to market.

The amount of land that will be brought under cultivation is estimated at 75,000 acres, which will produce abundant subsistence for 10,000 Indians-a much more economical and humane policy than has generally characterized our Indian affairs.

The Pima and Maricopa Indians, at their villages on the Gila river, have a very prosperous community of some 12,000 souls, subsisting entirely upon the results of a well-established system of irrigation. They cultivate wheat, corn, barley, cotton, beans, peas, pumpkins, and other vegetables, are sure of abundant crops, live in a genial climate, and suffer none of the anxieties of nomadic tribes. They have no public debt and pay no taxes.

Near the Pima villages in Arizona, the former inhabitants had irrigating. canals diverting the waters of the Gila to a vast plain, which is now an abandoned, desolate, sandy desert. In its midst stands a lonely monument of a perished race in the ruins of a large adobe building, which may have been used as a citadel, a granary, or a temple. Five stories yet remain in a tolerable state of preservation, but its remoteness from water renders it difficult of access; and, although its dim shadow may be seen from the highway, looming up like a grim sentinel of the desert, few travellers ever diverge from the pressing duties of life to visit this mysterious and melancholy monument of the past. The Pima Indians can give no account of this ruin, except the idle tradition that it was the "House of Montezuma."

At the junction of the Verde and Salinas, tributaries of the Gila, there is an older and larger canal, which can be traced about 40 miles. Its bed is 25 feet wide, and its banks are yet 10 feet high. In the vicinity are the ruins of two cities, and between them the remains of an ancient fortification, which, judging from its size, must have been intended for a place of refuge in time of war. The Spaniards visited these interesting ruins in 1542, and first made them known to the world in the narrative of Father Marco de Niza, and in Casteñada's account of the exploration of the Colorado by Coranado..

TEXAS.

The Rio Grande del Norte is of no practical utility for navigation, but affords an abundant supply of water for the irrigating canals which tap its channel from source to mouth. The entire valley of the Rio Grande, like the Colorado, depends upon irrigation for cultivation. The irrigating canal, or acequia, at El Paso del Norte, is the largest. It taps the river at the falls of the Rio Grande

near Hart's mills, some five miles above the city, and supplies the valley for a distance of 25 or 30 miles, producing subsistence for a population of 15,000 souls. The vineyards of El Paso are not surpassed in the delicious flavor of their grapes, and the cereals are produced in abundance. On the American side of the river irrigating canals are taken out at Dona Aña, Las Cruces, Franklin, Isleta, Socorro, and many other small towns and settlements.

In the southern part of Texas irrigation is practiced to a considerable extent, and the towns of San Antonio and New Braunfels are beautified by irrigating streams, trained to run through their streets, gardens, and houses.

UTAH.

The greatest success which irrigation has achieved in this country is in the Territory of Utah, where the skilled and patient industry of the Mormons has literally made "the desert to blossom as the rose."

In Great Salt Lake City the beautiful mountain streams are trained to run along the streets, nourishing shade-trees, and overflowing gardens and fields, blooming with vegetation.

The value of the agricultural production of Utah, by the system of irrigation, is estimated at $4,500,000 for the year 1866.

The estimated area of tillable land is 268,000 acres, which at a ratio of 640 inhabitants to the square mile of irrigated land, will give support to 402,000 persons from the proceeds of agriculture.

The amount of land at present cultivated by irrigation is 134,000 acres.

CALIFORNIA.

In California I found irrigating canals which had been opened under the supervision of the Jesuit missionaries by the labor of the natives. At every Catholic mission these canals stretch for miles over land that produced nothing until these vivifying streams were spread upon it.

• The absorbing occupation of gold-seeking has temporarily retarded the development of the agricultural resources of California; but the time is not far distant when the "golden era" will pale before a correct system of irrigation, for which the soil, climate, and water of that State are admirably adapted.

The science of hydraulic engineering, which has been stimulated to its highest perfection in the mineral regions, will be turned into the more legitimate and permanent channels of agriculture. With the exhaustion of the gold-placers the ditch and flume will find a richer "placer" in the vineyards and fields of cereals and vegetables of her prolific valleys. The reservoir of water congealed by nature in the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevadas will be trained to permeate the parched valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, vivifying the soil, and enriching the husbandman more than it has ever done the miner.

The only safety for agriculture in California is in the adoption of an enlarged system of irrigation; it is the only insurance against famine, or a sudden drain upon her golden treasury in some year when the rain may fail. The rain-fall in California is only 20 inches, while in the Atlantic States and Europe it is more than double that amount.

If it is true, as stated, that irrigation increases the production from one-fourth to one-third, besides the insurance of a harvest, then a large outlay would be justifiable in securing its benefits. The high price of labor at the present time would make the cost of constructing irrigating canals in California greater than in any other country; but, if water can be afforded in Italy for $1 per acre, it ought to be supplied in California for $2 50 per acre. But the immigration of the Chinese, those ancient masters of irrigating science, will soon cheapen this kind of labor, and the despised Asiatics will contribute more to the prosperity of California, in building up a great system of canal irrigation, than they have already done in aiding the construction of the Pacific railroad.

An instance is stated which occurred near Stockton, where irrigation applied to grass land paid the enterprising proprietors, in one season, more than forty times the cost of opening the canal.

MEXICO AND SOUTH AMERICA.

The Spaniards, to their astonishment, found aqueducts and irrigating canals brought to great perfection in Mexico. The gardens of the Aztecs were the agricultural wonders of the New World. The Spaniards, already familiar with the system of irrigation in Europe, extended it in Mexico in vast proportions; and the masonry of aqueducts, reservoirs, and irrigating canals, forms some of the greatest monuments which they have left as a heritage to Mexico.

In Peru and Chili, aqueducts and canals were found by the Spanish conquerors crossing the lowlands in every direction, spreading over the country like a vast net-work, diffusing fertility and beauty around them; whilst the very sides of the Andes were terraced with trenches for catching water and conducting it, in some instances, many leagues to a lower temperature and a more fertile soil.

ENGLAND.

In England irrigation has been mostly confined to meadow lands, as the moist ure of the.climate renders it unnecessary for the cultivation of arable lands. It is stated that 1,292,329 acres of meadow lands, or nearly one-half of the grass lands of England, are irrigated.

The beneficial results of irrigating meadow lands have demonstrated a wonderful pecuniary profit. An experiment in drainage and irrigation made by Lord Hatherton upon 89 acres of meadow lands in Staffordshire afforded a clear annual interest on the outlay of 37 per cent. In Somersetshire a tract of 30 acres was drained and irrigated for meadow land, causing an increase in the rental from 2 shillings to 25 shillings per acre.

IRRIGATION FROM CITIES.

In Edinburgh, the drainage-water from a large portion of the city spread on meadow land caused an advance in the rent from £5 to £30 per acre. The grass was sometimes cut seven times in a season. The saving to the city of Edinburgh from the drainage-water thus economized is estimated at £45,000 sterling per annum

The drainage from London is no longer allowed to pollute the Thames, and wash away into the sca. Immense hydraulic engines may be seen on the river, some ten miles below London bridge, pumping up the sewage of the great metropolis to be spread upon the lands of the surrounding country, enriching a district heretofore unproductive.

In approaching Paris your olfactory organs will apprise you that the ordure of the gay capital no longer follows the Seine to the sea, but is utilized and spread upon the vegetable gardens which are to regale your appetite in the bril liant cafés of the epicurean city. Irrigation with liquid manure, by hose and pipe, is practiced extensively in France.

Next to the introduction of fresh water into a city, the disposition of its waste and sewage, in respect to the sanitary condition of its population, and the enrich ment of soil in its vicinity, is most important.

It is estimated that in a city of 100,000 inhabitants there is produced of human manure 24,440 tons per year, a quantity sufficient to fertilize 50,000 acres of land; and if conveyed to the soil by irrigation, would be worth at least $60,000

per annum.