Agriculture

“ But agriculture is in a rude state. I saw them ploughing with a stick, and sawing with an axe, hoeing their corn with a shovel, and grinding it with a pebble. A few of our clever farmers, bringing with them their agricultural apprentices, would give new life and energy to the country. ”

“ It is one of the most baffling mysteries of history, that agriculture—the first industry to be learned, was the last one to be developed. For thousands of years the wise men of the world absolutely ignored the problems of the farm. ”

“ AGRICULTURE.—Until very recently, at least, agriculture has been by far our most important industry. Of the two billion acres comprising continental United States, approximately half are under cultivation. In most sections of the country the quality of the soil is good, and rainfall is ample. We have long led the world in the value of farm crops grown. Our production of wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, and dairy products totals an enormous figure. ”

“ Agriculture' includes farming in all its branches and among other things includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil * * * the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities * * * and any practices * * * performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market.' [9] (Italics supplied.) ”

“ I regard the Agriculture of this country as very far below the standard which, it should ere this have reached: I hold that the great mass of our cultivators might and should farm better than they do, and that better farming would render their sons better citizens and better men. ”

“ The warmth of the climate, the natural fertility of the country, the knowledge which the inhabitants have acquired of the arts of agriculture, and the discovery and gradual adaptation to every soil of the most useful vegetable productions, enable them very speedily to draw from almost any part of the surface, what is there esteemed an equivalent to much more than the labour bestowed in tilling and cropping it. ”

“ If the industrial activities of the world be divided into farming, mining, manufacturing, trade and transportation, it will be noted at once that farming is the only one which deals with living things. In fact, the definition of agriculture, in its broadest sense, is the economic production of living things. ”

“ Progress less in agriculture than in other branches of production.—Still, when all is said, agriculture is the branch of production which has been affected least by the changes of the century. The farmer is still bound to the soil and subject to the weather. ”

“ Agriculture is founded upon the assurance afforded by experience, that the earth, cultivated and sown in a certain manner, when it has otherwise the requisite qualities, will furnish grain, fruit, and flowers, either necessary for subsistence or pleasing to the senses. ”

“ Production at that stage meant agriculture, with side occupations such as hunting, fishing, weaving, tanning, pottery, thatching and peat cutting, in the all but continuous countryside. There was a very little mining, but outside of the commercial towns and the growing capital cities people made their living by taking care of domestic animals and tilling the soil. ”

“ The vast field of agriculture, forestry and irrigation has become the subject of an extensive scientific literature. No special branch has been left untouched: irrigation and drainage, forestry, the cultivation of cereals, of leguminous and tuberous plants, of vegetables, of fruit trees, of berries, of flowers and ornamental plants; fodder for cattle raising; meadows; rational methods of breeding cattle, fish and poultry and bees, and the utilization of their excrements; utilization of manure and refuse in agriculture and manufacture ”

“ And, finally, I call attention with pride to the fact that in my department of the magazine the farmer will always find full market reports, and also complete instructions about farming, even from the grafting of the seed to the harrowing of the matured crop. I shall throw a pathos into the subject of Agriculture that will surprise and delight the world. ”

“ Blessed be agriculture! if one does not have too much of it. ”

“ But, in truth, he has much higher motives for learning agriculture here; for a thorough acquaintance will enable him to make the best use of inadequate means—to know to apply cheap animal instead of dear manual labour,—to suit the crop to the soil, and the labour to the weather;—to construct appropriate dwellings for himself and family, live stock, and provisions ”

“ The whole story of the development of agriculture in all these ways furnishes abundant illustration of this counteracting tendency. In some regions it has more than counter-balanced the tendency to diminishing returns. Various staple products, like wheat, show in their diminishing value the advance in methods of culture and adjustment of labor to production. ”

“ The motto of the department of agriculture of the United States—"Agriculture is the foundation of manufacture and commerce"—is significant and that the farmer is at the mercy of the weather is proverbial. ”

“ In agriculture, or farming, is included the bulk of the balance of labor not covered by the building and mechanical trades, and the employments growing out of and connected with them.
Good farming is dependent on good machinery, including tools, and on good buildings. ”

“ Scientific Agriculture.—It has often been repeated that man's wealth comes originally from the soil, and that therefore the condition of agriculture is an index of the opportunity offered for progress. ”

“ The journals devoted to agriculture are numbered by hundreds, some of them devoted to a single line,—such as sheep, poultry, or gardening,—and others with well classified departments which give instruction on all points. In addition to this, nearly all of the weeklies have a page of agriculture, usually conducted by a farmer or some one with practical knowledge of farm work. ”

“ The specific problems of the farmer that are economic need elucidation alongside the study of soils and crops, of plant-and stock-breeding. And these economic topics should be thoroughly treated by men trained in social science, and not incidentally by men whose chief interest is technical agriculture. ”

“ Agriculture, including the tilling of soil, raising of crops, raising of livestock and poultry, and the maintenance and operation of dairies, mills, hatcheries, and/or other processing operations serving and required by the crops and/or livestock or poultry grown or raised upon the land described herein only. ”

“ Agriculture shows it in better methods of irrigation, the skillful employment of manures, the raising of improved breeds of cattle, the enactment of wise codes of rural laws, the introduction of the culture of rice, and that of sugar and coffee. ”

“ Agriculture is daily extending its benefits; the land has become more valuable; and considerable alterations for the better have taken place, with respect to the implements of husbandry, and the general modes of cultivating the farms. ”

“ Production agriculture is one of the great miracles of American -- of the American experience. Today, 125,000 farms in America today produce 75 percent of all that we eat and much of what we export. So it's a challenge, but we're up to it. ”

“ Terms relating to Agriculture Since farming is an industry covering the land, and not confined to particular districts, like coal-mining or salt-making, it would be possible to collect several different series of dialect terms relating to land-tenure, haymaking, reaping, ploughing, &c., each belonging to a specified geographical area. ”

“ Acquainted with the laws of vegetable growth and life, they so expounded and elucidated those laws that farmers apprehended and profitably obeyed them. Others have written, to equally good purpose, who knew little of science, but were adepts in practical agriculture, according to the maxims and usages of those who have successfully followed and dignified the farmer's calling. ”

“ Gradually Agriculture has been assuming its proper place in the scheme of things. It is recognized now that successful farming is a business—a profession, if you like—requiring lifelong study, foresight, common sense, close application ”

“ Agriculture.—The chief industry is agriculture, including sheep farming and stock raising. The dry western plains are best adapted for sheep rearing, while the well-watered eastern regions are specially suitable for the growing of cereals and also for horse breeding. ”

“ A farmer’s son with little taste for the ordinary academic studies was inspired by the idea of improved, scientific farming and was getting a thorough insight into the principles of agriculture, chemistry, physics, and mechanics, which will be of the greatest service to him when he takes up farming. Such topics as judging the age of cows, breed of cattle, cost of milk production, the cost of cow-barn construction, grain, hay, cattle rations, silage, and nutrition will all bear directly on the work of the farm in which he is so deeply interested. ”

“ He offered the farmers on his estate every inducement to cultivate their land on the most approved principles, and himself set the example by instituting near each of his seats a model farm, where agriculture and cattle-breeding were carried on under his personal supervision. ”

“ Agriculture: animal husbandry, especially dairying, predominates; forestry important secondary occupation for rural population; main crops — cereals, sugar beets, potatoes; 85% self-sufficient; shortages—food and fodder grains ”

“ Of course, the definition excludes brewers, distillers, biological supply houses, and others, such as zoo curators, who manage living things. Agriculture takes place on a piece of land widely and commonly known as a farm. ”

“ The landowners, the farmers, and the agricultural workers have come to recognise that they all have something in common touching agriculture, touching the trade or industry in which they are brought into close touch day by day. ”

“ John T. Schlebecker is curator in charge, Division of Agriculture and Mining, Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution.
Introduction
The art and science of agriculture embrace most intentional human efforts to control biological activity so as to produce plants and animals of the sort wanted, when wanted. Rubber plantations, cattle ranches, vegetable gardens, dairy farms, tree farms, and a host of similar enterprises all represent human efforts to compel nature to serve man. ”

“ Since the revival of literature, horticulture, in common with agriculture, has shared largely in the labours of the learned; and many works, on this important branch of rural economy, have been published in every language of Europe. ”

“ THE PRAIRIE FARMER will discuss, without fear or favor, all topics of interest properly belonging to a Farm and Fireside Paper, treat of the most approved practices in Agriculture, Horticulture, Breeding, Etc.; the varied Machinery, Implements, and improvements in same, for use both in Field and House; and, in fact, everything of interest to the Agricultural community, whether in Field, Market, or Home Circle.
It will give information upon the public domain, Western soils, climate, etc. ”

“ I said that only two systems of agriculture are known—the small and the great. Facility of transport and the perfection we have reached in agricultural tools have rendered small cultivation impossible nearly everywhere. ”

“ The most important operations of agriculture seem intended not so much to increase, though they do that, too, as to direct the fertility of nature toward the production of the plants most profitable to man. ”

“ The American Farm Book; or, a Compend of American Agriculture, being a Practical Treatise on Soils, Manures, Draining, Irrigation, Grasses, Grain, Roots, Fruits, Cotton, Tobacco, Sugar-Cane, Rice, and every staple product of the United States; with the best methods of Planting, Cultivating, and Preparation for Market. ”

“ The agricultural history of tracts of land of different qualities, shewing how they had been cropped and tilled, and the average produce in grain, hay, straw, and other crops, every five years, during an entire century, would be invaluable materials both to theoretical and to practical agriculture. ”

“ And how vast, and how varied a field is agriculture, for such discovery. The mind, already trained to thought, in the country school, or higher school, cannot fail to find there an exhaustless source of profitable enjoyment. Every blade of grass is a study ”

“ A remarkable activity in agricultural pursuits has been raised; and, as all attempts to improve agriculture are encouraged and assisted by the present government, agricultural colleges are founded, agricultural associations of scientific farmers meet in all provinces to suggest improvements to aid in carrying out experiments, and even the peasant proprietors form such associations among themselves, and establish model farms and institutions for themselves."—Vol. ”

“ Agriculture also should be understood, and the management of arable grounds and orchards; and also the care of bees, and fish, and birds, from whence any profit may arise; these are the first and most proper parts of domestic management. ”

“ In the first part of the book an attempt has been made to select the most important and fundamental truths and principles underlying all agriculture and to present them in the order of their importance, beginning with the most important. ”

“ Agriculture is also the most [Pg 211] widely-extended of all occupations, and it lies at the foundation of all other industries. Daniel Webster once said, "When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization." Unless man were fed and clothed the race would perish. ”