The new agriculture; or, The waters led captive

Dedication

Thin volume is respectfully dedicated to Dr. J. H. Vincent, of Plaiuneld, New Jersey.

A. N. COLE.

Home oh thk Hillside, N. Y., October 1st, 1885.

Chapter I. — The Discovery, Development and Publication of the New Agriculture to the World 15- 81

Chapter II. — Circulation ok Water on Land — The Wonderful Mesilla. . 82- 99 Chatter III. — Description of The New System — "Home on the Hillside " — The Hot Water System 100-110

Chapter IV. — Practical Kesclts of the New System 111-131

Chapter V. — The Influence of the New Agriculture upon the Health of Man and Domestic Animals — Communication from the Hon. John Swinhcrnf. — The Bane of Fungus by Professor

C R. Earley 136-170

Chapter VI. — Reclaiming the Great American Desert 171-178

Chapter VII.— The Expense of the New System 179-18C.

Chapter VIII. — 1850 — 1886. "The Home on the Hillside" Then and Now. .189-20fi Chapter IX. — Manuring under the New System — The American Pomological Society — A Welcome for All at the "Home on the Hillside " '207-223

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

portrait of the author frontispiece.

Basswood Cottage 23

•■The Home ox the Hillside " *5

The Old Apple Thee 63

single plum, natural size 7r

Group i >r Plums, natural size 85

Diagrams of the New System 103

The Strawberry Bouquet 125

Strawberry, natural size 139

Diagram of Infected Stasias and Outhouses 155

Group of Peas 17f>

Single Tomato Plant 1S1

Trellis of Tomatoes 187

Single Tomato, natural siz> 193

Specimens of .Vppi.es, natural size, from Old Apple Tree 199

Quince, natural ,-izk :>09

THE LIFE OF A. N. COLE.

The life of the author of this book has been an eventful one and into it has been crowded far more than can be found in that of ordinary public men. Knowing this and deeming a brief biographical sketch of Mr. Cole would be of interest to the general reader, the following has been prepared from memorandums procured from him and from others who have held intimate acquaintance with him during his life.

Asahel N. Cole was born on the loth of October, 1821, in the town of Freedom, Cattaraugus County, H. Y., and is therefore 64 years of age at date of the appearance of this volume. His father, Daniel Cole, was a descendant from the family settling Cole's Hill, at Plymouth, Mass., and his mother, of maiden name Joanna Williams, was a lineal descendant of Roger Williams, of Rhode Island.

Enjoying a very retentive memory and possessed of an exceedingly active mind, it is not to lie wondered at that Mr. Cole has made his mark in political and other circles, and was connected with large enterprises, which commenced by him were before completion appropriated by others who enjoy the fruits of growth planted by his hand.

When but four and a half years old the father and mother of the author died. Thus thrown upon his own resources, he early commenced the " battle of life," and even now when above three score he has all the energy of youth and the fire of mature manhood in his nature.

He was adopted by foster parents residing at Pike, at that time part of Allegany, now Wyoming County, X. Y. TTp to the age of sixteen, when his foster father died, he had received the barest elements of a common school education. Starting out he sought employment as best he might iu canvassing the state of Ohio for an agricultural and horticultural publication entitled the Buckeye Ploughboy, published at Cleveland. His early study of odd numbers of this little monthly and Poor Richard's Almanac beyond doubt had much to do with the important discoveries set forth in this volume.

The year 1839 was spent iu Michigan, our author having by this time gained, through his limited studies, sufficient knowledge to commence teaching school, which he continued to do until the year 1814, and then deciding to abandon his plana of becoming a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for which he had prepared himself, he turned merchant and lumberman, working hard in the woods for a livelihood.

Divisions in the Methodist Church, growing out of the issues of slavery and anti-slavery, wire the occasion of this new departure. Young Cole, interesting himself in politics, became an ardent Free Soiler, and, having patrons in the persons of Gerrit Smith and James S. Wadsworth, both large landowners iu the timbered sections of Allegany County, his acquaintance and agreement with them politically brought, not only the gentlemen above named but many others, leaders of the free soil movement to the side of a man from ten to twenty years

12 LIFE OF A. N. COLE.

younger than themselves. When the revolutionary period of l.sltf was reached, and A. N. Cole was but twenty-seven years of age, he was better known by, and more closely linked with, Joshua II. Giddings, Gerrit Smith, James S. Wadsworth, William H. Seward, Charles Sumner, Salmon P. Chase, John P. Hale, John Van Bureu and others of like political affinities, than any man of his age in America.

What made him especially a most important factor in the politics of the period was his close attachment to and alliance with Horace Greeley, whose acquaintance he formed so early as 1843. Mr. Cole became the trusted personal, private and confidential correspondent of this great journalist, and thus remained to the close of Mr. Greeley's life in 1872.

In the meantime Mr. Cole had, so early as 1852, assisted by General James S. Wadsworth, established the Genesee Valley Free Press as a Republican paper at his home in Allegany County. In the columns of this, the pioneer Republican newspaper of the country, appeared tin fir>t call for a convention to organize the Republican party. This convention met at Friendship, N. Y., in May, 1854, and dates the birth of the Republican party, though the town of Angelica, X. Y., succeeded in 1884 in establishing her birthright by showing that the first convention called for nominating candidates convened at that place about the middle of October, 1*54. The celebration of the birth of the party took place at Angelica just before last fall's (1884) election. A. N. Cole presided, having been for years acknowledged and recognized as the Father of the Republican Party.

It is not however, in politics or public life where Mr. Cole has won his protidest laurels. He never held but one important public trust, that of readjuster or reassessor of income taxes in the Second district of Brooklyn for a period of about one year of the first term of President Grant, receiving his appointment from Secretary Boutwell. Mr. Cole held court in revenue cases with such energy, force and knowledge of the revenue laws as to gain his admittance to practice in all the courts of the state, receiving his diploma at a general term of court held at Poughkeepsie in May, 1868, Before this, however, he had been waited upon by the solid New York delegation of Republican Senators and Members of Congress from the State of New York for appointment to the office of Internal Revenue Supervisor for the Metropolitan District, but President Johnson interposing objections the Hon. Silas B. Dutcher received the appointment.

Fp to this period Mr. Cole had only been known as a journalist of wide influence, but he had also won laurels without number at Albany for his advocacy of measures for improvement of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and as early as 1877 saw carried through the experiment in Greenwich Street testing the question of practicability of the elevated railroad system as now in operation in the metropolis. General John A. Dix and the Hon. S. L. M. Barlow, associated with others, employed Mr. Cole as advocate and attorney, breaking the powerful combinations of opposing interests to the system of rapid transit now existing.

The energy and earnestness of Mr. Cole up to this period had produced a marked impression on the public, and he was recognized as the trusted and confidential friend of the highest officials in national and state governments. He was selected to have charge of the bill reorganizing the Erie Railway, which when perfected and passed saved that great work from wreck and ruin.

Governor Cornell in 1880 signed the bill granting to a company to be organized, the abandoned Genesee Valley Canal for railroad purposes. This achievement came of seven

LIFE OF A. X. COLE. 13

years of persistent labor on the part of Mr. Cole, saving to the population of the Genesee Valley a magnificent property otherwise lost. The syndicate finally securing the grant, mortgaged it for two millions of dollars, while the solitary individual (A. X. Cole) who practically did the work secured a merest fraction of the amount for labor and expense in securing the grant. Twice in his life the author of the Xew Agriculture, worked down and out, has succumbed for a few months at a time, and his work has seemed at an end, the tax upon his energies being such as to apparently break him down.

About four years ago his neighbors were astonished by the growth of fruits and vegetables of marvelous size, beauty, profusion and perfection upon his grounds. He was understood at first as making experiments in under drainage, nor did his nearest neighbors and most intimate friends have an intelligent conception of the methods under which he was proceeding — those of subsurface, subterranean or underground irrigation, better known as " The Xew Agriculture."

And so it is that, to a man who never had to exceed three years of education at school, has been left the discovery of the fundamental laws governing the movements of the waters upon and beneath the soil, which the writer of this brief biography, the publishers of this volume and many others who have visited "The Home on the Hillside" unite in believing will effect u. revolution in the present systems of agriculture. J. H. Selkbeg.

Ithaca. X. Y., October 15, 18S5.

CHAPTER I.

THE DISCOVERT, DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLICATION OF "THE NEW AGRICULTURE

TO THE WORLD.

That there is a divinity shaping the ends of mortals, the author of this volume deems a certainty. In no other way is it possible to account for the inevitable. Solomon had it right when he said : " There is a time for all things under the sun." The time would seem to have come when the waters may be so controlled, as to pass them through soils, rather than allow them, as hitherto, to find their way from summits to plains and valleys along their surfaces. What has been done by the individual in this respect, is to be done ere long by the multitude. The immensity of such an undertaking, is calculated to discourage, at first, the bravest and most hopeful. The Chinese wall, the pyramids and other evidences, all along the track of time, indicate that great undertakings have only to be persevered in, and the end is ultimately reached.

Were every farmer or land-holder having lands situated on hillsides, slopes and inclines, to put but a single acre in condition to

16 TH£ tCULTUKE.

grather in. house, husband, handle and control the waters falling I during the year, such would be the scene of transformation, as to make an end of hesitation and doubt Could a model acre be shown in each county of every state and territory of our Union, a decade would not pass before spades would everywhere be found to be trumps, and such would be the multiplication of means for holding and handling the waters, as to result within a single generation, to an approach to transformation of the earth's surface.

Up >n the author of this volume has devolved the work of making a beginning. As things look at this time of writing it seems probable, that by the tenth of July, 1885. two acres of a model five under treatment, will be in condition to show what can be d< >ne to control and use the waters for purposes of agriculture and horticulture. Not under three years, however, will our model five acres be so perfected, as to make a complete demonstration of anything like the utmost po>^ibilities. How it has all occurred that the author has been the one to rind out the way, and seeking and finding, to lead the van of this, one of the greatest of works yet devolved upon man. will be understood ;i> the story is told of a lifetime spent in following the waters. I was eight years of age when I read in " Poor Richard's Almanac" that :

•• If the farmer or gardener would know the difference in fruitage, between a tree left to turf about its roots, and one where the soil is loosened, let him try the experiment."

In our garden were plum tree- bearing, to a most gratifying degree. The>e Avere on rich soil, with wash from the barnyard Bait for trout-fishing was here obtained ; the angle or earth-worrn, in abundance. To loosen the soil about the roots of these trees, became correspondingly ;i pastime and profit. That the plums would grow larger, and their flavor be improved. Dr. Franklin had said, and of course he knew. Suffice it to sav that the loosening seemed to call for a pushing away at the trunks, till their roots took only weak hold in the ground. It was, if we recollect, in the spring- of 1829, when we were scarcely nine years of age, that the trees thus treated, refused to put out bud or blossom, nor so much as gave evidence of life. From that hour, losing faith in Poor Richard's Almanac, we followed thereafter our own inclination and methods. How many were the plants taken up and put back into their own or new places we cannot now say. To examine their roots, and find out their ways of germination, became a passion. Nothing so disturbed us as the wrong end up in which the beans came out of the ground. Why again should the potatoes grow beneath the soil, and the balls upon the tops of the vines, was a puzzle to us. Peas the fourth of July, and cucumbers the middle of that month, with which to give keener relish for our trout, was an ever yearning ambition.

"We think it was at about the age of twelve, when we came across anewsi>aper mention of an experiment which we decided to forthwith make. This was one with which nearly everybody has become, familiar ; that of a tight barrel set on end, and tilled with round stones so far up as the open bung, then shingled with fiat stones, and these covered with straw and a coating of coarse manure, finishing up by filling the barrel with rich earth, and planting on this a hill of cucumbers. The handiest barrel was accordingly seized upon, that used by oiir foster mother for pounding clothes. "We began operations in earnest, but conflict ensued, since it was impossible to convince our maternal guide that her pounding barrel was the spot in which to grow pickles. Threats of castigation did not deter us from persistence, and promising our mother another and better barrel within a few days, we wTent defiantly ahead with our "gardening." The maternal word was kept to the letter, but this was something of daily discipline, and so we did not seriously object to it, in view of the harvest in prospect.

Our experiment was made with care, since Ave had found out thus early, that what was worth doing- at all, was worth well doing. Our one hill of cucumbers did wonders, and yet came far short of a barrel of pickles. We estimated them at a half bushel, but now, having gotten over the ardor of youth, we are bound to admit that they Avould have filled only a peck measure, and possibly have come short of that by at least " one pickle." But the pounding barrel having been ruined, and the " rod in pickle" having been applied, and the crop falling far short of our expectations, Ave resolved not to give it up so, but repeated our experiment the ensuing year, Avell convinced that we could demonstrate the fact that a pounding barrel was a good place in wdiich to groAv pickles ; and the second time Ave succeeded in an eminent degree, since the one hill, in the barrel, produced nearly or quite a half bushel, and doing the picking ourselves, and the barrel being in close proximity to a line patch in the garden, we comdnced our foster mother that her boy Avas a prodigy in growing cucumbers ; nor told a lie any more than would George Washington probably have done under similar circumstances, but left our mother to tell the story of her boy having grown a full half barrel of pickles from one hill, planted in her pounding barrel.

In the season of 1840, finding ourself in Michigan, we made careful note of the good effects upon grasses and grains in proximity to the primeval forests, more especially in fields lying beloAV the level of the wilderness in which the maple, beech, bassAvood and other like timbers preArailed ; nor did the corresponding dearth in fields on and about the prairies and oak-openings, escape observation. Again, in tracing what we presumed Avere tracks of hidden Avaters beneath the surface operating as we conjectured as inlets and outlets, connecting- multitudinous lakes, ponds, swamps and morasses, covered in many instances "with turf trembling upon their surfaces, we remarked the deep green of the verdure, when contrasted with that of grasses and grains on more elevated planes, and aloug undulations.

From Lower California, far away on the Pacific coast, rumors came of a valley of green amid the sands of the desert, perennial in products of the olive and vine, where buried were the waters of a river in subterranean flow, and where the roots of trees and plants, deep dipping down, found nourishment at a depth of from twenty to thirty feet. In reading of the Sahara and other deserts of earth, the oasis was our only solace, and how to grow an oasis, became a study of intensest interest. The artesian well Ave longed to look upon, nor could we be satisfied till our eyes had seen it.

Returning to our native state of New York in the autumn of that year, the green of the grasses of Allegany and Wyoming Counties, as seen amid the sere and yellow leaf, begat dreams of a land somewhere hidden from view, in which no deserts are found, and where grasses greenly growing, alongside of flowers unfading, and fruits that perish not as apples of the Dead Sea, turning to ashes in the hands of men, but growing ever on amid immortelles of the great hereafter, made the gloomy winter of 1839 and '40, to appear the less dark and dreary, on account of our dreamings.

The next Spring, Summer and Autumn were spent in looking over, from time to time, that delightful section of Western New York, embraced in the valleys of the Genesee River and its numberless tributaries, noting, more especially, those outgushing fountains of living waters, appearing as springs, chiefest among which are those at Caledonia, Avon and Wethersfiehl. The Oatka, Honeoye, Tonawanda, Canaseraga, Cohocton, Canisteo and other creeks and rivers, come largely from springs bubbling out all along tlieir channel ways. Tracing- these waters to their sources, and dwelling upon the methods employed by the Creator in begetting springs, rivers, rivulets and lakes, we learned lessons of incalculable value. On return therefore from Michigan to Wyoming- County. New Yorkj we drifted as naturally back to the Cattaraugus of our birth, and Allegany of our breeding, as follows the trout in ascent to the sources of streams amid the forests and among the mountains.

From early childhood, we had had liquid manures on the brain. So early as 1844, Ave undertook to grow a few cabbages to impressive proportions, for the sole purpose of convincing the champion cabbage grower of our acquaintance that there were things in heaven and earth not so much as dreamed of in his conceited philosphy. "We had barely set out in life, and occupying a rented house, had the narrowest Hmits for garden making. A few rows of potatoes, a bed of beets, another of onions, lettuce, etc., to which was added a few cabbage plants, made up the sum of our venture. Xear by dwelt the boss farmer and gardener of the neighborhood, Squire C. Our ground was rich, and we could not understand why the Scpiire had fine cabbage, while ours had scarcely begun heading.

""What do you do, Scptire," w~e asked, "to make your cabbage grow so rapidly '.'"

"With a mischievous twinkle of the eye, our venerable neighbor answered :

" That's a secret worth knowing, and if you will not tell anybody. and try it yourself, I'll let you know how it's done."

We promised, of course ; when coming up closely, the old gentleman whispered in our ear :

"I always hoe my cabbage before sunrise."

Forthwith we resolved to get even with him. Our plants were fine

THE NEW A.GBICULTURE. 21

ones, thrifty growing, and we had somewhere heard that weak brine turned upon the soil was a good thing for cabbage, and having

heard also that hen manure was best of all fertilizers, our mind was made up instanter, to show our neighbor the Squire, what could be done in growing cabbages in absence of early rising. Providing ourself therefore with a solution of salt, hen manure, and adding ashes and lime as ingredients, we set about rebuking our neighbor for even hinting that we were the identical individual pointed out in Proverbs, 6th chapter, 6th verse, etc.

Rising early each morning for a week, we " doctored" our cabbages, in confident belief that, in the course of a month or six weeks, we would be able to show neighbor Couch what a boy knew about growing cabbage. It took just six days to kill every plant as dead as so many Egyptian mummies. From that hour, though sticking to theories of liquid manuring, Ave gave up that sort of " doctoring" which applies it in allopathic doses.

On page G5 of Mr. Stewart's book on irrigation for the farm, garden and orchard may be found the following :

u In applying liquid manure it is always necessary to use it in a highly diluted state, even so much diluted that if it would run off perfectly clear it might be found of sufficient strength for all purposes. The danger lies in using it of too great strength, rather than in diluting it too copiously."

We did not mention to our venerable Mentor, the Squire, the results arising from our use of liquid manuring, but we ceaselessly sought the rule to follow in compounding them and what proportions of potassium, ammonia, lime, sodium, magnesia and other elements of liquids and solids are required, for this and that crop, in order to obtain the best results.

Not far from five years subsequent to our experiment in growing cabbage, we found ourself occupying a home on the banks of the

Genesee. In our farm barn yard manures had lain for years in huge piles, from the bases of which ran off streams of liquid, dark as lye, distributing and diffusing their influence over three or four acres of alluvial lying between the barn and the river. In the track of this current of inspiration to plant growth, stood a pine stump with a breadth of top telling the story of one of those departed giants of the forest, occasionally found in the wilderness of this region at the commencement of the present century. That some pioneer had attempted, years before, to grub out this stump, and after making a good beginning, abandoned the undertaking, was evidenced by the fact that on its upper side toward the barn, was an excavation telling the tale of the undertaker. Into this hole the liquids from the barn had been discharging for years, and sinking below the surface their subterranean track was plainly marked by a wealth of verdure the equal to which we had never before seen. Immediately below the stump grew a most wonderful blackberry bush, the canes at base averaging an inch in diameter, and growing to a length of from twelve to fifteen feet. From this one bush, our family picked nearly a bushel of native blackberries, rivaling in beauty, and greatly superior in flavor to any we had ever tasted.

Here was evidence conclusive that to Mother Earth may at all times safely be left the work of elaboration, combination, cornpounding, mixing and mingling of ingredients necessary to the germination, growth and development of plants.

In Beers' Illustrated history of Allegany County, page 362, may be found a picture of Basswood cottage, the home in the wilderness where we made in reality, our first garden ; hence, what would perhaps otherwise seem inappropiate, becomes fit and opportune, and we make a quotation from the history, as follows :

"Basswood Cottage, the home to which Mr. Cole and family had

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fc

THE NEW A.GBICDLTUKE. 23

retreated, represented in accompanying engraving, - as a log cabin in the pine woods, and is thus pictured by the graphic pen of the

since widely known journalist, in one of Ins easy chair letters, appearing in the Elmira Advertiser, under date of February 24th, 375."

•■The spot chosen for our dwelling place was as wild, sylvan aud rustic as any to be found amid the forests primeval of Allegany Co., X. Y. Our house was one built of log's, unhewn, 1 >ut n< >t rudely so, or without architectural pretentions in an humble way — a neat cottage with wings, portico in front, over which ran climbing roses, while ivies twined, and morning glories in sinuous wanderings and windings found their way to the roof of the cottage. Flowers bloomed in the dooryard. planted, cared for and watered by the ever busy hand of 'Mrs. Easy Chair.' In the rear of the house was a lofty hill quite like to a mountain, from the base to the brow of which rose up tall pines, oaks, maples, beeches, birches and basswoods, whose shadows fell upon us daily, as the sun went down before its time in the west. In the front and to the north was a carpet of greensward, partially shaded by beautiful trees, planted by nature's plastic hand, and scattered here and there were maples of second growth with spreading branches. On the left was a garden, where was early cultivated that taste for horticulture since grown to be a passion."

Y< -v dear reader, it was here, amid the shadows of the forest, Ave made our first garden. The spot was a pocket of alluvial, rich, ■ lee}> and dark, less than an half acre, created by drift from the mountain side above, pure vegetable mold ; no spot could have well been richer in soil, or more naturally productive. Here were grown such potatoes, peas, beans, cabbages, turnips and other garden vegetables, as we have never seen until the adoption of our present system of culture.

Fcay stone were found in the soil. Here and there, however, buried and out of sight, was found an occasional pine or hemlock knot, resisting for generations the tooth of time. Here we found the first elump-foot cabbage, and forthwith, suspecting something was not quite right, we dug down, and brought out a huge pine knot. Here, again, we began experiments with Hovey's seedling, succeeding after a year or two of patient endeavor, in gathering from a bed of thirty hills nearly a pint of strawberries, the largest specimen ( >f which measured three inches in circumference. So great was our triumph that one of our friends traveled on foot six miles to see that big berry. Were our friend now near by, instead of far away we would, were he to visit us next July, 1885, show him bushels of berries, averaging as large as the one, which at that time, was the greatest of wonders. When it comes to specimens of our best, viz : Jersey Queens, Jumbos, Manehesters, Monarchs, &c, Ave could exhibit them by scores and hundreds, measuring from live to seven inches in circumference.

But the reason of the barrenness of most of our strawberry plants in our first garden puzzled and vexed us to find out, as it probably did every other producer in our county. "While onions grew to larger size than we had seen anywhere, and cabbages, beets and turnips astonished lis with their prodigious growth, only about one out of three of our strawberry plants showed berries. The vines appeared sickly, and the roots of the plants did not seem to get firm hold in the earth, and we took to pulling them up, and diggingdown, seeking the cause of infecundity and unthrift. With scarce an exception, Ave found at the depth of from twelve to fifteen inches the inevitable pine or hemlock knot, and still more frequently, a ;!at stone. We found the roots of our plants, reaching deeply down, had come in contact with buried obstructions, and that disease had followed. Making use of the spectacles of : n aged person serving

THE NEW A.GBICULTUEE. 25

admirably as a microscope, and securing a focus best calculated to bring out the hidden enemy, it did not take lung for us to become satisfied that the seed of fungus was nearly everywhere present, the great begetter of disease. Of this seed of fungus we had read much in books, found in the library of a physician, in whose family we spent much time in early life.