124 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



long the roads and pastures In the same inclos- 



ure with ihe oxen was "Lion," a bull reared from 

 their own stock, sixteen months old, larger than 

 the common ox, of mixed color and of beautiful 

 proportions, as docile as a common milch cow. In 

 the enclosure with the calves and scverrtl fine year- 

 lings, was "Leo," a bull calf ten months old — ful- 

 ly as large as an ordinary cow. This calf is of tlie 

 clear Duriiam breed, and was brouglit from tbe 

 Brethren at New Lebanon, N. Y. when he was but 

 a few weeks old ; his sire and dam came to New 

 York from tlie Shaker brethren of Kentucky, wlio 

 in farming enterprise are fully in advance with the 

 most intelligent of that State, where tlie Durhams 

 Bell from one to two thousand dollars apiece. 



At the Second Enfield family there is a two year 

 old full blood Durham bull, also brought from the 

 State of New York. This bull we did not see, he 

 being in a pasture at a distance when we passed. 

 When measured in the spring, he was si^^feet nine 

 inches in the girtli. 



With these splendid animals, on their already im- 

 proved breeds, the Enfield Brethren will do much 

 towards perfecting the stock of New Hampshire 

 and Vermont. Tliey live in the region of fine cat- 

 tle, where the breeds have already been much ad- 

 vanced from their excellent keeping. The pastures 

 are there much better than in the lower towns : 

 cattle can scarcely be stinted in keeping any where 

 in the Connecticut river valley. In from three to 

 five years the Shakers' enterprise will be rewarded 

 with a kind of cattle probably worth at least double 

 the value of an equal number of head at the pres- 

 ent time. The efforts they are making deserve the 

 li-ghest approbation of the community. 



COMMUNICATION. 

 Commerce of Knowledge. 



Hon. I. Hii.L.— 



Sir: — I feel a disposition at least to communi- 

 cate something, if it be but a mile, for the columns 

 of your valuable pnper. I do it with cheerfulness 

 by way of setting my humble example to my broth- 

 er farmers. 



One important object of an agricultural paper, is 

 to bring together facts, experiments, and the results 

 of experience. Three fourths, at least, of the adult 

 male population of New-England are devoted to 

 the employment, which your paper is designed to 

 patronize and improve. Their prosperity and 

 earthly comfort depend in a great measure at least 

 upon knowledge and skill in their profession ; and 

 the feeding and clothing, and the prosperity of the 

 whole nation, rest chielly upon the efforts wisely 

 directed of this cia.ss of producers. 



All these men are acquainted with lh» tradition 

 of the fathers upon this subject; and which like- 

 wise they have seen annually exemplified in the 

 gardens and fields, wliich they have helped to till. 



Very many, perhaps I might say all, sometimes 

 by design and premeditation, and sometimes even 

 by accident, make experiments and come to results, 

 that are new, and some of these are valuable. 

 Without a common receptacle, like a periodical 

 paper, into which every one may cast his mite, im- 

 portant facts must be limited to a very nnrrow cir- 

 cle; perhaps to one family : and possibly these be 

 disregarded, or even lost in tlio transit to another 

 generation. Facts, which the i)ossessor may deem 

 unimportant, or feel too modest to make public, may, 

 if known, be more valuable to otiiers, than even to 

 the possessor. They may constitute the very beam 

 of light, adapted to dispel the darkness of others 

 fitly or one hundred miles distant; or they may 

 lead to future experiments by co-actorsin the same 

 department. 



Human events and human beings are so linked 

 together, sometimes by stronger, sometimes by 

 feebler ties, that like tlic spider's web, by jarring a 

 filament, you move tlie whole. 



Agrioulture is both an «?/, and a science. It 

 must be cultivated, like other arts and sciences. 

 Though it has in this country for more than two 

 centuries, and in the v/orld fur near sixty centd- 

 ries been grossly, and I may say shamefully ne- 

 glected. 



Every department of liuman life, that is compo- 

 sed both of art and science is developed first by art. 

 The practical part comes first. The practical part 

 of agriculture is composed botli of works and facts. 

 Much of the operation of husbandry originated on 

 the banks of the Nile in ages fur beyond the date 

 of authentic and accurate history i in days when 

 the pick in the hands of man was but a faint proto- 

 type of the plough and the ox. Tlie little fund of 

 practical knowledge ofsucii high antiquity, has 

 been continually accumulating by new discoveries : 

 but it has generally even to this our d^iy, been re- 

 tained in tiie solitary bosoms of the operators. Re- 

 tained not from jealousy, or rivalry, but chiefly 



through diffidence, as though each man's little pnr- 1 of New- York, in 1830, over and above what was 



tion of new acquirement was unworthy of special 



notice. But more generally it has been retained 



for the want of a medium of communication. 



^' The. Farmer's Monthly Visitor" now furnishes 



the facilities of such a medium. 



I speak of the importance of facts; and they are 

 all important. But their importance is increased a 

 hundred, or a thousand fold by being made the 

 common stock of the nation, where they may be 

 turned to a high account by the many ; and pro- 

 mote the prosperity of grand divisions of society. 

 As the phenomena of n<Tture load to the devel- 

 opment of the natural sciences, and arc the only 

 medium by which they have been systematized and 

 established, so facts are the phenomena of hus- 

 bandry, and constitute the great medium, through 

 which the department of agriculture can be system- 

 atized and established as a science. 



Facts, which the farmer may esteem of little con- 

 sequence, coming to the knowledge of the Chem- 

 ist and the economical Geologist, may result in 

 consequences of inestimable value. They may en- 

 able them to lay down and establish principles, 

 that shall govern the agricultural pursuits of whole 

 communities. 



There is an anecdote of common notoriety, wor- 

 thy of ^ passing notice. As the mathematical and 

 reflecting Isaac Newton was reclining in the shade, 

 an apple dislodged from its stem fell upon, or near 

 his person. The circumstance in itself was natu- 

 rally of little consequence. But it induced that 

 reflecting man to turn his thoughts to the question, 

 why the apple should fall to the earth, and not to- 

 ward the sky? For at that time, towards the close 

 : of the seventeenth eenturv, the law of gravitation, 

 (though now on the tongues of our school boys,) 

 was then unknown and unthought of. The triv- 

 ial inajdent of the apple, apparently unconsequen- 

 tial, led to mighty resnlts. 



It induced the philosophical genius of Sir Isaac 

 Newton to collect and compare that and other 

 facts, and by analvzing and combining to arrive at 

 the discovery of the great and wonderful common 

 law of the Solar System: to that common law of 

 gravitation, by which the sun with all his planets 

 and satellites is governed ; and with which the 

 eternal Creator has endued every material object 

 of this sublime system and probably the material 

 universe. That little incident was the beginning of 

 a series of facts, which that great philosopher an- 

 alyzed ; and which brouglit him to the most sub- 

 lime and precious discoveries, ever made by man. 

 It enabled him to know and to make known new 

 laws of God, and to lay open to men the science 

 and mechanism of the skies. 



From the foregoing, let us learn to despise noth- 

 ing in the works of God or man ; to go through the 

 world with our eyes open, and never to consider 

 ourselves too old to learn ; and thus our dnty to 

 our neighbor requires us occasionally at least, to 

 communicate the results of our experience for the 

 benefit of society. 



What we desire is to establish a liberal com- 

 merce of thougiit and knowledge among ig^ricultu- 

 rers. Let us all be free to impart that, which not 

 impoverishes them, but wliich may make others 

 rich indeed ; and receive an equivalent in return, 

 and thereb}' spread abroad comfort and joy, and 

 blessings through this land of promise, which the 

 Lord our God hath given U3. 



S. PEABODY. 

 Amherst, July i>, 1830. 



State of the Country. 



We copy the following sensible and timely w.ir- 

 ning from the CTiltivator, an agricultural Journal 

 conducted by the Hon. Jesse Buel of Albany, 

 N. Y., and that we may not be accused of publish- 

 ing the article for any supposed favorable efiect to 

 our own political side of the question — indeed in 

 conducting the Visitor we know no partisan politi- 

 cal feeling — we may be permitted to say that 

 Judge Buel who places this as the leading article 

 in his paper for' August is understood not to be- 

 long to the political party with ^vhich we have ev- 

 er acted. — EiL F. M. Visitor. 



Look out for another Panic. 



The New-York Times gives the followinix state- 



paid upon the like importations in 1338. This im- 

 mense sum of seven and half millions of dollars, 

 the, reader will bear in mind, is not the cost of the 

 foreign articles we import, but merely the duty 

 which is exacted by our laws on their introduction 

 into, our country. And if we consider that almost 

 evei*y foreign article not coming in competition 

 with our own manufactures, is imported duty free; 

 and that many other articles pay merely a nominal 

 duty, we may with safety assume, that the duties 

 payable at the custom-house do not amount to more 

 than one-tenth of the cost of the foreign merchan- 

 dize imported. We arrive, then, at this result, 

 that the foreign goods imported into New-York du- 

 rino- the present year, will exceed in amount the 

 importations of ' lS3rt, SEVENTY-SIX MIL- 

 LIONS OF DOLLARS! ! ! 



And who is to foot the bill? — who is to pay the 

 balance ? Here is an extra charge against us, in a 

 single port, of seventy-six millions of dollars, in a 

 measure for articles which we can either produce 

 within ourselves, or do without. Wq may boast of 

 this as an era of commercial prosperity — we may 

 boast that it fills the coffers of our national treasu- 

 ry — but we cannot conceal the apprehension, that 

 it is pregnant with future and direful evils to our 

 country ; that it is the prelude to another commer- 

 cial panic, more dreadful in its elfects than the 

 one from which we are just recovering. Really, 

 we are getting commercially mad. Like the reck- 

 less spendthrift, we are cumbering our patrimonial 

 inheritance, entailing upon our posterity a ruinous 

 debt, from a vain ostentation of buying what we 

 do not want, or what" at all events wo are unable to 

 pay for. 



We repeat the question — By whom and how is 

 this seventy-six millions of dollars to be paid? 

 Paid it must be, if we would sustain our character 

 for honesty and fair dealing. The total amount of 

 our exports is but a little over one hundred mil- 

 lions — some millions less than our imports of last 

 year; and according to the data we have assumed, 

 "they are likely to fall short of the imports of the 

 current year from fifty to a hundred millions of 

 dollars. Our state stocks have, to the amount of 

 one hundred and seventy millions, been already 

 sent abroad towards paying old balances,'' some 

 considerable portion, of our bank st(-ck lias been 

 employed for a like purpose; and, abstracting the 

 exports of cotton, exclusively the production of 

 the south, our exportations will not pay a tithe of 

 the rapidly accumulating debt. 



What does this state of things augur to our man- 

 ufacturing and agricultural interests ? This sev- 

 enty-six millions of foreign merchandize has and 

 will be spread over our county, and must and will 

 be sold, though at a sacrifice of the holders; and 

 supplant, in no small degree, the sales of domestic 

 goods. Our manufacturers will consequently be- 

 come cramped ; their business will be contracted ; 

 many mills be stopped, and many failures ensue. 

 The evils to the agriculturist will be, the loss of 

 the market, to the manufacturer, of his provisions 

 and raw materials, a diminution in their price, and 

 a participation in the evils of another commercial 

 panic. 



Our anticipations may not be realized ; yet the 

 facts upon which they are founded, are such as 

 should put every prudent man on his guard — as 

 should render him cautious of running in debt, par- 

 ticularlv for foreign mercliandize, and as should 

 induce him, in all cases where it is practicable 

 without a great sacrifice, to give a preference to 

 domestic over foreign productions. The patriots 

 of our revolution could forego the use of foreign 

 goods, and their wives and daughters the use of 

 their favorite beverage, tea, ibr their country's 

 good. The sons surely have not so degenerated, 

 as to be unwilling to adopt, in part, to maintain 

 their independence, that policy which their fa- 

 thers employed to achicrc it. 



* We are Iriily thankful iliat New-Haaipsliirc as :» Siale, 

 has no part nor lot in liit-se'-' t>tale t^tnr.k:*"; it uitiU many 

 (lolliirs ill ih<' luinilreri in ilir value ofihe lea! edtaie of her 

 Fanni'is. —iCd((Hr M-mOlt: t UiU,r. 



Sffects of Lightning— Sarns burned. 



The fact that barns, v/hen newlv filled with hay 



grain, are much more apt to be struck than hous- 



ment of the amount of duties paid in the district of I cs, or than such barns are at other seasons of tho 



New- York, during the first quarter of 1S38, 



the first quarter of 18?0 : 



1838 $9,407,755 78 



183L), .... 4,3n0,.500 21 



and 



Difi'erence, . . $1,001,744 43 

 Now, if we assume this as a criteron for the 

 three coming quarters of the 3''ear, it will give an 

 aggregate of ^7,600,979,72, ae the amount of du- 

 ties upon foreigri importations, paid in the district 



year, will not be disputed by any one who reads the 

 current journals of the day, and should put farm- 

 ers, who would not lose the results of a year's 

 hard labor in a single hour, upon enquiry as to means 

 of preservation, or precaution, against such a loss. 

 Every year furnishes multitudes of instances in 

 which barns are destroyed by lightning ; but the 

 past month has been remarkable tor the number of 

 losses of this nature. In looking over the destruc- 

 tion caused by the showers of a single day (Aug. 



