312 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



eelshire. They ought not to scorn the pastures of 

 New England. 



When one looks, said Mr. Webster, to the con- 

 dition of England, he must see of what immense 

 importance is every, even ihe smallest degree of 

 improvement in its agricuhurai productions. Sup- 

 pose that by some new discovery, or some im- 

 proved mode of culture, only one per cent, could 

 be added to (he annual results of English culti- 

 vation ; this, of itself, would materially ati'ect the 

 comlbrtable subsistence of millions of human be- 

 ings. It was often said that England was a gar- 

 den. This was a strong metaphor. There was 

 poor land, and some poor cultivation in England. 

 All people are not equally industrious, careful. 

 But on the whole, England was a prodigy of ag- 

 ricultural wealth. Flanders might possibly sur- 

 pass it. He had not seen Flanders ; but Eng- 

 land quite surpassed, in this respect, whatever he 

 had seen. In associations for the improvement ol 

 agriculture, we had been earlier than England. 

 But associations now exist. He had the pleasure 

 of attending the first meeting ol" the National Agri- 

 cultural Society, and he had Ibund it a very plea- 

 sant and interesting occasion. Persons of the 

 highest distinction for rank, talents and wealth, 

 were present, all zealously engaged in efforts for 

 the promotion of the agricultural interests. No 

 man in England was so high as to be independent 

 of thesuccess of this great interest ; no man so low, 

 as not to be affected by its prosperity, or its de- 

 cline. The same is true, eminently and emphati- 

 cally true, with us. Agriculture feeds us; lo 

 a great degree it clothes us; without it, we could 

 not have manufactures, and we should not have 

 commerce. These all stand together, but they 

 stand together like pillars in a cluster, the 

 largest in the centre, and that largest is agri- 

 culture. Let us remember, too, that we live in a 

 country of small farms, and free-hold tenements ; 

 a country, in which men cultivate with their own 

 hands, their own fee-simple acres ; drawing not 

 only their subsistence, but also their spirit of inde- 

 pendence, and manly freedom from the ground 

 ihey plough. They are at once its owners, its 

 cultivators, and its defenders. And whatever else 

 may be under-valued, or overlooked, let us never 

 forget, that the cultivation of the earth is the 

 most important labor of man. Man may be 

 civilized, in some degree, with great progress in 

 manufactures, and with little commerce with his 

 distant neighbors. But without the cultivation of 

 the earth, he is, in all countries, a savage. Dnid 

 he steps from the chase, and fixes himself in some 

 place, and seeks a livino: from the earth, he is a 

 roaming barbarian. When lillase begins other 

 arts follow. The farmers, therelbre, are the Ibund- 

 ers of human civilization. 



APTESDIX. 



Note (a.) — Housing Sheep. 



If sheep were allowed to <!;ive their voice on the 

 subject, t.iere is little doubt how the question would 

 be decider^ Where a shed is open at one side, sheep 

 in case of i cold storm of rain or sleet, will always, if 

 left to govem themselves, seek a shelter. Under other 

 circumstano.s they are equally disposed to remain in 

 the open air 



The very fije woolled sheep, whose constitutions are 



tender, require much nursins; ; and in our climate 

 must be sheltered. This is necessary, also, in order 

 to preserve the fineness of the wool ; and some shep- 

 herds go so far as to put linen jackets upon them. 

 With respect to the coarse woolled sheep, and the half 

 bloods, many of the best larmers in Vermont and in 

 the western part of Massachusetts, have come to the 

 conclusion that their flocks are, upon the whole, bet- 

 ter in health, and that the per centage of loss in their 

 flocks is less, where the flocks are ted at stacks in the 

 field and rarely housed, except occasionally at their 

 own pleasure, than where they are regularly shut up 

 every night in a covered and close fold. Any one, 

 who has been accustomed to the air of a sheep house, 

 where a flock has been confined all night, can hardly 

 doubt that it must be prejudicial to the health of the 

 animals unless their lungs are made of leather. 



Our climate differs essentially from that of England; 

 but with us to fold sheep in wet yards is likely to pro- 

 duce the disease of the foot-rot, a most troublesome 

 disorder and extremely difficult to eradicate. If it 

 does not produce the disease, yet if the poison is lurk- 

 ing within the foot, it will bring it out and aggravate 

 it. It is an infectious disorder, and I know from ex- 

 perience, much to be dreaded; though 1 am not pre- 

 pared to say with a writer of no small credit, that the 

 only effectual remedy is to cut off the sheep's head. 



H. C. 



Note (b.) — Turnips. 



The common flat or white turnip is little cultivated 

 among us, excepting for the table. The Swedish tur- 

 nip or ruta baga is much more valued for its solidi- 

 ty, its supposed superior nutritiveness, and its endur- 

 ance. It may be kept perfectly well until May, and 

 often until June. They are easily grown; but the 

 condition of the land cannot be too much enriched. 

 With respect to the keeping of them through the 

 winter, we protest, on account of the health and com- 

 fort of his family, against a farmer's ever putting any 

 of the turnip or cabbage family into his house cellar ; 

 but they may be stored in his barn cellar, or a deposit 

 may be made for them on his barn floor if the sides be 

 well filled in and the top carefully covered with hay, 

 for which purpose the poorest will answer. Or I have 

 preserved them in perfection by pitting them in the 

 field where they grew. For this purpose, on the driest 

 part of the field, dig a hole about six inches or a foot 

 in depth, and wide and long according to the quantit}-- 

 of turnips you have to provide for, there deposit your 

 ruta baga after they are dug and trimmed, and raise the 

 pile in a sloping form like the pitched roof of a house. 

 Do this after the dirt has been knocked otf the turnips, 

 and they have become as dry as circumstances will 

 admit. Lay on the heap a thin layer of straw, and a 

 thin covering of earth, leaving the south end of the 

 heap, which should be made north and south, to be 

 stopped up with several loose bundles of straw. Then 

 make a few holes with a crow-bar to act as ventilators 

 until the first heat of the turnips is over. Let them 

 remain in this condition until the cold increases, so 

 that they are in danger of freezing ; then put another 

 layer of straw and another covering of dirt, smoothed 

 down neatly with a spade, so that it may shed the rain. 

 Your turnips in this way will keep well all winter, 

 and access to them will be easy through the winter at 

 the south end, by removing the loose bundles of straw, 

 and afterwards carefully replacing them. The straw 

 and dirt, by the aid of frost, will make a perfect roof 

 to your turnip house, which will stand firm until the 

 frost is gone. I have kept hundreds of bushels for 

 my stock in this way ; and if a farmer desires in the 

 feeding season to meke accurate calculations of the 

 amount consumed as he goes on, he can put them up 

 in heaps of one or two hundred bushels each in differ- 

 ent parts of his field, managing with them in the way 

 I have dejcribed. 



