AGRICULTURAL DISCOURSE. 



235 



a discourse on your principal, and I hope favor- 

 ite pursuit, I must confess tlial I came some 

 days since to enjoy the liospitality of an estima- 

 ble citizen, and to look around, not exactly to 

 spy out the nakedness of the land, but to get 

 some idea of your locality, your soil, j-our staples, 

 and J-our Agricultural habits. A view of Long 

 Island, such as is afforded by a ride along the 

 Railroad to Boston, gives an unfavorable im- 

 pression to the traveler who comes and goes, 

 and carries a\vay an idea of barrenness beyond 

 all power of redemption. For myself, not alto- 

 gether unac(iuainted with other and better por- 

 tions of the-Island, and with your wi.se and free 

 use of ashes, fish, and other purchaseable ma- 

 nures, I was i)reparcd to find a different and a 

 better state of things. — I had heard of your nice 

 salt marsh alid clean artificial hay, and had seen 

 some of the fine hor.ses that live on it. The 

 fame of your Newtown pippins had reached 

 me in ^Maryland, where the soil and climate 

 are said to improve them — your fine, fresh, 

 and delightful game, of land and water, had, 

 for some mouths that I have resided in your 

 great Emporium, made part of my daily "bill 

 of fare ;" but I confess to you that I was 

 not altogether prepared for so man^evidences 

 of skillful and economical culture — culture, as 

 far as I dare venture to jadge or pronunce an 

 opinion, of the mind as vi-ell of the soil. As the 

 Queen of Sheba said unto Solomon at the sight 



of all his magnificence " the half had not 



been told me." You would have no reason to 

 blu.sh, if you could realize the prayer of Burns, 



" Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us, 

 To tee oursels as ithers see us." 



Above any Agricultural communitj' witli 

 which I am acquainted, except, perhaps, game 

 little Delaware, you carry into practice 

 the truth which every one knows, but which 

 too many disregard — That unless you feed your 

 land, your land leill not feed yo^t ; and hence I 

 am persuaded money is more freely expended 

 for manure on Long Island, than in almost any 

 other district of the country. First, your soil is 

 of a light hun|:»ry nature, permeable and open 

 to the roots, of the plants, and readily yielding, in 

 a single .season, all that it has for their nourish- 

 ment, and therefore demanding the restoratives, 

 without which it would as certainly cease to pro- 

 duce, as the cow without feed would get poor 

 and go dry. Another reason which makes it 

 obligatory on you to buy and spread freely is, 

 that from your proximity to market and the 

 excellence of what you have to sell, you are natu- 

 rally tempted to turn that into ca.sh, which many- 

 other farmers by means of their domestic ani- 

 mals, or in the .shape of litter, turn into ma- 

 nure. Hence it would be as unju.st towards 

 your land, as it^vould be impolitic in yourselves, 

 not to trive buck in the shape of manure, a por- 

 (4-7) 



lion of the elements for the succeeding crop, 

 which you have carried oll'and pocketed from the 

 last one. To this day how many are there who act 

 upon the .system of wasting or selling off all the 

 materials of which manure can be made, and 

 neither making or buying any in return ; forget- 

 ting the homely adage, which every good iiou.se- 

 wife understands, that, "Always taking out of 

 the meal tub, and never putting in, will soon 

 come to the bottom !" 



I presume not to saj', on observation, but let 

 me put the question to your own candor, for it 

 is a practical one of vital importance ; do you 

 w-ho buy none — or in addition to what you buy, 

 do you economise and turn to account every par- 

 ticle of everything which can be converted into 

 su.stenance for plants — as everything may that is 

 susceptible of putrefaction or decompcsition. 

 Do you send to the byways and highways for 

 the means of making, if it he but a shovel-full of 

 manure, for even that much would give you a 

 good hill of com ? Do you reflect ho^v much and 

 how directly every load of manure helps vir- 

 tually to cheapen the price, by giving more fruit- 

 fulness to the labour, of the men you hire? 

 Particularly I would ask, do you take measures 

 to save every drop of that which is *-egarded 

 in the best cultivated districts of Europe as the 

 richest treasure of every farm — I mean the 

 liquid manure. By well-constructed tanks all 

 is collected and saved. Among other contri- 

 vances, a simple one is used to which everyone 

 might have recourse, to save all the offal of the 

 dwelling and kitchen. They have a light box, 

 fixed on the frame of a common wheelbarrow, 

 in which all is collected and removed for the 

 time to an ash pit, the common stercorary of the 

 homestead. Gentlemen, a word to the wi.se is 

 enough. 1 merely ask the question, and as 

 Paul Pry says in the play, " Hope I don't in- 

 trude !" 



I have recently heard it said, by an old, ob- 

 servant and most respectable member and officer 

 of this society, as worthy of note, and I mention 

 it more for the general benefit than for yours, that 

 tho.se had been generally the most prosperous in 

 this town.ship who had been known io expend 

 most money for manure ! I may mention as a 

 fact which has come to my own knowledge, that 

 the hay of your artificial meadows is esteemed 

 to be far superior to that of low land or natural 

 meadows, and doubtless the fine quality and 

 exceedingly cleanly character of your grains as 

 well as grasses, pi'occcds from the use of a.shes 

 and ^vell-rottcd manure, and that which is the 

 seedless product of your invaluable salt marshes. 



But, gentlemen, after all, to talk about my 

 giving you advice, why, I would as soon have 

 undertaken to instruct Napoleon in the art of 

 war, as to teach a Long Island fanner, after 

 what I have seen, how to make wheat or corn. 



