1825.] 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER- 



107 



individual skill and talent by their grand nation- j Yet j'ou owe the Culion Plant exclusively and 

 al Society nl'arts and maniifacturps. That foci- ' entirely to intelliojent men, — bookmen, — who 

 ety has sediilouslv watched over the g-enernl in- j were not practical farmers; — a plant which 

 terests ; it ha? I'oslered every new invention ; it yields to this conntry a greater rcvrntip lh;in all 

 has hroii^ht into public notice the rptiring; and its other productions of the sea and of the land, 

 modest inventor; it has recommended his dis- 1 Vt'e now come to some of the direct iind iiii- 

 coverv and ha* rewarded his skill not merely hy | (disputed benetits derived from this particular 

 its pecuniary aid, but by altrncling public alien- Society. — Col. Humphreys introduced some Me- 



tion to his merits. 



The same elTecl ha= been produced upon ag'- 

 ricu'.Iure by similar 

 idle to attribute sim 

 rapid process, which that nation has made in the 



rino slicep. His situation as minister to the Court 

 of Portuo-fd enabled him. and he wisely and pai- 

 measures. !l i'^ perfectly i rictically availed himself of the opportunity 1o j 

 ly to i/ifcrfrsf J di'maJirf, tiie ! introduce a few Merino sheeji. This Society, i 



ive to the interests of Agriculture, granted him i 



productions of its soil. It is of very little im- iheir gold mediil. It »vas not so much to him, 1 

 portance whether it is or is not admitted that ihe value of Ibe present, as the evidence it af-j 

 icicncc has done rniich for ag-riculture (though I forded of the importance of the acquisition, thus 

 believe it has efl'ected more than is generally enabling him (o put a high price on his "beep.! 

 Ijelieved) but the attention to it, the exertions Col Humphreys kept his sheep, — as he had a, 

 of those who have promoted it, not for proj^Z, ' right to do— (or hi' own pririiie emolument. A 

 luit from patriotic and piihlic motives, have done J'l^w years afterwards Mr Livingston, our minis- j 

 incomparable good. It would be as absurd to j tpr to France, had credit enough with the Empe- 1 

 deny, that the human intellect cannot when ap- ror (o obtain some of the Merino race from the 

 plied lo agriculture efl'ect important and valu- j imperial flock of Ramhouillet. He, too, as he 

 able improvements, as it would be to contend, iiad a right to do, turned bis importation to prof- \ 

 that it could not improve the ,ilhcr arts. Agri- if^ and the (irire of oOOO dollars for a single j 

 culture, to be sure, is not as susceptible of im- ram excited the attention of ovr Society, and. j 

 provemonts by machinery, as its sister arts, but 'knowing, as we did, that they could be bought | 

 the range of its objects of cultivation may be jn Spain for U) dollars, of the purest breed, we 

 indefinitely extended, and improvements may be i oflered premiums of lOCUbdlars each/or rams and 



made and have been made in the culture of these [ 

 iicio objects. It Ts not generally known, that the 

 cabbage, and the carrot, and the Swedish turnip, 

 and the beet and the most valuable varieties ol' 

 the latter, the mangel wurtzel, and the yellow, 

 and sugar beet, are altogether of modern intro- 

 duction, so modern that our cxcellerit ancestors 

 had never beard of them — could not have heard 

 of them because they did not exi=t. 



I will not detain you on the subject of fniifs, 

 because it has, at present, but a limited interest. 

 1 am however much amused, when 1 hear one 

 of our farmers who supply the J^oslon market 

 with fruit, undervalue the services of the 

 gentlemen farmers, when it is demonstrable that 

 to their exertions they owe many of the good 

 fruits, which they possess, and while they care- 

 fully watch their progress, and avail themselves 

 of all their improvements in the culture of them. — 

 This is perfectly natural, but it is highly proper 

 that on public occasions, we should ad\ert to the 



They came in great numbers as we an- 1 

 licipated. There was a fooli'^li rage in the^i',i(; 

 iastancp, perfectly absurd in ilsell', but ahvavs 

 inevitable in such cases. It eiideil, just like the ' 

 iate absurd speculations in cotton, in disajipoiiit- ' 

 ment and i.isasler, ;in(l the Merinos fell into a 

 disrepute as irrational as bad been the extrava-; 

 gant rise. But time and good sense, and expe-j 

 rience, those sound counsellors which never 

 deceive us, but which always settle lium.Tn ■ 

 affairs on their true and solid I'ountlation, soon j 

 soon raised the Merinos to their merited rank, 

 and it may be now safely expected, that never; 

 did anv society more widely and judiciously ex-! 

 pend its money for the benefit of any country. | 

 than ours has done by granting a medal to Col. i 

 Humphreys in the first instance, and tjnding that 

 he and Mr Livingston adopted the very fair and 

 justifiable project of a monopoli/, and a very re- 

 stricted one. by oflering 'premiums for »ic-c' fni- 

 portations which it can be proved by our records 



undoubted benefits, which science and su[)criorj induced the importation of many thousands. — 



capital has introduced 



Is there one farmer among those, whom I have 

 the honor to address, who knows that clover is 

 one of the tr' pbies of agricultural science '? that 

 it wa§ tttleri; unkno'jim in England at the time of 

 the emigra: 11 of our ancestors? 1 hope there 

 are none, w bo are so ignorant as to believe that, 

 the potato WIS a native production, or that it cost 

 vast and cot, '.nued efforts to overcome the prej- 

 udice of the iirmers against it. Yet banish the 

 potato, the ! --^ult of commerce and science, and 

 you would at once deprive Massachusetts of a 

 plant, worth some millions of dollars annually, 

 and if Irela'iii should be deprived of it, a famine 

 would instaiitly ensue. 



Shall we allude to the cotton plant ? No — Our 

 northern fanners J'ee.1 not its imfiortance except 

 indirectly in the cheapness of the excellent cloth 

 manufactured Irum it, in the general increase of 



Let us then enjoy a due credit for our exertions 

 We ask no more. It is a curious fact, worthy of 

 notice in the history of Agriculture, (and com- 

 merce and manufactures can exhibit many as 

 curious) that the Merino sheep became in this 

 country at one time so odious, so much of a bye- 

 word, that those who had adventured in the 

 speculations, were compelled to join in \he gen- 

 eral Invgh at them, nnd to shelter themselves un- 

 der the ground of an epidemic illusion. 



Yet in the short space of seven years, we have 

 nol only seen Ihe Merino races rise into favour, 

 but we have seen sheep of that breed introduc- 

 ed from the cold and comfortless region of Sax- 

 ony, and selling at prices which, it is alleged, 

 have afforded the importers a profit of 12, or 

 15000 dollars on a very few sheep. We ought 

 not, however, to disguise or conceal the fact, 

 that much of this extravagant demand has been 

 wealth from its manufacture, in Ihe building tiplihe result of a system of ;)ro(tc<!»g duties, which, 

 of new towns in the interior, forming new and jtvhatever effect the eloquence of inloreyted rais- 

 valuable markets fur their products at enlianced I ^rs of sheep may produce on public opinioa and 

 prices, and with less labour and expense of trans- ; policy, is radically unsound, 

 portatioa, , ■ 



Fifty years hence men will be, if not astonish 

 ed, at least ashamed, that the science of politi- 

 cal economy was so little understood in our 

 country. They will be surprised that we should 

 he willing to pay so much lor articles of the first 

 necessity, merely to advance and increase the 

 profits of one thousandth part of our community 

 — that we should consent to pay for our clothing 

 ."15 per cent more than we ought to pay, or than 

 it is worth, the whole of vvbich constitutes the 

 profit of one hundredtli or one thousandth part 

 of our population. But we are as yet in our in- 

 fancy ; and it is not extraordinary that we should 

 adopt the erroneous doctrines prevalent in Eu- 

 rope one hundred years .•iince, and in soma parts 

 of Europe even now. The concentration of ef- 

 fort and exertion of opulent, intelligent persons 

 interested in any particular branch of industry, 

 must lor a long period of time be an overmatch 

 for the enlightened but disinterested advocates 

 for an entire fp.i:f,dom of trade and of human 

 INDUSTRY. It must noi be inferred that we think 

 lightly of the value of mantiiacfuring industry, 

 nor of its effects on our prosperity ; but we would 

 have its growth a natural one — healthy and vig- 

 orous — which, not depending on monopolising 

 acts, will endure by its own native strength. — It 

 will not be supposed that I am unfriendly to man- 

 ufactures, in which the fortunes of those most 

 dear to me, and a large portion of my own are 

 engaged ; but I wish that they should repose on 

 a basis, much more secure and durable than Icg- 

 islnlivc provisions, subject to repeal, and lending 

 lo an unn.iliiral and morbid extension of them, 

 much more ruinous io small adventurers, than to 

 the larger ones. 



We vvill now iidvert to another branch of the 

 efl'orts (if ,|his -Society, to improve the breed rf do- 

 mestic animols. It i.«, we all know, debateable 

 ground. We shall not enter into the controver- 

 .'y ; but we owe it lo ourselves to defend the 

 grounds on which we oflered premiums fot im- 

 ported slock. 



It was well known to every agricultural man, 

 who was a reader, that Great Britain and France 

 were not contented with the existing slate of 

 their horned cattle — that tor fifty years last past 

 they had set themselves seriously at work to 

 improve them. It was as certainly true, that irr 

 our country no suck effort had been made. Of 

 course, it was to be presumed that these nations 

 had improved their races, while ours had been,- 

 to say the least, stationary. It is admitted on all 

 sides, that much may be done by selection of tine 

 individuals, and by care in preserving the im- 

 portant races pure from contamination or inter- 

 course with poorer ones. No such selection of 

 our races has taken place to this hour, that I 

 know of. It cannot be denied, that we in New 

 England Kue taken no pains whatever on this • 

 subject. If it should he admitted, that the fine., 

 natural pastures on the beautiful, fertile, and 

 moist hills of Worcester, that paradise of New 

 England for fine cattle, had kept up a race of cat- 

 tle, vigorous, and nearly perl'ect in Iheir forms, ■ 

 the same could not beafiiimed of Bristol, or the 

 southern counties, or of the northern part of 

 Midilleses or Norfolk. In truth our race of milch- 

 cozes was and is generally ordintiTy, and our ca^f^e 

 at large may be affirmed to be inferior to those 

 of England, — of the Netherlands, and of Nor- 

 mandy. I can only say,that going to Europe with, 

 very lillle agricultural knowledge I admit, it 

 {Concluded onpnge 110.) . 



