NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Published by JOHN B. KU3SELL, at the corner of Congress and l-indall Streets, Boston THOMAS G. F!:5SF,M)F:N'. Kbitob. 



VOL. IV. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 182(5. 



No. 24. 



AN ADDRESS, 



Delivered before tlie Berksliire Asfoci.ilion for the pro 



] suits wliich iille«t llicir I'liilure or success. r>iit 



Ihiil I m;iy not ie aiiniii inisapprchcndcd h}" some 



r, . , j„ r , ,„.,,.,, Knighterranl of i-cience. Ipt me rrper.l, thai I 



motion of Agriculture and Manafaclures, at P.tt.neld,i.,^ ^^,,,,1 .^^^.^^^ ^j- „,g important connexion (!u.l 



Oct. 6, 1823, by Samuel M. McKay, President of the subsists belivecn |iractical and scientilic 



Society. — 



Gentlemen. — We .Tre ag;iin assembled " on 

 common ground, as the Drethren of one com- 

 mon liousehold," to reciprocate our conarralula- 

 tions on the various successes ofour onterprize, 

 and to contend in honorable omul.ition for the 

 prizes of merit. This is a time when the jeal- 

 ousies of rivalry, which m ir so much of social 

 happiness, are merged in the consciousness of a 

 |)ul)lic and nobler motive. When a true sense 

 of the dignity of our employment, r.iises us above 

 the personal considerations which mis;lit steal 

 upon us, were we not avoweilly associaled for 

 the public good. And is it not a time when the 

 Husbandman, in review of the blessings of the 

 past year, must feel that " Paul may plant and 

 Apollos water, but that God giveth the increase"? 

 Is not this peculiarly a season of gratitude ? If 

 there be an employment which more than an- 

 other is calculated to inspire it. it is the farmer's. 

 With what solicitude does he watch the varieties 



of 



iiate and the changes of the seaso 



Each 



gentle shower, each genial sun, each refreshing 

 dew of Heaven should cherish ils growth in his 

 heart as much as they do cherish and iniigornte 

 and enliven the crops and plants which are the 

 objects of his care. During the seed time and 

 harvest, the fleavens and the fields of the earth 

 teem with the Oiije.'".ts that command his g-r.Tti- 

 tude, and the incense of a grateful heart arises 

 from Nature's .\ltar to Nature's God. Now al- 

 most oppressed by the liounties of a propilicus 

 season, we have assembled in the temple of our 

 religions worship, to celebrate our " harvest 

 home," " to the giver of every good and per- 

 fect gift " let the praise be ascribed. 



It has been remarked with much truth, that 

 we are a peculiarly rational people, whose 

 thinking habits exact intellectual exercises at 

 most of our public associations; yet it must be 

 obvious that the business and amusements of 

 this day afford us but little time, and may I no; 

 add but little aptitude, for a thorough and use- 

 ful investigation of any one of the many import- 

 ant subjects which appertain to the science a: '^ 

 practice of .Agriculture. The moral effect of 

 mere popular harangue upon an intelligent and 

 enlightened audience, is scarcely perceptible. — 

 Even if it be so adroitly made as to produce ;i 

 temporary excitement, any permanent effeC 

 from it is not to be expected. Limited as 1 am 

 in time, and erabarr^<ed by the circumstance ni 

 addressing a popular assemblage on a subject «o 

 abstruse, that it must be approached rather as a 

 study than as an amusement, I request your at- 

 tention while I attempt a short dissertation on 

 Manures; and let me assure you. geiilleraen. 

 that I am not about to ring the changes of the 

 technical terms io Cliemistry, nor to extract a 

 series of curious experiments from chemical au- 

 thors. The fields ol a great majority of culti- 



irming, 

 and that the connexion of chemistry with agri- 

 culture is not founded on mere vague specula- 

 tion. 



.Agricultural chemistry has for its objects all 

 tlinse changes in the arranjjement of matter 

 "iiich are connected with the growth of plants, 

 particularly in the constitulicn of soils and the 

 application of manures. An enquiry into the 

 composition and nature of material bodies can- 

 not be instituted on this occasion, nor is it ne- 

 cessary. It is enough for the practical farmer to 

 know that the surface of the earth, the atmos- 

 [I'nere, and (he water deposited from it, either 

 togelher or separately, alTnrd all the principles 

 concerned in vegefalinn. Every safe and capa- 

 ble navigator need not possess the knowledge 

 of a Newton, nor of '■'■ our own Bowditch." — 

 Nor need every intelligent and correct practi- 

 cal farmer possess the chemical science of a Sir 

 Hum[)hry Davy, or of our own Dewey. 



Soils consist of different finely divided earthy 

 matter, mixed wilh vegetable and animal mat- 

 ter in a state of decomposition. " The earthy 

 mailer is the true basis of the soil," the vege- 

 thble and animal matter "constitute the true 

 food of the plants." A favourable mixture of 

 the earths in soils is of great importance. By 

 this operation the basis of the soil may be bel- 

 'c.= k filled for the reception of the nutritious ma- 

 nures, also for the accommodation of the roots 

 j and fibres of the plants, the tubes of which take 

 up their nourishment from the soluble and dis- 

 solved substances which are mixed with the 

 earths. But no mixture of the simple earths 

 without the aid of animal or vegetable matter 

 will produce fortility of soil. 



Nature, which seems always intent upon the 

 propagation of an;m:iland vegetable life, never 

 suffers soils to be wholly divested of animal and 

 vegetable matter The sources from which they 

 .ire supplied fill the atmosphere and cover the 

 face of the earth. Where excavations are made 

 and the earths are thrown up frona a great depth, 

 we soon perceive the process of fertilization to 

 commence. Even though the earth thus thrown 

 up contain no animal or vegetable matter, the 

 seeds of lichens, mosses and other imperfect 

 vegetables, which are constantly floating in the 

 atmosphere, and are lighting upon it, contai!! in 

 themselves nutritious matter enough for a com 

 mencement of vegetation. " Their death, de- 

 composition and decay afford organizable mai- 

 ler which mixes with the earths" — thus a soil 

 is produced capable of sustaining more perfect 

 idanis, these absorb nourishment from water and 

 Ihe atmosphere, and after perishing as their 

 predecessors did, in their turn afford new ma- 

 terials for the fertilization of the soil. This is 

 the process by which, Sir H. Davy tells us, a 

 soil is formed upon the surface of a rock, capa- 

 ble of sustaining forest trees, and fitted to reward 



vators comprise their laboratory, and nature's , he labors of the cultivator. The economy of 

 furnace, the sun of hewen, generates the he^l nature, .is exhibited in our wilds and forests, 

 for each expenment-iheir crops are the re- 1 corroborate this theory. The vegetable matter 



i which is supplied from the leaves of Irees rod 

 ! decaying wood, from ib.e grasses and prrrri;iia> 

 plants, also the srpply of ;!nimal jnatlcr. irom 

 I Ihe larger and sn-.aller quadrupeds and rcjUiles, 

 and Ihe endless v.uioties of bird? uhicli find iocri 

 and shelter in our forests — the hosts of insecls 

 that [leople every leaf — even the animalcula 

 who riot their short exislence in l!ie decaying' 

 animal matter which produces them, and in their 

 turn become the sources of fertilization, leav* 

 us but litile room todcuM that the forests of the 

 wilderness are as much dejici/denf tipcn decom- 

 posing animal and vegolabie matter for their 

 luxuriance, as are Ihe cornfields of New-Eng. 

 land. Mr Lorrain, a late author, of Pennsylva- 

 nia, carries this theory still farther. He says 

 that a mixture of n;ilritious matter wilh anyone 

 of the earths, will produce a fertile soil. That 

 whatever may be the varieties of soil in our new 

 settlements, whether calcareous, a clay, or a sand 

 or a mixture of the earths, they uniformly yield 

 great crops until the animal and vegetable mat- 

 ter, which nature has been accumulating for 

 ages, is exhausted by unreasonable and severe 

 cropping. 



The popular opinions which formerly atfarh- 

 ed to the operations of Gypsum, of the alkalies 

 and saline substances, may cause gentlemen to 

 distrust this pcsilion ; but in Ihe experiments 

 which have been made in the use of ihcse stim- 

 ulant manures, I find nothing that is incompati- 

 ble with it. M is well established in the Dis- 

 tricts where Gvpsum and Lime have been long 

 in use, that altluMgh ihey, for a time, wonder- 

 fully promote vt-getalion, lliei/ exliati.tt (he scil. — 

 The experiments of .fudge Peters, and of many 

 intelligent farmers of Pennsylvania, perfectly 

 establish this fact. Mr Lorrain informs us that 

 the farmers of Pennsylvania, cs]iecially those 

 who reside near a hay market, injured their 

 grounds exceedingly by flip injudicious use of 

 Plaister, and that at one time the clamours a- 

 gainst it were so great as to threaten its disuse 

 — tliat they were only roiinleracted by the ra- 

 tional practice ef a few intelligent cultivators, 

 who were careful to return to the soil a reason- 

 able portion ol its produce as a manure. " Where 

 this practice obtained, the improvement made 

 in the soil by a judicious application of it, was 

 almost incredible." 



I am aware of Sir IJ. Davy's expression, " that 

 the manures which act in small quantities, and 

 which are commonly distinguished as stimulants, 

 probably constitute a part of the true food of 

 plants" — that he entertains this opinion in con- 

 sequence of having found them among Ihe con- 

 stituent parts of jilants — "• but whether these 

 manures act in the manner of stimulants and 

 condiments in the human economy,'' or whether 

 they constitute a part of the true food of plants, 

 is not very material. The farmer knows that 

 when he salts his cattle they thrive, and he also 

 knows that they cannot live exclusively upon 

 salt. Whether salt is only a stimulus, or whether 

 it constitutes a part of the nutritious food, may 

 be important (o the Physician, but certainly it i§ 

 not so to the I'armf r. There is not lime for a 

 further pursuit of this subject. Enough has al- 

 ready been adduced to justify the inference, t/;c! 



