U6 



FARMERS' RE G I S T E R . 



[No. 12 



the relative merits of any which we compare lo- 

 creiher. Yet a single trial olicn suflices wiih many 

 ofu-s, to make up our opinions /or or against ?ome 

 particular thin<r, when a little more jiaiient atten- 

 tion and perseverance would lead us to conclusions 

 entirely upposiie to those which we lirsl Ibrmed, 

 ThisuUeriy deleais the object of all a^rriculiural 

 experiinenis whatever, which is to arrive at. the 

 utmost attuinabie cerlamty in our efibrls to ascer- 

 tain what is best ; and moreover, it is the chief 

 cause of llie endless disputes with which our ag- 

 ricultural papers are continually crammed, making 

 " contusion worse confounded" about various mat- 

 ters which long ago, ought to liave been finally 

 setlled. It is this precipitancy in jumping to con- 

 clusions, and Ibunding theories of systems upon a 

 lew isolated lacts, which, more than all other cau- 

 ses, prevents that constant, regular, effeciual ad- 

 vance in allthearisof husbandry, which we might 

 and would most surely make, if we would never 

 fail to note without prejudice, and with the ut- 

 most practicable accuracy, every circumstance con- 

 nected with all the experiments we undertake to 

 try. In no other way can much progress be made, 

 or great proficiency and certainty acquired, in any 

 art or science whatever, which is dependent upon 

 a series of experiments frequently and accurately 

 repeated — nor is there one in the whole circle that 

 requires them more than agriculture. He alone 

 who pursues such a course is justly entitled to 

 the character ol' a good I'armer ; and he deserves 

 it too — although comjiaratively young in his pro- 

 lession, incomparably belter than the man whose 

 only claim to it rests upon his having followed the 

 same vocation from early youth to hoary old age, 

 without a solitary efiort to ascertain wheiher it was 

 suscepiible of improvement or not ; yet, too many 

 foolishly suppose, that to be old means the same 

 thing as to be wise ; and of course ihat all aged 

 men have much more knowledge and experience 

 than young men can have in the same prol'ession ; 

 although it is notoriously true, thai thousands of 

 our brethren, at the end of a long lile, are nearly 

 as ignorant as when they first began it, of all the 

 great and lundamental {jrinciples essential to em- 

 inent success either in agriculture or any other 

 branch of husbandry. They live and die content 

 to know noihintz beyond what their liithers taught 

 them ; and finding that they can make a little mo- 

 ney in the o'd herediiaiy track — not an inch farther 

 do they ever look — not a tliouirht beyond will they 

 ever spend, as to the possibilily of doubling or 

 quadru|)ling their income by adopting any, even 

 of the best ascertained improvements, which are 

 almost constantly making in every branch of hus- 

 bandry. These being generally announced to the 

 public in print, are luanded by them with the 

 stigma oi'^'' book-farming,''^ and ofcourse are :rea- 

 ted with the most unqualified contempt. 



It is true, that there may be too much credulitv 

 — too much haste in adopting new things and 

 practices. But il we must choose between them, 

 and the extremes o\' stolidignorance and incurable 

 self conceit, I have no licsiiation in believing that 

 society in general has been and ever will be much 

 more beneliied by the first than the last. 



Without a strong and perseveiing desire to in- 

 vent and discover, no great improvement ever has 

 been, or can be, made in any art or science what- 

 ever ; nor is it a good objection to this ('.esire, ihat 

 it should sometimes become so eulhusiasijc, as to 



operate against the worldly interests of those who 

 are under its influence. For millions of mankind, 

 in all lime to come, will continue to be blessed 

 with the Iruiis of discoveries and inventions made 

 by men v.diose whole fortunes have been spent in 

 making them. Many of these true benefi>ctors of 

 our race, (and to our eternal shame be il spoken,) 

 have been suffered to die in utter poverty, whilst 

 thousands upon thousands of us have been enjoy- 

 ing in perfection all the advan'agesol their unre- 

 quited labors, in contented ignorance of the source 

 from which we derived them, and perhaps ascri- 

 bing, or least a part ol' them to ourselves ; altho' 

 probably, if thetruth were lold, ive should be rank- 

 ed in that class, whicli, according to the quaint 

 saying of a highly esteemed old liiend, were made 

 lor the same i)urpose with pewter sleeve-buttons, 

 merely " to fill up the assortment.'''' Most happily 

 Ibr societ}', we are not all pewter sleeve-button- 

 men, or we should be in the san)e predicament, as 

 to every useful invention, that lirther Noah's fam- 

 ily were when they first began to till the earth 

 alter the universal deluire. It is, alas I too true, 

 that we si ill have vast multitudes of drones in our 

 social hive — drones that do much to mar the 

 prospeiily and disgrace ihe character of our good 

 old mother Virginia. But thank Heaven! we 

 still iiave enough working bees of the native stock, 

 aided by occasional swarms from northern and 

 eastern hives, to keep up such a honey-gathering 

 as enables us "to go ahead, pretty considerably," 

 as brother Jonathan, would gay. By the way, it 

 would be liir better fbr us, in every respect, if we 

 would strive to imitate brother Jonathan in his 

 public spirit — his industry — his indomitable per- 

 severance under every change'of Ibrlune, however 

 discouraging, to better his condition, than to 

 aamse ourselves with his peculiarities, and neglect 

 to benefit by his example whenever it is good, 

 merely for the sake of laughing at his provincial- 

 isms, and at what we are [ileased to call his ^^ odd 

 icays," without reflecting, for a moment, that our 

 ways are probal)ly, quiie as odd to him, as his can 

 possibly be to us. Steam-boats and rail-roads, 1 

 confidently hope, will cure all these senseless pre- 

 judices, by the constant inier-communication which 

 ihey must almost necessarily produce between all 

 the ciiizens of our vastly extended contmunity ; a 

 community, which if wisely governed, may exhibit 

 to the whole world the greatest — ihe most illustri- 

 ous example of what mere government can do 

 towards jiroducing national happiness, that the 

 annals of history have ever recorded. 



But you must pardon this disgression, and I 

 will proceed vviih the statement of my experi- 

 ments. The first, as I hereiolbre remarked, was 

 with the Dutton and Baden corn. Both were 

 planted on the 9ih of April, and received pre- 

 cisely the same culture, which was aliogether 

 with the hand-hoe — ihe spot of ground being 

 too small to inlrodnce a plough. But it was 

 well workcil lour times. The J)utton began to 

 tassel about the 28ih of June, the JJaden at the 

 end of the following week ; although the dif- 

 lerence, in this respect, between the two kinds 

 which I received last year under the same names 

 and from the same source, was quite three weeks. 

 A still more striking difference was, that the Dut- 

 ton of last year, was literally a dwarf-corn in every 

 respect — lower ihan ihe Baden by three or (bur 

 loci, and producing much smaller, although more 



