XSTXvX* 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILL. 



'Those who lacou ly the earth are thb chosen i-eofi.e of God, whose bbe\st9 he has made his peculiar deposite foh «ubst*ntial and genuine virtue," — Jrffcrson, 



VOLUME VI. 



THE PARMER'S MOjVTHIjY VISITOR, 



PUFiLISHrii BY 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



ISSUED ON THE LAST DAY OF EVERT MOMTH, 



At Atheuian BiiiUUn^. 



35^GENr.p\L Agents.— C. Cook, Kt-ene, N H. ; Thomas 

 R. Hampton, Washington City, D. C; John Marsh, Wash- 

 ington St. Boston, Mass.; Charles Wabrev, Brinley Row, 

 WorcesttT. Mass. 



TERMg.— To single snbsciiber:?, Fijly Cents. Ten per 

 cent, will be allowed to the pereon who shall send more than 

 one snbsci-iber. Twelve copies will be sent for the advance 

 pavinent of Five Dollars ; twentv-five copies for Ten Dollars; 

 sixty copies for Twenttj Dollars. "The payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



{lCr-^^f""^'J ^'^^ subscriptions^ by a regulation of the Post Master 

 Genera}, i.iay in all cases be remitted by the Post Ma.itcr, free or 

 postairr. 



55=AII Rentlemen who have heretofore acted as Asents aie 

 requested to continue their Agency. Old subscribers who 

 come under the new terms, will please notify us of the names 

 already on our books. 



CONCORD, N. H. DECEMBER 31, 1844. 



NUMBER 12. 



CONCORD. N. H., DECEMBER 31, laW. 



First Agricultural Meeting at the Cai>itol. 



Agioealily to iioiice issued in luiiulliills, a meet- 

 ing was liiililen in tlie Representatives' Hall in 

 tlie Stale Honse on Tliuisday, Dee. 12, 1844, at 

 half I'ast one o'clock, P. M. 'I'liis iiieetin-j was 

 oi-jjanizeil hy choosing LEVI BAKTLETT, Esq., 

 of VVaiiier, President, and Nathaniel B.Baker, 

 Esq., of Concoril, Secretary. 



The ohject of tlie nieeliug having been stated, 

 hv recpiBst and vole of the f^entlenien present, 

 ftir. IliEL, of Concord, editor of tlie Montlily 

 Visitor, addressed the meeting as follows: — 



He said : In tlie course of no very inactive life 

 niinilieiiiiL' in years more than half a ceninry, 

 1 have fonnd no occupation so pleasing, so full 

 of satisfaction, as that of the farmer who snc- 

 cessfidly rni.^es and secures his crops. The re- 

 flection of producing the greatest good to the 

 greatest nnmher does not liiil to acconqiany the 

 creation liy lium:m aid of useful grain and vege- 

 tables, the means of sustenance toman and heast, 

 upon grounds that have laid useless and sterile. 



There is reality in this satisfaction and self- 

 gratulalion, liecause from the artilicial and s-pou- 

 taneous productions oi' mother earth, forest trees 

 and fruits and grain and all llie vegetating tribes 

 — from tlie hidden mineralt in earth's bosom 

 sought and brought into use as the result of 

 man's labor; — from this foundation is every su- 

 perstructure of art or science reared — and from 

 this source has capital or wealth reproducing 

 itself been gathered. 



Silver and gold cannot give us sustenance: 

 these are vulnless when the earth can no longer 

 yield her increase. Silver and gold can only be 

 useful ill an age of luxury ; and the great de- 

 pendence of luxury is in the smiles of that wise 

 Providence which crowns the labors of the hus- 

 l)andman. 



1 have for a series of years enjoyed some of 

 the places which are sought for by ambition: for 

 one of my humble pretensions I have enjoyed 

 more of that hind of honor than most men at my 

 time of life; but I am free to declare that in no 

 high place have 1 realized so much satisfaction 

 as I have derived from the conviction that 1 had 

 gathcretl a hi.rvcst of eipjal or greater value than 

 the cost of cultivation, at the same time the (pial- 

 ity of the ground to produce a future crop hail 

 been likewise improved. 



No extensive nation can lie expected to pros- 

 per without a prosperous agriculture. Great in- 

 dividual wealth may be and often is procured by 



the merchant and the manufacturer — great for- 

 tunes an; often made from the necessities and 

 even the distresses of a declining yeomanry. 

 Who has seen the usurer and the oppressor grow 

 rich frmii the. ruins of his surrounding neighbors, 

 that will not also see the fruits of ill-gotten gains 

 bring along w itii them the curse that involves the 

 whole in a contnion ruin ; for where is the use of 

 hoarded weallli, of silver and gold, in u country 

 whose fair fields are deserted, and whose inhabi- 

 tants are enervated by starving destitution.' 



Ill the late fruitful season I have taken crops 

 from the earth in ipiantity and quality greater and 

 better than I had ever done before. My barns 

 and granary at this time are almost litterally over- 

 flowing. If I had a manutactory of money or of 

 hank bills which might always be redeemed with 

 specie, 1 should not only be able to purchase 

 every thing within the (!om])ass of human want, 

 but i should be looked up to as a man of more 

 independence th;m the most of my neighbors; 

 hut abundance of money would not make me 

 feel quite as well as the possession of abundance 

 of the productions of the earth better than mon- 

 ey to supply the wants of both rich and poor — 

 iiud which ut this time, better than any thing else, 

 at oiice give comfort to the destitute and the 

 needy. 



In the inatter of Agriculture, the most inter- 

 esting subject of sublunary things claiming the 

 attention of this community, it is necessary that 

 the Western World, and especially that oldest 

 portion of the country w Inch we inhabit, should 

 arouse from the torpor in which our yeomanry 

 have rested. 



The first fertility of the most choice lands of 

 New England, which lasted nearly the common 

 !ige of man, has jiassed away ; and it is but nat- 

 ural that the new generation which has since 

 becMi born should look upon whole districts of 

 country now in a condition hardly to remunerate 

 the e.<i|iense of the fences which surround them, 

 as never possessbig much value. The harder 

 lands, indeed, in many parts, present an aspect 

 hut too discouraging. Could all of these lands 

 now open upon ns as they appeared soon alter 

 the original tiarests were telleii, they would not 

 so mucli sutler in the contrast with the fertile 

 lauds in the West which are the admiration of 

 those who travel from our rocky hiUs and moun- 

 t;iins into the more level table lands beyond the 

 Alleghany ridges. We ought to be aware of 

 the fact that there is no soil so fertile that it may 

 not become improduclive niider the uiauagemeiit 

 of the careless and negligent hushaudiiuiu. The 

 extensive cotton regions of the South and West, 

 even the richer alluvion sugar groimds upon the 

 Mississippi that do not receive annual renewed 

 nutriment from the overflow of the great father 

 of the western waters — indeed all the lands cul- 

 tivated by a slave |)opulation — are destined to 

 lose that high character which they now sustain. 

 1 take as a position demonstrable to the con- 

 viction of every sensible man, that no part of the 

 country presents a more certain remuneration to 

 the farmer with well applied expense and labor 

 than New England. We have a better market 

 for every production of the earth than those parts 

 of the country where crops are more easily r:iis- 

 ed : the proportion of consumers in our midst 

 is, and must of necessity always be, greater at 

 our doors than in other sections of the Union. 

 ll' theii- cropri arc raise<l at less expense, in al- 

 most every article we wish to produce we can 

 distance competition by our nearer access to 

 market ; furalthough the superabundance of agri- 

 cnlliiral production iu the virgin soils of the 

 south and west may enable them io present some 

 things cheaper tli.in we can afford, there are 

 other things which we can produce in which they 

 cannot begin to compele with us. There are 

 some of our staples which we could scarcely af- 

 ford to gathcii aiul sccm-e if grown to our liands, 



at the prices for which they are bought in t\.* 

 western new settltements, tliat the venders may 

 be able to purchase and tianspoft tlieiii to us at 

 our prices. 



Tlie hope of success to tlio New Ecgland 

 farmers must rest entirely on improved cultiva- 

 tion. Tlii.s in many places has been already be- 

 gun, so that aliiiost every one has within his own 

 observation some example of complete success. 

 As the New England hirmers are the most in- 

 telligent and respectable men of their race, so it 

 is necessary that they should bring that intelli- 

 gence to bear upon their greatest (ihysical, as it 

 eminently does upon their greatest inoral, good. 

 From what a few have done, we know what the 

 many have the power to do. 



If the farm management in Great Britain, in 

 Belgium, and some other European countries, 

 was no lietterthan it is in the United States, their 

 cultivation would not pay the price of the rents. 

 In England and Scotland there are saiil to be only 

 thirty-six thousand owners of the soil with near- 

 ly as many millions of population: there are 

 three classes directly interested in the agriculture 

 of that country— the proprietors and owners of 

 the soil, the tenants, and the laborers. Most of 

 the immediate ojjerators own no soil ; but to be 

 an extensive farmer a man must possess a large 

 capital. The outlay of the tenant is often greater 

 than the whole value of the soil. Upon a long 

 lease he makes expenditures in clearing and im- 

 proving the land greater than its original value; 

 and for security of remuneration his lease often 

 provides that he shall have a consideration at its 

 terininatiou. Rent prices for the highest improved 

 lands on lease are |iaid which would seem to us 

 to be incredible. The tenant relies on an almost 

 certain production as well to pay his rents as to 

 pay the interest upon his inveslment ; and he 

 often accumulates thousands in a single season: 

 but the poor hdiover, .-d'ter the land proprietor 

 and tenant h;ive shared their gains— after the 

 enormous burden of taxation hi that expensive 

 governmeni, overwhelmed iu debt, has been like- 

 wise deducted ; tlie poor laborer there receives 

 as his sli|iend what would be considered iu the 

 poorest secliou cultivated Iiy negro slaves in 

 America, as insiiflicient to keep them from star- 

 vation. It is thus that the people sufl^er in some 

 of the countries of the greatest agricullnral pro- 

 duction. 



Our destiny presents other and brighter lines 

 in the life of our farmers. The inost of those 

 who labor with their own hands are the owners 

 of the soil; and to the man possessed of natural 

 powers and muscular slrentith, no employnient 

 can be more salutary than the labor of the field. 

 Always finding time to read every thing that re- 

 lates to his svelfare, he has that abundance of 

 time for comersation and reflection while en- 

 gaged in the held or resting his head upon the 

 pillow, which may make of him all that we ought 

 to expect of man in his social state. We want 

 to copy, in this country, the better part of British 

 or European farming iis our example. We want 

 to make onr .lands yield twice, thrice, four, and 

 even ten limes their present production- we want 

 to produce a greater umoiint from the same labor 

 —we want encouragement for every man to raise 

 a surplus by finding the better market for that 

 surplus— we want a greater ability to purchase, 

 and consumers always sufilcient iorthe increased 

 production : we want, iu short, that wealth which 

 will always encourage industry, and which de- 

 rives its ability to be generous from that very cn^ 

 couragemenl. 



Every tinnier who has the atnbiiioii not to be 

 behind his neighbors, should consirier at once 

 how he may begin. Ability will grow by asso. 

 ciution: enterprise is slimnlated by exatnple. 

 The example of one man may lead many into 

 improvements which otherwise wouUI not be nt- 

 temptfid. Conversations on sucwpfIii) a« well ns 



