PuUished by John B. Russeli., at JVo. 52 JStorth Market Street, (at the Jlgricultural H'arehouse). — Thomas G. Fesscnden, Editor. 



VOL. YII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, MAIICH 13, 1829. 



No. 34. 



AGIIICUL.TUR.E. 



FOR THK NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



REMAUKS ON THE REPORT OF THE 

 COMMITTEE OF THE ESSEX AG- 

 RICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



JIr Editor — I liiive read in the New EnglaiiJ 

 Farmer of this week the report of a Coiiiinittee 

 of the Essex Agricultural Society, who were ap- 

 pointed to examine the fonns in the county, pro- 

 posed for premiums ; an,i who have here given 

 the result of such examination. I have no per- 

 sonal interest whatever in this matter ; but as a 

 public j)aper, I consider it open to remark, and 

 thin'i that it should not pass witliout notice. — Re- 

 ports of the committees of all puhhc bodies, 

 should, in my humble opinion, be grava papers, 

 based exclusively on facts ; and not vehicles for 

 rhetorical flourishes, for wit, or " what looks like 

 it." 1 



; subjects, and to be talked of in the saui'; report I ty ; at least from individuals, some of whom can 

 with our domestic cattle and swine, it should be lia-.e had little practical concern with agriculture 

 spoken of as it deserves. 3 I in any of its forms. 



I oliject in the last place to the unworthy and I hope, Mr Editor, I shall be excused if I have 

 low prejudices, which the rejwrt seems to me to been betrayed into too much warmth. I intend 

 exhibit. The Committee speak of visiting a farm no disrespect to the Committee ; nor do I come 



at West Newbury ; and after some left-hand coin- 

 pliments to the tenant, and admitting that the re- 

 sult of the improvements there hitroduced cannot 

 be at present determined, they go on with some 

 most uncandid and unwarrantable remarks as to 

 gPiitleinen being at liberty to farm for display and 

 to indulge in their fancies for dogs awd horses ; 

 aud then they prate about innovations upon Yan- 

 kee husbandry. This is unworthy of them. The 



forward as the advocate of the West Newbury 

 farmer, with whom I have no connexion whatr 

 ever, and no acquaintance than that of having oc- 

 casionally visiteil ills farm. 1 feel, however, that 

 I owe an apology to him for thus bringing his 

 name before the public. But, sir, I thought the 

 covert attacl; upon this gentleman ungenerous, 

 and do extremely dislike any want of liberaHty 

 and candor towards industrious and mtelligent for- 



gentleman who occupies this farm at West New- eigners, who settle among us, and \yho are cer- 



ought to be composed. Tiie Committee speak of 

 the remarkable improvements of some farms, but 

 do not give a sutficiently particular account of 

 what these improvements consist in ; and tell of 

 the extraordinary produce of some of the farms, 

 but furnish very few items as to the nature cr 

 amount of the crops. These things should be mi- 

 nutely s;)ecified by one who proposes his farm fo" 

 a premiutn, aud by a committee, who undertake to 

 award that premium. We ought not to be satisfi- 

 ed with generalities ; we want particulars. Everj' 

 careful farmer should keep an exact account of 

 Lis cn)[)s, and the amount of labor expended on 

 them ; otherwise it is difficult to form a correct 

 judgment of his skill or success. 2 



I protest in the next place in the report to a 

 want of delicacy, and a violation of propriety, in 

 the remarks of the Committee concerning the lady 

 of one of the successful competitors, whom they 

 have extravagantly comjili.mentcd. This para- 

 graph, must, I thiiilv, have been penned by some 

 forlorn bachelor, or widower, in the Conmiittce, if 

 there is any such one, who seems to have been 

 awakened to a sense of his melancholy condition. 

 I dare say the lady in question deserves all these 

 encomiums. I have not the pleasure to know her. 

 Be this, however, as it may, Mr Editor, if a com- 

 mittee shouhl visit my farm for the purpose of in- 

 specting it, and should see fit to make my modest 

 and good wife the subject of such fulsome pane- 

 gyric in the newspiipers, I will not say I should 

 feel myself insulted, because I dare say their in- 

 tentions are well enough ; but I should be much 

 hurt, and am persuaded it must be very offensive 

 to a sensitive and ditiident woman. Our manners 

 in this respect have already become quite indeli- 

 cate and ridicidous. What is cheaper than ne.vs- 

 paper adulation ? It is offensive enough to on> 

 selves ; but when our wives al-e to be mat'o its 



bury, is a foreigner, recently come among u 



Every candid man will admit that he is much 



more of a practical than a theoretical farmer ; and 



thoroughly skilled in the best methods of Scotch 



„, . . • ,1 /- . I husbandry. He is a working farmer ; and can do 



Ihe report seems to me, in the first place, very, , j t i i i „i. „r „.„.-„ 



,£.'.., '. . . 1- ,• 1 : as much, and I apprehend does as much ol every 



deficient m those exact statements of wluch it ,.,„„• i, • »i „t., 



kind of farming labor as any man in the county. 



He has managed his farm according to the hus- 

 bandry of the most improved districts in Scotland; 

 and the Scotch farmers are universally acknowl- 

 edged to be second to none in the world. We 

 have seen tliis man's skill in sowing and plough- 

 ing, and various operations of husbandry with ad- 

 miration. We believe and his neighbors admit 

 the iiict, that there is no farm in the vicinity 

 where more effective labor has been done by the 

 sair.e number of hands, or a greater produce raised 

 iff proportion to the expense and the facilities, 

 which were afforded. Without having ever seen 

 Indian corn cultivated, he produced as good and 

 as well cleaned a crop, the condition of the land 

 and the amount of manure used being considered, 

 as has been grown in the county. We think he 

 has much to learn in regard to the nature of our 

 climate, and other circumstances of the country, 

 and to adapt his cultivation to them. We believe 

 that he will be compelled for various reasons to 

 abandon some modes of cultivation and manage- 

 ment, wiiich are not suited to our country and 

 habits ; such for exam[ile as the use of horses in- 

 stead of oxen for farm ]iiirpofes. Yet his experi- 

 ence in the one case is entitled to as much consid- 

 eration as ours in the other. But on none of these 

 localities, if we may use the term, could we ex- 

 pect to find him informed, when as yet he had 

 hardly been a year in the country. Still whether 

 his management succeeds or fails, the experiment 

 is certainly conducted with great skill and labor ; 

 and in either case will afford as much useful in- 

 struction. Compared with the experience and im- 

 provements of Scotch agriculture (the country of 

 Sir John Sinclair, and Robert Brown) loe are as 

 yet in our infann/ ; and to hold up to ridicule, 

 what ;he Committee choose to term ^^innovations 

 upon Yankee Husbandry,''^ is illiberal ; and shows 

 either a want of knowledge or judgment. If this 

 gentleman had done no more than to give us an 

 e.xample of an Improved Threshing Machine, he 

 would be entitled to the thanks, and most certain- 

 ly ought to be spared the sneers of the communi- 



3 Ladies, however, are awarded preuuunis al uur cnule 

 shows. A good housewife deserves praise as much as her hus- 

 baudmau. See Proverb?, chap. xxxi. 



Nctrs I'y the Ef/itor. — 1 This observation is corrocl, uut we 

 do not perceive ih&l il lias any applicaliou to the Report in 

 question, in wiiicii vve can perceive ro attempts al wit, 



2 Perliaps we may yet be favored with those *' exact state- 

 ments," tlie want of which is a topic of complaint. The Com- 

 mittee say that "a particular description of them" (viz. Ihe 

 farms) "together with an account of their productions the present 

 year, will be found in the statements of the several claimants 

 annexed to this report." 



taiuly capable of teaching us something, if even 

 their methods serve no purpose but to evince the 

 superiority of our own. We talk as though the 

 meridian sun was shining upon us, when as yet in 

 regard to agriculture, as well as many other of 

 the practical arts, it is scarcely day-dawning ; and 

 that self conceit, which would prejudice us against 

 any and continued improvements is^ deserving of 

 reiuobation. 



I am sick, likewise, Mr Editor, of all sneers 

 against what are termed gentlevien farmers ; these 

 are the men among ourselves, and in other coun- 

 tries, who by their liberality, experiments, puldic 

 spirit, and real knowledge, have taken the lead 

 in all the agricultural improvements, which have 

 been effected. I ask, with no small confidence, 

 to whom are.-tlie farmers of Essex more indebt- 

 ed thanto-,:ie la-c Col. Pickering ; and the county 

 of Worcester than to our present chief magis- 

 trate ? Who have dine more for the agricultu- 

 ral interests of Virginia than Washington, Tay- 

 lor, Jefferson, and Madison ? Who for Pennsyl- 

 vania than Peters, and Mease, and Powel ? Who 

 for New York than Armstrong, and Featherston- 

 hangh, and Buel ? Who have done more for the 

 interests of practical agriculture in Massachusetts 

 than Lowell, and Quincy, and Welles, and Pora- 

 roy, and Prince, and Derby, and Parsons, and 

 Sullivan, and Brooks, and their honored associ- 

 ates, in jiresent and past years, in the direction of 

 the Mass. Agricultural Society ; and many other 

 disinterested and practical, indefatigable, and pub- 

 lic sjiirited farmers, whom it might be invidious 

 to mention. These are all, in the proper sense 

 of the term, gentlemen farmers, many of thenv 

 men of property, and high iiolitical and literary 

 standing, who have freely given their time, and 

 labor, and money, to advttnce the agricultural 

 welfare of the state. It is to the public spirit and 

 munificence of such men, that we owe in a great 

 measure all our agricultural institutions and im- 

 provements ; but had the matter been left with 

 our common farmers, there can be little doubt 

 that in agricultural knowledge and imiirovement, 

 they would have been now, as is exemplified in 

 the case of the Canadian farmers, where their 

 fathers were " two hundred years ago." 4 

 Feb. 27, 1S29. ESSEX. 



4 An excellent eulogy on gentlemen farmers. We believe, 

 however, that the wriiers of ihc " Report' did not mean to be 

 understood as leflecting or saying anything in disparagement of 

 a class of men so highly, respectable, and to whom the world is, 



so 



much indebted. 



