18 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



juLvaa, i«4". 



which miirlit now bo planted in the connty would, 

 thirty years hence, without niuterially diijiinishing 

 the income of the land, be almost iivalnabli.'. 



Mr Nathan Webster, of Haverhill, is the first and 

 only claimant for this premium. He commenced 

 planting the seed of the locust in October, 18-55, 

 and not discouraged by the failure of most of the 

 seed to germinate, or the destruction of the young 

 plants by the winter of 1836 '7, lias continued to 

 plant extensively the sreds of the locust, ash, elm, 

 also walnuts and chesnuts, to the present time, un- 

 til the larger pirt of abou'. nine acres of land has 

 been planted, generally in furrows ten feet apart. 

 But few of the walnuts came up, and of a bushel of 

 acorns planted in the fall of 1837, not one germi- 

 nated, owing, as lie supposes, to having been in- 

 jured by frost before planting. Mr Webster lias 

 found it necessary to soak locust seed Irom twelve 

 to twenty hours in hot water before planting, to in- 

 sure their germinating. Hi; also showed the com- 

 mittee a promising nursery of ash trees, sown in his 

 garden the last fall, and another of elms from 12 to 

 18 inches high, which were planted in June from 

 seed the growth of the present year. The com- 

 mittee visited bis plarrtation on the 20th September 

 instant. The soil is dry and gravelly, and the land 

 in 1835 was mostly covered with white birch and 

 some white oak and maple trees. Previously to 

 planting trees, only one acre of the field had been 

 ploughed. The seed was dropped in furrows made 

 with the plough in the sward, at ten fi-et distance, 

 and covered with the hoc. Mr W. exhibited to the 

 committee a considerable number of ash and but- 

 tonwood trees in a thrifty state, which he had trans- 

 planted ; some of the latter were growing thrifty 

 from slips set in the wettest part of the land. But 

 the attention of your committee was particularly 

 directed to the locust trees, of which Mr Webster 

 estimated that from five to six thousand were in the 

 fourth year, and from three to four thousand in the 

 third year of their growth. The seed having been 

 dropped without manure in furrows from which the 

 soil was removed by the plough, the trees could 

 not bo expected to have had a rapid growth, and 

 were almost universally injured by the borer, which 

 is so peculiarly destructive to the locust tree. They 

 were slightly hoed the first year, but had received 

 no cultivation since, and the white birch and other 

 trees were beginning to assert their claims to the 

 soil. Cattle are entirely excluded from the field 

 by a very substantial wall. Your committee think 

 Mr Webster entitled to commendation for his exten- 

 sive and spirited experiments in planting trees; 

 and although they wish his cultivation had been 

 more exact and thorough, and the present appear- 

 ance of the plantation cleaner and more promising, 

 yet considering the variety and extent of his ex- 

 periments, and the importance of the subject, they 

 recommend that he receive the first premium of 

 thirty dollars. 



In behalf of the Cominittee, 



J. H. DUNCAN. 

 September, 1835). 



JVulliaii IVebster^s Statemtni. 



To the Commitlce of ihe Essex Agricultural Society on Pur- 

 est 'J rees : 



Gkntleme.n — The lot of locust trees wiiich 1 

 have offered for the premiutn of the Kssex Agri- 

 cultural Society, is planted in Haverhill, about one 

 mile east of the village. The land, between nine 

 and ten acres, was iti 18 i5 mostly covered with 

 white birches, with seme white oak and maple trees. 



The land is light gravelly loam; the bushes and;, 

 trees I had cut, and about one acre of the land 

 ploughed and planted with potatoes, and in Octo- 

 ber, 1 8-55, 1 sowed one pound of locust seed, but 

 very few came up. In May, I83<), I had one acre 

 of land furrowed in furrows ten feet apart, and in 

 these furrows sowed two pounds of locust seed, and 

 think thati.iore than ten thousand trees came up. 

 These were hoed once the first year, but in the 

 following winter more than three fourths were 

 killed. In the spring of 1837, sowed one pound of 

 locust seed on two acres of land, in rows about ten 

 feet apart ; the seed came up well — the plants were 

 slightly hoed Ihe first year;— the first winter killed 

 more than half of them. In the fall of 1837, I 

 planted between one and two bushels of white oak 

 acorns in rows ten feet apart, made by ploughing ;i 

 furrow, but from these acorns not a single tree came 

 up. I presume the early frost of that year killed 

 the acorns before they were ripe. In 1838, sowed 

 one pound of locust seed which came up well. I 

 pour hot water on the locust seed, and let it remain 

 twelve or twenty hours in the same water ; but few 

 locust seeds will germinate if not soaked in hot wa- 

 ter. I presume there are now on the nine or ten 

 acres of land, in the fourth year of their growth, 

 from five to six thousand trees, and in the third 

 year from throe to four thousand trees. U here 

 they were loo thick, 1 transplanted them, and they 

 now cover eight or nine acres. They have been 

 very extensively attacked by the borer, which has 

 very much injured their appearance and growth. 

 There has not been any labor bestowed on them 

 since the first year. 



Yours, very respectfully, 



NATHAN WEBSTER. 



I ,- 



Far the New England Farmer. 



THE MORAL & PHYSICAL IMPORTANCE 

 OF AGRICULTURE. 



Boston, 14f/( Jul;/, 1840. 



Mil CoLMAN — The voluntary contributors to 

 your paper are very properly permitted to choose 

 their own subjects, (saving politics and religious 

 sectarianism,) and it is well tliat they are; because 

 all men, in matters of mind, as well as all women 

 in matters toilet, are dailij : — they have their pretty 

 and their ugly days ; their precise, logical moods, 

 and their desultory moods. I sat down with the 

 intention of being very mathematical, and headed 

 a paper with Rural Mechanics. But I soon found 

 that I was not in a mood for figures, and tore up 

 the paper. However, as I have devoted a little 

 leisure which I have on hand, to your valuable pa- 

 per, I will let my pen take its own course. 



The moral as well as the physical importance of 

 agriculture, has doubtless been the theme of many 

 learned diswertalions and poetical essays, from the 

 time of Virgil to this day. But as I have not read 

 them all, I may now flounder heavily through some 

 ofits pleasant paths, which have been rendered by 

 others still more fascinating by the fiowers with 

 v.'hich they were strewed. But also, this ignorance 

 of the past, may cause me to blunder into some 

 new path, less smooth and florid, though leading, 

 possibly, to fruitful results. 



We must look back, I believe, to agriculture, 

 for the true basis of civilization, if fixed property 

 be considered as its principal agent. The property 

 of the wild hunter was hardly deserving thai name, 



for it could be maintained only by physical strength, 

 or by that cunning which we hold in common with i 

 the fux, who hides his half knawed bone in the 

 ground. The wandering, pastoral life of the an- 

 cient Nomades was not much better, or their prop- 

 erty much more secure. Their flocks and herds 

 were the lawful spoils of the stronger tribe; there 

 where no other law was known than that of the 

 strongest. 



A little sophistry would enable me to make a 

 tolerably gooil plea in favor of this system of plun- 

 der, and a little refinement might enable one so 

 disposed, to draw arguments in favor of it from our 

 own system of majorities, considered in the abstract. 

 But, really, might cannot make n'gW, independent- 

 ly of other circumstances ; although right without 

 might is a very impotent afl^air. 



It is to agriculture, then, that we owe the pro- 

 gress we have already made in civilization. Is 

 there any thing else to which we may owe our fu- 

 ture progress? Shall we now kick away the lad- 

 der by which we have mounted so high, and vainly 

 say that society may now soar to the empyreal re- 

 gions, astride on a single idea, independent of the 

 terrestial base, on which the foot of our ladder 

 stood, and far beyond its lop, through the giddy re- 

 gions of imagination.-' No — let us rather, like 

 Anteus, never forget our kind mother earth; al- 

 ways maintain our foothold there, and be ever 

 ready to call on her in time of need. She will 

 never desert those who depend upon her r.nd them- 

 selves jointly. But let us beware of the wilely 

 serpent, who has too often assumed the tempting 

 oiijce of distributor of earth's best gifts, without 

 ever putting his own hand to the plough. He al- 

 ways has been partial ; he is now partial, and al- 

 ways will be partial. If ho were not partial, ho 

 would be obliged to do his share of the work ; but 

 being partial he shares in the Esau lots which he 

 assigns to his favorites. This partial distributor is 

 the maker of partial and unjust laws, which throw 

 unequal burdens on labor, with the semblance of 

 protecting it. 



Well might the ancients bestow the honors of 

 apotheosis on the supposed author of agriculture, 

 in the person of Ceres, of whom they made an ob- 

 ject of adoration. Many other objects less worthy 

 have fascinated the minds of man; but none on 

 earth is more worthy of his love and gratitude. If 

 it had not been for the wiley serpent who followed 

 Ceres in her fruitful furrows, to gather where he 

 had never sown, Ceres had been a goddess indeed, 

 to this day, and worshipped by alj, with that hom- 

 age alone which can be acceplible to her, viz: the 

 labor necessary, and Ihe fruition consequent to her 

 wise precepts. 



When agriculture first appeared to bless this 

 world, then did man make the most important step 

 in the path of morals. Property became fixed, and 

 permanent. The respect due and rendered to the 

 property of others was the surest, nay the only 

 guaranty of riglits. Peace then looked down from 

 heaven, and smiled on the future prospect of peace 

 on earth. And in spite of the old French proverb, 

 (which says, ' Qui lerre a guerre a': He who has 

 land has war,) peace wilt bless this earth, and ev- 

 ery man will sit down under his vine and fig tree, 

 anil no one shall make him afraid. If possession 

 bring war, necessarily, it can be so only where un- 

 just monopoly deprives many, very many of all 

 property. I say very many, because it requires 

 great numbers to hazard a war on property : and 



