22 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JObY 83, 1 



Ml. ] 



APin HORTICULTURAL RKGI3TER. 



Boston, Wednesday, July 22, 1840. 



AGRICULTURE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



Severe sickness )ias prevented llie continn.irne of 

 some suggestions on tliis subject, wiiicli we coiiiinenced 

 a few papers since. The remarks we liien made, we 

 apprehend, must have indicated tlie eMremo debility 

 whicii preceded liie crisis; and we shall ask the iiidid- 

 gence and kind judgment ofonr reader.-^, if our present 

 essay show that in vnind as well as in j>li\sical strength 

 we are not yet half a man. 



The greatest of all difficulties connected with fanning 

 in Massachusetts is labor. It is ditiiciilt lo be obrained 

 The prices of labor are enormous. The nior.iis of labor, 

 as we shall presently explain, boih on the part of the 

 employers and the employed, are exceedingly loose ; 

 and the management of it involves innumerable difficul- 

 ties. We are the warm friend o( liie laborer. We wish 

 to see him not only well but liberally paid. We would 

 spare no pains that hissitualion should have all reasona- 

 ble comforts, and would do every thing to inspire a 

 pride of character, to increase his self-respect; and to 

 remove from his mind, when he performs his part hon- 

 estly and well, any painful sense of inferiority. We 

 consider high wages of labor, where there is a sound 

 currency, among the best evidences of the prospeiily of 

 a community. Heaven forbid that labor among us 

 should ever be reduced to the miserable and degraded 

 condition of Europe, even of improved England, wliere 

 men and women perform constantly the most laborious 

 and servile offices for lliu most miserable pittance ami 

 the meanest food. 



But on the other hand, the price of labor should bear 

 a just proportion to the value of agricultural produce, or 

 the farmer cannot pay it. It has often happened wiihin 

 the last fifteen years, that a day laborer on a farm in 

 seasons of haying and harvest, has by a day's work been 

 able to buy one aiid a lialf bushel of wheal, tlireo bush- 

 els of corn, or eight bushels ot potatoes. Now no far- 

 mer can afford for any length o( time to p ly prices like 

 these; and the consequence is a most serious discour- 

 agement to the farmer, for the whole of the produce is 

 consumed in the payment of the labor. As Scott says 

 in describing iu one of his novels the risult of some 

 one's fanning, it is in this case — " the carls and the carl- 

 eavers make it all, and the carls and the carl-eavers eat 

 it all.'"' It is said that some years since a very exten- 

 sive and successful farmer in Essex lounty, in showing 

 a friend through his crowded barns and his granaries, 

 nlmost bursting with their fulne-s, was asked what he 

 was going to do with all this produce ;" O," said he, 

 " my callle will eat it." " Well, what are you going to 

 do with your cattle ?" " O," said hi', "my men will 

 eat them." Kut this can hardly be called an cncour- 

 affin" agriculture; and men must have iongpiirses who 

 can sustain it. 



The great variety of luecliaiiical eiiiplo\ merils exist- 

 ing among us, the amount of hanrls occupied at high 

 prices in our manufacturing establishments, tile emigra- 

 tion of young men into the new States, the gre,-it nunr- 

 bers who go into ilie learned professions, the nnnumbcr- 

 cd herds that crowd into cities ns liouse-servants, or 

 shop-keepers, or tradesmen, or merchants, or almost 

 any other employment which will enable them to cock 

 a beaver on one .side of their empty linails, and to sport 

 a clean dickey, a pair of kid gloves, and a black walnut 



stickee at public places— all these circumstances sweep 

 the coiiiitry almost clean of young men, and render it 

 next to impossible lo procure the labor necessary to 

 manage a farm. Tile same remarks a[iply to female la- 

 bor. It is not lo be had. The amount of dairy produce 

 among us is greatly diminished. Many farms within 

 our knowledge in the State, which formerly kept llieir 

 ten, tweniy, and thirty cow.s, and found a nch source of 

 income in the p oduct of their ilairies, now scarcely 

 makiahi'ir own butter and cheese; and it would be less 

 difficult in most towns in ihe Stale, to find even in our 

 farmers' houses, a young lady who can execute quite 

 passably one of IVIozai t*s best airs upon the piano, or 

 lead off with grace in one of the latest German waltzes, 

 timn lo find one who can milk a cow or make a cheese. 



Now we know no remedy for this serious discourage- 

 ment lo .-igririulture, than by the more general employ- 

 ment of forei'rn labor. Our own people preiend lo 

 bluster and swear a great deal about the introduction of 

 the Irish into the country ; but if our own people will 

 not work, we must have recourse lo those who will. — 

 The country is largidy indebted lo the Irish. Tlipy 

 have made all our railroads, dug all out canals, filled up 

 all our wharves, and wherever human lifi' was to be 

 used up without concern, there wo have sent them, be- 

 cause their necessities and their recklessness comprdled 

 or made them willing to go. The Irish have many no- 

 ble traits of character. Many whom we have had in 

 our employ have been among the most laborious and 

 faithful laborers we have ever fi>und. We iiave treated 

 them with the grossest abuse ai.d injustice. We have 

 insultetl their religirm, to which no people on earth was 

 ever more attached. We have used them with constant 

 contumely and contempt. We have even stoned those 

 who were born among us, when in obedience to the civil 

 authoiily of the State, they have apfieared on our public 

 parade ground, prepared to defend not their adopted but 

 their native country. We have suffered the devil to go 

 amruig them uni-estrairred ; — we have sent him in the 

 fnrmofrum and whiskey,— and then expect them to 

 do well. 



If the Irish can but be induced to go forward in lire 

 great mora! reforo.ation whicli is going on in their own 

 green isle — if we can but induce them lo break up their 

 clannish spirit by offerin:; them the honest hand of 

 frienrislrip — if we can jjersnade them lo send tlndr chil- 

 dren to our common sclioids and induce them to lay up 

 their earnings in our savings bank, they will rise at once 

 in the scale of humanity, and prove a great blessing to 

 the country ; for as yet they ate willing to labor and 

 consider labor as their destiny. Never on the earth 

 were a people so crushed and abused as they have been 

 in their own country. Philanthropy and humanily bid 

 ns therefore welcome them to a country f>fboundh!SS ex- 

 tent, and which ten ctnluries cannot fill up, and let 

 them feel that they have the rights and the respi>nsibili- 

 ties of men. 



There is one other remedy fiir the difficulties of labor, 

 which is of a moral rharacler, and the effect of which 

 may be something. Indeed we think in some cases we 

 begin to pei'ceive iis influence. The opinions of young 

 men and women are becoming more sound on the sub- 

 ject of labor. They are beginning to feel that it is not 

 degrading but honorable ; ami the caprices and distress- 

 ing changes in business and public affairs, are with ef- 

 fect admonishing many that a moderate and reasonable 

 competence, the product of Jionest labor, is far better 

 than lo take the perils and uncertainties of trade and 

 specnlation. 



On other topics onnected \\ ith labor, we must ])ost- 

 pone our remarks. H. C. 



EARLY RISING. 



It is hopiless lo persuade any one lo get up early 

 whose habits of late indulgence are fixed ; and sometimes 

 we think that the man in health who would close his 

 shutters that the morning sun might not enter, would 

 shut his door in the face of his best friend. But we can 

 say i:i sober tiuih, that the most delicious of all pleas- 

 ures of this kind is in the morning of summer, that of 

 witnessing the first streak of light as it darls upwards 

 above the horizon, breathing the balmy frcshne-s of the 

 morning, after leaving your own confined cliamher, 

 watching the gradual advancement of the light, until 

 the sun presents himself in his robes of glory, and the 

 whole creation rises as il were from the dead. H. C. 



ENaUIRY. 



To the Editor of the Farmer : 



I notice that iu the N. E. Farmer of July S, it is stated 

 in the communication I'ecording the progress of vegeta- 

 tiim duiirig the month of June, that a buckthorn hedge 

 was trimmed at Elfinglen on the 27lh ult. Will you or 

 your correspondent have the goodness to communicate 

 the reasons for performing this operation at tliis season .' 

 I have thought heretofore that early in sprinj;, before 

 vegetation commences, is a better season, giving the new 

 shoots lime to harden and lipen before ihe winler, which 

 they cannot so well do if they commence putting fortli 

 in July. C. 



WEEDS. 



Mr Editor — \Vill you have the goodness to tTi\e the 

 public a chapter on weeds,' I well know that you have 

 often done so ; but we require " line upon line and pre- 

 cept upon precept." 



Would il not be well for towns lo impose the dutv 

 upon their surveyors of highways, lo cause all weeds on 

 the roadsides like the Canaila Ihisllo and the Cicuta mac- 

 ulata or American hemlock, to be mowed down at cer- 

 tain seasons. The latter is increasing rapidly and is 

 well known to be highly poisonous. lis root is peren- 

 nial and its seeds very numerous. Hardly a season 

 passes without a ca-e of death arising froni eating it. 



C, 



[Our correspondent will find an article fiom the Alba- 

 ny Cultivator on the subject of weeds, on anoiher page 

 of this day's paper,] 



THE YOUNG GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 

 We have before us a copy of the 8lli edition of " The 

 Young Gaidener's Assistant," by Thomas Bridgman, 

 of New York. In looking over its paues we are well 

 pleased with its systematic arrangement and with his 

 plain and easy manner of communicating instruction to 

 the 3'oung gardener. We are acquainted with the author, 

 and know that he has the rejiutation of biding one of the 

 first irr the line of gardening in his neighborhood. He 

 fully understands ihe subject on which he has written. 

 We can safi?ly commend this work to the public, witli the 

 assurance that it will not learl them astray, J, B. 



WOODLAND, 



A friend at Harvard, Mass,, reqrrests us to insert the 

 following inquiry : 



" Which is lire most profitable management on clear- 

 ing ground, where it is intended to allow the wood tf> 

 grow again — to burn ilover and lake off one crop of rye, 

 or to allow the immediate growth .'" 



Will some of our correspondents have the goodness 

 to reply ? 



