VOT,. XIX. NO. 4. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



27 



and kind mother of all the arts and sciences, should 

 not be the least entitled to filial regard, coninion 

 rights and protection. 



It is tor the interest of the next largest class, 

 commerce and mechanics, and its nunjeroiis acces- 

 sories, that agriculture should thrive, and produce 

 a great overplus ; for the more of ihat there is in 

 the market, the more have commerce and the arts 

 as stock to work upon. I will not say what may 

 he the interest of some other classes : each one 

 may judge of that according to his own notions; — 

 although I will say, that as good citizens and chris- 

 tians, they all ought to rejoice in the success of 

 that occupation which is the basis of society, and 

 may be the means of the greatest degree of happi- 

 ness and morality of wiiich the human race is sus- 

 ceptible. 



Agriculture cannot be made to yield its utmost 

 in any way, but by making it for the interest of the 

 producers to raise as much as the soil will produce ; 

 and this will never bo done but by the owners of 

 the soil. A hired farm may, for a few years, be 

 made to produce as much as it could in those few 

 years, without regard to future crops ; but this is 

 not what is understood by the utmost yield of land. 

 I will here suspend, for a moment, my own spec- 

 ulations, for the sake of offering something more 

 worthy of notice and credit, viz : historical facts. 

 We learn from the history of Europe, that the 

 land was formerly cultivated by slaves ; and we 

 learn, also, that those slaves did not emancipate 

 themselves. They were then emancipated by their 

 owners, who were also owners of the soil. Now, 

 opening the book of human nature, must we not 

 learn, that any change made by these masters of 

 slaves and owners of land, could have been only 

 with a view to their orvn interest? Well, we now 

 learn from history, that these money-loving mas- 

 ters liberated their slaves so far as to leave them 

 only attached to the soil; — that is, without the pow- 

 er of quitting without leave. They also allowed 

 them a small portion of the products of their own 

 labor : and the result was, that the land owners got 

 more from their land than before. Here was one 

 advance of humanity and selfish interest together : 

 a happy coincidence indeed. 



The next step taken by the land-owners was, to 

 liberate their slaves more effectually, and to let 

 their lands to them on halves, or other shares, ac- 

 cording to circumstances. The benefit of this 

 change was also apparent, and soon became gen- 

 eral. The last reform, which is the present state 

 of a large part of Europe, was to lease the land en- 

 tirely and annually, for a given sum of money or 

 produce. This change was also found to be emi- 

 nently advantageous to the landlord. There was 

 but one more move to be made, and that was re- 

 served for our happy country. It was to leave the 

 ownership of the whole rural territory in the hands 

 of the cultivators. We now are trying this experi- 

 ment. But the old test of utility is now broken off. 

 We have no idle land-owners or land monopolizers 

 to ask how this change affects their interests. There 

 may, however, remain some means of testing the 

 meritsof this last change ; — thus for example: The 

 American cultivator figures in the double capacity 

 of owner and laborer. Now I would ask him, in 

 his capacity of landlord, whether, by either of the 

 foregoing means, of slavery, semi-slavery, joint 

 stock, or lease, he could enjoy as much from his 

 land as by cultivating it himself? I believe his 

 answer would be in the negative ; for if he em- 

 ployed his time in some more profitable occupation. 



this would be going out of the comparison. We 

 must therefore suppose his own personal labor of 

 the same value on the farm as elsewhere. 



I omitted to notice another improvement made 

 by the landlords, which was to give long leases in- 

 stead of short ones ; for the longer the lease the 

 better will the land be improved by the tenant. 



I have now established, as well as I am able, a 

 reason and a basis for rural education It will be 

 here foreseen that my object is, the improvement 

 of the mind, with an ultimate view to moral excel- 

 lence and physical comfort, through durable pos- 

 session of the land, without which the two former 

 can make no progress, and without all three, the 

 American cultivators, now the first class on earth, 

 must see in the distance, its own degradation to the 

 lowest station on earth, viz : the rack-rent tenant 

 of Ireland. 



In my next, I shall try to say something rational 

 on the means and manner of education. 



WM. FOSTER. 



This is my first essay ; and the wish to have it 

 tried this season by others, induces me to publish 

 it thus early. BENJ. BELL. 



Charlestown, July 21, 1840. 



F'or the New England Parmer. 



REMEDY FOR MILDEW ON VINES. 



Mr EoiTOR — Having a seedling vine, the fruit 

 of which is extremely subject to mildew, but in all 

 other respects a superior grape, and having resort- 

 ed to the usual modes of applying sulphur thereto, 

 with little success, I contrived a way to use sul- 

 phur which promises to answer my purpose: it is 

 to sublime it directly upon the fruit, from a mix- 

 ture contained in a pipe. 



Mixture J^o. 1. Mixture JVn. 2. 



2 oz. nitre (saltpetre,) 2 oz. nitre, 



4 oz. rye or maize bran, 10 oz. bran, 



2 oz. sulphur. 12 oz. sulphur. 



The nitre is to be finely powdered, and the sul- 

 phur free from lumps, and the three ingredients 

 well and thorougly incorporated together. 



The pipe is formed of tinned iron, in shape some- 

 what similar to a common tobacco pipe — a common 

 crucible, perforated at its bottom by a hole 1-8 in., 

 serving as a lining to defend the soldering from 

 the heat. 



1. Crucible — 3 inches long— circumference at t<»p 7 inches. 



2. Tube — length 15 inches— diameter 3-8 incii. 



The bowl of the pipe is grooved together, and 

 united with the tube or moufh-piece by soldering, 

 and also made air tight with solder throughout. — 

 The crucible is united with the tin work by a lu- 

 ting of soft clay and dried. 



The only proper time to fumigate is, when the 

 air is perfectly calm ; such is the case most fre- 

 quently at sunrise, or before. A spoonful of mix- 

 ture No. 1, is put into the bowl of the pipe and 

 lighted with paper, like tobacco. After drawing 

 a few whiffs you begin to blow, and fill up with 

 No. 2, which is the charging, or proper mixture. A 

 dense smoke arises, consisting of hydroguretted 

 sulphur, &c. The howl is to be refilled occasion- 

 ally, and its contents adjusted frequently with a 

 poker. Should it take fire it must be instantly 

 withdrawn and stifled with more of No. 2, or with 

 a cover. I tried sawdust at first, hut found bran to 

 be less offensive to the smell : no doubt some other 

 I vegetable substance would answer better. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 

 We have often been surprised that so little atten- 

 tion is paid to the subject of agriculture by the 

 public writers of this country. It constitutes the 

 most important business of the nation, and is des- 

 tined, if adequately appreciated and properly fol- 

 lowed up, to render this country the granary of a 

 large proportion of the world. Already our pro- 

 ducts are immense, but they are as a drop in the 

 ocean to what they may become. Millions of 

 acres, the richest and the finest that the sun ever 

 shone upon, are yet to receive the first touch of the 

 spade— while states and territnries yet unknown, 

 will one day, not very remote, like infant Michigan, 

 send forth their millions of bushels of wheat, for the 

 support of the great family of man in other sections 

 of the earth. Not a day goes by that emigrants 

 are not bending their footsteps westward — all de- 

 termined to take up their abiding places among us 

 — to D-ather the rich treasures of our soil — and thus 

 to add to the general amount of national industry 

 and national wealth. 



The pursuit of the farmer is a glorious avoca- 

 tion. He may be said to work under the immedi- 

 ate eye of the Almighty, and to be assialed in his 

 work greatly and indispensably by the Omnipotent 

 Architect of tlie world. Thus, the very seed that 

 is put into the ground is fostered and encouraged 

 there by the invisible and mysterious power of na- 

 ture ; and the farmer is thus taught in the very 

 outset of his occupation, to look to and depend up- 

 on the source that hung the stars in the heavens — 

 that made man in his own glorious image — and 

 who alike paints the rainbow and gives the chrystal 

 glitter to the rain-drop. Is there not something 

 noble in all this ? Does it not teach man the af- 

 finity existing between the creature and the Crea- 

 tor? Does it not elevate the soul from the mere 

 clod to the source of intellect, of spirit, of existence ; 

 to the great fountain of that vivifying principle, 

 which not only animates mortality, but which lives, 

 breathes and moves throughout all creation ? We 

 have often thought that a farmer and an infidel 

 were impossible. The very pursuits of agriculture 

 are calculated to have a leligious influence upon 

 the mind, and to show man his utter nothingness, 

 without the aid of the great power to whom he is 

 taught to look, by the running stream, the towering 

 oak, the humble blade of grass, and the golden 

 grain field. Agriculture, then, is by no means an 

 ignoble pursuit. On the contrary, we recognise it 

 as one of the most elevated occupations of man — 

 The farmer is indeed and in truth the lord of the 

 soil, and with a just dependence upon the Great 

 Ruler of the see'd-time and harvest, he can laugh 

 to scorn the bubbles of speculation which are blown 

 into existence by the stock gamblers of the day — 

 which please, dazzle and fascinate the eye for a 

 moment — but which, bursting, leave behind the 

 memory of deceit and the emptiness of ruin. — Far- 

 mers'' Companion. 



Judge Buel states that British agriculture pays 

 most of the burthens of the government, supports a 

 privileged clergy, and pays more than thirty mil- 

 liims of dollars annually for poor rates, and that its 

 products exceed in value more than 14 times the 

 whole amount of British exports to foreign countries. 



