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AND H O R T I C U L T U Si A L REGISTER. 



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VVinASHRD BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, iAo.^c..■r.Z::lv:.Z^^ 



VOL,. .VZ^.l 



JK3ST0N, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 9, 1840. 



N. E. FARMER 



ADDRESS 



.it the Philadelphia Agricultural Exhibition. 



BV NICHOLAS BIDDLE, KSQ. 



[Concluded.] 

 Anotliur defect of our farmers isj tliat we ' do not 

 rai.so .sheep enough. Some years since we were 

 among Ihc first to import the merinos, and to in- 

 dulge ill the wildness of that e.xtravagnncc, until 

 we liad secured vast numbers of these liigh-priced 

 animal.s, without any previous accumulation of roots 

 to sustain them, and then found that we should have 

 to purchase expensive food for them. That at 

 once disenchanted us. It was then seen that not 

 only in palace.-! but in sheep-folds " a favorite has 

 no friends." To enthusiasm succeeded disappoint- 

 ment and disgust, and these unhappy victims were 

 sacrificed to the knife, for no other crime than 

 their appetite. We have not yet overgrown this 

 horror— but it was entirely our own fault. There 

 are many parts of the State where sheep would 

 take care of themselves, in the woods, during the 

 greater part of the year, and the root crops would 

 furnish a cheap and wholesome support during the 

 remainder. 



And this leads to the great improvement, which 

 of all others we most need, which is the multipli- 

 cation of root crops. No soil can withstand a suc- 

 cession of grain crops ; and, instead of letting it 

 lie fallow, in order to recruit from exhaustio^ as 

 was the old plan, the belter practice now is, to plant 

 in the same field u crop of roots. These draw 

 their nourishment from a lower region than the 

 grain i:rops do ; they derive a great part of their 

 food from the atmosphere by their large leaves, 

 which at the same time shelter the soil from the' 

 extreme heats ; they provide a fresh and juicy food 

 for cattle during the winter, thus enabling us to 

 keep a largo stock, which, in addition to thl; profit 

 of them, furnish abundant manure with which to 

 return to the grain crops. Now this should be our 

 effort — more roots, more manure, then more grain. 

 We cannot much err in the choice of these roots. 

 Common turnips, Swedish turnips, mangel wurtzel 

 are all good, though in various degrees ; but, per- 

 haps, the sugar beet will be found the best of all 

 —not for the purpose, at least at present, of mak- 

 ing sugar— but as the most nutritious food for cat- 

 tle, and the most milk-producing vegetable for 

 coivs in winter. These root crops will grow abun- 

 dantly ; and what I would especially desire to see 

 IS, that we should confide in our long and mild au- 

 tumns, and see if they would .not yield us a crop 

 of roots planted immediately as the grain harvesU 

 were removed, so as to be ready by winter for the 

 cattle. 



Another thing wh.ch we should strive to amend 

 is, tiie nnfarmer-like and slovenly appearance of 

 our fields. Clean cultivation is like personal neat- 

 ntss to an individual— a great attraction to a farm ; 

 but who can see without mortification our fields of 

 Indian corn or potatoes, just as tliey are verging to 



[NO. 83. 



maturity, out-topped and stilled by a rival crop of 

 weeds, which seem wailing with impatience for 

 the removal of the real crops, when they and all 

 their seed may take exclusive possession of the 

 ground! The rule of farming should be. nrvor to 

 let any thing grow in our fields which we did not 

 put there ; and the value as well as the beauty of 

 the crop, would more than pay the expense of re- 

 moving these noxious intruders. 



Nor do we pay sufficient attention to our gar- 

 dens. We are too often content with a small en- 

 closure, where a few peas and beans and a little 

 sallad are left to struggle with a gigantic family of 

 weeds — not to speak of the frequent inroads from 

 the pigs — and what can be saved comes at last on 

 our tables the scanty companions of the masses of 

 animal food which form almost our exclusive sub- 

 sistence. For such a wilderness, how easy would 

 it be to substitute the cheap and wholesome luxury 

 of many vegetables which would grow without tiie 

 least trouble, and, while they gave variety to (,ur 

 tables, would diminish our excessive and expensive 

 use of animal food. 



The same waat of neatness pervades the exte- 

 rior of our dwellings. We look in vain for the 

 trim grass-plot, the nice border, the roses, the climb- 

 ing vines, and all the luxuriance of our native wild 

 flowers. These cheap and easy works, which 

 seem trifles, make up the great mass of enjoyments ; 

 they are the innocent occupations of the youn" 

 members of the family — the elegant luxury of thern 

 all ; and they impress even a passing stranger with 

 a sense of the ta^te and ease of the farmer. 



In fruits, too, we are deficient. Our climate in- 

 vites us to plant, and there is scarcely a single 

 fruit which will not grow in the open air, and all 

 of them prosper with a little shelter. Undoubtedly 

 there are insects which infest them; but these, 

 care will exterminate Undoubtedly some species 

 are short-lived, but it is easy to provide a succes- 

 sion ; and even many productions which we used 

 to think uncongenial to our climate, will succeed if 

 we only try them. For instance, I am satisfied, 

 from my experience, that every farmer may have 

 his palch of grapes quite as readily as he can his 

 patch of beans or peas. He has only to plant his 

 cuttings as he would Indian corn, at a sufticient 

 distance to work them with the hoe-harrow. They 

 will live through the winter without any covering, 

 and with less labor than Indian corn,- because the 

 corn requires re-planting every year, while the 

 vines will last for a century. He will thus pro- 

 vide a healthful, pleasant fruit for his family use, 

 or a profitable article for the market. 



I was about to name one mere iniprnvenient, but 

 I hesitate about it — I mean the substitution of ox- 

 en for horses on farms. All the theory is in favor 

 of the ox. He costs little, works hard, eats little ; 

 and when we have done with him he is worth more 

 than when we began; whereas a horse costs much, 

 eats much, and when he dies is worth nothinn-. 

 Vet, alter all, it will be difficult to bring the ox in- 

 to fashion. He has a failing which, in this coun- 

 try, is more fatal than madness to a dog — he cannot 

 " go ahead ;" and it seems a severe trial for our 



impatient American nature to creep behind an ox 

 plough, or to doze in an ox-cart. And then there 

 is a better reason, in small farms, where both oxen 

 and horses cannot be kept, for the preference of 

 the horse. The ox can do only farm work, and i.^ 

 utterly useless for the road. He is of no benefit 

 to the farmer's family. We can neither make a 

 visit with him, nor go to church with him, nor go to 

 court with him; and if the present immense p^diti- 

 cal assemblies are to continue in fashion, they 

 would be like the bufl^alo meetings in the prairies, 

 and it would be more difficult than it now is in po.' 

 I.tical convefttious to find whose ox gored his nei^h 

 bor'fl. ° 



There was one caution which I would have ven- 

 tured to off'er some years ago, against the indul- 

 gence of expensive habits of living, and an undue 

 preference of things foreign over the fruits of our 

 own industry— but which, I rejoice to think, is no 

 longer necessary. Long may it continue so. Sim- 

 plicity and frugality are the basis ol all indepen- 

 dence in farmers. If our mode of living be plain 

 it belongs to our condition ; if our mairners seem' 

 cold, or even rough, they are at least natural, and 

 their simple sincerity will gain nothing by beinn- 

 polished into duplicity. Though Italian mantef. 

 pieces and folding-doors are indispen sable to hap- 

 piness in cities, they are not necessary to the wcl 

 come of country hospilclity. If a finer gloss be 

 given to foreign fabrics, let us be content with the 

 simpler dresses which come from our own soil and 

 our own industry; they may not fit us quite as 

 well, but, rely on it, they become us far belter ; 

 and if ive must needs drink, let us prefer the una' 

 dulterated juice of our own orchards to all exotic 

 fermentations— even of that bad translation into 

 French of our own cider, called champagne. 



1 have spoken of farms and farming ; let me add 

 a few words about the farmer. The time was, 

 when it was the fashion to speak of the Pennsylva- 

 nia farmer as a dull, plodding person, whose proper 

 representative was the Conesloga horse by his side ; 

 indift'erent to the education of his children, anxious 

 only about I'lis large barn, and when the least cul- 

 tivated part of the farm was the parlor. These 

 caricatures, always exaggerated, have passed away, 

 and the Pennsylvania farmer takes his rank among 

 the most intelligent of his countrymen, with no dis- 

 position for improvements beyond' the natural cau- 

 tion with which all new things should be consider- 

 ed before they are adopted. But an unwillingness 

 to try what is new, forms no part of the American. 

 How can it be, since our whole government is a 

 novelty ; our whole system of laws undergoino- con- 

 stant changes ; and we are daily encounlerrng, in 

 all the WMlks of life, things which startle the more 

 settled huhits of the old worid. When such nov- 

 elties are first presented, the European looks back 

 to know what the past would think of it : the Amer- 

 ican look.s forward to find how it will afl^ect the 



future ;— the European thinks of his grandfather 



the American of his grandchildren. There was 

 once a prejudice against all these things— against 

 what was called theory and book-farming ;— but 

 that absolutely has passed away. In all other oc- 



