AiNn HORTICULTUKAL REGISTER. 



Boston, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1841. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



A WEEKLY PAPER. 



Tlie Efiitorini department of this paper having come 

 into tile liands otMlie subscriber, lie is now autlxirized 

 by tlic publishers to inlonii the public tlinl the price iif 

 the paper is reduced. In future the terms will bn !§;2 

 per year in advance, or $2 50 if not paid witliin thirtj' 

 days. 



The Editor'a only promise is, that he will endeavor 

 lo make the paper instructive and useful to the agricul- 

 tural cornmuiiity. 



His friends and Postmasters who may think him fiileil 

 for the duties of his place, will confer a favor by giving 

 this pri'specius as wide a circulation as their circum- 

 slancps will allow, and forwarding the names of such as 

 choose lo subscribe. ALLEN PUTNAM. 



N. B. — Postmasters are required by law to frank all 

 subscriptions and remittances for newspapers, without 

 expense to subscribers. 



BOOK FARMING. 



" Book farming. Do the words produce ft sneer .'' Be 

 that a* it may, the thing, or what is often stigmatised as 

 tAaf (/liraj^, is not contemplible. For what is it ? Not 

 an att.mpt to comply with the advice and copy the ex- 

 ample of every one who furnishes an article for an agri- 

 cultural journal ; not the adoption of every method of 

 husbandry that is recomnended in print; not a depar- 

 ture from all the usages of our fathers and neighbors ; 

 not u prefi?rence of the theories contained in books to 

 the results of experience. No. I pity the stupidity of 

 tho man who thinks thai if we use books, we must 

 close our eyes against the light that is beaming upon 

 Ud from other sources ; or that we must become mere 



iheorisers, and the victims of ruinous experiments. 



What ! does a man lose his common sense, his prii- 

 deuce and his judgment, whenever he takes up an aTi- 

 cultural paprr or opens a book upon husbandry ? Can- 

 not ■ ne make himself acquainied with the doings of 

 others without losing his power to judge whether it 

 would be well for biin, in his circumatanc.ts, lo copy 

 theii examples .' Our brains are not so weak as this. 

 The knowledge acquired from books does not make us 

 all mad. But if it did, there would be more zest and 

 true enjoyment in the learned mad-man's course, than 

 in that of him who has learned out, and who thinks that 

 books cannot make him wiser I asked what book- 

 farming is.' Common book-farming is learning by 

 means of books, new (acts, opinions, results of experi- 

 ments, modes of operation, and the using such pans of 

 the info'matinn as can be turned to protilable account 

 in our individual situations. If this be folly, we are 

 content to be called fools. An agricultural paper will 

 be worth to you every month, if not every week, more 

 than its annual cost." 



Tho preceding exlract is fpini an Address deliver, d 

 by us bcfoio the Essex Agricultural Society in 18.31), 

 long ere we had any tliuiights of hi'ing peculiarlyr inte, - 

 asted in tin- prevalence of such views. Those were our 

 disinterfsted convictions. No misgivings as to ilieir 

 iorreclness trouble us n Jw. 



Few can be found who would more studiously avoid 

 advising farrneis to be giiidi.d and governed by what i' 

 printed, jolely becaicsi: I is prinUil, than the Editor. 

 tiU aim is to help farmers to think ; to give them such 



facts as he can obtain ; such opinions as others commu- 

 nicitr ; such views as he holds. The reader must se- 

 lect from the mass such as may, in his judgment, be 

 turned to useful purposes by himself He who weekly 

 reads an agricultural paper will find in it loud for thought 

 — will be influenced to observe more carefully the pro- 

 cesses of vegciatioa around him, and wi'l thus become 

 a more intelligent cultivator, even though he should 

 never think of complying with the advice of any writer. 

 VVe must admit to our columns many opinions, the cor- 

 rectness of which we very much doubt. When a prac- 

 tical man sends us facts, we must, in many cases, ac- 

 company them by his own views and inlerences. In 

 many communications we find some things which do 

 not coincide with the opinions we entertain ; but as 

 this does not ^rore them incorrect, they are inserted in 

 order that thi-y may be seen and judgi^d of by the read- 

 er. In no other way is it possible to do justice lo the 

 many witli whom we are connected. While we ask 

 (armers to read, we charge them never to abandon the 

 use of light which comes from experience and their own 

 good sense. 



FARMERS' MEETINGS IN THE COUNTRY. 



On the evening of Wednesday, two weeks since, we 

 had the pleasure of meeting and speaking before the 

 farmers of Newton. Some gentlemen of Ihat place, de- 

 sirous of deepening the interest in agriculture, invited 

 us lo visit them and make such remarks as we were 

 able, in the furtherance of their object. We trust they 

 may persevere and form an association which will fur- 

 nish ihem with opportunity for mutual instruction and 

 inquiry. Such an association in which the results of 

 experiments and observation may be compared, cannot 

 be otherwise th:in instructive and useful 



On the evening of the last Wednesday, we made a 

 very pleasant excursion lo Westboro', where we address- 

 ed a large assembly of genuine farmers. Our congratu- 

 lations were given to them as being among the pioneers 

 in formmg town associations. We predicted that such 

 associations will spring up in all parts of New England, 

 and will send forth rills of agricultural knjwiedae fer- 

 tilizing every valluy through which they may fiow.^ 

 We know not any means of widening and deepening 

 the interest in larming, so likely to be efficacious as 

 these local associations. Having in our remarks describ- 

 ed several of the ploughs which were tried at Worces- 

 ter last autumn, we were addressed at the close of the 

 evening by a gentleman, who staled that he purchased 

 the identical plough, of Howard s make, for which a 

 premium was there given ; that it does, upon full trial, 

 perform its work pri;cisely as we jui!ged ; and that he 

 would not part with it for fitly dullarij. We thought 

 tins plough surpassed all others in cleaning out its fur- 

 rows and making them of equal depth on both sides 

 In our judgment, there is none, taking it in all points, 

 and for all varieties of soil, better than this. 



THIRD AGRICULTURAL MlOliTlNG AT THE 

 STATE HOUSE. 



On the evening of Thursday last, at the State House, 

 the president being absent, Captain J. Prince, of ll„i. 

 bury, was called to ilio chair. The discussion was re- 

 sumed u|.on the cultivated grasses. 



The sjieakers v\ero much the same as last week, and 

 but few inijKutai.t fads were stated in addilion to what 

 we have already published. Mr C. Iman intimated that 

 ice misrepMrtcd him, in .slating that the number uf culti- 

 TOferf grasses is 600— a« ihu kinds (including unouliiva- 

 cd) amount lo that sum. Lobelia was rolli d ovi r the 

 tongues of the speakers for a long time, but whether the 

 horso will allow it to come in contact with his tongue. 



remains a profound mystery. The best age at which to 

 cut herds gra.ss and red-top — whether when just passing 

 out of flower, er when the seed is just full, or when they 

 are quite ripe, is unsettled. Each time had iis advo- 

 cates. Chemistry may find more nutritive matter in 

 that which is ripe — but our question should be whether 

 the digestive organs of the horse or oi will extract more 

 food from it in that state, than if cut younger. 

 Subject for lo-morrovv evening — Stock. 



FIELD PREACHING. 



No. 3. 

 Charity envieth not. — St. Paul. 

 That country RILss who is obliged lo form and preserve 

 an acquaintance with the wash-tub and cooking utea, 

 sils, mijy sometimes wish that the daughter of wealth 

 might be compelled to exchange places with herself: 

 that boy, whose hands are busied with the shovel and 

 hoe, may think that he who handles the yard stick be- 

 hind a counter, and he winse hoars are devoted to 

 sports for " killing time," have a happier loi than hi» 

 own; the stirring wife of the farmer is prone lo wish 

 that she, like the squire's lady, could sit down in the 

 parlor with " a clean aproJi" on as otten and as Ion" as 

 she pleased ; the farmer himself may look with a dis- 

 contented eye upon those who seem lo get ahead with 

 less hard work than comes in his own course. But 

 goiid friends, young and old, male and female, yours is 

 a condition abounding in as many solid comforts as any 

 other. Charity will not envy, and why should you i" 

 This envy disquiets its pr.ssotsor ; it blisters the soul in 

 which it burns. Avoid it and seek contentmuiii with 

 your lot, Seek for charity ; she is the fruit most profit- 

 able for cultivation. Faith is the root fixing iuelf and 

 feeding in the soil of truih ; hope is the heaven-aspiring 

 blade — charily is the immortal fruit. Willi this ripened 

 in your moral field, you are rich. 



The Extremes — There is a place on earth, where 

 pure joys are unknown, from which poliieness is banish- 

 ed, and has given place to selfishness, contradiction, and 

 half veiled insults. Remorse and inquieiude, like fiends 

 that are never weary of assailing, lorment the inhabi- 

 tants. This place is the house of a wedded pair who 

 have no mutual love, nor even esteem. 



There is a place on earth lo which vice Jias no an- 

 tra ice — where the gloomy passions have no empire 



where pleasure and innocence live constantly to^iether 

 — where cares and labors are deligliiful — where every 

 pain is forgotten in reciprocal tenderness— where there 

 is an equal enjoyment of tfie past, the present, and the 

 future. It ia the house, loo, of a wedded pair, but who 

 in wedlock are lovers still. — St Lambert. 



Nkw England. — The famiersofNew England have 

 every reason lo thank God (or ilie condition in which 

 they are placed. They need not sigh for more f;enial 

 climes nor moie fertile toils. These ,lhey cannot have 

 without dreadful abatement of health and coml'url. Of 

 all the conditions on earth, which it has been my lot to 

 see or read of, 1 am bold to aver, that I know of none 

 more favorable to liealtli, competence, enjoyment, and 

 moral improvement, than that enjoyed by the rural pop- 

 ulation of New England. I despise the contempt with 

 which some pretend lo look down upou us ; and the 

 opprobrium which they have the impudence lo cast 

 upon our habits of thrill and frugalily. I deem it my 

 liighest boast, lliat I am a New England man and a 

 Yankee. I do nut ask lo have a living without labor. 

 This would be asking for a curse instead of a ble.-sing, 

 and a boon for which I have no claim I only ask that 



