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



PUIJLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & 



CO., NO. 52 NOllTH MARKET STREET, (Aon.cuLTURAL Wahehoose.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR.' 



VOL. MX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 17, 1841. 



CKO. 33. 



N. E. FARMER 



MR HUNTINGTON'S ADDRESS. 

 We hfive received a copy of the address of Asa- 

 hel Huntin;,non, E.sq., before the Esse.x Agricultu- 

 ral Society in September, 1840. We had the 

 pleasure oflisteningr to it when oritrinaliy pro- 

 nounced, and judged it to be forcible, instructive 

 and practical. We are somewhat In doubt whether 

 duty to the readers of this paper will permit us to 

 fill its [)nges with a long- address. Under the influ- 

 ence of tills doubt, we confine ourselves to extracts, 

 even when the whole, in point of merit, deserves 

 the widest possible circulation. After havino- 

 spoken justly of the propriety of farmers' meetintr.s; 

 after having e.xhibited reasons why the jouno- Es- 

 sex farmer sli.iuhi be content to try his fortune in 

 his native county ; and after having enforced the 

 propriety on the part of those who are fixed there, 

 of making the most of their pursuit, he puts and 

 discusses an important question in the following 

 extract. 



THE TRUE PROBLEM. 



" The true problem to be worked out by every 

 intelligent and enterprising farmer, I take it to be 

 this : to raise annually the greatest possible amount 

 of the most profitable crops, having a single eye to 

 income, immediate or more remote, according to 

 his means, and especially to the gradual and per- 

 manent improvement of his farm. The practical 

 farmer, whose own personal labor is his principal 

 active capital, cannot atford to make doubtful, e.x- 

 periments on any considerable scale. He cannot 

 afford to improve his farm any faster than he sees 

 the way cU^ar for a certain and compensating profit 

 in the end ; and this end may be more or less re- 

 mote, according to the means at his convenient 

 command. With these limitations and restriction-s 

 the i)oint to be aimed at is, the greatest possible 

 production from year to year. 



"The earth is a kind, faithful and generous 

 mother, and she will repay and reward any invest- 

 ment of labor or capiul, which is made in accord 

 ance with these principles. Particular seasons, 

 from drought, or other causes, may disappoint the 

 expec tions or de.'eat the plans of the husbandman : 

 but I .=ipeik of the cultivation of a course of years ; 

 and afiirm, that the farmer should make from year 

 to year the greatest possible drafts from the earth, 

 always having reference to income or profit, imme' 

 diate or evenlual, and the improvement and arnelio- 

 ration of his tarni. In this way, the productive 

 power of a farm, by judicious and efficient hus- 

 bandry, may be indefinitely extended. Produc- 

 tion, properly applied and expended, increases the 

 power of production, so that it would be ditlicult to 

 prescribe the limit beyond which production miTht 

 not be carried. " 



"lam not now speaking in reference to modes 

 of husbandry or cultivation unsuited to the circum- 

 Btancos, wants or condition of the county. I have 

 no reference to modern English agricultuie, as dis- 

 tinguished from our own. We all know that the 



agricultural productions of that country have been 

 amazingly increased within the last twenty or thir- 

 ty years, but by modes of cultivation in part, which 

 would not be suited to the circumatanues existing 

 among ourselves. I refer to what has been done 

 and is now doing by some of the practical farmers 

 among ourselves with eminent success and with 

 great pecuniary advantage. The cry of the farmer 

 should be perpetual, give, give, GIVE — taking 

 care himself to return more strength and nutri- 

 ment, in the form of manures, thnn have been ex- 

 hausted by his crops, in this manner preparing the 

 way for a more liberal draft, at the next season. 

 Thus good agriculture is in some sort a system of 

 exchange of kinds, but not of values. 



" Experience, at all times, has taught tlie hus- 

 bandman that animal and vegetable substances, 

 mixed with the soil, afforded nourishment to the 

 plants which it produced. Science has disclosed 

 to us the fact, that the living plants and the dead 

 ihanure, whether animal or vegetable, are resolva- 

 ble into the same elementary substances, though 

 existing in difl^erent states of combination; so tliat 

 in supplying animal and vegetable substances to 

 the soil, in a state more or less decomposed, we in 

 fact furnish the same essence which enters into 

 the composition of the germinating and living 

 plant. In supplying manures to the soil, we return 

 to it the same elementary substances, which are 

 drawn from it by the nurture and feeding of the 

 living plant, and this is what I intended by the re- 

 mark, that good husbandry is a system of exchange 

 of ^iWs, but not of values. We thus see, that to 

 secure an increased and increasing production, ma- 

 nure is the great and principal instrumentality. 

 This is the beginning, the middle, and the end of 

 thriving husbandrv. 



" To create from the resources of the farm the 

 greatest possible amount of this food for plants, 

 should be the constant aim of every good fanner. 

 This is the ultimate source of his gains, and he 

 must guard all the avenues to it with an ever vigi- 

 lant watchfulness. The farm must be washed and 

 scoured for the purpose of obtaining this treasure. 

 In this county, we have abundant sources of sup- I 

 plying it, and though all farms are nut equally 

 privileged in this respect, yet none are destitute of 

 the means of doing very much in this way. The 

 sagacious faamer will w.itch with an eagle eye 

 every possible opportunity for increasing the amount 

 and improving the quality of his manure— especial- 

 ly will he set' that nothing is Inst. All his plans 

 of improvement will have reference to this main 

 and engrossing object. He will not expose his 

 stable manure heap at the end or in rear of his 

 barn, to the impoverishing ravages and inroads of 

 the rains, the wind and the snowj a scandal alike to 

 good taste and good husbandry. The liquids are 

 of no less value in his estimation than the solids, 

 and the nio.st careful expedients are devised, as cir- 

 cumstances require, to see that nothing be lost, but ! 

 that everything be preserved in the greatest ■ order i 

 and perfection. His stable, barn-yard and piggery 

 are regarded as so many manufactories of manures 

 and his cattle and swine are each made to contrib- 



ute in the best possible manner to this end. » Ev- 

 ery hog kept by a farmer," says Mr Phinnoy, of 

 j Lexington, (who is the highest authority on this 

 I subject, as well as on all others pertaining to prac- 

 j tical agriculture,) "should be required to jirepare 

 j ten loads of compost manure in the course of a 

 [year, which he will cheerfully do if the owner will 

 I furnish him with the materials, such as loam, peat, 

 or swamp mud," &e. The same distinguished cul- 

 tivator assured me, as the result of hisVxperience, 

 Ihat thirty dollars worth of manure judiciously ap- 

 plied to an acre of ground planted with Indian corn, 

 over and above the usual quantity allowed for this 

 purpose, would be compensated the first year, in 

 the increased production of the crop, estimating 

 the corn at one dollar ihe bushel ; and that the ad''- 

 ditional fertility thus imparted to the soil, available 

 in thegreiuly increased productions of future years, 

 would bo tho net profit. He further assured me, 

 and in this I am certain he wouh! be confirii.ed by 

 the most successful cultivators in our county, that 

 the great secret of good husbandry is liberal ma- 

 n iiring." 



From the Fanner's Regisler. 

 EXPERIMENTS WITH BONE MANURE. 



On reading the article headed » Extraneous Ma- 

 nures," page .589, October number of the Farmers' 

 Register, I was reminded of my promise to give 

 you the result of my experiment with bone dust, or 

 more properly speaking, crushed bones, as a ma- 

 uure. 



My first application of bone manure was on tur- 

 nips, in 1838 ; the result, so far as relates to the 

 first crop and the expense, is stated at page 152-,') 

 vol. 7th of the Register. I have therefore" only to 

 add the results of tn-o years' additionil experience 

 in the use and effoctof bone manure in comparison 

 with stable or other putrescent manures produced 

 on a farm. 



In order to ascertain, with as much precisiou as 

 I could, the requisite quantity of bone per acre as 

 well as to be precise in its application and compari- 

 son with other manures, I laid off an acre of ground 

 which I designed for turnips, and divided it into 

 eightyone equal parts by cross furrows at the prop- 

 er distance. Upon two thirds of the ground thus 

 laid off, a good two-horse cartload of stable or farm 

 yard manure was dropped in each square, which of 

 course was manuring at the good rate of 8 J loads 

 per acre. To other parts of the ground, crushed 

 bones, from the Roxbury, Mass. mills, v.-ere applied 

 at the rate of 1.5, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 81 

 bushels to the acre, pure as they came to me, with- 

 out adulterntion or admixture of any kind. On 

 the residue of the acre, a compost, consisting of 

 the summer scrapings of the cow yard, without 

 straw or litter of any kind, with only 8 per cent, of 

 j bone, was applied at the rate of 12 loads, of 25 

 j bushels each, per acre. The ground had previous- 

 I ly been well ploughed early in the spring, and a 

 j dressing of sixty bushels of good fresh lime had 

 been applied on the furrow, immediately preceding 



