266 



IS JLi V\ Jli iN U Li A IN JU r A « iVl Jli ±t 



FEB. Hi. I'i41. 



Voice, they will not fall far behind in tlie race of 

 discovery in Agricultural Chemistry. 



J. E. T. 



IMPROVEMENT OF LOW LANDS. 



The amount of unimproved land in the connty 

 somewhat exceeds that of English and upland mow- 

 ing, and is more than double that in tillage. A 

 larg" portion of this land, consisting of low, bog, 

 mud, and peat meadows, is capable ot being drain- 

 ed. It is now absolutely worthless, or nearly so. 

 These tracts are distributed through the whole 

 county. Scarcely a farm can be found, which 

 does not contain some land of this description. If 

 susceptible of draining at a moderate expense, these 

 lands, in their present condition, though prodicing 

 nothinc except what is offensive alike to the eye 

 and a just agricultural taste, are inlrinskall;/ worth 

 more than the average of the first class of upland 

 tillage bottoms. They are virgin soils, and contain 

 vast accumulations of vegetable deposites, furnish- 

 in" the best aliment for most kinds of plants, and 

 especially for grasses. When drained of the exu- 

 berant moisture, and the soil has been sufficiently 

 exposed to the action of the atmosphere, they be- 

 come extremely productive, and may be kept so at 

 a very inconsiderable expense. This ;s not mat- 

 ter of speculation, theory, or book learning, but of 

 actual and repeated experiments, made by practi- 

 cal farmers, who have shown us the results, the 

 processes, and the expense of the operation. The 

 transactions of our Society, as published from year 

 to year, <-ontain splendid and most encouraging ex- 

 amples of this kind of husbandry. Among the 

 most recent, I refer you to those of Mr Osborn, ol 

 Lynn, and Mr Brown, of Saugus. If any fanner 

 doubt as to the expediency of this mode of cultiva- 

 tion, I would ask him to visit these reformed mead- 

 ows, as I have done, and see them producing every 

 variety of crop in the greatest richness and abun- 

 dance. For three successive years past, in the 

 month of June, I have seen one of these reclaimed 

 meadows, containing about twenty acres, under the 

 cultivation of Mr Phinney, the gentleman before 

 referred to, producing between two and three tons 

 to the acre of the best English grasses. 



This subject cannot be pressed too strongly on 

 the attention of our Essex farmers. These sunken, 

 sterile, and unsightly meadows contain mines of 

 wealth, and require only the hand of the judicious 

 cultivator to work out the precious metals, in all 

 sufficient and reasonable abundance. I say, again, 

 let every farmer, who is blessed with this species 

 of soil, try the experiment for himself. He may 

 do it on a more limited scale, if he plense. If he 

 is unwilling to grapple with one or two acres, let 

 him try one or two rods; and if he should not be 

 perfectly satisfied with the experiment after a fair 

 trial of two or three years, aa one of the trustees 

 of the Society, I should not be unwilling to assume 

 the whole expense of all the experiments that 

 might be made, and to become, with my colleagues, 

 personally responsible for such an engagement. I 

 have entire confidence in thefeasibility and profita- 

 bleness of this mode of culture; and I hope I may 

 live to see the day when these detached prairies 

 shall become the gardens of Essex, rejoicing the 

 heart and eye of the passing traveller, and return- 

 ing their golden harvests into the barns and grana. 

 ries of the husbandman. 



Before quitting this topic, I cannot forbear rela- 

 ting an anecdote, which will illustrate the general 

 views here presented. Within the last year, an 



aged farmer, who has made himself rich by this 

 mode of cultivation, adopted extensively many 

 years ago, was called as a witness before a sher- 

 iff's jury, to estimate the value of a neighbor's land, 

 which had bi^en taken for a highway. The land 

 was a narrow strip of three rods in width, running 

 partly over upland tillage or field, and partly over 

 a meadow, producing coarse and sour grass. Sev- 

 eral witnesses wero called in behalf of the petition, 

 er for damages to appraise these different soils, and 

 all of them, except the old farmer, estimated the 

 upland considerably higher than Ihe meadow. — ■ 

 When he was called, he reversed the estimate ; 

 and the counsel fiir the county, apparently surpris- 

 ed at this judgment of the old farmer, differing 

 from that of all the other witnesses, and thinking 

 he had caught him napping, exclaimed with a ioud 

 voice, (the old farmer being quite deaf,) " do you 

 presume to say, sir, that this meadow land is worth 

 S70 the acre, and more than this valuable field ?" 

 The old farmer, raised a little by the apparent tem- 

 per and spirit of the question, replied substantially 

 as follows, f may not give the precise words, but 

 I do not mistake the substance of the answer. "I 

 do presume, sir, to say so — and I know so, and 

 there is no mistake. I have worked over these 

 meadows and know all about it. I have sold a 

 good deal of English hay from mine, and I know I 

 get more and better English hay from my old 

 meadows, than I do from my uplands. The fact is, 

 there is a bottom and foundation in these meadows, 

 which we do not, and cannot find in the uplands, 

 and there is no mistake about it. I do presume, 

 sir, to say again what I have said before, and I 

 know it is true." 



Improving Salt Mnrsh. 

 In this connexion, it may be proper merely to 

 advert to the improvements which have been made 

 within a few years in the cultivation of salt marsh 

 by ditching, draining and dykeing. There is a 

 large quantity of this land in the county, fourteen 

 thousand one hundred and thirtynine acres, being 

 just about equal to the quantity in tillage. It is 

 well known that a large portion of this salt marsh 

 is comparatively unproductive. The experiments 

 which have been made, in several instances, at im- 

 proved modes of cultivation, in the ways referred 

 to, augur well for success. II it is found, on far- 

 ther experiment, that these lands are susceptible of 

 improvement in these or other ways to the degree 

 which the experiments actually made would seem 

 to warrant us in expecting, it is obvious that a 

 vastly increased productive power may be obtained 

 from thiB source, and considering the amplitude of 

 the source, it would be difficult to estimate its val- 

 ue or importance. I commend this subject to the 

 special attention of the seaboard farmers, who are 

 mainly interested in these lands. 



Good Culture the most ProJilahU. 



Land that is worth cultivating at all, is worth 

 cultivating well. If, therefore, an individual find 

 himself in the. possession of a farm which will not 

 reimburse the expense of good husbandry, lie had 

 better abandon it at once, for all experience teach- 

 es, that no man can afford to be a farmer under a 

 system of bad husbandry. The earth was not made 

 for thriftless, inefficient, or unskilful cultivators, 

 nor will it yield to such its full increase. 



No farmer should feel that he discharges his 

 whole duty, unless the effect of his cultivation is 

 to make his farm better every year. He may be 

 sure that it is capable of an indefinite improvement, 



and his constant aim should be, to increase and 

 multiply its resources and productive power. The 

 question should not be, whether fifty or an hundred 

 dollars judiciously expended in labor or otherwise, 

 will add so much to the saleable value of his es- 

 tate, but whether he can receive it back again with 

 good interest. His mode of cultivation should not 

 be based on any idea of the present or prospective 

 value of his farm in the market, but on that of a 

 permanent and continued possession from genera- 

 tion to generation ; and that if he do not reap all 

 the benefits himself, he is laying up a certain trea- 

 sure for his descendants. 



Choice Fruit Trees. 

 It is believed that the cultivation of all the 

 choice fruits to which our climate and soil are 

 adapted, may be very greatly extended with a cer- 

 tain prospect of abundant remunerating profits. A 

 distinguished cultivator in a neighboiing county, 

 informed me that the net income arising from the 

 sale of his Isabella grapes alone, three years ago, 

 exceeded that of his whole farm of one hundred 

 and fifty acres. Another farmer, who has paid 

 particular attention to the cultivation of peaches, 

 informed me a few weeks ago, that his sale of 

 peaches in the Salem market, the present season, 

 amounted in one week to the sum of one hundred 

 and twenty dollars ; and that his peach trees, for a 

 series of years, have yielded him an annual income 

 of between four and five hundred dollars. It is 

 to be considered that the Essex farmer finds a 

 great and constantly increasing demand for all the 

 choice productions of the earth. He is in the midst 

 of the most densely populated region in this coun- 

 try. He has a cash market almost at his own door 

 for every contribution that he can bring to it ; and 

 as tlie facilities of intercommunication are constant- 

 ly increasing, by the operation of that great power 

 of modern tiwes, steam, which is effecting a revolu- 

 tion in the condition and relations of the whole civ- 

 ilized world, the only means by which an Essex 

 farmer especially can successfully withstand ihe 

 active competition and conflict which these discov- 

 eries are adapted to produce, are improved modes 

 of cultivation, with particular reference always to 

 the production of the bkst article for the market, 

 whatever it may be. Our husbandry must be a 

 model husbandry. We must make up in fertility 

 of skill, expedients and useful devices, what we 

 lack in the natural fertility of the soil. In this 

 way, and by these means, Essex husbandry, which 

 has a cash market on her own soil, constantly in- 

 creasing and craving all her rich and choice pro- 

 ductions, may successfully maintain her rightful 

 superiority at home, and by a gradual and certain 

 extension and developement of her own inherent 

 resources, preserve it in all time to come. — Mr 

 Huntingion''s Address. 



As in agriculture, he that can produce the great- 

 est crop is not the best farmer, but he that can ef- 

 fect it with the least expense — so in society, he is 

 not the best member who can bring about the most 

 good, but he that can accomplish it with the least 

 admixture of concomitant evil. — Lacon. 



The mind, says Benthain, is a field, in which 

 so sure as man sows not wheat, so sure will the 

 devil be to sow tares. 



Diamonds have their specks, and the greatest 

 n.en their foibles. 



