AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



I'UlSLiaUEU BV JOSEPH BKICCK & CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aos.cultuual WAhEHou.E.) 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBEK 20, 1837. 



ZT" We have comrneiiceil Judge Biiel'.s excf-l- 

 ; .Address, confident tliat wo cun ofier nothing 

 ■e useful or more acceptable to our suhscribers 



patrons. It is replete with thought and ma- 

 id reflection, and e.vhibits an acute, pliiloso- 

 ;al and scientific mind, well versed in the snb- 



of which it treats. It also evinces a practical 

 wiedge, without which all our agricultural sys- 

 s and theories would be of, coniparatively, tri- 

 ; benefit. There is a plainness, as well as a 

 [ncss in the .style, aiitl a simplicity of illustra- 

 , which sliow a happy capacity in the au- 

 • to adapt his language anil ideas to the ocea- 

 . The address is like a nut, full of rich meat 



liourishnjent. I,et the firjtier, who is desir- 

 of improvement, con it well; we assure him 



his labor will not be lost. The winter even- 



of the husbandman cannot be better spent, 

 ijn perusing the wmks of those who have giv- 

 their minds, and devoted their labors to the 

 ;fit and improvement of this mother of arts. — 



see a father and his sons thus engageil, after 

 oiisiness of the day is over, when all is hush 



still, save the voice of the reader, is most in- 

 jiting! We ho|)e the time is a|>proaching, 

 n such scenes will be more familiar than they 

 l! for years past. 



ADD R"E S S, 



ered before the Berkshire Agricultural Society, at their 

 twenty-seventh Anniversary, Oct. 15, 1337. 



BY J. BCEL. 



President and Gentlemen of the Society: 

 compliance with your invitation, 1 propose 

 fer to this assembly some remarks on the du- 

 vhich devolve upon the farmer ; and to dis- 

 iome of the prominent means by which those 

 s may be usefully and profitably performed, 

 ovidence has imposed upon all, the ohliga- 

 of providing for the wants and comforts of 

 selves and their liouseholds. 'Jhese wants 

 comforts are not limited to mere foo<l and 

 ing ; they embrace the ininil and habits of 

 -intelligence, industry, frugality, benevolence. 

 lively exercise of these virtues, if not ajways 

 ssary to prevent want, are the surest means 

 emoting comfort, and of securing to ourchil- 

 the substantial enjoyments of life. 

 lOUgh there are many ways and devices by 

 h men endeavor to obtain wealth and happi- 

 there are few employments in w'lii^b ihese 

 ttained with so much certainty, or which are 

 conducive to health, to usefulness and man- 

 dependence — few which apparently better 

 the beneficent designs of the Creator — than 

 tssigned to our first parents — the cultivation 

 s earth. It has, to be sure, like all other av- 

 >n8, its cares and its toils — its thorns — yet 

 wise and the good, engaged in its pursuits, 

 Bl fail to draw from these, lessons of whole- 

 instruction : to them, every thorn has its rose. 



NO. 24. 



Nor does farming aflord that |)rospect of rapid 

 gain, which some other employments ofl'er to our 

 cupidity; yet neither does it, on the other hand, 

 involve the risks, to forlime and to morals, with 

 which the schemers and speculators of the day 

 are ever environed. It offers a sure and substan- 

 tial source of gain and of usefulness, far better fm- 

 the individual and the comnuinity, than fortunes 

 made in a day, and lost in a night — maih; by trick, 

 and dissi[>aled by folly. Rural life is exenjpt from 

 a crowd of evils, of rivalships and iealuusies,whicli 

 often cloud and embitter the lives of men ii! other 

 profession!-'. 



" The hiLsbamlman shinild hate no one, for he 

 should dread no rivals. If his neighbor's fielil is 

 more productive than liis own, he burrows a use- 

 ful lesson." If his own field is the most firodnc- 

 tive, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he is 

 teaching and benefiting his neighbor by his ex- 

 ample. He learns to consider bis own welfare as 

 intimattly identified with the' prosperity of all 

 around him. A gentleman highly distinguished 

 for fortune, talents and usefulness — who partici- 

 pated largely in the honors and duties of public 

 life, and who, by his examples in rural improve- 

 ment, and bis writings, mainly contributed to laise 

 the agricultural character of his district to a state 

 of perfection, excelling that of any other di.<trict 

 in the Union — I alhide to the late Chancellor Liv- 

 ingston — has said, with much truth, that "If hap- 

 piness is to be fomid upon earth, it must certainly 

 be sought in the imlulgeTice of those benign emo- 

 tions " which an; the reward of rural cares ami 

 rural labors. '-.As Cicero," he continues, "sums 

 up all human knowledge in the character of a per- 

 fect orator, so we might, with much niore pro[)ri- 

 ety, claim every virtue, and embrace every science, 

 when we draw that of an accomplished farmer. — 

 lie is the legislator of an extensive family, and not 

 only men, hut the brute creation, are subject to 

 his hiws. He is the magistrate who expoun<ls and 

 carries these laws into execution. He is the phy- 

 sician who heals their woun<ls, and cures the dis- 

 eases of his various patients. He is the divine, 

 who studies and enforces the prece[)ts of rea.son. 

 .And he is the grand almoner of the Creator, who 

 is continually dispensing his bounties, not oidy to 

 his fellow mortals, but to the fowls of the air, ami 

 the beasts of the field." 



With a conviction of these truths upon his mind, 

 no fiuiner shoidd repine at his lot, or envy the 

 specious or substantial prosperity of his neighbor ; 

 but aim contentedly to fulfil with fidelity, the high 

 duties imposed upon him as a cultivator of the 

 soil. 



The condition of the agriculturist impo.ses upon 

 him otherduties than those which regard the wel- 

 fare of his household. lie is to proviile for the 

 subsistence of the great national family. .Most of 

 the nece.-isaries of civilized lifuare drawn from the 

 soil, the supervision and mauagement of which he 

 has taken upon himself. Our population is divi- 

 ded into professions and tra<les, to each of which 

 belong particular offices; and the welfare of the 



whole depends upon each fulfilling, with fidelity, 

 its respective relative duties. A mutual depend 

 dence and obligation exi.-sts among the various 

 classes, whicii can neither be neglected or slight, 

 ed by one class, without serious detriment to the 

 whole. The obiigatiou is particidarly mandatory 

 upon the tiller of the soil ; for, upon his labors, 

 the oUier classes mainly depend, for many of the 

 absolute necessaries of civilized life. It the far- 

 mer is industrious and intelligent — for intelligence 

 serves greatly to abridge labor, <md to multiply its 

 products and its profits — the bounties of the soil, 

 with the blessings of Providence, will be abun- 

 dant, and plenty will spring up iti every corner 

 of the laml. But the soil will with hold its treas- 

 ures, in proportion as ignorance prevails, or as ru- 

 ral labor relaxes its efforts, and the consequent 

 s-utlering is felt, with the certainty and force of an 



electric shock, through the whole social circle. 



VVc want nothing but the melancholy experience 

 of the last year to persuade ns of this truth. 



Society is dependent upon the farmer, not only 

 for the necessaries, but indirectly for many of the 

 refinements of life. Agriculture furnishes most 

 of the labor which creates our wealth ; it provides 

 most of the raw materials for the manufacturing 

 arts ; it freights the bark of commerce ; and, by 

 receiving in exchange the fabrics of the one, and 

 the commodities of tho other, it sustains and en- 

 riches both. 



He who does not appreciate his social obliga- 

 tionsjor knowing, neglects to fulfil them, and lives 

 only for himself, perverts his noblest faculties, and 

 lives and dies a stranger to the best feelings whicli 

 dignify human nature. 



Our agriculturists are also specially charged 

 with the guardianship of our freedom. They con- 

 stitute the fountains of political power, and are 

 the conservators of the whig princi|)lcs which 

 marie us an indejiendcnt nation. If the fountains 

 are impure, I he stream of power will be defiled 

 and corrupt. The farmers composj the great body 

 of our population, and must ever, while we re- 

 main a free people, control the destinies of the re- 

 public, and give the impress to our national char- 

 acter. Their republican and independent bear- 

 ing — their sober good sense, unostentatious habits, 

 and love of order, reiust protect ns alike from the 

 wily encroachinints of ambition, the enervating 

 and corrupting influence of wealth, and the tumult 

 and violence of the mob. 'i hey are to a free state,, 

 what the main-spring is to the watch — the great 

 moving and regulating power. Rome remained 

 fne while lo-r middling chusscs retained a con- 

 trolling influence in her public affairs, and she 

 sunk to (lespolism, in |:rtiportion as this barrier 

 between her |)atricians and her jilebeians, was 

 broken down and destroyed. "The lorrnplion 

 ol Rome bega'i," says tfismondi, " from tlie time 

 that the miildle class ceased to impress its own 

 peculiar character on the whole nation ; this cor- 

 ruption increased in proportion as the interme- 

 diate ranks disappeared ; it was carried to its 

 highest pitch, when the whole empire consjsteil 



