228 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JAN. 34 TM 



GOV. HILL'S ADDRESS 



To the .Meirimac Co. Jit^r. Socie'y, October 1S37. 



tConchlded. i 



Tliat lienefit frequently results from the notions 



and tlit'ories of ine-i wlio have not heeii L>X|ii'nen- 

 ced farmers ;dl their lives, is evinced hy (mcIs 

 which are sonietiiTics disclosed. Judfre Huel of 

 Albany, one of the bes', because probably the 

 most scientific practical iigricnlturisf in this coun- 

 try, commenced business as the printer of a village 

 newspaper, at Kingston, N. Y. '! he late Robert 

 R. Livingston and John Armstrong, who yet lives, 

 were his neighbors : they were both men of ob- 

 servati(m and science, and owned extensive farms 

 on the Hudson river. They had both been in 

 Europe and had witnessed the agricultural im- 

 provements there. Political associations, as early 

 as 1801, 2 and 3, drew him into their .•icquain- 

 tance ; they were great men— Mr Huel was a 

 humble mechanic with scarcely the onlmary ad- 

 vantages of his profession. lie printed a weeUly 

 pnjier, and did little else and consequently had 

 considerable leisure. The village of Kingston 

 was not then flourishing: in sight of his office 

 window was some half an acre of waste ground 

 not considered worth enclosing. He purchaspd it 

 for a trifle, and commence<l gardening ai'cordiiig 

 to the iileas he had imbibed in conversation with 

 his friends Livingston and .Armstrong. His more 

 experienced neighbros won(h're<l at his temerity 

 in stepping out of his printitig office into a busi- 

 ness which they presumed to know much heller 

 than he diil. In the course of two or three years 

 he showed them such irn[irovements in horticul- 

 ture and common gardening as the oldest Dutch- 

 men of Ksopus had not before seen in that region. 

 Judge Bucl removed from Kingston to Albany in 

 1812, from which lime to somewhere about 1820 

 he conducted with much ability a political news- 

 paper. This he dis|)os( d of for a sufficient sum 

 to purchase ami commencn the cultivation of a 

 tract of about sixty acres, two or three miles ou' 

 of Albany. This farm I have visited : I found 

 its pro])rietor in his study with volumes of Euro- 

 pean |iublications relating to Agriculture and its 

 im|irovemcnts, about him. The soil of his farm 

 resembles that of much of the pine land in New 

 Hampshire: it had been considered ot so little 

 value that nobody had used it for cultivation. The 

 greater portion of it had become in his hai]<ls like 

 a well cultivated garden; and it was in that con- 

 dition in which I do not doubl that the profits af- 

 ter paying ail expenses, aflorilad its owner quite 

 as good a support as any salaried office in the gifi 

 oft:ie country. Judge Buel has brought his land 

 to its highest perfection by the successful applica. 

 tion of stiimilants or manures exactly adapted to 

 that kind of soil. From the (h'scription 1 have 

 given, it will be perceived that gypsurn reacting 

 on lime would have its very best effect on his 

 farm. The farm consisted of about sixty acres, of 

 which only some halt a dozen acres was pasture. 

 His stock of horned catlle was principally sid>sist- 

 cd in the summer by green feeding in the yard — 

 a small field of lucern cut down daily furnisheil 

 the greater part of the feed of the cows, which 

 yieldcMl njilk in ahimdance. One source of much 

 profit on this farm was its extensive mirsery of 

 fruit trees with which he supplied all the varie-- 

 ties of aiqile, pear, peach, plum lre(?s, &(^ being 

 able to designate in the first shoot the particular 

 kind. 



Tlie most gratifying luxu'ry might be found in 

 the fruits which om- own soil can produce. The 

 different kinds of a[q)les last the year roun<l ; 

 peaches, pears, plums and grapes, delicious when 

 In the season of ripeness, may be (ueserved for the 

 year. A smail space will furnish the gooseberry 

 and currant in abumlance, which the good Imuse- 

 vvife can manufacture into u beverage the most 

 palatable. Our sunken morasses incapable of be- 

 ine turned to the production of hay, may be made 

 to yield th ■ cranberry in alumJance, which fur- 

 nishes a conserve delightful to the taste of the 

 healthy and grateful to the parched tongue of the 

 sick, (n the cultivation of most of the artificial 

 fruits adapted to our soil and climate in horticul- 

 ture, the state of N. Hampshire is yet in its infancy. 

 May we not hope, as the pr;u'ticc of h<u-ticulture 



tliere is scarcely a family who occupied a cot 

 fortalde farm and dwelling when ihey left, til 

 has not since heartily repented. 



If the easiest of our soil can be brought in 

 prcqier cultivation, it may be made to yield susi 

 nance for a far greater than the present popui 

 tion. But perhaps the most productive part 

 our Stale is that which need not be cultivated 

 all ; the sides of our rough mountains even 

 their tops are found to be excellent for the reari 

 of cattle and sheep. Some of the most rocky ai 

 uneven towns of the State furnish, in their horn 

 catlle, horses and sljeep, a greater profit than ol 

 er towns which are both fertile and easy of cul 

 vation with the plough. Farmers wilh theirtwi 

 ly, thirty, and even fifty milch cows secure 

 profit from their butter and cheese and the a 



ities continues to sprearl a knowledge uiven to the fattening of svrine that cannot 



near our ( 



of its benefits, that genllemen of industry and lei- 

 sure, who possess the means, will try their hands 

 in introducing the best and most apjiroved methods 

 of garilening ? 



There are few of our professional men, clergy- 

 men, physicians, lawyers or inerchanls, who 

 would not only benefit their pluses, but add to 

 the stamina of their constitutions, by personally 

 devoting n portion of their own time to the culti- 

 vation of the soil. There can be no great merit — 

 certainly there cannot be so high satisfaction — in 

 hiring or empltning others to do what we may 

 better than not do ourselves. The most hurried 

 professional man cannot, or does not, profitably 

 enqiloy himself in that pridession more than eight 

 horns in a day. By a proper economy of time, 

 he might labor o-i his land or in business con-' 

 iiected wilh it, from two to four hours in a day, 

 without detriment to his health, or neglect to his 

 oilier busiuess, and have twelve hours left for re- 

 freshment and sleep. How much better satisfied 

 with himself would a man be to rise at four or 

 five o'clock in the summer morning, and perform 

 a task in the garden or in the field, than, by lying 

 in bed and dozing the best three hours of the day, 

 to be driven up only by repealed calls? If not 

 for his own benefit, the example to others, to tin; 

 children whose welfare he desires, to the young 

 who justify their course by that of their seiM<u's, 

 would be inva'uable. it may be set down as 

 nearly certain that he cannot fail of success who 

 rises betimes in the morning ; ami the chance is 

 ten to one that he becomes poor and miserable, 

 who folds his hands to more and a lillle moie 

 sleep afier the sun has appearcfl. 



The varieties of soil and climate, if the culture 

 shall he properly adaiiteil to them, can in very few 

 instances be injurious. Even cold Hieasons would 

 not be so much against ns, if we always knew 

 wfien to meet them. A wise Providence has left 

 thise beyond the ken of mortals. It is worthy of 

 remark, however, that an unusually cold season, 

 as that of the few last years, is quite as detrimen- 

 tal to the states south as to those of New England: 

 crops there are as inu<'h aftected as they are here. 

 I mention this as a reason why a cold year or 

 even a cidd succession of years ought not to drive 

 our people either to the West or the South ; for 

 after all the forbidding aspect of our severe win- 

 ters, our backward spring.s, our frost in the sum- 

 mer, and the arri.'st of vegetation in early autumn, 

 this is more a land flowing with milk and honey 

 than ihnt which is tempting us away. If the 

 truth could be known in relation to emigrants to 

 new settled countries, it will be discovered that 



with the aid of good housewives to bring thi 

 wealih. These cows are kept on land which pi 

 for itself and the clearing of the forest in the t 

 or three first years ot its improvement. 



There are farms in tiiis State at too great an 

 tili:dc in the mildest seasons to produce a crop 

 Indian corn. Some of these are the most pro 

 able grazing farms, and turn out the fattest^ 

 the largest cattle. These farms are well adap 

 to sheep. So niuch has attention been direc 

 to the latter, that the former of late are in the I 

 demand ; at this particular time probably the 

 conragement tor rearing the larger cattle is grej 

 than that of sheeti. As low as wool has hi 

 sold the jH-esent season, from 30 to 50 cents to 

 pound, it is still conceded that the raisi:!g i 

 keeping of sheep is a good business for the 

 nier. Those who pursue either the rcarinj 

 sheep or cattle will do well not to change v 

 every depression of their business. Those i 

 continue in the pursuit of one course steadily ■ 

 find success most certain in the end. As a j 

 eral rule it may be taken for granted that the I 

 lime to manufacture or produce an article of p 

 eral consumption is that tinte when the same 

 tide has been rnn to its lowest ebb. It wil! 

 found by the time it shall be prrpsred for then 

 ket, every such article will be in the greatest 

 maud. 



At each periodical returi 

 ufaclures, commerce an 



onr ears that those depending for subsislenCT 

 their daily labor must be thrown on the charil 

 the wealthy or starve. In a country of prod, 

 tion like this, no man or woman in health ou 

 to be in a condition of helplessness. There is | 

 a town or village in New Hampshire which , 

 not the means of furnishing, within the dislaj 

 of a few miles, from its own soil, the cr^spiij 

 elements for the whole sustenance of its po[r 

 lion. A proper direction and division of la 

 only are necessary to accomplish the desired 

 ject. Look at the poor farms in some of 

 towns : in many cases on these farms the lain 

 the more able portion is sufficient for the coin 

 table .siibsislence of all the paupers of the lo 

 ft might be a good rnuidcipal arrangemenl I 

 all considerable towns and villages that pif 

 should be provided for the employment of alU 

 as untoward circnmstaiices shall throw fal 

 time biingout of their particular calling: mci|i 

 bread to the hungry and clothing to the 

 might be furnished and speedily repaid il 

 earnings of the subject which has found 

 lief. 'S* 



turn of depression in Q 

 nd trade, complaints if 



