36 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



AUG. 14, 1833. 



Extracts from " Transactions of the Essex Agricultural So. 



cietyfor 1832." 

 EXACT AND EXPERIMENTAL AGRICULTURE. 



My friends, the Farmers of Essex County, will 

 not be offended if I presume to urge them upon one 

 or two points, which I deem of great importance to 

 their agricultural improvements ; and they will par- 

 don a freedom and earnestness which they know 

 springs wholly from an honest pride in the honor 

 and a strong desire for the success of their intelli- 

 gent and enterprising association. Though remov- 

 ed from their immediate vicinity, lam not the less 

 interested in whatever concerns a county, endear- 

 ed as the residence of my remote ancestors, who 

 among the earliest emigrants made it their resting 

 place, and, with their descendants for years, par- 

 ticipated in his privileges and blessings. 



The first matter which I suggest to you is exact- 

 ness in your agriculture. The neglect of this is 

 almost universal, and to its great disgrace may be 

 said to be characteristical of the farming profes- 

 sion. In my intimate intercourse with farmers 

 for years, nothing has been more remarkable, and 

 nothing in many cases more mortifying and pro- 

 voking, than this want of exactness. They meas- 

 ure nothing, they weigh nothing. It is all guess 

 work with them in every thing. Ask them how 

 much land they till or mow? — they do not know. 

 How much corn, rye, oats, barley, how many po- 

 tatoes they raised ? — they did not measure them. 

 How much hay they mowed ? — they guess about 

 so many loads. How much their corn or their 

 potatoes yielded ? — why, they judged about so and 

 so ; but this judgment is altogether the merest 

 guess work. How much manure they put upon 

 an acre ? — why, they mean to put on, commonly, 

 for there are always qualifications enough to save 

 their veracity, about six, or eight, or ten loads, as 

 the case may be ; but what they call a load is with 

 themselves, and must be with others, matter of 

 pure conjecture. How much seed they sow to an 

 acre ? — why, as near as they can guess, about so 

 much. How much will a favorite cow yield ? — 

 why, she gives over a pailful ; but what is the size 

 of the pail, whether six, or eight, or tezi quarts, or 

 whether wine quarts or beer quarts, which makes 

 a difference of at least one fifth ; or how much 

 over, whether one quart or four quarts, are points, 

 which it never occurs to them are important to be 

 defined, or at least pretty exactly approximated, 

 before they presume to demand the confidence of 

 others, or indeed to place confidence themselves in 

 their own statements. 



Now I submit to you, my brother farmers, 

 whether this is not an unvarnished statement of 

 facts. Ought it to be so ? Is such looseness or 

 neglect admissible in any other of the business 

 professions ? 



But what, you will ask, is the advantage of such 

 exactness ? We answer, very great. There is a 

 satisfaction in knowing what we do. If we do 

 not, in fact, do so well as we imagine, let us not 

 go on deceiving ourselves, but ascertain the occa- 

 sions of the failure. If wo in fact do better than 

 we imagine, let us enjoy the pleasure of conscious 

 improvement, and let it furnish a stimulus to 

 greater efforts. 



Exactness is important in the next place, in 

 order that a mau should compare the value of his 

 crops with the expenses of cultivation ; and of 

 each crop with its particular expense ; that he may 

 determine how far he is a gainer or a loser by his 

 operations ; and in what respect one crop may 



have the advantage over another ; that he may de- 

 termine which will best repay his care and labor. 

 But he can never do this, aud he is liable to the 

 grossest mistakes both in judgment and practice, 

 without exact observation and measurement. 



Exactness is important in the next place to the 

 proper disposal of his crops. How can a farmer 

 well calculate what he shall do with his crops, un- 

 less he first ascertains what he has ? If he over- 

 rates them, he is liable to overstock his farm, and 

 either be compelled to pinch his cattle, by which 

 in the end he is sure to lose, or to purchase fod- 

 der, which few men can afford to do ; or if he 

 underrates them, not keep stock enough, and with 

 the feeling of abundance be very likely to use his 

 produce prodigally aud wastefully, and so fail of 

 the advantages within his reach. Exactness is in 

 the next place important to a man's character and 

 usefulness. Agricultural operations approach so 

 nearly to what may be called a creative power, 

 that no class of people are more liable to have the 

 organ of self-esteem powerfully excited than the 

 farmers. Few men therefore are more disposed 

 to boast of what they have done, and especially 

 how much they have done. Some of their state- 

 ments are so extravagant that they are made at the 

 expense of all respect either for their judgment, or 

 knowledge, or veracity. The fact is they do not 

 mean to impose on others, but they deceive them- 

 selves. It is all guess work with them. The 

 effects of such misstatements are often very bad ; 

 aud equally pernicious whether the result of mis- 

 take or design. The inexperienced and confiding 

 are led into gross miscalculations by them. Now, 

 a respectable man ought to have so much regard 

 to his own honor as that, when he makes a state- 

 ment he may be sure it is founded in strict truth ; 

 but of this he never can be sure, unless he is in 

 the habit of exact calculation and measurement ; 

 and no certain progress can be made in the science 

 of agriculture without this exactness. Agriculture 

 must be considered as one of the exact sciences ; 

 and we shall never know whether our progress in 

 it is forward or retrograde, until we have done 

 with guessing. I have myself been so frequently 

 and egregiously deceived by the misstatements of 

 men who certainly did not mean to deceive, that 

 I have long since determined to believe no state- 

 ment which a man has not verified by actual and 

 exact observation, and then I am as willing to give 

 my confidence as any man. I could give some of 

 the instances to which I refer, but some of my 

 friends who are accustomed to draw a long bow, 

 would recognize the likeness, and I should be 

 sorry to give them as much pain as they have oc- 

 casioned me disappointment. 



But, you say, it is troublesome to be so exact. 

 The trouble is not great where the habit is once 

 formed ; and is very much more than compensated 

 by the satisfaction experienced in doing it. Land 

 can be measured with considerable correctness 

 without the trouble of a surveyor's instruments. 

 The time occupied in planting, cultivating and 

 gathering a crop, can easily be taken account of. 

 The manure cart can be measured, and then an 

 account kept of the number of loads carried out. 

 The seed can easily be measured. All vegetable 

 crops, all grain crops are very quickly measured. 

 Hay can easily be estimated in the cock or in the 

 load, and the number of loads determined ; or the 

 size of a mow ascertained, and the amount of hay 

 contained in it very nearly calculated. Then 

 again, the amount of food consumed by different 



animals for a week at a time, at different seasons 

 can be ascertained with very little trouble ; and a 

 calculation of the whole amount required for thern 

 be made from these premises. The quality of the 

 milk of a cow can easily be decided by setting a 

 portion of it for cream in a glass vessel, and com- 

 paring it with others in the same way and under 

 the same circumstances ; or the milk of a particu- 

 lar animal can be placed by itself for a period of 

 time, and her actual produce determined. Alt 

 dairy produce is easily ascertained. The debit 

 and credit sides of your sheepfold too, and of your 

 pig-sty, where let me tell you exactness is spe- 

 cially important, are easily kept. All these things 

 ought to be done; and, I say again, that the satis- 

 faction and advantages of doing these would greatly 

 overbalance the trouble aud care. Ask an intelli- 

 gent and enterprising manufacturer about his con- 

 cerns. He can tell you, if he deserves that char- 

 acter, how much power of water he has, even to 

 an inch ; how many spindles he can carry ; how 

 many pounds of wool or cotton he can work up ; 

 how much fuel, how much oil, how much dye- 

 stuff he requires ; how many pounds of wool or 

 of cotton are needed to make a yard of cloth of a 

 certain degree of firmness ; how much of human 

 labor he can employ to advantage ; and at what 

 rate exactly he can afford to sell his cloth in order 

 to get a living profit. Now is there any reason in 

 the world why a farmer should not be, as far as 

 possible, as exact and calculating in his concerns 

 as the manufacturer ? would he not find an equal 

 advantage in it? and is not the want of this ex- 

 actness and care one of the great reasons, why 

 farmers in too many cases find their farms either 

 an unprofitable or a losing concern, and in point 

 of improvement are just where their fathers were 

 a century ago ? Keep a journal therefore ; a diary. 

 Keep an account of every field aud every crop. 

 Ascertain what it costs ; what it comes to ; what 

 you have done for it, and what you do with it. 

 Keep an account in some form with every domes- 

 tic animal on your place. See whether they pay, 

 or how they can be made to pay for their living : 

 whether you keep them for profit or pleasure. Do 

 not be ashamed of mistakes and false judgments 

 and miscalculations, unless you voluntarily run 

 into them a second and a third time ; because no 

 human judgment is infallible, and the wisest are 

 ever liable to erf ; and in the first place take care 

 not to impose upon yourself, and in the next 

 place, when you undertake to tell your neigh- 

 bors what you have done, be sure you are able to 

 speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 

 the truth. 



Next to exactness is another matter intimately 

 connected with it and of like importance to 

 to an improving agriculture, that of making 

 ing experiments. You are too intelligent to in- 

 dulge in the senseless clamor about agricultural 

 experiments and experimental farmers. You know 

 that in agriculture all knowledge is the result of 

 experiment, aud those are esteemed the best farm- 

 ers, who have made the most experiments, that is 

 who have had the most experience and the longest 

 practice. But 'perhaps you will say, let the rich 

 make experiments, we have not the means. This 

 is not so ; and the farmers of moderate circum- 

 stances, and who work in their own fields, are the 

 very persons to make the experiments, because 

 they are better able to watch the result; and, as 

 they cannot afford to lose and are most concerned 

 to make their agriculture profitable, will feel the 



