228 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JANUARY 29, 1*34. 



AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE HAMPSHIRE, PRANKLIS AND 

 HAMPDEN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY; 



Deliveredin Grc evfirJd.Oct.'i'-W.VX By Hewkv Coi.man. 



rPBLISHKD AT THE RtqiKST OK TH E SOCIETY. 



"The effort to extend tlic dominion of man 

 over nature," says Bacon, the great muster of Phi- 

 losophy, " is the most healthy and most noble of 

 all ambitions." This admirable sentiment is in 

 nothing more true than in its application to agri- 

 culture. Here man exercises dominion Over na- 

 ture; exerts a power more nearly than any other 

 resembling a creative power ; commands the earth 

 on which he treads to waken her mysterious ener- 

 gies ; spreads fertility over barrenness ; scatters 

 the beauties and glories of the vegetable creation, 

 where before all was desolate ; compels the inani- 

 mate earth to teem with life ; and to impart suste- 

 nance and power, health and happiness to the 

 countless multitudes, who hang upon her breast and 

 are dependant on her bounty. 



Agriculture is the great interest of every com- 

 munity advanced beyond the savage state. I mean 

 no invidious distinction. The interests of the so- 

 cial body are various; and in proportion to its im- 

 proved condition its wants are multiplied to an in- 

 definite extent. Many hands and many arts are 

 necessary to erect, support, furnish, light up, adorn 

 the grand superstructure of society, and supply the 

 wants, and provide for the entertainment of its in- 

 numerable and insatiate guests. The division of 

 labor is one of the most important improvements of 

 civilization, and one of the surest evidences of its 

 advancement. It is essential to the perfection of the 

 artsof life. The humblest occupation* are important; 

 and if useful and honest, are respectable. He who 

 labors with his mind, equally as lie who labors with 

 his hands, is a working man. The hardy plough- 

 man who "jocund drives his team a-field," and 

 proudly strokes the smooth coats of his cattle, has 

 no reason to envy the pale and emaciated scholar, 

 poring till faint with exhaustion over the half 

 formed progeny of his wearied brain ; with eyes 

 scarce open hunting for metaphors by the expir- 

 ing rays of his midnight lamp ; and waiting so long 

 with hope deferred for the gushes of inspiration, 

 that when at last the waters are troubled he has 

 not strength enough to crawl to the fountain. In 

 the crowded hive of human life, they who build 

 the cell, as well as they " who gather the honey 

 to store it well" are mutually useful and essential. 

 But among the various occupations of society, 

 agriculture obviously holds a commanding raids. 

 If the prince may proudly say " 1 govern all," and 

 the soldier " I fight for nil," and the merchant " 1 

 pay all;" the farmer may hold up his head as high 

 a3 the rest, and with a noble-self-complacency may 

 say, " I feed all." What would become of the 

 operatives, and of what use would be the curious 

 and exquisite machinery of the largest establish- 

 ment, if the power-wheel should cease its revolu- 

 tions ? Manufactures and commerce, all of science 

 and ail of art, all of intellectual as well as physical 

 good, are dependant on agriculture. The agricul- 

 tural products of one year, are not more than suf- 

 ficient for the consumption of the animal creation 

 until the succeeding harvest pours out its golden 

 treasures. If the husbandman should remit his la- 

 bors for a single season the human race must per- 

 ish. What would philosophy do without bread ? 

 Without agriculture, the thundering wheels and 

 the buzzing spindles of the manufacturer, must 

 cease their gyrations. She too loads the buoyant 



arks of commerce, and bids them speed their 

 flight to the remotest regions of the earth, and re- 

 turn deeply freighted with the treasures of foreign 

 climes. 



Agriculture as a profession begins to occupy 

 the rank among us, in which it has a just claim. 

 Some of the must distinguished men in our own 

 ami other countries, in tin- present and past ages, 

 men as eminent for intellectual and moral attain- 

 ments as for the station which they have occupied 

 in public regard, and the part which they have 

 performed in public affairs, have honored the pro- 

 fession and themselves, by engaging even in its 

 humblest labors and details; and have ingenuous- 

 ly confessed, that they have found in its calm pur- 

 suits an inexhaustible source of interest ami recre- 

 ation, and a more grateful pleasure than the bril- 

 liant scenes of public life have afforded. The ele- 

 ments of true dignity of character an' integrity, 

 usefulness, activity, and intelligence. This beau- 

 tiful valley, watered by the beneficent stream, 

 whose name it bears, and fenced in by those mag- 

 nificent highlands, which mark its progress to the 

 ocean, presents in its firming population so many 

 examples of this noble combination, that the pro- 

 fession of agriculture here occupies a front rank 

 among the must useful and respectable. 



It is with unfeigned diffidence that I address an 

 assembly of such men on this occasion. Feeling 

 myself, even alter years of inquiry and practice in 

 this great art, only a learner, and a comparative 

 stranger in this part of the country, I was honestly 

 averse to this duty. I shall attempt nothing more 

 than to offer such hints, as may stimulate the in- 

 quiries of .others ; aud should it appear that I am 

 greatly out of my place, I shall console myself 

 with the reflection, that, the responsibility of the 

 appointment rests not with him who accepts, but 

 with those who make it. 



The agriculture of the counties under the auspi- 

 ces of this Society is highly respectable; but 1 

 trust I shall not give offence, by saying that it 

 admits of great improvements; and by referring 

 to some points to which our efforts for improve- 

 ment may be directed. 



The agricultural population here may be divi- 

 ded into three classes. First those, who, besides 

 cultivating some land, are likewise tradesmen or 

 mechanics; aud with their agricultural unite some 

 mechanical or professional pursuit, to which their 

 farming is only secondary. The returns of hus- 

 bandry are in general so much slower and smaller 

 than those from their art or trade, that the latter is 

 likely to absorb much of their attention to the prej- 

 udice of their husbandry. There are eminent ex- 

 ceptions to this remark ; and we owe to some of 

 these persons many valuable experiment's in agri- 

 culture, which their ready capital has furnished 

 them with the means of making under circumstan- 

 ces of great advantage. 



The second class is composed of those who, oc- 

 cupying small farms, look for nothing from their 

 farms beyond the bare support of their families ; 

 having other resources, they feel independent of 

 its returns ; or devoid of ambition, and indolent 

 and improvident, they are content with the most 

 scanty returns. Ignorant of the art of living, they 

 are in general in the midst of the menus of abun- 

 dance destitute of common comforts ; and are sat- 

 isfied if they obtain, by a little labor inconstantly 

 and indifferently applied, the bare necessaries of 

 life. 



The third class comprehends those with whom 

 agriculture is an exclusive profession ; who art- 

 willing to labor, and are seeking the fair rewards of 

 industry. Stimulated by an honest desire of profit, 

 they are anxious to extend their cultivation to the 

 farthest point to which it maybe carried to advan- 

 tage. It is to this latter class, who alone, proper* 

 ly speaking, deserve the name of farmers, that my 

 remarks will be directed. 



Farming here consists of three kinds ; first, dairy 

 farming ; second, grazing, embracing sheep hus- 

 bandry, and the raising of young stock; and lastly 

 arable farming, including the consumption of the 

 produce on the place, by the stall-feeding of cuttle, 

 sheep, or swine. There art- many farms, which to 

 a certain extent combine these pursuits; but these 

 objects are distinct, and cannot often to any great 

 extent, be advantageously prosecuted together. 



I. Of dairy husbandry, I shall say little. The 

 art of making cheese is well understood among \if ; 

 and its quality in general good ; hut in regard to 

 butter, great improvement is as desirable as it is 

 practicable. Much of that manufuctured here, is 

 scarcely tolerable. Any person, accustomed to eat 

 the butter brought into the Philadelphia market, 

 must have observed its extraordinary superiority in 

 Savor anil richness, to the article generally pro- 

 duced among us. What occasions this superiority ? 

 There is an advantage in the spring houses of the 

 Pennsylvania's, built of stone over some running 

 water, where the milk is always kept, and which 

 is devoted exclusively to dairy purposes. This 

 and the cultivation of white clover in their pas- 

 tures, the frequent churning, so that the cream is 

 never old, the entire expression of the butter-milk, 

 and the most particular attention to cleanliness in 

 every part of the process, are the probable means 

 of their success. But in these respects, there is 

 not a single circumstance in which we might not 

 equal them ; and since the difference in the prices 

 of butter between that of an exquisite quality, and 

 that of an ordinary kind is more than a hundred 

 per cent, our dairy farmers have sufficient induce- 

 ments to endeavor to excel. The premiums 

 bestowed for this purpose under the direction of 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, have had- 

 a highly beneficial effect ; and have proved that 

 we are capable of producing as good butter as can 

 be made. Some exhibited on the present occasion 

 fully establishes this assertion. I may remark in 

 this connexion, that little attention is paid to out- 

 pastures. Plaster and ashes are seldom applied to 

 them, though in most cases without a doubt, the 

 application would be highly beneficial ; and they 

 are suffered, without concern, to be overrun with 

 brakes, briers, and that increasing pest, the Cana- 

 da thistle. There is reason to believe, too, that 

 our dairy farmers pay little attention to ascer- 

 tain the comparative quality of the milk of their 

 different cows, which in respect to its yieltl of 

 cream, and of course the amount of butter which 

 may be made from it, must differ very greatly ; 

 some yielding milk of the richest quality ; and the 

 milk of others being worthless.* 







* In a former publication, I have stated a fact coming 1 

 under my own observation, that in an experiment of 

 milk, taken at the same time and placed in the same 

 situation, and where the cows were fed in the same 

 manner, the milk of one cow yielded at the rate of one 

 inch and three tenths of an inch of cream upon nine in- 

 ches of milk, and that of another cow in the same yard, 

 produced only two tenths. In the quality of the milk of 

 the two cows for the purpose of making butter, the dif- 

 ference then was 13 to 2. 



