242 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



FEBRUARY 12, 1834. 



and from the convenience of having a number ol 

 laborers at command, when any pressing emergen- 

 cy occurs ; and from the opportunity of constant 

 use of all the brute labor to advantage on a large 

 farm, which is not possible on a small farm ; though 

 it may be that the same amount of team must be 

 supported. The larger the farm, if well managed, 

 the greater the profit; and in the kind of fanning 

 of which we are treating, the amount of profit ob- 

 tained, after the amount of debit and credit is fairly 

 adjusted, must be the test of its excellence. 



Another means of success, to which the atten- 

 tion of the fanner must be particularly directed, is 

 that of the saving of labor. Though he should be 

 averse from withholding labor, wherever it can be 

 profitably applied, yet it should be a great study 

 with him how to apply it to the most advantage. 

 His profession under the best circumstances will 

 require much hard toil ; and he cannot look to 

 avail himself of those facilities and aids, which the 

 mechanic and the manufacturer find in the inven- 

 tion of the most curious machinery, and the appli- 

 cation of water and steam power to their various 

 arts. Yet the farmer is not without advantage 

 from the improvements of science and mechanical 

 ingenuity. An immense gain has been effected in 

 the great machine the plough ; and in regard to 

 the facility of holding, the ease of draught, and the 

 manner of executing the work, the modern cast iron 

 plough of the most improved construction, has an 

 extraordinary advantage over the clumsy and cum- 

 brous machine of former ines. The revolving 

 horse rake is a machine of gicat utility ; by which 

 on smooth land, a man and hoy and horse will ea- 

 sily perform the work of six men. A threshing 

 machine, whose operation has been completely 

 tested, has lately been introduced here, which 

 promises to be of great utility. It is worked by 

 a single horse, mid is without difficulty transported 

 from place to place. It performs its work in a 

 perfect manner, and has been known to thresh two 

 bushels of grain in five minutes. Two men, a 

 boy, and a horse, will easily thresh one hundred 

 bushels in a day ; and the actual saving of grain, 

 from the more effectual manner in which it per- 

 forms its work, over what can be done by a flail, 

 is very great. A roller of an improved construc- 

 tion is exhibited on this occasion : and deserves 

 the attention of farmers, as an instrument next in 

 value to a harrow or a plough, and almost as in- 

 dispensable to good cultivation. This is literally 

 the age of invention. Improved machines for 

 shelling com, for cutting fodder, for grinding corn 

 in the cob, &c. are fast coming into use, and 

 promise great advantages. We may hope that 

 other inventions may present themselves to ingen- 

 ious and inquisitive minds, by which the severe 

 toil of the husbandman may be lightened and 

 abridged.* 



Another great object of the farmer should be to 

 restrict the expenses of his farming establishment : 

 to cut off all unnecessary expenditures ; and to ap- 

 ply his produce, as far as it is consumed on the 



* A mowing machine moved by horse power, and producing 

 a gre.it saving ofinanual labor, his been for Iwo or three years 

 in successful operation in Pennsylvania, ami the western parts 

 of New York ; and from Uie testimony ol' one of the largest 

 farmers in the United Slates, upon whose farm it has been two 

 years in use, is highly successful, We cannot imagine what 

 unman skill ant enterprise may yet effect. PtpfeSftor Kafines- 

 que, oTPh ladelphia, a gentleman of distinguished scientific at- 

 tainments, advertises for formers, his " steam ploughs, by which 

 six furrows are ploughed at once ; and he promises in one day 

 to perforin the work of a week in tile best manner." Ol' their 

 aonstrucliou or operation I have no idea. 



farm, in the most frugal manner. The cooking 

 of much of the food of his domestic animals increas- 

 es its nutritive powers ; and causes it to spend to 

 much more advantage. The cutting of fodder for 

 his horses and neat cattle, is of great utility, and 

 effects a saving, as the most exact experiments have 

 shown, of mote than one quarter. The prefer- 

 ence of ox labor over horse labor, deserves his par- 

 ticular attention. The keeping of a horse is a 

 great expense separate from the accidents to which 

 he is exposed ; and in most respects the patient ox 

 has greatly the advantage over him, especially as 

 the former is an improving and the latter always a 

 deteriorating capital. 



The crops to which the farmer may to most ad- 

 vantage devote his cultivation will deserve 1 1 ir~ 

 particular consideration. Indian corn, of which 1 

 have not a doubt the crops in this part of the 

 country may be easily doubled, is a most valuable 

 product, I congratulate the farmers upon the fa- 

 vorable prospects, which now present themselves, 

 in regard to the cultivation of wheat. The two 

 last years have presented extraordinary encourage- 

 ment, and by proper management and especially by 

 early sowing, success in this cultivation becomes 

 highly probable. 



The establishment of extensive manufactories, 

 and the introduction of power-looms and spinning- 

 jennies, has nearly' destroyed the usual household 

 manufactures, and put our other Jennies out of 

 employment. Our ears are seldom greeted now- 

 a-days in the farmer's cottage with the flying of 

 the shuttle, or the deep base of the spinning wheel. 

 We confess that we have looked upon their de- 

 parture with a strong feeling of regret ; and deem 

 it no small abatement of the advantages, which 

 the establishment of extensive manufactures has 

 obviously yielded to the country, that it removes 

 the daughter from the shelter and security of tin 

 paternal roof, and places her in a situation, which 

 certainly furnishes no means of qualifying her for 

 the proper department of woman ; to preside over 

 our domestic establishments ; to perform her part 

 in the joint labors of the household ; and to know 

 how and when and where to use, prepare, and to 

 apply to the best advantage within doors, the 

 products of man's labor without doors. Many 

 occupations of female industry, strictly domestic 

 however, of a healthy and agreable nature, are con- 

 stantly presenting themselves, so that there is lit- 

 tle danger that the race of industrious women, and 

 accomplished wives, at least among the country 

 girls, will soon be extinct ; and the silk culture, fast 

 gaining ground among us, promises to furnish an 

 unexhausted resource and a profitable employ- 

 ment of female labor. 



IV. A variety of important topics press them- 

 selves on this occasion upon your attention ; but I 

 forbear, having already trespassed too far upon the 

 candor of my respected audience. 



Agriculture is a great subject. The first of all 

 the arts, it may derive aid from them all. The foun- 

 dation of hitman subsistence, comfort, and enjoy- 

 ment, the origin of all wealth, and the basis of com- 

 merce and manufactures, it deserves the profound 

 attention of enlightened and philanthropic minds. 



That attention it has often and will continue to 

 receive. Agriculture is greatly in debt to science. 

 Ignorance and prejudice may deny the obligations; 

 but all the great improvements, which have ever 

 been made in agriculture, have been effected by 

 the inquiries and experiments of men of enlighten- 

 ed and active minds, of wealth and public spirit. 



Their experiments have been made olten at a seri- 

 ous expense to themselves, but at a propottionate 

 jain to others. They have often been wholly un- 

 successful ; but to an art so entirely practical as 



riculture, it is as important to know what can- 

 not, as to determine what can be done. There is 

 no prejudice more contemptible and senseless than 

 that which prevails against what is called book far- 

 ming, and professes to disdain all instruction which 

 comes in a printed form. If by book farming be 

 meant that a man undertakes to cultivate his farm 

 by mere theory, without any experimental knowl- 

 edge or observation, I only say that no such in- 

 stances have come within my knowledge ; hut if it 

 be meant only that an intelligent man avails him- 

 self of the history of agriculture of other men and 

 other countries, as far as it is applicable to his own 

 condition, and of all the aids which science or art, 

 chemistry, botany, zoology, anatomy, entomology, 

 natural history, natural philosophy, and mechan- 

 ics can afford in relation to the subject ; and of the 

 actual and exact experiments of other men, faith- 

 fully made and fully detailed, 1 am not able to see 

 how he could pursue a wiser course, for his own 

 interest and success, the general improvement of 

 the art, and the benefit of society. 



It is to be hoped that the intellectual improve- 

 ment of the agricultural classes, will keep pace 

 with that of other classes in our favored communi- 

 ty. In that impetuous struggle for advancement in 

 knowledge, which is every where htirrj ing the 

 winking classes forward, may the farmers neither 

 hold back, nor get out of the traces, nor lag behind. 

 Their ' opportunities for improvement are great. 

 Books are universally accessible. Small associa- 

 tions or circles for mutual improvement are highly 

 useful as well as agreeable ; and the long evenings 

 of winter, instead of being worse than wasted in 

 the senseless gossip and idle talk of the shop or 

 tavern, afford most favorable opportunities for use- 

 ful reading, for the instruction of our families, and 

 the enjoyment of the innocent and delightful rec- 

 reations of domestic life. 



The respectable farmer occupies a most impor- 

 tant and responsible moral station in the communi- 

 ty. Coming in contact with a numerous class of 

 young men, whose manners and morals have been 

 too often coarse, vulgar, intemperate, and disrepu- 

 table, it becomes his duty, and he should deem it 

 a great privilege, to exhibit such an example of 

 sobriety, decorum, civil manners, aud blameless 

 conversation, as can hardly fail to command their 

 respect and to win their esteem. Profancness, in- 

 decency, and intemperance, which have been but 

 the too common vices of this class of men, he 

 should resolutely expel from his territory ; and 

 above all things not countenance them by a dis- 

 graceful example. The farming interest is fast 

 experiencing the most important benefits of the 

 utter disuse of ardent spirit, the complete exor- 

 cism of this Worst of evil spirits from their premi- 

 ses. Many a thrifty farm and many a beautiful 

 cottage, the abode of industry, contentment, and 

 competence, lias been washed away by the bitter 

 stream of New England rum ; and it has gradually 

 undermined the tenement, until, at last, the whole 

 inmates have fallen in a common ruin, and have 

 floated downwards on a current which never stops, 

 into the dark ocean of infamy aud unutterable 

 wretchedness. 



Agriculture can never be looked to in this part 

 of the country, as a source of wealth. Yet it may 

 be made to yield an ample competence ; audsuffi- 





