NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



..PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. HA UK KIT. No v. NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Ac.r.cultcral WARy. H .> V s E .)-T7G^SSENDE^ , EDITOR" 



VOL. XII. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 2, 1834. 



NO. 38. 



LEGISLATIVE BOOTY FOR THE ENCOLU- 

 ACEMEST OF AGRICULTURE. 



We are happy in being permitted to publish the 

 following Remarks of the Rev. M. Allen of Pem- 

 broke, in the Housi of Representatives of the Legis- 

 lature of Massachusetts, on tin prop< siiion to revisi 

 "An Act for the Encouragement of Agriculture and 

 Manufactures." The benefits which have been 

 derived, ;iikI may still be anticipated from Agricul- 

 tural improvements are happily exhibited in these 

 remarks, and presented in points of view which 

 are so illustrative of their truth and importance 

 that one would suppose that no opposition could 

 exist to observations so pertinent, founded on facts 

 which admit of no doubt, and arguments too con- 

 clusive to leave room for controversy. 



MR. SPEAKER, 



The friends of agriculture are called upon to give 

 reasons why this branch of interest should be en- 

 couraged by any bounty from the government. 

 Living on an elbow of the commonwealth, where 

 much of the. soil, from the bend or some other 

 cause is thin, and not convertible without consid- 

 erable labor and expense to a state of productive- 

 ness, it cannot be reasonably supposed, surround 

 ed as I have been with discouraging circumstances, 

 that I should have acquired any very extravagant 

 ideas of the extensive utility and importance of 

 this art. I have, however, habitually regarded the 

 agricultural interest as one of the highest import- 

 ance. I have supposed it occupied a similai place ,,, 

 in the interests of a community with the great lu- 

 minary above us among the heavenly bodies; that 

 it stood in the centre giving motion, activity and 

 energy to every other branch of interest. \\ bile 

 the correctness of this view will not be denied, it 

 may be doubted and on various pretexts, whether 

 any direct encouragements are proper or expedient 

 on the part of government. It is said, let every 

 interest in society find its own level. Plausible as 

 such a position may seem to some minds, the 

 practical effect of it would he, to put an end to a 

 very large portion of the legislation of this house, 

 and bury (Voni our sight some of the most import- 

 ant objects for the accomplishment of which gov- 

 ernment is instituted. 



Laws are framed to encourage and foster vari- 

 ous interests, through different means, yet some 

 benefits are always contemplated in your inter- 

 positions or they would not be so often and 

 earnestly asked. The 'direct bounty of the gov- 

 ernment has often been extended 'to undertak- 

 ings of great expense, which gave promise of ex- 

 tensive benefits or improvements. If the propriety 

 of every such grant he now questioned, if it be 

 supposed that all interests will attain the just meas- 

 ure of influence and command all the attention 

 ami labor required by the wants or honor of a 

 community without protection or patronage, the 

 supposition, it seems to me, must be made by men 

 who have taken at least one convulsive leap in the 

 march of mind. There are branches of interest 

 which demand occasional and special encourage- 

 ments; there are others which every wise and pa- 

 triotic legislature will always keep in view ami ex- 

 tend to them parental care and solicitude. It ap- 

 pears to me, sir, the proposition now ou the table 



relates to an interest of this sort. The fruits ol 

 agriculture are every day blessings, and may be 

 enjoyed like the shillings of the sun without much 

 thought or reflection. But the man who does 

 think at all on the labor and skill which are neces- 

 sary to make the earth fruitful, cannot for a mo- 

 ment doubt the propriety of presenting all reason- 

 able motives to engagement in labor and inquiry. 

 This art is not like some other arts of life, it is not 

 one that can be perfected in a brief apprenticeship; 

 it is encompassed with deep mysteries which are 

 continually develo| ingand probably will through all 

 succeeding generations. When we think a dis- 

 covery is made, it is necessary for us to pause and 

 test the fact by often repeated and not unfrequent- 

 ly expensive experiments. VVe reach the truth 

 here as we do on many highly important subjects, 

 gradual and slow advances. None of the dis- 

 coveries we make are immediately followed with 

 vi ample pecuniary rewards as discovi ries in some 

 other arts. The products of this art being neces- 

 - irjes of life, they should be cheap and easily ob- 

 tained by every class of men ; the public will al- 

 ways keep them cheap in comparison with many 

 other articles of traffic, and therefore is bound to 

 present some motives to excellence in the practice 

 of this art that might not be proper in relation to 

 some other arts. These views seem to me, sir, to 

 present the subject of agriculture as deserving of 

 IWis 



lative patronage. In accordance with this 

 oinion have been the sentiments of the most dis- 

 iguished men ;,,.,; firmest patriots of anakpit and 

 modern times. The best days of ancient republics 

 were distinguished for eminent skill and industry 

 in the cultivation of the soil. The glory of those 

 governments began to decline, and rapidly declined 

 as soon as candidates for public offices shrank 

 from the grasp of the peasant's hard band. In our 

 own country, the man against whom even malice 

 once dared not utter a censure, hut whose maxims 

 both political and prudential may now be too much 

 forgotten, never lost sight, either in storms of war, 

 urn! ir the unexampled pressure of an'immense na- 

 tional debt, or the more unconquerable conflicts in 

 party politics, of the vital, the all pervading inter- 

 est.- of agriculture. He embraced every suitable 

 Occasion of recommending the encouragement of it 

 in the distribution of premiums, in the diffusion of 

 practical knowledge, and in the employment of all 

 proper means of exciting emulation on a subject of 

 primary importance to individual and national wel- 

 fare. 



The late governor of the commonwealth, who, 

 to many other excellencies of character, united 

 that of an excellent practical farmer, on' several 

 occasion's, with great earnestness commended this 

 subject to the kind notice and patronage of the 

 legislature. At a time, sir, when your financial 

 concerns were in a very depressed state and he 

 was anxiously looking for the point where retrench- 

 ment in expenses might properly be made, he said 

 to take away the bounty from agricultural societies 

 would be the most unwise policy. Those boun- 

 ties he affirmed, had "diffused a spirit of improve- 

 ment from the treasury office to the remotest parts 

 of the commonwealth. No public bestowment was 

 ever more faithfully applied, and none will be 

 found to have made richer returns to the source 



from which it was derived, it is a measure of po- 

 litical economy, it has yielded annually an hundred 

 fold its amount in the increase of taxable capital." 

 The experience 1 of every country that has made 

 the trial justifies the encouragement of this kind of 

 industry by liberal bounties. It has been said of 

 a nation, distinguished for its manufactures and 

 commerce, and not less so for the excellence of its 

 agriculture, that without the interposition of ifj 

 government C r the encouragement of the last 

 named branch of interest, there must long since 

 have been a famine there, which could not have 

 been relieved by any timely importations. We, 

 perhaps, look at the extent of our territory and 

 conclude there never can be extensive scarcity in 

 ' country embracing so many climates. I hope 

 such a conclusion may he realized, but think it 

 will be wise and patriotic in every community to 

 employ the means of an independent existence. I 

 know some of our citizens are of the opinion that 

 we can import corn from other states cheaper than 

 we can raise it. Well, sir, I suppose we could 

 import our laws from other countries cheaper 

 than we make them here. But neither imported 

 corn nor laws are so good for us as the domestic 

 growth. Wise policy will lead us to live as hide- ' ' 

 pendency as possible on other communities; and 

 lor this purpose we should encourage by all suita- 

 ble means every branch of social interest. The 

 farming interest demands special encouragement, 

 because it is not only unobtrusive in its character, 

 but to som , s uninviting jf not repulsive. 



Our young men had rather with delicate hands 

 make figures behind a counter, sort bank bills and 

 receive good salaries for those clean services, than 

 study into the mysteries of nature, or bend the 

 nerved arm in the field of cultivation ; but without 

 the last service the first could amount to very little; 

 humble as the condition of farmers may appear in 

 the eyes of many, they are a cumulative class in 

 the community; those branches of business which 

 have so much attraction in the eyes of young men, 

 and which are drawing multitudes of them, I am 

 sorry to have occasion to say it, to the death gate 

 of earthly prospect ; those occupations must all 

 languish on the decline of agriculture. Leave this 

 interest exclusively to the direction of men who 

 neither know nor desire to know any paths besides 

 those which their fathers travelled, who are will- 

 ing always to govern themselves by the simple 

 though scanty instruction given by tradition ; leave 

 it with men who ridicule inquiry and reading on 

 the subject, who think the earth can always make 

 discounts without deposites, leave it to the disposal 

 of the sordid temper ; and the time cannot be far 

 distant when your most valued institutions will as- 

 sume the countenance of decline, and your repub- 

 lican government, the boast of the age, present 

 unequivocal symptoms of an approaching suicidal 

 dissolution. 



I cannot think you would be disposed to leave 

 this interest to chance, when you consider its in- 

 separable connexion with all other interests in com- 

 munity, the moderate gains that must always be 

 realized ; and especially when you contemplate 

 the improvements that have been effected under 

 the encouragements presented in the act which we 

 now desire renewed. Are we asked what has been 



