NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY GEO. ('. BARRETT, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warkhouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN EDITOR. 



VOL. XII. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 16, 1834. 



NO. 40. 



ADDRESS OP J. DUEL, PRESIDENT OF THE 

 N. V. STATE AGRICULTURAL, SOCIETY, 



Delivered at the Annual "Meeting, Feb. 12, 1834. 

 (Concluded (rain page -J 17.) 



Division of labor, although not so will adapted 

 to farm labor, as it is lo the mechanic and manu- 

 facturing arts, is nevertheless susceptible of being 

 advantageously studied and applied by the hus- 

 bandman. The process of phi making is subdi- 

 vided mto seven branches, to each of which is as- 

 signed a distinct set of hands. The advantages 

 which result from this arrangement rnay be appre- 

 ciated when 1 state, that were the workmen who 

 whiten the pins to perform all the different pro- 

 cesses, they w.onW cost in making " three times 

 and three quarters as much as they now do by the 

 application of the division of labor." This prin- 

 ciple is extensively adopted ill manufactures, and 

 is no inconsiderable cause of (he reduction in 

 price of their fabrics. It has been advantageous- 

 ly introduced in the fanning of Great Britain. 

 Men are kept as much as possible to the same 

 branch of labor, because by becoming familiar 

 with it they perform more and do it better,, as a 

 greater individual responsibility rests upon them. 

 All light work is performed by women and chil- 

 dren. A man who can earn six shillings should 

 not be employed on what a boy can do tqually 

 well who is paid two shillings per day. Say a 

 farm affords one hundred days of this kind -jf la- 

 bor in a year — the gain to the cultivator by em- 

 ploying the boy instead of the man will amount to 

 fifty dollars. 



New articles of culture. — Forty years ago cot- 

 ton was hardly recognised as an article of culture 

 in the United States. In 1832 i( constituted by 

 far our greatest material of export, the quantity ex- 

 ceeding three hundred and twenty two millions 

 of pounds, and the estimated value falling hut a 

 fraction short of thirty two millions of dollars. In 

 addition to this, the home manufacture of the raw 

 material now gives employment to half a million 

 of our population, while the goods fabricated from 

 it, constitute a material source of our internal 

 commerce. Who can pretend to say what will 

 be the great staple of our country forty years 

 hence ? Almost every discovery in science calls 

 into existence a new art, ami almost every new 

 art furnishes a new demand for some product of 

 the soil. It is the province of wisdom to keep 



But their chief value consists in the abundant pro- 

 duct, and the.adaptation of the crop to the Hauls ol 

 ill descriptions of farm stock, at a time when SUC- 

 ■lllent food is most wauled, and when it can he 

 ni( scantily supplied from other crops. The S'we- 

 ilish variety has a decided preference. On lands 

 adapted to their culture, CUO bushels, or twenty 

 tons of roots from the acre, may be stated as a 

 moderate average crop. The greatest objection to 

 their culture is the labor and expense of s curing 

 them for winter use; but this is far greater in im- 

 agination than in reality. On this subject I can 

 -peak from personal experience. A neighbor 

 raised last year from five acres of land, three" thnu- 

 - anil bushels, which he has fed during the winter, 

 and upon which he is now fattening more than 

 one hundred wethers, besides oxen. 



The raising of mulberry trees and the produc- 

 tion of si:k, is another branch of rural labor yet 

 new among us, which bids fair to become a 

 source of individual and national wealth, and 

 wbicli this Society can enlighten and promote. 

 The experiments already made have shown that 

 while the business abstracts, very little labor from 

 the ordinary employments of the farm, it is sus- 

 ceptible of yielding a handsome income to the 

 farmer. The early attention of this Society in 

 distributing seeds of the mulberry, has done much 

 towards introducing and extending this branch of 

 labor. It is computed that that seed may have 

 produced half a million of trees, and that this 

 number may have been doubled by individual ef- 

 forts in that time. A new species of the mulber- 

 ry, (Morns multieaulis) has been introduced from 

 the Phillipine islands through France, by M. Per- 

 rattet, which promises new advantages in the 

 production of silk. The tree is as thrifty and 

 as hardy, and as easily propagated as the white 

 mulberry, while the leaves being much larger, are 

 far more easily gathered, and are said to be better 

 adapted to the production of fine silk, than the oth- 

 er species of (his tree. This Asiatic mulberry 

 was introduced into France in 1824, and in 1S30 

 t bore seeds abundantly. I would beg leave to 

 luggest that the corresponding secretary be in- 

 structed to procure seeds of the Morns mnlticau- 

 is, with a view of its being distributed by this So- 

 ciety. 



The demand for silk fabrics is already great in 

 the United States, and is likely to increase in a 



pace with the knowledge of the times, that it may far greater ratio than our population. Theimpor- 

 profit by its constant improvements. There is al- tations of silk in 1832 amounted to (en million 

 ready an increasing demand for products of the dollars. As an article of export, the raw materi- 

 soil, which we have the ability to supply, but .al will be in demand for the European, and the 

 which we continue to import from Europe. Mad- [manufactured fabrics for the South American 

 der, woad, ami weld are essential to our manufac- 'market. France imports raw silk lo (he value of 

 lures, and (he quantity which is consumed draws 30 million francs, and in Great Britain the annu- 

 no inconsiderable amount annually from our coun- al importation of the article exceeds 120 million 

 try. Our soil and climate are adapted to their dollars. Hence there is little danger of the mar- 

 culture, and with a little enterprise and experience ket becoming overstocked. 



we may soon be able to supply the home demand. The contrast in the profits of good and bad 

 The madder now imported is computed to cost farming is worthy of a moment's notice, as few 

 more than two millions of dollars pei- annum. take the trouble to scan it with care. I have al- 



The turnip culture will yet become, as it has icady alluded to the bad management of our hop 

 proved in Britain, fie hasis of a great improve- crop. Had all the hops which were brought to 



ment ii r husbandry. Turnips are at the saim this market the last year been equal in quality 



(toe an ameliorating and a cleansing crop, ami m the best, and such they probably might Ii.im 

 are admirably fitted to precede barley or wheal. I been with better knowledge, and more care in 



their management — some 20 or 30 thousand dol- 

 lars might have been put into the pockets of the 

 growers which they failed to obtain. Let us ex- 

 amine what the difference is in the corn crop. I 

 estimate the cost of cultivating and harvesting an 

 acre of corn at fifteen dollars, and that a farmer 

 will ordinarily plant four acres. His expense then 

 will be sixty dollars. If the crop yield him thir- 

 ty bushels an acre — and more falls short than 

 goes over this quantity — and he sells the product 

 at fifty cents the bushel, he will lie remunerated 

 I'm- his labor, but get not a cent of profit. Now, if 

 instead of thirty, the acre was made to produce, by 

 good management, eighty bushels, the four acres 

 at the assumed price, would pay for the labor and af- 

 ford him a nelt profit besides, of one hundred and 

 thirty dollars. Here then would be a difference 

 in one year, in the profit of four acres, of $130, 

 all resulting from good and bad management. I 

 beg leave here, as affording lo my bands a happy 

 illustration of the contrast I would exhibit, to no- 

 tice the practice of an individual who stands de- 

 servedly high as a practical fanner, and as a gen- 

 tleman of respectability and veracity. I will show 

 what his land did produce ; and then what it 

 does produce. " The land I now till, (he ob- 

 serves in bis letter which will be hereunto appen- 

 ded,)* at fist, would not produce on an average, 

 more than 15 or 20 hushels'of corn, ten or fifteen 

 bushels of wheat, barley, or rye, and from half a 

 ton to o;ie ton of hay.'' By good management, 

 economizing manures, and a proper rotation of 

 crops, he adds " some of my fields now yield from 

 80 to 100 bushels of corn, 35 to 40 bushels of 

 wheat, 50 to 60 of barley, and from two and a 

 half" to three and a half tons of hay per acre, and 

 with less labor (except in harvest) than when I dil 

 not raise more than one third or one quarter as much 

 per acre as I do now." The same intelligence 

 and industry, that have trebled or quadrupled 

 the profits of this farm, will produce like results 

 whenever they are diffused and brought into ex- 

 ercise. 



I have thus adverted gentlemen, to those de- 

 fects in our husbandry, lo which I proposed at 

 this time to call your attention, and have endeav- 

 ored to show their magnitude, and the importance 

 of applying efficient remedies. I will now call 

 your attention to some of the available means of 

 placing our agriculture on a more respectable and 

 productive basis. The means which I shall par- 

 ticularly commend to your notice, may be embrac- 

 ed under the following beads: 



1. A school lo illustrate the principles of sci- 

 ence upon which the labors of agriculture are 

 based, and to teach the best models of practice. 



2. A more general diffusion of useful knowl- 

 edge, in a cheap form, accessible to the humblest 

 condition in life. 



3. Agricultural associations ; and, 



4. The bestowinents of pecuniary rewards, as 

 stimulants to enterprise and industry. 



1 need not stop to dwell upon the advantages 

 which learning affords to agricultural labor. Sci- 

 ence may be defined a study of the immutable 

 laws of the Creator, which govern and regulate 

 mind and matter. The study of these laws and 



* See letter of Earl Sunken on nl'lh page (317) of this No. 



