NEW ENGjLANB FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 5-2, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XII. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1834. 



NO. 41. 





We are indebted to an esteemed friend for the 

 following address, which we are happy to {rive a 

 place in our columns. We perfectly coincide in 

 opinion with the gentleman to whom we are in- 

 debted fbr tliis valuable article that " it is a sensi- 

 ble well written Address by a practical and observ- 

 ing man." 



AN ADDRESS TO THE ESSEX COUSTT AGRI- 

 CULTURAL SOCIETY, 



At New Rowley, September 26th, 1833, at their 



ANNUAL, CATTLE SHOW. 



BY JEREMIAH SPOFFORD. 



Gentlemen, I consider myself happy in the 

 class of my fellow citizens that I am this day call- 

 ed .upon to address. The character and pursuits 

 of a New-Eugland farmer, have always held an 

 honorable place in my estimation. It was among 

 them, and ill their employment, that I spent those 

 years of happy childhood, when every thing makes 

 its deepest impressions. My earliest ideas of prop- 

 erty, were derived from their possessions. To me 

 houses and farms and cattle were wealth, and their 

 owners nature's nobility. While money and notes, 

 stocks and merchandize, appeared fleeting and 

 transient — there seemed something in the posses- 

 sion of solid acres, especially when these were com- 

 pact, farms, with their venerable mansions, descend- 

 ing from generation to generation, that elevated the 

 possessor, and gave a dignity and character to his 

 pursuits truly honorable and desirable. 



Nor have these been merely the illusions of 

 youth: they have followed me, and I have cherish- 

 ed them in my riper years. — And I view with 

 gratitude that kind Providence, which cast my 

 youth among that class of society. The labors of 

 the field gav'e a value to my scanty library, and 

 my few hours of study, of which, under almost 

 any other circumstances I could have had no con- 

 ception : and memory still loves to " hover o'er" 

 those inestimable Sabbaths, when, after six days 

 labor done, we found a day of rest, and assembled 

 within these very walls, to enjoy it in social solemn 

 worship; nor can any one know the value of those 

 Sabbaths, unless it be those who spend the week 

 in patient labor, and assemble on the seventh as a 

 sacred holiday, to greet the countenances of their 

 friends, and pay their devotions to the most high 

 God. Here then we met few except cultivators of 

 the soil, prepared by their labors in the field to 

 render their tribute of gratitude to Him who gives 

 rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their 

 hearts with food and gladness. Venerable fathers! 

 who then bowed in this sacred temple! may your 

 sons as patiently cultivate the soil you then pos- 

 sessed, and as devoutly worship here. 



You will forgive this digression, when you look 

 around the world, and see how closely connected 

 are Christian morality and Agricultural prosperity, 

 — and you will as soon expect to gather grapes 

 from thorns, or figs from thistles, as to find a well 

 cultivated farm under the superintendence of him 

 who neither fears God, nor regards man. 



Writers in all ages have been lavish in their 

 praises of the important pursuits of the husband- 

 man. The flowery fields, the bleating herds, the 

 rural cottage, and the domestic fireside, have fur- 

 nished poets and orators with their brightest im- 

 ages. But while they have thus been lavish of 



their panegyrics, few of them have descended from 

 their elevations to cleave the sod, and nourish the 

 plants, which produce all these beautiful images. 

 But at the present day nothing is more common, 

 than for men to quit our halls of legislation, our 

 courts of justice, ships and merchandize, or the 

 learned professions, to seek in agricultural pursuits 

 for that tranquil enjoyment, that health of body 

 and peace of mind, which they had sought in vain 

 among the objects of towering ambition, the eager 

 pursuits of wealth, and the jarring interests of a 

 busy world. Thirty years ago Cincinnatus had 

 many admirers, but very few imitators; but now 

 the Cincinnati of America may be found in every 

 part of our land, and men whose names are well 

 known to the politicians and literati of our country, 

 may frequently be found aiding in the labors of 

 the field. Their plans, and their pens, and their 

 instruments of labor, co-operate in the same wise 

 and benevolent design — to multiply the fruits of 

 the earth, the great mine of real wealth, and store- 

 house of sustenance for man and beast. 



That kind of fictitious consequence, which struts 

 in ruffles and gloves, is fairly out of fashion. This 

 may lie styled the age of utility ; and that man, as 

 well as that machine, that is of no use, is very 

 little valued ; and the person who should in this 

 age and nation, wear appendages or ornaments to 

 show that he did nothing, would at the same time, 

 iu the estimation of an immense majority, be mak- 

 ing himself ridiculous, and showing himself worth 

 nothing. Riches to any amount now give no ex- 

 emption from this universal law; but on the other 

 band, if a man has capital, he is considered under 

 increased obligation to attend to business, and he 

 is hardly excused when he provides business enough 

 to ensure the industry of himself and household, 

 but be is looked to for the plans atid the capital 

 which is to employ the hands, and furnish subsist- 

 ence for his whole village or neighborhood. 



This is among the most important improve- 

 ments of the present age, and it has bad a most 

 salutary effect upon agriculture, that so many men 

 of talent, property and education, have chosen this 

 as the object of their pursuit, and the sphere of 

 their industry. To the young and ambitious, the 

 tiresome labor and the slow acquirements of the 

 farmer, have often appeared repulsive; they have 

 sought out some readier source of wealth, or what 

 they might have considered a more genteel employ- 

 ment. They have often turned their backs upon 

 advantageous settlements, and birthrights of inesti- 

 mable value, to seek in distant lands, or foreign 

 climes, for sources of gain and scenes of excite- 

 ment and novelty. In a sfnall proportion of in- 

 stances these hopes have been realized; but in 

 innumerable others, they have ended in sorrow, 

 vexation and disappointment, and thousands of 

 sighs of bitter anguish have risen from the bosom 

 of the broad ocean, or echoed from foreign shores, 



H hen met y casta " longing lingering look" over 



the pleasant hills and fruitful fields of New Eng- 

 land. 



The learned professions, merchandize, and man- 

 ufactures, when selected by congenial minds, ma\ 

 have been wisely chosen, and in many instances 

 have led to happy results ; but how many, even of 

 those who have succeeded well in their plans, 



while enduring their tremendous responsibilities 

 their anxious cares, and their ruinous risks, have 

 envied the farmer, who free from those cares is 

 tranquil by day, and finds repose and refreshment 

 at night, in sound oblivious sleep; and who, inde- 

 pendent of the breath of popularity, or the fortune 

 of trade, depends for prosperity only on himself 

 and heaven. 



Agriculture at the present day, instead of being 

 a mean, servile employment, is now justly ranked 

 as an important science ; and the studies of the 

 learned are now often directed to the most lauda- 

 ble employment of multiplying the fruits of the 

 earth, and improving the quality of the fruits pro- 

 duced. 



Chemistry no longer examines the material 

 world in search of fictitious wealth. Philosophers 

 have become convinced that in transmuting the 

 simple elements into grain and fruit, fit for the 

 nourishment of men and animals, they perform a 

 much more useful service than they would have 

 done had they succeeded in transmuting iron into 

 gold, or lead into silver. 



The long sought art of transmuting metals, 

 though it might enrich the discoverer, would now 

 be considered of questionable utility. The art of 

 multiplying the fruits of the earth, has already 

 spread the most solid comfort over this and other 

 lands: and neatly banished want and famine from 

 the civilized world ; and yet so far is that art from 

 having reached its maximum, that even in this 

 State, though more thickly inhabited than any 

 other portion of this Union, no doubt can reasona- 

 bly remain but that three times its present inhabit- 

 ants might be sustained on our own soil. 



When our soil shall be thoroughly analyzed, and 

 every acre applied to its appropriate use, and when 

 the increase of population, or a diminished supply 

 from abroad, shall turn our attention to our own 

 resources, our now naked plains will be loaded 

 with luxuriant vegetation, and our hills shall wave 

 with the golden harvest. 



Even the vast extension of manufactures which 

 already strains the Merrimack through flumes and 

 wheels, and threatens even to turn Niagara to a 

 mill seat, but furnishes a home market, and in- 

 creases the necessity and the reward of agricultural 

 industry ; and the time is at hand when railroads 

 shall traverse our mountain valleys, and every arti- 

 cle shall be trundled with ease and velocity from 

 the place of supply to the place of consumption. 



In pursuing the subject I propose 



First — to examine the advantages we enjoy, in 

 this county, as an agricultural community: and 

 compare them with advantages in other parts of 

 the country. 



Secondly — to notice some of the most essential 

 circumstances which contribute to develope and 

 improve these advantages. 



As to the advantages we enjoy it is highly de- 

 sirable that we form a correct estimate. Truth is 

 always desirable, and this is peculiarly so, when it 

 enables us to place a proper value upon our own 

 property ; and pfevents-our envying others the en- 

 joyment of theiiB, when perhaps our owu is most 

 valuable. 



Such has been the rage for western emigration, 

 for the last twenty years, that the soil of New Eng- 



