406 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



sections of the country, who can have muck for 

 the digging on their own farms, and whose daily 

 fires supply ashes in considerable quantity, it 

 would seem to be a most convenient and profita- 

 ble method of increasing the stock of manure, 

 and the consequent productiveness of their soils. 

 It is well, if the muck is of a particularly raw 

 character, to dry it for some time before compost- 

 ing, allowing it to be exposed to the air and 

 frost over winter, but with many kinds this is 

 not essentially necessary. In conclusion we 

 would recommend a trial of composts of this 

 character, as a top-dressing for dry grass lands, 

 to be applied early in the fall. Finely pulverized 

 as it should be, it will at once go to "the root of 

 the matter," and prove no off'ence, either to 

 grazing animals or the scythe and rake in after 

 years. — Country Gentleman. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MB. MECHI AND HIS FABM. 



Mr. Editor : — You will judge whether a few 

 extracts, taken promiscuously from a pamphlet, 

 by J. J. Mechi, published in 1850, will afford your 

 readers an instructive article at the present time. 



It should be remembered that Mr. Mechi was 

 not bred a farmer. He was and is still a London 



manufacturer ; and, inasmuch as he keeps a large 

 store for the sale of his wares, he is what would 

 be denominated a merchant. If our mother 

 tongue, as used on the other side of the water, 

 in the shade of a less and less overshadowing 

 aristocracy, would prefer the term shopman, that | and the greatest general good 



man to make it — could carry it out a little better 

 than any one else. He could furnish the capital. 

 If there was loss, it would be his, and nobody 

 should complain. If there should be a develop- 

 ment of new and valuable truths, every body 

 might profit by them. 



But Mr. Mechi's position cannot be fully un- 

 derstood, without considering the political com- 

 plexion of things, at the time when he turned 

 farmer. Sir Robert Peel was experiencing about 

 that time a most extraordinary conversion — was 

 in a transition state, passing from the extreme of 

 protection to be an ultra free trade man — had 

 betrayed, or was about to betray, the landed aris- 

 tocracy, as they chose to charge him. Hither 

 it was enough for the English landholder, if he 

 pocketed a heavy rent ; and it would do very 

 well for the tenant farmer if he took things la- 

 zily and raised a little food, because he was sure 

 to get a good price for it. But now prices must 

 come down ; there would be competition ; the 

 Yankees, the Dutch, and who and what other ra- 

 ces and tribes, would come in, and undersell the 

 English farmer on his own soil. Alas ! alas ! if 

 the people should once get a taste of cheap bread ! 

 It was not the nobility that bewailed thus — not 

 they alone, nor peculiarly ; the nobility of Eng- 

 land, in part, and a large part, too, are nohle men, 

 at heart more democratic than thousands who 



is no business of ours. As a merchant, Mr. 

 Mechi would rank with our Lawrences, Apple- 

 tons, and others of a similar stamp. 



In the business of manufacturing goods and 

 selling them, the world over, Mr. Mechi, I be- 

 lieve, became rich enough ; and he must have 

 found enough to do, at least enough for any or- 

 dinary man, though it would seem, not enough 

 for him. The fact is, he carries a great deal of 

 steam ; and more than one safety-valve was want- 

 ing to let oft' the inherent energy of the man. Un- 

 der the pressure of a business that would have 

 quite satisfied most men — kept them out of mis- 

 chief at least — Mr. Mechi took to farming. 



A love of notoriety may have prompted him. 

 If his birth was obscure, it was not necessary 

 that his life should be, not even in old England ; 

 and who will blame him for wishing to he known, 

 as the doer of good deeds ? There is no virtue 

 in being obscure ; none in doing nothing ; none 

 in doing less than one has talent to do. But Mr. 

 Mechi's hobby was not to be a gentleman farmer; 

 he would be a practical farmer ; would not create 

 a sort of Baronial home on his farm, but repair 

 the old buildings, with a decent regard to econo- 

 my, and build such new ones as comported with 

 comfort, utility and good taste ; and thus create 

 such an homestead as intelligent, working farm- 

 ers may aspire to, both in that country and this. 

 His hobby, as I suppose, was to test a principle. 

 He believed that the application of capital and 

 science to agriculture would cheapen production; 

 he wished the experiment to be made, as it never 

 had been made, thoroughly, pcrseveringly, and 

 with exact accounts ; and like an energetic, self- 

 reliaiit, business man, he felt that he was the very 



fawn about them, willing that the people should 

 have cheap bread and cheap bibles and cheap 

 noM'spapers ; disposed to give up every thing as 

 far as consists with what they honestly believe 

 necessary for the maintenance of their own rights 



"But there was 

 fogyism among the aristocracy ; there Was fogy- 

 ism among the commoners ; there was fogyism 

 everywhere ; just as there is among us, as fearful 

 of cheap bread, cheap books, cheap anything ex- 

 cept laboj;, as some of us are of cheap postage 

 and liberty for negroes. 



The deepest sorrovvs at Sir Robert's conversion 

 — betrayal of his friends as they chose to style 

 it — were of course felt by the landlords and the 

 tenant farmers. They were sold out ; going, go- 

 ing, GONE ; dying, dead, buried ; no, not buried, 

 but afraid they should fail to be buried decently. 

 Fogyism is alike in all countries. In reform, it 

 sees nothing but impending ruin. In its bleared 

 eye, all progress is reform ; and is to be hated, 

 slandered, talked down. To lie it down is no sin. 

 Ninety-nine-hundredths of all the lying in the 

 civilized world is by fogies against progi'essive 

 men ; and no matter what the proposed reform 

 is, whether to give bread to all the people in 

 England, or to give liberty to all the people in 

 America. In Sir Robert Peel's day the land- 

 holders, with some noble exceptions, wanted pro- 

 tection, that they might secure high rents, and 

 the tenant farmers wanted protection, that they 

 might be sure of high prices for produce. Their 

 heart's motto was, The government take care of 

 us, and the devil take the hindermost. They 

 compounded with conscience, by the promise of 

 poorhouse soup, in extreme cases, that is, when 

 the devil failed to teach the starving to live by 

 stealing. 



But there were progressive men in England 

 then. There are more now, and there will be 

 still more ten years hence. Progress in England 

 will be a rich treat to republican eves, and no 



