332 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



May 2, 1S32. 



AN ADDRESS, 



Delivered before the Society of Middlesex Hushand- 



men and Manufacturers, Oct. 5, 1831. 



By John M. Cheney. 



I deem it among the liajjpiest efticts that have 

 i-e.siiltecl iVom the organization of Societies, such 

 as that whose anniversary we this day commem- 

 orate, that they have awaliened the puhhc to a 

 ticnse of the dignity aud importance of agricultural 

 pursuits ; and that the most ancient and useful of 

 the arts of life, that on which all other arts depend, 

 has drawn into its service the genius and talents 

 of the best men of the age, and has had consecra- 

 ted to its use, the treasures of learning aud the 

 discoveries of science and philosophy. 



With the interests of agriculture, you have, 

 gentlemen, in the formation of this society, asso- 

 ciated those of manufactures — her sister and ally. 

 These two branches of industry are so mutually 

 dependent upon, and reciprocally beneficial to each 

 other, that the improvement of both is naturally 

 and properly embraced within- the objects of your 

 Society. To promote these objects, you have 

 come hither today ; to witness the result of each 

 other's experiments ; to explain each other's views ; 

 to interchange thoughts and opinions ; and if pos- 

 sible, to learu and communicate some new and 

 useful truth. 



Your purpose is a high, a noble, a glorious one 

 — glorious, in the best sense of the term ; glorious, 

 because it is good ; and because he who discovers 

 the means of increasing a useful product of the 

 earth, or of multiplying and diffusing more widely 

 the comforts of life, is a benefactor of his race. 



To him who loves his country or his fellow 

 man, it is a subject of rejoicing, that in a cause 

 like this, the dissensions of party and the revilings 

 of ])olemic strife are laid aside and forgotten ; that 

 a spot is here found, where our ears are no longer 

 assailed with the diu of political and religious war; 

 where men of all sects and of all parties, are will- 

 ing to make at least a teni])orary sacrifice of their 

 prejudices and their animosities, upon the altar of 

 the public good. It is a subject of rejoicing, that 

 a new field is here presented, where talents and 

 learning may achieve for themselves an honorable 

 and lasting renown ; and that when the thousand 

 immortal patriots of the day — those exclusive 

 friends of the peoiJle, whose praises are now rung 

 through the land, by the lying heralds of a 

 jiarty fame, the newspapers — are all dead and for- 

 gotten — the man who devotes himself to agricul- 

 ture, and to that literature and science by which it 

 is embellished and improved, may acquire a name 

 that will flourish and grow green through the 

 lapse of ages. 



The increasing intelligence and more refined 

 moral sense of the times, is daily rendering more 

 certain and definite the elements of a pui-e and last- 

 ing fame. They are pointing to utility, rather than 

 splendor. Tlie wreath woven by the arts of peace 

 is cherished and honored, while that upon the 

 warrior's brow, is suffered to w-ither and fade a\\ay. 

 The time has gone by, when the occupation of the 

 farmer was deemed mean and servile. The hon- 

 est and intelligent yeoman has assumed the sta- 

 tion in society that belongs to him. He stands 

 erect and unabashed amidst the foremost of the 

 land. An art that wa^ ])atronized and practised 

 by the kings and emjjerors of the east — by the 

 princes and senators of Greece and Rome. An 

 art, upon which the most renowned poets and phi- 

 osophers of antiquity wrote, and which its great- 



est and best men practised, has associated with it 

 too many cherished and hallowed recollections, to 

 be longer affected by the sneers of that miserable 

 substitute for a man — the creature of the tailor aud 

 the dancing master — the self-styled, hut misnamed, 

 gentleman. 



In the best days of the Roman republic, her 

 learned and powerful men, her statesmen, her 

 generals and her scholars, devoted themselves to 

 the interests of agriculture. That it ever lost the 

 service of such men, and came at length to be es- 

 teemed a less honorable employment than some 

 others, is undoubtedly one of the many evils en- 

 tailed upon the world, by that long night of Gothic 

 barbarity and ignorance, that succeeded the fall of 

 the Roman empire; during which, intolerance and 

 superstition held their revels and performed their 

 orgies ; and all that the genius and industry of 

 man in former ages had done, to raise him above 

 the condition of the savage, was lost and forgotten. 

 For when light at length began to dawn, and truth 

 and justice to wake from their long and lethargic 

 slumber, a state of thVigs grew uj), altogether hos- 

 tile to the arts of peace, and especially so to ag- 

 riculture. A system of military tenures, denomin- 

 ated the Feudal System, jjrevailed throughout 

 Europe. Its spirit was essentially warlike, and 

 tuider it no occuj)atiou but that of arms was deem- 

 ed honorable. The successful warrior divided 

 the coiupiered territory among his followers and 

 vassals, to till only in the intervals of peace, and 

 upon condition, that at the sound of the clarion 

 they should buckle on their armor aud attend him 

 in his wars. He who tilled, had no permanent 

 interest in the soil ; the fee remained in the feudal 

 lord or baron of whom he held. The consequence 

 was, ou the one hand, a servile and dependent ten- 

 antry ; on the other, a fierce, haughty and warlike 

 aristocracy ; under whose joint influence every 

 species of usefiil industry was i)aralyzed. Not 

 only the cultivation of the earth, but every kind of 

 manual labor was despised ; and the working men, 

 in the ignorance of a rude and barbarous age, 

 were held in low repute by those whose batllcs 

 they fought and who lived upon the fruits of their 

 labor. Tlie featm-es of this system may still be 

 traced in many of our laws, customs, and institu- 

 tions, and to it we look for the origin of those er- 

 rors and ))rejudices, that have prevailed till wilhin 

 a few years, with' regard to the nature and char- 

 acter of manual and agricultural labor. From 

 these errors ami prejudices, principally by the 

 agency of our Agricultural Societies, we are at 

 this day in a great degree exempted ; and our 

 farmers and mechanics, the pillars by which 

 the whole fabric of society is sustained, are not 

 only acknowledged by others to be, but themselves 

 feel, that they are " born i'ree as Caesar." 



The utility of these societies cannot, it would 

 seem, be longer doubted. The experiment has 

 been fully made. Their effects are known and 

 felt, not only in directing the attention of the pub- 

 lic to the subjects with which they are conversant, 

 and in giving to agriculture the respect and con- 

 sequence which it deserves, but in actual practical J 

 results, about which there can be no mistake. So 

 that whatever prejudices may have once existed 

 against the scientific, theoretic and book farming, 

 which it was thought they were alone calculated 

 to promote, none, it is believed, remain to doul't 

 their advantages; none, unless perchance it be 

 that class of sturdy doubters, who always "doubt 

 most where others most believe." 



They have wrought a visible chailge in the ap- 

 pearance of the world around us. Over it, they 

 have thrown an air of neatness, elegance, comfort, 

 and fertility, before unknown. The worn out and 

 exhausted field, by the ploughing in of green crops 

 and other imjiroved modes of cnltivaliou, has been 

 revived and fertilized. The poorest aud most un- 

 productive hog-meadow, the nocturnal melody of 

 whose inhabitants (the mammoth frogs) was for 

 years our sunmier hdlaby, has been drained and 

 reclaimed, and is yielding to the enteriirising farm- 

 er a tenfold reward for his labor. New varieties 

 of grain, and grass, and vegetables are springing 

 up around us ; aud our granaries, barns and cel- 

 lars are crowded with new and hitherto unheard 

 of riches. Many of the lean and unprofitable 

 tenants of our stalls and pastures have di,^a|lpcared, 

 and the firmly built, portly and gentlemanly ox, 

 and the staid and matronly cow, have succeeded 

 to their place. Fruits, that excel in richness the 

 golden apjiles of the Hesperides, cluster and ripen 

 aiound us. Inventions and improvements in the 

 implements of husbandry have been multiplied, 

 till in many instances, what was once the painful 

 labor of a day, has become the recreation of an 

 hour ; nor are they left suspended in agricultural 

 repositories, like warlike trophies in the halls of a 

 feudal baron, but they are seen upon the farms 

 and in the hands of an active and vigorous yeo- 

 manry. 



In the midst of all this apparent prosperity, while 

 the earth is rejoicing in renovated beauty, and the 

 labors of the husbandman are crowned with abun- 

 dant success, what harsh and discordant notes 

 arc; those that break in upon the general song of 

 joy and gratitude, that is heard along our hills and 

 valleys ? And who is he, that with his raven lock, 

 conies to mar the harmony of the the scene, with 

 the miserable cry of" hard times '}" Can it be the 

 industrious and intelligent farmer? No! Look 

 at his fields, they are laden with the rich rewards 

 of a skilful cultivation ; at his fences, substantial 

 and in good repair, they jirolcct his crops and in- 

 sure him quiet and peace in the hours of repose ; 

 at his trees, pruned of redundant wood and cher- 

 ished at the root, their graceful and symmetrical 

 forms not only embellish his grounds, but his fruit 

 spreads cheerfulness around his board and his 

 fireside. His stock, well selected, well housed, 

 well fed, and above all, well treated, are the living 

 proofs aud emblems of plenty and content. His 

 tools, all in order and in ))lace, are implements, 

 which in a cheerful hand, rob labor of its sting. 

 His barns and out-houscs, conveniently arranged, 

 judiciously constructed, and well filled, are his 

 treasury, wherein he has deposited the fruits of 

 his honest and honorable labors. His house bears 

 no marks of dilapidation or decay ; but neatness 

 and taste have fixed their impress upon it, and 

 upon all around it. 



Shall we cntir and survey for a moment the 

 scene within .' Certainly. The wife, who, by her 

 industry and economy, has made the farmer's fire- 

 side what nothing else can make it, the centre of 

 his joys, the sanctuary of his happiness, will not 

 refuse to admit us. Not yet sufficiently fashiona- 

 ble nor gmteel, to he ashamed lo be seen at any 

 useful employuKnt, she will herself bid us \yel- 

 come. Over her little empire she presides in the 

 spirit of peace and gentleness. All is neatness ; 

 all is order ; all is quiet. Her family is her care; 

 her children, her jewels. Under her influence, her 

 daughters are growing up in tlie loveliness of virtus 



