Vol. X No. 43. 



AND nollTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



341 



It was I'ly iiitpiilion to s|)oak soinewliat in de- 

 tail of tlie cultiirt! of silk and of the vine, but tlie 

 wasting lionr will permit me to give these subjects 

 but a passing notice. Is it not strange, tliat wiiile 

 we are sending to Ilie four quarters of the earth 

 for new varieties of fruit, and importing exotics 

 from every climate under heaven, we should suffer 

 to perish upon its branches, that rich and delicious 

 product of our own soil, the grape, which nature 

 has scattered around us in almost wasteful- profu- 

 sion ? That wc should, age after age, send our 

 millions to the foreign vintager for his wines, and 

 trample under our feet th(! purple clusters of our 

 native vine, from which it may be made equal in 

 richness and flavor to the choicest that France, 

 Spain, or Italy can boast ? Yet this is the fact — 

 and I si)eak with confidence when I say, that wine 

 of as good a quality as any imported, and much 

 better than most that is imported, may be made 

 at a trifling expense, from our common wild grape. 

 It seems to me, that this is a subject that well de- 

 serves the consideration of tbe enterprising farmer; 

 not only because he may thereby turn into his own 

 coffers a large amount of money that is now sent 

 to foreign countries, but for the moral effects that 

 might follow from substituting a pleasant and sa- 

 lubrious beverage, in the place of those villainous 

 compounds, the distilled spirits, whose pernicious 

 effects we have so much reason to deplore. For 

 although the man who uses wine to excess, de- 

 serves, perhaps, to be as severely censured as he 

 who makes the same use of distilled spirits, yet, 

 experience has shown, that iuteinperance very sel- 

 dom originates in the use of the former alone. 

 In fact, in all those countries where the vine is 

 cidtivatcd to the greatest extent, the people have 

 been found to be the most temiierate on earth. — 

 Its cultivation may, therefore, well be urged as one 

 of the surest means of driving from the land, that 

 subtle enemy, that men are fools enough to " put 

 into their mouths to steal away their brains." 



The importance of the culture of silk, in a na- 

 tionarpoint of view, may be estimated from the 

 single fact, that we annually import and consimie 

 silk for wliich we pay ten millions of dollars; and 

 the established certainty, that this article of a bet- 

 ter quality . and to an indelinite amount, maybe 

 produced at home. The mulberry tree flourishes 

 in every part of our countifi ; and the silk- worm 

 thrives as well here, as in the more sunny climes 

 of France and Italy. Will the American farmer 

 any longer consent to pay any part of this heavy 

 tax for a foreign luxury ? Or will he not rather, 

 not only supply himself and the home market 

 from his own farm, but make if, as he easily may, 

 a stajjle article of exportation ? Especially does 

 it become the farmer of New England to attend to 

 t'hls matter. The only agricultural products that 

 are exported from this country, to any considera- 

 ble amount — cctton; rice, and tobacco — his lanrls 

 will not jn-oduce. Of grain and the bread stufls, 

 New England does not grow enough for her own 

 consumption. Its exigencies seem, therefore, to 

 'demand some new application of its agricultural 

 industry. To what can it bo more profitably ap- 

 plied, than to the culture of silk ? The man who 

 has^nade the experiment, the farmer of Mansfield, 

 shall answer. He will tell you, that; from a mul- 

 berry orchard of a few acres only, silk may be ob- 

 tained, which, at a moderate estimate, v,\\\ be 

 worth more than the average profits of our small 

 farms. He will tell you, that with a soil not well 

 adapted to the purposes of agriculture, that little 



town, alone, receives an income of about ,*2.'5,000 

 annually, from its silk ; while the labor by which it 

 is produced, is performed almost wholly by chil- 

 dren and females. These are facts, and to these 

 I demand your attention. It is not a mere theory, 

 a farming upon paper, that I am urging upon your 

 notice. I ask you to rest your faith in this ujatter 

 upon nothing short of well-tried experiments and 

 incontestable facts. Nothing, it seems to nie, could 

 be more nicely adapted to the situation of our 

 smaller farmers. All their present crops might be 

 cultivated as they now are, while this, a rich and 

 valuable one, might be added to their number 

 without any additional expense for labor. It 

 would afford to his children, and es])ecially to his 

 daughters, a pleasant and profitable employment; 

 and this too, at home and by bis own fireside, the 

 spot most favorable to moral improvement and to 

 the growth of the domestic virtues. And this is a 

 consideration not to be slighted, when from the 

 establishment of factories, the music of the spindle 

 and the loom has ceased to be heard in our 

 dwellings — and our daughters are many of them 

 subjected to the hard alternative of going into a 

 disagreeable and dangerous service abroad, or of 

 remaining in a useless and burdensome idleness at 

 homo. 



The numerous specimens of household manu- 

 factures, and the exhibitions of female taste, inge- 

 nuity, and industry, which we have this day wit- 

 nessed, prove that the daughters of Middlesex 

 would not willingly be idle ; tliat they have a high- 

 er ambition than to bedeck and bedizzen them 

 selves, according to the ever varying caprices of a 

 French milliner, or the barbarous and unnatural 

 mandates to the tyrant, fashion — the ambition of 

 being useful ; and they will readily avail themselves 

 of the opportunity which the culture of silk will 

 afford, to make with their own hands, as of old, 

 " coverings of tapestry, and clothing of silk ami of 

 purple." Then, as has been well said, " our fair 

 Uiight, with something more of palliation, contem- 

 plate themselves in the minor, in the splendor of 

 a vesture, wrought and colored by their own in- 

 dustry." 



Finally, gentlemen, in view of what has been 

 done and of what remains to be done, let ine con- 

 gratulate you upon the past and urge you to per- 

 severe for the future. Go on in the path upon 

 which you have entered — the path of usefulness 

 and honor. The earth is yours, with all its bound- 

 less capacities and endless resources ; and their 

 development and application will afford full scope 

 for the exercise of all your powers. No cfibrt 

 shall be lost, but of the increasing and exhanslless 

 treasures of the earth you shall be liberally re- 

 warded. The blessing of the Almighty is upon 

 the labors of the husbandman; and you have His 

 assurance, that while the earth endures, the sea- 

 sons shall continue to dance their round, and that 

 seed-time and harvest shall not cease. 



Do you ask for a higher motive for your exer 

 tions ? Let it be found in your patriotism. Know 

 that every improvement you make upon your 

 lands, adds to the permanent riches of your coun- 

 try. The State has an interest in your success. 

 In proportion as your farms are well fenced, stock- 

 ed and cultivated, its resources are midtiplied and 

 its strength augmented, and you thereby lay the 

 foundation of its greatness and its power. Its des- 

 tinies are in your hands. With an industrious, 

 intelligent and independent yeomanry, it has noth- 

 ing to fear. Without them it has nothing to hope. 



Dependent on no man's jiatronage for support — 

 above the rich man's scorn, or " the proud man's 

 contumely," the farmer is, in a great degree, be- 

 yond the corrupt influences that beset the paths of 

 other men. His daily toil leads him forth from 

 the haunts of men, into the. peaceful and tranquil 

 solitude of the fields. The fierce and frenzied 

 impulses which faction imparts to a crowded pop- 

 ulation, reach him not. The demagogue in vain 

 declaims to him of abuses, which his understand- 

 ing teaches hitn do not exist. The clamorous rad- 

 ical, or reckless partisan, though he come in the 

 guise of an apostle of retrenchment and reform, in 

 vain preaches to him of the political millenium 

 that woidd follow, if only the present incumbents 

 of office could be removed, and he and such as he, 

 put in their places. " Corruption of morals," says 

 Jefferson, " in the mass of cultivators, is a phe- 

 nomenon of which no age nor nation has furnish- 

 ed an example." 



And here, gentlemen, strongly impressed as I 

 am, with the belief, that the fate of our country 

 must depend upon the substantial virtues of its 

 yeomanry, let me seize the moment to exhort you 

 to interpose, to save us froin the perils with which 

 we are threatened. The existence of faction you 

 cannot prevent. It is a weed that will naturally 

 and inevitably spring up in the rich soil of our re- 

 public. It is yours, as political farmers, to check 

 its growth and see that it does not overtop nor 

 root out the salutary and useful plant. Rut there 

 is abroad in the land, a spirit of wild speculation, 

 rash experiment, and reckless innovation. The 

 Constitution, the charter of our liberties, is assail- 

 ed, rudely assailed, for unhallowed and factious 

 purposes .Truth and justice are shamelessly tram- 

 pled under foot, in the career of a mad ambition. 

 The press has betrayed its trust, and become an 

 engine of falsehood and corruption. Virtue is 

 scoffed at in our high ])laces. Religion is becom- 

 iug a by-word. Sects and parties are multiplied 

 at the call of every man, or woman either, that 

 has impudence enough to assume the attitude of a 

 leader. Political and religious emissaries are in 

 every corner of the land, to rally partisans and 

 proselytes, to any aud every system of intolerance 

 and proscription. It has just been discovered, 

 that all the wisdom of past ages is folly, and that 

 all their institutions are radically vicious, funda- 

 mentally wrong. And the beardless boy, in this 

 school of modern philosophy, has learnt to sneer 

 at the credulity and bigotry of his hoary-headed 

 father. 



Are not these things so ? And if so, to whom 

 shall we look to shield us from the storm of polite 

 ical and religious elements, that threaten to sweep 

 away in its fury, the whole fabric of society ? To 

 whom but the substantial yeomanry of the land — 

 the men, whose cool, unbiassed judgment and good 

 common-sense, will enable them to distinguish be- 

 tween the clamor of the demagogue and the elo- 

 quence of the patriot ; between a fair and dispas- 

 sionate exhibition of existing evils, aud a sweeping 

 demmciation of all established institutions ; be- 

 tween needful and salutary improvement and re- 

 form, aud the utter demolition of all law and or- 

 der. To them we must look in every hour of 

 peril to our country. And that we may do it wtJi 

 an unwavering confidence, let me urge upon you 

 the importance of fixing in the ininds of your 

 children, the eletncnts of knowledge and the prin- 

 ciples of virtue. It is not right, that those to 

 wliom is intrusted the fate of this repubhc, in 



