284 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH aO, 1833. 



AN ADDRESS 



Delivered before the Worcester Agricultural Society, Octo- 

 ber 10, 1832; being their Fourleenlh Anniversary Cattle 

 Show anJ Exhibition of Manufactures. By Waldo 

 Flint, Esq. 



Agriculture, in its simplest foi-pi, was, proba- 

 bly, the first, and it is, tindoubtedly, the most iiii- 

 portimt, occupation of man. It lies, in fact, at the 

 fotmdation of civilized society. The spontaneous 

 productions of tlie earth, especially when aided by 

 contributions from the air and the deep, may, in- 

 deed, afford a precarious subsistence for a small 

 population, scattered over a wide extent of territory; 

 but still, man, without other and surer means of 

 support, ever has been, and ever must be, savage 

 man. The degree of civilization and relinement, 

 to which any tribe or nation of men may have at- 

 tained, may be pretty acctuately measured by the 

 advance they have made in the agricultural art. 

 I do not mean of course to be understood as say- 

 ing, that agriculture can flourish alone, without 

 the aul of the mechanic arts ; but I do mean to say, 

 that while all the arts mutually aid and assist each 

 other, agriculture must take the lead in the n)arch 

 of improvement. 



Hence we find, that under all well ordered gov- 

 ernments, its improvement has always been an ob- 

 ject of peculiar interest and regard. What raised 

 ancient Egypt to the height of her grandeur? Not 

 the fertility of her soil alone, enriched as it was by 

 the overflowings of the Nile ; a rich soil is no bles- 

 sing to an idle ))opulation. It was the laborious 

 industry of her inhabitants ; encouraged and |)ro- 

 tected by sound maxims of State -policy, which 

 made her the granary of the world. The Nile has 

 continued, down to the present time, to make its 

 annual contributions, and, while the monuments 

 of her foolish pride still stand the wonders of the 

 world, her fertile plains are trampled upon by the 

 feet of reckless barbarians. 



Rome, too, in her best days, was not less dis- 

 tinguished by her skill in the peaceful arts, than 

 for her military prowess. Her best military com- 

 manders were also her best pratnical farmers; and 

 "to neglect the cultivation of a farm was by them 

 considered an oflfence, which merited the chas- 

 tisement of the censor." 



When the great northern Hive sent forth its 

 swarms of barbarians to ravage and possess the 

 provinces of the Roman Em[)ire, agriculture not 

 only fell into neglect, but came to be considered a 

 menial occupation. The only honorable profes- 

 sion, in those unsettled times, was that of arms. 

 The lands were lotted otit by the conquering gen- 

 erals, in large districts, among their favorite offi- 

 cers, who again subdivided them among their fol- 

 lowers, and all were held, originally, on the 

 condition of rendering military service to their 

 respective superiors. Those, who where employ 

 ed in husbandry, were liable to be called away, at 

 any moment, from their business, to attend upon 

 their liege lords, and it can be no matter of won- 

 der, therefore, that the art should liave become 

 nearly extinct. 



When, m the progress of time, the temper of 

 the people had become more peaceful, and the 

 tenure, by which estates were holdeu, more se 

 cure, agriculture began again to revive. But, then, 

 out of the feudal system, to which I have just re- 

 ferred, arose the laws of primogeniture and en 

 tails, by which family dignity and pride were to 

 be sustained at the expense of justice and sound 

 policy,— the evil effbcts of which on agricultural 



iniproventent are fell, even in the most enlighten- 

 ed States of Europe, at the present day. 



Agriculture has never, since the fall of the Ro- 

 man Empire, or at least never until recently, ex- 

 cept perhaps in China and some other portions of 

 Asia, assumed its proper rank among the arts of 

 life. It has generally been considered an occupa- 

 tion requiring less of science and skill, than almost 

 any other art. It is true, the mere manual labor 

 on a farm does not call for extraordinary skill ; but 

 to superintend aivd control all the various opera- 

 tions of farming, so as to make it a profitable busi- 

 ness, — to adapt the crop to the soil and the cli- 

 mate, — to provide for contingencies and change the 

 mode of cultivation, when circumstances require 

 it, — idl this, it seems to me, demands great judg- 

 ment and discretion, as well as much science and 

 skill. Dexterity or expeituess is all that is nec- 

 essary in many of the mechanic trades, and this 

 may be acquired by practice. So practice will 

 generally make a good mower, a good rea|>er, a 

 good ploughman, but neither of these, nor all com- 

 bined, will alone constitute a good farmer. In 

 agriculture, nature produces every thing, and it is 

 the business of the husbandman to direct her opera- 

 tions. He cannot, as may be done in some of the 

 iiiechanic trades, follow on, year after year, in 

 any one beaten track. He nmst study, and study 

 diligently, the nature of the soil he has to deal 

 with ; he must watch its changes and trace these 

 changes, if he can, up to their causes, so that he 

 may learn how to preserve his lands in health, or, 

 if they become diseased, what remedy to apply in 

 order to restore them. Every year's observation 

 should add something to his stock of knowledge. 

 The productiveness of the earth is influenced by a 

 great variety of circumstances, which wholly es- 

 cape the notice of the careless observer ; and the 

 tarmer, who should, in spite of experience, persist 

 in cultivating his lands in a |)articular manner, 

 either because his father did so before him, or be- 

 cause he may himself have fmmd his course of 

 husbandry profitable under difi'erent circumstances 

 would be very like the ])hysician, who should, on 

 all occasions, turn to his hook of recipes and 

 make out his prescriptions, without studying the 

 constitutions, and inquiring into the particular hab- 

 its, of his patients. 



In order to be accomplished in the art, the far- 

 mer should have some acquaintance with the 

 science of husbandry. Not that every farmer is 

 expected to be a i)hiloso])her, and " understand all 

 mysteries and all knowledge ;" but he ought, cer- 

 tainly, to know something of the compositions of 

 soils and of the nature and properties of the ditier- 

 ent kinds of manures, that he may be better able 

 to judge, what substances are wanted to preserve or 

 increase the fertihty of his lands. This he may, 

 indeed, learu from experience, and experience, 

 after all, is the farmer's only sure guide ; but read- 

 ing will supply him with hints which he may find 

 exceedingly gseful in conducting his own experi- 

 ments. The practical agriculturist, I know, has 

 little leisure for study ; byt he can find time 

 enough, every week in the year, to read the Ne^v 

 England Farmer, and the long winter evenings 

 will afford him leisure, it he choose so to employ 

 them, to become acquainted with more volumin- 

 ous publications on the subject. I have said, 

 experience is the farmer's only sure guide; but he 

 will not be governed by his own experience mere- 

 ly. He wUl avail himself of the experience of his 

 neighbors' also, and will adopt in the management 



of his own tiirrn, any iiriprovements, which they 

 may have introduced in the ctdture of theirs. 

 For the same reason, he should enlarge the circle 

 of his inquiries, not confining himself t6 his own 

 town, or state, or country. The farming tools 

 and agricultural operations of Great Britain are 

 very similar, in most particulars, to those of the 

 United States, and many valuable treatises on the 

 subject have been published there, which are now 

 accessible to the American farmer. — Some of these 

 will give him much useful information, and his 

 own good sense will teach him to adopt or reject 

 their mode of husbandry, as he may find the same 

 ai)plicable or otherwise to the condition of our 

 ovin countiy. 



In this country, from its first settlement, agri- 

 culture has always been considered an honorable, 

 as well as most usefiil, occupation. Indeed, up to 

 the time of the Revolution, it constituted almost 

 the sole employment of the inhabitants. Rlanu- 

 factnres, except the common household manufac- 

 tures which are found in all new settlements, there 

 Were none: of commerce, there was next to noth 

 ing : and I cannot learn, that any of the most com- 

 mon mechanic arts were cultivated any farther 

 than was absolutely necessary. It was tiie jiolicy 

 of the mother country to sup])ly her colonies with 

 every article which she could make at home. 

 Her motherly kindness went even farther, — she 

 coidd not consent, that her children here should 

 have the trouble even of transporting the articles, 

 which her bounty supplied them with. And in 

 rclurn for all this goodness, she only required that 

 tliiy shoidd pay her, liberally, for her goods and 

 their freight, in any articles of produce which she 

 wanted and could not raise on that portion of the 

 farm which she carried on herself. I take the lib- 

 erty to quote the Preamble to an Act of Parli.i- 

 ment, passed 1663, for the ])urpose of presenting, 

 in a clear light, her disinterested regard for the 

 prosperity and welfare of her colonies. 



" In regaril his Majesty's Plantations beyond 

 seas, are inhabited and ])eopled by his subjects of 

 this his kingdom of England, — for the maintain- 

 ing a greater kindness and correspondence between 

 them, and kcejiiug them in a firmer dependence 

 upon it, and rendering them yet more beneficial 

 and advantageous unto it, in the further eniploy- 

 nient and increase of English shipping and seamen 

 — vent of English woollens and other manufac- 

 tures and commodities, and making this kingdom 

 a staple not only of the commodities of these Plan- 

 tations, but also of the commodities of other coun- 

 tries and places for the supplying of them. Be it 

 it enacted, "&c. "The only use ^and advantage of 

 American Colonies and West India Islands," it 

 was said, " was the monopoly of their consunt]!- 

 tion and the carriage of their produce." England 

 has continued, even since partition was ma'de and 

 the late Colonists have managed their portion of 

 tlie farm in their own way, to manifest the same 

 watchful care over the interests of her children. 

 She says now, as she always used to say, that it is 

 giving ourselves quite too much trouble to manu- 

 facture our own clothing, and is perfectly willing 

 and ready to supply us with whatever we want in 

 that line, ready made, and will take, in exchange, 

 our cotton, rice, tobacco, and indeed, any thing 

 else, which she must have and cannot raise for 

 the supply of her own wants. She has allowed 

 us, occasionally, to truck a little with her West 

 India Islands — when they have chanced to be in 

 a state of starvation ; and has recently consented, 



