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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRII, 3, 1833. 



AJV ADDRESS 



To the Members of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting 



Agriculture. Delivered at their request, October 17, 1832. 



By James Rich.\rdson, Esq. 



The cultivation of the earth was the eailiest 

 employment, and was ordained to be the paramount 

 duty of man. The first of our race was placed in a 

 garden to dress and to keep it ; and by the applica- 

 tion of the physical and intellectual powers of his 

 successors to the same pursuit, under governments 

 founded in justice and aflbrding protection, the 

 whole cultivable earth may be so dressed and kept, 

 as to become one extensive garden, sustaining, 

 employing and furnishing the means of subsistence 

 and enjoyment to at least one thousaud times its 

 present-population ; and thus the will of the great 

 Giver of all good, and his command to increase 

 and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue 

 it, would bo substantially and literally obeyed. 



A view of the splendid marts of commerce, the 

 busy bustling scenes of manufacturing, and the 

 venerable seats of science and learning, may give 

 the impression, and not afewhave imbibed it, that 

 the apparently humble labors of agriculture are of 

 a subordinate and inferior character, and dependent 

 ou learning, commerce and the arts, liut let us 

 look back to the infancy of these pursuits. Who 

 fed the first builders of towns and cities ? By 

 whose labor and care were the scanty means of 

 commencing first accumulated ? Who furnished the 

 materials for the first rude manufactures, and the 

 early exchanges in commerce, and sustained those 

 engaged in them ? By what means was leisure and 

 support furnished to the few, who made the first 

 advances in letters and science ? But for the hum- 

 ble though indispensable labor of the cultivator of 

 the soil, neither commerce, manufactures, literature, 

 science nor civilization could have existed. And 

 tJie humble farmer, ackuowledginghis obligations 

 to commerce and the arts that stimulate and reward 

 his industry, and increase his comforts and enjoy- 

 ments, and grateful for the diffusion of science and 

 good learning, which give security to his person 

 and property, — elevation, refinement and moral 

 culture to the society in which he moves, may 

 nevertheless say with honest pride, it is my hand, 

 and the hands of those who have j)receded, aud 

 tliose who accompany me in my pursuit, that laid 

 the foundation, and still sustains the splendid 

 superstructure of society, which we now behold, 

 enjoy and admire. 



An impression of the proj^ress and importance 

 of agricultural improvements may be received from 

 a glance across the Atlantic to the land of our an- 

 cestors. The little Island of Great Britain, con- 

 tains a les3 e.\tentof cultivated land than the whole 

 territory of the State of Virginia, aud but a very 

 little greater extent capable of any cultivation ;* 

 and yet this small speck on our earth's surface 

 sustains over sixteen millions of people, some in 

 profusion, many in plenty, and nearly all in com- 

 fort, with the aid of foreign bread stufts to feed 

 them less than two weeks in the year ; — besides 

 feeding an immense number of animals, — horses 

 kept for service, splendor or sport, and one sheep 

 to every acre of cultivated land ou the whole 

 Island; yielding a suflicient quantity of wool, 

 though not of a suitable (juality, to clothe their 



According to the latest surveys, Great Britain, including 

 England proper, Scotland and Wales, contains 3fi,S33,330 acre! 

 m the v/hole-cultivated land 34,014,000 acres-laud unculti 

 c^n^lf ° f"'''' " 1 ■ '="'."''«';™ U,y34,000 acres-and land in- 

 capable of any cultivation 12,883,330 acres. The State of 

 Virginia, it is well known, contains 40,000,000 of acres. 



whole population, and the whole population of the 

 United States.* 



Though oxtr progress in agriculture has been 

 far from discoiuaging, and the quantity of bread 

 stufls exported not inconsiderable, — yet the straw 

 of the grain of that small Island for a single season, 

 at the current price of common straw here, is of 

 greater value than the whole of the bread stuffs 

 exported from the United States for ten years.f 

 .\nd we may safely assert that should the produc- 

 tions of that small spot of earth be entirely de- 

 stroyed but for a single year, not all the sur[ilus 

 food produced on the whole earth would be sufli- 

 cient to save their population from famine. Now 

 look back on this land of our ancestors in the 

 time of Julius Caesar, and what does it present ? 

 Some hundred thousand demi-savages subsisting 

 by fishing and the chase, with painted limbs, clad 

 in the skins of beasts, armed with scythes and 

 stakes hardened in the fire, and resisting the mail- 

 ed bodies and well tempered blades of the Roman 

 legions. 



But while celebrating the progress, the triumphs 

 and blessings of the art, on which all others de- 

 pend, can we be silent on what the most gifted of 

 our race have been eloquent? Can we be insen- 

 sible and suppress all reference to its pure and 

 blameless delights? Delights, though time will 

 not permit us to dwell on them, wliich inspire 

 tranquility and cheerfulness aud gratitude and de- 

 votion ; — delights, which have charmed philoso- 

 phers and sages from their closets, emperors and 

 kings from their thrones, and have inspired the 

 strains of the sweetest poets that ever sang. 



So great indeed is the ijilliience of the art, for 

 the improvement of which this our Society was 

 formed, so various arc tlie considerations connect- 

 ed with it, and so extensive its influence on wealth, 

 on learning, on morals, on commerce and the arts, 

 on the public peace and general tranquility, that 

 the mind labors — not to find topics for discussion, 

 but to determine, for the few moments allotted to 

 this part of the iluties of the day, what to select to 

 be imperfectly discussed, and what must necessa- 

 rily be excluded. 



It would not be an unprofitable, and certainly 

 would be a curious subject of inquiry, what coj- 

 stilules the proper nourishment of plants, and con- 

 tributes to their growth and perfection ? How is 

 that nourishment elaborated and prepared in tie 

 soil ? By what process is it imbibed and drawn 

 iu by their roots, and then further elaborated in 

 all the infinite variety of plants, so as to bring each 

 to perfection, with its proper form, flavor imd vir- 

 tues, and its perfect seed, so as to propagate and 

 preserve its kind ? How does the diminutive 

 radicle first spring from the seed, imbibe its nour- 

 ishment extend itself in search of further supplies. 



* The lowest calculation as to the number of sheep kept on 

 tlie Island of Great Britain at present is 36,000,000. 'I'lieir 

 population is now not far from 1(1.000,000, and that of tlie 

 United Slates somewhat over IS.OOO.OOO. The quantity of 

 wool annually produced in Great Britain, exceeds 140.000.000 

 of pounds ; and allowing, according to their best calculations, 

 live pounds to the head, including both sexes and all ages and 

 sizes, the quantity of wool raisecT there would clothe the j)opu- 

 lalion of botli countries, estimating the population as above. 



t According to Sir John St. Clair, tlic straw of Great Britain, 

 calculating three-fourths of it for manure at 3d. per stone of 22 

 pomids, and the other fourth for feeding stock at 6d. per stone, 

 IS worth 16,223,000 pounds sterling — equal at ,g4,80 per pound 

 sterling to 78,880,000 dollars— the present price of common 

 straw here, being from 33 to 37^ cents per 100 pounds amounts 

 with great exactness to llie price staled by Sir John St. Clair — 

 and the average amount of bread stufls exported from the United 

 States in the last ten years is about 7,000,000 dollars per 

 annum. 



till the roots, as in the case of many plants, extend 

 themselves through the whole permeable soil, aud 

 the branches over the whole surface? And here 

 the practical farmer may be admonished of the 

 importance of deep ploughing, where the soil will 

 admit of it, and thoroughly pulverizing in all cases, 

 that his vegetable productions, of whatever kind, 

 may extend their roots without impediment, and 

 imbibe from the soil all the nourishment it con- 

 tains, and so arrive at the greatest possible perfec- 

 tion. 



The agency of warmth and air in causing the 

 seed to spring, and in bringing forward the young 

 and tender plant, their operations on the fermenta- 

 ble particles scattered through the soil, by which 

 the rich aliment that the organized plant is capa- 

 ble of imbibing is prepared for its reception, might 

 also be examined and made fruitful in instruction, 

 would time permit. Aud these considerations 

 also afford a lesson to the practical farmer. For, 

 as warmth and air are necessary to the parts and 

 organs of plants U7ider the soil as well as those 

 above, — another strong reason for deep ploughing 

 and thoroughly pulverizing presents itself, that the 

 air iUid the rays of the sun may freely penetrate 

 aud circulate, especially in heavy, cold and clayey 

 soils, and perform the ofiice of promoting fermen- 

 tation, without which no useful plants can thrive. 

 Again — the agency of water, the component 

 parts of which have been discovered and ascer- 

 taiucil within the present age, in afliuding and 

 coiumunicating nonrishment to plants, and bring- 

 ing them to perfection, whether it be imbibed from 

 the soil by their roots, or from the atmosphere by 

 their exterior organization, is a subject not un- 

 worthy of consideration, and might furnish mat- 

 Irr, not merely for a discourse, but for a volume. 

 .And liere a single practical consideration is all that 

 can be allowed ou this occasion. If then water, 

 when decomposed by the o])eration of vegetable 

 organization upon it, afliirds nourishment to jilants, 

 which it has been found to do iu no iuconsiderablo 

 degree, how important to the farmer is that too 

 much neglected practice of irrigation, by means of 

 which, wherever practicable, water is made a sub- 

 stitute for that invaluable treasure of the farmer, 

 manure, as well as a vehicle for its distribution, 

 and large crops of valuable grasses are produced 

 without any other dressing, without any breaking 

 up of the soil, and without any danger of exhaust- 

 ing it, and large stocks of cattle are well fed, pro- 

 ducing with proper care, in addition to the usual 

 profit, abundance of rich manure to be applied to 

 fertilizing the other parts of the farm, and increas- 

 ing other valuable productions. How important 

 again in this view is deep ploughing, by means of 

 which the roots of plants are enabled to extend 

 themselves and derive nourishment from the lower 

 parts of the soil, when the surface, by reason of 

 drought, becomes incapable of aflbrding it? 



But these inquiries into what were formerly 

 considered the secrets of nature, and which 

 science in its progress, is unveiling, are better 

 suited to the closet of the philosopher, after sur- 

 veying her operations in the garden, the field, by 

 the sitle of the stream that fertilizes them, or of 

 the mountain that sustains the lofty fir or majestic 

 oak. A course of remark of a more practical 

 character, and which goes home to the business 

 and bosom of every farmer, may be mor& fit on 

 this occasion. 



What then is the leading object of the farmer? 

 It is, like that of most other men in civilized and 



