1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



115 



THIRL LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL 

 MEETING. 



Reported for the New Ensland Farmer, 

 BY WILLIAM W. HILL. 



The third mooting of the series was hold at the 

 State House, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 30. 



Lieut. Governor Brown presided, and opened 

 the meeting with some interesting and eloquent 

 remarks upon the general importance of agri- 

 culture. There is, he said, in the community a 

 great want of confidence and interest in the sub- 

 ject. Persons engage in agriculture who have 

 long been accustomed to other pursuits ; they 

 wish, as all of us do, to enter at some time upon 

 the cultivation of the soil, but do so without any 

 definite idea of what is needed in their new voca- 

 tion, or what ought to be its profits. Most of 

 those who engage in farming do so, not from 

 choice, but from the force of circumstances, and 

 without well defined ideas of plowing, draining, 

 manuring, subsoiling, putting seed into the 

 ground, its quantity, manner of covering, &c. — 

 All this needs reform, and such meetings as these 

 are of great utility in spreading information and 

 awakening interest in the subject. One great ob- 

 stacle in tlie way of a rapid extension of good 

 farming is a foolish prejudice Avhich prevails con- 

 siderably among farmers against anything which 

 appears in newsjaapers or books in regard to farm- 

 ing, which, after all, is only the printing of the 

 farmer's actual experience. Science is just what 

 the farmer needs. The fallacy of this antipathy 

 to book farming was convincingly exposed. 



Mr. Brown also dwelt with much force and 

 truthfulness on the utility of Farmers' Clubs. — 

 There is no way in which the cause of agriculture 

 can be advanced so effectually as by the formation 

 of these institutions in all the towns of the com- 

 monwealth. They promote investigation, and 

 bring out facts important to the farmer. Another 

 most excellent method for the farmer to improve 

 his mo^er of cultivation, is, for him to spend a 

 day as o. on as once a month in visiting the farms 

 in his vicinity, examining the farming tools, 

 going over the fields, learning the system of cul- 

 tivation, &c. Nothing is more important to the 

 farmer than a habit of constant, close observa- 

 tion, of all matters pertaining to his calling ; 

 and wherever he finds an improvement, let him 

 take it home with him to bis farm and apply it. 



The speaker next alluded to the potent, ad- 

 verse influence which is exerted by the sentiment 

 of the female portion of the community in regard 

 to the farmer's life. Until our young women 

 cease to manifest such a preference as they do for 

 those of the opposite sex who are engaged in the 

 law, in medicine and in mercantile pursuits, we 

 can never expect to accomplisli mucli for agricul- 

 ture. It is impossible. With such a powerful 



influence exerted upon them, our young men, 

 who ought to cultivate farms, fly from the coun- 

 try and crowd the cities ; and until fomale influ- 

 ence is won to the cause of the farmer, it will 

 continue, and agriculture suffer. This poiut was 

 very happily and eloquently illustrated and en- 

 forced. 



Mr. Brown concluded by suggesting Indian 

 Corn as the subject of discussion for the evening. 



Mr. Fay, of Essex county, desired to explain, 

 that in his remarks at the previous evening, while 

 he believed that our soil and climate were both 

 adapted to the successful cultivation of wheat, he 

 did not wish to be understood as considering it 

 more profitable than any other crop. In his 

 opinion, maize was the great crop of New Eng- 

 land, it being peculiarly adapted to our climate, 

 with its hot, dry summers, and severe winters. 

 He had paid considerable attention to it, and 

 usually got good crops. It can be raised on 

 almost any soil, with proper attention to pre- 

 ceding crops and cultivation. He would cultivate 

 it after a green crop, and would not follow it 

 with either grain or grass, but roots. 



Mr. Fay spoke earnestly in behalf of farmers' 

 clubs. Farmers are behind the age in mechan- 

 ical contrivances for performing labor, and he 

 8aw no method of getting at mechanical results 

 except by association among the farmers, for they 

 cannot afford to experiment singly with macliines. 

 Our hay should be cut and made by machinery, 

 lor the high cost of labor absorlis a great part of 

 < he profits. He was confident that the hay crop 

 could be got with a machine at half the expense 

 where manual lal)or was employed. A mowing- 

 machine costs $150 ; but it is only necessary for 

 the farmers to club together, subscribe two or 

 three dollars each, and make the machine do the 

 mowing for them all. So with a machine to turn 

 ond make the hay. With both machines, far- 

 mers could cut their grass, make their hay, and 

 I'.ouse it, all in one day. The expense, divided 

 imiong many, would be light. The same may be 

 Kiid, also, of planting corn, potatoes, turnips, 

 &c., which can all be done by machinery, and J)y 

 one machine for twenty farmers. At tlie south 

 and west, machines are coming into general use, 

 and if we would compete Avith those sections, we 

 must resort to macliinery. 



Mr. Sheldon, of Wilmington, remarked that 

 he deemed Indian corn the most profitable crop 

 we have. In speaking of it, we are apt to think 

 only of the corn, and nothing else ; but if we look 

 ( losely, we shall find that it is not a great ex- 

 iiauster of the soil, but is excellent in preparing 

 it for grass, while corn fodder, well cured, will 

 jiroduce more milk than Jiay will. Tlie manure 

 needed for corn should not all bf^ cliarged to it, 

 for, after the corn, three or f nir good crops of 



