613 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



The flowers are sweet-scented, and yield much 

 honey, and consequently are much visited by bees; 

 but the value of the honey is deteriorated, as it is 

 much darker colored, and said to be inferior to that 

 collecled Irom heath and other wild flowers. 



Whether brank will ever be an object of culti- 

 vation to light land larmei's in general, is question- 

 able ; but Irom the present posture of agricultural 

 affairs, many things will be introduced into our 

 present systems, and many expedients had re- 

 course to, to increase, il' possible, the produce of 

 the land, which have never betore been thoutrht 

 of. Raw materials for the manufacturer, qualities 

 lor the dyer and druggist, and even that luxury 

 tobacco, may come in tor a share of that labor 

 and care which has been heretoibre wholly be- 

 stowed on raising the necessaries of life lor man. 

 Steam-power, as applied to the transit of farm 

 products, as corn and latted stock, and to that of 

 lime and other dressings, is working, and will con- 

 tinue to work, important changes in the old rou- 

 tine of agriculture. Local advantages will be 

 moderated, and local disabilities will be hencelbrth 

 assisted in a way that but lew are now aware of. 



Extriict from an Address to the Middlesex Agricultural Societj', 

 By Albert li. Nelson of Concord. 



IMPROVEBIENTS IN CULTIVATION. 



We may learn the principles of farming then, 

 by study, and why in the name of common sense 

 may we not study books'? Why shouhi we be 

 obliged to grope along, to stundjle on in the thick 

 darkness which our ancestors exerted themselves 

 successfully to dissipate, when we may walk firm- 

 ly and surely, would we but open our eyes? To 

 illustrate my meaning. A young man comes into 

 possession of a farm composed entirely of light 

 sandy soil. His predecessors have, year by year, 

 raised by dint of much labor, a small crop of 

 burnt up hay, a small crop of potatoes, and a 

 smaller crop of stinted corn. Now shall he toil 

 on all his days, ploughing, sowinir, and cropping 

 the same fields in the same way, and with the 

 pame results, as did bis ancestors? Or, would it 

 not be far better lor him to farm a little by book 1 

 To study the nature of calcareous and siliceous 

 soils, to learn the difierent efiects and qualities of 

 manure, to introduce the turnip and clover culture, 

 and a rotation of crops ; and thus by the aid of a 

 little science, double his produce and the value ol 

 his land at the same time? Shall he continue to 

 cultivate certain articles without any regard to 

 their adaptation to his soil, or shall tie study the 

 nature of the soil somewhat? Can there be a 

 doubt as to what should be done ? Our farmers 

 work wiih their eyes wide open, I allow. They 

 adopt improvements as fast as they are made in 

 their neighborhood, so that they can see them ; but 

 they adopt o/i/i/ when they can see them. New 

 modes of cultivation, and new articles of culture, 

 are in this way gradually introduced. But they 

 are introduced too slowly. The work does not go 

 on fast enough. They" do not keep up with the 

 improvements of the age. There is much hesita- 

 tion and doubt, after the time for hesitation and 

 doubt has passed. The good old way, with all its 

 imperlections, is adhered to in preference to a new- 

 er and better, merely because the one is old, and 



the other new. Our farmers have a thorough con- 

 tempt for new things, and especially if promulga- 

 ted by a book liirmer, and in this way lose great 

 advanta<res. Illustrations of this fiict are abun- 

 dant. How much writing, and arirument, and 

 persuasion it has cost to obtain lor the mulberry, 

 and the making of silk, their present partial and 

 limited confidence! How slowly has the cultiva- 

 tion of Rata I3aga been progressing — and how 

 much more slowly the raising of lucerne. How 

 hard it is for people to give up keeping a litile 

 mountain of soil round each hill corn : how hard 

 to use the roller and cultivator: how hard to give 

 up cross ploughing! Or to illustrate this name feel- 

 ing in a diil'erent way, it was ibrly years after spi- 

 nach Avas introduced into the gardens of the op- 

 ulent, belbre it could be bought in Boston market: 

 and I doubt not but that there are those present 

 who now hear the name for the first time. The 

 rhubarb was twenty years in coming into fervor : 

 the tomato, the best of all summer vegetables, 

 nearly as long: and the salsify is now hardly a 

 regular marketable vegetable. While the sea 

 kale of Great Britain has not been able to tempt 

 a single cultivator, head lettuce as well known as 

 it is, is seldom raised in the countr^y, and the cau- 

 liflower more seldom still. " But the disgrace of 

 being slow to receive valuable novelties, is not 

 confined to our farmers and gardeners alone. 

 The medical fiiculty of Paris proscribed as poi- 

 sonous the potato, one hundred years after that 

 plant had raised millions of vigorous troops who 

 under JMarlborough had again and again beaten 

 the finest artnies of France. 



How few farmers there are that actually study 

 the nature of soils and manures, and crops ? How 

 few make any im[)rovements save those they see 

 instituted by their nearest circles of neighbors'? 

 All such they are willing to make. Now I ask, 

 and the- question contains the gist of the whole 

 matter, why a man may not as well learn from the 

 results of the neighbors' experiments and science 

 when stated in a book, as when seen on a fiirm'? 

 b]xtend the same principle. Great men, practical 

 men, in every part of the world, and lor many 

 years, have investigated the subject of agriculture, 

 and have written on it : their plans and experi- 

 ments as well successful as otherwise, have been 

 noted ; experiments have been properly instituted. 

 Now if a farmer may learn from a book written 

 by his neighbor, may he not much more learn 

 from this collected wisdom of the whole world? 

 Is it not a fact, and may we not point to shining 

 examples from the members of this societ}^, that 

 those who have studied books, and become book 

 farmers,, are the best farmers, and have the best 

 and most productive farms? Being willing to 

 learn from those men, as we all are, and thus from 

 books second hand, and why are we not willing to 

 go ourselves to to the fountain head, and thus be- 

 come pioneers in the cause? 



# # # * * 



I have thus, gentlemen, staled some reasons 

 why you should prosecute agriculture as a science, 

 and have thus briefly noticed some of the modern 

 improvements in that science, in order to induce in 

 your miihls the question " Why may we not ac- 

 complish what others have accomplished ?" And 

 I ask the (luestion — why may you not? W lio 

 shall say that an American cannot do as much as 



