NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



123 



)n and no appiicntion of the means to re«:tore 

 eir lost fertility. If migration be continued 

 der these circumstances some districts will 

 reafler exhibit all the features and poverty 

 a desert, and extensive tracts of valuable land 

 II be a waste to the injury of our agriculture, 

 inulactures and commerce. 

 If our country is not to be loft waste, and in- 

 [mMk of sustainino^ a rapidly increasing popu- 

 ion, means must be adopted to restore our 

 ds to their origfinal productiveness. 

 I have made these general observations «p- 

 the nature and objects of agriculture, its im- 

 -tance to mankind, its tendency to improve 

 condition of society, the propriety and neces- 

 of placing it in the most respectable and 

 orable place among the arts, of aiding it by 

 ans ol scientitic knowledge, and the fallacy 

 onie of the prevailing ideas respecting it, 

 t we might estimate the importance of zeal- 



ystcmatic efforts to improve it. 

 Mtliough individual exertions may do much, 

 he improvement of agriculiural knowledge, 

 neither individual exertions, however well 

 lied, or well directed, have been found sufii- 

 t, to advance the interests of husbandry with 

 ainty and etTect. 



V cursory view, of the agricultural history 

 ^reat Britain, will convince us of this fact. 

 we are induced to wonder, that among a 

 pie, and under a government, where the arts 

 sciences have been patronized with amuni- 

 it liberality, creditable to the government, 

 frequency oppressive to the people, no reg- 

 system, for the improvement of the agri- 

 ire of the country, should have been adopt- 

 mtil as late as 1793. 



ccordiug to their best historians, the art 

 rriculture was at a low ebb until the 14lh 

 jry, at which time, it began to be j)ractised 

 e middle and northern parts of England, 

 ems however, not to have been cultivated 

 cience, until the latter end of the 16lh 

 iry ; at which time, Fitz Herbert publish- 

 s tirst woik, entitled ■' the book of husban- 

 ' from this period, to the tmieof the com- 

 vealth under Cromwell, small advances 

 made; when Sir Hugh Piatt, discovered 

 rought into use a variety of manures, tor 

 jrtilizing and recovery of exhausted soils, 

 e time of the restoration, agriculture ap- 

 ; to have been much neglected, until Eve- 

 and Tull, excited the attention of the na- 

 o its importance and utility. After their 

 up to the year 1790, many valuable im- 

 ;ments, were made in the practice, and 

 al eminent writers, rendered important 

 ces, by enlightening the minds of their 

 ry men and inducing emulation among them. 

 30ut the year 1790, Sir John Sinclair, who 

 listinguished for his genuine patriotic phi- 

 ropy, conceived the idea of a national board 

 ricullure ; and in the year 1793, after the 

 s of its utility were removed, and the dif- 

 y Si delay attending all novel attempts at im- 

 ments were fivercome, the charter of this 

 ble institution was granted. To thissocie- 

 ys Dr. Gregory, we are indebted for 80 vol- 

 of the most useful agricultural knowledge, 

 rk comprising so many important objects 

 ; science of agriculture, cannot fail of pro- 

 g national beoeiits, greater perhaps than 

 been derived from any other political in- 

 on of modern times. By pursuing such a 



plan for a few years, and publishing to the world 

 such communications, under some systematic 

 arrangement, we may expect, that agriculture 

 will become the best understood and the most 

 accessible of any art, in the whole circle of hu- 

 man acquirement. We have in this short epi- 

 tome of the agricultural history of England much 

 to excite surprise, much to avoid, and much to 

 imitate. 



We are surprised, that among a people whose 

 words antedate the christian era, who soon after 

 that epoch, had intercourse with the liomans, 

 the most civilized and most advanced in arts and 

 sciences of any people of the earth; who passed 

 ihrough many revolutions in the state of their 

 society, and had intercourse with so many neigh- 

 boring nations, who excelled in the spirit of chiv- 

 alry and retained an ardent desire tor freedom, 

 and who I'reqnenlly sufiered extreme distress 

 from famine, and almost continual difficulties 

 Irom short crops, should have neglected their 

 agricultural interests, until as late as the 14th 

 century, and alter that period should have left 

 them to be advanced by individual exertion 

 alone, until the year 1792. 



We ought to avoid the apathy which seems to 

 have prevailed among this people respecting 

 agriculture ; but we ought to admire and imitate 

 tbe zeal with which when once the powerful 

 machinery of the national board of agriculture 

 was put iu motion, they seconded every revolu- 

 tion and accelerated its velocity, until several 

 million acres of land which had before been 

 waste and considered unproductive were reduc- 

 ed to a state of high imjirovement and almost 

 every field in the kingdom grew green and luxu- 

 riant under its influence, as if new and fertiliz- 

 ing dews had been sent down from heaven to 

 bless and cheer the efforts of the husbandman. 

 The history of onr own agriculture will equally 

 convince us that individual exertion is incapable 

 of producing that improvement in agricultural 

 knowledge which its importance demands. 



It will be unnecessary however to enter info 

 details where a subject is so well known and 

 time will permit the mention of a few facts only. 

 Prior to the introduction of systematic eflort'', by 

 means of agricultural societies, to improve our 

 husbandry, the whole agricultural products of 

 the United Slates, were estimated at only about 

 $200,000,000. In 1817, a short time after the 

 system for improvement was introduced and 

 before it had time to extend and perfect itself 

 and to produce the beneficial results which may 

 hereafter be expected from it if persevered in, 

 our agricultural products, were estimated at 

 gl62,634,000. He who has travelled in those 

 sections of our country where these institutions 

 have overcome the difficulties incident to their 

 tirst formation and are now in the full tide of suc- 

 cessful experiment, will ask no other or better 

 evidence of the superiority of united, over indi- 

 vidual exertions for the improvement of the ag- 

 riculture of a people — his conviction is involun- 

 tary and perfect. 



The several agricultural societies within this 

 state have been recently united by the inter- 

 vention of a board of agriculture and the foun- 

 dation laid for a systematic plan of improve- 

 ment. By the agency of this board, the farmer 

 will be enabled to receive a compend of' useful 

 information respecting the art of husbandry, 

 and will be relieved from the labor necessarily 

 required to make him acquainted with the more 



voluminous and less condensed wi)rks on th<i 

 subject of agriculture. 



The County Societies will annually contrib- 

 ute to increase the fund of knowledge and has- 

 ten the work and excite (he spirit of inqirove- 

 ment and emulation. 



We have to lament that the difficulties and 

 obstacles incident toj the formation and suc- 

 cessful operations of such institutions have not 

 been entirely overcome. It was in hnve been 

 expected that upon the first advances of the 

 government in the grant of the charter and a 

 fund for premiums to excite emulation, every 

 respectable farmer wilhin the county would 

 have hailed the event with joy and readily 

 tendered his exertions (o accelerate the progress 

 of agricultural improvement. 



With a population of 8653 engaged in agri- 

 culture according to the last census, we regret 

 to find only the number of 139 enrolled as mem- 

 bers of tbe Grafton Agricultural Society of 

 >vhich number 2o are professional men and a 

 number of others engaged principally in trade. 

 Doubt seems to have supplanted confidence and 

 exertion and by many indications, we have rea- 

 son to apprehend that too many of our legisla- 

 tors have drank deeply at this destructive foun- 

 tain. 



We cannot, however, sutler ourselves fo in- 

 dulge the belief, that the representatives of an 

 enlightened community, jealous of their liber- 

 ties and lynx eyed with respect to their inte- 

 rests, will be ])ermiltcd (if they should be so 

 disposed) to abandon one of the most important 

 interests of Ihe stale, and suffer the exertions to 

 improve our agriculture, to droop and expire for 

 want of judicious aud timely aid. They cannot 

 be permitted nor is it to be believed, that they 

 will be disposed to forget or neglect that true, 

 just saying of \'altel, '• The sovereign ought to 

 neglect no means to render the land under his ' 

 jurisdiction as well cultivated as possible." 



But I have already taxed your [latience too 

 long and must rely upon your candor to palliate 

 errors. It is not unfrequently more judicious to 

 call into action the powers and means already 

 possessed, than to win theories which may 

 prove of no practical importance. 



Curious and simjde manner of keeping Apricots, 

 Peaches, Plums, Refresh all the year. By M. 

 Lemery. 



Beat well up together equal quantities of ho- 

 ney and spring water; pour it into an earthen 

 vessel, put in the fruits all freshly gathered and 

 cover them up quite close. When the fruit is 

 taken out, wash it in cold water, and it is lit for 

 immediate use. 



FROM A CORRESPONDENT. 



Substitute for IFAUc Lcarf-Take the best Rhode . 

 Island lime, and slake with the smallest possible 

 quantity of water : as soon as it is cool, add to it 

 buttermilk (strained so as to free it from the 

 butter,) in such proportion as will make it as 

 thick as common white-wash be careful that it 

 is free from lumps. — To he applied with a 

 white-wash brush. 



Substitute for Champaigne Wine. — A very ex- 

 cellent substitute for Champaigne wine is .taid 

 to be made from the juice of vnripe gooseber- 

 ries with a (large) quantity of sugar, sufficient 

 to render it sweet. 



