1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



571 



way to South America, the Canadas, the British 

 Provinces, to Australia, Africa, and even to Aus- 

 tria. If Austria sends for our plows, who knows 

 but she will ask for republicanism next ? The 

 progress of this house is quite wonderful, when it 

 is considered that it began business in Worcester 

 in 1833 with only three hands, and has only been 

 established in Boston since 1840. 



The other houses mentioned at the head of this 

 article, do quite as heavy business in this depart- 

 ment. xVnd to show the progress of the busi- 

 ness, it may be mentioned that the large store of 

 Nourse & Co. is but just opened, and that the 

 beautiful I'ruit and floral store of Curtis & Lin- 

 coln has very lately been thrown open. Let any 

 one travel through these stores, let him behold 

 the fruits and flowers, the seeds destined for moth- 

 er earth, of every size and description ; the plows, 

 large and small, for hill side and for plain, for 

 light and f>r heavy soils ; let him survey the 

 beautiful forks and cultivators, the churns, that 

 will almost make butter alone ; the mowing and 

 reaping machines, and even hay-makers, and he 

 will be amazed at the perfection of the tools that 

 are put into the hands of our farmers, and at the 

 multitudes of labor-saving machines that have 

 been invented — now that labor is so dear and 

 scarce. 



Mowing machines were only introduced into 

 New England, to any extent, the past season. 

 They have been used by western farmers for some 

 six years. By the experiments made in New Eng- 

 land, though not in all respects satisfactory (for 

 the farmers must learn how to use them, and the 

 machines may need some slight improvement,) it 

 has been ascertained that a farmer may gather 

 his hay crop for one-half of the ordinary expense, 

 and some would sixy one-third. Even during the 

 first season, of the introduction of these machines 

 into New England, 300 of them have been sold by 

 a single house ; and it is supposed that the same 

 hands may sell 1200 the coming season. 



The rise of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety in this city, in 1829, was an omen of much 

 good in the dep;irtmcnt to which it has been de- 

 voted. Its annual exhibitions, aa fins as any in 

 tho world ; the frequent addresses delivered hi^. 

 fore it ; its weekly display of fruits and flowers ; 

 and the indefatigable efibrts of its members, have 

 made the gardens and orchards in this vicinity 

 famous over the country and the world. In the 

 late exhibition of this society, Col. M. P. Wilder 

 displayed 273 varieties of pears. This fact is 

 mentioned, as an illustration of the eflbrts that 

 are put forth in a single department of fruit 

 growing. 



A member of this society commenced, in this 

 city, the publication of the IMagazine of Horti- 

 culture in 1853. It is the oldest publication of 

 the kind in this country, and its j.resent editor, 

 who has edited it from the l)cginning, C. M. 

 Ilovey, Esq., is the oldest horticultural editor in 

 America. Tlie late lamented Downing was, when 

 a youth, a contributor to this magazine, during 

 the first year of its publication. We can hardly 

 estimate the amount of good an original publica- 

 tion of this kind has done in a period of twenty 

 years. Under the impetus given by the horticul- 

 tural paper and societies, nurseries of trees have 

 sprung up in all this region, where trees arc sent 

 to California, and the uttermost parts of the 



earth. Under the same influence, landscape gar- 

 dening has been taught scientifically, and has thus 

 been practised, so that the whole vicinity of Bos- 

 ton is one extensive and elegant garden — causin" 

 the visitor, from whatever part of the world, to 

 exclaim, "beautiful, beautiful !" 



Most of the agricultural implements sold in 

 Boston are manufactured in various parts of New 

 England. Worcester sends forth plows, cultiva- 

 tors, mowing machines, by the thousands and 

 millions. The same city, in connection with Mill- 

 bury, manufactures many hard-ware articles, used 

 by the husbandman. Easton gives us Ames' un- 

 equalled shovels. , Vermont sends forth countless 

 forks. West Fitchburg, New London, N. IL, 

 and other towns in Rhode Island, manufacture 

 any quantities of scythes. Ox yokes and bows are 

 made in vast numbers in various places in New 

 England. 



It would be interesting to dwell upon the won- 

 derful improvements in the manufacture of these 

 various implements. Within the recollection of 

 men in middle life, cast iron plows were unknown, 

 and when they were first introduced, the farmers 

 were actually afraid they would break in turning 

 over their first furrow. The plows of the olden 

 times, and times not very old, were of wood, with 

 comparatively little iron of any kind about them. 

 There is a plow now under exhibition in the New 

 York Crystal Palace, thatwas owned and used by 

 Roger Sherman, of Connecticut. This plow is of 

 wood, with a wrought iron share, and is quite a 

 curiosity, particularly as compared with the 

 splendid plows of the present day. 



It is now generally acknowledged that our 

 agricultural implements are superior to any man- 

 ufactured in any other portion of the world. And 

 we all rememljer how astonished John Bull was 

 at the display of Jonathan in this department, 

 in the London exhibition. And, as nature has 

 given America the best soil under the sun — that 

 great requisite to good farming — we see not why 

 this nation is not to be the best farming nation in 

 the world, and that at no distant day. 



We come to the conclusion, then, that Boston 

 though only the metropolis of sterile New Eng- 

 land, has been the fountain head of American 

 agricciU.irft. Boston was, itself, once only a large 

 farm. Its gardens „.-.. n.mnus for two hundred 



years, and have hardly disappeared, in \>.-i 



was organized the first State agricultural society 

 of this country, which had accomplished consid- 

 erable before the now great agricultural State of 

 Ohio was organized as a State in 1802, and while 

 much of New York was a howling wilderness. 

 Here, too, was established tlic first American 

 horticultural journal, and here is the greatest 

 agricultural ware-house in the world. And who 

 have done more for American agriculture than 

 the 7ncn of Boston and vicinity ; than such men 

 as Lowell, Webster, Coleman, Fessenden, Man- 

 ning, and Downer among the dead ; and \Vilder, 

 Cabot, Ilovey, Buckminster, Gray, Quincy, Mot- 

 ley, Allen, and others among tlie living? And at 

 no other time in our history has there been such 

 an interest in this subject in Boston, and in the 

 commonwealth, as at the present moment. Our 

 merciiants and mechanics are generally looking 

 forward to the day wiien they shall iiave their 

 little or large farms well tilled. Indeed, one is 

 now esteemed hardly a man, unless he has hia 



