202 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



D C. as, 1849. 



EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS 



By Hon. Ebcnezer Jackson, before the Middlesex Co- 



(Conn.} Jlgricullural Society. 



nUMBtRS AND IMPORTANCE OV FAHMERS. 



" The consideration accorded to the farmer in 

 our country, is but the homage due to its rightful 

 sovereign and possessor. By farmers it was con- 

 quered from the savage, hy them were its colonies 

 planted, and under the guidance of a patriot far- 

 mer, they purchased in many a bloody field, its na- 

 tional independence. Upon that class of our fel- 

 low-citizens, the nation relies as our main buhvark 

 against foreign enejnies, and upon its pure and en- 

 lightened attachment to liberty, for the preserva- 

 tion of our political institutions. It is estimated 

 that four-fifths of tlie male population of the Uni- 

 ted States are engaged in agriculture, and with 

 such a preponderancy, it cannot be questioned that 

 the destinses of the nation are in their hands, and 

 that its safety and prosperity essentially depend 

 npon their social and intellectual condition. Form- 

 ing thus the primary interest, and vast majority of 

 the con.stitucncy of the republic, it is surprising 

 that they have forborne so long to demand of the 

 State and National Governments, that encourage- 

 ment which has been so frequently and liberally 

 extended to other interests. The legislative boun- 

 ty which has at length been appropriated to assist 

 the formation ot Agricultural Societies, in this 

 State, is but the commencement of a system which 

 the intelligence of our farmers will soon require to 

 be carried out so far as a wise economy shall per- 

 mit ; for next to the promotion of education, no 

 better or more rightful use can be made of the pub- 

 lic revenue, than in dispensing it for the benefit of 

 those who mainly contribute it." 



PROGRESS or AGRICULTDRE. 



"The excellence to which the science of agri- 

 culture has attained in some parts of the old world, 

 and the results which have retarded attention to it 

 in the United States, furnish profitable subjects for 

 our consideration. If we find that prodigies have 

 been wrought which seem beyond our reach, let us 

 derive encoouragement from the reflection, that at 

 no very remote period, the husbandry of the best 

 tilled portions of Europe was scarcely as advanced 

 as ours of the present day, and that the same ener- 

 gy and intelligence which have rivalled their man- 

 ufactures, can also bring our agriculture to equal 

 perfection. 



"The colossal power and wealth of Great Bri- 

 tain, have been mainly developed and sustained by 

 her agriculture, which during the last century has 

 been fostered by every aid which physical science 

 could supply, until it has become the admiration 

 of the world. Shut out at one time from all com- 

 merce with the rest of Europe, and constantly with- 

 drawing immense numbers from her rural popula- 

 tion to supply the waste of war, scientific agricul- 

 ture, by augmenting the productiveness of the soil, 

 provided a compensating remedy for this incessant 

 drain upon her labor. Forced by necessity to rely 

 upon herself, she e.xhibited the astonishing fact, 

 that a country containing 1 18,000 square miles, 

 (about equal in e.xtent to the two States of New 

 York and Pennsylvania,) was capable of sustaining 

 in ordinary seasons, independent of foreign supply 

 & population of 24 millions ! 



'' It is les3 than a century since agriculture be- 

 gan to assume its just importance in any part of 

 Europe, and only fifty years since the establish 



ment by Great Britain, of her celebrated Board of 

 Agriculture, the first efficient step taken by that 

 Government to extend to this important interest an 

 efficient protection. Before that time, the improve- 

 men,8 in husbandry were partial and desultory — its 

 statistics vague and imperfect — and no accurate 

 mode was provided for ascertaining the amount and 

 value of its products, or the quantity of land under 

 tillage. By means of this Board, all these defi- 

 ciencies were supplied ; the true condition of the 

 farming interest was for the first time ascertained, 

 and the discovery made, that one half of the whole 

 kingdom was 'either completely waste, or under a 

 very defective system of husbandry.' A spirit of 

 reform was aroused by these investigations througli- 

 out the land ; the lights of science and experience 

 were invoked ; the press teemed with works upon 

 every branch of husbandry, and the ingenuity of 

 the artisan was tasked to supply every facility to 

 accomplish the great work. * # * 



" Interesting as are the triumphs of skill abroad, 

 their influence upon us as an example, is by no 

 means so impressive as that of those which have 

 been efl'ected in our own country, and especially 

 by those of our sister States whose soil and climate 

 assimilate with our own. Foremost in this class, 

 stands the venerable Commonwealth of Massachu- 

 setts, ivhose rapid improvement in agricultural, 

 commercial and manufacturing prosperity is worthy 

 of imitation by every other portion of New Eng- 

 land. Her legislature early took the lead in dis- 

 pensing with a liberal hand, protection and encour- 

 agement. Appropriations have for several years 

 been made for agricultural surveys of the State, to 

 collect accurate statistical returns of the soil and 

 productions, of the proportion of land cultivated in 

 the different townships, and in fine to obtain every 

 species of information which might exhibit the con- 

 dition of agriculture, and the resources of the Com- 

 monwealth. In addition to County Societies, there 

 is a State Society, which is enabled by the munifi- 

 cence of the Legislature, to offer the most tempt- 

 ing and liberal premiums, for which every farmer 

 in the State is entitled to compete. The first cat- 

 tle show ever held in Massachusetts, was in the 

 County of Berkshire in 1814, only 28 years ago; 

 and now every county in the State, except a very 

 few composed chiefly of maritime towns, has its 

 Society and annual show. The improvements in 

 cultivation of every description, and in the quality 

 and quantity of domestic supplies, since that peri- 

 od, have been surprising; of which some idea may 

 be formed from the fact stated in the last Report 

 of the State Commissioner, that the sales of neat 

 cattle, stores, sheep and swine during the year 

 1840, at Brighton, the great cattle mart of the 

 State, amounted to little short of two millions of 

 dollars. The existence of such a home market is 

 explained by another fact, ascertained from official 

 returns in 18-38, that tlie domestic manufactures of 

 this little State for that year, amounted to the enor- 

 mous sum of ninety millions of dollars. These 

 evidences of prosperity in a neighboring State, 

 possessing few natural advantages over Connecti- 

 cut, but on the contrary n less genial climate, prove 

 that we need not cross the ocean to discover the 

 rich rewards that are sure to follow an improved 

 husbandry, in conjunction with manufactures." 



CAUSES THAT HAVE RETARDED NEW ENGLAND 

 AGRICULTURE. 



"The agriculture of New England has hereto- 

 fore been affected by two prominent causes. One 



of these has been the prevalence of a speculative 

 spirit, which has tempted great numbers to prefer 

 the delusive paths of commerce, or the crowdeil 

 ranks of the learned professions, to the more suro 

 though moderate prospects of agriculture. Tho 

 fatal experience of the last few years has dissipa- 

 ted the dreams of thousands, who have gladly ex- 

 changed the harassing and uncertain toils of tho 

 counting house, or the long deferred hopes of pro- 

 fessional reward, for the healthy independent, and 

 unfailing pursuit of husbandry. The same faithful 

 monitor has awakened all classes of the communi- 

 ty to the necessity of economy, and of establishing 

 the foundations of public and private prosperity, 

 not upon the deceptive basis of commercial or finan- 

 cial speculation, but upon honest industry, solid 

 credit, and moderate expectations. The evils 

 which we have suffered, and still suffer, are un- 

 doubtedly grievous ; but if they have the effect to 

 bring back the public mind to a healthy tone, and 

 to establish a less fluctuating standard of value in 

 the business concerns of life, posterity will have 

 cause to bless the chastening hand which arrested 

 us in the road to extravagance and ruin. 



" Another form in which this impatient ambition 

 has operated to retard our agricultural advance- 

 ment, has been tho emigration of the young and 

 enterprising to the fertile regions of the West. At 

 an early period of her history, the products of New 

 England, not only sufficed for the support of her 

 population, but a considerable surplus was annually 

 exported. The vast solitudes of the Ohio and the 

 Mississippi had not then been invaded ; and none 

 had returned to inflame by glowing pictures of 

 their exuberant richness, that discontent to which 

 human nature is so prone. But when the veil waa 

 rent, when the interposing forests had bowed be- 

 fore the swelling tide of population, disclosing 

 boundless prairies of seemingly exhaiistle.ss fertili- 

 ty ; what more natural than that the inhabitants of 

 a stubborn soil should become dissatisfied with 

 their lot, and rush to seize the tempting prize 

 which nature so bounteously offered. But like all 

 extravagant hopes, how often have those of the 

 western emigrant been doomed to disappointment! 

 The difficulties and privations which attend settle- 

 ments even in the richest territories of the West, 

 and the diseases generated by the very fertility of 

 the soil, have caused many to return to their early 

 homes, and have convinced the rising generation 

 that the inducements for removal are frequently 

 outweighed by its disadvantages, and by those nu- 

 merous comforts and privileges which the emi- 

 grant abandons when he quits the paternal home- 

 stead. Of what avail are cattle upon a thousand 

 hills, if the loss of health be the price of their ac- 

 quisition ? or what is the advantages of granarieSi 

 filled with corn, when plenty reduces its price to- 

 one-fourth of its value in New England ? Such, 

 too, has become the disorder and depreciation in 

 the circulating medium of those States most fa- 

 vored by soil and climate, that this inconvenience 

 adds no small item to the catalogue of the emi- 

 grant's disappointments. He looks back with 

 longing eyes to his native land ; he remembers its 

 pure and wholesome air, its lovely scenery, its neat 

 and comfortable dwellings, its peaceful villages, . 

 the abodes of law and order — and wonders by whal i 

 fatuity he could have consented to deprive himself 

 and his children of those manif(dd blessings. The 

 present sound financial condition of tho Eastern 

 section of our country, contrasted with that of any 

 other portion of the confederacy, is a signal proof 



