234 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JA!V. 25, 1843 



EXTRACTS FROiM AN ADDRESS 



Before the Monroe County JV. Y. Jlgriciiltural So- 



ciely, hj its President, Hknry Colman, Esq. 



" Go Ahead." — " By the beneficent constitution 

 of Divine Providence, the earth, while it contri- 

 butes to the support of man and beast, is designed 

 to beconfie more productive, or to keep up its rich- 

 ness, from its own activity. It is like the fountain 

 of true charity, and beautifully emblematical of 

 the Divine beneficence ; the more it expends, the 

 more its abundance increases. It is like the hu- 

 man mind ; the more active it is rendered, the more 

 its powers are invigorated; the more it does, the 

 more it can do ; and tlie more its treasures are 

 poured forth, the more its fullness is enlarged. 

 The great object of the art of agriculture is there- 

 fore yet to be achieved. What has been done 

 once, can he done again. There is no monopoly 

 of power in this case. Nature is uniform in her 

 laws and operations. It is an old saying that " for- 

 tune favors the brave;" that is, men find their pow. 

 er increase witli their activity ; according to the 

 Latin proverb, " they are able because they believe 

 themselves able." In many respects they command 

 fortune. Taking advantage of the simplest of na- 

 ture's laws, and using her forces as she designed 

 they should be used, she is never wanting on her 

 part, but seconds every effort for improvement ; and 

 the more readily and cheerfully as these efforts are 

 the more spirited, energetic and determined. If 

 any man has raised one hundred bushels of corn, 

 or si.vty bushels of wheat to an acre, who nill p.-e- 

 tend that it cannot be done again .' No farmer, 

 ■who deserves to be called a farmer in the highest 

 sense, and to take rank among the noblest of this 

 nature's nobility — the lords of the soil — ought to 

 remain content until he has done it. When he 

 has accomplished this, then lie should not be satis- 

 fied unlil he has done even much more than this. 

 There is undoubtedly a Imiit beyond which we 

 cannot advance. All human attainments are ne- 

 cessarily finite. But who knows where this limit 

 is ? Who ever went so far as to he certain that 

 he could go no farther ? The difference between 

 that which cultivation hns produced already in some 

 hands, and that which is ordinarily produced, is 

 very great, and sufficient to occupy the enterprise 

 and ambition of most farmers for a long time to 

 come. But let them make tlie attempt to do all 

 they can do, or rather all that can be done. They 

 may not succeed at once. Few men succeed at 

 once in any great enterprise. But let them try 

 again, and again, and again. If, after doing their 

 best thoy fall short of the goal of their hopes and 

 expectations, yet there is a great .satisfaction to a 

 generous inind in the mere pursuit of a good and 

 useful object. An immense benefit comes to the 

 community from an example of intelligent and per- 

 severing exertion, l^et there be a generous ambi- 

 tion and a constant stimulus to enterprise in all the 

 departments of human industry and activity. Wlien 

 the heart beats, the impulse is felt throughout the 

 frame; and you cannot quicken the stream of life 

 in any one part, without accelerating the circula- 

 tions througii the whole body. Goon, then, trying 

 always to do bettor and better. While every oth- 

 er art is advancing in the career of improvement, 

 almost with the s|)eed of n locomotive engine, the 

 farmers should whip up their team, and not be dis- 

 tanced in the competition. There is a beautiful 

 circumstance connected with agricultural emula- 

 tion. In many of :he pursuits of life, one man gets 



rich by making another man poor. Ho climbs the 

 ladder by putting his foot on another man's should- 

 er ; or, he builds his own dwelling out of the frag- 

 ments of his neighbor's, wiiicli he has underminpd. 

 This is often a crying injustice, and inflicts many 

 bitter mortifications, or arouses vindictive and tiger 

 passions. Kniulation in agricultural improvement 

 enkindles no such baleful fires. A man can make 

 no improvements in husbandry, without at once ex- 

 tending the knowledge and advantages of them to 

 others. The enlargement of the capacities of the 

 soil, and every increase of its productions, confers 

 an immediate benefit upon the whole community." 



Appearance. — "I would have the windows of the 

 farm-house adorned with flowers, not in rusty tin 

 measures, and old black glazed tea-pots, and glass 

 bottles with the necks broken off, but in whole and 

 handsome ffower-pots, or neatly painted wooden 

 boxes, for they really cost nothing. I would have 

 the piazzas or porches trellised with vines, even 

 with scarlet runners, if nothing belter can be had. 

 I would have the door-yard filled with flowers and 

 shrubbery, and the road-side lined with trees — here 

 a clump and there a single line, mingling the vari- 

 eties as nature mingles them — cultivating them for 

 fruit, and cultivating them for mere ornament and 

 beauty. But this is all, you will tell me, for ap- 

 pearance sake. Well, is appearance nothing ? 

 Did you think notiiing of appearance when you 

 chose your wives ? and nolliing of your own ap- 

 pearance when you wished them to confirm the 

 election ? Rut why should the pleasures of sight 

 be so lightly esteemed .' Why should they be 

 spoken of in the hnguage of disdain or indifference ? 

 Are they not as rational, as respectable, as valua- 

 ble, as abundant, as innocent, as the pleasures of 

 the other senses? Are they not, indeed, the very 

 elements of some of the most refined pleasures of 

 the mind and heart ? Has God given us the sense 

 of sight, so wonderful, so capacious, so infinitely 

 varied in its resources and objects, for no purpose .-' 

 Is appearance nothing.' What is more studied 

 throughout the Creator's works ? What object is 

 there in nature, from the highest to the lowest, an- 

 imate or inanimate, swimming in the sea or in the 

 air, on the surface, or buried in the earth, which is 

 not, upon examination, found to be as beautiful as 

 if it were finished for no other purpose than to be 

 looked at ?" * * * 



Order and J^Teatness. — "Habits of order and 

 neatness, mere personal cleanliness, still more the 

 cultivation of a taste for beauty in ourselves and 

 in every thing which surrounds us and comes un- 

 der our control, are in themselves promoters and 

 securities of virtue. They become so by inspiring 

 self-respect, and exalting our sense of character. 

 The man who is known to respect himself, is al- 

 ways, in a measure, for that reason alone, secure of 

 the respect of others. He finds in tliat fact a pro- 

 tection from incitements within to wrong and un- 

 worthy actions, or against degrading and dishono- 

 rable propositions from without. There is likewise 

 a natural sympathy and ciumexion between the 

 love of natural beauty and the love of moral beau- 

 ty. Respecting that in the physical world which is 

 neat, useful, symmetrical and elegant, we come 

 naturally to love and venerate in the moral world 

 that which is of a corresponding type and charac- 

 ter. Whatever tends in the best sense to in-sipire 

 or strengthen a sentiment of the dignity of our na- 

 ture, serves to secure us from that which is degrad- 

 ing and dishonorable. Personal appearance and per- 



»' 



sonal manners are of vastly more importance in 

 moral point of view, than men in general are w 

 ing to admit. Vulgarity and slovenliness lead 

 low tastes and pursuits. I am not anxious to f ' 

 the race of gentlemen fariners, technically so ca 

 ed, increased, though I have no prejudice agai: 

 them; but I am very anxious that all farm' 

 should be gentlemen. I have no partiality for t 

 kid-glove style of farming; but on the other ha 

 I cannot see why the farmer should go with I 

 hands unwashed. I have not a little contempt 

 a farmer, who would consider himself above p' " 

 forming any labor which the business of tiie fa 

 might render necessary — whether it be c^tanding 

 the ditch or treading down the manure heap; — 1 

 I cannot think it neces.sary to his proper charac 

 as a farmer, that he should carry about him, wh i( 

 ' is services are fiiii.slied, the badges of his empk ft 

 menti to the discredit of his own appearance or 

 the offence and discomfort of others." 

 detest all false pride ; I perfectly nauseate that i lilc 

 fectation of sensibility or superior delicacy, whi 

 considers any of the honest labors of the farm 

 degrading, or any of the operations of nature ii; 

 improper for their inquiry or unworthy of Ihoir c 

 lervatiun ; but the pride of neatness, and ord 

 and decency, and modesty is to be respected as 

 essential element in good breeding and in virti 

 I mean, then, sin. ply to say, that there is not^ 

 the part either of men or women, the slightest i 

 compatibility between any household or outdc 

 care, any d<)mestic service, any farm labor whi 

 ever, and the highest intellectual cultivation, t 

 utmost delicacy and refinement of taste and ma 

 ners, and the most genuine courtesy and politene 

 which are to be found in any condition of life, a 

 which in their true character constitute the chai 

 of social intercourse." I^n 



REMAKABLE LONGEVITY. 



Mr Putnam — If you think the following woi 

 a place in your paper, you will please to insert i' 



In a late excursion to a small town, in the conn 

 of Norfolk, containing by the last census but 8 

 inhabitants, it was stated to the writer, that the 

 were, in that town, seventy persons of 70 years 

 age and upwards ; of that number, there we 

 thirty who were 80 and upwards, and three 00 ai 

 upwards. Yours, L. P. 



If'orcester Counlij, Jan. 17. 



The Clock Slruck First George HI. was e 



tremely punctual, and expected punctuality fro 

 every one who had business with him. The la 

 Lord H. was the most punctual person who atteni 

 ed on his majesty : he never was a second hehii 

 the lime. He had an appointment one day wii 

 the king at Windsor, at twelve o'clock : on pnssir 

 the hall, the clock struck twelve, on which h 

 lordship, in a rage at being half a minute too lat 

 raised his cane and broke the face of the cloc 

 Upon entering the king's apartment, his majesi 

 remiuded him that lie was a little behind his tim 

 which he excused as well as he could. At th 

 next audience, the king, as lie entered the roor 

 exclaimed, "Why, Lord H. ! how came you t7 

 strike tiie clock .'" 



" The clock struck first ! your majesty." 



'i'he king laughed heartily at the grave manne 



in which Lord H. justified himself — the mock 



lemnity of the answer adding zest to the ion m*. 



