vol.. XIV. NO. •30. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL, 



not here enter on the inquiry, How far on:- gen- 

 eral cliaracter docs jiisstice to tlin motives and 

 opportunities with wliich we have been favored ? 

 Bnt I will say a few words on the state of our 

 aprieultiire in respcet to profit. Will it still be 

 said, as it lias been saiil, " time out of mind," our 

 farmers make no profit by their business. This 

 assertion is particularly ill timed in the jiresent 

 season, when our crops have been sufficient in 

 quantity and excellent in quality, iini tliij prices 

 of nil kinds of agricultural produce are unusually 

 high. But in general does agriculture give no 

 profit, when it enables the farmers of Worcester 

 county to furnish their tables with the richness of 

 the fields, the fattest of th« stall, and the luxuries 

 of commerce, and to make a better provision for 

 their nobler appetites, by a good degree of intel- 

 lectual cultivation and a large share of the refine- 

 ments and enjoyments of social life ? It may be 

 true that our farmers do not make any greater 

 proportionate increase of their capital, than their 

 fathers did forty years a»o. But their expenses 

 of living are vastly more free. I speak of these 

 increased expenses, to give a plain and decisive 

 answer to the complaint, that farming gives no 

 profit, and certainly not to censure any one for 

 using every gratification which the indulgence of 

 Providence, and his own efibits, have placed with- 

 in his reach. But there is other evidence in the 

 case, which I will not here adduce; for I will not 

 point to respected friends within these walls, who 

 in theirown affairs furnish a demonstration, known 

 and admitted by all, that farming may be carried 

 on with profit in the county of Worcester. It is 

 true that our farmers generally do not receive that 

 profit which they are able and ought to obtain. 

 The agricultural resources of our county are not 

 yet fully known, and so far as they are known, 

 they are not often made to yield the greatest pos- 

 fiible results. The improvement of agriculture 

 must be comparatively slow, in every situation, 

 for it cannot conunand the facilities by which 

 commerce and manufactures are rapidly advanced. 

 In evidence of this, I will briefly allude to several 

 particulars. Jn our county, and in America gen- 

 erally, farmers, by living separate from each other 

 and remote from the world, cannot have the ben- 

 efit of imitation and competition, which animate 

 and aid their brethren in the other great branches 

 of active industry. Agriculture has received and 

 can expect little aitl from machinery for saving 

 labor, except in the mere simple tools which are 

 worked by the hand. I observe further that the 

 division of labor, which is the perfection of art, 

 can be had but partially in agriculture, because 

 the operations cannot be simultaneous, and the 

 same man must he a ploughman, a reaper, a 

 thresher — in a word, must in each season turn 

 his hand to a hurried succession of all the labors 

 of husbandry ; yet the different departments ol 

 agriculture may with advantage be made the ob- 

 jects of exclusive attention, where the situation is 

 peculiarly favorable ; as the dairymen in the west 

 part of our county, and the graziers in the north, 

 full well understand. And it would be wise in 

 all cases to make the more profitable the principal 

 business of our farms, instead of attempting to 

 carry on profitable and less jirofitable and even 

 unprofitable husbandry, with equal care and labor. 

 Our farms are large, and there has been too gen- 

 erally a disposition, and I may say an ambition, 

 to spread over the whole surface of the farm an 

 amount of cultivation, by tillage, which would 



give more profit if it w>re apjilicd to a fourth part 

 or even to a smaller portion of the ground. Does 

 any one ask how the rest of the land shall be 

 used ? I answer, it may be profitably appropria- 

 ted to raising forest trees, to keeping sheep, or to 

 raising the mulberry tree for silk worms. 



On the subject of forest trees, I will only call 

 your attention to the facts that the price of wood 

 for tiud)eranil fuel is high and advancing, and the 

 quantity is rapidly reduced, while there are fuw 

 and very inadequate ])rovisions for the renewal of 

 our forests. And I leave these facts to have such 

 influence as they ought. 



In regard to raising sheep I will remark, that it 

 has long since been demonstrated that shee|) will 

 be more healthy, and produce better wool, under 

 our climate, on the sweet short pasture of our hills 

 and plains, than in mild climates with more luxu- 

 rious food ; and they improve pastures more than 

 other stock, and may be cheaply kept in winter. 

 Manufactories, on the very borders of our farms, 

 afford the best market for wool, at liberal prices, 

 and lamb and mutton always find a ready and 

 advantageous sale. 



Though some few individuals are wise enough 

 to take advantage of these circumstances, and ob- 

 tain a large income from their well selected flocks, 

 how small is the number of sheep raised in this 

 county. The committees on sheep at our annual 

 cattle shows have almost invariably uttered the 

 same language of surprise and regret that so few 

 sheep were exhibited from a district so favorable 

 for raising them. The truth is,' the animals are 

 not here. If our farmers will but consult their 

 true interest in this business, they may yet be 

 known at least as competitors witli the foreign 

 importer and the wool growers of the more re- 

 mote parts of our Commonwealth, and of other 

 States of the Union, in supplying with wool the 

 manufactories within our county, and our meat 

 market may be furnished with lamb and nmtton 

 without resorting to Brighton, or making journeys 

 to remote parts of the Connnou wealth, and even 

 into the territory of other States. 



'ihe history of the culture of silk in our coun- 

 try presents a remarkable instance of the slow- 

 progress of the improvement of agriculture. In 

 the year 1759 the colony of Georgia exported to 

 England upwards of ten thousand pounds of raw 

 silk, which was sold for two or three shillings a 

 pound more than the silk of any Euro|)ean coun- 

 try. And it has been jiroved by small experi- 

 ments in all parts of our country, that silk may he 

 produced here, as good, and perhaps better, than 

 any which we can import. Yet the silk manufac- 

 tories which exist among us, inconsiderable and 

 little known as they are, depend on foreign im- 

 portation for their supply. It is stated that pid)- 

 lic documents show, that the value of the raw silk 

 imported last year exceeded ten milieus of dollars. 



Within the few last years, the culture of silk 

 has been undertaken with much spirit and system 

 in several States of the Union. Ingenious ma- 

 chines have been invented for reeling silk fiom 

 the cocoons in tue most perfect manner, which 

 will obviate one of the greatest difficulties which 

 we have heretofore encountered in this business. 

 Other machinery, adapted to the high wageu of 

 the country, by saving labor, has been invented 

 for making the rich and beautiful fabrics for 

 which we have been indebted to foreign industry, 

 and is now in a course of very encouraging experi- 

 ment. 



Mbr culUiic an.l manufacture of silk was 

 attempted in Worcester comity many years ago, 

 but the business was soon given up. Attention 

 is again directed to it, and groves of mulberry 

 trees have been planted in many towns, and indi- 

 viduals deserve much credit for their efforts to 

 establish the business on an extended system. 

 The cidture of silk is rocoimnended to us by the 

 congeniality of our climate, and by the fact, thut 

 on our light land and stony ground, which poorly 

 repays the labor of ordinary tillage, the mulberry 

 tree will thrive and produce better silk than on 

 richer soils. I need not go into a detail of the 

 operations and profits of the business. Excellent 

 treatises and manuals have brought all necessary 

 information on the subject within the reach of 

 every one who desires it. By a recent law, a 

 bounty of fifty cents is offered for every pound of 

 raw or thrown silk produced within the limits of 

 this Commonwealth. This bounty will seem more 

 adequate when we consider the chea|iness of the 

 labor by which silk may be produced ; since wo- 

 men and children are perfectly competent to do 

 all that is required in the feeding and treatment 

 of the worm. In these days of refinement, when 

 the active household duties, which have made the 

 mothers of New England such wives and mothers 

 as they are, are still left to be performed by those 

 mothers, it is no trifling acquisition to have an 

 active, healthful and profitable employment, the 

 care of silk worms, that may for six weeks in 

 summer call away the fair daughters from their 

 beloved sedentary occupations, which, though 

 good and necessary in their turn, have no claim 

 to that exclusive devotion by which so many love- 

 ly ones have sacrificed their beauty, their health, 

 and the elasticity of their mibds, and what some 

 may deem v^orth caring for, their fitness for mar- 

 ried life. 



If machinery for making ths richer silk fabrics 

 should have the ftill success wbich is hoped and 

 expected, our fair friends will find that their robes, 

 which are most splendid in the material, will be 

 move graceful and becoming when they are in 

 [lart the work of their own industry. But the 

 profit of the culture of silk does not entirely de- 

 pend on the success of the silk manufacture of 

 our country ; for a large foreign market is open 

 to us. England produces no silk, and invites 

 freely the importation of the article ; and the 

 greater part of the silk manufactured in France 

 is of foreign growth. 



We rejoice that we are not the sole possessors 

 of the local advantages which have been consid- 

 ered. They are enjoyed, in diflerent degrees, by 

 all sections of our Commonwealth, and by other 

 States of the Union, and especially by the New 

 England States. But we may congratulate our- 

 selves that our country and our State are blessed 

 with so large a share. We highly prize these ad- 

 vantages, not as fountains of [deasure in which 

 we may indolently indulge, but as sources of 

 power and foundations of character. The pre- 

 diction, long since uttered, is now often repeated, 

 that « the star of empire westward holds its way," 

 and voices of alarm and warning call on us to 

 mark the gigantic strides of the " Empire State," 

 and the rapid increase of the population and 

 wealth of the Valley of the Mississippi ; and in 

 tones not unlike those of contemptuous pity, we 

 arc told to remember how small is the territory of 

 our Commonwealth. But we will suffer our. 

 selves to be moved by none of these things. 



