NEW e:n€}l.a]vd farmer, 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. IJARRETT, NO. 32 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aokicui.tuiiai, VVaribol-se.) — T. G. FESSEM)1:N, EDJTOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 2, 1835. 



NO. 21. 



REV. JOHN TODD'S ADDRESS 



BELIVEKED BKFORE THE AGRICULTURAL SOCTETV, 



at .Vorthampton, October 7, 1835. 



There scciii to be some obvious ailvantagcs in 

 callini; a iimn to aiblress you on n subject about 

 which lie knows nothing. If a man landerstands 

 a suhjcpt, yon feel bound to give him your close 

 attention, — to weigh what he says, — anil, it 

 may be, yield some prejudices, or act in conform- 

 ity with his advice. Not so in the other case : 

 if you bestow little or no attention, you feel that 

 he deserves no more ; if you feel that here or 

 there your principles or practice are reproved, 

 you ran comfort yourself that he does not under- 

 stand the subject. All these advantages, and 

 many others, equally great, will be abundantly 

 realized on this occasion. There is one thing, 

 however, which 1 hope you will remember ; and 

 that is, that if 1 do not throw out any hints which 

 are of any worth, it will not be because I do not 

 •wish to do it. 



It is obvious to every man, whether he he a 

 keen observer or not, that our farming improve- 

 ments are very far from keeping p.ice with the 

 day. Our manufacturers spare no study, no 

 travel and no expense, to improve their machi- 

 nery. If we have not machinists who can make 

 thi.s or that part of the machinci-y, they send to 

 Europe where there arc. If we have not men 

 who can dye this or that color, or weave this or 

 that beautiful pattern, they will search every nook 

 and corner of the old world, till they are found. 

 And men have been smuggled away from Eng- 

 land in casks and hogsheads wljo are now in 

 some of our factories. The man who can sim- 

 plify a machine by taking out a single wheel, is 

 rewarded with a fortune. But when and where 

 do you find the farmer or a combination of farm- 

 ers who take equal pains to make improvements? 

 Is it not a kind of received maxim, that little or 

 no improvements are to be made in farming? 

 And as a profession, is not that of fanning sup- 

 posed to be where, or about where, it is to re- 

 main ? As you pass over the beautiful hills and 

 Talleys of New England, and see not more than 

 a half, or perhaps a thiril of the land subdued ; 

 barren hills, bushy swamps, and fern pastures, — 

 there not something forbidding in the profession 

 of a farmer ? And do not our young men, for 

 the most part, turn away to almost any thing, 

 rather than be farmers? Why, they had rather 

 be pale-faqpd, pennyless clerks in our cities — 

 rrther make their home on the mountain waves 

 — rather hide in the forests of the west, than to 

 settle down as farineis in New England. 



There is no banner that waves upon the deep, 

 which waves over prouder hearts, than our own 

 stars. There is no ship that climbs the waves, 



that leaps off with a freer gait, than our own 



And there is no man on the face of the earth, that 

 can lift up his head with more real respect, than 

 a citizen of these United States. But the proud- 

 est spot, (if we may tdk about pride,) on this or 

 any other continent, is New England, You may 



talk about the mighty west — or the lofty charac- 

 ter of the south — but go where you will, there 

 is no spirit that walks this earth like that of the 

 Yankee. Do you hear the fall of the mighty tr-e 

 in the wilderness ? de|iend upon it, it falls by thi; 

 Yankee's axe. Do you find the stream turned 

 away from yonder mountain, and apparently made 

 to run up hill, and increase as it runs ? it is hi.'' 

 hand that digs the channel and guides it. Do 

 you find the man near the southern pole who 

 dares go and look into the mouth of the whale ? 

 he is a Yankee ; to be sure he cannot make dis- 

 coveries in the moon, and find mountains of |ire- 

 cio'us stones there ; but if you could make him 

 believe there were such things there, I verily be- 

 lieve he would seek a ladder by which to get 

 there, and then with a patent for the invention, 

 draw it up afler him. 



Now for one, I not only glory in being a New 

 England man, but I want to transmit this charac- 

 ter down to posterity. But I believe we are in 

 fault in one respect, viz : we suffer too many of 

 our young men to go oflfand leave us. We raisfe 

 up a promising son, upon whom we set our hearts, 

 and if he has any share of spirit and enterprise, 

 he is away, and New England ts no more his 

 home. A few remain, — not one-fifth of what 

 the soil would support, not enough to raise what 

 we consume, but enough to keep our farms in 

 always the same condition as they have been for 

 generations. Our hills will continue barren, and 

 the mica will shine in our rocks, and whole dis- 

 tricts will continue swamps and waste lands, so 

 long as our young men all go off. Those who 

 would make first rate men are pushed off, and 

 their enterprise is all lost to us. Now if I could 

 throw out a few bints which would be the means 

 of keeping our young men at home, I should not 

 only promote the interest of the firmer, but the 

 whole interests of New England, and of the na- 

 tion. Let us look, then, at the causes which carry 

 our young men away. 



There is one trait in the character of New- 

 England people peculiar to thein. It is the ar- 

 dent, unquenchable love of money. Money the 

 Yankee must and will have. On that he fixes 



his eye with a gaze ever burning and eager 



Sometimes you will find him chasing the whale, 

 trapping the beaver, on the rafY on the St. Law- 

 rence, on the pedlar's cart among the mountains, 

 or watching the machinery which every moment 

 turns out a button, or a roll of cloth. Sometimes 

 you will see hiin seeking money by marriage at a 

 distance — and I believe this is the only way in 

 which he honestly acquires it, while at the same 

 time he loses all self-respect. This leads him to 

 inventions and patents, and I regret to say it, 

 sometimes to a species of dishonesty which is 

 well known by the name of wooden nutmeg sell- 

 ing. It also lead.s to many useful inventions ; 

 and in the words of the ballad which 1 lately 

 heard beautifully quoted, 



" If we the wooden nutmeg make. 

 We made the cotton gin, Sir." 



Now many, who most egri ginusly mistake our 

 chara(;ter, suppose that all this Sj rings from a sel- 

 fish, a cold, an avaricious dis| osition ; that it 

 would be impossible for a race, in whose bosoms 

 there was a particle of any thing but avarice, to 

 be so greedy for money. But this is not so. '1 he 

 Yankee miserly ! \\ hat mean tlie.se schools, these 

 colleges, these seminaries of learning scattered 

 over all New England — the glory of this or any 

 other land ! Is there a spot on earth where 

 money is so freely and so aljimdant'y given to 

 these and to kin<lred objects, as in New England! 

 Miserly ! Shew our community a great and no- 

 ble enterprise of a |iubli(; nature, and -see if ther« 

 he a ]ieo[)le on earth who wi 1 be so generous — 

 more noble — more sublime in their acts. 



And yet it must be confessed that the Yankee 

 loves money, and that he will have it. And what is 

 the princi|de which moves him in all this? I will 

 tell you: it is an inborn, unquenchable, irrepressible, 

 desire to be independent. Our sons, from the 

 very cradle, breathe the air of independence — 

 and we teach them to owe no man — to depend 

 upon no n)an. It is to gratify this love of inde- 

 pendence that they rake the ocean and the earth 

 for money. Now I woulil not have them possess 

 less of this spirit; but I would shew them that 

 they can gratify it by staying at home. Let the 

 enterprise which is expended in subduing the for- 

 ests, and enduring the fevers of our new country, 

 be expended upon the waste hills and unsubdued 

 valleys at home, and New England would be a 

 garden, and we could have a population, 1 hesi- 

 tate not to say, of ten to one. Try then to raise 

 the standard of farming, by sul>duing our soil, and 

 you keep our youth at liome. Till this is done, 

 and till our young men can see that they can live 

 here and be independent, they will go oflT. They 

 ought to go off. Now there is a great mistake 

 among farmers, which has a bearing on this point. 

 And that is, they covet too much land. Almost all 

 our farms are probably from f'our to ten times too 

 large. A farmer never feels that he has got land 

 enough. He adds field to field, does not half sub- 

 due or m.-inure what he has got, and still wants 

 more. One of the most productive and profitable 

 farms I ever saw, contained but fourteen acres. 

 It was every inch subdued, improved and ma- 

 nured ; and the owner is what we call a very 

 thrifty, if not a rich man, — while his neighbor, 

 who skims over three hundred acres, and works 

 full as hard, grows poor. By proper manage- 

 ment, I am satisfied, every acre of land which is 

 fit to raise corn upon, can be made to yield one 

 hundred bushels to the acre. Is it not better to 

 put the manure and care and labor upon it, and 

 raise the one hundred bushels, than to spread the 

 same over four acres, and thus drive away three 

 of your sons to the west ? As long as fiirmers 

 feel that they must have so much land, they will 

 be in debt, will hate Life Insurance Ofiices, will 

 never see what the earth can be made to yield, 

 and never have New England filled ii)) with a 

 great body of intelligent farmers. As things novr 



