268 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH a, 1836. 



A?J ADDRESS 



To the Essex Agricultural Society, at Danvers, 

 September 30, 1835, at their Annual Cattle Show. 

 By Daniel P. King. (Publislied by onlur ol' 

 tlie Society.) 



fCuntinaed from page 250.) 

 But let it not be inferred from these remarks, 

 that the [)ul)lic interest in the suliject of agriciil- 

 nire has declined-, tliat the permanence of this 

 Soeicty is in danger, or tli;it its prospects are less 

 promising than they have been. 'J his large and 

 respectable assembly would contradict such an 

 opinion ; the long and regularly increasing list of 

 members would confute it. The number of ani- 

 mals in your pens, the well contested ploughing 

 match, the products of the dairy, the exhibition of 

 manufactured articles, elegant and varied in their 

 qualities, are satisfactory evidence that the useful- 

 ness and prosperity of your Society have not de- 

 clined. The fruits and flowers exhibited on this 

 occasion are witnesses of the increasing interest 

 in the object of your asso<-iation, too welcome and 

 beautiful to be overlooked. We hail these signs 

 as omens of good for the luture, not doubtful nor 

 uncertain. From the examination of all these 

 fruits and flowers, the products of the earth, the 

 beasts of the field, the beautiful specimens of the 



cunning workmanship of ingenious hands all 



made for njan's use and enjoyment from the 



liber.il abundance of those well furnished tables, 

 we have come up into this temple of the Loid to 

 offer Him the incense of deeply afl^ected and grate- 

 ful hearts. By hymns and solemn prayer and 

 thanksgivings, we have testified our gratitude for 

 the regular return of summer and winter, seed 

 time and harvest, for his loving kindness which 

 has crowned the year, and for his tender mercies 

 which are over all his works. But our professions 

 of gratitude are like false blossoms on the vine, 

 beguiling us with the hope of fruit, if they are not 

 accompanied by grateful conduct as well as by 

 grateful affections — they are like fungous ears 

 ou our corn stalks, fair in their outward appear- 

 ance, but within full of all uncleanness, if they 

 are not followed by obedient, virtuous lives. To 

 a benevolent benefactor, a proper improvement of 

 the gift is the most acceptable acknowledgement. 

 Have we, as farmers, made such a practical ac- 

 knowledgement for the blessings by which weaie 

 surrounded ? Have we no neglected corner over 

 which the lazy demon of sloth has long brooded 

 in sluggish iriaclivity, and which the busy hand of 

 industry would make as blooming and fruitful as 

 a garden ? Have we no meadow abandoned to 

 bulrushes,- flags, and croaking frogs, which a little 

 draining and dressing would cover with valuable 

 crops .' Are not our pastures infested with briars, 

 thistles and bushes? Are there not in our fields 

 hosts of weeds contending with the corn and pota- 

 toes for the mastery, and which will certainly gain 

 the victory unless we come to the rescue ? Are 

 there by our walls no belts of bushes, every year 

 making wider and wider encroachment upon our 

 cultivated lands ? Are there in our fields no loose 

 rocks and heaps of stones, obstructing the plough 

 and the scythe, and like blotches on the fair face 

 of beauty, disfiguring the prospect ? Have we 

 no ruinous, dilapidated fences, temptin" cattle 

 otherwise orderly and well behaved to overleap 

 the modesty of their nature, and to commit breaches 

 against the peace of the neighborhood? Have 

 we in our gardens no uninvited, intrudin"- guests I 



plants which we have neither sowed nor watered, 

 which we might ofl^er as a most acceptable dessert 

 to those epicureans of our establishment, who 

 place the supreme good in pleasure — the pleasure 

 of living at ease, of faring luxuriously, and of 

 growing fat ? Is it not our fault that these idlers 

 have no better emjjloyment than to speculate find 

 philosophize? Have we no rich alluvial deposits 

 in ditches, swamp holes or sunken meadows, from 

 which we might make drafts that would return 

 us a liberal interest ? Have we no naked, him- 

 gry, exhausted fields, with imploring accents beg- 

 ging us to come and dress, feed and repruit them ? 

 In balancing our accoimts, do we find that we 

 owe no man aught excejjt love and good will ? 

 Every good farmer finds it pleasant and profitable 

 to keep a journal in which he notes every day's 

 employments and incidents ; in reviewing ours, 

 do we find no necessary labor neglected ? Is the 

 place where our example and influence are most 

 felt, a pattern of order and neatness, of well regu- 

 lated economy as well as of a liberal abundance? 

 Is the place where our affections centre, where 

 we most wish to be loved and hope to be remem- 

 bered, is our home, the happy abode of |)eace and 

 harmony and contentment ? Have we discharged 

 our social and moral obligations — our duties to 

 ourselves and to our neighbor? We profess ad- 

 miration and gratitude for the air we breathe, for 

 tlie sun that warms and enlightens and cheers us, 

 for the innumerable comforts of our existence, for 

 this spacious, beautiful and convenient world ; but 

 have we been faithful to that portion of his vine- 

 yard over which God has set us as stewards and 

 overseers ? If we can make satisfactory responses 

 to these questions, then have we cause for accu- 

 mulated gratitude, that in the disposition and 

 ability to improve and enjoy,, He has given us the 

 crowning blessing. 



An orator, with a mind well freighted with 

 learning, or whose lighter imagination soars on 

 bold, rajiid and graceful pinions, would lead his 

 delighted audience back into distant ages and over 

 into foreign countries — he would tell you of 

 Italy, once the garden of the world, now as de- 

 generate in morals as in husbandry — of England, 

 made one great S])ecimen farm by thorough culti- 

 vation and plentiful manuring — he would talk to 

 you of Parnassus and Tempo and Helicon, of the 

 beauties of nature, the decorations of art, and the 

 embellishments of fancy. But I will not aflfect 

 the learning I have not — I will not borrow wings 

 which would but betray my awkwardness in the 

 use of them. And it is not with foreign climes, 

 nor antiquity, it is not with poetry nor fiction, it 

 is not with Hesperian lands nor with Eastern 

 lands, that we, as farmers, have to do. Let us 

 recall our wandering tlioughle and fix them on 

 our own times and neighborhood, on our own 

 farms and homes. It is enough for us to know 

 that firming has aUvays been an honorable pursuit 

 when it has been honorably followed ; that it will 

 always be an honorable, profitable and fashionable 

 occupation as long as men continue the somewhat 

 inelegant, but not altogether unpleasant or unne- 

 C(^ssary habit of eating and drinking. Let farmers 

 remember that they have inherited a character 

 distinguished for sobriety, honesty, temperance, 

 industry, frugality and manly independence : let 

 them strive to sustain and elevate this character. 



But, my friends, a grave charge bas been pre- 

 ferred against us, seriously affecting our character 

 as good farmers and honest men, and I fear too 



many of us must plead guilty. We have been 

 called extortionate and austere — not precisely 

 charged with robbing widows' houses, or with 

 rea))ing where we have not sown, but with extort- 

 ing too many crops from our fields without making 

 them a due return, with exacting too much of 

 them and of withholding their deserved wages: 

 we have been accused of cropiing our lands se- 

 verely, without cultivating and manuring them in 

 any reasonable pro])crtion, of mowing our fields 

 many years in succession till their over-faxed, ex- 

 hausted energies can yield us nothing more. The 

 high prices of labor and manure, and the difKculty 

 of obtaining them have been alleged as excuses 

 for this thriftle.-is and cruel practice, and there is 

 something of truth and more of plausibility in the 

 defence. As a remedy for these evils, and a sure 

 way of improving your land, I can do nothing 

 better than to recommend to you the method prac- 

 tised for several years, with great success, by Elias 

 Phinney, Esq. of Lexington. A farmer should 

 use his eyes as well as his hands — he should be 

 willing to learn from the experience of others, as 

 .well as from his own. From the fields of Lexing- 

 ton we may learn lessons of husbandry as well as 

 lessons of patriotism. There is nothing selfish or 

 exclusive in the feelings of an enlightened and 

 enterprising farmer ; with him, next lo the plea- 

 sure of receiving information is that of communi- 

 cating instruction. Without offering an apology 

 to Mr Phinney, I shall make an extract from his 

 Address delivered before the Society of Middlesex 

 Husbandmen and Manufacturers in 1830; nor 

 shall I ask your indulgence for using the senti- 

 ments and words of another, for this may be the 

 only part of my remarks which needs no indul- 

 gence. 



' " In May, 1828, the field, (the soil of which 

 is thin loam upon a gravelly sub-soil,) having lain 

 three years to grass, and the crop of hay so light 

 as to be worth not more than the expense of ma- 

 king, with a view of ascertaining the quantity of 

 vegetable matter upon the surface, 1 took a single 

 foot square of green sward, and after separating 

 the roots and tops of the grasses from the loam 

 and vegetable mould, it was found on weighing to 

 contain nine ounces of clear vegetable substance, 

 giving, at that rate, over twelve and a quarter tons 

 to the acre. This convinced me of the importance 

 of taking some course, by which this valuable 

 treasure might be turned to good accmmt. That 

 a great part of this vegetable matter is exposed to 

 useless waste, by the usual mode of ploughing, 

 cross-ploughing and harrowing, must -be obvious 

 to any one. Jn order, therefore, to secure this, as 

 well as the light vegetable mould at and near the 

 surface, which is liable to waste from the same 

 causes, I had two acres of the green sward of this 

 field turned over with the plough as smoothly as 

 possible. After removing the outside fufrow slices 

 into the centre of the plough-land, and thereby 

 effecting the double purpose of covering the vacant 

 space in the middle, and preventing ridges at the 

 sides and ends, the field was rolled hard with a 

 loaded roller, by which the uneven parts of the 

 furrows were pressed down and the w: ole made 

 smooth. .It was then harrowed lengthwise the 

 furrow, with a horse harrow, but so lightly as not 

 to disturb the sod. Twenty cart loads of compost 

 manure, made by mixing two parts of loam or peat 

 mud with one of stable dimg, were then spread 

 upon each acre. It was then harrowed again as 

 before, and then the poorer jart of the soil, which 



