800 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH 30, 1 836. 



THE GOOD FARMER. 



To constitute an accomplished farmer, one wlio 

 can piirsiio tlio honorable occupation to wliich he 

 belongs, with honor, with profit, aud with pleasure 

 to himself, and with advantage to liis country, 

 the following traits of character are almost indis- 

 pensahle. 



1. He must be a man of integrity — one wlio 

 would scorn to defraud his land, his beasts, his 

 servants, or his neighbors — because, by doing 

 either, he always injures himself, and often injures 

 his country. 



2. He must be a man of thought and reflection 

 — for without these he can never know how to 

 direct his industry, or understanding in what 

 economy consists — and without well directed 

 industry, and a wise and prudent economy, no 

 farmer can prosper. 



3. He must understand how to create ami how 

 to preserve the fertility of his land — because, 

 without increasing and preserving the fertility of 

 his soil, his labor will generally prove to be both 

 unprofitable to himself and injurious to his coun- 

 try. 



4. He must know how to cultivate his land in 

 that manner which will enable him to obtain the 

 largest product it is capable of yielding with least 

 expense. 



5. He must understand the best mode of rear- 

 ing stock, and improving their breed. 



6. He must have industry enough to reduce 

 his knowledge to practice — otherwise it can be 

 of no value either to himself or to his country. 



7. He must well understand the distinction 

 between true and false economy, and rigidly 

 practice the former, and avoid the latter — 'Other- 

 wise his labor will only be thrown away. 



8. He must be too wise to be vain and self- 

 conceited — otherwise he will be above improving 

 in his profession — and besides vanity and self- 

 conceit are disgusting and odious to others, and 

 the most certain and mfallible proofs of a weak- 

 ened intellect and a corrupt heart. 



9. He must possess a benevolent temper and 

 disposition — because, without this, he can never 

 so use the product of his last labors, as either to 

 promote his own or the happiness of others. 



10. He must be patriotic. This will induce 

 him to seek to promote the public good, in wliich 

 his own interest is involved. 



11. He must have too much honorable inde- 

 pendence of soul to be capable of degrading him- 

 self into a slavish partisan — otherwise ho will 

 infallibly become the dupe of artfid and intriguing 

 demagogues, or of corrupt political aspirants, who 

 will be sure to use him for the accomplishment 

 of their own base purposes, to the great injury of 

 himself and of his country. 



12. And to crown all, he should be a man of 

 real genuine piety — a piety that will prom()t him 

 in whatever he may be engaged, whether in the 

 labors of the field, in the duties pertaining to 

 social intercourse, or in those of devotion, to keep 

 his eye steadily fi,\ed on the promotion of the 

 glory of God, by the improvement of his whole 

 nature, intellectual, and moral, and physical, and 

 the welfare of all around him, whose happiness 

 can be affected by his conduct. 



Compared with such a farmer, to the eye of 

 reason and of common sense, how contemptibly 

 despicable do the herd of the vidgar great appear 1 

 To a mass of dishonesty, fraud and deceit, which 

 would well nigh disgrace a penitentiary, a disgust- 



ing bloated vanity, a mean, base, and contracted 

 selfishness, at war with every noble and generous 

 emotion of the human soul — these latter charac- 

 ters not unfrequently add the unsurpassable stu- 

 pidity, of believing that their wealth, or th'^ir 

 station, entitles them to a superiority over the 

 honest, the intelligent, the virtuous, and the pat- 

 riotic farmer, contrasted with whom, in the estima- 

 tion of every virtuous and intelligent being, they 

 occupy a rank no less inferior in dignity and 

 worth, than that of the most worthless profligate, 

 swindling culprit, when compared with the most 

 honorable and exalted of those distinguished ben- 

 efactors of mankind, whose v irtues and whose 

 talents have shed a lustre on the dignity of hu- 

 man nature. — Tennessee Farmer. 



ENGIiISH CUIiTIVATION. 



I had heard and read much, before [ went to 

 England, of the beauty of its scenery, the perfec- 

 tion of its roads, and of the high state of cultiva- 

 tion which prevails throughout the country. But 

 when I came to see those things with my own 

 eyes, I found that my previous conceptions were 

 extremely inadequate. I cannot do justi(;e, at all, 

 to any of those objects , which interested and 

 delighted me so much the moment I saw them. 

 But imagine yourself safely landed, as 1 was, at 

 Liverpool in the mouth of April. You recollect 

 that in New England, and even much farther 

 south, winter still lingers — that the fields are 

 brown, the trees leafless, and tlie roads bad. Not 

 so in England. You take the coach for London. 

 As you go out of town you are very much sur- 

 prised to see a deep June vegetation, especially 

 when you recollect that you are in the fift.yfourth 

 degree of north latitude, and you ascribe it to some 

 peculiar advantage of soil, or early exposure. But 

 as you are borne rapidly along, you fintl other 

 fields still more verdant. The scene opens wider. 

 Field beyond field, and lawn beyond lawn, rises 

 in endless prospective. The farms are regularly 

 laid out into squares and parallellograms, of Ijom 

 two to forty acres ; and in general are laid down 

 as smooth a level as the roller can make them. 

 Here is a luxuriant wheat field, and there a meatl- 

 ow, and next a rich pasture, and there Inisy pre- 

 parations for putting in potatoes or turnips; and 

 there barley or oats just shooting up from th j dark 

 and rich soil. But scarcely a rod of fence, such 

 as we meet with everywhere in the United States 

 of America, do you see in your two hundred miles 

 ride from Liverpool to the metropolis. All is 

 hawthorn; and these hedges, which are for the 

 most part kept neatly trimmed about the garden 

 and farm-houses, and by the road-side, add more 

 to the beauty of the country than any description 

 had pictured upon my mind. The common 

 method of making the hedge is this ; first the 

 ridge is thrown up, perha|)S a foot abave the level 

 of the fields which are to be fenced off; then the 

 young thorn is to bs planted in two parallel rows, 

 about a foot or eighteen inches apart. The growth 

 is not very rapid ; but when it has attained the 

 height of four or five feet, in about as many years, 

 it becomes so dense that no domestic animals would 

 think of breaking through it. The leaf is sniall, 

 deeply verdant, and beautifully serrated. In the 

 month of May these hedges are clothed with a 

 white fragrant blossom, very much resembling 

 that of the thorn in our own country ; and it is 

 then that the honeysuckle and other wild flowers 



unfold their bright hues and mingle their sweetness 

 witli the hawthorn. In the hedges, trees, such as 

 the oak, the elm, and the horse chesnut, are plant- 

 ed, sometimes in rows, near together, but oftener 

 far apart, so that each one rises and waves by 

 itself over the humbler, but no less charm- 

 ing growth below. Single trees very large, are 

 sprinkled here and there in every direction, and 

 every now and then you catch a glimpse in the 

 distance, of a grove, or circular clump, which adds 

 not a little to the beauty of the landscape. 



Let me not be understood as intending ta con- 

 fine tiiese remarks to what I saw of the country 

 between Liverpool and London, as if they were 

 richer or more highly cultivated than other parts 

 through which I afterwards travelled, for, in truth, 

 it is less so. With the exceptions of the downs, 

 and here and there a heath, what I saw of the 

 English scenery, taken altogether, very much sur- 

 passed my expectations — not in boldness, not in 

 grandeur — hut in richness and beauty. It seemed 

 to me, as I passed rapidly along, from town to 

 town, and from city to city, more like one inter- 

 minable series of gardens and pleasure grounds, 

 than anything else to which I could compare it. 

 in addition to what I have already mentioned, 

 the turreted castles and halls of the nobility and 

 gentry ; their immense parks and princely do- 

 mains, sometimes embracing several miles square 

 of fine territory, and enclosing gardens, lawns, and 

 forests, adorned with avenues, and fishponds, and 

 streams. All these and many other features of 

 the island, serve to increase your admiration of 

 what nature and industry and taste have done for 

 our ' father ' land ! — Br Huviphrey's Tour. 



Silk Culture. — We have received from an 

 esteemed and highly respected correspondent, the 

 following communication, which we reconnnend 

 to such of our readers as have an opportunity to 

 cultivate the Mulberry Tree: — 



" As it seems to be admitted on all hands, that 

 the raising of raw silk can be made very profitable 

 in our vicinity, — we should think that gentle- 

 men who have, or can afford to have, country 

 seats in the neighborhood, would turn their atten- 

 tion to this business as a source of pleasure and 

 profit. 'I he usual course of farming pursued by 

 city farmers, produces frequently more pleasure 

 than profit ; for 



" He that would by farming thrive, 

 Must either hold the plough, or drive." 



Indeed the labor required by the conunon modes 

 of agriculture is very expensive, and the attention 

 and care requisite in a successful application of it 

 must be unremitting. A silk fartn, however, may 

 be conducted on a small space and with small 

 expense ; and those who would not, for want of 

 strength or inclination, cope with the irksome 

 labors of the dairy and the loom, would t.ike plea- 

 sure in attending to the interesting details of such 

 an establishment, connected with a country resi- 

 dence. To make a country retreat truly i)leasant, 

 we must associate with it some idea of utility. 

 We must have some occupation there, as a re- 

 source against that ennui which too often cankers 

 its pleasures. 



The vicinity of our city, in every direction, 

 presents nuiTjerous eligible situations for genteel 

 retirement, coiiuceted with the pursuits suggested, 

 and the facility of comnninicalion by steam-boats 

 and rail-road, will render a large circle of the 



