NEW ENGL-AJ^D FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, AT NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agkicultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



701^. IX. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1831. 



NO. 28. 



ii ^a- UJ3 >s w a ^ ^ u^ J29 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORK THE MIDDLESEX SOCIETY OF 



SBAMliMEN AND MANUFACTURERS, 



AT THEIR ANNUAL FESTI Y A L, OCT. 7, 1S30. 



BY E L I .^ S P II 1 N N E Y. 



Published at the request of the Society. 



he sliort time allowed to the speaker, by the 



of your Society, must necessarily confine him 



verv limited view of those topics which would 



naturally to suggest themselves for consider- 



at riiis time. 



ction, rather than speculation, and to exhibit 



tical results, rather than theoretical schemes, 



he appropriate business of Farmers, on an oc- 



m like this. 



be importance of the subject, on whioh I have 



the lionor of being invited to address you, is 



eeplv felt, and too generally acknowledged, to 



ther arguments to enforce, or eloquence to 



izon its claims. It need only be said, that 



rst sod that was turned, was one of the first 



ed steps from a savage to a civilized life, and 



in proportion 'to his advancement in agricul- 



and the arts of husbandry, man has, in all 



receded from barbarism. Compare, for a 



it, the miserable condition of the houseless, 



g savage of the forest, clad in the skins of 



furious and ungoverned as himself, depend- 



r his subsistence upon the uncertain fruits of 



lase, or the spontaneous productions of the 



with the substantial, permanent comforts of 



dustrious, intelligent and virtuous farmer ; — 



ill not the contrast reconcile the cultivator of 



il, to a clieerful obedience of the divine com- 



to ' eat his bread in the sweat of his brow .'' 



all not trespass on your time, by a labored 



t of the progress of agriculture, from the 



t ages to the present day. It is of little use 



old that the Emperor of China claims his 



•rivilege of annually holding the Plough, from 



om of his predecessors, which he alleges to 



ixisted ' long before the creation of the 



or that the Egyptians, more than four 



id years ago, paid divine honors to Isis and 



to one of whom they supposed themselves 



d for wheat and to the other for the inven- 



the Plough ; that almost three thousand 



ago, the father of poetry sung of fruitful 



nd golden harvests ; or that Virgil, years 



he Christian era, e.xtolled the pleasures of 



e, and the happiness of the man, who, far 



noise of cities and the perplexities of 



cial life, cultivated his fields with his own 



enough that we find the opulent, the pow- 

 Id the learned of modern, as well as ancient 

 llevoting their wealth, their influence and 

 j.ents, to the advancement of the interests 

 Iculture. Who, then, is so regardless of 

 |ty, the honor, or the pleasure, of cultiva- 

 soil, as not to aspire to the honorable ap- 

 li of Farmer? Who does not wish to with- 

 lim the anxious cares and uncertain plea- 

 merchandize, and the perplexing duties of 

 Ir professional life to repose on the tran- 



quil bosom of rural retirement, and taste the plea- 

 sures, as well as partake in the labors, of rustic 

 life .' 



Although, as Americans, we may be excused for 

 congratulating ourselves upon our agricultural 

 skill, and upon the rapid progress we have made 

 in the arts, and in all that contributes to social and 

 domestic enjoyment, yet we should not forget, that 

 we have much to learn. If the condition of the 

 husbandman, in countries unaided by the light of 

 science, and those moral influences, which, in our 

 own, conspire to stimulate individual and social en- 

 terprise, has not advanced a single step, for centu- 

 ries, in the arts of civilized life, we should not 

 boast of our attainments, while we have so many 

 prevailing errors to correct, so many inveterate 

 prejudices to subdue. 



Wliat if the Devonshire farmer still adheres to 

 the practice of transporting all the manure and pro- 

 duce of his farm, upon the back of his mule, and 

 has never known the use of a pair of wheels — 

 may he not charge many of our Middlesex farmers 

 witli an ignorance of the uses of one of the most 

 important of all implements to good husbandry, 

 the roller ; and in the use of ploughs, whose model 

 would seem, in many instances, to have been taken 

 from Egyptian Hieroglyphics, where it is repre- 

 sented with but little change from its rude and 

 simple original, in the form of a sharpened stake ? 



Wliat if the Spaniard still yokes his oxen by 

 the horns, and others oblige their horses to drag 

 the plough by the tail, does not the narrow and 

 shapeless yoke used by some of us, indicate that 

 little improvement has been made upon the straight 

 pole and withes of former times, and that as little 

 regard is had to the comfort of the ox, as to the 

 interest of the owner? 



What if the Russian peasant rejects the use of 

 manure, and tells you that his fruit is poisoned if 

 nourished by the filthy contents of his stable and 

 hogsty ; do not many of our barren fields and stint- 

 ed crops show, that neglect in furnishing food for 

 plants, has been no less detrimental to the interest 

 of the farmer, in the latter case, than an ignorance 

 of its properties in the former? 



What if the Irish peasant and the French Cot- 

 tager, who literally dwell in houses of clay, are 

 exposed to suffering and disease under the thatch- 

 ed roof of their floorless cabins ; are not many of 

 our farm houses, from their enormous dimensions 

 and unfinished condition, as poorly calculated to 

 give shelter and comfort to the owner ? In travel- 

 ling through New England we too frequently meet 

 with a large unfinished and unfurnished house, as 

 disproportioned in size to the wants, as it is illy 

 adapted to the comforts of the farmer. How of- 

 ten do we see the occupant suffering in his dreary 

 wilderness of decaying boards and shingles, bro- 

 ken windows, and shattered wainscoting, until, 

 driven by stress of weather, he makes a retreat to 

 some half underground corner, or contiguous out- 

 building, whose contracted dimensions are better 

 suited to his wants and his comforts, while his half 

 finished mansion becomes a deserted castle, seldom 

 visited, except to bar the prescriptive rights of 

 birds and reptiles ? Consider for a moment, the 

 immense amount of worse than useless expendi- 

 ture, that might have been saved, and the great 



measure of comfort, that would have been gained 

 by the farmer, if our agricultural ancestors had 

 adopted the English cottage style of building their 

 farm houses. 



Why censure the southern planter for his hay 

 stacks, his corn ricks, and his exposed and house- 

 less cattle, while so many of our own barns are 

 built with so little regard to the cleanliness and 

 comfort of the owner's stock, or the preservation 

 of his crops ? A mistaken notion is too prevalent, 

 that hay cannot be kept sweet, nor cattle healthy, 

 without a constant exposure to a free circulation 

 of air. From the loose and disjointed construction 

 of some of our barns, the stabling of cattle would 

 seem to be, rather for the purposes of ventilation, 

 than shelter. Depend upon it, that warm and 

 comfortable lodging is as essential to the thrift of 

 your cows and oxen, as it is to the health and com- 

 fort of the inmates of your family. 



These defects in rural economy are not confined 

 to our own county or state. They exist in a 

 greater or less degree in all parts of New England. 

 While there are numerous instances which give 

 striking evidence of the skill, intelligence and in- 

 dustry of the Middlesex farmer, the exceptions 

 should admonish us that we have not so far out- 

 stripped our neighbors in the march of improve- 

 ment, that we may rest contented with present at- 

 tainments, and consider no further exertion on our 

 part necessary. 



After noticing the defects in our buildings, let 

 us occasionally look abroad upon our farms, — not 

 merely to cull 1\vj flowers of spring, to revel on 

 the summer beauty of the fields, or to banquet on 

 the delicious stores of autumn ; not to muse away 

 sunny hours with Daphne, or to sport with Amaryl- 

 lis in the shade ; but for the more substantial and 

 important purpose of examining their various soils, 

 ascertaining their defects, and the mode of cul- 

 ture best adapted to their improvement. 



The diversified aspect of our country necessari- 

 ly furnishes a variety of soils. We have, however, 

 none of such extraordinary fertility, as to allow of 

 being cropped for a succession of years, unassisted 

 by manure, without a sensible diminution of pro- 

 duct. The deep intervales and extensive alluvial 

 tracts, which abound in some parts of our country, 

 where almost the whole labor of husbandry con- 

 sists in sowing and reaping, and no farther skill of 

 the farmer is required than to know seedtime and 

 harvest, are not to be found in Middlesex. The 

 broken and rugged surface of our farms, made up 

 of hills and valleys of the roughest materials, re- 

 quires great labor as well as skill to subdue its stub- 

 born qualities, to preserve its natural strength, or 

 to restore its wasted energies. This, while it in- 

 creases the labor of the husbandman, at the same 

 time, gives him health of body and vigor for ac- 

 tion, while he is happily exempted from the many 

 evils which attend the cultivator of a more fertile 

 region. This very rough and comparatively bar., 

 ren quality of our soil, though it may sometimes 

 yield but a stinted harvest, aad oblige the farmer 

 to rise early, go late to rest, and eat the bread of 

 carefulness, has nevertheless produced an indepen- 

 dent, virtuous and happy community of farmers, 

 whose unyielding patriotism and noble deeds of 

 daring have enrolled the yeomanry of Middleses 



