268 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



March 9, 1831. 



iKa-uiHisiiraawiiiJ^a 



REPORTS 



ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY IN 1830. 



I. ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FARMS. 



T7ie Committee of the Essex Agricultural Societij on 

 Farms beg leave to submit the following Rt.Foti.-e. 

 Tliey regret to state tliat there wure but two 

 claimants for the Premiums of the Societj' for the 

 best cultivated fai'ins. Essex County, though in- 

 ferior |)erha[)s as a whole for the quahty of its soil, 

 might exhibit with a reasonal)le pi-ide many exam- 

 ples of an intelligent, skilful, industrious, and suc- 

 cessful husbandry ; and it would have given your 

 Committee great pleasure had they been invited 

 to visit several establishments in the county which 

 do honor to their cultivators, who, we regret to 

 think, are deterred by an improper diffidence from 

 becoming competitors for the premiums of your 

 Society. Agriculture presents one of those singu- 

 lar cases in which competition however excited can 

 do no harm ; we see not what evil can result from 

 it ; but on the contrary it may be proiluctive of the 

 greatest benefits both of an individual and a public 

 nature. Experiment is always the best teacher. 

 Competition leads to experiments : it promotes 

 improvements, and extends them after they have 

 been discovered. In an honorable com]>etition no 

 generous mind should feel mortified with ill suc- 

 cess. The attempt to excel brings its own re- 

 ward with it ; and a public-sjjiiited mind will Kee 

 that a successful competition inevitably contri- 

 butes to advance the great cause itself, and reflects 

 back upon the community advantages greater than 

 it could receive from tlie acqidsition of the most 

 liberal premiums. Great benefits must arise from 

 bringing ourtarnis into comparison with each oth- 

 er ; from seeing what can be done ; from the 

 knowledge of each other's improvements however 

 hundde ; from habits of exactness, experiments 

 and observation ; and especially from that strong 

 interest in cultivation and improvement, which an 

 extended competition cannot fail to excite and 

 maintain. Your Committee know no better mode 

 of applying the funds of the Society than in jjre- 

 miums for the best cultivated farms, whicli are 

 found entitled to an honorary notice upon person- 

 al inspection ; and they express to th^ir brother- 

 farmers their earnest desire that another year 

 may find the list of competitors for these prizes 

 greatly enlarged. It is not the most extensive, 

 showy, fertile, productive, nor expensive farms, 

 which they wouhl deem best entitled to their ap- 

 probation ; but those which present the fairest 

 examples of industry, perseverance, economy, 

 neatness, skill, and constant im[)rovetnent ; vir- 

 tues within the reach of all, and which in their 

 just combination constitute the true excellence of 

 luisbandry. 



Your Committee are unanimous in awarding 

 the first premium of thirty dollars to Erastus Ware 

 of Salem, tenant on what is known as the Pick- 

 man fum in the southeasterly part of the town. 

 His full statement of his management and pro- 

 ducts is subjoined, and w'ill be read with interest 

 and pleasure. The farm owes many of its im- 

 provements to the labor and skill of its former 

 tenant, the late Mr Paul U|iton, for several years 

 the succcssfid manager of the Salem Alms-IIouse 

 farm. Mr Ware is entitled to the credit of ex- 

 tending its improvements and maintaining its ex- 



cellent conditicm. The general appearance of his 

 fields, the good order of his fences and buildings, 

 the condition and ]iroductiveness of his nursery 

 and orchards, the neatne.ss prevailing in every de- 

 partment, and exemplary temperance with which 

 the labors of so extensive an establishment have 

 been conducted, entitle him to the highest credit. 

 — Making proper allowances for the amount of 

 land occupied in pasturijig, the greater part of 

 which is incajiable of cultivation, your committee 

 deem the product of the farm very great; and 

 especially when compared with the actual expense 

 of labor. This seems small in any view and must 

 have been applied with much skill and fidelity, 

 though j'Our committee would have been able to 

 judge more satisfactorily on the subject, and it 

 would have been much more advantageous to the 

 public, had the claimant stated the number of days' 

 work done or the number of hands and the time for 

 which they were employed, rather than the pecun- 

 iary cost of the labor, which for obvious reasons 

 can hardly fortn a rule by which others may gov- 

 ern themselves, y The price of labor by the day or 

 month difl^ers much in diflerent parts of the coun- 

 try, and, where several hands are employed, on 

 the same farm. The rate too at which the work 

 performed away from the farm for hire was done 

 is not known to the Committee ; but that done for 

 the town may be supposed to exceed the rate paid 

 for labor at home. Still however the amount 

 paid for labor on this farm, conjpared with the 

 (piautity of produce raised and marketed, and the 

 amount of Live Stock kept, on any common es- 

 tiiuate, must be considered as very small, and 

 shows that it nnist have been fiiithfully exerted and 

 judiciously applied. 



3Ir Ware's farm is not an experimental farm ; 

 his main object being to obtain the greatest pecun- 

 iary profit from the place consistently with a just 

 regard to the interests of his landlord. The con- 

 dition of the farm shows that the landlord can 

 have little grounds for complaint; and it is highly 

 gratifying to find an example, rare enough we 

 tnust allow, in which the pecuniary interests of 

 the tenant are successfully pursued, not oidy with- 

 out detriment but with advantage to the interests 

 and rights of the owner. The contrary course, 

 however dishonorable and dishonest, is but too 

 common ; so that in general where a man lets his 

 farm he must despair of its improvement ; and 

 a lease upon what is termed shares is too frequent- 

 ly avirtual renunciation of all claims to anything. 



Though not an experimental farm, yet the ol)- 

 servations of Mr Ware being the result of in- 

 telligent and long experience, are entitled to great 

 consideration. His opinion against the jjractice 

 of hilling Indian corn confirms the suggestions 

 which were made to the Society on former occa- 

 sions on this subject. His success in laying down 

 his land to grass in the fall after taking ofl'a crop 

 of early Potatoes deserves notice. There is an 

 obvious convenience and there are many advanta- 

 ges in this management ; we believe it the most 

 eligible course ; though it must be allowed, es- 

 pccialy if the sowing in the fall is very late, that 

 there will bo many weeds in tlie next year's crop 

 of grass ; and the hay will not be of that substan- 

 tial quality that it would be, if the grass seed 

 were sowed in the spring with English grain, as 

 was formerly the universal custom. 



Mr Ware has singidar advantages in his near- 

 ness to a market, and especially in being able to 

 sell the greater part of his produce in the form 



of milk. It should be the great object of every 

 farmer to convert his produce into a condition 

 that it may be disposed of without injury to the 

 place. This may be done in the form of milk, 

 butter, cheese, beef, pork, mutton, wool, grain : 

 but never in that of hay, straw, or vegetables. 

 Wc believe that leases are seldom given in Eng- 

 land without an express condition, that all the 

 hay and straw raised shall be consumed on the 

 place ; and it is respectfully submitted to the ■ 

 consideration of the Society, whether some of 

 their premiums could be more advantageously be- 

 stowed than m the encouragement of careful and 

 exact exjierinients upon the value of any article 

 of agricultural produce in the fattening of hogs, >■' 

 sheep, or cattle ; experiments that should go to < 

 shov/ not merely the pecuniary results whicht' 

 must of course be afiected by mony contingencies,!' 

 that could neither be foreseen nor controlled, bull* 

 the best course of feeding ; the actual amountli 

 of food consumed and of flesh produced ; and agft 

 far as it can be ascertained the comparative value ol ^ 

 diflerent kinds of vegetable food in its appliratioi 

 to the stall-feeding of animals. From the value 

 received for the sale of hay or straw is obviously 

 to be deducted the labor and expense of maiket- 

 ing and a sum equivalent to the value of the ma- 

 nure, which would be furnished to the f\rm by 

 the consumption of such hay or straw at home. 

 These are pretty serious deductions; and if any 

 mode of applying a portion of our produce could 

 be discovered, by which we might derive an equal 

 advantage, as from the sale of it in the form of 

 hay or straw, a most important point would be 

 gained. Experiments on this subject, though on 

 a small scale, are earnestly urged upon the Farm- 

 ers of Essex, under the persuasion that any such 

 experiments well and exactly conducted and di 

 tailed, though no specific premiums should bSl 

 promised, would receive the particu.lar notice and 

 approbation of the Society. 



Your Committee have thought proper, and parj 

 cularly with a view of encouraging competitii 

 for these jjremiums, to award the fifth premium 

 eighteen dollars to John Adams, Esq.^of Andovi 

 Mr Adams' statement is subjoined, in which th'i 

 have to regret an almost total want of that exact 

 ness which the Committee deem highly important. 

 Mr Adams' husbandry is respectable and the Com- 

 mittee were gratified with the general appearance 

 of his farm ; but they would have been much bet- 

 ter satisfied to have been told the particular amoui 

 of his butter, cheese, pork, and hay, as nearai 

 could be ascertained, and the number of cows kej 

 &c, than to have received the very general sti 

 inetlt of his keeping ' from twenty to twenty: 

 cattle and selling about three hundred weiglit o 

 butter and some cheese, and about ten hundrcil 

 weight of pork besides u'hat he consumes in liis 

 tainily, and from ten to fifteen tons of English 

 hay.' In the dispoaal of these premiums the 

 Committee feel that they are responsible to the 

 Society and to the State ; and they tliercfhru 

 should deem it indispensable in regard to all claims 

 for premiums that the statements of those who 

 apply for them should be given with as much ex- 

 actness as possible. Butter, cheese, pork, vegeta- 

 bles, and grain are all easily measured. Hay solil 

 is of course weighed ; and when not sold, th« 

 number of loads when carried from the field 

 should be counted, and as fair an estimation ol 

 their weight as possible should be made and re- 

 corded at the time. 



