118 



NEW E xN G L A N D FARMER 



OCT. 13, 1841. 



AND HORTICULTl'RAI. RFOISTER. 



ROSTON. WeDSESIiAV, OCTOBEB 13. IP41. 



SOLON ROBINSON, ESQ. 



During sevcrnl days of lost week, we had lli" pleasure 

 of being in coin|iany with Solnn Robinson, EKq., o( Lnke 

 Co , Indiana. It is superfluous to inform our readers 

 that this gentleman has been awakening the country 

 with a view to the formation of a N.itii>nal Acriculturol 

 Society. While in company willi him, wchave indulg- 

 ed in the Yankee li.-ihil of pulling questions, and have 

 learned that he is a native of Conneclicut; that he re- 

 sided for sonic years in Cincinnati; aflcrwards removed 

 to the southern part of Indiana, and thoBce, nbnui seven 

 yearn since, to his present abode in Ihf nnrlheru part of 

 that Slate. There he fixed himself down upon the prai- 

 rie, and a couniy has been formed around him, with lis 

 court-house hard by Mr R.'a abode. There, like our 

 distinfTuished and most vuccesslnl firmer of Lexington, 

 he serves in ofTice as clerk of the courts, and inlerests 

 himscll deeply in the cultivation of llie soil. He is now 

 in (he prime of life— an active and intelligent man— ar- 

 ilent and persevering, but less enlhusinsiic and sarguine 

 than we h,id imagined. We find in his intellect a thick 

 and unbroken subsiraiiim of good common sense. 



The great project he has set on foot, indicated the 

 visionary ; but upon clnse inspection, he is found to be 

 indulging in no extravagant dreams; he merely main- 

 tains that the awakening of a wide spread— a national 

 interest in agriculture, must result in good, svhelher a 

 national society shall bo in itself of any efficiency or 

 not. To borrow tlie Prcsidcm's Latin, he trusts that 

 the spirit he is striving to excite, will, when once en- 

 kindled, act " ;)«r se" for good throughout the country. 

 We find no indications that he is strongly wedded lo 

 any particular mode or sy.stem of action— but he seems 

 to he willing, wliun onro the waters are set in motion, 

 to let them run in thoso courses where they will mosi 

 naturally flow. 



We have been much pleased with iMr R., and shall 

 long continue to hold him in pleasant remembrance. 



The gentleman, should this meet his eye, must re- 

 member that we have not penned our notice for his read- 

 ing, but that this is our description of one ofthc " lions" 

 of the day, designed for gratifying tho curiosity of our 

 readers at tho North and East. 



WESTERN FARMlNfi'. 

 Land nt $1 S.'j per acre ; rails for fencing at $2 per 

 hundred ; soil as fertile as ihe bunks of the Nile ; a log 

 house which it is four days' work to build ; hay enough 

 to be had for the mowing ; no barns required lor housing 

 cattle in winter ; corn and wheal, potatoes and all man- 

 ner of vegetables como in profusion where one plows 

 and plains— such arc some of the recoinniendnlions of 

 the fir and fair-lhmed West, lint— » but must come in 

 here too— 4u« iheru is a tough sward, which can be bro- 

 ken ihrough only by the use of a s'larji plow, with four 

 yoke of oxen ; and in that land of luxuriance, a murmur 

 rises lo the lips because the surface of the ground has a 

 sod. There tho cattle and tho hogs are "tall jumpers," 

 and do not always pay proper hood to an sight rail fence ; 

 ihcro ihe marks of" mcum and iuum" (yours and mine,) 

 arc not always regarded, for the swino which belonged 

 to me in the spring, and whii'li fed in c-minon on Undo 

 Sam's pasture, find their way in autumn ini., a neigh- 

 bor's pork barrel ; but should ihey happen lo find iheir 

 way home, they are worlh, it ifat, two cents per pound. 



In the West, many a man with small means, may do 

 vastly better fiir himself and family, in a pecuniary view, 

 than he can on the rocky and sterile hinds of the. East. 

 But the social, moral, literary and religious privileges 

 are there much less: industry and its attendant virtues 

 are less. Consequently every man who is in comforta- 

 ble circumstances here, most forego many enjoyments 

 when he Iake.< up his abode on the rich rolling I inds be- 

 tween the lakes and the grand river of the Wesi There 

 are some among us who would do well to cuiigrato ;— 

 there are more who will do belter to be contented liere. 

 An anecdote tells the folly of grasping for more land 

 than can bo improved. An emigrant from the South, 

 "squatted" in Indiana, and finding the lands .iro^und 

 hiin rich and beautiful, he must have section alter 'sec- 

 tion, until his funds were all exhausted; little money 

 was left yviih which to make improvements or to slock 

 the lands. Soon a shrewd Yankee " squatted " by him, 

 having purchased only 80 acres. The Southron advis- 

 ed his neighbor to purchase more land — but >io. Soon 

 the Yankee was missing. After a few weeks he came 

 back with a drove of stock, purchased in Arkansas :— 

 these he pastured on the Southron's lands and the (iov- 

 crnmenl's— and soon, by ihe sale of cattle, giew rich 

 enough to buy and sell his neighbor, with the thousands 

 of un°stocked acres. A good lesson, our informant says, 

 the story was lo him ; and good instruction may be de- 

 duced from il by many another who shall go to that far- 

 off region 



PREJUDICE AGAINST CHANGE. 



The reluclance of farmers to adopt any change, how- 

 ever beneficial, has been matter of notoriety liom the 

 earliest ages. In Ireland, it was necessary to pass seve- 

 ral acts of parliament to prevent .astening plows to the 

 tails of horses, and the burning of cats in the straw, to 

 avoid ihe labor of threshing; audit is singular to find 

 that the repeal of these acts was aiiong the chief arti- 

 cles demand'jd from the Duke of Ormond, at Ihe treaty 

 of Kilkenny, in 1G48. A century afterwards, both prac- 

 tices are noticed as still existing, by MofTatt, in his 

 Iliherno-ncro-graphia: 



"The Western Isle, renowned for bog.x. 



For tories and lor great wolf-dogs, 



For drawing hobbies by the tails, 



And thrushlng corn w'ith fiery flails." 



W. C. Taylor. 



The instance above cited may teach with uncommon 

 distinctness th.it the tillers of the soil are often worse 

 than ridiculously doicrmlned not to acknowledge that 

 any change can bo an improvement. Writers upon ag- 

 riculture often hove good reason for their complaints,- 

 bul- (yes we have a hut in this case)— but there is some- 

 thing to bo said in vindication of this adherence to old 

 ways. There is sound wisdom in holding on to tho old 

 until it can bo clearly shown that the new is hotter — 

 This is the correct general rule for the common farmer. 

 But it is not to be so closely applied as to exclude a few 

 experiments, on a limited scale. Should ihis bo done, 

 the door to improvement is closed. 



The rule above laid down, will hold the practical man 

 back from adopting or using to any considerable extent, 

 the numberless now modes of husbandry, new implc 

 nionts, new varioiics of crop, new manures, &c. &c. It 

 is well— well bolh tor him and for tho public-that he 

 refuses to comply with the advice which is given by 

 countless writers and .xpcrimcnters It is well that ho 

 waits to see a thing fairly tried by his n.'ighbor. For 

 were It olhirwise, ihu a^,ricultural productions of the 

 countiy Mould bo diminished onu half every year, by 

 foolish copyings of the example of cnlhusiasn. 



So iiiuoli that is obviously unsound and impracticable 



is slroogly and repeatedly recommended, that if thi 

 good common sense ofthc common farmers did not say 

 " wait and sen," bolh they and agriculture itself woolc 

 be most grievously injured. We like — yes, we Jo iihi 

 that spiiit which says, let there be no sudden and ;;r(.a 

 changes from year to year; — which says, prott i, i 

 that the new way is better than Ihe old. For whih' ^^. 

 are expected lo do what we can for the promotion of i lit 

 interests of agriculturists and the improvement of bus 

 bandry, we have no faith lliat these can be best done 

 by discarding all ihat has been, and adopting things en 

 lirely new. 



If writers upon agriculture complain that farmers are 

 as stupid as those beasts which wear long ears, these 

 very stupid farmers, on the other hand, have wit enough 

 to see that writers upon ogricullurc ought oflcn to be 

 classed with the biids from which the quills they write- 

 wilh were plucked. Stupid as a jackass — foolish as a 

 goose — these comparisons might with some propriety be 

 bandied back and forth. 



But after all, very many common farmers are eager lo 

 gain knowledge of their pursuit, and ready to adopt eve- 

 ry improvement. Also, there are many wise and use- 

 ful writers upon husbandry whose productions may be 

 road and whose advice may be followed with much pro- 

 fit. Sucli farmers and such writers are now doing n 

 good work — they have awakened a deep interest in the 

 improvument of agriculture, and in their onward inarch 

 they willjcarry the whole mass offarmers forward. 



We might be gratified to see the spirit of inquiry, o( 

 chann-e, of improvement somewhot more gonerol and 

 active than it now is, but there is no ground for com- 

 plaint of a general stupidity and blind adherence to old 

 wajs among the farmers of New England ; — at least we 

 think there is no occasion for our legislators lo pass n 

 law tijrbiddlng our people lo burn their oats in order lo 

 gilt clear of threshing them, or to forbid their tying the 

 plow to the horse's tail. 



BLACKLOCK'S TREATISE ON SHEEP. 



An American edition of this work has been laid upon 

 our toble. It is published by Wiley & Pulnani, N. Y., 

 and is for sale by Woodhridgo, of this city. It treats of 

 the history of ihe sheep ; of wool ; of the Bristol wool 

 trade; of the iiiiproveinont of the breeds ; ol tho man- 

 a'ement of sheep ; of accidents and operations; and of 

 the diseases of sheep. This is a small ond concise work 



price probably about T.'j cents ; and as fur as a hasly 



glance enables us to judge, it is a work well suiled to 

 the wants of those who would be glad In findmucti \alu- 

 uble information relating lo the sheep, within a small 

 compass. 



THE HO.ME OF THE COW '• BLOSSO.M. " 

 In our paper two weeks since, wo inserted an account 

 of this remorkablu animal. A correspondent inquires 

 where Woodsidt is, and wishes to find out where lliii 

 cow may bo si-cn. In vol. xix. p. 101, of the N. E. 

 Farmer, is an account of this cow, token from iho Dela- 

 ware Journal ; and our recent account was token from 

 the Farmer's Cnbiiiel, Philadelphia. From these data 

 we make a Yankee guess thai Woodside is in Delaware 



nnd that this noble Slate is the honored residence of 



mistress " Blossom." 



Two tilings, well considered, would prevent many 

 quarrels : first, lo have it well ascertained whether we 

 are not disputing about terms rather than things — and 

 secondly, to examine whuihur thai on which we difl'er, 

 is worth contending about. 



