26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



August 11, isyti. 



EXTRACTS PROM AN ADDRESS, 

 Delivered before the Rhode Island Society for the 



Encouragement of Domestic Indiistrij, by Jf'illiam 



Hunter. 



I define Agriculture the- art of raising from the 

 parth the largest quantity of useful vegetables, at 

 the smallest expense. We must look to profit — to 

 the practical result ; not to the ingenious theo.'y. — 

 We must even not always trust to the practical 

 result derived from other countries, w'lere climate, 

 soil, the rate of wages, the divisions of labour, the 

 perfection of the mechanical arts, and other name- 



which has been the greatest improver of Language 

 (that great, durable, but imperfect instrument and 

 monument of human thought,) would, by the accu- 

 racy of its definitions expressive of these elements, 

 in the various soils and manures now so vaguely 

 characterized, give an accuracy and precision hith- 

 erto unknown, Lo the experience of the tillers of 

 the cartli. 



It cannot but be seen, that the impulses given 

 to Chemistry, to the Mechanical Arts, and to Ag- 

 riculture, say about fifty years ago, were simul- 

 taneous — and have since been cotemporaneousand 

 ... .,',/.• r I correspondent. The chemical discoveries of Black, 

 less circumstances, Uistingmsh the foreign from L^ p^j^^jiy^ of Kirwan, of Davy, have aflected and 



In an inverse course v.'e began with Commerc 

 Our settlements were on the margin of the ocee 

 or of large navigable rivers. We imported 

 arts matured. We brought here sliipwrigh 

 navigators, sailors. We had a taste of bet 

 things than our soil or climate afforded ; 

 hankered after tropical productions, and A 

 and European manufactures. We had externa 

 the power and fleets of the mother country to p: 

 tect us. We enjoyed her protection, while 

 disregarded or evaded her prohibitions, 

 fought for hor bravely in th& field, or on the de( 

 but we secretly and profitably traded with, a 



our domestic experiment. 



Common sense in this as in every thing else, 

 ought to be our guide. But there ap.e principles 



supplied her enemies. We built a sloop in tJ 

 directed the improvements of "Young, and of Sin- 1 very colony, before we had finished a house, a 



clair of Mr. Coke and the Duke of Bedford. — [ sent the spoils of the forests and pastures, ( 



The An-riculture of Scotland, at the time Lord ; timber and boards, shingles, hoops and staves. 



admitted and uncontradicted, in every art andl^^.^^j published his Gentleman's Farmer, say j the flourishing colony of Barbadoes. We e.'ite 

 science; and if they are drawn from varied and j„ 1747 j, his description was as bad as it could ! ed this to the other West India colonies, a 



oiippoccfiil nrnpftf^p thpv rnnqt.lhltp fl true aud y. ... ... 1 li i.i 1 1, ti. _ I _:-_ -i».i__A -,; A 



successful practice, they constitute a true and 

 safe, and the only true and safe theory. Those 

 who assert that Agriculture has remained station- 

 ary, notwithstanding all the improvements in the 

 sciences, for two tliousand years, wc-e, perhaps, 

 fifty years ago, not far from the tru;h. It is as- 

 tonishing hov/ many are the suggejtions in the 

 old autliors which show that their practice had 

 anticipated our proudest discoveries. For instance. 

 Columella plainly asserts "that the fiesher the 

 manure, the bettor." Have your furrow ready 

 which is to cover it ; its richer or rather its gross- 

 er particles subside for tlie enrichment of the soil 

 and subsoil, while its thousand elastic gasses, 

 struggling to get free, permeate the upper soil, 

 divide, impregnate and pulverise jt. Nothing is 

 wasted on the atmosphere — all is preserved and 

 economised, to fertilize the surface — to spread 

 verdure and realize profit. 



This is fairly inferible from what Columella has 

 said, and this is the very result to which Artlmr 

 Young arrived in his admirable prize essay on 

 manures. It is confirmed iy the precepts and ex- 

 periments of that groat Chemist, Sir Humphry 

 Davy. But yet it will lut do to compare the writ- 

 ings of Cato, Columella, or Pliny witli the modern 

 practice of the best farmers of England 01 Scot- 

 land. That the improvements in Agriculture have 

 been slow and not in proportionate progression 

 with other improvements must however, be admit- 

 ted ; and why it is so, is perhaps easily explaina- 

 ble. "If,"' says Mr. Kirwan, "the exact connex- 

 ion of efifects, with tlieir causes, has not been so 

 fully and extensively traced in Agriculture as in 

 other subjects, we must attribute it to the peculiar 

 difficulty of the investigation. In other subjects 

 exposed to the joint operations of many causes the 

 effect of each singly and exclusively taken, may 

 be particularly examined, and the experimeutor 

 may work in his laboratory with the object always 

 in his view. But the secret processes of vegeta- 

 tion take place in the dark, exposed to the vari- 

 ous and indeterminable influences of the atmos- 

 phere, and require at least half a year for their 

 completion. Hence the difficulty of determining 

 on what peculiar circumstance success or failure 

 depends — for the diversified experience of many 

 years, can alone afford a rational foundation for 

 solid, specific conclusions." But observation will, 

 and at last does give them. All the varieties of 

 soil and manures, and all the diversified produc- 

 tions of the vegetable kingdom, are capable of 

 being resolved, by chemical analysis, into a small 

 auml)cr of elementary ingredients; and Chemistry 



be. At this moment, considering it relatively as | brouglit back the luxuries of that clime 

 to climate, it is positively the best in the world — j molasses, rum, pimento, ginger, and 



The Lothians of Scotland present rich scenes of 

 plenty and profusion, which to have predicted in 

 1750, would have been sneered at, as the distem- 

 pered dreams of a poet — the ravings of a mad- 

 man — too e.xtravagant even to be deemed ingeni- 

 ous, or interesting. It was after this,that Church- 

 ill lays the scene of his Prophecy of Famine in 

 Scotland, and describes it as the land "wliere half 

 starved spiders fed on half starved flies." The 

 truth is, that the effect of science, of well under- 

 stood and well directed principle, may be effica- 

 cious in its result, though the whole secret is not 

 known to the practitioner. Many a sailor has con- 

 ducted a ship safely over the ocean — knowing but 

 mechanically his task — working by his scale and 

 his tables — but practising it safely, because bot- 

 tomed on the profound discoveries of Euclid, Na- 

 pier, and Newton, of D'Alembert and La Place. 



Whoever will compare the accounts of Colonial 

 Agriculture, say that of Doctor Elliot, in 1747, 

 will find that we, in the Northern Colonies, were 

 then equal to Scotland, and to a considerable part 

 of England. What then is the reason of our sta- 

 tionary condition ? _ Why is it, when we find, iii 

 England, the sons of gentlemen and noblemen 

 apprenticed to enlightened and practical farmers 

 that Agriculture is here disregarded as a profes 

 sion, and degraded from the rank and dignity to 

 which its merits and utility entitle it? It lias been 

 undoubtedly owing to the superior attractions 

 presented by the profits and chances of Commerce, 

 in all periods of our history, down to the peace of 

 1815. The abundance of good cheap land invited, 

 not to tlie cultivntion of a soil, but to a scratching 

 of almost the whole surface ofaH the soil. The 



forests were rapidly and indiscriminately felled 



The plan was to gain from two liundred acres, 

 W'hat, with an improved husbandry, we now sec 

 might be gained from fifty. Instead of restoring 

 to the earth what was plundered from it, the very 

 manure our bad agriculture accumulated, was 

 suffered to waste, and new conquests, or rather 

 spoliations of virgin soil were sought. This was 

 not half as wrong as it appears to be. The tem- 

 porary motives to this course were natural and 

 irresistible : Our population was sparse ; we had 

 none of that important intervening class, the Man- 

 ufacturers, to feed at home. Our best friends in 

 a political sense, even Burke and Chatham, would 

 not have permitted us to make a hob nail — and 

 Commerce was ready to take the gross materials 

 of our forests and pastures to a foreign market. 



its sug 

 little 

 gold and silver coin, the last of which we 

 exported to the dear mother country, for its ha 

 ware, its woollens, its linens — hardly then its 

 tons. We profited by the capital, tlje activity, 

 knowledge of Europe, and applied the former h 

 its of the old world to the developement of 

 undissipated, and unelicited resources of the n 

 In all discussions on this and similar subject! 

 never ought to be forrrotten, tliat the whole 

 colonial history forms a splendid exception to 

 general truths — to the uncontested, but to 

 inapplicable theories of Political Economy. W 

 out that important class of consumers at ho 

 the Manufacturers, for the purpose of sustain 

 our foreign commerce, we pursued a rash ra 

 cious agriculture — we tilled, not to fertilize 

 tc exhaust, and at last we stamped upon our sc 

 curse and cliaracter it originally did not dese 

 of coldness and barrenness. Is it sagacii 

 honourable, or profitable, that this course she 

 be continued.' Is not our condition in relatio 

 many important circumstances, changed, or aln 

 reversed ? With a population augmented, a 

 menting and concentrating — with Manufacto 

 introduced here, as they always have been e\ 

 where at first, by accident, and the force of es 

 neous impulse — but confirmed by legislative ] 

 taction— -aided by public opinion, and I hope- 

 private individual profit ; with a foreign c 

 merce narrowed by foreign restrictions and c 

 petitions, are we to continue our dreams of 

 high prizes in tlie lottery of trade ? We are 1 

 convinced that we must be forever hereafter c 

 tented with a fair, moderate proportionable, c 

 mercial profit belonging to a st»te of unive 

 peace. There are some few high prizes, and 

 few, left yet in Commerce ; and American en 

 prize will oftener than any other, succeed in 

 taining them. But we must look more and nr 

 to our domestic resources. We must realize 

 new situation, and adjust our concerns accordi 

 ly. We must reform our Agriculture. We n 

 render it profitable in the only mode by whic 

 can be made profitable, by the application of c 

 ital and skill. We can perform no miracles 

 cannot achieve this mighty work at a single bl 

 Wo can do nothing available by fits and sts 

 All that we can hope for is gradual improvein 

 an ultimate profitable result, by a course of mi 

 ures systematic and enlightened, by unrelai 

 effort and enduring perseverance 

 In the present situation of this part of the co 



