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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Augustas, 1826. 



EXTRACTS FROM AW AJi)Ri;.S.S, 

 Delivered before the Rhode Island Society for the 



Encoutagcmenl of Domestic Industry, by William 



Hunter. — Continued from page 'i!'. 



It is said that many years ago, Hale's System of j horses and oxen. Translate terms — simplify prin- 

 Knglisli Husbandry was distributed to every parish ciples— appeal to facts— and there is no doubt of 

 in England and deposited in every cliurcli. Why 'I'e quitk apprehensions and ready adoption of any 

 could not a portion even of the scantv funds of sound practice by our intelligent yeomanry. As 



this Society be devoted to select useful reprint 

 which accompanied with original notes directed to 

 the diversities of soil, habits and products of tlie 

 foreign countries, would lead to a safe and unde- 

 ceiving knowledge ? Why could not funds enougli 

 be raised to induce the Professor of Cliymistry in 

 Brown University to give in the proper season six 

 or more lectures on the principles of his science, 

 as applicable to Agriculture and Manufactures ? — 

 There is no doubt of his peculiar fitness for this 

 undertaking. These lectures might be made a 

 source of most profitable amusement to inquisitive 

 intelligent young men, both of town and country, 

 ""hey would be brought together — they would 

 cultivate those friendships so important in life — 

 they would extinguish those miserable jealousies 

 so apt to exist between town and country — they 

 would associate the two interests, in truth and 

 nature inseparably allied. They would reconcile 

 a quarrel between brothers. This course would 

 be productive of immeasurable good, promotino- 

 political harmony and general prosperity. The 

 lectures of Henry delivered at Manchester, were 

 written with a view to manufacturing ; tliose of 

 Davy delivered nt London, to agricuUural devel- 

 opements and improvements. The union of the two 

 plans executed with a view to our situation and its 

 amelioration, would be invaluable. Providence 

 and Brown University form the very spot for be- 

 ginning this laudable and feasible enterprize, and 

 may God grant that it may find among the opulent 

 and high minded men of the land an efficient pat- 

 ron, and in public opinion a spirited and undevia- 

 ting support. But after all, what is there so as- 

 tonishingly magnificent, or profoundly obscure in 

 the improved Agriculture v.e recommend. 



What is there, the germs of which nature her- 

 self and our own practice do not indicate? Is it the 

 drill husbandry:-' You have had for nearly two 

 liuudred years its noblest specimen, almost pecu- 

 liar to yourselves in your fields of corn ; and when 

 the Sachem's squaw exhibited to our anxious an- 

 cestors at Plymouth the mode of cultivation her 

 tribe had followed, and with a sharp clam-shell 

 scooped out the sandy loam and placed in the hol- 

 ow two alewives on which she planted her four 

 kernels of corn, she exemplified all that the ut- 

 most theory of Agriculture has tau-rht. Tliere 

 was a supply to the land— there was a cordial 

 to the land— it was stirred and pulverized— its 

 subsoil sustained by the gross manure settling be- 

 "'-^its surface was warmed, enriched and crum- 



iug, every carter and wagoner that has attended | eu to our peculiar and succe^^ful genius in ^M 

 market has lu^eJ it, when calculating to avoid chanics. The irrigations of Italy, especially i 

 tavern prices, he has cut green corn stalks in the I Lombardy, and the Duchy of Milan, seem, in e: 

 morning to supply when in town the wants of his tent and effect, to surpass belief. The twent 



miles between Milan and Lodi, are esteemed \ 

 Arthur Young as aflbrding one of tlie most cur 

 ous and valuable prospects in the power of a farmt J 

 to view. We have, says he, some undertakint 

 in England, that are meritorious ; but they sir 



low 



bled bythe fermenting gasses that escaped up- 



to the great points of shelter and enclosure, there 



seems to be nothing faulty in our practice. Our j to nothing, compared to these great and truly n- 

 ineans arc great, and our operations have been j blc works. 'He adds," Tliis is one of the ride « 

 steady and successful. ^ ''''^'^ those to take who think that every thing a 



There is no doubt that the stone wall on Rhode- | to be seen in England." I intended here, in r 

 Island proper, if calculated at the present esti- ' gard to this very England, the alternate theme 

 mate of building it, would amount to a larger sum | o"'' praise and envy, the equal reproach of o' 

 than the marketable value of the whole fee simple j credulity and unbelief, as to agricultural improv 

 of the Island. It is on the great and apparently ments, to have suggested some hints and querie 

 diverse points of draining and irrigation, that we 1 1*"' the subject extends into great nicety of deta. 

 are strangely and shamefully deficient. It has and unavoidably connecting itself with genei 

 been unattended to, where merely a deep double j topics, becomes inexhaustible, 

 furrow down tlie slope o'i the land would drain its \ 0"e object, however, is so constantly urge 

 waters to the river or the ocean. It has been \ against the esculent root system, and the shee; 

 elegantly said in this place, by a master of his rearing system,that a few words ought at any ra 

 subject, that " water is at once the greatest enemy 1 1" ^^ devoted to it. I refer to the severity of o 

 and the greatest friend of vegetation." In its ex- } winters. It must be admitted, that to the opei 

 cess and stagnation it is pernicious, and the cause \ "ess and mildness of the English winter, th« 

 of sterility. In its difi"usion and gentle currency j Agriculture is highly indebted. They have seldcj 

 it is the greatest instrument of fertilization yet j a season so severe but that sheep can eat the ti 

 known. The principles and practice of Mr Elkin- "ip' o" the land where they grow. Their bett. 

 ton, on the subject of draining, ought to be pub- j grass lands, winter about two sheep per acre, wit 

 lished and republished."-'- Nothing can be simpler j out hay or grain. To tiiis you will perceive, 

 or surer, and five or seven columns of a newspaper, j o'^'<i"g the incalculable advantages of the she 

 stolen from ephemeral politics, might lead to in- i husbandry, combined with the operation of tj 

 calculable national benefits. It has been suggested ; plough. Our efforts must be to conquer the d ^ 

 to mo, that there is a prejudice against draining, \ ficulties of climate. Our ivinter food must 

 because the severe frosts of our winters, on the 'bourse be gathered and stored. Our flocks ra 

 dried land, unfix the roots from the soil, and throw i ho yarded with careful shelter and abundant littc 

 them up unsheltered, to be winter-killed. But ; '^^'^ rriust undergo the expense of removing t. 

 upon Mr. Elkinton's plan of draining, you have ^ "^'^'iire, for without manure it is impossible to far: 

 the command of your spring for draining or irriga- , ^^^t have we not almost an adequate compcnsati* 

 tion. Drain for summer; irrigate for winter. — for the mildness of the English winter, in max 

 In winter clothe and warm your land (start not at savings, the necessary result of the severity 

 the apparent paradox,) witii a blanket of water or , our own? When we see in England sheep 

 ice. Nearly two hundred years ago. Lord Bacon, "'ot weather trampling the turnip field, v.-astiH 

 in his Natural History, in the article Vegetation, ' "^ore than tliey eat, the mud mingling with the 

 discoursing on meadow watering, declares that food, themselves drenched in moisture, the cau 

 water acts not only by supplying useful moisture of most of their disorders, is it not a safe ci 

 to the grass, but likewise carries nourishment <^ulation, that the management forced upon us 1 

 dissolved in it, and defends the roots from the ef- climate, has its compensations and consolatioi 

 fects of cold. And hear what Sir Humphry Davy , Upon inquiry, it will be found to be admitted, thi *• 

 says, on this matter : " In very cold seasons, '. a" acre of turnips housed properly, cut and servfll *? 

 water preserves the tender roots and leaves of the out to sheep, will goat least three times as J( * 

 jrass from being affeL-ted by frost. Water is of J as if they were eaten on the land. This 



greater specific gravity at 42° Farenheit, than at 



s.xpense is no trivial advantage ; besides, the su 



cess of this system does not depend on the En; 

 lish turnip only, a crop for which our summers ai 

 sometimes too hot. Without neglecting their oi 

 casional use, we shall have recourse to potatoe 



33° the freezing point , and hence in a meadow 

 irrigated in winter, the water immediately in con- 

 tact with the grass is rarely below 40° a degree of 

 temperature not at all prejudicial to the living or- 

 gans of plants. He relates that in 1804, in the ; to carrots, always having our best friend, India 

 month of March, he examined the temperature in i corn, to appeal to in case of need. We must a 



, , o= ^o>-^j,„„ u^,- a water meadow near Ilungerford, in Berkshire, j tond more to the cultivation of those plants th: 



v-ar s. All was done as to the first process that Sir hy a very delicate thermometer, the temperature j are improved by winter ; to the ruta baga, tli 

 lump iry Davy could have taught, and as to the of the air, at 7 o'clock in the morning, was Sg-^ the Scotch kale, the parsnip, and the Jerusalem art 

 econ^l process, the top dressing with ashes at the water was frozen above the grass : the tempera- choke. The cattle, cows and sheep, of the islanc: 

 -pringing ol the blade, the utility of this was dis- 1 t"re of the soil below the water, in which the of Guernsey and Jersey, are fed and fatted on pai 

 covered by observing that those hills of corn had I roots of the grass were fixed, was 43°." Astolsnips; and the Jerusalem artichoke, a food that i 

 ^unshed with disproportionate and prodigious summer irrigation, we have, I believe, done iutle j hunted for by that epicure the hog, which is ini 

 ^^.xuriance, whicli had accidentally received the »"}' where in the United States, and yet our cli- 1 proved and imperishable by winter, is found to b 

 .!'™°".!"'^^ ,.*° calumet. No modern theory mate invites to it. The necessary works are suit- ('he peculiar delight and rapid fiittener of shea 



But I must not pursue this subject. " 



r., „„ •■ . ,■ w,,i theory 



or practice has disproved, or can improve upon th 



As to rotation crops, i»obody doubts their use 

 w misuDderstands their rationale. As tg soil-J 



"•^ Mr Elkinton's principles and mode of draining 

 may be found in the New England Farmer vol. f 

 page 409. 



{Tu be canlhiued.) 



Six black snakes were lately discovered coile 

 together iu a field in Newton, and killed. 



