Vol. 1.— No. 40. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



311 



emergencies. Oats grow in almost every 

 country, but it is northern regions only, or 

 very moist or elevated tracts, that they fill 

 with farina suitable tor human sustenance. 

 Rye, barley, buck wheat, millet, and other 

 culmiferous plants, might be adduced to il- 

 lustrate the above principle ; for all their 

 habits require a more northern latitude than 

 is necessary to their mere growth. 



The grasses are proverbially in perfec- 

 tion only in northern and cool regions, al- 

 though they will grow every where. It is 

 in the north alone that we raise animals 

 from meadows ; and are enabled to keep 

 them fat, and in good condition, from hay 

 and grass alone, without grain. It is there 

 the grasses acquire a succulence, and con- 

 sistency enough not only to mature animals, 

 but to make the richest butter and cheese, 

 that contribute so much to the tables of the 

 luxurious. The grasses which do, often, 

 in the south, grow large enough, are with- 

 out richness and nutriment ; iu hay, they 

 have no substance ; and when green, are 

 too washy to fatten animals ; the conse- 

 quence is, most animals in those latitudes 

 browse from necessity, and are poor, and 

 without size or beauty. It is the same hot 

 sun which forces them to a rapid fructifica- 

 tion, before they have had time to concoct 

 their juices. The sugar cane produces, 

 perhaps, better where it never seeds, than 

 in the tropics ; for the juices will never 

 ripen so as to granulate, until checked by 

 frost or fructification. In the tropics, the 

 cane grows twenty months beibre the juices 

 ripen, and then the clum has contracted a 

 woody, fibrous quality, to such a degree as 

 to resist the pressure of mills, and yield but 

 little juice, and that to an increased effort. 

 In Louisiana we succeed well with the su- 

 gar culture ; because, while the clum is 

 succulent and tender, a white frost checks 

 the growth, ripens the juices, and in fi«> 

 months gives us a clum, tender, full of 

 juice, easy to press, and yielding much grain 

 of sugar. When Louisiana, therefore ac- 

 quires all the necessaiy skill, she will most 

 probably crow this article cheaper than the 

 West Indies. 



Tobacco is a southern plant, but there it 

 is always light and chaffy ; and although 

 often well flavored, it never gains that strong 

 narcotic quality, (which is its only peculiar 

 property,) unless you grow it as tar north 

 as Virginia. Fn the south, the heat unfolds 

 its bud or germ too soon, forces into full 

 expansion the leaf, and drives it to seed be- ■ 

 fore the narcotic quality can be properly' 

 elaborated. We may assert a genorai rule 

 applicable to all annual plarts, that neither 

 the root, nor the leaf, acquires any further 

 size or substance after fructification. 



The tuberose, bulbous, and other roots, 

 cultivated for humau and animal subsis- 

 tence, are similarly affected by climate, and 

 manifest habits in corroboration of the above 

 principle. The Irish potato, although from 

 or near the tropics, will not come to perfec- 

 tion but in northern or cool countries, or in 

 moist, insular situations, as Freland. It is 

 in such climates alone, that its roots acquire 



a farinaceous consistence, and have size, 

 flavor, and nutriment enough to support, in 

 the eminent way in which they are suscep- 

 tible, animal lite. In the south, a forcing 

 sun brings the potato to fructification before 

 the roots have had time to attain their pro- 

 per size, or ripen into the proper qualities 

 i'or nourishment. In Ireland the plant grows 

 slow, through a long and cold season, giv- 

 ing time tor its juices to be elaborated, and 

 properly digested ; hence that fine farina 

 flavor which characterize them. The sweet 

 potato producer larger, better flavored, and 

 more numerous roots in Carolina, where it 

 never flowers, than in the West Indies. In 

 the latter place this plant runs wild, covers 

 the whole face of the earth with its vines ; 

 and is so taken up in mailing foliage, that 

 the root becomes neglected, and is small 

 and woody. In order to have the onion in 

 perfection, it must grow through two years, 

 swellingall the time its bulbs. In the south, 

 however, it seeds in one year, and beibre it 

 has made much bulb. Beets, carrots, pars- 

 nips, turnips, radishes and other roots, are 



the horrors of revolution he had witnessed, 

 was to be found in early education; and he 

 resolved henceforth to devote himself to this 

 as the object of his life. He was at one time 

 a member of the council of education of 

 Berne, but was soon convinced that nothing 

 adequate could be accomplished on this sub- 

 ject, through the medium of legislative com- 

 missions ; and having come into possession 

 of an ample fortune, he resolved to devote 

 this to his great object, and to form on bis 

 own estate, and on an independent basis, a 

 model institution, in which it should be pro- 

 ved what education could accomplish for the 

 benefit of humanity. In pursuance of his 

 great design, he soon after purchased the es- 

 tate called Hofuoyl, and his life, hencefor- 

 ward, forms an important page in the rec- 

 ords of benevolent enterprise. His great ob- 

 ject would elevate all classes of society, by 

 fitting them better for their respective sta- 

 tions, and to render them happy and united, 

 without destroying that order which Provi- 

 dence had appointed, and which the govern- 

 ments of Europe preserved with so much jeal- 

 ousy. He believed it important to collect in 

 one institution the poor and the rich, each 

 with their appropriate means of improve - 



all fructify before they have formed perfect! 

 roots and make foliage at the expense of 

 their bulbs; hence they will always be arti- 

 cles of commerce ; the south will have to 

 depend upon the north for them. 



(remainder next week.) 



Frodi the New-Cnelaiid Fa mer. 



To the Editor, — At the request of one of 

 your subscribers, I send you a sketch of the 

 improvements in Agriculture attempted by 

 Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, in the hope that they 

 may be interesting to your readers, and with 

 the earnest wish that sumt one of them, at 

 least, may imitate this noble example, by 

 combining his efforts for the promotion of ag- 

 riculture, with the improvement of the be- 

 ings for whose sake alone agriculture is valu- 

 able. I have in my possession a number of 

 documents on this subject in the German, 

 which my occupations do not allow me to 

 translate. If any of your correspondents 

 will undertake the task, they are entirely at 

 your service. Yours, respectfully, 



VVM. C. WOODBRIDGE. 



Boston, Stpt. 13, 1831. 



AGRICULTURE OF HOFWYL. 



Anions the men who have been most dis- 

 tinguished for devising and executing plans 

 of improvement in agriculture, with an im- 

 mediate reference to the improvements of 

 man himself, none has been more remarka- 

 ble than Fellenberg, of Hofwyl. 



He ai rived at maturity, in the midst of 

 the French revolution. His attention had 

 early and constantly been devoted to the in- 

 quiries and observations concerning the state 

 of society, and the means of improving it; 

 and he had travelled over Switzerland on 

 foot, to make himself familiar with the state 

 and, condition of the inhabitants. His inves- 

 tigations of the state of the common people, 

 hisintercourse with public men, and the tre- 

 mendous convulsions he had witnessed, had 

 all conspired to impress upon his mind the 

 same conviction — that the only resource for 

 meliorating the state of his own and other 

 countries, and for preventing a repetition of 



equally effected by a hot sun, and scarcely 5 , ment, and thus to establish proper and friend 

 worth cultivating far to the south. They ly relations between them. He considered 



1 it of high importance to make agriculture 

 the basis of such an institution. He regard- 

 ed it as the employment best of all adapt- 

 ed to invigora'e the body ; but he also be- 

 lieved that, by elevating agriculture from a 

 mere handicraft to an art founded on scien- 

 tific principles, and leading directly to the 

 operation of the great I''irst Cause it would 

 become a ptirsnit peculiarly fitted to elevate 

 and purify the mind, and serve as the basis 

 [of improvement to the laboring classes, and 

 to society at large. He selected Hofwyl on 

 | account of its situation ; so insulated as to 

 secure it from the influence of bad examples, 

 yet surrounded by villages which would fur- 

 nish laborers, and only six miles from the ci- 

 j ty of Berne. It was an estate of about 200 

 : acres, under poor cultivation, lying on a hill 

 filled with springs, and surrounded on three 

 miIis by a valley 80 feet in depth. He com- 

 Inieneed with employing a large number of 

 laborers in digging drains in every direction, 

 jsome even to the depth of 30 feet, which 

 completely freed the arable land from water, 

 and at the same time were formed into a 

 : streamlet round the hil , which served to ir- 

 rigate its borders and the level below, and 

 convert them into rich meadows. His next 

 plan was to turn up the whole soil to the 

 depth of two or three feet, and then replace 

 it, putting the stones and grave! at the bot- 

 tom, and reservin g the richest portion for the 

 surface. 



Another object of importance was to con- 

 vert the swampy ground around into mead- 

 ows, by covering it about five feet in depth 

 with sand and soil from the upland. This 

 was effected in part by means of the stream 

 we have mentioned, which was made to wash 

 down successive banks of earth placed before 

 it and in part, during the winter, by sleds 

 descending and raising each other alternate- 

 ly, by means of pulleys, as is sometimes done 

 in coal beds. In connexion with these ope- 

 rations, he erected extensive additions to the 

 granaries ('then more than sufficient for the 

 actual produce ly )to provide for the abundant 

 crops he anticipated. All this excited ridi- 

 cule among his enemies, and alarm and re- 

 ' monstrances among his friends ; and those 



