38«* 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



Derember 10, 1831. 



•^•■•riii'Nicvnnv*. 



FOR TUE GENESEE FARMER. 



Buffalo, Dec. Is', 1831. 

 Mr. Goodsell — Ever since 1 have been 

 subscriber to your excellent paper, I have been in- 

 tending to write you on more subjects than one; 

 but for some cause, and I certainly cannot <; ; ve a 

 rery obvious one, hove hitherto neglected it: and 

 having so long neglected it, 1 cannot say that ' re- 

 gret it, as I have had more opportunity to note the , 

 Tone and character of the new, and I may hope, j 

 increasingly useful character of your journal. — ■ 

 Here let me observe that the liberal sup inrt of an 

 agricultural paper like yours ought most emphat- 

 ically to be enjoined on the people of Western 

 New- York; for no where under Heaven do I 

 know of a country more bountifully furnished by 

 Providence with all that cmi beautify and embel- 

 lish to the senses, as well as administer to the ne- 

 cessities of mankind. Were this country of ours 

 improved as it ought to be, and such improvement 

 would be without doubt more profit ible, than the 

 usual course now pursued, it would present a pic-j 

 tore unequalled at least in America, and perhaps! 

 on earth. Probably no farmers in the United 

 Slates are so truly independent as those in the 

 western district of Vew-York; and perhaps none 

 are less sensible of the advantages they enjoy : 

 and why is it so 7 Is it not because of the facili- 

 ties they enjoy, and that the very blessings they 

 are in possession of render them careless of those 

 they might with ease attain by more studious at- 

 tention to their profession 1 I am fully saustied 

 that our people do not read enough on hose sub- 

 jects relating to their own personal interest. They 

 do not take the Genesee, nor the Jew-England, 

 Farmers, and still the people read enough in all 

 conscience to make wise men of them, if such 

 t -.ding were only of the right kind. Ask them 

 a |,. stion if politics, — of Anti-masonry, of Clay 

 or Jackson, and they can forthwith silence you, 

 a rg%mentim ad homiiwm; — can talk with you 

 by the hour of the qualifications of a instable or 

 fence viewer ; but put to them a simple question 

 tou"hing the science of their profession — one of 

 the most delightful and really useful on earth, and 

 they are dumb 1 They'll tell you it is better to 

 kill pork in the new of the moon, because it wii 

 swell in the pot ! and vice versa ; that if potatoes 

 are planted in the new of the moon they'll all run 

 to vines : that if you want a good stock of Bees, 

 you must have a hive given to you, or you never 

 will have any luck ! and a thousand other equally 

 absurd and ridiculous assertions. Ask them uV 

 reasons of all this, and they will answer, " so ev- 

 ery body says, and I always did so;" wherear 

 two hours' attentive reading of a common sense 

 author, and a half our of abstract thought, would 

 convince them of the egregious errors and pre- 

 judices they act upon. I wish not to be too hard 

 on our good husbandmen; but with many, a vast 

 many, these things ate literally true. A soil 

 was never yet well cultivated, but by (on that 

 suoject) a well cultivated mind. Where are 

 seen the best farms, the finest i ock, the m il e 

 licious fruit, and that sum mum, b wum oi all fain 

 Uy comforts, a rich and luxurious garden, but 

 with intelligent men ; and those men too, in most 

 cases, as they will tell you, having drawn their 

 chief stores of information from well selected 

 publications? Not that a man should go to 

 book to learn how to hold a plough, or handle a 



hoe, rake or scythe; but to understand the na- 

 ture and foundation of his soils, their component 

 parts,theirsusceptibilities of varied culture: thekinds 

 of manure and crops best suited to their character. 

 All these things, and they are essential to the most 

 profitable occupation of our soils, should be per- 

 fectly understood; — and yet, how few do proper- 

 ly understand them. And with the neglect of stu- 

 dy, too, is that deplorable absence of all good taste 

 in the simple and delightful embellishments of a 

 fann — in that total want of discernment m what 

 renders a farm one of the loveliest spots in the 

 world, and makes the beholder feel most emphat- 

 ically, that as he views it he looks on home! If 

 every occupant of a farm, when he is an owner 

 or ever expected to be, had a heart to embellish 

 and adorn his premises with the thousand vane- : 

 ties of trees and plants that " waste their sweet- 

 ness on the desert" around him, would there be 

 that continual and everlasting propensity to rove 

 into new countries, and sell out their betterments 

 that so universally exists 1 I answer no. I never 

 yet knew a man, who with his own hands had 

 built his snug low fapnhouse, with its comfortable 

 leantoes of woodhouse, milk-room and buttery ; 

 his thrifty orchard on a simny hill side or shelter- 

 ed valley; a pleasant row of sugar maples lining 

 his farm, on the roadsides; and a luxuriant sweet- 

 briar shooting out its fragrance beneath the parlor 

 windows ; all, too, within a convenient distance 

 of a school house and meeting: no, I never knew 

 such an one to sell his farm and emigrate, unless 

 some severe and unforeseen misfortune had com 

 pelled him ; and even then, how soon after he had 

 selected his new residence in the forest, has he set 

 about creating a new and quiet home, like his hap- 

 py old one ! 



And let me not be told that all this is expen- 

 sive ; — that it will engross the time and labor of I 

 tne necessary business of the farm. Let the time 

 that is spent in thriftless unprofitable gossips of a 

 morning, noon or evening, — the lounging at tav- 

 erns on election days, before and after giving m 

 their votes, for voting is a thing neper to be ■neg- 

 lected in a free republic; and numerous other 

 gaps and latches of time unnecessarily wasted, 

 be bestowed in these little duties, and without en- 

 croaching a moment on the ordinary labors of 

 tne farm, or subtracting in the least from their 

 enjoyments, hardly any of our farmers but that 

 alight make their farms a little paradise. And 

 every day, and every time they looked upon them, 

 they would love them the more, and a taste for 

 improvement would increase with their years. — 

 Enquiries into the best manner of agriculture and 

 managing their particular estates, would eagerly 

 follow ; books on the subject would be read ; eve- 

 ry farmer would take your Genesee Farmer ; ma-j 

 ny of them would contribute accounts of their 

 experiments, labors and practices, and a system 

 of mutual improvement come forth beyond con- 

 eption. 



And now, Mr. Editor, I am not sure, but like 

 the old officer in the Revolution, who always said 

 on going to battle, "come on boys," but I may 

 occasionally drop you a line of iny own observa- 

 tions and experiences; and although of humble 

 claims and limited observation, if I can in any 

 way impart information or amusement to theread- 

 eis of you: paper, or be the humble means of ex- 

 citing it from others, 1 shall be happy. 



Yours, truly, Ulmhs. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



My feelings have been so much enlisted on be- 

 half of our Horticultural Brethren in the state of 

 Ohio in consequence of reading the note from 

 your correspondent Z., that I forward an extract 

 from our Revised Laws without delay. We, our- 

 selves are only emerging from a half savage state, 

 — for many amongst us whose minds are scarce- 

 ly more cultivated than the unlettered aborigines, 

 and whose morals are on a still more degrading 

 scale (shame on their parents'.) take whatever 

 ihey can find in a common enclosure, and even 

 venture into gardens in the night. We hav« 

 now a law, however, sufficient to curb them if 

 properly enforced; and we have judges who are 

 zealous to do their duty, and to elevate our charac- 

 ter as a civilized people. 



In the year \82), Tne Domestic Horticulture! 

 Society appointed a committee to memorialize the 

 Legislature on this subject. What they perform- 

 ed I never knew; but in the following winter out- 

 law givers seemed to awaken to a new sense of 

 our condition. Our peaceable and industrious cit- 

 izens had toiled and planted; but the devourer 

 aad come in the night and laid waste the works 

 of their hands. If arrested, he stood before our 

 magistrates as a man who had only run in debt to 

 his neighbor, the amount of which was to be li- 

 quid sd and determined; or perhaps in the dou- 

 ble ' acity of swine and swine's owner, who 

 was not to pay for more than had passed between 

 his jaws, or had been trodden down by his hoofs. 

 Many farmers had been discouraged from plant- 

 ing the rarer kinds of fruit trees, in the same way 

 as they would be discouraged from sowing a field 

 which had no fences to protect tile crop. 



It would give me great pleasure to write in 

 capitals the names of the prime movers who a- 

 roused the State to a proper sense of its own dig- 

 nity. At present, however, this is not in my pow- 

 er from want of information; and I regret that so 

 many ditors of newspapers take no interest in 

 this great work of Internal Improvement. — 

 Though less splendid than raU roads and elec- 

 tioneering meetings, it has a much more impor- 

 tant bearing on the social duties and the domestic 

 comforts of our citizens. Editors operate with a 

 powerful lever on the public mind ; and were 

 they generally as zealous in the cause of virtue 

 as in the cause of party, even the baser parts of 

 our population would soon feel their benign influ- 

 ence. 



Although others, unknown to me, may be e- 

 qually deserving of my thanks, I must present my 

 grateful acknowledgments to the Editors of Tkt 

 Ontario Repository, for an excellent article on 

 this subject; ami from it I give the only record of 

 punishment under the New Law, winch has fal- 

 len under my notice. " A young man is now in 

 jail in [Canandaigua] under sentence of nineti/(90y 

 iprisonment, foi robbing a garden of mel- 

 ons in Vienna." This is in truth, an auspicious 

 beginning — itis an era in the civil history op 

 the State of New- York. Judge Howell and 

 his associates have nobly breasted the current of 

 popular prejudice; and not less nobly has Judge 

 Richardson, of Cayuga, incited the Grand Jury 

 diligently to inquire into similar infractions of this 

 law. If in this manner it be published from the 

 Bench in every county, none can long remain ig- 

 norant of this new state of tlungs; and this, with 

 the high moral tone which our newspapers ough8 



