THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



43 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



I sometimes hear farmers saj they do not be- 

 lieve in tlie idea of Book Farming. In answer I 

 would say, if my neighbor raises 40 bushels of 

 wheat to the acre, and another 75 busliels of corn 

 to the acre, another raises from 400 to 600 bush- 

 els of potatoes to the acre, and another cuts from 

 three to four tons of hay to the acre, which I have 

 done for years past, and the land is not impover- 

 ished, is this Book Farming- or an experiment 

 worth publishing ? Will it be known unless it 

 is communicated to the public in the Farmer's 

 Monthly Visitor, or some other publication ? I 

 am persuaded it is of importance to Farmers to 

 know how this is done, the kind of soil on which 

 It is done, and the method of cultivation. 



I think much of the improvements that are now 

 making in our country in farming, and Ido think 

 every farmer ought to take or read an agricultur- 

 al publication for his own beuetit and that of his 

 sons — "to teacli the young idea how too shoot." 

 I am persuaded that the farmer who can now raise 

 as much bread on five acres of land as he used 

 to do on ten, or make two bushels of wheat grow 

 where he formerly did but one, ought to commu- 

 nicate his experience to the public. We com- 

 plain of hard times and that the Banks do not dis- 

 count. The best remedy for a farmer is to know 

 that he has a bank on his farm, and that he is the 

 only director. If be so manages as to raise more 

 than he wants for his own consumption and 

 many kinds of produce to sell, we shall not hear 

 so much about hard times. TH. FULLER. 



Enosburgh, Vt. March 12 ,1841. 



Among the self-made, enterprising and talen 

 ted men that have gone forth from New Hamp- 

 shire, we may name John A. Dix, late Adjutant 

 General of the State of New York, as second to 

 few men of the country. The father of Gen, 

 Dix was a native of this vicinity, and, on ou» 

 first acquaintance, beloved and respected for his 

 many estimable qualities as a man of public spir- 

 it, an affectionate husband and father, a generous 

 and munificent patron and friend to evei-y thing 

 promotive of the public good, resided thirty-tvvc 

 years ago in the adjacent town of Boscawen 

 At the commencement of the last war witi 

 Great Britain he received the appointment of 

 Major in the U. S. army, and was subseiiuently 

 promoted to the ofiice of Lt. Colonel, when he 

 died in the service before the close of the war. 

 John A. Dix, when quite young, having been 

 with his father in the army, was appointed an 

 aid-de-camp to BlaJ. Gen. Brown. Retiring from 

 the service, he afterwards jireparcd himself for 

 the practice of law ; and has since distinguished 

 i.iuiselfalike for his eloquence as a public speake*- 

 and his talents as a writer. At souje time of his 

 life, since he left the army, as will be perceived 

 by the article extracted below, he has travelled in 

 Eiuope, not without observing to some beneficial 

 purpose the advance of improvements in that 

 coiuitry. 



We have seen the fin-^t number of a monthly 

 newspaper published at Albany, N. Y. and enti- 

 tled "The Northern Light: devoted to Free 

 Disc\ission and to the Diffusion of Useful Knowl- 

 edge, Miscellaneous Literature and General In- 

 telligence;" conducted under the immediate su- 

 I>orintendence of Gen. Dix aided by five other 

 nentleiuen, of whom are Professor Dean, Doct. 

 Beck, and Mi-. Delevan, the apostle of Temper- 

 ance. The |iaper is of the same size and 

 shajie of the Albany Cultivator and resend)les 

 somewhat our own monthly sheet. As its title 

 indicates, it is not confined to any particular sub- 

 ject, but devoted to the Sciences, to the Arts of 

 life, to Political Economy, and to a general re- 

 view of passing- events. In the first number of 

 this journal there is condensed a volume of in- 

 Ibrmation worth to some readers at least the 

 price of a year's subscription, which is one dol- 

 lar. We will, at the oflice of the Visitor, be hap- 

 py to receive and transmit subscriptions for Gen. 

 Dix's paper. 



As more directly applicable to the Monthly 

 Visitor, we have taken the liberty to extract an 

 pi-say from the pen of Gen. Dix in the Northern 

 Light, entitled 

 " Agriculture : its Dignity aud Importance 



We are informed by the most ancient of human 

 rorords, that the cultivation of the earth was one 

 of (he first occupations of men ; and a; 



merge from the darkness and doubt, which en- 

 velope a later period in the history of our race, 

 ve find it ranked, in the annals of the most dis- 

 inguished nations, among the highest and most 

 honorable pursuits. Egypt, principally through 

 the extraordinary fertility of her soil, renewed 

 by the annual inundations of the Nile, which 

 were turned to the best account by artificial 

 structures, and by the laborious industry of 

 her inhabitants, became one of the most wealthy 

 and powerful of the nations of antiquity. Agri- 

 culture was held in the highest esteem : it was 

 perfected by study and the contrivances of art ; 

 and its great success may be considered as the 

 basis of a prosperity and power, which are still 

 visible in the most stupendous monuments of hu- 

 man skill — the work of distant centuries, and the 

 wonder of our own times. 



Though the political and social condition of 

 Italy before the Roman era may be regarded ar 

 belonging rather to the region of fable and poe 

 try, than to that of authentic history, there ii 

 enough of the latter to show, that it had attained 

 a high degree of opidence through the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil. The national religion among 

 the Samnites and Latins was associated willi 

 the labors of agriculture and pastoral life. The 

 whole region of the Appenines, with the excep 

 tion of a few peaks which rise above the eleva 

 tion of perpetual snow, was converted into pas- 

 ture and arable land, and sustained a hardy and 

 industrious population, whose numbers are al- 

 most incredible. When we come down to the 

 era of Numa, the great patron of Roman agri- 

 culture, who made it the basis of the prosperity 

 of his counti-y, and was ranked among her divin- 

 ities on account of the benefits and the dignity 

 he had conferred on it, we enter the province of 

 authentic history, and are no longer guided by 

 the dim and uncertain light of tradition. The 

 public domain was parceled out in small portions 

 among the great body of the people ; an agricul- 

 tural priesthood, under the name of " fratres ar- 

 vales," was instituted, and every encouragement, 

 which the law could afl^brd, was extended to the 

 cultivators of the soil. They constituted, indeed, 

 a large portion of the population. When Rome 

 had "reached the height of her power, her 

 most eminent citizens were seen, like the lium- 

 lest, laboring in the fields with their own hands. 

 It was the privilege of the agricultural class for 

 several centuries to fill the ranks of the Roman 

 Legion ; her civil and military commanders were 

 sought for at the plough ; and her rewards for 

 great services to the commonwealth consisted of 

 donations of land. It was in reference to this 

 portion of the history of Rome tlmt Pliny fanci- 

 fully said ; " The earth took pleasure in being 

 " ciiltivated by the hands of men crowned with 

 " laurels and decorated with triumphal honors." 

 Some of the most distinguished Romans wrote 

 treatises upon agriculture, and Virgil has celebra- 

 ted it in undying verse. As the spirit of Roman 

 liberty was relaxed by luxury and ease, her agri- 

 culture declined ; the fields, which had been cul- 

 tivated by the hands of Cato and Cincinnatus, 

 were filled with the cai)lives of Phrygia and 

 Thrace ; and the subsistence of the Roman peo- 

 ple became dependent on the productions of dis- 

 tant provinces. 



In Greece agriculture, though honored in some 

 of the principal states, never attained the same 

 importance that it possessed in Rome. Nor is it 

 surprising, when the physical and political con- 

 dition of "the former is considered. In Sparta all 

 manual labor, except that which related to war, 

 was performed by slaves. The face of Attica 

 was broken and furrowed by intersecting hills 

 and vales; her soil was not fertile ; and, in spite 

 of laliorious culture, she never supplied her own 

 population with grain. Yet agriculture was not 

 wanting in dignity in Athens. Xenophon, one of 

 her most distinguished sriiis, the leader of the 

 ten thousand in their masterly retreat after (he 

 fall of Cyrus in the plains of Cunaxa, wrote sever- 

 al treatises on practical husbandry and the econ- 

 omy of domestic life ; and Avhen driven by the 

 jealousy and hatred of his enemies from his na- 

 tive city, he took refiige at Seillus, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Olympia, giving public lectiues on 

 the science of agriculture, and devoting himself 

 to literary pursuits. 



Such was the dignity of agriculture in ancient 

 times ! 



In the countries of Ein-opo, the ([uarlcr of the 



globe with which our communications are most 

 direct and intimate, the state of agriculture va- 

 ries with peculiarities of soil, climate and politi- 

 cal organization ; and as might be expected, the 

 estimation in which It is held, is not everywhere 

 the same. In Russia the earth is cultivated al- 

 most exclusively by serfs, subject to the arbitrary 

 will of the noble who owns the soil. Manual 

 labor, in any art, almost necessarily j)artakes of 

 the ciiaracter of those by whom it is carried on : 

 and in Russia, therefore, agriculture, as an occu- 

 pation, is degraded. In the northern parts of 

 Italy, in the Netherlands, aud in some of the 

 German states, the soil, under judicious systems of 

 husbandry and an elaborate culture, has attained 

 the highest degree of productiveness. The 

 southern part of Sweden, formerly subject to 

 Denmark, retains, in some degree, the reputation 

 it once enjoyed, as the granary of northern Eu- 

 rope.* Holstein, a dependency of Denmark, 

 bordering upon the northern bank of the Elbe, 

 and the shores of the German Ocean, abounds 

 in the richest fields of grain, and in numberless 

 flocks of cattle and sheep.f In France, a new 



* The following extract from our notes of a 

 visit to the north of Europe a few years ago, will 

 show what our impressions were in relation to 

 this part of Sweden : — 



"On the evening of the 31st of July we left Ileleing- 

 borg, [directly on the sound opposite Helsinor,] and rode 

 as far as Eiigelholm, two and a hall' Swedish, or about 

 seventeen Enjlish, miles. The country between these 

 two places is exceedingly level, and is covered with lux- 

 uriant crops, and farm-houses exhibiting a degree of com- 

 fort, neatness and abundance, -ivhich we have not seen 

 surpassed since we left England. This province is one of 

 the finest in Sweden for the production of grain : it was, 

 in fact, considered the granary of the north, centuries ago, 

 when it was in the hands of the Danes. We have never 

 seen any region or tract of country, with which it exactly 

 compares in any of its characteristic features. In the 

 srnoolh and unbroken expanse of its surface, and in the 

 multitude of flocks and herds scattered over it, under the 

 guardianship of shepherd-boys, it resembles Holstein -f— 

 but it is apparently more fertile, better cultivated, cer- 

 tainly more beautiful in its general aspect, and exhibits 

 raore comfort, resource and power, than that part of Hol- 

 stein through which w-e passed. It is, in fact, an exceed- 

 ingly interesting country, and is capable, under a high sys- 

 tem of agriculture, of EUEtaining a very great amount of 

 animal life. The population now is dense : farm-houses 

 are to be seen in every direction at short intervals, fre- 

 quently clustering into hamlets along the roads, and at 

 distances of eight or ten miles there is always to be found 

 a town of a fresh and flourishing aspect. Those which 

 we saw were more neat and apparently better provided 

 with comforts than the towns in the island, of Zealand, 

 [Denmark,] through which we passed on our way from 



d at 



Copenhagefi to Helsii 



On the first of Angus 

 about two and a half Swedish miles from Engelholm, wc 

 reached the summit of a range of mountains, which runs 

 from the shore of the sound into the interior; and 

 as we passed over the ridge a most extensive and 

 charming view unfolded itself towards the north. Tlie 

 country did not diSer materially in character from that on 

 the other side. As far as the eye could reach it w-as one 

 unbroken surface of plain ; but over it villages, churches, 

 farm-houses, clusters of trees, little lakes, flocks of cattle 

 and sheep, and a multitude of shades of almost as many 

 different species of production in grains, grasses and 

 fruits, w-ere scattered, in a variety unstudied and some- 

 what confused, but singularly picturesque and enchanting. 

 We never before beheld so perfectly displayed the regu- 

 lar gradations of color, which depend on distance. At 

 the base of the mountain the brightest and most gaudy 

 hues were finely expressed upon the rich crops of wheat 

 and barley just arriving at perfection ; and from this point 

 they became gradually softened until they were wholly 

 lost in the faintest tint of blue. 



On one side of this wide expanse of country an indenta- 

 tion is made by the waters of the sound, and upon its sur- 

 face a great number of fishing-boats and coasting vessels 

 appeared — some of them standing out to sea, and others 

 making their way into the mouth of the little river Laga, 

 which divided the immense plain before us into nearly 

 equal portions by a watery line almost imperceptible from 

 the elevation, at which we stood. As wc dwelt upon this 





: could not but remark and lament the 



absence of the finest of all features in rural scenery— 

 those beautiful hedges, which are so peculiarly charac- 

 teristic of the agricultural improvements of England. In 

 the island of Zealand they have been introduced as a part 

 of the system of rural economy, and sometimes they are 

 trimmed and fashioned with all the care and tastefulncss 

 of the country from which they have been borrowed." 



fTlie following is extracted from our notes of 

 a ride across the ptevince of Holstein during tlic 

 same visit to the northern coimtries of Europe :— 



" On tlie 19th of .luly we left Hamburgh, and took our 

 course across the Danish province of Holstein, to Kiel on 

 an estuary of the Baltic. The country, for two German 

 (nine English) miles after leaving Hamburgh, is exceeding- 

 ly beautiful, although nature has done much less for it 

 than art. It is very level, but highly embellished with 

 country-scats surrounded by lawns of the richest verdure 

 and gardens filled with flowers. The inhabitants of Hoi- 

 ttcin bv the by-, arc exceedingly fond of llowcrb— so much 



