THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILt. 



" Those who labor in the earth 



are the cho;enpeopU of God, ivhose breasts he has made hispcculiar depositefor substantial and genuine t)ir<ue."— Jefferson. 



NUMBER 4. 



THE FAKMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



A MONTHLY NEWSPAPKR.IS PUBLISHED BV 



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,.E. WANSUR, Pri.nter. 



THE VISITOR. 



Farming in Great Britain. 



West Tisbunj,Mass. March 20, 1841. 

 GovKR-NOR Hill — Dear Sir: — I see by your 

 paper that yon have done me tlie honor to publish 

 the remarks made by rae at the Agricultin-al 

 Meeting at the State House, Feb. 4th. The re- 

 quest made by the Chair that I should state my 

 European reminiscences, took me entirely unpre- 

 jiared, for 1 had not so much as even thought that 

 I should be called upon to address the meeting. 

 One day of preparation woidd have enabled me 

 to have said much, for the recollections of any 

 man of common capacity, fond to a fault of ag- 

 ricultural life, and mixing most pleasantly in that 

 society, cannot but interest, when they are of the 

 best farming country under Heaven. For what- 

 ever opinion we may form of Britain — her pride, 

 arrogance, insolence, presunii)tion, vanity, faults 

 too {mark my words) that will have to be 

 ded wtthrn ten years by the compulsory process 

 of a general alliance of nations against her ; yet 

 we must all confess that her agriculture is the 

 most stupendous thing under Heaven. When it 

 is remembered that the crop of turnips grpwn in 

 Norfolk alone is greater than the value of her 

 trade with China ; that the market price of the 

 geese brought from the Lincolnshire fens, is mor 

 than her trade with Denmark; that you shall se 

 as a cominon thing a hundred aci'es of turnips, or 

 a hundred acres of beans, or thirty acres of i 

 bages in a single field— a farm of 300 acres alt 

 mowed — on afarm of the same size, 300 acres, 

 ntl in crops ; the live stock on a farm worth 

 .filOjOOO — twenty or more horses employed on one 

 farm every working day in the year, and by means 

 of thrice" ploughing (heavy clays) turning 900 

 acres in a single year : I say, when this is remem- 

 bered, it will "be seen tliat " Great" as Britain is 

 in evei-y thing, the superlative degree of great- 

 ness is in her agricultiu'e — i« her soil natural- 

 ly POOR, but made rich by the application of cap- 

 ital and of unwearied assiduity, good sense, and 

 enterprise. 



In this country we fail, raost from the want of 

 capital, and froin the cir(!umstance that Agricul- 

 ture does not rank as an employment with others, 

 especially vcith Trade. It is not valued as it ought 

 to be. The English contend that it never was so 

 valued in a democratic country. Agriculture, 

 they say, is substantially an aristocratic employ- 

 ment This is certainly true of England, and I 



sessions, is to want that which conducts to 



best offices and most exclusive society. The 

 term "country gentleman," is in England almost 

 an actual patent of precedence. So far do they 

 carry this that no man in trade can marry into a 

 family of landed descent and possessions, unless 

 he add to large wealth an eminent character for 

 talent. AVhen Jo Neeld, the inheritor of the 

 enormous wealth of Bundle, the Jeweller of Lud- 

 gate Hill, sought to ally himself to the needy 

 family of the Earl of Shaftesburj', notwithstand- 

 ing poverty and the certain age of the lady ren- 

 dered a settlement a thing not to be deferred with 

 safety, it was considered the feat of the London 

 fashionable season. Alexander Baring and Hen- 

 ry Drummond matched worthily and wealthily; 

 but thev were bankers, and withal men of great 

 talent— the former, now Lord Ashburton, having 

 few superiors in England. {In the event of the 

 coming into power of the Tory party, he would 

 probably go to the head of the Board of Control.) 

 It is from the all-absorbing influence of men of 

 landed property, that the agriculture of Great 

 Britain has become an interest that has never had 

 a parallel in the history of the world. For 

 whilst the annual value of the exports from the 

 United Kingdom is about two hundred and sev- 

 enty millions of dollars, the annual value of the 

 agricultural produce is reckoned at more than 

 eleven hundred millions; and this when the val- 

 uation of the immense crops of vegetables is at 

 the minimum price tliey are worth in feeding 

 stock. 



There is one way, and but one way to make our 

 agriculture what it should be ; and that i.s to em- 

 bark more capital in it. But there is not the right 

 spirit amongst the cultivators of the soil. An ag- 

 ricultural survey is ordered and commenced, with 

 the entire success of such a measure in the case 

 of Britain, matter of undenied and undeniable 

 history : well, what becomes of the survey ? I 



will tell you, sir, political demagogneisni rides it 

 jlown- it is attacked by the outs as an act of ex- 

 travagance ! and the ins dare not retain it lest 

 they furnish their adversaries with weapons to 

 be used at the polls at the next election. The 

 survey is discontinued, the whole cost being less 

 than what Lord Spencer, or the Duke of Buck- 

 ingham, or Lord Fitzwilliara, or any one of a 

 thousand other zealous landowners would have 

 given from his own purse to have sustained it. 

 I do not hope greatly for the agricultui'al pro- 

 fession for half a century to come. You have 

 done much, sir, and 1 hope will do more. 

 I am, dear sir, vours respectfully, 



JAMES ATHEARN JONES. 



REMARKS. 



We are gratified that our report: of a late dis- 

 cussion in the Massachusetts State House has 

 brought us the foregoing letter from an eminent 

 gentleman, a resident upon the island of Martha's 

 Vineyard, who takes a deep interest in Agricul- 

 ture. His letter is published to show what has 

 been done in another and an older country that 

 There cannot be a doubt that the Ameri 

 can soil is as fertile, and that the incentives to ex 

 ertion should be as strong in promoting agricul 

 tural improvement in this country as in any part 

 of Europe. One reason we are not as far advan- 

 ced is, that our range for selecting grounds is not 

 confined like theirs ; that while necessity urges 

 them to improve the land already occupied, we 

 are left at liberty, after extracting the virgin fer- 

 tility of the soil, to choose new locations. An- 

 other important cause for diflference is, that an 

 older country is always a more weahhy countiy, 

 and furnishes means for improvement that no new 

 country possesses. 



We ought by no means to be discouraged in 

 our efforts to change the agricultural aspects of 

 our country when we see the improvemeiits which 



believe of Euro|)e generally. In England to be I are made in various directions. These improve- 

 wanting in the dignity conferred by landed pos- 1 ments are greater in the towns upon $he seaboard 



and nearest the prosperous cities and villages, 

 than further in the interior. Where a ready mar- 

 ket is found lor agricultural produce, there we 

 find the most agricultural enterprise. As the 

 means and avenues of ready intercourse increase 

 —as the price'of transport to and from a market 

 is lessened and time is gained — so the induce- 

 ments to extend improvements farther into the 

 country are multiplied. 



But it is found in every part of New England 

 that labor and capital judiciously applied to the 

 improvement of agriculture, are a no less sure 

 investment than in any other business. The great 

 fault is, that labor and capital have been too much 

 diffused— that they are spread over too great a 

 surface; that the eagerness of gain shows itself 

 more in the grasp for land than for a greater 

 steady and permanent product. Before Agricul- 

 ture in this country shall have attained to the age 

 of the Agriculture of Great Britain, there will bo 

 found a great and decided change in our behalf. 

 We certainly are making no inconsiderable pro- 

 sress in Agricultural improvement ; and we trust 

 That our friend whose admiration of British agri- 

 culture is not exceeded by that of the writer, 

 should he and us live to see the years of half of 

 a half century, will be free to confess that his an- 

 ticipations have not been realized. 



As true as it is that there is a blest spirit of 

 enterprise in the native population of the North, 

 so true is it that New England Agriculture will 

 keep pace with New Englatid Commerce and 

 Manufactures. The want of a more fertile and 

 more easy soil than is found in the West is more 

 than made up by our access to a ready market for 

 almost every species of produce. And we will 

 find, after a lapse of years, that there is really not 

 as much dittorenco in tlio soil aud climate as 

 some imagine. The first cultivation presents ev- 

 ery new district of country as most fertile. If we 

 could cast back seventy-five and a hundred years 

 to the fii-st products of the interior of New Eng- 

 land, we might give much of the exhausted land 

 of this country credit for fertility equal to almost 

 any other part of America. So of the wheat and 

 tobacco region of Maryland and Virginia, and the 

 rice, cotton and corn lands of the Carolinas and 

 Georgia— these were formerly as fruitful in spon- 

 taneous production as ever were the lands in 

 Ohio, Illinois, Alabama or Mississippi. Yet more 

 dogenerate and more sterile have become the 

 southern Atlantic lands depending on slave culti- 

 vation, than the longest cultivated New England 

 lands depending upon the labor of the hard hands 

 of New England freemen. Whole plantations in 

 the old Southern States have been abandoned, 

 their owners and slaves being literally driven out 

 by starvation from the worn-out lands ; and hun- 

 dreds have emigrated and settled down upon oth- 

 er lands in the western States. 



It must be the destiny of the very best coun- 

 tries to degenerate wherever successive croppings 

 of even the richest soil shall be pursued without 

 the requisite means are pursued for renovation. 

 The degeneracy has not been as great in New 

 England as in other portions of the country. 

 While the affriculture of some towns and districts 

 has degenerated, we can point to other towns and 

 districfs where amendment and renovation have 

 already done a noble work. 



Our hopes of the Agi-icultural profession in 

 this country are far better than those of our 

 Massachusetts correspondent. The whole coun- 

 try may not be improved in half a century like 

 the premises of Mr. Coke, " the greatest farm in 

 England." But ten years shall not roll over our 

 heads before the face of Agriculture in many 

 New England towns shall be essentially changed 

 for the better. , ,. , , j 



Enout'h has been done to establish beyond 

 controversy the fact that the highest cultivation 

 and the greatest investment of labor and capital 

 n a given quantity of land, afford the best pro- 



upo 



fit. In Etaling this proposition, we do not mean 



