56 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



ploughs would run with one. This plough not 

 only requires less team, but the value of the 

 ploughing is much enhanced. A single plough- 

 ing effects more than two or three ploughings 

 that would be considered decent. Other agricul- 

 tural insu-umenis, the scythe, the hoe, the shovel, 

 the spade, tlie rake, the pitchfork, have been much 

 improved. The Cultivator, the Cornplanter and 

 Seed Sower, the revolving Horserake, the Coru- 

 sheller, the Thrashing Machine and Winnower, 

 are new inventions, all of them more or less 

 useful. 



The third necessity of Agriculture mentioned 

 by our author is Industiy. He says, " it unfortu- 

 nately happens that wealth is too often considered 

 as discharging us from an obligation, a compli- 

 ance with which is necessary to render us hajjpy 

 ourselves and useful to society. The mischiefs 

 of this opinion are vastly aggravated by the con- 

 sideration that wealth bestows an ability to exert 

 industry with discretion and to extend its benefits 

 with most effect. The rich who bestow money, 

 may possibly nurture idleness, and never add to 

 the general stock of subsistence. Whei-e is the 

 mighty merit of giving money which we never 

 earned, whether derived from our ancestors, or 

 obtained by the dice ; as an oblation to vanity or 

 to fortune .'" 



" If this reasoning did not conform to the gen- 

 eral sense of mankind, the action of the Caliph 

 Motassem, who contributed his personal labor to 

 advance the happiness of a poor man by assisting 

 him to raise his cart out of the mire, would not 

 have been commemorated for ages, whilst all his 

 donations of money have sunk into oblivion. 



" No success in any science or employment 

 useful to mankind is experienced without indus- 

 try ; and iu that of agriculture its absence more 

 certainly predicts calamity than in any other. 

 However skilful gentlemen farmers may be in 

 theory, or however ingenious in conversation, let 

 them not beguile themselves with an opinion that 

 may dispense with this necessity of agriculture, 

 and yet keep their estates. 



THE RESPONSIBILI'TY OF AGRICULTURE. 



"In the United States the responsibility of Ag- 

 riculture does not stop at food for all eaters. It 

 extends to the support of government, to the en- 

 couragement of cotnmerce, to the sustenance of 

 the learned professions, to the introduction of the 

 fine arts, and to the support of the more useful 

 mechanical employments. All classes have a 

 deep interest in rendering it more copious, be- 

 cause the success of each must expand with its 

 growth and contract with its decline. Its exube- 

 rance cannot, like an exuberant treasury or pecu- 

 niary speculation, be monopolized by idleness or 

 corruption, but must be diffused to excite indus- 

 try and nourish virtue. Whatever shall cripple 

 its capacity for rendering to society services in 

 comparison with which even those of the hero 

 and the patriot become diminutive, ought to be 

 avoided by e^'ery wise man with care, and resist- 

 ed by all who understand their own interest with 

 firnmess." 



BOOK KEEPING USEFUL TO FARMERS. 



The superior means and fccilities for an edu- 

 cation enjoyed by the farmers of tlie present day 

 over the first settlers of New England, suggest 

 other improvements than those of "mere manual 

 labor upon the land. A mode of book keeping 

 might, iu connection with ordinary mathematical 

 studies, be introduced into our schools which 

 would be highly beneficial to farmers. The in- 

 dustrious man seldom fails in finding time for do- 

 ing every thing. No man who kept correct ac- 

 counts probably ever regretted the loss of time 

 expended in making entries upon his day book or 

 in posting from that to the ledger. There is a 

 great satisfaction in being able to exhibit a stnct- 

 ly accurate account of botlt the debt and the 

 credit side whenever we come to a settlement 

 with any person with whom we have had tran- 

 sactions. An equal satislaclion is derived from a 

 frequent settlement and squaring accounts with 

 our neighbors. A disability of present payment 

 ought not, as it frequently does, to prevent an ad- 

 justment of long running accounts. 



The keeping of simple accounts of debt and 

 credit is not that to which I would confine the 

 farmer's attention. I would suggest the jjiactica- 

 bility and the benefit of the. farmer keeping a 



strict account with his farm, extending it to each 

 field and each particular crop. Let him first 

 enter as an item of charge the expense of land 

 and buildings, live stock, tools and implements, 

 household furniture and articles of sustenance 

 with which he commences. Let each field bo 

 charged with the labor l)estowed upon it, with the 

 quantity and value of manure, so that at the end 

 of the season it shall be accurately known what 

 the crop shall cost. Let the state of every field 

 be ac^iu-ately entered at the commencement and 

 during the progress of the season. Let the 

 amount of grain and other products of the farm 

 consumed either in the family or by the stock 

 also form items of entry. A separate account 

 might also be kept in which all money received 

 should be charged, and all money paid should be 

 entered. A lime account should likewise be kept 

 in which shall be daily entered the day's work 

 and rate of wages of each hand employed. A 

 daily account thus kejU, posted up at convenient 

 intervals, will show at the end of the year all de- 

 sirable results ; and the double entry of articles 

 bought and sold, of money paid and received, 

 will furnish a standard to correct every mistake. 



A diary kept upon a farm, containing a minute 

 account of occurrences, observations ou the 

 weather and influence of the season upon the 

 crops, summary statements at regidar pei-iods of 

 the ])rogress and state of the business, times of 

 planting and harvesting, would also furnish sat- 

 isfactory data for future reference. 



The faimer by aids such as these would at all 

 times be able to inform himself and his neighbors, 

 what crop, what rotation — whether arable, grass 

 or pasture, yields the gieatest profit ; and he will 

 be able to readily telt what is the expense and 

 protluce, and the profit and loss on the different 

 soils. He can satisfy himself what operation 

 gives the greater loss or gain in every considera- 

 ble transaction. 



APOLOGY FOR CRUDE IDEAS. 



The ideas 1 have presented to your considera- 

 tion are desultory tiom the fiict of my being 

 obliged to prepare this lecture amidst the thoughts 

 and cares of other l)usiness with no spare time 

 left to re -write or break off the excrescences iiom 

 the rock which I have taken from the mass before 

 me. Men of more agricultural experience than 

 I have ever had can realize how much informa- 

 tion is abroad in the world that might be useful 

 in an agricultural address : such men, with the 

 excellent Taylor, will be pleased to be lemi-ded 

 of whatever they already know. 



EVIDENCE OF A GREAT MAN IN FAVOR OF A 

 GREAT MAN. 



A few days since I accidentally fell in compa- 

 ny and was introduced to the coiiliialid Dcxtur 

 Channing, who is regarded as (hh (;f tlie lu>t 

 scholars of the country aud otic ol' liic lie st wri- 

 ters in the English language. He at unci: inUu- 

 duced the subject of Agriculture? as the highest 

 temporal interest of the country. I mentioned 

 Col. Taylor as a man who was before the age on 

 this subject, and whose theory and practice thirty 

 years ago were in perfect coincidence with the 

 better theory and practice of the present day. 

 Dr. Channing said that while in Virginia, when a 

 young man, he saw and knew Col. Taylor ; that 

 he was then regarded as one of the huninariesof 

 the time — as a man of extraordinaiy intellect, of 

 great plainness and simplicity of dress and man- 

 ners, who was every where looked up to as an 

 oracle. He was frequently a member of the Vir- 

 ginia Legislature and was once a Senator in Con- 

 gress. 



THE SCHOLAR AND DIVINE DEALING IN LEACHED 



ASHES. 



Doct. CImuning resides a considerable portion 

 of his time upon the island of Rhode-Island in 

 the Narragauset bay, a place famed for its fertil- 

 ity and agriculture many years ago. He said he 

 regretted that on that beautiflil sjjot as in other 

 parts of the country portions of the soil had been 

 worn out and had become less productive : there 

 were those there engaged in farming who toolj a 

 deep interest in reviving those lands. For this 

 purpose, himself and others had recently import- 

 ed from the State of Maine a cargo of leached 

 ashes which they had found to be a most potent 

 material for renovating worn out land ; and that, 

 although these leached ashes cost as high as fif- 

 teen cents the bushel, they considered their mon- 

 ev well laid our. The Doctor v.-a8 enthusiastic 



on the subject of Agriculture : he said ho consid- 

 ered every man who made some new agricultural 

 improvement — every man who was instrumental 

 in promotiiif; the cause of Aiiricultiu'e — to be the 

 most dcscT\ini; ol' .•ipinolialioii. He suggested 

 the idea that tltt- liirinti's eirjoyiiient from impro- 

 ved culture of the ground \\ as greater than men 

 employed in other kinds of business could rea- 

 lize ; and that this enjoyment might be much in- 

 creased if farmers would expend a portion of 

 labor and expense in beautifying and adorning the 

 grounds which the Almighty blessed with fruit- 

 fulness under their hands. 



I rejoice that men of the fii-st consideration in 

 our land, statesmen, lawyers, physicians and di- 

 vines?, deem not the occupation of the farmer too 

 low for their attention. 1 rejoice that this calling 

 is rising in the public estimation, and that the 

 hand of the diligent farmer presents the assurance 

 of accumulated comfort and even of wealth. 



EXAMPLES AT CHESTER AND ITS VICINITY. 



You have examples in this neigiihorhood of the 

 attention which has been paid to Agriculture by 

 some of the ino.st distinguished public men of 

 the State: you see what has been the effect of 

 their efforts upon the intrinsic value of lands in 

 this near vicinity. They have done only what it 

 is in the power of fanners in. all parts of this 

 State to do : if they have raised the price of land 

 that was only worth ten dollars an acie to the 

 value of fifty, seventy-five and a hundred dollars 

 the acre, so may every farmer in New Hampshire 

 raise the price and value of his lands. Such an 

 investment will be better to him than either the 

 laying up so many hard silver dollars in a locked 

 up till, or earning it to be loaned out on interest. 



NOT TOO LATE FOR AMENDMENT. 



Let no farmer be deterred from attempting the 

 renovation of his lauds by the notion that this is 

 too cold a country to live in, and that the land 

 may be more easily improved further South than 

 it can be here. The truth isj that the quantity of 

 worn out, abandoned lands is far greater under 

 the mild climate of the Southern Atlantic States 

 than it is in New England — that the prospect is 

 more discouraging in regions of country where 

 the soil was of the highest fertility at its original 

 settlement, than it is in our rough country. Not 

 more fertile aud productive are the prairie lands 

 of Illinois and Wisconsin, than were large tracts 

 of land in Virginia at the time when Pocahontas 

 rescued the life of Captain Smith from the savage 

 knife of her tribe. That fertility has been ex- 

 hausted, and thousands of acres, worn out by the 

 exhausting system of agriculture, have been 

 abandoned: so in time, and at a time that the 

 short age of the present generation may reach, 

 « ill much of the fair region of the West become 

 woi i] out ; and a race of men of less personal en- 

 terprise and activity than thffse of our New Eng- 

 land hills from the fact of a first greater and more 

 easy production of the virgin soil, must either 

 become miserable from poverty, dive deeper into 

 the forest in pursuit of untasted fertility, or do 

 what is better, bestir all their sleejiing energies in 

 lepairing what has been worn out and depreci- 

 ated. 



A SWISS EXAMPLE. 



That enterprising and Idghly moral people, the 

 Swiss, are worthy of imitation by the yeomanry 

 of New England. In the Canton of Vaiid, where 

 constant agricultural impioveTuents are going on, 

 and where manufacturing industry is making 

 rapid progress, cultivation is extended upon the 

 steep sides of the mountains. Not discouraged 

 at the washing down of the soil, it is careftdly 

 gathered up at the foot and replaced with severe 

 labor; and this process is o(\en repeated. The 

 disadvantages they encounter present no perma- 

 nent obstruction to their prosperity. Hai'dship 

 and the necessity to labor fix their affections more 

 firmly to their mountains. With light taxes and 

 fi-ee trade, they have been able to introduce and 

 advance manufactures. The pure streams run- 

 ning down from their hills were found well 

 adapted to the ready printing of calicoes from the 

 British cottons introduced without taxation : if 

 these had been prohibited, that work would not 

 have been commenced. Because cotton yarn was 

 brought in without taxation, weaving was added 

 to the print works ; and then the raw cotton com- 

 ing in free, spinning has been added, umil the 

 whole process of manufacture is carried through ; 

 and factories are mnltiplyinsr nmong the moun- 



