THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



171 



intrinsic dignity, for it liatli tliat now, but in tlie 

 estimation of those wliose opinion of any pur- 

 suit is based upon the degree of favor in which 

 they remark it to be iield by tlie exclusive class. 



Now I wisfi to impress upon all your readers, 

 that the most aristocratic and exclusive employ- 

 ment under heaven is farming, first, because of 

 its being the most ancient; and secondly, as it 

 enables one to dispense with the solicitation, and, 

 by some esteemed, unmanly cringing which the 

 trader is compelled to use to sell his goods, to 

 say nothing of the prevarication and artifice 

 which are very generally resorted to for the same 

 purpose. I wish to institute no invidious com- 

 jjarisons, to draw no anti-republican lines of cir- 

 cuinvallation around any class, profession or call- 

 ing ; but I wish to persuade the agriculturist to 

 put away his self-abasement, and if to take pre- 

 cedence be the game, to step forward to claim it 

 as boldly as if he were a count of Montgomerie 

 passing to the audience chamber of Louis Phil- 

 lippe. 



I say then, sir, that I would establish a Nation- 

 al Board of Agriculture, the members of which 

 should be gathered from every State of the Un- 

 ion — the oflicers combining inlelligeuce, personal 

 character, patriotism, and above all zeal for the 

 advancement of the specific object. It should be 

 impressed upon the public mind that to be an 

 officer of such an institution woidd in any part of 

 Europe become an object sought after with the 

 greatest anxiety. 



In London on the evenings of every Tuesday, 

 you may see those two great dignitaries of the 

 Church, the Archbishops of Canterbury and 

 York, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of 

 the Council, the Lord Privy Seal, the Prime Min- 

 ister, the first Lord of the Admiralty, the Bishops 

 of London and Durham, the Secretaries of State 

 for the Foreign and Home Department, the Mas- 

 ter General of the Ordnance, the Speaker of the 

 House of Commons, the President of the Royal 

 Society, the Surveyor General of Woods and 

 Forests and the Surveyor General of Crown 

 Lands, on their way to the rooms of the Society 

 in Saekville street, Piccadilly. All the above 

 named are the official members of the Board. 

 To these will probably be added the most emi- 

 nent of the nobility and gentry m the kingdom 

 who happen to be in town. 



And now, my dear sir, as the showman says, 

 "you see the Duke of York" — you see the rea- 

 son why Britain has become the wonder of the 

 earth : it is the attention paid there to Agricul- 

 ture! By ii decree of one of the Henrys the 

 Lord Chancellor was to seat himself upon a sack 

 of wool — that island now grows yearly 160 mill- 

 ion pounds of wool. The corn laws may be 

 hard and oppressive, but, sir, I tell you that they 

 have helped to make her the greatest agricultural 

 land the sun shines upon. 



Yours truly, 



J. A. J. 



Kemarks. — The spirit of our Massachusetts 

 friend and correspondent is excellent: we will 

 be glad to see, and we hope we shall live to see 

 Agriculture making the rij;ht advances in this 

 country as it has done and is doing in the island 

 of Great Britain. Much is done in that country 

 by the nobility for the advancement of Agricul- 

 ture. The British corn laws have undoubtedly 

 had their effect in contributing to the impulse 

 which has made Agriculture prosperous and pro- 

 fitable in England. 



But if Agriculture can advance in this coun- 

 try only on the principle of the corn-laws, we 

 should greatly regret that state of things which 

 shall render a resort to this system in thi.s free 

 country necessary. Agriculture may be made to 

 advance without oppression to any class of men 

 whatever: it will best advance when left to that 

 cotnplete freedom of trade which shall invite to 

 its protection the markets of the whole world. 



A system of taxation in Great Britain, to dis- 

 charge the enormous expenses of debt already 

 existing, its sinecures and pensions to the nobili- 

 ty, and its immense civil and military establish- 

 ments, is indispensable. The corn-laws are one 

 means of raising the immense amount of money 

 necessary for tlie support of all these. For the 

 benefit of the land proprietors and the owners of 

 capital invested in agriculture, the system which 

 excludes all foreign bread stuffs until it arrives at 

 a certain high price, is framed : it fixes the pro- 



ductions of the soil at such high rates that the 

 poor laborer who cultivates the field cannot from 

 his hay purchase decent food for the support of 

 his family. The price of his labor will not ena- 

 ble him to eat bread and meat, such as the poor- 

 est American laborers think they caimot do with- 

 out, three times a week. Are there plentiful 

 crops, corn tnay be exported to other countries to 

 keep the price up ; but if the crops fail, corn may 

 not be imported until scarcity carries the price to 

 such a high point as will enable the land-owner 

 to sell a small crop for as much money as he 

 might be expected to obtain for a large one. The 

 consequence is, that in times both of plenty and 

 scarcity the poor laborer, as well upon the land as 

 in the extensive manufacturing establishinents 

 and in most other avocations, is deprived of the 

 ability to purchase and consume even the neces- 

 saries without which the meanest laborer in this 

 country cannot make himself and family even 

 comfortable. ) 



The British corn-laws operate much to the en- 

 couragement of that ancient nobility which un- 

 der the laws of primogeniture are continued as 

 the owners of immense domains : some of these 

 nobility, such men for instance as the Earl of 

 Leicester, the illustrious farmer of Hotham, do 

 honor to human nature by their kindness to the 

 peasantry in their employ, breaking through the 

 rigid rule which exacts the greatest amount of 

 labor for the smallest pay. The tenants under 

 the owners of the soil, who may be styled the 

 second rate nobility, are for the most part men of 

 capital who have an equal interest with the own- 

 ers themselves in the protection afforded by the 

 corn-laws. They hold the lands on long leases ; 

 and it is not uncommon for them to expend an 

 amount of capital in the outset equal per acre to 

 the original value of the farm they occupy. The 

 owner and the tenant thus go hand in hand in 

 supporting the policy of the corn-laws, because 

 they are equally favored in their interests by those 

 laws. But this land aristocracy, including both 

 proprietors and tenants, are hardly as one in a 

 iiundred of the whole mass of popcdation whose 

 intei-ests are affected by the corn-laws. 



Indeed these corn-laws have been brought to 

 be considered such an intolerable burden, that 

 at the latest dates from that country the mass of 

 the people seemed to be ripe for revolution. The 

 late Ministry, fiom the alarming steps taken by 

 millions who had associated to put an end to the 

 oppressions of the corn-laws, had intimated a 

 course of measiu-es intended to pave the way for 

 repeal. The land proprietors, on this intimation, 

 took the alarm in the late elections ; and, restrict- 

 ed as is the right of suffrage which is confined 

 almost exclusively to the freeholders, they were 

 able to present a majority of the tory party known 

 t<i be opposed to a repeal of tlie corn-laws, for 

 the new Parliament. The young Queen favors 

 the policy of the repeal party : yet she is com- 

 pelled for the time being to conform to the poli- 

 cy of the majority in Parliament and to give the 

 leading tories the control of the administration. 

 It is nevertheless evident that the masses in Eng- 

 land have arrived at that state of suffering and 

 excitement in which there will be revolution if 

 there shall not be some amelioration in the re- 

 strictive system which has so long been pursued 

 by the British government. 



Being opposed in principle to any system of 

 bounties and premiums which shall be adopted 

 to promote the interest of one class of the peo- 

 ple at the expense of another, while we would 

 cherish every association calculated to further the 

 interests of Agriculture, we candidly admit that 

 we are not in favor of obtaining "a grant from 

 the national treasury of half a million," as the 

 first step for instituting a National Board of Ag- 

 riculture. Wc would saciifice more for the pro- 

 tection of Agriculture than for any other interest 

 whatever; but our fears in the first instance 

 would be that this half a million taken from the 

 public treasury by illegilimaie legislation, counte- 

 nancing other appropriations for the benefit of 

 other classes, would in the end take a much 

 greater amount from the farmer's pocket than it 

 would carry into it. Mercantile and manufac- 

 turing cu])idity has always claimed more benefits 

 from legislation than has been asked for the ag- 

 ricultural interest ; and the single grant of half a 

 million in behalf of that interest would embol- 

 den those who have knocked at the doors of Con- 

 gress for some new favors ever since the adop- 



il lor 



tion of the Constitution lo claim : 

 one by way of saving grace : for every dollar of 

 benefit obtained from such a grant from the pub- 

 lic treasury, the farmer might be required to pay 

 ten dollars in contributions to the srfme treasury. 

 In all new projects of this kind, which have no 

 stronger than implied authority under the nation- 

 al compact, the safest course will be to devise no 

 new method for national expenditure. 



Another point of objection is, that every gen- 

 erous project set on foot and carried on at the 

 seat of the national government within our 

 knowledge has resulted in less benefit in propor- 

 tion to the contributions supplied than from any 

 other similar attempts in any other part of the 

 country. Large donations have been made by 

 the government and individuals connected there- 

 with, for a College at Washington ; and, thus far, 

 this has been the greatest failure of any kindred 

 jittempt in the country within our knowledge. 

 The seat of the Colonization Society for the ben- 

 efit of the colored race has been there ; and 

 much of the funds and means contributed hea-e' 

 tofore by the government and by individuals have 

 been expended before they started on their point 

 of destination. From our own knowledge of the 

 place and the habits of the recipients of money 

 there, it would be the last place to which we 

 should send money contributed for any great na- 

 tional object of inqjrovenient ; for, beyond the 

 citizens of the States whose residence there is 

 temjiorary, there is less interest taken in whatev- 

 er concerns the general welfare of the country 

 than at any point with which we are acquainted : 

 the inhabitants there are foreigners to every thing 

 else than claiming from the public treasury the 

 expendilm-e.s which in every other city and town 

 of the Union are contributed by the inhabitants 

 themselves. We would as soon organize an In- 

 stitute for the benefit of American Agriculture at 

 London or Paris as at the Federal City ; and the 

 inhabitants of the two first would be quite as 

 likely to take an interest for the general improve- 

 ment as the latter; and far less likely to make 

 upon the fund that might be collected such char- 

 ges as would leave little for the promotion of the 

 intended object. 



We should be more inclined to placeja Na- 

 tional Board of Agriculture at either of the "reat 

 cities upon the seaboard than at the city of Wash- 

 ington : we would at all events separate such a 

 Board entirely from the action of Congress or 

 the General Government, although we would not 

 object to making of officers of the government — 

 such of them as felt enough interest in Agricul- 

 ture to attend to the subject — officers and mem- 

 bers of the Board. If a fund could be obtained 

 to be expended in premiums from the bequest of 

 wealthy individuals who could be induced to 

 think as well of promoting the prosperity of the 

 country through its Agriculture, as of promoting 

 other objects of less general interest — such a 

 foundation would be liable to none of the excep- 

 tions we have taken. A Board dependent on in- 

 dividuals for its funds would be much the most 

 likely to make a proper use of the means in their 

 hands ; and persons who should contribute might 

 even direct in the appropriation. Every proprie- 

 tor and owner of land in the country has a deep 

 stake in the improvements of Agriculture. Good 

 and improving cidtivation raises the value of all 

 the lands within its neighborhood, as bad culti- 

 vation makes the real estate of any town or dis- 

 trict where it prevails suffer continual deprecia- 

 tion. It is therefore the interest of all who have 

 a stake in the soil to contiibute something lor the 

 general improvement as well as for that of his 

 own immediate possessions. 



Soap Boilers' or Spent Ashes. Every 110 

 bushels of the spent ashes of the principal soap 

 boilers, consist of 45 bushels of lime, 45 bushels of 

 barilla,and 35 bushels of wood ashes, so that every 

 100 bushels contain 40 10-1 Iths bushels of lime, 

 and hence,in [lart, their great value as an improver 

 of the soil. In the process through which they pass 

 they necessarily imbibe a large portion of ammo- 

 nia, and the material for its formation, se that it 

 is a question with ns, whether they are not better 

 adapted to agricultural purposes after, than before 

 the ley is extracted. If such were not the ca-ve, 

 it iippears evident to us, that the effects of the 

 small quantities usually applied would not be so 

 lasting as they are. — American Farmer. 



