THE F 



MONTHLY VISITOR 



CONDUCTED BV IS/VAC IIXLL. 



" Those who labor in the earth are the chosenpeople of God, whose breasts he has made hispeculiar deposite for substantial and genuine virtue." — Jefferson. 



VOLUME IV. 



CONCORD, N. H. NOVEMBER 30, 1842. 



NUMBER 11. 



THE PARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



A MONTHLY NEWSPAPER, IS PUBLISHED BV 



JOHN M. HILL, 



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THE VISITOR, 



Mr. Nesmitli's Address 



Before the Merrimack Coiiiilij .fjgrlcullural Society 

 at Franklin, Oc'l. 18, 1843. 

 Time was, when .-liriiciiliiire was pursued as a 

 i.'iere art, was considered a routine of niecliani- 

 cal dnidi;ery, was treated as a husiness requiring 

 mere ;iiiiaja! power, u hen roii.--i!Ciuently our good 

 mother eailii ;;ave rimderale returns to the igno- 

 rant and iienhjrent laborer. IJiit now science 

 has come to the aid of the uirrieulturist, his palli 

 is every where illiunined with new light. The 

 laws which govern tiie vegetable world, are stud- 



ied i 



ap|)i 



ith a certainty of 



Tlie 



geologist e.\|)lo!'es our soils. The agricultural 

 chemist leaves liis hall and steps into natur " 

 great laboratory, the open field, analyzes the 

 soils, traces out the laws of vej'etable and ani- 

 mal growth and decomposition — tells us the ca- 

 j)acilies of our respective soils, the causes of fer- 

 tility here, and sterility there^what a conipoimd 

 will effect, when the simples fiiil — why the strong 

 alkali, orsalt, or acid should kill, when its com- 

 bination with one of the earthy constituents ani 

 mates, stiiuulatcs and urges on to rich perfection. 

 The chemist qoes further — he exiiihits to us the 

 wondrous indnences, attractions and affinities of 

 heat, liglit, electricity anil the atmospherical 

 agents, and demonstrates, liow all these can be 

 usefully controlled by man. 



How can tlie farnier, you will inquire, make 

 Heaven's best gifts subservient to his uses and 

 wants.' Can he make the sun shine brighter, or 

 the showers and dews descend jnore copiously.' 

 What has he to do with the at'.MOsphere anfl its 

 contents? May he not so p.repare, and till his 

 soil, that its moisture, its carbonic acid, its oxy- 

 gen, shall circulate more freely, and thus yield a 

 richei" supply of drink and food to the roots of 

 the vegetable product ? May not the farmer give 

 the soil such a consistency by the addition of 

 such vegetable and mineral substances as will 

 necessarily induce the elements of the atmos- 

 phere to act upon the vital limctions of tlie plant 

 with greater pouer.' Wiien you so cultivate 

 your land, as lo keep it clear from weeds, wiien 

 you hoe and stir its surface often, will you not 

 thus give the soil a greater absorbing power and 

 invite the dews to a full and kind discharge of 

 all their beneficial offices.- And what has the 

 farmer to do with heat.' Is your soil of a clayey 

 consistence ? Apply the sand or silex, the natu- 

 ral absorbents rmd retainers of heat. Is your soil 

 naturally cold? Apply your unfermented ma- 

 nures. By the gradual fernientation, decomposi- 

 tion and new combinations of such manures, 

 much heat will be evolved and diffused tinough- 

 out the surrounding soil. What has the fu-mer 



to do with electricity. If a soil is acid, it is 

 said to be in a state of negative electricity, 

 and is therefore barren. If a soil has too many 

 alkalies, that is in a state of positive electric- 

 ity, then it is barren. We sow a crop in a peat 

 swamp. We get no useful products. We find 

 too much acidity. This aciility must be neu- 

 tralized by the alkali before fertility is induced, 

 and thus the acid is counteracted by the alkali ; 

 and in this way, the electro powers of the soil 

 are balanced, and frnitfulness restored. Judge 

 Peters of Pennsylvania, many years since, intro- 

 duced the use of gypsum upon his land. His 

 example was followed, and soon such large quan- 

 tities were spent upon the earth as to produce 

 injurious effects, or no effect at all. 



Too much of a good thing was used, and for a 

 time the farmers in tli«t vicinity ceased to use 

 gypsum ; and it was written down as worthless. 

 At length science came along that way, and con 

 vinced the farmer by careful and skiUiil exper- 

 iments, that one or two bushels of good phister 

 per acie, scattered broadcast upon the clover or 

 liny otli<n- broad-leaved plant growing upon san- 

 dy or alluvial soils, showed its good results as far 

 as the eye could reach. It was found that the 

 plants of the soil can decompose small quanti- 

 ties of the salts contained in gypsum and will let 

 loose the lime, and thus he nourished; but the 

 plants would not decompose and absorb large 

 quantities of this substance. Upon this same 

 principle the judicious physician adtninisters to 

 the patient small quantities of his opium, or acids, 

 or nfmerals, and he immediately finds his intend- 

 ed powerfiil results produced. If much larger 

 quantities of the same material be administered, 

 (leath or other deleterious consequences ensue. 

 Hence the necessity of balancing the electrical 

 forces of om- soils either by the addition or sub- 

 traction of some well known substance, perhaps 

 in the proportion of no more than one grain to a 

 hundred. Potash and lime, by actual experiment, 

 administered in this ratio, has been known to pro- 

 duce the surprising effect of doubling, yea quad- 

 rupling the crop in one single year. 



The analysis of our soils is furnishing to the 

 scientific and practical farmer important facts. 

 We not only ascertain with accin-acy their orig- 

 inal constituents; but the degree of fertility or 

 poverty incident to each one. We see the pro- 

 poitioi'i of vegetable matter or food abstracted by 

 each year's crop. We analyze the crop itself; 

 we learn the matter extracted, and wliat ingredi- 

 ents each species of plants recpiire for their most 

 perfect growth. We find too the kind and quali- 

 ty of manure that can be most safely and econo- 

 mically applied to ensure a good crop. When 

 analysis has been applied to our animal and veg- 

 etable manures, it has been ascertained among 

 other (jicis, that tlie violent ferment.ition, which 

 reduces them to the consistency of muck, occa- 

 sions not only the loss of valuable gasses and 

 fluids, but also solid intrinsic matter. 



Sir Humphn-y Davy is of the opinion, from a 

 series of soimil ex[ieriments on this point, that 

 the manure is reduced from one half to two tiiiids 

 in weight, and that the carbonic acid and ammo- 

 nia thus disengaged, comprise a most valuable 

 source of vegetable nourishment. Hence, the fol- 

 ly of summering our inanuies in our yards, and 

 exposing them to the wasteful effects of sun and 

 sliower." The ]iractice of our best farmers is 

 now but one way on this subject. Charles Lor- 

 rain, an eminent farmer, says that he was in the 

 habit of taking his coarse manure from his cattle 

 yards, fi-om which he fed out his corn husks and 

 straw and stalks, and ploughing it under in the 

 spring for his corn ciop. This he did upon 

 loams, upon a stiflf-retentive clay, and upon light, 

 sandy soils, and in a variety of climates. The 

 result was that the manure was most effectually 

 and beneficially decomposed after it is ploughed 

 under the soil ; and that top-dressing with i>u- 

 tie.5cent mmuires was u wasteful practice. 



The analysis of our soils gives us some data 

 from which we can draw satisfactory conclusions 

 as to the deleterious influence of that kind of 

 husbandry denominated cropping. This may be 

 defined to consist in drawing every thing out of 

 the soil and restoring nothing back. It is the 

 stingy, grudging method of cheating the soil out 

 of vAiat it has a sound claim to exact of us. 

 Were it not that this system of negligent farm- 

 ing carries with it its own punishment, in the al- 

 most entire loss of labor, time and capital em- 

 ployed, we would be inclined to ask for Legisla- 

 tive interference with its pains and penalties to 

 remedy the existence of such an evil. 



We have here in New Hampshire many exten- 

 sive farms once fertile, that scarcely now by their 

 products pay for the labor employed upon them. 

 Look at many of our hill-tops, rendered entirely 

 barren by a long course of wasteful cultivation, 

 united with the ordinary action of winds and 

 rain. Do we not hear the voice of help crying to 

 us from such grounds ? The ftlarylanders and 

 Virginians, for a century past, have planted and 

 sowed their once rich lowlands with tobacco and 

 wheat without the renovating use of manures, 

 and so sure as efliect always follows cause, their 

 soil becomes exhausted. They find their lands 

 refuse to yield a profitable crop, and to ascertain 

 a remedy, they invite the attention of the chemist 

 to their soils. Liebig, an eminent chemist, makes 

 his e.xperiments, and informs the Mary landers 

 that the alkalies were taken from the lands. 

 There was no food for their wheat— no capability 

 in the soil to sujiply the specific pabulum for the 

 crop. He estimated the amount of free alkalies 

 chiefly of lime and potash, thus exhausted, in the 

 space of one hundred years, at 1200 lbs. per acre. 

 And, now the Southrons are slowly beginning 

 to inform themselves, and to apply their remedy, 

 by the use of the abundant means within their 

 control — I refer to the calcareous matters, their 

 s and their lime — what kind of recuperative 

 energy shall we bring to our own worn out soils ? 

 We must produce a reaction proportionate to the 

 forced action, so says philosnpliy. Yea more, 

 we have it from high moral authority, that when 

 we have wrongfully taken from a fellow creature, 

 we iiiust restore four fold. Is it not as much our 

 botinden duty to requite the wrongs inflicted by 

 us so unkindly upon nature's fair almoner, that 

 has so often and so bountifully dispensed her 

 gifts to us? Now the soils of New Hampshire 

 contain in their be-st estate less than two per 

 cent, of lime and still less potash. The soils 

 of the Western States, from nineteen speci- 

 mens analyzed, contain something over four 

 percent, of lime in its various formiitions, with a 

 greater proportion of potash and other salts. 

 Now the farmer's great object here is to employ 

 diligently the means he has to obtain a good tex- 

 ture to his soil — a good upper surface, a strong 

 vegetable mould, deep enough to sustain and in- 

 vigorate the roots of the crop.s, and tenacious 

 enough to supply them with moisture and acids, 

 and salts enough to act as solvents to the soluble 

 or fertilizing qualities o( the soil. Now this is to 

 be obtained by a judicious, skillful and liberal 

 application of vegetable, animal and inineral 

 manures, and by careful and timely cultivation. 

 Manure is to the farmer the astrologer's wand, 

 that is to convert every thing into money. All 

 otn- energies should be taxed to [irodiice the best 

 and greatest quantities. Now let us look to our 

 resources a moment and ascertain what we can 

 do in this behalf. And, in the first place, we 

 have some good peat meadows— we have more 

 meadow, or pond muds — we have by our high- 

 wavs and hedges other rich loams and substan- 

 ces" all ready for inacticai use. Now any or ail 

 of these substances can be profitably combined 

 with green yard manure. With them you can 

 underlay the bottom of your barn yards to the 

 depth of six or eight inclies, and thereby absorb 

 the juices of the" superincumbent animal raa- 



