1853, 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



123 



thing that could bo done by government for the 

 benefit of the farmer, except in the regulation of 

 the general policy of tlie country. We are a pro- 

 ducing people, and the difficulty is not with ua the 

 want of protection to enable us to compete with 

 other nations. We produce more agricultural pro- 

 ductions, than we can consume ; hence we want a 

 market, and if we cannot find it abroad, we must 

 seek it at home. So far as New England is con- 

 cerned, it costs us more to raise a bushel of corn 

 or grain than any where else in the world, and it 

 is more a matter of astonishment that we succeed 

 ia farming at all, than that we get but a small re- 

 ward for it. The most important thing that can 

 be done for the farmer in New England is to pro- 

 vide him a market, and the next to improve his 

 mode of cultivating the soil. We must extend the 

 science of our profession. We have as yet paid 

 but little attention to the philosophy of farming, — 

 to the breeding of cattle, and the stock with which 

 our farms should be supplied. We must overcome 

 the difiSculties under which we labor in competing 

 with the productions of the valley of the !Mississip- 

 pi, by our superior skill, and by having a ready 

 market near at hand. The want of a market is 

 supplied by the manufacturing interest that exists 

 in New England, and the speaker contended that 

 the interests of agriculture and manufacture were 

 identical. Ile.was unable to decide which was the 

 most important, for if you destroy one you em- 

 phatically destroy both. Take away the manu- 

 facturing and mechanical interests of ]\fassachu 

 setts, and you take away all the market which the 

 farmer has for his products. 



In allusion to the remarks of Mr. Proctor in re 

 gard to the profits of farming, the speaker said that 

 he was acquainted with a good many farmers in 

 the vicinity of his residence, and he did not know 

 of a single individual that got his living exclusive- 

 ly by farming. He knoAvs some very good farm- 

 ers, with farms that a few years ago would have 

 been considered worth $8000 or $10,000, who did 

 not make any profit on their estates ; he was cer- 

 tain they did not accumulate. He was strongly of 

 opinion that the farmers of the Commonwealth got 

 nothing for their capital. Some farmers, he was 

 aware did make money — those who produced milk, 

 and those that raise a great deal of fruit, and hay, 

 for which they have a ready market — but these are 

 exceptions. 



Col. W. E. Faulkner, of Acton, said that in his 

 town there were formers who had made money 

 within the last twenty years. But they were men 

 ol iron constitutions, who got along with but httle 

 hired help. They went 25 miles to market before 

 tlie railroad went through the town, and made $600 

 per year, chiefly on hay. He believed that a time 

 was coming when forming would be more profita- 

 ble than now, because in the South and West the 

 soils are becoming exhausted from improper man- 



agement, and people were moving back ; and the 

 time is at hand when we shall have a home con- 

 sumption, which is considered by all practical men 

 as better than a foreign market. The speaker al- 

 luded to the necessity of agricultural schools, to 

 give our children a knowledge of chemistry, so that 

 they might know how to treat soils, and keep them 

 fertile and productive. He believed that by skill 

 and industry, the farmers of New England would 

 be able successfully to compete with the farmers 

 of the other sections of the country. He stated 

 that most of the Rour which is ground in New York 

 was raised in Michigan, and the county west of 

 New York, whose lands are fost running out. He 

 thought that fiiriners were not so well paid as me- 

 chanics. Farmers' sons cannot be induced to farm 

 it for a living, because they can get more at other 

 callings. 



Mr. Merri.vm, of Tewksbury, dwelt at some 

 length on the relative importance of the agricul- 

 tural interest of the country, and complained that 

 nothing had been done by government to foster it. 



Dr. CoGGSwELL, of Bedford, humorously related 

 the reasons which induced him to give up practic- 

 ing physic, to follow farming, the primary cause 

 being an old picture representing a king, a clergy- 

 man, a lawyer, a physician, and a farmer. The 

 king was represented with this motto, "I govern 

 all ;" the clergyman with the legend, "I pray for 

 all ;" the lawyer, "I plead for all ;" the physi- 

 cian, "I prescribe for all." The farmer was repre- 

 sented as drawing out rather reluctantly his purse, 

 with this inscription, ^'^ I pay for all.'''' It was this 

 incident which gave him his first impressions of 

 the true dignity of manual labor, and he had en- 

 joyed more true pleasure during his eight years of 

 forming life, than during the twenty he had spent 

 in making pills. He believed the only useful class- 

 es were the farmer, the mechanic, and the trader. 

 All others, lawyers, doctors, ministers, &c., he be- 

 lieved could be dispensed with altogether, and the 

 world wag on just as well without them. He firm- 

 ly believed from his own experience, that farming 

 was profitable. 



Mr. Hastings, of Framingham, a mechanic, con- 

 trasted the position and remuneration of the farm- 

 er with the mechanic, placing the farmer in much 

 the most favorable light. The former spent less 

 time about his business than the mechanic, had 

 more leisure, less trouble in collecting his dues, 

 more privileges &c. He could point to twenty 

 farmers who had got something to show for their 

 labor, where he could to one mechanic in the same 

 circumstances. The farmers have the balance of 

 power, and they can fix things their own way if 

 they choose. 



Mr. Trull, of Tewksbury, said he had got his 

 living by forming, and he disliked to hear his broth- 

 er formers depreciating their occupation. As far 

 as the profits of farming were concerned, he had 



