NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Published every Saturday, by THOMAS W. SHEPARU, Hogers' liiiilding, Congress Street, Boston ; at $-2,50 per aim. in advance, or $3,00 at the close of the year. 



\ OL. I. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1822. 



No. 6. 



At (he sug:grstion of a friend, but in perfect accord- 



n. ' with our own views, we this day commence tlie 



r-pnblication of the foUowin;^ pamphlet, which we 



li ili continue, from time to time, till completed. Al- 



-h not designed particularly for this section of the 



-1, it is, for the most part, as well adapted to New 



Old as to New York ; and we think its contents 



.it fail to be interesting to that cla?s in the com- 



nunity, who have most leisure to read, and may be 



xpected lo derive mo.=t profit from reading. Writings 



ike the following have a tendency to make the most 



iseful pursuits the most fashionable, and may perhaps 



urn the attention of many young men of family and 



brtune lo almost the only honorable vocation, which 



s not already thronged and crowded to a degree which 



eaves but little chance of success to new competitors. 



"^onsidcrntions on the necessity of ettablLliiua an 

 ,'lgricultural College^ and liavitig more of the 

 children of Zi-caltky citizens educated for the 

 profession of fanning. Albany' : Wcbsters &. 

 Skinners, pp. -1'2. 



The purpose of the following observations i.< 

 o recommend an institution for the education 

 if agriculturists, or, in more familiar language, 



teach the bu.siness of farming. 



The necessity of such an institution is the 



irst thing that will be required to be shewn 



I efore advocates for it can be expected, and 



his I think will appear in a convincing manner 



7om the following considerations. 



There are now thousands of wealthy citizens 



1 this state who do not know what to do with 

 leir sons. In the tirst place, without any de- 

 ■rminale object in view, they give them a lib- 

 ral education, or rather, they send them for 

 >ur years to a cohege to obtain the reputation 

 r having a graduate's diploma, and so much 

 istruction in the dead languages and the ordi- 

 iry sciences as they are compelled or dispos- 

 J to attend to ; after that there are only three 

 rofessions from which ordinarily they are to 

 loose their means of living and rising into 

 )nsequence — la-s.\ physic and divinity ; but so 

 reat arc the numbers of young gentlemen des- 

 ned for those professions, that their prospects 

 •e truly dismal ; but what other provision can 

 eir fathers make for them ? Turn them to 

 me mechanic employment ? that is consider- 

 1 too degrading — To manufacturing? it has 



en tried and proved ruinous — To mercantile 

 isiness? that too is overstocked — To the armv 



navy ? there is little room there, and many 

 ■asons against it — To farming ? nothing, it I's 

 id, can be made by it. 



In most European countries, the manufactur- 

 g department affords a vast opening for rcs- 

 ;clab!c enterprise, and gives employment to 

 illions. Its business can scarcely be overdone. 



it arc found some of the most" important and 

 fluential men of the nation to which they bc- 

 ng. In respectability, wealth and usefulness. 

 w in other departments excel them. Hither 

 en, without offence to the most lastidious 



ide, may the oflspring of families of ev. t\ 



nk be directed for employment. To us this 



ppartment may in some sense be said to be 



K'solutely shut, a circuBslancc whicli most uia- 



terialij' narrows the field of profitable and hon- 

 orable pursuit. With us so few arc the chan- 

 nels of what is esteemed exclusively reputable 

 business, by the proud classes of society, that a 

 multiludo, too great I'or their capacities, rushes 

 into them at once. Happily for the agricultural 

 department, it has, among all the capricious and 

 absurd modifications and revolutions of nations, 

 remained exeinpt from dishonorable imputa- 

 tion ; but Still it is guarded by a terrific phan- 

 tom, which threatens ol).?curity and poverty to 

 those who shall attempt to enter it, still repeat- 

 ing, that by fanning nothing is to be inctdc. 



That nothing is to be made by t'arming, how- 

 ever, is an opinion easy to be related, and that 

 will presently be done ; in the mean while, 

 some further preliminary observations are to 

 be made. 



There are no entailed estates in our country : 

 and there are very few, however enormous, that 

 may not be dissipated by the immediate descen- 

 dants of those who have acquired tlieni. It may 

 therefore he said, with little qualification, that 

 every person, whatever ma3' be his patrimony, 

 must calculate on being the arbiter of his own 

 fortune. As many young men are now brought 

 up in opulent families, the inevitable conse- 

 quence will be that they, excepting such as may 

 fortunately escape the effects of their education, 

 must eventually sink out of siight from the re- 

 spectable part of the community. In the mean 

 time the descendants of the industrious mechan- 

 ics, following the lessons and examples of their 

 fathers, together with those extraordinary gen- 

 iuses, that not unfrequently rise from the man- 

 sions of obscurity, will by their native powers 

 •and unsiibduable energies, mount to the highest 

 eminences, comnuind the wealth, and rule the 

 destinies of their country. It is melancholy to 

 look back and see how many families ol high 

 repute, have, merely by fostering a despicable, 

 inert, family pride, and disdaining such occupa- 

 tions for their children as \vere only suited to 

 their talents, and abandoning them to their way- 

 ward inclinations, become extciTninaledfrom the 

 ranks in which they formerly stood. And it is 

 pitiable, truly pitiable, to see, as any one ip 

 every section of the country may see, by look- 

 ing not far about him, a family raised to opu- 

 lence and character by the genius, enterprise 

 and industry of its head, exhibiting, from the 

 same cause, sure and dismal presages of its spee- 

 dily submerging far below the level of its pre- 

 sent stand in society. — Who cannot point to 

 some such in which not one of its branches can 

 be selected with the least prospect of a survi- 

 ving reputation distinguished from that of the 

 common mass of mankind, after the head of il 

 shall have ceased to uphold it? And hoiv is this 

 to be accounted for? By that same pernicious 

 pride and most culpable tenderness, which for- 

 bid persons, elevated by their circumstances 

 but a little above the common level, to subject 

 their children to that severe discipline which is 

 indispensably necessary to prepare them t'ov 

 such callings, no matter which, as arc indicated 

 by their capacities and the natural bent of their 

 dispositions. Such persons do to their sons the 

 office of the angel of ['ar^dise, in guarding, a- 



I gainst their entrance, the only place where hap- 

 piness for them is to be found. Nor can it es- 

 ^ cape observation, that to the neglect of early 

 I and systematic religious and moral instruction, 

 can evidently he traced the annihilation of fami- 

 I lies once holding conspicuous stations in the 

 community. 



It may here be proper also to make some re- 

 marks on the notion which is generally enter- 

 tained of the hardships, sometimes called cruel- 

 tics, of discipline. The discipline of young ])er- 

 sons is nolliiiig more than compelling them to 

 do what they ought to do, and must do, to c.«cape 

 a comparatively ignominious life, but what they 

 arc naturally unwilling to do, and by proper 

 means to impress on them the habit of" doing it 

 Tills in the operation may not be pleasant to 

 the patient, but the habit once induced will be- 

 come the source of his greatest enjoyments 

 As some confirmation of tlie truth of this re- 

 mark, I have heard persons, who had in their 

 earlier age passed tlirough a course of the se- 

 verest discipline, animadvert on it with the 

 highest satisihclion ; and w ith recollections of 

 gratitude to their, once considered cruel, mas- 

 ters, ascribe (o it all the consequence they had 

 acquired in life. On the contrary, I have heard 

 bitter upbraidings from those who have in after 

 life wofully experienced the effect of its not 

 having been enforced by those who had the 

 control of them in the days of their infancy and 

 youth. 



I believe every reader of this will, from his 

 own experience, be ready to testify to the just- 

 ness of this remark. For myself I can truly say, 

 that there is no hardship which I have suffered 

 to prepare mc tor the duties of life, nor any 

 which I have endured in the prosecution of 

 them, \vhich I now regret. If 1 have any one 

 thing more tlian others to regret, in my recol- 

 lections of the past, it is, that stronger injunc- 

 tions have not been enforced, or that a greater 

 self-control, and a course of more scrupulous 

 and assiduous performance of duties have not 

 l^een a-^sumed. The pains of additional labor 

 would have been abundantly compensated by 

 the feelings of self-applause, which a retrospec- 

 uon would afford, and the satisfaction yielded 

 liy a consciousness of powers better matured for 

 actions more extensively useful. 



On this topic I will make one other remark 

 which, as to its importance and truth, I recom- 

 mend fo the serious and dcliberafe consideratioa 

 of those wealthy parents, v.hose anxieties to pro- 

 vide for the happiness of their children, render 

 them incapable of attending to the plainest dic- 

 tates of reason and the most impressive lessons 

 of experience. 



A youth supplied v/ith cash lo the amount of 

 his wishes, to he employed for his pleasures in 

 such ways as his undisciplined inclinations may 

 lead him into, and which will most probably be 

 to di>>ipated company, gambling houses, and the 

 resorts of obscenity and intemperance, will enjoy 

 much less real happiness than an apprentice un- 

 der the strictest master of a mechanic art. Be- 

 sides, such a youth must expect ultimalely to find 

 the apprentice of the mechanic, and many a lar- 

 mer"5 son, infinitely his superior in the estimation 



