46 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTOjX .—SATURDAY, SEPT. 7, WZl. 



THOUGHTS ON A(iRlCL'LTURK, AND CERTAIN MKA.NS 

 FOR ITS IMPROVK.MENT. 



The celebrated Sully declared agriculture to be the 

 breast from which the State must draw its nourish- 

 ment. Commerce and manufactures he considered as 

 the sinews of the State, and deserving all possible en- 

 roiirajeraent. But, perhaps the most effectual way to 

 encourage commerce and manufactures, is to foster ag- 

 riculture, which is the parent of all improvement, and 

 the source of all national and individual prosperity. 

 The manufacturer must eat his bread at a moderate 

 price, or his work shop will cease to support him, and 

 he will either drag on a wretched existence in penury 

 and discontent, or seek, by emigration, some ameliora- 

 tion of his circumstances. The merchant, likewise, 

 cannot expect to flourish in a country whose soil is un- 

 productive, and whose inhabitants of course are too 

 poor to afford remitlanccs to sanction his importations. 



Merchants and manufacturers, therefore, who are 

 alive to their own interest, will encourage agriculture 

 by all the means in their power, and will be sensible 

 that it is the first and greatest link in that chain of na- 

 tional prosperity, which embraces all ranks in a happy 

 and well regulated community. Agricultural Socie- 

 ties, and Publications on Husbandry, are among the 

 most aj^proved means of giving speed to the plough, 

 and success to the labors of the husbandman, and 

 ought, therefore, to be patronized (as they frequently 

 are) by those whose pursuits are entirely remote, and 

 apparently foreign from rural occupations. 



Every man who cultivates the ground should be am- 

 bitious to contribute something from the stock of his 

 knowledge, whether acquired by reading, observation 

 or experience, to the general fund of agricultural in- 

 formation. By this means he may become a benefac- 

 tor ol his species, and be placed higher in the estima- 

 •tionof good men, than the greatest conqueror, who 

 ever waded through seas of blood to the summit of 

 that " bad eminence," which can only be ascended 

 by devils and heroes. If he is convinced that he has 

 made any improvements, which promise to be useful 

 to his fellow creatures, he will not perform the part of 

 a patriot nor philanthropist if he does not put mankind 

 in possession of such improvements. If he can gain 

 any equivalent for his discoveries by virtue of patents, 

 premiums, or otherwise, let him obtain it. If not, he 

 will do well to lay them before the public, and take 

 his reward in the consciousness of having been of ser- 

 vice to his fellow creatures. The man, who refuses a 

 benefit which he might bestow without injury to him- 

 self, is I nt little better than one who does an injury 

 without receiving any benefit from the injurious act. 

 The latter destroys human happiness, and the former 

 withholds the means by which happiness might have 

 existed. 



It is no apology for these misers, whose thoughts 

 are worth money, and therefore hoarded in their own 

 bosoms, to say that they cannot write in an elegant 

 style, and do not know how to put their ideas upon 

 paper in such a manner as to escape the ridicule of 

 men of learning. If they cannot write elegantly, they 

 may perhaps write naturally, so as to be imderstood, 

 and nothing more is wanted. If a farmer has discov- 

 ered some improvement relating to his occupation, 

 which, if generally known, would prove of general 

 utility, and thinks he cannot well deseiibe it in writ- 

 ing, let him tell his story concerning the matter, either 

 to the editor of this paper, or to some other person, 

 who will write off his information in a plain style, and 

 send it to the New Kngland Farmer, or some other pe- 

 riodical work, for publication, 



There should be no secrets in agriculture, and what- 

 ever concerns the public good, the public should be 

 put in possession of. The benefits which would result 

 from the more general diffusion of agricultural intelli- 

 g( nee would be immense, and almost incalculable. 

 We will state a few evils which infest the husband- 

 man, and may be styled the plagues of agriculture, 

 and set down concisely their real or supposed reme- 

 dies, and leave it for the reader to judge of the advan- 

 tages which would result from the universal extension 

 of the knowledge of those remedies, which are effec- 

 tive, or of others more efficient, where they are una- 

 vailing. 



In some seasons the vegetables in our gardens are 

 almost annihilated by worms of several species. Fall 

 ploughing, or spading the ground just before frost sets 

 in, and strewing the ground with fine salt in the spring 

 some time before the seeds are sown, are said to be 

 sovereign remedies against these petty but powerful 

 depredators. 



There is a kind of worm (which the learned call 

 curculio) found in apples, pears, and some other sorts 

 of fruit, which either injures or destroys little if any 

 less than one half of the fruit produced in New Eng- 

 land. It is said (but the report wants confirmation) 

 that spent tan from the yard of the tanner, spread a- 

 bout the roots of fruit trees, will secure them against 

 these little thieves, who steal every year about one 

 third of the products of our orchards, and injure a con- 

 siderable part of the remainder. Spent tan, likewise, 

 some suppose, will prove a specific against canker 

 worms and catterpillars. We solicit further informa- 

 tion on this subject. 



There is another kind of worm, which bores its way 

 into peach trees, locust trees, &c. at or near their 

 roots, which some say should be cut out with a knife, 

 or chissel, and others affirm that soap suds, heated af- 

 ter a family wash, and poured about the roots about 

 the middle of August, will destroy the eggs of the 

 young worm. Unleached ashes and spent tan are 

 likewise recommended. 



There is a worm, or maggot, which affects the head 

 of sheep, supposed to be a species of bott, and which it 

 is affirmed may be expelled by injecting vinegar by a 

 syringe into the nostrils of the affected animal, A 

 worm of the same, or different species, is also found on 

 the outside of the head of sheep, at the roots of the 

 wool about the throat, ears, &c. This, we are told, 

 may be destroyed by the application of spirits of tur- 

 pentine. 



There is a worm, called, we believe, the wire «orm, 

 which destroys seed corn before it vegetates. The at- 

 tacks of this insect, we are informed, may be guarded 

 against by soaking the seed corn in .a solution of com- 

 mon salt, or salt-petre. But if the solution is made 

 too strong, and the seed suffered to remain in it too 

 long, it will destroy the principle of vegetation, and 

 the corn will never come up, unless you dig it up, as 

 we have found to our cost. 



Some people affirm that horses affected with bots, 

 and apparently in the last agonies, may be cured al- 

 most instantaneously by the external application ol 

 spirits of turpentine to the breast. Others advise to 

 turn a dose of spirits of turpentine down the throat of 

 the animal. 



Some assert that cattle or sheep, which are hovcn or 

 swollen, iu consequence of having eaten loo much 

 green and succulent food, may be cured by a dose of 

 lye, made with potash, pearlash, or house ashes. Oth- 

 ers say that the animal must be stabbed, scientifically, 

 in order to let the gas escape, which is the cause of the 

 disorder. 



Some say that elder juice expressed from the leaves 



or berries, or even a decoclion or tea made of the com- 

 mon elder, but more especially the dwarf elder, will 

 not only destroy maggots in meat, cheese, &c. but 

 sprinkled over cucumber vines, squash vines, kc. will 

 preserve them against the bugs and flies which so often 

 prove destructive to those vegetables, W't- have very 

 little doubt of the efficacy of elder for the purposes 

 above stated, but should be glad to learn something 

 further on the subject. 



We do not pretend to assert that all, or any of the 

 above named remedies are never failing specifics.— 

 Some of them, however, we know to be useful, havin" 

 witnessed th< ir good effects ; and some others we have 

 collected from persons whose veracity and discernment 

 we have no reason to call in question. Now if even a 

 part of those remedies are efficient, their general know- 

 ledge and consequent application would save the in- 

 habitants of New England, in one year, more money 

 than they pay in taxes, of every name and nature, in , 

 ten years. It costs a farmer, who owns one hundred I 

 acres of land under cultivation, more to maintain the j 

 worms in his garden and cornfield, the bugs in bis i 

 peas, the lice upon his cabbages, the caterpillars and 

 canker worms in his orchard, the flies of his turnip yard 

 and dairy, including the Hessian flies of his wheat field, 

 the bots in his horses bellies and sheep's heads, &c. &c. 

 than it would to bring up a family of children, and send 

 one or more sons to an agricultural college, (if we had 

 such an institution) into the bargain. 



These diminutive enemies, however, are easily 

 subdued if we knew how to attack them ; and we 

 have no doubt but there are individuals who are in 

 possession of Information which would enable every 

 farmer to rid himself of the destroyers ; and we ar- 

 dently wish people possessing such information would 

 forward it to us, or some other printers, to be published 

 for the benefit of mankind. 



Jf'oreester Cattle Show. — We are sorry that we are 

 not able to publish, at large, in this week's paper, a 

 list of the Premiums, &c. offered by the Worcester 

 County Agricultural Society. The copy was received 

 too late for insertion in the present No. but shall ap- 

 pear In our next. 



commumcatioa: 



We present the following' desultory, but we 

 hope well considered remarks, as a Communi- 

 cation, because we propose to speak of " The 

 Neiv Enui.and Farmeu," and its titles to atten- 

 tion, and encourasrement, and we would not 

 have it appear to be an editorial article. AVe 

 have never doubted, that a newspaper princi- 

 pally devoted to agricultural subjects would be 

 of great use, but we have entertained feai-s that 

 farmers and cultivators would not with sutlicient 

 zeal and spirit give it their support. Too many 

 of them believe, that they know enough already 

 — that nobody can teach them any thing which 

 is new — that agricultural labor is so simple, that 

 nothing is necessary to the full accomplishment 

 of a farmer, but to mow well, to hoe his land 

 with expedition, to hold the plough, and drive 

 his oxen with skill, and to commit to the soil, 

 to (7)11/ soil, without considering its adaptation 

 to particular plants, the seed, without any ref- 

 erence to the unejucstionablc and well settled 

 fart, that after one plant has exhausted the soil 

 of the nutriment fitted for it, another will llour- 

 ish as well as if the former had not been raised 

 upon it — in short, without any ideas of the use 

 of a succession of crops. 



Til'' present state of general information, and 

 particularly the greatly advanced stale of agrt 



