NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Published everj' ?>atur(!ay, by THOM \^ W. SHKPARIJ, Kopi\^^ fJiiil ii.i^, (.'oiiguss Str. tl, Enttou ; at j^^.OO ptr ann. 



ill aii \ Ml)*! . ..J ■■ .'..\l\f at til' 



Vol. I. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY. OCTOBCK 19. 1822. 



No. 12. 



^t a rei^ular mteliivi of the Sociely uf MuUlkacx Hus- 

 bandmen and .^Iiinuftidnrfrs, holdrn nl DarruWs 

 Hold, in Concord, on liie 2d day of Oct. A. D. 1822, 

 VOTED— 



That David Lawrexce, John Keyes and Nathan 

 Crooks, Esq'rs. be a Committee to present the thanks 

 of the Soci. ty to THOMAS G. FESSKNDEN, Esa. 

 for his excelUnt and usiful Address delivered before 

 the Socictj' this day, and to request that the same may 

 be published iu the New England Farmer for the use 

 of the Society. 



Extract from the records of the Society. 



N. BROOKS, Recordini; Secretary, 



^Ir. President, and Gentlemen Trustees of the 



Siicictt/ of. 'Middlesex Husbandmen and Manufacturers, 

 Having had but short notice to prepare tor the 

 present occasion, and a variety of other avoca- 

 tions presentinsr imperious claims to my atten- 

 tion, I am apprehensive I shall not he able to 

 answer what may be deemed reasonable antici- 

 pations. The embarrassment, caused by these 

 circumstances, is increased by reflecting that 

 the subjects, which it would be proper for me 

 to discuss, are not only of g:reat importance, 

 (Mifc have, heretofore, commanded the exertions 

 and tested the powers of the tirst talents in the 

 United States. I am invited to reap in a field 

 where the harvest has been already g-athered 

 by such laborers as Mr. Madisou, Mr. Pickermg', 

 Mr. (iuincy, Mr. Lowell, and others, who carry 

 a wide swarth, make clean work, and scarcely 

 leave a single straw to be picked up by those 

 ivho are called upon to glean on the s.ime 

 ground. Still, althoujjh my toils may produce 

 but a pittance, they will, at least, serve as indi- 

 cations of good will towards the cause of Agri- 

 culture and the Useful Arts ; and we kno«' that 

 the widow's mite was as acceptable as if it had 

 been the largess of an Emperor, or the revenue 

 of a kingdom. 



The pursuits of agriculture have been held 

 in the highest estunation among the wisest and 

 most powerful nations. Indeed to neglect that 

 art would indicate a want of wisdom, and the 

 consequence of such neglect would be a want 

 of power. Where husbandry excites but little 

 attention, there can be hut little worth attend- 

 ing to. The couveuiences and comforts of life 

 must be unknown ; and even its necessaries — its 

 indispensables, must have a flucluatiiig and pre 

 car;0us existence. Distress waits on improvi 

 dence ; w ant treads on the heels of indolence ; 

 diseiise and death close the ghastly procession. 

 Thus famine was iretpient among the aboriginal 

 tribes of New England, and together with pesti- 

 lence, its usual concomitant, desolated the land, 

 and left largo tracts of country without an in- 

 habitant to impede the settlement of the pil- 

 grims. The natives of this country owed those 

 calamities, and at length their utter extinction. 

 to their ignorance of agriculture, and want of 

 acquaintance with those arts which give sub- 

 sistence, and minister comfort to civilized man. 

 Had the poor Indians been Husbandmen and 

 Manufacturers, this part of the continent v. ould 

 have been still possessed by its primitive inhab- 

 itants. Should we neglect the arts, and (lay no 

 attention to the pursuits of the IlusbaQdoian and 



Maiuifacturcr. we loo must cease to be a nation ; 

 and our country will be occupied by a stronger, 

 because a wiser people, to whom superior 

 knowledge in Agriculture and Useful Arts has 

 given sujierior power. The United Stales will 

 then exist only in story, arid occupy only a few 

 pages in the annals of alien possessors of this 

 goodly heritage of our fathers. | 



Important as Agriculture is. Manufactures c:ui 

 hardly be deemed of less consequence. They 

 must advance hand in hand, or they will both 

 go backward. United they sland^dividod they 

 fall. They are the Urim and Thumni m of n;i- 

 tion.ll greatness, as well as the Alpha ami Ome- 

 ga of individual [irosperity. To talk of any 

 clashing in their interests is to speak of ho-lilily 

 between the right and the left hand of the same 

 individual. If oue is sick, the other will faint. 

 If one perishes, the other must soon be annihi- 

 lated. .Agriculture without iManuiactures would 

 give us farmers without tools, and Manufictures 

 without Agriculture would produce mechanics 

 without bread. Adam could not have dressed 

 the garden of Eden without first becoming a 

 mechauic, or being furnished with the necessary 

 implements of husbandry by the Almighty Ar- 

 rizAN, who exiiibits the Universe as a sample oi 

 his Manufactures. 



Since, then, not only our prosperity, but even 

 our national existence depends on the successful 

 pursuits of Agriculture and Manufactures, what 

 can we do to promote them ? This is a question 

 of as great importance as any thing of a finite 

 niiiure, which can possibly call for the exercise 

 of the licst intellectual powers and faculties giv- 

 en to man by his Creator. To state all v.luch 

 shouKI he done would require a complete and 

 very voluminous Cyclojiedia. I shall therei'ore 

 confine myself to some remarks relative to whai 

 ()w^7« nrjt to he oinitud, if we wish agriculture tc 

 acquire and maintain that strength and stabilit\ 

 winch should be attributes of the principal pil- 

 lar ol' public and private prosperity. As res- 

 jiects manul'actures, I shall have but little fur 

 iher to observe ; lest, peradventure, 1 shotiM 

 have more threads to my discourse than m. 

 sia[de will warrant — more irons in the fire than 

 I can handle to advantage. 



In order that agriculture may prosper, 



I. Its pursuit must bo considered as honorable. 



II. It must be made jirolitable. 



III. It must be conducted with skill as well as 

 with industry. 



The pursuits of agriculture, are, probably, 

 rising in public estimation. Still we do uoi 

 believe they have yet risen to their proper 

 elevation. That a further ascent may be el 

 fected, agriculture must continue to commaui 

 the attention and patronage of men of wealth, 

 of talents, of reputation, and of high olficial 

 character. Persons who have it in their power 

 to mould the manners and excite and direct th: 

 industry of mankind should not consider them 

 selves as too great to be useful, and should 

 throw the weight of their precepts, examplL 

 and inlluence into the scale of agriculture — 

 they should employ their heads if not their 

 hands, their money if not their personal labor, 

 in promoting an art, which, if neglected, would 



place them as well as ilieir inferiors on a level 

 with savages. The}' have great examples to 

 serve as ))recedents. The Emperor of China 

 does not think that it derogates from his dignity 

 to act the part of a ploughman. Tlie great 

 Czar of Kussia did not disdain to labnr as a me- 

 chanic. Some of the principal noblemen in 

 (rreat Britain are proud of being farmers ; and 

 many of them have added to their wealth, and 

 gained distinctions more honorable than those 

 of birth or title, by being authors of mechanical 

 inventions and improvements. Washington like- 

 wise was a farmer, who gloried in his occupa- 

 tion. Yet among savages and dandies, and fools 

 who are anxious to figure in high life, without 

 manners or means, without wil, wealth or wis- 

 dom, contrary to the decrees of nature and the 

 habits of nurture, rural occupations are thought 

 degrading; and to cultivalc the ground is con- 

 sidered as the bitterest punishment of poverty, 

 or the liist shift of unsuccessful knavery. 



The following is a vivid, and probably faith- 

 ul picture of that kind of pride which causes 

 some aspiring characters 



" Downwards to soar, and backwards to advance." 



It was taken from .real life, as it exists, or lately 

 existed in a neighboring Province. It is not a 

 caricature, not was it meant to bo a likeness of 

 any thing belongit.e^ to New England. If, then, 

 any persons to whom we now take the liberty 

 to exhibit if, should happen to perceive nny 

 -imilitudo to their own ieiaures, or those of 

 their friends, they may congratulate themselves 

 on the rer^eniblance, but may be assured that it 

 is entirely accidental. 



" When any of the farmers of Nova Scotia 

 were so successful as to amass a little wealth, 

 they were sure to escape from the plough and 

 betake themselves to some other pursuit. The 

 keeper of a tippling-house, the retailer of rum, 

 ^ugar and tea, the travelling chapman, the con- 

 stable of the district, were far more important 

 personages, both in their own estimation and 

 ihat of the public, than the farmer who culti- 

 vated his own lands. The farmer was thought 

 to be of the lowest caste in society, and gave 

 .ilace to others, who, according to the Europe- 

 an standard of rank and consequence, arc con- 

 fessedly his inferiors. This sense of degrada- 

 iion was perceptible among husbandmen them- 

 selves. Such of them as were under the ne- 

 cessity of working set about it wi'.h reluctance, 

 and always under a mortifying sense of shame. 

 They would blush to bo caught at the plough 

 b\ their genteeler acquaintance, as much as it 

 surprised in the commission of crime ; and if 

 ihev saw them approaching, many of them 

 would skulk from the field, and plunge into the 

 neighboring thicket. The children were easily 

 .niected w.lh this humbling sense of inferiority i 

 and the labors of the tarm were to the young 

 men objects of aversion, as those of the dairy 

 were to the young women. Hence the family 

 were brought up with habits and feelings, in- 

 consistent with their stations in life ; and that 

 respcctalde class of men, known in England, as 

 the ancient yeomanry of the country, wiio were 

 the owners and cultivators of their oivn lands, 



