198 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



not throughout the known world, a country 

 where so grent prolusion reigns among all class- 

 es of society, as our own. Half llic waste and 

 oxpense in foreign luxuries in which we indulge, 

 would impoverish the fnicst country in F.uropc ; 

 and while we rt-tnin these habits, we may ever 

 expect to hear the cry of ])overlv' through the 

 land, though every vegetable pr(iduclion of the 

 universe were flourishing around us, or the 

 wealth of India wore devoted to tlieir culture. 



Let us cease then to look abroad for sources 

 of sudden wealth — Let each of us attend to his 

 farm understandingly — Let him know his own 

 plan and pursue it steadily — Lot hiui do his work 

 well and in season — Sec that all is in order, and 

 lit for what it is designed — Contribute cheerful- 

 ly to objects of usefulness and ])iiblic improve- 

 ment, regarding with anxious care the interests 

 ot his church and schools — Let liim discounte- 

 nance idle and vicious haliits, and promote good 

 conduct and vital piety in tlic circle around him, 

 by his own example — Let him, in short, strive 

 earnestly to discharge his duty to himself, his 

 neighbor, and his (lod, ami he cannot fail of suc- 

 cess ; but with an approving conscience, and the 

 smiles of heayen, nwy justly claim to himself 

 the enviable rank of an honest, intelligent, and 

 independent .Imcricuii Fanner. 



Ik From tlic Old Colony Memori.il. 



I observe in your paper of the 30th Novem- 

 1)er, under the head of agricultural economy, an 

 account of the dealing an acre of swamp, which 

 ^va5 covered with stumps and roots, an<l which 

 \vas with the hoc, entirely subdued by the la- 

 bor of one man in eighteen days, and an half ! 



It is understood also that the land which pro- 

 duced the hay, for which the premium was be- 

 stowed by the Plymouth County Agricultural 

 Society, was t»vo years before, in the state of 

 nature, a sicamp^ covered -^i'h aiders and whortle- 

 berry bushes ! 



It is gratifying to observe the attention of 

 the husbandman turned to this object ; as this 

 species of land affords the best resource for 

 grass of any in the country, and has been here- 

 tofore too much neglected, from an ignorance 

 of its value, or an imaginary dilBculty, or over- 

 rated expense of labor, in reclaiming it. 



There is in every town, large tracts of this 

 description of land (viz. swamp, bog, or morass) 

 perhaps on every farm more or less, perfectly 

 waste, and which if recliiimed and cleared, is 

 capable of becoming the most productive, and 

 permaarntly valuable, for mowing or for grass 

 of any in this part of the country, it is imagined 

 that expediency, if not necessity calls for more 

 attention to this object of improvement. 



The climate of our country, and consequent- 

 ly the seasons, have undergone a great change 

 even within the memory of many now living, 

 and a conscfiuent cliange in the attention of the 

 farmer has become necessary, to obtain the ob- 

 ject of his supply. I do not allude to the drought 

 of the last season ; nor to any occasional drought 

 to which we have always been more or less sub- 

 ject — but it is notorious the climate has become 

 more arid, there is le.ss rain, and less snow ; ma- 

 ny of the ponds are nearly dry — some quite, 

 where there were formerly seven or eight feet 

 of water — the springs are ui:il'orndy lower — the 

 swamj)s not so much ovorllo>\ed. This is by 

 some, supposed to be the natural consequence 

 of the clearing oiT the forests, and hiving the 



I Aicc of the earth more open to the evaporation 

 of the sun and wind — whatever may be the 

 i cause, it is no part of my present object to ac- 

 i coimt for it ; I will leave that to the philoso- 

 I pher. — .\ssuming such to be the fact, my object 

 ' is to invite the farmer to turn his attention to 

 such improvement of his means, as to secure 

 himself and his country from part of the evil, 

 i which may otherwise ensue on the failure of 

 crops ; either from drought, ot from the infinite 

 I variety of devouring reptiles : the security from 

 both, is perhaps, to be sought for, with the most 

 llattering prospect of success, by the recurrence 

 to this species of land for improvement and cul- 

 tivation ; as the Grub, from which we have siif- 

 iered so extensively, for the three last years, 

 has never been observed to resort to those lands, 

 which are sulliciently saturated with moisture. 



It is an observation frequently made, that 

 farmers are peculiarly wedded to their habits, 

 are inordinately attached to their particular 

 mode and p-rocess of cultivation, because they 

 are derived from their ancestors, and are sanc- 

 tioned by their experience — this is all natural— 

 but farmers like other men, must change their 

 habits with the change of circumstances, they 

 are hawk eyed to see where there interest may 

 be promoted, and if they are not much given to 

 speculation and enterprise, when any improve- 

 ment is introduced they are not slow to discern 

 its advantage, and adopt it. 



When the venerable Pilgrims, our lathers, first 

 migrated to this country, they were a feeble 

 band, and in slender circumstances ; they had a 

 wilderness before them, and wants and hunger 

 pressing on their rear — they could not adopt 

 the .slender improvements in agriculture then 

 known in the mother country — they could only 

 avail themselves of the few plats of ground 

 cleared by the natives to deposit their seed corn ; 

 when that was done, they necessarily cleared 

 for their further improvement, that which was 

 within their means, that which could bo effect- 

 ed with the least possible labor, and would 

 make them the most immediate return ; this of 

 course, was the upland, and those of the lightest 

 consistence, as best calculated to furnish them 

 with that necessary article (and of dillicult ac- 

 quisition) bread; this was necessarily their first 

 object of pursuit ; and this the foundation of that 

 system of farming, which by a view of the pres- 

 ent face of the country, will be judged to have 

 been loo literally foUowod by their successors, 

 although relieved from that " imperious neces- 

 sity," whose iron grasp pressed so heavily upon 

 their fathers. Tlie circumstances of the Yeo- 

 manry of the country, are now easy and inde- 

 pendent, and this is the day of improvement— 

 their industry if excited to enterprise, under the 

 wise and discreet patronage and encouragement 

 of agricultural societies, is capable (if not of 

 counteracting the seasons) of subduing nature, 

 and making her tributary to their necessities, 

 comforts and luxuries. It is with satisfaction 1 

 ol.'scrve the Agricultural Society of this county, 

 have wisely turned their attention to this neg- 

 lected object of agriculture, and have otVered 

 thei;' premium tor the encouragement of those, 

 who shall successfiilly reclaim a .specified quan- 

 tity of swamp or fresh meadow to Lngli.-h mow- 

 ing — this is wise and discreet in them, and there 

 are perhaps some whose circumstances and situ- 

 ation may enable them to avail themselves of 

 the encouragement, and to their own exceeding 



profit; but it is no part of my desire to exei 

 a quixotic enterprise, even in this laudable pi ' 

 suit — such an undertaking as may induce iof <^'' 

 vidual embarrassment — my wish is to route tl ^ 

 general attention of all those who may ha' *'' 

 such waste lands near or on their homesteaj '•'' 

 and make it a sort of common-place object, whei •■■' 

 they may profitably employ themselves ai "- 

 their laborers, in their broken hoxirs err days. < 

 when our objects are not imperative; and if '■'■ 

 this way they may reclaim forty rods in the yea ^- 

 they will have added so much to their capita i"^ 

 and will have placed it at compound interest 



1 am aware that this county can never be di|r^ 

 tinguished as an agricultural county ; if it evt 

 arrives at distinction, it must be as a manufai 

 turing district, for which iti numerous strcan 

 olVer so many facilities, but in this view its agr 

 culture is of importance as the hand-maid, or i 

 even the pillar on which manufactures must b 

 supported — and manufactures also when mor 

 largely established and endowed, will rea- 

 on the improvement of agriculture ; for the 

 must have observed but very little, who hay 

 not remarked the bold and liberal spirit of iir 

 provement, which persons bred to trade or mar 

 ufictures have often exerted on the improve 

 ment and embellishment of their land estate.' 

 that they usually come to them with a mcc 

 abundant command of ready money, than niof 

 farmers possess ; and that they have generally 

 by long habits of calculation, better a.id mori 

 enlarged ideas of the propriety of expending, ii 

 order to acquire ; a\id by these moans numer 

 ou«, beautiful and flourishing villages have al 

 ready been erected in the wilderness, and sorai 

 where nothing before but the footsteps of th< 

 savage, or the prowling wolf were known ti 

 roam, and how has agriculture had reason ti 

 bic-s that happy alliance — and how miserabh 

 must the policy of that government be whici 

 would disjoin the agricultural, manulacluring 

 and commercial interests, or make one tributari 

 or subservient to the other. YK0;M.\N. 



THE FARMER. 



DOSTOK .■—SATlRU.iY, J^i.Y. 18, IC2J. 



LMPRO\KiMENTS IN HUSBA.NDRY, AND .NEW 

 IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE. 



The excellent Address of Mr. Garnett, delivered Ic- 

 fore the Frederlcksburgh Agricultural Society, in Vir- 

 ginia, and published in our paper, No. 21, page 104, 

 contains some humorous and happy illustrations of the 

 slow march of improvcnnnts in husbandry, and the 

 pertinacity with which some farmers adhere to old 

 customs, although very absurd and inconvenient. It 

 is owing, principally, to this obstinate predilection to 

 established usages, that agriculture has, till within 

 half a century past, been so much in the rear of some 

 other less useful arts, and exhibited but feeble traces 

 of that march of mind, which has been evinced by 

 advances in chemistry, botany, mineralogy, and the 

 whole circle of those sciences, which give to civilized 

 man his best founded claims to superiority over the 

 undisciplined and unlettered savage. The prejudice 

 of the Virginia cultivators in favor of their unwieldy, 

 inconvenient, old-fashioned ploughs, was ridiculous 

 enough, and the folly of that foolishness, which indue- i 

 ed them to persevere in the palli of error, afier cxperi» I 

 ment, the unerring test of utility, had pointed Qut IL I 

 better way, may as well bo laugh'^d at as gravely re- 

 buked. 



