NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



.'ublished every Saturday, hy THOMAS ^^ . SHEPARD, Rojrers' Building, Congrees !>trect, Hntton ; at $-'.50 per ;vnn. in advuiice, or $3,00 at the close of the year^ 



Vol. I. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1823. 



No. 28. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICUL- 

 TfBAL SOCtETV AT THE BRIGHTON CATTLE SHOW, 

 OCT. 9, 18-2. BV THE HON. TI.VOTHY PICKERING. 



Gentlemen of tW Massachusetts Society 



for the Promotion of Agriculture, 

 It appears to be expected, tlat at each of 

 vour anniversary meetings, a dis-ourse on Ag- 

 riculture should be delivered. The Trustees 

 of the Society have requested rae to address 

 you at this time. But though willing to be laid 

 under contribution to the great object of your | 

 institution, it has occasioned a degree of solici-l 

 tude to present something meritinc your atten- 

 tion. From the multitude of books written on 

 the subject of agriculture — embracing in that 

 word whatever should employ the tkoughts and 

 the labors of the skilful husbandmai — the field 

 would appear almost boundless: ye', to select 

 topics particularly interesting to the farmers of 

 Massachusetts, and here to discuss them so as to 

 communicate useful and acceptable information, 

 was not unattended with difBculty. Mj address 

 must necessarily be miscellaneous. 



Philosophers and practical husbandm<n have 

 for ages employed their thoughts and Ihdr pens 

 on the various operations in agriculture; yet 

 diversities of opinion still exist ; and the reasons 

 of many of these operations have been little 

 more than conjectural. What constitutes the 

 food of plants, has long been a subject of dili- 

 gent inquiry. It ivas natural to suppose that U 

 this food could be discovered, it coulc more 

 easily be provided, or at least be more elnca- 

 ciously administered. The palpable diffeicncos 

 which distinguish the immense variety of plants, 

 in their forms, textures, colors, and tastes, nat- 

 urally suggested the idea, that each variety re 



plants, and throe constitute the greatest part of 

 their organized matter. But each of these is 

 a compound, consisting of the same materials, 

 only in different proportions. The three prin- 

 cipal ingredients in the food of plants, and wliich 

 by them elaborated constitute the i"ood of man 

 and other animals, are named by chemists, car- 

 hydrogene ; in other wonU. 



bon, oxygene. and 



charcoal, vital air and inflammable air; anil 



these exist in the air wc breathe, as well as in 



manures consisting of vegetable and animal 



matters. 



It may seem incredible that the thin air, an 

 invisible matter, should be changed, in the pro- 

 cess of vegetation, into solid substances, as wood 

 and stone : but nothing has been more clearly 

 ascertained, than that in 100 parts of pure lime- 

 stone, 45 parts are fixed air, or carbonic acid ; 

 which in the act of burning the stone into lime, 

 is expelled : for if at that time the stone be 

 weighed, it will be found to have lost so much 

 of its original weight. It is also well known 

 that this same lime, which slaked with water, 

 or exposed to the air, falls down into a powder, 

 will immediately al'terwards begin to imbibe 

 fixed air from the atmosphere, and eventually, 

 though slowly, recover its original weight. It 

 is this same carbonic acid, or fixed air, which 

 at the bottom of wells, every year proves fatal 

 to a number of lives. For this air, when separ- 

 ate, being heavier than the air of the atmos- 

 phere, sinks and remains at the bottom of wells, 

 and is a deadly poison. It is the oxygene in the 

 atmosphere, called also vital air, because essen- 

 tial to animal lite, which mingled with the fixed 

 air, renders the latter harmless. 



1 have introduced these few renaarks on the 

 food of plants, to present an idea — a very famt 

 one indeed — of that very interesting subject 

 I which, as already observed, has so long em 



quired its specific nourishment. Yet it being aiploved the thoughts of philosophers andagricu 



matter of common observation, that the same 

 soil would nourish and bring to maturity multi- 

 tudes of different plants, of very opposite quali- 

 ties — some yielding wholesome ibod, and others 

 a deadly poison — at the same time all growing 

 together, and robbing one another ; a nobler 

 and more simple idea presented itself — that the 

 food of all plants was the same; but that each 

 species was endued with the power of convert- 

 ing that food to its own peculiar substance : as 

 among animals, the same grain produced all the 

 varieties of flesh which go to sustain the life ol 

 .man. In the vegetable kingdom, this supposed 

 poxver of conversion seemed strikingly appar- 

 ent in the effects of grafting of fruits. The 

 juices imbibed by the roots from the earth, and 

 immediately changed to the proper sap of the 

 native stock, ascend and spread through all the 

 limbs ; and if each of these be grafted with a 

 diflerent fruit, the varieties will be as numer- 

 ous as the branches. 



By the modern discoveries in chemistry, tliese 

 mysterions efiects seem to be accounted for. 

 For it appears that all kinds of plants are com- 

 posed of a small number of elements, whose 

 different arrangements and combinations pro- 

 duce all the varieties in question. Seldom more 

 than seven or eight of those elements belong to 



tural writers; but the satisfactory discovery of 

 which seems to have been reserved for the 

 present age. This view serves to account for 

 the vast variety of plants which will grow on 

 the same spot of earth ; the ingredients of their 

 food being substantially the same, but varied 

 in the proportions peculiar to each ; and which 

 each has the faculty of appropriating to its own 

 use ; rejecting the rest, or casting it off as ex- 

 crement! tious. 



But although the same articles of food will 

 afford nourishment to a variety of plants, yet 

 these are so formed as to require a variety of 

 soils, adapted to their several constitutions ; 

 some preferring a stiff, others a loose or light 

 soil — some a moist and others a dry one. Few, 

 however, will refuse a well compounded loam. 

 Soils (like plants) however diversified in ap- 

 pearance, consist of different proportions of the 

 same elements. Four earths generally abound in 

 soils; and these, by chemists, are called alumi- 

 nous, siliceous, calcareous, and magnesian ; and 

 of these the three first are the principal; and, 

 in familiar language, well known to every far- 

 mer, as clay, sand, and lime. Magnesia is often 

 found in limestones; and the combination is said 

 to give the strongest lime for the farmer's use ; 

 so as in smaller quantities to serve his purpose, 



as well as mill lime applied in much larger 

 (juantities. 



The first object which claims the farmer's 

 attention, is the nature or constitution of the 

 soil. The next embraces the means of enrich- 

 ing it and prosrrving its fertility. That inti- 

 mate mixiure ol' clay and sand which is called 

 loam, is the most desirable soil, as being already 

 prepared for every operation in agriculture- 

 .\ stiff clay demands opening by the addition of 

 sand and otlirr maleriaU ; and a sandy soil re- 

 quires the addition of clay. But calcareous 

 earth is considered as essential to give to soils 

 the capacity of attaining the highest degree ot 

 fertility. Few soils, indeed, are wholly desti- 

 tute of calcareous matter, though it may be in- 

 visible to the eye : but very few possess so 

 large a portion of it as would be salutary. 

 There can be little danger, therefore, of ap- 

 plying it to excess in Massachusetts, where so 

 little in any form has been found. Limestone 

 is the great source of calcareous matter. But 

 this is of various qualities. Very little of it 

 is purely calcareous. Some lime stones in 

 Great Britain have been found to contain eleven 

 parts in twelve of sand. Of such lime, if sixty 

 bushels were spread over an acre of ground, 

 five bushels only of calcareous matter Avould 

 be applied. To know then the constitution of 

 the lime he uses, is important to the farmer; 

 and not less so to the mason in preparing his 

 mortar, which will require the adilition of more 

 or less of sand, according to the composition ot 

 the lime. AW marles contain calcareous matter, 

 and are of greater or less value, according to 

 the proportion which this bears to the clay, 

 sand, nr .Tiber substances mingled with it. All 

 shell fish will supply this mnterial. lu some 

 parts of the United States, remote from lime- 

 stone, oyster shells are burnt to obtain lime for 

 building; and in all seaport towns where many 

 oysters are used for food, their shells will he 

 found in quantities deserving the neighboring 

 farmer's attention ; and if raised in piles, min- 

 gled with wood, may be burnt to lime. 



Of the vast improvements of the lands in 

 Scotland, within the last forty or fify years, 

 lime has been the basis ; and the use of it the 

 first step towards rendering the application of 

 manures, .strictly so called, highly productive. 

 There they will lay from fifty to two hundred 

 or more bushels on an acre. In Pennsylvania, 

 where lime has been long and extensively used, 

 twenty to fifty bushels to the acre has been 

 found suflicient, and safer than any larger quan- 

 tity, at least in the first a])pliration. A remark- 

 able instance of the benciicial use of lime, 

 though only at the rate of about twenty bushels 

 to the acre, well merits a recital. The exper- 

 iment was made on a field of ten acres, for 

 which the farmer had provided two hundred 

 bushels ; but it being his first essay in using 

 lime, it so happened that the whole quantity 

 was disposed of when he had gone over nine 

 acres. Indian corn was planted ; and the crop 

 was very great. The next year, the field was fal- 

 lowed, and at seed time sown, a part with wheat 

 and a part with rye ; and good crops were pro- 

 duced. " lu the Spring (says the farmer) I 



