NEW EMGL.AMB f'AMMER. 



Published b\j Jobs B. Russell, al M'o. 5a .Vorlh Market Street, (over the Agricidlural JJ'archmise). — Tkomas G. Ff.ssendek, Editor. 



VOL. VI. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, O CTOB ER 26, 1827. 



No. 14. 



AGRICULTURE. 



ADDRESS 



Of the HoN.JoiiN Lowell, Prc.iidnit of Ihc Mas- 

 ' sachusdl/t .'l^rkvllurnl Soriety, delivered at (he 

 puliic meetino- of the SoeiHy on the ilthinst. 

 previous to the dedaralion of the premiums a- 

 warded to the co/npclitors al the Cattle Show. 

 The Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultu- 

 ral Society this year resolved to make a very im- 

 portant change in their arrangements — instead of 

 extending their show to two successive days, they 

 determined to imitate the example of other socie- 

 ties in this state, by confining it to one. It may 

 naturally be asked why such a measure, so con- 

 venient to competitors, was not adopted before. 

 To this we reply that our situation was, in many 

 important respects, different from that of the in- 

 ferior societies. Our society was a general ont, 

 offering premiums throughout the whole state. 

 We had two classes of competitors — those in tlic 

 .idjacent counties of Middlesex and Norfolk, and i 

 those from the most remote parts of the state 

 With respect to those who came from a great' 

 distance, it was impossible for them to return 

 home, either the night of the show, or oven the I 

 next niglit. It was therefore of comparatively small j 

 moment to them, whether they were or were not 

 iletained one night longer. Witli respect to com- 1 

 petitors in the atljoining counties, most of them, 

 •could return home the frst day, iind were no?.| 

 competitors on the second. The Norfolk and 

 Middlesex farmers, who entered into compi-tilion 

 in the ploughing matches and working lal'Ic. 

 rame only on the r.eeoud day. But ta the i rus 

 lees themselves and to the spectators, the repeti 

 tion was very inconvenient, expensive and tedi- 

 ous. The Trustees, influenced by these conside- 

 rations, have this year unanimously decided to try 

 'he experiment of confining the exhibition of cat- 

 tle, the plougliing matrli and of working cattle to 

 f)ne day. This change obliged them to give up 

 all preparatory meetings, and to make the day 

 purely one of business. The satje necessity ob- 

 liges us to dispense with all formal addresses, and 

 to limit ourselves to the simple declaration of tlie 

 premiums awarded, without those explanations of 

 the grounds upon which the decsions are found- 

 ed, which have been usually given on such occa- 

 sions' Indeed tliero is less necessity for such mi- 

 nuteness. In the origin of the Institution, there 

 were little unfounded jealousies to be overcome — 

 there was not that entire confidence in the recti- 

 tude and fairness of the judges, to wliich expcri 

 ence has demonstrated tlicy were entitled. It was 

 improperly viewed as tlic exhibition of the more 

 opulent farmers, in which a plain cultivator stood 

 a very humble chance. All these errors and prej- 

 udices, (for tliey were always such)have been dis- 

 sipated by time. The whole course is so fair — 

 the Trustees have so little agency in awarding 

 the premiums, they arc so entirely under tlie cou- 

 Iroiil of experienced graziers and farmers, 

 that we need no longer to make apologies or ex- 

 cuses for our decisions. The question, however, 

 will naturally occur, and it ought, in every suc- 

 cessive year, to be repeated, have these shows 



been proiiurtivo of serious and lasting benefits to 

 the agricultural interests, or which is the same 

 thing, to the nation ? This is a question of fuel, 

 whicli every man will settle in his own mind ac- 

 cording to his experience, or his prejudices. For 

 myself. I liavc no doubts that the effects, remote, 

 and immediate, of these public exhibitions, have 

 been as great as their most sanguine friends anti- 

 cipated. I cannot better introduce a few remarks 

 on this topic, than by a very apposite quotation 

 from a recent British work, inserted in a late num- 

 ber of the New England Farmer. ' . 



"The great body of cultivators in Great Brit- 

 ain, whose farms are of considerable extent, have 

 generally received a suitable education, by v.'hich 

 their minds arc enlarged ; animated \v\\.h a desire 

 to improve their condition in the world, and ren- 

 dered equally quick to perceive, and ready to a- 

 dopt, such improvements as may occasionally bo 

 proposed. — In former times, it was objected tliat 

 farmers were obstinate and bigoted, averse to eve- 

 ry kind of innovation upon established practice, 

 and persisting in ancient systems, even after their 

 deficiency and inutility had been ascertained in 

 the most decisive manner. Whatever truth there 

 might formerly be in the objection, its force is 

 now completeh/ removed, there being no set of 

 men whatever more open to conviction or more 

 willing to adopt new practices, than the British 

 farmers of the prenent day. This chansre of dis- 

 position has been accomplished by a srcneral cir- 

 culation of agricultural knowledge, since the Na- 

 tional Board of Agriculture was established, by 

 numerous periodical publications on rural erouo- 

 niy, and by that increase of wealth which flowed 

 from the exertions of the farmer, and which natu- 

 rally stimulated a search after new improvements. 

 According to the measure of attention bestowed 

 upon the education of farmers, it may be expect- 

 ed that improvement will hereafter advance. A 

 man of uncultivated mind may hold a ploup-h, or 

 drive a harrow in a sufficient manner, hut he will 

 seldom introduce an improvement, ht be the means 

 of effecting any change in the established system 



of rural economy Brown's Treatise on .flgricul- 



ture. 



This extract from a British work is truly clieer- 

 ing to the friends of agricultural improvement in 

 our country. I know my audience too thoroughly 

 to rely upon their unqualified acceptance of the 

 truths therein alleged without due evidence. We 

 of New England, are a cautious and thinking peo- 

 ple, slow in adopting new opinions. Long may 

 we continue such. Well, then, are the facts stat- 

 ed by the writer true, as respects England ? They 

 are within my own personal knowledge, derived 

 from authentic documents, and ocular evidence, 

 strictly true, and in no degree exaggerated- Brit- 

 ish ag iculture in 1780, when the Royal Institu- 

 tion for its promotion, was founded by Parliament 

 with an ample donation of $22,000 a year, was in 

 a better state than ours is at the present time. 

 Yet the progress has been so great in Great Brit- 

 ain since the establishment of the National Board 

 of Agriculture, and of the Bath and West of Eng- 

 land Society, for the promotion of the same ob- 

 ject?, that it has been fully proved by official doc- 

 nment.', that the produce of British farming indus- 



try, with a worse climate and soil, is to that ol 

 Friince, taking the number of acres and of labor- 

 ers into view, nearly as two to one. Let us illus- 

 trate this important fact by reference to one suc- 

 cessful cultivator. Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, whose 

 name ought to be familiar with every American 

 as well as British faruicr, inherited some thirty- 

 five years since, a j;rcat landed estate in Norfolk, 

 the whole rental of wiiich was only £2000, or 

 •98800 a year. Being an active and intelli;jent 

 man, he introduced the Tullian husbandry, which 

 consists in frequent rotations of crops, and in sow- 

 ing in drills ; in short, in a more spirited use of 

 the plough and other improved instruments. In 

 the lifetime of this one man, and he is still alive, 

 by the plough alone, and by adopting proper suc- 

 cessions of plants, he has raised his rental from 

 §8800 to $200,0110 a year ; in other words, in- 

 creased the value of liis estate 24 times. No 

 speculations in banks, uo mining discoveries — no. 

 not even Potosi, in its virgin state when silver 

 was found upon the surface, can shew such an 

 appreciation of property as has been produced by 

 skill, enlightened skill, applied to the surface. 



Yet all this has been effected by tenants, not 

 owne'S of the soil, hut under leases for 21 years, 

 subject to the hazards of a refusal to renew the 

 leases, by a less enlightentd heir. These are facts 

 not to be disputed, and they prove that agricul- 

 ture. in the siiorl space of one man's life, has un- 

 dergone improvements of which antiquity had no 

 conception. 



Is it-possiblo that the freemen of this country, 

 o!0)ifrs of the soil, are not as capable of improving 

 the condition of their farms ? Most assuredly, 

 they are so — they are doing it as rapidly as could 

 be expected, and they are alive to the advanta- 

 ges afforded to them by the attention paid to the 

 subject, by well informed men ; by the circula- 

 tion of facts and experiments in useful periodical 

 journals. The very fact that such journals are so 

 generally patronized, is of itself conclusive proof 

 of the progress which they are making in knowl- 

 edge, and of their zeal to acquire more. The 

 friend of improvement should be as patient as he 

 is firm ; changes in habits, and especially in the 

 habits of a retired class of men, must be slow ; 

 the maiuifacturers, vigilant, and combined, eager, 

 and quick-sighted, learn in a week, or a month, 

 any now improvement introduced by their rival, 

 however distant ; but the farmer is slow, his in- 

 terest is less direct ; without capital, he dreads a 

 new experiment ; but still his progress is percep- 

 tible, and unquestionable. We, who have been 

 called by our official duties to watch the improve- 

 ment in every branch of agriculture, perceive a 

 vast change within the last twenty-five years: 

 new Iriiits, new roots, and grasses, new modes of 

 culture, greater attention to the preservation and 

 making of manures, are most obvious on every 

 side; our meadows are better ditched, we learn 

 that sand and gravel are better for them, than the 

 finest soils and tho richest manures. Still there 

 are some hundred thousand acres of meadow land 

 which produce grass scarcely worth the labour of 

 cutting, which may, by skill and little labour, be 

 rendered the most productive parts of our farms. 



Thirty years since, the general complaint waf 



