Vol. C— No. 19. 



't 



INEW ENGLAND PARMEK. 



I8i« 



The fact is so common that it becomes an 

 ■Ai&gB ; "thai property <[oes not continue in the same 

 I'amlly more than three generations:" it seldom 

 does more liian two. And docs talent remain in 

 the same family for a longer period? Nature 

 seems to forbid n monopoly in this orticle. No, 

 Sir, the race of the preat, like that of your horses 

 and your slieep, literally, runs out ; and in no 

 country sooner than in our own. 



Look at the men, who now occupy the seats of 

 the great. Whence came they? Who is that 

 eastern Demosthenes, whose [irofound reasonintrs 

 and soi)l-thrillinjr eloquent-e control, at his v/ill, 

 courts and senates? He is the son of a farmer. 

 He was reared where corn grows and gives to 

 boys rosy cheeks and well compacted limbs, and 

 intellects worth owninfj — among the rocks and 

 mountains of New liampsiiire. And who is his 

 honored compeer of the west — a man who stands 

 liigh in office — and is heir apparent to the first dig- 

 nity in our country's gift? He is the son of a 

 planter. 



Hunilreds more, in responsible stations, in church 

 and state, might be named, who commenced their 

 career in tending cows and ploughing the field. 

 And this. Sir, is the very best primary school that 

 can exist. 



Had I a son, whom I wished to educate for the 

 pulpit, for the bar, or for the popular assembly, I 

 would commit him earlv to the cure of a moral, ju- 

 dicious, cnliehtencil farmer With bin) he should 

 pass his summers, in tilline the ground and gather- 

 ing in the harvest, till fifteen years had passed 

 over him. Tiien, with firm limbs, a consolidated 

 constitution, and a mind vigorous and elastjrk, he 

 should enter on his literary prep.iratiou for useful- 

 ness atii! distinction. 



Jjook at our acat'emies, ;in'l lu 'her inttitntions. 

 Whence came ih^ir Sniist sehohir^ — their irreatest 

 ornaments? Cliiefly. but not evilusively, from the 

 plough. 



It is not from tl;e bold, bra. en fired youth of the 

 oity, who comes to collpgre, rlothed in sumptuous 

 broadcloth, iind rirhesl silks. ".Mlh a servant at h's 

 back, to gratit'y his every whim, that we expect 

 the btsl Ihincr.^ No. Sir, it is rather of the lad, 

 covered with hon)espun, who comes, with his bun- 

 dle of books under his arm, laboring up the hill, 

 and sweating profusely, but never seems to mind 

 it — of the lad, unpractised in the ways of vire. un- 

 accustomed to the faces of men, iirnor.niif of every 

 body but Virgil and two or three ot'jer nncient gen- 

 tlemen of Home and Greece, but intimately ac- 

 fjuainted with thetn, that we augur most favorably. 

 At the sight of such an individual, I souietimes 

 Bay, almost instinctively, that bashful hov will make 

 a scholar — a Dwight, an Edwards, a Bowditch, an 

 Ellsworth, a Washington. Do you iccount it no 

 honor. Gentlemen, to be able to supply our litera- 

 ry and scientific institutions with a Inrgc propor- 

 tion of their most promi-;ing members, and our 

 «ountry with its most distinguished and useful men? 



In relation to the present life, all other profes- 

 sions, in point of importance, fall infinitely below 

 yours. All others might be suspended without 

 producing the entire ruin of society. Others are 

 important, and some of them immeasurably so. — 

 Physicians will be needed, so long as disease shall 

 lack the human frame. Lawyers will be needed, 

 as long as contentions exist — as long as sin shall 

 maintain its throne iu the human heart. Clergy- 

 men will be needed, till the lost image of God 

 shall bo re-impressed on all the fallen family ; or 



till the arch-angel's trump, from the battlements 

 of heaven, shall summon the world to its final 

 reckoning. 



Agriculture is essential to the very e.'cistence of 

 community. A few scattered savages might roam 

 the forest, and subsist on roots and vegetables 

 and the gome that chance threw in their way. — ' 

 But a moderately dense population cannot be sus j 

 lainod without your aid. 



Besides, agriculture, says Xenophon, but we do I 

 not need this testimony — "agriculture is thenurs- [ 

 ing mother of the arte." — "Where agriculture! 

 succeeds prosperously," he adds, " there the arts 

 thrive, but where the earth lies uncultivated, there ; 

 the other arts are destroyed " j 



Yes, suspend your agricultural operations, and ] 

 what becomes of manufactures and commerce ? — ] 

 Let the grower of cotton and the raiser of sheep 

 relinquish their occupation, and of wliat value are 

 carding machines, and spindles, and power looms? 

 Let the farmer produce food sufficient for his own 

 consumption only, and where would be the busy 

 truific, in meat and flour, and a thousand other ar- 

 ticles, that is now carried on in all our cities ? — 

 Who would supply the markets and fill the months 

 of the clustered citizens. Famine, and pestilence 

 and ('cath would immediately ensue. 



I have shown you. Gentlemen, that practical 

 agriculture occupied the attention of the first in- 

 habitants of the earth — that in some countries, it 

 was at an early period, carried to great perfec- 

 tion, — that the tilling of the ground has been ac 

 counted an honora le employment, in all ages; — 

 that the greatest of men — generals, princes, em- 

 perors have pursued it, and have preferred it to 

 the possession of thrones : — that it is a restorative 

 of health. I have showa you that a large share 

 of the honor of achieving our national indepen 

 dence belongs to farmers, and that they are, and 

 ever will be. ine . hief snp-.ort of our republic : — 

 that thf-ir finiilios are the primary schools, from 

 which come most of our ablest divines, our wisest 

 statesmen. I will only aid : Go on and give per- 

 fection to the noble work you have begun. Make 

 your fields produie douhle the crops they now do 

 Plough then) more; you will have your reward in 

 the harvest. Render your lands rich by manure, 

 and .then, by a due alternation of crops, they will 

 always continue rich, without additional manure. 



The greatest barrier, 1 apprehend, to improve- 

 ment in husbandry is, Gentlemen, the aversion, 

 which most farmers have to the making of e.xpe- 

 riments. They follow, tenaciously, the track, 

 marked out by their ancestors, seventy years ago, 

 and cannot be persuaded, in the slightest degree, 

 to deviate from it. 



"The slaves of custom and established mode, 

 Wid) pack-horse constancy they keep the road, 

 Crooked or straight, througli quags or thorny dells. 

 True to the jingling of their leaders bells." 



The present, Sir, is an age of experiment. 

 What would chemistry now be, had it not been 

 for the experiments of Davy, Gay-Lussac, Then- 

 ard and Murray? A minute detail of the experi- 

 ments, which have been made in this department 

 within the last thirty years, would fill hundreds of 

 volumes. By these experiments, nature, tortured 

 in ten thousand different ways, has been compel- 

 led to disclose to man more than half her myste- 

 ries. By these, principles have been developed, 

 and the consequence is, that chemistry has been 

 elevated from a heterogeneous and indigested 



mass of facts to the rank of an exact and illustri- 

 ous science. 



Imitate the chemist. Introduce experiments in 

 agriculture. Carefully record the residt of each,, 

 and [lublish the record to the world. In this way, 

 innumerable facts will be oflTered to the publicK 

 eye, which will her';after be of incalculable utility 

 to our country. 



In your cnoeovors to elevate the character of 

 agriculture, do not attempt to depress manufac 

 tures or commerce. If you do, believe me, yot: 

 will be at wnr with your own interests. These 

 three brandies arc sisters, of equal worth, 

 and must walk onward, linked arm in arm. They 

 will thrive, or fall together. Injure one, and the 

 efl'cct is felt by all. 



Close up the manufacturing establishments. 

 and what encouragement will the farmer have to 

 1 raise more wool or cotton than would be sufficieiit 

 I for his own consumption ? Place an embargo on 

 our shipping, and what inducement would the 

 inanufacturer have !o fabricate more articles than 

 would supply the home market? In both of these 

 cases, the chill of death would riin through nil 

 our manufactories, and all our agricultural inter- 

 ests. These branches of business deserve high; 

 and equal patronage. Cherish, then, a libera: 

 spirit towards them all. But let your mightiest 

 energies be e.-;peuded in perfecting the honorable 

 profession to wliich you belong. And may He,- — 

 who sitteth on the circle of the heavens, and di- 

 recteth the seasons, (without -whose favor your 

 happiest labors would be fruitless,) crown, with 

 desired success, all your efforts. 



^ppnllin^ Facts. — It has been ascertained that 

 in the city of New-York there are 3000 licensed 

 .grog shops ; that at least three-fourths of the ten- 

 ants of the Aims-House become such in conse 

 qucnce of intemperance ; and tiiat nine-tenths of 

 the cases wl-icli arc brought before the Justices of 

 the Police, arise from the same course. As the 

 annual expense for City Poor is about $80,000, it 

 follows that S'JO.OOO is the annual tax laid upon 

 our citizens by this vice, to say nothing of tlit- 

 large amount which is voluntarily paid by its vic- 

 tims. 



Errors of the Press — When it is known that 

 from fifty to a hundred thousand types are picked 

 up siiifrli/ and put in their proper places for each 

 day's paper, it will not appear extraordinary thai 

 occasionally one or two of them will get into the 

 wrong places, or that in making up a body con 

 taming so many small parts, errors should sonic 

 times occur. 



The London papers mention, "that within the 

 short period of three years, £fiOO,000 sterling 

 worth of machinery has been exported from Eng- 

 land for the use of foreign industry. 



Early Snoivs. — A correspondent of the Ports- 

 mouth Advertiser, has given the result of obser- 

 vations made in Portsmouth, since 1811, respect- 

 ing early snows, by which it appears th.nt the ear! 

 iest snow fell during this time, was on the nine 

 teenth day of October, 182L The earliest sleigh- 

 ing was on the 21st of Nov. 1836 Salem Obs. 



William Wilkinson, Esq. of Providence, has pre 

 sented fifty volumes of valuable books to the Me- 

 chanics' Library in Newport. Other handsoiut 

 donations have been made to it. 



