12 



NEW ENCLAND FARMER, 



Jrl-Y 23, 1834. 



THE REIiATIVE PLEASURES AND PROFITS 

 OP AGRICULTURE. 



To Iht Editor of the (Quarterly Journal of .Agriculture. 

 SiK, — I liiivu received your letter of llie 15tli of 

 March, and regret lliiit neither my experience or 

 Bl)iiity is adetinale to do justice to tile various top- 

 ics you liave intimated relating to the siUyect of 

 agriculture. 



Since you have paid ine the compliment to con- 

 eulc my opinions, I will endeavor hrielly to state 

 them, in a manner which will suhstantially consti- 

 tute a reply to your several inquiries. 



The pursuit of hiishandry has not yet attained 

 to the rank to which it is entitled in the northern 

 jjortion of the United States — a rank which is con- 

 ceded to it in some other sections of our country, 

 and among the most enlightened nations of Eu- 

 rope. This circumstance will ser\e to retard 

 advances in this most usefid avocation, which 

 a liigher estimate on the part of the enlighten- 

 cil classes of our citizens could not fail to cre- 

 ate. Yet it cannot he douhted that this depart- 

 ment of life will more and mm-e he sought for its 

 intrinsic advantages, )n'esentiiig as it docs a health- 

 ful occupation to mind and hody, and a staliility 

 Avhich no other pursuit can equal. It might .seem 

 invidious to institute comparisons among the seve- 

 ral occupations incident to civilized life. Let it 

 suffice that each has its appropriate usefulness, 

 mid that husliandry is not tlie least usefiil or least 

 lionorahle among lliem. Many illustrious men 

 have home testimony to the diversified plea.sure of 

 rural life, and that it affords occupation to the 

 most enlarged capacity. 



In reply to the question, whether " capital may 

 lie properly iiueslcd in cultivated land," I confi- 

 dently answer it rini ; and I am oftlie opinion, that 

 in no other way can a moderate fortune he so profit- 

 ably employed. In adopting this conclusion I am 

 supposing the ohjects to he safety, productiveness, 

 comfortahle life, pleasant occupation, the educa- 

 tion of chihiren, and the transmission of property 

 to descendants. 



It may on a supeificial view appear paradoxical, 

 that the cultivation of land can compete in profits 

 with the adventures of commerce, or the opera- 

 tions of machinery. It is the greater uniforirdty 

 in the products of land, contrasted with the ever 

 fluctuating character of connnerce and inaimfac- 

 tnres, which estahlishes the point in question. II' 

 it he true, as is as.sertcd, that our own country 

 every twenty years witnesses the insolvency of the 

 whole aggregate trading Ijaternity, what does it 

 not argne in favor of a pursuit in which a inai] 

 need nevcM' fail ? 



The hahits of expense engendered liy commerce 

 constitute a heavy annual levy upon the income of 

 the prosperous merchant. Those hahits are too 

 likely to sm-vive the prosperity which fostered 

 them, than which a more ileplorahle condition 

 cannot well he imagined. But he who resides on 

 a landed estate, and practises assiduity, and e\iii- 

 ces the intelligence of the merchant, the nuunifac- 

 tiirer or professional man, may sustain himsell 

 during periods of depression without a dimimilion 

 of capital at any rate. His hahits are frugal, which 

 is equivalent to wealth ; his daily occupation is a 

 lesson of economy, a term seldom addresseil and 

 never palatahle to American ears, a virtue as far 

 removed from meanness as it is from prodigality, 

 the more general practice of which coidd not tidi 

 to give greater stahility to private and puhlie pros- 

 perity. 



The trading classes usually incur dehts heyoud 

 the ca[)ital possessc-d hy them, and frequently credit 

 alone is the expedient relied upon. The farmer of 

 even small possession need incur no debts; this 

 dift'erence is vital, and gives to the land proprietor 

 a guarantee of success and certainty which other 

 classes cannot possf^ss. My object in the preced- 

 ing remarks is to im-ulcate the idea that to those 

 who are in circumstances to elect their mode of 

 life, agricultural |UM'suits are most eligible. But 

 in order to succeed in husbandry in the condition 

 of things existing among ns, the proprietor must 

 vigilantly comluct his own atiairs ; he may hire 

 men to labor, hut he (!annot so readily hire them 

 to think. A man with ns, who has a respectable 

 capacity, will become a small propiietor rather 

 than a hireling. Agricidture is not an amusenunt, 

 more than law or commerce are such ; and what 

 lawyer or merchant coidd dream of success while 

 leading a life of idleness or pleasure. 



Agriculture is not incompatible with mental cul- 

 tivation ; it is favorable to virtue, as the farmer 

 knows nothing of the strifes and rivalries, which 

 grow out of competition in other pursuits, and 

 which lead men to look with an evil eye n|)on the 

 prosperity or skill of a neighbor. The country 

 resident escapes many of the lime-destroying friv- 

 olities of the town, and, on the other hand, has 

 fewer of the social advantages which comluce to 

 refinement. These things may be oiTset to the 

 freedom and healthfulnessof rural existence, where 

 man draws less of his satisfaction from others, and 

 more from himself and the works of God, divested 

 of the conventional rides which constitute an arti- 

 ficial existence. 



There is one part of your letter which I deem 

 it important to notice, the most practical part, and 

 relates to the articles of culture which an agricul- 

 turist should select as his own, among the many. 



In determining the objects of culture which a 

 person attempting farming should select as primary, 

 the circumstances of soil, jiosition, and the price of 

 land, should govern. In western New-York, wheat 

 is the great staple, for the reason that much of the 

 soil of that region is well adapted to its prodnc 

 lion. The Hudson river counties, on the contrary, 

 seem hy the variety of soil to be favorable to the 

 dairy, wool-growing, and stock generally, as also 

 to the growth of all the grains produced in a north- 

 ern latitude. 



AVbaj is denominated cnnvertihle husbandry, or 

 rot.ation of ('rops, is the improved feature in mod- 

 ern husbai'idry, as it conduces to tlie constant im- 

 provement of laud ; and while it diminishes labor 

 it increases piodui'ts. Neither grazing or cropping 

 (jxclusively can be deemed judicious, as botli when 

 combined are admirably calculated to aid each 

 olhcr, the former su|!plying manures to give a 

 profitalile effect to the operations of the phnigh ; 

 and besides, the regular employment given to la- 

 borers at all seasons, by uniting the dilfercnt parts 

 into one system, is an advantage which every econ- 

 omist will appreciate. 



In conclusion, I would decidedly discourage 

 anialenr farming, as it usually is brief in its histo- 

 ry, and disastrous in its results. But to such as 

 seek rational employment where n comparative in- 

 dependence may he enjoyed, I would recommend 

 agriculture. 



If I may be allowed to speak of my individual 

 underlakiiigs, I would say that in an investment ol 

 a large sum in the course of a few years, in lands, 

 improvements, and animals, coniinenced in inex- 



perii'iice, and misdirected hy ignorance, my aiiti^ 

 ci|)iitions of profit have not been disappointed. 

 The nature and magnitude of the trust have tied 

 my attention to its accomplishment, and I have 

 the satisfaction of finding my income yearly in- 

 creasing, and my expenditures diminishing. 



I am, sir, yours, &c. IIk.>ry W. Delavan. 

 Ballston, May 1, 1834. 



i'Vojit Ihf Cultivator. 

 PASTURES. 



It is now a well settled o|iinion, among goorl 

 farmers, that lands generally, cannot be profitably 

 improved, for a course of years, either for meadow 

 or tillage crojis alone ; but that the product and 

 profits in both cases are materially increased, by 

 changing from one to the other alternately. Con- 

 stant tillage exhausts more than the manure of the 

 farm can restore ; while in the meadows the bur- 

 then of the hay annually diminishes, the soil be- 

 comes compact and hard, the benign influence of 

 heat and air are partially excluded from it, the 

 finer grasses run out, and their place is naturally 

 usurped by moss and a stinted herbage. Besides 

 alternation seems to he among the primary laws of 

 nature. We all know the importance of alternat- 

 ing our tillage crops ; that a field will not carry 

 the same grain or kind of roots, two or more years 

 in successiim without great expense in manuring, 

 or constant diminution in iirodnct ; and that mead- 

 ows after two or three years from being laid down 

 manifestly decrease in their product. 



The same law that renders alternation of grain 

 and grass essential, applies with equal force to 

 our jiaslnres, although the opinion has prevailed 

 and with most persons is still popular, that old 

 [lastnres are the best. To satisfy any farmer of the 

 error of his opinion, let liim appropriate an acre 

 of old, and an acre of new pasture recently laid 

 down to hay. If the land is of similar quality, he 

 will find that the new will give him twoor three and 

 probably four times as much hay as the old. The 

 same difference that we find in the hay, nmst ex- 

 ist in the pasture. The disparity appears not only 

 in the quantity, hut in the quality and duration. 

 From the soil being more permeable to heat .-md 

 air, the active agents of vegetable deconqiosilion 

 and nutrition, the grass starts earlier in the spring, 

 when in most demand, and continues to grow long- 

 er in antiunn, in the new than in the old pasture. 

 The plough and harrow and a change of crops, 

 are as necessary to renovate pasture as they arc to 

 renovate meailow grounds. In noticing the mod- 

 ern system of Scotch farming in a recent work, 

 we observed that on a farm i^f five hundred acres, 

 there was not an acre of grass in pasture or mead- 

 ow, which had been laiil down more than two 

 years. 



As pertinent to the subject, we make the follow- 

 ing extracts from a comnumicaiion of Mr. Blain, in 

 the Alarch number of the Edinburgh Quarterly 

 .Journal of Agricullme. 



" Struck when a boy with delight at the ever- 

 green meadows of Doncaster, and the freshness in 

 the dead of winter, of the fields near London, I 

 could not in settling in the north, help coutrasling 



these with a feeling almost bordering on disgust 



—with our witty-browji grass parks of Scotland, 

 weariii"' in many places .-i pale blue tint till the 

 bi'uinning of June, or imtVed off in the newspapers 

 as aflbrding a ' full bite' in the middle of May. 

 I said to myself, ' cannot industry and exertion 

 [uoduce a change in otjr grass lands ? Perhaps 



