NEW i:ngi*a:^d farmer. 



PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 52. NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse.)-T. G. FESSENDEN .EDITOR. 



Ot,. XIH. 



BOSTON , WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17, 1834. 



NO. 23. 



From the American Almanac^ for 1835. 

 AGRICULTURE AND RURAL. ECONOMY. 



[The following article has been furnished by Thomas 

 r. Fessenden, Esq. editor of the "New England Farmer." 



continuation of agricultural notices and improvements 

 lay be expected in the future volumes of the Almanac] 



The object of agriculture is to increase the 

 Liantity and improve the quality of such vegetable 

 id animal productions of the earth ns are of use 



inankiiul in a state of civilization. Although 

 e most ancient of the arts, it is, nevertheless, 

 le of those in which the beneficial effects of 

 odern improvement are most strikingly rnauifest- 

 I. The science of agriculture is very extensive, 

 id embraces directly or indirectly, almost every 

 anch of human knowledge. 



It would not be possible, in such a work as the 

 merican Almanac, to treat on every subject con- 

 :cted with agricultural improvement. But, though 

 1 topics are numberless, and its views boundless, 

 e slightest sketches and the most limited glances 

 ly prove useful. One may obtain refreshment 

 )ni a fountain, without drinking or appropriating 

 e whole of its waters. 



The science of agriculture is becoming more 

 d more important as mankind advance in civil- 

 ition. The practical farmer, especially in the 

 ler and more populous parts of the countr}', 

 ist not only understand, but put in operation 

 iny of the modern improvements in the art by 

 licb he obtains his livelihood, or, by neglecti')" 



make the most of his means, he will take Sv 

 my retrograde and downhill steps in the journey 

 life, that old age will find him in the vale of 

 verty. The cultivator, who does not keep pace 

 th bis neighbors,as regards agricultural iinprove- 

 ;nt and information, will find himself to be the 

 orer in consequence of the intelligence and plen- 

 which surround him. He will be like a stunted 

 k, which is deprived of light and air by its more 

 Tering neighbors. 



But there may be retrograde steps in agriculture, 

 well as in other arts. We would not advise the 

 raer, in middling or in low circumstances, to 

 ,ke expensive experiments, nor to adopt every 

 vehy in husbandry on slight grounds witliout 

 ng well convinced by testimony, observation, or 

 Derience of its beneficial effects. He had better 

 low beaten tracks, if they are a little uneven 

 \ circuitous, than strike out at once into a wd- 

 rness of supposed improvements, which ijave 

 t been sanctioned by actual and repeated e.xper- 

 ents. He should exercise his own good sense 



ev6ry proposed alteration, and neither consider 

 •t a mode or article of culture nmst be useful be- 

 ise it is new% and has been recommended by 

 ne theoretical cultivators, nor permit its novelty 

 be an insuperable objection to its adoption. Ma- 

 animals and plants, and also many theories, 

 iting to supposed agricultural improvements, 

 ich, some years since, were considered as de- 

 ving of general introduction, are now deserved- 

 md universally fallen into disuse, and those who 

 reduced or adopted them have suffered losses 

 tead of having realized anticipated profits. Thus 



theory of Tull, by which frequent ploughing 

 s intended to supersede the use of manure ; the 

 inbardy poplar, supposed to be more useful and 



ornamental than any of the numerous species of 

 trees, which adorn our forests; the plan of sum- 

 mer fallowing, or permitting land to lie without 

 crops of any sort for a greater or less period of 

 time, in order to recruit its fertility, supposed to 

 he exhausted by continued cropping ; the culture 

 of the Burnet grass, Florin grass, and some other 

 articles which have been tried and found wanting, 

 serve to prove, that in agriculture, as well as in 

 other arts and sciences, it is possible 



" Dowuwards lo soar, and backwards lo advance." 

 Such failures, however, should not cheek enter- 

 prise, but inspire caution. We may, thereby, learn 

 that every novelty is not an improvement, though 

 every improvement was once a novelty. 



The value of improvements in agriculture will 

 not be fully appreciated without a particular atten- 

 tion to the subject. A slight increase in the pro- 

 ducts of a farm causes a great increase in the 

 profits of the farmer. " We would intreat farmers 

 to consider, that the cost of raising a poor crop, 

 one time with another, is nearly as much as that of 

 raising a large one. There is the same expense in 

 fencing, — the same tax paid, — the same quantity 

 of seed sown, — the same almost expended in 

 ploughing, as rich land ploughs so much more 

 easily than poor, as lo make up for the extra num- 

 ber of ploughings, in a course of tillage. I may 

 add that there is the same or more labor in thresh- 

 ing. 



" If such improvements as are possible, and 

 even easy, were made in the husbandry of iljis 

 country, many and great advantages would be 

 found to arise. As twice the number of people 

 might be supported on the same quantity ef land, 

 all our farming towns v\'ouId become twice as pop- 

 ulous as they are likely to be in the present state 

 of husbandry. There would be, in general, but 

 half the distance to travel to visit our friends and 

 acquaintances. Friends might oftener see and 

 converse with each other. Half the labor would 

 be saved in carrying corn to mill and produce to 

 market ; half the journeying saved in attending 

 our courts ; and half the expense in supporting 

 government, and in making and repairing roads ; 

 half the distance saved in going to the smith, 

 weaver, clothier, &,c. ; half the distance saved in 

 going to public worship, and most other meetings ; 

 for where steeples are four miles apart they would 

 he only two or three. Much time, expense, and 

 labor would on these accounts be saved ; and civ- 

 ilization, with all the social virtues, would, per- 

 haps, be proportionably promoted and increased. 



" Nothing is wanting to produce these, and other 

 agreeable effects, but a better knowledge of, and 

 closer attention to matters of husbandry, with their 

 necessaryconsequences, which would be a more per- 

 fect culture, a judicious choice of crops, and change 

 of seeds, and making every advantage of manures." 

 We will now briefly notice some matters in 

 which the hand of modern improvement has been 

 most strikingly indicated. 



IMPROVEMENTS l.\ BREEDS OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



I. JVeat Cattle. Dr. Cooper, in the last Phila- 

 delphia edition of Willich's " Domestic Encyclo- 

 paedia," says, " The whole art of breeding animals 

 and vegetables for particular purposes, may be in- 

 cluded ia this direction : Choose those animals or 



vegetables to propagate from, that possess the equali- 

 ties you wigh to propagate in the greatest perfection." 

 The qualities to be desired in neat cattle, may, it 

 is believed, be attained by judicious management 

 and by pro|)agating exclusively from animals pos- 

 sessing (he following properties: 



1st ; Early Maturity. It appears by Bailey's 

 " Survey of Durham," in England, that a Mr. Wal- 

 ton, who kept a herd of improved cattle of the 

 short-horned breed, sometimes bought in calves of 

 the unimproved, or old breed of the roimtry, and 

 found, " that his own at two years old got fatter 

 for the butcher than the others did at three, though 

 kept exactly alike." A letter from Mr. Feather- 

 stonhaiigb, of Duanesburgh, N. Y. a scientific far- 

 mer of much practical experience, states, that "an 

 ox of the short-horn breed at four years old will 

 weigh as much as, under similar treatment, I have 

 been able to make the finest oxen do, raised from 

 other breeds, and which have never done a day's 

 work, at six year's old." 



2dly ; Disposition to fatten and to derive the 

 most nourishment from a given quantity of food. 

 Surgeon Cline, a celebrated English writer, ob- 

 serves, th;U " the size and form of the chest indi- 

 cate the size and form of the lungs, and it is on 

 the size and soundness of the lungs that the strength 

 and health of the animal principally depend. An 

 animal with large lungs is capable of converting a 

 given quantity of food into more nourishment than 

 one »'"'''. s-^ailer lungs ; and therefore has a greater 

 Uftui'i'd ; to fa: ten." 



3dly; Hardiness. This is a point of much con- 

 sequence in the soil and climate of New England, 

 but we do not know of any specific difference in 

 the different breeds to which there are not many 

 individual exceptions. The smallest breeds are 

 said to be the most profitable for pastures in which 

 the food is short and scanty. Tl-.e large breeds, 

 such as the Durham Short Horns, the Hereford- 

 shire and Lancashire breeds, &c. are reported 

 most profitable when the pastures are rich, and 

 winter food plentiful and of good quality. But 

 smaller and hardier sorts, such as the Devons, the 

 Sussexes, the Polled or hor7dess breeds are to be 

 preferred when the pastures are short, and provis- 

 ions for winter scanty and of indifferent quality. 

 The Alderney breed give very rich milk, but less 

 in quantity than some others. 



There are some other qualities and qualifications 

 of neat cattle which are dependent in part on the 

 breed, and in part on management. Among these 

 may be numbered docility and peaceableness of 

 disjjosition, quantity and quality of milk, quality of 

 flesh, and fitness for labor. These and other good 

 properties, it is said, may be increased and perjiet- 

 nated by propagating, exclusively, from those in- 

 dividuals which possess them in a remarkable de- 

 gree. 



II. Sheep. A very considerable portion of the 

 laud in New England is rough, stony, and hilly, 

 and must remain in pasture or woodland in conse- 

 quence of its being intractable to the plough. 

 When such lands have been grazed by neat cattle 

 or horses for a number of years, they become 

 nearly worthless, and are often abandoned by their 

 owners for the more fertile regions of the West. 

 Some sheep-farmers, however, assert that pastures, 



