JVEW EMGtAI^D FARMER 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. BARRETT, NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agk.cultorai. \Vakkhouse.)-T. G. FESSENOEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XIII. 



BOSTOIV, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 18, 1835. 



NO. 32. 



^■SSSiS^SWJS.lfWSiSl, 



MR BLYDEBTBURGH'S ADDRESS. 



Read at the annual meeting of the Rensselaer County 

 Agricultural Society, October 7, 1834. 



Before eutering upon the subject before us, 

 it may not be amiss to take a slight review of the 

 circumstances in which we are placed at tlie time 

 of our meeting. 



A being, possessed only of a theoretic know- 

 ledge of the human character, would be led by 

 every princi|)Io of justice and common sense, to 

 suppose that the highest honors, the greatest 

 wealth, and the deepest veneration of his fellow 

 creatures, were due to him whose talents and la- 

 bors produced the greatest sliare of the necessaries 

 and comforts of life. But we find the reverse of 

 this to be the case. We find, with very few ex- 

 ceptions throughout the world, from the earliest 

 dawnings of history to tlie present time, the ap- 

 plause of mankind, even to idolatrous worship, 

 bestowed on him who has destroyed the greatest 

 numbers of human beings ; and even princely 

 rewards and immortal fame to him who was most 

 successful in inventing the means to do it. W:^ 

 find almost throughout the world, from the earliest 

 records of time to tliis day, the right of soil, ar'! 

 all the profits arising from the earth's cultivation, 

 monopolised by a few haughty and overbearing 

 idlers, wlio look down with insolent disdain oii 

 lim whose labors produce the bread they eat. 

 rhey consider the man, whatever may be his tal- 

 !nts or his genius, whose honest toils produce the 

 necessaries and luxuries which they enjoy in 

 (vasteful profusion, as a being altogether unworthy 

 )f respectful notice : and who holds the privilege 



live and toil, on mere sufferance, through their 

 :lemeucy. 



But, thank Heaven ! and the invincible spirit of 

 lur fatliers! we inherit a land where no such ab- 

 lorrent state of things exists; but where every one 

 ) born to inherit and feel the dignity of human 

 aturc. Hero the honest farmer, as he wipes the 

 weat from his sun burnt brow, instead of cring- 

 ig and humbling before the insolent lord of the 

 lanor, fcars no intermediate being between himself 

 Jd the God who made hiu). The fruits of his labor 

 reallhisown — lie has no dread of the rapacity 



an unfeeling ta.x-gathcrer — no jirivileged cler- 



1 to demand the tenth of all his hard earnings. 

 ha labors to fertilize his grounds, to beautify 



is dwelling, or to enrich and embellish it with 

 uits and flowers of every kind, he does it for 

 le benefit of himself and liis [)osterity. 



Is there an agriculturist in America, who, un- 

 !r the.a;; happy circumstances, can want ambition 



urge him forward in the march of iniprove- 

 ent — whoso heart will not f.el excited with 

 >ble ambition not to be behind his neighbors ? 



I should hope there is not, for it is on this atn- 

 tioD and this emulation that the security of our 



portant subject, to an audience, every one of whom 

 may, perhaps, understand it better than I do. But 

 the fountains of usefiil knowledge have never 

 been exhausted. No one is so penetrating as to 

 have learned everything. It is therefore jiossible 

 that /may advance some idea which may not 

 have occurred to the mind of every one here 

 present, and which it may be useful to know. 

 Trusting, therefore, to your indulgence, rather 

 than to my own weak and uncultivated talents, I 

 venture to proceed. 



The emp'oymcnts which give subsistence to 

 mankind in civilized life, are of three classes — 

 agricullnre, manufactures, and commerce. These 

 are mutually useful and necessary to each other, in 

 order to produce the greatest good in society. 

 But it would be insulting the good sense of this 

 audience to attempt to prove what you all know — 

 that agriculture is the first in point of rank : and 

 that, though the others are entitled to respect and 

 protection, yet, that agriculture is the prime source 

 of national wealth and prosperity, and the basis 

 on which the others are founded. Wherever it 

 flourishes, mankind are furnished with the neces- 

 saries and comforts of life, and are comparatively 

 happy — where it languishes, or is wholly neglect- 

 ed, they are miserable and wretched. Look, for 

 instance, at Potosi, the greatest manufactory en 

 earth of gold and silver coin ; where, it is conj- 

 puted, that for centuries past, ten thousand dollars 

 have been manufactured daily ; but agriculture is 

 neglected, and the place presents an appalling 

 spectacle of wretchedness and depravity. Let 

 conmierce be the sole business, and we will find 

 nearly the same result. 



We stand, then, on this ground, that agriculture 

 is the most noble human employment, and the 

 United States the only place where it is duly en- 

 couraged, and its merits duly appreciated. It fol- 

 lows, of course, that to be an agriculturist, is, in 

 point of usefulness (the only just criterion) the niost 

 exalted rank in human lile ; and that to be so in 

 the United States, or, as wc usually express/ it, to be 

 an American farmer, is to hold the highest station 

 in that rank. Who, then, can fail to feel his 

 heart expand with the glow of satisfaction on be- 

 ing addressed by that proud title ? 



But there is no situation so happy but that the 

 person who enjoys it would generally wish to see 

 it improved. And this brings us to the great and 

 important question — is, or is not, the business 

 of agriculture, especially of agriculture in Amer- 

 ica, susceptible of improvement ? 



In attempting to answer this question, I shall 

 appeal cither to facts susceptible of incontestable 

 proof, or to such theories as arc demonstrated be- 

 yond the power of controversy. " Facts are stub- 

 boru things" — a single fact in point goes further 

 than volumes of the finest theoretic reasoning. \{ 

 my neighbor cn:i raise twice the quantity of any 

 vegetable tipon an acre wliich I can raise upon a 

 similar and adjouiing one — or if, in the same 

 time, and with the aauie expense, which I require 



of twice the value — no farther proof can be want- 

 ed to show that my system of management need.s 

 improvement. If, in another country, in similar 

 climate and temperature, and whose primitive soil 

 is not superior to our awn, better crops and better 

 animals are produced, the conclusion is irresisti- 

 ble that our management is in fault, and needs im- 

 provement. To show that such injprovements 

 are practicable, ten thousand facts stare us in Xhi 

 face. 



Whoever is acquainted with the agriculture of 

 this country, and has travelled in Europe, needs 

 no farther proof In England, where most farms 

 are rented by the occupier, the rent, with the taxes 

 paid to the government and the clergy, will 

 amount to inore than an average crop from the 

 same number of acres in the United States wouM 

 sell for. But we need not go to Europe. There 

 is scarcely a vegetable among the common pro- 

 ductions of this country, but some enterprising 

 firmer among us has proved, by experiment, that 

 the common yield is not one-fourth part of what 

 may be produced by the same labor upon the same 

 ground. 



But so strong are the prejudices of education, 

 especially when confirmed by habit, and still more 

 so when that habit is strengthened by custom ail 

 arou' ,1 ua. -nnX not only in this country, but in every 

 other, and as well among ail other classes as agri- 

 culturists, in spite of the most brilliant examples 

 sfet by a few enterprising individuals, to entice 

 them on the road to improvement, mankind will 

 prefer to contince, age after age, in the footsteps 

 of their fathers. There are even some who are 

 professed enemies to every improvement, and who 

 not only ridicule, but utterly condemn as a dan- 

 gerous innovation, the slighest deviation from that 

 precise track which has been trodden " since time 

 tvhereof the memory of man runneth not contrary" 

 — as it is beautifully described by Cowper : 



" Such (tupes are men to custom, and so projio 

 To reverence what is ancient and can pJend 

 A course of long observance for its u^c ; 

 That even slaurrif, though worst. of ills, 

 Because tranainitted down from sire to son. 

 Is kept and guarded as a sacred thing," 



>nous privileges depends, 



And here, por.-nit me to apologize for my boh 



S8 in presuming to address myself, on this im- ' to raise an animal of given value, be can raise one 



To such people, to exhibit examples and state facts 

 are time thrown away. But tlie spirit of im- 

 provement, though subject to lethargy, and 

 prone to long protracted sleep, will not sleep 

 forever ; she also has her waking fits ; and the hu- 

 man mind, however confined and enslaved by 

 prejudices or by oppression, will at times avail it- 

 self of its own strength. At such a waking fit 

 Greece rose to a degree cf splendor which time 

 can never obliterate, and in such another the 

 United States are now towering to the yet un- 

 known summit of human glory. That blessed 

 spirit is now transccndently awake, and her influ- 

 ence is felt throughout, tind even beyond the limits 

 of the Christian world. The march is fairly be- 

 gun ; and I think I shall not be charged with un- 

 due national vanity, if I say the United States are 

 Tttfirt-b-njj in tbfl fj-ont rank. Within a century 



