260 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



PEBRUAUV 25, 183 



i£s.<UJIiIS<SW5S>1'W2aS=i 



MR BL.YDE1VBUROH-S ADDRESS. 



Read at tlii; Aniiuiil Meeting of tlie Rensst-liicr County 

 Agricultunil Society, October 7, 1834. 

 [Concluded from [inge 251.] 

 May we not coiifiilontly hopo that the worthy 

 jrcntlemeii of these h-ained professions will at 

 some day he willing to admit the scientific fanner 

 to an equal rank in the scale of bciiiii with them- 

 selves ? But the number thus favored, however, 

 must, for some time to come, remain very limited ; 

 for tliough we have colleges of distinguished rep- 

 utation dispersed throughout the country, yet tlie 

 course of ed'.ication they pursue is of too abstract 

 a nature to be of any essential service to the in- 

 • terest of agriculture. There can be no doubt that 

 those who have no faith in book farming will 

 smile at the idea of a college-learnt farmer. But 

 how many things have been smiled at as ridicu- 

 lous at one period, and at a subsequent period 

 hailed and ajjplauded as wonderful improvetnents ? 

 We have theological seminaries, and medical sem- 

 inaries, and law seminaries, and military semin- 

 aries, and each endowed with siilendid and costly 

 libraries, and all the paraphernalia of scientific 

 illustration and experiment, and furnished wi'li 

 able teachers, liberally supported. But poor agri- 

 culture, whose hand sows the seed, and whose 

 arm gathers tlie harvest and the vintage, on which 

 all our earthly comforts and even our very existence 

 depends, she can have no seminary in which to 

 teacdi her sons the most valuable of all arts. No 

 matter ; they are nothing but clod-hoppers ; if they 

 can learn their letters and read tlio bible, what 

 more can they want to know ? Even our wise 

 legislatures can grant supplies for literary and 

 other public institutions with a liberality which 

 does them great credit, but touch the string of ag- 

 riculture, and it refuses to vibrate ; the whole 

 instrument seems paralyzed and makes no mvisic. 

 But let me entreat the friends of agricultural 

 improvement still to persevere, notwithstanding 

 all these discouraging circiunstances. Let the 

 disciples of the old school ridicule book farming 

 and laugh at the idea of an agricultural college, 

 or of schools to teach the farmer how to hoe bis 

 corn. As I have already stated, the spirit of im- 

 provement is awake ! Our State legislature already 

 lias the stibject before it, and the agricultural so- 

 ciety of the State will doubtless pursue it with 

 persevering attention. It is true, we cannot have 

 the credit of setting the examjile and leading the 

 way. Such institutions are already established, 

 and are producing mo.st liap])y results in several 

 paits of Europe ; and young men are attending 

 them even from this country. Lit us then have 

 the praise of setting the example in our own 

 countiy, and let this State take the lead of all the 

 others. Where is the man of Bo much apathy as 

 not to be cheered with the anticipation of behold- 

 ing such an institution ; an extensive and hand- 

 some edifice, where our young men shall bo taught, 

 in theory and in |)ractice, those iminutuble prin- 

 ciples of nature which form the only infallible 

 guide to all the substantial comforts of life ? 

 Where, by mingling the useful with the sweet, 

 they will become inured to habits of industry : 

 where science and art shall coinbino to inspire 

 thorn with laudable emulation to excel each 

 other ! If we are charmed with viewing a garden, 

 upon u email scale, the work perhaps of a single, 

 but skilful individual, how infinitely more charm- 



ing must be the view of three or four hundred 

 acres, jSlanned and laid out with all the accumu- 

 lated skill of ages, aided by all the lights which 

 science has thrown on the subject, with all the 

 beauties of the vegetable world, and all that is 

 useful in the animal! Could any'earthly pros- 

 pect be more delightful ? I answer, yes ; that of 

 two hundred young men, vying with each other, 

 in skill and industry, not only in improving and 

 bcaulilying the establi.shment, but in improving 

 their minds by study and their bodies by manly 

 labor, inlinitely more pleasing and more to their 

 credit than the mountebank feats of a gynma- 

 sium ; thus fitting themselves as brilliant lights to 

 guide, instruct, and adorn the succeeding genera- 

 tion. 



This view of the subject, or rather .the subject 

 itself, far surpassing any jiicture I can draw of it, 

 will soon become reality, if those interested in its 

 progress do their duty ; and that they will do their 

 duty, the talent and integrity already engaged are 

 sufiicient guarantee. Let this State set the exam- 

 ple, and all the other States will imitate it. And 

 what will hinder the same from taking place in 

 every county ? Should one county lead the way, 

 there can be little doulit but all the others will 

 follow. But the county institutions will of course 

 be small, compared with that of the State. One 

 hundred acres of good land, with other suitable 

 investments, might be sufficient ; and what mighty 

 thing would the cost of a hundred acres of land 

 and a little expense in buildings and apparatus be 

 for this county ? There is abundant reason to 

 believe that such an institution in each county 

 would be an immediate source of pecuniary profit, 

 indejiendently of all its other advantages. But 

 the State institution must necessarily lead the 

 way. That institution, then, as the parent or 

 head, wouhl furnish teachers for all the others, 

 and it would also furnish seeds, plants, and ani- 

 mals, of every description ; and as it would be 

 foremost in all untrodden ground, it would pro- 

 tect the county institutions from all loss in new 

 and untried experiments, and aflbrd a pattern for 

 them to follow in all their operations. The State 

 could afford expenses in books and apparatus, as 

 well as in the introduction and acclimation of rare 

 and valuable exotic plants ; and also in procuring 

 valuable and extraordinary animals, which would 

 be altogether beyond the reasonable means of a 

 county, much more so of an individual ; and yet 

 these valuable acquisitions would be no less so, 

 either to the county or the individual, because they 

 cost comparatively nothing. There are jjrobably 

 more than a hundred thousand respectable farm- 

 ers in this State. Many of these have been at 

 very considerable expense to introduce some val- 

 uable breed of animals, or even the seed of some 

 exlraonlinary vegetable. Now, suppose the ex- 

 pense so incurred should in some case, be a hun- 

 dred dollars, — and it has been in many cas<-s 

 much more — this would be a licavy tax tor an in- 

 dividual; but divide this tax among the hundred 

 thousand farmers, ami it amounts to one mill 

 a-piece. And suppose this introduction were ef- 

 fected by the United State.«, the cxiiense to indi- 

 viduals would be still less; the liability to imposi- 

 tion would be also less ; and the chance of its be- 

 ing distributed over the States, and consequently 

 the public thereby benefited, still greater. 



Let this parent, or State agricultural school, be 

 attended as it would be, and as I venture to say it 

 will shortly be, by pupils from each of the coun- 



ties, each of whom will he an interested rep 

 sentative of his own county ; and kt each com 

 have, as there is reason to hope it will have, 

 school after the same model, but upon a smal 

 scale ; and when this system shall even begin 

 be in full operation, how abundant will be its be: 

 fits to every farmer in the State, as well to th' 

 who have not, as to those who have been 

 (lupils. If any new and valuable production 

 introduced, as fast as the course of nature -v 

 sufl'er it to multiply, it will, of course, be distri 

 ted for the benefit of the whole. Are new ai 

 cultural implements invented ? here their comp; 

 live merits will be tested ; and if, upon fair cx] 

 iment, found not good, they will be condemi 

 without sufli^ring individuals to be inijiosed u] 

 Here, also, every farmer in the county may, w 

 out much expense, go and view the operati 



himself, and not listen to stories which he hat 

 faith in, or read books on the subject which 

 does not understand. 



But I must quit, tliough reluctantly, this fitl 

 l)leasing anticipation, but which, as I have aire 

 stated, I have no doubt, will soon be viewed a ! 

 of much more pleasing reality, and return f 

 the long digression I have made, to the more 

 mediate business of our infant institution, 

 cannot commence our school till the State ^ 

 set us the exanqile ; but we can cultivate ourl 

 according to the best information we now pos 

 or can obtain ; and we can go great lengths ir 

 provement without waiting for better educati 

 By associating ourselves, as we propose to 

 together — by the united talent, enterprise, 

 means of the county — by comparing our e 

 rience together, and mutually instructing 

 other — and by uniting all our efforts to ol 

 useful information from every quarter, and i 

 every improvement in our power — we can, ^ 

 out doubt, make infinitely greater progress 

 we could all do collectively, each acting alon 

 his individual capacity. 



Did I ])0ssess unlimited knowledge on the 

 ject, and were I infinitely capable of givinj 

 structions in agriculture, the present opport 

 would scarcely admit of giving even a regulai 

 alogue of its branches, much less a system 

 tailed instructions. You will indulge me, 

 ever, in a few words, merely to jioint out a ft 

 those heads of the subject which I think 

 pressingly demand your attention, and also to 

 a few brief remarks on the best course to be 

 sued in obtaining information. 



There is an evil which sits like an in( 

 upon the very vitals of our agricultural int 

 and which, until it shall be in a good degre 

 moved, will forever paralyze all our efforts t 

 prove it ; and that evil is a kind of insatiabli 

 rice to possess more land than we need o 

 cultivate. This is so deeply fixed in our ) 

 by early impression, that it will be hard to 

 come it. Our ancestors came from cou 

 where the man who possessed land in fec-s 

 was looked up to as a superior being. No 

 der that when they came here, where evei7 

 could obtain it, every one was anxious to bi 

 the lord of a little manor. This spirit has de; 

 ed from father to son — every man reckoni 

 wealth by his number of acres, not by wl 

 produced. The inevitable consequence is •' 

 we see from one end of the United States 

 other — our farms unfenced, and a miserab 

 tivation scattered over four hundred acres. 



