800 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



AFRIL 1,1835. 



[ From the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, Mechanics, and Manu- 

 faclures.J 



POLITICAl, AGRICULTURE. 



W'liat sliould the Goveiunient of tlie United 

 States do for Agriculture ? This is an imiioilant 

 inquiry. Agriculture is essentially the great 

 interest of the countrj'. The just protection 

 of cotunieree, the fostering of our manufactures, 

 and all internal improvements, the widening and 

 deepening of our rivers, the forming of canals, 

 the laying of rail roads, and all the various facili- 

 ties and forms of mutual intercourse and ex- 

 change, are indissolubly connected with the agri- 

 culture of the country, and have a favorable bear- 

 ing upon its prosjierity ; but our particular inqui- 

 ry is, what ought the Government to do to pro- 

 mote the art and science itself ; to make its ]>rin- 

 ciples better known ; to improve its practice ; to 

 excite and encourage a stronger emulation ; and 

 to increase those means and facilities for its ad- 

 vancement which are within the power of the 

 government alone. 



The British Government has been most wise in 

 their concern and liberal in their expenditures for 

 this object. They appointed a Board of Agricul- 

 ture, at the head of which was placed that enlight- 

 ened and indefatigable friend of the cause, Sir 

 John Sinclair. Under their direction, an exact 

 and complete survey was made of the several 

 counties of England and Scotland, the reports of 

 which surveys were printed at the expense of the 

 Board. They embody an immense mass of val- 

 uable information, and contributed in an eftectual 

 manner to the improvement of the agriculture of 

 the United Kingdom. 



General Washington, himself passionately de- 

 voted to agriculture, familiar, even amidst all his va- 

 rious concerns, with its practical details, and aware 

 of its importance to the country, in some letters to 

 Sir John Sinclair, who had sent him some of these 

 reports, perceived at once their great value, and 

 looked forward to the establishment of a similar 

 board among us, whoso labors might be directed 

 with equal success to the same valuable results. 

 Jlis letters are deserving of attention, and I here 

 quote parts of lliein. 



" Philadelphia, 20<A July, 1794. 



" I have received with peculiar pleasure and 

 approbation the specimens of the county reports 

 you have sent me. Such a general view of the 

 agriculture in the several counties of Great Britain 

 Is extremely interesting, and cannot fail of being 

 very beneficial to the agricultural concerns of your 

 country, and those of every other wherein they 

 are read. I am so much pleased with the plan 

 and execution mysidf, as to pray you to have the 

 goodness to direct your bookseller to continue to 

 forward them to me, accompanied with the cost, 

 which shall be paid to his order, or remitted as 

 soon as the amount is made known tome. When 

 tlio whole are received, I will promote as far as in 

 me lies the reprinting of them here. 



" I know of no pursuit in which mon^ real and 

 important service can bo render(;d to my country, 

 than by improving its agriculture, its breed of use- 

 ful animals, and other branches of a husbandman's 

 r;aro ; nor can I conceive any place more con- 

 ducive to this end than the one you have introdu- 

 ci'd for bringing to view the actual state of them 

 in all parts of the kingdom ; by which good and 

 bad habits are exhibited in a manner too ))lain to 



be misconceived ; for the accounts given to the 

 British Board of Agriculture appear in general to 

 be drawn up in a masterly manner, so as fully to 

 answer the expectations formed in the excellent 

 plan which produced them, — affording 'at the 

 same time, a fund of information, useful in politi- 

 cal economy, and serviceable in all countries." 



A second letter is dated Philadel|)hia, lOlh July 

 1795 : " I could not omit so favorable an oppor- 

 tunity as the de))artnre of Mr Strickland affords 

 me, of presenting my best respects to you, and 

 my sincere thanks for the views of agriculture, 

 in the different counties, v/liich you have had the 

 goodness to send me, and for the diploma (receiv- 

 ed by the hands of Mr Jay,) admitting me a for- 

 eign honorary member of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture. For this testimony of the attention of that 

 bod}', and for the honor it has conferred on me, I 

 have a high sense ; in connnunicating to the 

 Board, I shall rely more on your goodness, than on 

 any expression of mine to render it acceptable. 



" Froin the first intimation you were pleased to 

 give me of this institution, I conceived the most 

 favorable ideas of its utility ; and the more I 

 have seen and reflected on the plan since, the 

 more convinced I am of its importance, in a na- 

 tional point of view, not only to your own coun- 

 try, but to all others which are not too much at- 

 tached to old and bad habits to forsake them ; and 

 to new countries that are just beginning to form 

 systems for the improvement of their husbandry." 



A third letter to the same gentleman is dated 

 Philadelphia, 10th December, 1797: "The result 

 of the experiments entrusted to the care of Dr 

 Fordyce must be as curious as they may prove in- 

 teresting to the science of husbandry. Not less 

 so will be an intelligent solution of those inqui- 

 ries relative to live stock, which are handed to 

 the public. 



" A few months more, say the third of March 

 next, and the scenes of my political life will close, 

 and leave me in the shades of retirement ; when 

 if a few years are allowed me to enjoy it (many I 

 cannot expect, being upon the verge of sixty-five,) 

 and health is continued to me, I shall peruse with 

 pleasure and edification, the fruits of the exertions 

 of the Board for the Improvement of Agriculture; 

 and shall have leisure, I trust, to realize sojne of 

 the useful discoveries which have been made in 

 the science of liusbandrj'. 



" Until the above period shall have arrived, and 

 particularly during the present session of Con- 

 gress, which commenced the 5th inst., I can give 

 but little attention to matters out of the lino of 

 my immediate avocations. I did not, however, 

 omit the occasion at the opening of the session, 

 to call the attention of that body to the impor- 

 tance of agriculture. What will be the result, I 

 know not at |)rescnt, but if it should be favorable 

 the hiius, which you will have it in your power 

 to give, cannot fail of being gratefully received 

 by the members who may constitute the Board." 



1 regret that I have not at this time access to 

 the speech to which he refers in this letter; but 

 it is understood that he proposed to Congress the 

 establisliment of a Board of Agriculture similar 

 to that which existed in Great Britain. Such 

 were the views of this great man, this true patriot, 

 of the importance of the great intetest of ngricid- 

 tnre to the United States ; and of means within 

 the immediate power of the Government, by 

 which they could most essentially subserve its ad- 

 vancement and pro.sperity. It is certain it has not 



received that direct attention and patronage to 

 which it is entitled ; and though the Government 

 has done something for the jiroteclion of the wool- 

 grower, and for the cullivaiion of silk and sugar, 

 by the publication and distribution of valuable 

 treatises on these two important subjects, yet very 

 little has been, nothing conq)ared with what 

 might he, may I not add, ought to be done, both 

 for these and other important interests of agricul- 

 ture. The establishment of a Board of Agricul- 

 ture like the English Board, composed of a few 

 of our inost enlightened, enterprising, and patri- 

 otic farmers, or planters, whether in Congress or 

 out of it, who would give their attention to obtain 

 a thorough agricultural survey of the whole coun- 

 try, would be of the highest benefit. This is a 

 matter of such universal advantage, and in which 

 no party views could mingle, unless they were 

 forced in by violence, I can but indulge the hope 

 that if it were distinctly presented and urged up- 

 on Congress by a respectable array of names, in 

 different parts of the country, it would be lavora- 

 bly considered. But if the plan should be thought 

 too extensive to be feasible by the government of 

 the United States, it ought to be urged upon the 

 different States. Let the empire State, the mag- 

 nificent republic of New-York, take the lead in 

 this as in other splendid essays of improvement. 

 Massachusetts, never behind in any good work 

 for the general welfare, and Pennsylvania, now al- 

 most breathless in lier public enterprises, will no 

 doubt follow in her train ; and, in due time, a 

 mass of agricultural intelligence would he obtain- 

 ed, and at a comparatively trifling expense, which 

 would, in its beneficial influence upon the States 

 who should undertake such a thorough agricul- 

 tural survey of their own territories, be more 

 than an equivalent for a hundred times its 

 cost. 



With a view of communicating my own ideas 

 more fully, and of drawing the attention of others 

 to the subject, I hope it will not be thought pre- 

 suming too much if I subjoin such a form of 

 memorial as I sliould be glad to see presented to 

 the Congress of the United States at a future ses- 

 sion, with the names of many of our distinguish- 

 ed and influential fellow-citizens attached to it ; 

 and if it should fail of success there, or there 

 should be so little hope of success as to discour- 

 age and prevent the application, such an one as 

 might properly be presented to the Legislature of 

 several of our States, hoping that at least there 

 the obvious advantages of such a survey might, 

 frotn being nearer, be more fully seen, and the 

 project be received with favor. I am very far 

 from presumingthat this is the best way of accom- 

 plishing the particular object, — that is, a thorough 

 agricultural survey of the country ; and entertain 

 na exclusive partiality for my own views ; but 

 this is a mode which has occurred to me, and with 

 all due respect I leave it to the wise, intelligent, 

 and patriotic, among the friends of agriculture to 

 suggest a better. 



The memorial of the subscribers to the Con- 

 gress of (he United States, respectfully represents, 



That agriculture is the great interest of evcrv 

 civilized community — the mother of all the arts — 

 and the basis of all national |)rosperity — and in 

 this view claims the fostering care of every patri- 

 otic and enlightened government. 



That the United States of North America is, 

 and must continue to be essentially an agricultu- 

 ral people ; and that an improved agricultm-e 



