AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY J03EPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Acmcultukal Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



V Ot,. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 15 1837. 



NO. 32. 



AN ADDRESS 



CELIVERED BEFORE THE 



ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



At Danvers, Sept. S-i, 1836, 

 BT NATn.\N W. HAZEN. 



Mr President and Gentlemen, 



Whatever praises may lie offered to Agriculture, 

 there are some iiiflications that it is not at this 

 time the favorite pursuit in New England. Many 

 farmers, especially those who enjuy a competency, 

 do not choose it for their children. Many of those 

 who have heen bred to it, seize the earliest oppor- 

 tunity for engaging in other pursuits. Olhers 

 who are contented with it as a vocation prefer to 

 follow it in tlio ])rairies of the West, rather than 

 on their native hills. There is a burning anxiety 

 for distinction, and a feverish thirst for money, 

 which scorn the old, beaten and approved paths 

 to wealth and consideration. The quiet useful- 

 ness of the farmer is falsely thought to be thrown 

 into the shade by the tinsel of professional lite, and 

 the delusive, and now prevalent spirit of specula- 

 tion contemns his gains as trifling, and his occu- 

 pation as tame and unentei prising. Whatever 

 may be said of the pleasures and importance of 

 Agriculture, it is practically considered that it does 

 not offer the readiest way to the fulfilment of those 

 liopes in which youth is now taught to indulge, 

 and if not actually an impediment, that it is not 

 the best help to that distinction which it is the 

 right of one as much as of another to acquire. — 

 The opinion still prevails that there is an advan- 

 tage from |U'ofession that is indejiendent of effort, 

 and of personal character and qualification. 



As some proof that such a dis|)osition exists, 

 and to illustrate its consequences, it may be re- 

 marked that the agricultural products of N. Eng- 

 land have been for some years falling short of the 

 demands of the population, and that the increas- 

 ing deficiency has been supplied from the South 

 and West. There are some facts which show in 

 a striking manner the extent to which this supply 

 lias been already furnished. Two years since it 

 was ascertained that nearly three thousand bar- 

 rels of flour were carried to one of the largest ag- 

 ricultural towns in this county, for the consump- 

 tion of its inhabitants. An intelligent and exten- 

 sive trader in the interior of the State of Maine, 

 and not in the vicinity of any considerable lumber 

 district, estimates that he sold flour, the last sea- 

 son, to as large an amount as he received of cash 

 for his whole sales. Beef and pork packed in 

 Ohio have been freighted through the Notch of 

 the White Mountains, to the fertile intervales that 

 lie towards the head of th« Connecticut. Within 

 a few years a mercantile house in Boston pur- 

 chased in a single season, from the county of Wor- 

 cester, nearly two million pounds of pork, the 

 growth and producfe of that county ; and the same 

 house is now employed in obtaining the same ar- 



ticle of provision fioui the West, to sell for con- 

 sumption in that very county. The last year, a 

 season by no means of uncommon scarcity, com- 

 menced the importation of breadstuffs to this coun- 

 try from the old and populous nations of Eurojie. 

 We are told that arrangements have already been 

 made for importing in the present year fifty thou- 

 sand bushels of wheat from the single port of Liv- 

 erpool, and we are promiseil that these importa- 

 tions vfill be made upon such terms as to reduce 

 materially the present prices. It is no less re- 

 markable, and no less illustrative of the degree to 

 which agriculture has fallen behind other pur- 

 suits, that neither the increased demand, nor the 

 high prices of produce, have had much, if any, ef- 

 feet on the value of lands for culture, and that 

 farms were never or seldom of more difficult sale 

 than at present. 



Without doubt this state of things may be at- 

 tributed to various causes. It is proof, however, 

 either tliat a smaller proportion of the population 

 is engaged in agriculture than formerly, or that 

 agriculture itself is less [iroductive ; that in the 

 jirogi'ess of society, other pursuits have gone in 

 advance of this, and that it can no longer be de- 

 pended upon for the supply of those wants to 

 which, within a very few years, it was tnore than 

 adequate, .\dapted as is agriculture to the nature 

 of our civil insiHutions, and the nurse as it has been 

 of much of that high moral character for which 

 New England has been honored ; im|)ortanta8 its 

 interests must ever he in any community, its loss 

 ef even equal cojuparative advancement cannot 

 be witnessed without deep concern. Indeed the 

 present state of things can hardly be of long con- 

 tinuance. Anyone of the thousand changes <!on- 

 sfantly occurring in the political world, might at 

 once and wholly alter theircoii<lition. 'j'liis coun- 

 try is essentially agricidtural, and wiihout any con- 

 tingency, it may well be doubted whether it can 

 in the long run, any bitter afford to buy its pro- 

 visions from foreign nations, than the farmer can 

 afford to own a farm, and without other resources 

 to more than half the expense of his maintenance, 

 purchase from his neighbors the very things which 

 his own land ought to supply, and if cultivated, 

 would yield. 



All other occupations are prosecuted at great 

 comparative risk. The business of farming in 

 New England, has always had the advantage of 

 great certainty. The very hardness of the culti- 

 vation has e.xacted great prudence in the expendi- 

 ture, and it^ gains have been too small to tempt the 

 cupidity of capitalists. But there are abundant 

 proofs now before us, that it hasnot left industry, 

 sagacity and skill, when applied to its service, un- 

 rewarded. Well directed and persevering efforts 

 have been crowneil with success alike profitable 

 and honorable to their author. No where else 

 has the fortune of the man been so eiitirely in his 

 own hands, and by no other path has the attain- 

 ment of independence been so free from fatal con- 

 tingencies. No other class of men can reckon in 

 their ranks so many instances of success. And 



when prosperity comes to the farmer it proceeds 

 from no doubtful agency. There have been those 

 who in other pursuits have amassed larger for- 

 tunes than ai/riculture confers ; but agriculture, if 

 we ap[)eal lo no higher authority, will assure us 

 that all the gifts of fortune, beyond what itself be- 

 stows, are incumbered with v<'Xation, or but min- 

 ister to vanity. In the other classes of the com- 

 munity, the firmer sees as it were the vision of 

 Mirza. "He beholds many in pursuit of bubbles, 

 that glitter and dance before them " until they 

 tread upon some hidden danger '' through which 

 they fall into the pit and immediately disaj pear." 

 But if a farmer is unthrifty, the progress of his 

 decay is marked on his possessions ; these for 

 years tell the story of his decline to every passen- 

 ger. In such instances, there have commonly 

 been defects in the character of the proprietor, 

 which would much earlier have set the seal of 

 ruin upon him in any other vocation. There is 

 probably no occupation which in the aggregate 

 has added more to the general wealth, and which 

 has so surely led to competency in manhood and 

 to ease in old age. A business which is attended 

 with such results cannot reasonably lie suffered to 

 decline because it is not sufficiently profitable ; 

 fur where it is safe to calculate so much, superior 

 sagacity and enterprise may aieonipiisb much 

 more. Thi* puiMiit will always retain the ad- 

 vantage which it may justly claim t'rom its cer- 

 tainty. In some seasons, drought, excessive rains, 

 insects or frosts, may dim-iiaish, or perhaps cut off 

 the expected crop. The vici-situdes of wet and 

 «Jry injure some lands, anrf benefit others. Frosts 

 and insects are the only fatal and un.sparing ene- 

 mies from whose visitation no good comes to any. 

 But the scarcity of one crop is supplied by the 

 fulness of another, or the abundance of one year 

 coiripensati.'S the deficiency of another, so that an 

 average of any 5 or 10 years, will not Jeave much 

 ilifference of profits. ThesurpUis may sometimes 

 be large^ and s( metimes perhaps nothing may be 

 left after paying the expenses of cultivaton and 

 providing for the support of the family. Still in 

 the productions of the farm are found a very large 

 proportion of those things, the purchase of which 

 constitutes the exjiense of living. This advan- 

 tage cannot be impaired by the numbers who are 

 competitors. But as speculations or speculators 

 multiply, their chances of success must be dimin- 

 ished. As the ranks of the professions are swell- 

 ed, support must become more jnecarious. As the 

 numbers of mechanics and manufacturers become 

 disproportionate to those of the rest of the com- 

 munity, their profits will be decreased, — besides 

 their constant dependance on the state of trade 

 and general prosperity. The very dereliction of 

 husbandry, and the reliance of so many upon oth- 

 er occupations, have a teudencj' to increasj their 

 risks. When these chances of failure are better 

 appreciated, wheu the flattering hofies, that lead 

 men into other paths, have ended in disappoint- 

 ment, they will seek safety, and even repose in the 

 labors of agriculture. 



