16 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



APRII^ 13, l»:.7. 



The follovvinjjable and elaborate article is froiri 

 the American Cluarlcrly Review, for Mavcli, 1837. 



1. Journal of the American Insthale, a Montkhj 

 Publication, devoted to the interests of Agri- 

 culture, Commerce, Manufactures, and the 

 Arts ; accompanied with public documents, 

 sketches of natural hhtory, aiid, occasionally, 

 philosophical and literary essays. Edited by 

 a Coinmittco, Members of the Institute. Vol. 

 I. New York: 1837. 



2. The New England Farmer, and Gardener\ 

 Journal ; containing essays, original and se- 

 lected, relating to agriculture, and domestic 

 economy, with the prices of country proditce. 

 By Thomas G. Fkssenden. Bostoi.' : 1837. 



3. Elements of Agriculticral Chemistry, in a 

 Course of Lectures for the Board of Agricul- 

 ture. By Sir Humpkey Davy, LL. D. Lon- 

 don : 1814. 



Agriculture, in its broadest sense, ma}- be de- 

 fined the cultivation of the eartli ; and it is prob- 

 ably the most ancient of all the arts. Adam was 

 sent forth to till the ground, and that was the con- 

 dition of bis existence. The precise date and 

 measure of agricultural imjirovement, which ex- 

 isted during the diflerent early ages of tlie world, 

 cannot be accurately determined, from a want of 

 liistorical records. The Chaldeans, the Phceni- 

 oians, Egy|)tiatis, Persians, .Athenian.*, and Ro- 

 mans, it is well known, practised agriculture with 

 considerable success, and encouraged it among 

 their people as an honorable emiiloyuient : and 

 the learned treatises upon the subject, which were 

 written during the continuance of the Grecian and 

 Roinan rule, com])rising the works of such men 

 as Hesiod, Xenoplion, Cato, Cobimelja, Virgil, 

 and Varro, almost rival in bulk tlie " many camel 

 loads" of the Justinian age of the law. Who 

 has not beard of Cincinnatus returning to bis 

 plough, after restoring ibe liberlies of his coun- 

 try ; or of Regubis, who requested to be recalled 

 from Africa, lest his farm might suffer from his 

 absence ; or of the ancient Persian kings, who an- 

 nually threw off their diadem, that tlicy ndgbteat 

 with the husbandmen! The senators of Rome 

 enii)loyed the intervals of their public duties in 

 thfe cares of husbandry. 'Ibe veneration for this 

 employment was carried so far by the Egyptians, 

 that they worshipped as gods, certain products of 

 the soil, and tbosv animals which were used in 

 tillage. 



We shall present a condensed sketch of the 

 early history of Agriculture, though the question 

 may be asked, Wliy, in this age of printing, when 

 the world can scaiiely contain the books which 

 are written, we discuss a matter so dry and unin- 

 teresting? We enter but a single plea for justi- 

 fication, — the importance of the subject. 



Agriculture was successfully exercised among 

 the most civilized |iortions of the earth, until the 

 reign of the Emperor Claudius, when it fell into 

 neglect. The northern barbarians, who, after the 

 reign of Conjtantine, overran Europe, cultivated 

 by slaves only a small portion of the land near 

 their habitations, and were content to roam over 

 the vast deserts which their ravages had made, 

 without any settled habits of industry. It is clear 

 that, among these people, husbandry could re- 

 ceive but little attention. In 17-lS, an attempt 

 was made to revive it. through the publication of 

 a work in Florence by Crescenzio. The precise 



period in which agriculture was introduced into 

 Oritain is not known, although Julius Crosar has 

 alleged that it was practised by some colonists 

 from Gaid, who had si;ttled in the southern part, 

 about one hundred years before the Roman inva- 

 sion. Great improvements were brought about 

 in this art, however, by the establishment of the 

 Romans in that country, and it sunk only with 

 the declension of the other arts. Vast inroads 

 were made by the Picts and Scots upon the gen- 

 eral prosperity of the IJritons ; and on the arrival 

 of the Saxons, in 449, the disastrous wars which 

 followed, actually drove the Biitinsfrom the fields 

 which they had cultiv.iteil into barren regions. — 

 But although the Britons bad lost, in a great meas- 

 ure, the s<;ience of agriculture, they encouraged 

 it by their laws, wliich provided certain i>rivileg- 

 es in favor of those who should cultivate the 

 soil. 



The Anglo-Saxons, upon their accession to 

 Britain, imbibed a contempt for agricidture, and 

 enacted by law that it should be followed only by 

 women and slaves. These haughty warriors, 

 were, however, soon obliged to pursue the art, 

 when the Britons, whon\ they had before plun- 

 dered of their subsistence, were driven from the 

 kingdom. The Saxon princes divided their do- 

 mains into two |urts, the inlands and uutlands. — 

 The former were generally contiguous to the man- 

 sion of the proprietor, and were cultivated by his 

 slaves for domestic purposes : the latter were more 

 remote from the proprietary mansion, and were 

 rented to the ceoiis or farmers. In order to show 

 the low state of agriculture at that lime, we may 

 state that the common price of an acre of fertile 

 soil was about four English shillings, and in the 

 year 1043, a quarter of wheat sold at about fifteen 

 shiMingSj which was equal to seven or eight pounds 

 sterling at the present time. A new era in agri- 

 culture was, however, introduced by the invasion 

 of the Normans in 1066, and by the introduction 

 of husbandmen fiom France, Flanders and Nor- 

 mandy, who purchased and cultivated fiirms. 



Previously to the fifteenth cfentnry, agriculture 

 had reteived bin little aid from scientific research, 

 but in the latter part of that period it had assum- 

 ed the form of a compact and permanent science. 

 .\t that time it derived ■im|)ortant assistance frohi 

 Fitzberbert, who wrote two treatises upon the 

 subject. One was cntilh^d the " Book of Hus- 

 bandry," and appeared in 1.534. The other was 

 called the "Book of Surveying and Improve- 

 ments," and was published in 1539. Fitzberbert 

 seems to have studied the cliaracter of soils, and 

 the laws of vegetation, with considerable indii-s- 

 try, and bis works abound with nuicb elementary 

 knowledge,but they are of course destitute of that 

 philosophical accuracy which is founded upon 

 the inductive method of Bacon, afterwards estab- 

 lished. 



During the year 1600, France made extraordi- 

 nary etlbrls to bring the art of husbandry into 

 vogue, and for that object several important works 

 were published ; but the practice of agriculture 

 was more regarded by that nation, as well as the 

 Flemings, than the mere pulilication of books, 

 so that a kno^vledge of their princi[i!es cotdd on- 

 ly be obtained by observation. In England, din-- 

 ing the civil wars, husbandry received some tem- 

 porary checks, but in the time of Hartlib it bad 

 grown to great perfection. The country gentle- 

 men, who had been impoverished by these wars, 

 became industrious, but they soon sank into idle- 



ness, and the whole business of agriculture grad-( 

 ually fell into the haiuls of the connncm farmers, 

 Ireland was induced, by the writings of BIyth, to i 

 give up a wretched mode of agricultural practice 

 which had long prevailed, and to ftdo])t a inore 

 imjiroved system, and as evidence of the fact, the 

 transactions of the Dublin society fir encouraging^ 

 husbandry are cited as authority upon this sub 

 ject. After the peace of Aix la Chapelle, the iia-. 

 tions of Europe applied- themselves with uncom 

 mon vigor to the science of agricidture, and soci- 

 eties were regularly organized for the promotion 

 of this object, under the patronage of their several 

 governments. In the year 17.56, increased atten- 

 tion was given to the subject in France, and prize 

 questions were annually proposed by the rurab 

 academies, particularly tliose of Lyons and Bor-1 

 deaux. Russia has also made vigorous exertions 

 to introduce iiuo that country the most improved 

 method of agriculture, through the patronage of 

 the state, and it has lieen taught inddicly in the 

 Swedish, Danish and German Universities. Italy, 

 Tuscany, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Japan, audi 

 China, have also bestowed marked attention upon 

 the subject. 



Notwitstanding the rajjid advances wddch have 

 been made in modern times in agricultural science, 

 there is no doubt that Great Britain is far before 

 the rest of the world in its practical api)lication, 

 Societies, with ]iowerful infiuence, such as the 

 Bath Society, the Royal Society, and the Society 

 of Arts, have given their agency in aid of its 

 progress. This forwardness on the part of Great 

 Britain is doubtless owing .somewhat to the ge- 

 nius of the peo|ile, hut more, perhaps, to the gen. 

 eral spirit of improvement which pervades that 

 empire, and to the denseness of the population 

 which makes it the great alternative to starvation, 

 A modern writer upon " the progress and present 

 state of agriculture," enters into an argument to 

 show the advance of husbandry in England and 

 Wales, by a computation of the increase of popi 

 ulation in those countries, and the consequent in.| 

 crease nf agricultural products necessary for theiti 

 support. He traces the augmentation of agricid- 

 tural industry to various causes. In the first placa 

 vast tracts of land have for many years been used 

 as wastes commons, and common fields, the for. 

 mer of which have been altogether uncultivated. 

 These fields were sometimes ])lougbed, but the 

 property in them was so intermixed and divided 

 that this was done to very little effect. It Is es- 

 timated that from the year 1760 to 1832, about sij 

 millions of acres of land have been ejiclosed by 

 act of parliament, and that in this mode the pro- 

 duce of the soil has been increased from eight to 

 ten fold. Another cause of agricidtural improve- 

 ment in these countries, is the fact of the substi. 

 tiilioii of green crops for fallow, and the introduc- 

 tion of fallow between successive corn crops, ai 

 well as the use of bone manure, and the bettei 

 rotation of crops. This improvement tbroiighoii 

 Great Britain has been extended to stock, as we 

 as to ar.ible husbandry, and this is demonstrate! 

 by the fact, that the average weight of cattle an 

 sheep throughout the kingdom lias been double 

 since the year 1750. The high state of agricul, 

 ture in England is a prominent feature whic 

 strikes the attention of the travelii.r to that coim 

 try. Almost every section of earth seems to he 

 devoted to this object, and the natural humidity 

 of the climate keeps the vegetation at all times 

 verdant. In fact, the soil is generally too nioisl 



lil 



