94 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



SEPTESIBER »6, If^SS. 



AND gardener's JOURNAL. 



Boston, Wednesday, Seftemdeb 26, 1838. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

 No. UI. 



Wc come now to speak of the t)iird class of agricultu- 

 ral improvcmenLs, those which are directly productive. 

 These consist in the reclaiming of waste or unproductive 

 lands, in rendering them productive; and in increasing 

 tlie number, and value, and quantity of the products of 

 the farm. We maintain that the great object of all agri- 

 culture ought to be production— the obtaining from the 

 earth .is large an amount of the means of human subsis- 

 tence and comfort in the form of food, clothing, shelter, 

 and fuel as it can be made to yield. In doing this we 

 are to bo restrained but by a single condition, and that is 

 not so to cultivate it as to impoverish the soil; and for a 

 long [and indefinite period of time afterwards render it 

 barren and unproductive. The earth is a liberal benefac- 

 tor. There are few cases in which she refuses to answer 

 fully tlu claims of industry and good management. But 

 it is not reasonable t^ expect, it is not in the order of 

 Providence, that she should expend continually without 

 being replenished. There can be little donbt that the 

 earth can be made to furnish from its own stores the 

 means of miintaining its own fertility. By the applica- 

 tion of all decayed substances vegetable and animal, by 

 an exchange and intermixture of soils, by the occasional 

 use of mineral substances, by the direct return to the 

 earth of its own productions in the turntng in of green 

 crops, divine Providence has afforded the means of secu- 

 ring forever the productiveness of the earth. It is man's 

 province and duty to Uise and apply these means; and it 

 is thus in his power not only to secure but to increase its 

 productiveness. Under these reasonable conditions man 

 need not fear to tax the earth to the fullest extent of its 

 powers, and to kce|) them in constant requisition. Tlie 

 limit of its capacities has perhaps in no case as yet been 

 reached; in most ua.ses it has not even been approached. 

 Tlie object of intelligent agriculture should be then to 

 obtain from the earth all that it can be made to yield with- 

 out impoverishment ; to cultivate such crops and products 

 .!.< are most needed and consequently most valuable ; and 

 to put it into an advancing and improving condition. 



If we try now the agricultural state of our farms by 

 this standard of what it should be, it will be found greatly 

 inferior and deficient. In respect to Massicliuset's itself 

 we have no hesitation in sayi.ig that even with present 

 prices of labor, on the supposition that the prices of agri- 

 cultural produce should maintain the same relation to the 

 prices of labor, which they now do, the agricultural pro- 

 ducts of the state might be profitably .juadj-Hpled ; and we 

 think we might even double this measure. Wc have no 

 doubt that the .ngricultural resources of Massaclmsetts, if 

 pioperly brought out, would lie ample to the support'of 

 four times the population, wiiich now belong to her.— 

 Where she now produces one bushel of grain, and of es- 

 culent vegetables and one ton of hay, she might he made 

 to produce four times that amount, Her beef, pork, wool, 

 butter, cheese, are very small compared with what they 

 might be. Her broom-corn, teasles, and tobacco are 

 crops, which were never seen by n large portion of her 

 inhabitants. Her maple sugar which is now in some 

 parts of the state a considerable product, amounting in one 

 town to several thousands of pounds yearly, mtglil be 

 vastly increased. Her apples, which, to say nothing of 

 the value of the fruit for market or exportation, yet for 

 feeding neat cattle and swine, are beginning to be appre- 

 ciated at more 'Inn half the value of potatoes, are never- 



theless comparatively a very small product. Hemp and | distinguished improvements of such soils in Hamilton, 

 flax are articles scarcely cultivated among us ; yet in ! Wcnham, Lynn, Fraiiiiiigham, Lexington, Groton, Con- 

 many cases would furnish an ample remuneration to ' cord, and many other jjlaces, show what may be done. 



labor. The cultivation of madder has not yet wc believe 

 been even tried among us. The cultivation of beets for 

 sugar and of silk give a fair promise of the most abun- 

 dant returns ; but as yet can scarcely be said to be com- 

 menced. Now the question is not whether other coun- 

 tries can produce these articles in much greater abun- 

 dance and at much less cost than we can ; but whetliet 

 Massachusetts can produce these articles in sufiicicncy 

 for the supply of her own wants ; and at such cost as to 

 afford a full and profitable compensation fc)r the labor 

 necessary to their production. Without speculating on 

 future contingences we can only say that at present she 

 could do it to advantage and an ample profit; that an in- 

 creased production would jjroniote an increase of popula- 

 tion and consequently increase the demand ; and that an 

 increased production would be followed by an increased 

 use of the products ; and that this likewise would stimu- 

 late the demand. The great and often vexed question 

 whether a stale for example should under all circumstan- 

 ces be advised to raise its own bread, when the same 

 labor applied to other products or purposes would furnish 

 the means of purchasing this br,.ad at less cost, we shall 

 reserve for discussion on another occasion. At present 

 we rest upon the great position that agriculture in Mas- 

 sachusetts may be made to afford an ample and liberal 

 compensation to well-directed labor, and to any amount 

 of labor, which is available or can be brought to bear 

 upon it; and therefore we feel at liberty to urge the sub- 

 ject of agricultural improvement, and the extension of 

 our cultivation. 



In New England in the common use or rather misuse 

 of the term improve it means simply to use or to occupy. 

 A man is said to improve a farm or a piece of land, when 

 he merely uses or occupies it ; and although under his 

 management it should be in a course of impoverisliment. 

 It is a very different sense in wh ch we employ the term. 

 We understand a farm to be improved only when under 

 the course of husbandry pursued it is continually becom- 

 ing more fertile and productive. With this understand- 

 ing what is the condition of agricultural improvement.' 



In looking then at the farms in Massachusetts, of 

 which we feel more at liberty to speak than of other 

 parts of the country, we are struck at once with the fact 

 that a considerable portion of most of them is compara- 

 tively neglected and unproductive. There are large por- 

 tions, which require draining. Perhaps in their present 

 state they are overrun with bushes, and saturated w:.h 

 water, so as to be wholly inaccessible excepting when 

 hard frozen. There are other portions so filled with wa- 

 ter, that although containing a soil, which little more 

 than the removal of the water would render eminently 

 productive, they now yield nothing e.xceptinga few cran- 

 berries, flags, and water-grasses, which will not compen- 

 sate for the trouble of collecting them. Our peat mead- 

 ows, of which we have a large extent in the Common- 

 wealth, are among the best glass-lands, which can be 

 found, yielding when properly subdued and managed in 

 many cases two and even three tons of hav to the acre 

 and a large amount of after feed ; and having proved in 

 many cuses highly productive in potatoes, wheat, and 

 rye. There are other extensive tracts of meadow land of 

 an alluvial character, of a soil of black mu.l, decayed 

 vegetable matter, resting upon a gravelly subsoil, whose 

 product in its present condition is comparatively worth- 

 less, which at a reasonable expense of draining and ma- 

 nurins, might be converted into the best of English mow- 

 ing. Of these two descriptions of land there are thou- 

 sands and thousands of acres in the state, which remain 

 untouched. The many highly creditable examples of 



and to the highest advantage and profit. We shall here- 

 after refer to them. H. C. 



PUBLIC HEALTH. 



There seems to be a strong impression prevailing with 

 many intelligent and observing persons, that the health 

 of our young people, young men and young women, is 

 much less perfect than formerly ; they are more feeble ; 

 there prevails a general debility ; they aie more subject 

 to disease ; and there are more deaths among the young 

 than formerly ; and especially the capacity for labor is 

 greatly reduced. The younger part of the community 

 are not only less disposed, but much less able for physi- 

 cal e.scrlion than formerly. We do not state this as a 

 determined fact ; but as a strong, and, to a considerable 

 extent, a general impiession. Others can judge as well 

 as ourselves how far it is confirmed by their own obser- 

 vation. For ourselves we believe the fact ; and that 

 muscular energ)-, activity, and power the race is degen- 

 erating. We are aware that it is a fact of rather difficult 

 proof; and that the judgment may be fairly made up it 

 would require such a variety of slatislicat returns as are 

 not easily obtained. But we not only have come to the 

 melancholy conviction of the fact in the case but wc 

 think we see many reason.s, why such a result should be 

 certainly expected. What these reasons are we cannot 

 enter upon at present ; but we may do it hereafter if op- 

 portunity should admit; and if the discussion be likelvto 

 prove useful. From the number of patent nostrums, the 

 advertisements of which crowd the columns of our news- 

 papers, there would seem to be no necessity that man- 

 kind should ever be sick, much less that they should ever 

 die. It may be that this wholesale quackery is one of 

 tJie principal reasons of the evil, which we deplore. W< 

 have nothing farther however to add on this subject than 

 to remark that there exists an intimate and inviolable 

 syinpathy between the mind and the body ; that any 

 general decline of the latter must he followed by a cor- 

 responding imbecility of the former; that considering the 

 subject in a general view, intellectual health and energy 

 must es.sentially depend on pbysicirf health and energv ; 

 and that any attempt to purchase the former at the sacri- 

 fice of the latter is commonly idle and vain ; and in cases 

 of the most brilliant success is but a miserable b.ir- 

 gnin. H. C. 



Fi..\x. — A patent has been taken out for a mode of so 

 priparing flax that it may be spun by machinery like cot- 

 ton. It is not water or dew-rotted and all the original 

 strength of the fibre is preserved. We are not at all op- 

 prized of the mode by which it is prepared. We have 

 seen the article. It is very beautiful and has the appear- 

 ance of silk. We are comforted with the hope, therefore 

 of being able to wear linen shirts and sleep in lir 

 sheets still longer; a luxury of which tlie increasing 

 manufacture and the extraordinary cheapness of cotton 

 cloth threatened to deprive us. 



The Plymouth County Agricultural Society will hold their ' 

 Annual Exhibition at liridgewaler, on Wednesday, October 

 lOlh. We have not learnt who is to deliver the address 

 the occasion. The Worcester County Cattle Show is to be 

 held on the same day. 



A man in Alhanv bouulit 7000 melons forS.10(i, and having 

 a boat he took them doivn the canal, and sold them as he 

 went down, at an average of iwciily coins, thus realising 



about SIOOD in less than i week. 



A frost was experienced in the northern part of New 

 York slate, on the 10th, which did some damage to com, 

 potatoes, etc. 



