AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



^ 



PUHLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO 53 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.) 



vol.. XV'Il.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 17, 1838. 



CNO. 15. 



EW ENGLAND FARMER AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL, 



We have great pleasure in laying before our 

 eaders the subjoined address. We listened to it 

 pith much interest at tlie time of its public deliv- 

 ery. Sonic of its doctrines may be deemed heret- 

 cal. Let them be fully considered. We neither 

 eny nor endorse them ; but we e.\press the hope 

 liat they will lead to a full discussion among some 

 f our intelligent correspondents. Mr Buckmin- 

 ter is entitled to great regard for his agricultural 

 pirit and enterprise ; for his successful and profit- 

 ble management of his own farm, of which we 

 ubiishcd an account in January last in his letter 

 ) the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 ociety ; and for the invention of several valuable 

 gricultural implements. His drill planting ma- 

 hine of which hereafter we shall give a full ac- 

 Dunt with a plate, is an admirable machine ; and 

 e have had the pleasure of witnessing the per- 

 ection of its operation. Notliing could be execu- 

 ■d more skilfully or exactly than the planting of 

 field of corn, which we inspected. It contained 

 ilf an acre ; and the work was executed in thirty 

 inutes by this macliine, held by a man and drawn 

 ' a horse. His machine for sowing grass seeds 

 id grain promises to do excellent work. He has 

 fected likewise, what he conceives, a valuable im- 

 ovement in the horse rake. We thank him in 

 e name of the agricultural community for all his 

 iprovements and wish him all possible success. 



The matter of renovating worn out lands, par- 

 jularly described in this address, deserves the 

 .reful attention of the farmers. Its efficiency 

 id multiplied advantages are not matter of ques- 

 }n. Experience has emphatically determined 

 em. 



AN ADDRESS 



divered before the Middlesex Society of Husband- 

 men and Manufacturers, at the Annual Cattle 

 Show in Concord, Mass. Oct. 3, 1838. By Wm. 

 Bdckminstek, Esq., of Framingham. 

 Friknds and Brothur Farmehs, — We meet 



is day to compare the results of the labors of 



e year. 



We are members of a profession — ancient and 



morable indeed — but are still imperfect masters 



' the science of agriculture. 



The earth is given us " To dress it and to keep 



" Shall we not annually give an account of our 



ewardship .' 

 We find its surface — a portion in which we are 



incipally concerned — in total disorder; and in 



i;neral not furnishing gratuitously the simplest 



mts of nature. 

 Even fishing and fowling, the first efforts of the 



de tribes of earth to cppease the calls of the 



iMTiach, require efforts not precisely congenial 

 til the feelings of the slothful. Necessity there- 

 re, calls loudly on us to be diligent, and what our 

 nds find to do, to do with all our might. This 



'jorder and barrenness of uncultivated earth, and 



the pressing wants and necessities of our race sug- 

 gest to all, who do not choose to beg, this stern 

 alternative, " be not ashamed to dig." 



If we examine the works of creation and study 

 diligently there structure, wo find that everything 

 beyond our reach moves in perfect harmony and 

 order. Those heavenly lights that assist and cheer 

 us on our way, which move with such velocity 

 through boundless space, which note how rapidly 

 "time rolls his ceaseless course," need not the 

 hand of man to point their way. Harmony — per- 

 fect harmony, marks their movements. The Cre- 

 ator of tliese distant lights, from us asks no cor- 

 rection — no improvement. 



Not so that portion of creation with which we 

 come in contact. We find it in disorder — unpro- 

 ductive — barren. It was thus presented to us for 

 the wisest purposes. It was left to us in this state 

 that we might have employment. It was given us, 

 " to dress and to keep," to be improved for our use. 

 The necessity of exertion to supply our wants 

 shows the wisdom of him who imposed it; and we 

 discover that those portions of the earth that re- 

 quire least from the hand of cultivation are by no 

 means most favorable to our moral or intellectual 

 culture. 



Our inquiry now is, 

 How sliall we "dress it ?" 

 How shall we " keep it ?" 

 Shall we not first endeavor to imitate Him, who 

 in his perfect works has brought order out of con- 

 fusi on. 



Order is his first law. Farmers ! let everything 

 be done in order. If you regard your own peace 

 — tlie happiness of those around you — the comfort 

 of the animals entrusted to your care, regard order. 

 Let your fields be laid out in order. Let your 

 fences be kept in order, if you would have orderly 

 catttle, and let all be fed in order. 



Your meanest vegetables must be planted in or- 

 der, or you fail of a full crop. 



In drill-husbandry you gain much by perfect 

 order in the drills. Your teams can then perform 

 what must otherwise be done witli the hand-hoe or 

 the fingers. 



In regard to the kinds of crops we should culti- 

 vate, the general rule should be, — Select the most 

 profitable — always taking into the account the ex- 

 hauslion of the soil. 



Culmiferous plants, or those that have but little 

 leaf, are found in general to impoverish the soil 

 more than those that have large leaves in propor- 

 tion to their stalk. And plants that ripen their 

 seed exhaust more than those we cut while green. 

 All kinds of grain, therefore, impoverish the soil, 

 which mu.;t be often repbiiislied witli manure. 



The various grasses may be continued a long 

 time — cutting them in a green state — provided we 

 can keep the soil from binding, or their roots from 

 choaking the circulation of sap. 



Of all the root crops potatoes are believed to be 

 the most exhausting. They impoverish light soils 

 even more than corn does, and we obtain better 

 crops of grass after corn than after potatoes with 



the same manuring for both. We pull potatoes as 

 wo do flax and hemp, and we leave but few roots 

 to be decomposed for the benefit of the followinfr 

 crop. After obtaining a crop of com we leave the 

 soil filled with sweet roots that are converted into 

 manure the following season. 



On some accounts it would be desirable that our 

 own soil should furnish us with all the productions 

 we use. But providence has otherwise ordained, 

 and we mu.st depend on other climes for many of 

 the necessaries of life. We cannot be entirely in- 

 dependent. How mortifying to our ^ride ! De- 

 pendent on other climes for the supply of our wants ! 

 And can we see no wisdom in this ordination ? 



What else gave birth to commerce — the golden 

 band that unites the distant nations, brings intelli- 

 gence and civilization in its train — overcomes the 

 prejudices of man, and almost bids defiance to 

 famine. 



Siiall -\<rb lament the evils of dependence if these 

 are among its- fruits ? 



Ought we to desire the entire independence of 

 any nation,, even our own .' Nations as well as 

 individuals are better for being dependent. 



If more fertile regions can supply our cities with 

 grain at a cheaper rate than we can, let us not la 

 ment. We shall find full employment in furnish- 

 ing what cannot so well be transported from a dis- 

 tance. Fresh meats, butter, hay, and the small 

 market vegetables must be supplied by the farmers 

 of N. England. * 



lieef cattle cannot cross the North river to com- 

 pete with ours, and if we fail to supply all the 

 wants of our own markets we can furnish those 

 that are most to our advantage. It is believed that 

 the raising of grain of any kind and fitting it for 

 market is the most laborious and the least profit- 

 able employment we engage in ; and we should 

 bear in mind that grain is the greatest exhauster of 

 the soil. 



The times are changed and we must change with 

 them. We cannot now, as formerly raise much 

 grain for the market. 



The virgin soils of the west and the increasing 

 facilities of intercourse with that region render it 

 probable that much of our grain will be imported 

 thence ; and when no obstacles are thrown in the 

 way of commeice, this is no evil. We purchase, 

 not because we cannot produce the same commod- 

 ity, but because we can produce others to more 

 profit. 



Let them supply our cities with grain. We will 

 manufacture their cloth and their shoes. Our 

 artists may eat bread from the west — we will sup- 

 ply them with what cannot be brought from a dis- 

 tance. 



Most of our soils of easy tillage are exhausted 

 by cropping with grain. They have become des- 

 titute of vegetable substance and must again be 

 replenished with it 



At present the various proceeds from the grass- 

 field are the most profitable productions, and they 

 will probably continue so. 



Pork cannot here be made at a profit without the 



