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AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



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PUHLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 63 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agsiccltcral Wabehouse.) 



iroi... XVll.l 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1838. 



[KO. »*. 



AGRICULTURAL 



>l THE PRACTICABILITY AND MEANS 

 OP IMPROVING OUR AGRICULTURE. 



n ,'ltldress delivered be/ore the Fidlon County Agri- 

 cultural Society, on the occasion of its organiza- 

 tion, at Johnstown, Oct. 18, 1838, by J. Bum, ; 

 published at the request of the Society. 



Gentlemen of the Society, — To those who 

 n carry back their recollections thirty or forty 

 ars, the improvements which in that time have 

 en made in the mechanic and manufacturing arts 

 11 appear surprising. Forty years ago we im- 

 •ted all our cotton, and most of our woollen 

 ads, except of household manufacture — all of 

 r hardware and cutlery, a great portion of our 

 Is, saddlery, hats, &c. and I well remember, that 

 latter in AlbaiTy, to give currency to his hats, 

 s obliged to deceive his customers, by putting 

 o them bills, representing them to be of Briti-sh 

 ric. Now most of these, and many other aiti- 

 s indispensable to our comfort, are not only pro- 

 ;ed within ourselves, in quantities sufficient for 

 nestic use, but millions in value of them are 

 lually exported to foieign countries. Not only 



they produced iiTabundance, but they are pro- 

 ;ed at a far less price than formerly. East In- 



hum-hums, a coarse slazy kind of cotton goods, 

 re once reputed cheap at twentyfive/ifents ay:i'^ 

 e have now better goods, made at our niiils, at 



and SHven cents a yard; and it is but little 

 re than twenty years, since the invention of 

 ver-looms reduced the price of weaving from 

 ven and twelve to one and two cents a yard. 

 ere is scarceiy*a manufactured article in use, 

 ich has not, in consequence of the improvements 

 mechanics and manufactures, been improved in 

 ility, and diminished in price. 

 Wlience these great and recent improvem'ents in 

 • sister arts ? They are not owing to the dimin- 

 ed price of labor; for that has increased, ratlier 

 n diminished ; nor to a reduction in the price of 

 visions^for tliese, too, are higher than formerly, 

 ey have been brought about by the diffusion of 

 tful knowledge, and the consequent development 

 the powers of the mind. Tlie manipulations in 



arts have been greatly abridged by labor-saving 

 chinery, and many of the processes have been 

 iplified and cheapened, and the results rendered 

 tain, by the aid of science — by a knowledge of 

 se laws which Providence has ordered for the 

 i'ernment of matter, inorganic, as well as organic, 

 lad has been put in requisition, as well as physi- 

 ! power. And these changes have in some mea- 

 |e been effected by a more systematic arrangc- 

 Int of business — by a division of labor — and by 

 ■eneral and rapid dissemination, by means of the 

 'ss, of a knowledge of the improvements which 



every day being made in these useful arts of 

 or. 



jet us now turn to agriculture, the parent of all 

 i — the source of our purest and most substantial 



enjoyments — the basis of our national prosperity 

 and independence. This is as susceptible of im- 

 provement as the other arts of labor. What pro 

 gress in its improvement have we made, during the 

 last forty years ? IJavo our labors been abridged 

 by the general introduction of improved labor- 

 saving implements of husbandry ? Have our lands 

 increased in fertility, and in the amount of their 

 products ? Has the diffusion of useful knowledge, 

 on the business of husbandry, been as extensive as 

 it has in manufacturing and mechanic arts? The 

 valley of the Mohawk was long ago celebrated for 

 its fertility and its wealth. Have enterprise, intel- 

 ligence and improvement in rural affairs, kept pace 

 with the spirit of the age ? I fear these questions 

 cannot be answered affirmatively. I fear that it 

 ■will be found, on an impartial investigation, that 

 •while all the other arts of labor have, with rapid 

 strides, been progressing in improvement, our far- 

 mers have too generally been taking a Rip Van 

 Winkle nap ; — that with all the natural means of 

 improvement, and all the common incentives to em- 

 ploy them, they have been listlessly treading in the 

 footsteps of their fathers, unmindful of ihe salu- 

 tary changes which are enlightening and enriching^ 

 those engaged in other branches of labor. 



I have said tliat agriculture is susceptible of im-i 

 provcment, and that our farmers have the power and 

 incentives to bring it about, if they would do as 

 others do, make a joi.".t stock of their knowledge, 

 ,jind thus individually profit by the experience of>U. 

 Scotland, in a little more than forty years, has in- 

 creased her agricultural products four fol.l, and yet 

 but few of her. farmers are owners of the land they 

 till. They are tenants at a heavy rent, which 

 Prof Low, one of her late agricultural writers, ave- 

 rages at more than eight dollars an acre per annum, 

 while the burdens, in the form of taxes, are assum- 

 ed by him to be about $140 upon a farm of 500 

 acres. Thus the occupant of such a farm pays 

 annually, in rent and taxes, about 4,.j00 dollars, 

 which of course is a draw-back upon his nett pro- 

 fits, and most of which the American farmer, with 

 Scottish intelligence and industry might annually 

 add to his income. Yet the Scotch farmer prospers 

 under all these disadvantages. 



What I have remarked of the increased profits 

 of Scotch agriculture, will apply with very little 

 abatement, to many districts of our own country, 

 and particularly to the county of Dutchess, in our 

 state. Entire farms in that county have netted the 

 cultivators an annual profit of fifteen and seventeen 

 dollars an acre. Forty years ago these farms did 

 not probably nett a quarter of this sum ; and if I 

 am able correctly to identify one to which I make 

 reference, it was; forty years ago, mostly old field, 

 a term denoting worn out land, and was lying in 

 commons ! 



One of the best farmers of the age, a man of 

 science and extensive practical knowledge in farm- 

 ing, has affirmed, that by doubling the expense, in 

 labor and manure, he has, upon the same land, been 

 enabled to treble his profits, and to quadruple his 



twentyfour years been at the head of the great ag- 

 ricultural school in Prussia. 



If I might be permitted, without being charged 

 with egotism, to cite my own experience in the 

 business cf improvement, I would point to my farm, 

 on the Albany barrens, which many of my hearers 

 have seen, I presume, in its present and former 

 state — as a further evidence that we can improve 

 our lands. Twenty years ago, my soil was poor, — 

 very poor — and my farm a part of the commons — 

 a waste. It is now as productive, and its culture 

 affords as liberal a profit, as any of the lands in 

 yonder fertile valley- It is worth, for farm culture, 

 the interest of two hundred dollars per acre ; and 

 this year the product has been greater than I have 

 named, although but ordinary labor was bestowed 

 in the culture. It may be said that I have expend- 

 ed capital in my improvements. This is true. I 

 laid out e.itra money and labor to put it into good 

 condition, and I am now realizing compound inter- 

 est upon the amount of the outlay. For having 

 put it into good condition, I am enabled to keep it 

 so, and to cultivate it, with as little expense as I 

 could cultivate poor lands tliat would not yield'me 

 a third of the profit that I now realize. Capital is 

 useful to its owner in proportion to the income 

 which it brings him ; and if by vesting it in farm 

 improvements, it is made to yield as much as it 

 Would yield in bank stock, or loaned on bond and 

 mortgage, it would seem to be prudent, if not wise, 

 so to v«pf it . ^ 



I believe it will not be denied, by any one conver- 

 sant with the history of the times, that improvements 

 in our agriculture have been trivial, compared with 

 those wliich have been made in the other arts of 

 labor, or those which have been made in husbandry 

 in other districts and in some other counties. On 

 the contrary, it is but too appascnt, that, with indi- 

 vidual and local exceptions, our old lands have 

 been deteriorating in fertility without any material 

 improvement in the mode of their cultut'e. A bare 

 reference to the wheat crop in the valley of the 

 Mohawk, comparing it now with what it was forty 

 years ago, will serve to substantiate this truth- 



From the examples I have cited, and from the 

 personal observation which ' most of you have 

 been enabled to make, I think it will readily be 

 admitted, that we are capable of greatly improving 

 our farming operations, and of thereby adding to 

 our wealth, our comforts, and to the substantial 

 prosperity of our country. If by means of new 

 farming implements — the improvement of our do- 

 mestic animals — and a better system of culture — 

 the labor which now netts us fifty dollars, can be 

 made to nett us one hundred dollars — which I con- 

 sider within the range of probabilities — we may 

 then double both our products and our profits ; and, 

 under the guidance of correct principles, double, 

 too, our usefulness to society. 



The progress of improvem.ent in husbandrj', will 

 be graduated, in a measure, by the degree of intel- 

 ligence which directs its labors. " It appears to 

 be strange — and yet we see it to be true" — says 



products. I allude to Von Thaer, who has for i the Rev. C. Young, " that the more ignorant a man 



