AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUIILISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK &. CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aghicultural WAnEHou.-E.) 



VOL. XV'II.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 20, 1839. 



CNO. 37. 



N. E. FARMER 



AN ADDRESS, 

 Delivered nt t' e Annual Callle Shou'S of the Wor- 

 cester and the Hnmpshire, Hampden, and Franklin 

 Agricultural Societies, Massachusetts. October, 

 1838. Bij Henrt Colman, Commissioner for 

 \'the Agricultural Survey of Ike Stale. 

 (Concluded.) 

 I fear I have already too far trespassed upon your 

 indulgence, and yet I have scarcely approaclied ray 

 subject. I vvill touch then but one or two other 

 topics ; and that as briefly as the case admits. 



It is the duty of the community to elevate the 

 laboring classes ; to change them from mere drud- 

 iges, machines, and beasts of burden, into intelli- 

 gent and self governed agents, wlio understand 

 their rights and duties ; and who shall be able to 

 comprehend tlie great interests of the social com- 

 pact, and their own relations to society. Education 

 is the great elevating power to be applied. In a 

 country where political rank is unknown, education 

 md improved talents make the distinctions, which 

 jive character, respectability, and influence. Science 

 IS important to the farmer as a help to his art. All 

 he great improvements in agriculture, wliich haye 

 3ver taken place, have originated with men of en- 

 larged and improved minds. All the important ia- 

 ?entions by which the toil of the husbandman is 

 ."acilitated or abridged, have sprung from cultivated 

 Binds. How can there be a doubt that science l.as 

 jBi in store for intelligent husbandry, many most 

 mportant discoveries ? Science as a source of re- 

 jreation and pleasure, demands the attention of 

 'armers. Many of the operations of labor to which 

 ;hey are called, do not wliolly engross the mind; 

 ind mental cultivation of the highest order may go 

 aand in hand with labor. In our climate the long 

 jveuings of winter furnish valuable opportunities 

 5f intellectual improvement, and need science as 

 in ample, a safe, and a beautiful resource. 



Tlie proper and best objects of education, the 

 .rue nature of a really valuable education for the 

 laboring classes, are not generally or well under- 

 stood. The first object of education should be to- 

 jnable a man to provide for himself; to understand 

 lis own constitution, physical and mental, to take 

 ;are of his own health, and especially to teach him 

 ;he use, and to entice and stimulate him to the exer- 

 :ion and development of his own powers. Tlie 

 Dhysical sciences, the practical and mechanic arts, 

 .he science of human nature and human history, 

 ;he condition of the world, the advances of the hu- 

 nan mind, tlie discoveries and improvements which 

 ire constantly taking place, moral science, political 

 science, these should constitute the great subjects 

 )f education. It might be supposed that in this 

 enumeration I should have given the first place to 

 religion. We know so little, properly speaking, of 

 religion, that it can scarcely be called a science. 

 We may say of an undevout farmer as of an im- 

 pious astronomer, that he is deficient in acuteness 

 )f perception or in soundness of mind. All science 



is properly religious. It all leads up to the great 

 artist who created the universe ; and the infinite 

 spirit who kindled the human intellect ; and the 

 mighty mind, which comprehends all knowled 

 The study of the holy scriptures will inspire devo- 

 tion, purify the affections, impart consolation, and 

 elevate the hopes and purposes of the heart. But 

 what is commonly called doctrinal theology, I care 

 not of whatever sect, is commonly too full of ab- 

 surdities and puerilities, to deserve the attention of 

 those intelligent and philosophical minds, which arc 

 capable of wide, comprehensive, noble and elevated 

 thoughts. The religion of purity, justice, truth, 

 kindness, humanity, faith in God, in his providence 

 his moral government, and in a future life, as re- 

 vealed in nature and confirmed in the gospel, com- 

 prehends what is mainly important in the education 

 of the laboring population in any of the depart- 

 ments of society. 



Classical learning, so called, which occupies now 

 a large portion of the best years of those who pur- 

 sue it, excepting as matter of mere taste, pastime, 

 or embellishment, is of little substantial use to any 

 one. It is a notorious fact, and in my opinion 



sexes, is an old an established family among us. 

 The family of the Do-nothings is fast coming into 

 notoriety. This is a mi.-'erable progeny arising 

 from loo frequent intermarriages, within the for- 

 bidden lines of consanguinity of the Do-little fam- 

 ily ; an unquestionable cause of degeneracy, as 

 every farmer knows. 



Pardon me, if I relate a homely anecdote. Some 

 time since an honest fellow, who had lived in the 

 "half scissor state" for a length of time, was 

 strongly inclined to change his forlorn condition. 

 Placing his affections on a comely damsel, he got, 

 in common parlance, " the refusal of her," and was 

 permitted to take lier home and try her household 

 qualifications. He kept her a fortnight ; but as she 

 could neither spit his meat, nor make a pudding, 

 nor mend his coat, he cnrried her back. He was 

 prosecuted for breach of promise ; and the subject 

 being left to the decision of a mutual umpire, he 

 was amerced in the sum of seventy dollars and 

 some cents. Had it been seven times seventy, he 

 would have felt himself lucky to escape so ; for 

 what is an honest farmer the better, who must get 



living by the sweat of his brow, though ever so 



iutficiently disgraceful to the boasted wisdom of the much a man of taste, if he could have even the 



age, that at least two thirds of the young persons, 

 who enjoy the best advantages of a liberal and 

 classical education, and come out adorned with the 

 highest honors of our colleges and universities, are 

 even then incapable of keeping themselves from 

 starvation ; and have then to begin to learn the 

 practical arts of life ; and the remaining third are 

 able to do it, not fro.ii any thing they have learned 

 at these places of education, but from what they 

 were compelled perhaps by stern necessity to learn 

 elsewhere. 



What shall I say of the other sex ? I shall not 

 enter upon the vexed and alarming questions of 

 our times concerning the equality of talent, or the 

 measure of political rights. It is not for me to 

 settle such controversies; or even, non-combatant 

 as I have always been, " to enter the disputed ter- 

 ritory either as a traveller or a squatter." I can 

 only say that in some of my agricultural excursions 

 I have seen women driving teams and men witli 

 their sleeves turned up breaking the cheese-curd. 

 Neither of them seemed to n\e very gracefully em- 

 ployed. 1 could have wished that the hands of the 

 fair one should hive held only those silken reins, 

 which the sex know so well how to manage after 

 the nag is once bitted and bridled ; as to the man, 

 I should greatly have preferred to have seen him 

 at the tail of the plough. In matters of taste, how- 

 ever, we are not to dispute, for it is not possible to 

 agree. 



Female education is a roost imptfttant subject, 

 and I am not willing to trifle with-it ; but in many, 

 and some of them our most fashionable seminarl-aei-' 

 the course of education least of any thing, is suit- 

 ed to qualify them for the appropriate duties of 

 wives, mothers, and housekeepers. The spinning 

 wheel has long since been exiled to the garret, and 

 it is proposed now to send the needle to keep it 

 company. The family of the Do-littles of both I 



[ original statue of the Venus de Medici given him 

 to set up in his kitchen. Lot's wife would be bet- 

 ter than this, for she might be of some use in sav- 

 ing his pork. 



This ridiculous system of bringing up our daugh- 

 ters is as pernicious to health as to usefulness. 

 They are feeble and withering like plants grown in 

 a cellar. We seem entirely to have lost Sight of 

 the great truth that intellectual energy is intimate- 

 ly dependent on physical energy ; that power of 

 mind like power of muscle, can only be acquired 

 by habitual and strong efforts and exercise ; that 

 in our ambition to make our daughters ladies, we 

 are in danger of making them mere toys, fit only, 

 like the waxen virgins hawked about our streets, to 

 be kept in glass cases and set up in a spare cham- 

 ber; that under such training, by the inflexible 

 laws of our physical constitution the whole race 

 must decline, of which decline some persons not 

 wanting in sagacity declare, that even now they 

 see the portentous signs. We should remember a 

 more affecting truth, which some may see written 

 in their book of fate in tears of blood ; that as 

 mental energy depends on physical energy, so like- 

 wise moral strength and moral purity are closely 

 dependent upon mental determination and force. 

 It is often asked, how shall we find employment for 

 our daughters ? I answer, while some few of the 

 old race are lingering among us to show us how 

 things were done in their day, go back to the old 

 system of supplying from the resources of the farm, 

 as far as it can be done all the wants of the house- 

 hold. Go back to the old system of household 

 mamifactures. Not the better for being old, but 

 the better for being sanctioned by long and deci- 

 sive experience. Who is there that would not feel 

 a higher pride in wearing a garment spun and wo- 

 ven by the hands of his wife or daughter, than in 

 putting on the brightest robe that ever graced the 



