290 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAUCH aO, 1S39. 



shoulders of an Asiatic piince? With early hours, j The trustees empowered a gentleman highly 

 a discreet arrangement of time, and established competent — Rev. Morrill Allen of Pembroke — to 

 liabits of industry, there would then be ample op- ] visit all the farins, which had been ertered for pre- 

 portunity for reading and intellectual improvement -jiniiums, and to report to the Trustees the replies 

 and for social pleasures. If this can be dono only which he obtained to '.lie printed interrogatories and 

 at what some persons choose to call a pecuniary any incidental information which he might obtain 

 loss, a point which is by no means fully settled, it or deem proper to give. 



would be a certain moral gain, with which no pe- The commissioner of agricultural survey, as it 

 cuniary consideration sliould be put in comparison, seemed to be his duty, was active in circulating 



But I fear I am talking only to deaf ears. This, I 

 think I hear you say, is only the querulousness and 

 garrulity of age. Forgive me, T pray you for re- 

 membering "the days of auld lang sync." 



In the last place, let it be the desire of every 

 man \vho has at heart the welfare, honor, and good 

 morals of the community, to render labor respecta- 

 ble. To do this effectually, let those who labor 

 prove themselves worthy of respect Honor your 

 callinfrj'that your calling may honor you. 



This can only be done by intelligence, temper- 

 ance, industry, integrity, and piety. It is the sin- 

 Tular privilege of the agricultural condition, that 

 it is in general far removed from the harassing vex- 

 ations and the perilous temptations of trade and 

 commerce, the seductive allurements of political 

 ambition, the frivolities of fashion, and the heart- 

 less and shameless enormities of licentiousness and 

 dissipation. Know the unspeakable value of such 

 seclusion; and guard with a sleepless jealousy the 

 honor of your profession. 



Farmers ! To your country you owe high duties. 

 On your virtue "rest its hopes ; the defence and the 

 security of its precious iiberties. You are fixtures 

 to the soil. Other men may at pleasure transfer 

 their residence, interests and affections. It is not 

 so with you. Your interests and fortunes are in- 

 dissolubly entwined with the interests and fortunes 



the proposals of the society ; and in inducing 

 many persons to enter the list as competitors. He 

 will not say whether the judgment of the Trastees 

 conforms to liis own views or otherwise, because 

 this he is not called upon to do ; and it would be 

 impertinent in this case to obtrude his opinions. It 

 would be next to a miracle if the decision of the 

 Board should give universal satisfaction. He has 

 no doubt that tliey have performed their extremely 

 difficult and responsible duty with a fixed determina- 

 tion and anxious desire to do impartial justice. 

 The commissioner however feels that it is but just 

 to himself to state, that although he was instru- 

 mental in inducing applications, the Trustees, with 

 a proper and kind regard for the delicacy of his 

 position, have never consulted him on the matter of 

 liny one of the claims or farms in any respect what- 

 ever; and he was as Ignorant as any one of the 

 competitors of what their decision was or was .to 

 be until the report was put into his hands for pub- 

 lication. H. C. 



REPORT 



Of the Committee of the Mass. Jlgricultural Society 



•on Farms. 



The Committee of the Massachusetts Society 



for Promoting Agriculture, for awarding premiums 



of your country-. Do your duty to your country for the best cultivated farms, have carefully exam- 



then as men. Standing as the pillars of the socia 

 edifice, let it not totter or fall through your weak- 

 ness or neglect. 



Farmers of jTassachusetts ! love, honor, defend, 

 and cherish the land of your birth. "%he is the 

 -sepulchre of your fathers ; men as brave and as 

 true as ever flourished on any soil. She is tiie liv- 

 'inT home of the intelligent, tlie accouiplished, the 

 industrious, the useful, thejpatriotic, the benevolent, 

 the pious. She is to be possessed by succeeding 

 millions, in whom yoi!r blood shall continue to cir- 

 culate. Make her what she should be. Let her 

 go down to future generations improved by your 

 (ndustry ; enriched by your gains ; adorned by your 

 taste ; illumiliated by your wisdom : elevated and 

 sanctified by your virtue ; and like the brightest 

 star in her own beautiful hemisphere to the wand- 

 ering mariner, let her stand out as the neverc-hang- 

 ing, and ever shining guide to tlie home of truth, 

 of liberty, and of unaffected and unadulterated re- 

 ligion 



1 ined the several statements made by the respective 

 claimants, and report as follows. 



Believing that heretofore the want of competi- 

 tion among farmers may have been in some meas- 

 ure occasioned by the inconsiderable amount of the 

 premiums offered, the trustees determined at the 

 commencement of the past season, by an offer of 

 what they considered, very liberal premiums, to ex- 

 cite the attention of our most successful and en- 

 terprising farmers and to ind-uce them to offer their 

 claims. With a view also of saving the claimants 

 the task, (often considered an unpleasant one,) of 

 reducing their statements to writing, the trustees 

 were at the expense of sending an intelligent, and 

 faithful agent to every gentleman who had made 

 known his intcntioii of claiming a premium, whose 

 (Suty it was to receive upon his own farm, and at 

 the fireside of each farmer, his answers to the sev- 

 eral questions proposed by the trustees. Still the 

 number of applicants is small, very small compared 

 with the many excellent farmers that may be found 

 in the commonwealth ; and these though highly re- 

 spectable in point of merit, as producers, may cot 



We have the pleaisure herewith of presenting 

 the able and interesting report of the committee of perhaps in all respects be considered the best farm- 

 The Massachusetts Agricultural Society on Farms, ers in the state. 



It comes mainly from a practised hand and is full 

 of instructive remarks. 

 -The committee consisted of 



William Prescott 



P. C. Brooks, 



E. H. Dkrbt, 



E. Phinnet, 



D. Webster, 

 ■John Welles, 



JfWUN -C. Geat. 



1 Considering the unfortunate prejudice that exists 

 jin the minds of many against receiving instruction 

 [from 'books, on the subject of agriculture, the trus- 

 [tees were desirous of preseliting' to the farming 

 I community much valuable information through a 

 medium less exceptionable, information in .a less 

 'distrustful shape, coming directly frompraj^lical 

 I cultivators of the soil. It is no doiibt owing in 

 some measure to the e.\istence of tliis prejudice 

 against what are termed book farmerSj or, in other 



words, against scientific farming, that so many of 

 our most enlightened and enterprising agricultu- 

 rists withhold from the public the beneficial results 

 of their labors. This ought not so to be. Who 

 nifire than the cultivator of the .soil, requires the 

 liglit of knowledge to guide him in his arduous 

 duties, to give confidence to action, and a success- 

 ful result to his labors ? We have our schools and 

 colleges, learned professors, and extensive libra- 

 ries, to (pialify our young men for the learned pro- 

 fessi'^ns, while the humble votary of agriculture, 

 whose art contributes more to the support of socie- 

 ty, than all the other arts united, and, more tlian 

 any other requires the aid of science, is left to fee! 

 his way in the dark, with nothing to guide him, but 

 vague conjecture, or blind tradition. Hardly a town 

 in the commonwealth which has not its social li- 

 brary, filled with books giving instruction upon 

 every subject but that of agriculture ; while nine 

 tenths, if not ninetynine hundredths, of its readers 

 are to a greater or less extent, cultivators of the 

 soil. Almost every village in the state has its 

 lyceum, and its lyceum lectures ; and yet how sel- 

 dom do farmers, who constitute a great majority of 

 the hearers, get from these sources any information 

 on a subject, whicli is not only most interesting to 

 them, but to the whole community ? They listen 

 with profound attention, and are no doubt much 

 edified with descriptious of the exact dimensions of 

 the nyramids of Egypt, or the crusades of Peter 

 the hermit, while the subjects most intimately con- 

 nected with their every day occupations, such as 

 the composition, structure, and mode of treating the 

 different kinds of soils, the method of producing 

 and applying the various kinds of manure, the best 

 mode of renovating and improving their worn out 

 fields, rotation of crops, and the numerous branches 

 of science immediately connected with agriculture, 

 are seldom if ever touched. 



The claims of the several applicants for premium 

 are so nearly balanced, that the committee, after 

 bestowing great labor upon the subject, have found 

 it extremely difficult to discriminate as to the su- 

 perior merits of either. They are all good farmers 

 — all of that safe, calculating class, whose every 

 effort seems to aim, with a good degree of certain- 

 ty, at a moderately profitable result, liskiiig no ex- 

 penditure where the issue may be uncertain, haz- 

 arding no experiment where there is ;a possibility 

 of defeat This is judicious, and higlily commend- 

 able in those v.dic do not possess the means to jus- 

 tify them in pursuing a more adventurous course. 

 This, however, from their own acknowledged thrift, 

 is not the case with some, who have claimed, and [ 

 are entitled to the bounty of the society. Experi- 

 mental farming, we are aware, is viewed with 

 suspicions eye by the cautious capitalist ; and the 

 man who hazards his capital in agricultural experi- 

 ments, is considered on the high road to bankruptcy, 

 and looked upon by too many as a rash enthusiast. 

 And yet it is to the discoveries, which experimen- 

 talists have made, that we are indebted for much of 

 the. progress made in agriculture. 



The merits of the several claimants being con. 

 sidered by the committee so nearly equal, they 

 recommend that tlie premiums be not awarded, as 

 proposed by tlie trustees. At the same time they 

 do not feel justified in withholding any part of the 

 amount offered, but bestow the whole in the' 

 shape of gratuities upon such of the claimants aa, 

 after much consideration, they have concluded to 

 be the most meritorious. 

 I The farm of Levi Goodrich, of Pittsfield, con- 



