VOL,. XVII Sfl 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



301 



the same cause when acting on any or all the pro- 

 ducts of labor. AU improvements, whether by the 

 aid of economy, science or skill, or of labor-saving 

 implements applied to production, increase the val- 

 ue of luhor, the only capital of many of our citi- 

 zens, and in the aggregate the great capital of the 

 Commonwealth ; a capital which wise legislators 

 will always encourage in seeking investment at 

 home, at least when, all things considered, it can 

 be done with better advantage than abroad. A 



In addition to lime, marl and other mineral sub- 

 stances of great value to the farmer, large quanti- 

 ties of geine, or the principle that gives fertility to 

 soils, is found to exist in the vegetable deposits of 

 our swamps and lowlands. This fact is a most im- 

 portant one to the farmers of the Commonwealth. 

 It discloses to us the truth that there exists in al- 

 most every neighborhood, abundant means of re- 

 cruiting our wasted soil. A kind Providence has 

 garnered up these immense magazines of food for 



11 be mentioned to show the advantage that \ vegetables to restore feitility for us, to those grounds 



may be derived from a scientific and thorough mves- 

 tigation of a subject, that is supposed to be pretty 

 well understood. It also accounts for the great 

 advance which manufactures have made over agri- 

 culture, and points out the necessity and propriety 

 of the aid of government to assist in settling ques- 

 tions of importance to uur farmers, which, from in- 

 volving an expense of perhaps a few hundred dol- 

 lars, their limited capital cannot meet; and unless 

 the government aid them, they must from necessity 

 be content to plod along in the old path, save the 

 adoption of some few improvements, which slight 

 research and invention bring to light. 



Recently a manufacturing company incurred an 

 outlay of not less than five thousand dollars, for 

 agency and expenses attending a series of experi- 

 ments to solve a question relative to some part of 

 their process. The solution of the original query 

 was a saving to the company ot its whole cost in 

 about one year, and other matters unlocked for, 

 which came in in<:identally during the investiga- 

 tion, effected a further saving to an equal amount 

 during the same year ; it was also the acquisition 

 of knowledge that must bear upon all their future 

 operations to which it had reference, and this all, 

 in a branch of manufactures where it was gener- 

 ally supposed that further improvements were 

 hardly to be expected. If such results can be re- 

 alized in such cases, what may be expected from 

 investigations in the young science of agriculture, 

 a science that has hardly obtained a name and 

 place among the sciences ? 



Aside from tlie general want of chemical knowl- 

 edge applicable to their profession, but few individ- 

 ual farmers can meet the expense, that would he 

 necessary to a thorough investigation of many sub- 

 jects that have a permanent and important bearing 

 upon their success. And it is believed that they 

 cannot reasonably be required to do so, when it is 

 considered Uiat their success is so closely connect- 

 ed with the success of every other valuable inter- 

 est in the Commonwealth, that men of all otfrer 

 professions and pursuits are hardly less interested 

 in the matter than farmers themselves. x\nd if 

 any subject whatever will justify the special atten- 

 tion of the Legislature, and, if need be, an es- 

 pecial appropriation from the treasury of the Com- 

 monwealth, on the ground that the whole people 

 are deeply interested in its success, your Committee 

 are of opinion that it is the subject which they 

 now have under consideration. 



Our means for improvement are far from being 

 limited. The geological survey of the State by 

 Professor Hitchcock has brought to light treasures 

 more valuable than mines of gold, and if the facts 

 and suggestions submitted in his second report are 



th.'it were exhausted in sustaining our fathers, while 

 n council laying the foundations of our free insti- 

 tutions, and in the field battling for the. right of 

 man to "self-government. Compared with theirs, 

 ours is a time of leisure, and duty requires that we 

 avail ourselves of the means put into our hands of 

 improving our physical condition, until the neces- 

 saries and comforts of life are in as full measure 

 enjoyed by all within our borders, as the freedom 

 which they wrought out for us, and in no other 

 way can we so well execute the trust committed us 

 while holding on to their bequests. 



The mere knowledge of the fact, however, that 

 this enriching matter, which contains the constituent 

 principles of our grains and grasses, exists so abun- 

 dantly, is of comparatively little practical utility, 

 unless accompanied with the proper knowledge of 

 disengaging it from the useless or deleterious sub- 

 stances with which it is combined, and fitting it for 

 the wants of vegetation. To obtain this know- 

 ledge requires the aid of a practical chemist, and 

 there is little doubt that with this aid, manure, 

 which has properly been termed "the sinews of 

 husbandry," can be furnished abundant as the 

 wants of our soil, and cheaper than by any other 

 means. The expense incurred for a lifetime of 

 service of a practical agricultural chemist, would 

 be a cheap purchase for the Commonwealth, at 

 which to put our farmers in possession of the in- 

 formation that would enable them to make the 

 most economical and efficient application of this 

 material, which we are assured contains in greater 

 abundance, than can be drawn from any other 

 source, the enriching properties furnished by the 

 most expensive manures. It has been accumulat- 

 ing for ages, and held in reserve until farmers be- 

 gin to learn that a renovated field under a judicious 

 system of cultivation will give the most profitable 

 succession of crops, and at the same time amply 

 furnish the means of perpetuating and ini^^asing 

 its own fertility. Under these circumstan'ces the 

 interest of the cultivator affords the strongest guar- 

 anty that if fertility is once restored to those fields 

 that are reduced, we may feel well assured that 

 they will never again become exhausted as they 

 have been ; but increasing in fruitfulness, and sup- 

 plying the wants of increasing multitudes, will con- 

 tinue to give " seed to the sower and bread to the 

 eater," as long as peace and security allow the 

 farmer to gather his sheaves, and preside at his 

 own harvest-home. 



The muck of our swamps from different locali- 

 ties may very considerably differ in the number and 

 proportions of its constituent parts, and according- 

 ly require very different treatment to fit it for the 

 farmer's use. A chemist employed by the State, 



vegetable, mineral or compound, and the best nietl'.- 

 od of compounding, would also [,roperly and no 

 doubt profitably, engage his attention. A more 

 general, and if possible a more perfect analysis of 

 our soils, would also be of great utility. Indeed 

 it is hardly possible that a competent chemist should 

 be euiployed under the direction of a competent 

 board without rendering immense service to the 

 farmers of the Commonwealth. 



A Board of Agriculture, composed of scientific 

 and practical men, properly selected from diflTerent 

 sections of the State, would be likely to serure the 

 public confidence and respect. Their recommen- 

 dations of improved implements, or improved modes 

 of culture, or of improvements of any kind, if ju- 

 dicious, would soon secure the most favorable at- 

 tei.-tion of farmers, and give a fresh impulse to pro- 

 duction. Agricultural implements, purporting to 

 be improvements, are often to their injury forced 

 upon the attention of farmers, by those interested 

 in the sale. This would not as frequently bo the 

 case, were a competent board to obtain the confi- 

 dence of farmers and become the channel through 

 which real improvements alone might be expected 

 to find favor. The recommendation of the board 

 would be found no less convenient for the vender 

 of a real improvement, than for the farmer, who 

 possesses in a more limited degree, the means of 

 comparing and deciding important questions of this 

 kind to his own satisfaction. 



(To he concluded.) 



duly attended to and improved, the survey cannot , under the direction of a Board of Agriculture, 

 fail to be the commencement of an era in our ag- j would undoubtedly spend some time to great ad- 



riculture the laying of the first stone in the foun- ; vantage in determining the best mode of treat- 



dation of an improved structure that will sustain^ ment applicable to the whole, or to the different lo- 



and secure the best interests of the Common- ; calities, as should be found necessary. 



■n^ealth. The whole subject of manures, whether animal, 



STATEMENT RESPECTING PREMIUM 

 CARROT CROP. 



To the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, > 

 Marshfield, JS'oTcmher 17th, lS'i8. ) 

 Mr Guild — Sir — I send you the number of 

 days' work done on one acre of carrots and one 

 acre of beets. I find it the most difficult part of 

 my statement. 



We the undersigned, John Moorehead, Sen. and 

 John Moorehead, Jr. do believe to the best of our 

 knowledge that the whole number of days' work 

 performed on one acre of carrots and one acre of 

 beets, was one hundred and twentysix, viz. 



Weeding and hoeing, 72 



Harvesting, 54 



120 

 /OHN MOOREHEAD, Sen. 

 JOHN MOOREHEAD, Jr. 

 My help in' cultivating tlid above carrots and 

 beets was one boy in his 17th year. I only hired 

 3 days' help of one man until harvesting. 



Travi;_>,likg. — Surely, said Pat, the Yankees 

 are great travellers ; they travel si-xty or seventy 

 miles a day, wliile 1 have hard work to travel twen- 

 ty five or thirty-;, but there is not so great a diff'er- 

 ence, after all, for they don't more tlian half travel 

 the ground over, while I travel both parts of the 

 road for the most part 



Arkansas Baggage. — " Boy run up stairs, to 

 No. — and bring down ray baggage — hurry, I'm 

 about moving." 



" Whar is your baggage, massa, and what is 

 he?" 



" Why three pistols, a pack of cards, a Bowie 

 knife and one shirt. You'll find them all under my 

 pillow." — Picayune. 



