AND HORTICULTURALREGIS^ER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BKECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aghicdltdb*l Warehouse.) 



VOt,. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 15, 1830. 



[NO. 45. 



N. E. FARMER 



ANNUAL ADDRESS :,i 



1? 

 Before the Kentucky State ./Igricultural Society — del- 



iivcred at the Capitol in Frankfort, January 14, 

 183(1, ore the dignity of the profession of agricul- 

 ture, and the propriety of legislation for its iir- 

 provement. By Col. C. S. 'Vood, of Shelby. 



(Concluiled.) . 



Agriculture constitutes the business of seven- 

 eiffhths of every civilized community, and is th'e 

 ultimate source of all national power and wcaltii, 

 commerce and manufactures being- only subordi- 

 nate results of this main spring. If it be concedwd 

 that it is the duty of the legislator to consult the 

 good of the greatest possible number in the commu,- 

 nity, the transcendent claims of this class will ndt 

 be questioned ; and taking for granted that the con- 

 dition of our agriculture admits of improvement, 

 and that such improveuiont will lead to tlie receipt 

 of greater revenue, there will be no difficulty in 

 obtaining an assent to the proposition that the state 

 is bound to elevate the standard of good farming. 

 I This Ijigh object has been effected in some of our 

 ; sister states and in some portions of Europe, by the 

 I endowment of agricultural societies and of agricul- 

 Itural professorships in colleges, to induce experi- 

 I Tients and impart scientific knowledge in all the 

 branches of fanning. These measures have been 

 j adopted with the happiest results— those who orig- 

 linated them having concurred in the opinion of Sir 

 John Herschel, tlio great astronomer, that "the cuts 

 1 cannot be perfected till their whole processes are 

 I laid open : they are the application of knowledge 

 [to a practical end; — if this knowledge be e.xperi- 

 ence, reasoned upon and brought under general 

 principles, it is scientific art." 



I The advances made in agriculture by the Ro- 

 mans, so beautifully illustrated by their poets and 

 lorators, shared the fate of other improvements that 

 iwere buried in the dark ages, and it was not until 

 after the revival of letters that the present system 

 of farming commenced in Flanders about 800 years 

 ago ; and although the soil was originally a barren 

 white sand, it now yields twice as much as the 

 lands in England. The practicability of creating 

 soil is shown in the history of Flemish husbandry. 

 They seem to want nothing but a space to work 

 on, whatever was the quantity or the quality of the 

 soil, they made it productive. It is their maxim, 

 that " without manure there is no corn — without 

 cattle there is no manure — and without grain crops 

 or roots, cattle cannot be kept." The producti e- 

 nesB of their lands proceeded from six causes — 

 small farms, manure, rotation of crops, clover and 

 roots, cutting the forage and grinding the grain — 

 and the farmers giving their personal attention to 

 their farms: no lumbering, no fishing, no specula- 

 tion, no hankering after office. It the personal di- 

 gression be pardonable, 1 will refer in connexion 

 with this subject, to an incident which occurred in 

 my own history when entering upon the cultivation 

 of the soil. In convei'sinj with an experienced far- 



mer, I was led to enquire as to the best mode of 

 making corn. He told me that I must keep my 

 work horses fat. I did not then perceive the com- 

 prehensive character of his counsel, but have long 

 since realized that it implies every thing connect- 

 ed with good cultivation, although neither he nor I 

 then knew that Cato> one of the most illustrious of 

 the Romans, 2000 years ago, had announced that 

 ■' the true secret of farming consists in feeding ivelt." 



The great Fellenburg first introduced into Prus- 

 sia under the auspices of the sagacious Frederic, 

 the agricultural schools, which "connected the sci- 

 ence with the practice of agriculture — which made 

 gentlemen farmers, and farmers gentlemen — com- 

 bining intellectual with physical power, and litera- 

 ture with labor." Frederic expended a million an- 

 nually for these purposes, and said he considered it 

 as manure spread upon the ground. In Paris a so- 

 ciety has been formed which communicates with 

 more than 200 local societies in France, receiving 

 annually $100,000 from the public treasury. Ag- 

 ricultural colleges have been established at St. 

 Petersburg and Moscow, in Prussia, Bavaria, Hun- 

 gary, VVurteniburg, Ireland, France, and in Scot- 

 land, who effected her late astonishing improve- 

 ments by her skilful agriculturists reducing their 

 practice to writing, thus establishing agriculture as 

 a science. Fellenburg has a school in Switzerland 

 with pupils from Switzerland, Germany, France, 

 Spain, Portugal, North and South America. The 

 Highland society in Scotland has appropriated 500 

 sovereigns as a premium for the first successful 

 application of steam power to the cultivation of the 

 soil, and premiums for other objects to the amount 

 of.S15,000. The agricultural condition both of 

 England and Scotland, has been advanced to its 

 present prosperity by the lights of science applied 

 to the cultivation of the soils. The tour of Sir Ar- 

 thur Young, to the continent in 1788 9, for the pur- 

 pose of looking into the countries there under the 

 best system of farming, produced the first decided 

 advances in England to her present agricultural 

 maturity and the perfection to which the art lias 

 been brought in Scotland, is ascribed chiefly to the 

 endowment of an agricultural Board, through the 

 influence and exertions of Sir John Sinclair. 



Agricultural societies are not now to be regard- 

 ed as experiments : they are the peculiar privileges 

 of modern times. Before they were formed, in 

 New England and New York, 10 bushels of rye, 

 20 of corn, 200 of potatoes and one ton of hay, was 

 the average crop. Since premiums were offered, 

 claims liave been presented for having raised from 

 40 to 50 bushels of rye, from 115 to 122 of corn, 

 from 400 to 500 of potatoes and from 3 to 4 tons of 

 hay. Massachusetts gives a bounty equal to the 

 cost of manufacturing upon the growth of silk, and 

 upon manufacturing beets into sugar. Afler expe- 

 riencing the benefit of a,i former appropriation she 

 has voted to continue' it. Maine, Vermont, Con- 

 necticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have also 

 granted a bounty upon the growth of silk. Will 

 these examples and these results bo lost upon us? 

 Will not the State as well as our farmers profit by 



the experience acquired in other States of the val- 

 ue derived from legislative encouragement, and 

 ought not an agricultural survey to follow the geo- 

 logical reconnoisance now in progress, which will 

 develop the ifcirnate relatien betweea tlie minerals 

 that the earijpcovers and the true method of culti- 

 vating its surface ? 



An improv^ stale of husbandry in Kentucky, 

 and the system of improved roads and navigation, 

 will act with reciprocril benefit upon each other; 

 the roads and. rivers will enhance the price of agri- 

 cultural pro^cts by the greater facilities afforded 

 in conveyingi'them to market and thus increase the 

 revenue from tolls ; while the inciease in the prod- 

 ucts of the soil will i3ot only add to the tolls but 

 will fiirnishan increased revenue, both from the 

 value of the'Sncreased products and the increased 

 value of ;th» lands. For the want of any accurate 

 statistical tables sliewiiig' the agricultural product 

 of the whole State, it is impossible even to approxi- 

 mate to a correct estimate, but it is palpably evi- 

 dent that 10 per cent, upon the amount would yield 

 a large revenue, and will any sensible farmer doubt 

 that our modes of cultivation may not be improved 

 so as to add 20 or 50 per cent, to the wealth of the 

 State ? And if, according to Pliny, Egypt with 

 only 6000 square miles, at one time contained a 

 population of 20,000,000 by reason of the immense 

 fertility sDperinduoed by the government leading 

 canals from the Nile, what may not be the future 

 destiny of Kentucky, with more than six times the 

 territory, when her resources shall be developed 

 and invig(i-ated by the same beneficent policy ? Of 

 the valueof canals, or slack water navigation, which 

 is more beneficial, -upon the agricultural interests of 

 a cc"totry, a striking illustration is given by Count 

 Chai Sal, aPeer of France, distinguished for his at- 

 tainments in agricultural chemistry and his experi- 

 ence as a practical farmer, who, "traversing a bar- 

 ren part of Flanders, accompanying Napoleon, the 

 latter expressed his surprise at a meeting of the 

 council of the department, that so great a tract of 

 land remained uncultivated in so industrious a na- 

 tion. The answer was, "If your Majesty will or- 

 der a canal to be made through this district, we 

 pledge ourselves that in five years it will all be 

 converted into fertile fields." The canal was or- 

 dered to be made without delay, and in less time 

 than they promised, "not an unproductive spot re- 

 mained." This was effected by means of the easy 

 transportation upon the canal, of the manure from 

 the rich districts. 



The chief magistrate, alluding in his last annual 

 message to the deep interest which the State ought 

 to cherish in the cause of internal improvement, 

 uses the emphatic language that " Kentucky cannot 

 standstill." A noble sentiment! worthy indeed 

 of a patriot, and which may be illustrated by ref- 

 erence to many proud periods in the history of the 

 State. The soldiers of the revolution, who were 

 the pioneers in planting the standard of liberty, 

 law and civilization on this once "dark and bloody 

 ground," rescuing it from the savage and from the 

 forest, " did not stand still." In the second war for 



