AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (AGBicnLToaAL Warehouse.) 



VOL. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 'A 1839. 



[NO, 46. 



AGRICULTURAL. 



Prom ' Traosaclions of the Essex Agricultural Society, 1838.' 



ESSEX AGRICULTURE. 

 Addressed to the Fanners of Esser County, Mass. 



BY HENKT COLMAN. 



The agriculture of Essex county is in a compar- 

 atively improved condition ; yet in productiveness 

 and e.xtent of cultivation, it is fur from being what 

 it should be. Connnerce is a great interest in Es- 

 sex. Manufactures are a great interest. The fish- 

 eries are spiritedly and extensively pursued. Tiie 

 exportation of granite is a very large business. But 

 the agriculture of Essex receives little of that en- 

 thusiastic and energetic devotion and pursuit, with 

 which these other pursuits are regarded and con- 

 ducted. The improvements made are on a small 

 sc:iIl-. Little capital is risked in agricultural en- 

 terprises and experiments. The agricultural pro- 

 ductions of the county are perhaps scarcely a tenth 

 of«hatthey might be profitably made. Where 

 now a hundred bushels of corn are raised, five hun- 

 dred miglit be raised. Where two hundred bush- 

 els of potatoes are grown, two thousand should be ; 

 and other products in proportion. The agriculture 

 of Essex is capable of being made a great interest, 

 and when we take into view the fluctuations and 

 capricious changes to which manufacturing and 

 cominercial pursuits are subject, and some of which 

 ch;iiic;es have been experienced in great severity 

 within even a short time past, there are certaiidy 

 stroiig reasons why it should receive much more 

 ai: iition than is now given to it. There is indeed 

 every reason why it should be placed at least upon 

 a level with the other great interests to which we 

 have referred. We believe, likewise, in respect to 

 pecuniary profit, when all the risks are considered, 

 capital judiciously used and invested in agriculture, 

 will be found as profitable an mvestment in the 

 long run, in the course, for example, of twenty 

 years, as, with the exception of some e.xtraordinary 

 and accidental instances of success, in any other 

 business whatever. 



The profits from commerce and manufactures are 

 more immediate ; and coming directly in a pecuni- 

 ary form, seem to be more positive and substantial. 

 But the advantages are only in appearance. The 

 risks are great. Shipwrecks, bankruptcies, disap- 

 pointuients and insolvencies are innumerable. We 

 shall not speak of the moral dangers of trade, which, 

 in what are called periods of success and extraor- 

 dinary prosperity, are always multiplied to a vast 

 extent. We shall say nothing of the risk of life in 

 maritime pursuits, though the number of widows 

 and fatherless children in Marblehead, Salem, Glou- 

 cester, and Newburyport, on this subject, suggest 

 instructive lessons. We shall say nothing of the 

 evils to health which arise out of many manufactur- 

 ing pursuits, especially those of a sedentary na- 

 ture, and necessarily carried on in confined rooms 

 and under a high artificial temperature. Without 

 aey invidious, or what might be deemed question- 



able comparisons, with any other branches of busi- 

 ness, it is enough to say that agriculture in Essex 

 county may be pursued to great advantage. There 

 is certainly much excellent soil in the county al- 

 ready in the condition to be cultivated; in Lynn, 

 in Marblehead, in Beverly, in Danvers, in Ipswich, 

 in Andover, Bradford, Haverhill, West Newbury, 

 sewbury, and otiier towns. There are very exten- 

 sive tracts of peat meadow and land capable of be- 

 ing reclaimed and rendered highly productive. — 

 Tliere are extensive tracts of salt marsh, wliich re- 

 quire only to be drained and dyked to be placed in 

 a course of most profitable improvement. No coun- 

 ty in the commonwealth is more favorably situated 

 in regard to quick and certain markets. In most 

 cases too, manures or the materials for manure, are 

 in great profusion. The large towns in the coun- 

 ty furnish vast quantities of the most valuable ma- 

 nures in their stables, streets, slaughter houses, and 

 the various collections of filth and refuse inevitable 

 wlierever a numerous population is congregated. 

 From its extent of sea-coast likewise, and exten- 

 sive fisheries, a vast amount of sea-wreck and fish 

 offal, among the most etficacious and valuable of all 

 manures, are constantly furnished. Muscle-bed 

 likewise,' dock mud, the remains of shell-fish and 

 the fish themselves, the Munhaden, which are found 

 in vast schools upon our shores in the spring, fur- 

 nish abundant means of fertility to large portions of 

 the county on the sea-board, and are capable ol be- 

 ing transported some distance into the interior with 

 advantage and profit. These circumstances, added 

 to th^general intelligence of the county and the 

 universal prevalence ot good morals, are strong rea- 

 sons why the agriculture of the county should be 

 encouraged, and may with advantage be rendered 

 a great and commanding interest. 



Experience however, gives us little reason to 

 expect that these general considerations will have 

 the influence to which they are entitled. All we 

 can hope for in the case i? that we may draw at- 

 tention more strongly to the agricultural resources 

 and improvements of tlie county ; and ascertain, if 

 any, what alterations can be advantageously made 

 in its present management. 



I have heretofore urged repeatedly and strongly 

 the cultivation of esculent vegetables, with a view 

 to their consumption on the farm, and I feel daily 

 stronger and stronger convictions of the propriety 

 of such advice. The carrot crop, of which more 

 than seven hundred bushels have been repeatedly 

 raised in the county to an acre, may bo deemed a 

 profitable crop at four hundred bushels ; and for 

 the feed of any stock, horses, milch cows, sheep or 

 swine, in the opinion of many experienced farmers, 

 may be regarded as equivalent to at least half that 

 amount in hay or grain. But let us suppose that even 

 this is an overestimate, and that four pounds of car- 

 rots are equivalent to one of hay, or corn, or oats. 

 Four hundred bushels of carrots are certainly not 

 an extravagant crop^^at fifty pounds to a bushel 

 they would give twenty thousand pounds to an acre ; 

 that, allowing four for one, would be equal to a 

 yield of two and a half tons of hay, of one hundred 



bushels of corn, at fifty pounds to the bushel ; and 

 of one hundred and fiftyone bushels of oats at thirty- 

 three pounds to the bushel. Now under proper 

 management, the expense and labor in the cultiv a- 

 tion of carrots are not very much more than in thi'' 

 cultivation of an acre of corn. We have certainly 

 much underrated its value in comparison with 

 hay, and so far from reckoning it as four to one, it. 

 might be fully estimated as four to two of hay. 

 Four hundred bushels of carrots might then be es- 

 timated as equal to five tons of hay. Under any 

 aspect it is obvious how much would be gained by 

 extending the root cultivation. What is said of 

 carrots will apply witli proportional force to rata 

 baga, to the sugar beet, the blood beet, the parsnip 

 and the potato. Now a farmer in Essex who raises 

 yearly a thousand bushels of carrots or almost any 

 other vegetable escufcjit to be given out to his 

 stock, or indeed anything like this, it would be dif- 

 ficult to find. In this respect then, one of tlie most 

 important steps in the improvement of the agricul- 

 ture of Essex remains to be taken. The efliect 

 which such cultivation would at once have upon the 

 butter dairy, the s*ye, and the stall, would be high- 

 ly favorable; nif'not less favorable would belts 

 eflfects upon tue manure heap as the great means 

 of keeping up and increasing the fertility of the 

 farm. The root culture, requiting as it does, deep, 

 rich and clean cultivation, is at* ag the very oest 

 preparations for wheat and other grains. From this 

 remark we except potatoes, the cultivation ol' whicfi 

 is more slovenly than that of any crop rai>ed among 

 us. Why do not fanners see this ? It is matter 

 of experiment and of demonstration. We do not 

 despair of conviction ultimately, though we have 

 little hope of living to witness it. If individual far- 

 mers are not wilhng to undertake it, the experi- 

 ment could at least be tried to advantage in some 

 of the pauper establishments, where light labor a- 

 boiinds, and under the management of a skilful and 

 industrious overseer. In such places experiments 

 might be made to test the comparative expense of 

 such crops, and ascertain their exact value as feed 

 for stock. They could be made in such places to 

 advantage, and the results would be likely to prove 

 of very great utility. 



At present, the great object of the county appears 

 to be the raising of hay ; and this hay to be sold a- 

 way from the fiirm. I cannot satisfy myself that 

 this is the best husbandry which could be chosen. 

 The best husbandry, in all cases, is undoubtedly 

 tliat which brings most profit without injury to the 

 place ; and not only without injury but with an evi- 

 dent improvement of the condition and productive- 

 ness of the farm under the husbandry pursued 



Some of the farmers in the neighborhood of Marble- 

 head and various other places on the sea-shore, are 

 able to keep their farms in high condition, by the 

 abundance of sea-manure, which they obtain with- 

 out difficulty and at no cost, but the labor of col- 

 lecting and carting. But this applies to a compar- 

 atively small number of farms. Others, who live 

 in the immediate vicinity of large tow-ns, are able to 

 purchase manure ; but this is always done at a heavy 



