AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH I5RECK & CO., NO 52 IVOKTH MARKET STREET, (Aobicultobal Wabehodse.) 



V<H>. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 3, 1839. 



[NO. sa. 



N.f . FARMER. 



[For the New England Parmer.] 



THE EDUCATION OF FARMERS. 



Mr Editor — It has often been a matter of sur- 

 prise to me, that in this age of improvement .ind 

 projTress, the education of our agricultural commu- 

 nity should be so entirely neglected ; the more so, 

 when we consider how large and important a body 

 our farmers constitute, forming, we believe, about 

 four-sevenths of our whole population in this State, 

 and producing nearly seven-tenths of all the e.t- 

 ports of the Union. For the professions, from 

 twenty to twentyfou-r years of constant study from 

 youth to manhood, are considered requisite to pre- 

 pare a young man to enter even upon the threshold 

 of either ; and for the trades, either mechanical or 

 mercantile, the first fourteen years of life arc spent 

 in an elementary education, while the subsequent 

 seven are devoted to acquiring the rudiments of the 

 pursuit selected. The farmer, on the contrary, 

 conceives that, after his sons can liold a whip or 

 pull a weed, one-quarter of the year is quite suffi- 

 cient to devote to the development of their minds, 

 while the other three-quarters are consumed in the 

 most drudging minutiae of agriculture, x^nd this 

 at a period of life when impressions are most easily 

 and lastingly njade, and when, if they imbibe any 

 notions at all of the culture of the soil, it must be 

 those of their fatliers ; and if these are tainted with 

 ignorance or prejudice, the rising generation must 

 be cursed with the same obstacles that were sti:ra- 

 bling blocks to the preceding. 



We often hear it said that practical experience 

 will correct erroneous opinions formed in youth, 

 and supply the want of agricultural information, 

 which has not yet been acquired. And is this a 

 fitting preparation of a young man for any pursuit, 

 much more for one that requires the immediate and 

 constant application of fixed and correct principles ? 

 Is it wise, is it just to the young farmer himself, 

 first to expose him to the inculcation of the errors of 

 an unimproved system of agriculture, and then throw 

 him, with a half-formed mind, upon his own ener- 

 gies to eufTor the consequences of his mistakes and 

 correct them if he can ? Do we find that this prac- 

 tical experience remedies the deficiencies of early 

 education, and makes our farmers what they might 

 and should be.^ Is not the adherence of our farm- 

 ing popilation, (and we appeal to their sober judg- 

 ment when we put the question.) to old rmd errone- 

 ous practices in culture, almost proveibial ? Judg- 

 ing from our own observation, limited to be sure as 

 it has been, their love of the systems of their fath- 

 ers right or wrong has given birth to a prejudice 

 against, and a hostility to the improvements of the 

 day that it seems almost impossible to overcome. 

 This is the constant cry of those engaged in the 

 regeneration of our agriculture. They cannot per- 

 suade the farmer to adopt modes of culture that 

 every pria-iiple of science and all experience war- 

 rant, becfiuse, forsooth, preceding generations have 

 followed different ones. 



The reason why our agriculture is so far in the 

 rear of all other pursuits, seems to be of a two-fold 

 nature ; first, because nur farmers are but half edu- 

 cated when young ; and, moreover, because they 

 will not be induced by the ten thousand motives 

 held out to them to eradicate mistaken opinions 

 and prejudices engendered in youth, and v.hicli are 

 at constant war with tlieir best interests. They 

 will not educate themselves. Scientific principles 

 are ridiculed by them under the name of i/oot/nrm- 

 ing, and the many substantial improvements and 

 useful discoveries offered to them by the public- 

 spirited, are sneered at as being theoretical and vis- 

 ionary. As a body, and I appeal to your own ex- 

 tensive observation, sir, for corroboration of the 

 statement which I make without the slightest disre- 

 spect to the farming interest, our agriculturists 

 know but liitle of the fundamental principles that 

 govern the culture of the soil, and their information 

 and skill are limited to the manual and more gen- 

 eral operations of farming. And is this as it should 

 be ? Can the husbandman hope to reap the heav- 

 iest and most profitable crops while ignorant of veg- 

 etable physiology — the organization and habits of 

 plants.' Can he expect to obtain the most perfect 

 animals, while ho disregards the laws of breeding, 

 and the. comparative value and properties of differ- 

 ent races ? He will be successful just in propor- 

 tion as he renders science and discoveries, which 

 are tiie result of skilful observation, suliservient to 

 his pursuits ; for just in that proportion does he 

 compel nature to aid and complete liis operations. 



We most exceedingly regret that there should 

 exist this settled antipathy among farmers to in- 

 struction, that is convey(!d to tliem through the pa- 

 ges of a book, or the columns of a paper. They 

 are among the most ready and powerful means for 

 the improvement of agriculture, containing the 

 practical results of the study and experience of 

 some of the most distinguished and learned of the 

 present and by-gone times. The principles they 

 inculcate and the discoveries they reveal are based 

 upon the incontrovertible laws of science, and re- 

 quire but careful attention united with enterprise 

 and skill to be rendered available. And when 

 these aids to the improvement of the soil and the 

 mind are urged upon the farmer, we are met with 

 the reply of book farming, theory, speculution. He 

 sees the mechanic, the manufacturer, the profes- 

 sional man, deriving their most substantial assis- 

 tance from books and papers relating to their pur- 

 suits, and yet those relating to his own are surround- 

 ed with phantoms of expensive experiments and 

 futile theories. There is neither reason or wisdom 

 in such a course. He is not required to try every 

 new animal, vegetable or implement, or to enter 

 haphazard into any or every system of culture that 

 shall be brought forward ; but to adopt only such 

 as are warranted by well tried experiment, and are 

 adapted to his means and situation. He is to dis- 

 tinguish between experimental and scientific farm 

 ing ; tlie former of which comes within the province 

 of the fickle-minded and curious, and serves to 

 gratify a love of novelty, or a desire to obtain solid 

 good from repeated trials ; while the latter is the 



culture of the soil oh those principles of natural 

 science which are in constant daily operation about 

 us, and the skilful application of which makes the 

 successful farmer. 



It is to a knowledge of these principles that we 

 would direct the attention of our farmers. This 

 constitutes an extensive branch of the education 

 we would urge upon them, and we honestly believe 

 they never will be preemiiiently successful until 

 they have acquired it. They are called upon by 

 every motive of public and private interest, and if 

 such an argument will be entitled to any weight 

 among them, by a due regard to the dignity and 

 character of their profession, to throw off the absurd ' 

 prejudice they entertain against the suggestions of 

 scientific an'd observing men — against changing 

 their .systems of culture. In order that there may 

 be a general and thorough-going iigprovement in our 

 hu.sbandry, bur husbandmen of the present day 

 must commence educating tliemselves with refer- 

 ence to their pursuits. It must be a matter of self- 

 education, and they cannot turn in any direction 

 without finding ample means for it. They have it 

 brought home to their very dw>rs in the shape of 

 agricultural books and periodicals, and the assis- 

 tance of agricultural societies. They have only to 

 unite with these their well known intelligence and 

 a proper degree of spirit to m'.ke themselves what 

 they are not now— selenitic farmers. 



II. V. 



Greenfield, June 19, 1839. 



INOCULATION OR BUDDING. 



The prnpigation of fruit may be effected by 

 planting the seeds, by grafting, and by budding. 

 The uncertainty whether the fruit from the trees 

 grown will be liketho.se of the parent prevents 

 much reliance for choice fruit on the first method, 

 and seeds are usually only sown to furnish stocks 

 upon which to engrafl or bud. On several accounts 

 grafting is generally preferred to budding; but in- 

 stances frequently occur in which it is desirable to 

 piiipagato choice fruit when grafting cannot be 

 practised. Thus in the summer season grafting is 

 impracticible ; but then budding comes to our aid, 

 and enables us to secure the advantages of graft- 

 ing with little comparative risk. A bud may be 

 considered an embryo plant, of the same species aa 

 the parent tree, possessing distinctly developed 

 parts, and individual vitality, and of course when 

 removed to a congenial place, capable of continued 

 growth and a reproduction of its species. In this 

 transfcrrence of the bud from one place of growth 

 to another, it is necessary that thu plant into which 

 the transfer is made, si.ould be of the same genus 

 of plants, and even the same species will usually 

 be found most cimgenial. All the varieties of the 

 appie and pear may be budded together ; and the 

 apricot, nectarine, and peach may be treated in the 

 same manner. The plum and the peach are some- 

 times budded on each other; but the cherries are 

 usually confined to stocks of the same kind of tree. 



The time of budding is partly depending on the 

 tree itself and partly on the vigor of its circulation. 



