AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUI'-I.ISHED BY JOSEPH BllECK & CO., NO 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aoricultooal Wahehodse.) 



"vou xvin.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 10, 1839. 



CNO. 1. 



AGRICULTUtRAL. 



[From ihe July No. ofilie North Amtrican Review.] 



^n Mdrcss at the .iivnial Cattle Shows of the If'or- 

 cester ntnl the Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin 

 Agricultural Societits, October, 1838. Bt Hen- 

 BY Cdi.ma.n, Commissioner for tlie Agricultural 

 Survey of the State. Boston : Otis, Broaders, 

 & Company. 8vo. pp. 23. 

 Agriculture, the first pursuit of civilized man, 

 has been the last to receive the direct attention 

 and patronage of governments. Commerce, navi- 

 gation, manufactories, the mechanic and fine arts 

 science and letters, had commanded much resp':;ct 

 and reached high degrees of excellence, before the 

 cultivation of the earth, either for the purposes of 

 profit or embellishment, found favor among the af- 

 fluent and enlightened, or was deemed an object 

 worthy of the careful consideration of statesnun 

 and legislators. But, when nations have reaci;ed 

 an advanced position in prosperity and refinement, 

 and other more attractive or lucrative branches of 

 industry have been so extended, as to empl.'.y a 

 lari^e portion of the population, an inniiensely in- 

 creased amount of products is required to meet the 

 augmented demand of consumption ; and the ne- 

 cessity of rendering the earth more prolific, be- 

 comes so apparent, that wliathad been improvident- 

 Iv neglected, and was, in fact, the most" s.ilsiaji- 

 tia'ly "jionientous interest of the country, il !h''< 

 imperiously commands Uie most grave cocridera- 

 tion. 



As the commercial and mechanical enterprise 



by Marshall, several years before, to the Society of 

 Arts in London. The reports of,tlie several com- 

 missioners being very voluminous, as they contain- 

 ed exact details relating to practical operations in 

 every department of rural economy, digests were 

 made to render them more available, by the inde- 

 fatigable projector and collaborator in the execu- 

 tion of this enlarged and efficient plan for advanc- 

 ing the important inierests of the whole country. 

 But even in that reduced form, with the other ma- 

 terials which he had individually collected during 

 a period of nearly twenty years, which had been 

 devoted to the subject, for compiling " A Compen- 

 dious System of English Agriculture," the work 

 consists of fourteen volumes. 



The expenditures of Great Britain having rapid- 

 ly and immensely increased from the comtnence- 

 ment and during the progress of the war which fol- 

 lowed the French revolution, and nearly half of the 

 whole revenue teiug derived from direct taxes and 

 the e.vcise, it became of still greater consequence 

 to the land-owners and their tenants, from whom 

 that vast amount of income was chiefly received, to 

 render each acre more productive, by the introduc- 

 tion of every possible improvement in the science 

 and art of cultivation, which genius and skill could 

 create or introduce, from the practice of any other 

 age or country. Interest, knowledge, and indus- 

 try were, therefore, actively and zealously united 

 in a common cause, and tho beneficial results have 

 i beoii truly wonderful. With a territory whose area 

 ; 15 not n th'rd, and jvhose pnpuca'ion is o ily half 

 that of France, and with a soil and cunrue not so 

 propitious, the agricultural products of England are 



ces. Tlie "Massachusetts Society for Promoting 

 Agriculture" was incorporated soon after that whic)l 

 was establisiied in England ; and the example hu 

 been emulously followed in most of the countiei 

 throughout the State, while all have'-been encour- 

 aged a(d fostered by the seasonable and liberal en- 

 dowments of the government. Much has been 

 thus accomplished within the present century ; but, 

 acting from a yet more enlarged and generous pol- 

 icy, tho executive and legislature of the co.nmon- 

 wealth, with a munificence which reflects upon 

 them the greatest honor, directed, two years since, 

 an agricultural sui-vey ofeiich county to be made; 

 and a gentleman was appointed as the commission- 

 er ftr performing that difficult and laborious duty, 

 whc, from his attainments, industry, ardor, and 

 practical experience, was eminently qualified for 

 the station. 



This may undoubtedly with propriety and jus- 

 tice be considered one of the most important meas- 

 ures that have been adopted since the organization 

 of the government: for it is immediately interest- 

 ing, and must be directly beneficial, not only to ev- 

 ery citizen who depends upon the cultivation of the 

 earth for his srpport, but to the whole population, 

 of which the farming class constitutes at least sev- 

 en. tenths, being, at the same time, the grand nur- 

 sery and constant source of supply for filling all the 

 other diversified occupations in society. 



With a soil naturally as capable of tillage, and 

 to a.s high a degree of perfection as that of any 

 other vegion.. Massachusetts has been dependent on 

 oi^iti 'otatvV fj.' a large portion of the most indis- 

 pensable products of agriculiuio, vhich are annual- 



